Glossary

ACCOUNT

your personal identification to play MUD. It consists of either nine digits, eg. 012345678, or of a letter followed by eight digits, eg. A12345678. It doesn't matter if you tell this to people in MUD, but under NO circumstances tell them any password that goes with it! Understand? NO circumstances!

ARCH-WIZ

a special wizard or witch with power over the others. They rarely flex their muscles, and are only present because if there weren't any, they would be needed! You can't work your way up to arch-wiz like you can up to wiz, since they are wizzes who have probably been playing MUD for several years that MUSE appoint directly. Sometimes abbreviated to ARCH.

BRAND

a stick. When lit, you can use them to see in the dark.

BS

the broadsword, one of MUD's strongest weapons. Many long words are abbreviated in this manner, eg. CS for candlestick, BC for bookcase, FS for firestone.

DEAD

killed by some action of your own, eg. walking into the swamp while carrying a lit brand. You lose a few points, but not your whole persona.

DEAD DEAD

killed by having your stamina drop to 0 or less, usually in a fight but there are other ways (see FOD). If you're dead dead, you lose all your points and your persona is eradicated from the records. You have to start again from scratch. If you died in a fight, it makes no difference who started it.

DRAGGY

the dragon, MUD's most fearsome mobile.

FOD

Finger Of Death, the most powerful spell in MUD. Used mainly by wizzes to dispose of people who are annoying them beyond endurance.

HEHEHE

used in messages by players as a way of saying a number of things, from "what I just said was meant to be taken in fun" to "what you just said was amusing". If someone told you that a particular player you knew had just scored 60 points, you might say "oh, the same as his IQ, hehehe"; this is an insult, but the HEHEHE flags the fact that you meant it only in fun and don't REALLY think his IQ is 60... You may occasionally see the equivalent bulletin-board flags of <G> (for "grin") and :) (a smiling face).

THE LAND

the name of MUD's scenario.

LS

the longsword, MUD's deadliest weapon.

MOBILE

a MUD-controlled creature which wanders around. Most can be killed reasonably easy, but some are very nasty. The worst are the dragon, vampire, wolf, goblin10, thief, wyvern and skeletons. A small percentage are friendly.

MORTAL

a player who is not a wiz (ie. not a wizard or witch).

MUDSPEKE

now rather antiquated term which refers to the language used by MUD players among themselves. Not as rich as it once was, due to its being superseded by emotion commands; few people are going to type "<LAUGH>" as a message when there is a LAUGH command, for example. It's still complex enough to warrant this glossary, though!

MUSE

Multi-User Entertainment Ltd., the people who run MUD.

MUSER

a magic-user, ie. a persona which has touched the touchstone and lived.

PERSONA

your character in the game. You have three personae, and can thus play under three different names (but only one at a time). If one persona is killed, the others aren't affected. Only wizzes can tell whether two mortal personae belong to the same account or not, and they won't tell if you want to pretend to be two different people...

PERSONA FILE

where persona records are kept by MUD.

PP

protected persona. A persona which cannot attack or otherwise interfere with another player, and which cannot itself be attacked. However, it can't ever score enough points to reach wizard or witch, either.

RESET

the event whereby all players leave the game, and everything is automatically replaced to its starting position. There are five types: a mortal reset is when a player presses the reset button (you'll have to find it...); a wiz reset is when a wiz resets the game; crashes are when there is a fault in the game which needs a reset to clear it; shutdowns occur when the system needs to be taken down to make alterations; auto-resets cut in 105 minutes since the previous reset. Most resets are auto-resets. You will get warnings for auto-resets, and the players concerned will normally tell you when wiz and mortal resets are likely. Crashes and shutdowns don't always warn you. The word RESET is also sometimes used to mean the 105-minute period itself, so "early in a reset" means when the game has reset recently, and "late in a reset" means when another reset is soon due.

ROOM

a location in MUD where your character may go. Even places with no walls, such as the sea, are called rooms!

SNOOP

a powerful spell which enables certain other players (but mainly wizzes) to see exactly what you are doing, at the same time as you yourself do. This can be unnerving, but it's very useful for wizzes since they can see precisely what you're typing, and even give you hints like "use G instead of GET".

SWAMP

several meanings: the SWAMP is the location where you drop your treasure to score points; SWAMP is a direction which moves you one room in the general direction of the swamp; to SWAMP means to drop an object in the swamp. Novice: "what do I do with this vase?" Wiz: "go swamp to the swamp and swamp it!".

T

treasure. All players call it T, you rarely see TREASURE except in conversations involving novices or people pretending to be novices.

TS

the touchstone. Touching this will either make you a magic-user, able to cast spells, or kill you dead dead. At lower levels, it is invariably the latter, wait until you're at least champion/championne before trying it for the first time!

TRINKET

an item of T which is worthless to non-novices. Trinkets are scattered around in easy-to find places, particularly childrens' rooms in buildings. Experienced players will not swamp these because they LOSE points if they do so. There are generally plenty of trinkets lying around even quite late in a reset.

TREASURE

objects which are worth points to you when dropped in the swamp. Usually abbreviated to T. Beware using DR T when you hold some T you don't want to drop...

V

Vampire. A nasty mobile, keep clear of it!

WAFER

eating a wafer will restore lost stamina. Most wafers are snapped up soon after a reset, but there are some that are only useful to lower-level players, and these are normally lying around for some time. They're in the villa, the monastery and the formal gardens.

WIZ

wizard/witch. This is the generic term for the most powerful beings in the game. Being a wiz does not imply being male - the term applies to either sex. Often used in the plural, THE WIZZES, to mean those players who are at wiz level.

WEAPON

an object which can be used in a fight to improve the damage you do. The best weapons are swords and axes, but these require a minimum strength to wield them. The easiest weapon to find is a stick (it's better alight, though). Almost anything can be used as a weapon, but "obvious" weapons are usually the best.

Z

Zombie. You may also see eg. Z4 for ZOMBIE4. You can't walk past a zombie, they block your way, but they rarely attack you and even when they do they usually lose. They quite often appear in large groups.

----*

the magic-wand prompt that wizards and witches get, rather than the less impressive * of everyday mortals.