Help command

Help
Display help information on many systems within the game.
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The HELP command provides information on many system within the game. For example, HELP MAGIC lists various topics about how to use magic.

HELP

The HELP verb is your resource for all kinds of helpful information. In order to find the information that you're looking for, there are a few ways you can look for your information.

1. You can type "HELP CATEGORIES" to list the different help categories available to you. Then, you can follow the directions there to get information on a specific help item.
2. You can type "HELP SEARCH [KEYWORDS]" to find all help pages with those keywords. Example: "HELP SEARCH GUILD"
3. If you know the name of the help topic that you want, you can simply type "HELP [TOPIC]". For example, you might type "HELP COMBAT" or "HELP MERCHANT."
4. Finally, you can use "HELP VERB [VERB NAME]" to get helpful information on a specific verb or command.

HELP ADVICE

This section of HELP is full of pieces of advice meant to help a player that is completely new to DragonRealms.

INVENTORY     [Tells what you are wearing and carrying]
HEALTH        [Tells you of wounds and afflictions]
INFO          [Tells you of your vital statistics]
EXPerience    [Tells you of your skills]
WEALTH        [Tells you of your money and debts]
LOOK          [Looks at the room you are in]
SET           [Controls screen scroll.  NOTE:  ! is a flag for OFF]
STORE         [Used to set default containers to STOW items in]
DEMEANOR      [Used to set your character s overall attitude]
BEFRIEND      [Used to set a demeanor up for another person]
PROFILE       [Please see HELP PROFILE]


To read more about useful commands like how to speak and move, type HELP COMMAND.
For armor advice, type HELP ADVICE 1
For death and favor advice, type HELP ADVICE 2
For game policy advice, type HELP ADVICE 3
For theft and jail advice, type HELP ADVICE 4
For advice on contacting the GameMasters, type HELP ADVICE 5
For Non-Player Character (NPC) advice, type HELP ADVICE 6
For general tips on several topics, type HELP ADVICE 7
For player submitted tips, type HELP ADVICE 8

For common In Character phrases, visit https://elanthipedia.play.net/mediawiki/index.php/OOC_Euphemisms

Player-owned shops

Traders who own their own shops have access to additional help options while inside their shop:

HELP BASICS

Shops are complex things, but they have only a few basic components - The Sales floor, on which all transactions are done, and the back room, where records and backstock are stored. In general, the SHOP verb will be your central resource for manipulating your shop. Using this verb, you can control the mood of your shop, how it looks, how long people are kicked out for, who an item is reserved for, and so on.

To get started, you might not want your shop called '{Character}'s Shop'. Changing this charges your shop's account five platinum of the local currency, and is immediately effective. You can use 'SHOP SETUP NAME [NAME OF YOUR SHOP]' to do this.

Note: The actual command is SHOP NAME [NAME OF YOUR SHOP], not SHOP SETUP NAME as the in-game text suggests.

After you've settled on a name, you might want to start selling items! A new shop starts with only one surface to sell things from - a table. You can purchase additional or replacement surfaces for your shop, but we'll get to that later. In order to sell things from your shop, you can use 'SELL [ITEM] FOR [AMOUNT]'.

Whenever an item is purchased, the amount that the customer purchased it for is taken to the back room and stored in your coffers. In addition, a note is made in your sales ledger about the sale, so you can review it later. Money in your coffers is NOT directly accessible - You can only withdraw as much as you've earned.

Expenses, such as changing the name of your shop, follow a similar pattern. The charge is added to your account, and when the pay period ends, that amount is charged to your shop.

The base cost of rent per month is 60 plat per month. The base cost is increased by the number of surfaces that you have as follows:

1 surface: .75 plat

2 surfaces: 3 plat

3 surfaces: 6.75 plat

4 surfaces: 12 plat

5 surfaces: 18.75 plat

6 surfaces: 21.75 plat

7 surfaces: 24.75 plat

8 surfaces: 27.75 plat

After the total is calculated, the rent is scaled by location (Crossing is charged full price):

Riverhaven: 50%

Shard: 25%

This amount is then charged at the end of a pay period.

Pay periods are {number} Elanthian days, [or {number} RL days]. This is exactly two Elanthian months, and occurs at beginning of the first, third, fifth, seventh, and ninth months of every Elanthian year. When a pay period ends, several things happen:

- Your expenses are charged to your store's bank account.

- Your rent is also charged to your store's bank account.

- Your earnings are added to your store's bank account.

- Your expenses and earnings are reset in anticipation of the next pay period.

If your shop's balance becomes too negative for too long, you may be evicted by the plaza owners. You may deposit any amount of money into your shop's bank account at any time, and may withdraw any positive amount of money in the bank account as well. When you perform a withdrawal, the money is transferred directly into your local bank by a secured courier - No need to worry about thieves!

Your shop's currency is the same as its local province - Kronars for Zoluren, Lirums for Therengia, etc.

Please read any of the other help sections in order to get a deeper understanding of any of these topics.

HELP OPENING

The first thing you have to do to get customers into your shop is to open your shop. Your shop is always open as long as you are out on the sales floor - As long as you are there to monitor your customers and accept payment, the shop will be open. When your shop is open and you are on the sales floor, you will receive trading experience for any sales made. Leaving your shop untended for too long will result in the guards closing it down until you return.

If you would like your shop to be open when you're not there, you can use the SHOP SCHEDULE command to coordinate those hours. For times when your shop is scheduled to be open but you are not present, you will not gain any trading experience for sales made. Additionally, in order to pay the staff that tend to your shop while you're away, the associates will take a 3% commission from any sales that they make.

Be aware that it is dangerous to leave your shop untended for too long - Issues may arise that negatively impact your shop, and if you run out of stock on your sales floor, your shop will not be earning any money.

HELP SURFACES

Surfaces consist of everything that you can sell something on, be it a table, a rack, a hook, etc. While the name may be slightly confusing, you will find that the only thing as important as customers are sales surfaces. Without surfaces, you can have no merchandise, and thus no sales.

The Guild has several restrictions in place regarding the number of surfaces that you can have in your shop, both in total and the number on your sales floor at a given time. Initially, you are allowed to have one sales surface in your shop in total, and that surface is allowed to be on the sales floor. The Guild allows for one additional sales surface in your shop (between your backroom AND your sales floor) for every ten circles you achieve beyond thirtieth. Additionally, you are allowed to have one additional sales surface on your sales floor for every fifteen circles you achieve past thirtieth. The maximum number of surfaces allowed on the sales floor at any time is 5, and the maximum total in your shop is 8.

That's all a little confusing, so here are some examples. At fortieth circle, you can have one additional sales surface in your shop, for a total of two sales surfaces. However, since you can still only have one sales surface on your sales floor, your second one must be in the backroom. At ninetieth circle, you will be allowed six additional surfaces in your shop (for a total of 7), and four additional surfaces on your sales floor (for a total of five). This means that at 90th circle, you can have a maximum of 5 surfaces on your sales floor, with the remaining two in the back room.

Surfaces in the back room can be PUSHed onto the sales floor, and surfaces on the sales floor can be PUSHed into the back room. This lets you swap out an empty surface with a full surface, keeping your sales floor fresh without having to set out inventory while the customers are watching.

To acquire new sales surfaces, you need to buy them from a furniture gallery. See HELP FURNITURE for more information on where to find furniture galleries.

You can re-sell your surfaces to a furniture gallery by using SELL [SURFACE]. The galleries will generally purchase used furniture for half of its initial value. You can only sell a surface that is both empty and in the back room.

HELP MERCHANDISE

Without goods, a shop is nothing more than an empty shell. Sure, the flowers on the counter might look pretty, but the real reason customers come into your shop (and the reason you have it open!) is so they can buy things.

To put a good up for sale, simply hold the item that you want to sell, and use the SELL verb in either of these ways:

SELL LONGSWORD FOR 500

SELL LONGSWORD FOR 500 ON RACK

If you do not specify which surface you want to sell the items on, a random surface with space on it will be selected.

Surfaces can only hold a maximum of 20 items. This includes items inside containers, so if you sell a backpack with nineteen hats inside, you won't be able to sell anything else on that surface. It's much easier to sell items that are empty!

If you have put an item up for sale and want to remove it, you can use SHOP REMOVE [ITEM], which will let you retrieve your merchandise.

HELP PEOPLE

Customers - the bread and butter of every shop. Customers come in all shapes and sizes, and in all manner of social class. From barbarian warlords to worldly clerics to simple peasants, all types of folk will pass through your shop during its tenure. Sometimes, though, customers can become unruly, or downright disruptive. Thankfully, as the owner of this shop, you have the ability to manage your customers.

For the good customers, you have some facilities for bargaining. You can reserve an item for a customer using the syntax SHOP RESERVE [ITEM] FOR [CUSTOMER]. This allows an item to be set aside for a particular customer, giving them time to retrieve money from the bank, or granting them a specifically reduced price.

To re-price an item, you can use SHOP PRICE [ITEM] AT [VALUE]. This allows you the flexibility as a merchant to change your prices as demand and interest changes. Be aware, though, that changing the price of an item renders it unsalable for thirty seconds, allowing customers the chance to be aware of the price change.

For the customers that you don't want in your shop, you have two options as well. If a customer is being disruptive and you'd like him removed from your shop, you can use SHOP REMOVE [CUSTOMER]. This will kick the specified customer out of your shop, and he will be kept out by the guards for a number of anlaen. By default, this number is 2, but you can change it by using SHOP SETUP TIMES REMOVAL #.

Note: The actual command is SHOP TIMERS REMOVAL #, not SHOP SETUP TIMES REMOVAL as the in-game text suggests.

For bad customers that keep coming back, you have the option to blacklist a customer. Blacklisting a customer is serious business, and in order to spread the word throughout the plaza and its guards, it will cost you a nominal fee of one silver per Elanthian week (Real Life day) that you will be blacklisting them for.

To blacklist a customer, use the syntax SHOP BLACKLIST [CUSTOMER]. You can blacklist a customer for up to 90 Elanthian weeks, at which point he or she will be allowed back in your shop. Keep in mind that you can only blacklist fifty customers at a time. To remove a customer from the blacklist, you can use SHOP BLACKLIST [CUSTOMER] REMOVE.

HELP BACKROOM

The back room of your shop is a combination of staging area and office. Here, you can stock sales surfaces in preparation for moving them out to the sales floor, and you can review your books. If customers are annoying you, you can also use this place as a refuge while your associates take care of business.

If you'd like information on stocking your surfaces, you can use HELP MERCHANDISE for that information.

To access your records, your most important tool will be the sales ledger that sits on the cabinet. This ledger has three sections - Sales, Expenses, and Income. The Income section holds information about how your shop fares from pay period to pay period, as well as various other things related to your shop's bank. It records the state of your shop at the end of the pay period, as well as other pieces of information that might be useful to you as the shop owner.

The Expenses section will be your most detailed source of information. It can have up to six pages, each with 25 records each. When you fill up your last page, the first page will become unavailable. This section of your ledger will track all of your expenses, deposits, withdrawals, and end of pay period summaries.

The Sales section contains six pages of sales history, each page with 25 records. When you fill up the last page, the first *two page* will become unavailable, and so forth. All of your sales are recorded for reference in this ledger, including who made the purchase and what he purchased.

To navigate to each section, you must simply TURN LEDGER TO [SECTION]. When you turn to a section, the most recent page will be displayed. Please note that records are written on the page from the top down - the most recent record is displayed at the bottom of the page.

To turn to a specific page in a section, you must simply TURN LEDGER TO PAGE #.

HELP EXPENSES

Expenses in your shop can come in the form of many things - Changing its name, repairing damage done by random events, or any number of other things. These expenses accumulate over the course of a given pay period, and when your rent comes due, your expenses are applied to your shop's account.

Expenses can be offset by depositing money into your shop's account, or by earning money from making sales. You can view HELP BACKROOM for a full list of the activities that can be performed back there. If your shop loses too much money without having income or deposits to support it, you may be evicted. View HELP EVICTION for more information about that.

HELP EVENTS

As your shop gains popularity, your customers will become many and varied. Unfortunately, this can lead to all sorts of incidents occurring that might not be ideal, but are nonetheless permanent. These events aren't too frequent, but as the occur, they will affect how your shop looks - some tracks of mud, splintered walls, or swollen floorboards can all affect the look and feel of your shop.

Fortunately, there is recourse. For every broken floorboard, there's a carpenter willing to fix it. You can hire these repairmen to take care of the various issues of your shop by typing REPAIR [ISSUE]. They will charge you a fee, depending on the severity and frequency of the issue, and will have it all cleaned up in no time.

If you're the stingy type, or just like working with your hands, you can take some matters into your own hands. While some issues are insurmountable without the help of an expert, a lot of issues can be resolved with a bit of effort on your part. For instance, if there are muddy tracks in your shop, you might try SWEEPing at them to clean them off of the ground. If mold has begun to grow along the back wall, you might try to CLEAN it. Solving these problems yourself costs nothing, and builds character.

To find out if there are any issues with your shop, you can use REPAIR LIST. This will list the issues currently affecting your shop, as well as the cost to repair them. Be warned that as time goes on, issues may become more expensive to fix.

HELP FURNITURE

Furniture is the lifeblood of every shop. No matter what store you think of, the very first thing thing that jumps to mind is the decor - Is it trim and proper? Or cluttered and disorganized? Are the tables made of cheap pine or expensive granite? All of these questions are yours to answer for your shop.

There is currently only one place to buy furniture - in the Crossing Plaza, near the entrance. If you wander around, you'll find it soon enough. This shop sells you the basics to set up any shop, from tables to replacement floorboards. The furniture here is simple at best - The grander, harder to find furniture will become available in due course.

Buying furniture at a furniture gallery will never charge you outright, and will always charge your shop instead. Additionally, any surfaces that you buy from the Crossing location will be able to have their noun changed if you use the ADJUST verb on them (while in the backroom, while they're empty). This allows even more customization to your shop - By reassembling your furniture in new and unique ways, you can make your shop look even more like you want it to.

Be aware that the ability mentioned in the previous paragraph does NOT necessarily extend to all surfaces - it is specifically designed for basic furniture, so you can achieve a wide variety with a limited selection.

HELP EVICTION

If your shop ends its pay period with more than your 20 plat owed to the Plaza for three months without earning any money, your shop will be forced closed and your tenancy will be ended. The amount of money that you owe the Plaza will be applied to your debt in the province that the plaza resides in, and will have a handling fee assessed on top of that. Your best bet will always be to stay as current as possible with your rent!

If you do get evicted, you can retrieve the items from your shop by going to the plaza office and asking the plaza owner for your goods. He will return them to you in a market box, which you can do with what you please. See HELP CLOSING for more details on what happens to the rest of your shop.

HELP CLOSING

Sometimes, it's time to throw in the towel. Whether your shop just isn't faring as well as you'd hoped, or you want to move to Hibarnhvidar, you need to close your shop. In order to do this, you can go to the clerk of the plaza where your shop resides and ask him about CLOSING your shop. He will make sure that that's your true intention, and will eventually close down your shop for you.

Once your shop is closed, any excess income you had will be transferred into your local bank. If you were in debt, that debt will be charged to your debt for your shop's province, along with a 10% administrative fee. You will no longer be able to access your shop, and your goods will be hauled off to a warehouse.

In order to retrieve your goods, you can ask the clerk for your goods. He will have the haulers gather the goods from your shop and return them to you in a market box. The rest of the items in your shop, such as custom counters and wall panelling, will be stored in the warehouse as well, for your next shop. One particular exception to this is the entrance to your shop. The entrance to your shop will NOT betaken to the warehouse, as it is technically Plaza property. Any change that you had made to it will remain in the plaza for the next lucky tenant.

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Additional Information

• Player owned shop
• SHOP