The MUD is a text-only game, which includes roleplaying as in a MUCK or a MUSH,

but differs in that there is a LOT of killing (Player killing is restricted - newbies are

safe). It's based on the works of HP Lovecraft, specifically the Cthulhu mythos and the

Dreamlands. Our area-builders, who are adamant readers of this mythos (or so they

claim) do their best daily to map our new areas and sections in the world for all players

to explore and enjoy. And they're doing a great job of it, too.

There is still construction going on and there's a lot more to come, but there's a great

big world in there to explore and enjoy, and new players are always welcome. Feel free

to join us, and have fun!

A MUD, or Multi User Dungeon, is a text-based adventure game

played over the Internet against other players who are online at the

same time. In the last quarter of a century thousands of MUD games

have sprung up hosted mainly by enthusiasts, not for commercial

gain. Hence MUD games are primarily free to play, twenty-four hours a

day, and new players are always welcomed.

You connect to a MUD using a telnet client - a small and

generally freely available piece of software which allows a textual

connection to a remote machine. Into the telnet client you enter the

address of the MUD you want to play and a connection is established.

Then after logging on you can use simple typed commands to interact

with the environment you find.

Every MUD has it's own commands, it's own environment and it's

own atmosphere. It is an addicting and intensely enjoyable way to

spend time online and it is the most social form of computer gaming -

allowing you to meet, talk to and brutally murder fun-seeking people

from round the world.

What is a MUD?

What is a MUD?

Chatting

Mortals, levels and objects

Quests

Why should you "run"?

Hierarchy

Manners

MUD stands for Multi-User-Dungeon, and it is basically a chat

zone combined with a game. People from all over the world log in,

using various telnets or specific MUD-clients, available over the

Internet. When you log in, you will start at level one, and you can

decide whether you want to play the game, and try to rise in levels,

or just sit and chat with the other people connected. People do not

use their real names on MUDs usually. They use pseudonyms, for

example some of the people that run the MUD's here on Mudzone

use the names Kroll, Tank, Manic, Stress and Reverend. Which,

needless to say, aren't their real names (for the most part).

If you want to sit and chat, there are various ways you can do this.

There is normally a global chat channel, to use it one would type

'chat Hello everyone' and everyone on the MUD who is listening to

that line would hear that message. To turn off the global chat

channel you would type 'nochat'. You can also 'shout' things, but

too much of this is not encouraged, as this line cannot be turned

off by low level players. You can 'wish' things, and these

messages will go to the immortals, the high level characters on the

MUD. On some MUDs, there is also the Anon channel, where you

can talk and no-one except the very high levels, the administrators

of the MUD, will know who said that. You can also 'say' things.

This will be seen by anyone in the room with you, and no-one else.

Another way of talking directly to someone who is not in the room

with you is to use 'tell'. You can either type 'tell john hello' or you

can usually abbreviate it to 'john hello', missing out the tell. There

is also a mailing system on MUDs, to use it you usually type 'mail

john' then it will prompt you for a subject, then you can type the

body of the message, just like email.

Most MUDs will have a certain number of 'mortal' levels. The term

mortal just means that you can die, or be killed by mobiles

(computer generated characters) or other players, if the MUD you

are on supports player-killing. Most MUDs have between 10 and 25

mortal levels. These are usually based on your score, and you will

be required to get a certain number to become an immortal,

usually between 200000 and 400000. This may sound a lot, and it

is a lot, but you will realise that as you go up the levels, and start

killing the stronger mobiles, you will get more and more points per

fight.

You will start off with a score of zero, and you can gain points by

killing mobiles, or other players if the MUD is player-killing (usually

abbreviated to pk) or finding objects and pitting them.

To pit an object means to drop it in one of the 'pits' around the

MUD. There are usually two pits,in the start locations.

There are quite a few classes of objects. Armour is objects you

can wear that will protect you from damage done by mobiles or

other players, eg. platemail, mask, helmet. Each item of armour

has an armour value. For example, the platemail has an armour

value of 18. You will be looking to get as high an armour count as

possible. Most MUDs will have a maxarmor value, usually about

50. It is a good idea to try and find a lot of this as soon as

possible, as it will reduce the possibility that you will be killed. You

do not want to be killed, as you will lose a significant proportion of

your points.

Also, around the MUD there are various weapons. These vary

from a stick which will do a damage of about 2, to massive swords

such as the Mjolnir, which would do about 30 damage. When

talking about the damage a weapon does, that is the maximum

damage the sword will do on one hit. You will have a natural

damage, usually 8, so if you were wielding the mjolnir, you could

do a maximum of 38 damage in one hit.

Also there are clothes, which are wearable just like armour, but

do not protect you from any damage. Examples of these are

robes, pendants, talismans. Also there is food. Food, when eaten,

heals you a little bit, gives you a few more health and mana points.

Therefore, it is a good idea to collect as much as possible, in case

you get into a fight that is a little more difficult than you imagined.

In fights, you will use your weapon to damage the other

player/mobile, but you can also use spells. Spells use your mana

points to cast, mana being magic points. You will normally start off

with the four basic spells, Fireball, Frost, Missile and Shock, and

then be able to learn another 5, Aid, Damage, Lit, Blur and

BHands.

Fireball, Frost, Missile, Shock and BHands are all attack spells,

they do a certain amount of damage to your opponent, and cost

you a certain number of mana points. Aid, Damage, Lit and Blur

are special spells. Aid will heal you a little, again at the cost of

some mana points. Damage adds 10 to the maximum amount of

damage you are doing at the time. Going back to our example of

the mjolnir, if you were wielding it and you cast Damage (and it

succeeded) you would then have a total maximum damage of 48.

Lit means you don't have to carry a light source, if you go into a

dark room you will still be able to see. Blur blurs your form, making

it harder for anyone to hit you.

You will have a percentage chance of these spells succeeding

every time you cast them, based mainly on your level. Thus a level

11 character will have a far greater chance that a fireball he casts

at a mobile will actually hit him, or that if he tries to Aid himself, it

will work, than a level one character.

Some mobiles can cast spells as well, and there are usually

somewhere on the MUD things called anti-magic devices. This

means that if you are wearing one of these items, no spell will hit

you if cast at you (or it will be absorbed harmlessly be the item).

Also, on most MUDs there are things called quests...

What is a quest? Quests are puzzles. Quests are challenges.

Quests are things you must work out if you want to gain immortal

status. Each quest has a different number of quest points - qpoints

- associated with it. Most MUDs will have a qlist or qdone

command to allow you to see what quests are available, and what

they are worth in quest points.

The points awarded to quests vary on many things, like its

difficulty, both in terms of puzzles and how hard things in the area

are to kill. They may also vary on other things too, such as how

well known the zone is. For example, Sorcerer's Tower, a quest

that is on most MUDs around, is quite difficult puzzle wise, not too

hard as far as killing Shazareth (the main mobile in the quest)

though, but due to it being very well known, very few quest points

have been awarded. You should also realise, that under this

system, the points for a quest may be reduced, you will thus go

down in quest points obtained. But arguments about reduced

points given for particular quests, meaning you now need to do

another to stay/reach the same immortal level, will in general, not

get you anywhere. Of course, you may ask, but do not expect

anything to be done. You will be required to complete certain

quests to become an immortal, generally known as a Wizard.

These are critical quests, and must be done. You are NOT allowed

to give the answers to quests away to other players, but hints are

generally considered alright.

Why should you run? (Running is the term generally used on

MUDs to signify going around the MUD getting points and levels). If

you run you will get an immortal character. This means you cannot

be killed by mobiles or other players. You also gain several

privileges along with the immortal status. On most MUDs, you will

gain the privilege of Goto. This means you can jump to any room

on the MUD, without having to walk there, or go through any of the

rooms connecting where you are to where you want to go. You

may also get the privilege Stats, which means you can find out a

lot more information about other players, like where they connect

from and how long they have been on (or when they were last on),

their score, and how much armour they have at the moment. Also,

you get more information on commands like users. You will be

able to see where every player is at the time. Also, you will be able

to go invisible. This means that anyone of your level or lower will

not be able to see that you are connected to the mud. You will get

a few more privileges, but those are the really useful ones. There

will be rules for what you are and aren't allowed to do as a wizard

on each MUD, but usually, if you don't harass the mortal users,

and aren't rude to the gods, you will get along fine.

The hierarchy on a MUD varies greatly from MUD to MUD.

Usually, there are a number of people, called 'powers' who

administrate the MUD and write the programming for it ('coders').

There will be about 3 or 4 power levels, usually God, DemiGod and

ArchWizard, but again the titles and levels vary on each MUD.

These are the people to go to if you have problems. They generally

know a lot about the MUD, and can deal with most problems. If

one of the powers is harassing you, or you have a problem with

one, it's best to go straight to the top and mail or talk to one of the

gods. Then, under the powers, there will be the wizards. There

may be any number of wizard levels, some MUDs only have one,

some can have four or more. If there are more than one, the way it

is decided is usually on number of quest points the player has on

what level they will get. Then there are the mortals below them. To

see who has gained immortal status on a MUD, there is usually a

command 'wizlist' which will show the names of who has reached

each immortal level.

On each MUD there are a number of info and policy files, telling

you more about how each specific MUD works. It's best to read

them as soon as you get on, then you won't break any rules

through ignorance, which is usually no excuse.

MUDs are fun places to play, as long as everyone knows the

rules and sticks to them. I hope that you will consider visiting

some of them, perhaps even the MUDs that MudZone hosts,

DreamScape <telnet dreamscape.mudzone.com port 9999> and

SMiLE <telnet smile.mudzone.com port 6715>. You will be very

welcome on either.

Alison Matthias, aka Stress, Creator of DreamScape MUD.

http://www.ask.com/main/metaAnswer.asp?MetaEngine=Excite&logQID=4F7EDBF3EDD7D31180B30090277379D8&qCategory=NERD&qSource=0&frames=yes&site_name=Jeeves&scope=web&r=x&MetaTopic=The+Official+LegendMUD+Home+Page&MetaURL=http%3A%2F%2Fsearch.excite.com%2Frelocate%2Fsr%3Dwebresult%7Css%3Dwhat%2Bis%2Ba%2BMUD%7Cid%3D49364%3Bhttp%3A%2F%2Fmud.aus.sig.net%2F&EngineOrdinal=4&ItemOrdinal=9&ask=what+is+a+MUD+metasearch&origin=7011&MetaList=http%3A%2F%2Fsearch.excite.com%2Frelocate%2Fsr%3Dwebresult%7Css%3Dwhat+is+a+MUD%7Cid%3D49364%3Bhttp%3A%2F%2Fmud.aus.sig.net%2F&x=18&y=14

Muds and Moos

http://www.uta.edu/english/V/students/collab1/BACK.HTM

\

http://www.uta.edu/english/V/students/collab1/COLLEGE.HTM

Multi-user dungeons (as MUD stands for) started off (and most still are) as games based on Fantasy Role Playing games

allowing more than one person to play simultaneously.

There are thousands of different MUDs lurking on the Internet, and they all vary considerably in flavour. Some are still pure

games and most people using them still concentrate on the gaming aspect. Others have become more social, where the

important thing is not the game, but the interaction with other 'players'.

Others are used for more serious reasons - one that I know of is used as a training session on using Gopher.

Ready to Play: http://www.dragonlance.com/mudring/

Whole ball of wax: http://dir.yahoo.com/Recreation/Games/Internet_Games/MUDs__MUSHes__MOOs__etc_/

Time to Play: http://www.personal.psu.edu/users/r/a/raj112/wolf/wolf.html