# Avrae Tiny Survival Guide

So, you have made a character. You have entered Luna Pines. Someone has asked you to roll Perception and suddenly everyone is shouting strange things beginning with `!`.

**Do not panic.**

That is Avrae: our helpful Discord dice-rolling, character-tracking, spell-casting, initiative-running robot wizard.

You **do not need to memorise Avrae** before you can play here. Most of us have been using it for years and still occasionally stare at it like it has betrayed us.

Here are the important bits.

### The “I just want to play D&D” commands

- Check which character Avrae currently has loaded: `!char`
- Make a skill check: `!c Perception`
- Make a saving throw: `!s Dexterity`
- Make an attack: `!a Longsword`
- Cast a spell: `!cast "Healing Word"`
- Take a long rest: `!g lr`
- Show a handy little summary of your HP, AC and character resources: `!qstat`

That will get you through a surprising amount of Macguffins.

### Macguffins has some extra toys

We have a collection of **Server Aliases** (commands built to make common things easier) and **Server Snippets**, which are little modifiers you can add onto rolls.

For example:

`!c Stealth guidance`

adds Guidance to the check.

You may also see commands such as `!qstat`, `!xp`, `!bag`, `!rest`, `!dmi` and a small army of class-specific commands. Don't worry about learning them all at once.

If a server alias supports it, adding `?` will often show you its help.

### Quests, Arena and the strange case of having two versions of yourself

If your character is doing more than one thing at once e.g. perhaps a Quest and an Arena match, we use **timelines** so the damage, spell slots and resources from one don't eat the other.

You will probably encounter:

`!qt`

There is a proper explanation in the full guide. For now, just know that timelines exist specifically to stop your Arena self and Quest self from fighting over the same hit points.

### Want the proper explanation?

Head to [**Using Avrae**](https://macguffins.org/books/3-slightly-technical-stuff/page/using-avrae "Using Avrae") in *Slightly Technical Stuff* for the full Macguffins guide.

There you will find:

- **Using Avrae** which includes rolls, combat, spells, `!qstat`, timelines and troubleshooting
- **Server Aliases** which includes Macguffins' collection of useful custom commands
- **Server Snippets** which includes handy modifiers you can add directly to rolls

And if what you need isn't Macguffins-specific, Avrae itself has extensive official documentation.

Most importantly: **you are allowed to ask for help.**

Nobody expects a new player to arrive knowing Avrae, every server alias, seventeen snippets and the ritual necessary to persuade Discord search to find a post from Tuesday.

Roll some dice. Break something. We'll help.