World Building

Introduction

The purpose of Dungeon Seeder is to allow you to build your own MUD. You will be the god or goddess of this world, with the power to create anything you want.

You can enter player-created worlds from the world portal (note that you might not be able to return after you leave to a new world). You can also change the world to which you connect in the settings menu.

Dungeon Seeder is also suitable to create:

• • A chat room

  • An interactive fiction game

  • A learning academy

  • A virtual museum

Rules

• • No violation of "copyright", no violation of "intellectual property rights".

  • Follow the host's "Accetable Use" ToS (which you may find here.)

You are responsible for the content that you upload.

The rule about "intellectual property" is to avoid receiving DMCA notices, which could cause the MUD to shut down. However, you can use intellectual property if you set your world as private (a world that is password-protected) and don't make the password publicly available. Before you set your world as private, you should research if the subject is not public domain. Public domain characters of interest are Allan Quatermain, Conan, Cthulhu, Dracula, Robin Hood, Sherlock Holmes, and Tarzan.

World Creation

When you create a new world, you should post an entry on the forum to help people find your MUD.

You can create your world from scratch or start from one of the stock areas (@template command).

Commands

As soon as you type @create, you will be teleported to your own world, with building mode activated. Afterward, when you want to build again, you can type @build at the world portal to activate building mode. If there's no world portal around, you can summon one with the command /spawnn.

Character Creation

You can customise the character creation of your MUD.

You can restrict what kind of characters can be created with the @creation command. For example, @creation human;modern only allows human characters and modern classes.

For the @races and @deities commands, see the Monster Creation chapter.

Room Building

Commands

The only NPCs that will work from your world are those that you create yourself and the following: guild master, auction house, bounty hunter, master bard, card dealer, DM emulator and The Magician (case sensitive).

Flags

Locks

Lock command: @lock {dir} {type} {key} , e.g. @lock e good silver key

Player Housing

Here are some ideas for providing player housing.

Private Housing

Create a house room and give it a lock that's impossible to pick: @lock n impossible apt key

Personally spawn a key for your player: /spawni apt key

Instanced Housing

Create a house room and give it a lock that's impossible to pick: @lock n impossible apt key

Instance the house (so each person who enters it gets a private copy of the house): @flag instance

Create an NPC that sells the apt key: sell;gold;apt key,50

Landlord

Create a house room and remove the exit leading to it: @remove exits

Instance the house (so each person who enters it gets a private copy of the house): @flag instance

Create a landlord NPC that sells a house called "player apt"

• condition: gold,50

• action: take,50;addhouse,player apt

Make the NPC warp player who have the house "player apt" to the room

• condition: *house,player apt

• action: warp,1

Building Tips

When you dig, the rooms will be put on a grid with consistent coordinates. The grid is only temporary and will be lost at server reset. Consequently, it's better to map out an area in one day. If you later dig rooms inside of an area, when the original grid has been lost, it's possible that the new rooms you build get overwritten. To avoid that issue, disable the grid with @grid false.

Also, it's a good idea to change all the parameters that you want transferred to the next room before you dig the new room. Because when you dig a room, all the parameters of the previous room are copied to the new room. For example, if your current room has a desert as room picture, the new room will have a desert as room picture too.

Therefore, if you don't want to use graphical pictures to represent the room, you should set the first image of your world as 0 (@img 0). When the image is set as 0, only a black screen is displayed. Blind users are strongly advised to do this to not be stuck with an image that doesn't match their description.

Last, make your own backup of your maps, scripts and descriptions. Our database backups are limited to account and character data.

Item Creation

You can create your own items (max 100). Those items won't be accessible to other worlds. Moreoever, you have access to all the default SRD items.

Duplicating Items

The command to duplicate a base item is:

@duplicate {item name} to {new name}

For example, to create a new item called "coral sword" with the same stats as a greatsword, you type:

@duplicate greatsword to coral sword

Editing Items

Merely duplicating an item is not very useful. Usually, you want to duplicate an item and alter some of its stats. That's where the second command comes in handy. The command to alter an item stat is:

@edit item {item name} edit {stat name} to {new value}

For example, to give your new coral sword a damage value of 1d12, you type:

@edit item coral sword edit dmg to 1d12

To view an item stat, type:

@view item {item name} view {stat name}

You can find the name of all stats in the Stats Table paragraph.

Wiping Items

The command to wipe an item is:

@wipe item {item name}

This command also works for NPCs, monsters and deities:

@wipe {type} {element to delete}

For example:

@wipe monster aquatic orc

Stats Table

Leave the stats empty if you don't know their value or if they have no value. For example, a weapon has no dmg because it does not deal damage. It is best that you duplicate base items and only edit the stat fields that you understand. Don't feel overwhelmed by the options: you don't have to edit every field.

You are advised to take a look at the SRD to understand how items work: Weapons Table, Armour Table, Modern Firearms. Note that the SRD modern uses a purchase DC and does not give the cost of items. If you want to give a cost to those items, use the Purchase DC - USD conversion table. For example, the Glock 17 has a purchase DC of 18, which translates to 1100 USD.

• • Weapon feats: simple, martial, exotic, personal firearms, exotic firearms

  • Armour feats: body, ring, amulet, gloves, waist, helmet, shoulders, boots, shield, tower shield

  • Critical values: x3, x4, 1920/x2, 1820/x2 (default is x2)

  • Magazines: box, internal, cylinder

  • Buffs (examples): resistfire, resistelectricity, resistacid, resistcold, resistsonic, lesserbullsstrength, bullsstrength, greaterbullsstrength, catsgrace, bearsendurance, foxscunning, owlswisdom, eaglessplendour, flyspell (to fly with a command), spiderclimb, bodyequilibrium

Monster Creation

Monsters are edited the same way as items. To create an aquatic orc with the same stats as an orc but with a swim speed of 30 feet and using a coral sword, type:

@clone orc to aquatic orc

@edit monster aquatic orc edit swimspeed to 30

@edit monster aquatic orc edit weapon to coral sword

To wipe monsters, refer to the Wiping Items chapter.

Stats Table

You are advised to take a look at the SRD to understand how monsters work: Monster Index. As with items, don't feel overwhelmed by the options: only edit the fields that you understand. You can clone base monsters and only edit their weapon, picture and description.

• • specialattacks, qualities, spells, skills, feats and treasure are lists. Separate each item with a ;

  • The special quality damage reduction is write as reduction.{amount}.{damage type}

  • Write * before spells that the monster must cast on itself

  • lawchaos and goodevil are alignments on a scale of 1 to 1000. 833 is good, 500 is neutral, 166 is evil.

  • You can also drop scrolls (treasure) for each spell domain, e.g. scrolldruid1, scrollplant2

Special Attacks

Special Qualities

Any spell buff can be used as a monster special qualities; making it a special quality makes it a permanent effect. Moreover, the following values can be used.

• • Accepted values for damage reduction: any damage type, epic

Races

You can also have custom race selection. You can either use base SRD races or races that you have created. To create a race, all you have to do is create a monster. The stats and special qualities will be extracted from your monster. The stat bonuses will be obtained from a comparison with humans stats. For example, if your custom monster, aquatic orc, has a STR of 17, then aquatic orc characters will receive a +4 STR bonus.

Human stats: STR 13, DEX 11, CON 12, INT 10, WIS 9, CHA 8 (nonelite array)

Tip: to create balanced races, they should have the same total amount of points as humans. For example, the +4 STR of aquatic orcs should be balanced with a -4 somewhere.

The command to offer custom race selection is:

@races {race list}

To create a selection with the base SRD races human and aquatic elf and the custom race aquatic orc, you would type:

@races Human;Aquatic Elf;Aquatic Orc

To provide a list of avatars, edit the avatar of the monster. This must be only the first number of female avatars. For example:

@edit monster aquatic orc edit avatar to 211

The default avatars are ordered such that male avatars follow in number the female avatars, so the client will now where to find all the avatars for this race from there. If you provide custom avatar, you must use appropriate numbering in their file names. For more information, look at how the default avatars are numbered.

Deities

To create a new deity, use the @construct deity command. Don't use caps in the deity's name.

The command to offer custom deity selection is:

@deities {deity list}

To edit a deity, use the @edit and @view commands:

@edit deity {deity name} edit {parameter} to {new value}

If you create a deity of war (war sphere), make sure to give them a weapon. That weapon will be used for the Weapon Focus feat.

Note: the weapon proficiency can either be the name of a single weapon (club, longsword, etc.), or the name of a category (simple, martial, exotic, bardic, druidic, rogue, monk, blunt). Default value: simple. In the case of a deity of war, however, you can only choose a simple weapon or the Weapon Focus feat won't work.

Object Creation

To create a new spell, use the @construct object command.

Naming convention: if you are going to have several objects with the same name in your MUD, add the room number at the end of the object name. Players won't see those numbers when they interact with your object.

Editing Objects

Command: @edit object {object name} edit {parameter} to {new value}

Actions: dmg,{damage type},{damage}; spawn,{monster},{# of monsters}; spawn2,{NPC}; spawn3,{item}; buff,{spell},{time in seconds}; warp,{room #}; unhide,{direction}

Crafting Ingredients

If you create an object with the following names, they can be used with special commands (thus, they won't require keywords). This allows players to gather crafting ingredients.

Example:

@construct object forage1

@edit object forage1 edit action to spawn3,astral herb

@edit object forage1 edit text to You find some astral herbs around...

Class Creation

Editing Classes

Command: @edit class {class name} edit {parameter} to {new value}

Spell Creation

To create a new spell, use the @construct spell command.

Editing Spells

To edit a spell, use the @edit and @view commands as seen in previous chapters:

@edit spell {spell name} edit {parameter} to {new value}

For example, to create the level 1 sorcerer spell Ray, dealing 1d6 damage points or half that on a successful reflex saving throw:

@edit spell ray edit requirements sorcerer;1

@edit spell ray edit dmg to 1d6

@edit spell ray edit savingthrow to reflexhalf

Stats Table

You are advised to take a look at the SRD to understand how spell works: Spell Index

• • Valid target types: self, party, all, line (hits target in a line; only for dmg)

  • Valid ranges: touch (requires a touch attack), long (requires a ranged touch attack)

  • Valid saving throws: reflex (successful reflex saving throw negates the spell), reflexhalf, fortitude, fortitudehalf, will, willhalf

  • Spell resistance: y = true, null = false

  • Requirements: use a list with the format domain;spell_level;domain;spell_level e.g. ranger;3;druid;2;plant;3

Crafting Creation

To create a new crafting recipe, use the @construct craft command.

For crafting ingredients, see the Object Creation chapter.

Editing Recipes

To edit a crafting recipe, use the @edit and @view commands as seen in previous chapters:

@edit craft {spell name} edit {parameter} to {new value}

Stats Table

• • mats: use a list with the format material 1,#,material 2,#,...

NPC Scripting

NPC scripts are the hardest part of world building. Writing scripts is a form of soft programming. Dungeon Seeder's scripts are not as complicate as real programming, however missing the slightest punctuation mark will make your scripts not work. Hence, you will have to focus when doing that.

You should always begin by giving them a language (e.g. Common), otherwise players won't be able to interact with them.

You can find a tutorial to scripting here.

Editing Scripts

It is strongly advised that you use the graphical editor to edit NPC scripts, because using the commands is very difficult.

The command to edit a script is:

@edit npc {npc name} edit {line number} to {line}

For example, if you wanted to enter the first line of the first tutorial example:

Common;Elven

00 Hello, player.

no condition;0;endtalk;Hello NPC.

You'd type:

@edit npc Elf edit 1 to Common;Elven

When you type the first line of the script, the script is created on the server. You have to enter all the lines of your NPC one by one. It's good practice to write your script in a text editor, e.g. Notepad and then upload all the lines to the MUD. Once you have written your script, you should add the commands to the file so that you don't make any mistake when uploading. Your Elf text file would look like this:

@edit npc Elf edit 1 to Common;Elven

@edit npc Elf edit 2 to 00 Hello, player.

@edit npc Elf edit 3 to no condition;0;endtalk;Hello NPC.

Don't mix up the script lines and the dialogue options. In the example above, the dialogue option 0 (00) is on line 2.

To delete a script, refer to the Wiping Items chapter.

General Building Tip

Make heavy use of skills. In SRD 3.5, skills are what make every character unique and thus, the players will appreciate when their skills are made use of. Even the weakest character has useful skills. Use @skill, @skillinfo in your rooms. Use the "skill" condition in your NPC scripts.

Read about the skill system here.