Playing a Game

This page walks through a first session on a SharpMUSH game: making a character, moving, talking, paging, channels and mail. Everything works the same in the game’s website terminal and in a MU* client such as Mudlet or BeipMU. The examples follow Marrow, a new character, on an account named Wren.

An account and a character

Your account is your sign-in. A character is who you play. One account can hold several characters, and each character has its own password.

On a game’s website, use Register, then Create a character. The Web Portal guide covers those pages.

In a MU* client, connect to the game’s address and port, then make the account and its first character on the connect screen:

> register Wren Paper-Lantern-7
Account 'Wren' created successfully.

-< Your account is ready >----------------------------------------------------
create <character> <password>  create your first character
claim <character> <password>   add a character you already have
play <character>               enter the game as one of them
> create Marrow Tide-Glass-31

register also takes an email address before the password: register Wren [email protected] Paper-Lantern-7. create makes the character and puts you in the game as it.

Next time, connect straight to the character:

> connect Marrow Tide-Glass-31

To add another character, login to the account and create again. A character you made before the game had accounts joins yours with claim <character> <password>.

Many games show a short checklist when a new character arrives. It ticks itself off as you go, and +welcome shows it again. See Getting Started Checklist.

The website terminal

On a game’s website, Play opens a terminal in the page. It takes the same commands as a MU* client and adds a few panes around them:

1. The channels you have joined, and below them your recent pages.
2. Exits in the output are links: click one to walk through it.
3. Here lists who and what is in the room, and Exits below it the ways out.
4. Type commands here and press Enter.

Looking and moving

look shows the room you are in. Exits are listed at the bottom; type an exit’s name to go through it:

> look
=< Room Zero >================================================================
New characters arrive here. Type look to see this room again, help for the
list of commands, and @channel/on Newbie to ask other players a question.
Obvious exits:
In Character and Tutorial
> Tutorial
=< Tutorial >=================================================================
The basics, one command at a time.
Obvious exits:
Out

look <name> looks at a person or thing in the room. home takes you back to your home room from anywhere.

Talking in the room

Everyone in the room hears these.

Type	Others see
say Hello. or "Hello.	Marrow says, "Hello."
pose waves. or :waves.	Marrow waves.
;'s coat drips.	Marrow's coat drips.

A game with the Scene System also records poses as scene logs. See Scenes.

Paging someone

page reaches one person wherever they are in the game:

> page Tamsin=Are you around?
You paged Tamsin with 'Are you around?'

Tamsin sees Marrow pages: Are you around?. Leave the name out to page the last person you paged: page Just saying hello. A : before the message makes it a pose: page Tamsin=:waves. shows Tamsin From afar, Marrow waves.

WHO lists who is connected.

Channels

Channels are chat lines that anyone who joins can hear, wherever they are. @channel/list shows the ones you can join, and @channel/on joins one:

> @channel/on Newbie
CHAT: You join channel <Newbie>.
> +newbie Can anyone show me where the docks are?
<Newbie> Marrow says, "Can anyone show me where the docks are?"

+<channel> <message> talks on a channel you have joined, and +<channel> :<pose> poses there. @channel/recall Newbie shows the channel’s last lines, @channel/who Newbie who is listening, and @channel/off Newbie leaves it.

Mail

@mail holds messages for you while you are away:

> @mail/send Tamsin=Dock rota/You have the morning watch.
MAIL: You sent your message to Tamsin.

The part before / is the subject. Tamsin’s inbox then lists it:

> @mail
=< Mail, folder 0 (INBOX) >===================================================
#  Flags  From      Subject     Sent
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1  N      Marrow    Dock rota   Fri Nov 13 09:03
==============================================================================
1 message, 1 unread.
Flags: N new, U urgent, F forwarded, C cleared, + tagged.
==============================================================================

@mail 1 reads message 1. @mail/clear 1 marks it for deletion, and @mail/purge removes what you cleared. The website’s Mail page shows the same inbox.

Describing yourself

@desc me= sets what others see when they look at you:

> @desc me=A tall sailor in an oilskin coat.
Marrow/DESCRIBE - Set.

Getting help

There are two help commands:

• help explains the server’s own commands, the same on every SharpMUSH game. help getting started is a good first read.
• +help explains what this game has installed and what its staff wrote: its scenes, its character sheet, its rules.

The website shows both under Help, and the help reference on this site has the server’s half.

QUIT disconnects.

Next steps

• Scenes for roleplay logs and scheduling.
• Letting Your Players Build to build rooms of your own.
• Screen Readers to play with one.