Welcome to BARREN REALMS! Long ago, lost now to the mists of time, there was a sphere of existence. It was the sum of creation and it was known as The Realms. This was a thriving world. Empires rose and fell, kingdoms were created and conquered. Chaos thrived in the untamed vastness of this rich world and Order carved a careful niche of its own wherever it focused its strength. In time, thanks to superior leadership and perhaps Fate, Order's strength was magnified. Great wars raged across the realms. Chaos exploded on the austereface of Order, but could not hope to maintain it's power. The untamed vastness was brought to heel under the eyes of Order. The Realms deteriorated...great cities crumbles and vast jungles rotted In to harsh deserts. Nothing remained in the end, Order had been removed and Chaos replaced it. For eons the once beautiful Realms drifted throughout the vast reaches, untouched by any hand of creation, till one day this forsaken sphere caught the eye of a god. It captured his imagination and soon others followed. This place was given a name, the Barren Realms, for indeed it was a cruel and unforgiving world, but slowly it changed. Barren Realms cried out and sought to make their dreams immortal. Immortals held their dreams in their hands and strove to bring a balance to all that was. This is what the Barren Reams are made of: Dreams. There is a place for everyone here and room enough for dreams of your own. The Realms may no longer be barren, but the name remains as a reminder to all. Forsake your dreams...stray to far, and all is lost. Welcome to the Barren Realms, where fate is in your hands. -Dryden Another door opens up for you and your wonderful talents as you reach level 51. Let the Heroes of old welcome you to your new home. Now the test of your race to immortality truly begins. Battle enemies of old and find new ones who will make you think twice about approaching their lair again. But you have so much to learn still, so we will start from the beginning. How does one make an invincible Realmer? Read and take heed, trust in me and you will learn more than you ever could have thought. Besides, you are here now! Reading this. My, what an advantage. WHAT IS BARREN REALMS? The Barren Realms MUD (multi-user dungeon) is a place for role- playing, making new (and meeting old) friends, and generally having a good time. While the goal is not complex (finding critters and killing them), the world is still a rich one, containing regions based on legends, fairy tales, games, and even television shows (as well as a casino offering a variety of games). There are thousands of items to find and experiment with and a rich array of skills and spells available to each "race". Barren Realms differs from the standard Merc MUD in several ways. BR has races, but no professions. Elves : wizards, Kender : thieves, Druids: clerics, Dwarves: warriors, Humans: martial artists, illithids: psionics, and Avians: aero. Each race has its own guild, teaching racial skills and spells. Members of each race can also learn a variety of out-of-guild skills and spells at the cost of increasing the experience required to level. When you first enter the Realms you will be in front of the Barren Realms Academy. The purpose of the academy is to orient new players to the basics of the game and provide equipment and experience for a few levels. Even if you are an experienced mudder it is recommended that you go through the academy. We at Barren Realms hope to see you soon and often! -Dove CHARACTERS My God! What character do I choose?!?!? A hard question to answer and it may take you awhile to figure out which character class is best for you. Before we dive into the skills and spells of each class, take a moment and read about the history of your kind. Avians: One day the god Propane was mixing acids and bases just for kicks when an eagle flew into his laboratory. Propane thought it would be really cool to combine his blood with that of the eagle to see what would happen if he dropped the mixture in acid. With one drop there was a huge explosion, the entire Realms shook. When the smoke cleared, Propane noticed a small feathery humanoid creature crying in the corner. Then before his eyes the creature started to transform into a mighty avian with a taste for blood. Devouring the remaining blood mixture, the Avian became very fertile. Mating with the human race, the avian gave birth to many more creatures. The creatures were born humanoid, but slowly transformed into war birds. (Please note that NO animals were harmed in the making of this story :P) -Bucko Avians: My what big wings you have? Avians are a popular race that dwell everywhere around the Realms. The first thing you must know about them is that their Prime Attribute is Constitution (CON). These mighty birds were built for combat. With huge wings, powerful claws, a mighty tail and a crushing beak, foes stand a remote chance of survival if this class is used correctly. With every race on the Realms they do have some disadvantages. First, since they have such powerful attack spells, they have the inability to wear items on their body, feet and waist. So your Hit Dam will be considerably lower than those around you. BUT! Since you have the ability to practice Enhanced Damage, who needs the extra armor and Hit/Dam points. There are other interesting skills these War-Birds obtain. Don't ya hate it when you forget how to get somewhere? Well with the TRACK spell, call to your Sprite to locate your quarry, or maybe a lost friend. There are also powerful attack spells. With a bit of luck and lots of practice, using DIVE to start an attack could end the battle rather quickly. Or PLUCK away at those feathers along your wings and FLING them into your opponent. The result is well worth the hit points you lose as you pluck. And of course don't forget those wings! Run out of feathers all ready? Well then use those great big wings of yours! Windzone can be a life saver so practice, practice, practice! Happy Flying! Dwarves: Dwarves are an ancient, crotchety race. They are built stocky and strong. They excel in fighting skills and love to be in battle. They can become proficient in many other skills too, including magic. You must like bashing skulls if you have become a Dwarf. Dwarves are the strongest race in the game. Therefore your primary attribute is STRENGTH (STR). When you enhance, remember to enhance STR twice. Attack! That is what Dwarves due best. Grouping up with a Druid is a wise idea. With second and third attack skills, these warriors do an amazing amount of damage. Their skills are basic and apart from ENHANCED DAMAGE, the skills obtained can be easily read by using HELP SKILLNAME. Dwarves due have one disadvantage and that is how much XPS points they need To Next Level (TNL). But since they can dispose of their foes rather quickly, its really not a disadvantage at all. Elves: Elves are an intelligent race. Their talent for magic has evolved from their frail stature and their need to protect themselves from the other races. Being an elf has many advantages. Hate walking? Then don't! Teleport to your wanted destination. Want to know where an item is located? Cast LOCATE OBJECT! Other spells of interest are ENCHANT WEAPON, INVISIBILITY, SHIELD, and ACID BLAST. The Enchant Weapon spell will make you very popular on the Mud. This spell will raise the hit/Dam of your weapons. Acid Blast and Fireball are your best attack spells, so they are worth practicing. Your primary attribute is INTELLIGENCE (INT) so be sure to enhance this twice once you create your character. Remember, Elves are not the strongest characters to initiate an attack. I recommend that you group as often as you can. And fight behind others. Kender: Kenders are a mischievous race. This race gets probably the most lethal skill on the Realms: BACKSTAB. Even at low levels this skill does an incredible amount of damage. You will gain other interesting skills such as PICK LOCK and STEAL as well as a bunch of other skills that are found within most of the other classes. Your main attribute is DEXTERITY (DEX). Got to be quick when you are backstabing so Dexterity is a must. Be sure to enhance this attribute immediately upon creating your new character. Druids: Druids are an old, wise, clannish race. They spend much of their time by themselves practicing magic and the art of combat. Druids generally are about 7 feet tall and wear long flowing robes. The Druids are indeed a powerful race. Combining powerful attacks with incredible healing and combat magic. Your best spells are FLAMESTRIKE, CAUSE CRITICAL, SANCTUARY, BLESS, ARMOR, ASTRAL, SUMMON, this list could go on and on. Again this is a Race that does much better fighting from the rear. Use your healing spells to help your group. And fire away at your foe with FLAMESTRIKE and CAUSE CRITICAL. I have found that the SUMMON and ASTRAL spells are some of the most useful on the Realms. Not only can you bring MOBS with valuable equipment to you without moving 2 feet, you can also summon members of your group. Why walk when you can ASTRAL! This spell is not as good as teleport, as teleport can bring you to MOBS along the MUD. Astral is only effective when trying to send yourself AIR MAIL to a fellow player or group member. Ah, how could I forget! FAERIE FIRE is another wonderful spell! Cast it upon your for and they become much easier to hit! No group that travels the Realms should be without a Druid. And if you are lucky, You may actually get a chance to see the most powerful Druid on the Realms: Empress Kiri. WISDOM is your main attribute so be sure to enhance it twice. Illithids: Illithids are a psionic race of wandering prophets. These Race is best known for its ability to take tremendous blows from their opponents with very little damage. Most of their spells are related to self-defense, so they make great tanks. It is also no Rumor that this Race is the most challenging on the Realms, They do not do very much damage but when grouped with an Avian or Dwarf, there is not much that they cant handle. The spells are to numerous to list in a general introduction but lets just say they impressive. Illithids prime attribute is INTELIGENCE (INT). Humans: Humans are a rare breed indeed. They seem to be the most versatile of the races. Human excel in most of the skills they try, but show a particular affinity for the martial arts. They have a wonderful array of skills and spells. A human's main attribute is DEXTERITY (DEX), so train this item twice. Most of the skills are self-explanatory so use the HELP SKILLNAME if you get confused about what something does. This Race is not the strongest nor the weakest when it comes to fighting. They are right in the middle. So they are easier to level in regards to XPS points then Dwarves but more difficult then Illithids or Elves. I HAVE JUST CREATED MY CHARACTER, NOW WHAT? Well first of all ask yourself if you are an experienced MUDDER or a NEWBIE! If you have played before and/or don't need a refresher course head north 2 times to enhance. If you do need an idea on how to get started then head south through the school and begin each screen by typing LOOK SIGN. Hopefully, before you even do anything one of us HEROES will be on to assist you and help you along your journey so please ask questions and utilize us completely. We will be teleporting in rather quickly! After you finish the school you will end up back where you were when you first came on. Head north twice and get ready to enhance. Hopefully you have remembered what your Main Attribute is. First enhance that Attribute twice. Then there is a couple decisions to make. Strength , Constitution and Dexterity are probably the best skills to enhance. Since a higher CON increases the amount of Hit Points (HPs) you obtain at each level, it's a good idea to enhance this stat twice as well. Then you can choose STR or DEX. Dex will increase your natural armor class and increase the amount of items you can hold. Strength will allow you to carry a heavier load as well as cause you to hit your foes a tad harder. Both attributes are important so the choice is really a matter of preference. I AM DONE ENHANCING, WHEN DO I GET TO KILL SOMETHING?? I am assuming by now you are getting a bit itchy to do a little battling. But then again you practically naked and you have yet to get any spells cast upon you. After enhancing head north twice and then head down. Your Academy Instructor will be waiting to "Spell You Up." The following are the spells that he will cast upon you (as long as you are patient :)): BLESS, COMBAT MIND, ARMOR, SHIELD and GIANT STRENGTH. I wouldn't recommend going anywhere until you get these spells. The Instructor will also heal you and restore your lost movement points (mv). While you are waiting for spells try out the SCAN command. You should see 3 trainees. This is also a good time to try out the rest of your commands. Such as EQ,WORTH, SCORE, INFO, WHO, AFFECT, REPORT, GROUP. There are many commands so get used to looking at them. After you have received all your spells scan again and head in the direction of one of the Trainees. Begin by killing all the trainees in the area, there are 5 and all of them hold equipment that you will need to get started. Remember too, that you need 2 rings, 2 capes and 2 bracers. The trainee will only give you one each time so you will need to come back and kill them once more. After you are done getting the equipment off the trainees, type INVENTORY (INV) and you will notice that you have a key. Head north away from the Academy Instructor and you will come to a door that needs to be unlocked. Also you will notice that to the east of you is a store where you can buy a small water skin and some newbie cookies! Typing LIST at any shopkeeper will show you what items they are selling. After unlocking and opening the door, head north and kill the Master of the Academy. He has a Diploma that will be quite valuable to you. Type HOLD DIPLOMA. Then open the northern door and head into the Graduate Arena. Here you can kill Veteran, Green, and Advanced Graduates as well as a Cheater and a few others. After you level a few times (Stay here until you level at least once or twice) you can move onto harder areas and of course practice your newly acquired spells and skills. Just type SLIST and that will show you at which level you will obtain what spell/skill for your level. PRACTICING IN THE GUILD! After you have leveled a few times you can head to your guild master and practice your new spells and skills. First of all, let me say this! When practicing you need to continue to hit return until its says you have "learned all you can here". So typing PRACTICE MAGIC MISSILE once wont make you very effective. Type PRACT at anytime and you will see what your skill's percentage is. So when you are done at the Newbie Area, type recall and that will automatically bring you to the Temple. This is the main Town and please use the HELP MAP command if you get lost. There are Weaponsmiths, Bakers, Magicians, Armor Repair, Leather shops and many more shopkeepers around to sell you what you need. Provided you have enough gold :). To get to the Guilds head north 3 times from the Temple. This is the start of Guild Row. Travel east or west to your respective guilds and then north or south accordingly. Usually, the hero that came to you when you first checked on is still with you but just in case we aren't there to greet you, you now know what to do. Now you can either head back to the newbie area, which is up and north of recall or head out on a new journey. SOME QUICK TIPS ON GETTING STARTED BASIC COMMANDS The most simple way to see the statistics on your character is to look at the score screen. It can be accessed by typing 'score', 'sc', or just '?'. This is what the score screen looks like: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Level: 1 Race: Human ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Str: 13(13) Int: 13(13) Wis: 13(13) Dex: 16(16) Con: 13(13) Hit Points: 25/25 Experience needed to level: 500 Mana: 100/100 Moves: 100/100 Wimpy: 0 Gold: 0 Hitroll: 1 Armor class: You are wearing clothes. Damroll: 1 Alignment: 0 You are neutral. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Now we'll go through what all of this stuff means. Level: Your fighting prowess is measured in levels. As you increase in level, your spells, skills, and personal attributes will increase in power. Race: As you've read above, race has a great effect on your character. It is shown here in case you forget it. :) Str: Strength - Your pure physical strength. Allows you to wield heavier weapons and increases your damroll. A higher strength also allows you to carry more weight. Int: Intelligence - Raises the percent your skills go upper practice session. Also gives you more mana per level, as well as speeds up the rate of mana regeneration. Wis: Wisdom -Your knowledge. The higher this value is, the less prone your skills are to failure. Dex: Dexterity - How agile you are. Improves your armor class and hitroll. Con: Constitution - Your personal well-being. Increases the amount ofhp you get per level and increases your hp regeneration rate. *** Note Str, Dex, Int, Wis, Con values are displayed something like this: 13(13). The number outside of the brackets is your current strength, and the nu number inside is your natural strength. Your current strength can be affected by either spells or your equipment. Let's say that your natural constitution is 15, and you put on a ring that raises your con by 2. Your constitution would then read 17(15). Hit Points: Your health is given a numerical attribute. If it is at max, you are perfectly healthy. If it is at 0, you are stunned, but you will recover with time. If it is too far below 0, you are dying or dead. Be sensible. Fighting a Mob with 15(45) HPs left is not a wise idea. And do not forget your WIMPY command. This will automatically cause you to flee if your hps get below the number you set. To use it type WIMPY 30. Or whatever you want your WIMPY to be set at. more work. Mana: Your inner strength. When you cast spells or use certain skills, it drains your inner strength. If you do not have enough mana to cast the spell or use the ability, it wont work. Don't worry - your mana regenerates much like your hp but at a much slower rate. Drinking alcohol will help you regenerate your mana and hps at a much faster rate BUT others will find it difficult to communicate with you. Moves: You can't expect to walk forever. When your movement runs out, you are too tired to walk. Rest a bit or sleep. Hitroll: Your chance of hitting an enemy. The higher, the better. Damroll: Determines now hard you hit an enemy. The higher, the better. Experience needed to level: How many experience points you need to raise one skill level. Wimpy: You attempt to flee automatically if your HP is less than this value. Set by typing 'wimpy ', replacing with the number of HP you want wimpy set to. Gold: How many gold coins you have. Gold coins are the common currency of Barren Realms. Remember, you have to make money to spend it! :P Armor Class: How good your armor is. At higher levels, you will see a numeric value of your AC in your score screen. The lower the number, the better your armor is and it will decrease the amount of damage an enemy does. Don't forget, armor that is damaged does not work as well so keep your armor in good repair by taking it to Beich, in the armor repair shop. Alignment: A number between -1000 and 1000. When you kill mobs, your alignment goes up, down, or is maintained. A negative alignment means you are evil because you have been killing MOBS that have a Good Alignment. A positive alignment of course then means you are good as you have been killing Evil Mobs. Alignment often affects the type of equipment you can wear. An evil character will be unable to wear anti-evil armor and weapons. The same applies to good and neutral aligned characters. If you are wearing, or attempt to wear a piece of equipment that is incompatible with your alignment, it will zap you, causing you to drop it. (Getting zapped does no damage to you) But if you are wearing an item that has an Alignment requirement be careful, as dropping it usually goes unnoticed. STAT SCREEN Another useful statistics screen is your affects screen. You can see it by typing 'affects' or just 'aff'. Here is what it looks like: ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Spells: You are affected by 'shield'. 'armor'. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Conditions: You are neither hungry nor thirsty. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Position: You are standing. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Spells: Shows you what spells you are affected by, if any. At higher levels this screen will show you what the spells do and for how long they will continue to affect you. Conditions: Shows if you are hungry, thirsty, or both. Also informs you if you are drunk. Position: Tells you if you are standing, resting, or sleeping. INFO SCREEN And, now, the info screen. Everything you ever wanted to know about you ... and MORE! This is what it looks like: ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Level: 1 Race: Human ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Str: 13(13) Int: 13(13) Wis: 13(13) Dex: 16(16) Con: 13(13) Experience: 0 Practices: 21 Age: 17 years To level: 500 Gold: 0 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Number of deaths: 0 Auto-settings: Mobs killed: 0 ---------------- Autoloot yes Items carried: 4/34 Autoexit yes Weight carried: 16/140 Autogold yes Autosac yes Wimpy set to 0 Autosplit no Page pause set to 24 Autoassist no ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Practices: How many practice sessions you have for practicing skills. Age: A cool number; nothing more. Number of deaths: How many times you have died. Mobs killed: The number of mobs that you have successfully defeated.. SKILL INFORMATION . To see the skills and spells you currently know, and the percentage to which you have practiced them, type 'practice'. If in the presence of a guild master, you can use this command to practice skills to a max of 60%. With use, however, your skills can eventually rise to a max of 95%. To practice, type 'prac ', replacing with the full skill name of the skill or spell you wish to practice. Eg. 'prac magic missile'. To see the mana cost of your spells, type 'spells'. This will also display your skills as having mana costs if they don't. You can see a list of every spell and skill you will ever learn, as well as at which level you acquire them. To see this list, type 'slist'. You can see some statistics on other players by profiling them. They do not have to be playing for you to do this. Type 'profile ', replacing with the name of the person you wish to profile. Here is what it shows if you type 'profile Kiri'. PROFILE INFORMATION ------------------- Name Kiri Sex female Race Druid Level 152 Email kiri@li.net Plan See my rl pic at: http://www.liii.com/%7Ejarrodl ------------------- You can set your Email and Plan fields. To set Email, type 'email
', replacing
with your Email address. To change plan, type 'plan ', replacing with whatever you want to type there. I JUST DIED, NOW WHAT? A quick word on DEATH. When your character dies, you are reincarnated back at the Temple of Calathar. Your corpse is left behind in the room where you were killed, together with all of your equipment.. Your gold stays with you. Any spells which were affecting you are canceled by death. Your "follow" and "group" status are not affected by death. You lose experience points for dying. The amount you lose takes you half-way back to the beginning of your level. Thus, if you have a bad day and die several times, the penalties won't clobber you. Corpses decay after a while, leaving your possessions on the floor. Player corpses last *roughly* 30 hours of game time (15 minutes of real time). Only the player who died, can remove objects from a player's corpse. After recovering your possessions, SAVE! In desperate cases, feel free to ask for help in returning to your corpse (ask a Heroe, Avatar or an Immortal). The ONLY time a hero, Avatar or Immortal will retrieve a corpse is if the MOB that killed you is aggressive and is at least 10 levels above you. Getting killed due teleport, astral or prayer error will not be a sufficient reason for a corpse retrieval. Also, ask other mortal players first before attempting to ask a Hero or Immortal for a CR. And if the system crashes (well, this DOES happen on occasion) before you reach your corpse, ask an immortal for a reimbursement. EQUIPMENT You don't fight battles naked. You need equipment. Thissection will show you all the things you need to know about equipment. First of all, you need to know what you are wearing and carrying. Type 'equipment' or just 'eq' to see what you are wearing. It will show something like this: You are using: (Glowing) a war banner (Like New ) a padded vest (Like New ) a small, wooden shield a wooden sword Your inventory, displayed by typing 'inventory' or 'i', will display something like this: You are carrying: ( 2) (Like New ) a padded vest a wooden sword (Glowing) a war banner If your inventory starts to get too full, you may want to drop or donate some of the items you are carrying. Donating an item sends it from your inventory to the donation rooms below Clericus in Calathar. Dropping items removes them from your inventory and puts them on the floor of the room in which you are standing. To donate an item, type 'donate '. To drop an item, type 'drop '. If you wish to pick an item up off the floor type 'get '. If you are dealing with multiple items, you can use certain shortcuts so that you don't have to type the get command over and over. If you want to pick up everything in the room, type 'get all'. This also works with drop and donate. If there are multiple items with the same name, you can choose which one you wish to pick up by typing 'get x.', replacing x with a number to specify which of the items you want to pick up. For example, let's say you are in a room with three swords lying on the floor, and you want to pick up the second one, but not either of the other two. You would type 'get 2.sword'. You may also replace the number with 'all', if you want to pick up every one of that item there is in the room. Example: there are two swords on the floor and three potions. You want to pick up all of the potions, but none of the swords. You would type 'get all.potion'. These number specifications do not just work with get, but with most of the other object-moving commands, like donate, put, etc. Some commands like give and sacrifice do not work with the 'all.' indicator, though the numerical indicators like '2.' still work. To put on an item you have in your inventory, type 'wear '. This puts the item on the appropriate part of your body, replacing a piece of equipment that was there before, if necessary. Remove is the opposite of wear. It takes an item off your body and returns it to your inventory. Use it by typing 'remove '. 'Give' is used to move items from player to player. To give a player something, type 'give '. Example: 'give sword Riel'. Sacrifice is a useful command to get rid of clutter. If there is an item lying on the ground that you don't need, you can sacrifice it. Sacrifice removes the item from the game and gives you a small random bonus. You can sacrifice an item by typing 'sac '. Remember, the item must be on the ground. Let's say you have an old sword you no longer need, so you decide to sacrifice it. First, you type 'drop sword' to put it on the ground. Then type 'sac sword'. The sword then disappears and you get your bonus. Containers are very useful items. They can be used to increase the number of items you can carry and reduce clutter in your inventory. To put something into a container, type 'put '. You can then look at what is in the container by typing 'look in '. To retrieve an item from a container, simply type 'get '. Note: Some containers are closeable. The container must be open to move items into or out of it. To open a container, type 'open '. To close it, type 'close ." Also, containers can be destroyed by fire affect spells. So lets say you are fighting a dragon and he breaths fire on you. He may just burn up your pack with all the stuff in it as well. If you are wearing a wand in the slot on your body, you can use it to cast whatever spell is stored in it. To use it, type 'zap '. can be a mob, item, or another player. If you are wearing a staff in the slot on your body, you can use it to cast whatever spell is stored in it, as well. To use a staff, just type 'brandish'. Potions and scrolls may be used directly from your inventory. To drink a potion, type 'quaff potion'. To recite a scroll, type 'recite scroll [target]'. The [target] field is optional. Remember it's a good idea to identify things before you begin putting them in your belly. You just don't know what kind of trouble you can get into. Shops are one of the most common mediums for obtaining equipment and making money. You can buy or sell items at a shop. To see what is for sale, type 'list' in the same room as a shopkeeper. This will display something like this: [Lv Price] Item [19 3800] A grey girth. [34 12342] A purple satin scarf. [15 2400] A white girth. [41 18491] A slave bracelet. [39 14820] An ankh on a thong. [49 25872] A rodent's skin. [47 22090] A rodent's skin. [19 3240] A grey breastplate. [19 3800] A grey helm. [19 3971] A grey buckler. [20 4000] A grey girth. [ 9 810] A steel-plated vest. You can also request a list by item level by typing 'list [max level]'. Typing 'list 15 20' for the list shown above would only show you: [Lv Price] Item [19 3800] A grey girth. [15 2400] A white girth. [19 3240] A grey breastplate. [19 3800] A grey helm. [19 3971] A grey buckler. [20 4000] A grey girth. List also works with item names: 'list '. Typing 'list grey' would show: [Lv Price] Item [19 3800] A grey girth. [19 3240] A grey breastplate. [19 3800] A grey helm. [19 3971] A grey buckler. [20 4000] A grey girth. Buying and selling are quite straightforward. To buy something, type 'buy '. Let's say you wanted to buy that grey helm. You could either type a price estimate on an item before you sell it. This is done by typing 'value '. Battle is one of the most important elements of Barren Realms. Fights proceed automatically, though you can use skills during battle to improve your chances of winning. To start a fight, type 'kill ' or just 'k '. During a battle, you may wish to use skills or spells. You do not need to choose a target for your skill once a battle has been started. You can just use the skill. For example, kick, which normally requires you to type 'kick ' can be used during battle, just by typing 'kick'. The same works for spells. Spells are cast like normal but the target can be omitted. Example: Instead of the usual 'cast 'magic missile' ', you can type 'cast 'magic missile''. Some skills and spells attack every mob in your current room. You should carefully consider the results of these spells before you cast them. If there is a charmed mob in your room, it will be hit as well, possibly resulting in you being labeled a KILLER. If there is a shopkeeper in the room or another high-level mob, it will be dragged into your fight as well, possibly killing you. These spells can be useful, though, for doing damage to all the mobs in a large battle. This KILLER FLAG will only be able to be removed by an Immortal. If you are losing a battle and you do not wish to die, you can try to run away. This can be accomplished by recalling or fleeing. To recall, just type 'recall' or '/', like normal. To flee, type 'flee'. Flee will take you to a random adjacent room. Note: Neither flee nor recall is always successful! You may have to type flee or recall several times to get away! You can see how difficult a mob is before you attack. To do this, type 'consider '. This will give you a rough idea how powerful it is in comparison to you. If it laughs mercilessly at you or you get a "shovel" response, you may want to think twice about attacking it unless you are in a very powerful group. You will learn in time what mobs to kill and when to kill them. If you wish to kill players, feel free to enter the Battle Arena. You must be at least level 5 to fight or be attacked there, however. If you die in the arena you do not lose any experience. To enter the arena type 'arena [color]'. The optional [color] field can be replaced with the color of the booth you wish to go. If the [color]field is omitted, you are sent to a random booth. You can join forces with other characters to make battles easier. You may only group with a person within five levels of your own in either direction. To form a group, follow the person who is to be the group leader; type 'follow '. If you are the group leader, and the person who is to be grouped with you is following you, type 'group '. You are now grouped. You can now use the 'gtell' channel to talk to your group, and view their stats by typing 'group'. ETTIQUETTE The etiquette guidelines were written in an effort to promote a more respectful environment and a smoother-running game here at Barren Realms. In the BR community we have both experienced mudders as well as first-time players. For some of you these guidelines are common sense, but to others who are new to the world of MUDing, they will teach you what is appropriate and inappropriate behavior. Please read them carefully and do your best to follow them. Communication: Spamming (repeating a message, social, or emote over and over again) is considered rude, especially if done on public channels. If you do this over public channels, you are likely to be silenced or frozen by an immortal. Repeatedly murdering uncharmed mobs to make them shout is annoying and considered spamming as well. This also applies to non-kenders who steal from mobs just to make them shout. Please do not do this. Please try to use the appropriate channels. It's ok to ask questions on chat instead of question, but, for example, please use the hero channel only when you need a hero's assistance. And please use only the gratz channel for congratulating players. Occasionally a new player logs on with an offensive or unacceptable name. Please use common sense as to which names you welcome over public channels, since many of those players log on only to cause trouble. Also, if you wish to have a multi-line gratz alias, please keep it within reason. It is nice to have friendly players who congratulate you, but too much spam on one channel is the reason many people keep it turned off. Chatting and shouting about the lag is annoying and only makes lag and spam worse for other players. Please do not do this! Lag is most often network lag and has nothing to do with the mud itself. If you think that the MUD has crashed recently, you can find out by simply typing 'time'. This will tell you the last time BR started up, so you do not need to ask if there was a crash. You should not advertise other MUDs through notes, titles, profiles or on public channels on BR. This is considered rude, and our admin does not do this on other MUDs. There are more appropriate ways to advertise MUDs if you need to, such as posting ads to newsgroups. Communicating in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS is usually considered annoying by other players. If you talk that way on public channels, you will probably be asked to stop. Talking in ALL CAPS also usually implies anger or yelling, so if this is not the feeling you wish to convey, then please use lower case instead. Using caps to get attention will probably only get you a kick in the butt. You are asked to keep swearing and other offensive behavior off of public channels. If you do this privately and others complain, you will also be punished. Please respect others and behave accordingly. This also applies to offensive words in titles, descriptions, profiles and notes. Also, out of consideration of other players, please keep 2-way conversations that no one else cares about OFF of public channels. Take your conversation to tells or go into a room with the other person and use 'say'. Arguments between players should not take place over public channels. If you have a problem with someone, take it to tells. If you need assistance resolving it, ask an immortal. Remember, if another player is bothering you, you can always use the 'ignore' command. Read 'help ignore' for more info. OTHER TIPS: Clericus casts free spells on players level 1-10. He and other healers will be of no use to you after level 10 unless you are paying for his other services. If you are not, and there are players below level 10 present, you should try to heal elsewhere so that these players will receive Clericus' spells. If there are higher level players there, he is not as likely to cast these spells on the low level players who need them. Keep in mind that there are plenty of other healers besides Clericus, such as those in nearby Malacandra and Perelandra where you can also heal. You should not take items from the donation room just to sell them and make money for yourself. These items were donated by others for people who can use them. If those who donated the items wanted them to be sold, they would have sold them themselves and kept the money. Please be considerate and sac full corpses and either sac or donate items that you do not want, rather than littering rooms with your unwanted things. This includes the food and potions left from spell misfires. It is rude to pick up things that obviously belong to another player. Example, if someone drops a container while they are organizing their inventory, it is obviously theirs and it is not polite to take it. Any discriminatory behavior demonstrated towards another player, including harassment and slurs will not be tolerated. If you are asked to stop even once, you STOP or an immortal will put a stop to it for you. THIS ALSO GOES FOR SOCIALS -- misuse of socials can be considered harassment as well. It is extremely rude to join into a fight that is already in progress without invitation. This is called kill-stealing. It is also rude to attack a mob when you know someone is in the process of killing it, for example if they have just fled. If you enter a room with another player and a mob, you should yield to the other player, or at least ask them first before you attack. Also, those who have killed the mob, have first rights to any items on that mob. If you are in the same room with someone who has just killed a mob, do not take anything until they have finished. You should not summon a player without first asking them if it is ok to do so. They may be in the middle of battle or not want to be summoned. It is also recommended that you ask before you teleport to someone too.. they could be having a private conversation or could even be in an area that could be dangerous to you if you teleported there. In addition to the above, you should not follow players without their consent. ASKING FOR HELP: Barren Realms has extensive "HELP" files which cover almost all topics you can imagine in the game. To see the categories, simply type help. Or for example, to see what a specific spell does.. type help (spellname). If you have a question, please check to see if there is a help file before publicly asking for help. These files were put in for your convenience. If you truly need assistance, please ask nicely without demanding. Barren Realms players are usually friendly and helpful, but like you, they are also busy exploring and gaining levels and sometimes may not have time to answer every question or come to your aid. If you would like to know what a potion or a piece of equipment does, either identify it yourself or take the item to Thesius who will identify it for you. He is located right in town, just type 'help city' to find his shop. Please use his services instead of asking what items do over public channels. Please do not ask on channels for other players to donate or bring you a light. Every time you die, all of your equipment will be left on your corpse. This includes your light. Make sure you get one before you go to your corpse if you have not died during daylight hours. Lights are cheap and easy to find right at the grocer in town (again, 'help city' will show you where). COMMUNICATING WITH HEROES AND AVATARS: Well the heroes and Avatars are here to help you. There are many thing (tasks) that they can do for you to help or assist you in your journey. But do remember one thing, there is a few things that they cannot do very easily like a (CR) (Corpse Retrieval) this is done only, and ONLY if there is no way you can get it done yourself or you have tried and was unsuccessful in doing so, then a (CR) can be asked for. Heroes and Avatars will do anything in their power to help you and assist you in any way possible, but don't take it Like it is something they have to do. It is a PRIVILEDGE. COMMUNICATING WITH THE IMMORTALS: If you ask an immortal for something and they tell you no, the answer is no. Do not go from imm to imm asking the same thing after you have already received an answer. You will be silenced or otherwise punished if you are caught doing this. You may however appeal decisions made by other immortals to Oakley and Kiri if absolutely necessary. Also, if you are jailed or silenced by an immortal, it is most likely for a very good reason. When this happens, the immortal who has jailed/silenced you has made a note of the situation and you will be unjailed or unsilenced as they see fit. Do not bring other characters on or have other players ask when you will be unjailed/unsilenced as this will most likely make the punishment last longer. You can always post a note to immortal or to the person who jailed/silenced you if you feel it was unfair or that the punishment has been too long, but generally immortals keep track of these situations and don't need reminding. If you have a complaint about something on BR, feel free to post a note and voice your opinion. If you are going to do this, however, please post only with constructive suggestions and not merely to insult or blast the mud or particular people. Also, if you have complaints about immortals or certain individuals, it is inconsiderate to note about them to all. You should note to the immortals only, or to the person/people you have a problem with. QUESTS: When a hero or immortal runs a quest in which you participate, please be respectful and pay attention to the instructions at the beginning. When there are a lot of players in a room together to get instructions, it gets really spammy when players keep messing around with eq and socialling each other while the person running the quest is trying to give instructions. Also, make sure you understand the directions before you begin the quest. Read the note and/or listen to the instructions carefully. The person/people who are running the quest have other things to take care of than answering things that have already been explained. Those of you with track/summon/teleport, pay special attention to whether or not you are allowed to use these skills in the quest. More often than not, they are NOT allowed in quests to make things fair. Cheating, either purposely or by not paying attention to instructions, ruins quests for others who are playing fairly and for those who put forth the time and effort to organize and run it for you. Do not insult the person/people running the quest in any way. That is quite rude considering the time and effort taken to have a quest for you in the first place. If you do not like the quest or its rules then it is your choice not to participate. The quest prizes given reflect the difficulty of the quest. Please do not ask for a different prize or complain about the one you are given. It takes more work than you think to put together and run a successful quest. Be thankful that someone made the effort to give you something fun to do. SENDING AND RECEIVING NOTES: The note system on Barren Realms is quite simple, once you learn to use it. There are 3 fields you must fill in: subject, recipient, and text. To fill in the subject field, type 'note subject ', replacing with the title of your note. An example: note subject Why I like Barren Realms *This sets the message title to 'Why I like Barren Realms'. Recipients work pretty much the same way as subject. Just type 'note to '. Replace the with the name of the person you want to send it to, or the group to which they belong. The different groups are: Immortal, Coder, Hero, All Here is an example of what you type for a personal note: note to Kiri *This sends the message only to Kiri. An example of a multiple recipient note: note to Kiri Oakley Soleil *This sends the message to Kiri, Oakley, and Soleil. This is an example of a note to a group of players: note to Immortal *This sends the message to all Immortals. You can also have both personal and group recipients together: note to Crymson Coder *This sends the message to Crymson, as well as all coders. The text body of the note works slightly differently. To add a line to the message, type 'note + ', replacing with the line you want to add to your note. Typing 'note -' removes the last line typed. Example of added line: note + Wow! I'm really starting to get the hang of notes! *Adds the above text to the note. Now, we put all of this together to make the note. Here's a full example of a possible note: note subject My first note note to all note + Hi all, just me here thought I'd check this out. note + Nothing is up, just wondering how this works. note + Have fun everyone! note + -me Now you have your note typed out, but not sent. You can see what your note will look like by typing 'note show'. If you made a mistake, you can still go back and change it, or get rid of it altogether by typing, 'note clear or 'note send'. If you like how your note looks, send it. Just type 'note post' or 'note send'. Congratulations! You just wrote a note! COMMANDS AND ALIASES: Ever get tired of typing out a big long command? What we have here are aliases they are essentially macros that will let you carry out 1-20 commands in one command. To create an alias, type 'alias '. Replace with the word you wish to use to execute the alias. is replaced by the command or commands that you want executed when you run the alias. You can remove aliases by typing 'alias '. Here are a couple examples: To set an alias, type alias Examples: alias greet say How are you? alias altar recall;north;sleep To see what aliases you have saved, just type 'alias'. You won't start with any aliases, but it is a useful command once you've made some. You can save 10 aliases with your characters. You can use more than 10 at a time, but if you must re-type them whenever you log on. Aliases can be made more versatile through the use of fields and multiple commands. Multiple commands are separated with a ';'. Fields allow you to use variables in the alias. The variables are %1, %2, %3, and %4. Put the variables in the commands where you want their values to take affect. Values for the variable are typed in after the keyword when EXECUTING alias as shown here: ' [%1 value] [%2 value] [%3 value] [%4 value]'. Here is an example of an alias with a field: alias pgreet tell %1 Hi, how are you? *Now, if you type, 'pgreet simple', you will send Simple the message *'Hi, how are you?'. Now for an example of multiple commands: alias opendoor get key backpack; unlock %1; open %1; put key backpack *Now, if you type 'opendoor north', you will get a key from your *backpack, open the door to the north (if there is one), open it, and *return the key to your backpack. And, now, multiple commands with multiple fields: alias eatdrink get %1 %3; get %2 %3; eat %1; drink %2; put %2 %3 *By typing 'eatdrink cookie skin backpack', you will get a cookie and a *water skin from your backpack, eat the cookie, drink from the water *skin, and return the skin to your backpack. NOTE: You cannot name an alias the same name as a skill or social. Eg: An alias named 'smile' wouldn't work because if you type in 'smile' you will execute the social, not the alias. MISCELLANEOUS: This is the miscellaneous section. In this section is all of the information that didn't fit in the others. Recall is one of the most useful commands in Barren Realms. It takes you instantly from wherever you are back to the Temple of Calathar. It's instantaneous and requires no practice. Its only cost is half your movement points. You can configure some small things about BR. To see what your current settings are, type 'config'. To turn an option on, type 'config +