CRASH'S NEW PLAYER DIARY - DAY TWO
OK so now I know not to take a lit brand to the swamp. I quickly do the mundane and get back to swordsman and go to the spring again because I saw dwarfs. Ill just have them. I find 3 of them and supremely confident I hack away with my pin. The pin breaks and the battle is not going well. Its my first real battle except for some dragonflies I had found. And its not a nice experience. I try to type a direction to run away and it doesn’t let me. It says I have to flee. Im reading that carefully and decide to type flee just as the dwarfs win out. Well I died before with the swamp and brand so no problem. Except there is a problem. My character isnt here anymore. What ? How come ? I go back to my notes and discover that if you die doing something stupid like jumping off a cliff its ok you just lose points. But die in battle and bang that’s it. Dead. Wow, harsh. I also find out a way to jump off the cliff. Hey that’s a good one !
OK back to swordsman and I find some senior players and wizzes. I quickly learn these are not to be trifled with, they are without exception a great laugh, but pester them at your peril. I find the item I want to do my new move and go to the cliff. While doing this someone is screaming about a PK whatever that is. All I know is it sounds dangerous and I am on my guard. At the cliff I have just prepared myself and some powerful players appear. I do the usual greetings and they tell me that a particular person is after me. I check the who list and this person is a sorcerer ! How do you do that then ? I want to use magic, maybe you have to start differently. Anyway I don’t like the talk of powerful people when it involves me being killed by someone so playing my trump card I go for a leap. Uh oh, have I done it right ? I land and yes, indeed I did. But they are still talking to me and laughing at my flight, saying that now I’ve got them annoyed. They are coming for me. Oh no ! Whats here, erm not much ! Why oh why would I want to do this ! I wander around and my way out is barred ! The taunts are carrying on ! Now what ! I cant open the gate no matter what and they are telling me she’s nearly here ! Panic sets in I retrace my steps and go for some slippery rocks………dead.
Ok its only points. But I need a break. In the tearoom I am clued in by another low level character that I can glow myself at the Inn by performing a special task. Cool ! I explore and figure it out. Glowing means you can always see in the dark, no more lit brands for me ! I also learn that you can use speech marks or colons to say or to make it look as if you can perform actions
"Hello Dragon, you are very big"
Crash says, Hello Dragon you are very big
:wets himself
Crash wets himself
I have some fun in here, chatting to many people, and venture out again into the world and decide to really work out the cottage. There are locked doors which you need to find a KEY for, and a whole load of RATS who are ok one at a time but you can get 10 or so at once, so don’t go to the cellar ! I work out some tricks with the dish of fruit, the main one being REMOVE ALL FROM DISH. You can get points here by doing some other stuff with the fruit, it felt good to work it out. I also learned the EXITS command which describes whats around me in each direction, and the MAP command to show a piccy of whats around. There was something I found upstairs but couldn’t work out the puzzle. Id have to come back to it. Maybe you need magic.
Even though I found quickie ways to points, it is while doing this working things out by myself that I make my first real progress and really start to feel the rewards of the game. In fact I was feeling awesome about it right up until I meet a Pker at a low level who decided he would take me out. For the next half hour we kept bumping into each other and beating hell out of one another, and I was glad I had learned to FLEE OUT to run away. A wizard was on and I complained to him about the PK spoiling my game but my whines were answered with an explanation that its in the game, Im gonna have to face it sooner or later so why not use a low level character to make the mistakes in learning how to deal with them now. Low level !!! Im a swordsman, do you mind ! In hindsight I can see what he meant and he is dead right. I vowed to try everything even if it meant losing my characters. And shortly after I lost another swordsman ! Still got him back in no time.
Had some great time in the tearoom talking to all and sundry, and I picked up snippets of some excellent non wiz advice. Things like how to string commands and general know how. Also I found out that if you touched the TOUCHSTONE at Champion or above you have a chance of becoming a Magic User…….or dying on the spot. Gulp. The other players were fantastic and I played well into the night and took the TOURS. Hero now ! This game is getting addictive and I had a real good laugh in the tearoom for over an hour. Wow, how much time have I spent on this ! Still its good, I cant wait for tomorrow.