Carrion Fields Quick Start Guide #2: Navigation

The World: The world that the inhabitants of Carrion Fields live in is called Thera (an anagram of Earth). It was created by the Lords of Order and Chaos at the dawn of time, and populated with their creations, who fought epic battles and lived solely to serve the esoteric purposes of their creators. The Lord of Order and the Lord of Chaos passed on to other realms, leaving behind a vibrant world filled with life…and conflict. Geographically, the world is divided into three continents: the Eastern Continent (where the city of Arkham lies), the Southern Continent (where the city of Seantryn Moden lies), and the Main Continent (basically the rest of the world, the cities of Galadon, Udgaard and Hamsah and their surroundings), all separated by the Dragon Sea and the Aryth Ocean. Each continent has its own specific geography: forests, mountains, jungles, seas, deserts, roads and cities, as well as its different inhabitants.

Rooms and Areas: From a game mechanics perspective, the world of Thera consists of a multitude of interconnected “rooms”. Each room has a “title” (the first line, this describes the basic theme of the room), a “description” (the surroundings of the room, i.e., what your character “sees” around him or her) and “exits” (one or more of the six cardinal directions: north, east, south, west, up and down). The “exits” connect rooms with each other; for example, if the top of this page were considered “north”, and you were in room E in the below diagram, by typing ‘north’, you would be telling the MUD to move your character from room E to room B. If you then wanted to move to room A, you would type ‘west’. ‘South’ would take you to room D, and ‘east’ would take you back to where you started, room E. ‘Up’ or ‘down’ work the same way; think of climbing or descending a flight of stairs, a tree or a steep mountain path.

A – B – C
| . | . .
D – E - F
. . | . .
. . G . .

This brings up an important point: in Carrion Fields, “rooms” are not always indoors, surrounded by four walls. Rather, the term “room” is used to describe the general surroundings of your character on a limited scale. The scale is not constant, either; some “rooms” describe a tiny cell in a dungeon. Other “rooms” could describe several miles of open ocean, a central square in a large town, the entry of a merchant’s shop, even the inside of a giant purple dragon. The important thing to take away is that rooms are descriptive and connected to each other, and you get to use your imagination to complete the picture that the individual area author has created for you.

An “area” is a series of connected rooms with a similar theme. Areas range in size from only a handful of rooms (some Cabals, shrines of Gods or short roads) to hundreds of rooms (vast oceans, large cities, extensive underground dungeons or great castles). There are over 200 different areas in the game, each of them designed by their author or authors to be individual creations that fit into the overall theme of the world.

These three separate concepts, “rooms”, “areas” and “continents” are important because they define different limits in the game. For example, the ‘where’ command will return a list of all players who are currently in the same area as your character, as well as the title of the room they are in. Melee combat with other characters or creatures in the game normally takes place in the same room. Teleportation will magically move your character randomly between areas, but you will appear in an area that is on the same continent as the area you teleported from. The ‘who’ and ‘tell’ commands are “global”, in the sense that you can use them to see or talk to characters regardless of their location relative to you in the game (provided they aren’t hidden from your sight by magical or other means!).

Moving Throughout Thera: There are several different ways to move throughout Thera, ranging from magical means of transport, to physically walking from one location to another. Most forms of transportation require your character to use up movement points, which loosely equate to their stamina. Every time you move from one room to another, it costs you movement points. Some terrain is easy to walk through (city streets, roads) and requires very few movement points, some terrain is moderately difficult (fields, low hills) and some can be quite tiring (mountains, upstream on rivers), requiring progressively more movement points.

Like mana and hit points, movement points are automatically regenerated every in game hour. This regeneration takes place at increasing rates depending on your character’s activity; sleeping for long periods of time regenerates mana, hit points and movement points at the greatest rate, resting regenerates slightly less per hour, standing even less than resting and, finally, your character will regenerate only minimally while fighting. Every time you gain a level, your character will receive additional movement points, and you can also earn permanent gains to movement through the exploration of Thera.

Magical or divine means of transportation are available to all characters, and can include spells (word of recall, teleport), communes (gate, group teleport) or certain special objects. Through level 10, all characters have access to the ‘recall’ command, which will return them to their hometown at the cost of half their current movement points. After level 10, potions of return (which, when quaffed, work the same way as the ‘recall’ command) are available for purchase in most hometowns, as are wands, staves and scrolls (though not all characters can use these more specialized magical items). Thera is a pretty big place, and it can be easy to get lost when you are first exploring, so it is a good idea to carry a few potions of return with you before you set out on a long journey, just in case.

Kastellyn the Devourer of Magic, Lord of Legends

*** Email me your testimonials or two-line blurbs. Help our marketing efforts! ***