This document explains the character creation suite.
The character creation suite is 3 rooms laid out
in the following manner ::
                         
                
          .----.         
          |    |
          |    |  Gender/Description room
          `-++-'
            ||
          .-++-.
          |    |
          |    |  Race selection room
          `-++-'
            ||
          .-++-.
          |    |
          |    |  Guild selection room
          `----'

Often, the first thing you should decide on when creating a 
new character is its primary guild membership. Your choice 
will have a strong influence on the role you are going to 
play in the RetroMUD universe, as each guild emphasizes 
different aspects of the game, i.e. combat, magic or service
skills.  You cannot change your primary guild except through
reincarnation ( HELP REINCARNATION ), but later on you will
be able to enhance your skills with those of secondary and
tertiary guilds, whose availability also depend on your
choice of a primary guild. ( HELP CHOICES )

Each guild allows an unique set of skills and spells to be
used, and although certain abilities are common to several
guilds, many others are only available to the highest
initiates of a guild and through choosing secondary
and tertiary guilds accordingly as you gain even more
experience. More at a glance information about guild
abilities can be found online at http://www.retromud.org,
and if you didn't do it already you might want to read the
hints in ( HELP GETTING STARTED ).

**********************************************************
Using the guild room ::

1)  Visit the guild room and determine a guild that you wish
    to play. Use the 'list' command to see all available
    primary guilds with a short description.

2)  Use the 'info' command to receive detailed information
    about each guild you are interested in.

3)  Use the 'select' command to choose your guild once you
    decide on a profession you like.  You can always
    re-'select' a new guild while in the guild room.

4)  Use the 'help guilds' command and its available
    subtopics once you have chosen a guild to learn more
    about the background of your chosen profession and
    helpful hints on getting started and available powers.

5)  Proceed to the race room, using the 'mesh' command to
    find a race that matches well with the criteria of your
    chosen guild. ( HELP RACEROOM )

6)  If you find a race you particularly like, and its a bad
    match for the guild you chose, you can always come back
    and change again.

*************************************************************

What does all the guild information mean?  ::

1)  Description:  An overview of the guild's philosophy,
    its intentions and goals in the RetroMUD universe and
    some typical character traits. This should give you an
    idea of what direction to take, roleplaying-wise.

2)  School of Magic:  Two types of magic exist on RetroMUD,
    hermetical and spiritual magic. Every guild is either
    non-magical, solely relying on skills, or using hermetic
    or spiritual magic. As each race has a different prowess
    in using hermetic/spiritual magic, this is important to
    know when considering a well matching race.

3)  Alignment:  Some guilds only accept players of a certain
    alignment, refusing service to all others. Although any
    race can be of any alignment, some suffer penalties for
    being good or evil, so think twice before creating that
    devil paladin. ( HELP ALIGNMENT )

4)  Hermetic/Spiritual Bulk:  Maximum level of bulk members
    of the guild are allowed to wear before suffering
    penalties in the respective area of magic. Non-magical
    guilds may ignore this unless taking a magic-using 
    secondary or tertiary guild.  Bulk restrictions do 
    exist for certain skills, but they are independent of 
    the restriction listed here. ( HELP BULK )

5)  Guild Abilities:  Primary guilds consist of 20 levels,
    secondary guilds have 14, and all guilds chosen as a
    tertiary may be increased to level 9. As you advance in
    guild levels, an increasing number of skills and spells
    will become available for you to train and study. You
    can list all spells of a guild with the 'list spells
    all' command in the training/study room. ( HELP LIST )
    The level number of an ability is the minimum level you
    need to reach in the guild before you can train it.

6)  Bonuses/Restrictions:  In addition to unlocking new
    abilities, sometimes a restriction or bonus comes into
    effect when reaching a level. Most commonly you will be
    forbidden to use certain weapon or armor types.

7)  Stat Potential:  When advancing a guild level, any of
    the statistics listed here may increase by a relative
    amount that is determined by the prefixed scale and random
    chance. ( HELP GUILD BONUS, HELP SCALES ) The higher up a
    prefix is in the relative scale, the larger the stat
    increase will be, although the absolute amount of points
    gained is randomized within these bounds.

8)  Point Max Potential:  Your maximum amount of hit points
    (hp), spell points (sp) and endurance points (ep) also
    increase with each guild level randomly within bounds
    determined by the scale prefixes.

9)  Regen Potential:  Analogous to the increases in point
    maximums, regeneration of hp/sp/ep is also improved by
    leveling up according to the scales of the guild listed
    here.
   
10) Category Potential:  In addition to incrementing several
    physical statistics, you may also get bonuses on the
    skill/spell categories listed here. Again, the (slightly
    different) scale prefixes tell you roughly how much
    bonus to expect. See ( HELP SCHOOLS OF MAGIC ) and the
    help pages of specific spells to find out which
    category a spell belongs to, or when looking up a skill,
    use ( HELP SCHOOLS OF SKILL ) and the skill's help page.

11) Criteria:  This is a short summary of the importance of
    certain statistics for this guild. The higher the
    prefix, the more emphasis is put onto the statistic, as
    every skill/spell's potential is affected by a certain
    skill or stat. Although you can get by with mediocre
    stats, it will certainly impose limits to your power
    when choosing a race that does not improve the important
    stats very well.  While this can help, it is generally
    not as critical as some other factors, like alignment
    or hermetic/spiritual maximums.

12) Race Suggestions:  Some races are better suited for
    certain guilds than others, as their natural statistic
    improvement complements the criteria of the guild.
    Unless you know what you're doing, you should pick one
    of the races listed as a good match by the 'mesh'
    command, or just pick "Human" as they are an all around
    average race with no special quirks you'd have to worry
    about. Don't let this suggestion keep you from choosing
    a race you like, though; Chances are you'll get along
    just fine in most cases, and after all, it's all about
    having fun.