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Welcome to the 4th Age Tutorial
First of all you might wonder, what does AD&DRPG mean exactly? It is an acronym, and it stands for Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Role Playing Game. The game is based on the game by Wizards of the Coast of the same name, but we are in no way affiliated with Wizards. The second thing you may wonder is how you got here, or more likely, what do you do now that you are here. Well first off seeing as this is your first time here, lets go through the basics.
Interaction with Others
Unlike in most other worlds the text you type into AW is not sent out in a normal way. We utilize a chat bot called [DM Chat] which was designed and created by us for this world. In most AW worlds your chat is limited to a certain radius around your avatar, but in AD&DRPG your text is transmitted to everyone no matter where they are in the world. This means no more losing track of someone who is talking to you because they left your hearing range. There are several chat commands which we will discuss later in this section. AD&DRPG uses a system of chat channels that allow you to send text to groups of people. The regular chat channel is the default channel and where all of your text goes without a command. Use this channel for general chatting with others. There is a second channel which when you send text to it your name will be preceded by [RPL] and the font will be green. This channel is for role-playing and is only to be used towards that end. The [RPL] channel is seen by all users but can be disabled if you so choose.
Examples of what you’ll see (Using Mia Akemi as an example)
“player”: normal chat text. Players will all be black text and staff will have either bold and/or colored OOC. Mia talks in Bold Purple for example
[RPL] Mia Akemi: this is an example of the RP channel. It is accessed by /rp . It will be non bold green
*Mia Akemi laughs at Daenks this is an example of an emote by /me. It inserts your name and your action. This syntax would be “/me laughs at Daenks”
##STUFF## stuff like this will also be shown…may also appear in other colors (with special stuff like TROGDOR). It usually announces a player death in either PvP or standard combat
Note: Staff members may have different color text as well.
Chat Commands
- Note: (text) simply denotes where you will type whatever you intend to send out
| SYNTAX | DESCRIPTION |
| /who | This command displays a list of all the users currently in the world |
| /rp (text) | Sends your (text) out as [RPL] to the role-playing channel |
| /me (text) | Creates an emote text |
| /chan rpl, off | Turns off role-playing channel [RPL] |
| /chan rpl, on | Turns on role-playing channel [RPL] |
Character Creation
Now that you’ve grasped how to talk to others, lets figure out who you are, or more correctly, who you are “playing”. You will notice upon entering the world for the first time (or with a character reset or a name change) you are in a really tiny and absolutely boring room. This is the Character Creation room, the place where you shape yourself into the bright bouncy new character you intend to play the game with. Each unexciting doorway has a sign outside which tells you which race is within each little room. The races to select from are: Fairy, Human, Elf, Half-Elf, Hobbit, Dwarf, Drow, Gnome, Vampire, Orc-Amazon. As you may have noticed, different races have different character starting attributes. The attributes are Str, Dex, Con, Int, Wis, Cha, HP, MP, AC and MR. Some characters also begin with some GP (gold pieces) and a bonus ALIGNMENT. That’s really cool because well, you need gold to buy cool stuff, and your alignment can determine how shopkeepers react to you or what class you can join.
To obtain information about what each attribute is use /help attribute. For example: ‘/help Str’. Information about alignment – ‘/help alignment’. If you decide that after all you aren't so happy about your race you can use /reset to start over (you will then have to leave the world and come back)
The last part of creating your character is to pick a class. Class is a very important concept - it is what you are and defines what you can do, the skills you may possess, the spells you can learn, and the stuff you can equip. Also, each class has different evolution trees. This is important because your BASE STATS are increased whenever you upgrade your class. The four BASE classes (those you chose in the beginning) are: Fighter, rogue, priest and magic user.
How to join a Guild
To acquire a base class you must join a guild. The guilds of the four classes are all here in this town. When you spot the guild of the class you want to join (i.e. Magic Users guild), locate the sign that says something like 'join the --- guild' and click it. There, now you are ready to play Spellcasters will now want to buy a spell from their guild, while fighters will need a weapon (look for Kolbran the blacksmith in the town you start in). Next thing you want is to find a monster to kill. Look for the orc cave whose entrance is at the edge of the town.
Fighter
Fighters are for those who like the pure ‘hack & slash’ type upon which the game of Dungeons and Dragons was founded. They get the biggest variety of skills to use. They are the easiest class to play. Good fighters will be races with good Str or Dex, as well as good AC and HP.
Rogue
Rogues are hard to play and still have poor equipment and such, because nobody really cares about the rogues. The most important stat is for Rogues is Dex. In the future they will have special skills that give them interesting advances.
Priest
Priests are balanced characters with decent skills, a big variety of healing\ally spells and one or two attack spells. They make quite powerful characters. You need good Wis and Cha for a good priest (in this order).
Magic User
Finally, Magic Users are those who will use nothing but spells. They have lots of attack spells. A good magic user has good Int and Wis in this order. Also, good HP or AC may be good to defend against attacks from fighters and monsters.
Lastly but most important!
Also take note of the Church in town – this is where you will go to heal (very important, for obvious reasons)
Once you’ve done all this there is one last thing to do. If you are a tourist we cannot guarantee the safety of your account unless you set a password for it. By setting a personal password, if another tourist comes in with your name he/she cannot take your items or reset you. See below for how to set your password.
General Commands
| SYNTAX | DESCRIPTION |
| /password (text) | Sets a password to your name, protecting your account |
| /nopassword | disables password |
| /validate (text) | When entering type /validate then your password to login |
| /reset (text) | Resets your character if you have set a password |
| /pvp | Toggles player-versus-player combat/actions |
| /safety | Toggles the ability to attack in pvp, safety on = defend self only |
| /location | Tells you your exact position and facing in the world |
| /l | Shortcut for /location |
| /use (item) | Uses an expendable item like drinks, scrolls, or potions |
| /sell (item) | Designates what (item) you want to sell when you click a sell sign |
| /drop gp (amount) | Drops gp (amount) specified, with no argument, it drops 1 gp |
| /drop (item) | Drops the (item) specified if it is in your inevntory |
| /destroy (item) | Destroys and item in your inventory |
| /examine (item) | gives the description of an item in your inventory. |
| /equip (item) | Equips weapons or armor from your inventory |
| /unequip (item) | Unequips an item you are wearing and places it in your inventory |
| /equipment | Shows all the equipment you are currently wearing and their stats |
| /e | Shortcut for equipment, but only shows the names of items currently equipped |
| /skills | Shows the skills you have learned and their levels |
| /inventory | Shows all the items and how many you have in your inventory |
| /i | Shortcut for /inventory |
| /recall | Returns you to your set point of recall (default is Merinel) |
| /afk | Toggles “Away from Keyboard” status on the /who listing |
| /time | Shows the the current time according to where the game is running from. |
| /uptime | Shows how long the game has been running, since the last restart |
Additional commands for Priests and Magic Users
| SYNTAX | DESCRIPTION |
| /spells | Shows a list of the spells you have learned, as well as the elements you are proficient in. |
| /cast (spell) | Sets the (spell) to be cast, until unset with /nocast. |
| /nocast | Ceases the casting of spells and return to melee combat |
Inventory, Spells, and Equipment
To buy items in shops, you need gold pieces. You can gain those by trading with other players, finding bags on the floor or killing monsters.
Inventory
The inventory is where you store all items you possess. You can see its contents by using /inventory. The inventory has a limit on the amount of stacks you can carry (stacks = number of the same item you can carry). In other words, you can only carry a certain number of different items, and only a certain number of each kind of item.
To drop an item from your inventory to the ground use /drop item-name. To destroy an item use /destroy item-name. Also, to examine an item use /examine item-name (you will get an item description). If an item is useable, like food or potions, you can use it with /use item-name. The item will be removed from your inventory. If it is a piece of equipment (item that can be equipped to improve your stats) then there are some other commands you can use (read the Equipment section of this tutorial). Equipment are the items you can equip\wear\wield, like weapons, rings, armor, shield, etc. To see the things you currently have equipped you can use /equipment . Now, you can equip and unequip only the possessions in your inventory. To equip something use /equip equipment-name. It will be gone from the inventory, but you can see it with /equipment. To unequip, use /unequip equipment-name and it will be back in the inventory. Equipment you have will change your MODIFIER stats (the numbers AFTER the 'plus' sign when you say /stats). An item without modifier, like HP, MP, AC or MR, will be changed normally. Always make sure your equipment changes stats the way you really want. Some equipment may not be good for you! Continuing... certain equipment (swords, shields) interact with your SKILLS. Some equipment requires a skill in order to being wielded. For example, most swords will require the 'slash' skill. On the other hand, the more you use that equipment, the more you train that skill, making the equipment work better. You can see the status of your current skills using the /skills command. There are many places where you can learn skills. There are many skills available to learn right here in Merinel. Usually you will have to pay to get a skill, though, and most skills are restricted to only one or two classes. Spells are always assigned to an element, like 'fire' or 'spirit'. Both the elements and the spells will be trained when you use them, and they can level. Some spells require you to level their elements before you can learn them. Spells with higher element levels are usually better. Spells can also be distinguished between ally spells or enemy spells. Ally spells as the name says are to be used on other players. Enemy spells can be used on monsters and also on players when you're fighting against them. Now, to see your spells and their levels and also the levels of your elements use /spells. To cast a spell in battle, say /cast spell-name before battle - it will cast that spell always when you attack. If it's an ally spell /cast spell-name must be used every time you cast it on yourself (but not on others). To stop casting a spell use /nocast. Spells, like skills, may have class restrictions (fighters can never have spells). Also, all spells depend on a stat - usually Int, Cha or Wis.
Combat
There are two types of combat in AD&DRPG: Player vs. Monster and Player vs. Player.
Player vs. Monster Combat
This is the standard form of combat with a monster is by approaching the monster and left clicking on them. This will cause your avatar to attack the monster in question. Your skills factor into your success rate to hit the monster, and your armor content plus a skill such as dodge will determine the success rate of the monster laying you flat on your face. Not much to say about PvM combat as it is fairly straightforward. New Players should begin by fighting “weakling orc’s” and “yet another orc’s”
Player vs. Player Combat
PVP is when you're fighting someone else who is not a monster. You can't gain experience when fighting another player, but you can train your skills and/or spells. The commands that toggle your PVP status are /pvp and /safety. /pvp will turn player versus player on or off. When player versus player is off, you can’t attack anyone else and no one else can attack you. If /safety is on, other people can attack you (and you will automatically fight back) but you can't attack someone else by clicking them. This is so you won't accidentally kill a friend. When safety is off, you can attack and be attacked. Spawns, monster fights, alignment Every dungeon may have one or more spawn tables. A spawn table is basically a bunch of different monsters that can appear in random places of that dungeon. Monsters have stats, just like players. When killed, they will disappear, making room for another monster (eventually) and giving you a bonus in exp (experience) and gp (gold, as explained before). Experience is required for you to gain levels, so you want monsters with lots of experience if possible (use /stats to see how much exp you need to level). Monsters will always change your alignment. Monsters can be evil or good, and the intensity of that may change. Very evil monsters will make the player alignment very good (check your alignment using /stats also) and vice-versa. Some shopkeepers\temples\inn\etc. may refuse to serve you if you're evil and it’s a good place or the other way around.
Map of Merinel
| Map | Legend |
| A: Ground Zero |
| B: Hall of Heroes | |
| C: Magic Users Guild Hall | |
| D: Church | |
| E: (under construction) | |
| F: Rogue Hideout | |
| G: Orc Caves (aka Newbie Dungeons) | |
| H: Merinel Bank | |
| I: Fighters Guild | |
| J: Kolbran’s Metal Works | |
| K: Tavern | |
| L: Juri’s Pawn Shop | |
| M: The Great Durjam's Mystical Emporium | |
| N: Lady Nevlinn's Home |