Rogue Mud

Welcome to Rogue Mud!

Rogue Mud combines the gameplays of both [1] games and [2]s. There are a cuple of other examples that already established this - however, those are often full-blown roguelikes. Rogue Mud on the other hand focusses on coffe-break roguelike gameplay, meaning that you can play one game whenever you have 10 minutes of spare time. Rogue Mud is free to play. You only need a Telnet client and an internet connection.

1 Connect to Rogue Mud

A telnet client is available on most systems. Use this to connect to the 62.108.39.175 at port 6023, e. g. open a console and type "telnet 62.108.39.175 6023". Character creation etc. is done all over telnet. If you are using Windows consider [3] as a telnet client.

2 Gameplay

The dungeons you play get randomly generated and populated with enemies, items and artefacts. The higher your level is, the bigger the dungeons and mightier the enemies will be. Every dungeon has exactly one entry ("<") and one exit (">"). Every dungeon is player with four player in a team. These can either be human players with a common level that get randomly assigned to each other or bots depending on your choice. As dungeons become more complex, the higher your level is the more time you need to reach the exit. But it should never take you more than about 15 minutes. To improve your level, you will need to gain experience by fighting enemies and healing allies as well as finding artefacts. As there is only one artefact per dungeon, you need to hurry! Or else somebody besides you will pick it up. Only if you reach the exit of a dungeon you are allowed to keep the artefact. Rogue Mud is a PvE. You cannot do harm to your allies or heal enemies.

3.1 Field of View

Besides the dungeon's walls ("#"), yourself and the other players ("@"), entries and exits you can only see enemies, items etc. when they are in your field of view. The diameter is determined by your stats and you can either see something on a field (if there is something to be seen) or you see an empty field (".").

3.2 Line of Sight

Walls and enemies block your view on whatever might be behind them. Fields you cannot observe behave like fields that are outside of your field of view.

3.3 Items and Artifacts

You can pick up items and special items, so called artifacts. They are randomly placed around the dungeon.

3.3.1 Items

Items come in four flavours and are denoted as followed:

• "r" are range items that improve your range stat.
• "s" are speed items that improve your speed stat.
• "v" are view items that improve your view stat.
• "h" are hitpoints items that improve your hitpoints stat.

The effect of items are triggered immediatly after you have picked them up and last for as long you stay in the current dungeon. The effect ceases after you have completed the dungeon or died.

3.3.2 Artifacts

Artefacts are special items. Only one artefact occurs in every dungeon and is randomly placed as well:

• "R" is a range artefact.
• "S" is a speed artefact.
• "V" is a view artefact.
• "H" is a hitpoints artefacts.

If you pick up an artefact first you experience the same effect as with normal items. Only if you manage to complete the dungeon you are allowed to keep and use artfact to improve your stats.

3.4 Enemies

Enemies are denoted by single digits. The higher the digits are ("0", "1", "2", "3", "4", "5", "6", "7", "8", "9") the more power the enemies have. They have the same attacking and healing capabilities as you have, so keep an eye on them!

3.5.1 Walking around

You can walk up, down, left, and right by either using the cursor keys or the vi keys hjkl.

3.5.2 Aiming at Enemies

The keys w and s are used to aim at either the next or previous enemy regarding the distance in your field of view. The enemy will be marked with a "*" if it is the target.

3.5.3 Aiming at Allies

The keys e and d are used to aim at either the next or previous ally regarding the distance in your field of view. The ally will be marked with a "*" if it is the target.

3.5.4 Triggering Actions

After you have targeted an individual (enemy or ally) an action bar starts to fill. Depending on your stats this will take more or less time. When it is full, you can trigger an action on the target you aim at. If the target moved out of your field of view and/ or your range while the action bar filled up, you have to aim again. While the bar is filling up, you are free to walk around.

3.5.4.1 Individual Action

An individual action is triggered by hitting q. The effect causes an enemy harm (reducing its hitpoints) and is healing and ally (recovering hitpoints up to its current maximum but not exceeding it). The action only effects the single individual that is the target. The farther the individual is away, the lower the effect will be.

3.5.4.2 Field Action

Hitting a instead triggers a field action. That means depending on your stats the action (attacking enemies or healing allies) is not restricted to one individual but effects potentially several enemies/ allies in a certain range around the targeted individual. The effect on the targeted individual is the highest, decreasing with the distance from that individual. The overall strength of the effect is determined by the distance between the player character and the targeted individual.

4 Stats, Experience, and Leveling up

Depending on your character stats the game mechanics can be improved in favour of your character. For improving your stats (aka leveling up) you need both experience and artefacts.

4.1 Stats

Stats influence your field of view, the capability of targeting individuals, the amount of time that passes by while your action bar fills up and the amount of damage you can take. =4.1.1 Range The range stat determines how far away an individual might be for you to target it. You can only target an individual if it is both in your range and in your field of view. The range as well determines the strength an effect (decreasing or increasing the hitpoints of enemies or allies) has: The higher the range stat and the less distance between the player character and the targeted individal is, the stronger the effect will be.

4.1.2 Speed

The speed stat determines how fast your action bar fills up. This denotes the time from targeting an individual to triggering an action.

4.1.3 View

The view stat determines the diameter of your field of view. To target an individual it has to be inside of your field of view as well as your range.

4.1.4 Hitpionts

The hitpoints stat determine how much damage you can take. If you hit 0 you lost the dungeon. If you reach the exit of a dungeon with at least 1 hitpoint left you won it.

4.2 Experience

You gain experience by both reducing hitpoints of enemies and improving the health of allies. For every hitpoint reduced or recovered you earn one experience point.

4.3 Leveling Up

You can improve your stats if two conditions hold true:

• You have at least one artefact of the stat's kind.
• You have suffiecient experience points to spend.

While you need exactly one corresponding artefact every time you improve a stat, the amount of experience needed increases with the level of that stat. Therefore, you need more and more experience to increase a stat further. Your overall level is the mean of your four stats' levels.