What is a MUD?

MUD is an acronym for Multi-User Dungeon (also termed Multi-User Dimension by some). "MUDs" is a catch-all term for true MUDs (Diku/Merc and other combat-oriented MUDs), MOOs (MUD Object Oriented) MUSHes, MUCKs, and other such things.

A MUD is essentially an online multiplayer text-adventure game. Think back to Zork or PlanetFall or the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy games from Infocom, or the earlier Unix text adventure games like Adventure or Hack (for those of you young'uns who have no clue what these are, go find out, as you're missing out on good fun). Another way to view it is an online, text based RPG (role playing game) similar to AD&D.

On a typical MUD, you'll start out as a pathetic weakling character (these are known as newbies), and you'll generally be confused and lost. It's a bit daunting, as MUDs tend to have their own unique style, context, and interface, but you generally learn how things work pretty quickly. You kill monsters and villains and nasty bunnies and such fare (these are known as MOBs - short for mobiles) and gain experience and levels. As you level, you grow in power, gaining more hit points, the ability to move longer distances at a run, more magical potential, and so forth. You also gain, depending on your class (The standards are Warrior, Mage, Cleric, and Thief, although most MUDs offer more than these 4), skills or spells as you level up, allowing you do become more powerful, fight more effectively, better equip yourself, and in general do more and have more fun.

MUDs have a huge following all their own, and can become quite addictive. They vary from those which are almost solely combat oriented (hack'n'slash and/or PK (Player Killing - the term you may have heard on Diablo or UO originated in MUDs) MUDs), strong role playing emphasis, non-role playing socialization (generic chat, sort of an alternative to IRC with something to do when you're not talking), MUDSex (Cybersex on a MUD), and other stuff. Some MUDs tend towards one or two of these aspects, and some tend towards a balance of many or all of them. Some MUDs are based on immortal-follower systems, and some others have mortal-rung clans or guilds.

MUDs I play or am/have been Involved with

I play almost solely one MUD now, The Final Challenge (or TFC). It was the first MUD I ever played, and I've been playing it for 6 years now. TFC is a PK MUD (though killing can and does have its consequences), and is based on a God-Follower system. My third character in the game, and only the second one I every seriously played much was a female warrior named Lorna. That character didn't have extraordinary stats or anything, but joined a fun following, and had fun with the character. I eventually played the character to 30th level (the maximum level in a class on TFC) and immorted. So I ended up being a male player with a female immortal character. *shrug* I've played that character as an immortal now for over 5 years, and had one of the most powerful followings on TFC with her. I finally decided after 4 years of running a following that I wanted to contribute to the game in other ways, and my Lorna character was promoted to Goddess - a level of immortality that is not allowed to have a following, but can interact with ALL the mortals in the game, run quests, control mobs, hold contests, etc.

I've been just about everything on a MUD, other than a coder. In addition to TFC, I also founded, and was Implementor for almost a year, of another MUD, Land of Legends. I did a great deal of the class design and redesign, and spell design for Land of Legends, as well as a ton of feature input. I was also the original Webmaster for LOL, and my page redesign is still the layout they're using now for most of the pages. There was a falling out there, however, and I chose to retire rather then be forcibly booted (from a game I co-founded and was an original Implementor on!). I've not kept up with their progress much lately.

Something that should be watched is Project Dismali. Project Dismali is a new form of MUD being designed and coded by Joe Kathan, known as Madman, or En'Asni, to most, who was one of the former Implementors of TFC (he retired around 2 years ago or so, and we all miss his insane evil). Dismali looks to be a welcome revolution in MUD codebases, and its author is a very talented programmer. There is a bit of a slowdown in progress of late, though, as he's become addicted to EverQuest.

Flames, comments, etc, e-mail me at zoas@yggdrasil.net.

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