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Immortal Careers
How to become, and stay, and Immortal in CthulhuMud

Contents

Becoming an Immortal:

The best way to become an immortal is to Not Ask For It. Offer a suggestion for an area. Build it with Arcanum once you find out if we're interested. The senior staff will look over the area file once you've got it done and then you'll get a creator character to build with.

Before you can become a complete builder you have to know how to build the more complex, mobprogs and confirm that you understand the basic commands. We will teach you this. Also tutorials on those commands can be found at this web page, and feel free to ask anyone for help if you need it. To make sure that you know the commands you'll be asked to fix a series of problems in a set of test rooms. Use every help you need to learn the commands, even asking the imm running the test for help if you need to, it won't be held against you. Just so long as you learn the commands eventually, we don't care how.

Staying an Immortal:

Just creating one area is not really enough to validate staying on as an immortal on a permanent basis, especially if you don't plan to dedicate yourself to any further building. Having a creator character, as most of the senior imms will tell you isn't so much a reward as it is a job. So, the best way to *keep* your imm character is to build your first area quickly and to specifications, and then, suggest and grid out another area. Hard work will get you there, as will showing responsibility and understanding of the mud.

Promotion as an Immortal:

Most imms will remain on a one-shot or full-time builder status. This isn't to say we don't trust you. merely that that is the job we need you for. A few imms will be raised to a higher level of security or command. This is because the top imms can't be on all the time, and it's always handy for folks to have someone to go to when we aren't on. Promotion is entirely at the whim of the top level imms. All of them should agree on the need for the position and on the appointment. Those imms with those higher securities are not given those powers as toys, they are given them because the senior staff wants you to use them to aid in the administration of the mud.

What Immortal Rank Means:

The vast majority of this is simply formality. The actual running of the mud, as most of the current imm staff knows is largely laid-back, and all opinions are welcomed and considered. The rank system is not designed to stifle any of the cooperation we currently have. There are four levels of rank in immortal status:

  1. Senior Staff
  2. God Staff
  3. Full-time Builder
  4. One-shot Builder

Senior staff run the mud by their whim and good graces. The senior staff consists of: Yog, Tsa, Shub, and Bast. For obvious reasons, barring critical need, this is not a rank that is available to promotion.

God staff includes those imms who have been given a specific task in the administration of the mud. Be this the power of enforcer, administration, or quest running, this is a rank that should be respected. They have authority within their field and should be aware of their responsibility. God staff and above are free to take clan requests for building, though obviously all changes should be documented so we know what request have been filled and what price was charged to the society.

Full-time builders are those builders who are known to be reliable and creative with their areas. They are under less pressure to produce an area quickly, because we know they'll get it done eventually. Most imms will be considered full-time builders. The majority of a full-time builder's attention should be on their area(s) but goof-off time and role play is encouraged.

One-shot builders are those currently in the process of proving their reliability. A one-shot builder should concentrate their attention on their area for the majority of time online with the imm character.

All builders can feel free to correct errors they see within their own areas after it has been opened, or contact someone regarding the error if they are not full-time yet.

Demotion as an Immortal:

The best way to lose immortal rank is to ask for it. Asking for it of course means: blatant disregard of the rules in creation of an area, blatant disregard of the ethics involved in running both an immortal and mortal character at the same time, or blatant disregard of commands from the senior staff. Basically, don't cheat in favor of your mortal character. Don't abuse your power in either promoting other characters, or abuse it in the form of harassment or other forms of punishment to mortals. Don't be a jerk with your powers.

The process of demotion goes as this, it is rare that any immortal above the rank of full-time builder will ever be demoted, however in general: You will be warned first regarding whatever rule is being broken. As you are demoted, whatever power was abused will be removed. If this involves removing the immortal character entirely, so be it. Deletion of mortal characters and site banning is for extreme cases, those cases in which the demoted immortal simply can't let enough alone even after being removed from power.

What NOT to do:

  1. Do not allow equipment from unopened areas to be used by any mortal character. You don't have to be mean about removing it from them, but explain to them it is equipment that is currently banned from use.
  2. Do not open your area without first gaining approval and a walk-through by senior staff. (This covers your ass as much as ours, so you can honestly say if a problem arises later that no one caught it on the walk-through.)
  3. Do not build in other areas without notifying either the builder of that area or a member of the senior staff. This includes clan halls.
  4. Do not use your immortal to aid your mortal character in any way. (Such aid may be interpreted as: taking your mortal character leveling with the immortal, giving your mortal character equipment, gold, spell-ups, experience, fame, deeds or other benefits including using the GOTO command for the mortal's transportation on a routine basis.)
  5. Do not harass players that as a mortal you do not care for. You are running the mud, hence you need a certain amount of objectivity. On the other hand, if they *are* doing something wrong, don't ignore it, handle it properly. Log it.
  6. Do not vary in the creation of equipment from the basics given here. If you wish to create something more spectacular, ask one of the senior staff (preferably Bast) for approval. If it is inappropriate as it stands she will be able to suggest ways of balancing it out.

What To do:

  1. Work on whatever project you've been assigned to do.
  2. When a crash occurs, ask the players what happened, and see if you can determine what caused it. If you can figure it out, post a note regarding it to the imm board.
  3. If a player requires administrative handling (punishment for spamming, harassment or a rename), attempt to find an imm with the authority to handle it, or handle it yourself. If neither is possible, then post a note on imm board regarding it and try to tame the situation. When we see the note we'll handle it. In the more extravagant cases (multi-char, harassment, or spamming) please post a note on imm board about it even if you yourself can handle it, so when any imm sees it again they know it's a repeat offense.
  4. Be fair to the players, but remember game balance. You are allowed to give occasional spell-ups if you're in a good mood or they do good RP, but don't over do it.
  5. Recognize when a higher up makes a decision. Unless you can come up with a further compelling argument, decisions tend to be final when the senior staff decides on them.
  6. Read! Read Lovecraft, read the CoC books, read the collections of short stories written in the style of Lovecraft, and stay on alert for good settings or inspirations. The latest House on Haunted Hill for instance does a very good Shub impersonation. And feel free to incorporate this into your settings.
  7. Have fun with yourself! Don't take the job *that* seriously!!

Role playing:

Role playing is when we decide to goof off. The random cloud fights, cat tail pulling, couch scratching, Adam abusing, goat gluing, punch spiking pseudopod mess that we produce when on caffeine, is amusing to both player and imm, and contributes to the developing history of the mud. (If you aren't aware of the incidents listed above... it's probably for the best. :) )

So of course, we want to encourage role playing on even an immortal level. An imm name will set the tone for the role play so it's important to pick one with a history and personality you can convincingly play. We do try to have immortals select Cthulhu mythos, Sumerian, or Egyptian names. Other names are welcome as well, but researching a little bit of the history to them so you can easily fit into the immortal RP would be nice. As a last note, unless you plan on sticking around for awhile you probably don't want to get too deeply entrenched in the lives of the players. Their opinion won't keep a one-shot builder on if there's nothing else to keep the immortal for, so it's setting them up for disappointment when their deity disappears.

The best opportunities for RP as an immortal are either with other immortals (see above), or with their own worshippers. Worshippers should be played with to the extent that *they* wish to play. Never try to coerce a character to follow you without making it clear this is RP only, it makes the player nervous otherwise, and that's the last thing we want to do to them. Be as subtle, rewarding, extravagant as you want to be, everyone should get a kick out of it. In fact, it might be fun for some of them to develop a working theology for your immortal to use as a standard for testing the role playing abilities of a worshipper.

Spell-ups or future attention are the typical reward of good role playing. Rarely a character will complete an extravagant quest for a reward. For example: I once requested the head of a Hound of Tindalos, from a level 20 character. 40 levels later I got the head, having totally forgotten about the quest myself. *That* is dedication. For this the character received a very nice statue, along with the mention that if it ever left his grasp he would die, repeatedly. Such bonuses are not unheard of, but should be *extremely* rare. Consult the senior staff regarding it first. Experience should not be used as an RP award.

Certain characters wish to RP more interesting materials with their deities or with other players. *cough*Caroline*cough* *ahem*. Such activities should not be performed in a well traveled room, and should be done with the clear understanding ooc of safety. If one of the characters requests ooc that the RP stop, it should stop right then and there. There have been incidents between two player characters before that ended with the banning of a harassing player. Use discretion and common sense. And there is a vnum specifically for these activities if they indicate the need to 'get a room'. Room ****.