MUDDLED TIMES

ISSUE 1

 

CONTENTS
A little intro from Suzy the witch
For your Diary
The Charts
Newbies bit
Meet the mobiles, by Lexley
The Good, The Bad and The ... Sillies
Legends and Myths
Wdi's Linky bits

 

Hi,

Welcome to the first issue of Muddled Times. This newsletter will be published monthly and will include an events schedule for the coming month, articles from past events written by the players themselves, tales of sadness and joy, the top players of the month, a legends and myths bit and whatever else we can fit in. In my opinion, MUD is the most challenging and rewarding game I have ever played and I’m sure I am not alone when I say that. The overall aim of the game is to have fun and maybe one day reach level 11, earning you the title of Wizard or Witch and of course, immortality. However, as the saying goes, "You haven’t lived until you’ve died in MUD" and many choose to play the game, learning the many ways of the land and the mystery’s it holds, before they even attempt to make a run up to the 204,800 points needed to reach the ultimate goal.

My first experience of MUD was a total disaster. I wandered into the land and stumbled around lost, for at least an hour anyway. I don't have such a good recollection of all the facts now but fortunately I wrote a little review at the time, so here it is.

PEA THE YEOWOMAN

FIRST IMPRESSION

Loads of typing, can't find my way around, dying all the time.. and. Oh flip can I really be bothered to start over for the 60th time..

MANY HOURS LATER

Still dying all the time and can't seem to get anywhere, then wow that’s how you pick something up. OK by this point I am tearing out my hair..Off to the help file. Got loads of goodies and info off the internet, printed the map, read ALL the instructions and then made my 3rd attempt.

GRABBING POINT

Yep that’s what I said guys..1 hour into Mud and yipee still alive. Found my way round ok and scored loads of points. I even managed to flee from the vampire and live heehee. Ok well done Pea I said to myself, finally your getting somewhere!!!!!(am I hooked already?)

OVERALL OPINION

Once you find your feet it's great and you can have loads of fun just wandering around the land finding treasure and chasing dragonflies. Dying after so much hard work can be really irritating but for some reason, even after I threw a few cups round the room and turned off my PC in a great big huff and swore never again to play MUD guess what !!!! Yep, that’s right straight back in there for another go.

Excellent !!!!

Have fun !

Suzy the witch.

 

FOR YOUR DIARY
Thursday 5th November

MOBILE BASH…. !

Kill every mobile in the land and earn a really cool 3 thousand points. Oh and it’s bonfire night too, so don’t be alarmed if you see the odd firework flying past your earhole. I’m afraid I could never get the hang of setting them off, hehe.

Thursday 12th November

SORCERER WAR.... !

Just turn up at 9pm with a new persona name (with no points) and you will be magically transformed into a Sorcerised Sorcerer. All players taking part will be set free into the land to attempt to get as many kills to their name as possible. All sorcerised persona will be resurrected should they die, so they can return to the land to do some more killing, however, the winner will be the player with the most persona kills on their obit at the end of the reset.

Thursday 19th November

MOBILE BASH..... !

Thursday 26th November

MOBILE BASH.... !

 

THE CHARTS
Here are the top ten players.

29th October 1998.

  1. Oppps
  2. Ouie
  3. Karya
  4. Drackion
  5. Jungleboy
  6. Munchkin
  7. Hansolo
  8. Droo
  9. Tom
  10. Diptheria

 

SUZY’S NEWBIE’S BIT….
WHAT IS MUD2?

MUD stands for Multi-User Dungeon and it couldn’t be described in a better way. It is text based but once you have been in the land for a couple of days your imagination will soon take over <G>. MUD can be played in many different ways. It’s entirely up to you what you do in the land, be it picking the odd flower to gain experience points, killing the many mobiles that roam freely across the land to gain even more experience points, or if you really want to score tons of points in one go, you are free to kill any thing that moves, why not have a pop at a mage or two, they can be worth around 40,000 points. The latter being a bit more risky but fun all the same. There are a few guidelines for good conduct in the land set out by the wizards and its advisable to ask for a little advice if you aren’t sure, rather than be caught over stepping the mark.

WHERE CAN I BUY MUD2?

You can’t, but you can download the software free while connected to Wireplay, or it can be found on any Wireplay CD. It won’t cost you a penny to take a peek in the land so why not give it a go.

OK I’M THERE, SO NOW WHAT?

When you enter the game for the first time, you will need to create a persona. This can be any name you choose providing no-one else has already used it of course. You can have 3 personae in total on your MUD account. They are easy to set up, just follow the screen prompts. Once you have a persona name you will be taken to a room called the tea room. The tea room is a wonderful place for having a chat and you can sit sipping tea for as long as you like with the knowledge you are quite safe. When you feel suitably composed, feel free to go north and have a wander.

HOW DO I GET HELP?

At any point along the way, instant online help is available by typing INFO, HELP and FAQ. It’s usually a good idea to read these before setting off on your first journey into the land, but they can be referred back to at any time. Typing TOUR while in the tea room is good fun too. During a tour, you will be taken round many of the lands places of interest. Some of the tours can take up to 20 minutes but are well worth a go.

Well enough waffle from me for now….. read on and have fun!

Suzy the witch.

 

MEET THE MOBILES
BY LEXLEY

I don't quite know why mud's monsters are called "mobiles", they just are! This is the first of a series of articles which looks at all of them in detail. I'm taking them in alphabetical order, so if I miss one it's because I've never seen it :-).

All my data comes from personal experience, such as I have it. This means mobile bashes a lot of the time. If you think I've made a mistake, please point it out - I'm sure Suzy wants a vibrant letter column :-). I'm tough, I can handle it (nooo!).

ABOUT THE RATING SYSTEM

There's no way of getting an accurate, in-game report of how dangerous mobiles are, not that I know of any way, so any rating system has to be subjective. For this reason, I use a scale of stars, with 1 star being low and 5 stars being high:

* Very low. Almost inconsequential.

** Low. Not much of a challenge.

*** Average. Lots are like this.

**** High. Something of a challenge.

***** Very high. Attention-grabbing.

There's one additional possibility:

n/a The rating system is not applicable for this particular case.

On with the show!

**** THE APES

There are eight apes, and they don't make an appearance until the great gate is open. This is because they usually occupy part of the temple grounds, in the swathe of forest. Ape0 is the leader and he's a bit tougher than the rest. Well he's a lot tougher than the rest, to be honest :-) . The apes follow their leader devotedly, and if he was ever separated from the rest of the shrewdness (which you did know is the collective noun for apes, of course) they would be lost without his direction. Although they're no slouches on their own, they're a lot easier to tackle this way. They're satisfyingly susceptible to blindness spells, and you can get quite a few points for killing them all.

*** THE BANSHEE

The banshee is found in the swamp or the pond. She'll normally only attack if you're on low stamina, which sounds very charitable of her but is REALLY ANNOYING because it means that if something else just whacked you, you have to be extra careful if you want to deposit some T before quitting. She must have done that to me a dozen times. She's mainly disliked for another of her nuisance values, though: if she hears you speak, she lets out a scream which deafens you and knocks off a big chunk of stamina. Now, no matter how much you explain it to them, newbies rarely understand this and will happily continue to chat when you lead them to the swamp to drop some trinkets, despite all warnings as to what will happen. Agh! Even if you're prudently silent, getting into a fight with the banshee can be costly - she'll scream of her own volition if she's desperate. If you don't hear the scream, you don't take the damage - don't ask me why, that's just how it is.

**** THE BASILISK

I'm not an expert on the basilisk, but I have killed him a few times because he guards some nice treasure. He lives in the grandfather clock, and looking at him turns you to stone. As I wasn't a magic-user the first time I attacked him, I used one of the many magical objects littered around the land to blind myself (I,ll leave it to you to work out exactly which). I thought this was pretty smart, but he kept trying to steal it from me so I snacked on a root conveniently left in the clock's body, which gave me some breathing space. I'm not sure whether he's over-valued or not - he's worth about 3 times as much as an ape, for example. He is more frightening, though, even if you never see his face (unless you're unlucky :-).

* THE BEES

Mobiles don't really come any easier than bees. There are ten of them in all, and not only do they die the instant you hit them, but they die even if THEY hit YOU! They don't attack in concert - in fact they hardly attack at all unless you're holding the honeycomb. That said, they have been known to kill mages! This is because they live in the maze of hedges, and sometimes mages keep their site there so it's hard for people to find them. If they've recently resited out from a fight which nearly killed them, a bee sting might just be enough to finish them off!

That's all for now. Next time, it's the turn of the boar, butterfly, canary, carp and coot.

Lexley

 

THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE ...... SILLIES
The articles in this section are written by you, the players. The size of this section will vary depending on what gets sent in. If you would like to submit a tale, then please MUD-MAIL it to AZZURI.

On a lighter note, isn't it funny that, for the vast majority of submissions for this section the authors wanted to remain anonymous. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that some of the articles are so embarrassing for the player concerned, that they would never live it down in the land.

PARACHUTE PERIL

Imagine the scene, The game has just reset, the hectic scramble for kit has begun. I decide to get myself a sea faring vehicle. After a quick use of my magical abilities, I learn that one such vehicle is in a concealed area. Heading for this area as fast as I could (speeds comparable to the Hedgehog <G>).

I screech to a halt as found myself on the edge of a very high cliff, Realising that I couldn't survive an unaided jump, I use my magical abilities to locate a parachute. I learn that one is not too far from the swamp, I go off to get the parachute, hoping that I will get there before anyone else does. I get there and it is still there, I take it in my hands, safe in the knowledge that a means to travel the seas will soon be mine. I head back towards the cliff, passing the thief, the most notorious of pickpockets. I ignore him as he skulks of into in the background thinking that not even the thief could steal something in such a brief instant! I was in such a rush that I just opened the parachute and jumped. A second later, SPLAT!, I looked more like a pancake than a player.

Confused as to what had happened, I headed back into the land and decided to locate my parachute, I stared in disbelief as the words "one carried by the thief" appeared on my screen. In the instant that I was in the same room as the thief, He had stolen it from me without me noticing!

Anon.

 

SWAMPY SYN'S

I had just entered the game, and noticed that there was a player with a particularly awkward name to type, Dirkgently I think it was. So I decided to SYN him. I syn'ed him as DDD And then continued on my way around the land. After a short while I had to leave and was standing in the swamp read to swamp whatever valuables I had and then quit, but being such a nice person, I decided to offer dirkgently my stuff.

Somehow, I still haven't worked out how, I managed to mistype DDD for just D and didn't even put a message in, resulting in me going down in the swamp, a most embarrassing silly death. The closest I ever came to working out how I managed it, was the fact that I was watching TV at the same time.

Anon.

 

OOOOOOOPS !!!

Skunk the mage sat on the vicious rocks, and paused to let the adrenaline rush die down.

He knew this was the last times he would have to cross the treacherous seas and slay the death breathing dragon.

The demise of the dragon was to ensure his immortality.

'Skunk the dragon slaying wizard' ah yes this was to be the ultimate accolade!

Skunk concentrated on the task in hand and would not entertain thoughts of failure.

'The dragon will die' .. 'the will die'... 'the will die'..

He repeated these words until they could be the only reality. Then with head held high and visions of glory planted firmly in his mind. Skunk stepped into the sea and drowned!!

Many mishaps later skunk ponders his next assault on immortality with intrepidation and wonders if his fellow adventurers have similar sorry tales to tell.

Skunk.

 

Never under-estimate the power of a zombie <G>.

There once was a Necro who was wandering around the land, when all of a sudden she got attacked by an invisible someone. The first thing she does is take her wafers from her box. (5 of them). Anyway after about 2 or 3 hits the invisible someone fled so the Necro carried on wandering.

Soon after the Necro spies a zombie and thinks oh well easy points so she attacks it.

The zombies stam drops to close to death and then says the zombie3 has eaten a wafer. The Necro thinks nothing of this so carries on fighting and when the zombie gets down in stam again it says the zombie3 has eaten a wafer. This happens 5 times and by this time the Necro is close to death so she thinks ooh and types eat one wafer. To which it responds, I don’t know to what wafer you are referring.

Then very slowly it dawns on the Necro that the zombie has been eating her wafers at which point she is forced to flee.

The story of the only time I’ve ever fled to a zombie which was rather embarrassing. Just glad that no one else was on to witness it <G>.

Anon.

 

 

LEGENDS AND MYTHS
Witches - Burning or Hanging?

This month a devotee of drowning writes.

Of all the complex methods of disposing of a Witch, drowning is by far the easiest, in my experience.

First, gain the trust of your Witch. This is fairly easily done, with some patience on your part. On sighting the Witch, tell her how much you admire her and her kind, and enquire after her health. A few days of this should do the trick.

Second, acquire all the boats in the Land and distribute them to three sturdy friends. It takes four people working together on a patch of open water to successfully drown a Witch, so the only place you can do it is the lake where the swan lives. (Remember to dispose of the swan before hand).

Gather the four of you together on the lake and wait for it to rain. When the rain begins, one of you must nip off the lake and wish for it to stop. If you are fortunate, a Wizard hearing this plea will cruelly cause the rain to turn to snow.

Now you are almost ready to begin! Each person should 'help' the person standing on their right for maximum effect).

Then - call upon your Witch!

As she appears all of you must SIMULTANEOUSLY push the Witch downwards into the water. The freezing effect of the snow-cooled lake will have an immediate and dire effect upon the Witch's stamina.

WARNING - If the Witch is strong willed she may pop her head above the surface of the water - you must instantly thrust her back down again! Any delay and she will begin to recover and take terrible revenge upon you all!

When the Witch finally expires her body will rot away as her magic fades. You can then wait for the weather to clear and retrieve her valuable bones from the bottom, and swamp them for several thousand points (depending on the power of the Witch).

N.B. Remember to get your Witch unaloof so that you can push her - or you will be in for a nasty suprise - probably involving cockroaches.

[NEXT MONTH -- EXPLOSIVES, THE MODERN WITCH-CULLER]

 

Wdi's Linky bits
Cat the wizard's site - http://www.netcomuk.co.uk/~europe/mud2.html

Wireplays official mud2 web site.

Muddy - http://members.xoom.com/MuddyWeb/

A mortal run website for mud2 on wireplay.

Richard's site - http://www.mud.co.uk/richard/mud.htm

Tons of good stuff here.

The players pages - http://www.btinternet.com/~players_pages/Mud2.htm

MUSE co. - http://www.mud.co.uk/

Wireplay - http://www.wireplay.com

 

Coming soon......
A little section specially for MUD in the Wireplay club bit. Here you will find general help on MUD2, a few rules and of course, this wonderful newsletter.

Thanks to everyone who has helped put this newsletter together. Muddled Times can also be found on Cat the wizards website and Muddy. See the links above. If you have any articles you would like to have published in the next issue, or even a section all of your own please MUD-MAIL Suzy the witch or send an email to suzy@ellisweb.com.

Issue 1.

November 3rd 1998.