Once you have generated your persona, you are ready to interact with the world of GemStone III.
You will see on your monitor the text of the area, or "room" you are in, displayed to you one room at a time, as you move about Elanthia. The term "room" is used to refer to the single and discrete area--and its name, description, the objects and characters or creatures it contains, obvious and not-so-obvious exits, and other information--that you enter each time you each time you move. All action takes place within the context of a single room. The term "room" is used for both indoor and outdoor locations, and does not mean merely an enclosed space in a structure, but rather the specific site you occupy where activity and information are output to your display.
Areas and rooms have names. The name for a specific room has two parts, the geographical location and then the specific building, topographical or distinctive feature of that room. For example, as you begin your adventure at the gates of Wehnimer's Landing, the Room Name displayed will read:
[Wehnimer's, Main Gate]
Room names are included to make it easier for your character to become oriented and travel about the world. They are merely navigational aids in a sense and are no substitute for careful observation, mapping and experience. In point of fact, room names are often not unique, and serve to give you a general idea of your location. If you are traveling through the forest in the Upper Dragonsfang region, for example, as you traverse room after room, you will come across rooms named the same way:
[Upper Dragonsfang, Forest].
Thus, you have a general idea of your location, and may use it to map or to communicate your whereabouts to other adventurers.
As opposed to room names, Room Descriptions are unique and specific to a single room (except in certain very unusual circumstances such as a maze). Each room has a text that describes its specific milieu. The features of interest, furnishings, natural features, details, and relative position may be described. The combination of relevant details and atmosphere is intended to make your character experience his/her adventure on many levels.
In addition to the room description, any non-permanent, non-hidden and or visible creatures and objects currently occupying that room will be displayed to you.
The names of other PCs are also visible. As other characters leave or enter the room you are in, that information will be displayed to you. As you enter a room, the name of any character already inhabiting that room will be displayed to you (if they are visible).
The final line of any room description informs you of the obvious exits, or paths to leave. Obvious room exits also inform you of the position of that room relative to adjoining ones, so it is helpful to take note of all the room outlets for purposes of orientation and mapping.
Rooms can exit in any combination of the following directions:
North, South, East, West, Northeast, Northwest, Southeast, Southwest, Up, Down, Out.
Often, especially indoors, you will find yourself in a room that has no obvious exits. You will be informed, "Obvious exits: None." In that case, you can gather clues from your environment that will provide you with the information you need to discern the way to exit a room. Perhaps there are one or more doors, archways, holes, crevices, trapdoors, etc.
Just as you are able to customize your persona according to a range of options, you can customize the amount and format of information you receive. Typing the word "set" will elicit the following response on your screen:
To set flags, type 'set' then the name of the flag.
To clear flags, type 'set' "!" then the name of the flag.
(example set !RoomNames)
Flag names may be abbreviated.
Current flag settings are:
LogOn (receive messages when someone logs on) LogOff (receive messages when someone logs off) Disconnect (receive messages when someone disconnects) Death (receive messages when someone dies) RoomNames (displays the name of the room you are in) !Description (determines whether or not room descriptions are displayed) !BriefDesc (will shorten the output of the room description) !MonsterBold (highlights monster names, requires ANSI terminal emulation) Prompt (Gives you certain status symbols next to your prompt)
Flags that are set (on, in force, active) have no symbol in front of the flag names. Flags that are clear (off, not in force, inactive) are marked by the symbol "!" preceding the flag names.
Flags are used to allow you to take advantage of some of the system messages of the GemStone III software. They are informational aids that you can choose to use or not, depending on how you wish to interact with the fantasy role-playing environment. Some characters, simulating real situations, may choose not to avail themselves of the information that system messages provide. Others, for purposes of checking on the movements and actions of friends, acquaintances, foes and other characters in the game, may wish to keep apprised of system messages. The choice is up to the individual, by deciding which flags will be set, and which will be clear.
An * followed by the character's name and the logon message will inform you that a specific individual has just entered Elanthia.
An * followed by the character's name and the logoff message will inform you that a specific individual has just left Elanthia.
An * followed by the character's name and the disconnect message will inform you that a specific individual has just disconnected from Elanthia.
An * followed by the character's name and the death message will inform you that a specific individual has just died.
When room names are set you will see the room name as it precedes the entire description. When RoomName is clear, you will not see the RoomName, only the text and whatever follows.
When this flag is set, you will see the entire description. When cleared, you will see nothing except obvious objects, characters, creatures and exits. This can be employed if, once familiar with the territory, you wish to use macros to move along oft-traveled routes. Clearing the Description flag will then speed your progress, and you can set it again when you are back to normal means of moving about.
When set, this flag will display a brief version of the room you are in. Brief version includes only the barest of relevant details, obvious objects, characters, creatures and exits. When you first start your adventure in Elanthia, you would be wise not to set this flag so you can become familiar with the world. Once you know your way around however, and stick to familiar locales, you can set this flag. Do not forget however, when venturing into unknown areas, that you would be well advised to clear this flag at that time. Note that not all rooms have brief versions of the room descriptions. Brief versions are added to heavily traveled areas from time to time.
Requiring ANSI or VT100 terminal emulation to function properly when set, this flag causes the text indicating the Charisma of any creature in the room to appear in boldface letters. When clear, ANSI emulation is not required, and the monster names appear in the same text as the rest of the room description. You must be using software with ANSI/VT100 emulation for this flag to work properly. You do not have to return to the Character Manager to choose the ANSI option there; that option is only for you to use while in the Character Manager for cursor control.
You may move about the land under your own power in a number of ways. Movement may be in the direction of any of a room's obvious exits or not-so-apparent portals. It is assumed that for such unspecified type of locomotion, you character is walking, on foot.
In order to move in any one of the 11 permitted directions possible for obvious room exits, just type in any one of the 11 directions mentioned in the section above on obvious exits, or a shortened form as follows: N, S, E, W, NE, NW, SE, SW, D, O, U, and then press ENTER or RETURN to execute the move. All commands once typed, are executed by hitting ENTER or RETURN. [Any commands being referred to specifically as such will also appear in all capital letters. It makes no difference whether you type these commands in upper or lower case.]
In addition to or in place of obvious exits, there may be more subtle ways to leave a room. These can be referred to generically as portals, although technically they may not be evident as "doors" per se. Often, the exit can be through a place or geographical or architectural feature. You may be able to leave a room by going through a gate, crevice or arch. The world around you provides many clues to the observant and curious adventurer.
When attempting to pass through such exits, typing GO
The basis for all actions in GemStone III is its English Parser, which allows
you to use simplified or standard English in order to move about, perform
actions and interact with other players. The parser recognizes a wide range
of English words, according to simplified grammatical conventions, as well as
synonyms for actions (verbs) and shortened forms of nouns, and adjectives
(first several letters of the words). Where not necessary for clarity,
articles and adjectives may be omitted. Prepositions and ordinal numbers
cannot be used in short form however, and must be used in the correct
position in a sentence according to simple grammar.
When in GemStone III, you control what your character does with standard
English commands. Although GemStone III has a very good English parser,
sometimes you may have to find alternate (more simplistic) ways of explaining
what you would like to do. And because this game is multi-user, you cannot
issue commands which perform mass operations on objects, such as getting all
the objects in a room in one command. The following is a sample of useful
commands to get you started:
>GET SWORD
As you can see, words such as "the" are optional. It is possible for objects
to be in, on, under or even behind other objects, so look around! You may
abbreviate object, creature and player names but be sure the description is
long enough to be significant, and also use adjectives or ordinal numbers
(e.g., the SECOND door) where confusion might otherwise result.
There is another set of commands that permits you to check on information
about yourself, rooms, objects, creatures and other characters you encounter
in the course of your adventuring.
You may want to LOOK at another character to determine his/her age, race,
profession, appearance and physical condition. Looking at creatures will
allow you to visually determine what kind of damage they have incurred during
combat.
With reference to yourself, the commands HEALTH, WEALTH, INFO and INVENTORY,
allow you the check respectively on your present physical condition, the
amount of silver you are carrying, who you are and what you are, and what
objects you are carrying and wearing. You may also type GLANCE for a
quick look at what is in your hands.
The STATUS/WHO command (or STAT for short) allows you to see what players and
GameMasters are on line. To see if one or more specific players are online,
you can use the FIND command. Type Find
It is seldom the case where a single player can conquer the many obstacles
GemStone III may present. It is wise to make friends, and travel in groups.
Because this is so common, GemStone III supplies a method of forming groups
of players that move about with the group leader.
By using JOIN
>JOIN BARDON, or FOLLOW BARDON
Any number of people can form a group. If you are leading a group, and wish
to dissolve the band of adventurers, typing DISBAND will leave you on your
own again.
Of course, it is often necessary or desirable to communicate with other
players or teammates. To speak during play, preface your remarks with a ',
a " or a `. If you end your statement with an "!", it becomes an exclamation.
Any statement ended with a "?" becomes a question.
For example:
>'GO NORTH, QUICKLY!
>"HOW MUCH IS THE ORCY IN THE WINDOW?
You may also add speech to actions:
>GO PATH 'I'M GOING UP THE PATH; FOLLOW ME.
You can also whisper to another character, provided that character is in the
same room with you. Your words will not be apparent to anyone besides the
character to whom you direct them. WHISPER
To communicate vocally outside of the immediate room you occupy, the YELL
command will broadcast your words to all players in the rooms adjoined to
yours by obvious exits. YELL
Many of the commands in GemStone III allow you to give life and personality
to your character. These can denote actions, exclamations, facial
expressions, and other expressive nuances. For instance, SMILE, BOW, CURTSY, LIE DOWN,
LAUGH, CRY, and so forth. All can be used in abbreviated forms of three or
more characters as long as that does not result in confusion with another
verb.
If you wish to communicate by gesture or action, rather than speech, and the
action you wish to perform does not exist as a separate command in the
parser, you may preface the text with ACTION (like all commands, it can be
abbreviated). This inserts your name automatically after an open parenthesis.
Text typed following the ACTION command is then displayed to all in the same
room with you exactly as you type it, followed automatically by a closed
parenthesis.
To illustrate:
Gerf the wizard wants to bang her head against the wall, but no command in the
parser will allow her to do that. Gerf types:
>ACT BANGS HER HEAD AGAINST THE WALL REPEATEDLY.
The result of that command then appears:
(Gerf bangs her head against the wall repeatedly.)
Other characters see that message as do you. Whenever you see such actions
enclosed in parentheses, you can assume they are the output of commands from
fellow characters and adventurers, your peers in the land. ACTION enhances
the ability to role play by allowing you to create more colorful and well-
rounded characters, and communicate your attitudes, and foibles, as well as
comment on the world around you, in a non-verbal manner.
In addition you may add a more descriptive string of words to the SMILE verb.
An example of this would be:
Brano types:
The resulting message would be displayed to everyone in the room.
Continue to the Economics of GemStone III.
Go back to Character Generation
Return to The GemStone III User
Documentation Index
If you have problems, comments, questions, or complaints about the
GemStone III pages you can
send mail to Nora Melton (ntm@tamcon.com) aka Wanton Destruction.
Last modified 29 April 1996.
English Parser
>UNLOCK DOOR WITH SILVER KEY
>PUT GEM IN MY LARGE SACK
>LOOK UNDER TABLE
>GO THIRD HUT
>PRESS RED BUTTON
>WEAR PENDANT
Informational Commands
Adventuring Groups
Communication in GemStone III
Gerf exclaims, "Go north, quickly!"
Furble asks, "How much is the orcy in the window?"
Rachel says, "I'm going up the path; follow me."
Rachel goes up the grassy path.
Role-Playing Support
SMILE with a hint of humor in his eyes.
Brano smiles with a hint of humor in his eyes.