First of all, we shall discuss the layout of the world. The Nodekian realm consists of a series of interconnected rooms. At any given time, you will find your character occupying one of these rooms, which can range incredibly in size and style: from an apothecary's crevice to a tropical jungle, each room you visit will provide a new experience and new options. To see what your current room is, use the 'look' command. Here you will be given the name of the room, followed by the a verbose description, the<> exits by which you can leave the room, and finally any players, creatures, and items that happen to be in your room.

Once you have established your relative position, you may move freely between rooms, which are usually linearly connected. The basic movement commands refer to the directions you will be moving, namely: north, south, east, west, up and down. Simply typing these words, or their first letters, will move you out of your current room, and into the adjacent, where you will be presented with a view of the new room upon arrival. We advise you experiment by movement moving in and about the many rooms which compose the local town of Ruushi.

For your convenience, a description of the peripheral vision map is available by typing 'help map'. Also, ask other players, and explore on your own to find new places. Try typing 'area' for a list of the Nodekian areas.

Training

Your next step in learning how to properly play at Nodeka would be to attend the Academy, located two spaces above (up) from the Town Hall. There you will further train your skills and get a better feel for how the game works.

Your Character

Your new character has many interesting features - the best source of knowledge about you is found in your score sheet, accessible by typing 'score'. Here you will view your current statistics regarding all things from strength, to hit points, to age - each value playing an important role in how your character operates. These values will fluctuate depending on your level, the equipment you wear, and several other variables, so it is important you learn the purpose of each one.

Equipment

You may now want to proceed to the donation room, located one (down) from the Town Hall. The donation roomthe storehouse of discarded equipment and items from travelers throughout the realm. To pick up an item off the ground, simple type 'get <item>'. Then, type 'wear <item>, <location>' to wear it. You can also type 'wear all' which will attempt to wear all of the equipment you are carrying. In addition to picking up items, you may also wish to discard them; this is easily accomplished by typing 'drop <item>'.

These items, although free, should still help you when you are starting off; however, you should not rely on the donation room for all of your needs, for often better, more powerful items will be available by slaughtering certain creatures, or by bartering with someone.

Economy

The Nodekian economy is complex, and unique to each character. The buying, selling, and trading of goods and services is encouraged, and is based upon free-market/bartering economic principles. The primary currency of Nodeka is the Nodekian gold standard. Gold is carried by nearly all creatures within the realm, and can be procured through slaughtering or the trading of goods and services. Above gold, there is the Nodekian platinum standard, currently assessed at 20,000 gold standard = 1 platinum standard.

Many players will utilize the public channels to push their wares. However, should you find their prices out of hand, you may attempt to barter with many merchants and creatures throughout the realm. The price of their wares will be dictated by your attributes; a smart merchant will easily cheat you on the price if your intelligence is low.

Communication:

You will soon wish to converse with the fellow players currently traversing within the Nodekian realm. This can be accomplished through several lines of communication. First of all, there is the say command. This command is invoked by typing 'say <message>' and will broadcast your text to all those currently in your room. The channel for asking questions and general commentary about the game is gossip, and newbie. You can broadcast these messages, which go to all players in the game who have gossip toggled on, by typing 'gossip <message>', or 'newbie <message>'. If you wish to contact a specific person in the game, you may use the tell feature. Simply type 'tell <character name> <message>' and your message will be privately delivered only to that character. There are several other features to communication, which can easily be discovered through the main help files.

Experience and leveling:

You will find that as you slaughter creatures during your stay at Nodeka, you will be rewarded with experience points. These experience points can then be exchanged for a rise in level, which will allow you to increase some of your statistics, as well as refine your skills. Only your Guildmaster can advance your level - to find them, proceed up from the town hall, and enter your appropriate guild. When you are with your Guildmaster, type 'gain' to advance in level. Additionally, to view the experience requirements for your next 10 levels type 'levels'. There are 100 such "levels" available on Nodeka, and the experience requirements increase at an exponential rate for each successive level.

Last, but not least, remember: most people on Nodeka are friendly - and
will help you out (if you ask nicely).

Welcome - enjoy Nodeka.