Evil Avatars

1. WHAT IS AN EVIL AVATAR?
2. SNARES TO WATCH OUT FOR
3. THE MORAL OF THE STORY

1.0 WHAT IS AN EVIL AVATAR?

There are a number of twisted individuals who inhabit the alleys and byways of the Majic Realm. These are the people who actively seek to harm other travellers, take their money, or otherwise harm them for their own profit (they think it's fun!?). The law enforcement officials of the city of Draconia have set up patrols to deter these evildoers, but just as in real life, you just can't be safe everywhere.

They will do anything and everything they can to "do you in".

2.0 COMMON SNARES TO WATCH OUT FOR

TALES OF FANTASTICAL TREASURE TROVES

An evil avatar may try to trick you with a story about a fabulous treasure, simply waiting to be plucked. Of course, your help is needed to be able to reach it... Examples of this might be to tell you that there is a secret passage on the other side of a pool of water, and that all you have to do is dive in to get to the treasure, or some similar story. Look before you leap, and make sure that they aren't asking you to walk into a pool of acid, or a pit of snakes. Nothing in life comes easy, and if someone is offering you an incredible opportunity, you would not be unwise to suspect their motives.

LURING VICTIMS INTO DANGEROUS AREAS

Evil characters can be deceptively friendly - if only to lure their victims into the sewers, or some other dismal area, to kill them. Travel with people you trust. If you don't know anyone, then get a friend you CAN trust to meet up online at the same time and watch each others backs. If that isn't possible, then just stay alert, and if your Hit points ever drop below half, heal yourself if you can, or exit the dungeon and wait for your health to return.

People who want to kill you will usually do so within a short period of time, so if you have travelled with them several times without trouble, they are probably ok. If someone attacks you in the sewers, or some other out of the way place, RUN unless you are sure that you can win. If the person chases you, and you can't seem to get away, don't hesitate to call someone for help, and if you can, exit the game for a short while.

Read the Discord forums for a couple of minutes, post a suggestion for a new feature you would like to see added to the game, maybe send some mail you have been putting off, etc.... In other words, kill off a few minutes.

Chances are, your attackers will get impatient after a minute or three and go in search of easier prey.

INSULTING YOU UNTIL YOU ATTACK THEM

People can't attack you in the patrolled areas of the city, however, if you attack them in an unpatrolled area, and then run away, they can continue the fight into the patrolled areas. If someone challenges you to a fight outside of the arena, ignore them, or tell them to get lost. There are a number of evil characters on the board who just wander around asking people for fights.

Often-times, they have a buddy or two lurking at the place they want to fight and when you get sorely wounded, they will jump out of the shadows and finish you off.

Ignore the threats of these fools. Most of them will cheat in the fight anyway, and already have an escape route worked out so they can get away the moment it looks like you have a chance of winning. You will rarely manage to kill one of these types, and when you do, you will probably get nothing but half-baked equipment for your efforts, and they will harass you until the cows come home. They are NOT worth it.

Go adventuring, find some monsters and treasure. Fighting these thugs is just giving them what they want, and you will frustrate them terribly if you ignore them completely.

BORROWING EQUIPMENT

Don't ever give anything of yours to someone you don't know. I have seen countless examples of people handing things over, only to have the thief laugh and run off to sell it. If you absolutely HAVE to give something to someone else, get them to give you something of equal worth FIRST.

After all, they expect you to trust them to return your item, they should trust you enough to have you hold something as collateral. And don't accept unidentified items as collateral. (See next paragraph)

CURSED ITEMS

Evil players have often tried offering cursed potions (PARALYSIS, POISON, CONFUSION, etc...) to others and then robbing or killing their unsuspecting victims when the cursed potion takes effect. If someone you don't really know gives you a glass vial with an unknown liquid in it, beware of drinking it!

If you have to drink a potion you are not sure about, make sure you slip off into a patrolled but out of the way place (alone) to drink it. That way if you get paralyzed, you will be safe from attack, but if you drink poison and die, you have a decent chance of getting back to your gear before someone else does. In general, treat an unidentified bottle of liquid with as much caution as you would an unsealed bottle of Tylenol capsules.

LOADING YOU UP WITH GEAR

Beware of people who load you up with a lot of gear, or try to talk you into carrying a heavy load of equipment. A favorite evil trick is to get you encumbered and then, when you are in an isolated spot, attack you. The heavy load you are carrying will slow down your movement enough so as to make it very difficult to escape. If you are carrying a heavy load of some kind (torches, copper drabs, etc...) drop them, and run! Remember: It's almost impossible for an encumbered person to run away from an unencumbered one.

3.0 THE MORAL OF THE STORY

Basically, the ways people can rip you off or trick you are as endless as people's imaginations. This just tips you off to some of the possibilities, and hopefully serves as a warning to you to be careful. Wandering the Majic Realm is sort of like wandering through New York at night. Some spots are relatively safe while others, like Central Park or the Bronx, you would do well to avoid.

Nowhere will you be 100% safe, but that's part of the excitement, just try to be on your guard and make sure you don't fall for the same trick twice!!