Skip to content

Player Guide

Jump to bottom
Jack Perry Jr edited this page Apr 24, 2026 · 1 revision

Meridian — Player Guide

Meridian is a DragonRealms game client for Windows, Mac, and Linux. It connects directly to the DragonRealms servers and gives you a clean, modern window for playing — with live vitals, room info, experience tracking, highlights, and optional Lich scripting support.

Table of Contents

  1. Installation
  2. Logging in for the first time
  3. Logging in on future visits
  4. The game window
  5. Panels
  6. Command input
  7. Highlights
  8. Settings
  9. Lich scripting
  10. Troubleshooting

Installation

  1. Go to the Releases page on GitHub.
  2. Download the file for your operating system:
    • Windows: Meridian-Setup-x.x.x.exe
    • Mac: Meridian-x.x.x.dmg
    • Linux: Meridian-x.x.x.AppImage
  3. Run the installer. On Windows, you may see a SmartScreen warning that says "Windows protected your PC." Click More info, then Run anyway. This happens because the app is not yet signed with a paid code-signing certificate — it is safe.
  4. Meridian will open automatically after installation.

Logging in for the first time

When you open Meridian for the first time, you will see the Sign in screen.

  1. Enter your Simutronics account name (the username you use on the Simutronics website or in other clients like StormFront or Wizard).
  2. Enter your password.
  3. Click Sign in.

Meridian will connect to the Simutronics login servers. If you have access to multiple DragonRealms game instances (e.g. Prime, Platinum, The Fallen), you will be asked to Choose server. Select the one you want.

Next, you will see the Choose character screen. Click your character's name to enter the game.

Meridian saves your account name automatically so you don't have to type it every time.

Logging in on future visits

After your first login, Meridian shows a Welcome back screen listing your saved accounts. Click your account name to jump straight to the password screen. Your last-played character will be noted beside your name for reference.

  • + Add account — adds a new account to the list
  • ⚙ Settings — opens the settings screen (see Settings)

The game window

Once you are in the game, the window is divided into two areas:

┌─────────────────────────────────────┬──────────────────┐
│                                     │  Room            │
│         Main game output            │  Vitals          │
│         (scrolling text)            │  Experience      │
│                                     │  Active Spells   │
├─────────────────────────────────────┴──────────────────┤
│ > command input                                         │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Status bar: connection · Lich · hands · Settings        │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Left / main area — This is the scrolling game output. Everything the game sends — room descriptions, combat, conversations, system messages — appears here.

Right sidebar — Info panels that update automatically as you play (see Panels).

Command bar — Type commands here and press Enter to send them.

Status bar — Shows whether you are connected, your Lich status, what is in your hands, and quick buttons for Settings and Highlights.

Panels

The right sidebar contains collapsible panels that track different types of game information.

Turning panels on or off

Click the ⊞ Panels button at the top of the sidebar to open the panel manager. Check or uncheck any panel to show or hide it. Your choices are remembered between sessions.

Resizing panels

Drag the thin resize handle at the bottom of any panel to make it taller or shorter.

Collapsing panels

Click the ▾ button in a panel's title bar (or double-click the title bar) to collapse it. Click again to expand.

Closing a panel

Click the × in the panel's title bar. You can re-add it any time via ⊞ Panels.

Room

Shows your current location: the room name, description, and clickable exits. Click any exit direction (e.g. north, southwest) to move that way automatically.

Vitals

Shows your four core stats as percentage bars:

Label Stat
HP Health
MP Mana / Concentration
SP Stamina
ST Spirit

Below the bars:

  • ENC — Your current encumbrance level (e.g. None, Light Burden, Heavy Burden). Type enc in the command bar to refresh it.
  • RT badge — Appears when you are in roundtime, counting down in seconds.
  • Indicator badges — Game status flags (bleeding, stunned, prone, etc.) appear as small labels when active.

Experience

Shows the skills you have recently practiced, along with their rank and learning percentage. Type exp in the command bar to load or refresh the list.

Columns: Skill name | Rank | % toward next rank | Mind state (e.g. Perusing, Dabbling, Attentive)

Active Spells

Shows the name of the spell you currently have active (if any).

Combat

A scrolling log of recent combat messages — attacks, blocks, critical hits, etc. — separated from the main output so you can review combat history without scrolling up through unrelated text.

Atmosphere

A scrolling log of atmospheric messages — ambient events, weather, NPC movements. Useful for roleplaying or spotting rare events without them being buried in combat text.

Conversation

A scrolling log of speech, whispers, and thoughts (telepathy). All spoken text, party chat, and thinkto messages appear here so you can follow conversations even during busy combat.

Inventory

Shows the contents of your inventory. Type inv in the command bar to load or refresh it.

Command input

The command bar at the bottom of the screen works like any other DragonRealms client:

  • Type a command and press Enter to send it.
  • Press ↑ Arrow Up to recall previous commands (command history, up to 100 entries).
  • Press ↓ Arrow Down to move forward through history.

The R: and L: display in the status bar shows what you are holding in each hand, updated automatically as you pick things up or put them down.

Highlights

Highlights let you color-code text in the main output window. For example, you could highlight your character's name in gold, or make healing messages appear in green.

Open the Highlights editor by clicking ✦ Highlights in the status bar.

Adding a highlight

  1. Click + Add highlight.
  2. Type the word or phrase you want to highlight in the pattern field.
  3. Click a color swatch to set the text color.
  4. Click Save (or your changes save automatically as you type).

Options

Expand a highlight row by clicking ▼ to access extra options:

  • Regular expression — Use a regex pattern instead of plain text (for advanced users).
  • Bold — Make matched text bold.
  • Text color — The color applied to the matched text.
  • Background — A background color behind the matched text.

Enabling / disabling

Use the checkbox on the left of each highlight row to turn it on or off without deleting it.

Deleting a highlight

Click the × on the right side of the row.

Settings

Click ⚙ Settings in the status bar to open the settings dialog.

Theme

Choose from several color themes for the game window. Themes change the background color, text colors, accent colors, and how vitals bars look. The preview shows a sample of each theme's colors. Click a theme to select it — it applies immediately.

Display

  • Font family — Choose the font used in the main output: Cascadia Code, Fira Code, Consolas, Courier New, or a generic monospace font.
  • Font size — Drag the slider to adjust the text size (10–18 px).

Lich

If you use Lich for scripting, set the path to your lich.rbw file here (see Lich scripting). Leave this blank if Meridian detects Lich automatically.

Click Save to apply changes.

Lich scripting

Lich is a third-party Ruby scripting engine for GemStone and DragonRealms. Meridian can launch Lich for you after you connect, so your scripts run alongside the game.

Setup

  1. Install Ruby and Lich5 on your computer by following the instructions at the Lich Project website.
  2. Open Meridian's ⚙ Settings and set the Lich path to the full path of your lich.rbw file (e.g. C:\Ruby4Lich5\Lich5\lich.rbw). If you installed Lich in the default location, Meridian may detect it automatically.

Using Lich

Once you are connected to the game, the status bar shows a Lich indicator:

  • ○ Start Lich — Lich is not running. Click to launch it.
  • ◌ Lich starting… — Lich is connecting.
  • ● Lich active — Lich is running. Your scripts are available.
  • ✕ Retry Lich — Something went wrong. Click to try again.

Click ▸ log / ▾ log to show or hide Lich's startup log, useful for diagnosing problems.

If you do not use Lich, you can ignore this indicator entirely. Meridian works fine as a standalone client without it.

Troubleshooting

Windows shows a virus / SmartScreen warning when I try to install. This is expected for unsigned applications. Click More info, then Run anyway. The installer is safe.

The vitals bars show 0% or the wrong values. Vitals update automatically as the game sends data. If they look wrong right after connecting, type any command (e.g. health) to prompt the server to send a fresh update.

ENC always shows "None" even when I am burdened. The server only sends encumbrance text when you type the enc command. Type enc to refresh it. It does not update automatically when you pick up or drop items.

Experience panel is empty. Type exp in the command bar. The server only sends experience data when you ask for it.

Inventory panel is empty. Type inv in the command bar.

I cannot see the DevTools / the app seems stuck. Press F12 to open the developer tools window, which may show error messages useful for troubleshooting.

Lich fails to start.

  • Confirm the path to lich.rbw is correct in ⚙ Settings.
  • Make sure Ruby is installed and working on your computer.
  • Click ▸ log in the status bar to read Lich's startup output for error details.

I need to log in with a different account. From the Welcome back screen, click + Add account. To remove a saved account, there is currently no in-app delete button — this will be added in a future update.

Meridian is an unofficial, community-made client. DragonRealms is a product of Simutronics Corp.

Clone this wiki locally