How to Create
In order to create a character, you will first need a client to connect to Dark Isles. We recommend Mushclient it’s free and easy to use. There are, however, loads of telnet clients out there, so feel free to google and find one to your liking.
Once you have installed a client, you will need to enter the connection details for Dark Isles. They are as follows:
Host: dark-isles.com
Port: 7000
Once you connect, you will be prompted to create an account. This is seperate from your character and is simply your out of character identity. You can have several characters attached to an account. The following guide steps you through how to create a character.
Part One: Through the Menus
It is important to have a bit of a think about who and what your character is before you begin the creation process as your thoughts towards this will dictate and influence the choices you make as you proceed through the various menu screens.
Step One: Character Name
This should be different from your account name. The name should be fitting to this world.
Step Two: Gender
Only two options, male or female. This has no effect on either attributes or your skills.
Step Three: Race
The options you will be presented with here will be dependant upon how much total roleplaying points you have gained. If this is your first character, your options will be limited to Human – Aartiran and Skrel’eth. Aartiran’s are the default human race. Skrel’eth are a blue skinned barbarian like people. It is important you read up on any information available on the race you wish to play before selecting it.
Step Three B: Special Race
You may be offered the option of selecting a special race. Each person can have only one at a time, so choose very carefully. Of all those available, the Vek’pem Ahyre is the hardest to play and may have the shortest of life spans. It is important that you read all the information available about a special race before selecting it.
Step Four: Age
You will be offered an age range dependant upon the race you have selected. Keep in mind that it is not possible to play a child character without permission from the staff and usually requires the character to be experienced in the game world and have at least 2000 TRPP (total roleplaying points) to be considered. Skrel’eth age much faster than Humans so their age range is much shorter.
Step Five: Height
You will need to select a height from five options:
- (vs) very short
- (s) short
- (n) normal
- (t) tall
- (vt) very tall
If you wish your character to be very short, you would enter: vs.
Step Six: Weight
You will need to select a weight from five options:
- (s) skinny
- (l) lean
- (n) normal
- (p) plump
- (o) overweight
If you wish your character to be skinny, you would enter: s
Step Seven: Hair Colour
You will be offered a range of hair colours dependant upon the race you have selected.
To select a particular hair colour, simply type the name of the one you want.
Step Eight: Eye Colour
You will be offered a range of eye colours dependant upon the race you have selected.
To select a particular eye colour, simply type the name of the one you want.
Step Nine: Skin Colour
You will be offered a range of skin colours dependant upon the race you have selected.
To select a particular skin colour, simply type the name of the one you want.
Step Ten: Attributes
For this step, you will need to order the attributes from most to least important to your character concept. You need to include each attribute once. And write out only the first three letters of each attribute. For example a person who wished to concentrate on combat and strength might choose the following:
str agi con dex int wis per psy
Step Eleven: Confirming
At this point you will be asked to review the information selected so far, and if you are happy with it, type A to accept and if you wish to redo it, select C to change. Selecting A will take you back to the main menu where you can select your newly created character and enter the game world.
Part Two: In Game
Once in game, there are a few more steps to setting up your character. As at this point you are in the game, if you have any questions, you can use the newbie channel to ask other players and staff. To do this, type the word newbie followed by your question. The instructions for what you need to do at each stage can be read by typing look. It is important to read through all the information given.
Short and Long Descriptions
This bit can be difficult for the new character to grasp the concept of, so we will cover it in two parts. Firstly what it is, and secondly, what is an acceptable short and long description.
When you type LOOK you will be shown the room description, a list of players and NPCs (non-player characters) and a list of objects. The characters will be listed like:
A massive Skrel’eth male with bright aquamarine eyes.
A skinny runt of a man who is missing an arm.
A shapely lass with long flowing golden hair.
A weathered man with a matted, greying beard.
In the examples above, the blue text is what we call the short description, and the red text is the long description. Both are combined to form what you see when someone else types look.
You set the short description by using the SHORT and the long description with the LONG command. For example:
short a massive Skrel’eth male
long with bright aquamarine eyes
Now, rules and guidelines for setting the short and long description:
- describe ONLY your characters physical appearance. Your character may be kind-hearted, but that’s not something people find out by only looking at you.
- do not include things such as profession, or personality. Ie don’t use the word thief, or mage or warrior.
- do not include clothing as these can change from day to day.
- do describe only what people can see.
- beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. Just write up what your character looks like, don’t tell other people to consider your beautiful or, for that matter, ugly.
- make sure that your physical appearance matches the traits of your race. Ie, no red Skrel’eth.
- keep to the mythos. ie, no Orcs, Trolls, Angels, etc
If you are unsure, or have any questions at all, ask on the newbie channel.
Look Description
As you move through the tutorial, you will be eventually prompted to write a look description. If you type: look self, you will see the default description you start with… which isn’t much to look at. Generally what you want there is a paragraph (or two) describing your characters physical appearance. Basically elaborating on what you already have put for the short and long above. The same rules apply, keep to the physical side of things only etc.
Now, setting your ‘look description’ is a little more complicated. You start by typing simply: desc
This will put you in what we call a buffer. Whilst you are in a buffer, you can only use a limited number of commands that relate only to your writing. So, no talking on the newbie channel whilst writing the desc. The following is a list of the basic commands you can use whilst in the writing buffer:
- /a – exits the buffer without saving
- /s – exits the buffer with saving
- /c – clears the buffer
- /l – lists the description so far
- /n – lists the description so far, with line numbers
- /f – formats the text into one paragraph.
- /h – lists all the buffer commands
And some more advanced commands once you master those:
- /fi – formats the text into one paragraph with an indent
- /i # <text> – inserts <text> at line #
- /r ‘a’ ‘b’ – replace first occurance of text a in the buffer with text b
- /ra ‘a’ ‘b’ – replace ALL occurances of text a in the buffer with text b
Now, each line is 80 characters in length. So I find the best way to do your description is to type it up in something like notepad, with the length at the top so you can work out what you can fit on each line. Once you are done, copy paste into mushclient and viola. Done. This way you can format it how you want, have several paragraphs, etc.
