Act & Emote

One thing that we believe sets our game apart from many others is the depth of role-playing. This is reinforced by several methods. First and foremost, by our players, who stay in character (IC) to a remarkable degree. This is encouraged as much as possible with staff-run plots, assistance in player-run plots, role-play awards, etc. Secondly, by the way the game is written, the depth of the world and your ability to interact with it, and finally by the act or emote command.

One way to add depth to your character and more easily role-play (RP) is to use the recognized verbs with or without an adverb and/or a target. For example, you can type smile, smile <your name>, smile <other person's name>, happily smile, happily smile <other person's name>, etc.

While we have a comprehensive list of verbs and adverbs, there will always be things you wish to do that are more complex or individual than we could possibly accommodate. To ensure that you have the freedom to express yourself, you can type act or emote and then your actions. For example, if Myst typed act sits hunched over a fire, absently running his fingers through his tousled hair, other players would see: Myst sits hunched over a fire, absently running his fingers through his tousled hair.

The two restrictions that apply to the act command are:

1. The act command will not be used to imply another player's actions or reactions. Example: Myst scratches behind his ear, causing Dyannah to roll her eyes.
2. The act command will not be used to describe out of character (OOC) actions. Example: Telan glares at his computer, complaining about how Macs are so much worse than PCs.

act is an extremely versatile command. You can talk in languages within the act command by placing what you wish to say between two quotes ("). For example, if Auchtor is speaking Anjour and he typed act flicks a strand of hair as he says, "That was irritating.", then the words "That was irritating." would be appropriately translated/garbled as Anjour.

act can also target players, mobs, and npcs to make it obvious that you are doing something involving that person. The easiest replacement for this is $name. For example if Auchtor typed act waves his hand at $Myst, then Myst would see Auchtor waves his hand at you. and everyone else would see Auchtor waves his hand at Myst.

act replaces the following with their appropriately-capitalized variants: $he, $He, $she, $She, $<name>, $him, $Him, $her, $Her, $it, $It, $<name>'s, $his, $His, $hers, $Hers, $its, $Its, $Himself, $himself, $Herself, $herself, $Itself, and $itself.

A proper name is required for act to figure out who it is targeting. With the exception of $<name> or $<name>'s, you need to add the target's name followed by an underscore ($<name>_) before the pronouns somewhere in the emote. For example, if Endyce typed, act repeatedly beats $him about $auchtor_his head., everyone else will see: Endyce repeatedly beats Auchtor about his head., while Auchtor will see Endyce repeatedly beats you about your head. The important thing is that you have your target somewhere in one of those little replacement thingies. The code is smart enough to figure the rest out, and if it isn't it will complain at you.

You can also use the myact command to do an action only you and a staff npc or spc can see. myact follows the same format as act.

Finally, you can set a static emote with the pose verb. Setting your character's pose will add a line to the end of the room's description, which allows other players and staff to get an idea of what your character is doing, even if they only just entered the room. For example, if Myst typed pose lies in a pool of blood on the floor, when Dyannah later enters the room, she would see Myst lies in a pool of blood on the floor in the room description and know to react accordingly. You can check your current pose by typing info. Typing pose without anything following will clear your current pose, and changing positions or moving to another room will clear your pose automatically.