The Forge — LPC Exercises for 3Kingdoms

A hands-on coding curriculum for learning LPC programming on 3Kingdoms MUD. Each chapter pairs with a section of the 3K Code Primer, giving you practical exercises to reinforce every concept you read about.

Work through 21 chapters, 56 exercises, and a capstone project that takes you from "Hello Mud" to building a complete dungeon area.

Getting Started

1. Download this repository — click the green Code button above and choose Download ZIP, or clone with git:

   git clone https://github.com/locrian3k/the-forge.git
   

2. Open the lessons — open web/index.html in your browser. This is your home page with navigation to every chapter.
3. Read a chapter in the browser, then open the matching exercise starter file in your text editor and fill in the TODOs.
4. Compare your work against the solution files when you are done.

No MUD access, compiler, or special tools are needed. Just a browser and a text editor.

Repository Layout

the-forge/
  web/                    Lesson pages (open index.html in your browser)
    index.html            Home page with chapter grid
    style.css             Dark theme stylesheet
    exercises.js          Progress tracker (saves in your browser)
    chapters/             One HTML page per chapter (0-21)
  exercises/              Starter files with TODOs for you to complete
    ch01_intro/           Chapter 1 exercises
    ch02_types/           Chapter 2 exercises
    ...                   (ch03 through ch21)
  solutions/              Fully commented reference implementations
    ch01_intro/           Chapter 1 solutions
    ch02_types/           Chapter 2 solutions
    ...                   (ch03 through ch21)
  reference/              Quick-reference cheatsheets
    cheatsheet-types.md   One per major topic
    glossary.md           MUD and LPC terminology
  capstone/               Final project templates
    README.md             Capstone overview and phases
    standard/             Standard room track
    dungeon/              3K dungeon room track
    phases/               Phase-by-phase guidance

Curriculum Overview

Language Basics (Chapters 1-10)

Chapter	Topic	Exercises
0	The Big Picture	—
1	Introduction	2
2	Types	2
3	Variables	2
4	Operators	3
5	Mappings & Arrays	2
6	Functions	3
7	Control Structures	3
8	Modifiers	2
9	Preprocessor	2
10	Inheritance	3

Building Blocks (Chapters 11-14)

Chapter	Topic	Exercises
11	Code Style	2
12	Driver Functions	3
13	Rooms	4
14	Objects	2

Game Systems (Chapters 15-19)

Chapter	Topic	Exercises
15	Weapons	2
16	Armor	2
17	Monsters	3
18	Putting It Together	4
19	Advanced Topics	4

3K Extensions (Chapters 20-21)

Chapter	Topic	Exercises
20	Dungeon Rooms	3
21	Dungeon Integration	3

Two Learning Tracks

Every exercise is tagged as one of two difficulty tiers:

• Apprentice — Core exercises covering fundamentals. Start here if you are new to LPC or programming in general.
• Journeyman — Deeper challenges that combine multiple concepts, debug existing code, or tackle real-world MUD patterns.

You can do just one track or both.

How to Use This Curriculum

1. Read the primer chapter — each lesson page links to the corresponding section of the 3K Code Primer.
2. Read the lesson page — open the chapter in web/chapters/ for concept recaps, detailed requirements, and hints.
3. Write your code — open the matching starter file from exercises/ in your text editor. Follow the TODO comments.
4. Check your work — compare against the solution in solutions/. The solutions are heavily commented to explain the reasoning.
5. Track your progress — use the checkboxes on each lesson page. Your progress is saved in your browser's local storage.

The Capstone Project

The curriculum culminates in a multi-phase capstone where you build a complete dungeon area for 3Kingdoms:

Phase	Name	After Chapters	What You Build
1	The Foundation	1-9	defs.h, entrance, base room, layout
2	Atmosphere	10-14	Items, searches, readables
3	Combat	15-17	Monsters, weapons, armor
4	The Boss	18-19	Boss fight, unique drop, mechanics
5	Polish	All	Integration, disease, paths, testing

Templates and phase guides are in the capstone/ directory.

In-Game Validation

When you become a wizard on 3Kingdoms, you will be able to upload your exercises to the MUD and test them live. Until then, compare your code against the solutions provided in the solutions/ directory.

Reference Materials

The reference/ directory contains quick-reference cheatsheets for every major topic, plus a glossary of MUD and LPC terminology. These are designed to be looked up while you work, not read front to back.

Contributing

Found a bug in an exercise or solution? Have an idea for a new exercise? Open an issue or pull request.

License

This curriculum is released under the MIT License. See LICENSE for details.