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What is a MUD and why is this thread in TradGames? MUD stands for Multi-User Dungeon (not the sexy kind of dungeon, usually). They're sort of a descendant of text adventure games and a precursor to the modern MMO; for example, Everquest owes a lot to one of the old MUD codebases, called DikuMUD. There's a lot of other variants on MUDs out there to this day, like MUSHes and MUXes and MOOs but they're all basically the same thing, a text-based multi-user game. There's still a lot of different kinds of MUDs out there, for all that it's an aging style of game with dwindling playerbases across the board. Some are pretty much just chatrooms, and some are solely player-versus-player arenas. Some are 24/7 orgies but no one wants to hear about your six-titted ERP cow fursona in this thread. Some of them, though, are much like a multi-player persistent tabletop game. You've got your setting, and your GM staff to facilitate you doing cool things, and your people pretending to be an elf. There's still a lot of people out there who play these things, and with playerbases being what they are, it can be kind of hard to find some cool people to play with. How do I play one? MUDs are played solely over telnet. You can do that if you're crazy, but most people recommend getting a MUD client. If you have a MUD in mind you want to try, their website will often recommend clients you can try or even have plugins that make playing more convenient, but here's a few to get you started: MUDlet is actively maintained and has cool scripting and mapping features-- not something you'll need right out the gate if you've never played a MUD before, but it's good to have for you to grow into. MUSHclient has a lot of fans too, and has a bunch of different features and plugins you can use. It also has some very powerful scripting support. cMUD isn't free, but is sort of the sequel to one of the most popular MUD clients of old, zMUD. These aren't the only ones, but it's a good start. Basically any good client will do the same things for you, so it's just a question of what user interface you like the best. No graphics? Why would anyone play this poo poo? MUD worlds are frequently more freeform and customizable than graphical games and a lot of people prefer being able to sift through prose and build the world in their own head. Many games (particularly the one this thread is for) at least make a gesture at being roleplay-enforced, though the focus and strictness of this will vary quite a bit from game to game. They're also more accessible to people with certain disabilities, in particular the visually impaired, and the nature of the medium makes it ideal if you are, say, loving around at work. Most of them are also free to play and are extremely complex mechanically considering they're coded almost exclusively by volunteers. The main appeal is generally going to be to people who enjoy creative writing, improvised roleplay, and interacting with players or scenery through prose, and it's been my favorite hobby since I was a wee babby for those reasons. The comparison to an always-around tabletop game is really pretty apt. You can go log in any time you want and screw around with stabbing orcs or drinking in taverns with other people with too much free time just about any time you like, and you get to build stories with other characters as you do it. Wait, you said most are free? People sometimes pay for this? Most MUDs are in fact free to pour as much of your sad life as you want into it and are staffed by volunteers, though many of these MUDs at least shill for donations to offset operating costs. Some offer considerable in-game perks for "donating" despite being nominally free-to-play (Achaea is the most famous example of this), and some flat-out have a subscription fee you need to pay to play them at all. The latter are ridiculously popular as MUDs go and have some truly obscene subscription schemes so it's clearly working for some people. How do I find a MUD to play on? There's two main listing sites for MUDs you could look at. The Mud Connector is good mostly for being able to narrow searches insanely specifically. Top MUD Sites looks like a warez and porn aggregator from the 90s, but that's just how MUDs work, really. The actual rankings are mostly a function of how many people the admins can badger into clicking a vote button so don't hold it as a quality indicator, but hey, better than nothing, and if nothing else it gives you an idea of what kind of population a MUD has. How about some recommendations, then? Dareon plays Discworld, which is exactly what it sounds like, and has offered to help out anyone new. More info here. FordPRefectLL is working on something called EmpireMUD. It's heavily in development at the moment but focuses on resource gathering and city building. Lots of goons are into BatMUD. No roleplay, lots of numbers, pretty neat world and custom client. Wayfar 1444 is a game based on the HellMOO engine that is apparently like text-Minecraft in space. Pretty much made/run by goons. No roleplay, but crunchy! StarWars MUD which is exactly what it sounds like. A great review of the various Iron Kingdom MUDs (Achaea, Imperian, etc) can be found here! Got a MUD you want to shill? Let me know and I'll add it. What is this text-based crap? How do I move and stab things? MUDs are generally controlled with caveman-speak commands, though a lot of them have their own little oddities in terms of how they parse commands. Most will start you off in a tutorial area, so it's wise to go through them as completely as possible. In general, though, things that will always work are: You can move by typing a cardinal direction: north, south, east, west, whatever. You can usually abbreviate to n, e, s, w. Look will look at things. If you don't tell the game what you're looking at, you'll look at the room you're in. If you see an apple, you could type look apple, or look at apple, depending on the game. i/inv/inventory will tell you what you're carrying. info, exp, and stats should tell you useful things about your character and their progression. help typed alone will pretty much always bring up the root help menu, and from there it should guide you into looking up help on specific topics; this is going to be pretty critical if you've never played a MUD before, or if you're playing one that's appreciably different from what you're used to. Also, most MUDs are gonna be hard-up for newbies these days, so it shouldn't be too hard to get help with commands if something is only intuitive to people who've been playing for years. Ask for help frequently and often. I wanna talk about textelves with other dorks on the internet! Besides this thread, feel free to drop by #textelves on synirc. It's ostensibly a staging ground for the trainwreck of a goon-run MUD to be but you can talk about whatever. Reene fucked around with this message at 08:19 on Feb 16, 2016 |
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Jun 30, 2014 23:55
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Hell yeah, MUDs. I always feel like the biggest grog in the world talking about mine but that's okay because I know I'm not. 
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Jul 1, 2014 00:02
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neongrey posted:Hell yeah, MUDs. I always feel like the biggest grog in the world talking about mine but that's okay because I know I'm not. False. Anyway! Muds own and everyone should play them.
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Jul 1, 2014 00:02
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MUDs ride the cutting edge of 1980s technology and make you feel like a pro when your reading speed increases to the point that you can start picking out relevant information effortlessly in a vast stream of words. What I guess I'm saying is that MUDs are cyberpunk as hell. Also you should play them.
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Jul 1, 2014 00:08
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I played for quite a while on Discworld MUD, and still do occasionally. Features, beyond what's listed on the website:
Of course, it's not without its problems. Take a look at this map. Just drink it all in. Having that map open is essential not just for new players, but a lot of experienced ones when they need to go outside their comfort zone. And most of it is empty space. Got that map firmly in your mind, or at least you realize it's kind of big? Let's step out of town. Now that map isn't showing individual rooms except where appropriate. You can easily go cross-country at any time. There are truly a ridiculous amount of rooms in the MUD (And they're not done!), and upwards of 99% don't have anything other than "You can see X in Y direction" and maybe some mobs. As an example of some of the features I mentioned, here is what you see if you look at one of my dudes, and the custom weapon and scabbard off another. pre:You see Dareon of the Venerable Council of Seers, the Fourth Level Wizard.
He is a strapping young human lad.
He looks to be one of those newfangled wizards on about thaumic accelerators
and how magic is like a holiday at the beach or some such rot. His beard is the
catchy sort of short that results from catching it in machinery, catching it on
fire, and catching it in doors. He has a pencil tucked behind one ear,
partially concealed by a black wide-brimmed hat.
He is in good shape.
He is standing.
He is sooty all over, like a chimneysweep on extra duty.
A small white mouse sits on his shoulder.
He looks rather warm.
Holding : a black briefcase (left hand).
Wearing : a pair of silver-framed spectacles, a pair of artificer's boots, a
pair of blue denim deans, an ivy green denim waistcoat, a black
silver studded carpetbag, a large backpack, a small white mouse, a
black wide-brimmed hat, two belt loops, a medal of honour, a Say Ko
watch, a small tin button, an artificer's tool belt, a pouched black
leather belt, a small nickel button, a small bronze button, a red
badge, a dagger scabbard, a small silver button, a small copper
button and a small gold button.
> l blade scabbard and sword in scabbard
The scabbard is expertly constructed of red leather. The scabbard
has a tip and throat made of silver. The finishings are very ornate, and swirl
in intricate patterns. The scabbard has an intricate motif of geometric shapes
tooled onto the leather and etched into the silver of the finishings.
It could sheathe a fencing blade.
The red leather fencing blade scabbard contains: a steel fencing blade.
It is in excellent condition.
This is a long, thin blade made of steel, designed for the more elegant style
of combat in fencing. The blade has a thin bevelled edge on both sides,
extending the full length of the sword to the very tip. The sword has a red
leather grip, and the hilt has a basket guard constructed of steel. It looks
like just the kind of thing you'd hope for if someone aimed a hefty attack at
your sword hand. The pommel of the sword has been formed from ruby into the
shape of a hedgehog with a look of astonishment on its face. The chappe of the
blade is made of steel with a motif of the elements of surprise etched upon it.
It is in excellent condition.
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Jul 1, 2014 03:11
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I used to play a ton of these when I was a little kid! It's what significantly increased my typing speed. I used to play Purple Dragon and Achaea.
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Jul 1, 2014 03:15
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I've always wanted to do these games, but I could never seem to stick to it. I might give the two suggested a go. Are there any good Star Wars MUDs?
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Jul 1, 2014 10:41
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I've known some people who were into some, but damned if I can remember their names. They're definitely out there, though.
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Jul 1, 2014 11:24
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Ah, MUDs. I played one pretty religiously all throughout high school, and sporadically in the decade or so since. This winter I really, really tried to get into Armageddon, since the Dark Sun-esque world and enforced RP was hugely intriguing to me. However due to a sudden increase in work, and being on European time when the majority of the userbase is US East or Central, I just didn't have the time to commit to it. I definitely plan on going back someday though. Some of the userbase could get pretty political, but on the whole I definitely enjoyed my time there a lot. A note about Armageddon though: it can be pretty difficult to grasp the behind-the-scenes mechanics of the game, but stick with it. Lord Windy posted:Are there any good Star Wars MUDs? The one I played through high school is the very imaginatively-named SWMud, which is a hack-and-slash "best of" of the Star Wars expanded universe. It's pretty massive, with several well-thought-out classes and a great if somewhat smallish community. No RP to speak of though, and the universe doesn't really adhere to one timeframe. It's vaguely set within the context of the Galactic Civil War, but there are some areas that are set both pre-ANH and post-ROTJ (for example, there's an endgame planet that is set during the Yuuzhan Vong invasion). Also, it can get grindy as gently caress, particularly if you solo. If you group up it's much easier, and if you have a high-level buddy, they can help powerlevel you a bit if you want to cheese the system. Edit: I also can't believe the OP makes no mention of awkward grognard text-based MUD nerdsex, which is pretty much the unfortunate hallmark of every single MUD ever. Drone fucked around with this message at 12:55 on Jul 1, 2014 |
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Jul 1, 2014 12:47
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Drone posted:Edit: I also can't believe the OP makes no mention of awkward grognard text-based MUD nerdsex, which is pretty much the unfortunate hallmark of every single MUD ever. I've only encountered it once in Discworld, which is more to my good fortune than any lack of occurrence, and the anecdote is at least vaguely amusing. I was on my thief in the Mended Drum for some purpose, perhaps just idling in a more public location than the thieves guildhall, and noticed on the minimap that someone was in the common room (There are three rooms in the Drum, the bar, the common room, and the entryway, all three connect to each other, and the minimap shows you when players are in adjacent rooms). I snuck in there (so they didn't see me enter), got a faceful of ham-handed fondling, boggled (literally, I just typed 'boggle', that's a default emote), and snuck out. And hell, if we want to discuss awful, text-based nerdsex, look no further than HellMOO, which had sex baked right the gently caress in as an inherent player mechanic. Being horny would make you stronger but stupider, I remember one of my corp (clan) mates shot me with an orgasm ray and I complained because I could no longer move, I had been using the strength bonus to carry loot back to town.
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Jul 1, 2014 13:20
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Reene posted:I'm a player at Unwritten Legends which is a pretty stock fantasy MUD with your standard set of So let's talk about Unwritten Legends for a little bit, since this is one of two MUDs I can speak with recent personal experience about. UL is a heavily RP-enforced MUD. That kind of thing makes me happy, but bear it in mind going in: it doesn't merely encourage roleplaying, it flat out requires it from you and you will be judged (sometimes unkindly -- I'll talk about that in a few paragraphs) based on it. The core mechanics of UL are a solid d100 system with varying ToHit based on the ratio between your skill + stat and the target difficulty (often enough the skill + stat of what you're trying to stab in the face), where a perfectly even contest produces a ToHit of 69. Okay, what does that mean? UL is a defense-oriented game, after a fashion. You are always, in even contests, more likely to miss than hit. This is also combined with the existence of what we call Primary Defense abilities -- abilities that let you flat out ignore a successful attack after a secondary, usually more generous, contest. Early level content is kind of immensely hosed up due to this system, but not in necessarily against you! Your stats you roll on char generation are there effectively forever, but your skills start at zero. This means there's an enormous, enormous difference in effectiveness between someone with zero-mod in a combat skill and, say, 54-mod (the max modifier for a default Human that maxed out a stat). Combat normalizes slowly as you get up in levels, since skills have nearly 10x the statistical weight of stats by the end, but the first dozen or two levels are very stat-dependent and reward minimax behavior. But the mechanics isn't the selling point here, it's the roleplaying. So what's the roleplay like? Here I'm of two minds. On one hand, there are some very awesome people in UL that I like a lot and enjoy roleplaying with. Staff plots happen sometimes and are typically well handled, and the staff have proven to be responsive to player-driven events. In fact, I'll just go ahead and say with one small exception I've had nothing but positive interactions with the staff. The community isn't perfect, though. Some issues go deep. You'll find some elitist hurf durf roll-players talk. You'll find cybersex if you want it, and possibly if you don't. There are some divides that exist based on OOC who-likes-who-and-who's-on-the-outs that gets very High School like if you pay attention to it. The staff is extremely hesitant to bounce players out of the game, even in the face of blatant system abuse or out of bounds behavior. But at the same time, I'd argue you see a lot of this anywhere. It can be more apparent in UL because it's a small community and secrets are hard to keep in that kind of environment. I'd recommend giving UL a try to anyone interested in trying this MUD roleplaying thing, with only the minor hesitance that the community isn't squeaky clean and perfect. If you can turn that side of your brain off, though, it's a great experience. Players looking for a more thorough and complex game experience, on the other hand, should probably find something else.
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Jul 1, 2014 16:26
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There ain't no drama like MUD drama, I'll say that much. I'll also reiterate the roleplaying is the real selling point of UL over its mechanics. If you hop in you'll find plenty of people willing to engage with whatever sort of character you come up with. At least one of my characters is kind of a jerk but I'll be glad to show anyone around that wants to hop in. Drone posted:Edit: I also can't believe the OP makes no mention of awkward grognard text-based MUD nerdsex, which is pretty much the unfortunate hallmark of every single MUD ever. God drat it can't we go at least one page first 
Reene fucked around with this message at 16:33 on Jul 1, 2014 |
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Jul 1, 2014 16:30
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I've played Avendar and it's a wonderfully designed and built MUD that could use a bigger pbase. The problem I had when I played there was a certain clique always rolling the same alignment and if one got attacked or decided to attack suddenly all his friends would log on. On a mud with 3-10 people logged in at any one time, a player being able to muster in 4 friends was a little much. A friend of mine recently started playing again and also noticed tons of low level characters twinked out in hero level gear. I guess what I'm saying is if you start playing there, bring some friends. I do need to reiterate that the class system is super well designed and they all feel like different gameplay. Once you're experienced with the game, definitely check out void scholars. Big Bowie Bonanza fucked around with this message at 16:39 on Jul 1, 2014 |
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Jul 1, 2014 16:35
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MUDs are loving cool because if you try to say one codebase/approach is better than another, someone somewhere will hulk the gently caress out about how its poo poo and you are poo poo for mentioning it.
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Jul 1, 2014 16:43
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Reene posted:God drat it can't we go at least one page first No, absolutely not. Every technological advance in modern history has been driven by the need to deliver porn to the masses in as efficient manner as possible and MUDs are no exception. Even in MUDs I love, it's a sad fact that you will find people indulging their text-elf-slash-ocelot-fursona passions. As far as UL goes, it's mostly limited to one religious faction in the game, which to begin with emphasizes the black-leather-and-bull-whips look. It's completely ignorable unless you have the displeasure of identifying as a woman, but in that case you probably already know the dangers of Internet creeps better than I could ever explain it.
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Jul 1, 2014 16:43
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I'm currently the Emperor on the most popular Star Wars MUD and I had to make interracial mudsex against the law to get anyone to be rebels. I started fining everyone like crazy, throwing down cargo embargoes, being a dick to aliens etc. It wasn't until I told them they couldn't bang their favorite alien that the uprising started. So lol.
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Jul 1, 2014 16:51
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Reene posted:There ain't no drama like MUD drama, I'll say that much. At least MUD drama tends to be limited to, you know, personalities; the more freeform MU*-spinoffs (MUSHes, MUXes, et cetera) could get even worse because many of them eschew game mechanics for freeform roleplaying. I lost track of how many times I got in virtual shouting matches because 'nuh uh, my character so would not have gotten hurt there' or the like - the equivalent of kids playing Cowboys and Indians and going 'bang, you're dead!' 'Nuh uh, you missed!' Plus, of course, the loving. So much loving.
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Jul 1, 2014 16:57
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I used to play Armageddon MUD and I've since quit but it had the worst community of spergy grognards out of any video game community I've had the misfortune of taking part in. I'd rather suffer a million cursing racist preteens than take part in that community again. There was a culture of MUD sex. A literal culture of having sex with other characters via text and describing your actions in explicit detail. That being said, the game itself was pretty fun and cool to explore. It's based off of Dark Sun, so if you're into that sorta thing I would check it out. If you like MUDs, it's a good one. Just stay the hell away from the forums. edit: apparently sex is common in ALL MUDs. Though I've never seen it in that really boring LOTR SOI MUD. Verisimilidude fucked around with this message at 18:36 on Jul 1, 2014 |
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Jul 1, 2014 18:30
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Weirdly, I never ran into sex stuff in the MUDs I was in. I did run into a case where I was with a merchant guild that claimed total neutrality in the war between good and evil and all, but every time I tried to make a delivery to the Evil guys, they robbed or murdered me. I got in trouble for suggesting maybe doing business with people whose entire philosophy was 'We intend to rob and murder you.' wasn't wise compared to doing business with 'We will pay you on time and be polite' types.
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Jul 1, 2014 18:39
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DivineCoffeeBinge posted:At least MUD drama tends to be limited to, you know, personalities; the more freeform MU*-spinoffs (MUSHes, MUXes, et cetera) could get even worse because many of them eschew game mechanics for freeform roleplaying. I lost track of how many times I got in virtual shouting matches because 'nuh uh, my character so would not have gotten hurt there' or the like - the equivalent of kids playing Cowboys and Indians and going 'bang, you're dead!' 'Nuh uh, you missed!' I never really got into MUDs beyond an afternoon's foray, but I've been on multiple MUX and whatnot for far too long, and this is why I avoid violent conflict on those games as much as I can. Even when none of the parties are intending to god-mode, there's way too high a possibility that pose styles are still going to come into conflict, or intentions are going to be confused.
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Jul 1, 2014 18:49
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It is on every MUD if you dig deep enough. Memorably, on Avendar I had a woman notorious for hanging onto dudes trying to bone my character on a ferry and one of the imms made a seagull poop on her. I appreciated it.
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Jul 1, 2014 18:51
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I enjoyed Castle Arcanum in my younger days. I must've been young because I didn't get that "Pepperland" was a Beatles reference. (I remember that you could code:
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Jul 1, 2014 22:04
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Reene posted:God drat it can't we go at least one page first What the gently caress did you expect to happen in a MUD thread, anyway? Unwritten Legends is mechanically wonky, hella grindy, and has irregular coding support at it's best. There are maybe a handful of people who play the game who aren't pants-on-head retarded, and that number gets smaller all the time. The lows were frequent, but the highs were high enough to make up for it, especially if you like decent arpee (and stabbing people in the face).
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Jul 1, 2014 22:05
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FordPRefectLL posted:I've played Avendar and it's a wonderfully designed and built MUD that could use a bigger pbase. The problem I had when I played there was a certain clique always rolling the same alignment and if one got attacked or decided to attack suddenly all his friends would log on. On a mud with 3-10 people logged in at any one time, a player being able to muster in 4 friends was a little much. I can tell you right now that lately we have been coming down super hard on both those things. Bring friends, definitely, but those kinds of shenanigans will result in you getting shown the door-- mind, of course, there is an element of perception to this, and sometimes it can feel like a gang login but the logs don't bear that out. We really don't truck with that when it does happen though. At all. As far as low level dudes in high-end gear: I can personally guarantee you that that whatever gets acquired gets acquired legitimately (be it through some sort of loot or purchase through shops or auction house). Giving out disproportionate gear will and does have consequences, even if it's to someone you legitimately don't know out of game. We've gotten pretty big on fairness, the past while.
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Jul 1, 2014 22:18
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Oh yeah, I forgot I played MUME for a bit too. It's still I think the gold standard Middle Earth-based MUD, and while on the surface I really liked the idea of it, it just never clicked for me.Dirty Job posted:I used to play Armageddon MUD and I've since quit but it had the worst community of spergy grognards out of any video game community I've had the misfortune of taking part in. I'd rather suffer a million cursing racist preteens than take part in that community again. There was a culture of MUD sex. A literal culture of having sex with other characters via text and describing your actions in explicit detail. I think it's just like with any small niche hobby community (which, let's face it, MUDs are definitely a niche of a niche), in that you have to take the bad apples with the good. There's no such thing as a MUD that doesn't have drama, especially cybersex drama, that's unfortunately just the price of entry if you want to play games like this. And yeah, the forums there can often be a total cesspit, but then again I think SomethingAwful spoils us all by generally being a pretty clean environment. That being said from my month or two on Armageddon, I never once saw cybersex firsthand, and the MUD itself has (apparently strict) rules about express consent etc. Oh God I feel like I need a shower now after just typing a defense of a mud that has to have "strict consent rules"  FordPRefectLL posted:I'm currently the Emperor on the most popular Star Wars MUD and I had to make interracial mudsex against the law to get anyone to be rebels. I started fining everyone like crazy, throwing down cargo embargoes, being a dick to aliens etc. It wasn't until I told them they couldn't bang their favorite alien that the uprising started. So lol. What MUD is this? Drone fucked around with this message at 07:13 on Jul 2, 2014 |
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Jul 2, 2014 07:09
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Legends of the Jedi. I don't know if I can recommend it at this point but it is the largest one out there. I guess YMMV.
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Jul 2, 2014 07:31
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Drone posted:I think it's just like with any small niche hobby community (which, let's face it, MUDs are definitely a niche of a niche), in that you have to take the bad apples with the good. This attitude is why creeps keep getting away with their poo poo in these hobbies.
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Jul 2, 2014 07:34
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I wonder how many people we'll chase off or entice with all this mudsex chat. It is getting harder and harder to come by a MUD with active, decent development and a staff that isn't terrible. I'm an admin on EmpireMUD (big ascii map where you can build your own cities, a bit like a CircleMUD fantasy version of FTR's wayfar 1444) as well, we're in alpha and the coder/owner was making feature updates almost daily and then all of a sudden he got leukemia. It seems like a common theme. I want to learn how to program but I have so many other things going on that I don't know where I'd find the time.
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Jul 2, 2014 07:43
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Drone posted:That being said from my month or two on Armageddon, I never once saw cybersex firsthand, and the MUD itself has (apparently strict) rules about express consent etc. Let's just say there's a reason Avendar's rules explicitly call out pedo poo poo. 
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Jul 2, 2014 07:55
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All the mudsex chat really overblows how prevalent it is. I don't think it's something you really find very much unless you go looking for it, at least it certainly never has been for me, and if you do go looking for it what exactly did you expect to happen? If it's possible to do sex at someone in a medium there will be people using the medium to do that and it's fun to titter at sometimes but I try not to spend a lot of energy caring about what people spend their online time doing. It literally doesn't affect me in the slightest.Tollymain posted:This attitude is why creeps keep getting away with their poo poo in these hobbies. The particular flavor of drama you get in MUD communities is largely a result of their size and the fact that everyone more or less knows everyone else, which means any little interpersonal problem frequently ends up being everyone's business. It's also a result, I think, of the fact that MUDs are a much more invested endeavor compared to other kinds of games. You might spend hours or days or weeks getting a piece of gear in an MMO, which is a pretty significant time and effort investment, but MUDs not only demand huge amounts of time and attention sometimes (there are characters in UL that have been around for ~15 years, literally more than half the time I've been alive) but frequently vast outpourings of creative energy. If you're a creative type you probably know how it feels to have a project you poured your heart into blow up in your face or get poo poo on by other people being assholes or elitists. Mix all that together and yeah, you get a volatile mixture sometimes. That said, MUDs have a tendency to provoke real passion in some people which is incredible to see and you don't really get in other games. So you take the good with the bad here because the good frequently outweighs it. A lot of goons are gonna be starting in UL shortly it seems, so feel free to hit me up on Gulnara if you do pop in. My character is semi-famous within the confines of the game area at the moment so there's no issue with just seeking them out. We could probably frankly overrun the game with goons without much effort and take poo poo over, at least in the short term.
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Jul 2, 2014 08:01
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neongrey posted:Let's just say there's a reason Avendar's rules explicitly call out pedo poo poo. Oh god.
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Jul 2, 2014 08:08
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Reene posted:All the mudsex chat really overblows how prevalent it is. I don't think it's something you really find very much unless you go looking for it, at least it certainly never has been for me, and if you do go looking for it what exactly did you expect to happen? If it's possible to do sex at someone in a medium there will be people using the medium to do that and it's fun to titter at sometimes but I try not to spend a lot of energy caring about what people spend their online time doing. It literally doesn't affect me in the slightest. I'll actually agree with that, yeah; there's been literally no sex at all on Avendar in years.
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Jul 2, 2014 08:26
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neongrey posted:I'll actually agree with that, yeah; there's been literally no players at all on Avendar in years. Fixed that for you. I played/play Armageddon and it is absolutely FULL of issues. Staff has lost it's way majorly, to the point that there is a fully known alt-community dedicated to pointing out the horrible poo poo they do. And it's got its share of characters only interested in loving (called f-mes in the community). But when the game is good, it's almost impossible to beat. And nostalgia has left me feeling like there were good times in the past that likely didn't really exist, but serve to keep me coming back anyway. I also MUSH some here and there, mostly WOD. It's just as awful as it's always been. And I play/have played SWMUD for about 15 years with varying characters.
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Jul 2, 2014 08:44
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nucleicmaxid posted:I also MUSH some here and there, mostly WOD. It's just as awful as it's always been. And I play/have played SWMUD for about 15 years with varying characters. Whoa, I had no idea. I've probably known you in one form or another since like 2001 in that case  As a new player to Armageddon though, the little fracture and alt-community was actually a pretty great thing, since the unofficial offsite forums were filled with actual spoilery forbidden information about how the game mechanics actually work, so you at least had some room to get your bearings.
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Jul 2, 2014 08:49
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I'm a new MUD user. We must be a rare breed. I found out about MUDs two years ago while trying to find decent places to roleplay online. Years back I spent countless hours roleplaying on a number of player-made Neverwinter Nights servers. I had great times there, and I'd missed it. I first entered a popular RP MUD called New Worlds Ateraan and gave my best to roleplay a good hearted wizard. It sucked, so I only stayed for a few days. People would just sit on each others laps and hug. Occasionally they would go on the regular "hunt" for loot or farm for XP and money, but there was no PVP. Evil and good characters seemed to coexist in friendship, and roleplay was limited to showing off each others powers and attending "formal dinners" and "trials" for players whose characters had been naughty. I'm still wondering how this MUD is so popular, as it is stail on every technical aspect as well. I won't go further into it. Later on I tried to join a hardcore RP world called Firan Mux. The idea behind Firan is that you are encouraged to roleplay a premade character instead of creating a new one. They have prepared a vast list of premade characters for the playerbase to choose. Whole families of them, ranging from crippled old men, smiths, whores and lackeys to high priests, inquisitors, lords and princesses. They let you play what you want in their own controlled environment. Of course they require application submission before allowing you to embody one of the more influential characters of the world. Firan seemed quite interesting so I picked a blacksmith character and gave it a shot. However, being a MUD newbie I didn't last long in there. Got bored fast and quit. I wasn't even acquainted with making aliases at the time. Then I realised that to roleplay in MUDs one must first learn how to play them properly, so I went to Discworld and made a thief. I'm having a great time there. I've been dying a lot and still I don't feel confident enough to leave Ankh-Morpork, but i'm making slow progress and hoarding wealth 
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Jul 2, 2014 09:13
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I played DragonRealms for years and years. It was really fun in general except that PVP required both players to consent which I can understand, but i've always been really sad about. I really wanted to form a group of robbers and waylay people  Eventually I felt like a big dumbo paying $15 a month for a MUD and quit, but I still remember being a dinosaurman thief pretty fondly. Also I never once ran into mudsex so that's good.
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Jul 2, 2014 09:46
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TheSpookyDanger posted:I played DragonRealms for years and years. It was really fun in general except that PVP required both players to consent which I can understand, but i've always been really sad about. I really wanted to form a group of robbers and waylay people I'm curious, is it worth the subscription? I mean that seriously, was the perceived quality any better?
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Jul 2, 2014 09:52
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Bardlebee posted:I'm curious, is it worth the subscription? I mean that seriously, was the perceived quality any better? That's pretty hard to answer to be honest. I've played some free MUDs in the past and they all seemed kind of lackluster in comparison, and there are both big events and little impromptu things handled by the GMs pretty often in DR. The jobs were kind of cool, and I enjoyed the way you had to raise certain skills to level up, but you weren't tied into only raising those skills. I really liked the neat healing system (you can get empaths to take your wounds from you onto themselves, which they need to do to level up). So I mean, yeah kind of? I am pretty sure they used give a free month, so if you're interested check it out. They have a whole wrestling subsystem that's pretty fun, so make sure you rassle some giant rats.
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Jul 2, 2014 10:10
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Nurel posted:Then I realised that to roleplay in MUDs one must first learn how to play them properly, so I went to Discworld and made a thief. I'm having a great time there. I've been dying a lot and still I don't feel confident enough to leave Ankh-Morpork, but i'm making slow progress and hoarding wealth If we happen to be on at the same time, give me a shout, I'll take you on a trip to Lancre or Genua (The best places for a thief in some sense, Lancre has no unified justice system and the penalties for law-breaking in Genua are literally filling out forms and cleaning graffiti). The characters I can do something like that on are Dareon (wizard) and Kirlian (thief). I have a warrior as well, but Sevadric is in Bes Pelargic and only speaks Brindisian. Dareon fucked around with this message at 10:13 on Jul 2, 2014 |
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Jul 2, 2014 10:11
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TheSpookyDanger posted:That's pretty hard to answer to be honest. I've played some free MUDs in the past and they all seemed kind of lackluster in comparison, and there are both big events and little impromptu things handled by the GMs pretty often in DR. The jobs were kind of cool, and I enjoyed the way you had to raise certain skills to level up, but you weren't tied into only raising those skills. I really liked the neat healing system (you can get empaths to take your wounds from you onto themselves, which they need to do to level up). So I mean, yeah kind of? I am pretty sure they used give a free month, so if you're interested check it out. They have a whole wrestling subsystem that's pretty fun, so make sure you rassle some giant rats. Was the subscription the only thing that made you quit? I haven't seen MUD's that have done subs, I have seen pay to win type of layouts though. Which reminds me, is Achaea now just a big pay to win poo poo fest? I played it years ago because back then it was big RP enforced, which is really the main reason you play a MUD, at least for me. Now they have a whole money thing going on...
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Jul 2, 2014 10:17
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