Newbie Guide Aging and Death
Newbie Guide Aging and Death
This guide written and published by p(Baca/Endo)
“Death is just another path, one that we all must take. The grey rain-curtain of this world rolls back, and all turns to silver glass, and then you see it.”
Gandalf, JRRT, Return of the King
This guide is all about aging in MUME and different types of death.
Dying is a part of the game and helps keep it challenging. Many players have died before you... some of them dozens of times, a few over 100 times. Coming back from death will help you learn alot about the game and get better at it.
Many parts of this guild reference to the MUME help pages which can be found at: https://mume.org/help/help_index
Bold words can be looked up in the games help files. Like help age.
Age and Aging
I strongly suggest you read the help file about how age affects your character: help age
All characters get older in MUME, it has several game effects, and might make your character more difficult to play at some point. There are also ways to reset your age.
This guide will be going over age effects and ways to deal with it.
All classes are playable at any age, but you may notice some classes have small advantages at some age ranges over others.
Some age ranges are better for some classes, like warrior, thief, and scout tend to favor young to middle ages. You tend to have better physical stats (Str, Dex, Con) at those ages.
But casters, like mages and clerics, do well middle age, and a little older. You tend to have better mental stats (Int, Wis) at those ages. And your mana and mana regen are a little bit better.
Age Reset
There are a few different ways to reset your age in the game.
Mob Death
The easiest method is to mob die. Have a mob kill you, and it resets your character back to newbie/starting age. But.... you also lose a level. Not a really great deal.
Retirement
Next is a age reset from retirement. You must retire your character. If you are level 25 and below, you can get an agereset in 1 real life month. If you are level 26 or above, you can get an agereset in 6 RL months. Check your information in your account menu to see if you are ready for an age reset yet.
Fountain of Youth
Last is the Fountain of Youth or FoY. This is somewhat like a quest, but it is not a quest. This is a magical fountain that is near the Dark Tower, or about half way between Rivendell and the Orc Caves, north of the mountain trail. It is guarded by some difficult giants. And it is a somewhat active PK or PvP area, so much caution is needed. Mostly you need a group there to help you.
When you drink from the Fountain of Youth, you enter a "delay and/or stun" where you get a description of the powerful magics that are resetting your age. This is not the same as a mobdeath, or a retirement agereset. It might NOT reset you entirely back to newbie/starting age, but it will be close. One side effect of drinking from the FoY or Fountain of Youth is that you end up at 1 hit point, 1 mana point, and 1 move point. This leaves you very vulnerable to anyone that might be PKing in the area.
Ancient
There is a special age category called Ancient. That means you are really, really, really old for your race. You can achieve this special age just by... well... waiting a long time and getting really old.
There is a magical, faster way to become ancient. It is from the hidden Alchemist in Fornost. He can assist you with a magical aging potion. Making you ancient very quickly. This is powerful magic and difficult to undo.
Being ancient does have the benefit of reduced rent costs, but otherwise is difficult to play since your stats and regens will be lowered with this extreme old age. Most ancient characters never leave a city.
Dying in MUME
There are several different types of death that can happen to your character in MUME. Here is a list of the types, and the consequences of what happens if you do die that way.
The history command keeps track of what levels you've died at, if you went down levels, and often keeps track of what killed you. Type history to find out more.
Anytime you die in MUME the following happens:
- you show up in Mandos naked
- all affects on you disappear, like potions, spells, poisons, wounds, diseases, etc...
Everyone is Immortal... Kind Of
There are also some things that will not kill your character in MUME. You cannot die from any of the following conditions, but they will make you much weaker and more challenging to play. Many of these conditions can lead to your death from how much they will weaken you.
- starvation - regens go down, takes much longer to recover
- dehydration - regens go down, takes much longer to recover
- old age - regens and some stats go down, but won't kill you, just weakens you
- diseases - can reduce your regens and stats, but won't kill you, just weakens you
Mob Death
If you die to a mob, that is a mob death. Like dying to a cavebear, some roots, or being backstabed by an assassin. You have the following penalties from dying that way.
- lose xp, usually enough to drop you one level, the amount can vary from the level of mob that killed you
- your age is reset back to newbie/starting age (it's a free age reset, other then the... well dying part)
PK or PvP Death
This is when another player kills you, for example an *orc* or *troll*. Not a mob death.
- lose xp, but often much less then a mob death, sometimes will not drop you a level
- lose war points if you had any, and possibly grant war points to your opponent(s)
- does not reset age to newbie/starting age
- leaves your corpse more at risk of being looted by other players
Death trap
These are traps or rooms that are designed to kill you off, usually instantly. The vast majority of death traps will have a clue that it is very dangerous to go there in the room description OR of you look in a direction.
- you lose tps if dying in a deathtrap
- does not reset age to newbie/starting age
- your corpse and gear is very likely gone forever, only a few death traps have a place to recover the body
Exploring Death
These deaths can happen from several following exampls:
- falling down a cliff, falling off a horse, or a bad climb and taking too much damage
- drowning in surface water or underwater
- dying to some damage traps, like a wall collapsing or cave in that falls and crushes you
- does not reset age to newbie/starting age
Some ways to avoid these exploration deaths are to practice Climb and Swim. 50% Climb and Swim are not bad for 'general exploring.' But if you want to try some more challenging areas, you may want over 80% Swim and Climb or higher.
Dying from Affected By
Also often called a bloodlack death.
This type of death can happen if you get a very life threatening wound or exposed to some very powerful poisons (such as a rattlesnake). You might make it back to town... or the main road... but still end up bleeding out from a wound or succumbing to the poison.
- does not reset age to newbie/starting age
- one of the least risky ways to die
Level Loss
If you lose enough experience to lose a level, you might notice a few changes from the level loss:
- your hit points will go down slightly
- your spells may have a little higher mana cost
- you might backfire some spells a little more often
- you have negative practices total (this will correct if you re-level)
- your OB may go down slightly
As long as you go out and earn more XP, from defeating mobs or finishing quests, you will re-level in time.
Mandos
The Halls of Mandos is where you end up when you die. There is a sign there with some helpful information it for new players. If it is your first, second, or third time to Mandos, it might be worth reading.
Mandos also loads some very basic gear in it, maybe a knife or a loaf of bread.
Also the Halls of Mandos will magically feed you. Just type eat or drink in Mandos and you will be full.
One annoying feature of being in Mandos is you cannot instantly return back to the world of Arda. When you show up in Mandos, you are at 1 hit, and need to regen your hit points back up to Bad. The Halls of Mandos do not allow you to leave at Awful hits.
You can also end up in Mandos from certain types of game reboots or game crashes.
Praying
One function of the pray command is to be magically teleported from the Halls of Mandos to a town or city. It is a one way trip from Mandos to which ever city you are praying too. You will magically appear at a city fountain or a town square.
In several major towns, there will be a named mob there that is a city guide at the town square. They might ask to show you around the city, and give you a tour of what services are available. You will need to follow them for an informative tour.
pray, pray tower hills, pray grey havens, pray shire
New Players
New players should probably pray to the Tower Hills. That area is designed to be somewhat safe and very informative and helpful for you to learn the game. It also is the most quests in one small area in the entire game.
The Introduction Gandalf quest will gain you access to Tower Hills.
Races and Praying
Different cities and towns may be more welcoming to some races then others. Over all these are the best places for newer players to pray for each race.
- Dwarves: Blue Mountains
- Elves: Grey Havens
- Half-elves: Grey Havens
- Hobbits: Shire
- Men: Bree or Fornost
- Beornings: Anduin Vale (the town is called Ingrove)
There are possibly more places you can pray too, but as a new player they might not be the best spot to start in.
If you are in Mandos, you can just type pray to get a list of anywhere you can currently pray too.
To gain more access to different towns to pray to, you will need to get a citizenship there.
Shadowing
Sometimes when you die, other players die, or certain mobs die, you might see a shadow magically arise above their corpse to protect it.
Shadows can start appearing over players corpses somewhere after level 13-14. There is a RANDOM chance that you get a shadow after you die. This random chance to leave a shadow slightly goes up a little as you level higher.
Mobs that are humanoids can also randomly leave shadows, but the chance is very very if the mob is lower level, and it slightly increases as the mobs are higher level. Examples of humanoid mobs that can leave a shadow would be dwarves, elves, men, hobbits, orcs, trolls.
Shadows protect the corpse and all of the gear on it. You cannot loot a corpse if a shadow is guarding it, UNLESS it is your YOUR corpse. You can always loot your own corpse. But if you do loot it, the shadow will fade away and disappear. You also cannot drag a corpse with a shadow guarding it.
Shadows have very high defenses, especially extremely high dodge, making them difficult to hit. For a solo player, they can be very difficult to kill. The higher level the mob or player was that died making the shadow, the more hit points they will have. One nice thing is that shadows are non-aggressive and will not attack you, even if you try to loot the corpse they are guarding. But if you attack a shadow, they may remember you and then become aggressive to you.
Tips to Avoid Some Deaths
Do not carry too much weight, making it harder to flee, dodge, or move away from threats.
Avoid being hungry or thirsty, helps keep your regen rate up.
Practice Bandage skill to 50%. This can keep you from bleeding from a wound. Bandage skill can even bring someone back from dying! To like 1 hit point from -1 hit points.
If you notice your hit points dropping fast to Bad, you may want to flee and not stay in that fight.
Change mood wimpy to increase your parry, you might last a few swings longer.
Change your wimpy to help you automatically flee more often from a fight.
Do NOT stand in a room with corpses of aggressive mobs you just killed, and then cure light, bandage, or rest there... the zone can repop on you, and BOOM! the room is full of aggressive mobs again. Walk a couple of rooms away THEN cure light, bandage, make a campfire, etc...
flee, change mood wimpy, change wimpy, bandage, camp
Checking Your Corpse
When you die, there are actually now 2 copies of you. One alive (and naked) in Mandos, and another copy that is laying around somewhere with your gear on it (if you are lucky) as a corpse.
If you are using Mmapper, you will see a red arrow appear on the map after you die, trying to help direct you back to your corpse. The room you died it should also be highlighted red.
You can revisit your corpse, and get any remaining items left on it. You have 1 hour or 60 minutes until your corpse will decay and rot away to nothing. If any of your gear is left on that corpse when it decays, it is gone as well. Best to hurry and try to get your stuff back.
One trick to looting your corpse faster, especially if there are OTHER corpses in the room is to use your character name with it. Just put your character name a dash and the word corpse. It would look something like this:
get all baca-corpse
You can even set an alias for looting your own corpse faster. It might look something like this, I'm setting for 'my corpse'.
al mc get all baca-corpse
Warning: by the time you make it back the area with your corpse, the zone could have repoped. That means any mobs that were dead, or doors that were open and unlocked, could now be back alive and shut and locked up tight. It could be more challenging to get your corpse or gear back.
Please beware about checking your corpse in an active PK or PvP area. There is a chance you could die again, and even faster since you'll likely be naked.
If you died while drowning or other environmental effect, your body should still be there. But if it was deep water, it very likely sunk down in the water. Making it a bit harder to retrieve gear and items.
If you died in a deathtrap, you are very likely out of luck. Many deathtraps mean your corpse is GONE, and you'll never get the items back. SOME deathtraps are nice, and have a recoverable area for you to get your gear... like at the bottom of a cliff or canyon. Or washed down stream from some water trap. But most deathtraps means you can't get your gear or corpse back.
exam corpse, get all.leather corpse, get all corpse
Sauron's Minions and Death
As a player of a Minion of Sauron you will have much more limited options of where to pray too.
Trolls cannot pray and always start in a cave in the Troll Warrens.
Zaugurz orcs cannot pray and always start in the frozen north and must enter a mining cart to get to the Zaugurz orc caves.
The Tarkhnarb Orcs and citizen Morruhk Orcs cannot pray and start in the Hall of Orcs below the Goblin Caves (also called New Orc Caves).
But Morruhk orcs have their own VERY difficult starting cave area at first level, be prepared it's challenging and scary!!!
Black Númenóreans show up in a mysterious area that will pray you to a random room on the map, possibly spread out over a dozen different zones. You will always be surprised praying as a BN, and might show up next to a pack of hungry wolves...
Sundeath (Trolls only)
This is a very special type of death that is for the troll races ONLY. No other races in the game are effected by this special death.
Trolls have sundeath if they are ever exposed to the sun. The sun magically turns you into a statue of stone. This type of death resets your character back to newbie/starting age and back to LEVEL ONE. No matter what level you were before the sundeath. You do gain an achievement of sundeath, and it keeps track of how many times you sundied.
Think about the Hobbit when Gandalf helped keep the trolls busy until the sun came up, making 3 statues.
You also have the option as a troll to reset your trophy and xp after you sundie. At level 7 or 8, sundeath isn't really a big deal... After level 26, it can be very frustrating. Trolls gain many other benefits due to this very scary type of death in the game.
Link back to the wiki guides:
