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, Goblin or Orc. This sets your starting attributes and whether you can see in the dark.
• A class. Fighter, Rogue, Mage, Cleric or Scholar. This decides how you fight and what abilities you learn as you level.

If you are not sure, make a Human Fighter. 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 has nearly 400 socials - smile, bow, wave, grin at bob - which do nothing mechanically and are most of the reason a MUD feels alive.

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.