A beginner's guide to Starfire

Starfire is a MUD: a multiplayer text world. There are no graphics. You type what you want to do, and the game tells you what happens. That is the entire interface, and it takes about five minutes to stop noticing it.

Make an account and a character

Open the web client, sign up, and create a character. You will be asked for three things:

• A name. Pick something you would be happy to be called by other players.
• A race. Dwarf, Elf, Human, Halfling, Khevrash or Sauraki. This sets your starting attributes and whether you can see in the dark. (Goblin and Orc are in the world but are not playable — they exist so the vale has raiders in it.)
• A class. Warrior, Ranger, Paladin, Rogue, Battle Mage, Bard, Arcanist or Monk. This decides what you are built to do and which weapon you leave with.

If you are not sure, make a Human Warrior. The biggest health pool in the game and the most forgiving playstyle. You can make other characters later; nothing is lost.

Looking around

The first thing to type, always:

look

You will get the room’s description, the exits leading out of it, and anything - or anyone - standing in it. When you want a closer look at something specific:

look at sword
examine the old door

Moving

Directions are commands. All of these work:

north    south    east    west
northeast  northwest  southeast  southwest
up       down

And they all abbreviate, which is how people actually play:

n  s  e  w  ne  nw  se  sw  u  d

Almost every command in the game abbreviates to something short. k is kill, l is look, inv is inventory.

Your first fight

Find something small and hit it:

kill rat

Combat happens in automatic rounds - once it starts, blows land on a timer without you typing anything. What you do between those rounds is the actual game. Watch your health, and remember two commands:

flee
wimpy 30

flee gets you out. wimpy 30 makes your character flee automatically when your health drops below 30. Set a wimpy value early. Running away is a normal, respected part of playing, not a failure.

When the fight is over:

get all from corpse

Looking after yourself

You get hungry and thirsty, and both eventually cost you if ignored. Eat and drink when the game tells you to. Acting also costs stamina, and a tired character hits less hard and defends worse - so resting before a fight is worth the minute:

rest
stand

Talking to people

say hello                 the people in your room
gossip anyone around?     everyone in the world
tell bob how do I fish?   one person, anywhere

Starfire ships two socials - blownose and burp, and burp at bob aims one at someone - which do nothing mechanically. Type socials to see what your world has; a world can write as many more as it likes.

When you are stuck

help
help kill

help on its own lists what is available; help <command> explains one. If that does not answer it, ask on the gossip channel - people are generally glad to help someone new.

The short version

Type look. Go somewhere. Hit something small. Set wimpy. Talk to people. That is the whole game, and everything else is detail you pick up as you go.