Clan Lord (e)

Subject: Clan Lord FAQ v.2.2
From: pamg@alumni.rice.edu (Pamela Greene)
Reply-To: pamg@alumni.rice.edu (Pamela Greene)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.games.adventure, comp.answers, news.answers
Followup-To: comp.sys.mac.games.adventure,alt.games.clanlord

Archive-name: games/roleplay/clanlord-faq
Posting-Frequency: every 14 days
URL: http://macrules.com/users/clanlordfaq/

Clan Lord Fount of Abundant Questions

Version 2.2, modified 11 Autumn 533 (24 May 1999)

v2.2: added 3.11, added to 2.1 and 2.3, tweaked others as usual
v2.1: added to 3.8; tweaked various other sections
v2.0: first post-CL-release version; changed 2.10
v1.5: added 2.3
v1.4: added another 2.5
v1.3: added 2.5, tweaked a few other sections
v1.2: rewrote 3.6, changed 2.10, tweaked a few other sections
v1.1: added 2.6 and 3.9, changed 2.1 and 3.6, tweaked many other sections
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------
Compiled and edited by Pamela Greene . Additions,
corrections, and suggestions for this file are welcomed!

I play Healery on Clan Lord. If you find the waters of this Fount
refreshing, please feel free to find me there and let me know. I'm also glad
to help newcomers to the isles, and to answer any questions that aren't
addressed here.

I am not affiliated with Delta Tao Software in any way. Opinions expressed
in this FAQ are my own or those of other contributors, and do not represent
official Delta Tao policy. Since I don't know the game from the inside, some
parts of this might be wrong; use the information at your own risk. Portions
of this FAQ were derived from the original Clan Lord FAQ from Delta Tao.

This document is copyright (c) 1999 by Pamela L. Greene. It may be freely
distributed by electronic, paper, or other means, provided that it is
distributed in its entirety, including this notice, and that no fee is
charged apart from the actual costs of distribution. It may not be used or
included in any commercial or for-profit work without prior written
permission. Delta Tao Software, Inc. owns everything associated with the
Clan Lord universe, including the pictures, sounds, music, client,
characters, and world data.
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------

CONTENTS

  1. About Clan Lord
        o (1.1) What is Clan Lord? What do I need to play it?
        o (1.2) Where can I download a demo version?
        o (1.3) Where can I get a copy of this FAQ?
        o (1.4) What Web sites should I look at?
        o (1.5) What other resources are there?
        o (1.6) What kinds of changes are planned for CL's future?
        o (1.7) What useful applications might I want to enhance Clan Lord?
  2. Game basics
        o (2.1) How do I create a character? What race should I be?
        o (2.2) What is role-playing? What's OOC? Where's the OOC area?
        o (2.3) What are the different ways I can communicate with people?
        o (2.4) Where can I go for help, within the game?
        o (2.5) What are karma, sharing, and balance?
        o (2.6) How do I use a command on a person, or select them?
        o (2.7) Why are some names on colored backgrounds, or in boldface?
        o (2.8) What happens when my character dies?
        o (2.9) Where can I disconnect safely?
        o (2.10) How do I gain experience? What level am I? How should I
          train?
        o (2.11) How do I earn money?
        o (2.12) How can I buy something from someone else?
        o (2.13) What kinds of things are considered rude?
        o (2.14) Are there "evil" people in Clan Lord?
  3. Other frequently asked questions
        o (3.1) How do I get ___-colored clothing?
        o (3.2) Where are all the secret places?
        o (3.3) How do I become a mystic?
        o (3.4) What is Puddleby time and how is it related to real time?
        o (3.5) Is the coliseum open?
        o (3.6) Who is Joe? Who are the Ancients? What is a GM?
        o (3.7) What is slaughtering?
        o (3.8) Why did I just gain experience? What are spirit pulses?
        o (3.9) What is Dun'ilsar?
        o (3.10) What is pushball?
        o (3.11) What is the Puddleby Navy?
        o (3.12) What is a Mounted Rat good for?
  4. Glossary

  ------------------------------------------------------------------------

1. *** About Clan Lord ***

  ------------------------------------------------------------------------

(1.1) What is Clan Lord? What do I need to play it?

Clan Lord is a massively multi-player, high fantasy Internet role-playing
game for the Macintosh, from Delta Tao Software .
More than just a hack-and-slash game, it emphasizes cooperation, community,
problem solving, exploration and contribution, in addition to the fun of
whacking at monsters, developing your character's abilities and personality
over time, and using various kinds of magic.

Clan Lord takes place in a town called Puddleby, in the Lok'Groton islands.
The game, and the world in which it takes place, are constantly changing and
growing (see 1.6).

Delta Tao's official Clan Lord website is at
.

According to that site, the game requires "a 68040 or PowerPC Macintosh with
16 MB of memory, a 256 color screen, System 7 or later, CD-ROM drive, 200 MB
of free hard drive space, a 28.8 kbps Internet connection, and a sense of
adventure." However, at the moment it doesn't take more than 50 MB of hard
drive space, though that will grow as more images and sounds are added to
the world. Delta Tao expects to support the 68040 for a while, probably at
least a year. You can try playing on a 68030, but crowded areas will be slow
and some CPU-intensive areas won't be playable.
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------

(1.2) Where can I download a demo version?

Right now you can't. Delta Tao has said, "We may make a special introductory
area for people to see what the game is like, but not for a while. Our top
priority will be taking care of the paying customers." You can keep an eye
on Delta Tao's Clan Lord pages just in case. Screenshots are available at
just about every player-maintained web site (see 1.4).
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------

(1.3) Where can I get a copy of this FAQ?

It's posted every other week to comp.sys.mac.games.adventure and available
as a web page at . Several CL sites
(see 1.4) will hopefully link to it as well.

It's posted to news.answers and comp.answers too, and available by FTP and
WWW from the various news.answers archives, including
ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/faqs/games/roleplay/clanlord-faq
http://www.faqs.org/faqs/games/roleplay/clanlord-faq
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------

(1.4) What Web sites should I look at?

Clan Lord information is still scattered pretty widely, since so many people
have been playing it and adding their own contributions to the information
available. Here are some of the more central sites:

Delta Tao's Clan Lord site: .
Official information, ordering, registering characters.

Clan Lord Manual: .
Installation information, theology and race descriptions, Darshak Theocracy
history, world background, what to do, technical support information, etc.

Clan World: . The official unofficial
Clan Lord site. The Puddleby Post, maps, guides, artwork, announcements, and
links to just about everything. Becoming outdated now, but most of the links
are still useful.

Braveheart's Guide to Clan Lord:
. An excellent introduction to
the game and the world, though somewhat outdated now. Commands, trainers,
monster lists.

Official Clan List: . All
the clans in the game, with contact information. (Now very outdated, since
all the clans were deleted when the game went commercial.)

Better Living Through Fast Feet: .
Not a "central" site as such, but one of my favorites. How to survive your
first weeks in Puddleby without falling every two minutes.
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------

(1.5) What other resources are there?

There is a Clan Lord Hotline server at 207.245.14.171:184 . Hotline is a
combined chat, news, and file server; to download a demo client, go to
. The CL Hotline server holds dozens of stories,
sketches, maps, programs, and other CL-related files, and is a good place to
chat when you're not actually Clanning.

Clan Lord is discussed extensively in the comp.sys.mac.games.adventure
Usenet newsgroup. Please mark your articles with "CL:" or "Clan Lord:" to
help readers who either look for them specifically or filter them out.
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------

(1.6) What kinds of changes are planned for CL's future?

Nobody knows for sure, but new areas, professions, specializations, items,
quests, trainers, and plots are all very likely. Delta Tao has plans for the
world to develop and remain interesting for years.

Delta Tao has written, "The world has a past, present, and future that we've
developed. Only the broadest of changes to the world will be felt by the
casual players, but for those that wish to get more involved they'll have
the opportunity to affect the story of the world as it unravels."
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------

(1.7) What useful applications might I want to enhance Clan Lord?

These are all available from the CL Hotline server (see 1.5), as well as at
the URLs listed.

Puddlewatch: . Tells you the Clan
Lord time (see 3.4), date, tide level, and moon phase.

Clan Lord Extras:  or <
http://www.kosanostra.com/maenygh/mirror/ClanLordExtras.sit>. Runs in
parallel to Clan Lord and notifies you when your friends arrive, leave, or
fall; who is sharing with you and whom you're sharing with; and your hit
points, balance and spirit as numerical values.

Scribus: . Tracks your CL log
file to record training, kills, slaughters, shares, falls, departs, karma,
wood donations, time spent Clanning, etc.
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------

2. *** Game basics ***

  ------------------------------------------------------------------------

(2.1) How do I create a character? What race should I be?

Buy the game. It comes with a serial number which you'll need to sign up at
Delta Tao's CL site (see 1.4). Don't use any punctuation or spaces in your
account name or password. Then create a new character in the game's
Character Manager. Choose your character name carefully, because it's
permanent. You might want it to fit a background history you've created for
your character, or you might just want to pick something historical,
mythological, or completely made up. Don't pick anything obscene or
offensive, don't use sTrANge c0MbinAt1Ons of letter cases and numbers, and
don't give yourself any titles such as Master, Mistress, Lord, Lady or Duke.
Spaces, hyphens (-), and apostrophes (') are all fine in character names.

When you first come into the game, you'll be presented with a sequence of
choices about your character, including sex, hair color, and skin tone. Two
things you don't have to choose right away are race and profession, both of
which are permanent once you've chosen. You might want to wander around a
little before selecting a race, to find out a bit more about them than the
NPCs in Town Hall can tell you. (You don't absolutely have to select a race
at all, but very few people remain "concealed".) Here's a brief overview of
the races' innate abilities, though enough training can overcome any initial
problems:

Race       Health   Balance  Defense   Attack    Damage  Spirit
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Dwarf      good     average  good      good      good    terrible
Halfling   average  poor     excellent terrible  poor    excellent
Human      average  average  average   average   average average
Ghorak Zo  vy good  poor     poor      excellent good    poor
People     terrible good     average   terrible  good    average
Sylvan     poor     good     average   average   poor    average
Thoom      vy good  average  poor      average   poor    excellent
Concealed  average  average  average   average   average average

Spirit is important mainly to healers and mystics.
All races initially heal others equally fast, except Ghorak Zo who heal a fair bit slower.
All races initially recover health naturally at the same rate, except Thooms who are about three times as fast.

You can currently choose one of three professions: fighter, healer, or
mystic. How you join a profession depends on what you want to be; ask people
nicely and someone will help you. (But see 3.3 about mystics.) You'll pick
up the rest of your skills and specializations as you go along.

One of the most important things you can do when you create a character in
the game is to think about who the character really is, in this fantasy
world. Most of the people in Puddleby were exiled there because of real or
imagined crimes against the mad Emperor Mobius, ruler of the Ascendancy back
on the Western Continent. Others arrived accidentally, were born there, or
might even have come voluntarily. Knowing a bit about how your character got
to Puddleby and what sort of person he or she is will help a lot in your
role-playing (see 2.2).
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------

(2.2) What is role-playing? What's OOC? Where's the OOC area?

At heart, role-playing is speaking and acting as if you truly were the
character you're playing in the game. Of course, the character doesn't think
it's a game -- to him or her, it's life. You may be familiar with
face-to-face role-playing games like Dungeons and Dragons, or online
role-playing games called MUDs or MUCKs.

To ease into role-playing, pick one or two simple traits and act them out.
Your character might be scrupulously honest, formal, shy, greedy, a
practical joker, a punster, a gourmet chef... He might be deathly afraid of
panthers, or feel a need to kill every rat he sees. Whatever personality you
want to play, try to "tell" the people around you about it by how you
behave, without having to say anything directly. Particularly good
role-playing is sometimes rewarded with a small amount of extra experience
(see 3.8).

"OOC" means "out of character". In the fantasy world, your character doesn't
know anything about computers, or telephones, or movies, or slow Internet
connections. Talking about things like that is OOC, and it may bother other
people around you who are trying to stay IC ("in character"). People have
come up with IC ways to refer to some OOC phenomena: lag becomes "fog" or
"bad weather," needing to go away from the keyboard for a minute becomes
"meditating," and so on.

Of course, you don't have to role-play all the time. You don't really have
to role-play at all, if you don't want to, though you'll miss out on some of
the fun. Either way, though, you should try to keep your OOC conversations
private so you don't spoil other people's role-playing. Use the /whisper
command to talk only to the people around you, or step aside to a less
crowded spot. There's also a special OOC area called the fairgrounds, a
little west of the center of town, where you can go for lengthy OOC
conversations.
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------

(2.3) What are the different ways I can communicate with people?

   * Talk - Just type what you want to say and hit return. If you say too
     much for one talk bubble, the whole thing will still appear in the text
     log.
   * Action - \action  - Puts up a box with your name followed by
     what you typed. For instance, if Example Exile types "\action waves."
     it shows a little box which says "Example Exile waves."
   * Ponder - \ponder  - Just like talking, but your text appears
     in a "thought bubble". Good for making side comments. Some people play
     as though their characters can "read minds" and hear these, some don't.
   * Yell - \yell  - Yells can be heard about one screen away. Your
     name will automatically be put on the beginning of your yell if you're
     out of sight. Don't yell excessively. Yelling inside a building can
     often be heard outside, but it won't sound like it's coming from the
     building, so be sure to describe which one you're in.
   * Whisper - \whisper  - Whispers can be heard by everyone within
     about an inch. You can't whisper directly to a single person.
   * Swear - \swear - Use this instead of using strong language. It puts up
     a random string like "*@#^%" in a talk bubble.
   * Thank - \thank  - A little bit of a cheat. Since you can add a
     reason to a \thank if you're close enough to the other person, you can
     use that as a way to send a brief completely private message if you
     don't have a sunstone.
   * Think - If you have a sunstone, you can \think a message to everyone
     who is using one, or you can use \thinkto to send a message directly to
     any single person. Your name will automatically be put on the beginning
     of your message.
   * Pray - \pray  - Sends a message to all online GMs (see 3.6).
     Don't abuse it. Don't use it because you've fallen, to ask for favors
     or help, to complain about something you think isn't fair, to get your
     money back because you lagged into a merchant, to report someone who's
     being mean, to complain that there aren't any monsters to fight, or
     anything like that. It won't work, and you won't win any friends. Some
     people feel that \pray should be an entirely IC tool, used to talk to
     IC deities (although they may not respond). In fact, GMs are admonished
     not to respond to \pray messages, ever. However, since for the moment
     there is no other way to communicate a serious problem, it's generally
     considered acceptable to use \pray for those. Joe (see 3.6) has
     written, "If you find yourself wandering through the grey area or
     trapped inside a rock, unable to even die and depart to return home,
     we'll generally try to help. (Keep in mind that even in these cases,
     odds are good that no GM is listening to prayers, so your best bet is
     emailing joe@deltatao.com.)" Even if a GM is listening who is able and
     willing to deal with the issue, remember that it might take a while for
     a response.
   * Bug - \bug  - For reporting bugs. Again, don't abuse it.

  ------------------------------------------------------------------------

(2.4) Where can I go for help, within the game?

The /help command will give information on the various commands. "/help
" will give help for that command, and in many cases "/use ?" gets
help for an item you're holding in your right hand. (For lunchboxes and
kudzu, though, "/use ?" uses the item, so be careful.) There's also a
tutorial hut in the OOC fairgrounds just west of the center of town, which
gives all kinds of basic information about commands, training, combat,
karma, and so on. It's a great first stop when you arrive in Puddleby.

There are almost always a bunch of people standing around the center of
town, too, and if you're hurt you can usually find a healer there. If you're
polite (see 2.13), chances are someone there will help answer your
questions. But remember, part of the fun of Clan Lord is figuring out things
for yourself. If someone gives you a hint instead of a straightforward
answer to an in-game question, they're not being rude, they're just trying
not to spoil things. Have patience and enjoy your own explorations, and
chances are you'll figure out whatever it is you wanted to know.
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------

(2.5) What are karma, sharing, and balance?

All these are explained in the tutorial hut in the OOC fairgrounds, and in
more detail in Braveheart's Guide
. Briefly, karma is a
reflection of what people think of each other; you can give good karma to
someone who helps you, or bad karma to someone who is rude or evil (see 2.13
and 2.14). Sharing or spirit linking is a way for characters to cooperate
and share experience with others, and is how many non-fighters gain much of
their experience. Balance is the middle green bar on your screen, and
describes how easily beasts hit you and how well you can hit them.
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------

(2.6) How do I use a command on a person, or select them?

Commands like "\share" and "\thank" take the name of the person you want to
use them on. Leave out any spaces and punctuation marks: to share with
Example d'Exile, type "\share exampledexile". You can also use just the
first few letters of the name, also without spaces or punctuation, as long
as it's enough to distinguish the person you mean from anybody else shown on
the player list. (Otherwise, you'll end up using the command on whoever's
first alphabetically, ignoring anything after a space.) Or you can type the
command portion, then option-click on the person's icon to insert their
name. Finally, you can command-click on someone (or click on their name in
your Players window) to select them, then choose the command you want from
the menu. Be careful to remember whom you've selected, though, especially if
you use the standard macros.

Different kinds of clicks on people's icons, or on their names in the
Players window, do different things:

   * Command-click: selects the person (blue box) for use in a command
   * Option-click: copies the name of the person, without punctuation or
     spaces, into the text entry area
   * Control-click: marks the person with an orange box, to keep track of
     sports teams, group arena battles, etc.
   * Control-shift-click: once, "ignores" the person (yellow box), so you
     don't hear anything he says. Twice, "excommunicates" him, turning him
     into a black outline. Undo this by control-shift-clicking on the "-" or
     "X" after the person's name in your Players window.

  ------------------------------------------------------------------------

(2.7) Why are some names on colored backgrounds, or in boldface?

Make sure "Show Names" is checked in the Options menu, and then look at a
character's name.

   * White, green, yellow, or red background: healthy, wounded, seriously
     wounded, nearly fallen. Beasts use the same color code in their health
     tags.
   * Black background: fallen (see 2.8)
   * Brown background: asleep (an IC way of indicating that you're not
     paying attention to the game at the moment)
   * Light blue background: an NPC (non-player character)
   * Boldface text: sharing with you (see 2.5)
   * Italic text: a member of your Clan
   * Red text: has a lot of bad karma, and more bad karma than good (see
     2.5)

  ------------------------------------------------------------------------

(2.8) What happens when my character dies?

You can't permanently "die," except by choosing to have your character
deleted from the database. When your health drops to zero, you "fall," and
you can't move, fight, or use items. You can still speak and yell. If a
healer comes along and heals you, nothing bad happens, except that you had
to spend some time waiting. If you fall somewhere alone, you can yell to
attract a passing healer's attention. Be patient, though, and don't
disconnect or go to sleep right away. Sometimes it can take a healer several
minutes to find you, and another few minutes to take care of any dangerous
beasts or fetch more help if necessary.

If you give up on being rescued, maybe because you're off somewhere really
remote or dangerous, you can also /depart. Departing carries a small
experience penalty, so it takes a bit longer to earn your next training
improvement afterward, but that's all. When you /depart, your body is healed
a little and you're sent to Purgatory, a vast, featureless plane outside the
normal realm of existence. Start walking in any direction, and within a
couple of minutes you should pop back into the central temple, or whichever
altar you last touched.
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------

(2.9) Where can I disconnect safely?

Enter the library, on the northeast side of town square. You'll be
disconnected as you enter, and you'll stay safe and even earn a little
experience from studying there. Once you emerge, that experience will be
applied to your training slowly, giving you time to switch trainers if you
want. (See 2.10.)

If you disconnect anywhere else, your body will stick around "asleep" for
about ten minutes before disappearing. If something attacks you in that
ten-minute period, you'll be injured or fallen when you reconnect. You
reconnect near where you disconnected, though sometimes you might be a short
distance away on the same screen.
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------

(2.10) How do I gain experience? How should I train? What level am I?

First speak with the Body, Mind, or Spirit Master in the central temple, or
with one of the specialized trainers for your profession. Then go out and
gain experience by killing beasts, by receiving shared experience from
others, or in some circumstances by healing (if you're a healer). As you
gain experience, you will improve at whatever the trainer you talked to
teaches. If you want to switch what you're training in, go back to town and
speak with another trainer. Ankrus in the main temple, and his colleagues in
other places, will remind you which trainer you're working with and tell you
how far along you are in reaching the next training goal.

Which places are safe for you to hunt as a newcomer to town depends on your
race, but a safe place to start for any race is the "rat towers," two towers
near the west gate that are infested with rats and other small rodents. If
you can gather three or four new exiles, you can also head into the first
sections of the myrm hive. In general, anywhere outside the town and farms
is much more dangerous.

There are various opinions about exactly how it's best to train, but in
truth the answer depends a lot on your own personal playing style. Go out in
the world, adventure, take note of your limitations, and train to eliminate
them some. If you have questions about specific trainers, try asking an
experienced exile in your profession.

Clan Lord doesn't emphasize levels or titles, since your abilities depend
not only on how much experience you've earned, but also on how you trained
and on your own playing (fighting, healing, etc.) strategies.

There's no way to tell how much total experience you've gained, or exactly
how much you've trained with one of the trainers, except by keeping track
yourself. However, the peasants around town will start calling you Master or
Mistress when you're advanced enough, and then Lord or Lady. The trainers
also say different things to you depending on how good you are at what they
teach.
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------

(2.11) How do I earn money?

Many of the tougher beasts carry a bounty; killing them earns you coins.
Since non-fighters don't generally kill many tough beasts, they often rely
more on the generosity of fighters for their income. It's considered
courteous for a fighter who can afford it to donate a few coins now and
again to a healer or other non-fighter who helps him.

A bad way to get money is by begging. Someone who stands around town
pestering everyone for money will not be appreciated. However, a healer who
heals someone and asks, "Instead of sharing your experience with me, might
you spare a few coins?" is all right in moderation, especially if the
healing was done far from town or in a dangerous situation.
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------

(2.12) How can I buy something from someone else?

You can give money to someone using the /give command, but the only way to
give an item (with one or two special exceptions we won't get into here) is
through the town merchants. They act as intermediaries: one person gives the
merchant the item, the other gives the merchant the money, and then the
merchant makes the trade. Selling at a merchant carries little risk, but
they do charge a fee. If you decide to try to avoid paying the commission by
giving the seller coins directly, do so at your own risk; you could be
cheated. Also be careful of unscrupulous people in the merchant's hut who
might jump into the middle of your planned transaction and make off with the
item.
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------

(2.13) What kinds of things are considered rude?

There are different kinds of "rudeness," which have different results.

   * Things you do that will get Delta Tao mad at you

     If you, as a player or a character, do something that Delta Tao objects
     to, they can impose various sorts of punishments. These might include
     locking your character in jail for a day or two or banning your serial
     number from of the game completely, with no refund.

     Examples of such behavior: Harassment of other players. Explicit or
     predatory sexual behavior, or anything nonconsensual. Offensive
     activities or comments directed at the person playing the game. Yelling
     obscenities in town, especially obscene insults, or sunstoning them.
     Trying to break into or otherwise damage the game's server or data.

   * Things you do that will get other players mad at you

     Bad karma is an obvious consequence of upsetting other players. Since
     most things that bother players also bother their characters, other
     consequences might include people refusing to hunt with you or sell you
     things. For more serious charges, your character might be subject to
     other punishments determined by the court system which will eventually
     be established.

     Examples of improper rudeness: Yelling the same thing over and over.
     Begging for coins or karma. Talking about OOC things around people who
     want to stay IC. Demanding that a healer heal you, or a fighter share
     with you, or a mystic... mystic you. :-) (Asking once nicely is fine,
     but being abrupt or insistent is rude.) Karma bombing. Hitting a beast
     that someone else is successfully fighting, without asking first.
     Hitting someone else's kudzu plants. Deliberately leading monsters into
     people or interfering with organized hunts (but see below).

   * Things your character does that will get other characters mad at you

     There's a fine distinction here. Sometimes your character does
     something that someone else's role-played character doesn't like, even
     though the person playing that character thinks it's just fine, even
     amusing. This kind of impolite behavior actually belongs in the game.
     Since it's more IC, its consequences are too. If you decide to
     role-play a jerk, you will get bad karma, since that's the IC way of
     telling someone he's being rude. Expect to get into IC arguments, and
     don't let them degenerate into OOC fights. And again, your character
     might be subject to other punishments determined by the court system.

     Refusing to answer a question, insulting someone's clothes, talking
     about how all the new exiles are a bunch of weaklings or how all the
     older exiles are a bunch of stuffed shirts -- those are all valid
     role-playing attitudes. Even leading monsters into people can be valid,
     for a character with an evil side (see 2.14). Just be careful to keep
     your own rude behavior IC. There's a big difference between saying that
     dwarves are stupid and should stay in their mines and saying that women
     are stupid and should stay away from computer games.

Talk to the "Dealing with annoying people" NPC in the fairgrounds for advice
on what to do if someone is bothering you. For starters,
control-shift-clicking once on someone's icon will "ignore" them, so you
don't hear anything they say any more.

In general, people are pretty polite in Clan Lord. There's a lot of "Thank
you" and "You're welcome," because teamwork is so important. Before you
assume someone is being deliberately rude, give him the benefit of the
doubt. It's possible that he's curt just because he's not a native English
speaker and doesn't know the language well enough to use the fancy, polite
words -- or he might be role-playing somebody who doesn't speak the common
tongue well. He might have run into your kudzu farm by accident, or
interrupted your hunt because he was lagging and had no control over his
actions. Try not to overreact to minor transgressions.
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------

(2.14) Are there "evil" people in Clan Lord?

A few, yes. It's hard to play an evil character, since you can't kill
another character without the player's permission and you can't steal things
directly, but with a little creativity it can be done. For instance, you
could play a healer who laughs about the foolish ways people die, or a
fighter who likes to interfere with organized hunts. Evil characters should
expect to get bad karma, the more the better.

Just remember that being creatively evil is not the same as being a pain in
the neck. Yelling something over and over in the middle of town might be
justified, if you can legitimately claim that your character has some
strange disease that makes him do that, but most of the time it's just
disruptive.
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------

3. *** Other frequently asked questions ***

  ------------------------------------------------------------------------

(3.1) How do I get ___-colored clothing?

Plain tan shirts and pants/skirts are available in town for one coin each.
Look around and you should find them. Most other colors are sold in more
remote places, for more money. If you see someone wearing a color you like,
you can try complimenting them on it and asking politely where it can be
found. Sometimes you'll get a hint, and occasionally someone will be nice
and offer to guide you there.

Be aware, though, that some clothes are special. Light denim blue was given
to those who participated in the Ripture War that marked the end of the
testing period. White and turquoise are only available to healers. Other
colors can't be bought anywhere, but must be bestowed, perhaps as a reward
for some service to the community or upon the completion of a special quest.
All rusty, red, dark brown, and black clothing fits this category, as do all
nonstandard helmets, belts, and so on. Try not to stare; people with special
clothing must get awfully tired of hearing about it constantly. If you want
to know the story, try asking someone else who's been in Puddleby a long
time, or a friend of the person wearing the special accessory.
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------

(3.2) Where are all the secret places?

Hopefully nobody will tell you. Much of the fun of the game is solving
puzzles and uncovering the secrets for yourself. There are places that some
secrets are revealed, and some exiles will give you hints if you ask the
right way, but mostly you should go out and explore and see what you can
find.

Anything that has to be discovered is in some sense a secret. Of course,
some things are harder to discover than others, and therefore "more secret."
Where to buy tan clothing is a pretty easy secret, and a lot of people will
gladly take a new exile there. Grey clothing is a lot harder to find and
harder to reach, and a bigger secret. It would be poor form to ask someone
to take you there until you've been around a while, and perhaps even then.

If someone asks you about something secret, try to give a hint without
giving away too much. For instance, you might tell someone who wants to
become a healer that all the objects he needs can be found within the
Puddleby town walls. That reduces his search considerably, without telling
him any exact locations or spoiling the challenge for him.

Definitely don't broadcast any secret information to people who might not
want to hear it. Before you give away a secret, make sure the person you're
telling really wants to know it, and that nobody else will accidentally hear
you. Private rooms are good places to talk about secrets. Don't do it in
town square, over the sunstones, or on Hotline or Usenet.
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------

(3.3) How do I become a mystic?

Think carefully before you decide to be one. These aren't the flashy,
fireball-casting mages you may be familiar with from other fantasy games and
books. If you've never played Clan Lord before, we strongly recommend
against starting as a mystic. Instead, learn about the world as a healer or
fighter, then start a mystic character.

Being a mystic requires patience, scholarship, self-control, and dedication.
Mystics are intended to be much less common than other professions. The
process of becoming one is not easy or straightforward, and as a mystic you
may feel underappreciated and have difficulty earning experience. However,
for those with the right personality for the job, it can be very rewarding
and can offer the chance to contribute significantly to the community.

Mystics are required to be very secretive about their profession. Nobody
will tell you exactly how to become one -- or at least, they shouldn't. In
fact, some mystics consider discussing their profession at all cause for
giving bad karma (see 2.5). Wander, gain experience, learn the world, and
most likely you'll figure it out. Listening to the Peasants in town, perhaps
for rather a long time, might be especially helpful.
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------

(3.4) What is Puddleby time and how is it related to real time?

Time in Puddleby doesn't move at the same rate as time in the real world. It
goes a little more than four times as fast: one Puddleby hour takes just
under 15 minutes of real time. Although the graphics don't change with the
Puddleby time of day, the background sounds do in some places. Also, some
events happen at particular Puddleby times, and some areas might be more
dangerous at night.

The days of the week in the Clan Lord world are Soldi, Lundi, Gradi, Terrdi,
Merdi, Fordi, and Sombdi. The year begins on the 1st Day of Winter, and has
four seasons, each with 90 days.

The Town Crier yells the time each hour, and an announcement is made to
everyone in the lands at midnight, sunrise, and sunset. There are various
in-game ways to find out the time otherwise, or you can run Puddlewatch (see
1.7).
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------

(3.5) Is the coliseum open?

It's open on Fordi and Sombdi nights from 8 pm to midnight, Puddleby time
(see 3.4). Fights continue into the wee hours of the morning, but you can't
get in or schedule a bout after midnight.
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------

(3.6) Who is Joe? Who are the Ancients? What is a GM?

Joe is Joe Williams, president of Delta Tao Software. In the game, his
public character is a halfling healer with pink hair named Joe. Visit him in
jail; he gets lonely.

The Ancients are a completely IC concept, part of the history of the Clan
Lord world. For the best idea of what one is, read the theology of the world
in the CL manual (see 1.4). In brief, when the Sun, Moon, and Earth agreed
they needed to destroy their Second Children to make way for the Third
Children, the jealous Moon kept twelve of hers back. These twelve Ancients
had achieved power which rivaled that of their parents, and most had
jealousy to match that of the Moon. The Sun and Earth went on to create the
Third Children, including Humans, Thoom, the People, and the other races we
know, without the Moon. Whatever happened to the Ancients is still a
mystery. There are some hints that Gaia may be an Ancient, the only one seen
in our world, but even that is not absolutely certain.

Much of the confusion about what an Ancient is stems from the fact that
there is (was) a clan called "The Ancients" (note the upper-case "T").
Members of this clan are not themselves Ancients, but rather seek to regain
the knowledge and power lost after their disappearance. Membership in The
Ancients is more or less limited to the characters of GMs, so don't bother
asking if you can join. Also note that there has been a clan called "the
Ancients," with a lower-case "t," which is entirely separate and is also not
made up of Ancients.

GMs, or Game Masters, are players with special powers who help to develop
the world and who sometimes run characters who participate in role-playing
plots. There are also Junior GMs, players who have been given special
abilities and who design new areas, items, and creature AI. They have
slightly more limited abilities to alter the world than GMs do, but they
tend to be around more often. In common usage, both GMs and JrGMs are just
called GMs. Among other things, GM-run characters have the ability to
"ghost" in an area invisibly.

Note that although Ancient is an IC concept, GM isn't. Characters run by GMs
are not GMs, they're just Thooms or unicorns or glowing bits of ether or
whatever, and as a character in the game you should interact with them
accordingly. When GMs wish their characters to be recognized as somebody
special, they will often wear special-colored clothing (see 3.1). But even
then, the character isn't a GM, because IC there are no GMs!

The only GM-run characters who will handle OOC problems have 'GM' in their
names, and are explicitly OOC. Otherwise, when you're interacting with a
character you think is played by a GM, don't use that as an excuse to go
OOC. The whole point to the GM being there is to role-play and perhaps
advance a plot, and having people make OOC comments or ask for OOC favors
ruins that for everyone. Besides, it won't work.

Delta Tao has said several times that their goal is to make the game run
itself with as little GM intervention as possible. Nevertheless, rightly or
not (usually not), GMs are often the ones blamed when something weird
happens, or when twenty mean beasts suddenly appear and everyone dies.
Remember, though, that GM is not an IC idea. If you need to blame someone,
pick something IC: the gods, or Fate, or Emperor Mobius's evil Mystics, for
example.

Joe and the GMs also have other, anonymous characters in addition to their
public personae.
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------

(3.7) What is slaughtering?

If your message window says you "slaughtered" a beast instead of killing it,
it means you don't gain any experience for the kill. That won't happen until
you're pretty advanced. The idea is to encourage veterans to hunt the more
difficult beasts and leave the rats for the newcomers.
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------

(3.8) Why did I just gain experience? What are spirit pulses?

If you see "Your bravery and compassion have been rewarded" or "You gain
experience" in your message window (maybe with an asterisk or a dot in
front), you've been rewarded with a little experience. Sometimes this is for
good role-playing, sometimes for a heroic rescue, sometimes for other
things. The reward can be delayed by quite a bit at times, and might also
come more than once. Remember that saying, "Hey! I just got experience!" is
OOC. Try something like, "Wow, I learned more than usual from that battle."

Spirit pulses also mean you have been rewarded with experience, usually for
good role-playing. Generally one person gets a spirit pulse from an
undisclosed source, and automatically sends it along to each person they're
sharing with.
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------

(3.9) What is Dun'ilsar?

It's a High Sylvan term meaning "the mountain forest," and it describes a
series of competitions of various sorts among participating Clans. See E'las
Loth'mon Ferindril (ELF)'s Dun'ilsar page at
.
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------

(3.10) What is pushball?

It's a Puddleby game, similar to real-world soccer or rugby. See the
Pushball Players of Puddleby page at
.
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------

(3.11) What is the Puddleby Navy?

An organization founded by Vagile Savane, "formed for the express purpose of
the defense of Puddleby on the high seas." See
http://lehua.ilhawaii.net/~cam/vagile/navy.html.
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------

(3.12) What is a Mounted Rat good for?

It has no known use. Gaze at it with a deep-seated sense of pride in your
accomplishment.
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------

4. *** Glossary ***

  ------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here are some terms and abbreviations used commonly in Puddleby and in this
FAQ:

thx, ty, tx - Thank you
yw, np, mp - You're welcome, No problem, My pleasure
OOC, IC - out-of-character, in-character
SWC, HWC - s/he-who-clicks (refers to a character's player)
afk - away from the keyboard. It's better to express this IC ("meditating,"
for instance).
GK, BK - good karma, bad karma
NPC - non-player character, like the "robots" who greet you when you first
arrive. NPCs have light blue behind their names.
AM, MA - Apprentice Mystic or Mystic Apprentice
QC or QR - Queen's Chamber or Queen Room, in the myrm hive
OC - Orga Camp
TW - tanglewood
C&S - the glacier (formerly called "a cold and snowy place")
DT - Dark Temple; in an OOC context, Delta Tao Software
GMV - Greymyr Village
SS - sunstone (a magical item that allows communication over long
distances), or short sword
GS - great sword
OE - Orga Eye
LV, GV, DV - Large Vermine, Giant Vermine, Death Vermine
TG, FG - Tree Giant, Frost Giant
GD - Greater Death
'zerk - Orga Berserk
'noid - Arachnoid
wendy - Wendecka
fog, bad weather - lag (slow or choppy network or server response)
chaos storm - server update/reset, usually resulting in changes to the world
share toggle - to /share and /unshare with someone to send them an implicit
message (usually, "I've fallen, please try to find and rescue me")
solo - to kill a beast by oneself and gain all the experience
rank - one unit of training: a term left over from earlier days when
characters accumulated ranks and then "spent" them with different trainers.
tag - to get a single, minor hit on a beast and thus gain some of the
experience
brick - to "hold" a beast that is unable to hit you, allowing others to kill
it; or to trap a beast behind a fallen body
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------

--
- Pam Greene, the person behind Healery on Clan Lord
Clan Lord FAQ: http://macrules.com/users/clanlordfaq/
Clan Lord Changes FAQ: http://macrules.com/users/clanlordfaq/changes.html