Character Creation

Every question the game asks while you make a character, in the order it asks them.

You can make a character in the game or with the character creator on the website. This page follows the in-game questions. Most of them have an answer ready, and pressing Enter takes it. At any question you can type back to return to the one before, help to see it again, or quit to leave; nothing is saved until the end, so a name you leave behind is still free.

Before you begin#

Type the name you want when the game asks who you are. If nobody has it, the game asks two things first:

• Whether you are 16 or older and agree to the terms at rogue-mud.com/legal/terms. Both are one answer. No ends the connection.
• Whether you are blind or play with a screen reader. Yes turns on blind mode for the character: every step after that comes in plain words, one thing at a time, and the game stays that way once you arrive. You can turn it off later with settings blind off.

Your name#

A name is 2 to 15 letters long. You can type an apostrophe or a hyphen, but they are taken out when the name is saved, so "Sha'ra" becomes Shara. The name must not belong to another character.

The game then shows its naming rule. A name should belong in a world of gods and oaths: your own, and not taken from books, films, games, memes or real history, and not a title, a joke or a dictionary word. Staff can ask you to change a name that slips through. Type agree to take the name, or no to type another. A name cannot be changed later in creation.

Password#

Choose a password of at least 5 characters, then type it again to confirm. What you type is not shown. If you also give an email, the same password signs you in at rogue-mud.com.

Email#

An email makes your free account. With it you sign in on the website, keep your characters together, and can get back in if you lose your password. If you already have an account, give its email and the new character joins it. Press Enter to skip; you can set one up later in the game with account.

Gender#

Male or female. Gender sets the pronouns the game uses for you.

Race#

The race list shows each people with a line about them. Type a race to choose it, or help <race> to read about one first. Press Enter for human.

The races you can start as are catfolk, dwarf, elf, fey, gnome, goblin, halfling, human, jackile, pisca, scorpien and warrener. Shade and dryad are listed too, but they are remort races: a character becomes one by remorting at level 100, never at creation. Races compares them all.

Race is permanent, apart from that rebirth. It sets your starting stats, how well you see in the dark, your height range, your racial abilities and the looks offered to you later.

Starting stats#

The game then shows the seven stats your race starts with: strength, agility, constitution, intelligence, wisdom, charisma and luck. There is no roll and no reroll. Every character of a race starts with the same numbers, and the background you choose later adds one point to one of them. Type accept (or press Enter) to keep them, or back to choose another race.

Body#

Three questions, each with an answer ready:

• Height: very tall, tall, average, short or very short, for your race. The figure comes from your race's own range, so a tall gnome is still small.
• Build: a word from a list, such as wiry, stocky, slender or lanky.
• Age: how old you look, from barely grown to of no age you could name.

Type skip at any body or looks question to take the answers shown for all of them at once.

Looks#

• Eyes: your own words, or the answer offered. A color alone is enough.
• Hair: your own words, or bald. This covers fur or a crest for the peoples that have them.
• Skin: pick from your race's list or write your own: skin, fur or scales.
• Ears: warreners only. Perky, floppy, short or long.
• A distinguishing feature: optional. A natural trait others notice, such as a scar or freckles; not a tattoo or a piercing. Press Enter to leave it out.

You can change all of this later with describe, which also sets the line a stranger reads first.

Background#

Your background is the life your character led before arriving in Aurin. There are fourteen. Each adds one permanent point to one stat, shown beside it on the list. Type help <background> to read about one. Press Enter for nomad.

Beyond the stat point, background is your character's story. It shows on your score and locks you out of nothing.

Review#

Last, the game shows your character as others will see them, as one sentence, with your gender, race, background, email and final stats. Your height becomes a word, so nobody reads a figure off you.

Type yes (or press Enter) to enter the game. To change something first, type gender, race, body, looks, background or email; you go back to that part and then return to the review. Your name and password stay as they are. passwd changes the password once you are in the game.

What about a class#

You do not pick one. Every new character starts as an Explorer, a path that runs from level 1 to level 10 and teaches the game. At level 10 you join the guild you want, and your trainer changes with you. First Steps covers the road there, and Classes covers the guilds.

What you start with#

You arrive by ship at the Aurin drydock and are taken up to the Explorer's Guild. You carry:

• A Tideglass Compass, which points the way to the places it knows. It is soulbound: it cannot be dropped, given away or stolen, and it stays with you through death.
• A Grim Satchel, a trophy bag worn for life that keeps a tally of the creatures of level 30 or higher you kill, and of any player. The tally empties when you quit.
• Between 57 and 156 silver.

The guild stores near the entrance give you weapons, armor and clothes for nothing. See First Steps.