Introduction

A MUD is a text-based game and SlothMUD is one of the best (and oldest) MUDs in existence.  By its very essence, there are no pictures and the pace of the game is very fast, which means that you have to have quick reading and typing skills in order to be successful at this game.  The game is also quite involved and mirrors quite a bit of real life whenever possible.  There's also a very steep learning curve involved with a MUD of this depth, but once you get over that hill, your reward is a quite involved game that keeps you busy for years or even for decades.

Here's a sample of what the MUD looks like using Wintin95 (a popular MUD Client):

Plain telnet can also work quite well but a MUD Client offers so much above a basic telnet client that it's almost always better for a new player to begin playing a client.  Check the Wintin site, or search for another MUD Client if you'd like to see some other options available.

On to some essential hints / informative tidbits - the first step you will have to do is to create a character:

• Choose a simple name - one that you can spell and won't mind typing over and over!  A lot of spells are targeted and to heal yourself, you'll have to target yourself with a curing spell.  It also makes it much easier for other players to interact with you.  SlothMUD has a medieval theme, but you can name yourself pretty much anything you want as long as it isn't disruptive or obscene.
• Some MUDs require roleplaying.  SlothMUD doesn't.  If you just want to have fun and play the game - that's what we're on SlothMUD for!  You can roleplay if you want, but nobody really does.
• You might want to consider picking a name that is thematic to your primary class selection.  You only have to pick a primary class at character creation - take a skip ahead and look at the "Advice on Classes" page.  An example would be picking the name, "Minstrel" and taking the Bard class as your primary class.
• The primary class locks in your primary stat for your stat ordering - you will level the other classes ingame once you log in and acquire enough experience and gold in order to level.
• Pick the primary town of Valkyre (Newbatia) as your starting city - the world is vast and all of it is hard.  Valkyre's the best place to start out at and gain some experience and gold at.

Like most games - in order to save your progress properly - you have to stop playing the game and save your progress at certain points.  In SlothMUD, you will have to exit the game by renting at an Innkeeper in the game.  There's at least one on every continent.  One of the first steps you should take as a new player is to learn where the Innkeeper is and to rent out and how to return to the game later on!  Rent will be charged on the items you do not wear (everything you wear, you will not be charged rent on).  Failure to rent out properly will usually mean you come back into the game at near death, or the void fairy will charge you rent anyway or steal some of your items.

You will wear / wield various pieces of equipment and learn skills and spells by reading books.  Communication is enabled by a variety of means from global channels (newbie help, auction, quest, gossip), private (direct tells, private channels, grouptells), and semi-public (room-only says).

Generally - every action has a cost (moving costs movement points, if you get hurt, it costs you hit points, casting spells costs mana).  You constantly regenerate but a variety of factors affect that regeneration time (sleeping boosts regeneration the best).  If you're hungry or thirsty, your regeneration is reduced drastically until you've eaten or drank something!

A lot of the information in the game is hidden and very little becomes public knowledge (this adds to the fun of the game, trust us!).

You gain levels at the guilds by typing "level gain" at the guildmaster of the class you wish to gain a level in.  "level up" is the command used at the guildmaster to know what your next level will cost you.

Your statistics will determine your innate abilities and affect a lot of things:

• Strength - Affects how many items you can carry in your arms, your +hit and +damage, and is used for a great variety of other skills that require some strength to be their most effective (like backstab, deathgrip, strike, kick, and almost any physical-based skill)
• Intelligence - Affects your maximum mana, how many mage spells you'll be able to memorize, and the higher intelligence you have, the fewer times you have to read a book in order to learn a skill or spell (some books crumble after you read it, requiring you to go find another book in order to complete learning the skill/spell to their fullest)
• Wisdom - Affects your mana regeneration and allows you to cast certain spells better, such as raise dead.  The higher wisdom you have, the better chance the raise spell will actually raise the dead player back to life.
• Dexterity - Affects your armor class (AC) and also affects how well some of your natural abilities perform (such as backstab).  Each two points of dexterity past 12 up until 18 reduces your armor class by 1.0 down to +6.0 naked with a 18 dexterity.  Each dexterity point past that that is achieved isn't available naturally but can be done with equipment and will drop your armor class by another .5 naturally for each point past 18 achieved up to your maximum possible dexterity (which is determined by your stat order).  Bards and thieves roll this stat first and as such, in time, their maximum dexterity score would be 25.  Achieving that would be the trick though.
• Constitution - Affects your maximum hit points, your hit point regeneration, and also how easily you can be raised from the dead.  A lower constitution means a greater chance that you'll die instead of being raised back to life.

You won't be able to see your statistics until you reach level 8 primary and have picked a secondary class.  Until then, the game considers all your statistics to be 12 each.

There's a lot more to learn, so let's move on to part 2 - Class Advice.

[Written: 03-Feb-2010]