Starting out on Malevolence can be difficult and at times confusing, especially depending on how much knowledge you have when you start. Hopefully this will answer most common newbie questions and help you get off to a good start.

As soon as you log in, you will get a list of files its suggested to read. These are divided into two parts: help files and manuals. To read a help file (score, skills, wimpy, hp, kill, equip, channels, player), simply type help followed by one of the listed files. For example, to see the help file for score, you would type help score. To read a manual (death, guilds, shops, health), type man followed by one of the listed manuals. For example, to read the death manual, you type man death. It is a good idea to read all of these files as soon as you can, to get a better idea of what you will need to do.

When you start your character, you will be outside the Escher's Memorial Newbie Area. This area is where you can start out killing easy monsters, while getting the hang of the commands in the game. To enter the gardens, go south from the friend of the Newbies. Once you enter the gardens, you will be given equipment to start out with. Typing equip will make you wield your weapon and wear any available armour you have.

Once you are in the gardens and have your equipment wielded, you are ready to start killing monsters. To attack a monster, or NPC (non-player character), type kill followed by the targets name. For example, to kill a rabbit, you would type kill rabbit. After the fight has been started, the combat comes automatically. But, while combat is automatic, any spells you cast or items you use will have to be by you.

During the fight, you will lose health points (HP) when hit. Once you are down to 0 HP, you will die. To help you to tell how much HP you have lost, type hp. This will turn on your hit point monitor and will update you on your current HP during a fight. If your HP gets too low, you can flee a fight anytime by typing in an available direction.

There is an automatic way of having some assistance in protecting yourself from death, with the help of a command called wimpy. When you have your wimpy set, you will automatically flee a room when your HP goes to or below a set point. To set it, type wimpy followed by the number of HP you want to flee at. For example, if you type wimpy 40, you will flee a room when your HP is at or below 40. The negative with using wimpy is that, when you do kill a monster, you will have to sacrifice some ofthe experience points (EXP) you got.

When your HP get too low and you need to regenerate your HP, there are a few methods you can use. Mainly, your HP will automatically regenerate over time, but there are ways to speed this up. Eating and drinking will restore some HP to you, as will various items found around Malevolence. Another source for restoring your HP is the casting of spells, by either a NPC or another player. If a player does it, any cost needed will be up to the player. If one of the NPC's do it (either Severinus or Leviticus are your best bets), there is a set cost, that you can find out at the healer. When you are at level 5 or below, you can get to Severinus by typing church. After level 5, to get to Severinus from the Harborside square, go 4 north, 4 west, 3 south. Leviticus is located to the south of Harborside, out the southeast gate.

If you do happen to die, there are a few easy ways to regain your human form. When you die, you will receive a message saying you have died, as will the rest of the mud. It is generally a good idea to ask on chat if anyone has ressurect or raise, since getting raised by a player has advantages over getting raised by a npc. If no one is on that has the needed spells, then you will have to go to Severinus. If you are level 5 or below, then you can get to severinus by typing church, but if you are level 6 or above, you will have to walk there. Severinus, from the Harborside Square, is 4 north, 4 west, 3 south. Once you are at Severinus, type worship. That will bring you back to the land of the living. When you have been ressurected, your HP will be at a minimun, so you will have to get healed before you start fighting anything again.

The penalty you get when you die can be pretty severe, as you will lose 1 point in each of your primary skills, one life (of the ten you start with) and, at lower levels, all of your experience on you. You will also be without the equipment you had before your death, as it is still on your corpse, where ever you died at. If you can make it back to your corpse before someone else gets to them, you can recover all of your former equipment. Otherwise, you will have to collect it all over again.

The town square in Harborside is a central point in the game. Many people will describe locations and meeting points in relationship to the square, so it is a good idea to get some bearings as to where the square is. As additional help, while you are level 5 or lower, you have the use of the square command. This command, when typed, willautomatically take you to the square.

You will be able to stay in the newbie garden until you have collected 10,000 EXP with your character. Then your character will automatically be taken out of the garden and not allowed back in. You can tell how much EXP you have collected by typing score, and looking under Total Exp. To return to the newbie garden from the square, go 4 west, 3 north, west, south.

When you have decided its time to spend your EXP, you will have to go to a guild or class and advance skills. All new characters are, by default, in the newbie class, so you will need to go there. To get to the newbie class, find the friend of the newbies (outside the Escher Memorial Newbie Area) and go north.

While you are in the newbie class, you can raise a variety of skills in all of the different guilds and classes up to level 5. This will allow you to get a feel of a few of the advantages and disadvantages of each guild or class before you choose which one(s) you finally join. There are a few things to remember, though:
1) You can only raise your overall level up to level 6 in the newbie guild. Any skills advanced after that will not go towards your overall level.
2) After you join another guild or class, some skills you advanced will not be able to be used in your new guild or class. The are, for the most part, spells, but are not limited to only spells.
After you have decided on what guild or class you would like to be in, it is time to find a new guild or class.

When choosing how you want to play your character, you will need to choose the guild/class(es) you will be in. There are two systems you can choose. If you go into the class system (Fighters, Thieves, Mages, Clerics), you can join and combination of the classes, up to and including all four at once. But beware, more classes means more cost to advance. If you go into the guild system (Paladins, Soritals, Rangers), you can only join one of the three guilds. Each guild is composed of two or more classes.

Communication with other players is accomplished in a variety of ways. To talk to someone directly, the tell command will send amessage. To use tells, type tell followed by the player you wish to talk to, followed by your message. For example, to talk to Mitch, you would type tell mitch Hello. Multiple people can receive the same tell message by stringing together the names using commas, such as tell mitch,pete,amber hi everyone. For general communication with the mud as a whole, the chat channel can be used. Typing chat followed by what you want to say will send a message to everyone who has chat on. Chat can be turned off by typing chat off. For a complete list of commands you can use on chat and how they are used, type chat. Channels also exist for guild, single-classes, parties, clans, creators (restricted to creators), and marriage.

To keep a general guideline for acceptable behavior, help player law was written. typing help player law will give you a list of do's and dont's for the mud. You are responsible to know this information, and ignorance of the player law will not be an acceptable excuse. If you have any questions about the player law or want clarification on a topic, ask someone for help. It can save you hassle down the road.

This covers most of the basic questions, but if you ever have any other questions about this help file, or the game in general, feel free to ask on chat for help. Most players are more then willing to answer your questions, and if they don't know the answer, they could probably point you in the direction to find it.

Thank you for playing Malevolence. Have a good time, but remember, it's only a game. So, have fun.