When you come to the world of Avendar, it’s a world where role-playing is not only encouraged, it’s required. This means that in any situation that presents itself to you here, you should do your best to see and react as an actual person from Avendar would react. This means that you shouldn’t spend your time discussing the real world, but instead attempting to immerse yourself in the atmosphere of a fantasy role-playing environment. Think of yourself as an actor, playing a master role in a great drama. We guarantee this is even more fun than just playing a numbers game’.
Roleplaying Basics
Communication
Communication is the most essential part of your interactions in Avendar. You may communicate with others in a number of different ways, to express yourself in the role you have chosen. Bear in mind that all communication while in Avendar should be In Character (in other words, in the role of your character), unless you are using the ‘ooc’ chat channel.
The basic commands used for communicating are:
say, ‘
Everyone in the same room as you can hear what you say, as long as they are awake.
tell (person)
One person will hear what you tell them, as long as they are awake. You can use tell from any distance!
If you can’t see the person who told you something, you can tell back using the ‘reply’ command.
grouptell, gt, ;
The people in your group can hear you, even when they are asleep. Grouptell works at any distance.
think
Your character’s private thoughts go here. Only staff members and certain classes can read what you are thinking.
Watchers and psionicists can read thoughts!
yell
Everyone in the same area as you can hear what you yell, even when they are asleep.
ooc
This channel is for out-of-character chat with a specific player. Use OOC for mechanics questions, or to talk about real life. OOC works at any distance.
newbie
The newbie channel is for out-of-character chat with everyone online who has the newbie channel turned on.
pray
Pray to the gods. Only staff will see this.
house, ht, .
If you are in a Great House, everyone in the house will hear this message.
dt
Druids use commune with nature to communicate with all druids.
Acting
In addition to verbal communication, you can use body language. The following commands allow you to describe what your character is doing in the moment. Other characters in the room will see this.
Do not use the acting commands to “force” other characters to take actions, respond, or remain passive.
emote
Displays an action line. The line will be after your character’s name.
Syntax: Emote <message> The emote command works by emoting an action that you do to the rest of the room. Example: If your name is Jolinn, and you type: Emote rambles on and on about killing arch-devils. Everyone else in the room would see: "Jolinn rambles on and on about killing arch-devils.", thereby "emoting" the action to the rest of the room. See also: help PMOTE SMOTE --- Use emote primarily to show what your character does. Be careful not to force actions onto other characters through emote. Not acceptable: "Emote punches/rapes/blinds you." These sorts of actions are not a valid use of emote as you are unfairly predetermining an outcome for the action, and not allowing the other player to avoid or otherwise respond to the attempt. See also: help ROLEPLAYING GUIDELINES
smote
With smote, you can create more complex sentences. Your character’s name can be anywhere in the message.
Syntax: smote <action> Smote works exactly like emote, except you must place your name somewhere in the string, and it will show that string to everyone in the room.
pmote
When your action includes another person, you can pmote with their name. They will see themselves as the recipient (‘you’), while others in the room will see the recipient’s name.
Syntax: Pmote <Message> The pmote command is similar to the EMOTE command, with the following exception: every occurence of a person's name in a pmote string is replaced by the appropriate pronoun. Ex: Three players, Iandir, Jolinn, and Aeolis are standing in a room. Iandir types: pmote looks at Jolinn. Jolinn sees: Iandir looks at you. Iandir sees: Iandir looks at Jolinn. Aeolis sees: Iandir looks at Jolinn. Ex: Same people as before. Iandir types: pmote looks at Jolinn's boots. Jolinn sees: Iandir looks at your boots. Iandir sees: Iandir looks at Jolinn's boots. Aeolis sees: Iandir looks at Jolinn's boots. See also: help EMOTE SMOTE
esay
Lets you speak and act at the same time.
Syntax: Esay "<emote>" <text>
Use this command to replace the normal 'say' with whatever form of speaking
you wish to express. Multiple words must be placed in single quotes, but
phrases that would include an apostrophe need to be placed between double
quotes. If you are speaking in the common language, no comma will be be
included between your emote and your speech, but one will be placed for other
languages.
We strongly advise against aliasing the say command to a given, static esay.
After all, nobody speaks with the same inflection at all times! There is
nothing wrong with using the 'say' command if you have nothing to add
emotively or inflectionally to your statements. Esay is for adding interest
or flavour to your says. If you use the same esay constantly by default,
you add neither of those in any appreciable amount, and make yourself look
as though you are cutting corners.
Examples: esay hisses Greetings, Immortal.
esay 'says quietly' Greetings, Immortal.
esay "bows in Jolinn's presence, saying" Greetings, Immortal.
See also: SAY, EMOTE, PMOTE
pose
The pose command will set what others see when they look at or scan into the room you are in.
Syntax: pose <message>
Syntax: pose clear
Syntax: pose
The pose command will set what others see when they look at/scan into the
room you are in. This will always be prefaced by your current position.
Example:
If your name is Jolinn, and you type:
pose leaning on his sapphire spear.
Those who look at the room or scan into the room will see:
Jolinn the alatharya is standing here, leaning on his sapphire spear.
Typing "pose" by itself will show your current pose, and typing "pose clear"
will remove your current pose. Your pose will automatically clear itself
when you change position (sitting/standing/sleeping/resting/fighting/dying)
and/or when you leave the room you are in.
---
Utilize this in the same manner as the emote commands. Do not use this to
force actions onto other characters, as this should be utilized to more
clearly define your current stance to others who can see you.
Description
Your description is what people see when they look at you.
Your description should show people what you look like, no more, no less. Comments about your character’s personality or history should be reserved for in character interactions and your background. Responses to the look should also be reserved for in character interaction. Your description should not describe your clothing. Your clothing is your worn equipment, and not a description feature. Small personal effects are acceptable, but no cloaks, outfits, etc.
You can also add keywords to your description, allowing people to look at a particular thing you reference. This is called an exdesc, sort for “extra description.”
A description is mandatory by the 10th level. If you do not have a description by this time, you will not progress in level.
Descriptions should be no fewer than five lines long. That is roughly 60 words, or 2-3 tweets.
Do not enter a placeholder description! (Ex. “desc here” or “ascdukyfv.”)
Editor Commands
The editor is used for your description, exdescs, background, and notes.
syntax: note edit
desc edit
bg edit
An editor exists for editing the main body of your notes, descriptions, and
backgrounds. Once you activate the editor, you will be given a prompt that
looks like this:
>
At the prompt, you can type whatever text you want to add to your note,
description, or background. Finish by typing @ on a new line.
There are various special editor commands to allow you to format and edit
your text. To enter editor commands, you must go to a new line (hit enter).
All editor commands are prefaced by a ".", with the exception of "@".
Basic Editor Commands:
.h : show commands help (this info)
.f : format (word wrap) the writing as a paragraph
.s : show the writing so far
.c : clear (delete) all the writing
@ : exit editor
~ : another way to exit the editor
Advanced Editor Commands:
.r 'old' 'new' : replace text. Use '' or "" for multiple words
: for example: .r "old man" "young boy"
.i [line #] 'text' : insert (add) the text before the line
.m [line #] 'text' : modify (replace) the line with the text
.d [line #] : delete the line
.p [indent #] : format as a prog (used for area building)
.pt [indent #] : format as a prog and trim trailing spaces
From outside the editor, you can use the "showlines" command to toggle the
line number display on or off.
WARNING: While in the editor, you can input no mud commands to your
character. This puts you at some risk to attack if you are unprepared,
so be mindful of the possibilities.
NOTE: With certain MUD clients such as zMUD, you may need to disable "."
as your movement character before using the editor. Read help ZMUD for
details.
Usage: exdesc <add/edit/remove> <keywords> Exdesc allows you to add additional descriptions to yourself, referenced by keywords, that other people may look at. You may reference multiple words to a single exdesc by placing the keywords in quotes. Example: exdesc add 'long red scar' The exdesc command will take you into the editor. It is heavily recommended that you familiarize yourself with the editor before you use this feature. To look at exdescs on another player: look <player> <keyword> See also: EDITOR
Description Tips
In-World: Your description should be appropriate to Avendar and your character: See the pages on World and Character Creation.
Stay Physical: As people can view you in multiple situations, and with multiple perspectives, the best recourse is to stick to cold hard fact, namely, what your character physically looks like. Start with concrete details such as height, build, skin/hair/eye color, and whatever else is obvious. Then expand into details, such as clothing, posture, scars, and so forth. See Help Exdesc for more ways to be detailed.
Stay Objective: What a person feels when they look at you is what that person feels. Don’t dictate to them how you affect them.
No Actions: Your description should not contain actions in response to people looking at you — after all, you don’t say “hello” every single time a person looks at you, nor do you see any and all people that look at you. Common behaviors are fine (a nervous twitch, etc.). Instead, use emote, say, etc. to convey actions and responses.
No Window Into The Past: If you want people to know your history, you should tell them about it, rather than putting it in your desc. NPCs are an exception to this rule.
Spelling/Grammar: Seeing a sloppily written, badly misspelled description always makes the staff cry a little, deep inside. Your ideas are more clearly understood when you take the time to abide by the rules of grammar, like the imms intended.
Originality: Rather than being yet another ominous figure in a cloak, why not be something different? Try to let your description not only reflect your role but help define something new and unique about it.
Background
Your background describes your character’s past — and it should include whatever you know about your own past, and what a god would know about you and your history.
The background is meant to have a twofold use. Firstly, it allows the immortals to ensure that everyone has a well-roleplayed character. Secondly, it allows the gods to understand your actions, and allows for more subtle, and complicated roleplaying.
Only the immortals can read your background.
You are required to have a background by level 25. It should be 1-2 paragraphs, and ideally of five hundred words or fewer.
Do not enter a placeholder background! (Ex. “bg here” or “ascdukyfv.”)
Your background should primarily focus on your own character. Family relationships are great to include, but if a friend, family member, or other character is the most interesting, active character in your background, consider playing that character instead.
If you find yourself inspired to write a lengthy or detailed story about your character’s (or another’s) life, consider instead putting it up on a website such as archiveofourown.org rather than using it for your character’s biographical background. Contact staff if you’d like an invitation to sign up for that site.
Backgrounds must be free of violent sexual content, explicitly-depicted or no. Specifically, absolutely no references to rape are permitted, whether or not any acts are detailed.