Beginner's Guide (Section 1)
THE GUIDE TO
THE GREAT HUNT
Section I
Understanding your character
So, you have created your first character for The Great Hunt(TGH). Welcome. If this is your first time on a MUD, or your first time on TGH, things can be very confusing on how to navigate your way around. This guide will show and explain some of the basic commands needed to interact and have fun with the game.
This section assumes you have already created your character. If you are having problems with character creation, please go (here). Having successfully created your character, you are placed into the MUD, and the game begins:
To begin understanding the game, you first need to understand your character. To help you figure out details about your character, one of the most important commands in the game is score. When you type score, (you can also type sc, for short) you will have your character's information displayed for you to observe.
A typical score screen, for a beginning character looks like this:
********************************************************************** * Testen the Apprentice of Magic * ********************************************************************** * LEVEL [1] STR [15/23] (13) HP [20/25] (20) * * CLASS [Mage] INT [17/25] (16) MANA [100/105] (100) * * REGION [Midgaard] WIS [14/23] (13) MOVE [100/100] (100) * * SEX [Male] DEX [15/23] (13) PRAC [5] * * GOLD [0] CON [16/23] (13) TRAIN [3] * * BANK [0] AGE [17 YR] WEIGHT [22/152] * * EXP TNL [2600] HRS [0] ITEMS [5/49] * * EXP TOT [2600] QPS [0] TPS [0] * ********************************************************************** * The Creator protects you faithfuly. * * You are standing. * ********************************************************************** * Wimpy:0 Alignment:750 * * Pierce: You are slighty armored against piercing. * * Bash: You are slighty armored against bashing. * * Slash: You are slighty armored against slashing. * * Magic: You are slighty armored against magic. * **********************************************************************
Let's go through the different fields in your score, and see what they mean. The name on top is your character's name, and the text after your character's name is your character's title which you can learn how to change (here). Level is your character's current level. When you first create your character, he or she starts out at Level 1. By killing monsters and participating in quests, you can gain experience points, which will enable your character to advance in level. The highest mortal level in The Great Hunt is level 50, once you have reached this point, no further leveling is possible.
Your character's Class determines the unique set of skills and spells you have at your disposal to fight the evil Shadowspawn and the Forsaken. There are five character class choices in TGH: warrior, mage, thief, cleric and paladin. More in-depth discussion of the different characters and their uses in playing can be found(here).
The Region your character is from helps determines the overall statistics of your character, a more in-depth look of the impact of region on your character will be discussed (here). Of course, for some people, the statistics of a region will matter less than the potential roleplaying aspects of their region, for example, you can choose to be a clan member of the bloodthirsty Shaido Aiel, or a Ko'bal Trolloc, bent on destruction of all life.
The Sex of your character is its obvious definition. Keep in mind that this choice is almost entirely a roleplaying or personal preference, as character gender has almost no gameplay effect (however keep in mind that the Asha'man Guild only accepts males, and the Aes Sedai guild only accepts females).
Your character's gold total is how much gold you have on your character at the present time. Although gold does count as weight, you can typically carry large sums (over 100,000 gold pieces) with no problem. The next field down, bank, shows you how much money you have in the bank. We will cover how to deposit and withdrawal money in the bank (here).
EXP TNL stands for Experience Points To Next Level, in other words, how many experience points you need before you achieve the next level. EXP TOT stands for Experience Total, or the total amount of experience points you have accumulated up to this point. Keep in mind most players call experience points, xp, or exp. EXP TNL is a good way of keeping track of how near or far away you are from reaching the next level. However, because many players want to know how close they are to leveling without having to see the whole score screen, there is a command called worth, (or wo for short) that allows you to see just how much exp tnl you have, as well as seeing how much gold you have with you currently. If you type worth, you will see :
You have 0 gold, and 2000 experience (2000 exp to level).
In one line you will see your gold, your EXP TOT, and your EXP TNL in parentheses. Both for fighting against other players and for leveling, the worth command is very helpful.
Going back to the score screen, on the top in the middle column are your character's attributes. These attributes in order are (with their abbreviations in parentheses afterwards): Strength (STR), Intelligence (INT), Wisdom (WIS), Dexterity (DEX) and Constitution (CON).
Strength determines how much weight your character can carry as well as influencing how much damage your character can do in physical combat. Some weapons are too heavy to be wielded unless the character has a certain strength total. Strength also plays a role in certain combat skills.
Intelligence helps to determine how many mana points your character gains per level. More about mana a little later down. It also helps determine how quickly you regenerate mana while resting. It also plays a role in determining the success of your spells, as well as your resistance to certain spells. Finally, your intelligence score plays a role in how quickly you advance in learning spells and skills.
Wisdom helps to determine how many practices your character gains per level. Practices are another concept we will cover a little later. Wisdom also helps determine the effectiveness of some of your spells, as well as your resistance to certain spells.
Dexterity helps determine how hard you are to hit in physical combat, as well as determining the effectiveness of certain physical skills. Dexterity also helps determine the total amount of items you can carry.
Constitution's main role is determining how many Hit Points, or HP your character gains per level. More about HP later in this section.
So each of these attributes help determine the strengths and weaknesses of your character, and how well the character can use spells and skills and interact in the TGH world. Your score command shows you each of these attributes in the format:
STR [13/22] (13)
The first number, before the slash (in this case 13), is your actual current strength score. The number behind the slash is your possible maximum score, and the third number, which is in parentheses to the right, is your strength score minus any equipment bonuses. Although there used to be a reason for keeping track of your attribute score minus any equipment bonus, the game has changed to the point where all players only use equipment to increase attribute scores, and so you should just ignore the third number.
Your region and class both come into play in determining what your maximum attribute scores can be. The highest possible attribute score regardless of region and class is 25. No matter how much equipment you wear or spells you cast on yourself, your attribute can not go over 25. If you want to see the chart that details the effects of class and region on attribute scores, go here. Many people on TGH will talk about the importance of "keeping level stats maxed." While we will cover more of this in the Leveling section, suffice it to say that INT, WIS, and CON, are attributes that help determine the bonuses you get as you level, and they should always be maxed (meaning they should be at the maximum possible value) while leveling.
Your age is another one of those roleplay statistics that has no practical effect on gameplay. The hrs field, on the other hand, while similarly having no effect on gameplay, is a useful tool to allow you to see how many hours your character has played on TGH. While it won't make your character any better or worse, it is a great way to see just how addictive this game has become!
QPS and TPS: QPS stands for Quest Points. Here at TGH, the Immortals (TGH administrators) will sometimes throw Quests for players' enjoyment. These Quests take various forms and have different objectives but once they are completed one of the prizes generally awarded are quest points. You can use quest points for various things, most people nowadays donate their quest points to their Guild, see (here), but you can use quest points for individual prizes as well. In the score field, to the right of QPS is TPS. TPS stands for Trivia Points. As well as throwing Quests, Immortals will occasionally throw a "Trivia Quest," where the Imms will ask questions either about the Wheel of Time, or real life eclectic topics. If you are the first person to answer a trivia question correctly, you win a trivia point! Generally 3 trivia points are worth 1 quest point, and you can ask an Immortal to change trivia for quest points. Very rarely at TGH, the imms will throw a Trivia Quest for levels! This means every time you answer a trivia question correctly, you will advance one level, which is a treat you will come to appreciate after spending a few hours leveling here. More detailed information on quest and trivia points can be found in the game by typing help quest.
The far right column begins with the most important statistics for your character, your HP, Mana, and Moves. HPs stands for Hit Points, which are the amount of damage your character can take before he dies. All spells and physical attacks upon your character do damage to him, which temporarily reduces the hit points of your character, until your hp count reaches zero, and you die. Mana is the amount of magical points you have. In order to cast a spell in the TGH world, you need to have enough mana points to meet the spell's magical requirements. Upon having attempted to cast the spell, the mana points are deducted from your current remaining mana. Moves are your movement points. Although we will cover movement in a later section, in order to explore the vast realms of TGH you will need lots of movement points, once you run out of moves, you cannot go from one room to the next until you recuperate some of those movement points. These stats (when people at TGH mention "stats", they most likely are referring to your HPs, mana and move totals) are presented in the format:
HP [1450/1500] (1200)
The left number in the bracket is the amount of your character's current hit points. The number to the right of that slash is the amount of your maximum possible hit points. Finally the right-most number in parenthesis is your hit points maximum without any equipment bonuses. Occasionally you will hear people talking about their "naked stats." This refers to their hp, mana and moves totals, not including any equipment bonuses, in other words, the parenthetical number at the far right of your stats is your "naked" total. Every level you gain a certain amount of hp, mana and moves, which is why you should always have intelligence(mana) and constitution(hp) maxed while you level.
Practices and Trains are bonuses you gain as you level. When you first create your character you start with 5 practices and 3 trains. For each level you achieve, you gain an additional train, and a certain number of practices (which is determined by your wisdom score, this is why your wisdom should always be maxed while leveling). We will cover how to use practices and trains (here), but for now just know that your current total of practices and trains are listed in your score.
Weight indicates how much you can carry. The first number in the bracket is your current weight load, the second number is your maximum weight load. Each item you carry has some weight, and when you have reached your maximum weight allowance you can no longer pick up items, or gold! (Remember that the higher Strength you have the more weight you can carry). Items are an indicator of how many total items you can have in your inventory at any one time, if you reach the limit in this total, you can not pick up any more items, although you can pick up more gold. The higher Dexterity you have the more items you can carry at one time, although for both Weight and Items, the higher level you are the more weight and items you can carry.
Below all these numerical statistics you now see some text. When you first create your character, you see: "The Creator protects you faithfuly."[sic] as that first line of text. Your score screen will include that line until you join a Guild, but for now you can just ignore this text. Also if you have joined a Guild, this area will tell you how many gold coins and quest points you have donated to your guild. Below this you are told whether you are resting, sleeping, standing, and whether you are hungry, thirsty, poisoned or plagued. All of these are game important states, and also determine how fast or slow you regen your hp, mana and moves totals, so its handy to check your score to see what's affecting you.
Below the middle section is the last section of your score screen. Wimpy is a command that makes you automatically seek to escape combat when you get below a certain amount of hit points. New characters automatically start with a wimpy of zero, meaning you will never automatically flee. If you type wimpy [number], this will automatically set the wimpy flee trigger to the number you put in, for example, typing wimpy 100, means that every time your hitpoints drop below 100 you will automatically try to escape combat at that point. Keep in mind you can never have a wimpy total higher than half your hit points. Strategic use of the the wimpy command both for leveling and fighting other players will be discussed (here).
Alignment is a description of whether your character is good, neutral or evil. While the roleplaying aspects of such a decision are left up to you, this field does have some gameplay ramifications. The Alignment number ranges from -1000 to 1000, with -1000 being Evil, 0 being Neutral, and 1000 being Good. Each evil monster you kill moves you closer to Good, while each good creature you kill moves you closer to Evil, while killing neutral creatures results in no difference. Alignment affects numerous aspects of the game. First, you gain more experience for killing a creature that is the opposite alignment of you. Second, certain spells protect you from opposite aligned people, so that players and creatures with the same alignment as you can do more damage, as you are not as well protected from such attacks. Finally, some equipment in the game is only usable by specific alignments, so if you are good you could not use evil aligned equipment, and vice-versa. Once your character has been created, the only way to change your alignment is through the tedious process of killing hundreds of same-aligned monsters to slowly move your alignment number in the opposite direction, so be forewarned.
Finally, you see the words Pierce, Bash, Slash, Magic, followed by a text message. This information represents your Armor Class. Each of the above 4 categories describes certain types of damage that creatures and players can inflict upon one another. Equipment that you wear provides certain protection against these forms of damage, and this level of protection is indicated by the text message following the category. We won't cover the different text messages, but the highest degree of protection is "You are divinely armored against..." However, if you advance enough levels soon you will be able to see a numerical representation of your Armor Class. At level (this level) in addition to the text messages, you see a number after the category. These numbers start at 100 (No protection at all) and go downward. The more negative your number, the higher protection you have.
Armor Class is not the only new thing your score reveals as you gain levels. Your score displays a few new characteristics at certain levels. At level (this level), you are able to see your Hit and Dam (short for Damage) rolls. These numbers indicate a bonus to your ability to hit and do damage in combat. At level (this level) you can see your Saves bonus. Saves are an indication of how well you resist magical spells being cast on you. Saves start at 0 (no saves) and go downward to a max of -25. Your Saves field will look like this:
Saves -3(-3) where the first number is your actual saves and the parenthetical number is your actual saves even below -25. So one could have -30 saves, and their saves would be Saves -25 (-30), and they only get the benefit of the -25 saves.
So below is what a Level 50 character's score screen would look like, I have highlighted in bold what the changes are between this screen and a level 1 character's:
*************************************************************************** * Chevy. * *************************************************************************** * LEVEL [50] STR [13/22] (13) HP [717/986] (986) * * CLASS [Mage] INT [19/25] (16) MANA [265/717] (717) * * REGION [Tar Valon] WIS [15/25] (13) MOVE [394/394] (394) * * SEX [Male] DEX [13/23] (13) PRAC [5] * * GOLD [11072] CON [14/20] (13) TRAIN [0] * * BANK [0] AGE [21 YR] WEIGHT [59/255] * * EXP TNL [1359] HRS [82] ITEMS [6/94] * * EXP TOT [70041] QPS [0] TPS [0] * *************************************************************************** * You are loyal to Chrysoar of the Outcasts. * * You have donated 0 gold and 0 qps. * * You are thirsty, and hungry. * * You are standing. * *************************************************************************** * Wimpy:0 Alignment:-2 Hitroll:0 Damroll:0 Saves:0 (0) * * Pierce: 100 You are defenseless against piercing. * * Bash: 100 You are defenseless against bashing. * * Slash: 100 You are defenseless against slashing. * * Magic: 100 You are defenseless against magic. * ***************************************************************************
So score is the most important command for getting a feel for your character. But there are a few others to help you keep track of your character's status. The first of these is the inventory command. The inventory command, (or i, for short) allows you to see what items you are carrying on you. Typing i shows this:
- You are carrying:
- (Glowing) a fiery dagger
- a buckle knife
- ( 6) a bowl of chunky chicken stew
- ( 2) a gland from a windwhale
- ( 3) sap from a katsi bush
- a potion of true sight
- (Glowing) a yellow pill
- ( 2) a pill of Newbie Power
- (Humming) a spray paint can
- a fine leather jug
The numbers in parenthesis before the item indicate how many of that item you have in your inventory.
The second of these is the equipment command (or eq for short). Equipment is what your character wears as armor and a weapon as he or she goes off to fight the minions of the Dark One or other players. Typing eq would show you this:
You are using: used as light (Glowing) a blue aura worn on finger (Glowing) an alabaster ring worn on finger a ring etched with Tairen markings worn around neck (Glowing) a string of pearls worn around neck a Silver foxheaded medallion worn on body (Humming) obsidian plate worn on head a crested helmet with a barred face-guard worn on legs grey cadin'sor breeches worn on feet (Glowing) elaborately silver-worked boots worn on hands (Humming) gauntlets of ogre power worn on arms (Humming) black striped puffy sleeves worn as shield (Humming) the Dark shield of Savant. worn about body (Humming) a cloak of shadows worn about waist (Glowing) a cord of glittering sunlight worn around wrist (Glowing) a Three Crescents-etched bracelet worn around wrist a Three Crescents-etched bracelet wielded (Glowing) (Humming) a Hell-Forged, Diablos Blade. held (Humming) a tenser's disc
There 18 EQ slots for your character. They are in order: light, finger (2), neck (2), body, head, legs, feet, hands, arms, shield, about body, waist, wrist(2), wielded, and held. Your character is lugging around a lot of stuff! Each piece of eq has its own stats, such as Armor Class(although some eq, like Light EQ, have no armor class) and typically some kind of bonus to hps, mana, or moves or bonuses to attributes. You may hear at TGH about level EQ, which refers to EQ that boosts your level stats: Intelligence, Wisdom, and Constitution. More information on EQ and its bonuses can be found in (here). Also know that if you are not wearing a piece of EQ in a certain slot, that slot will not show up on the EQ list. So, for instance, if you are not wearing any wrist EQ, you won't be reminded by anything in your EQ list that you have no wrist EQ. For that reason, it behooves many new players to write down the 18 different EQ slots, so that they can be sure to check that they always have all those slots filled, thereby insuring better statistics and attributes.
There are two final commands that you should know about as you strive to understand TGH, and your character. These are the spells and skills commands. Typing spells will show you this:
Level 2: magic missile 15 mana Level 5: armor 14 mana Level 6: chill touch 16 mana Level 9: burning hands 33 mana refresh 33 mana Level 11: protection align n/a Level 13: shocking grasp n/a Level 15: blindness n/a Level 16: infravision n/a lightning bolt n/a Level 17: weaken n/a Level 20: colour spray n/a giant strength n/a Level 21: poison n/a Level 22: fly n/a summon n/a Level 23: curse n/a Level 25: portal n/a Level 26: fireball n/a plague n/a Level 29: haste n/a Level 30: dispel magic n/a word of recall n/a Level 34: cancellation n/a Level 35: gate n/a sanctuary n/a Level 36: teleport n/a Level 37: pass door n/a Level 40: shield n/a Level 45: stone skin n/a
As can be seen above, typing spells shows you all the spells your character can cast, as well as those he will be eligible to cast. The level shown before the spell name is the minimum level your character must be before he is eligible to cast the spell. After the spell name the mana cost of the spell is listed. If n/a is shown after the spell, it means your character has not yet reached the level necessary to cast the spell. When your character first reaches the minimum level necessary to cast a spell, the mana cost is usually 50(although there are a few notable exceptions, such as sanctuary and gate), and as you progress beyond that level, the mana cost for that spell usually decreases to anywhere between 5-20. Keep in mind the higher level spells are generally more fixed in cost than the lower level spells, and will have a tendency to have higher mana costs regardless of what level you are. A more complete discussion of spells and their effects in the game will be discussed (here).
Typing skills will show you this screen:
Level 1: dagger 100% mace 48%
shield block 92% sword 23%
scrolls 27% staves 1%
wands 1% recall 50%
Level 6: meditation 35%
Level 9: fast healing 29%
Level 18: march 77%
Level 20: parry 100%
Level 22: dodge 100%
Level 24: second attack 90%
Level 30: enhanced damage 100%
Level 35: third attack 69%
The skills screen shows you all the skills your character has or will have. Just like the spells menu, the screen shows you what level you will gain your skill at, and after the skill, it shows you the skill percentage. Skill percentage shows you the percentage chance of success for a skill. How to increase these skills' percentages and how to see you percentages for spells will be addressed (here).
So those are the 5 basic commands to get to learn more about your character as you progress in The Great Hunt: score (sc), inventory (i), equipment (eq), skills, and spells. And also don't forget about worth (wo), which allows you to see on one line how much gold you have and how much exp tnl you are at.
The next section, How to Communicate, will take you through the various ways to socialize and communicate on The Great Hunt.
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