---
canonical: https://darkpawns.org/docs/reference/glossary/
title: "Glossary"
description: "Look up the game terms and abbreviations used in Dark Pawns help, player guides, and server documentation, from AC to vnum."
type: reference
audience: players
verified: v0.1.8
---

Short definitions for the terms and abbreviations that show up in the game and these docs. When a term has its own in-game help entry, you can type `help <term>` inside the world for the full original text.

| Term | Meaning |
| --- | --- |
| **AC** | Armor class, your defensive rating (`help AC`). Lower is better: an `ac-apply` of 10 equals an armor rating of `-10`. Check yours with `score`. |
| **AFK** | Away from keyboard. Toggles an automatic notice when someone sends you a `tell` while you're off getting a beer (`help AFK`). |
| **Constitution** | Your physical toughness and resurrection budget. Every time you die, you have a chance to lose 1 point of Constitution; drop below 1 and you are dead forever (`help DEATH`). |
| **GRGOD** | Greater God, staff level 38. Minimum rank to save welcome messages (`tedit`) and manage most player flags. |
| **guild** | A class-restricted training hall where your guildmaster lets you `practice` skills and spells (`help GUILD`). |
| **HIGOD** | High God, staff level 36. Minimum rank to edit saved characters, Lua scripts, and outbound notifications. |
| **HP** | Hit points. Dropping to `0` through `-10` leaves you stunned, incapacitated, or mortally wounded on the floor; at `-11` you die, your equipment stays in your corpse, and you wake up at the temple altar. |
| **immortal** | Any staff character at level 31 or higher. |
| **implementor** | Staff level 40 (`IMPL`), the highest rank on a server. |
| **linkdead** | Still standing in the room after your connection dropped. `help LINK` promises you'll auto-flee if attacked, but staff commented that out in 1999 because players abused it (`src/fight.c`). You just stand there taking hits, and you still count toward your 3-character limit (`help MULTI`). |
| **mob** | A mobile non-player monster or citizen roaming the world. At level 24, some high-level mobs cop an `attitude` and attack on sight (`help ATTITUDE`). |
| **MOTD** | Message of the day, the welcome screen shown when a mortal or immortal enters the game. |
| **MP** | Mana points, spent when casting spells. |
| **MUD** | Multi-user dungeon, a text-based multiplayer game. Also used as a verb. |
| **MV** | Movement points, spent walking between rooms and on certain combat skills. Heavier terrain costs more movement. |
| **newbie** | A player who is new to MUDding, or new to Dark Pawns (`help NEWBIE`). |
| **PK** | Player killing. Governed by level ranges and city rules; see `help PK` before starting a feud. |
| **practice** | The command used at your guildmaster to train skills and spells (`help PRACTICE`). Typing `practice` outside your guild lists what you already know. |
| **recall** | Snaps you back to your hometown temple (`help RECALL`), unless the room you're standing in is flagged `BFR` (bad for recall). |
| **remort** | Starting over at level 1 in an advanced class (such as Assassin or Avatar) after reaching level 30 (`help REMORT`). |
| **rent** | A fee some MUDs charge at an inn to keep your gear overnight. Dark Pawns has no rent: `quit` in your hometown temple and your equipment saves for free. Quit outside a safe room with `reallyquit` and your items drop on the ground (`help QUIT`). |
| **tank** | The character at the front of a group taking the enemy's swings while the rest of the party heals or stabs from behind. |
| **THAC0** | To-hit armor class zero, the roll math that decides whether your swing connects. |
| **vnum** | Virtual number, the unique ID for a room, mob, or object prototype in the world files. |
| **WHOD** | The Who daemon, a separate port that serves the online player list to external status pages. |
| **zone** | A numbered region of the world files grouping rooms, mobs, objects, shops, and timed reset rules. |

## Related

- [Your first hour](/docs/play/first-hour/)
- [Commands](/docs/reference/commands/)