[SnowTroll]

Things to definitely NOT include:

Slow-moving, forced content. Most mud players read fast, and the ones that don't can take their time. If I have to wait for slow-moving, timed paragraphs to be spit at me for any part of the newbie introduction, I log out. I should be able to zoom through newbie content as fast as I care to, just skimming the parts I don't care to read in detail (I know darn well to type n/s/e/w to move and want to get to the parts where I actually learn something unique about the mud, but it's fine to keep that content for genuinely new mudders.)

Generic content unrelated to your mud. General rooms leftover from your mud's stock newbie area that tell me about reading signs and killing mobs, that haven't been rewritten to explain to me anything worthwhile about the mud I'm playing are a waste of time.

Restricted content. If I log into your mud and find out that as a newbie, I can't type things like "who" or "score" or use any of the main channels until I "learn" about these things through the newbie area, effectively isolating me from the rest of the playerbase and preventing me from getting a feel for your mud atmosphere and interface on my own, that's a big turnoff. If you're afraid seeing your playerbase acting like idiots on the general gossip channel is going to run off newbies, it's on you to regulate your mud better, not to hide the idiots from newbies for their first hour of gameplay.

Things to definitely include:

Practical content that both tells me and gives me a feel for what actual day to day gameplay in the mud is like. If it's an RP mud, I need to know how your unique targeted emote system works and see some examples of what sort of prose is normal and know whether I'm required to describe my character, write a background, etc., and when and to what extent, and enough about the lore to get me started so I'm not a total idiot when I meet my first other player, but not pages and pages of mandatory reading (I'll browse your website in my spare time if I like the mud and want to keep playing -- don't force it on me when I'm still deciding or I'll just log out.) If it's an exploration, questing, or combat oriented mud, I want to know about geography and searching/exploring commands, and maps, or how quests work and what I can get with quest rewards, or how the mud's combat engine functions and some initial strategies, or if I can craft, how that works. By the time I'm done with the newbie stuff, I need to have a good feel, in less than an hour, for how my first day in the "real" part of the mud should go. Otherwise, the newbie content failed.

Content that can be completed in under an hour, and preferably under half an hour. I can always take my time and read slower, repeat parts if I want to try a few more things out, read additional help files, ask for advice and pose questions for other players on channels, and learn on my own.

A general helpfile that tells me, with no vagueness and perfect clarity, the syntax for the 20-50 most common commands I'm going to be using. If your mud has a unique command to do something or a unique feature I'm going to be using a lot, I need a quick reference helpfile rather than having to remember what I'm supposed to be looking for help on every time I want to look up a unique feature of your mud.