The New Moon FAQ

1. What is a MUD?
2. How does a LPMud differ from other MUDs?
3. What is New Moon's theme?
4. Is it free to play?
5. Is there a limit on the number of simultaneous players?
6. What host machine does New Moon run on?
7. What do I need to play?
8. What is a MUD Client?
9. How do I connect?
10. What should I give as my name?
11. It's asking me for a password - what should I type?
12. Ok, I'm in. Now what do I do?
13. How do I move around?
14. How do I look around?
15. Where can I get a map?
16. How do I communicate with people?
17. What is a non-player character (NPC)?
18. How do I see who else is logged on?
19. Are there colours and how do I see and use them?
20. How do I get, drop and examine things?
21. What races can I play and how do I choose my race?
22. What guilds (professions) can I join and how?
23. What are statistics and how do I set them?
24. What are experience points and what is targeted experience?
25. What are skills and how do I get better at things?
26. What are levels?
27. What are guild points?
28. What are commands and spells and how do I get them?
29. What is alignment?
30. How do I initiate combat?
31. What are hit points?
32. How can I heal my wounds?
33. What happens if I die?
34. I went back to my corpse, but it and/or all my possessions were gone!
35. Why has my dexterity suddenly dropped?
36. Why can't I carry very much and why do I keep fumbling things?
37. I'm destitute. How can I get some money?
38. What is a quest and where do I find one?
39. It always seems to be night on New Moon and why can't I see?
40. What rules are there?
41. Who runs the game?
42. What is 'finger' and how do I use it?
43. Does New Moon allow Player Killing and Player Stealing?
44. How do I quit the game and log off?
45. What happens when I log off?
46. Will my status and possessions be saved?
47. When does the game end. Can the game be won?
48. How do I become a Creator?
49. Where can I get further help?
50. What other MUD FAQs and resources are available?

MUD stands for Multiple User Dimension or Multiple User Dungeon, depending on your preference. Multiple User Dungeon is the more traditional term and here at New Moon it's the one we prefer.

Essentially, a MUD is a complete virtual world for you to explore in the body of a character you adopt to navigate that world. You explore in real time and usually at the same time as a number of other characters controlled by other people whom you can talk to and even team up with if you wish. MUDs differ hugely in their theme, content and style. Currently, most MUDs are text-based and may at first seem like the text-based computer adventures that you will probably have played at some time or other. However, there is far more to MUDs than just being multi-player versions of text-based adventures. MUDs are large themed environments, lavishly described by the coders who make them and full of interesting personalities and events.

When you log on for the first time you choose a persona to represent you in this virtual landscape. Many people prefer to role-play a certain type of character, but this is not essential - you can simply be yourself if you like. Once in the game you are free to wander around and explore, although as a novice there may be some limitations on what you can do at first - each MUD differs in how it deals with novice players.

One you begin to explore a MUD, you will find it alive with computer- and human-controlled characters, monsters and events for you to encounter and interact with. Since a MUD like New Moon is a simulated world, you will often find things change from day to day depending on who is logged on and what they are all doing. MUDs are full of exciting quests to embark upon and interesting puzzles to solve. So whether you like the excitement of a combat-oriented game, the intrigue of puzzle solving or simply to socialise with other MUDers, there should be something of interest for most people.

MUDs can be confusing at first, but there is plenty of helpful information on the New Moon Web site, as well as inside the game. You will usually find that many of the more experienced players will be willing to offer advice and answer questions too.

There are a large range of different types of MUDs, catering for an even wider range of different tastes and playing styles. Some tend to be largely socially-oriented, such as TinyMUD, TinyMUSH, TeenyMUD etc. Others lean more towards role-play and combat, such as LPMud, AberMUD, Diku. But these are generalisations and there is no rule chiselled in stone which says a TinyMUD has no combat and that an LPMud will have combat.

The term LP comes from the name of the author of the first LPMud, Lars Pensjö, who developed the genre from the original AberMUDs. LPMuds tend to be oriented towards fantasy themes, role-play and often involve quite a lot of combat. But again, this is a generalisation. New Moon is quite traditional for a LPMud in that we have plenty of fantasy role-play theming and are quite combat-oriented, but we have tried hard to break the mould and incorporate plenty of quests and puzzles to solve (we have hundreds of quests currently) as well as adding features to make our more social players feel at home (chat channels and a fun and flexible interpersonal communications environment).

New Moon is a fantasy role-play world, with a broadly medieval feel to it. It is not theme-tied to any fantasy literature and so our Creators (coders) are free to let their imaginations roam much more than on some MUDs which have a theme linked to a book or other fantasy product. You may find some parallels with Dungeons & Dragons in New Moon, but only in so much that New Moon is a fantasy role-play game with a medieval feel, as is D&D. We like to feel that our world is the unique product of the fine imaginations of our coders and not a replication of anything else you will find elsewhere.

Here at New Moon, we are very proud of the depth of gameplay and text descriptions, and this is something our players often comment on. On New Moon, a location description is not just a location description - there are always extra things in each location you can examine and often manipulate. In many cases the solutions to a quest or puzzle will lie in exploring a location to the full. We take care over every item and non-player character in the game and try to make it worth your while to interact with your environment. Many of our non-player characters have personalities and often seem to live a life of their own! We're constantly seeking ways to add to the depth of gameplay and scope for role-playing on New Moon, rather than just repetitive hack-and-slash.

New Moon is a world where anything can happen, a world full of brave men and women, strange magicks, powerful gods and their devoted followers, plus friendly, mysterious and shady characters. For a fuller flavour of New Moon, read our introduction pages, or simply dive into the game itself and explore!

Yes, New Moon is completely free and there are no charges for playing, besides of course the cost of your Internet connection (if applicable) and any phone charges you may incur to connect to the Internet.

As a word of warning, MUDs can become very addictive, so beware. We're happy to have you spend as many hours as you wish playing on New Moon, but we will not be liable for the amount of time you spend here and any resulting disruption to your life in general because of it. Like anything in life, MUDding is best done in moderation, although we have to confess to having our own fair share of MUD addicts here! Just don't say we didn't warn you :)

Yes, at present we allow up to 85 simultaneous players as we have found this limit to best suit our system resources. Our goal is to raise this once we have had time to assess the perfomance of the new hardware upgrades New Moon has benefitted from.

New Moon runs on a dedicated PC, based at Portland University in the USA. The machine is an AMD system, running on an ECS motherboard with 512 megs of DDR RAM, and an 80 gig hard disk. New Moon runs under the FreeBSD operating system and is linked to the Internet via a dedicated 100 Mb/s connection. For more details, check our technical specifications.

All you need to play is the ability to establish a telnet connection to New Moon from your computer.

If you are using a UNIX system, this is very easy indeed and you need no extra software - simply type
telnet newmoonmud.org 7680 at the command line.

If you have a PC using a flavour of Microsoft Windows, or OS/2, or a Mac you will probably need some extra software in the form of a telnet client. Most people will already have one and many Web browsers have a built-in telnet ability or associated telnet helper applications. But if you don't have telnet software, there are a wide variety of shareware telnet applications available for download. If you have a PC, we have found that ones called EWAN (Windows) and CRT (Windows) are pretty good for MUDding purposes.

Whilst many people find a standard telnet connection perfectly adequate for MUDing, others prefer to obtain some dedicated software designed specifically with MUDding in mind. There are a variety of MUD clients available as shareware for a range of platforms.

A MUD client is a piece of specialist software written specifically with connecting to MUDs in mind. The range of features varies from client to client, but most offer things like a separate typing window, text scroll-back, custom colours and fonts, movement and command short cuts, macros and so on. All these things are designed to make playing MUDs more convenient and pleasurable, but they are not required to play any text-based MUD. It will be a matter of personal taste which you prefer, so be sure to try out a few. The ones we have tried and liked here at New Moon are Tiny Fugue (for Unix), and Zmud (for Windows 95, Windows 3.1 and OS/2), but there are many many others.

This will depend on the software you are using. If you are using UNIX all you normally need do is type
telnet newmoonmud.org 7680 at the command line

If connecting via a Web browser, all you'll normally need to type is telnet://newmoonmud.org:7680 in the address window.

If you are using a telnet or MUD client you will usually need to enter some details to set it up for the first connection to New Moon and it will subsequently remember these details for re-use. In most cases, all you will need to know is the host address is newmoonmud.org and the port number is 7680. If you need to know our numeric address it's 131.252.208.48.

NOTE: On a small handful of older telnet clients we have heard of problems at the password stage. If your password doesn't seem to be being accepted/recognised, try pressing CONTROL-J instead of Enter/Return.

That's entirely up to you. As long as the name isn't already chosen (you will be informed if it is) or offensive (certain names are not available for use) or wildly out of theme (see below) you can call yourself anything you like, as long as it fits into 11 characters and doesn't contain spaces, numbers or weird ASCII characters.

Some people prefer to choose unusual fantasy names, others prefer more straightforward names. Most people don't use their real names as the emphasis on New Moon is on role-play. If you choose a name which is wildly out of theme with the medieval fantasy character of New Moon, we'll ask you to change it. So, no names such as DarthVader, FridgeRaider, NuclearWar etc please. Simply choose a name that you feel comfortable with and which will work in a medieval fantasy environment.

If you just want to look around, type 'guest' when it asks for a name. You will then be asked to choose a temporary name to use while looking round as a guest. If you like the game and want to play for real, you can then log back on as a proper character.

There is no overall password for New Moon - players choose and record their own passwords. In this way, your character is password protected so only you can use it. You will be asked to select a password when you first create your character. Make sure it isn't something easy to guess, but doesn't contain weird ASCII symbols. You will be asked to confirm your choice of password and will then need to use it each time you wish to play the game, so keep it safe. NOTE: password swapping, even with friends, is against the rules and considered a breach of security by the games administrators, so please don't do it.

You start the game in the ruins of a Cymocean temple, where you will get to read a bit of history and get into the theme and style of New Moon, without having to worry too much about the negative consequences. You'll get a chance to try your hand at some basic mud tasks like looking, searching, talking, solving puzzles, and fighting. You'll also get a chance to set up your character in preparation for your path to adventure. Will you be male or female? Right handed or left? Will you be the brilliant mage, the wise priest, the burly fighter or the sly acquirer? Or will you try a less stereotypical approach? You can decide all these things in the temple before you join the full world of New Moon.

Essentially, explore, have fun, meet people and talk to them and get a feel for the place. Early goals should be to decide what race you would like to become and what guild (profession) you would like to join, as well as to set your vital statistics. You will find a newbie guide book in your inventory (your list of possessions). You can type 'inventory' (abbreviated to 'i') to see what you are carrying, and 'read book' to read it. You might benefit from this beginners help information.

Usually via compass directions: north, south, east, west, northwest and so on, as well as up and down. These can be abbreviated as n, s, e, w, nw, sw, u, d etc. In some parts of the game you will encounter some more exotic directions to move in, but initially compass directions will suffice.

You should automatically get location descriptions as you move around. If you want to see a description again type 'look' or 'l'. You can also look at and examine certain items mentioned in the location descriptions. For example, if the location mentions a tree, 'look tree' or 'examine tree' might tell you more about it.

Well, we've made this quite easy for you. There's a basic map of the city of Heliopolis that can be viewed by typing 'help citymap'. It doesn't show all the locations (there are too many) but it does show most of the locations useful to beginners. There are also a number of colourful general maps on the New Moon Web pages.

There are a wide variety of ways to communicate on New Moon. To chat to everyone in the game at once, use the chat channel (eg. 'chat hello') or the newbie channel for beginners questions (eg. 'newbie help me please' ). To speak to everyone in the same location as you, use say (eg. 'say hello' ). To speak to someone specific (they needn't be in the same location) use tell (eg. 'tell fred hello' ).

There are also certain commands known as 'souls' which allow you to express your emotions a little more flexibly. There are over 600 of these! The most commonly used are things like 'greet', 'wave', 'hug', 'grin', 'smile' and so on. Many of these can be directed at another player ( eg. 'greet fred' ) and can be done across distance (ie. the person needn't be standing with you).

You also have the ability to 'emote', which is an even more flexible method of communicating emotions than using souls.

NOTE: computer controlled, non-player characters (NPCs) usually only respond to the 'say' method of communication, as well as sometimes to certain souls.

A Non-Player Character - a character controlled by the computer. Most can be interacted with in some way - either by speaking to them or giving them items (if they are part of a quest perhaps). And of course, all can be fought - but bear in mind that attacking innocent citizens is rarely without consequence.

There are two ways. The first is by typing 'wizlist'. This will give a list of people currently logged on, listed by rank (for creators - the people with High next to their names) or level for players. Note that you can complete a quest to allow you to see the exact levels of other players in the game.

The other method is by typing 'who'. This will give a list of the current players, arranged alphabetically and including their full titles.

Yes, New Moon supports the full range of ANSI colours. When you start playing, the mud will ask you if your screen can display colours. (see 'help term') They can always be turned on by typing 'term ansi'. This should turn on the coloured text. If your screen goes weird after initial setup, either try a different term type or reset to the dumb terminal by typing 'term dumb'. We find that the vast majority of players have no problems with 'term ansi', though if using a MUD client you may need to adjust some of the colour triggers used by that client.

A very useful feature on New Moon is the ability to determine the colour of different communication channels, so that you can (for example) see 'tells' in a different colour to 'chats' and a different colour to 'says' and so on. This can help you to filter incoming messages according to their nature by colour-coding them. For help on this feature type 'help colour' or 'help color'.

Many people ask how they can introduce colours into their communications manually. So here's a quick guide to the different ANSI escape codes you can use:

• %^RED%^
• %^GREEN%^
• %^BLUE%^
• %^CYAN%^
• %^ORANGE%^
• %^YELLOW%^
• %^MAGENTA%^
• %^WHITE%^ (Not recommended on a white background!)
• %^BLACK%^ (Not recommended on a black background!)
• %^BOLD%^ (eg. %^BOLD%^%^GREEN%^)
• %^RESET%^ (Don't forget to use this at the end of a coloured section)

You would use these codes in manners similar to the following:

chat %^GREEN%^Hi there, I'm feeling rather green today%^RESET%^

say %^BOLD%^%^BLUE%^Hello, I've got the blues.%^RESET%^

You can also do a nice trick with the background colours using B_ before the colour. (eg. %^B_BLUE%^). This could be used in a manner such as:

say %^B_BLUE%^%^YELLOW%^This will be yellow text on a blue background.%^RESET%^

NOTE: The %^FLASH%^ code also exists but we would prefer, no make that INSIST, that you don't use it as it is highly irritating. If you do, we won't be responsible for our actions:)

Use the 'get' and 'drop' and 'examine' commands. eg. 'get torch', 'drop torch', 'examine torch'. You can also use 'look' and 'examine' on other people and NPCs (Non-Player Characters - ie. a character controlled by the computer) in the game.

There are ten races available to players:

Drow, Dwarf, Elf, Gnome, Half-elf, Half-ogre, Hobbit, Human, Orc and Troll.

Each race has different attributes and what you choose will depend on personal preference and what profession (guild) you wish to join. For more details type 'help races' inside the game or view the races guide here on the Web.

There are four guilds initially available to new players. These are:

Academy of Magi, Hall of Acquisition, League of Warriors and the Temple of Damara.

For further details, type 'help guilds' inside the game, or view the guilds guide here on the Web.

There are also further guilds, called 'advancement guilds' which you will be able to join later in the game if you wish to specialise and develop from your initial choice. These open up exciting new gameplay and role-play avenues for you to explore and include guilds such as:

Circle of Rangers, Chaos Knights, Dark Sect, College of Twilight, Temple of Cymoc and the Temple of Kalak.

These are also detailed in the guilds guide. To join a guild, find the relevant guildhall and type 'join'. Type 'help citymap' to get a map of Heliopolis and see where the different guilds are located.

There are 5 basic statistics which determine certain attributes about your character. These are:

• Strength: your power. Required by fighters. Important in combat and for being able to carry plenty of things.
• Intelligence: your intellect. Required for mages. Important for magic and fighters' usage of tactics in battle.
• Wisdom: your mental discipline. Required for priests. Important for gaining favours from the gods and for being able to learn from and teach skills to other people.
• Constitution: your health and vitality. Required by all, but especially fighters. Important for hit points and resistance to disease and shock.
• Dexterity: your agility. Required by thieves. Important for a range of covert activities, dodging in combat and ability to hold on to items without fumbling them.

When you start all these stats are set to 13, which is an average, ordinary amount. You will be given an opportunity to adjust these initial stats to your liking, with the constraint that you have a fixed number of points to distribute between them. What you choose will depend on personal taste and what guild (profession) you intend to join. As a rule of thumb, warriors need good strength and constitution, mages good intelligence, priests good wisdom and thieves good dexterity. But, be aware that ALL professions need a little of all these statistics in order to be well-balanced and stand a chance of handling all aspects of the game, so don't throw all your stats into one category.

To view your statistics at any time, type 'score stats'.

NOTE: your choice of race will also affect your vital statistics as all races other than human will adjust your stats in some way or other, not just upwards, but downwards too. Read the help info on races for an idea of what these adjustments are likely to be.

TIPS:

• Don't pour all your stats into one category or you will inevitably suffer at some stage.
• Don't neglect strength and dexterity, even if these are not your primary attributes as there's nothing more frustrating than not being able to carry much or constantly fumbling things.
• Don't forget wisdom if you wish to learn and/or teach skills from and to other players.
• Choose your race wisely.

Experience points (xps) are a measure of your progress in the game. As you defeat opponents in combat, complete quests and puzzles and perform certain activities, you will earn experience points. The experience that you earn is divided up into two types: targeted experience and normal experience. Normal experience can be used at your guildhall, or with a tutor to earn additional skill levels, and you will need money to pay for your training. On the other hand, targeted experience counts towards skill levels directly and doesn't require money. As you earn targeted experience, it accumulates in a specific category until you've earned enough to gain another level. Within a minute or two, the experience will be spent automatically and you will gain a level in that skill. This allows you to earn skills directly, without worrying about getting to your guildhall or a friendly tutor. You will earn both normal and targeted experience during the game. Sometimes you will earn normal experience exclusively (quests, for example) while at other times you will earn only targeted experience (using a certain command or spell for example). However, most of the time you will earn both. To see your current targeted experience, you use the 'xp' command.

Skills are the measure of your abilities in the game. They are divided up into five main categories:

• combat : used by all, but mainly by fighters.
• covert : used by the stealthy - mainly thieves.
• general: used by all
• magic : used by mages/wizards
• worship: used by priests and priestesses.

Each main category has a number of sub categories and often even further sub categories. For example, to train in the use of swords would need to study a skill called combat.offence.slashing.swords which is a sub-sub-sub skill! Tuition isn't initially available in all skills - new avenues of study will open up as you train. Not all skills can be learned by all professions - many are specific to certain guilds.

For a full list of all the skills in the game, see the skills guide.

To advance your skills you normally need to train at your relevant guildhall by typing 'advance <skill>' and will need both the required experience points and some money. You can also learn from other players, but this is expensive in terms of xps and not recommended for beginners.

As you learn more and better skills you will be taught special commands and abilities or (where appropriate) spells by your guildmasters. These will help you progress further in the game and are part of your development in the world of New Moon.

Levels are a measure of your status in the game. As you learn more and more skills in your chosen profession your overall 'level' will rise. Levels are not hugely important other than as a measure of status, although certain advancement guilds have a minimum level entry requirement and certain locations or events in the game might behave differently depending on your overall level.

To see your level and where you stand in relation to other players currently in the game type 'wizlist'. To see the exact levels of other players, you will need to complete a small quest.

Guild points (gps) are a measure of your abilities and readiness to perform certain commands, abilities or spells which may have been taught to you by your guildmaster, or in some cases by another player.

There are a huge range of different commands and spells in the game, some available to all, many limited to specific guilds. When you use a command or spell some gps are temporarily used up. If you lack sufficient gps to perform a certain command or cast a certain spell, you will fail and be informed. But don't worry, guild points regenerate quite quickly.

Each guild uses a different name for its guild points and derives them from a different skill, but essentially the principles are the same. The different types are:

• Fighters: tactics
• Mages: mana
• Priests: faith
• Thieves: slyness
• General: sense

Commands are special abilities you can learn as you progress in the game. There are a number of general commands that can be learned by everyone and you are given a few of these from the outset. To see your current list of known commands, type 'commands'.

In addition to the general commands, each guild has its own range of unique commands which convey certain special abilities. In the case of mages and priests these are represented by spells, whereas for fighters and thieves they are called commands. There are many many commands to learn in each guild, but some examples might be the ability to shield bash or go into a berserk frenzy (if you're a fighter), or perhaps to sneak and steal (if you are a thief).

The commands and spells you can learn depend on how well trained you are in certain skills. To see if you qualify for any new commands or spells, find your guildmaster and type 'say teach me' if you're a fighter or thief, or type 'study' if you're a mage or 'pray' if you're a priest. You can also sometimes learn certain commands from other players.

There's no official way to find out what level of any given skill will bring you a command or spell. You'll either have to do some research, rely on chance or ask other players for some guidance.

Alignment is a measure of how good or evil your character has become. You start off as neutral, but depending on certain actions you may perform or certain NPCs/monsters you kill, you may find your alignment begins to shift towards evil or good. If you commit to many good or evil acts this process may become irreversible.

Alignment has quite an important role in the game and can affect what guilds you are able to join, how certain NPCs react to you and how certain events that you are involved in unfold.

Treat your alignment with care and respect!

Normally all you need to do is use the 'kill' command (eg. 'kill rat' ). You might also gain certain guild-specific abilities or spells which might initiate combat in special ways. Beware of randomly attacking everything in the game. Many things will be tougher than you (especially at first), so use the 'consider' command to judge an opponent. Also note that killing innocent citizens is rarely without consequence, and often the consequences of killing certain people might have repercussions later in the game.

Hit Points (hps) are a measure of your characters general health. Many things affect your health in the game, but the most obvious is combat. If you get hurt in combat, your hit points will decline. If they fall below zero you will die.

If you wish to see what your current hit points are type 'score'. If you wish to keep a watch on your hit points during combat, there is a hps monitor which you can turn on by typing 'monitor'.

You can also embed your current hit points (either a general overview or as a numeric value) into your prompt by using the 'prompt' command.

You normally start off with 500 hps as a new player. With good training and a healthy Constitution (see stats) it will eventually be possible to raise this figure high into the thousands and thus be able to withstand much more damage than when you first entered the game.

If you take damage in combat, or for any other reason your hit points will be reduced. Your health will slowly regenerate over time, but for most busy adventurers this method takes too long, so you will want to seek out healing. There are a wide variety of ways to get healed in the game, from priestly spells, to special potions, herbal applications and bandaging. Even foods have some limited healing properties, so look out for that revitalising meal.

The most commonly used methods of healing are:

• Priestly spells (ask a friendly priest player for help)
• Applying a field bandage (fighters learn this skill and might be willing to teach it to you)
• Buying healing vials (check out the Temple Shop)
• Seeking the assistance of NPC healers (Father Wiggly is reputed to offer such a service in central Heliopolis).
• Eating food (check out those market vendors and taverns).

However, there are a number of other methods of obtaining healing in the game, but we'll let you discover those for yourself.

Since New Moon is a combat-oriented MUD, death is rather inevitable at some stage in your adventuring here. Don't worry, we give you seven 'reincarnations' to play with, so the game doesn't end the first time you die. Also, you can replenish your 'lives' through various means in the game, so bear this in mind.

If you die, you will become a ghost and drop all your possessions. You need to find your way to a friendly temple to be raised from the dead. For beginners, this is usually the Temple of Damara (type 'help citymap' to see where it is located). Once raised, you will need to relocate the scene of your death and collect your abandoned possessions.

Usually your possessions will be just where you left them, but occasionally unscrupulous players or denizens of Heliopolis might take your equipment. To be on the safe side, ask a friend to guard your possessions while you're away getting raised from the dead. If the Heliopolis Morticians Patrol takes your corpse away for burial, you can normally reclaim your possessions from the Town Hall (see 'help citymap')

You can also 'consent' to allow a friend to take your valuables from your corpse, so that they'll be safe even if something bad happens to your corpse while you're away.

Dexterity is one of your vital statistics that will tend to fluctuate quite a lot during the game, because a number of factors have an influence on it. Your base dexterity will always remain the same, but your effective dexterity will often be less than this. The following things can affect your dexterity:

• Encumberance: The more you carry in relation to your strength, the more your dexterity suffers.
• Armour: Certain cumbersome armours (eg. platemail) can reduce your dexterity when worn because of their awkwardness to wear. If you want protection, be prepared for your agility to be restricted.
• Weapons: Certain large and cumbersome weapons (eg. polearms, two-handed swords etc.) can reduce your dexterity when wielded. This penalty is not usually as severe as for armours.

TIPS:

• Don't skimp on dexterity when setting your stats.
• Don't insist on wearing platemail and wielding a greatsword unless you're up to it.
• Don't walk around with a barrowload of junk you don't need!

The amount you can carry is dependant on your strength. Each item in the game, including money, has a certain weight. Everyone has a limit to how much they can carry and if you exceed this you won't be able to pick anything else up and will probably also start to fumble certain items.

There is also a limit to the number of items which can be held in your open inventory (ie. not worn, wielded or in containers). This limit is based on your Dexterity. If you have too many things in your open inventory you will start to fumble some of them. The solution to this is to take advantage of the wide variety of backpacks, holdalls and pouches which are available for sale. Many of these can be worn, to further reduce your burden.

NOTE: The more weight you are carrying in relation to your overall strength, the more encumbered you become. Encumbrance can temporarily reduce your Dexterity, thus increasing the risk of fumbling items and decreasing your ability to dodge in combat. So, don't walk around like a packhorse! To check your encumbrance, type 'score'.

TIP: Use the bank to store excess cash and so cut down on the weight of your purse. Less risk from thieves that way too!

As they say, 'money makes the world go round' and here on New Moon things aren't much different. You will need money for many things on New Moon - for buying things of course, for paying for training at your guild and for other things we will let you discover. But your main problem won't be how to spend your money, but how to obtain enough of it. For certain 'professions' this will be less of a problem than others, but for most players money is an issue you're bound to have to tackle. The main ways of obtaining money are as follows:

• Gathering up items found lying in the street (usually the debris of other peoples' combat) and selling them at shops.
• Taking the spoils of defeated foes - many NPCs carry money and/or items you can sell at a shop for cash.
• Completing certain quests that reward with cash or valuable items.
• Undertaking errands or tasks for people (hint: explore the Post Office).
• Befriending someone with light fingers!
• Playing the poor desperate newbie and asking for charity.
• Selling your body... on second thoughts, perhaps not :)

For details of the currency used on New Moon, see 'help money'.

NOTE: Not all shops buy items and most shops (but not all) close at night.

Quests come in all shapes and sizes and can range from doing a small errand for an NPC to a major epic involving cross-continental travel ! Quests are essentially puzzles to be solved by you as a solo player or by a group of players together (in a few cases).

There are currently hundreds of quests in the world of New Moon, with a wide range of rewards, including money, experience points, special items, extra abilities and more.

Quests are all around you so keep your eyes peeled - read location descriptions, search locations, talk to NPCs. There is no official list of quests, but you can visit the Hall of Heroes above the Arena (see 'help citymap') to view the plaques of other players and get a list of the quests they have completed - these titles are somewhat cryptic but might help point you in the right direction.

NOTE: we do not allow players to publicly discuss solutions over the chat channels because we find that it ruins the enjoyment of those that prefer to work them out for themselves. However, there is nothing preventing you from privately asking other players for pointers or hints, but please don't expect or offer full solutions or walkthroughs for quests as this is considered cheating (see rules). Also, please don't pester creators about where to find or how to do quests; no help will be forthcoming, as creators are not allowed to help you with this aspect of the game.

Well, we're not called New Moon for nothing you know!

Seriously though, New Moon has seasons, just like our own planet Earth. During the Winter months the days tend to be shorter and the nights longer than during the summer. So, if you are finding that night seems to be lasting forever, it is probably the time of year. There is a special quest your can undertake that will give you the ability to tell the exact time of day and year.

Your ability to see in the dark (or in some cases in the daylight) depends very much on your choice of race. Certain races have better abilities at seeing in the dark than others, although they often suffer the opposite problem of being blinded by broad daylight. Locations also vary in their light levels, both during the day and at night, so you will find things change as you explore the world of New Moon. There are means, both mundane (eg. torches) and magical (eg. light and darkness spells), for increasing or decreasing the light levels in a location.

There are few rules on New Moon, but you should make yourself familiar at an early stage with the ones that we do have. Most rules relate to keeping inter-personal communications polite and to prevent cheating. Type 'help rules' inside the game, or read our Code of Conduct page. We also request that players fill in some basic finger information using the 'chfn' command.

Bannor is the High Lord of New Moon and ultimately the person in charge of the MUD. Under him is a hierarchy of 'creators'. These creators have a range of roles, ranging from mainly admin, to mainly coding and mainly player liaison, although many creators tend to engage in some degree of each and nearly all are engaged in game coding. The hierarchy is as follows (with wizlist abbreviations):

• High Lord (H)
• Admin Lord (h)
• Lord (L)
• Sponsor (S) and Liaison Sponsor (I)
• Creator (C) and Liaison Creator (i)
• Junior Creator (c)
• Apprentice Creator (A)

Normally you should avoid disturbing New Moon's creators because they are usually busy. Please try to answer basic questions by reading the help information, asking other players or asking a question on the newbie channel.

If you do need to talk to a creator, try to find a Liaison Creator or Liaison Sponsor first as these are people designated to help players with enquiries. If none are logged on, then you'll need to see if one of the other types of creator is available to help you.

Finger information is a mechanism for players to let others know a little bit about themselves, even when they aren't logged on. To see someone's finger information type 'finger <name>' (eg. finger mizerai ). We ask everyone to set their finger information if they intend playing on New Moon. Use the 'chfn' command to do this. Simply type 'chfn' and follow the prompts. You may not wish to give all the requested information, but we do require that you at least make your email details available to our admin creators. To make your email only visible to New Moon's admin creators, put a colon (:) in front of your email address when entering it into chfn.

Yes, but only by mutual consent. We have two special VOLUNTARY statuses called 'Player Killer' and 'Player Stealer' for those that wish to indulge in this activity. Player Killer (PK) is the strongest status of the two and automatically brings Player Stealer (PS) status. Only Player Killers may attack other Player Killers and only Player Stealers may steal from, or use special PS abilities on other Player Stealers. PS status is not just about stealing, but also incorporates other non-lethal abilities which have a direct effect on other players, such as teleporting someone, or knocking them out, placing a curse on them, blocking their movement etc. PS status could be considered a more 'interactive' form of play as it allows a range of beneficial as well as harmful (but never lethal) commands to be used between consenting players. PK status on the other hand, is quite straightforward - it is about players attacking each other. At the end of the day, the choice is yours and if you do not choose PK or PS status you will not be able to be affected by those with that status.

To register as a Player Killer, visit the Town Hall in Heliopolis. To register as a Player Stealer, seek out a shady figure called Martus, normally found in Heliopolis.

Follow these links for further information on Player Killer and Player Stealer status.

This one's easy - simply type 'quit'. But do please come back or we'll have to send out a search party!

The game carries on without you! While you're away, the world of New Moon will continue to revolve and events occur. You may hear of some of them via the player grapevine next time you log on if you're interested. When you log on, many things will of course be as you left them - not everything changes, but other things may have changed. New Moon is a full virtual environment and so expect things to progress while you are away. Of course, your own status in the game will remain static while you are away and you will pick up where you left off.

Yes. In full. Your status in the game and all your possessions will automatically be saved and regenerated next time you log on.

On rare occasions you may find your possessions are missing when you log back on. This sometimes happens if the game has crashed. If this happens to you, contact a creator. Items will be replaced on a time available basis (ie. if the creator you ask has time to regenerate your inventory) but quest items are always replaced. Look out for Liaison Creators in the first instance as these are people designated to help with just this sort of situation.

Essentially, it doesn't end. New Moon is an open-ended game. It takes many many hours of playing to learn every skill in the game, earn every command, ability or spell available to you and complete every quest. And even then, many players like to carry on playing as the creators are always expanding and improving the game. Some high level players become playtesters and help the creators test new parts of the game, while others decide they want to give something back and apply to become a creator.

If you're asking this question, you should really be seeking therapy! However, anyone can in theory become a Creator. Previous coding experience is useful, but not vital. Just as important is a good and vivid imagination and a desire to create things to excite and entertain others. Have you ever played AD&D or another role-play game? Did you find you always were or wanted to be the Dungeon Master/Games Master? If so, you will probably find you'll enjoy being a creator.

To apply to become a creator for New Moon, go to the Town Hall in Heliopolis, read the new creator applications manual, have a chat to some of our current creators and then fill in the application form. There are some requirements before you can apply: your character must be at least 5 day old (in logon time), you must have reached level 100 and you must have completed quests worth at least 100 quest points. The reason for these requirements is that we prefer applicants to have played the game quite thoroughly, so they have a better understanding of what we're about on New Moon. Since New Moon is a mature MUD we are not desperate for creators and so we tend to prefer applicants who have been players for a fair amount of time and really got to know the place. But, fresh ideas and fresh blood are always to be welcomed and if you think what you have what it takes then we'd love to hear from you.

Ingame, there is a large amount of help information which can be accessed by typing 'help' to view a list of topics and help categories. 'help newbie' is a good place to start. There is also a wealth of help information on the Web, on both the Beginners Help Pages and the General Help Pages.

There are a number of general MUD FAQs available.

• The MUD Resource Collection.
• The MUD Connector.