Accounts

An account is one login for the web portal and the account menu at the connect screen. Characters are linked to it: one account can hold many characters, and each character belongs to at most one account. The account’s roles come from its characters, and its characters share the account’s roles (see roles).

A character can reach an account four ways:

make <character> <password> at the account menu, or New character on the portal, creates one already linked. See make.
claim <character> <password> at the account menu, @account/claim <character>=<password> in the game, or Claim an existing character on the portal, links one that already exists. See accounts claiming.
Staff link one with @account/link or the portal’s character page. See accounts staff.
The first person to finish the portal’s setup claims character #1.

A character on no account still plays the PennMUSH way, with connect and its own password. Linking it changes nothing about that: its password, its objects and its dbref stay the same.

Claiming a character you already have

A character made at the connect screen with create, made by staff with @pcreate, or brought over in a PennMUSH import has no account. Its holder adds it to theirs by proving they know its password:

At the connect screen, login to the account, then type claim <character> <password>. See claim.
In the game, while playing a character on the account, type @account/claim <character>=<password>.
On the portal, open Account, then Claim an existing character, and give the character’s name and password.

The character then appears in your list, and play connects to it.

A character already on another account moves only with that account’s password, so you can bring a character over from a second account of your own; its own password is not enough. A character with no password on no account cannot be claimed, since nothing proves who owns it: set one with @password while connected to it, or ask staff to link it.

Linking a character for someone

Staff link a character to an account without its password, for a player who lost it or a character made for them:

@account/link <account>=<character> in the game (wizards). @account/unlink <account>=<character> takes it off again.
The portal’s character page, under Administration, Characters (players.moderate): a character on no account shows a field for the account to link it to. Unlink is on the same page.

A character on another account has to be unlinked from it first. The account takes on the character’s roles, so only God links God and only a wizard links a wizard. Both are recorded in the audit log.

::: seealso