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                    This is what it's all about!


Darkemud (Driver: MudOS 0.9.18, Mudlib: DarkeLIB 0.1)
Based in Houston,Tx

Gods: Diewarzau, Drizzt
Arches: Blade, Mikus, Sakar, Warsyn, Vlaad

Ok, I am going to break down the mud.


1) Theme
2) Races
3) Stats
4) Guilds
5) Experience
6) Development / Advancement
7) Combat
8) Law / Law Enforcement
9) Economy
10) Item Storage
11) Communication
12) The Mud Clock

1)  Da Theme
	 
	 IMPORTANT:  This is an advanced mud.  It is extremely complex
     in several ways that will become obvious as you play.  We do not 
     advise that you play this mud if you have never mudded before, as 
     we have coded it with the seasoned mudder in mind.  If this is your
     first mud, good luck, you can expect to die EXTREMELY often.  This
     mud is largely combat-oriented, and experienced or not, you can 
     expect to die more here than on most other muds.  Because of this, the
     penalties of death are mild.

         This mud has one domain.  It is a fantasy mud with the theme ^M
     of The Lost and the Damned.   More specific... It is a dark, evil 
     mud...  Kinda a Gotham City from Batman, but fantasy.  The main ^M
     city is reminiscent of Menzobarranzen from The Underdark, but above
     ground.  Beautiful, dark, and deadly.  This theme carries 
     over the whole mud.  Now it doesn't all have to be this dark.  There 
     has to be good somewhere.  There are no dumb monsters, 
     weapons, etc. like a toy top or water pistol.  Things must stick to
     a medieval theme.     

2)  Races
         We try to have a variety of races on Darke.  Races get 
     bonuses to stats and they can have special abilities.  Ex: faster 
     healing, natural weaponry, etc... The races are unbalanced,  so 
     we balance the races by putting an experience modifier on the exp 
     they gain.  Negative or positive.  Some races are very versatile
     and others are only suited for one type of guild.  Select your race 
     carefully to suit the type of guild you wish to be a part of.  Help
     races for more information.

3)  Stats
         There are six stats on Darke.  Str, Con, Wis, Int, Dex, and 
     Chr.  Stats are from 1-106.  Stats can later be modified by races, 
     items, and other things.  I love those technical terms like things.
     The stats tell how many development points you will have.
     (Unmodified except for racial mods)  Stats do not increase
     when you go up save by magic or items.  Stats also give bonuses 
     to skills and are considered the base.  You must have trained 
     once in the skill to be able to use it.

     See help on the following:
	stats

4) Guilds
        There are many guilds in Darke. Guilds are an important part of 
     Darke.  First, guild unity is very big here. There will be a guild 
     master and guild represenatives. You must be invited into the guild 
     by one of them. Some guilds lean towards soloing while others lean 
     towards partying. Try to match your guild with your race. 

        Guilds are where you learn skills and spells by spending dev points
     (see below). Guilds also determine how fast you regenerate hit points
     (hp) and magic points (mp)....see below. Join a guild as soon as
     possible. Help guilds for more information. 

5)  Experience
         Experience is gained a couple of ways: killing monsters, 
     critical hits, quests.  You get a bonus for getting mass exp.  I.E. 
     killing a bad ass monster.  Experience is only used for raising 
     your level, not for skills/spells and of course you don't raise your 
     stats.  Level costs do vary between guilds.

     See help on the following:
	score	levels
         
6) Development / Advancement

          As I said earlier development points are gained by stats
     except for charisma.  The higher the stat, the more dev points
     you get.  Each level you get more dev points, and you can also be 
     awarded bonus points between levels for experience  There are two 
     ways to spend dev points. 1) Slow development: It is a base
     cost for a skill which you can raise once per level.  2) Fast
     development:  Fast development costs roughly double slow dev.  You can
     fast develop all the dev points you have.  There is no limit unlike 
     slow dev.  The developmemnt costs for skills are a flat rate.  Follow
     this chart.  So until you hit 30 in the skill (unmodified) each time
     you slow dev it raises by five.  And so on.
     up to 25
       by 5's
     26 to 49
       by 3's
     50 to 69
       by 2's
     70 on up
       by 1's
     Cost DOUBLES after 90.

     Spells are raised similarly to skills, but the dev point cost is 
     cumulative.  There are skills to cast spells etc...

     NOTE: All skills are modified by a certain stat which depends on the
     skill itself.  

     To list your skills, type 'skills' or 'skills base' for base skills.
     To list your spells, type 'spells'

     See help on the following:
     skills		spells
     cast			use

     For a more detailed explanation of the spell casting system, see
     'help spellsys'

     For detailed help on a particular skill, type:
   	'help skill <skill-name>'

     For detailed help on a spell, type:
	'help spell <spell-name>'
     
7)  Combat - Fear me explaining this because it is complex, but it 
                   ROCKS!!!
          When 
     you attack you can get a critical hit.  This critical hit is randomly 
     roled on a chart which has fun effects.  It can do little or
     kill instantly.  It can cripple limbs and cause other ill effects.  
     There are many different critical damages to support our many 
     different damage types.  There are also many modifications to 
     the combat, such as multiple hits etc.  Here is a quick list of 
     some of the things the combat system  supports.  
     This list is off the top of my head.
     - Limb support
     - Dodge, parry, and blocking...also bare-hand blocking(but tough)
     - Dual weapon attacking, multiply attacks
     - Specific weapon support
     - Penalty for using off hand (ambidextrous races are nice)
     - Lots of other cool shit, but I forgot

	In combat, the amount of damage you can take before dying is 
     determined by your hit points (hp).  You lose hp when you are
     damaged, and you can gain them back by regenerating (just waiting
     around). 

	IMPORTANT: Eating or drinking DRASTICALLY increase healing rate
     of both hp AND mp (magic points).
 
     For a detailed explanation of combat, see 'help combat.'

     The Penalties of Death:

	On DarkeMUD, death is relatively common, so the penalties are not
     terribly severe.  No permanent damage is done to your character
     unless you are killed by another player (in which case you can lose
     points off your skills).
	Normally, when you die, you lose an amount of experience equal to
     roughly 1/3 the amount you need to get to the next level.  If your
     corpse decays (takes about 8-10 minutes) before you return from the
     dead, the penalty doubles.  Certain spells can preserve corpses or
     overcome the penalties of returning from the dead.  Also, upon 
     dying, all of your possessions including money remain in your corpse.
     If you return from the dead before it decays, you automatically re-
     turn to it, regaining all possessions (that haven't been taken).
     If your corpse decays, you must go to the room where you died to
     recover your possessions.

     See help on the following:
     	kill   wield   wear  body   status  score   protection

8)  Law
         The law is run by players.  Wizards do not interfere.  There is a 
     council of the guildmasters.  They enforce the laws through the 
     guilds.  If a guy gets out of hand as a player killer,. players will 
     be expected to take care of it.  NOTE!!! Player killing is NOT 
     restricted on this mud!  Anyone can kill whomever they please without
     the wizzes getting involved.  The guild is expected to provide support
     for its members.  If a lower-level player in your guild is getting p/k'ed
     or stolen from or whatever, you are expected to intervene on his or 
     her behalf, or face the wrath of the guildmaster.  Because of this, the
     wizzes DO NOT LIKE whining!  If you whine to us about how hard a time
     you are having, you will get one of the following:
	1) Talk to your guildmaster.
	2) Play an easier mud.
     HOWEVER, if the guildmaster of your guild is either consistently
     unavailable or refuses to do his or her job effectively, we will
     intervene, but ONLY THEN.


9)  Economy
	   DarkeMUD economy is based on a system of inflation.  All
	currency types inflate at different rates and can be exchanged at
	the money changer.  The prices at stores change accordingly.
	Note that store prices are usually negotiable, meaning you are
	allowed to offer the shop keeper less than he/she/it wants for a
	particular item.  Charisma and trade lore skill help here

10)  Item Storage
	 Currently, the only way to save items past a reboot is to rent
     a room at the inn.  You must also buy a chest or other container
     which is specially designed to carry items past reboots and place it
     in your room.  THE CHEST MUST BE CLOSED OR IT MAY NOT SAVE!!!
     In the future, player castles will be implemented, and items may
     be stored there.

11)  Communication

     Languages:
	 All characters can speak their racial tongue fluently from the 
     start of the game.  To see the various racial tongues, type
     'tongues'.  In addition, everyone starts with a skill in Common that
     depends on intelligence.  Use this language when speaking to players
     not belonging to your race.  To see what languages are available to 
     you, type 'languages'.  Note that if you try to speak or hear a language
     in which you are not fluent, you may say or hear certain things 
     incorrectly.  Note that you learn languages automatically (and rather
     slowly) just by listening to it spoken.  To change the language
     you are speaking, type 'speak <language>'.
	 
     In several instances, you will be called upon to talk to NPC's or
     monsters.  You may do this with either the say or tell commands.
     If you use the say command, be sure to speak a language known 
     to the NPC, and address it with its name followed by a comma...

	say whoever, blah blah blah.

     If you have the mp, using the tell command is often more convenient,
     since it is not subject to language...see 'help communication' for
     details.

     It is more difficult to use this form of communication obviously 
     than to use commands like "sell," "buy," etc. for shopkeepers, but
     this is intended to give the realism of actually communicating with
     the shopkeeper, in much the same way you would have dealings with
     a player.

   	 In addition, the players have access to their guild channel, which
     may be accessed by typing the channel name followed by a message.  
     Players level 3 and under also have access to the newbie channel.
     You may view which channels you have access to with the 'lines'
     command.  Typing a channel name alone toggles it onn and off.

     See help on the following:
 	tell	say	reply	yell	shout	lines
	communication	languages	speak

12) The Mud Clock

     	On DarkeMUD, time passes roughly four times as fast as real
     world time.  In order to see what time, day, month, etc. it is on
     the mud clock, type 'time'.  Several spells, skills, etc. as well
     as night/day cycles, shop opening/closing times, and other events
     are based on the mud clock.  DO NOT CONFUSE the 'time' command with
     the 'date' command.  The 'date' command gives you the REAL time,
     and can be set to your own time zone if desired (see 'help setenv').
     
     See help on the following:
     	time	calendar	setenv
     	
++Drizzt
