Basics

Characters page (website)

Open Characters in the top navigation (or /characters) to see every character on your account—you can have up to eight. On wide viewports, the header uses dropdowns: Characters (your roster links), Getting Started (a mega-menu of guide pages—Overview, Basics, World map, combat, and the rest), and Preferences. At about 900px width and below, the Menu (☰) control opens the same links (including Admin when your account has access); after you tap a link, the menu closes automatically. Create New Character asks for a starting area first (when the world lists more than one town); you spawn at that region’s spawn room. Click Play on a card to enter the game with that character.

Legal & cookies: The site footer links to Privacy, Terms, and Cookies. A bottom banner lets you acknowledge cookie use; policies describe planned Stripe Checkout-style payments (card data on Stripe’s side, webhooks for confirmation)—see those pages for details.

Character names: the site normalizes what you type to title case. Names may contain letters and spaces only (no digits, punctuation, or special characters), must be unique on the server (case-insensitive), and are checked against a moderation list—vulgar, hateful, or similar names are rejected.

Delete a character: click the × in the upper corner of the card. A panel opens underneath; type that character’s name and click Delete forever. Confirmation is case- and spacing-normalized to the stored name—if it doesn’t match, nothing is deleted. Click × again to close the panel without deleting. If you delete the character you were last playing, your selection is cleared so you can pick another from the list.

This is not typed in the game window—in-game, help characters summarizes the same flow.

Forced rename (staff)

If staff enable force rename on your character (website: Admin → Players, edit the character), you can only use rename <new name> until you pick an allowed, unique name. Movement, combat, speech, shops, and the ledger web UI stay blocked; the server reminds you about once per minute. You are not kicked for idle during this state. After a successful rename, you can play normally again. If you are not under force rename, typing rename does nothing useful—see help rename.

Movement

Move with the eight compass directions: n, s, e, w, ne, nw, se, sw (or full names like north, northeast), plus u (up) and d (down) where linked. Those links are stored on each room.

Use named exits for shops, halls, and custom builders’ names: go cellar, go out, go mayor, go warrior_hall, go shop (North Street → Herbalist), go potions where linked, etc. West Lane uses compass and dir to reach the potion shop, locksmith, ranger lodge, cleric hall, and cleric cottage (no go … from that street). climb <label> is used when staff marked that exit as a climb (see help movement). empath and cleric work like cellar—they follow an exit from your current room whose name matches (toward healing / resurrection hubs). Compass links, room_exits, and each room’s room_type (e.g. spawn, town_center, cleric, graveyard, herbalist, weaponsmith) come from the world data so dir can find hubs within your area.

Go vs climb: When a custom exit has a Display label, builders may set it as climb instead of go. Climb exits do not match go; if you use the wrong verb, the server usually suggests the right one. In the web client, clickable Paths in look and the room card send go or climb as appropriate.

dir lists locations in your area. dir bank gives directions to the bank. Try dir spawn or dir fountain square for the town entry square. In **Thornhaven**, North Street connects north to North Lane (armor shop row); use go graveyard from North Street for the named exit to the graveyard—see the world map table. From the graveyard, east reaches the Snake Pit (snakes); west from the pit returns. Minimap: each sub-area should have at most one room per grid cell when coordinates are set—see help map / help dir. Time & weather use time or weather (same command); moving to another main area can refresh your portrait backdrop for that area’s sky—help time.

When you are in the Town sub-area and the path is beyond a server-configured distance threshold, dir offers an escort. Elsewhere, no town escort is nearby. Escort is free by default; some servers charge copper per move (shown as tiered g/s/c in the browser when offered). Use escort <location> to see the prompt (and cost if charging), then type confirm within 30 seconds to hire. You cannot move or be attacked until arrival.

When you or others move, the room shows messages like Giro just went east. (room you left) or Giro has arrived from the west. (room you entered). Creatures and roaming NPCs (e.g. the cat) show the same when they move.

Encumbrance: If you are at 200% or more of your carry capacity, you cannot move until you lighten your load. Wallet coin counts toward weight—use drop <amount> gold (or silver / copper) to leave a pile on the ground (level 10+); others can pick it up. At the bank, withdraw check can move vault value onto a weightless Relm bank draft instead. Then you can follow dir paths again. Type help movement and help bank for detail.

Dragging a dead player: With both hands empty, drag <name> offers to haul someone who is dead; they type accept (or click the accept link in the log) to consent within 30 seconds. Each move you make can fail or succeed (their weight vs your STR and encumbrance; roundtime). The fifth pull in a row always succeeds. Use drag stop or drag off to release them. Drag ends if they rez, decay, a gravedigger finishes, they type cancel gravedigger, or either of you disconnects. Type help movement in-game for full detail.

Town Escort

You must be in the Town sub-area (the town proper on the map) to hire an escort or to see the escort offer on a long dir line.

dir <location> – Get directions. If the path is long enough (e.g. 25+ moves) and you are in Town, the output offers an escort (often as a clickable escort … link in the browser).

escort <location> – Free by default (this server may charge copper per move). Type confirm within 30 seconds to hire (same window as other timed confirmations). You are moved room by room automatically and cannot move or be attacked until you arrive.

Min moves, move interval, and messages are server-configurable. Type help escort in-game for details.

Timed offers & confirmations

Many prompts expire after 30 seconds: accept for player trades, empath injury work, cleric resurrect quotes, corpse-drag consent, Vex’s locksmith quote, group accept after an invite, and confirm after escort <place>. In the web client, the game log usually shows a clickable accept (or command link for escort) so you do not have to type the whole word.

Help & directions in the browser

help and help <topic> print the same reference text as always, but in the web client the output is a Help card: a banner (topic name when you asked for a topic), section lines like === Title === as headings, and body lines with optional bold where the server uses **markers**. A plain dir with no argument (list of places in your area) uses that same card layout.

Clickable dir <place> rows on that card, plus compass and path command links elsewhere in the UI, run the command and then return keyboard focus to the command input so you can keep typing. Path links use go <label> or climb <label> when the world data says so (labeled exits with optional climb).

Directions from dir <place> stay as normal log lines (not the big list card).

Looking Around

look or l – See the room, players, NPCs, creatures, items, and exits. Web: click another player’s name for social actions and idle display (seconds since their last meaningful command or say on this server—not the automatic room refresh; opening the tooltip fetches a fresh value). Super-admin accounts also see Online: seconds while that character is connected here. See Map below for the same on the minimap. In Players here, staff accounts may show a red Admin (super-admin) or StaffMember (other staff) prefix before the profession-colored name. Web: click a creature (beast) name for an examine popup: optional description (set in Admin → Creatures) plus rough health shown as colored bands (wounded / hurt / etc.—not exact HP numbers). When several beasts share a name, the popup can run Attack / Target with the correct instance id. In text, look at <creature> or look <creature> does the same narrative (use target, first…tenth, or a digits-only id—help info). Web: a slain beast corpse line (e.g. “The body of … lies on the ground.”) is framed in orange; the creature name uses your creature color from Preferences (default red).

look at poster, look poster, or read poster (when facing the sign) – Town Center Quest Poster: only quests you can still accept—not already on your log, not completed waiting for turn-in, not turned in, meeting min level, and with any prerequisite quest finished. Grouped by area with NPC and room. If nothing qualifies, the poster says Nothing listed for you right now — you’re caught up. Web: a yellow ! before the poster; when the board has at least one listing for you, that ! pulses with the same orange glow as an NPC ! when you can turn in a quest. Clicking the poster opens the same list in a cream popup near your pointer (like reading a room sign).

read <display word>, look at <display word> – Other fixed room copy (e.g. Town Center placard toward the empath, read placard; community bench donation sign) uses the word shown in look. Web: underlined labels—first click shows the read … command in a tooltip; Read opens the text in a popup (pre-wrap; the log is not duplicated when the room payload already carried the text).

look in backpack – Look inside an equipped container.

Play page layout (web)

While playing, the site uses a compact header so the game and map get more vertical space. On desktop, the Play page is sized to fit between the header and the site footer in one viewport when the footer is shown—long sidebar lists (equipment, buffs, etc.) scroll inside the left or right column instead of pushing the command bar off-screen. The site footer is hidden on Play when the window is narrow (about tablet width and below) or short (typical 13" laptop browser height) so more pixels go to the log and minimap. On very small screens the footer stays hidden and padding is tighter.

Preferences & Play sidebars (web)

Preferences in the top nav opens a wide, scrollable window organized into cards: Theme & display starts with sun/moon (light vs dark family) and a palette dropdown (e.g. Daylight, Parchment, Mist, Sand, Bloodmist, Blushmist, Amber / Midnight, Obsidian, Forest, Ocean, Ember, Sanguine, Crimson mist)—saved with your account; older saved values light / dark map to Daylight / Midnight. Same card: room auto-fit, hide room text on move, optional help hints. The Play sidebar card sets left and right column layout (stacked, wrap, or grid), Show minimap in left sidebar (mirrors the main map on desktop; saved with your account), optional Who Online for staff (same permission as web quick actions), then Reset sidebar order & layout (browser-only drag order). Another card has color pickers for creatures, NPCs, combat lines, other players by profession, paths, and messages. Click Save to keep changes; Cancel, the backdrop, or Esc reverts unsaved theme/palette previews and restores the last saved Play sidebar snapshot (see site header Preferences blurb).

On the Play page, you can reorder sidebar panels and move them between the left and right columns. The Status and Condition titles are collapsible (click the ▼ beside the title) to hide those panels when you want more room for the log. A drag starts only from the ⋮⋮ icon beside each panel title (Status, Condition, Buffs, …)—clicking HP bars, the injury portrait, or the hand rows does not move the panel (the underlined held item name in Condition opens a stow menu instead; it still does not drag the panel). That order and placement are saved in localStorage as mud_play_sidebar_layout (per browser). In-game, preferences / prefs only summarizes colors; use the site for the full UI. Type help preferences in the game for the same points.

Status Bar & Info

The Status panel’s identity block: line 1 = your character name (long names may truncate with an ellipsis). Line 2 = Male / Female (left) and race (right). Line 3 = profession with a small emoji before the label when the game recognizes it (Empath 💚, Cleric ✝️, Warrior ⚔️, Wizard 📚, Ranger 🏹; internal Potion ⚗️—admin-added professions may have no emoji) on the left, and stance as a short abbrev (std, knl, lng, …) with hover tooltip for the full pose on the right. When you have a combat target (target or a successful attack), a Target line shows that creature’s display name. Staff accounts may show a red Admin or StaffMember prefix before the name, same idea as in the room list. The next row is level with a yellow reputation bar and current / required numbers for your next Mayor level-up—the required value is also the most reputation you can earn from combat, quests, and loot until you visit the mayor (extra is trimmed; see Leveling). You still need enough coin on hand to level. Coin on hand shows as tiered g/s/c with 🪙 icons tinted gold / silver / copper per tier (👤 wallet row); a vault icon (🏦) tooltip shows bank the same way. Encumbrance bar (fill color shifts green→yellow→orange→red as you get heavier), HP, and mana. Hover bars, wallet, or vault for tooltips. Lifetime reputation (career total from applied gains) appears on the web info sheet Resources tab, not on the narrow sidebar.

Injury portrait – A human silhouette; injured body parts are highlighted by severity (scratches, deep cuts, lacerations).

Bleeding (web) – If you have deep cuts or lacerations, a red summary under the portrait shows approximate HP lost per minute and a short wound count (same data appears in the Health and info cards). Scratches do not bleed. Each minute when you actually lose HP to bleeding, the log also prints 🩸 You lost -N HP in red.

health or h – Log and sidebar: HP, mana, injuries, and bleeding when applicable (portrait + Condition panel update). Typing just h is health, not help. In the web client, this also opens a Health card in the output with HP/mana bars, a bleeding line, and an injury list (colors match the portrait).

buff or buffs – Active buffs only, with time left and what each effect does (stat bonuses, death recovery / raised weakness, potion text + mechanical mods, etc.). Web client: opens a Buff card in the log; the sidebar buff list counts down every second (remaining time + progress bar) using stored duration on each buff row, and you can click a buff there for the same detail.

info (same sheet as skills or spells) – Full character sheet in the log: level, profession, race, stats, HP, mana, weight, encumbrance, injuries, equipped items, skills, a short buff summary, wallet and bank coin. Web client: tabbed character sheet card—Overview (bleeding before injuries), Resources (coin, bank, Reputation as current / needed for the next mayor ding, Lifetime reputation, weight, encumbrance), Gear, Inventory (hands, loose items, container contents), Magic (spells vs combat techniques, buffs), and Attributes (each stat as base / total with equipment, e.g. 37 / 40). equipment / gear opens the sheet on Gear; magic opens on Magic; stats / attributes on Attributes; inventory / inv / i on Inventory. resource / resources jumps to this site’s Resources guide page. If you are on a staff account, the banner may show the same red Admin / StaffMember prefix before your name. While dead you cannot run plain info, skills, or spells (default full sheet)—but you can use health, buff, stats/attributes, resource, and inventory (last opens the same sheet on the Inventory tab).

Condition — Hands (web): Below the portrait, L and R show what you hold. Click the underlined item name to open the same kind of popup as NPC Commands (stow lines for each equipped container you are wearing, wear/equip when the item is wearable, plus stow shield / sheathe when applicable). When something is on your back or in your sheath, the Shield / Sheath sub-row links run draw shield / draw weapon.

Map

The map panel sits above the game output. When you're in a room with map data, click Expand Map to open the full map. Each room maps to one cell when the world data gives both grid_x and grid_y (defaults ship in build/seed.sql); shards enforce one room per cell per town map region so tiles do not stack. Cells are plain boxes with connection lines—brighter fills, gray borders and exit lines, no numeric room id on the tile; click for details or use the world map guide for ids. Your current room is highlighted in green.

Instance run – When you have an active instance dungeon run, that sub-area’s map tints the configured lobby cell dark gray and the entry cell cyan so the portal stands out. If you are in that cell, green “you are here” still wins. On shards that use Veilspire Bastion, the lobby courtyard links to the antechamber on compass east (no separate named dungeon exit for that hop on current seed).

Map room tooltips – Click a cell for a popup: room title, NPCs (including a gravedigger if an active rescue is in that room), creatures, and players (web: profession-colored names; staff may have the red Admin / StaffMember prefix; dead characters show (dead) after the name). While a gravedigger is dragging your body, automatic look updates keep the map in sync so you and he show in the same room. The room card and minimap also refresh promptly when creatures or players enter or leave, when beasts spawn, or when grouped members arrive—without waiting on the debounced move refresh.

Player names in the room – Click another adventurer’s name in the room text (not your own) for a popup: configured social actions and idle display (seconds since their last meaningful command or say on this game server—not the web client’s debounced automatic room refresh—or offline if they are not connected here). Opening the tooltip asks the server for a fresh value. Super-admin viewers see Online: seconds for connected characters.

Title bar – One row: Collapse Map, My Location, centered You are in [room – area, sub-area], and Area / Sub area dropdowns. When the map is expanded, drag the bottom edge of the panel to change height (saved in this browser). Preferences → Play sidebar can show a second minimap in the left column (desktop)—same data as the main map above the log.

Stuck overweight? The map still shows where you are, but at ≥200% encumbrance you cannot change rooms until you lighten your load—see Encumbrance under Basics (drop … gold for wallet coin).

Region dropdown – Select another area/sub-area to view its map. Maps are shown per sub-area (e.g. Thornhaven – Town).

My Location – Click to return the map view to your current area and sub-area.

If two rooms still share a cell in one sub-area, fix coordinates (or re-import from build/seed.sql) before applying the unique minimap migration—the server will refuse to start migrate until duplicates are gone.

Type help map in-game for more details. See also the world map page (grid + room table + legend).

Inventory

inventory, inv, or i – View full inventory: hands, equipped slots, main inventory, items in containers. Web client: opens the info character sheet on the Inventory tab (same sections).

inventory containers – View contents of all equipped containers (grouped by container). Web client: opens a separate Containers card in the log.

Dropping & Picking Up

drop <item> – Drop an item on the ground. Dropping a storage pack (e.g. leather backpack) leaves the pack on the ground and spills its contents there—picking the pack back up restores them. The same applies when someone accepts a traded held pack.

drop <amount> gold (or silver / copper; optional gold coins) – Drop wallet coin as a pile on the ground (others can pick it up). Requires level 10+. Use this if you are too encumbered to move (help movement). Relm bank drafts cannot be dropped—deposit at a bank or trade them.

get <item> or take <item> – Smart search: picks up from ground first, then room surfaces (bench, etc.), then your inventory. E.g. get potion finds any potion in that order. Requires at least one empty hand.

get my <item> – Get from your inventory only. Use when a potion is on the ground or bench but you want your own (e.g. get my potion).

get <item> from bench – Take from a surface (e.g. park bench).

get <item> from backpack – Take from an equipped container.

Putting Items On or In

put <item> on bench – Place an item on a surface (e.g. park bench).

put <item> in backpack – Put an item into an equipped container.

get <item> from backpack – Take an item out of a container.

Death & Respawn

When HP reaches 0, you are dead and cannot move. Options:

• Decay – Type decay then decay confirm to respawn immediately at your area’s spawn room (Thornhaven: Fountain Square). You keep inventory and coin but get a 1-hour death recovery debuff (combat stats weakened—type buff for the full explanation).
• Gravedigger – A gravedigger from your town’s graveyard walks to your corpse, then drags you room-by-room to that area’s Town Center or cleric resurrection site (if you asked the empath for the cleric ride). Gravediggers are tied to your town’s graveyard in the world data. There is about a 5 second pause in each room (paced from the game database). The map updates each step so your tooltip lists you and the gravedigger together until he finishes (the game tracks the corpse room so he is not shown one room ahead of your body). After drop-off, everyone in the room sees him leave and gets a silent map/room refresh (gravedigger_left)—no second full room dump in the log. When dead in Town Center, ask empath for gravedigger can route you toward the cleric. Then ask cleric for resurrect for a 20-minute recovery debuff (see buff).
• cancel gravedigger – While dead, leaves the queue or sends the gravedigger away at any stage (waiting, en route, or mid-haul). You stay dead where you are.
• Another player – They can drag <your name> (both their hands empty); you accept to let them haul your body. They use drag stop to let you go.

Death notices – A random global obituary line (bold red in the log) goes to everyone online, including you, so you see the same message others do.

If your character was saved in a room that was later deleted, you are moved to a safe hub automatically the next time you play.

Cleanup & Corpse Decay

Dropped items stay on the ground until picked up. After a kill, if you do not loot or skin the corpse, it decays on a timer (timing varies by creature on this world). Corpse disappears immediately after looting. Some creatures have decay items—items that appear only when the corpse decays (not when looted). These drop on the ground when the corpse timer expires.

Communication

say <text> – Say something to everyone in the room. You only see You say: in the log; others see Name says: with the speaker’s name in profession color (same as Players here). Web: others may also see a red Admin or StaffMember prefix before the name when the speaker is staff. You can also type ' or " followed by text for quick say.

who – List players currently online on this server, names in profession colors (and the same web staff prefix when applicable). If the game runs multiple instances, each only lists connections to that instance. Web: everyone sees the same list; accounts with Play: Who Online & who quick actions in Admin → Permissions (or super-admin) get clickable names and can enable the Who Online sidebar in Preferences for staff quick actions on players. With the summon_player grant, Who Online also shows Summon here (runs admin summon <name>).

Idle Timeout & Connection Limits

Command rate limit (server default often 200 ms): Minimum time between commands over the play connection. look and shop catalog browsing are exempt so the UI stays responsive.

Idle timeout (server-configurable, often ~20 min): If you do not send a meaningful command or say for the configured time, you are disconnected. The web client’s automatic room refresh does not count. You receive a warning 2 minutes before disconnect.

One character per IP (optional on some servers): When enabled, only one character can be played at a time from each IP address. If you try to play a different character while another is connected (e.g. from another tab or device on the same network), you will be blocked. Close the other connection first to switch characters.

Type help idle in-game for more details.