Help Me!

I'm in the Keep and I don't know what to do!

A Beginner's Guide to the Keep

Welcome, newcomer! I am Shadowdarke and I would like to help you enjoy your visits to the Keep.

Here are the things I think will help you:

• What is the Keep?
• Etiquette
• Commands
• Terms and Abbreviations
• Quick and Dirty Macros
• Return to Fae Domains Website

The Keep is a Role Playing Chat. People assume the role of a character from their favorite Role Playing Game or maybe even just a story or movie they liked. Many even assume the role of video game or comic book characters. No genre is turned away in the Keep. Dark elves can drink with space marines and Jedi Masters rub elbows with Vampires.

Many people enter the Keep expecting some sort of structured game. You won't find that. We talk about all sorts of things, both in character and out of character. The best way to figure out what to do is to sit back and watch what others do. When you feel comfortable, jump right in. But before you do, please consider these guidelines for Keep Etiquette...

Here are few suggestions that will help you and everyone else have a good time while you visit:

• Typing in all caps is considered 'yelling'. Try to avoid using all caps unless you really want to stress something.
• Avoid profanity. The Keep is available to people of all ages and we ask that you please keep that in mind in your conversations.
• Don't 'cyber' in public view. If you need some lovin', take it to a private room with a password to keep unwanted visitors out.
• Many people frown on fighting in the Mainhall. If you want to fight, take it to a private room. If you can't get the other fighter to cooperate, then you really don't need to fight him or her. This is a role-playing chat, if the other person doesn't feel like fighting you, he or she isn't going to role play it properly.
• Don't tell people what effects your actions have. In general, you say what you are trying to do, then you let the target decide how it affects them. For example: Don't say "I cut Shadowdarke's head off!", that's bad. Say instead, "I swing my sword at Shadowdarke's head!". A good role-player will respond appropriately.
• When fighting, enter your action, then wait for your opponent to respond. Typing furiosly to get in more moves than your opponent is poor role-playing. Each of you should take one turn at a time.
• Finally, if someone tries to draw you into a fight or conversation you don't care for, ignore them. You don't have to go along with an uncomfortable situation.

To use a command, just type it into the dialog box at the top, then press enter or click on the 'Talk' button. Make sure you include the '/' in front of the command. It doesn't matter if the command is in caps or not.

/COLOR value

same as /CO value

The COLOR command changes the color that is used to display your text in the chat window. 'value' may be anything from the following list:

AQUA BLACK BLUE FUSCHIA GRAY GREEN LIME MAROON NAVY OLIVE PURPLE RED SILVER TEAL

If you know how to use hexidecimal color values, you can set a custom color by using /CO rrggbb. Don't worry if the hexidecimal stuff makes no sense to you. It's a programmer thing.

/EVIDENCE

The EVIDENCE command records the chat that is going on so that the Magistrates may examine it for abuse of the chatroom. I've never used it,so I don't know much about it.

/HELP

You can also get this by clicking on 'Help' right below the text box.

This command will bring up a list of the commands that the Keep recognizes. There is a mistake on the help list though. /join does not work. You must use /go instead.

/IGNORE name

same as /IG name

If someone is buggin you and you dont want to hear what he or she has to say, use the /IGNORE command. This command keeps posts from a particular user from being displayed to you. For example if you wanted to ignore me, you would type /IG shadowdarke You must spell the name correctly, but it doesn't matter if you use caps or not.

/ROOMS

You can also get this by clicking on 'Room' right below the text box.

The ROOM command displays a list of the rooms in the Keep and how many people are in each one.

/GO roomname password

This command allows you to enter a different room. roomname is the name of the room you want to enter. If the room has a password, you will need to enter that where password is or you won't be able to get in the room.

If the room you are trying to get into doesn't exist, it will be created for you. You can assign a password when you create the room. For example, /GO Somewhere will create the room called 'Somewhere' (if it doesn't already exist.) Entering /GO Somewhere Quiet will create the 'Somewhere' room and assign the password 'Quiet' so that no one without the password may enter.

One other note about the rooms of the Keep. The Sanctuary doesn't allow people to use the WHISPER command. Other rooms may have special abilities too, but I haven't noticed them.

/HE

same as /SHE

same as :

This is caled the ACTION command. It allows your character to do something without the bracketed name coming up. For example, if I want Shadowdarke to walk into the room, I would type :walks into the room which would appear as:

Shadowdarke walks into the room

If I had typed Shadowdarke walks into the room it would look like:

[Shadowdarke]: Shadowdarke walks into the room

Which is embarrassing and makes you look like you don't know what you are doing.

/WHISPER name message

same as /WH name message

This command will send a private message to the person you name. For example, to whisper 'Help me, Shadowdarke' to me, you would type /WH shadowdarke Help me, Shadowdarke
The Keep will display the following to you and your target, but no one else will see it:

(YourName whispered to Shadowdarke): Help me, Shadowdarke

/LIST

You can also get this by clicking on 'Users' right below the text box.

This command displays a list of everyone present in the Keep and which room they are in. The list is in order from the first person logged in, to the most recent. The first person in the list is called 'Alpha'.

click on 'Refresh Messages' below the text box

You can click on Refresh Messages to tell the Keep to send you the most recent data it has. Since the Keep normally auto-refreshes, you shouldn't need this command, but I have used it a couple times to ride out a minor system crash in the Keep.

click on 'Logout' below the text box

If you just close the window the Keep is running in or jump to a different site, the Keep doesn't know you've left. Hit the Logout button to exit the Keep. That way everyone in the Keep will know you have left.

Here is a list of terms and abbreviations people commonly use in the Keep:

AFK

Away From Keyboard - people type this to let others know they will be away and can't respond to messages.

BRB

Be Right Back

Grem

Foul beastie with large pointy teeth that lives within your computer and makes the Keep boot you. If you get gremmed, one of these critters has gotten your computer. Fortunately, Grems often don't stay long, so if you try to log back on, you can return to the Keep within a few minutes. (Keep your fingers crossed...)

IC

In Character

IMHO

In My Humble Opinion

IRL

In Real Life

JFTHOI

Just For The Hell Of It

LOL

Laugh Out Loud

macro

People call their introduction text a macro. The Quick and Dirty Macros section below will help you get started with one of your own.

OOC

Out Of Character

RL

Real Life

ROTFLMAO

Rolling On The Floor Laughing My Ass Off

WB

Welcome Back

Many Keep goers like to post an intro as they enter a room. They call this their 'Macro'.

To get a true macro, you need a macro program. You can get several good shareware macro programs online.

If you don't want to fool with that, here is a simple way to post your macro every time you enter:

1. Open up Notepad or some other text editor. Wordpad causes problems because it like to insert carriage returns which messes the whole process up.
2. Write your description. Remember to start it with /HE, /SHE, or :
   Here are a few tips to writing good macros...
   • Keep it short. If your macro takes up half the page, few people will be patient enough to read the whole thing.
   • Write down the things that would be noticed about your character immediately when they walk through the door.
3. Save the file somewhere you can easily find it.

1. Open the text file you saved earlier.
2. Copy the text. If you don't know how, the editor help file should tell you how.
3. Log on the Keep and wait until you are inside the Mainhall
4. Move to the text entry area of the Keep
5. Paste the text
6. Hit enter

There you go! If you have problems with this procedure, you may want to get a macro program. The one I use only costs $20 and I've been using it for everything! I even have macros for the HTML tags I used to write this page :)

Return to Fae Domains Website

Email me at:

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