Your character

There are many types of information available to you, pertaining both to yourself and your surroundings. The basic commands to display information about yourself and your status are:

score, worth, inventory, equipment, description, background, skills, practice

In addition, depending on your class, you may be able to use the following commands to display information on other abilities you possess:

spells (scholars, templars, druids),
abilities (psionicists),
forms (swordmasters, some templars),
songs (bards)

There are also a number of commands available to gather information and perceive your surroundings. These commands are:

look, who, where, scan, exits, time, weather, inspect

As well, you can gather out-of-character information on a few topics via the following commands:

areas, auto, commands, motd, scroll

Please view the helps for the above commands for details on their purpose and usages, and test them out on their own.

Score

See also: stats, age, ep, hitroll, damroll, saves, encumbrance, etc.

The SCORE command shows you a variety of helpful statistics. Moving in roughly clockwise fashion around the readout:

Your primary attributes appear on the upper-left side in the form of current value(true value); for example, "Wis: 18(17)" would mean that your natural Wisdom score is 17, but modified to 18 by some ability or equipment.

To the right is a block that displays various vital statistics, including your race, class, gender, age (including age category), and the number of hours you have logged playing as this character. Just a little bit further below shows your hit points, experience, experience to level, and exploration points.

Below that is a block detailing the number of practices, trains, cash on hand, and general details about the amounts and weights of the totality of the items you are carrying. It also displays your alignment.

Underneath that is a large box, detailing your birthday, encumbrance, creation traits, and how hungry you are. Further below that box might appear your entire affects list, if you have opted to show them in the score via the SHOW command; this can get very cluttered, but the option is available.

Finally, just below your primary attributes is a box displaying your armour class.

Particularly long-term players might prefer the OLDSCORE command, which displays much the same information, in a more antique readout; this is not recommended, but remains available for people who choose to use it.

Worth

Syntax: worth

The worth command will bring up a quick spread of useful information, detailing such things as the amount of gold you have, how much xp/ep needed to reach the next level, and the number of arrows in your possession. Spellcasters should note that when they are encumbered, they will be able to see it through the worth command.

Affects affect

This command is used to show all the spells affecting your character. At low levels, only the spell name will be displayed, at higher levels the effects and duration of the spell will also be shown. Spell effects are no longer shown on score (this can be changed by using 'show' command).

Info

Syntax: info <skill set>

The info command lists all of the skills or spells of a particular class or class subset. 'Info fighter' will show you all of the skills of the fighter class. 'Info void templar' for void templar, and so on.

When it comes to scholars, use 'info major <sphere>' for your major sphere (ex: info major fire), and 'info minor <sphere>' for your minor. Those who select greater scholars (scholars with matching major/minor spheres) have an additional set of spells; see 'info greater <sphere>'. Finally, for scholars there is also the generic set of scholar skills and spells; see 'info scholar basics' and 'info all mages'.

Skills ands

See also: cast

The skills and spells commands are used to display your character's list of available skills (or spells, as the case may be). They are listed in order of level, with mana cost (for spells) or percentage (for skills) listed where applicable.

Descriptions

See also: background editor exdesc format

Description + <line> : Add a line to your description
Description -        : Remove a line from your description
Description clear    : Clears your description completely
Description          : Shows your description
Description edit     : Edit your description completely*

It is strongly recommended that you read Help EDIT before you use this command.

The DESCRIPTION command allows you to describe your character.

Your description should show people what you look like, no more, no less. Components of your description should adhere to Avendar's setting and the physical norms of your chosen lineage. Comments about 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. When composing your description, try to keep in mind that it should be appropriate for nearly any situation your character may be in, such as fighting or dead.

A description is MANDATORY by the 10th level. If you do not have a description by this time, expect to be detained by an immortal until you do.

You can also add keywords to your description, allowing people to look at a particular thing you reference. For more help on this, see help EXDESC.

Background

See also: description description2 roleplaying roleplaying2 editor

The BACKGROUND command allows a character to describe their background. Your background briefly describes your character's past -- where they are from, why they became an adventurer, etc. It can be anywhere from a few sentences to a couple of paragraphs; don't worry about over-elaborating or writing an extensive in-character narrative, as the goal is to simply inform future storytelling and roleplay.

The purpose of a background is twofold: Firstly, it serves as a prompt to begin to think about who your character is in Avendar. Secondly, it helps communicate your character's motivations or goals to staff, who will read it.

You are required to have a background by level 25. If you reach level 25 without a background you will cease to gain new experience until you have one. You may not put a placeholder background in to bypass this mechanic; doing so will result in the character being denied.

To enter your background, use the BACKGROUND command:

Background + :    Add a line to your background
Background - :    Remove a line from your background
Background clear: Clears your background completely
Background:       Shows your background
Background edit:  Edit your background completely*

Be sure to read help EDIT before you use this command.

Exdesc

Syntax: exdesc <add/edit/remove> <keywords>
See also: editor

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.

Editor

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.

Format

Syntax: <desc/bg> format
See also: description background editor

This command will format either your description or background, such that they conform to preset margins. It will further place two spaces after each period and capitalize the initial letter of the following word. It is heavily advised that you use this command, if you are unwilling to format your description or background manually.

Note: This command is the same as the .f command in the editor.

Visible

The VISIBLE command will render you apparent to anyone looking. You will step out of hiding, stop sneaking, no longer be invisble, or render any other concealment nullified.

Password

Syntax: password <old-password> <new-password>

PASSWORD changes your character's password. The first argument must be your old password. The second argument is your new password.

The PASSWORD command is protected against being snooped or logged.

It is recommended that you avoid using passwords that are easily guessed by those who know you either in real life or in character. "Easy to guess" includes things like your real life name, your birthday, your character's name, or any permutation fo the above or similar things. Also try to avoid choosing a dictionary word as a password. If you absolutely MUST choose a dictionary word, try to choose something obscure, and to append special characters or numbers to the password.

Quit save

Syntax: quit
save

SAVE saves your character and object. The game saves your character every 15 minutes regardless, and is the preferred method of saving.

QUIT leaves the game. You may QUIT only in safe areas. Safe areas include cities, guilds, houses, or any of several other special safe areas.

When you re-enter the game you will be back in the same room.

WARNING: Losing link is not the same thing as quitting. You will eventually leave the game if you lose link, but before you do, you will be vulnerable to mob or pk death. This is done to prevent abuse.

QUIT automatically does a SAVE, so you can safely leave the game with just one command. Nevertheless it's a good idea to SAVE before QUIT. If you get into the habit of using QUIT without SAVE, and then you play some other mud that doesn't save before quitting, you're going to regret it.

In character, the act of quitting should be considered as your character retiring to an inn, or going about personal business instead of adventuring. Because of this fact, it is considered -extremely- bad roleplaying to quit to avoid any in character consequences of your actions.

Delete

Syntax: delete [argument]

Use the delete command to erase unwanted characters. It must be entered twice, to avoid unintentional character deletion. After entering delete once, enter it again with an argument (any text other than whitespace) to cancel the delete.

If the character has been played for more than 25 hours, a one-week cooldown will be applied to the delete request. Logging back on as the character at any point during that week will clear the delete request; otherwise, the character will be deleted roughly a week after confirming delete.

Suicide

Syntax: suicide yes

The suicide command allows you to take your own life, when given a YES argument.

Note: No charming spell or skill should ever allow you to command another player or npc to commit suicide. If you discover that you can, it is a bug that should be reported.