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Feroz's Guide for the Aspiring Immortal
The first question the player without a god should ask is "Why would I want an immortal?" The personal benefits in terms of equipment, etc is extremely slight. In fact, to immort, in addition to having the immortal-to-be at least level 33, you have to sacrifice a perfectly good set of equipment. So, at least in the short run, yes, you're wasting equipment for no personal benefit. However it's the type of player that the administration of Ronin wants to become gods that willing to look beyond the short term loss and see the personal benefit for both themselves and the good things that they can to do make the MUD a better place, which may in turn come back to them in terms of a better playing environment and a socialable experience. So if you've got the time to get a spare character to level 33 and you're willing to lose some gear, the next question is "How should I go about becoming an immortal?" The most common way to get an extra character to level 33 is to create a new hitter (it's suggested not a paladin because paladins are only useful hitters after level 21), give that hitter all of your hitter's normal gear and then level up to 33. Or if the hitter you're using now is relatively new and you don't mind losing the metas you've paid on him, then you can immort almost right away then start a new hitter from scratch afterwards. Perhaps a bit more time-consuming but also possible to create a solo character, give that character the best gear possible and level up to 33. How ever you do it, once you get to level 33, you're going to have to then lose some gear. For a new player, that can be quite a burden, but if other players see you as the friendly, helpful person that they would want as an immortal, it's quite possible that they'll help you get some replacement gear on your characters or even outfit your soon-to-be immortal. The secret is, just as when you were a newbie, don't demand things and don't continually ask, and you'll probably get some help. Then find a SUP or an IMP and tell them that you'd like to immort. They'll talk you through some things, make sure you understand the rules, and then you're an immortal! Now, besides being unfamiliar with a lot of commands, you'll probably want to know "What can and can I not do?" As for what you cannot do, every single immortal command is logged. You're not allowed to do anything that will help your mortals or any other mortals. No casting spells on mortals or things that mortals are fighting (except during quests). No using your god commands to locate objects, identify objects, or anything like that. If you're not sure if you should be doing something, then better safe than sorry. Ask another god if you're allowed to do something first. As for what you're allowed to do, you can of course run quests, create areas, and sit around and talk with the other gods. Perhaps the thing that gods to do most is sit in the immortal reception and talk or play around, and since gods don't have to eat or drink, it's definitely easy to do. There might be a bit of hazing and you may find us a little weird, but for the most part, we're all pretty nice people and we're happy to see active gods. The one thing that you should be doing as an immortal is being helpful. Should be people ask questions on gossip or to you via tell, try to answer as best you can and be helpful, especially for newbies. Don't give away stats or speedwalk directions, but be helpful. As an immortal, you'll probably want to spend some time just seeing Ronin from a new perspective, but eventually what every new immortal wants to know is, "How should I go about running quests?" Being just an immortal, your commands are limited, so you may need help for a lot of quests, but there are some you can do without any upper level gods. Of course, it's recommended, that you have a little help your first few times, just in case. Some commonly done and little prep time needed quests include recall tag (give out free recall scrolls to all of the players, stick them all in an area like sea of love or ivory tower and do several rounds of last man left in the area), trivia (ask questions, mud related or not), chaos quests (have solos or multis duke it out for points, or do something different like have a higher level god load up a bunch of mobs in the area and have players try to do to as many as possible or possibly create an item, set a time limit, and whoever has it at the end of that time wins), postcard/questcard quests (questcards are available in the god quest room, so you don't even a higher up, spread the cards across the MUD, or make it interesting by writing scrabble letters or poker cards on each card, and then score it that way), and hunt quests (say a letter, a body place, or anything else, and whoever gets you that item first, or the most of that item gets the points, or possible even combine this with the questcard quest, and put that sort of thing on a quest card and once they find a card, they have to do/get what the card says). And of course, the more creative you can get, the more exciting it will be for the players. And while you may get a few whiners, everybody is deep down really happy to have played in a quest. After a while or running quests, you'll probably want to seek your teeth even deeper into immhood and you'll want to know "How do I make an area?" Ronin has a truly tremendous and powerful online creation system. Of course, when something is that powerful, it tends to also take a bit to learn. If you want to make an area, you'll want to have plenty of time to learn the system, and usually have somebody get you started. Of course, Ronin is always happy to see new areas, and getting an area installed is an easy ticket for your first promotion, but it's important to realize (and almost everybody makes this mistake) that an area takes a lot of time and you may well burnout from working on it. Try to make your first area a small area, and areas for lower level-mid level characters are also easier for a first time area creator. If you do have a grand design for incredibly spectacular area, try to set up the area in a way that you can make on about the first 50 rooms of it, have them installed, and then continue with the next 50, and then the next 50. And keep in mind that while some old areas have poor descriptions, all new areas are to be of the highest quality. Once you think you're done with your area, it'll take some time for others to check it over for grammar issues, statistical issues, etc. Be nice to those who volunteer their time to help you on their area, and if you make some friends, it'll probably go faster. Of course, making an area takes a lot of work, but then it's the highlight of your MUDding career to see your area get installed and have all the players flock to it to figure out its puzzles and discover your new gear. So, do you still want to have a god on Ronin? From experience, I can say that I definitely made the right choice in getting myself a god (and getting one early in my MUDding career) and think most other players would find it enjoyable as well. If you want a second opinion, I suggest you talk to some of the other gods on Ronin, and you'll probably find that most of them agree with me. If you're enjoying Ronin now, just wait until you can see the other half of the world around you.
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