Select your problem from the list below. If your problem is not there, try the general solution.
Your first step is getting on the mud. If you are already on the mud and commands go through, go to the second step. If you aren't, you can connect to the mud with the File -> Reconnect menu. Either log in your own character or, if that doesn't work for whatever reason, create a guest. Guest characters circumvent many checks, so can often log in even when something is stopping your normal character. Also, if your normal character is somehow broken, it is not against the rules to log in a guest character as well to get (creator) help.
The second step, once you have logged in, is to find either a person or a help file which can help you. Try "help getting help" for information how to find this. If you get stuck in the help file just type "f" (without quotes) and press return to read the rest.
If you definitely want to speak with a human, your best call is either to talk with a newbiehelper or a liaison (you can still talk with newbiehelpers even if you're no longer a newbie).
If you have a problem that requires moderator attention (you have problems with a bug, can't log in normally, someone is harassing you, ...), you will want to speak with a liaison. Click here for more information on how to contact liaisons, or otherwise find human help.
A good group of players to ask for help with game problems (for example if you can't figure out how to do something, you're dead and don't know where to go, you are lost in the wilderniss, ...) are the newbiehelpers. If you are 18 hours old or less, you can use the newbie channel. Just type "newbie <and then your question>", for example "newbie Help, I'm dead, what do I do?". If you are too old to use the newbie channel, just type "helpers". That gives you a list of people who are probably happy to help. Just send one of them a tell with your question, for example "tell tique Please help me, I'm dead, what do I do?"
You need help with a problem in the mud.
Liaisons are creators responsible for helping players out with problems. They won't tell you things like where to get the best xp (the talker is better for that!), but they can advice you on where to file a bug report, free you from rooms that have lost their exits and things like that.
When you're in the game, you can find a liaison with the "liaisons" command. This command tells you which liaisons are online. Pick any liaison on the list (preferably one who is not too idle) and send them a tell explaining your problem (for example, "tell kaea Help, I'm stuck in a room with no exits!").
Sometimes it might happen that no liaisons are online. In cases like this, you can either speak with someone else ("helpers" gives you a list of newbiehelpers, who are usually experienced players who may be able to help with problems, and the first two lines of "qwho" indicate creators and playtesters, also usually a good choice (when they are not idle). If you have a talker, asking on the talker where best to get help may also be a good idea.
If your problem is not immediately urgent you can also choose to go to a post office and "mail liaison". Click here for information how to work with the editor. This will send your message to all liaisons as they come online.
How to use the in-game editor.
Since Discworld depends on line-based input, the in-game editor can be a bit hard to get used to in the beginning. However, at a basic level it is very simple. When you start typing a bug report or a mail or a written text, you are launched into edit mode:
1 ]
Type your text. Type return to go to the next line. Type ** on a separate line to leave edit mode.
3 lines - Choose from IDLMCESQ or H for help
Type S to save the text, Q to quit without saving it (your mail or bug report or whatever you were doing will not go through), or H for more information of the other options if you want to edit your message some more.
The client looks bad, won't connect (even though the mud's website is working otherwise) or gives strange error messages
Okay, for some browsers, DecafMud might not work well – this client is built with flash and javascript, and its performance depends on your browser's support. No worries though! You can play discworld from any mud client, or even plain telnet.
There are a number of things you can try:
This client is not connecting, or it's giving error messages about the connection failing.
There might be two things going on:
You suddenly got disconnected or can't connect at all. The website is also not working.
Like all servers, Discworld sometimes needs to be rebooted, and may occasionally be down for a longer time (for example after particularly nasty crashes).
During these periods, there is little you can do but wait for the mud to return. You can try reconnecting with the File -> Reconnect menu, but when the mud is down for a longer time, constantly reconnecting does more harm than good.
However, you should make sure that the problem is actually Discworld. If your browser doesn't support flash or javascript adequately (for example after an update), connecting to Discworld may also fail. If the mud's website does work (check, for example, by refreshing the page, or open another page like http://discworld.atuin.net/lpc/playing/getting_started.html – if the page still loads the problem is probably your browser, not the mud). See [[the client doesn't work]] for more information.
You can connect to the mud, but character creation or logging in fails with obscure messages (or no explanation at all).
Creation errors may be one of several things. If you get a message when trying to create or log in, read it. This may indicate what the problem is (for example, you are banned for a few minutes because you gave an erroneous password too often).
If there is no clear message, there is a problem either with Discworld itself, or your browser doesn't work well with this javascript/flash client for some reason.
Try logging in to Discworld by creating a guest character and asking for help; click here for information on how to find a liaison or someone else who may be able to help.
If even creating a guest character doesn't work, it is very likely that your browser doesn't work well with DecafMud client. See [[the client doesn't work]] for more information. If this is not the problem (other clients also don't work), then you might just wait for a few hours to see whether the problem is with Discworld after all (if the site works, check for news announcements on the main page).
When trying to log in or create a character, you are told your IP is banned.
If you just failed to get your password right several times, that's why. This temporary ban takes 15 minutes, after which you are free to try logging in again. Make sure your capslock is not on. :)
If you are using a proxy to connect to Discworld, that's why. Because of some troublesome players we have had, many proxies have been banned from creating new characters.
Otherwise, it is likely that someone from your IP address (possibly you) has been a major troublemaker recently, and the ban is in place to stop repeated rule breaking. IP banning is rare, and if you already have a character you may want to try whether you can log it in rather than just creating a new character. If you believe you did not deserve a siteban, you can appeal to admin by mail to trustees@discworld.atuin.net .
When trying to log in, you are told that your account has been suspended.
Discworld has rules (as detailed in help rules), and when players break the rules, liaison creators or admin may choose to suspend the responsible character.
Suspension of a character does not prevent you from logging in other characters or creating a new one. To ask about your suspension, log in a different character and ask a liaison about it if any is on (use "liaisons" to see which liaisons are on, and the tell command to talk with them). To appeal your suspension, send a mudmail to the leader and deputies of the liaison domain. You can find out who they are with "finger liaison".
You can not log in because apparently someone else is already logged in from your IP.
An important rule on the mud is that a person can only have one character online at a time. This is to protect the multiplayer aspect of the game. To remove temptation or accidental rule breaches, the MUD doesn't allow more than one connection from the same IP address unless the players involved have been cleared as different people by a liaison.
If you and another person want to play together from the same network, just have one of you log in, check "liaisons" and ask any liaison for a multiplay allow (using the "tell" command – if you have trouble with this, try asking for assistance on the newbie channel, for example "newbie Can anyone tell me how to contact a liaison for a multiplay allow?"). If no liaisons are on, you can also ask another creator for a temporary allow – check "who creator" for a list of creators. Note that not all creators may be comfortable giving you a temporary allow.
If you are trying to log in and you weren't aware of anyone else logging in from your IP, the following things might be going on:
After you have logged in, all your commands queue and nothing goes through.
This sometimes happens when a process goes wrong during login. You can usually fix it by typing "stop" and "restart", possibly a number of times. If you're in limbo after that (it should say so when you type "look", just use "godmother help" to get out. It won't cost you a life in limbo (godmother always asks you to confirm if you are about to lose a life).
If typing "stop" and "restart" several times doesn't help you to get your commands to stop queuing, reconnect (using the File -> Reconnect menu) and log in as a guest (you are allowed to log a guest even when your main character is logged in, if you do so to get assistance). Then ask a liaison for help.
You keep getting a line looking like /d/liaison/newbie/docs/help hut From 1 to 23 of 43 (53%) - return to continue, h for help.
Since some players play Discworld from telnet or mobile devices without the ability to scroll up very far, any long text is cut up in pages and shown to you page by page.
To read the next page, simply send an empty line to the mud (first delete any text from your input window, then press enter/return). You can also use the command "f" (without quotes) to see the next page. If you don't want to read the rest of the text, send the command "q" to get out of the reader.
If you don't want to have your help files split up in pages (because you can scroll anyway) you can set your pagesize to something large, using for example "rows 500".
You came across a bug in the game (not the insect type).
Like any large enough program, Discworld may have bugs in some places. Some text is misspelled, an NPC behaves strangely, drinking a certain brand of whiskey doesn't count for some achievement... In cases like this, you can help making Discworld better by reporting the bug. You can do so with the bug command (or, if it's purely a typo / grammatical mistake, the typo command).
If the bug is with a particular command, use "bug command <that command>" (you must have the command to use this). If the bug is with an NPC or some item you have, use "bug object <that thing>". If the NPC you want to bugreport is already dead, try bugreporting the corpse. Use "bug room" to bugreport the room you're in. The same forms work with the typo command. "syntax bug" and "syntax typo" also give other forms of the command, to report for example help files, rituals or achievements.
After using the bug command, you are launched into the mud's editor. Here, you can type a report. Click here for more information on using the editor."
If you don't know where to file your bugreport, a liaison may be able to help you out (how to find a liaison). If no liaison is available, a playtester is also a good choice.
Unfortunately, it can sometimes take a while before a bugreport is spotted by the right people and picked up on. If the problem is somewhat urgent, for example because you're stuck, you can't finish a quest due to a bug, you lost a life, the bug can be abused to duplicate money or anything like that, you should discuss it with a liaison.
You have shuffled of the mortal coil, and need help getting back to life.
First of all: don't panic. Death is a natural part of life in Discworld, and it's probably going to happen a fair few more times! You start with eight lives, and you can buy more in the game.
You should have been given a book by a set of dwarves, which contains information on dealing with death. You could also read help dying. That help file explains all about death and what comes next.
You can connect to the game, create a character (or log in with that character), but you don't know what to do or how to play.
Don't worry, take a deep breath. Discworld is big, it takes time to learn all of it. :)
First of all... Did you actually create a character, or did you log in with a guest? As a guest you bypass the newbie area – so you don't get the explanations on how to play the game. Better log out (type "quit" to log out), reconnect, and create a character properly.
Once you're in the newbie area, don't just go running around. Read the room descriptions (you get the room description when you enter a room, and also whenever you type "look") and "help here" if you want to know more.
It's very difficult for a help file to know at what point you are having trouble. Try this: "newbie Please help, I have no idea how to do <X>." This sends your text to all players who have the newbie channel. That is, young players and newbiehelpers.
Another place to get information on how Discworld works is The Unofficial Discworld Wiki.
Discworld is a many-facetted game – a world in which you can do things and set your own goals, rather than strive for preset goals. In the beginning, once you are out of Pumpkin Town, you probably want to join a guild and get some money and xp for skills. Also make sure you get a talker, and turn it to the channel of your guild (if the talker is very spammy, you may turn the default channel One off using "talker delete one"). Then ask this question on the talker and you're likely to get plenty of answers!