This guide is designed to help you begin your mudding life at New Moon. It contains an outline of some of the principal concepts of mudding and some hints on how to progress successfully in the game. It cannot hope to be a truly comprehensive guide, but it should be useful and will set you off on the right track. One thing we try to encourage on New Moon is player interaction, which basically means make friends, explore and have fun!
Who am I? Where am I? What am I?
You begin your New Moon life beside the ruins of a temple of knowledge. You start out as a human male, but during your explorations you will get the chance to change your race, handedness, gender, and adjust your statistics to suit the character you wish to play. The first thing you should do is type 'term ansi'. This will allow you to see in colour those things which are coloured on New Moon. 'Help Colour' will give you further information on using colour here. Your first priority for now is to explore and basically have fun. While exploring you will undoubtably notice that New Moon is rather large and growing day by day. Making maps to find your way around will help prevent you getting lost in the many areas we provide. You are advised to be wary when exploring new areas as some can be very dangerous for the inexperienced traveller. On the other hand, some are very safe. It's up to you to find out which is which.
Moving Around
New Moon is set out on a normal points-of-the-compass system. Locations should always (under normal circumstances) display a list of obvious exits. If you have the ability to handle colour on your screen try turning it on by typing term ansi. With colour enabled you should see exits showing in green at the end of each location description. For example: Obvious exits are: north, south, southwest. You can travel in any one of these directions by typing the full direction or the one or two letter abbreviation for that direction. For example, 'north' or 'n', 'northeast' or 'ne' etc. Also, it pays to remember that just because an exit isn't mentioned in the obvious exits list, it doesn't necessarily mean it isn't there. Sometimes there are hidden exits that can be found by searching or performing specific tasks.
Communicating
As New Moon is a multi-player game it is important to be able to communicate with other players. There are a number of ways to do this, namely say, tell, shout, chat, rp, newbie, souls and emote.
Say
If you type 'say hello everyone', that will give that message to everyone in the same location as you. Say is generally used by a group of people standing together and talking. It is also important to note that you should use say if you wish to communicate with non-player characters (NPCs) in the game (such as the Housekeeper in the Apprentices Lodgings).
Tell
The next commonly used command is tell. This command communicates to one person privately, direct to them. For example, 'tell karg Hi there Karg!' would send that message to Karg. This can be used between two people who do not have to be in the same location as each other, or if you want your communication with another player to be private.
Chat, newbie, rp, auction
There are several 'chat' channels available on New Moon. The first is exactly what the name suggests, the 'chat channel'. To use this channel, type 'chat Hello!' for example. The second is the 'newbie channel' for asking newbie type questions (usually requesting help and stuff). For example, 'newbie Where do I go to join the Fighters Guild' or something like that. Finally there is the 'roleplay' (rp) channel. This channel is specifically for 'in character' interactions. To use this channel, type \"rp Greetings brethren!\". Your 'in character' rp chats will be seen by everyone who has this channel on (i.e. not ear-muffed). Finally there's the 'auction channel' where you can tell others what you have or what you want, and arrange to negotiate the terms of exchange.
Note that these channels can be turned on or off, for those who prefer to adventure in peace or are not interested in the current topic of conversation. Typing 'channels' will tell you which channels you have on or off and 'chat on', 'chat off', 'newbie on', 'rp on' etc will switch them.
Souls
These are certain emotive things that all players have access to from the onset to aid communication. There are hundreds of these, things like 'greet', 'hug', 'smile', 'grin', 'kiss' and so on. To get the full list on screen type : 'examine soul' or look at our soul list on the Web here. Some souls have more complex 'extras', most can be used between players not in the same location and some need the two players to be standing together. You will find out by experimenting and will find it fun to explore these.
Emote
A very powerful ability, emote allows you to express yourself fully to players in the same location as yourself. For example, if your name was Crystal and you typed 'emote disappears in a flash of bright light', the other players standing with you would see : 'Crystal disappears in a flash of bright light'. Of course the only drawback is that you hadn't really disappeared (unless you had a special invisibility spell perhaps) but as you see, emote allows free-form expression.
Shout
This is pretty self-explanatory and isn't used much on New Moon because we have much more effective means for group communication - the chat channels. Shout is only mentioned for sake of reference and we prefer if you didn't use it too much.
Races
"What races are available to me?"
Well, the following races can be played: Human, Elf, Half-elf, Dwarf, Hobbit, Troll, Orc, Gnome, Drow and Half-ogre. If you would like to see a description of each race, have a look at our Races of New Moon page.
Each race has good and bad points and all races have advantages and disadvantages when compared to other races. For example, some races have difficulty seeing in bright light, such as strong sunlight, due to the sensitivity of their eyes. This on the other hand allows them to see better at night or in dark places. Other aspects are things like strength, intelligence, wisdom, constitution and dexterity, all of which can vary between races. When you customise your statistics, your race will then adjust these attributes even further. For some races these adjustments can be very marked in either a positive or negative direction and so a sensible choice of race is required when considering which guild to join. Some players prefer to set their race before their statistics, so they can see the adjustments. Others prefer to set their statistics first.
Most races also get an extra racial ability, usually in the form of a special command that will allow you to do things other races cannot. These will be left as a surprise for you. Information on the various races can be found on the Races of New Moon page should supply sufficient information for you to shape your character. It is best NOT to set your race or statistics until you have decided upon a profession. This will allow you to set them according to what your chosen guild requires.
Guilds
Main Guilds
There are 4 main guilds in New Moon which you can become a member of at first. These are the League of Warriors, Temple of Damara, Academy of Magi and Hall of Acquisition. For a more detailed description of New Moon's guilds, have a look at our guilds page or type 'help guilds' in the game.
The important thing to remember is that once you join a guild you cannot switch to another. Each guild specializes in a certain skill such as combat, magic, faith or covert. As well as being able to teach you skills, each guild has a range of special 'commands' and/or spells exclusive to that profession. So, fighters have special combat commands, mages and priests have a range of spells they can cast and thieves have commands to handle stealing, hiding, sneaking and such like. As you advance in your guild more and more of these special abilities will become available to you. Choose your profession wisely and you will prosper on New Moon.
Advancement Guilds
New Moon has a large number of what are termed 'Advancement Guilds'. These are specialized guilds that players can progress to from the 4 main guilds if they wish. Many players like to stick with their starter guild and since these are fully developed guilds there is no reason not to.
However, other players prefer to move on to the more specialised advancement guilds. For example, if you joined the League of Warriors you could later join the Chaos Knights or the Circle of Rangers if you wished. Many of the advancement guilds have alignment requirements (ie. how good or evil you have become) and level requirements (how experienced your character is) for joining. Some require minor entry tasks to be completed to prove you are qualified enough to belong. A full list of the currently available advancement guilds can be found on the guilds page.
Statistics
Your statistics, or 'attributes', are a very important factor in building your character. There are five statistics which you can set. They are strength, constitution, dexterity, wisdom and intelligence. It is important to remember that your race will alter whatever you have set your statistics to be, as explained previously. The best plan of action is to choose a guild then set your statistics and choose a race that will amplify the important areas that your guild requires. For example, should you choose to join the League of Warriors you should have good strength and constitution primarliy. The other stats do bear some relevance in other parts of the game but your guild-related ones are the most important and should be the highest. If you chose to be a priest you would need good wisdom, if you chose mage you would want high intelligence and if you wanted to be a thief you would need good dexterity. To view your stats at any time just type score stats.
Health
Hit Points (hps):
These are a measure of your characters health and vitality. These will often change rapidly as you explore the game, getting involved in combat and so on. You start off with a small number of hit points (usually around 500) and if these reach zero your character will die. But, should this happen, all is not lost because unlike 'real life' we give you seven chances in New Moon before your character is finally dead. You can get resurrected in a number of ways within the game. There are also rituals which you can learn to increase your number of 'chances' from the initial seven. Lost hit points are slowly regenerated if you wait, but most players prefer to seek out healers or other sources of healing to quickly restore damaged hit points. Priest players (and also certain non-player priests) can heal you, often with wonderful results, so it is useful to befriend a healer in your travels. As you progress upwards in your chosen guild you will find your total hit points will increase, allowing you to face tougher and tougher challenges.
Experience
Experience Points (xps):
Experience points are a very important part of the game. They are what you 'spend' to advance your skills at your guild. Perhaps the most basic way to gain xps is through combat. While perhaps not to everyone's taste to go around slaughtering people or monsters, it is the simplest way to gain xps. However, as a newbie with few skills, it could prove a bit tricky to kill even a rat in the street. So, another popular way to gain xps is through quests. By questing and performing certain tasks you are often rewarded with xps and/or money and/or special items. Usually a quest can only be done once. Some quests are quite easy, some are very difficult and require a lot of investigation and adventuring to complete. These larger quests often have powerful rewards. Now, a quest isn't going to be signposted telling you exactly what to do; you will pick up hints to the solution in the room descriptions, by looking at things and talking to the non-player characters (NPCs) in the game. Oh, and using some brain power of course. There are some small sample quests in the ruined temple to give you a feel for them, they are very easy and are not designed to test your brain too much. Once you have completed those, explore Heliopolis (and beyond) and keep your eyes peeled. Quests are THE best way to get your character started at low levels, when combat is usually very difficult. One suggestion is to go to the trophy room above the Heliopolis Arena, and browse the plaques of famous heroes of the past. This will give you an idea of what quests are possible and perhaps give you a goal to beat! Oh, one final note. Please don't pester creators or other players for quest solutions. They aren't allowed to give them. We like our players to enjoy solving these quests for themselves.
Skills
These are what you will spend your experience points on to advance ever higher in your chosen guild. Skills come in a variety of flavours and are split into five main categories : combat, worship, magic, covert and general. Each skill type is split into many subcategories (eg. combat into offence and defence, which in turn splinter into sub categories). To get a list of your skills type skills or 'skills combat' etc. The skills combat, worship, magic and covert are tied to the four starter guilds of New Moon (combat for fighters, magic for mages, faith for priests and covert for thieves) and you will find it cheaper (in terms of xp cost and money) to advance in the skill category your guild specializes in. You may find that you are unable to learn inappropriate skills (eg. magic for fighters) at your guild. The advancement guilds often bring new chances to learn extra skills you were unable to advance in previously. Note that players can also learn skills from other players, but at a higher cost in xps and that all players can advance in the 'general' skills (which help with things like movement, awareness, trading, knowledge and so on). A certain amount of xp will be earned just by exploring, and by practicing the various skills.
Manipulating Objects
There are a number of key commands use to manipulate objects in the world of New Moon. The two most important are get and drop, which are self-explanatory. Then there are examine and look to look at an item or person and see a description of it (eg. 'examine long sword'). Note that you can also often examine things described in location descriptions. This will often give you extra hints and descriptions about the game and in some cases are vital to solving quests or finding hidden exits etc. The look command on its own will provide you with a fresh description of your location should you have forgotten it. To wield a weapon there is the wield command (eg. 'wield dagger'). The reverse of this is unwield. To start a fight there is the inevitable kill command. Then there is search which does what it says; your chances in finding something improving as you advance your skills in searching. These are just a few of the many commands in the game. If there's something you want to try, give it a go and see if it works. Some commands are location dependant (eg. you would only be able to use 'swim' where water is present), others are able to be used globally. Ask someone if you get stuck.
General information
Ok, by now you should have a little bit of insight into how to get started on New Moon. We have only briefly touched on some concepts of the game and have completely missed others. Some you will figure out or learn as you go along, but at least now you can go and get started. There is a full help system in the game which you can access by typing help. Perhaps the best source of info are other players. New Moon has a number of 'Ambassador' players. They tend to be our most experienced players who are willing to help new players and help the creators playtest. We'll explain how to recognise them in a moment. Also, creators are here to help should anything 'mechanical' go wrong with your game, but shouldn't normally be approached for general help and hints. However, special 'liaison' creators are designated to help players with their problems and keep them informed. There are some things creator are not permitted to help you with, such as quest information or changing your character in such a way that you would gain an unfair advantage. If you get stuck and require help you'll obviously want to know who might be around to help out. You can find out who is logged in by using either who or wizlist.
On the wizlist, ambassadors and creators are signified by a small letter next to their name. This dictates their status:
- P for Playtester/Ambassador (NB : not a creator)
- A for Apprentice Creator
- c for Junior Creator
- C for Full Creator
- i for Liaison Creator
- I for Liaison Sponsor (team leader)
- S for Sponsor (team leader)
- L for Lord (admin)
- H for our High Lord, Bannor
If you would like to see a list of New Moon's current team of creators, please have a look at our Powers That Be page. You can gain extra information on another player or creator by using the finger command (eg. finger mizerai). You can change your own finger information using the chfn command (type 'chfn' and follow the prompts). We ask anyone who intends playing regularly on New Moon to please identify themselves (if only to the Lords) by filling in their finger info.
Other Useful Info
Wimpy is a very important attribute for new players to set. This sets the cut-off point in your character's health at which you will attempt to run away (and live to fight another day). Typing 'wimpy' will show your current setting, whilst typing 'wimpy 20%' means you will run away when you get down to 20% of your total health. Setting wimpy to 100% means you will run away the moment you take a hit, whilst 0% means you are in 'brave' mode. Note that you begin the game in brave mode!
Score will tell you how well you are doing in the game. It will also show your 'alignment' which is a rating on how good or evil your character has become in your adventures in the game (this will depend on your deeds and actions). Note that other players won't be able to know your alignment (unless they have magical assistance, of course) so it's up to you if you wish to keep this information secret.
Wield hands is a useful command if you get into a muddle with wielding and unwielding weapons and items. It allows you to free both your hands so you can start again from scratch if you wish, or quickly clear your hands to cast a spell perhaps.
Equip is another useful command that will quickly wield your weapons and wear all your available and allowable armours. Obviously, if you have multiple weapons and armours this command won't chose the best combination, but it is useful for emergencies.
Wizlist and who are worth another mention. These will show you the other players and creators currently logged on. The wizlist lists everyone by status (for creators) and level (for players). When you begin you cannot see other people's exact levels on the wizlist and need to do a small quest to obtain this ability.
Well, that's about it. I hope this has been of help and wish you well on your many adventures in the world of New Moon. May you cast a long and distinguished shadow in the light of the New Moon!