A growing concern of mine about people who get into muds is that they don't know the system. It seems like a fun game to them, but having to learn all the new commands and jargon is daunting. So they decide it's not very fun and give up before really playing. So, having said all this, here's Tyran's quick and dirty guide to getting you able to play a mud without the long descriptions of the newbie school (the school kind of, uh, sucks anyway). It's the second of a two-part mud primer, and will be a shoddily done list as follows:

Navigation

n/e/s/w/u/d - These are the commands for 'north', 'east', 'south', 'west', 'up', and 'down', respectively. Used for most navigation.

"Exits: alternexus, baron, narshe, school, tycoon, and coneria." - These are the exits in the Nexus of the Worlds, where you automatically start off. In general, you can leave in the "direction" of every exit simply by typing it (e.g. type "coneria" to go to coneria).

'run' - Runs from combat. You can also simply try to move in a certain direction to run (e.g. type 's' while fighting).

Communication

'tune in' - I always tell people to do this, simply because channels aren't automatic and you miss a lot of (sometimes inane, sometimes good) conversation over public channels this way.

'who' - This shows you who's online. Don't be discouraged if there's a low player base, it doesn't reflect on the game's quality.

'look' or 'l' - Displays what room you're in, its description, and anyone currently in it. The look command will also work on players (displaying their descriptions, if any, and inventory, if any) and items (displaying their descriptions).

'say [message]' - Sends a message to the room you're in. Fairly obvious.

'tell [player name] [message]' - Sends a message to a certain player, esper, or admin.

Gameplay - Basics

'equipment', 'un/wield [weapon name]', 'un/equip [equipment name]' - Shows you what equipment you're wearing. The second two are the commands to put on and take off gear.

'list' - Lists items sold in a shop.

'buy [item]', 'sell [item]' - Buys or sells an item, if you're in a shop.

'ask [npc] about [topic]' - Asks an npc about a topic. If they know about it, they'll tell you. If they don't, they'll say so. If they're not a 'smart mob', they'll stare at you blankly. Commonly 'ask [npc] about list' will make them show you a list of topics they know about.

Gameplay - Combat

'kill [npc]' - Attempts to kill an npc. If you're in a room that you can't kill people in, you'll be informed. If the npc can't be attacked, you'll be informed.

'[spell name] [target]' - Casts a spell you know at a target you supply. The target is optional if you're currently fighting. Healing spells will automatically target yourself.

'[skill name] [target] - See above.

'get all from corpse', 'decapitate corpse', 'bury corpse', 'drag corpse', 'drag stop' - Various commands to interact with corpses. This should be self explanatory. Dragging corpses is useful for bounty shops.

'sell head/skin/bones/body' - Sells remnants of corpses (or the corpse itself) at a bounty shop. You'll need the Hunter class to skin or debone a corpse.