Gaining eXperience Points (XP)

As previously mentioned in our look at the score command, experience points (XP) are essential for learning all those things that make life on Disc so exciting.

So why do I mention this now, while you're happily trundling the streets of Pumpkin Town? Because...

...you can try out the multiple ways of earning XP right here!¹

Idling

Yes indeedy, you can earn XP just for lounging about. Known as "heartbeat" XP, you earn something like 3 experience points a minute while you're logged in.

So, if you've been typing score at regular intervals and wondering how your XP has managed to increase in the absence of any useful activity, this is the reason.

Now, logging into a giant interactive game with lots of other people to play with, and then sitting around doing nothing, sounds a rather pointless thing to do.

On the other hand, if you've got something else you need to be doing on the computer (e.g. household accounts, student coursework, etc.,etc.), then just letting your character idle while you do it can be a surprisingly effective way of earning XP. After all, we're Adventurers! We're in no race to advance or speed up the hierarchy past our fellows - we're laid-back hippies, admiring the view as we womble around the Disc!

Plus, unless you recklessly decided to become a playerkiller (PK), quietly idling away is the safest form of XP acquisition. And Severus the wizard has been doing rather well lately, sitting in the UU student lounge, smoking cigarettes and quietly reading while I write this. Cool!

So, if you haven't really got time to play, but you'd like to gain a bit of completely risk-free XP, just log in and idle.

Quests

The Quests are mini-puzzles in the game, and if you solve them, you earn a nice little stack of XP. They're graded in difficulty levels, with 1 being the easiest, and some of them are good fun. As previously noted, two of them confer the Emote and Remote commands - but the rest are just for fun.

There was a quest you had to do in order to leave the old Newbie Area. Pumpkin Town imposes no such condition upon escape - but it does provide a nice little quest for you to try out. Sadly it doesn't seem to confer as much XP as the last one, but at this stage in our career, every little helps.

The Discworld Admin have some very strict rules regarding the giving away of Quest solutions, as you'll have already noted from the list of rules when you started your character... so sadly I can't go into too much detail.

However, all Quest solutions are available on the Discworld MUD website itself, apart from the Pumpkin Town one (which is such a simple walkthru, you'll have no trouble solving it when you find it).

To read the Discworld MUD quest solutions, you'll need to login to the website secure pages. Here's how.

• Go to http://discworld.atuin.net/lpc/.
• Click the Login for more options.
• Enter your character name and password. Note the tick box option to Remember password - it might be worth selecting this.
• Logging in successfully will see the Login for more options turn into Welcome [your character] with the option to Switch user underneath.
  • If you're unsuccessful, you'll get a page telling you so. But fear not! Just click the Login for more options link again and the Discworld will generously let you have another go.
• Hover your mouse over the Playing menu item, and you may notice that the Playing menu now contains considerably more items than it did before. Third from the bottom is the Quests page.

The Discworld MUD Quests page purports to give you all the solutions, with the option to only see various hints rather than the entire thing, for those who like a challenge.

However, the solutions themselves are, in most cases, merely generous hints. Some are only available to certain Guilds, several require high levels of particular skills, and some are just weird²! So don't imagine you're being dim if you can't work it out, even from the "solution" - just think of the ones you don't get as something to aim for as you progress your character.

In the meantime, there is still a quest available for you to try in the revamped newbie area that is Pumpkin Town. I shan't tell you where it is, though... if you explore thoroughly enough, you'll find it by yourself!

Combat

The fastest way of gaining XP is by fighting and killing NPCs. Sad but true.

But even if it wasn't, several parts of the Disc (i.e. the most exciting ones) contain many fearsome foes. So, even if you don’t fancy a life of fighting, being able to defend yourself against brigands and Shady Characters will mean you’ll get to live longer. And that would be nice.

So Pumpkin Town generously provides you with a safe environment in which to practise your moves, gain some XP, and learn about the fighting process itself. You’ll find it in the Combat Crib.

So there we have it: multiple (well, three) ways of acquiring XP.

At this point, you probably won't have very much. But once you have, you'll be able to start learning skills, and once you've gained sufficient skills, you can learn commands. And then you can really start to enjoy the Disc!

1. Surprise!
2. And some are tediously boring.