AFK stands for Away from Keyboard. It usually means the person is logging the session, or otherwise able to catch up on what happened while they were gone. A variant is AFW, or Away from Window.
An area is a collection of mobiles, objects and rooms. It may be self contained, a dungeon or castle with only one entrance/exit, or it may connect to many other areas. Areas are also known as zones.
People who make areas are usually refered to as builders. Area work is different from coding.
A bot is a mud client that has been set up to "automatically" play the game. It uses a script to deduce how it should react to the game in order to improve the character that it is running. Bots are illegal on most muds.
A bug is an unintentional and undesirable feature of a mud. Bugs can cause crashes and should be reported to the implementors. Some bugs have "desirable" effects in that they allow players to get benefits that they were not intended to get. Making use of such bugs is often grounds for punishment of your character for cheating.
A builder is one who creates areas. More information about areas, and area building, is available elsewhere on this site.
A character is any player on a MUD, be they immortal or mortal. All characters are saved in individual files, known as pfiles. Usually, only an implementor will have access to pfiles.
Different rules exist on different muds, so be sure to type 'rules' to see what the local ones are. Typically, multiplaying, bots and exploitation of bugs are forbidden. Rules of conduct beyond simple cheating also often apply.
A clan is a group of players, typically with a common goal or code of ethics. It often involves roleplay and player killing. Usually there are restrictions on who may join a given clan, and usually there must be a minimum number of interested players to cause the creation of a new one.
Common clan ethics: Honor, Knowledge, Justice, Chaos, Vengeance
A client is a piece of software built specifically for connecting to a mud with. They include various features to make it easier to play muds.
A MUD has two components, the data files called areas and the program, or code. MUD code is typically written in C to operate on a computer running some type of UNIX.
While code and areas require different skills, and both are difficult to do well, code is usually the harder because it can have a more damaging effect on the game. If you are operating a mud, it is often tempting to use code written by other people. This can be dangerous, because it can contain bugs that may be very difficult to find because you are not familiar with the code.
A MUD has two components, the data files called areas and the program, or code. MUD code is typically written in C to operate on a computer running some type of UNIX.
While code and areas require different skills, and both are difficult to do well, code is usually the harder because it can have a more damaging effect on the game. If you are operating a mud, it is often tempting to use code written by other people. This can be dangerous, because it can contain bugs that may be very difficult to find because you are not familiar with the code.
When you die, your equipment, and often your money, remains in your corpse. Your corpse is created at the spot where you died. Sometimes it will be necessary to request the help of other mortals to regain your corpse, if whatever killed you is aggressive. Expeditions to get corpses back are called 'CRs' or 'corpse retrievals'. To recover all of the contents of your corpse, type 'get all corpse' in the room with your body.
Crashes happen because of bugs in the hardware or software that a MUD is using. Usually they cause all players connected to be disconnected, and all areas to be reset. Everything non-permanent in the mud is erased. On many muds, this will mean that if you had recently died, and not yet recovered your corpse you will require the assistance of an immortal to reimburse you.
Rom muds are based on Merc, and Merc muds are based on Diku. Certain other sourcebases are also offshoots of Diku, Merc and Rom. All must display the following credits in their login screen:
DikuMUD by Hans Staerfeldt, Katja Nyboe, Tom Madsen, Michael Seifert, and Sebastian Hammer. ROM 2.4 copyright (c) 1993-1996 Russ Taylor.
All muds based on Diku must have the following message appear when 'credits' is typed. It may not be altered.
Original game idea, concept, and design:
Katja Nyboe [Superwoman] (katz@freja.diku.dk)
Tom Madsen [Stormbringer] (noop@freja.diku.dk)
Hans Henrik Staerfeldt [God] (bombman@freja.diku.dk)
Michael Seifert [Papi] (seifert@freja.diku.dk)
Sebastian Hammer [Quinn] (quinn@freja.diku.dk)
Developed at: DIKU -- The Department of Computer Science at the University of Copenhagen.
All muds based on Merc must also have the following message appear when 'help Merc' is typed. It may not be altered.
This mud is based on Merc 2.1, created by Furey, Hatchet, and Kahn. Merc 2.1 is available as Merc_21.tar.gz from ftp.tcp.com and ftp.math.okstate.edu. E-mail to 'merc-request@kpc.com' to join the merc mailing list.
Thanks to ...
... Diku Mud for starting it all.
... The Free Software Foundation and DJ Delorie for kick-ass tools.
... Copper Mud and Alfa Mud for releasing their code and worlds.
... Aod of Generic for ... well, everything. You're a hoopy frood, Aod.
... Alander for many ideas and contributions.
... John Brothers of Silly for permission to use Silly code and worlds.
... Zrin for administering the mailing list.
... Abaddon for proofreading our comm.c.
... Hind, Quin, Vic, Diavolo, Oleg, Trienne, and others for porting help.
... Diavolo, Grodyn, Morgenes, and others for code and bug fixes.
... Raff, Doctor, VampLestat, Nirrad, Tyrst, PinkF, Chris, Glop for worlds.
... the players and imps of Mud Dome, Final Mud, Mud Lite, Vego Mud, Rivers
of Mud, Ruhr Mud, and Mystic Realms for bug reports, ideas, new code,
and hours of enjoyment.
It is an international offense to alter either the 'credits' information or the 'help Merc' information. Any mud doing so may be legally charged.
Customization is a feature of ROM based muds. It allows players to tailor their class to their own preferences, by choosing what skills and spells they want to begin with.
Diku is one of the original mud codebases. It was developed at the University of Copenhagen, and is covered under research guidelines that prohibit it from being used commercially. All Diku based muds must contain proper credits.
More information about the latest version of Diku, now called VME (Valhalla Mud Engine) may be found at the Valhalla Mud Home Page. It is an entirely new server which may be licensed for commercial use.
Hotbooting is a process whereby the mud reboots without disconnecting the players. It is not a standard feature and can be problemic. It is also known as softbooting.
An immortal is a player that has, for whatever reason, been given a degree of power over the game. This power may be as minor as not needing to eat and the ability to move anywhere in the game. It can be as major as the ability to remove another character or site entirely.
Originally, immortality was confered for the ability to reach the maximum level in the game. Many muds still practice this system. However, other muds choose to promote solely on the skills or judgement that the player has shown as a mortal.
Ideally, a mud should have as few immortals as are necessary to keep things running smoothly and develop new features. Since immortals can have a great deal of power, and tend to accumulate more powers, if they become bored, they become trouble for the mud. Therefore, it is best to keep a close rein on the number of immortals created, and even closer on the number of immortals given the power to tamper with game balance.
In practice, muds commonly become top heavy. Caveat Emptor.
Implementor originally refered to the person or people who programmed the mud code. It has come to be a more general term, applying to the person or people that have final say on the development of the mud. The people with the final word in the latest version of ROM prefer the term Tyrant.
Surmise that person A attacks a mobile. That person A does a great deal of damage to the mobile, and then, for whatever reason, has to leave the room that contains the mobile, or the mobile leaves the room that has player A in it. Player B then comes along, sees the mobile, kills it himself, and gets the experience, leaving person A with nothing.
This is extremely rude. It may result in player B being disciplined. At the very least, it will make person A very annoyed.
Obviously, more complicated situations can occur, where it's less clear if person A had rights to the damaged mobile.
There are two circumstances under which lag can occur. The most common type of lag comes from hardware malfunction or bandwidth saturation on the Internet. That kind of lag results in your reactions to the mud being slowed, which can have lethal results. It does no good to complain about it, and excessive griping about lag may cause you to be punished.
The second kind of lag occurs when the machine the mud is operating on becomes slowed. This kind of lag is annoying, but it will not harm your character as much, because the mud has slowed down as much as you have.
Merc is a mud software base that is derived from DikuMud. It was developed by Furey, Hatchet and Kahn. Rom is based on Merc, and as such all Rom muds must display proper credits. Hatchet and Kahn are now developing the Merc derived EnvyMud.
Mobiles are non-player entities that exist in the mud world. They may be anything from shopkeepers to guildmasters to small dogs with poisonous bites.
A mortal is a regular, non-administrative player in the game. Usually they have no special powers, though trusted mortals have the power of immortals without the authority or responsibility.
Message Of The Day. Edit this help to change what players see when they log into the mud.
Multi-User Dungeon. Has been retconned (retroactive continuity) to also mean Multi-User Dimension.
Multiplaying, or MPing, is illegal on most muds. It involves either having more than one character logged on at the same time, or alternating between characters in a manner to benefit one or more of them. Usually you are permitted to have as many characters as you want -- but you can't have interaction between them. Some muds permit multiplaying, but be sure to check the rules. If you multiplay on a mud that does not allow it, the penalties can range from being told not to do it again, all the way up to deletion of all of your characters.
Sometime the Internet is so overloaded with users that small outages occur. These outages temporarily prevent users from communicating with the affected areas. This is termed 'net death', and can cause you to lose the ability to control your character. Usually a mud administrator can't do anything about net death.
Newbie is the name of the help file that all newly created characters see when they log in. Edit that help to change what is displayed.
A newbie is also a novice: to mudding, to coding, to area building, etc. If you are a newbie, please read the literature available -- documentation, books, FAQs, before asking questions. Often your question has already been answered in detail.
Objects are usually inanimate entities that can be utilized in some manner. Swords, armor, couches, fountains, rings, wands, staves and loaves of bread are all usually objects.
On-Line Creation. Usually it refers to the ability to edit areas on a running copy of the mud. Stock Rom does not come with OLC. Patches are available to allow it to be added relatively easily.
Player Killing. Not all muds allow mortals to kill other mortals. On some muds, it is completely disallowed and theoretically impossible. On some muds, it is allowed if you are in a certain area, or belong to a clan. On some muds, it is restricted by level. On some muds, it is a total free-for-all.
A player is anyone who plays muds. Usually it refers to the person running the character as opposed to the actual mortal.
A quest is a duty that a player, usually a mortal or group of mortals, is asked to carry out in exchange for a reward. They are usually assigned by immortals. Some immortals enjoy giving quests, some don't.
A reboot saves all players, then removes them from the mud. It then restarts the mud. Reboots typically don't take more than a couple of minutes, often less. However, if something goes wrong, and the mud can't restart, it can take longer.
If the mud crashes and players lose substantial amounts of equipment, immortals will often do reimburses. This consists of creating copies of the equipment that the player has lost. Most muds do not reimburse lost XP, only equipment.
On some muds, the game doesn't end when a mortal reaches maximum level. It is sometimes possible to remort, whereby your character changes, usually into something more powerful, and typically starts the game over at level 1. On some muds, remort is available partway through, as a reward for having attained a certain status, and the character does not revert to level 1.
Stock ROM does not have rent, but some muds have added it as an alternative to level-based equipment. In rent-based systems, you must pay a certain amount of money, based on the power of the item, if you want it to save when you log out. If you don't pay your rent, the item will vanish.
Areas deplete as players kill the mobiles in them. As time passes, those mobiles regenerate, or repop-ulate the zone. Empty zones repop in three real minutes. Zones with players in them repop in fifteen real minutes. The exception to this is mud school, which repops quickly even when players are in it.
Rivers Of Mud. Rom is a mud software base that is derived from DikuMud and Merc, and as such all Rom muds must display proper credits.
Rom 2.3 was developed by Alander (Russ Taylor). Rom 2.4 also had contributions from Antoinette/Satin (Gabrielle Taylor) and Zump (Brian Moore). The latest version of Rom is 4.6. No plans exist for its release.
A room is a virtual point within the game that can contain players, objects and mobiles. Think of it as a box of more or less infinite size. It may be described as part of a street, a closet, or even the inside of a top hat, but if you're in it, it's probably easiest described as a room.
Role Play. Some muds are strict roleplay, meaning that you must develop a persona for your character and act as that persona at all times. Other muds require roleplay only in certain settings. Some muds have no policy whatsoever on roleplay.
A site is a machine on which, in this case, a mud runs. A site must have enough memory to run the mud, and must have a permanent connection to the internet if you want the mud to always be accessible to players. Some sites are free. There are also a number of internet providers that sell mud accounts for use as a site.
The term 'spam' derives from a Monty Python sketch in which the word 'spam' is repeated dozens of times. On the internet, it usually means repeating any message a large number of times. Some people construe 'spam' to be anything that they did not wish to see. Spamming is usually illegal.
A tick is a game-driven pulse during which certain events happen. Repops happen on a given tick, as does regeneration of mana, hit points and movement. Some muds have 'tick timers' that allow you to know when a tick has passed. Most do not.
A trusted mortal has the powers of an immortal, but usually not the status, authority or jurisdiction. Usually trusted status is kept secret from other mortals.
Virtual number. Every mobile, object and room has a vnum. It is a unique number by which the entity may be referenced. Rom supports 32000 vnums, meaning it allows 32000 rooms, 32000 mobs, and 32000 objects, or 96000 entities in all. A room with vnum 3201, a mob with vnum 3201 and an object with vnum 3201 may all exist at the same time, but two rooms with vnum 3201 may not exist.
Experience. On most muds, as a player gains experience, he becomes more powerful and has access to higher powered equipment. Once a player has reached the maximum level allowable, usually there is no longer a game effect from gaining more experience.
gtaylor@hypercube.org