Communication

Speech, channels, private messages, emotes and mail, with the syntax each one actually takes.

Rogue separates talking into three ranges. There is speech in the room you are standing in, which is say, whisper, emote and their relatives. There are channels, which reach everyone in the world who is listening to them. And there are private messages, which reach one named person wherever they are. Mail is the fourth case: it reaches someone who is not logged in at all.

Nearly every command below has a colour and a filter setting attached to it, so if you want the chat channel to stop being green or you want to stop hearing one particular person, look at the settings section at the foot of this page rather than putting up with it.

Speaking in the room#

say#

Speaks aloud to everyone present. It can also be aimed at one person in the room, which does not make the message private but does make it obvious who you are addressing.

say good evening to you all
say to marla have you seen the gate guard

NPCs listen. Many of them react to keywords in room speech through their talk and consult triggers, so say is often how you get an NPC to do something. Under the shadow skill your name is hidden and others hear only a voice from the shadows.

speak#

The same thing, but language-aware. Every race has its own tongue, and someone who does not know the language you are using hears gibberish rather than words. Used with a language and no message, it switches the language you speak by default.

speak good evening
speak in elvish good evening
speak in elvish

whisper#

A private message to one person in the same room. Everyone else sees that you whispered to them, but not a word of what you said.

whisper to marla the guard is watching us

emote#

Puts whatever you type directly after your name, so that the room reads it as a freeform action. If the message begins with an apostrophe, no space is inserted, which is how you write possessives.

emote smiles warmly.
emote 's eyes glow faintly in the dark.

The first of those reads as "Yourname smiles warmly." and the second as "Yourname's eyes glow faintly in the dark." An emote needs at least one stamina point to use, though it does not spend any; avatars skip even that check. Under the shadow skill your emotes are hidden from others unless they contain laughter.

emotes#

Lists the ready-made emotes available to you, such as smile and bow, which you use by name rather than describing yourself. The list is long, so it takes a prefix filter, and help <emote> shows the lines any one of them prints.

emotes
emotes sm
help facepalm

Each emote has a line for use alone and a line for use at somebody:

lol
lol lestat
smile at lestat

The person has to be in the room with you. They see their own version of the line and everyone else sees a third. Anything else you type after an emote is added to its line:

lol that was great
lol lestat so hard
laugh at the whole room
wow that was close

Those read "laughs out loud that was great!", "laughs out loud at Lestat so hard!", "laughs at the whole room." and, for an emote that says something, "breathes, "Wow. That was close.""

On a channel or in a tell, put a semicolon straight in front of the emote. There it can be aimed at any player who is online:

chat ;lol
chat ;lol lestat
chat ;lol that was great
tell lestat ;wave lestat

pmote, omote and tmote#

Three ways to write your own emote when it should not simply start with your name. All three are seen by the room only.

pmote hand rests on the hilt.
omote Leaning on the bar, ; sighs.
tmote lestat ; nods to - and sits.

pmote starts the line with your name as an owner ("Yourname's hand rests on the hilt."). omote puts your name wherever you type a semicolon. tmote is about you and one other person in the room: the semicolon is you and the dash is them, and they read "you" where everyone else reads their name. premote remains for a line you write in full, your own name included.

racialemotes lists the emotes unique to your race, which work the same way.

shout#

Reaches every player in the world, and names you as the shouter. It costs a hundred stamina and refuses below that, so it is meant for emergencies rather than conversation.

shout is anyone near the west gate

yell#

Carries to the area around you, further than your own room. It is language-aware in the way speak is.

yell fall back to the bridge
yell in dwarvish fall back to the bridge

Talking to NPCs#

ask#

The general command for getting something out of an NPC, whether that is an answer, an item, or an action. Many NPCs respond to specific topics.

ask marla about the gate
ask marla for a rope
ask marla to open the door

request <item> from <living> does the same job as ask for. consult is for books, tomes and other reference objects rather than people, and gesture to <person> is recognised by a small number of NPCs who are waiting for it.

introduce#

Until you introduce yourself, other players see you described rather than named, as a male elf or similar. Introducing yourself hands them your name, or a nickname of your choosing. They have to be in the room with you, and you cannot introduce yourself while you are disguised. introduce all introduces you to every player in the room who does not know you yet, and introduce list shows everyone you know by the name they gave you.

introduce to marla
introduce to marla as the Grey Wanderer
introduce all
introduce list
introduce clear

Private messages#

tell#

A private message to a named player anywhere on the MUD. Only you and the recipient see it.

tell akram do you want to run a quest

reply#

Answers whoever last sent you a tell, without your having to retype their name.

reply give me a minute, I am mid fight

rtell#

The mirror of reply. It sends another message to whoever you last told something to, which is what you want when you are the one driving the conversation.

rtell meet me at the north gate

Channels#

Channels are out-of-character and reach everyone in the world who is listening. You may see them called lines; the words are used interchangeably. Their general form is the channel name followed by your message, and the channel name on its own toggles it on or off.

chat has anyone seen a shortsword for sale
newbie how do I wield two weapons

chat#

The global channel, heard by every player who has it enabled.

chat good evening all

channels#

Lists the channels available to you. It also turns the whole set on or off in one action, which is what you want before a boss fight.

channels
channels on
channels off

tune#

The finer-grained version. It lists what you are currently tuned into and toggles channels individually or all at once, and it also controls whether you are told about guild members logging in and out.

tune
tune chat
tune in
tune out
tune notify

mute#

Silences channel messages without changing what you are tuned to. It can be aimed at local channels, at intermud channels, or at everything.

mute on
mute off
mute on remote
mute off local

gag#

Stops you speaking rather than stops you hearing. It is for when you are hidden, playing a silent character, or running more than one character and would rather not talk on the wrong one by accident.

gag on
gag off
gag local on
gag remote off

unmuff#

Lifts an earmuff so that you hear a particular player's channel messages again.

unmuff akram

Guild channels#

Every guild has a private channel that only its members hear, and the channel verb is the guild's own name. A mage types mage followed by a message; a warrior types warrior. guildverb documents the pattern itself.

mage does anyone have a spare mana potion
warrior forming a group at the east gate

The guild channels are assassin, bard, diplomat, explorer, healer, mage, merchant, necromancer, psion, ranger, rogue, templar, thief and warrior. There is no fighter channel; warriors use warrior. Explorers, who have not yet joined a guild, have their own channel on the same pattern.

Clerics and paladins are the exception. No class channel is registered for either, because both belong to a faith rather than a guild and speak on their religion's channel instead. religion is what those two classes actually use.

Organisation channels#

Clans, religions and the militia each have a channel of their own, reached through the organisation's main command rather than by a dedicated verb. Typed with no message these show you who is online; typed with a message they speak.

clan the abode needs restocking
religion the rite begins at dusk
militia trouble reported near the docks

Conduct on the out-of-character channels#

OOC space is for necessary out-of-character talk and nothing else. Levels, gear, experience, mechanics, quest solutions and ongoing roleplay all stay off it, because some players are there to stay immersed and spoilers ruin that. Talk shop privately instead. help rules has the full conduct rules.

Reading back#

hist#

Shows the backscroll for a channel or for a kind of speech, with an optional count.

hist chat
hist chat 30
hist tell
hist say
hist whisper

last#

The quick version, giving the last ten messages of whatever you name.

last chat
last chat newbie
last tell
last shout

Mail#

mail#

Reaches players who are not logged in. With no argument it opens the reader so that you can go through your inbox; with a player name it starts composing a message to them. To finish writing, put a single full stop on a blank line and press return.

mail
mail akram

Settings that affect all of this#