The layout of information available to you on Armageddon will differ from what you may be used to on other muds. For example, this is the score command's output: You are Dharkor. Sdesc: the black-eyed elf Objective: To finish my song about mead. Long Description: Code Generated Long Description. You are 28 years, 1 months, and 113 days old, which by your race and appearance is adult. You are 74 inches tall, and weigh 9 ten-stone. Your strength is average, your agility is good, your wisdom is very good, and your endurance is extremely good. You are neither hungry nor thirsty. Your health is 120(120), you have 363(368) stamina, and 124(124) stun. You have been playing for 12 days and 23 hours. You are standing. You are currently speaking allundean. --- Other than health, stamina, and stun, there are no numbers mentioned for your stats. The stat command yields: Your encumbrance is light. Relationship to the land is neutral. You are currently speaking allundean. You are standing. Depending on what you pick up, your encumbrance may vary from no problem, easy, very light, to VERY HEAVY etc. There is no number that you will see. There is a skill in the game (usually available to merchants and their ilk) that allows you to guess at the properties of an item (inasfar as weight, value, etc). However, you will never see a number in stat. --- Skills will lead to something like this. Depending on your character, you may have different skills, but you don't get to see how good you are at it, etc: Psionic powers -------------------------------------------------------------------------- contact barrier Combat skills -------------------------------------------------------------------------- archery rescue dual wield shield use Weapon skills -------------------------------------------------------------------------- piercing weapons slashing weapons chopping weapons bludgeoning weapons Stealth skills -------------------------------------------------------------------------- sneak hide Manipulation skills -------------------------------------------------------------------------- trap bandage ride Perception skills -------------------------------------------------------------------------- listen hunt scan Language skills -------------------------------------------------------------------------- sirihish allundean -- When people look at you, this is what they will see: Brown eyes tinged with red, as flame seen through smoke, stare from between long lashes whose black color remains subdued underneath a fine haze of dust. Her hair, matching this color, but darker and better kempt, is long and bound in a single, long braid that begins at the top of her crown and works its way, snake-like, down to the middle of her back. Muted realgar flesh, the dusky tone of shaded red-stone, comprises the back-drop to the remainder of her features. Slender and tall, as with all of her kind, she is well proportioned and covered with a thick layer of sinewy muscle tone that stands out like stone beneath her skin. the black-eyed elf is in excellent condition.a broad-brimmed suede bush hat a finely carved, black-stained elvish longbow a harness made of black leather a pair of crimson and black dyed armbands a new spiked leather bracer a new studded hide wrist-wrap a new pair of anakore-claw gloves a leather swordbelt a dark, carru-hide quiver a crimson-dyed, sun-pommeled saber a leather water-pouch a new pair of soft, carru-leather pants a finely carved hardwood anklet a pair of knee-high fringed moccasins ---- Your long description is the big part above. It's the in-depth look that people see when they give you a close look. The short description is what goes in emotes. i.e. >grin the black-eyed elf grins. the long description is what people see when they enter the room, and you can set it with the change ldesc command. ex: The tavern Torches along the wall light the place up so that everyone can see the dank stone walls and the wooden tables and benches that adorn the floors. Along one wall, there is a long bar and a set of shelves behind it covered with bottles of various sizes and colors. The door is on the opposite wall to the bar and has a thick bolt to hld it in place. The surly man stands here the black-eyed elf is sitting here, legs crossed, a smirk on her face. etc. As you can see, there are many differences. To answer a few commonly asked questions: You tell how good you are at any given skill when you use it. Whether you succeed or fail, whether you have succeeded or failed in the past and against what/who. You get better at a skill by using it. Act IC about this. If an archer wants to do better at archery, he shoots arrows. Don't fall into the trap where you as a player want to be better, where you as a character might not be better. Only practice as your -character- would practice. Maybe even find an IC mentor to teach you things. If you find that your expectations for the abilities of your character are higher than the realities of your abilities when you start, you might want to lower your expectations and focus on developing your character more in character. It wouldn't be any fun if anyone could be a veteran fighter just from claiming it in their background. most of the fun is -getting- there in the first place.