MUDS: Anyone tried one?

[The Vorpal Tribble]

My first intro to true RP was a MUD. To this day it still retains 99% of my best memories in the world of roleplaying.

Have you ever tried one?

The one I used to play is Accursed Lands. It remains the best MUD I've ever run across. The only problem is is that about 5 years back there came something known as The Wipe. Every character was destroyed because of a broad, vast upgrade that required all members to begin again. It never quite recovered.

Would anyone like to go and try it out? I'm trying to get back to the olden days when you might sign on to a hundred players going at once.

Here is the link: www.Accursed-Lands.com

[Duke of URL]

Yeah, I MUDded in college for a few years (around 1990). Never found a particularly great one -- spent most of my time on a locally-hosted one because I knew the guys.

[Cespenar]

Hmm, me and some of my friends had tried a couple a very long while ago, Thieves' Guild and... a Dragonlance themed one that I can't remember right now, which focused on heavy roleplaying. They were very short-lived experiences, though.

Besides that, I've played the more famous "The Two Towers" for some time, but never got deeply into that too. I played mostly to read the descriptions and wander around, and didn't care much for the system, combat etc.

[daggaz]

Played for years on a Mud called Sojourn, which is now under the name of TorilMud. It was by far the best one I could find, with full ansi color, a solid player base, and strongly based and set in the DnD 2.0 Forgotten Realms setting.

Interesting side feature... I played alongside the guys who started World of Warcraft (seriously), they even offered me a "job" at the time, designing zones. Thing is, I was 17 and still in highschool, the "job" offered no pay, and they were talking about making a graphics based MUD in a time when the all-mighty 28.8 modem was the latest thing (We had recently upgraded from such slothbeasts as the 2400) and it still took several minutes to download a single "high-res" jpg. Nobody believed it could be done, everybody laughed at them.

Who's laughing now? :smallfrown:

Anyhow, MUDs were the seriously best thing to happen to the internet at the time, and I as well had some of my best role playing days on them.

Torilmud, btw, is dead and dying. They have promised an update to DnD 3.5 for years,.. but its just never going to happen. Too bad.

[Eldan]

I played Achaea for a few weeks once before I got kicked out of the warlocks guild and left out of disinterest.

[Yuki Akuma]

I have. Some of my best roleplaying memories are of MUDs.

Some of my worst, too.

It really depends on the focus of the MUD and how well it's written and coded... Most MUDs are, unfortunately, seriously lacking in any decent writing and are just pure "hack and slash", where roleplaying is actively discouraged for some reason...

[Eldan]

Yeah... In Achaea I basically spent endless hours slaying rats. With fire spells.
In retrospective, I don't know why I even did that.

I have more free time than I need, though, so I might give that one a try. How much hack'n'slash is there in this one?

[dsmiles]

Had a brief experience with Sojourn, also. Didn't last long, though, PnP is always better for me. Human interaction, you know. I can't see someone's face over the interwebz.

[Cespenar]

It really depends on the focus of the MUD and how well it's written and coded... Most MUDs are, unfortunately, seriously lacking in any decent writing and are just pure "hack and slash", where roleplaying is actively discouraged for some reason...

Heh, true. We actually have an in-joke that goes like "In The Two Towers, roleplaying is tolerated."

Which originated from a sentence in the introductory message (IIRC) that said "Roleplaying is encouraged", coupled with the fact that you could hardly find anyone that rp'd in the MUD.

[Yuki Akuma]

Sometimes, great writing can save a MUD with absolutely no roleplaying focus, of course - just like a singleplayer videogame. Discworld MUD is great, for instance - as long as you don't get too bothered by the departures from later Discworld canon.

[Cubey]

I played IRE muds. Nice design, if flawed at places (PvP balance only slightly better than DnD 3.5), and community that varies from okay (Lusternia) to absolutely horrible (Achaea).

I see Eldan experienced the latter first hand. A newbie can do so much more in Achaea than just slay rats - this is the most boring occupation ever. But braindead people will advice, or even force them to kill rats over and over. They will also set up loops for you to jump through and kick you out of the guild/house on the smallest slip up. And they have the nerve to call that "newbie helping". Ha ha.

I'm glad these idiots got their comeuppance when the guild system got changed and they suddenly aren't in control of other peoples' skills anymore. This doesn't solve the "rat, rat, you must RAT!" problem though.

I wait for Tears of Polaris. It promises all the good IRE parts but nothing bad. That's because its creator is someone with actual IRE gaming experience. Too bad the development is so slow it won't be even in beta for a while.

Oh yeah. Despite their flaws, I found IRE MUDs more fun than any other ones I tried. MUDs are usually created by amateur (I don't mean unskilled, but rather non professional) staff, and it shows - Sturgeon's Law applies.

[Archaicwonder]

I spent my high school and early college years playing Darkmists. (www.darkmists.org)

It had great PVP, good roleplaying, and due to the work of some gentlemen I knew developed player made clans.

It's still in existance and being updated, but I left well before griffins were added, so how unbalancing that is, I have no idea.

Drakontas Sporos forever!

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Once upon a time I had a brief stint in an RP-heavy MUD called Shadows of Isildur (http://www.middle-earth.us/)...I could just never find the time to invest in it, but I've heard it's good.

[Gamerlord]

Never played one, but I'll give this "accursed lands" a chance.

[Gamerlord]

Awww...........It won't let me name my dude "Blackheart, lord of the thousand moons" :smallfrown:

Guess I'll have to go with "Blacknoris"

[Harr]

I too have my absolute best roleplaying memories tied up with a certain MUD... as well as the absolute worst.

The 'best' ones at the beginning and middle of my playlife there, when everything was unexplored, and I and my new-found MUD friends could get lost finding new things and new monsters to fight.

The 'worst' ones, however, came soon after that, as we finished exploring the world and the quests, as we made our way up in the ranks of our respective guilds, and were introduced to the wonderful, wonderful world of out-of-character player politics.

The world of adventure and fantasy soon devolved into a fiery, unpleasant cesspit of player drama, emotional abuse, flames, hostility, pettiness, vindictiveness, rancor and resentment, and I slowly realized just the kind of IRL people that actually populated my once-beloved MUD. And yet I continued because of the illusion that I had "built something" there that was worth defending :smallsigh:

One day in the middle of yet another blood-pumping flame-fight I looked up from my monitor, looked out the window at a beautiful blue sky, and asked myself "What am I even doing... what am I even doing???!?" :smalleek:

Then, in mid-sentence, I turned off the computer, walked outside, and was never seen in that place again. Every so often I think back on that moment and genuinely thank god I got out when I did.

MUD's name was Xyllomer btw, I don't link to it for obvious reasons; I'm sure it's dead and gone (or as near as makes no difference) nowadays anyway.

[Eldan]

So, if others are trying this, I might as well... But I'm still reading through the rules.

[Setra]

I tried various ones since I love roleplaying... but.. I just can't get used to the way you play em...

It doesn't help they all seem a little.. complex.

[Eldan]

Just made a character and completed the tutorial. It's too late to do it now, but I'll go and do some world-exploring tomorrow.

[Worira]

To be honest, Accursed Lands seems to be a bit of a pile of garbage.

[Zeful]

I've seen a couple played, but I'm totally unfamiliar with them. Are there any ones the playground recommends?

[Mojo_Rat]

Played for years on a Mud called Sojourn, which is now under the name of TorilMud. It was by far the best one I could find, with full ansi color, a solid player base, and strongly based and set in the DnD 2.0 Forgotten Realms setting.

Interesting side feature... I played alongside the guys who started World of Warcraft (seriously), they even offered me a "job" at the time, designing zones. Thing is, I was 17 and still in highschool, the "job" offered no pay, and they were talking about making a graphics based MUD in a time when the all-mighty 28.8 modem was the latest thing (We had recently upgraded from such slothbeasts as the 2400) and it still took several minutes to download a single "high-res" jpg. Nobody believed it could be done, everybody laughed at them.

Who's laughing now? :smallfrown:

Anyhow, MUDs were the seriously best thing to happen to the internet at the time, and I as well had some of my best role playing days on them.

Torilmud, btw, is dead and dying. They have promised an update to DnD 3.5 for years,.. but its just never going to happen. Too bad.

I played on Sojourn, great Coding back in the day but the Staff had some serious lack of people problems. I remember six tries to get a last name on a character only to realize it had been refused because a comma was out of place in my description.

I did enjoy it though.

On the bit of Recomending a Mud i would recomend a game called Mume. Its very well coded and has a massive amount of Areas described.

Mume.org is its website i believe if not a googlesearch should solve that.

[Yuki Akuma]

Wow, Accursed Lands' introduction is pretentious as ****.

It reminds me of The Window.

[The Vorpal Tribble]

To be honest, Accursed Lands seems to be a bit of a pile of garbage.
Really? Been there an hour or so and figured it all out?

[Whammydill]

I played Gemstone 3 when it was on AOL :smallconfused: through when it became Gemstone 4, I also played the spinoff Dragonrealms. Both were great games when people actually cared about their characters and loved to roleplay. It seems that the advent of UO and Everquest had some adverse affect on players or maybe it was just new players...but it seemed like more and more people were just playing their characters like they were in an MMO. Only caring about the numbers and powergaming with Roleplaying gone the way of the dodo.

I remember the game having active GM's and they would help enforce the setting. If you were a member of a certain secret society and were caught talking about it in public settings, they would send assassins after you for your loose tongue, great stuff. Downsizing workforce FTL.

Dragonrealms was ok, different mechanics and skill based system of leveling instead of experience points. It was fun at first but the more the GM's pulled out of active roles the, like Gemstone it became more about powergrinding, less about interaction and roleplaying. Towards the end of my tenure it seemed it should have had a name change to ScriptingRealms.

[cloneof]

I always enjoyed more... Interactive MUDS in general.

I remember when my friends were trying to make a MUD where the players could change the world as they saw fit. The game itself was mixed fantasy and high technology setting where the players could make their guilds as empires, make rooms to represent their castles and towns under their empires. Wars would be waged and territory would change hands as one empire would send tanks, only to be countered by one player blasting fireballs.

However, a fire had taken the server and no save copies remained. The people responsible for the game back in the college had no interest in coding the game again from scratch... Still, it was fun while it lasted :smallbiggrin:.

[loopy]

I learned to touchtype on a MUD as a kid. A Star Wars MUD called the Dark Hand, was pretty epic. Had at least 20 planets, factions, crafting, space combat, the works.

I even managed to become head of the Black Sun... for about 15 minutes, where I got killed by an Empire-contracted bounty hunter. And this was one of the MUD's with permadeath.

Was a fun game. Wonder what happened to it.

[Bayar]

Occasionally logging on nannyMUD, just to keep my character. And to occasionally become the Archdruid for the week.

[Zanaril]

I tried playing Achea once. I eventually got sick of killing rats and being threatened by city leaders for stealing stuff. :smallcool:

It might have been more fun if I'd actually figured out what the controls were instead of just trying everything.

[Eldan]

I don't know, I think I got along with the controls in Achaea. But I got kicked out of my guild for refusing to follow an order (I still think I was right in doing so), which meant I lost all my guild skills.
Hahaha. No. Really, no. So, I just left. It wasn't that interesting anyway. Lusternia was a little better.

Now, if this Accursed Lands actually has anything to do I might play it for a while. My character is only just created, I don't even know what his skills are.

[Zeful]

I tried playing Darkmists but can't log back in. Loading up my telenet client always jumps into the character creation section (not that I really know what I'm doing but this is annoying and frustrating).

[The Vorpal Tribble]

Now, if this Accursed Lands actually has anything to do I might play it for a while. My character is only just created, I don't even know what his skills are.
When it comes to skills Accursed Lands has all those I've tried beat.

You can build houses, shops, what have you, just have to get the equipment and skills.

There is also magic there... but with the theme of the setting it is extremely well hidden and almost always dangerous to acquire. Some of it is so well hidden in fact one 'quest' I believe I'm the only player to have riddled out, and it took 5 years of playing.

You can see your skills by typing Skills.

[Worira]

Really? Been there an hour or so and figured it all out?

I'd actually love to be proven wrong on this. The few people I've met on there have been great. The thing is, there's a tiny playerbase, and MUD itself has several severe flaws that seem to make it almost unplayable. There's no distinction between PCs and NPCs, meaning that it's possible to walk by one of the 5 other players on without even knowing they were there. There's no mapping or other navigation system, which is made worse by the bland room descriptions. The separation of OOC and IC activity is absurdly strict, and there's a lack of NPCs that are actually helpful.

[The Vorpal Tribble]

I'd actually love to be proven wrong on this. The few people I've met on there have been great. The thing is, there's a tiny playerbase
Which used to be huge. That's why advertising here. Trying to build it back up again.


There's no distinction between PCs and NPCs, meaning that it's possible to walk by one of the 5 other players on without even knowing they were there.
Well, for one you can name people. Anything you like. If you find out it is a real player 'Bob the snaggletooth' will now talk to you.

Granted, in the towns, it's rough, because there are so many AI's. Outside of them however it's fine... except for the NPC bandits that come after you, but that's not very often.


There's no mapping or other navigation system, which is made worse by the bland room descriptions.
If you buy a scroll you can start mapping. In fact, you often start with a scrolled map.

However, after you've played there awhile you begin to recognize the places. I personally made a map of every town and almost the entire wilderness of the continent once.

I don't know where you are, but most of the wilderness has nothing to stand out. However, try smelling, searching, foraging... basically you can't see much because like in real life you have to look for it.


and there's a lack of NPCs that are actually helpful.
Granted, though there are special ones hidden amongst the masses, and you have to ask the right things.

Basically, the MUD is for people who want 'very' realistic gaming world. That's not for everyone.

[Eldan]

Two hours into the game. Impressions: the world really seems a little empty, even though I've just seen the wilderness and parts of a city. There's a lot of empty streets here. I've found a library, that's nice, and killed a few animals. Still, it feels empty.

[Shas aia Toriia]

Should I be ashamed that I don't even know what a MUD is?

[Eldan]

Multi-User Dungeon, originally. Or Dimension. Basically, a text-based MMO. They can be a lot of fun, even though I never really got into any of them.

Also, I've never seen more than four other people online worldwide in this one...

[cloneof]

Might I also note that BatMud has also beign a great fun.

Finnish makers to power!

[Worira]

So, I'm still trying to get into Accursed Lands. The people are still great, the game's still horrible. It takes 8 commands to light a fire. There are no multi-line aliases. You cannot light sticks or branches.

[Lord Seth]

I don't know, I think I got along with the controls in Achaea. But I got kicked out of my guild for refusing to follow an order (I still think I was right in doing so), which meant I lost all my guild skills.
Hahaha. No. Really, no. So, I just left. It wasn't that interesting anyway. Lusternia was a little better.

Now, if this Accursed Lands actually has anything to do I might play it for a while. My character is only just created, I don't even know what his skills are.If it matters, Achaea no longer has guilds (they all got renamed "houses" and don't control your skills anymore), so you can't lose your skills like that. There's still some skill control, but it's more limited, only for the "aligned" classes, and highly unlikely to befall you unless you deliberately do something antithetical to the ethos of your class.

There was this one pretty fun MUD I played called Lands of Aethar, but it's down and I don't really know what happened to it. A shame, because it was pretty fun, and I got my handle from it. The biggest problem with it was that it seemed the MUD was built for more people than actually played it, so there was an annoying frequency for mobs to require more people than were able to get into a group to kill them.

EDIT: Tip if you ever play Achaea (and this probably applies to all IRE MUDs), for the love of all things, DON'T USE THE FLASH CLIENT. If you don't use something like zmud, use Achaea's online java Nexus client. It has so many features that the Flash client lacks that it's unbelievable that the flash client is the default one.

[Eldan]

So, I'm still trying to get into Accursed Lands. The people are still great, the game's still horrible. It takes 8 commands to light a fire. There are no multi-line aliases. You cannot light sticks or branches.

Agreed, so much. I have to drop everything I'm holding to open my backpack so that I can take something out, then drop that to the ground to lift up something else, put it in the pack, close the pack, lift up the rest...
Even more annoying if I need three or four items to light a fire.

[Yuki Akuma]

I do want to try Accursed Lands. I'll see if I can wade through the pretentious intro...

[Wardog]

I was introduced to the Discworld MUD shortly after I started university in 1997, and played it somewhat obsesively (but not particulalry effectively) for about five or six years, but gradually drifted away from it due to a combination of work, other games, etc.

I still have a character on it - an Assassin (Ninja) called Fireblade, and occasionally log it to play, or at least prevent the character expiring and/or allow me to post on the boards.


I've tried a few other MUDs as well, although never really got into them, mostly because the ones I tried had really stupid mechanics and/or rules (particularly some of the ones with enforced role-playing), and because I didn't want to give up on my Discworld characters even when I did find other good MUDs.

[Hannes]

I've played all of the IRE MUDs, though the only ones I did like were Lusternia and Aetolia, and Aetolia even not that much. My problem with MUDs is that when I get out of the sweet, sweet newbie gold and exp curve I can't go to the utterly droll business of ratting for gold and going to super out-of-the-way places to bash.

But the times I've been on there? Good times, even if I'm actually not that good of a roleplayer.

[cloneof]

So, could anyone suggest a fine MUD after hard four year game of WoW and the guy asking wants to get away from the eternal level grinding and item getting...

So in essence, a good RP activity. :smallamused:

[Eldan]

Difficult to say, really. I can say that when I played it, Achaea consisted only of grinding and had just about no roleplayers. Between the ten foot neon-letters in the sky proclaiming that the admins had thought of a new world-wide game of treasure hunting, the telepathic off-topic channels and the player ability to leave graffiti behind wherever they went, it's about as far removed from what you want as possible, so I can say that this is certainly not what you want.

Accursed realms, the one the OP has linked is the one I'm playing currently. It's nicely made, I'd say, even if I have encountered no magic or "quests" so far. The problem is that whenever I log on in the evening of the european timezones, there are about three other people online, none of them within ten ingame miles of me, so I spend my time walking across the countryside killing rabbits and hoping to someday meet someone else.