The questions players ask us, answered. Most of these are how the original 1991 game behaves, not something the revival changed – it just never explained them. For keys and commands, see the Help page.

Gems, items and money

I appraised a gem, chose Keep, and it disappeared.

It didn't – it moved. Keep takes the gem out of your “fine collection” and turns it into an item called GEM, worth the price you were just told. Look in View, then Items: each gem you kept has its own line. The game just doesn't say so. The same goes for jewellery.

Then what is appraising for?

Gems and jewellery you find are only a count, with no value, until a shopkeeper appraises them. That is when each one gets its price. Then you choose:

• Sell – the shop pays you for it on the spot. Usually what you want.
• Keep – it becomes a GEM (or jewellery) item with that value. You can carry it, sell it at any shop later (Items, then Sell), or hand it to another player.

Carry at least one item before you keep a gem.

A quirk of the original game: if your character carries no items at all, a gem you Keep is lost. With even one item in your pack, it is kept as it should be.

I can't give gold or an item to another player.

• You need to be a party: one of you follows the other. Otherwise the other player isn't offered as someone to trade with.
• The player receiving must accept gifts: Tab switches that on and off, and it starts off. If it is off, your screen says you can't trade with them.
• Items must not be readied (in use), and cursed items can't be traded.

Other players

Someone is in the same place as me, but I can't see them.

You see other players only when they are within three steps of you, and they appear in the list on the right of the screen. Walk towards them. F2 tells you who is nearby, and Shift-F2 who is in the whole realm and where.

How do I talk to one player only, or someone far away?

Start your line with their name and a colon: NAME: hello. Only they get it, wherever they are in the realm. F5/F6 pick from the names you have talked with.

I can't see what I just said.

That's how the game always worked: your own lines are not shown back to you. The others did get them.

Can other players hurt me?

Only with spells, inside a battle you are both in – as it was in the 1990s. Weapons can't be used on other players.

Controls

I pressed a letter to pick a menu choice and it went into the chat line.

In this game, typing letters starts a chat line. To pick from a menu, use the arrow keys and Enter, or hold Alt and press the choice's highlighted letter (Alt-V for View). In DOSBox on a Mac, Alt is the Option key. Backspace clears a chat line you started by accident.

Your character

My line dropped and my character looks wrong, or is missing.

Don't make a new one. The realm keeps your last complete save, so write to us with your account name and roughly when it happened, and we will put it right.