N for New Character
Welcome to Discworld: the mud that launched a thousand telnets, a mud based on the Discworld books by Terry Pratchett.
Advice on choosing a name:
* Do NOT choose a NAME that is offensive, abusive or profane.
* Do not choose a name from the books OR a name that is similar to a
character from the books or the MUD.
* Do not choose a name that is a NOUN (animal, place, thing, substance,
etc.) since this is likely to cause conflicts.
Enter the name you wish to play on Discworld or 'g' for a list of
generated names:
Think carefully about what you’re going to be called. Not only in terms of the rules about names, but also about how other players are going to see you. It’s very odd, and maybe it will be different for you, but I found that my various characters (I currently have five, including
Sothis the Adventurer) all seemed to acquire distinct personalities, regardless of the fact that they are all, basically, me.
It goes without saying that the name will influence how people react to you; but I was surprised to find that the names inspired me to act in different ways. So, give it some careful thought. The game gives you some handy hints, and even offers to generate a list of potential names for those who are really stuck:
Enter the name you wish to play on Discworld or 'g' for a list of
generated names:
g
You are choosing a name for the first time on Discworld.
You can choose a name which is generated to sound something like:
1 - Weird (eg. haepekey)
2 - Yiddish (eg. chayloy)
3 - Lojban brivla (eg. djyfpi)
4 - French (eg. gaunt)
5 - English (eg. mooll)
6 - Japanese (eg. eshnawago)
7 - Tolkien's black language (eg. gaazna)
8 - Latin (eg. cobate)
9 - Female fantasy (eg. edoama)
: - Male fantasy (eg. laredri)
M - Main Menu
Q - Quit
Your choice?
Of course, after seeing some of the names "helpfully" generated by the Disc, you might prefer to choose one of your own after all.
Gender is also worth thinking about. Your Strength and other statistics are not affected by gender. However, while you can join any of the available Guilds as a female player, you can’t become a witch if your character is male. This is slightly irritating: if the game is going to contradict the stories it’s based on by allowing female wizards, then why not allow male witches? But there it is.
And... there’s a good possibility you’ll attract a lot of attention from other players if your character is female. Sothis seemed to appeal to people as a little girl lost: witches gave her presents of healing brews and elegant stilettos, kindly priests gave her money. And a variety of people gave me loads of advice. Which was very nice of them... but it did detract somewhat from my experience of learning and exploring.
Anyway...
You’ve decided on a name and followed the prompts to chose a password, decide how you want your name capitalised, chosen a gender, and
of course you have read and agreed to the
Rules.
You're in!
Two things to bear in mind about new characters:
- You must play for at least 30 minutes in order for your character to be saved;
- If you create a character, play for a few hours, and then don’t login to it for a couple of weeks, there’s a strong possibility it will be deleted. This is because the game automatically deletes abandoned characters - it does a sum based on how old the character is and how long since it was last played in order to decide if it’s been deserted.
OK, so there you are in the dark, cavernous Newbie area of the Disc. There are a number of doors with intriguing labels:
helpme,
communication,
hints,
guilds,
commerce,
align,
advancement,
combat and
out. If you have connected via a MUD client, these labels should appear as links and you can click them to enter the designated rooms (as do all directions available to you throughout the game). If you entered via the website
Play Now link, then you’ll have to type them.
But you might want to have a quick look at yourself before going anywhere. Do this by typing
ex me.
Looking at yourself again? What a narcissist!
You see Sothis.
She is a strapping young human lass.
She is in very bad shape.
She is standing.
Wearing : a colourful sash.
Carrying: an information booklet, a voucher, a lightable torch and an ice bucket.
Her purse is bulging with coins.
Hmmm, apparently you’re in bad shape. But never mind - give yourself a few minutes, and you’ll soon be in good shape.
Mind you, that’s a very strange collection of items you’ve started with. You appear to be naked apart from a sash! Good thing it’s nice and warm in here. And why have you got an ice bucket? Still, the part about a purse bulging with coins sounds good. But what exactly have you got?
To see what equipment and money you’ve got in one go (without seeing what shape you’re in, etc.), type
i for
inventory:
You are unburdened by:
Wearing : a colourful sash.
Carrying: an information booklet, a voucher, a lightable torch and an ice bucket.
Your purse contains 8 Pumpkin dollars and 100 Pumpkin pence.
The
examine command,
ex for short, can be used to examine anything in Discworld. You could also
look (or
L for short) at an item or person for the same description. However, typing
look or
L1 by itself will show you your immediate surroundings. If you type
ex or
examine by itself, you get:
See “syntax ex” for the input patterns.
The game is very helpful for commands. If you get one wrong, it will offer you links to the relevant syntax and/or help files; if it doesn’t recognise the word you’ve used, it will suggest the most syntactically likely alternative.
syntax ex
Forms of syntax available for the command ‘ex’:
ex (object)
ex (direction)
So anyway, type
ex sash for a better look at this odd item of apparel:
This is a long, brightly-coloured sash with a delicately embroidered space turtle hatching out of its shell stitched across the bottom. His eyes are wide and full of awe at the multiverse stretching out before him. If he only knew the future he has in store...
It appears to have something written on it.
It is in excellent condition.
What does it say? Type
read sash (or
r) to find out:
You read the colourful sash:
Welcome to Discworld, Sothis.
Aw!
Maybe you should investigate the door marked
Commerce and see about something more substantial to wear.
- Commands aren't case-sensitive in the Discworld MUD. It's just that lower-case L's and upper-case i's tend to look the same!
