^ ISLAND: (c) Richard Green and Huw Davies Help Menu Help is available in the following areas, and on most of the verbs in the command list. (For a big list of commands type "help verbs", or for a more organized list "help commands".) Wizards will usually be happy to provide further information. arch-wizards arena atmospherics attributes combat commandline commandments communication diseases doors economics exploring faq fighters fossils gambling guilds ibb legal lightning logging_in magic management monsters necromancers news objects origins para-wizards parser ports privacy problems seers sin sites spells spirit starting swearing thieves timelimits vanilla verbs web whoswho wizards * In addition, there is a hints file - type "hints" to see it. * To see Vino's guide for novices, type "help novice". * Type "help ibb" for info on the bulletin board and mail system. ^absolve absolve [x] Erases a player's sin. Takes the same syntax as "cure". Restricted to arch-wizards. If you omit the parameter, you absolve yourself. You can't absolve people who are in court. ^arena The arena is used to settle duels between members of the fighters guild. When a duel starts, the doors of the arena lock, and will not open again until the duel ends. Duels are normally to the death, but dying in the arena does not cost a life. Non-combatants may bet on the outcome of a duel. Spells may not be cast in the arena except by arches and metas. ^arch-wizards When a player has finished all the quests, and if The Management so permits, he/she attains the level of an arch-wizard. This gives most of the abilities of a meta-wizard, except for some administration commands and the ability to reset absolutely any time (which could ruin gameplay). When an arch-wizard is in wizmode, the extra commands include: (un)fod, inflict, war, peace, (de)cloak, netstat, idle, prosecute, absolve, (un)bansite, (un)barsite, slotfod, clear, erase, zot. In addition, arches have greater powers in IBB, and are expected to use these responsibly. Arches can also help design new areas and quests. Doing so may result in promotion to archipelago. Fair warning. ^armour armour Turns a player's armour to something bad, whatever they are wearing. Yes, without compensation. How wicked! If you are not in wizmode, you can only do this to players in your current location. See "help attributes". ^atmospherics Mobiles react to "laugh, cry, kiss, hug". There are also lots of useless atmospherics, as follows: agree apologise beg blink blush bof bounce bow burp cheer chuckle clap cough cringe curtsey dance disagree faint fart fidget flail flip frown fume gasp giggle glare glower grimace grin groan grovel growl grumble grunt guffaw howl hyperve* jump lag mumble mutter nod panic pant pine pontifi* puke scowl scream shiver shrug shudder sigh simper sing slip smell smile smirk snarl sneer sneeze sniff snigger snort spank squint stomp sulk swoon think twitch wave whimper whistle wince wink wish yawn (hyperve* is short for hyperventilate, and pontifi* short for pontificate) ^attributes (Words in quotes can be typed in as commands. Try it!) Level "levels" A rating based on points to indicate your relative power. Strength "str" A rating to indicate physical strength and ability to take damage. Decreases when damaged in combat. Increased by resting. MaxStr The maximum level of your strength. Increased by eating/drinking up to a maximum value determined by your level. Sin For performing an action contrary to the laws of ISLAND, you get sin points. Sin can be decreased by performing deeds of conspicuous virtue and heroism, or by going on trial, which happens when you accumulate 1000 sin. Type "help legal" for more information. Hoopiness A rating to indicate how likeable you are. Fright A rating to indicate how frightening to mobiles you are. Intell A rating to indicate your knowledge of combat and magic. Dexterity A rating to indicate how nimble and accurate you are in combat. Skill A rating to indicate how skilled you are in various aspects of ISLAND life. Size How big you are. This can affect what you can pick up and how effective shields are. Capacity How many objects you can carry. Try using bags or chests. Debt You can borrow money from the bank. This is how much you owe them. Magic Like strength only your psychic strength. Spells have magic strength costs. Resting replenishes. MaxMagicStr similar to MaxStr. Armour Non-negative value to indicate how well protected you are from damage. Higher is better. ^autoexits autoexits [x] autoexits on: turns autoexits mode on autoexits off: turns autoexits mode off autoexits: tells you if autoexits is on or off The autoexits spell automatically shows you the exits after local location descriptions. ^banish banish Sends a zombie to Hell. This only works on zombies of mobiles. ^bansite bansite [a] An arch-wizard command to ban new players from the site specified by the numeric address . Without an argument, shows the currently banned sites. ^barsite barsite [a] An arch-wizard command to prevent sub-arch level players connecting from the site specified by the numeric address . Without an argument, shows the currently barred sites. ^beam beam Moves you to another location when in space! For example, if the exit "AUG" is mentioned when you type "exits", then "beam AUG" will take you to the location with code AUG. ^becalm becalm Opposite of "madden ". ^bet bet When gambling, places a bet. For roulette, type "bet on " where is an amount of money and is a number 0 to 36. (OK, so it isn't proper roulette.) For blackjack, which is really pontoon (who writes this stuff?), just type "bet ", where is the amount of money you want to bet. For betting on duels, type "bet on " where is the amount of money, and is the fighter. Bets are subject to a house limit (currently 10000). ^bless bless Removes a curse from object . In wizmode, you can bless objects anywhere in the game. ^blind blind Renders a player blind. Backfires if it fails. This depends on intelligence. Out of wizmode, can only be cast on players in your location. ^block block Sets your "block" parameter to the given level. This screens out messages received via "omnihear", "eavesdrop" and "overhear" from players strictly below that level. Of course, this does not apply to messages which you would normally hear anyway. The default value for the "block" parameter is 0. You may not set it to a value higher than your level, unless you are a seer and you know what you're doing. On its own, "block" shows the value of your "block" parameter. Seers are regarded as level 6 for the purposes of "block". See also "secret". ^borrow borrow Borrows gold pieces from the bank. There is a limit to the debt you may accumulate. Although this seems like a free lunch, there are drawbacks as the bank often asks for its money back without warning, and if you can't pay you are taken to court. Most players can only borrow money once per day. ^brief brief Sets location descriptions up so that you only get the description when you have not seen the description of that room during that game. See also: curt, verbose. ^browse browse [] Lets you see what's on sale in a shop. Each spell has a minimum casting level (which you must attain before buying the spell), a cost in gold (the learning price) and a cost in magic (the casting price). In the armour shops, "browse" lists the classes of available armour. Used with an argument, browse lists the details of the given spell. You need to know the spell to do this. ^bug bug Leaves a bug report. In ISLAND TNG, this is equivalent to using the bulletin board, but works from anywhere. ^buy buy [x] Simply type "buy" after someone has done a "sell" to you. You must have enough gold. To buy spells, go to the relevant shop and type buy . You have to have a sufficient level and enough gold. To buy armour, see help protect. ^bwye bwye [x] On its own, shouts "bwye" to everyone. In addition, "bwye " tells that player "bwye". If you don't know what "bwye" means, then stick around. Misuse of bwye is considered a sin. Here are acceptable uses: 1. Two bwyes in quick succession, then quit at any time. 2. One bwye followed immediately by quit. 3. One bwye, then wait at least 10 seconds so people can respond, then quit. If you continue to type commands after the bwye, the game will tell you when 10 seconds have elapsed. 4. Quitting without saying bwye at all. None of this applies to "bwye ", which can be used at any time. The global "bwye" command can't be used while invisible or morphed. ^capacity See "help attributes". ^caps caps Changes the capitalization of your name. ^cash cash [x] Cashes the given number of gold pieces (which you must have) into points, at an exchange rate proportional to the number of levels you are ABOVE novice. (The management is not amused by negative numbers etc.) "cash" on its own cashes all your gold in. Cashing with no gold is slightly sinful. ^cd cd Changes to specified folder in IBB. ^challenge challenge Challenges the specified player to a duel in the arena. You can't challenge players with no objects. What would they fight with? A box of food? ^change change [x] Changes a player's gender. Backfires if intelligence is insufficient to perform the spell. With no argument, changes your own gender. Out of wizmode, only works on players in your location. ^check check Checks the object for a trap, curse, or poison. If there is a trap, you will not necessarily find it. You will find curses and poison if you're the right kind of player. Failure is not fatal. In wizmode, you can check objects anywhere in the game. ^choices choices Lists options during fight. ^clear clear [] An arch command to clear all monsters and objects out of a given location, except for the ones that start there. If the parameter is omitted, you clear your current location. You can also use a wildcard in the location parameter, as for "stock" and "mstock". ^cloak cloak Makes invisibility, morphing and smiting permissible. Done automatically when the last arch-wizard or meta-wizard quits the game. ^close close Closes the door or object named ; "shut" also works. ^collmode collmode The game simulates multi-line tells, emotes, etc. by using "collmode". You can go into this manually (to achieve weird effects, etc.) or, more frequently, accidentally, by putting a \ at the end of the line. ^combat0 Combat in Island is more complex than in many other MUDs. As you may have discovered by now, simply typing "kill wonka" over and over has very little effect. In Island, after typing "kill " (once is enough) to identify your target, you must specify your combat actions. You do this by typing "choices" to see your options, then typing in the numbers of your selected actions. Be careful - some of the options are risky. Player killing is allowed, but prepare to face the consequences! For a lot more information and hints, type "help combat1" now. ^combat1 There are certain steps to ensure that fights go in your favour. 1. If the monster attacks you first, run like hell. It can probably kill you. This means that novices and inexperienced players may like to hang around the pit area, so that typing "p" very quickly may shake off pursuit. Another alternative is the "run" command. This is available anywhere, but could send you round and round in circles. Remember, limbo is a safe zone and mobiles won't attack you there. To gain points, grab items when you can and avoid combat. 2. Choose your weapon. It is very important that you don't go into fights empty-handed. Remember to "wield" the most effective weapon at your disposal (but in a pinch, anything is better than nothing). Use probe to find out relative weapon strengths. Using an item as a shield is just as important, since without one your defensive options are limited. Shield effectiveness is a function of size, but bigger is not always better. Walking around with a wielded weapon is BAD, so remember to "unwield". 3. Know your enemy. A much underused feature of ISLAND is the ability to communicate with the mobiles. If they don't attack you straight away, say "stay". Say "what is your strength". Say "what is your dexterity". Then compare these values with your own. If they are significantly higher, avoid conflict until you are confident you know how to win. [Type "help combat2" to continue.] ^combat2 4. The value of armour is important and as armour is relatively cheap at present, there's no excuse for leaving home without it. Mobiles typically have no armour, so this gives you a big advantage. 5. Examine your choices. If you are weak physically, go for defensive or guarded attacks, feints and blocks. Jumping away may be useful. Furthermore, defensive moves can often increase the effectiveness of a follow-up attack. Only go for heavy attacks if you significantly overpower your foe, or you are sure they are at your mercy. A heavy attack that misses can land you in deep trouble. Disarming is a dangerous manoeuvre that can open you up for attacks and is only wise for experts. 6. Remember that resting between attacks is ok. If you have taken damage, take time out to regain your lost hits. [Type "help combat3" to continue.] ^combat3 7. If your enemy gets behind you, RUN. Before you start a fight, plan your escape route. If you want to stay and fight, be ready to take some hits. 8. If you lose your weapon, RUN (unless you have almost won the fight already). Retrieving your weapon is possible, but risky. If you decide to fight on, use the "Retrieve Weapon" choice, not the command "get" or "take". If you use "get" or "take", you will have to re-"wield" the weapon, thus losing precious time. 9. Your choices at each round are determined by what you just did and what just happened to you. To see them type the command "choices". The same is true of your enemy. For example if you score a hit, your enemy's next choice is often limited to purely defensive moves. You can use this knowledge to plan your attack combinations. Similarly, it is not usually possible to make 2 consecutive high or low attacks. For example, if you have just been hit in the leg, it is unlikely that your enemy will be able to strike again at your leg immediately. Thus if you are planning to block, you might want to block high rather than low. You choose your move by typing its number in the list. [Type "help combat4" to continue.] ^combat4 10. When you see a message like "You have lost 67 strength points" it means this number of points have been subtracted from your current strength. If your current strength becomes negative, you are dead. If you are hit during combat, the "rest" command is strongly recommended. 11. Dodges avoid thrusts and overhead swings. Jumping in the air avoids low thrusts and swings. Ducking avoids high ones. 12. Fake attacks (feints) are ones that appear to be going one place but end up somewhere else. For example, fake low appears to be a low attack, but actually strikes high (though probably not very hard). This can be very useful if you want to attack in the high line but don't have any "high" choices. 13. Some mobiles will try to run away during a fight. Type "follow " before or during the fight in order to chase them. The mobile must be in your location when you type this. [Type "help combat5" to continue] ^combat5 14. Mobiles rest during fights too. Sometimes you have to hit them several times very quickly. 15. If you can't see (e.g. because it's dark), you don't see your opponent's moves. So, in summary, if you decide to have a fight then remember these commands: wield , kill , choices and rest. A fight goes something like this: kill mouse 25 7 12 etc., typing "choices" only when you need to get a list of your options. Hope these give you some clues as how to survive in the dangerous realms of ISLAND. Enjoy the game! Vino, Saomik & the other guy. ^comfort comfort [y] Comforts a player. Takes the same syntax as "thank". ^commandline There is a history command, like its UNIX equivalent, and expressions such as !10 and !c do what you would expect. Note that the "repeat last command" is ! (and not !! as it is in UNIX). In "collmode", you have to escape the "!" by typing it as "\!". There is also command line editing, very much like "tcsh". ^F moves the cursor forward, ^B moves it back, ^P gives you the previous line, and ^N the next line. ^A goes to the beginning of the line while ^E goes to the end. ^K will kill the current line. There is also a "multi" command, which adds a prefix to whatever line you type, and this applies until you type "quit". By starting your line with a backslash "\", you can avoid the prefixer. Word wrap and line wrap are provided. Usually everything can be abbreviated. If there is ambiguity, type the name of the object in full, with correct capitals, words linked with underscores, and add a "$". ^commandments The 10 ISLAND Commandments (by Feynmann, EdFromO & Saomik) 1. Thou shalt not annoy the metas in any way, or thou shalt bear their wrath. 2. Thou shalt not abuse thy powers (unless it is really funny). 3. Thou shalt not lead the hydra to the pit for the purpose of wiping out novices. 4. Thou shalt observe proper "bwye" etiquette. 5. Thou shalt consider others before thou resettest the game. 6. Thou shalt not kill unfairly (people a lot less powerful than you). 7. Thou shalt not repeatedly pester for archness. 8. Thou shalt not post ibb articles containing extraneous TUsh rubbish. 9. Thou shalt not harass any player who questeth in search of higher powers. 10. Thou shalt not expect privacy. ^commands Some recognized verbs, in semi-logical, non-disjoint groups: Movement & Exploration: north east south west up down in out northeast southeast southwest northwest pit exits run goto beam teleport transport look follow unfollow rlook rexits night locate verbose brief curt autoexits Communications and interactions: say shout tell perform kiss laugh cry hug think bwye multi vote hush emote remote shemote pemote premote pshemote memote msay thank grats console comfort See "help atmospherics" for many more commands in this category. Personal info, condition, and development: status score strength list inventory enlarge empower describe rest quest reap wizmode unwizmode visible invisible caps prying morph unmorph passwd oldpasswd consult history idle hush join set unset show suicide unquest lastcrime ... continued in commands2 ^commands2 Object-oriented: take get drop inventory value examine superget search pit unpit check disable probe put open shut lock unlock scry offer buy sell eat drink read wield unwield shield fathom light douse poison curse stock extract remove purify bless Nastiness: deaf dumb blind change inflict rob steal trap armour fod prosecute force kill attack poison curse challenge madden conjure slotfod bansite barsite stifle erase zot freeze smite Niceness: give cure heal absolve unfod pay truce becalm bless purify stock mstock unbansite unbarsite refresh hand ... continued in commands3 ^commands3 Nosiness: whereis snoop unsnoop follow unfollow tag untag who what people history netstat frisk idle slotstat physique rlook prewarn omnihear eavesdrop overhear tap untap rstatus rsearch which guildlist mstatus Combat: kill attack choices wield shield protect rest challenge truce Magic: change scry whereis unpit cure blind deaf dumb snoop superget teleport summon invisible force armour enlarge empower frisk tag heal morph unmorph physique rlook prewarn omnihear hush eavesdrop overhear fathom raise conjure banish night sneak hide lemote rsay Doors: scry lock unlock trap check disable open shut ... continued in commands4 ^commands4 IBB: folders cd nd pd read next last post subject delete reply view Financial: cash uncash borrow repay browse buy sell offer pay Gambling: play bet twist stick Level oriented: block secret histauth General info: help levels hints time gamestat league slotstat idle quests motd Other: quit save reset bug shell cmd war peace cloak decloak weather shutdown meta countdown purge qpurge hide unhide ^communication The main communication verbs are shout, say, tell, consult and perform (see separate help for each one). See also "help emote" and "help atmospherics". ^console console [y] Consoles a player. Takes the same syntax as "thank". ^consult consult [x] Used only for communicating with the guru in his office. This is done when you have a disease or diseases. The guru will diagnose your illness(es) and charge you for his services. You need to have gold for this. The guru doesn't like his time being wasted. If you specify a disease, the guru will only heal that particular affliction. ^conjure conjure Resurrects a dead mobile as a zombie. It is a sin to do this in the beginners' zone. ^countdown countdown Initiates the countdown sequence to a reset or shutdown. Wizards can abort the count by typing "countdown 0". Non-wizards can abort a group reset in the same way. See "help reset". ^cry cry [x] Boo hoo. See laugh. ^cure cure [x] Cures player of blindness, deafness and dumbness. Depends on intelligence. With no arguments, cures whoever typed it (provided that person is a wizard). Cure does NOT cure diseases - for that, you need to see the guru, or use the heal spell. ^curse curse Puts a curse on object . Cursed objects are rather hard on people who carry them. ^curt curt Sets location descriptions up so that you only get the description if you explicitly look. See also: brief, verbose. ^deaf deaf Similar to blind, with the obvious differences. ^debt See "help attributes". ^decloak decloak Forbids invisibility, morphing and smiting. Any (well, almost any) invisible, morphed and smitten players are forced into their natural state (no, not that natural state). ^delete delete [] Deletes article in your current ibb folder. Not everyone can delete everything, of course. Unless you have set noconfirm to 1 or 2, you will be given a chance to change your mind. If you omit the parameter, you will delete the current (most recently read or posted) article. In this case, you will always be asked to confirm it. Metas can delete anything. Arches can delete messages by sub-arches. Any player can delete something which they have received. A player can delete something which they posted so long as they have at least as much privilege as when they posted it. Only metas can delete from "system" and "logs". ^describe describe Sets your description to . Some guild members cannot use this command. If you start your description with punctuation, no space is left between your name and your description. Use a "_" before the punctuation if you wish to force a space after your name. Typing "describe _" will erase the description. ^dexterity See "help attributes". ^disable disable Like check except the trap is removed if you succeed. If you fail, you die. ^diseases Players are subject to a variety of ailments. See "help inflict", "help consult", and "help guru". ^doors The doors in ISLAND can basically be open, shut or locked. The main verbs governing doors are open, shut, lock, unlock, check and scry. Oh yes, some doors have explosive traps on them. ^douse douse If is a light-giving object that can be deactivated, this does it. See light. ^drink drink Drinks the specified object (if this makes sense). Usually your Strength and Maximum go up by the value of the object, but other things can happen. ^drop drop Opposite of "take". Takes the same syntax. Cannot be used if you are in a vehicle. "drop all" is a quick way to divest yourself of worldly goods and chattels. ^dumb dumb Renders player speechless. This wears off after the victim logs out. ^eat eat Eats the specified object (if this makes sense). Usually your Strength and Maximum go up by the value of the object, but other things can happen. ^eavesdrop eavesdrop Lets you hear things said by all other players in the game (unless they have made other arrangements). ^economics If you are a sub-wizard character, you need to be at the bank to cash, uncash, borrow or repay. Novices may be unwelcome. ^editor ISLAND is developing ISLE (IBB Simple Line Editor) for editing IBB posts. Currently, the only implemented commands are ".view" and ".kill", which do what you might expect. ^emote Many emote-type verbs are built-in; type "help atmos" to read about these. For more creative actions, ISLAND provides six forms of the emote verb: emote, remote, shemote, pemote, premote, pshemote. These verbs are purely atmospheric (that is, they have no effect on anything except other players' minds). You need to be at least a level 1 player to use emote and pemote. For the others, you need to be level 6 or higher. Emoting and pemoting are sinful if you're invisible. Remoting and premoting are more sinful. There is also a "lemote" (location emote), documented separately. ...continued in emote2 ^emote2 emote OR : Generates an atmospheric. For example, if EdFromO types emote does a dance. the other people in his room get the message "EdFromO does a dance." Can be shortened to : (colon), so EdFromO might type :does a dance. to get the same effect. Note that no space is needed after the : remote OR < Similar to emote, except the action is only shown to the specified person. The person's name can be abbreviated. If Nemesys types OR ": Shows the action to everyone playing. For example, Saomik might type shemote invites everyone to a party in the orchard. or ":is fed up with this lag. pemote , premote , pshemote OR :: , ":: Placing "p" in front of emote, remote, or shemote gives the possessive form. If Reiner types pemote landlady is a pill. players in the same room see "Reiner's landlady is a pill." As an example of one of the abbreviations, LINK might type <:Vort head aches - too much amber nectar. Then Vortex will see "+ LINK's head aches - too much amber nectar." Some hints for effective emoting - get the verb tense right - add punctuation at the end - KISS (keep it simple, sweetie) ^empower empower Increases your magical strength at the expense of physical strength. Seers and necromancers can do this automatically, and are not subject to the size restrictions or penalties. ^enlarge enlarge Increases physical strength at the expense of magic or another statistic. ^erase erase This removes a given spell from a given player's list! With no compensation. From the people who brought you "armour". ^examine examine Describes an object or player. Wizards and seers can examine things not in their location. This can be abbreviated to "x". ^exits exits Gives a list of current available and obvious exits. ^exploring You can explore the game using the verbs north, east, south, west, ne (northeast), se, sw, nw, up, down, in, out and pit. (The last one moves you towards the pit when you are near it.) There is also a "run" command which moves randomly. Type "help commands" for an up-to-date list of all the related verbs. ^extract extract from Removes an object from inside another object. ^faq FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS Q: What is hoopiness? A: Attribute determining how likeable you are. See "help attributes". Q: You must have a lot of crashes, since this game has only been up n hours. A: No. Q: Why isn't there a "hwi" command? A: Hwi is never needed in a hurry, unlike bwye which often is. Q: Why can't I kill anything? A: RTFM. Q: How do I whisper? A: You don't. That's just other people using tell. Q: What does "put it away!" mean? A: You're walking around wielding a weapon. This is bad. Q: Can you open the wormhole for me? A: No. You can. Surprisingly, using "open wormhole". Q: DO YOU HAVE COLOR? A: No. We don't have 'colour', either. ^fathom fathom Reveals the doors and/or objects that will (un)lock. ^fighters The fighters guild is for those who delight in physical mayhem. To join the fighters guild, go down from Limbo and look around. Fighters can develop some attributes to much higher levels than non-fighters. Fighters, unlike all other guilds, can compete for top rank among their fellows. Formal duels in the arena are logged and tabulated. (Formal duels are started with a "challenge" command.) The current front-runners are listed by the "league" command. Other players can bet on the outcome of duels - see "help bet". Fighters who let a week go by without fighting are dropped from the league table. The duel system is not regarded as optional: fighters must win a duel between quests. Note that you do not lose a life for losing a formal duel! ^fod fod Gives the player the Finger of Death. If they are an arch-wizard or meta-wizard, this forces them to quit the game (but they can come straight back). For other characters, even wizards, the persona is marked as fodded and the player is forced to quit. That persona is not allowed to play the game until it is unfodded. You can't fod invisible people, or yourself! On its own, "fod" lists the fodded players in the persona file. ^folders folders Lists folders in IBB. ^follow follow Start to follow , where is the name of a monster or player in your room. Stop with unfollow. If you start to follow a player, that player is (usually) informed. ^force force Forces the player to do , as if they had typed at their keyboard. (Yes, and you can force people to force others, and so on.) Sometimes force doesn't work, for example when the other person is on a quest, in a trial, or carrying an anti-forcer. When you are being forced, the prompt changes to "}". ^fossils THE ISLAND MUSEUM: Metas: Vortex - Low-level coder (quondam) Moychild - (total quondam) Archipelagos by design: Mark, Zweistein, Vino, Thorin, Reiner. Archipelagos for services to ISLAND: Finnagle ^freeze freeze This roots a player to the spot, so they can't move in the usual 13 directions or use "run". The victim is notified. This doesn't work on questing players. Frozen players cannot be summoned. It is possible to prevent or cure this condition. ^fright See "help attributes". ^frisk frisk Allows you to see what objects and gold a player is carrying. Unless they are on a quest! ^gambling Characters who have attained sufficiently high level are allowed to gamble in the casino. This is intended to be a shortcut to lots of gold, and it is (but not as much as it used to be before we un-rigged the roulette) if you know what to do. Don't go into the casino without money or try to use money you don't have. The gambling verbs are play, bet, twist and stick. You can also bet on duels - see bet for more details. ^gamestat gamestat Tells you the last reset time, and whether fighting, invisibility, morphing and smiting are allowed, as well as the number of objects under the pit and the number of mobiles in Hell. Also indicates how long until dark or light, as appropriate. In wizmode, it tells you the number of players, and the maximum number since the last shutdown. ^get get This verb can be used to mean "take". "get all" is often useful. It has another use, which is in conjunction with vehicles. For example, "get into skiff" and "get out" do what you would expect. When you get into or out of a vehicle, you are still carrying it. ^give give to The opposite of steal, but legal. If not in wizmode, the persona must be in your location. "give all to " does what you would expect. ^goto goto Visits the named player, if they're in a reasonable place. You need the teleport spell to get this to work. ^grats grats [y] Congratulates a player. Takes the same syntax as "thank". ^guildlist guildlist [] A para command to list the members of a guild. ^guilds The inhabitants of Island have the option of joining any one of several specialized guilds. Joining a guild brings you some special powers, but also places some limitations on you. The guilds currently available are vanilla - blandness personified fighters - walking death machines seers - know all, see all - information addicts necromancers - adepts of dark sorcery thieves - masters and mistresses of lock- and pocket-picking management - the lowest of the low Think carefully before you join a guild - it's almost always non-reversible. ^guru The guru has an office in Oaj. See "help consult" and "help inflict". ^hand hand to A para command, a bit like give, except must be a free object. ^heal heal [of ] Cures the specified player of diseases, and thaws you out if you're frozen. If you miss out the parameter, it heals everything, including "stifle", "blind", "deaf" and "dumb". Unless you are an arch, you can only use this to heal nonserious diseases. ^help help [x] "help help"? Are you in trouble? ^hide A spell that renders the caster temporarily hard to see. A hidden player is not revealed when another player types "look" or "whereis". Mobiles will not (normally) attack a hidden player. The spell is broken when the hidden player moves, teleports, or chooses a combat action. Wizards can hide even if they don't know the spell. When you are hiding, an "h " appears in the prompt. See also "unhide". ^histauth histauth Sets your "histauth" parameter to the given level. This prevents players below this level from histing you further back than the last few commands. The default value for the "histauth" parameter is 0, but anyone can set it to any level up to meta level. On its own, "histauth" shows the value of your "histauth" parameter. See also "history". ^history history [x [n]] If given with no parameters, this tells you the last few commands you typed. "history x" tells you the last few commands player x typed. "history x n" tells you the 10 commands numbered n onwards which player x typed, so long as they are out of player x's normal history. History with arguments only works for para-wizards in ISLAND TNG. Only arches can history a questing wizard. See also "histauth". ^hoopiness See "help attributes". ^hug hug Quite a lot like kiss, really, but without the exchange of fluids. ^hush hush [x] hush on: turns hush mode on hush off: turns hush mode off hush: tells you if hush is on or off The hush spell ignores shouts. ^ibb IBB is ISLAND's Bulletin Board. The commands governing it are: cd folders post subject view reply delete next last nd pd read (See separate help for each one.) The private folder is for personal mail. When you sign on, you are told if there are any private messages for you. Everyone should read the new/, fixes/, and general/ folders at least. Reading messages gives a slight benefit to your character. It is an offence not to delete your private mail after you've read it! The "logs" folder lists when people signed on and off, and so on. The "system" folder lists important events such as promotions. In other folders, anyone can read anything, except for "quotes", "wizards", "arches", "logs" and "metas", which can only be used by people of sufficient level ("quotes" is level 7). To read "wizards", "arches" etc requires wizmode. When you are posting, you can't be summoned or forced. Note that when the folders contain lots of articles, you should use "view" with an argument! See "help delete" for rules on who can delete what, and help "editor" for how to edit posts. ^idle idle [] On its own, shows you your idle times. Anyone can do this, but only arches can use the parameter. The current idle time is the amount of time you actually have. The base idle time is the amount of time you have assuming you aren't posting, or ineligible for the full amount because you are not invisible and not hiding. idle <#minutes> Sets the base idle time for the given slot. The victim is informed of the new base idle time. Note that for visible players who aren't hiding, the maximum current idle time (which is the one that matters in practice) is limited to 15 minutes, except for seers, who can go up to 30 minutes. ^inflict inflict with Inflicts the player with disease , This is illegal, but fun for wrecking people's personae. Possibilities for include black death vejawk disease mad cow disease Each of these has a continuous ill-effect on the player's attributes and can only be cured by visiting the guru or using the heal spell. There are also a number of minor ailments that can be inflicted or contracted during the game: athlete's foot hives dandruff Link's syndrome dropsy Pickup's disease Tourette's syndrome donatitis kleptomania dysdactylia cold spacesickness seasickness diku fever Rawle's syndrome Lawre's syndlome Woss syndwome echolalia flatulence Goldy fever aimlessness lurgi (contagious) Unless you are a seer or have a very vicious disease, you can inflict someone else with it! ^intelligence See "help attributes". ^inventory inventory [x] Lists the objects you are carrying. Shows which, if any, objects are being used as weapons or shields. Can be used with a player argument if you are in wizmode. ^invisible invisible Renders you invisible. This means you do not appear on "who" lists, and people can't tell when you sign on or off, or enter or leave a room. They also can't tell who you are, even if you do something - as far as everyone else is concerned, your name becomes "Someone". This command can be disabled by arch-wizards and meta-wizards. An "i " is prefixed to the prompt when you are invisible. ^join join Attempt to join the named guild. Different guilds have different entry requirements. You can't be forced to do the actual join. You can't join if you're already in a guild, which includes management! ^kill kill Starts the attack procedure on character or monster . After this, you type various numbers corresponding to the moves you can make ("choices" gives you the list). You can use "attack" as a synonym for kill. Note that kill works on a blow-by-blow basis, rather than a "flee if you get scared" system. Abbreviations are recommended. See also: combat choices wield shield run ^kiss kiss Kisses the named player or mobile. Kissing mobiles can seriously damage your health, but is sometimes useful. ^last last When you are reading in an IBB folder, this moves you on to the last message (i.e. an older one). This command isn't intended for use in the private folder. When you first move to a folder, "last" will take you to the most recent message. See "next". Can be abbreviated to "-". ^lastcrime lastcrime [x] On its own, tells you your last crime. With arguments (TNG only), tells you the last crime of a given player. ^laugh laugh [x] Ha ha. If [x] is given, it is used as an extension to the atmospheric. For example, if I am Wingnut and I type "laugh like a baboon", everyone in my location sees the line "Wingnut laughs like a baboon." ^league league Lists the top members of the fighters guild. ^legal Players, if they misbehave, accumulate sin. On the other hand when they perform deeds of conspicuous heroism and goodness, their sin may dissipate. If sin reaches 1000 the player is placed on trial. Other players in the game who are above the level of novice (except idle or exempted players, questing players, etc.) will be summoned as jurors. They are given a "vote>" prompt and within half a minute they are expected to type "vote guilty" or "vote not guilty". The votes are counted and determine the fate of the defendant. Sentencing may be lenient if the defendant gives sufficient explanation for his/her actions. Punishment is proportional to the score of the defendant. If you have enough gold to pay the fine, that is your punishment; otherwise you lose half your score if the sentencing is harsh, otherwise a quarter. Other punishments may be assigned at the court's discretion. Quitting out of court as a juror loses you a quarter of your score, and quitting out as a defendant loses you half your score and leads to re-prosecution. Jurors and defendants are protected from being forced while participating in a trial. When you have voted or been convicted, you are returned to where you were before the trial, unless your punishment involves incarceration. The results of trials are broadcast and logged. ^lemote lemote This is like emote, but projects itself into the location of your choice, and your name is not prepended. However, a "-" is added at the beginning to stop it being too abusable! If you put a "." for the location field, you lemote to your current location. If you put a "*" for the location field, you lemote everywhere. ^level See "help attributes". ^levels levels [gender] [guild] Prints the minimum qualifications for achieving each level, and the names of the levels. Seers and players in wizmode may use the parameters to see the level names and requirements in other guilds. ^light light If is capable of emitting light, this activates it. See "help douse". ^lightning lightning This sometimes happens naturally in bad weather. Players carrying nasty objects may be more susceptible to this. The higher your sin, the worse the effects are. It is possible to die completely in the worst case scenario. Wearing HARD armour tends to help you though! See "help zot". ^list list Lists which spells you have. Works on other players for wizards in ISLAND TNG. ^locate locate Lists the locations with names that contain the string . Also shows the three-letter codes. ^lock lock with Locks the door or object named with the key named , which you must be carrying. ^logging_in When you run ISLAND, you will be presented with the game message of the day, followed by a standard welcome message and a prompt for the name of your persona. This should be between 3 and 12 letters long, and can only contain letters and numbers. If you have not played before, you will be asked for a password to stop other people pretending to be you. The game will store your password (unencrypted). Make sure you remember it, because when you subsequently use the game, you will be required to enter it. The game beautifies your name, so that the capitals will be in the "right" places. (When playing locally, the environmental variable ISLANDNAME can be set as your default persona name, if you know how to set it up.) If the game thinks you are already playing, the previous game session is terminated. Possessions carry over. See also "help ports". ^look look Describes the current location, including any objects, players, mobiles and doors that may be present. That's on a good day, anyway. The players may be hiding or invisible, it may be dark, you may be blind, etc. etc. [continued page 94]. ^madden madden Sends the mobile into a bit of a frenzy. ^magic See the appropriate section under "help commands". Note, however, that magic cannot be used in the arena except by arches and metas. See "help attributes". ^management The shadowiest, most disreputable of all the guilds. These are mostly the gang of misfits who have made on-going contributions to the game and have been suitably punished for their efforts. Don't trust any of them, especially Saomik. ^maxstrength See "help attributes". ^memote memote [location:] Forces mobile to perform . Only works if conditions are perfect. You may specify a location followed by a colon to avoid ambiguity. ^meta If you have to ask, you don't need to know! If you don't have to ask, try "meta clear" (clears arena), "meta seer", "meta wipe" (changes you to management guild), "meta cross", "meta max". Also "meta day [n]" and "meta moon [n]", which don't work. To exempt a fighter from duel duty, "meta exempt [slot number]". To reverse the effects of that stuff, "meta unglad [slot number]". Even more uselessly, "meta getrs" and "meta igetrs" give you the return values from those functions (the reset state of the game). The command "meta bind " shows you the binding of a monster. The subcommands "fisee" and "fiam" give fighting messages, "mrestock" and "orestock" do monster and object stocks of the newbie zone, "hearts" shows the heartbeat numbers and "fort1" and "fort2" show some random seed thingies. The subcommands "nuffmons [x]" and "nuffobjs [x]" change the requirements for group resets; omitting the [x] gives you the values. "meta resign" does what you might expect. "meta bound" is actually useful. "meta whoreset" is nothing to do with brothels. This command doesn't exist (like shell and cmd), and is supposed to be buggy and useless. No correspondence will be entered into. ^mobiles Another term for monsters. See "help monsters" for more information. ^monsters ISLAND has a lot of monsters inhabiting its terrain. These are often unfriendly, especially to low-level characters, but they are much more interesting than their shallow equivalents in many MUDs. Many can obey simple commands, such as "follow", "go", "stay", "attack", "shut up" and "talk", and their negations using "stop" or "don't", and can answer certain simple, restricted questions. By killing monsters, you build up your persona's attributes, and although you may not score many points directly, you often make some money from it. Killing some monsters will change your sin level. Monsters sometimes carry useful items. ^morph morph Lets you become the mobile. The meld usually only works in privacy. (Yeah, I know, there's no privacy!) It is terminated by "unmorph". Invisibility and morphing are mutually exclusive. An "m " is prefixed to the prompt when you are morphed. ^motd motd Prints the game's opening screen. ^msay msay [location:] Forces mobile to say . Only works if the conditions are perfect. You may specify a location followed by a colon to avoid ambiguity. ^mstatus mstatus [location:] A para-command yielding rstatus-like information about mobiles. Ambiguity may be avoided by prefixing a colon to the mobile name, thus: 'mstatus AII:ogre' and 'mstatus AFB:ogre' may report on different ogres. ^mstock mstock Attempts to return one or more mobiles to their origins. See "help stock" for the syntax. ^multi The "multi" command, adds a prefix to whatever line you type, and this applies until you type "quit". By starting your line with a backslash "\", you can avoid the prefixer. For example, "multi sing" would mean that you sing all the lines you enter until you type "quit" on its own. ^nd nd Cycles you one step forwards through the folders, and does a "view". See "help ibb" for related information. ^necromancers The necromancer guild is for dark souls who wish to dabble in such arcane practices as raising the dead. Sunlight is not a friend to necromancers, but at night they are potent beings. You can join the guild by going down from Limbo and finding the guild room. Necromancers have magic powers not available to most other players. Figuring out what they are is part of the game. Necromancers are not admitted unless they are sufficiently sinful. It is most advisable that you build up your persona to at least level 4 before joining this guild, so that you are not too weak to be able to play properly. Necromancer is also a level name for vanilla players, for immutable historical reasons. Please don't be confused. ^netstat netstat Lets you see where people are calling from. (TNG only) ^newbie See "help novice". ^news news For ISLAND's internal bulletin board system, see "help ibb". The newsgroup alt.mud.island was founded in July 1995. You can post by mailing alt.mud.island@news.demon.co.uk ^next next When you are reading in a folder, this moves you on to the next message (i.e. a newer one). This command isn't intended for use in the private folder. When you first move to a folder, "next" shows you the oldest message. See "last". Can be abbreviated to "+". ^night night [x] When you cast the night spell, you can see in the dark, but you are blind during daytime. At night with the spell on, each time you "look" you burn up some magic points. The syntax is the same as "prewarn" - i.e. [x] can be "on" or "off". ^novice THE DEFINITIVE ISLAND GUIDE FOR NOVICES First of all, welcome to ISLAND. I will keep this guide quick and simple and introduce only the basics. There is an extensive set of help files on all possible subjects to do with ISLAND. Typing "help" then "help " will give you all of the information that you will ever need to play the game. If there is anything you still don't understand, ask someone. What is ISLAND? Island is a M(ulti) U(ser) D(ungeon). People from around the world connect to the game and can interact with the environment and each other. What is the point? There are several reasons why people play ISLAND. You can meet lots of "interesting" people, albeit in a limited environment, chat, and generally hang out. ISLAND is also a game, with the goal to gain "points" and rise through a hierarchy of levels. How do I score points? Ahhh ... so you want to play? The best thing to do is look at the help files to see how you get going. I suggest you type "help novice2" and keep a piece of paper and a pencil handy to note down help files you may want to look at. Type "help novice2" to continue ^novice2 Novice guide continued ... Type "status" or "st" to look at your character's abilities. A lot of these numbers will not directly affect your ability to play, but will define how well your character can perform certain tasks. The important ones to note are; strength, magic strength, gold, score. (See also "help attributes"). Type "look" to look at your surroundings. The directions you can move may be in the location description, and typing "exits" will give you a list of the OBVIOUS exits at that point. Type in the initial letters of the direction you wish to move, in order to move there. (See also "help exploring".) The display of a room is in three parts. The title and verbal description, a list of objects in the room, and a list of players or mobiles in the room. The verbal description cannot be interacted with. If the description mentions a sofa for example, your character may not be able to pick it up, etc. The objects in the room may be interacted with in several ways; try: "help examine" "help get" "help probe" "help drop" "help give" "help sell" . An important thing to be able to do to items is pit them ("help pit"); this is one of the main ways to score points in the game. (See also "help objects".) (Now type "help novice3" to continue) ^novice3 Novice guide continued ... Players are usually recognized by their silly names and descriptions ("help describe") and will more often than not be very happy to help you out if you have problems. You can examine them and communicate with them ("help communication"). Monsters tend to behave in similar ways. They have things they say and do on occasion and like to follow novices around for cheap laughs. You can't examine monsters (yet) but you can communicate with them by using phrases in their limited vocabulary. Try: "say what is your strength", "say do you like me", "say shut up". Their response depends on how tough you are, so you may get punched for your troubles! The areas around the pit are "safe" zones where monsters don't attack unless provoked or instructed. (See "help monsters" and, if you can't wait, "help combat[1..4]") Now you are ready to go forth and do what you will. There are many more things to learn, but all the information you need is in the help files (except for the stuff we've kept secret to make it more challenging). If you don't understand, ask someone who may know. (See "help whoswho") Don't forget to read the news in the Island Bulletin Board room on a regular basis. At the very least read the new/ and general/ folders. I hope you enjoy the game, most important of all, HAVE FUN! See you soon. Vino ^objects The game contains many objects which can be picked up, dropped and so on. Most of the objects have an associated value, which is the number of points you would get by going to the pit with that object and typing "pit ". This is one of the standard ways of scoring points. For edible/drinkable objects, the value is usually the amount of strength you gain when you consume the object (unless it is magical or poisoned, uh-oh). Objects all have sizes. They also all have weapons values, which determine how effective they are as weapons. Some objects have other uses, such as enabling the bearer to walk through secret exits, and providing protection of various kinds against evil wizards. Every object has a description, and many objects can be read. ^offer offer for Offer the persona pieces of gold in exchange for the object . This is only used to initiate the exchange and is not binding or even useful. ^oldpasswd oldpasswd Used to complete a password change. Make sure you use the passwd command FIRST! ^omnihear omnihear [x] omnihear on: turns omnihear mode on omnihear off: turns omnihear mode off omnihear: tells you if omnihear is on or off The omnihear spell lets you hear everything that is said in the game, modulo the effects of "secret" and "block". ^open open Opens the door or object named . May trigger a trap. ^origins ISLAND is a Multi-User Dungeon (MUD). Its influences include, among others, MIST by Richard Bartle and Roy Trubshaw, mundi by Mike Taylor, The Sorcerer's Isle by Daniel Freeman (Thorin) and Foothills/EW-too by Simon Marsh. The basic code for ISLAND was written from scratch by Richard Green (Edfromo) and Huw Davies (Vortex) between 1990 and 1993. It has been on the net since February 1993. Additional coding was done by James Lord, who wrote the terminal (and I do mean terminal) code for the OxMUD system, and by Robin Dawes (Saomik), who wrote the combat system. The database was designed by too many people to mention here. ISLAND comes in two forms - a local one (ISLAND CLASSIC) and a network one (ISLAND TNG). ISLAND TNG runs on the OxMUD code talked about by Bryan Scattergood, Steven Singer and James Lord, and written by James Lord, Huw Davies and Richard Green. The code still undergoes frequent (but not regular) upgrades, usually based on feedback from players. ^overhear overhear Lets you hear everything said in your location, including "tells". ^para-wizards Upon completing all the quests, one becomes a para-wizard or para-witch. You can handle quest objects freely, and have uncapped magic strength and size. The following verbs become available (or more interesting, at least) in wizmode: snoop, tap, history, what, omnihear, which, prying, stifle, weather, slotstat, raise, conjure, stock, mstock, transport, caps, guildlist, hand, mstatus ^parser Like many MUDs, at the heart of ISLAND is a command-line interface. This is a bit like a UNIX shell. You can usually abbreviate words to initial segments until they are as short as ambiguity permits. Players, objects, mobiles and doors should only be referred to by a single word (this is always possible). See also - commandline. ^passwd passwd Starts the password changing procedure. To complete it, you have to use the oldpasswd command. The passwd command will fail if you are being snooped. ^pay pay Pays the specified player the given amount of gold. Out of wizmode, the character must be in the same room. If x is *, you hand over all your gold. ^pd pd Cycles you one step backwards through the folders, and does a "view". ^peace peace Forbids fighting until further notice. ^people people Shows you information about the current players: wizmode (*), questmode (#), posting (% or ?), nightmode (N), duelmode (X), omnihear (O), eavesdrop (e), overhear (o), prewarn (P), hush (H), hiding (h) The next four characters are the level, block level, secret level and histauth level. The digits 0-9 mean 0-9; W is 10, P is 11, A is 12 and M is 13. Also shown are gender, location, and whether the player is invisible or morphed. The number 2 or 3 appearing in the prewarn column means that the player has set prewarn to 2 or 3 (respectively, of course). Guild affiliation, if any, is indicated as follows: (N = necromancer, T = thief, S = seer, F = fighter, * = management) The N for nightmode and the N for necromancer guild can be distinguished by the fact that they are in different columns. ^pemote See under "help emote". ^perform perform Synonymous with "emote". ^physique physique Tells you another player's strengths. ^pit pit [x] A bit like "drop" except it drops the object into the pit, which may score you points equal in amount to the Current Value of the object. You must actually be at the pit to do this. If you are in quest mode, you don't score for pitting objects. "pit" takes the same syntax as "drop". "pit all" works. Without an argument, "pit" will try to move you towards the pit, if you are not too far from it. ^play play Starts to play a game, either craps, roulette or blackjack. All have their uses (except some people only play craps using kermit scripts). ^poison poison Makes an item of food or drink poisonous. What a wicked thing to do! ^ports Connection to ISLAND is usually via telnet ports 2092 and 2093. Port 2092 supports password suppression and handling of prompts. Port 2093 does not attempt to do anything clever and should work with almost any telnet link. ^post post Starts the post procedure in IBB. You have to be at least level 2 to post. You should then specify a subject with the "subject" command. ^premote See under "help emote". ^prewarn prewarn [x] The prewarn spell tells you when someone starts to log on or disconnects. The parameter x may be 0, 1, 2 or 3. Setting x to 0 turns off prewarn. Setting x to 1 turns prewarn on. If x is 2, banned players connecting will be shown, but not barred players. If x is 3, banned and barred players connecting will both be shown. New players are identified. Mistyped names are not shown. Arches are shown the site name on prewarn connection attempts. ^privacy If you have read "help commandments", you may have realised that Island does NOT offer privacy for players. Wizards in "omnihear" mode can hear all communication by means of "say" and "tell". Other high level players and seers in "eavesdrop" mode can hear all communication by means of "say". High level players in "overhear" mode can hear all "tells" by players in their own location. Wizards may snoop on any player at any time. When this happens, everything that appears on your screen will be echoed to the wizard's screen. You will receive no warning that you are being snooped. Unless you are a wizard or a seer, you have no way of checking whether you are being snooped (the seer command to do this is "prying"). Wizards may also tap you: this allows the wizard to see everything that you type. You will receive no warning that you are being tapped. Unless you are a wizard, you have no way of knowing whether you are being tapped. Wizards may read your command history at any time. This shows the last ten lines that you typed. This is undetectable. There is also a command, "what", which allows wizards to see the last command typed by all players. Type "help privacy2" to continue. ^privacy2 Privacy continued... It is possible for wizards and thieves to go invisible and for high level players to sneak and hide. Usually only a wizard or a seer can detect hidden or invisible players. One restriction on all of this is that there is some protection against wizards discovering your password. (However you should not use your Island password on any other system.) You should also be aware that Meta-wizards can read all messages in the private/ folder, irrespective of to whom they are addressed. Snooping and omnihear are not unique to Island. Very few MUDs offer total privacy: just remember that Island is not a talker, and there should be no problems. If you want to talk to somebody in private, there are plenty of ways to do this on the internet: Unix talk/ntalk/ytalk, talkers, IRC etc. Remember that Island is a game - play it and enjoy it! Trub ^probe probe Shows various information about an object, including size, value, whether it is consumable, whether it is open or shut (if applicable), weapons value, and any special properties of the object. Wizards and seers can probe virtually anything at any time. ^problems Island is intended to protect players from most computer-related problems. However, you may still encounter some difficulties. For example: lag: If you find that the game is not responding as quickly as you would like, there may be a number of causes. Network delay or lag is beyond your control, and must be patiently endured. However, Island has an internal scheduler that prevents you from hogging all the CPU time - if you type a lot of commands very quickly, the game temporarily ignores you. It's not a bad idea to wait a few seconds - that should restore your priority. crashes: Every once in a while (not very often) either the game or the machine it runs on suffers a crash. If this happens while you are playing, any points you have scored since you last "saved" will be lost. Remember to save soon, and save often. ^prosecute prosecute for Forces a trial, anonymously. Nasty, eh? ^protect protect [] This is used to up- or downgrade your armour. The syntax is protect where the argument is a small nonnegative integer. Placebo armour has interesting side effects. Armour is lost on quit - remember to sell it back at an armour shop before you leave the game. Wizards can use the "protect" command without being in an armour shop. Wizards can also use "protect" on other people by using the argument, but this won't work to their financial advantage! ^prying prying Tells you who is snooping on you. ^pshemote See under "help emote". ^purge purge A meta-wizard command for deleting long-absent players. Players with score higher than will not be deleted, nor will players who have been absent less than . Players with score equivalent to level n cannot be purged unless they have been absent for 5n + 5 days. ^purify purify makes non-poisonous. ^put put in Puts an object inside another one. The carrier object should be a vehicle or an open object. "put all in " usually works if it makes sense. ^quests Completing quests is the only way to advance past level 5 since score becomes less and less important. level minimum requirement (in quests) 6 1 7 7 8 14 9 21 10 30 11 40 12 40 + acceptance by management quest done This reminds you of which quests you have done. quest [guild] For arches, this tells you the quest list for a given guild. ... continued in quest2 ^quest2 quest (continued) quest If this is typed in an appropriate location (for some the pit, but for others your guild headquarters), if possible you go into questmode and get the prompt "#". The game will give you a quest to do. Quests involving the retrieval of objects require them to be brought to the pit and pitted. Some objects are sacred so normal players can only obtain them by going on the relevant quest. There is no time limit for quests. You can abort the quest with the "unquest" command. During a quest you cannot use wizmode, unpit, be forced, teleported or be summoned. Quest objects may not be stolen except by the authorities! (No forcing is for protection; the others are to stop cheats.) If you are already on a quest, this command will remind you of your assigned task. Questmode incurs a drain on your points, which is a lot worse at high levels. This is to encourage you to get on with it! The drain doesn't apply to combat moves. Fighters must win a duel (see "challenge") between two consecutive quests. You can see from "status" whether you have to do a challenge before your next quest. ^quit quit Quits the game, saving your character automatically if you have a non-zero score. A synonym is "logout". Experienced players should stay at least 30 seconds before quitting - otherwise you're just being rude! ^qpurge qpurge This changes the quest count of player "name" (or all possible players if *) from the 2nd parameter to the 3rd. This command can be used to make arches, so you can't be forced to do it. This command can only be used by metas and management arches with maximum questcount. ^raise raise Brings a completely dead player back as a zombie. You have total power over the zombie, and you get all their gold. When raised, the zombie is unaffiliated with any guild. IMPORTANT NOTE: A raised character cannot reach wizard level! On its own, "raise" lists the raisable players in the persona file. Typing "raise *" shows the non-dead saved personae under your control. ^read read or read [n] Reads the object, if applicable. This can be for information only but sometimes has side-effects. In the IBB room, read reads article number of whatever folder you are currently looking at. Without an argument, "read" redisplays the most recently read article. In this usage, read can be abbreviated to "=". You can read an article in another folder without losing your place by using the syntax "read folder/article", where folder is the folder name and article is the number. ^reap reap Reaping corn can be a quick way of scoring points as a novice, and a quick way of getting done for everyone else. ^refresh refresh Restores a player's strengths, or the caster's, if x is omitted. ^remote See "help emote". ^remove See "help extract". ^repay repay Repays your debt to the bank. ^reply reply [folder] Replies to the current article. Of course, you need to be level 2 or higher to do this. If a folder is specified, you change to that folder and the reply goes there, then you go back after you've finished. ^reset reset Resets the game. All objects and mobiles are returned to their original condition and location. Anyone can do this; meta-wizards any time, other characters in wizmode every half-hour or so and everybody else can reset every day, in the sense of 86400 seconds. The game doesn't die during a reset; such is not true for the shutdown command. After you type "reset" you will be prompted to issue a "countdown" command. If there are more than a certain number of objects in the pit and a certain number of monsters in hell (usually 125 objects and 50 monsters), a "group reset" may be initiated by a player out of wizmode. Anyone over level 7 is allowed to initiate this, by typing "reset". An extra-long countdown of 240 seconds is issued automatically. In the first 120 seconds of this, anyone may abort the command by typing "countdown 0". For the last 120 seconds, the group reset turns itself into a normal reset, which can only be aborted by wizards. ^rest rest Increases your Strength by about 1/4 of the difference between it and your Maximum. This happens for both physical and magical strengths. Can be abbreviated to "r". ^rexits rexits Shows you the exits from a location. You need to know the three- letter name for the location you wish to know about. See "help locate". An exit shown in brackets [] requires a vehicle to be used. Not everyone can see them, though. Vehicle exits are shown even when you aren't in the vehicle. ^rlist rlist Like "list", but works on a player who isn't logged on. ^rlook rlook Allows you to look at a location without being there. See "help locate". ^rob rob If your dexterity is high enough or you're lucky enough, this robs player of gold. Illegal even to attempt this, and even more illegal if it works. Wizards can rob anyone in the game; characters under wizard have to be in the same room. Thieves are rather good at this. Players cannot be robbed of their last 800 gold pieces. ^rsay rsay Similar to "say", but to a specific location. The location "*" means your own location, if you're crazy enough to want to use the option. ^rsearch rsearch A command for wizards and seers similar to "search", but which can work on objects you are not carrying. ^rstatus rstatus

A wizard command that shows the persona file entry of the person

types. With no argument, reports who is tapping whom. ^teleport teleport Teleports you to the location , where is three characters corresponding to the ones you see when you do a "whereis". Teleporting works from most places to most other places, but you cannot go to Hell, for example. ^tell tell Will tell the persona or mobile named the message . No-one else can hear it (except possibly wizards and thieves). Can be abbreviated to > . Like "say", "tell" understands about questions and exclamations. ^thank thank [y] Thanks persona named . The second argument is optional, and may be used to add a modifier. For example thank Saomik for being such a nice person. (Hah!) ^thieves The thieves' guild is home to larcenous villains who can't keep their fingers out of other people's pockets. Thieves have unusually good hearing, and are also amazingly clever with locks. It is rumoured that thieves have a way of becoming invisible that is denied to other players. Admittance to the thieves' guild is by invitation only. Thieves have cheap and easy access to the spells "overhear", "eavesdrop", "sneak" and "hide". ^time time Gives you the time and date (exciting or what?). A synonym is "date". ^timelimits The machine on which Island runs in Oxford is also used for teaching purposes. (If this were not so, Island would not have a site in the first place!) This means that during Oxford term times, Island is closed between 9am and 5.30pm local time on weekdays, and ensures that the machines are not slowed down for those using the machines for work purposes. At all other times Island is available around the clock. Oxford full terms are 8 weeks long and start in mid-January, late April and early October. The machine on which Island runs in Cambridge is not used for teaching purposes. Even if it were, there still wouldn't be time limits. This site is available 24 hours a day. ^transport transport [] This transports an entity called to location , or to your current location if you omit this. transport This transports an entity called from location to location . You can specify "." as either location to refer to your own location. Players cannot be transported to hell. Monsters may be resurrected using this command. Questing players may not be transported, except by metas. ^trap trap Puts a trap on the door or object called . It should be shut first. If you fail, it backfires, you die, and the trap is not set. See help traps. ^traps Doors and openable objects in ISLAND may be trapped. The trap is detonated when the door or object is picked up, opened or searched. Traps are in general rare but nasty. Skill in handling traps depends mainly on your skill, but also on intelligence and dexterity. The verbs governing traps are check, disable and trap. ^truce truce Amicably terminates a duel. Both combatants must agree to the truce. ^twist twist Draws another card in blackjack. You can continue to twist even when bust. ^unbansite unbansite See bansite. ^unbarsite unbarsite See barsite. ^uncash uncash Converts number of points back into gold. Fractions of gold pieces are lost. You may only uncash up to half of your points, as a protective measure. Yes, you can be forced to uncash. ^unfod unfod Tries to resurrect a character who has been fodded. ^unfreeze unfreeze This reverses the effects of "freeze". You have to know the "freeze" spell for it to work. ^unfollow unfollow Terminates the current "follow". ^unhide unhide Brings you out of hiding. ^unlock unlock with Opposite of lock; takes same syntax. Thieves and arch-wizards can use the lock-pick. Otherwise, find the right key. ^unmorph unmorph Terminates a morph. ^unpit unpit Magically removes an object from below the pit, or from some other inaccessible locations. This is for those people who are killed and leave things in the sea or simply pit the wrong object. Success depends on intelligence, and casting the spell costs a number of points equal to the value of the object's base value. Unpitted objects usually have their current value set to zero. You cannot unpit in quest mode. Sub-wizards must be at the pit to unpit. ^unquest unquest This terminates a quest, with the side-effects that you drop everything, get out of any vehicle you are in, lose your armour, and go back to Limbo. ^unset unset Command to unset a personal variable. See "help set". ^unsnoop unsnoop Terminates the current snoop. ^untag untag Terminates a tag. ^untap untap Terminates a tap. ^unwield unwield Terminates a wield. ^unwizmode unwizmode Takes you out of wizmode, if you were in it. ^value value Shows the base value and current value of the specified object. The base value is a default value for the object, and the current value is the number of points you would get for pitting the object in question. Wizards and seers can value virtually anything at any time. ^vanilla Before you join or are elected to any of the other guilds, you are a member of the vanilla guild by default. Many players remain in the vanilla guild forever. Oh well. ^verbose verbose Sets location descriptions up so that they are printed up whenever you enter the room. See also: brief, curt. ^view view [n] [to ] [from ] View lists the first few articles in the current folder with numbers less than . On its own, view (or view 0) views the first few articles. If the parameter n is set to . (dot), then you view from the current article backwards, or from the most recent if you haven't started reading. If the "to" and "from" fields are present (in either order!), only articles matching the desired specification are shown. The flag [U] means the message hasn't been read by the recipient, and the flag [R] means it has. ^visible visible Makes you visible again. ^vote vote When you are summoned for jury duty, you MUST vote, even if the trial concludes before you cast your vote. Failing to vote may have dire consequences. The commands "vote guilty" and "vote not guilty" can be abbreviated to "vote g" and "vote n g". ^war war Makes fighting permissible for players and mobiles. This is done automatically when the last arch-wizard or meta-wizard quits the game, to stop the game staying in permanent peace. ^wear See "help wield", "help shield", "help inventory" and "help combat". ^weather weather [nnnn] When called without argument, weather returns the current weather state. Anyone can do this. With an argument, this allows changing of the weather. You must be outside to do it. The new weather is given in the form of a 4-digit number, the digits of which represent the levels of wind, rain, clouds and temperature respectively. These all range between 0 and 9. (Note that you can't have rain with no clouds!) Remember that the interpretation of the base weather can depend on regional factors, and changes frequently (every 60 seconds at the moment). ^web The ISLAND web page is: http://users.ox.ac.uk/~math0001/island.html (Note: not "info.ox.ac.uk" any more, although this may still work.) ^what what ISLAND TNG: Tells you what people are doing. ISLAND CLASSIC: Gives you a list of all objects ("what treasure" or "what objects") or all monsters ("what monsters" or "what mobiles"). ^whereis whereis Usually abbreviated to "where". This tells you the quantities and locations of a given mobile, object or player, if invoked as "where " where is the name of the relevant entity. In addition, "where treasures" or "where objects" lists the number of objects in each "interesting" location, and "where mobiles" or "where monsters" lists the number of monsters in each "interesting" location. An "interesting" location is defined to be any place with two or more objects or mobiles. In further addition, "where people" or "where players" does what you expect. In still further addition, "where lights" tells you where torches etc. may be found. Also (!) "where weapons" tells you where the decent weapons are. Did I mention that "where boats" tells you where the boats are? If the object you enquire about is hidden inside something else, this is indicated. This may not be very informative - this is intentional. Successful use of this command depends on intelligence. ^which which [gender (optional) [guild (optional)]] A para command to look at persona file breakdowns. Gender may be set to "male", "female" or "*". All personae satisfying the conditions will be shown, including fodded ones. ^whisper Whispering doesn't really exist. What you think is whispering is most likely another player in your location using "tell" to someone other than you. ^who who Gives a list of visible personae who are currently playing. [TNG] You are informed if the player is very idle, link-dead or posting. Wizards can also see the levels. ^wield wield [] Selects as your weapon. Any object can be used as a weapon. Use "probe" to discover the weapons value of an object. Walking around with a deadly weapon wielded is sinful. On its own, wield tells you what you are wielding and what the weapon class is. This is how much sin you get for walking one "move" wielding the weapon. See also "unwield". ^wizards (The term "wizard" below designates a player of either gender and any guild who has attained a level at least as high as wizard or witch.) Upon reaching the level of wizard a player is granted extra privileges. These privileges can only be used in "wizmode". You can tell if you are in wizmode from the prompt which changes from the standard ">" to "*". In addition to the several new verbs, wizards also get more detail from o ther commands like "who", and can do things like "cash", "unpit", "give" and "steal" without being in the relevant room. (For details see elsewhere.) The added verbs include: (un)wizmode, force, teleport, goto, superget, invisible, visible, morph, people, prewarn, rstatus, msay, memote, rsearch, secret, block, lastcrime, rlist. ^wizmode wizmode: Puts you into wizmode if you are a wizard. Bit useless if you're not. ^zot zot Zots the given player with lightning! Make sure you aim carefully. See "help lightning". ^

. Gives output similar to "status". ^run run Attempts to move in a randomly chosen direction. Useful if you want to get away from a fight without taking time to choose your route. ^save save Saves your persona (just in case!). This only usually works for players with a positive score. ^say say Like shout, but the message is only audible to players and mobiles in the current location. Can be shortened to ' (quote). If your message ends in "?" or "!", you "ask" or "exclaim" automatically. Note that "ask" and "exclaim" are not recognized as commands. ^score score Gives your current score and gold. ^scry scry [x] Tells you which object is used to (un)lock a given door or object. Sometimes it will also give very important information about mobiles when used with no argument (but only if you are a seer or a para-wizard/witch). ^search search Reveals any objects hidden in the one you search. ^secret secret [] Sets your parameter of secrecy to the given level. This means that players strictly below that level are unable to hear what you say (unless they're obviously supposed to) by using "omnihear", "eavesdrop" or "overhear". The default value for the "secret" parameter is 0. You may not set it to a value higher than your level. With an argument in ISLAND TNG, you can change the secret level of other players. They are notified. On its own, "secret" shows the value of your "secret" parameter. See also "block". ^seers The seers' guild is for people who thirst for knowledge, and eschew all worldly pleasures. When you become a seer, you gain the ability to explore with almost total impunity, and visiting the top of the wizards' tower (where they start off) lets you observe distant people and places. Also, when you become a seer, you abandon all rank. All seers are assigned rank 0, regardless of previous rank, and lose any quests they may have done (nota bene!!). However, they are able to post articles in the ibb, and can use all the emote verbs (except the powerful ones like lemote) The seers' guild is unique in that it sometimes expels members. ^sell sell to for Sell the object to the persona in exchange for gold pieces. It is up to them whether they accept. This is useful in negotiating a fair swap of objects. Spells can be sold at the place you bought them. ^set set ([v] ([x])) A wizard command to set the personal variable to the value [x]. The parameter [x] may be omitted if this makes sense, and without a [v] argument, the current variables are activated. The current set of variables includes: wizmode overhear eavesdrop omnihear prewarn [0, 1, 2, 3] (see help prewarn) hush brief curt idle A para-wizard command to do a partial reset of objects. is an object name, is the current location, and is the destination (similar to "trans"). Any or all of , , and may be or include the wild card "*". For example, stock * * bp* will attempt to restock the BP block. Only accessible objects are moved. ^strength strength [x] Tells you your two physical and two magical strengths. Works on other players for wizards (in ISLAND TNG). See "help attributes". ^subject subject Specifies a subject in IBB. Done after the "post" command. You then go into post mode, and when you have finished, type quit. You are then shown the text of your article and given the option to discard it. Type "send" to post the article or "reject" to discard it. ^suicide suicide Totally scrubs a novice-level persona. Useful when you just want to start over. ^summon summon Summons the given player to your location. Depends on intelligence. Doesn't work if the player is on a quest, carrying an anti-summoner or in a safe location. Actually, there are quite a lot more exceptions! ^superget superget Superget is like "take" but the object can be anywhere in the game, so long as it is not carried or in something else. A successful superget loses you points equal to the value of the object. ^swearing Certain words are classed as swear words for various reasons. These include: bloody, damn, abermud, bollocks, definate, sentance, turf, wierd, recieve, wisard, discription, invisable, sheild, theif, weild, semprini, begginer, lightening, sundevil, hombre. Semprini??? Certain words are taboo. These include: s***, c***, f***, w**k, t**t, b***er You may be fined for using these words, in addition to gaining sin. ^tag tag Keeps track of a persona or monster as it moves around. Reversed by untag. In wizmode with no argument, this shows who's tagging whom. (Is it me, is it me, is it youm?) ^take take Picks up the object, provided the number of objects you are already carrying is less than your Capacity, and that your strength is at least equal to the Size of the object. "take all" will take everything in the location. With a few special sacred objects, "take" will not work for the unworthy. Usually you can only do this if you can see what you're doing! ^tap tap [p] A wizmode command that lets you see everything player