If anyone remembers, in my first blog, I talked about a text-based MUD game called Imperian and how its lack of graphics and sound gave it the advantage of lots and lots of content. For example, there are about twenty-six c1asses to choose from and about sixty skills to learn. Choosing a c1ass in Imperian is probably the most important decision anyone can make in the game, because choosing a c1ass means joining a guild, and joining a guild means become a denizen of one of the various citizens or councils in Imperian.
Upon beginning, I chose to join the Bards, a guild which is part of the city of Kinsarmar. It was a daunting thing at first, for two reasons. Firstly, the world of Imperian is a massive one. Learning to navigate it without being able to see it is something that comes with time. Secondly, there are so many things that one can do in the game that I didn't know where to begin. However, as a beginner, I had several advantages, like easy access to several 'newbie' zones where I could start to get the hang of things. Even more helpful was the aid given by the senior players in the guild. There were even players with the position of 'Novice Aide', elected by other members.
I was told to read certain help files that would tell me what were the requirements for promotion in the guild. I had several things I needed to do. I had to gain enough experience to reach at least Level 21, complete three particular quests, invest a certain amount of Lessons in my skills and collecting certain herbs and tattoos.
The easiest thing was to improve my skills. In Imperian, skill improvement requires using up Lessons. These are gained in various ways, but players always start with a good number of them to spend as they choose. I was required to spend 9 Lessons in a skill called Survival, a minor skill that all classes shared. This unlocked the ability to swim in water, simple as that. The other lessons went into the Bard-specific skills called Voice and Thespia. Think of them as "Singing" and "Playing Music", respectively. Voice was easier to use as a novice and much simpler to understand. All one had to do is type "Sing Rubait", followed by a specified target, and sound waves would damage that target. Type "Gyin", followed by the name of a player and an instruction, like giving money to Xirmi, and that player would be forced to that. (I didn't really do that though. Really.) There were many other words to sing, some for finding objects, other for locating players, some for healing, some for protection. At the very end of the list was "Kantae", which only a master of Voice could use. It would turn anyone who heard it into stone, no matter what.
Having a limited amount of lessons though, I learned a few basic words and went about the world of Imperian trying to complete my other objectives. Getting the tattoos required was a simple matter of asking another player with the skills and equipment to ink them (or finding a special shop operated by an NPC). Inking tattoos is another minor skill, like survival, for those who have the extra lessons. You're probably wondering what's so special about tattoos that I'm talking about them, but in the Imperian, tattoos are magical. Touching them activates their special abilities. I was required to keep a cloak tattoo activated at all times by city law, to protect me from players who weren't so friendly and needed to find out where I was.
Of course, I died a few times. Sometimes I walked into a tunnel filled by bandits; sometimes I attacked some dangerous wild animal that eviscerated me for my trouble. Sometimes I went to the other cities. There are two other major cities beside Kinsarmar, and none of them liked the other. Kinsarmar was open to all, except to practitioners of evil magic (summoning demons, blood rites, that sort of thing), so anyone from Stavenn was an enemy. Antioch hated all magic, good and bad, so both Kinsarmar and Stavenn were enemies. And Stavenn hates everyone because it's big, bad and evil. When I approached their cities, they turned me out and 'enemied' me. Being made an enemy means that the cities' siege weapons and guardian NPC would quickly kill me if I went too close, which I did. Players from other cities (usually identified by foreign epithets after their names, strange weapons or demons trailing after them) quickly became the 'enemy' to me as well. Although experienced players do not attack novices without provocation, it was still a good idea to avoid them. It just made sense, because two Diabolists did attack me once when I was hunting with another guild member. The attack was unexpected – and rude, by game standards – and sadly resulted in our quick deaths. (It didn't go that well for the Diabolists after that point, because a fellow citizen of Kinsarmar decided to mount a punitive expedition and in the process revive me.)
Death is not that much a problem in Imperian. You lose some experience, and if a player doesn't revive you, it might be a hassle getting out of the Underworld. Getting out involves buying passage on a boat (there's a classic river of souls), and to buy passage you need to find special coins. These are obtained in various ways. Gambling your experience with an underworld spirit is one option. Another is to find a statue and answer three riddles correctly. There are other ways, but luckily, I didn't die all that much.
Eventually, I fulfilled all the requirements. A senior guild member inflicted me with various ailments in order to find out if I had knowledge of rudimentary healing and then asked me to take him to specific locations within the city to test my knowledge of its nooks and crannies. I passed the test and was promoted to a Journeyman Bard. I still wasn't a full Bard, but now I could enter the Guildhall and make use of its resources. There was a second test ahead of me, once I reached level 31. I spent the intervening time alternating between training, fishing and escorting wagons of materials from the towns that fell under its domain. These materials would then be used by other players for making other things, like ammunition for the siege weapons that defended the walls or other customisable items. (The game allows you a great deal of customisation. Since everything is represented by text, creating an item involves simply describing it. So the players can do it too.)
The city, like the guild that it held, had a hierarchy of its own. There were vassals and ambassadors, courtiers and even a duke (or duchess.) These were the ones that managed the day-to-day affairs of the city. As a novice, I didn't think there were any, but since the players run everything, it falls to the players to make certain decisions. Resolving conflicts between citizens, drawing up treaties with the other cities or punishing criminal is their responsibility. Since Imperian allows you a certain freedom, like attacking anyone anywhere, killing their pets, stealing, disabling city defences or otherwise helping enemies in any way, there are laws within the cities. They're not a big part of the game and most are fairly obvious, but the fact that they're still there is something special for a game.
Eventually, I passed my second test. New possibilities opened up for me. I could join one of the four 'Circles'. These were clans within the guild of the Bards, each pursuing a certain career. One circle was devoted to writing – stories, histories, documents – its members did it all. Another was devoted to crafting items using the skill of Artistry, like musical instruments for Bards that depended on Thespia. (I did not invest lessons in Artistry. Although it had certain very powerful combat oriented abilities, I was happily building up Voice and Thespia.)
The two other circles were devoted to Performing and Combat. Performing (as in plays, farces and such) is something Bards can do through a basic Thespia skill that conjures up illusions. By typing 'Feign A man falls down." the player can make other player see "A man falls down." on their screen, which in a text-based game, is all you need. The other circle, the combat circle, was the one that most appealed to me, so I enlisted for it. Joining a circle did not require me to do anything, but if I met certain requirements, I would be earn a title as proof of my experience in a certain field and be further advanced in the guild.
Even within the Circle of Combat, there were various combat-related options I could take. I could specialize in healing, so I would be able to support another player in battle. Another option was instructing others, mostly novices, in the art of combat. The option that appealed to me most, however, was the "Deathsinger" specialization. This consisted mainly of player versus player combat. I was required to fight a member of every class in Imperian (for which I entered friendly arena duels, rather than assaulting innocent bystanders), win a certain number of them and then detail why I won or lost.
Imperian's player versus player combat is complex and satisfying. Every class has its own different skills, making it unique. Furthermore, players with the same class could be vastly different because of their fighting style. To give you an idea, I'll tell you how I fought. (By now, I had started to get the hang of my skills, and with the help of fellow players, how to use them.) As a novice, my concept of fighting was singing the damage-dealing "Rubait" repeatedly until my opponents died. That worked against NPCs, but as a slightly more experienced player, I knew that other players are far more adaptable enemies and have much more skills at their disposal.
I mentioned before that I was focusing on building up Voice (singing) and Thespia (playing music). Both abilities depended on sound and many players could easily counter me by eating a certain herb that would make them deaf. So, with some help, I developed a certain strategy using Thespia. Thespia involves playing musical instruments to bind songs to another player or oneself. Songs can have many effects, but all of them worked the same way. Their effects would occur at regular intervals while the song played out. The most useful was "Revelation", which somehow had the ability to make a player able to hear again. The smart opponent would eat another herb as soon as he or she was cured of deafness, but that split second interval was enough, because Revelation took place every fourteen seconds. Within that period of time, I would another song called "Dissonance", invoked by playing a drum, which depended on sonic waves to deal damage over time, meaning that being deaf wouldn't stop it. Once I was done with that, Revelation would be close to nearing its first cycle, and once it did, I'd be able to use another song, perhaps "Lullaby", to force an opponent to fall asleep every few seconds or another Voice or Song ability that dealt damage or inflicted other ailments. The most experienced players, however, can defend against all ailments, and my current strategy lacks a way to deal damage quickly enough to kill them before they have cured themselves and attacked me. There are so many ailments within the game that the developers have allowed the use of programs which automatically use the correct remedies or potions the moment a player is hit with them. That way, a player can focus on timing and working on his offensive strategy and his timing, in order to render another player incapable of doing anything in time and killing him. But this is just my strategy. There are vast differences even between members of the Bards guild. Some use Artistry as a main skill, using its ability to capture wild animals and use them to attack opponents. Others use pets, weapons and poisons to fight. The same variations occur in every class and many players can feel unique in a fight.
A player versus player conflict can even be a war or raid. This usually involves an invasion by the strongest players of one city in another city. I have never seen an all out war, but small raids are common. Since the strongest players of the other cities carry them out, the way they occur is often inexplicable to less experienced players. They may appear suddenly within the city gates, send doppelgangers ahead of them, or step out from wormholes or other ways. The city has as system of runes and totems that defend against such incursions, but I have no idea how to use or maintain it, so I leave it to other players.
In times like this, the defenders usually gather at the city gates. The siege weapons and the NPC guardians of the city attack any enemy who comes within range, but the true defence are the strongest players among the defenders. This does not mean that less-experienced players could not help out, however. Everyone has roles to play. Firstly, all players would activate basic defences, like tattoos or their own special protective abilities. As a Bard, I would activate songs that would ward against damage and periodically heal ailments. The city gates would be closed. If the enemy still managed to get into the city, the fight would begin. Even the less-experienced players had roles that would help their leaders. My role would have been to apply the deafness-lifting "Revelation" and the damaging "Dissonance" to every enemy player. Revelation would help the stronger Bards and save them time, while the damage from Dissonance would be better than nothing. Members from the Mage guild would flood the gates and create walls across entrances to certain areas, protecting valuable rooms or blocking escape routes. Other classes would use their own abilities in their own ways, everyone helping in small ways. If the assailants were actually winning (which is difficult, cities are strong, after all) skilled Bards could bind a "Geis" song to disable combat within an area, buying the defendants the time needed to regroup. If an enemy managed to anger the city enough the Bards could use "Cruel Lament", a rite that could kill any player, no matter his strength, defences, or location. It sounds unbalanced, but it really isn't. It takes three Bards in a special area to sing a Cruel Lament. One mistake could leave at least two Bards dead and the rite could be interrupted by anyone, since everyone is alerted when it's happening. Other classes have similarly powerful rites, like summoning entities to help them in the fight.
There are so many other things to talk about that it's impossible to list them all in one blog, but if you want to experience a special kind of creative and unrestrictive gameplay, you know what to play.
PS: Sorry about the time it took to post this but I couldn't solve the posting problem until someone helped me out. Apparently, all it takes is copying and pasting text with the forbidden words likeclass and style in Notepad (or a program that saves it as .txt file), and then copying from Notepad and pasting in the blog.
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