A newbie's guide how to die

An explanation how to die? I want to live!

Of course you don't want to die. Nobody wants that. But when you play in a MUD and take part in the normal risky daily life, death will be almost inevitable. Everyone can die. Even when you only sit in pubs and talk, it can happen to you. There is no such life without any risk to die. This text is supposed to give you some hints that should help you to to avoid getting killed too often, and to cope with your fate in those cases when you failed to do so.

Out-of-Game effects

Death in Xyllomer will have two types of effect on you: In-Game and Out-of-Game. An Out-of-Game effect might be that you feel frustrated, disappointed, hurt, personally insulted, angry, annoyed, depressed.

These feelings will spoil your fun, and it will generally be better for you if you are able to avoid such reactions. A MUD is a game, and playing should be something to enjoy, not to cry about. So please don't hurt yourself mentally, in addition to the damage that has occurred to your character. Instead, try to find some ritual habit that helps you to 'get over it'.

My personal ritual is: Lean back, smile(!), perhaps say something like 'Oh?', and then scroll back and read the buffer to check how this has happened in detail. Some deaths of my characters were surprising for me, some were predictable, and some of them were even amusing.

A few of my deaths were a mental training for the player at the keyboard. Knowing that my character is bound to be a possible target for playerkills, I sometimes play a rather suicidal style. Getting killed is part of my role, and whining about getting killed is absolutely taboo for someone who plays a Priest of Huitzilopochtli. So, now and then, I let things go, act less careful than I could, and die. Not with the purpose to die in that moment. Actually, I really try to survive. But I'm running more risks and sometimes fail to get out alive again. Just to get used to the feeling.

Now this doesn't mean that you shall do the same. No, don't play suicidal, live! But when your character dies, you can still pretend that you were running a risk on purpose and feel like a hero. If you can't avoid to fail, fail with glee. Little lies to oneself are allowed when they ease the pain. ;-)

Life goes on. Luckily, we don't have permanent death in Xyllomer. After getting resurrected, things are pretty much the same as before. The stats are lower, and perhaps you have lost some items. But the stats will rise again and you can get yourself a new equipment. There's no reason to despair.

In most cases, you will see that your death was your own fault. Learn to love your mistakes, you will always make some. It's useless to curse yourself for being stupid. Getting killed is a message from the MUD which reads: "No, not this way!", and the only appropriate answer is: "OK, message understood."

In-Game effects

The In-Game effects of a death are a bit annoying, no doubt about that. Death is supposed to be that way. Your stats drop significantly, as well as your fitness condition, but you will not lose anything that can't be regained in the gameplay. If you have solved some quests, you will not lose the experience points (EXP) you gained from them. What you lose is those EXP you got from roleplaying or from killing monsters. If you don't have regainable EXP to lose, your skills will be reduced. If you have neither combat EXP nor skills, you will not lose anything. Again, always remember there's no reason to despair!

You died. You can see your dead body from above.

When you die, the first thing you will notice is that you have turned into a ghost. The corpse on the ground is your former body. A message informs you that "Your ghost state allows you to travel 'start'", and most commands are anwered with "You can't do this as a ghost." - Now, nothing worse can happen to your character any more. The danger is over. It has happened (again). Lean back. Relax. Analyse.

How could this happen to me?

The two main causes of death are:

1. entering a room with a powerful monster in it, which you didn't expect to be there (in some cases, they block the exit and you can't even flee).
2. engaging in a fight and finding out that the enemy is more dangerous than you expected - but realizing this too late.

Outside of caves or buildings, you can look into directions. For instance, you can 'look west'. Depending on the light and on your character's ability to see ("Keen are the eyes of the elves!"), you will notice living beings in the next room, sometimes two or three rooms away. Use this ability. It can really save your life.

If you are little, and you see frightening descriptions like claw marks, blood, huge footprints, corpses, skulls, impaled heads, or signs with serious warnings written on them, you should better refrain from exploring those places. Some of them are really dangerous, and even the big people will only enter them in a team.

Before you attack anything yourself, have a close look at it and 'appraise' the enemy. Take into account that being able to appraise an enemy is a skill and that a young character might not be able to make out the true abilities of a monster. Look at the opponent.

Does he look scary? Then leave him alone. Scary things are usually dangerous. Does he have more than two arms? Leave him alone. Each arm will give him an extra attack in every combat round. And don't just attack everything in sight. Some special people or creatures have an extremely good memory, and once you have attacked them, they will regard you as their enemy. Forever.

Attacking civilized people (humans, dwarves, elves, gnomes, fairies, centaurs) is an extremely bad idea for a youngster. First of all, since you are young, they will usually be stronger than you are. But worse than that, killing people is being treated as a crime by the other players. You would force them to defend the NPC against you. Nobody really wants to kill a newbie. But in such situations, accidents are very likely to happen.

When an unknown living (person or creature) attacks you, the most appropriate reaction of a youngster is to run back where you came from. When you are bleeding, rest, try 'aid'. When aiding fails and help is too far away to reach you in time, sleep. This is no joke. Sleep can sometimes save your life when you are unable to cure your bloodloss.

Next, scroll back, and analyse the attack.

• Did the enemy fight you with bare hands, with a weapon, with razor sharp claws?
• Did he only tickle or hurt, or did he smash, graze, pierce you? Did he cut or break your limbs? Did you bleed on first touch?
• How many enemies are there? Of what kind? Trolls? Run away, you fool!
• Check your health: Are you slightly hurt, somewhat hurt, or are you just barely alive? Did you know that you have to go to a healer once they have beaten you down to very bad shape? No, alcohol doesn't heal wounds in Xyllomer!
• How many combat rounds did it take to bring you in this state? Did they block? How many tries did it take to get out of there?
• How many times did they hit you in each combat round? Did you score any hits on your enemies? Were they ever successful?
• Didn't that look a bit scary? Oh, what? There's a little kobold sitting in your ear, squeaking: "Wimp! Go back and fight if you are a man!" Hm. In that case: stay away from that monster, go home. Or, if you really want to fight, don't cry when you die.

Your ghost state allows you to travel 'start'.

The command 'start' is a teleport for ghosts. Unless you have set an alternative starting place with the '@options' command before you died, this will bring you back to your birthplace. You are not obliged to use it. On the other hand, the wizards are not too happy about players who use their ghost state to explore places they could not visit while they were alive. Be sensible. Act honourably. Do not use the ghost state as an opportunity to spy around.

Two other commands for ghosts are 'mist' and 'unmist'. The 'mist' command will make you invisible, 'unmist' will make you visible again. Use this with caution. As mentioned above, some wizards are really not very happy about ghosts who spy around. And yet, there is this powerful feature: Invisibility. Is it allowed to fade into mist and follow your murderer? Perhaps. Who knows. Perhaps it is not. Is it allowed to sneak into the well guarded inner guild rooms of your enemies and listen to their discussions? I bet it is not. Use this feature with extreme care if you ever want to use it.

A corpse of yourself. It contains: ...

Usually you'll want to get alive again, and usually you'll want to get back your equipment. But don't hurry. Think first. Do you have a guildline or gemline to call help? Or is there a road nearby where you can wait for the helping hand of a living person? If you abandon your corpse and run to a remote shrine, the next lesser intelligent player might walk by, pick up your stuff, and sell it at the next shop. Mature, sensible players will not do such a thing. But some people are that mean. Oh, and remember, when you are alive and find another player's equipment somewhere: don't use the opportunity to make some coins. Be fair. Leave the stuff where it is.

Only in rare cases, your things will be lost because you died in a place that was designed to kill anyone who enters it. Most deaths occur in rooms where it is possible to retrieve your stuff. But should you enter a room where you just died in combat? Naked? Do you want to die again? I bet not.

Guildlines and even gemlines still work when you are a ghost. A gemline will work while the gem is in the same room with you. You can listen to it and you can call. Don't be too shy to ask.

A friend or guildmate should never refuse to help you in an appropriate way. Killing monsters elsewhere, taking part in an interesting talk or being in the middle of a complicated quest is no excuse for letting down a guildmate who died, no matter how stupid this death was. The only acceptable excuses are: "If I tried to get your stuff from that place, I would die myself.", or: "I have urgent Real-Life reasons to quit the game."

But be sensible. It is not your friend's fault that you died. If they come to help you, they are doing you a favour. Be patient and polite. If your equipment is only cheap standard stuff, it might even be possible that you are better off if you abandon it and beg for coins to buy new things.

Killed by another player

This is something special. Oftenly, your foe will agree to bring your equipment to a meeting point after your resurrection. Never abuse such an honourable gesture. Do not lead him into a trap. Don't distract your enemy with a talk, while you call for help on your guildline or gemline. That's unfair.

Either you call for help, or you talk and negociate about the retrieval of your stuff. But don't do both at the same time. If you already called for help during the attack, be fair and warn him that 'help is on the way'. If you are alone, politely(!) ask him if he would be so generous and bring your belongings to a place where you can pick them up again.

No matter if you have won or lost the fight: Be polite. Act honourably. Do not spit at corpses. Do not OOCly whine about your death. Do not sneer. Do not complain. Now that the fight is over, there is a winner and a loser. Bow to each other. Show some style. Player killing is a rather delicate object. Even IC reactions are sometimes mistaken as OOC remarks.

Oh, and if you are the one who has killed a player, never do anything like "@say Don't cry, you should have expected that!" - You don't know if the other one is crying. And even if he is, it's not your cup of tea. Be polite and don't rub salt into a fresh wound, will you? Maybe the other one is just trying to swallow down his pain, and then he has to listen to such a lousy remark. You should better be quiet. Or do you have a bad concience and feel the urge to apologize?

Killed by a killer

Very few persons are killer type players. They kill because they want to hurt the player, not the character. Do not feed these trolls, do not let them see that you are upset, even if you are. If you don't know how to react, just look down at your corpse and say something like: "Oh. How odd. I suddenly feel so light." - Then smile.

Being a favourite target

If you get killed again and again, always by the same guild or person, you can tell them that this is a bit too much for you to cope with. You can ask them politely(!) to spare your life in future. But, if you do so: try to stay away from the battle fields and inform your guildmates about the agreement. Don't be surprised if the enemy rejects your request when you have been a frequent killer yourself before you got killed.

Resurrection

How does a ghost get back to life? There are two possibilities:

1. Praying at a shrine
2. Being resurrected by a player priest

Your character can worship one ore more gods (which should not be enemies of each other!). Praying at a shrine of your god or of one of your gods is the most simple solution to become alive again. But don't chose your religion randomly, be careful. Religion is something serious and can't be altered quickly.

If you worship Rokoon or Huitzilopochtli, you can ask a player priest of your religion for a resurrection. If you don't know where they are, go to the shrine and ask the NPC priest about help (Rokoon believers 'ask morion help', Huitzilopochtli believers 'ask ahuizotl help'). They will broadcast your call on their guildline, and if any priest is around, they will usually show up after a little while.

After your resurrection, you should leave the game for a moment with "quit quit", and then reconnect. The reason for this advice is an old bug which has never been found and which will probably never be fixed: The effect of this bug is that you are much weaker than you should be. After quitting and reconnecting, your stats should be recalculated correctly.

Conclusion

You can get enraged about anything. But you are not obliged to do so.

Have a lot of fun.
@Crotalo.