A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z ?

r

noun Abbreviation for 'rat'. If you just want to attack one, remember to 'k a r' rather than 'k r', as the latter may prove a costly error (see rats! (3)). Sometimes, specific rats will be referred to by number, eg. "I had R0 trouble just now - boy is that one a pain...".

race

1. verb⁰ To try and get to particular objects at the start of a reset before anyone else gets them. Racing lasts for the first five minutes or so, while people run around putting together their kit from the most useful items they can find. Particular things raced for are good weapons, wafers, vials, parachutes, keys, rings and FSs.

2. verb⁰ More generally, to try and get to particular objects after any public announcement that they're free. "I'm quitting now, kit 2 w of swamp". See brands hatch.

rammed

past participle To have been attacked by the 'ram' mobile. "I hate it when I'm rammed at the start of a reset".

rats!

1. noun The mobiles of class 'rat'. The exclamation mark is not normal in this usage.

2. exclamation Darn! Dammit! Something didn't work out how I'd planned, hoped or expected.

3. noun The situation of being attacked by individually-trivial mobiles (sometimes players) in such numbers as to become problematical. You knock one out, and tsk, up springs another to take its place. true addicts might additionally use the expression 'crows!'.

real addict

noun A plodder who is also an addict. Someone who spends all their waking lives and a good part of their sleeping ones thinking about MUD, under the sad misapprehension that they will eventually make wiz. Plodders will call themselves real addicts with pride, although anyone else usually means it disparagingly.

real female

noun A player who is female in real life. The corresponding term real male seems to be unused. In the UK, the existence of real females is rare to the point of myth. Only by actually seeing the person in question sitting down and playing the game with a style matching what has already been observed over time is it even contemplatable that a player is a real female. Being a real female is not fatal; it's regarded by most players as an interesting quirk, like having red hair or actually being called Conan in real life, and it therefore tends not to make any difference. Unfortunately, though, there are some male players who will attempt to seduce anything they feel is likely to be really female with a probability exceeding 20%. Similarly, such antics are not discouraged by the occasional real female who advertises the fact and attempts to use it to gain friends and influence people. Yes, sadly even MUD is not completely immune to the seepage of sexual politics from real life... See female, male.

real life

noun An emphatic version of real world. Not only does it imply that there is a place other than The Land in which you can exist, but - horror upon horrors - you can actually do things in it as well! The very notion is sacrilegious to true addicts. See real world, You mean..?, the game.

real-life persona

noun A variant of real-world persona, but considered tacky.

real mortal

noun A mortal persona being run by a player who hasn't made wiz, openly or not. It's almost the same as a mortal mortal, but it implies that there is some doubt as to whether this (or other mortals under discussion) is actually being run by a masquerading wiz instead. See also wiz mortal, real player.

real player

noun A mortal being run by a player who does not have a wiz persona. The distinction between this and real mortal is subtle, but it carries more force: the speaker has little doubt that the player behind the mortal is genuine. See also wiz mortal, mortal mortal.

real world

noun The aspect of reality occupied by players and computers, rather than the persona land maintained by MUD. The term can be used adjectivally if hyphenated. Sometimes the words are capitalised, and sometimes they're subsequently abbreviated to RW. MUDspeke words and phrases which are generalisable from MUD to the real world are said to be real-world extensible, eg. "FOD job 2991", "Time to reset my desk...", "My supervisor looby looed all the credit". See also real life, You mean..?, the game, real-world persona.

real-world persona

noun The character (1) the player plays in the real world. "I know I'm a pushover here, but my real- world persona is a Post Office counter clerk". If you feel that you really must mention the real world, this is the preferred way to do so as it implies that it's yet another game and that your main persona is the 'real' you. Sometimes, real-life persona is used instead. See also masquerade, real female.

reaper

noun A supermobile. Originally, the 'grim reaper' was a specific mobile regularly created to cull highlife on account of the creating wiz's inability to do so using a wiz killer. Now, however, the term is used to refer to any prowling wiz-created mobile that metes instant death to any mortal unfortunate enough to encounter it.

rearrange the furniture

verb⁰ The act of repositioning objects that are normally found in one place such that they are somewhere else instead. wizzes do this, either as a joke or as a test. Yes, guys, there's nothing more hilarious than spending thirty minutes doing the crown only to find that it's been replaced by a carrot...

regall

adjective Short for 'regain all stamina'; applied to the potion or vial of that nature.

rehi

interjection "Hello again". A way of greeting someone when you've just returned after leaving the game for a moment, eg. to answer some mail or make a coffee.

reset

1. noun The event whereby all personae leave the game, and everything is automatically replaced to its starting position. There are five types: a mortal reset is caused when all mortal personae in the game have pressed the 'reset button'; a wiz reset is when a wiz does the appropriate Strange Things that instruct the game to begin a reset prematurely; crashes happen if there is a fault in the game which needs a reset to clear it; shutdowns occur when the system needs to be taken down temporarily to make alterations; auto-resets cut in 105 minutes since the previous reset - most resets are of the auto-reset variety. You will get warnings for auto-resets, and the personae concerned will normally tell you when wiz and mortal resets are impending. Crashes and shutdowns don't always warn you, but you'll know they've happened!

2. verb¹ The process of resetting. "Can you reset the game, please? It's played out": a common bleat in MUD1.

3. noun The 105-minute period between reset events. 'Early in a reset' means when the game has recently reset; 'late in a reset' means when another reset is soon due; 'mid-reset' means the period in between. See race, set.

4. noun The encapsulation of everything that happened between two reset events. "I had a really good reset last night, I got almost all the big T and offed Jaxon". See session, set.

restoration fee

See fee.

restore

1. verb¹ To frig up a dead dead persona to its state immediately prior to whatever led to its elimination. Someone who can prove that they lost carrier by accident, or who is known to be of impeccable character (6), may be restored.

2. noun The act of being restored. "I demand a restore!". In some incarnations of MUD (eg. BL), players get one taken-on-trust restore so long as there are no suspicious circumstances and the affected persona isn't nearly wiz level; subsequent requests for restores are treated less sympathetically. "You should have had your phone fixed after the last one". See fee, tax, frig up.

RL

noun Abbreviation for 'real life'. See real life.

road opp cott

noun Contraction of 'road opposite cottage', a room and sometime meeting-place. Before The Land was expanded so as to link to Valley, this was the starting location. See Tearoom.

Rock

noun A DATABASE written in MUDDL which used to run on the MUD1 interpreter at Essex University. Rock was the first such database to be written independently of the authors of MUD1, using only the shell of basic commands provided. Its 100-room scenario was the 'Fraggle Rock' TV puppet show, augmented with some rather inventive weaponry that stretched MUDDL to its limits. It inspired the creation of several other games in MUDDL, most notably Mist.

Rock was written by Phil Fox in 1983, but was subsequently lost for several years until an ancient back-up tape (yes, tape!) was found, whereupon it returned to life until Essex University's DEC-10 was switched off in early 1991.

ROFL

verb⁰ Abbreviation for 'rolls on the floor, laughing'. The term reached MUD2 via BL from CompuServe and comms in general, and it's now a command (1) in both games. See act, LOFR.

role-play

1. verb⁰ A feeble attempt by a player to evade responsibility for acts committed by their personae. "You can't blame me for killing your mage, I was only role-playing".

2. noun The oppressive restrictions imposed on personae in some MUAs with a view to forcing them to behave in a narrowly stylised manner. Plodders seem to enjoy this no end.

3. verb⁰ Traditionally, what players will be able to do if a game has mystique. By playing personae as if they had a purpose and a personality, this should engender a general atmosphere of detail, lore and (virtual) realism which is self-perpetuating. Unfortunately, although many players would love to play in a world populated by role-players, they rarely want to bother role-playing themselves... "Everyone wants to be a lion, no-one wants to be a gnu".

Note: Role-play should properly be spelled rôle-play, but since 'ô' isn't in the 7-bit ASCII character set no-one bothers.

RNG

noun Abbreviation for 'random number generator'; sometimes sarcastically expanded to 'rong number generator'. A peculiarly BL phenomenon is the unshakeable belief that random numbers are not truly random and can cause manifestly unfair behaviour by the game, especially in fights. "I had the LS, four wafers and she was asleep, but she had the RNG on her side".

rookie

noun A new wiz; one that has recently been permed. A BLism.

room

noun A location in a MUA where your character may go. Even places with no walls, such as seas and forests, are rooms! Rooms are linked together in a directed, cyclic graph usually known as the travel table (2). Rooms are a kind of container. NB: in MUAs employing a co-ordinate system for positions, the term may have a more specialised meaning particular to that game. See size.

ruby-eyed

adjective Under the influence of alcohol. A marvellous term deriving from the effects of the 'plonk' that some players drink (which causes ruby-coloured eyes) and the 'plonk' that personae hear when they loosen the 'ruby eye' object. Often seen as a prefix (1).

rule of eleven

noun The theory that all decent persona names are exactly one letter longer than the maximum that the game lets you have.

rumour

noun A half-truth, or out-and-out lie, concerning some aspect of the game of which the listening player is ignorant. This may be as a hint to get them to solve a puzzle on their own, or as a test of their gullibility (or - most likely - just for fun). The best rumours have some vestige of truth in them. rumours can be wind-ups, but are rarely propagated to fob some irritant away. Scams are often pilots for complex rumours. The cream of rumours develop into legends. BL wizzes have a penchant for rumours (ie. rumors), which they concoct and promote at the slightest opportunity.

rush

noun The pump of adrenalin that players often experience while having fun. "I don't kill mobiles if there are players around to off instead, you don't get the same rush".

RW

noun Abbreviation for 'real world'. See real world.