Newbie Central: Trinkets and TreasureThe aim of MUD2 from a gaming point of view is to accumulate points, go up levels, make wiz then laugh at everyone who hasn't. There's a lot more to it than that, of course, but it is what makes the game a game. It's especially important to newbies because low level characters are very fragile and don't take a lot of killing. Also, trying to get points is a good way of learning the basics of the game almost by osmosis: you have a main goal (usually to go up a level) and you aim for that, not really realising that things like getting an in-the-head map and a handle on the basic commands are falling into place as you do so. Before you know it, you have friends, a reasonable routine to kit yourself up with a light source and a weapon, and oo! you've gone up some levels too. Now there are lots of ways of scoring points, but newbies really only have one as a major option: swamping treasure. Killing other players or non-trivial mobiles is simply out of the question - newbies are too puny. Points for "doing things" like eating food or completing a task are welcome when the opportunity presents itself, but it rarely does. Gift points, whether from players (kisses) or the game (pride at having played so long) are just that - gifts - and can't really form the backbone of your playing strategy. So newbies should really aim to score from dropping treasure in the swamp. It's probably in order to explain why, exactly, dropping treasure in a swamp should get you points at all! Essentially, treasure is "potential" points, a bit like a cheque is "potential" money. It doesn't become real points until you cash it in. However, the act of cashing it in has to destroy it, otherwise it would be possible to score for it again and again and again. Some MUDs deal with this by having you make offerings at temples, or sell it to a storekeeper, or hand it in at your guild. MUD2 has a swamp. I don't know the significance of this; it explains why the stuff you drop disappears, I guess, but so would lots of other things, like a bottomless pit or a magic pentagram. Why a swamp?!! Well, whatever the reason, a swamp is what we have. Finding the swamp is easy, especially if you read this article, but to recap all you do is repeatedly click on the "swamp" icon or type zw..... until eventually you end up there. If you get stuck, holler for help! Before we go into the actual trinkets and treasure of the game, there are some commands you should know other than mere movement: get and drop are essential, but inventory, value, score and level are handy, too.
 Useful CommandsWhen it comes to collecting treasure, it's no good merely to find it. You have to pick it up and take it to the swamp. This means you'll need to know two very important commands: get and drop. These are used sp often that even though they're already short, they have abbreviations: g and dr (not d, that's short for the movement command down). MUD2 allows objects to be referred to collectively by their type. All boxes can be referred to as box, for example - you don't have to say cardboard box or lacquer box or box marked "corn flakes", although all these will work. If you say get box it will pick up all the boxes in your room. One of the most useful types is treasure, which is abbreviated to t. Treasure is stuff which is worth points. On the screen, ordinary objects show up in cyan but treasure is in bright cyan so it stands out. If you see it, you can type g t to pick it up. For example, suppose that you entered a room and saw the following:
Here, g t would pick up the postcard and the dish. It would not pick up the fire because that's not treasure (but if you did g all an attempt would be made - and you'd burn yourself!). It would not pick up the obsidian because even though that is treasure, it's inside the fire (you would have to g obsidian from fire to take it - and a burn). It would not pick up the fruit individually, but would by virtue of its being inside the dish. You can either forget about the fruit and swamp the dish with it inside, or you can empty dish to leave the fruit on the ground for someone else, or if you're feeling especially enthusiastic you can g fruit from dish to experiment with it (you can get points from fruit, although none of it is treasure). Notice that although the room description refers to troll-hide furniture, you can't pick any of that up. MUD2 doesn't even know the word "furniture", which is a bit of a shame, it really ought to even if only to give you a sarcastic message. You can refer to a lot of fixed objects - climb wall give a meaningful response in the lounge, for example - but not the furniture. Go figure. To drop stuff, the same thing applies. Although you could, if you liked, type dr dish, dr postcard and so on, a simple dr t will drop all items of treasure (but not drop anything else you're carrying that isn't treasure - use dr all to drop everything). So your basic playing loop is as follows:
As you'll have spotted from my earlier usage, dropping something in the swamp is called "swamping" it. It's not a command - you can't swamp t - but it's a phrase you'll hear often so you may as well get used to it :-) . Although you can get by with get and drop, there are some other commands which are helpful. If you don't remember what you're carrying (or suspect that someone has stolen something off of you), the inventory command is useful. There's an icon for this on the screen, but its abbreviation, i, is so short that you may as well use that than have to reach for the mouse. When you swamp treasure, your points score will go up. Although the game tells you what your score is every time it changes, often you want to know at other times. To find out what your current score is, along with a bundle of other fluff, use the score (or sc) command or click the appropriate icon. There's a quickscore (or qs) command which tells you the bare basics; most experienced players tend to use that rather than sc as it doesn't use up so much screen. If you want to find out how many points you need to go up a level, type level (and don't feel too depressed!). One other command which you need to know about is value (or val). If you val t, it will tell you how much each item of treasure is currently worth to you. This will change - it goes up the more people are playing and down as your own level increases - but usually it will be within a few points of some average. In a few, special cases, though, it will actually be negative and you will lose points for swamping it! Why? Well some treasure isn't just treasure, it's also a "trinket"...
Trinkets and TreasureFor newbies to gain points, they have to find treasure. But newbies don't know the lay of The Land, so any treasure meant for them has to be easy to find. Ah, but if it's easy to find, why don't non-newbies just pick it all up and swamp it before the real newbies can? Because the really easy goodies to find are "trinkets". Trinkets are treasure which are only worth points to low-level characters. Beyond a certain level (which varies with each trinket) they are worth negative points, so non-newbies will actually try to avoid swamping them. This means that they are usually left untouched for long periods, so any passing newbie should have no problem finding them. Even experienced players who have been killed in a fight and have had to start again from scratch will give them a miss, because there are other ways to get points quicker at low levels (that you'll find out as you come to learn more about the game). Even in-game residents like the thief will leave trinkets alone. Go for them! The abbreviation for trinket is tr, by the way. As trinket is a sub-class of treasure, g t will pick up all treasure including trinkets but g tr will pick up only trinkets. If you want to pick up non-trinket treasure, use g t x tr, which is short for get treasure except trinkets. You'll find that as you go up levels, more and more trinkets become worth negative points to you and you'll have to start looking for "proper" treasure instead. This is good - it shows you're beginning to master the game and that your newbie status is gradually dissolving away.
Where to Find TrinketsThere are currently 34 trinkets in the game, but some of them are harder to find than others. One or two have secondary uses and are snapped up for those, but most are lying around in convenient places waiting for you to take them to the swamp. Some, such as the map, can be helpful to you in other ways, so be sure to check things out if they seem interesting (but then swamp them anyway!). You shouldn't just go for trinkets, of course. If you see some real treasure lying around, take that too! Flowers, which appear in the flower garden west of the path to the cottage, are an excellent way to get a few quick points, for example. Don't feel you're depriving non-newbies of them if you don't pick them up - they wouldn't be so charitable if the situation were reversed :-) . Trinkets do form the mainstay of your first few games, though. The best places to look are in the cottage, the inn and the villa ("Il Castellare", as it's named). The cottage will usually contain something in the following rooms: the fitted wardrobe west from the hall; the lounge, east from the hall; the study, east from the lounge; the kitchen, south from the hall (you may need a key to open the door); the small bedroom southeast from the upstairs landing; the attic (but that's really quite hard to get to - or at least to get out of). The villa has a nice stash of trinkets located on its upper floors. Go to the ingresso then go up to the nanny's room - there is usually some swag there you can have. If you then go down and west you'll find yourself in the nursery, which is a trinket point too. Don't forget to open the alcove door and go in (you don't need a key unless someone has deliberately locked it). Initially, there's not a lot of trinkets in the inn (although there is some easy-to-find treasure!). As the reset goes on, though, trinkets which have been swamped are recycled. One of the prime places they go is the inn's small bedroom (unfortunately, two of the other prime places are in the dwarf realm, which is not a place for newbies). The small bedroom is on the second floor above ground level, e.n.w from the passage that you arrive at coming from floor one. There's a door in the way, but it usually gets opened by more experienced players fairly quickly because of something they want that's often behind it... You might also want to check out the stable opposite the inn; it's dark, but there's often a ribbon in there. Other good places to look for trinkets include the gazebo, the high altar in the monastery church and anywhere in the pine forest. There are also isolated trinkets which occupy locations close to where newbies often frequent, such as the swamp, narrow road and Dally Lane. Don't be afraid to explore (but not the Evil Wood - it really deserves its name).
Where to Find TreasureAlthough trinkets are reserved exclusively for newbies, non-trinkets are available to everyone. There is a lot of it just lying around, unguarded, which is ideal for newbies but is competed for with other low-level players, too. You can use this so-called "loose t" to wean yourself off of trinkets :-) . As for where it is, well that's starting to take us into the realms of "secrets" which it would spoil the game for you if I were to reveal all. Also, it's not all concentrated in one place, it's more like scattered about. However, I would recommend anyone to have a look in the following places if they wanted some easy treasure quickly: the inn, the villa, the pagoda grounds (pick those flowers!), the dense and pine forests (where recycled stuff goes, often treasure) and any pastures or gardens you know of (more flowers). Beyond that, you're leaving newbie territory... As a general rule, remember what you have in containers - or use i to find out. Some containers are treasure and can be accidentally swamped with a careless dr t before you've emptied them. You can use the keep command to prevent this, as in keep vase; use unkeep to stop. As always, though, don't be afraid to ask people for help. It's not your right to expect them to give it, so don't be pushy, but most people will be friendly once they realise you're as clueless as you actually are :-) . Ask to accompany them, especially if you see them going around in a group; often they'll let you and then you'll get a cut of any loot they find. OK, so you may get killed if they're going somewhere really dangerous, but so what? You can always find some trinkets and treasure to get you back to where you were in half the time! :-)
AppendixHere is a list of all the trinkets I know of and the maximum level you can be before they start being worth negative points. Some are very awkward to get, so don't worry if you can't find them; I doubt whether many of even our most experienced players have seen the frogspawn, for example!
ExercisesDon't worry if you can't do these exercises all in one reset. Other people may have moved the objects concerned - particularly if they, too, were doing these exercises! Spread them out over several resets if necessary. Although they don't have to be attempted in order, the ones at the beginning of the list are probably easier than the ones toward the end.
Next TimeCommunication and Houses!
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