MUCK Intro Guide
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To Start Up With: This little guide is a production of rather liberal flow of thought and therefore some may find it disagreeable in terms of order of presentation for instance. Generally it is meant to be a source for miscellaneous information regarding gameplay on The Lion King MUCK ( muck.tlkmuck.org 7675 ) in order to help people get started with it, should they be interested (they should!). Program used to connect to the MUCK here is MUSHclient.
-- Talfasi, a TLKMUCK resident. (11.4.2008)
Chapter I: Connecting & Finding your way around!
TLKMUCK is a roleplaying game system dedicated to the world of The Lion King. Therefore the characters in it are those of African wildlife and the locations are based on the movie or just otherwise in the same theme. The specialty of a MUCK is that it is a real-time system specifically built for the needs of RP and therefore it is a way more advanced (and comfortable) way to RP than using forums or instant messengers. Personally I've RP'ed here for quite a while, although taking 'breaks' of several years in between here and there - that is just my freakish personality though ;) One thing is consistent though, I've always found it a great place to RP, and there's plenty of that available there even now!
Upon connecting, you should be greeted with this screen:
To connect to the MUCK you need to type in your character name and your password, to obtain a character simply follow the on-screen instructions that will guide you through the process. After that is done, you're taken into a set up of this kind:
This is the basic layout of the game. You are in a room, that has a description and exits that you can take. To view the room description again, you can type look. The window will also show if there are others in the room (there is none where I am), and basically you can use the directions and go explore. It is however usable to see the bigger picture, and for instance see where you are. For that there is the single most useful command on the MUCK. The find (or simply 'f'). Typing it will bring the next window:
As you can see, this window shows a great deal of information. I find myself typing 'f' almost every 5 minutes, simply because I'm curious like that! First of all, you can see all the people who are currently connected, their character names, their idle time, species, status and their location. This screen can be used as a guide to see where there is RP in progress, who to talk to, etc.
When traveling, it is useful to know that you can always return to a safe haven called the OOC Complex which can be accessed by the command OOCC. From there you will find in-game boards (such as for character requests), the offices of the wizards and such, but most importantly - from the Hall of Beginnings and Player Start you can access most of the biggest lands in the game directly, to help where you might want to go to.
Remember: When finding yourself lost, or wishing you were elsewhere: You can always return to the OOC Complex and continue from there. Also, by default, the Player Start of the OOC Complex is your home location which you can return to by typing GOHOME. To find out how to change your home location to something of your preference, contact a member of the helpstaff or a wizard (command STAFF will show you which of them are online).
Chapter II: Communication and Roleplay!
The Lion King MUCK has several means of communication. To look into the most common forms, we can use the above picture of the find-list as reference. When engaging in RP, you can find your way into a room where such is happening. Before that though, you might want to talk to the people there first. This can be done by paging. For instance, you see me on the list, you could do this:
page Talfasi = Hi! I read your guide. It gave me headaches!
.. and that would return "YourCharacterName pages, "Hi! I read your guide. It gave me headaches!" on my screen.
And, you can be more artistic and use page-pose, like:
page Talfasi =: pokes you in the shoulder, ".. and I won't forgive you for it!"
.. which would make "In a page-pose to you, YourCharacterName pokes you in the shoulder, ".. and I won't forgive you for it!" appear on my screen. :)
The MUCK also has a mailing system called muck-mail which allows you to send mail messages to other players in the game, e-mail-stylishly. To send a mail directly to a player, type mail playername, or simply mail to access the system.
Also, remember to check out the status tags of other people. It will tell what they are doing.
IC = In Character, the player is or is supposed to be roleplaying! :)
OOC = Out-of-Character, he's just chit-chatting around.
LRP = Looking-For-Roleplay
and AFK, BRB.. etc. STF / WIZ tags hint that the player is helpstaff or wizard-body.
To change the status for yourself, simply type in the tag of your wish, ie. IC
So!
Let's say you've asked someone to RP with you, and he/she's agreed. Often the case is that you are not yet in the same location. To get together without a huge amount of traveling, you can try the command jump to jump directly to the other player's location. Remember to ask if it's okay first. However, as so many of the rooms are marked so that you can't directly jump into them, there is a summoning system.
Typing mjoin 'playername', you request to join another player in their location. He/She is then prompted to accept or decline your request. Alternatively, you can type msummon 'playername' to request the other party to join you at your location.
Good! Now let's look into the scenario where you're together in the same room with other people. This is where you naturally roleplay. That and general messaging in one room can be done through posing and spoofing.
For instance, typing:
pose is laying down on the ground, idly looking across the savannahs and having hunch of an itch on his left shoulder
Would make YourCharacterName is laying down on the ground, idly looking across the savannahs and having hunch of an itch on his left shoulder appear on everyone's screen to read.
And..
SPOOF A lion is laying down on the ground, idly looking across the savannahs and having hunch of an itch on his left shoulder
Would make others see A lion is laying down on the ground, idly looking across the savannahs and having hunch of an itch on his left shoulder
It is that easy! :)
Chapter III: Character Description and Related!
Considering a RP environment relies heavily on descriptions, it /would/ be preferable for you to set a description of your character for others to read amongst other things!
In-game, you can check descriptions of objects and other players by typing look and then the target. When it comes to characters it's also possible to set a message for its scent that players can access through the command smell too.
You can set these by typing in:
SETUP
This should pop in a window with various choices, including an editor where to type in your character description. Let your creativity flow! :)
You might notice other players having little tags after their names when in a room, like:
To set one for yourself, type in @pose me=your desired tag. Whoa, all done there! Remember that it's added directly after your character name, so using separation with a comma like in Mwenge's case is preferable.
Also, as a little fun detail you can set in a tag of similar kind in a bigger list for other players to read. When typing who you should see a list of this kind:
To set a tag of this kind for yourself, type in wd s: your desired tag. Check check.
Besides all these, you can also insert in-detail In- and Out-Of-Character information such as contact details for yourself for others to see by using the Player Information system. This is accessed by typing pinfo playername, if the target has written something in it, you should see it. To set these fields for yourself, type in pinfo #help and it will list the commands.
Chapter IV: Additional goodies!
The MUCK has a lot of different commands to use, here's a couple that might be usable. There are plenty of others, part of the fun is learning yourself! The wiz/helpstaff can be bugged for additional information that you might feel like needing!
carry will let you, well.. as it says, carry another person. This can be used if you want to take someone somewhere for instance. Typing in carry #help will let you find out more about it! Useful in certain situations.
wel is another fun tool. It stands for "Who else" and as it states it will list people who are in a target room, regardless whether they're online or not. So, type in a character name after it like wel charactername and you should see a listing of the people in the character's room. I'm a home-made sherlock so I find myself using this often. ;)
contimes will let you to see a statistic about another person's connection habits. It will show when the target has connected and for how long in a neat little window. Many people who are aware of this feature have it disabled (go figure? Me too sometimes.. *grins*). contimes #help will tell you more about it like usual. :)
Well, like said before. The place is filled with things that I likely fail to mention - but as the topic states the intention of this little page is meant to be a small guide into the world of RP in Lion King -oriented setting in TLKMUCK. I hope it was of some use - and remember: when in doubt, bug a helpstaff member or a wiz, that's what they're there for (command: STAFF).
Thanks for reading and happy roleplaying!
Your friendly ROGUE-FOR-LIFE leonine neighbor,
-- Talfasi
