Unwritten Legends

The Unwritten Legends Player Guide
V 1.0 08-27-04

by Ashekalion Moontracker

Foreward

Making Your Way
Creating an Account
Creating your Character
Rerolling your Character
Race, Gender, and Culture
The Professions
Stats!
Secondary Stats
Primary Skill Selection
Appearance and Age

Entering Thrael
Level, Experience, and Advancement
Basic verb use
Utility verbs use
Wealth and Debt
Inventory

Building Your Legend
Combat in Thrael
Roleplaying and NPCs
"In Character"

Conclusion
Finding Help
Further reading
Glossary

Foreword

Welcome to Unwritten Legends! You are about to begin your journey into the world of Thrael, where civilization flourishes at the edge of things dark and sinister. You will follow in the footsteps of heroes that have gone on before you and discover things wondrous and mysterious.

This guide is to help players understand the workings of Unwritten Legend. While it is meant to be comprehensive, it is an overview and covers only the basics of getting started. Before creating your character, be sure to read as much information as you can on the website’s Lyceum, the Center of Knowledge. It contains background histories, racial information, and much more that won’t be found in this guide and will prove crucial to your role playing experience.

Additional information can be found within the Lyceum.

I. Making Your Way

Unwritten Legends (UL) wants you! But first, you need to create an account and build a character so that you can forge your own destiny in Thrael. Step by step, here is how to get started.

Creating an Account
You can apply directly at the website to create your account. You will need to provide some information. Try to be as complete with your answers as possible, all of them are asked for a reason. You will receive an email as soon as staff receive and process your application. In the event that you do not receive a reply within that time, email Feedback and inquire as to your account.
Your account, once created, will have three character slots, or available places to store the characters you create. Account information including your password will be emailed to the address you provided in your application. It is recommended you change this random password once you are in the game. Do not ever give out your password. Do not ever ask anyone for their password. The UL staff will never ask you for your password.
The information you have provided to UL in your application is kept private and is not given out to anyone. It is only viewed by UL’s employees and agents. If you feel that your information may have been given out to other sources, please contact Feedback with the matter.

Further information:
Applying for a new account http://www.unwritten.net/testgamma3.html
Contacting UL’s feedback http://www.unwritten.net/contact_alt.html
or email UL Customer Service.

Creating your Character

You have your account! It’s time to make your character! Your character is a fictional creation of your own design, with which you will interact with others. It can be of either sex, any of the many races, and of any of the cultural subgroups within that race. The character generator looks much more complicated than it actually is; don’t be daunted by the number of choices.

Additional information: The character generation--http://unwritten.net/welcome.html

Rerolling your Character

It’s not unusual to dissatisfied with your creation. Maybe the profession wasn’t what you expected, or perhaps you just don’t fit inside the skin of that elf like you thought you would. No problem! Log into the game with the character you wish to reroll, and type in REROLL. It will ask you for your password, to confirm this. If this is really want you want to do, enter it and your character will be reset.

Please Note: All of your possessions, pets, and money will be deleted!

Once reset, just go through the character generator again using the name of your character to be rerolled. The names will always be recycled; to change your character’s name requires contacting Feedback. They will want a reason why and a new name, so please have this information ready if that’s the route you wish to take.

Race, Gender, and Culture

The races of Thrael are many and varied. Not only will they affect your appearance--will you be a tiny Bramble or a hulking Gharkin, but it also affects your character’s statistics (stats) and how other characters will relate to you. Some races naturally get on well with others, and some are naturally more suspicious of others. You will definitely want to read up on the race you select.

Your gender--all races in Thrael are male or female, like real life--affects your appearance and roleplaying. Being male or female has no changes to stats or abilities of your character. There is no rule stating that the gender of the player must match the gender of their character, so long as you remain in character. More about that, later.

Additional information:
Racial background-- http://www.unwritten.net/people.html

Professions

There are five principal categories of professions:
Warriors: Barbarian, Mercenary, Cavalier, Qai Monk
Rogues: Ranger, Swashbuckler, Thief, Tinker, Assassin
Mages: Wizard, Illusionist
Spiritualists: Cleric, Druid, Channeler, Empath, Lash, Lightbringer
Vedics: Bards, Archons

Please Note: At the time of this writing, many of the professions were still under construction. Not all of the professions will be available or fully implemented yet.

Each profession has a particular strong point that gives it a decided advantage. Every profession, also, has an area where it is particularly weak and slow to learn. This is a balancing factor--there is no right or perfect choice. Choose what best fits the image of your character. Someone who may like to settle things with an axe to the trouble-maker’s head should think about a warrior. Those who prefer all things mystical would do better as a mage or spiritualist. All offer equal role playing opportunities, just different perspective.

In character generation, there is a detailed description of each profession when you highlight it. Read them carefully to make sure you have the right ones.

Stats!

Selection of your character’s statistics (stats) comes immediately after choosing your profession. Stats come as eight scores:

Physical statistics:
Strength--affects your lifting ability and physical damage you inflict in battle
Dexterity--affects skills requiring fine motor function and your ability to hit foes in combat
Endurance--adjusts your Vitality and Stamina; your character’s physical durability
Reflex--adjusts your defensive abilities in combat

Mental statistics:
Intelligence--affects how much experience you can learn at a time and adjusts your Essence Points
Wisdom--adjusts your Essence Points, affects spells requiring resistance
Reasoning--affects skills requiring logic abilities
Will--mental willpower against various effects

When you build your character, you have to decide which group is the main stat group, called being physical primary or mental primary. The primary group is alloted 325 points to be spread out among the four stats, and the secondary group is given 225 points. This averages to about 81 points in each primary stat and 56 in each secondary stat. A statistic of 49-51 is considered the game’s average, where there is no adjustment to skill rolls or abilities; higher than this gives bonuses, lower than this has penalties.

As mentioned previously, some races have a natural adjustment to statistics, which are applied after your character’s stats are selected. So a Gharkin character that you have allotted 90 in Strength will add his bonus of +18 for a total strength of 108. Once set, these stats may be temporarily raised or lowered through in-game effects, but they are otherwise permanent and unchanging.

Additional information:
Racial stat adjustments -- http://www.unwritten.net/racial_stats_alt.html

Secondary Stats

There are three statistics that are generated once your character is completed: Vitality, Stamina, and Essence. Vitality is often referred to as your blood supply, as it is the vital life force that ebbs away if you’re bleeding or poisoned. If this number reaches zero, your character perishes. Stamina is how much activity you can perform, such as running or swinging a weapon. When this number reaches zero, your character collapses from exhaustion (though it does recover rather quickly). Essence is the mystical energy about the character used for casting spells (in the case of magic-users) or resisting magic (in the case of barbarians only). When this reaches zero, spell casting and magic resistance is not possible.

While these secondary stats are immutable and adjusted only by a high or low Endurance (for Vitality and Stamina) or Wisdom and Intelligence (for Essence), cultivation of certain skills will increase your starting scores.

Selecting Primary Skills

Skills have two things a player needs to be aware of: Skill caps, which is the maximum level of skill a character can have per level, and skill bonuses, which is the ease with which a character may learn that skill. Take note of which skills are offered to the character as their selection of primary skills. These are the skills that your profession excels in (and will thus learn more easily). Of these, you may choose seven to be primary skills.

Primary skills essentially means that your character is all about it, whether it is lockpicking, swordsmanship, or bandaging wounds. Not only is your skill cap higher than normal for these skills, you learn them slightly faster than your other profession-specific skills. Further, you receive a small increase in your primary skills each time your character advances a level.

Look over your offered list carefully. It is advisable to take at least one skill in some sort of defense (Shield, Armor, Evasion), a weapon type of some sort, and at least two in some sort of activity that your profession would normally do--a mage may want Kinetics (aiming missile spells) and Essence Store (which increases your Essence Points stat), for example. Note that not all professions have the option of selecting weapon or defensive skills.

A character is able to learn every skill, with precious few exceptions. It is possible to have a stealthy knight in shining armor, or a mage that can pick locks. However, if that skill is outside of your presented list, be prepared to devote a lot of time toward working on these pursuits.

Appearance

We’re almost done! Now it’s time for the fun part--picking your look. Remember that each race and subgroup within that race has their own appearance, so skin colors and various parts of the description may vary each time you come through this area of character generation.

Please note: Beard styles appears before the option to be clean shaven. Don’t panic--you don’t have to have a beard!

Your appearance, and then your age when prompted to select one, are cosmetic in effect only. These are roleplaying aids to help you convey your character’s personality.

II. Entering Thrael

You did it! Your character is ready and now it’s time to enter the world and make your mark. This section will help you get started on orienting yourself and understanding how to get around in the game environment.

Level, Experience, and Advancement

Your character begins their new career at level one. Character level, when you go to check your information in-game, are called Trainings. Acquisition of experience points will advance your Trainings. Experience points are earned through a variety of activities (combat, foraging, transferring wounds, roleplaying awards, delivering packages for some NPC merchants, etc.). Gained experience is only absorbed at a certain rate, the rest is stored in a pool, the size of which is determined by your Intelligence stat, among other things. This pool is slowly absorbed as you go about your business. Overfilling this pool leads to slower absorption and potentially lost experience, so rest periodically if you find yourself in a position where your character can’t keep up with the activities you engaged in.

Unwritten Legends is unusual in that improving skill levels is not tied into your character’s level. While you do earn a few levels of skill in your primary skills when leveling up, the levels indicate your maximum ability in skill more than anything else (the starting number for this cap, or maximum, is 10 times your level--a level 3 character thus has a starting cap of 30 in any given skill). Most skill training does not earn experience, and many things that would earn experience won’t necessary advance your skills.

Some experimentation in game will be necessary to explore your character’s abilities and options.

Verbs

Please Note: It is not necessary to type in commands in all capital letters. They are only illustrated that way here to show examples.

It’s time to explore. These are done through commands called verbs. The most basic of these are movement: North, south, east, west, northeast, northwest, southeast, southwest, up, down, and out. They will move you in the direction indicated, if an obvious exit in that way exists. If you find yourself in a room that saves Obvious Exits: None, look around for a door, stairs, arch, or similar. Then type GO and the thing you see, such as GO DOOR.

To speak, type a quote ‘ or " and then your message, or use the verb SAY followed by your message. A full range of verbs are available to you, in-game by typing VERBLIST. This will provide you with a complete list of available verbs. Save this somewhere or print it off for your reference until you feel confident in moving about. Most of the verbs are intuitive in their use (GET, PUT, WEAR, REMOVE, SMILE, FROWN, etc.) and respond to objects--GET COINS, for example, will get your coins from your pouch. PUT COINS IN POUCH will put them back.

The use of the word my helps avoid confusion if there is a pouch somewhere else and you’re trying to put the coins in your pouch. MY restricts the search for objects to what you are holding or wearing, and it is very useful. Also, in the case of more than one object, you may use an ordinal (second, third, fifty-fourth) in front of the object or else a descriptive word--put coins in third pouch or tap shining broadsword, for example. Tapping or touching an object is a good way to make sure you find the one you’re looking for before using it or buying it.

Using some verbs incurs round time, or a delay in everything else you are doing until you can finish that action. Some verbs, like speaking or smiling, do not require any concentration or significant body movement. Otherwise, you are bound into your task until the time is up.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, are the utility verbs that tell you your information. These are vital to understanding your character:
INVENTORY – shows the player what his character is holding and wearing
GLANCE – shows what the character is holding in their hands.
HEALTH – displays Vitality, Stamina, and Essence as well as any bodily injury.
EXPERIENCE – shows accumulated experience points and your Trainings (level)
SKILLS – shows all the skills and to what level your character possesses them.
WEALTH – checks both hands and all your open containers for your total coins and their overall worth.

Please Note: You do not have to type in the full word of either the verb or what you are interacting with--the game is intuitive to a degree and will strive to make the closest to match to what you have input. The command l dya, therefore, would have your character LOOK at Dyannah.

Wealth and Debt

Your character begins the game with 300 sovereigns in their pouch. Close your pouch with the command CLOSE MY POUCH until you are prepared to spend them. Coins can be stolen by creatures and other characters, so it’s best to be safe than sorry, for the moment.

Please Note: If you type in WEALTH after closing your pouch, you will find that you have 0 coins worth a total of 0 sovereigns. This is because it only calculates coins you can readily find--opening your pouch will give you the correct amount.

With your coins figured out, you’re all set to go shopping. When you enter a shop, the description of the room will give you all the information you need to find where the merchandise is. For example, the shop may talk about racks or shelves or cabinets. Look on or in the various displays to see the merchandise.
[House of Grilla, Gentlemen's Haberdasher] Standing across the shop from each other, two identical wrought iron racks are stocked with elegant merchandise. Reflecting a raised platform that is surrounded by a few chairs is a full-length copper-backed mirror. A huge potted plant sits on the deep gray carpet in one corner, its leafy fronds overhanging a small glass and wood curio, and a brightly painted porcelain urn stands in the other. The bronze door seems to be the only break in the paneled walls. Also here is Lord Grilla. Obvious Exits: None.

This shop has merchandise on both racks and the curio. LOOK ON RACK will return something like, On a wrought iron rack is a fitted watchet linen shirt, some stitched gray corduroy breeches, some tawny kersey trousers, and a fitted yellow linen shirt.
To get information about a particular item, type APPRAISE . Example: APPRAISE SILK VEST will return: Lord Grilla says, "I will sell you a soft siskin silk vest for 35 sovereigns."
To buy a particular item, type BUY . Be sure your coins are in your hand. Example: BUY SISKIN VEST would return, You ask Lord Grilla about buying a soft siskin silk vest. Lord Grilla takes your small pile of coins and hand you back your change. Lord Grilla gives a soft siskin silk vest to you.
In the example, since there are several different vests, so if you wanted the soft siskin silk vest, you would need to specify that. To make sure you get the item you want, APPRAISE first. When appraising, the salesperson will state the full name of the item, thus confirming that you have given enough information to insure that you get the exact item you want. The merchants never give refunds, so make sure you choose carefully!
Some services--healers, mainly--run up a bill. The verb DEBTS will tell you if you have any debt, and to whom. To take care of the matter, have your coins in hand and PAY .

So remember: Coins in hand when paying for something. Put coins away when not using them. Close the container holding your coins to prevent theft.

Inventory

Your character begins the game wearing garments appropriate to wherever they started, with a simple pouch to hold coins and small knickknacks. Clothing and the like are layered. Not only does this mean that your pants, for example, will hide the leggings beneath, but it also means you need to remove your pants, first, in order to remove your leggings.

Appraising your various accoutrements will give you details about them. Most important of these are if they have pockets--this means your pants are not only clothes, but a decent place to store small objects like keys and coins. Many of these pocketed garments can be closed like a pouch.

Using different objects requires at least one free hand, much like real life. If your hands are full, you get either a message to free up your hands or a message stating you juggled everything into one hand to do something briefly.

Items tend to accumulate rapidly once your journeys get underway, so it is a good idea to buy something of decent size like a pack or large sack to keep things in. If your item doesn’t fit, try to FOLD or ROLL it first, this will reduce its size if it’s pliable.

Please note: Liquids will spill out of open containers if you try to put them in another container.

III. Building Your Legend

The goal of the game is simple. Build up your character in all things--wealth, fame, items, level, skill. You are creating your legend. The world is not writ in stone; the actions of the players within it can leave a permanent mark on future development and storylines!

Role Playing and NPCs

Role playing is the meat and drink of Unwritten Legend. It is how you draw attention--good or bad--to your actions and achievements. Heroic or villainous, malevolent or benign, how you portray your character and how consistently you keep to it will make you remembered.

This is not to say that a madly diabolical character must be a lunatic everyday. (In fact, ravening evil characters are frowned upon since most goodly ones will shun you or simply kill/imprison you when you prove too dangerous.) Everyone has their off days, even your characters. Varying their behavior is perfectly acceptable. Just stick with their likes, dislikes, and goals. Wanderlusting characters will always want to travel…unless you’ve seen it all and are depressed for there are no other realms to see. These variations will give players that interact with you a chance to role play with you as well--both you and they benefit as both characters will expand on their personalities!

Throughout the towns and wilderness are NPCs--Non-Player Characters. These are run by the game itself and are the extras on the set to add color and flavor to the game. They are the merchants and bartenders, the passersby and the beggars. The monsters in the wilderness are NPCs as well. You will find that you can interact with them in a number of ways through verbs. Some may not exactly respond how you wish, but they form good aids or props to help your character role play to their fullest potential. Take careful note of the NPCs you frequent most… there will be times when their behavior can suddenly change…

The biggest benefit to role playing is Fame points. A GM has taken note of your activities and awarded you with experience and Fame for your actions. Fame allows you to gain titles, which while largely cosmetic, gives other players an idea of your accomplishments. Titles can be selected by how powerful they sound or how descriptive they are of your personality, and more Fame gives your character better access to more titles!

"In Character"

In character and out of character (OOC for short) are the two main watch-phrases while playing in UL. In short, anything that your character would not be able to know, do, or talk about is considered out of character. In character (IC) is simply maintaining your character’s personality in a consistent (or at least explainable) manner. It’s a lot easier than it sounds. Just keep in mind that OOC and IC behavior will be noted not only by the other players, but by the GMs as well. Good role playing, as mentioned, will be noticed and rewarded.

If it is necessary to convey a message to another player that would not be good role playing (or you just need to remind him of the mid-term exam tomorrow), use the OOC verb--ooc Bob Phone, brb. will give the Bob the message, Tom whispers ooc to you: Phone, brb.

Combat in Thrael

Please Note: Combat should be one of the last activities to engage in with your character. It is possible ADVANCE into and RETREAT from potential fights without actually triggering an engagement (by using the format ADVANCE or RETREAT ). Using APPRAISE on a potential foe will give you a rough idea of their ability compared to yours. There are ways for everyone--even warriors--to gain experience without fighting, so exercise these if you are unsure about jumping into battle.

Fighting in Thrael is a common occurrence--there are many creatures that would just as soon see your character dead, looted, and in the stewpot. If you see a creature move towards you (and you’re certain it’s not another player), chances are it’s hostile. If you see a message like The gray wolf lunges at you with its teeth, then the fight is already underway.

To avoid potential battles, the BOLT verb will flee a random direction, or you may be able to move out of the room without difficulty. RETREAT is slower and usually has the enemy simply pushing forward to keep at you.

Or you can get out a weapon (or use your fists) and smite the foe for its insolence! First, make sure you are close enough--ranges are bow shot, stone’s throw, polearm, and melee range, in that order. They are pretty self-explanatory; one can swing at them with their fists or a weapon, need a polearm such as a halberd or spear, throwing an axe or knife, or need a bow of some sort in order to hit their targets.

Once battle is engaged, you will see something like this:
You draw your gleaming high steel mace back to swing at a thin badger.
Round Time: 2 seconds.

You swing your gleaming high steel mace at a thin badger.
Offense: 0 vs Defense: 73 = To hit: 83 Roll: 83
. . .22 points of crushing damage!
Light blow to a thin badger's right foreleg bruises calf.
Round Time: 2 seconds.

What this means is that you ready yourself to swing, which has round time associated with it, and then you execute your attack (ATTACK ). Your offense--weapon skill plus any adjustments for stats and the like--is compared to their defense to come up with a number you need to meet or exceed to hit the target. The lower the to hit number, the better, since you need to roll that number or higher to succeed. Likewise, when your foe attacks you, you will see their hit numbers compared to your defenses.

Fighting will continue until a foe moves out of range (or out of the room altogether!) or the injuries mount enough to kill one of the combatants. More in-depth information on combat is given in the Unwritten Legends Role Playing Guide.

Conclusion

You have all the basics before you--it’s time to venture forth! Before you go, however, here’s some final things that may help you out. Give them a quick read-through.

Finding Help

It will happen that something just isn’t working, or you know the verb is there but you just can’t figure it out. It will happen. The ASSIST verb, followed by a message (such as, assist I can’t figure out how to draw my sword!). If it’s an emergency, use the REPORT verb, also with a message to detail the problem.

If you’d rather seek out help from other players, there is always the chat room and the forum. The forums offer the best chance of a response, as many people will be able to read your post and offer comments on it. The forums, additionally, are a good place to go to learn tidbits of information that you otherwise would not find on your own.

If none of these options seem to be working, there is always Feedback. Given the other methods of seeking help, contacting customer service at UL should be a last resort. Be as complete as possible in your email, and a reply will be forthcoming with the customer service personnel forward your message to whichever staff is most capable of helping.

Additional Information:
UL Community -- http://unwritten.net/community_alt.html
Contacting UL’s feedback -- http://www.unwritten.net/contact_alt.html
or email cs@unwritten.net

Further reading

This guide provides only the basics to get started in the ever-growing, ever-changing world of Thrael. There are two other documents available to give your character more ideas and knowledge for in-depth gameplay.

The first is a Role Playing Guide. The name is a bit off, as it provides more details on combat, understanding other players, traveling, and more. It is designed to give you more ideas of how to go about Thrael, once you’ve gotten your feet wet.

The second is the Magic Guide. If you plan to cast spells or use magic items, this is the manual for you. It describes preparing and casting spells and using some of the more common items to be found in Unwritten Legends. Good for the budding spell-caster!

Glossary

Here are some of the more common terms seen in Unwritten Legends:
AI - artificial intelligence
IA – interactions
CS – Customer Service
IG - In-Game or Imperial Guard (depending on context)
IC - In Character. Anything your character would normally say, do, or act upon based on their personality and knowledge of the world about them.
MOB - Mobile Object or Monster Object
MUD - Multi-User-Domain or Multi-User-Dungeon
NPC - Non-Player Character. Characters and creatures played by the game itself.
OOG - Out Of Game
OOC - Out of Character. Anything your character would not say or do in the game’s setting. This includes references to modern-day ideas, words and concepts as well as game-based information that you may have learned in an OOC manner (for example, on the player boards) that your character would have no in-game knowledge.
PK/PvP - Player Killing or Player vs. Player
RP - Role player Role Playing
RT - Round time
SPC - A staff played character

Happy Gaming!