Newbie Guide

This page is in progress, but will hopefully be an up-to-date and printable resource for newbies to Achaea when complete. The point here is not to give exhaustive, in-depth information, but just enough for a newbie to be able to use, and to give links and pointers for where to look for in-depth information should it be desired.

What are MUDs?

A MUD (or MUCK, MUSH, MUG, MOO, MMOG, et cetera) is most-commonly referred to in the verbose as a Multi-User Dungeon. In a MUD, you can find interaction with many other players in addition to computer-controlled personas, or denizens, as we like to call them - all in text.

But how can you play a computer game without graphics? One oft-used metaphor compares the experience of a text-based MUD versus a graphical game to that of reading a book versus watching a movie. Sure, there are no pretty pictures, but you'll find that the world we weave with words can be more vivid, more complex, more interactive and immersive, and more compelling than any fancy CGI.

Many of the specifics of this MUD will be delved into enough for you to learn, so we won't go into too many details here.

The Achaea Concept

Once you have created a character and logged on to Achaea, you will find yourself in a world unlike any you are accustomed to. It is important to note that this world's setting is one of medieval ages and, as such, you won't find any modern technologies to role play with. You will, however, find a large host of magical and supernatural circumstances to play with.

Achaea takes place in a fantasy environment that combines elements of classical Greece and Rome, medieval Europe, India, and ancient Persia with the elements of a wide variety of player imaginations.

In Achaea, there is no one goal that everyone is working to achieve. You can kill monsters and beasts, and a wide range of other creatures and sentients to ascend to the level of Greater Dragon, where you can take on the form of the fierce dragon on your whim. You can toil on quests with intricate plots and storylines to earn permanent recognition for your efforts in that area. You may also choose to excel in politics and become the feared or respected ruler of a city-state or House. You may even make your living as an artist or author in the Fellowship of Scarlatti. You can become a feared warrior or thief, a respected protector and champion, or any number of personas including, but not limited to, the jovial court jester and the skilled magi who manipulates the elements.

The path is open to you, and though the actions of others may influence your character, only your decisions will set your true path.

Connecting to Achaea

There are many methods to connect to Achaea, only a few of which are discussed below.

The Nexus Client

Our new NEXUS client is available HERE.

Once the nexus client is loaded, you have the choice between character creation and logging in. We'll cover character creation later, so for now let's assume you are logged in.

There are five status bars on the bottom, left-hand corner of the client. You may note their meanings below.

• The first is a light blue arrow, which measures your experience.
• The second is a red heart, which measures your health.
• The third is a blue water drop, which measures your mana.
• The fourth is a yellow person, which measures your endurance.
• The fifth is a purple square, which measures your willpower.

On the top, left-hand corner of the client you can find a compass that indicates obvious directions from the room you are standing in. The eight cardinal directions are indicated with arrows. Stairs to the right indicate up or down. Doors below the image indicate in and out exits.

You can click on the appropriate direction to walk rather than typing them in.

The client opens in a small window that can not be resized. If you wish to make it larger or smaller, you must first click the detach button in the upper right-hand corner. After doing so, do not close the remaining window, as this will disconnect you from Achaea.

For advanced users, you may find alias, macro, and reflex(trigger) functions in the client as well.

Other Methods of Connecting

Other methods are preferred by some to connect to Achaea. It can be rather confusing to find one that is above the rest with all of the options available out there, but we do have a short list of favourites we don't mind sharing if it will help you out.

When connecting with an external client, connect to www.achaea.com at port 23, or 208.185.247.26 at port 23.

• zMUD is arguably the best client on the market.
• RoAClient is available at no cost and is fairly light while maintaining the offer of numerous functions.
• MUSHclient offers a number of features and boasts a high speed.
• Portal is a fully customisable client that works in win95/98.
• TinyFugue is a favourite among UNIX users.
• WinTin is out there. This writer knows nothing about it but it came highly recommended.
• Rapscallion for Macintosh users is a free choice for those running the Classic OS.
• Cantrip is a good client for Macintosh users running OSX and higher.
• Gmud is a free client that offers simplicity, aliases, triggers, and logging. Good for use with dial-up connections.
• The Mud Connector offers a vast list of MUD clients for you to choose from, with information on each.

Creating a Character

Character creation in Achaea is not a difficult process.

If you are logging in from the Nexus client, look to the right-hand side of the client for a button for character creation.

If you are logging in from an external client, you will be prompted with a numerical list about whether you want to use an existing character(enter your character's name) or create a new character. Simply type in the number associated with creating a new character and the process will begin.

Once you have begun this process, you will be prompted to choose your character's name, race, and sex, then viola: you are an Achaean.

Acceptable Names

When choosing your name, you should keep the following things in mind.

First and most important: If Romeo, Juliet, or one of our Immortals asks you to change your name, then change your name. We don't like to spend our time arguing with you about why Superduperlovechildofdeath is detrimental to the RP atmosphere that we try to maintain. And no, we don't believe you, Superduperlovechildofdeath, when you say this is your real name that your real parents gave you in real life.

The best name is not a real word. This name is your own creation. It has vowels in all the appropriate places to keep the consonants apart and can be pronounced out loud without seriously damaging one's tongue. It has no nasty words within it, either.

Words or names you might hear in real life are okay. Not great, but okay. These can include anything from Michael to Fiddler. These names can be improved upon, but are not forbidden if you can't think of anything better.

More often than not, boasting a poor name will result in being asked to change it. Several things can make a name poor. Read on for more details.

• silly names. Omelette is silly. Bourgeois is too. Frop isn't.
• offensive names of any kind, even dictionary words.
• multiple words (thegreatone, slowhead, lordsmith).
• trade or protected names (Cocacola, Microsoft, Nabisco).
• a name from a book, story, song, or game (Drizzt, Nerevarine, Sephiroth).
• any of these above with their letters reversed (Tzzird, Remohlive).
• any of these above with slight variations (Sefiroth, Froddo, Gollom).
• onomatopoetic words (Kerplop, Buzz, Hiss, Ribbit).
• refer to anything in Achaea (Ashtan, Celani, etc).
• names overly similar to existing Achaean immortal names.

Having a forbidden name can result in the loss of your character if you do not change it. Forbidden names include profanity, racial slurs, stuttering letters(bobbbbbb), keyboard jokes(asdf), and those most likely unpronouncable(klzgt).

One final thing about names: You may see other adventurers with names that aren't in the good or okay categories, and while unfortunate, that can't be immediately rectified in many cases. These names have slipped through the cracks until they became well known, but it shouldn't prevent you from choosing a name that will improve the overall quality of roleplay you, and those around you, experience.

Choosing a Race

The race you choose when you first enter Achaea is what you are considered to be born as. There are ways to change your race later, all of which involve reincarnation, but we aren't at later right now, are we.

Each race in Achaea has statistics. The most average position any statistic can be is 12. Anything higher than 12 is higher than average, and lower than 12 is lower than average. This is not a bad thing - it all balances out.

Each of these statistics means something.

• Strength is related to how much physical damage you can do.
• Dexterity is related to how well you dodge physical attacks.
• Constitution is related to how much health and endurance you have.
• Intelligence is related to how much mana and willpower you have, as well as how much magical damage you can do.

Many races have racial advantages and/or disadvantages. Atavians, for example, can fly, and grooks can regenerate in water. For examples of disadvantages, rajamalans have difficulty waking up and heal slowly from elixirs, and trolls have trouble recovering balance and equilibrium.

Another kind of racial advantage or disadvantage is tolerance. Horkvali, for example, are more resistant to blunt damage than most other races but are weak to poison damage, while xorani are resistant to fire but weak to cold damage.

The races available are Dwarf, Human, Mhun, Troll, Tsol'aa, Atavian, Horkval, Grook, Rajamala, Xoran,Siren (female only), and Satyrs (male only).

The Achaea TOS

The Terms of Service, which everyone must agree to during character creation, can be found here.

Achaea Policies

These are the Achaea Policies in summary. If you need more information on any of them, please read section 15 of the help files either on the website or while logged in(HELP 15).

• HELP 15.1 (HELP POLICYSUMMARY) is a summary of many of the policies, but is not all inclusive.
• HELP 15.2 (HELP UNDERAGE) details the policy that restricts those under the age of 13 from playing Achaea.
• HELP 15.3 (HELP YOUR ADVENTURER) explains the policies on your character. No sharing your character. No transferring your character. No logging on to two or more characters at once. Plus many more things you need to know.
  • HELP 15.3.1 (HELP SECONDS) explains the policies on having more than one character. While allowed, their behaviour must be guarded to prevent aiding one another.
  • HELP 15.3.2 (HELP MULTIPLAYING) explains the policy on having more than one character logged on at once. It's not allowed.
  • HELP 15.3.3 (HELP ADVENTURERSHARING) explains the policy on transferring or sharing your character. It, too, is forbidden.
• HELP 15.4 (HELP PLAYERKILLING) discusses killing other adventurers. It is allowed, within reason.
  • HELP 15.4.1 (HELP PKRULES) delves into the rules on killing other adventurers. You need a reason to attack someone.
  • HELP 15.4.2 (HELP PKCAUSE) describes, in depth, what you can attack someone for.
  • HELP 15.4.3 (HELP PKTERMS) explains what PK Terms such as Open PK and Free PK mean.
  • HELP 15.4.4 (HELP THIEVERY) details the rules on theft and how it relates to PK.
  • HELP 15.4.5 (HELP SCAMS) tells you how to avoid falling victim to an illegal scam, such as someone impersonating an administrator.
• HELP 15.5 (HELP HONOUR) informs you of things that can get you in deep trouble with the administrators, even if they may seem like a good idea at the time. You should not, for example, force a disconnection from the game to avoid death.
• HELP 15.6 (HELP ROLEPLAYING) lists the forms of communication on which you must practice good role play. While roleplaying is optional in Achaea, stepping out of character in front of others can be upsetting to those who come to role play and as such is against our policies.
  • HELP 15.6.1 (HELP INSANITY) talks more about stepping out of character when you shouldn't.
• HELP 15.7 (HELP SPAMMING) contains definitions of spam and just how much we dislike it here.
  • HELP 15.7.1 (HELP ADVERTISING) discusses the line between spamming and acceptable, in-character advertising.
• HELP 15.8 (HELP TRIGGERS) will tell you exactly how far you are allowed to go with triggers. Complete automation is not an option.
• HELP 15.9 (HELP HARASSMENT) explains that harassment is strictly forbidden, and what can and will happen if you break this policy.
• HELP 15.10 (HELP AFK) details our policy on being Away From Keyboard. It is, quite simply, not permissable, and anything that happens to you while you are AFK is your own responsibility, including administrative punishment.
• HELP 15.11 (HELP LANGUAGERULES) discusses the policies on using obscene or derogatory language. It is not allowed.
• HELP 15.12 (HELP ISSUES) explains what an issue is and how to use it. Issues have to do with customer service and, in some cases, the violation of our usually-adhered-to policies.
• HELP 15.13 (HELP ILLUSIONS) lists the devious types of illusions that are forbidden, and how to avoid falling victim to them.

The Introductory Tour

Upon creation of your character, you will find yourself prompted with the option to take an introductory tour. We highly recommend taking this tour, as it not only teaches you some basic things you need to know, but gives you things you may have trouble finding otherwise.

Upon completion of the tour, you have been taught how to shop for needed items, interact with a weapon, move around, gain information on your surroundings, read HELP files, communicate in a variety of ways, and sleep to heal.

In addition to your new-found knowledge, you will come away with four extra levels(placing you at level 5), a weapon, some food, some gold, a backpack to store items in, proficiency in the shortsword, a few lessons in vision, and a journal.

At the end of the tour, you may also choose to be born directly into a specific city.

So you see, it really is beneficial to take the introductory tour.

After the Tour

After the tour, there are a number of things you can do. What follows are two things that may assist you in building your character.

The first thing you will want to do is choose a class. Your class comes with a skillset of three skills. A skill has a large number of abilities you can use to fight, function, kill monsters, and do any number of things.

Next, you may choose to join a House. A House is a group of like-minded individuals who generally help each other to become stronger via friendship and structure.

In order to join a class, a House, or both, you will need to visit Certimene.

Registration

It is important to register your character shortly after creation in order to avoid being purged from the system too quickly. While registered characters can still purge, they do not do it nearly as quickly.

Please provide the correct information while registering your character. We will not sell or give this information away, but it is necessary to have it on file incase you ever need support for your character. When interacting with support, whether it is to request a lost password or for some other reason, you will be asked to provide your registration information so we can compare it with that on file to be sure you are not someone pretending to be you.

Nothing particularly probing is requested in registration. You will simply be prompted to provide your name, e-mail address, date of birth, and the country you reside in. In addition to that, we poll you for information on how you heard about Achaea, so we know which advertising techniques are paying off. This poll is not long at all, it is one simple multiple-choice question.

Basic Commands

The subsections that follow will assist you in getting basic information on nearly anything you encounter in Achaea.

Item Manipulation

Item manipulation is more than just the "push/pull lever" and "turn jar" you might be used to, but those options are included in some cases as well.

You can push, pull, turn, and do any number of emotes toward items that you encounter. For an idea of how many emotes are available to you, try reading HELP EMOTIONLIST.

Often times, you can DROP, PUT, TAKE, or GET an item from the ground, or even from inside another item. PUT JOURNAL IN PACK and then GET JOURNAL FROM PACK will do just that, provided you are in possession of a journal and a backpack. (You can not PUT an item on the ground, but you can DROP it. You can not DROP an item into another item, but you can PUT it.)

Since we are on the topic of journals, you can READ some things as well, such as journals, books, signs, plaques, and much, much more.

You can also WIELD and THROW items that you have in your inventory.

The most common thing you may do to items is to PROBE them. Probing gives you more information on the item than you can see at a glance, such as how much it weighs, what it looks like in greater detail, whether it is a weapon you can attack with, et cetera.

Communication

There are many ways to communicate with other players in Achaea, and none may be considered the most common. Most of these ways are used very widely, if not all.

Using SAY(also ' or "), you can speak to everyone in the room.

Say Boy, says sure are fun!

translates to

You say, "Boy, says sure are fun!"

to you, and

Superduperlovechildofdeath says, "Boy, says sure are fun!"

to everyone else in the room with you.

Using TELL(also T), you can speak to one specific person, whether they are in the room with you or not, provided they are logged on and on the same plane and part of the world as you(ie., not too far away, like your intended recipient being in the icy north and you being in the southern mountain range).

Tell Maran I like to send tells!

translates to

You tell Maran, "I like to send tells!"

to you, and

Superduperlovechildofdeath tells you, "I like to send tells!"

to Maran.

In addition to tells and says, there are dozens of other ways to communicate, including CLT (clantell), CLT1 (clantell1, you may have up to 30 different clans and speak on them without switching back and forth by using the number), HT (housetell), HNT (housenewcomertell), HTS (housetellsecret), CT (citytell), NEWBIE (the newbie channel, just for you and your fellow newbies to ask questions on, and, of course, those who wish to help you), SHOUT (this goes to nearly everyone), YELL (a say to everyone in the area instead of everyone in the room), CHANT, SCREAM, MUTTER, SING, WHINE, ASK, EXCLAIM and SNARL (all fancy ways to SAY that have interesting results. Go ahead and try them all!), and finally SAY TO/AT (still a say that everyone in the room can hear, but directed at a specific person).

Let's summarise, because this looks messy:

• say
• tell
• clt, clt1-30
• ht, hts, hnt
• shout
• yell
• ct
• newbie
• chant, scream, mutter, sing, whine, ask, exclaim, snarl
• say to, say at, sing to, et cetera

You can also send message to those who are not logged in using MESSAGE (name) (message to send), and he or she will receive this message at the next login.

To read messages, you can use MESSAGES FULL to read them all at once or RM to read them one at a time.

Getting around

Getting around is a pretty simple concept.

When you LOOK or move around, you will receive a room description with a list of obvious exits at the end. If you wish only to see the exits(rather than LOOK), type X or EXITS.

Once you have decided which direction to go, just type that direction. If you wish to go north, type NORTH. You can also shorten this to N. If you wish to go NORTHEAST, you can shorten it to NE. Simple, isn't it?

As a newbie, you can use PORTALS if you get lost. At any time, though, you can also use landmarks. Simply WALK TO a location that is near enough to where you are. HELP LANDMARKS, while logged in to Achaea, will give you a list of landmarks you can WALK TO.

Getting information about yourself

It is very likely that at some point, you will want to gain information about yourself.

SCORE

You can type SCORE to see your current score. This has a wide range of implications. Your score contains information such as what level you are in experience, how much experience you need to get to the next level, what your name, title, and race are, what your alignment currently stands at(based on a good or evil scale), what ranks and positions you currently hold in organisations such as City, Order, and House, how much health, mana, endurance, and willpower you currently have and how much you are capable of having, your racial statistics, and your clans. There are other tidbits in there as well, but you can find them.

STAT

Typing STAT tells you the current status or state of your character. Whether you are dressed, drunk, tired, hungry, and a few other useful tidbits.

STAT STATS

STAT STATS tells you your bashing and PK statistics. Here is an example:

    Adventurer Kills
    ----------------
    Number Slain : 2      Total Levels : 161    Avg Level : 80
    
    Denizen Kills
    -------------
    Number Slain : 70     Total Levels : 4745   Avg Level : 67

In this example, the player in question has killed two other players whose levels added up to 161 and had a combined average of level 80. This player has also killed 70 denizens(or non-player characters) whose levels added up to 4745 and had a combined average of level 67.

LOOK SELF

You can see what you look like with LOOK SELF or a number of variations, including LOOK ME, LOOK AT ME, LOOK AT SELF, LOOK MYSELF, and LOOK AT MYSELF.

This shows the personal description you have written, detailing the physical appearance of your character, as well as any clothing being worn.

When writing your description, keep in mind that the first few words can not be changed. If you are a grook, for example, your description must start with "He is a frog-like Grook and is".

In order to set your description, just type DESCRIBE SELF (description).

DEF

DEF, short for DEFENCES, will tell you which defences currently protect you. What you see in DEF will change depending on the defences you gain and lose through your actions and the actions of others.

TIP: "Your mind is racing with enhanced speed." is the myrrh defence, which helps with learning lessons.

Getting information about other people

When interacting with other players, it tends to help if you can get at least a little information about them (so you don't say hello sir to a busty siren, for example). Well, good news: You can!

WHO LISTS

Who lists tell you who is obviously around. It will not tell you those who have used powerful abilities to conceal their identities.

QW and BW give you a short list of who is online and in the same part of the world as you(not off plane, dead, or in the far reaches of the continent).

WHO tells you the same thing as QW and BW, but in list form and with titles.

CITYWHO, CWHO, or CW tells you who in your city is around.

HOUSEWHO, HWHO, or HW tells you who in your House is around.

ORDERWHO or OWHO tells you who in your Divine Order is around.

NEWBIEWHO or NWHO tells you who of your fellow newbies are around.

RACEWHO or RWHO tells you who of your race is around.

CLANWHO or CLWHO tells you who in the selected clan is around.

CLAN 2 WHO tells you who in the specified clan is around.

The list goes on, depending on which organisations you end up joining over time.

An important one is WHO HERE, which tells you who is in the room with you if their presence is obvious.

HONOURS

HONOURS is a very helpful command. You can HONOURS SARAPIS, for example, to find out that he is the Logos, a male Immortal, and was born before time was counted.

If you check the honours of a mortal, you will get a much more detailed sheet to work with, including which public clans they are in, which city they are in, what their title, sex, and race is, their birthday and age, which very notable tasks they have completed, most of their current rankings, whether they are joined to another mortal, and more!

VIEW BACKGROUND

Backgrounds are a chance for players to write their history before the age of 18 and continue it with chapters as new things happen.

Here are some important things you need to know about backgrounds, incase you ever plan to use them.

COMPOSE BACKGROUND takes you into the Achaean editor, where you can write your background down. Please be VERY careful, as you can never alter this once it is saved. We strongly recommend writing it offline, running it through a spell-checker, proofreading it, proofreading it again, then submitting it when you are completely satisfied.

COMPOSE HISTORY takes you into the editor to compose a new chapter of your background. Like backgrounds, they can never be altered once saved.

COMPOSE HISTORY TITLE <CHAPTER #> <DESIRED TITLE> (perhaps this would read, COMPOSE HISTORY TITLE 7 Chopping the Redwood Tree) assigns a title to a chapter number.

VIEW BACKGROUND <CHARACTER> (perhaps this would read VIEW BACKGROUND SARAPIS) shows you the background of the person you choose, assuming they have allowed you to read it. You can also simply VIEW BACKGROUND, without supplying a name, to read your own.

VIEW HISTORY SUMMARY <CHARACTER> shows you the chapter summary of the person in question. Omit the character to view your own.

VIEW HISTORY <CHAPTER> <CHARACTER> (perhaps this would read, VIEW HISTORY 7 SARAPIS) will show you a specific chapter in detail. Omit the character to view your own.

SET HISTORY PUBLIC/ALLIES/PRIVATE to control who can view your character background.

Getting information about the world around you

Maps

The Newbie Channel & Newbie Guides

Newbie Areas

Auma & Poraeus

Minia

The Pixie Village

The Ember Tower

Miba, the Pygmy Village

The Libra Dungeon

Lodi

The Village of Gorshire

The Wildcats' Lair

The Mines of Lodi

Gaining Experience

Bashing

Quests

Making Gold

Ratting

Butterflies

Shopping

Buying and Selling

Where to Go

Customising Your Character

Your Description

Clothing Yourself

Your Warcry/Motto

Your Background

Class and Skills Learning

Myrrh

Weapon Proficiencies

Gaining a Class via Certimene

Learning Skills

Public Teachers

Houses

What are Houses?

Joining a House

Cities

What are Cities?

Joining a City

Healing

Healing Health

Healing Mana

Healing Endurance

Healing Willpower

Afflictions

Plants

Smoking/Pipes

Elixirs and Salves

Combat Basics

Player-Killing Rules

Geography & Movement

Newbie Portals

Basic Geography

Landmarks and the WALK TO command

Special and Magical Movement

Death

Praying for Salvation

Other Methods of Resurrection

Experience Loss

Basic History and Mythology

Credits

Issues and Customer Service

Advanced Communication

Shouts

Messages

Postal System & Letters

Newsboards

Forums