___The Official AVATAR___________________________________
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_________________________________________09 Jan, 1999____
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` ~ )Telnet to Avatar at: avatar.walrus.com 3000
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1. Table of Contents
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Articles
1. Table of Contents
2. Editorial by Darii
3. The Rhythm of Life on Avatar by Felicianna
4. A Top Ten (well, 14) Book List from Domovoi
5. Immortal Bio: Swiftsword
6. Tips and Tricks for Mortal Mages
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2. Editorial (by Darii)
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Sometimes you need the wisdom of others to make it through the difficulties
of the moment, or the dark winter of the soul.
"To everything there is a season under Heaven..."
"A poet once wrote in dreams begins responsibility, so too perhaps with
love. Without dreams, without the hope of a better life, a brighter
future, it is difficult for love to flourish, and without love, there
are no dreams."
"We always look for a safe place, warm and quiet, to rest and recover.
When all is said and done, isn't that what we all want... a safe place
in someone's home or someone's heart?"
"Every life is a destination unknown, a journey of tragedies, and
triumphs that ultimately allows us to discover not only our world, but
more importantly, ourselves."
> ----The Outer Limits
provided by LtRico
Life is the journey, not the destination. ----unknown
Work like you don't need money
Love like you've never been hurt
Dance like no one is watching
----found by Mendek on the wall of a cubicle at work
"You got to sing, like you don't need the money,
Love like you'll never get hurt,
You've got to dance, dance, dance, like no one is watching,
It's got to come from the heart, if you want it to work."
---- Guy Clark
singer/songwriter
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3. The Rhythm of Life on Avatar
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The Rhythm of Life on Avatar
by Felicianna
As one moves up through the many levels of play on Avatar, it is
necessary to make changes in behavior, adapt to the needs and whims
of others and perhaps even readjust attitudes and beliefs in order to
fit into the mainstream of the social strata.
As a newbie, soloing is the norm. Then comes that first all
important group and the teamwork begins. That teamwork is an integral
part of life in Avatar. Should one not desire to be a part of a team
or work together with others, friction will result and you may find
yourself alienated and unwelcome among your peers.
Whether you are a level 15 lowmort, a level 5 hero, or a level 1 lord
you must take the time to understand the new rules under which you will
live and the types of personalities with whom you will interact.
Moving from the "top of the heap" to the "bottom of the pile" so to
speak is not easy. It can be a crushing blow to one's ego if you are
not prepared to listen, learn, and accept all that will be offered to
you.
As a hero, you will learn to tank, hit, or cast. (Some of us only
learned to "sponge and die." *smile*) Whether you aspire to be a tank,
hitter, or caster is of little importance when you first begin. What
IS important is that you ask questions when appropriate, learn to remain
quiet when necessary and always respect those from whom you will learn
the skills you will require to be successful in your class.
Soon you will find yourself passing on the skills you have acquired to
those who are following closely on your heels. You will find yourself
in a position of respect and possibly find your services as tank,
hitter, or caster greatly in demand. This can be an exciting time on
Avatar because it is a time when you can pick and choose your groups,
have the most mana or hp in a group, and feel quite proud of all you
have accomplished.
Then comes the day when five important letters are typed and you find
yourself resting on the cloud above Thorn Center. You have morphed
and have made it to the elite ranks of Lord. Now, the challenge begins.
It is time to put away the ego and realize you are now part of the
"ultimate team." All of the skills you learned through the 500+ levels
of hero will prove invaluable to you. You will also, however, need to
learn the ways of the lord class. You will, once again, need to ask
questions when appropriate, remain quiet when necessary and always
respect those who will teach you the ways of lord play.
Respect is the number one requirement for success on Avatar. Respect
each individual as you, yourself, would like to be respected. All
levels of play can be stressful at times and each individual player
has a different approach to dealing with stress. Some choose to joke
with one another, others choose to place blame in a playful fashion (I
have come to the conclusion it is always Chuft's fault), and some may
choose to grow quiet and reserved. It is important to learn the
individual members of your team. Know when to joke and know when to
remain silent. If in doubt, perhaps it is best to keep the peace and
listen to how others interact with a particular individual.
Should you find yourself in a situation which you feel you cannot handle
alone. Speak to someone about the situation. Speak with a friend, an
angel, an IMM, someone with whom you would feel comfortable sharing your
feelings. Once again, listen to what your friend, the angel, or the IMM
has to say and consider how you might diffuse a particular situation
and make the class in which you dwell all the stronger for your
participation.
There is a time for questions, a time for quiet reflection and a time
for playfulness in every group at every level of play. What is most
important is that everyone work together to learn the skills they will
need to succeed and that each individual is treated with respect,
dignity, and honor.
May we all have a joyous and prosperous New Year and enjoy many more
years of peaceful coexistence in the wonderful land of Avatar.
Felicianna
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4. Domovoi's Top 14 NON-Fantasy/SciFi Book List
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EDITOR'S NOTE: While I sort through the Fantasy/SF submissions, here are
some provocative choices from our resident English scholar. Enjoy!
History
"People's History of the United States"--Howard Zinn
Physics
"Infinite in All Directions"--Freeman Dyson
Science/Nature
"Shadows in the Sun"--Wade Davis
Public Policy
"The Other America"--Michael Harrington
Psychology
"On Becoming a Person"--Carl Rogers
Education
"The Night is Dark and I Am Far from Home"--Jonathan Kozol
Language/Linguistics
"Language and Politics"--Noam Chomsky
Essays
"Memories of Birds in Times of Revolution"--Breyten Breytenbach
Sociology/"Zeitgeist"
"Prophetic Thoughts in Postmodern Times"--Cornel West (difficult book)
Fiction
"The Master of Go"--Yasunari Kawabata
"Thirst"--Ken Kalfus
"The Master and Margarita"--Mikhail Bulgakov
"Midnight's Children"--Salman Rushdie
"Other"
"Downsize This!"--Michael Moore (<-- Highly recommended)
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5. Immortal Bio: Swiftsword
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Name:Swiftsword
Mud Age: Ancient Real Life Age: 52!
Race: Cyborg Class: Warrior Current level: Senior
Real Life Interests:
I see myself somewhere between Snikt and where I am now. My prime
focus is to learn all I can about mudding. How to write good areas and
writing code. I used to make small changes to code on another mud I ran
with Evii. Evii was the main coder and is quite good. Best way to learn
to code is by doing it. I also edit help files and areas, both Merc and
Envy. I run several different operating systems... WIN 95, MS-DOS, and
Linux.
I started mudding back in Oct. or Nov. 1994. Right at about the same
time as Arundel, whom I grouped with many times. Arundel taught me a few
tricks, like how to use rescue to our advantage. I remember the best. :)
My hobbies are Ham Radio, Electronics, Computers, reading books related
to Avatar. My favotite series is by R.A.Salvtore. Dark Elf Trologies...
I've read every book he has written. Also enjoy Ed Greenwood's books..
Douglas Niles. and many many more.
I also enjoy bow hunting. And use to scuba dive ever weekend before I
moved to the Dallas, Texas area. Nothing here except muddy water. :)
Always wanted to learn how to sky dive. Never got around to it. maybe in
my next life. :)
I started going to college at the age of 42, and hold a 4.0 gpa. :) So,
dont ever tell me you're too old. :) You are only as old as you feel.
Additional comments:
Just something my mother once told me many years back.
"You can do anything you want to IF you want to bad enough."
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6. Tips and Tricks for Mortal Mages
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EDITOR'S NOTE: This article was submitted in November. Some game
changes may have made some information somewhat inaccurate. This
is not the fault of the author.
Tips and Tricks for Mortal Mages
By Jagar (Jagar is a 24th level Mage)
I have always liked mages, maybe because of all the wizards and
magicians in fiction like Pug or Macros or Jagar Tharn or Allanon.
Maybe it's the idea of being able to pull the very elements to your
cause, attacking others with everything from fire to lightning. Or
maybe because I think they are one of the more versatile classes,
being able to deal damage, lower ac, or are able to move around the
easiest. Either way I have almost always played mages and so I have
a good deal of experience on being one, for the mortal levels at
least.
First, it is very important to choose a good race. This will help
decide how you play a mage for quite a while. If you choose a race
like dragons or centaurs you can solo much longer and better then if
you chose a sprite. But the weaker races often have better amounts
of xp to level. It is important to take a race with good int and
preferably good wis.
Although all five stats are important to mages, I think str is the
least important because int gives more mana and makes better use
of your pracs, wis give you more pracs, dex makes it harder to hit
you, and high con means it hurts less when they do hit you. For
mages I think sprites get the best racials, starting with dodge, fly,
and invis, though a racial is no good substitute for the actual
spell or skill because they can get exhausted for a time. Kzinti
have the worst racials, if only because of no flee. I would have
died many times over what I have died now without flee. Also some
races get reductions on spell costs, while some others get higher
costs I think.
When starting out you should always max wisdom, then after that I
usually train int twice, then alternate between con and int until
it gets to high to train often, and go for dex a bit and then str.
There is a complete listing of each race's stats and racials at
the end of this article.
Next I will talk about the centerpiece to a mage's life, spells.
Without his/hers/its spells a mage would be helpless against the
world being able to do little more then meditate. Mages are one of
the most consistent classes spell wise because they get a new single
point damage spell every six levels except towards the end, and a
new area damage spell every 14 or so levels. Mages have many
different varieties of spells too, damage spells, movement spells, ac
spells, enchanting spells, information spells, weakening spells, and
utility spells.
Many spells you can ignore for a while, like the weakening spells,
charm person, and faerie fog, but a lot of spells should be mastered
as soon as possible: all of the single point damage spells, identify,
teleport, enchant armor/weapon, and meditation, though its not really a
spell. If you want to practice the weakening spells, having sleep and
charm person can help a lot. I usually get surge but not quicken
because surge allows you to do lots of damage in one big hit which can
be useful if you are invis because of an item and want to stay that
way or there are assisting mobs in the room. Quicken just lets you do
lots of smaller ones, each at higher costs.
After spells, equipment is what makes the mage. Equipment needs will
vary depending on what kind of mage you are building. If you solo a lot
you need very low ac, but if you group most of time a higher hr/dr is
more needed. Also all mages need mana. One of the things I do when
soloing is to wear a lot of mana gear before a fight, heal up to full,
then switch to ac gear before the next tick starts so I have both the
low ac and more mana then I would have had with just ac gear on.
Grouping mages need higher hr/dr so they fight better if they run out of
mana during a battle and because they rarely get hit, they don't need to
worry about ac.
str int wis dex con
Drow 17 20 17 19 17
infravision,sneak,hide,nosun
Elf 17 20 17 19 17
infravision,sneak,hide
Half-Elf 17 19 18 19 17
haggle
Sprite 14 21 17 20 15
fly,dodge,invisibility
Dragon 22 21 16 20 21
claw,infravision,breath,fly,tail,armorscale
Kzinti 20 19 15 21 19
claw,movehidden,armorhide,frenzy,noflee
Centaur 20 20 20 20 20
hoof,armorhide
Griffon 20 20 19 21 21
infravision,tail,fly,claw,armorhide
all except kzn get lower mana costs
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The Avatar Gazette is what you've just been reading, and it is the
official newsletter of Avatar. It is published weekly by Avatar,
edited by Darii, and produced in conjunction with the entire Avatar
staff.(Original concept by Asamaro, and revived by Dizzy.)
The Gazette is written in plain vanilla ASCII text to ensure that
everyone can enjoy it regardless of computer type.
To subscribe to the Gazette, send internet e-mail to
gazette-request@avatar.walrus.com. In the body of your
email put:
subscribe username@hostname (MudName - RealName)
eg subscribe snikt@walrus.com (Snikt - Kevin Jagh)
Your real name is optional for the Gazette list.
eg subscribe snikt@walrus.com (Snikt)
You can FTP back issues of the gazette from ftp.walrus.com in
/pub/avatar/gazette.
If you have any questions, comments, suggestions, criticisms,
compliments, or (best of all) articles that you've written for the
gazette, please send them to Darii via my e-mail address:
darii@walrus.com. Please use 'Gazette' as your subject.
You can also view the latest issue of the Gazette while playing
Avatar by typing 'help newgaz' anywhere in the game, or by surfing
our web site!
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