Shades - A beginners introduction - Part 1 By Grimwold / Flasheart Shades, as you may know, is a MUG - a Multi User Game. One that can be played by many people at the same time, using different computers all linked to a host computer by modems. I'll not say much about the game of Shades at the moment, I've reviewed it for SynTax already. Instead I'll give some of the more common commands to speed the new player through the 'getting to grips' stages. One of the main features of a MUG, Shades especially, is the talking element. Talking to the different people. There are quite a few people who log onto Shades just to chat. Talking is accomplished in various ways, such as the following: 1. Normal talking. To say something to everyone in the same location as yourself, just SAY message. This can be further abbreviated to " message. 2. Selective talking. This is talking to one person in particular, and they can be anywhere in the game, not just in the same location. You can do this by typing the first few characters of their name followed by the message. Such as (if you were talking to me, Flasheart) you would type: FLA message. One important thing to note here, however, is that this is not necessarily confidential as an Immortal character (such as a Wizard or Witch) can 'snoop' you, so they can see whatever you type, hence your otherwise secret message. Don't assume that because they are not listed in a WHO that they are not there, they may be invisible! 3. Talking to everyone. To give a message that will be seen by everyone on the game, you shout it, such as SHOUT message. An abbreviation for this is SH. Be careful about how you use this, as some people may not wish to see what you shout and may get uppity. It can also get distracting if they are in a fight. 4. You can also THINK a message. This works the same as SAY except the others will see that you are thinking instead of saying. As well as normal talking, you can do a whole host of other communicative commands. One very handy one is the EMOTE command. (Abbr to EM or !) To give an example of what EMOTE does, if I were to type: "EMOTE starts to shake and shiver." , everyone in the location would see: "Flasheart starts to shake and shiver." Other related commands are: GROWL, GRIN, NOD, HOWL, SCREAM, BLUSH, SHRUG, HUG, KICK, KISS, CUDDLE, WAVE, HI, BYE, SLAP, SOB, DROOL, BOO and CRY. There are a lot more too. Some other commands, useful for playing the game of Shades follow. Command Abbr Action ======= ==== ====== WHERE/FIND WH Will find an object or person. SCORE SC Lists your score, kills, value of items etc. QS QS Quick Score. Gives abbr SCORE details. (Above two can be referred to another person by SC name) INVENTORY I List objects carried, or carried by another. VALUE V Gives value of an item, in points, when kinged. POWER POWER Gives fight power of an item when used in fight. WEIGHT WEIGHT Gives weight of object. STEAL ST Steal an item from another player. GIVE GIVE Give an item to another player. RETALIATE RET Start to use a weapon in a fight. WHO QW/WQ Lists all players in game (unless invisible) BW BW Gives shortened version of above. EXITS EX Gives a list of exits from your location. CRAWL CRAWL The only way to move when you have been crippled. Eg. CRAWL N STEAL ST Steal an object from another player. GIVE GI Give an object to another player. GET G Takes an object. Supports G ALL and G T (which picks up all treasure in room) DROP DR Drops an object. Supports DR ALL and DR T. QUIT QQ Stops game instantly, sending you back to the Shades introduction. This also saves your score and stamina. HELP ? Gives a list of help topics. SUFFIX SUFFIX Adds a suffix to your name. To use, type: SUFFIX ME (message). The message can be up to 14 characters long, and if you wish to keep it you must SAVE, otherwise it will be lost. Eg. If I were to type: SUFFIX ME SILLY, everyone else would see me described as: Flasheart the Silly Sorcerer. SAVE SAVE SAVE whenever you have gained some points, or regained stamina. Whenever you die, your score and stamina go back to the last save. Note that if you lose points or stamina in a fight, then restoring a save will not regain those points. Spells: SS SS SuperScore. Gives score details of a distant Character. SI SI SuperInven. Gives inventory of a distant player. JAUNT JAUNT Moves you to the same location as the player named. [JAUNT plyr] SUMMON ZIP Brings a distant player to your location. [ZIP plyr] CRIPPLE CRIPPLE Slows a player down by forcing them to CRAWL rather than simply move. [CRIPPLE plyr] DUMB DUMB Stops a person talking, saying or shouting anything. Useful if they are being annoying. [DUMB plyr] CURE CURE Cures a player from CRIPPLE/DUMB and restores health points. You can't cast this on yourself! [CURE plyr] STRIP STRIP Magically strips player of all weapons. [STRIP plyr] FUMBLE FUMBLE Causes player to drop everything they are carrying. [FUMBLE plyr] COMPEL FORCE Can compel a player to do something they didn't intend to do, such as: FORCE plyr DROP BOMB. Most of the above spells will not be accessible to new players, you will need to rise through the levels to use them. I've not listed any of the immortal-only commands, as it is assumed that if you've played the game enough to reach immortality (Witch or Wizard) you will know enough of them to be getting on with. @~To be continued next issue - o -