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The Farside Gazette Vol I, No. 2 Dec. 25th 1994
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The Farside Gazette is published bi-weekly by AsaMaro in
conjunction with (and full permission of) The Farside Staff
The Gazette is written in 100% pure ASCII to assure maximum
compatibility for all readers using whatever system they use
Subscribe by writing to jderouen@crl.com and including just one
word - Subscribe - in the body of your text
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Merry Christmas!!!
Happy Channukah!!!
Yuletide Greetings!!!
Welcome to the second issue of The Farside Gazette. This issue wasn't
due to come out until January 1st. I got a little ahead of schedule.
You'll notice that the Gazette is still written primarily by me. If you
think you could add something interesting and want to contribute, by all
means, send me a note or write me e-mail! We need all the contributions
we can get.
On another note, at least one person out there (my buddy and fighting
companion Stepovich) can't receive internet e-mail. Ergo, he can't get
the Gazette. If you know of anyone else that wants it but can't
subscribe, tell them to leave AsaMaro a note in the game. I'm sending
it out (a printed copy) to Stepovich via US MAIL and, in return for
payment of postage, I'd be happy to do that for anyone else who needs it
as well.
Special thanks this issue to Marat and Ambrosia. Marat for helping me
with ideas and articles for the Gazette and Ambrosia for offering to do
a birthday list for every issue of the Gazette as well as suggesting
other ideas.
If anyone at all has any suggestions, comments, criticisms, or
compliments, please write me at jderouen@crl.com. It may take me a
little while, but I'll answer each letter I get.
Thanks for reading and onto the Gazette!
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* Farside Player Bio *
Name: Marat Age: (Game) 91 (RL) 31
Race: Half-Elf Class: Mage Current level: 33
Real Life Interests:
Marat lives in Dallas, Texas and shares her home with her cat Pandora.
She'll soon be joined by the love of her live AsaMaro and his cat,
Logan. She received her college degree in painting and ceramics and
still tries to devote time to those pursuits, and occasionally makes
money from them. She works at a commercial art gallery selling
decorative art and maintaining the company database. She enjoys
reading, watching decent TV and movies, and trying (sometimes in vain)
to gain those increasingly harder to get levels in Farside.
Advice to Players:
"Don't play a mage. Ooops, too late for some of you. Seriously
get to know people, group, and consult with higher level people in your
class for help. They will try."
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* Farside Immortal Bio *
Name: Ambrosia Age: (Game) 218 (RL) 18
Race: Human Class: Warrior Current level: 59
Real Life Interests:
Ambrosia was born and raised in Queens, New York, where she currently
still resides. She just graduated high school last year and is now a
Freshman at New York University. After spending thirteen years as a
competitive gymnast, she recently retired. (Her old bones couldn't take
it anymore!) She's majoring in psychology and in the future hopes to
build a career in child psychology. When not spending time MUDding, she
enjoys ice skating and going to movies. Ambrosia will turn 19 on
February fifth.
Advice to Players:
"Don't be afraid to ask questions! The upper level players and Imms are
always willing to help clear up anything you may be confused about.
Farside is a great place socially we have so many really terrific
players. Take the time to get to know some fellow Farsidians, they are
what make Farside so special :)"
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* Viewpoint: The Martial Artist *
WE'RE JUST IN IT FOR THE KICKS
by AsaMaro
At first glance, one would think that the Martial Artist class in
Farside is just a watered down warrior with a few spells thrown in for
effect. That's not really true, however. In my opinion, the Artist can
be one of the very best classes to play in Farside.
It's often said that the Warrior class is the best class to play in
terms of power and advancing through the levels.
Warriors get skills such as enhanced damage, parry, and disarm, that
Artists don't get. But the fighting skills that are available to the
Artist (dual, different fighting styles) help to compensate. When you
throw in skills such as Medicine (a low level healing spell that also
cures plague and poison!), invisibility, Iron Monk (basically Sanctuary)
and, at level 45, Quivering Palm (energy drain) you're more than
compensated. In fact, if you play your cards right, you can wind up
with a character that's a credible match for any warrior out there.
Proof of this would be (ahem) AsaMaro, a Drow Martial Artist, winning
the middleweight division of Crom's Arena Wars. The warriors involved
gave him a good challenge but through building his armor class to a
respectable -303, high hit and damage rolls, and creative use of his
spells, (not to mention a little luck!) the erstwhile Artist managed to
win out.
For sheer power, the Warrior is probably still the best class to play.
But for what little they lose in raw force the artist more than makes up
for it in spells and other abilities. Playing a Martial Artist
combines the fighting ability of the Warrior with the spell-casting
abilities of the Mage and the healing ability (Medicine) of the Cleric.
You can't have it all, but by playing a Martial Artist you can take a
good shot at it.
When all is said and done, however, remember that it's just a game.
Have fun. Martial Artists are possibly the funnest class to play.
After all, they're only in it for the kicks. :)
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Newbies: After MUD School
(An Informal Guide to Getting Started)
by AsaMaro
[This is in no way, shape, or form to be considered the
definitive guide to MUDding on Farside. It's a small essay
on getting started. Period. :) ]
If you're reading this, you're probably already somewhat familiar with
The Farside. You've probably already went through MUD School and
attained at least third or fourth level. Thus, I won't get into the
concept of the MUD, how to fight, flee, or any of that. The
instructions in the MUD School are pretty clear on that anyway, and
there's no real need to reiterate them here.
What do you do when you're out of MUD School, however, and have no idea
where to go next?
First, familiarize yourself with Midgaard. That's the town your
character is most likely currently standing in, and the one you need to
get to know. Type "Help Map" to get a fairly accurate representation of
the town. If you get lost trying to get to a point of reference, don't
be afraid to ask questions. More than likely, you'll get at least one
answer to your query shouted out, possibly more.
If you haven't already, type "Commands". All the commands you'll ever
needed are listed here. Several commands you can type help for ("Help
<Command>") and gain even more knowledge as to just what you're trying
to do here and how to go about doing it.
Once you've become familiar with Midgaard and killed a few beastly
fidos, you'll need (and probably want) to move onto newer and more
challenging things. You can probably gain fifth level by sticking to
the monsters in the basement of the MUD school and the animals in the
arena but, beyond that, you're going to have to travel.
Places to start off include Dwarven Day Care (for levels 1 to 5), The
Circus (levels 1 to 12), Smurf Village (levels 1 to 20), and Werith's
Wayhouse (levels 1 to 25). These are good starting off points for your
Farside career and should keep your interest and help you level with the
minimal amount of danger.
But how do you get to these places? You could go to the map store
(check your Midgaard map) for directions or simply yell out and ask
"Where is the Wayhouse?". People will tell you. However, for your
shopping convenience, I've listed directions below for each of these
points of interest. All directions use Recall as the starting point.
The Circus: 3 South, 2 West, 3 South, 5 West, 2 South, 1 West
Smurf Village: 2 North, 4 East, North continuous
Dwarven Day Care: 2 North, 6 East, 1 Down, 1 South
Werith's Wayhouse: 2 North, 12 East, South continuous
Remember to Consider each monster you run across to see if you think you
can beat it. Example: "Con Smurf". You can't kill everything in every
area until you've reached Godhood <Grin> so be careful. And remember to
use those practices you earn with each level wisely. First build your
wisdom, for wisdom gives you more practices with each level the higher
it is. Then work on your constitution to gain more hit points, and your
dexterity to get a better (lower) armor class. Strength is good for
being able to hold a lot of items, and a high intelligence is a must for
magic-casting characters.
This little guide is far from complete but hopefully it should get you
started on that akward stage between MUD School and exploring the rest
of the MUD. If you have any questions, shout them out. No one will
laugh at you and you may very well get an answer that'll prevent you
from dying when you only need three points to level.
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Farside Birthdays*
Compiled by Ambrosia
January
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DaWiz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . January 12th
Apex . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . January 31st
* There are a *Lot* of names to be added to the list. Send birthdays
as well as your character name to Ambrosia via a note in Farside or
internet e-mail at Ambrosia@escape.com
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*
* News *
*
Dizzy thrilled and delighted us all for the holidays by giving away
Santa Hats to anyone who wanted one. I still have mine, and
occasionally dress up and try to convince newbies that, indeed, I really
am Santa Claus. <Grin> Thanks Dizzy!
After countless hours of trying, Nemisis finally managed to attain that
much sought-after status of Hero. Still learning the ropes, he managed
to do a few corpse retrievals *and* get killed during his first day.
Speaking of Nemisis, he and Mirth managed to kill Tiamat in a quest of
Snikt's and each gained a level for their trouble. Stepovich and
AsaMaro tried in vain to find the wyrm's tower, but never quite got
there. Congratulations to Mirth and Nemisis!
AsaMaro finally became a hero! He'd like to thank Beauford, Nemisis,
Stepovich, Balthazar, Dazed, Mega, and everyone else that helped him get
there. He was 103 years old (172 hours) and grouped with Beauford when
the blessed event happened. Special thanks to Nemisis and Mendek for
giving him advice on which spells to learn and items to use! (And, most
importantly, even more special thanks to the inspiration and love of his
life, Marat.)
Apex and Melanie ran a join quest close to Christmas. Players has to
find and kill elves and get ingredients for a bomb from them. Marat,
Redric, and Gilgamesh found the ingredients. They then had to take them
to the FBI Director one east of recall. The Director put together the
bomb and, along with the players, went to meet with a mad anarchist that
had captured Santa Claus and several other hostages. The anarchist
demanded 1,000,000 gold pieces and a jet, as well as a cheeseburger.
The anarchist somehow managed to blow himself up (no one's really sure
exactly how this happened) and thus Marat, Redric, and Gilgamesh won the
quest. They were rewarded with an item of their choice. Congrats!
Stepovich joined Nemisis and AsaMaro in gaining the status of hero! At
level 49, he won Dizzy's restore quest (gaining level 50) and was then
granted the level of 51, Hero. Big congratulations to Stepovich, who
was only 50 XP away from levelling when Dizzy started his quest! :)
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The Twelve Days of Farside
Lyrics (c) 1994, Joe DeRouen
(Sung to the tune of "The Twelve Days of Christmas")
On the first day of Farside, my true hero gave to me . . .
. . . a dagger in a basket!
On the second day of Farside, my true hero have to me . . .
. . . two brown cloaks, and a dagger in a basket!
On the third day of Farside, my true hero gave to me . . .
. . . Three amber potions, two brown cloaks, and a
dagger in a basket!
On the fourth day of Farside, my true hero gave to me . . .
. . . Four leather boots, three amber potions, two brown cloaks,
and a dagger in a basket!
On the fifth day of Farside, my true hero gave to me . . .
. . . Five pink ice rings . . . Four leather boots, three
amber potions, two brown cloaks, and a dagger in a basket!
On the sixth day of Farside, my true hero have to me . . .
. . . Six cityguard heads, five pink ice rings . . . Four
leather boots, three amber potions, two brown cloaks,
and a dagger in a basket!
On the seventh day of Farside, my true hero gave to me . . .
. . . Seven experience points, six cityguard heads, five pink
ice rings . . . Four leather boots, three amber potions,
two brown cloaks, and a dagger in a basket!
On the eighth day of Farside, my true hero gave to me . . .
. . . Eight fun-filled quests, seven experience points, six
cityguard heads, five pink ice rings . . . Four leather
boots, three amber potions, two brown cloaks, and a
dagger in a basket!
On the ninth day of Farside, my true hero gave to me . . .
. . . Nine gauntlets of ogre power, eight fun-filled quests,
seven experience points, six cityguard heads, five pink
ice rings . . . Four leather boots, three amber potions,
two brown cloaks, and a dagger in a basket!
On the tenth day of Farside, my true hero gave to me . . .
. . . Ten Kzinti death gloves, nine gauntlets of ogre power,
eight fun-filled quests, seven experience points,
six cityguard heads, five pink ice rings . . . Four
leather boots, three amber potions, two brown cloaks,
and a dagger in a basket!
On the eleventh day of Farside, my true hero gave to me . . .
. . . Eleven spams at recall, ten Kzinti death gloves, nine
gauntlets of ogre power, eight fun-filled quests,
seven experience points, six cityguard heads, five
pink ice rings . . . Four leather boots, three amber
potions, two brown cloaks, and a dagger in a basket!
On the twelfth day of Farside, my true hero gave to me . . .
. . . Twelve free levels, eleven spams at recall, ten Kzinti
death gloves, nine gauntlets of ogre power, eight
fun-filled quests, seven experience points, six
cityguard heads, five pink ice rings . . . four leather
boots, three amber potions, two brown cloaks, and a
dagger in a basket!
* With special thanks to Marat, who helped with some of the lyrics,
and Ambrosia, who gave me the idea in the first place
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