# Accounts

All users (real people) that starts a game Session on Evennia are doing so through an object called Account. The Account object has no in-game representation, it represents a unique game account. In order to actually get on the game the Account must puppet an Object (normally a Character).

Exactly how many Sessions can interact with an Account and its Puppets at once is determined by Evennia’s MULTISESSION_MODE setting.

Apart from storing login information and other account-specific data, the Account object is what is chatting on Channels. It is also a good place to store Permissions to be consistent between different in-game characters as well as configuration options. The Account object also has its own CmdSet, the `AccountCmdSet`.

Logged into default evennia, you can use the `ooc` command to leave your current character and go into OOC mode. You are quite limited in this mode, basically it works like a simple chat program. It acts as a staging area for switching between Characters (if your game supports that) or as a safety mode if your Character gets deleted. Use `ic` to attempt to (re)puppet a Character.

Note that the Account object can have, and often does have, a different set of Permissions from the Character they control. Normally you should put your permissions on the Account level - this will overrule permissions set on the Character level. For the permissions of the Character to come into play the default `quell` command can be used. This allows for exploring the game using a different permission set (but you can’t escalate your permissions this way - for hierarchical permissions like `Builder`, `Admin` etc, the lower of the permissions on the Character/Account will always be used).

## How to create your own Account types

You will usually not want more than one Account typeclass for all new accounts (but you could in principle create a system that changes an account’s typeclass dynamically).

An Evennia Account is, per definition, a Python class that includes `evennia.DefaultAccount` among its parents. In `mygame/typeclasses/accounts.py` there is an empty class ready for you to modify. Evennia defaults to using this (it inherits directly from `DefaultAccount`).

Here’s an example of modifying the default Account class in code:

        # in mygame/typeclasses/accounts.py

        from evennia import DefaultAccount

        class Account(DefaultAccount): # [...]

    	at_account_creation(self): "this is called only once, when account is first created"
    	    self.db.real_name = None      # this is set later self.db.real_address = None   #       "
    	    self.db.config_1 = True       # default config self.db.config_2 = False      #       "
    	    self.db.config_3 = 1          #       "

    	    # ... whatever else our game needs to know ``` Reload the server with `reload`.

… However, if you use `examine *self` (the asterisk makes you examine your Account object rather than your Character), you won’t see your new Attributes yet. This is because `at_account_creation` is only called the very first time the Account is called and your Account object already exists (any new Accounts that connect will see them though). To update yourself you need to make sure to re-fire the hook on all the Accounts you have already created. Here is an example of how to do this using `py`:

`py [account.at_account_creation() for account in evennia.managers.accounts.all()]`

You should now see the Attributes on yourself.

> If you wanted Evennia to default to a completely different Account class located elsewhere, you must point Evennia to it. Add `BASE_ACCOUNT_TYPECLASS` to your settings file, and give the python path to your custom class as its value. By default this points to `typeclasses.accounts.Account`, the empty template we used above.

## Properties on Accounts

Beyond those properties assigned to all typeclassed objects (see Typeclasses), the Account also has the following custom properties:

- `user` - a unique link to a `User` Django object, representing the logged-in user.

- `obj` - an alias for `character`.

- `name` - an alias for `user.username`

- `sessions` - an instance of ObjectSessionHandler managing all connected Sessions (physical connections) this object listens to (Note: In older versions of Evennia, this was a list). The so-called `session-id` (used in many places) is found as a property `sessid` on each Session instance.

- `is_superuser` (bool: True/False) - if this account is a superuser.

Special handlers:

- `cmdset` - This holds all the current Commands of this Account. By default these are the commands found in the cmdset defined by `settings.CMDSET_ACCOUNT`.

- `nicks` - This stores and handles Nicks, in the same way as nicks it works on Objects. For Accounts, nicks are primarily used to store custom aliases for Channels.

Selection of special methods (see `evennia.DefaultAccount` for details):

- `get_puppet` - get a currently puppeted object connected to the Account and a given session id, if any.

- `puppet_object` - connect a session to a puppetable Object.

- `unpuppet_object` - disconnect a session from a puppetable Object.

- `msg` - send text to the Account

- `execute_cmd` - runs a command as if this Account did it.

- `search` - search for Accounts.