This is a guide that was created to help new players that would like venture into the world of Barren Realms. It is here to explain the basic commands and functions of playing on Barren Realms. If you don't understand it all at first, thats fine. Everything will come in a short time, with assistance from our friendly players and help files! I hope this will help you on your adventures here, and make it a more enjoyable expierience.

What is a MUD?

Mud is short for Multi-User Dungeon. It is a text based environment where interaction between people is made possible through use of the Internet and some ingeniously designed coding. Muds started out as no more than some fancy chat type rooms. A Mud is basically a forum where we as users create characters to adventure with. Through imagination these text based chat rooms have become a world unto themselves. Through more coding creatures and other opponents have been added to this world, providing challenges and adventure for the characters who play there.

What is Barren Realms?

Barren Realms is in ANSI color. ANSI text means that you will be able to view the text in various different colors. This means that you can tell the difference between room descriptions, the mobs (in other words your in game opponents that aren't other players) and other characters solely by the color difference. These colors can be configured to conform to your wants and needs. Barren Realms has well over 100 different areas that can be explored and adventured. We are a no player killing or player stealing environment, which means nobody will kill you for the items or equipment you have aquired during gameplay. We also have the friendliest and supportive players on the Net based on many users opinions. Best of all, it's free!

How to get Started

The first thing you're going to have to know is how to get there. To access the game via your web browser simply type in telnet://barren.barrenrealmsmud.com:8000/ in your location bar. There are also a variety of Mud Clients availble as well, you will most likely want to get one due to the fact that they are packed with extra usefull features. Once you have connected to the Realms you will be asked what you would like to be known as in the game. This is where you have the oppurtunity to name yourself anything that you wish, as long as it follows some basic guidlines including nothing offensive or crude. Also, your name may not be one that another player or mob has. Following your name, you will be asked to make a password for your character. This is to ensure that no one else plays your character while you are not connected, a usefull safety feature. Please remember that no immortal will ever ask you for your password so don't reveal it to anyone because you're responsible for what your character does.

Choosing Your Race

After going through the procedure of choosing your name, and a secure password. You will be asked which race you would like to be. You will have the choice between Avian, Druid, Dwarf, Human, Kender, Elf and Illithid. Each race has its pros and cons, as well as skills and spells. You will also be asked if you'd like to see the helpfiles on any of the races. What is contained in those help files is briefly outlined below for you convinence :)

        Avians

Avians are a race that starts out human seeming, as they progress and age in the Realms they take on more and more avian features, a beak, then wings, claws, and a powerful tail. As they gain these features they also gain the ability to use them in attack forms, but as you can imagine it becomes impossible to wear some items. Don't be alarmed at this as Avians have powerful attacks to make up for their inability to wear things. An avian's prime statistic is constitution.

        Druids

Druids are a clan of healers. They stand an average height of 7 feet tall. They spend their lives learning the healing arts, and the art of battle. Along with their ability to heal themselves and others, they also get many powerful attack spells. Also the ability to summon others to them, as well as the ability to travel through the astral plane to another character. A druid's prime statistic is wisdom.

        Dwarves

Dwarves are a race of fighters, though short in stature they are the strongest race in the realms. They tend to be a cranky lot but they excel in fighting skills. They also have the use of many of the magical spells from the other races. A Dwarf's prime statistic is strength.  

        Humans

Humans are perhaps the most versatile race in the Realms, they excel in many skills from other races but they do the best in Martial Arts, becoming rather proficient in their ability to find the weakness in any opponent, while becoming skilled in the art of not getting hit themselves. A human's prime statistic is dexterity.

        Kender

This diminutive race of beings is probably the most fun loving. Known for their ability to find the belongings of others in their inventories they excel in the thieving arts, the Kender have some special skills that help them in their quest to find things. Making them a very powerful race. A kender's prime statistic is dexterity.

        Elf

The elves are the pure magic users of the Realms, they excel in both offensive and defensive magic. Their quest to learn the use of magic usually leaves them with few physical fighting skills, but their proficiency with magic more than makes up for this. An elf's prime statistic is intelligence.

        Illithid

The Illithid is a creature from deep underground. They have developed their minds to a level unrivaled by any other race. They can use the power of their minds to protect themselves as well as others. This ability can also be used to crush their opponents. Pure thought is a weapon for them.
An illithid's prime attribute is intelligence

Getting Started

Once you have chosen a race, you will enter the Barren Realms in what is called the mud school. This area is set up to help teach the new player how to function in a text-based game. Upon entering there is a good chance that you will be greeted by one of our Heroes or Avatars, who make it their business to show new players the ropes. Don't panic if you are not greeted as you can follow the direction on the many signs and room descriptions to get a feel for the way to play there. To look at the signs, objects or characters you meet, simply type look (object) be it sign , thing, or other player.
Here is an example of what you will see.

Entrance to the Barren Realms Academy
[Exits: north south]
Welcome to the Barren Realms Academy, or in the case of new players,
Welcome to Barren Realms!  You are standing in the large main hallway
that leads to the north. You also see the stairs leading up to the Newbie
section of the Academy to the south.  This academy is designed to help new
players to get a thorough start on the MUD.

There is a sign on the wall here.
(Type 'look sign' to read it)
Shriek the Hero is here.

<25hp 100m 100mv>

The text in yellowish color is the description of the room you are in. You can always look at the room you're in by typing look. As you see in the above example, there is a sign in this room. To read what the sign says all you have to do is type look sign. The text in red is one of the many people on Barren Realms that we call a hero. Keep in mind that you will not necissarily see someone named Shriek who is a hero. You may be greeted by an immortal if no heroes or avatars are available, or even by a fellow mortal who knows how to properly help you. (Quite often that person has a hero character as well as a mortal one.) You can tell what rank a person is (which simply means whethere they're a mortal, hero, avatar or immortal) by typing whois Shriek.(or whatever their name happens to be.) If the player is a hero it will say:  [HERO 122 M ] Shriek the Hero. (The player won't necessarily be level 122...which is what 122 stands for, or a male which is what M stands for. A hero can also be a HEROINE which is a female hero or a HEROIT which is an unspecified gender hero.)     You can type look Shriek to see what he is wearing and his description. The line in green is the prompt. It displays  your current hit points( the level of your current health in numeric form) your current mana ( mana is what we call the power behind the ability to cast spells, all spells take a certain amount of mana to cast) and your current movement( how many times you can move your character, it takes more movement points for a walking character than a flying one etc.)     You will also see this (exits, north,south,east,west,up,down) these are the directions of the exits from the room you are standing in, just type the first letter of the direction you wish to travel in to move. As a new player you will want to move south through the mud school after you read the sign. You'll want to read all the signs and room descriptions as you travel through the school. Follow all directions and you will learn the commands that you will need to function in this environment.

Getting to Know Your Character

In this section we will learn the commands that will display your statistics. The first command we will go over is score, this displays your current standings. The easiest way to access this table is typing the ? key or by tying sc. This is what you see when you type whatever form of score you think is easiest. it shows almost all pertinent information about you.

----------------------------------------------------------
Level : 1                               Race : Avian
---------------------------------------------------------
Str:13(13) Int:13(13) Wis: 13(13) Dex: 13(13) Con:16(16)
Hit Points:  25/25     Experience needed to Level: 500
Mana :      100/100
Moves :     100/100    Wimpy : 0      Gold : 0
Hit Roll: 1        Armor Class: you are wearing clothes.
Dam Roll: 1        Alignment : 0     you are neutral
------------------------------------------------------------

The next command we will learn is affect, by typing aff you will see what
spells you are currently affected by, if you are hungry or thirsty, and
what position you are in. As your level increases, this table will tell
you more specifically about these things.

----------------------------------------------------
Spells :   spells you are affected by
'armor' .
'bless'  .
'shield' .
-----------------------------------------------------
condition :  you are neither hungry nor thirsty
-----------------------------------------------------
position :    you are standing.
-----------------------------------------------------

Another command that shows you a brief insight into your character's
standing is worth. Typing worth displays current information about how
many practices you have, how much gold you have, and how much you
need to level.

You have  21 practices, 0 gold coins and need 500 exp to level.
 

The last command we will learn about here pertaining to you characters
standings is info, typing info displays current information about your
character's history.

---------------------------------------------------------
Level:  1.                              Race: Avian
---------------------------------------------------------
Str:13(13) Int:13(13) Wis:13(13) Dex: 13(13) Con:16(16)
Experience:  0     Practices: 21       Age: 17 years
Exp. to level: 500                     Gold: 0
---------------------------------------------------------
Number of deaths: 0               Auto-settings:
Mobs killed:  0                  ----------------
Items carried:        4/34        Autoloot    yes
Weight carried:      16/140       Autoexit    yes
Wimpy set to 0                    Autogold    yes
                                  Autosac     yes
                                  Autosplit   no
Page pause set to 24              Autoassist  no
---------------------------------------------------------

If there is something on anyone of these tables that you don't understand, this would be a good time to type help (subject) when you enter the Barren Realms. We have an extensive help file database, which we believe covers just about everything you might need to know about just about anything in the Realms. My going over everything that you see would be too tedius for practical purposes. (I do want you to finish reading this before you get bored....)

Learning to Use Things

The next thing we will go over is learning to manipulate things. This is a pretty straight forward thing in the Barren Realms. The commands to do things are fairly obvious,  like  get, put, take, hold, wear, unlock, open, etc. examples: get vest, wear vest . When dealing with a container, to get things out of them it would be  get (object) container. When dealing with doors you may need a key, in which case it would be unlock door, open door. Everything you will see has one word keys to get hold etc. Example: a big pot pie   would be eat pie or get pie  etc..   To give an item to someone the syntax is give (object) person. Great efforts have been gone to so that doing things is as easy as possible. Everything we have gone over so far is dealt with in a more detailed level in the mud school. I highly recommend that you go through it upon entering the Realms, this is meant as an introduction, not Instruction :).

What Do I Do First

The first thing that you do after going through the newbie wing of the Mud School is enhance your stats. you can do this at your personal trainer that you will find in the Academy. This is what the room looks like.

The Center for Personal Training
[Exits: north east south west]
This part of the Academy is dedicated to enhancing your
physical and mental abilities.  In this room your trainer
waits by a SIGN on the wall, ready to show you how to
increase your physical abilities.  A smaller hall runs east
and west to the individual guilds where you can learn new
skills and/or spells. Directions are posted on a board.

A sign is here.
A board is here on the wall.
(White Aura) Your personal trainer is here, waiting to make you more
physically fit.

You will want to look sign to see your options and typing enhance you will see what is available to enhance.  You enhance your prime stat at this time to the maximum (18), as you will have enough sessions to enhance three more times you will want to determine what you want the others to be. I will run down in short what each stat does for you. Str. is the ability to carry items also it has some bearing on how hard      some characters hit. Int. is the ability that allows you to learn spells or skills faster -      using fewer practice sessions - it also has some few things to do      with some abilities. Wis. is the ability that determines mana per level and also has some few      things to do with some abilities. Dex. is the ability to dodge and keep from getting hit, if high enough      this will affect your armor class. Con. is the ability that gives more hp's per level to characters, making      them harder to kill. Choose wisely at this time - this is your only chance to enhance for free, and it will affect your character the entire time you play here.

There are also helpfiles on these attributes that more or less say the same thing, but if it helps you, by all means reread the helpfiles on Barren Realms. :)

Learning to Fight

Now that you're done enhancing, you're ready to fight. All you have to do is go north twice and then down once where you'll see the Courtyard Instructor (Don't try to kill him, he's there to help..He'll heal you and spell you up during your stay at the Barren Realms Academy!)  This is the part you've probably been waiting for. You will have gone over these things in the Newbie wing but I will rehash for you what I believe are the most important commands for new players.

1.Scan typing scan allows you to see what mobs or characters are in the rooms adjoining the room you are in ( weather permiting) 2.Con always con (short for consider) your opponent syntax con (mob) the message you recieve when you type this will let you know if you have a chance against the mob. Examples are perfect match! Is this your Lucky Day? the mob laughs mercilessly at you, and my favorite I'll get the Shovel for You! the last two messages you usually avoid. 3.Flee flee is probably the most important command you will need to use, dying costs you half the exp you need to your next level and sometimes it is difficult to retrieve your corpse, so if you are losing a fight type flee repeatedly as it is not 100% effective ( there are situations where the mob can inturupt you ability to flee) he who fights and runs away levels much faster :). 4.Wimpy this command does pretty much the same as flee except it tells the mud at what point you want to start running away from the fight automatically (again not 100% effective) type wimpy and it will set itself to 20% of your total hp's.

What you should see when you type scan are trainees east, west, and south of you. All you have to do is go in the direction of one of these trainees and type kill trainee. (or k t for short!) Remember to wear all once you've kill the trainee and retrieved the items from the corpse. (That should be automatic if you have AUTOLOOT ON) Keep fighting these trainees until you reach level 2. Don't worry about how fast/slow you're going, it takes time to learn! At this point in the game your character is saved and you become a permanent part of the Barren Realms community. It is time to start thinking about your skills. Some races do not get to study anything quite yet but level 3 is the longest you will have to wait. Type slist to see a list of your spells/skills - this will tell you at what level you will be able to aquire them as well as the whole list of possible skills. By typing prac you will see the list of the skills you are able to learn at present, as well as at what percentage you have learned them 0% being the lowest and 95% being the highest. Just remember: the more you practice a skill, the better you are at it.

Where do I go after the trainees?

After you've gained a few levels by killing the trainees in the training courtyard, and you've practiced some good skills, it's time for you to move onto harder mobs. From the Courtyard Instructor (He's the guy who heals you and spells you up, so don't try to kill him!) go north twice. By this time you're probably finding yourself hungry and thirsty, and running out of room in your inventory. Once you've gone north twice from the Courtyard Instructor you should probably go east to the Grocery Shop. By typing list you can see what the grocer sells. It's probably a good idea to get a few cookies and a water skin or two. As explained earlier, you eat and drink by typing eat cookie and drink skin. Going back west (twice) you find yourself in the General Store. Again, type list to see what the shopkeeper sells. It's probably a good idea to buy a bag or two (depending on how you want to organize your inventory) and a torch. The war banner you're using as a light will more than likely soon burn out and you'll need to have the torch to see in the dark. If you go back east once, you find yourself at a locked door. You should have a key that you got from the corpse of the junior trainee. Unlock the door to the north by typing unlock north. You'll then have to type open north, and then you can actually move to the north. You should now be in a room with the Academy Master. Make sure that autoloot is on. Now you're ready to kill the master so go for it! Once he's killed you can keep the diploma you find in his corpse and hold it. Now, open the door to the north and then go north. You're now in the Practice Arena. You should kill here until you're around level 5 or so. In the center of this area is a grate that leads down to graduates who are a bit harder if the ones above become too easy. Remember, you can recall at any time and go north once to Clericus, Calathar's healer. He'll heal you and spell you up for free until you reach level 11. Also, if you type help map, you'll get a map of Barren Realms's main city, Calathar. Good luck...we're always here to help in anyway we can, all you have to do is ask us :)

Learning Skills & Spells

Each race has its own guild hall where they learn thier skills. In some cases other races may study skills outside of thier own guild but this is costly in experience points to that person. You can find your Guild in the Mud School by going east or west from the personal trainer where you enhanced your stats at. To learn a skill in your guild simply type prac (skill name) to learn more about a skill before practicing it type help (skill name). If you are a magic user you may want to write an alias (a string of commands activated by a keyword) to make casting your spells easier, type help alias to get an idea how to write one.

Summary

Well, this is it. You have learned everything you need to get started, and are read to enter the wonderful world of Barren Realms. Remember to read everything you find in the newbie wing of the acadamy. If you have any trobel with any aspect of the game, confused in any way, like i said before we are a very supportive and friendly group of people, we will assist you and help you along your way. Most of all, have fun! Good luck and we all look forward to seeing you in the realms!