GETTING STARTED ON FORGOTTEN KINGDOMS MUD
So you want to play the game, you want to roleplay in our world based in the Forgotten Realms®? But you have no clue where to start or even how to connect? Do not despair, follow these simple instructions and soon you will be roleplaying with some of the best roleplayers I have ever met.
Sharni Vaughan - Game owner and player of Mystra.
Forgotten Kingdoms is a text based game that is called a mud. In order to play the game you will need what is called a telnet client. Most windows and mac machines have a very basic telnet client and in the case of windows, you can likely access this by clicking on the start button and then run and typing telnet game.forgottenkingdoms.com 4000 in the box there. For Mac users (I am sorry I am not one), try following the instructions for telnet here or here. Make sure to use the address used in the windows instructions.
The problem with the basic telnet that comes with most operating systems, is that its very basic. It does not always allow you to see all the wonderful features we have spent alot of time coding into the game, like colours and our special interface. So we suggest you download a program called Zmud. Please note this will only work on windows machines, not Macs (try here for something that should work). It will work on Windows as old as Win95. I have been using this program since around 1996. Many of our players use this program, so you will find that you will get alot of help from other players if you decide to use this program to connect to the game.
Download Zmud from our site. It is a very old version of the program, but it works. It keeps working after the 30 day trial is over. If you want to upgrade to the current Zmud, you can visit the Zmud website and pay their very low fee. You will need to unzip the file you downloaded, into a directory called Zmud on your machine. There is no installation needed for this version of Zmud, beyond extracting it from the zip file into the directory.
Once you have Zmud set up on your machine, you can double click on Zmud.exe (It will have a little blue Z graphic) and run the program. Later if you would like to keep playing the game, you can put a copy of the Zmud Icon on your desktop and taskbar. When you open Zmud, click on the button that says that you want to evaluate the product. Then you want to edit an existing character. You do not want to use the connection wizard. Now fill in the boxes:
- Host: game.forgottenkingdoms.com
- Port: 4000
- Title: Forgotten Kingdoms (though this part is really optional)
- ID: Your characters name (this can be filled in later)... And then click on the Connect button.
You should get a connection to the game, which will ask you to put in the word NEW. Follow the instructions on your screen from here on out. If you need more help then check out our detailed help pages by clicking on the help button to your left, or click on any of the menu options below.
First you will create an account. You will only ever have one account. In this account you will store all of your characters. When you create your FIRST new character you will be taken through the newbie lesson area. Even if you are an experienced mudder the area is designed to introduce experienced mudders to the unique aspects of the Forgotten Kingdoms mud as well as teach the new to muds player the basics of mudding. Once you have 10 hours of game play in the game, you will be given a choice as if you want to go to the newbie area. There are benefits to going to this area, and many old players will take their new character through it for the experience and equipment etc that can be gained in this area.
On Forgotten Kingdoms you do not roll your character on a roller. But rather your character is given a basic roll and then statistics are modified for your race and class. You can then apply a certain amount of statistic points to your characters stats. Statistics include Strength, Constitution, Wisdom, Dexterity, Intelligence and Charisma. Some guilds require certain statistic minimums in order to join. You can also elect to use a standard character. When you do this, the statistics are calculated for you.
As Forgotten Kingdom's is a medieval roleplay mud it is important that your name is suitable. When you create your character its name will have to wait authorisation. If it is not deemed suitable you will be asked to change it (which you can do yourself using the name command), if you do not comply your character will be not be authorised and deleted. While you wait for authorisation you can play the game and quit as normal. Without authorisation you cannot level beyond level 7 or leave the training area.
Character names need to meet the following criteria:
- They need to be medieval in nature.
- They must not be from modern day and popular fiction or movies or tv shows.
- They must not be Nonsensical, unpronounceable or ridiculous.
- They must not be a profanity or offensive in nature.
- They must not be the joining of two common dictionary words.
- They must be appropriate for the race and class chosen.
- They must not be too similar to a deitys name to avoid confusion.
There is a special rule about names of characters from Forgotten Realms novels and campaign settings. It also applies to names from other popular medieval fantasy novels (though this is at the discretion of the game administrators). They must be applied for to applications@forgottenkingdoms.com. You cannot simply make a famous Forgotten Realms character without applying. The name will be denied.
Several of the more popular Forgotten Realms character names have been reserved and auctioned off or awarded to good roleplayers on a regular basis.
There are over 30 races available for players to choose from. Each race has a help file in the game for them. You can read about each race in game by typing help racename.
Back to top of pageThere are 4 classes to choose from for a character in Forgotten Kingdoms. These are Warrior, Wizard, Priest and Rogue. All races can be these 4 classes. A character can specialise and join a guild and in doing so become another 'class' or in the case of priests and paladins they can follow a god and become 'specialists' for their god.
There may be certain critieria that you may have to meet in order to join a guild or follow a god. For instance a bard will need to have a high Charisma. You will have to complete a quest, and you may have to pay some money to join. Some guilds may not accept certain races, and certain alignments.
Refer to the guilds section of the web pages for a list of skills and spells available to each class/guild.
The following classes and guilds are available on Forgotten Kingdoms:
- Warrior - This is your basic fighting class. They can use any type of weapon and wear any type of armour. They have a constitution bonus. They are limited in their selection of magical items use and the casting of spells. A warrior can specialise as one of the following:
- Fighter - In order to become a fighter, one must be a warrior who joins the fighters guild. You need to have a minimum Strength of "strong". Fighters can be of any alignment. They can specialise in any weapon they wish to.
- Ranger - In order to become a ranger a warrior must join the Rangers Guild. The ranger is a hunter and a woodsman who lives not only by his/her sword but also by their wits. Rangers are always of good alignment. If they defer from this aligment they will lose their special abilities and the favour of their god and will be reduced to a simple warrior. In order to cast spells they have to follow a god. A ranger needs to have high strength, dexterity, constitution and wisdom.
- Paladin - In order to become a Paladin a warrior follow either of the following gods: Tyr, Torm and Helm. Only a human may become a paladin. They must have a high charisma and a fairly good strength and good wisdom to become a paladin. A paladin can only be Lawful good in alignment and always remain so. If they change they will lose all their special powers and lose favour with their god. He will be reduced to the skills of a warrior.
- Wizard - A wizard is your basic spell caster. They have a limited range of spells. Generally a wizard will join a guild and become a mage or a specialist mage. Wizards tend to have a higher intelligence. The following schools of magic or guilds are available to a wizard.
- Mage - In order to become a mage a wizard needs to join the Mages Guild. Mages are the most versatile of wizards, being those who choose not to specialise in a particular school of magic. As a result they have a wide ranger of spells, but have the inability to learn some of the higher leveled specialised spells.
- Illusionist - In order to become an Illusionist a wizard will need to join the Illusionists guild. They specialise in illusion spells. By specialising the illusionist gains mastery of spells well beyond that of a general mage within the school of illusion. However he pays for this with a lack of skill in the other schools and the total absense in his oposition school of Necromancy, Invocation and Abjuration.
- Necromancer - In order to become a Necromancer a wizard will need to join the Necromancers guild. Necromancers specialise in spells that deal with undead and draining life. They are unable to use spells from the school of Illusion.
- Transmuter - In order to become a Transmuter a wizard will need to join the Transmuters guild. Transmuters specialise in alteration spells, those spells which change the world around them. They are unable to use spells from the school of Abjuration and Necromancy.
- Invoker - In order to become an Invoker a wizard will need to join the Invokers Guild. Invokers specialise in attack spells. They channel magical energy to create special affects and materials. They are unable to use spells from the school of Enchantment.
- Conjurer - In order to become a Conjurer a wizard will need to join the Conjurers Guild. Conjurers specialise in spells of conjurations.
- Abjurer - In order to become an Abjurer a wizard will need to join the Abjurers Guild. Abjurers specialise in spells of protection.
- Priest - The priest is a believer and advocate of a god. More than just a follower they intercede and act on behalf of others. A priest has limited healing and offensive spells. In order to cast more spells a priest must follow a god. Priests can have any alignment that is acceptable to their god. Priests are sturdy soldiers though their selection of weapons is limited. They can use most magical items. The spells that they can cast are dependant on the god they follow. The priests of Chauntea and Mielikki are known as druids. The druid is a priest of nature and the guardian of the wilderness, be it forest, plains or jungle. Druids have access to spells from the spheres of animal, elemental, healing, plant and weather. A druid can only be of neutral alignment. To deviate from this will mean a loss of abilites and being reduce to a normal priest.
- Rogue - Rogues are ones that believe that the world and everyone in it owes them a living. They get by in the highest style they can doing as little as possible. They are able to use a wide variety of magical items and weapons. Rogues generally have a high dexterity. Rogues can specialise to become the following:
- Thief - In order to become a thief a rogue needs to join the Theives Guild. The proffesion of thief is not honourable but it is not entirely dishonorable either. They can be of all alignments. They have the ability to hide and steal. Thieves need to have a high dexterity.
- Bard - In order to become a bard a rogue needs to join the Bards Guild. A good bard is glib of tongue, light of heart and fleet of foot. They must be of neutral alignment. A bard is a jack of all trades, learning a wide variety of skills. They are proficent singers and story tellers, and have the ability to play a musical instrument. Bards need to have a high charisma and intelligence.
Once you have created your character you will be given a choice of cities in which to start out in. The choices will depend on your characters race and alignment. Some cities will not accept certain races and alignments. The current choices include:
- Waterdeep: This large well equipped city is a starting point for neutral to good characters. Only the generally good aligned races may start here. This is the recommended start location for players new to Forgotten Kingdoms as the city of Waterdeep is well serviced and a popular starting location.
- Zhentil Keep: This city is a starting point of neutral to evil characters. Of course you may start out a good aligned character here, but it is only recommended that a player experienced with Forgotten Kingdoms do this.
- Orc Village: An encampment that is made up mostly of orcs. This starting location is for orcs and evil humans only.
- Menzoberrenzan: This starting point is for drow characters, noble or commoner.
- Mithril Hall: This is a good and neutral dwarf only starting point.
- Shadowdale: Start location for good and neutral aligned adventurers.
- Golden Oaks: Start location for good and neutral aligned gnomes.
- Silverymoon: Start location for good aligned characters.
- Westgate: Start location for neutral and evil aligned characters.
- Centaur's Grove: Start location for centaur and wemic characters.
- Skullport: Start location for neutral and evil characters.
We have several more starting points planned. These include:
- Evermeet: Elf only start location.
- Tethir Forest: Elf only start location.
- Zazzesspur: Start location for all alignments.
- Thay: This is planned to be the ideal starting point for evil mages.
- Suzail: This is planned for neutral to good characters wanting to start out in the Dalelands.
- Ballabel: Start location for halflings.
By the time you reach level 5 you are expected to have a detailed description of your character using the desc command. Your description must meet the following requirements:
- Be a minimum of 4 lines in length.
- Contain no profanity or racial slurs.
- Refer to what your character looks like, giving an indication of their race.
- Contain NO reference to what you are wearing. There is no need to do this as when someone looks at your character they can see what you are wearing.
- Remain relatively constant. As we use a greet system on Forgotten Kingdoms it is important that your description doesn't change without good reason.
- Not tell others how they feel about you.
- Not tell a story of your life history.
For more information refer to the policy page on descriptions. There extra articles there to help make a good description.
Alignment and how it affects your character.
The alignment of your character heavily affects gameplay in many aspects. Its more than just your equipment zapping you when your alignment changes. For certain classes if your alignment changes too much it will have a detrimental affect on them. For instance a paladin whos alignment changes to evil will not only lose favour with their god but also prevent them from using some of their special paladin skills. Your visible alignment will not change automatically but your actions are recorded in hidden fields visable to the deities and your alignment may be adjusted accordingly.
Your alignment affects which god you decide to follow. Certain gods require you to meet a certain alignment to follow them in the first place. If your alignment changes too much from this you may find yourself out of favour with your god.
Your alignment also affects how you roleplay your character. For instance someone of a Lawful good alignment wouldn't be killing the guards in Waterdeep. Doing so would alter your hidden alignment anyway. Additionally the law of the city would not take kindly to such actions, and it is likely that you would end up in the dungeon.
For a better understanding on how to roleplay your alignment refer to Vacred's Alignment pages based on the AD&D players handbook.
Note if you choose a standard character, you will not have to choose alignment. Only customised characters can select what alignment they will be.
You will need to visit different trainers around the Kingdoms to learn your skills. You will only be able to learn the very basic skills at the trainers in the areas you start out in. Some trainers may take doing a quest to get to.
To get a list of skills that your character can learn type skills. In order to learn a skill type train skillname when you are with a trainer. In order to see what a trainer is able to offer you type train. You will only be able to train your skill up to a certain skill level with most trainers. After this point only using the skill will improve it.
Training a skill costs you experience and gold. If you do not have enough experience or coins, you will not be able to train the skill.
Learning spells is the same as for learning skills. Spells however require components alot of the time in order to cast them. Type spellbook to see a components list for a spell. Also wizards and bards will need to have a spellbook in order to see what components are needed, or to train the spell.
For priest and paladin spells you will find that trainers will most likely be priests of your religion.
Your attributes are represented in a non-numeric format. You will be able to train your attributes up by using 1 stat point (formerly known as a practice point). Not all trainers will be able to train certain attributes. For instance basic trainers around your starting city wont be able to train you up in an attribute as high as it can go. You will have to seek out more qualified trainers around the Kingdoms in order to achieve that.
To train an attribute type train attributename. In order to see what your attributes are type score. You will get one stat point every two levels. You will be able to use these stat points for training your statistics only.
You only start out with one language on Forgotten Kingdoms. Which language you know depends on your race. You will also get the language of your hometown once you select your hometown if you dont know that lanuage already. To learn new languages you will need to find specialised trainers. It costs gold and experience to learn a new language, much the same as any other skill.
There are no chat channels etc on Forgotten Kingdoms. They main form of communication will be says, yells, and tells. In order to send a tell a character must possess a magical amulet that enables him or her to communicate long distance with other characters. The amulet will require magical energy to use. You must also have greeted a character in order to send a tell to them. There is a quest in most newbie temples in which you can earn an amulet of communication. It can be purchased around the Kingdoms for a fair sum of gold.
You can ooc someone. It works like the tell command but it used for out of character communication. (Please note that use of the OOC command for IC use will result in punishment. Players can also use the question command to ask ooc questions. This is only seen by the player asking the question and the deities that are on at the time.)
For in character communication with deities, characters may pray to gain a deities attention. Prayers are logged to a special noteboard so that if a deity is not on at the time your prayer will be seen albiet somewhat delayed. Please pray only once to say you want to follow a god. Your prayer is on the board waiting for the god in question. Additional prayers only serve to fill up the board with spam and slow down the processing of prayers by the deities.
The noteboards around the realms are for in character communication only. In order to post a note you must hold paper and some sort of writing implement such as a quill. If you find a bug or have a game idea make use of the bug/idea/typo commands. If you have an out of character situation that needs more detail then we ask you use email to the game administrators.
If you wish to communicate with game members out of character then you may post a note on the games discussion board. Note that this board is reserved for discussions and announcements and misuse of this board will result in your note being removed and possibly removal from the board.
Deities and following with your character.
Your character can follow a deity in Forgotten Kingdoms. Unlike some muds this doesn't mean just a free for all on player killing. There may be some player killing involved but it is a minor aspect of following a god. Which deity you chose to follow depends on your alignment and the nature of your character.
Your favour with a deity is measured. Your level of favour shows up on your 'score' informaiton. When you first follow a deity your favour is set to ignored. You can do things to earn the favour of your god or goddess. Certain actions will give you favour or take away from it. For instance, casting a spell in battle will find favour with some gods and not with others. Your god may prefer for you to bury a corpse rather than sacrifice it. There are many other things that affect your favour with your god.
Once your favour rises you can enjoy many benefits from your deity. You can get special objects and you can call upon a avatar of your deity for aid. You can also supplicate for your ressurection or for a recall. If you are well enough reguarded you can even call upon your deity directly.
If you want to expand your character from the basic class that you chose at creation you will need to join a guild. For example if you want to make a Fighter out of your warrior you will need to join the Fighters Guild.
There may be certain critieria that you may have to meet in order to join a guild. For instance a bard will need to have a high Charisma. You may have to complete a quest, or you may have to pay some money to join. You will need to find out from the guild itself in the game what is required of you.
For more information about the skills that each guild offers, see the guild pages.
The organisations in the game are set up by the game administrators, but they are run by select player characters. A character may only join one of these organisations. The following organisations are currently available for joining. See the organisations web pages for a list of all we currently have available to join.
Player killing (pk or pkilling) is possible from level 8. All player killing must be in character and there must be a very good reason for it. Any rampant pkilling just to put notches on a characters belt will be frowned upon and, if necessary, action by the gods will be taken.
Reasons for an in character player kill vary. It may be to do with the organisations that the characters are in, ie Zhentarium attacking a harper; or it can be to do with the general fight between good and evil, a paladin challenging a drow thief for his evil actions; or it could be due to race, ie a drow attacking one of its fair skinned cousins, an elf ; or it could be due to the fact that you have encountered a follower of your own god's natural enemy, ie A follower of Tyr dealing with a thief of the god Mask. The reasons are many and varied but they have to be good reasons and always in character and usually include involved roleplay before and after the fight.
There are a large variety of quests on Forgotten Kingdoms. They range from the very simple quest that entails escorting a VIP from one town to another to the elaborate quest of helping the wild elves of Tethir Forest defeat a foe. These are area driven quests. There are also god run quests to enhance roleplay.
Quest rewards vary from receiving experience and gold, to recieving a nice piece of equipment. You can also earn glory points or favour with your god.
Glory Points can be accumulated and used for various purposes. They can be spent on additional feat and stat points.
Weapons.There are a large variety of weapons on Forgotten Kingdoms. Eric, player of Sparlow has written a guide to weapons in the Forgotten Realms.