The Guide

Chapter 1The first minute

Hold the right mouse button to walk; the farther the cursor from your character, the faster you go. Double right-click to walk to a spot. The camera does not turn.

• Alt+P paperdoll
• Alt+I backpack
• Alt+K skills
• Alt+S status
• Alt+J journal
• Alt+O options
• Tab war mode on and off

In war mode a double-click attacks. Enter opens the chat line; Enter again sends, and everyone within a screen hears you. Start a line with ! to yell a screen and a half away, ; to whisper one tile, : to emote.

Macros live in the paperdoll, under Options. Set at least two: Last Target and Target Self. Every spell, bandage and potion asks for a target; those two keys answer it.

Razor, three settings and no more: hotkeys for Target Self and Last Target; the Use Once agent for potions; an object delay a little above your ping. Everything else can wait a week.

Index

Chapter 2Talking to the town

Shopkeepers and bankers do not open a window when you click them. You speak.

vendor buy

within 4 tiles of the shopkeeper. So is vendor sell. Or use the name: Aldous sell.

bank

within 12 tiles of a banker, opens your bank box.

balance

how much gold is in it.

withdraw 500

drops that much into your backpack, up to 5000 at a time.

check 5000

turns gold into a bank check, 5000 to one million.

guards

in a guarded town, calls the guards on anyone nearby who has just committed a crime. They arrive on the spot and kill on the spot.

Aldous train

any townsperson who knows a skill lists what he can teach. Pick the skill from the menu that appears, then drag gold onto him. One gold buys a tenth of a point. Trainers teach up to 42.0 and no further.

Aldous hire

some people work for you by the day. Drop gold to hire.

Aldous time

tells the hour. news near the town crier.

The bank holds 125 items, at any weight. Shopkeepers restock every hour, and in this shard they cannot be killed. A criminal cannot use the bank; a murderer cannot buy in a guarded town.

You start with 1000 gold, a dagger, a candle, a book, and the tools of your template: studded armour, a sword and bandages for the warrior; a spellbook, thirty of each reagent and a wizard's hat for the mage; tongs, pickaxes, fifty iron ingots, an apron and tinker tools for the smith.

Index

Chapter 3Skills and stats

There are no levels. Skills go up by doing. Every character has a cap on the sum of all skills, and this shard moves it with the calendar: 700 on the day the account is created, 25 more for every 30 days the account has existed, up to 1000 after twelve months. It is the account's age, not time played. Each single skill stops at 100.

Stats work the same way. Strength, Dexterity and Intelligence add up to at most 250, and none of them passes 100. So nobody is 100/100/100; you choose where the 250 go.

Open the skill window with Alt+K. Each skill has an arrow. Up means it may rise. Down means it may be drained to make room for another. The lock means it stays. When your total reaches the cap, a skill marked Down loses what another gains; if nothing is marked Down, nothing gains. Stats have the same arrows.

How gain works here:

• Below 10.0 a skill rises on every use. Above that, the harder the task for your level, the better the chance. Failing also teaches.
• There is no guaranteed gain on a timer. If a skill has stalled, the task is too easy or too hard, not "too soon".
• Repeating the same action in the same spot is watched: more than three times inside the same 5×5 tiles within five minutes, and the skill stops gaining there. Walk.
• A stat can rise at most once every ten minutes.
• A townsperson can teach a skill up to 42.0 for gold. After that, only practice.

Index

Chapter 4Death

You will die. When you do, you become a ghost. You can walk, you can see the living, and everything you say comes out as "OooOOoo". Your body stays where it fell with everything in it.

What leaves the body and what does not:

• Anything you can carry can be taken by anyone. That is full loot.
• The gear you were created with is "newbied": it stays with you. Unless you are a murderer; then it falls like the rest.
• A body lasts seven minutes, then turns to bones for seven more, then is gone. So does what is in it.

How to come back:

• A healer in any town resurrects you for free when you stand within four tiles in his line of sight. Healers refuse criminals and murderers.
• A shrine's ankh resurrects you when you walk up to it or double-click it.
• Another player can resurrect you with a bandage, or with the spell.

A murderer who resurrects with five or more recent kills loses five to fifteen percent of every stat and every skill. That is the price of the colour.

Index

Chapter 5Crime and murder

Everyone carries a colour. Blue is innocent. Grey is a criminal, for two minutes. Red is a murderer.

You turn grey by attacking a blue, stealing, looting a body that is not yours to loot, or healing someone who is grey or red. For those two minutes you cannot use the bank, you cannot pass a moongate, and in a guarded town anyone can say guards and end you.

49 towns are guarded. Buccaneer's Den is not. Outside a town there are no guards at all, and that is most of the world.

I must consider my sins

the server tells you how many murders are counted against you.

Five long-term counts make you red. Counts fade with time played: one short-term count every eight hours, one long-term count every forty, and only while you are in the world. There is no bounty system here.

Red is a life, not a punishment. Reds cannot buy in guarded towns, cannot be resurrected by town healers, and pay the stat loss described above. Some players choose it anyway.

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Chapter 6Travel

Portals. A moongate is the public portal of a town; there is one near each of nine: Moonglow, Britain, Jhelom, Yew, Minoc, Trinsic, Skara Brae, Magincia and Buccaneer's Den. In this shard you choose the destination: double-click the moongate and pick the town. A criminal cannot pass, and neither can anyone in the middle of a fight.

Runes. Buy a blank rune from a mage shop, stand where you want to return, cast Mark on it, and the rune remembers the place. Recall on the rune takes you there. Gate Travel opens a portal of your own that others can use. A runebook holds sixteen runes.

Stuck. Open the paperdoll's Help button and choose "My character is physically stuck". Within two minutes you are carried to Britain, Trinsic, Vesper, Minoc, Yew or Cove. It works twice a day, not in combat, and not while grey.

Index

Chapter 7Pets, hirelings and stables

A tamed animal or a hired hand listens to words, within 14 tiles of you.

all follow me

also all stay, all come, all stop.

all kill

then click the target. all guard me keeps them on you.

Rex follow

one pet by name; also Rex stay, Rex kill.

Rex release

it is wild again.

Rex transfer

give it to another player. Rex friend lets a friend give it orders.

stable

to the animal trainer, then click the pet. 30 gold for a week, from your backpack or your bank.

claim

takes them all back. claim Rex for one.

hire

to a fighter for hire; he names a price per day. Drop the gold on him and he is yours for as many days as you paid.

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Chapter 8House and boat

Houses. One per account. Buy the deed from an architect; a small house is 43,800 gold, a castle is 1,022,800. Double-click the deed and choose the spot. A house that nobody enters for five days decays and is gone, with everything in it.

I wish to lock this down

standing inside your house. I wish to release this undoes it.

I wish to secure this

a locked container only you and co-owners open.

I ban thee

then click the guest. remove thyself throws them out.

I wish to place a trash barrel

what goes in is gone.

Boats. The shipwright sells the deed, from 10,177 gold. Double-click it and target open water. You get two keys, and they are not blessed: put one in the bank the same day. On board, the tillerman listens.

forward

also back, left, right, turn left, turn right, come about, stop.

drop anchor

and raise anchor.

Sea Hag name

names the ship.

Speak the word carved on the Serpent Pillars while aboard, and the pillars take the ship to the Lost Lands.

Index

Chapter 9This shard, exactly

• One world, Felucca. No Trammel, no second copy of anything.
• No global chat. Talk where you stand, or by book and rune.
• No insurance. No Young status: from your first step you are as mortal as anyone.
• Five characters per account. Five accounts per address. Your account is created the first time you log in, and your password cannot be changed by command.
• Commands start with a dot: .help lists them, .time tells the server's clock.
• The world saves every five minutes.
• There is custom content, and it is not listed. It is in the world for whoever finds it.

Index