Beginner Tutorial

Beginner Tutorial Parts

• Introduction
  Getting set up.

• Part 1: What we have
  A tour of Evennia and how to use the tools, including an introduction to Python.

• Part 2: What we want
  Planning our tutorial game and what to think about when planning your own in the future.

• Part 3: How we get there
  Getting down to the meat of extending Evennia to make our game

• Part 4: Using what we created
  Building a tech-demo and world content to go with our code

• Part 5: Showing the world
  Taking our new game online and let players try it out

Welcome to Evennia! This multi-part Beginner Tutorial will help you get off the ground.

You can pick what seems interesting, but if you follow through to the end you will have created a little online game of your own to play and share with others!

Use the menu on the right to get the index of each tutorial-part. Use the next and previous links at the top/bottom right of the page to step between lessons.

Things you need

• A Command line

• A MUD client (or web browser)

• A text-editor/IDE

• Evennia installed and a game-dir initialized

A Command line

You need to know how to find your Terminal/Console in your OS. The Evennia server can be controlled from in-game, but you will need to use the command-line to get anywhere. Here are some starters:

• Online Intro to the Command line for different OS:es

Note that we usually only show forward-slashes / for file system paths. Windows users should mentally convert this to back-slashes \ instead.

A MUD client

You might already have a MUD-client you prefer. Check out the grid of supported clients. If telnet’s not your thing, you can also just use Evennia’s web client in your browser.

In this documentation we often use the terms ‘MUD’, ‘MU’ or ‘MU*’ interchangeably to represent all the historically different forms of text-based multiplayer game-styles, like MUD, MUX, MUSH, MUCK, MOO and others. Evennia can be used to create all those game-styles and more.

A text Editor or IDE

You need a text-editor to edit Python source files. Most everything that can edit and output raw text works (so not Word).

• Here’s a blog post summing up some of the alternatives - these things don’t change much from year to year. Popular choices for Python are PyCharm, VSCode, Atom, Sublime Text and Notepad++. Evennia is to a very large degree coded in VIM, but that’s not suitable for beginners.

Important

Use spaces, not tabs

Make sure to configure your editor so that pressing TAB inserts 4 spaces rather than a Tab-character. Since Python is whitespace-aware, this will make your life a lot easier.

A fresh game dir?

You should make sure you have installed Evennia. If you followed the instructions you will already have created a game-dir.

You could re-use that or make a new one only for this tutorial, it’s up to you.

If you already have a game dir and want a separate one for the tutorial, use evennia stop to halt the running server and then Initialize a new game dir somewhere else (not inside the previous game dir!). We refer to it everywhere as mygame, so you may want to do the same.

You should now be ready to move on to the first lesson

Click here to expand a list of all Beginner-Tutorial sections (all parts).

• Part 1: What we have
  • Lessons
    • 1. Using commands and building stuff
      • 1.1. Getting help
      • 1.2. Looking around
      • 1.3. Stepping Down From Godhood
      • 1.4. Creating an Object
      • 1.5. Get a Personality
      • 1.6. Pushing Your Buttons
      • 1.7. Making Yourself a House
      • 1.8. Reshuffling the World
      • 1.9. Adding a Help Entry
      • 1.10. Adding a World
    • 2. The Tutorial World
      • 2.1. Gameplay
        • 2.1.1. Gameplay hints
      • 2.2. Once you are done (or had enough)
      • 2.3. Uninstall the tutorial world
    • 3. Intro to using Python with Evennia
      • 3.1. Evennia Hello world
      • 3.2. Making some text ‘graphics’
        • 3.2.1. .format()
        • 3.2.2. f-strings
        • 3.2.3. Colored text
      • 3.3. Importing code from other modules
        • 3.3.1. Our first own function
      • 3.4. Sending text to others
      • 3.5. Parsing Python errors
      • 3.6. Passing arguments to functions
      • 3.7. Finding others to send to
      • 3.8. Multi-line py
      • 3.9. Other ways to test Python code
      • 3.10. ipython
      • 3.11. Conclusions
    • 4. Overview of your new Game Dir
      • 4.1. commands/
      • 4.2. server/
        • 4.2.1. server/logs/
        • 4.2.2. server/conf/
        • 4.2.3. typeclasses/
        • 4.2.4. web/
        • 4.2.5. world/
    • 5. Introduction to Python classes and objects
      • 5.1. Importing things
      • 5.2. On classes and objects
        • 5.2.1. Classes and instances
        • 5.2.2. What’s so good about objects?
        • 5.2.3. Classes can have children
      • 5.3. Summary
    • 6. Overview of the Evennia library
      • 6.1. Where is it?
      • 6.2. An example of exploring the library
      • 6.3. Conclusions
    • 7. Making objects persistent
      • 7.1. Our first persistent object
        • 7.1.1. Making a new object by calling the class
        • 7.1.2. Creating using create_object
        • 7.1.3. Creating using create-command
      • 7.2. Typeclasses
        • 7.2.1. Examining objects
        • 7.2.2. Default typeclasses
      • 7.3. Modifying ourselves
        • 7.3.1. A method on ourselves
        • 7.3.2. Attributes
        • 7.3.3. Setting things on new Characters
        • 7.3.4. Updating all Characters in a loop
      • 7.4. Extra Credits
      • 7.5. Conclusions
    • 8. Adding custom commands
      • 8.1. Creating a custom command
        • 8.1.1. Making our cmdset persistent
        • 8.1.2. Figuring out who to hit
      • 8.2. Summary
    • 9. Parsing Command input
      • 9.1. More advanced parsing
      • 9.2. Adding a Command to an object
        • 9.2.1. You need to hold the sword!
      • 9.3. Adding the Command to a default Cmdset
        • 9.3.1. Removing Commands
      • 9.4. Replace a default command
      • 9.5. Summary
    • 10. Creating things
      • 10.1. Creating Objects
      • 10.2. Creating Rooms, Characters and Exits
        • 10.2.1. Linking Exits and Rooms in code
      • 10.3. Creating Accounts
      • 10.4. Creating Channels
      • 10.5. Creating Scripts
      • 10.6. Conclusion
    • 11. Searching for things
      • 11.1. Main search functions
      • 11.2. Searching using Object.search
      • 11.3. What can be searched for
        • 11.3.1. Search by key
        • 11.3.2. Search by aliases
        • 11.3.3. Search by location
        • 11.3.4. Search by Tags
        • 11.3.5. Search by Attribute
        • 11.3.6. Search by Typeclass
        • 11.3.7. Search by dbref
      • 11.4. Finding objects relative each other
      • 11.5. Summary
    • 12. Advanced searching - Django Database queries
      • 12.1. Queryset field lookups
      • 12.2. Let’s get that werewolf …
      • 12.3. Queries with OR or NOT
      • 12.4. Annotations
      • 12.5. F-objects
      • 12.6. Grouping and returning only certain properties
      • 12.7. Conclusions
    • 13. Building a chair you can sit on
      • 13.1. Make us not able to move while resting
      • 13.2. Making the Chair itself
        • 13.2.1. Sitting on or in?
        • 13.2.2. Extra credits
      • 13.3. Adding commands
        • 13.3.1. Command variant 1: Commands on the chair
        • 13.3.2. Command variant 2: Command on Character
      • 13.4. Conclusions
• Part 2: What we want
  • Lessons
    • 1. Where do I begin?
      • 1.1. What is your motivation for doing this?
      • 1.2. What are your skills?
        • 1.2.1. The game engine
        • 1.2.2. Asset creation
      • 1.3. So, where do I begin, then?
      • 1.4. Conclusions
    • 2. On Planning a Game
      • 2.1. The steps
      • 2.2. Planning
        • 2.2.1. Administration
        • 2.2.2. Building
        • 2.2.3. Systems
        • 2.2.4. Rooms
        • 2.2.5. Objects / items
        • 2.2.6. Characters
      • 2.3. Coding and Tech demo
      • 2.4. World Building
      • 2.5. Alpha Release
      • 2.6. Beta Release/Perpetual Beta
      • 2.7. Congratulate yourself!
      • 2.8. Planning our tutorial game
    • 3. Planning our tutorial game
      • 3.1. Game concept
      • 3.2. Administration
        • 3.2.1. Should your game rules be enforced by coded systems by human game masters?
        • 3.2.2. What is the staff hierarchy in your game? Is vanilla Evennia roles enough or do you need something else?
        • 3.2.3. Should players be able to post out-of-characters on channels and via other means like bulletin-boards?
      • 3.3. Building
        • 3.3.1. How will the world be built?
        • 3.3.2. Can only privileged Builders create things or should regular players also have limited build-capability?
      • 3.4. Systems
        • 3.4.1. Do you base your game off an existing RPG system or make up your own?
        • 3.4.2. What are the game mechanics? How do you decide if an action succeeds or fails?
        • 3.4.3. Does the flow of time matter in your game - does night and day change? What about seasons?
        • 3.4.4. Do you want changing, global weather or should weather just be set manually in roleplay?
        • 3.4.5. Do you want a coded world-economy or just a simple barter system? Or no formal economy at all?
        • 3.4.6. Do you have concepts like reputation and influence?
        • 3.4.7. Will your characters be known by their name or only by their physical appearance?
      • 3.5. Rooms
        • 3.5.1. Is a simple room description enough or should the description be able to change?
        • 3.5.2. Should the room have different statuses?
        • 3.5.3. Can objects be hidden in the room? Can a person hide in the room?
      • 3.6. Objects
        • 3.6.1. How numerous are your objects? Do you want large loot-lists or are objects just role playing props?
        • 3.6.2. Is each coin a separate object or do you just store a bank account value?
        • 3.6.3. Do multiple similar objects form stack and how are those stacks handled in that case?
        • 3.6.4. Does an object have weight or volume (so you cannot carry an infinite amount of them)?
        • 3.6.5. Can objects be broken? Can they be repaired?
        • 3.6.6. Can you fight with a chair or a flower or must you use a special ‘weapon’ kind of thing?
        • 3.6.7. Will characters be able to craft new objects?
        • 3.6.8. Should mobs/NPCs have some sort of AI?
        • 3.6.9. Are NPCs and mobs different entities? How do they differ?
        • 3.6.10. _Should there be NPCs giving quests? If so, how do you track Quest status?
      • 3.7. Characters
        • 3.7.1. Can players have more than one Character active at a time or are they allowed to multi-play?
        • 3.7.2. How does the character-generation work?
        • 3.7.3. How do you implement different “classes” or “races”?
        • 3.7.4. If a Character can hide in a room, what skill will decide if they are detected?
        • 3.7.5. What does the skill tree look like? Can a Character gain experience to improve? By killing enemies? Solving quests? By roleplaying?
        • 3.7.6. May player-characters attack each other (PvP)?
        • 3.7.7. What are the penalties of defeat? Permanent death? Quick respawn? Time in prison?
      • 3.8. Conclusions
• Part 3: How we get there (example game)
  • Lessons
    • 1. Code structure and Utilities
      • 1.1. Folder structure
      • 1.2. Enums
      • 1.3. Utility module
      • 1.4. Testing
        • 1.4.1. Running your test
      • 1.5. Summary
    • 2. Rules and dice rolling
      • 2.1. Summary of Knave rules
      • 2.2. Making a rule module
      • 2.3. Rolling dice
        • 2.3.1. Generic dice roller
        • 2.3.2. Rolling with advantage
        • 2.3.3. Saving throws
        • 2.3.4. Opposed saving throw
        • 2.3.5. Morale check
        • 2.3.6. Roll for Healing
        • 2.3.7. Rolling on a table
        • 2.3.8. Roll for death
      • 2.4. Testing
        • 2.4.1. Mocking and patching
      • 2.5. Summary
    • 3. Player Characters
      • 3.1. Inheritance structure
      • 3.2. Living mixin class
      • 3.3. Character class
        • 3.3.1. Funcparser inlines
        • 3.3.2. Backtracking
      • 3.4. Connecting the Character with Evennia
      • 3.5. Unit Testing
      • 3.6. About races and classes
      • 3.7. Summary
    • 4. In-game Objects and items
      • 4.1. New Enums
      • 4.2. The base object
        • 4.2.1. Using Attributes or not
        • 4.2.2. Creating tags in at_object_creation
      • 4.3. Other object types
      • 4.4. Consumables
      • 4.5. Weapons
      • 4.6. Magic
      • 4.7. Armor
      • 4.8. Your Bare hands
      • 4.9. Testing and Extra credits
    • 5. Handling Equipment
      • 5.1. EquipmentHandler that saves
      • 5.2. Connecting the EquipmentHandler
      • 5.3. Expanding the Equipmenthandler
      • 5.4. .validate_slot_usage
        • 5.4.1. .max_slots
        • 5.4.2. .count_slots
        • 5.4.3. Validating slots
      • 5.5. .add and .remove
      • 5.6. Moving things around
      • 5.7. Get everything
      • 5.8. Weapon and armor
      • 5.9. Extra credits
      • 5.10. Unit Testing
      • 5.11. Summary
    • 6. Character Generation
      • 6.1. How it will work
      • 6.2. Random tables
      • 6.3. Storing state of the menu
        • 6.3.1. Showing the sheet
        • 6.3.2. Apply character
      • 6.4. Initializing EvMenu
      • 6.5. Main Node: Choosing what to do
      • 6.6. Node: Changing your name
      • 6.7. Node: Swapping Abilities around
      • 6.8. Node: Creating the Character
      • 6.9. Tying the nodes together
      • 6.10. Conclusions
    • 7. In-game Rooms
    • 8. Non-Player-Characters (NPCs)
    • 9. Game Quests
    • 10. In-game Shops
    • 11. Dynamically generated Dungeon
    • 12. In-game Commands
• Part 4: Using what we created
  • Lessons
    • 1. Unimplemented
• Part 5: Showing the world
  • Lessons
    • 1. Add a simple new web page
      • 1.1. Create the view
      • 1.2. The HTML page
      • 1.3. The URL