Avatar Basics

OK, so you're an avatar.  Now what??  This is a primer that I (Cyric) have written to help you newbies out until I can be online more.  
Things are different as an immort, the primary goal is to create an environment where the PLAYERS have FUN.  
Rule number 1 for avatars is to be fair...  BE FAIR.  You're supposedly a good RP'er otherwise you wouldn't be reading this, so put yourself into players' shoes when dealing with them.

Originally, avatars had 21 non-player commands, now there are more than I can count, so here's a list of useful commands and suggestions to get started with.  99 percent of these have help files, so use those in addition to what's here. 

As of right now, I don't know if the guard command saves or not, but if it does, that's a good command to know as well.

**Commands marked with a double asterisk are ones that you should practice and become quick at using.

The basics....

Profile
one of the hardest things for a new avatar to wrap their heads around is the profile command, originally, profile was all we needed to change
to a custom NPC, but when recognize went in, that had to change.  Here's how it works:
- changeself - allows you to set some critical stats, **Only to be used to create a new profile** (otherwise use setatt and skillset)
- profile save XYZ - Saves your current profile, overwriting the old XYZ (no prompt), 
	it also creates a character called XYZ with the password the same as your avatar's password (more on this later)
- profile change ABC - loads ABC profile without saving your current profile
- whoami - lists all of your saved profiles

Ok, so hopefully this kind of makes sense, profiles save when you tell them to (profile save), and profile change will load whatever you saved.
You can use this to save items and money, and make copies of these things or multiply your cash if you need to.

If you profile save dirk, whatever your current stats etc are will save in a character called dirk.
Now you can log dirk on and do stuff with him (password is the same as your avatar)
Any changes you do with dirk will not affect the profile you have saved, hence why it's a good idea to flesh out a profile as much as possible
before saving it and using it... For example:
1. log on your avatar
2. use changeself to set up some stats
3. profile save dirk
4. log on dirk (now you have both your avatar and dirk logged on)

Now, if you make any changes with dirk, i.e. setting a description, outfitting eq, etc, it will NOT SAVE on the profile.  
The character is now completely separate.  so this means if you set the description, switch to your avatar, 
and do profile save dirk, it will overwrite whatever changes you made.  
This is going to happen sooner or later, so make sure you have a backup profile for each NPC you have.

As a shortcut, or if you can't be bothered with having an avatar and an NPC logged on at the same time, use charswitch and switchback.
charswitch dirk - logs off your avatar and logs on dirk.
switchback - logs off your NPC and logs on your avatar.

**Echo
Echo is one of the most useful commands you have.  Become familliar with it so you can whip up a decent looking echo quickly.
help echo for the variants.

**Orb
The orb is useful as well, I suggest setting up aliases so you can use it quickly.

Item
This command is essential.  use it to create new items.  Neat, right?  Balancing is tough.  Assume that the items already in the game
are balanced, and create items that are identical but have some cosmetic differences.  Alternatively, you can test a weapon repeatedly
in the monster generation room to make sure that they do comparable damage to something already IG.  Any such tests should be extensive.
Until you get more experienced, avoid creating items that are more powerful than what's IG.  I suggest making some test items first
to see how it works before creating an AWESOME item with 18 echoes and special effects.  Reason being is if you screw up, you need 
to start over from scratch.  Also, just because it's IG, doesn't mean it's balanced for everyone. Some items are harder to get than
others, use your judgement.

setatt, skillset, spellset, rstock, lstock
Use these commands to set your skills, languages, equipment etc.
If there is some item not on the list or in the item generation room, feel free to get it yourself and save it on a storage profile.

wp, peo, whereare, stat player, score player, inven -l player, listdeaths player, newdeaths player, note view player
All stuff for getting vital stats on players.

Getting around....

go
go to player, self explanatory

dock
dock undead, dock shadow, dock tonnerra, self explanatory

temples
easy way to get to temples

go arena
sends you to obsidian's arena with a bunch of exits

lounge
sends you to the avatar lounge, where you can push buttons and pull levers to get a cube ring (perfect vision), and a stick (grant deeds and xp)

Player relations....

dam, wizheal, damall
Ways to deal damage and heal (negative damage heals)

vis, invis, ckvis
sets you to wizinvis, if you try to hide in shadows after using this command, it tends to cancel the wizinvis and sets you to hidden, instead.

racetoggle
sets your race to on or off, if you don't want stuff to interact with you or have players look you over as elf 3, turn this off.
for example, if you're the 2nd elf in the room, and someone does l elf 2, they'll see you if you have racetoggle on.
You'll also be included in random hits like chain lightning with racetoggle on.

**army
Allows you to create a bunch of fodder NPC's to protect you, also useful for ambushing players as you can move the army straight to them. :)
I suggest setting up aliases for quick use.

notes
Notes are essential, use them a lot.  help note for more...

levelcap
This is a tool to control PL'ing. 
Don't use this until you become more experienced.  As an avatar, your primary role is to encourage RP, not police it.  Remember that 
although you are an immortal, there are many different styles of Rp'ing and there is no 'best' style.  If you think someone is out of hand,
note ckpt them and mail someone more experienced.  Of course, if they ask you to cap them, you can do that.

grant
grants xp to players, use this if you see some RP you like, and at the conclusions of plots.  Grant negative xp as a penalty

alignment
allows you to see and modify the alignment of a player, use this when you see someone do something that's good or evil, hit them with a
change in alignment and note them when you do this and why.  As a reference, attacking a player unprovoked is a -10 alignment shift.
They don't get an echo, so you might want to send them one when you use this command.

Plots...
As a new immortal, you have ideas on what you want to do for plots, these will get done eventually, but I stress that you should start small.
Big plots have a tendency to spiral out of control as high level players want to get involved.  As they get involved, their sheer power
demands that the ante be raised, and the threats increase proportionally, and pretty soon you're dealing with 12 characters and an earth
shattering plot that takes 2 years to resolve.  Players LOVE anything avatary, they think it's so cool, even if it's the most simple thing
in the world and all they get is a little deed in their bio.  So here's a few plot ideas for you, they can get more complicated as you
become more experienced.  one more word of warning, don't fall in love with your NPC's, i.e. don't make them uberpowered with the best
equipment and 10000 hps etc, it's bad, players don't appreciate unbeatable NPC's, expect your NPC's could die at any time (of course, 
there would be appropriate IG responses).  Ok, a few plot outlines...

Courier- deliver object from one NPC to another (like a sealed scroll)
escort- escort an NPC from one place to another
find and retrieve/rescue mission- seek out an area, find an item, return it for a reward (rob a caravan without being seen, healing potion
	to save a child, kidnapped wife)
seek and destroy- assassination mission (only kill the target? frame someone else?)
settle dispute- two NPC's are in some kind of argument, diffuse the situation (or escalate it?)
scavenger hunt- like the swords quest, one clue leads to the next etc.

Obviously you're eventually going to have to throw some wrenches into the works, for example, in the rescue mission, the person you're 
trying to rescue doesn't want to go back, apparently the one who hired you is an abusive husband and the wife fled with her new lover.  
How the players respond to situations like this determines much about their character (and what kind of reputation they will get, someone 
who honors their agreements, someone who does what's right, someone who will do anything for money, someone who is unpredictable 
and unreliable... etc)

I suggest working in teams of 2 when possible, because players move too quickly for you to do everything at once.  With one avatar behind the
scenes (setting up the areas, mobs, etc) and one avatar interacting with the players, things will run smoother.  Ideally, these short dinky plots
should run about 30 minutes, and be finished in one session.  If your plots last more than one session, you will find that often, not every 
player shows up when they say they will, and things begin to drag.  Plus, people will talk and more players will want to get involved etc etc.
Most of the time, it's best to keep it short and sweet.  Keep in mind that the players have no idea what's going on behind the scenes, and most
likely, they will think whatever plot you throw their way is awesome.  You don't need to give them ultra rewards, you don't need to grant them
tons of XP, the plot itself is the reward.  If they don't like it, don't run plots for them anymore as most other players will appreciate what 
you do.  As you get more experienced, you can start doing things like sending two players of opposing dieties after the same item, etc.  Remember,
some NPC's are smart, and some are dumb, players like outwitting NPC's, but all truly great villians are the ones who can outwit the heroes and
always seem one step ahead of them.

Plot commands
eddb- control mob emotes, kinda neat
graffitti- edit room descriptions.
eavesdrop- listen on a player's whispers
setagg- sets the aggressiveness of mobs, setagg 18 means that a mob will autoattack any player with a cha below 18.
unswarm- when one mob is in combat, swarmed mobs also attack.  The unswarm command causes the mobs to not care if their buddy gets attacked.
deed- you need the stick from the lounge to use this, set deeds to make a note of when plots are completed and give players a little badge
of honor that they can look back on and remember.
alignment- mentioned earlier, use to adjust player's alignment

A word of caution...
As an avatar, you have incredible influence on SG.  Eventually someone will accuse you of cheating or favoritism, it's inevitable.  The best
thing you can do is to avoid situations where you're making decisions on characters that your char is allies with, or running plots for
your OOG friends.  Just avoid the situations where you might be biased and make a point of saying you're avoiding the issue because
you may be biased.  It might suck for your friends who expected more interaction and unique items, but they shouldn't be expecting 
favoritism from immorts anyway.  Also, please try to be polite and professional when dealing with the players, offer suggestions, not edicts.  
It's always good to get the players excited about something.  Also, you should probably know that occasionally older, 
more experienced avatars will play characters to see how other immorts are doing... so be nice!

Well, hopefully that's enough to get you started and running for the first few months.  After that you'll know if avataring is something 
you're cut out for (not all great players make great avatars, sometimes it just doesn't work).  Remember the main rules,

1. Be Fair
2. Have Fun

And you will have a much easier time.

--Cyric

see also:  new-imm, avatar101, imm_rules, guidelines