Step Three: Connecting and Information

So you've decided you're interested--at least, interested enough to connect and learn a little more about this Chiaroscuro thing. If you're already familiar with telnet and MU* style games, go ahead and skip on to the sub-section titled "First Connection". If you're not, read on to find out how to connect to the game.

Telnet requires a client to run properly, and you may be pleased to know that there's plenty of good ones available for free on the net. Now don't panic--if, for whatever reason, you don't want to download, Microsoft Windows, at the very least, comes with a basic one of its own. Now, mind you, it's not a great one, but it's fine for starting out, or for if you'd rather not download.

So here's how you fire it up. Click on "Start" and select "Run". Now type in "telnet.exe" without the quotes, and hit the enter key. Poof. It should pop right up for you, looking a little bit like the command prompt--but don't worry, you can't break anything from here.

The first thing you'll want to type in is "set localecho". All this is going to do is make it so that after you connect to the game, you can see what you're typing--just a convenience issue, really. After that's done, it's time to actually connect. Type "open jointhesaga.com 3005" and hit enter. It might take a moment to come up while telnet searches for the right place, but then you should get the image of the OtherVerse login screen.

First Connection
If you haven't already, connect to Chiaroscuro MUSH at host Jointhesaga.com and port 3005.

Welcome to the OtherVerse login screen. I'm afraid it's not much to look at, but it should be good enough. It wants to know who you are before it lets you in. You don't know yet, so I'll tell you--you're Guest. To log in, just type "Connect Guest Guest", and it will take you directly to the OtherVerse Main Lobby--which is probably empty. That does not mean there's no one online--just type "who" and you can see what players and staff are floating around out there. We call it the Main Lobby, but really the only ones who ever end up there are guests, like you, and new characters.

By this time, someone might have already greeted you on the newbie channel. To talk on the newbie channel, all you have to do is enter "+new ". Try it now.

-> +new Hello. Guest says, "Hello."

See? Simple. You can also pose on-chan by prefixing your message with a colon, so the syntax would look something like this. "+new : ". Check it out:

-> +new :waves. Guest waves.

Easy. Go ahead and talk to people, ask questions, poke around. We're friendly here, and more than willing to lend you a helping hand. As a note, Chiaroscuro shares a server with two other JTS games--Necromundus, and afterlife MUSH, and OtherSpace: Millennium, a science-fiction adventure.

You might want to stay connected while you look through the Wiki. That way, people will be right there to talk to if you run up against anything you're uncertain about. Some particularly helpful names to look for in the Chia crowd are our Staffers, Leviathan, Kavi, and Shiva, and our Minions, Lamia and Sabre. We're here to guide folks like you into the world of MUSHing and Chiaroscuro.

Chiaroscuro_Overview is an especially important page. It gives you a general feel for what Chiaroscuro's like in the theme department, as well as linking to all the main pages you'll want to look over. The information there is vital, and it will be your best bet for jumping right into the middle.

When you're ready to log off, type "QUIT" in all-caps to disconnect from the game. You're welcome to return to the guest account as many times as you'd like.

Return to Chiaroscuro: The Walkthrough

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