[Vesper]

Well, after many years of playing my favorite mud, it has since closed for some major revamps that will probably not be seen for a long time.

So here is what I'm more or less looking for:
A solid roleplaying mud that is easy to pick up.
A mud that accepts NO donations to benefit your character.
One that has a decent class selection...meaning, every class is unique. I hate seeing Warriors with multi-missile and Mages with ensnare and Thieves with portal.
I prefer ROM/Diku/Circle or anything along those lines, though not mandatory.
And lastly, one with 10 or more players online on average.

Any suggestions?

[Fern]

Sure, come on over to Legends of Karinth.

karinth.com:2345

No classes - you are your own unique class, based on your own strategy and choices.
RP highly encouraged, including potential to gain experience from RP.
We follow the DIKU license - your donations get you our enduring gratitude but no bonus or boost in-game.
We're a massively modified ROM.
Like everywhere, our online varies, but 10 or more is easy.

[Zeno]

Check out Bleached InuYasha Galaxy.

We may not enforce RP, but we encourage it.
We will never give "rewards" for donating.
Our class system is unique, and so is each class.
We're Smaug, which is of course derived from Diku.
Our avg players on ranges from 5-25 (more details here).

[WarHound]

Armageddon.org

Although it has a fairly steep learning curve, it is delivious once you pick it up.

Play it. Love it.

-WP

[Nikodemus]

Perhaps Realms of Discordia?  

chaos-ascending.com port 9000

Realms of Discordia Homepage

Roleplay mandatory, ROM / Ember derivative.

Not only is roleplaying compulsory, there are systems to automatically reward it. It's even possible to level solely by roleplaying. Also, immortals regulary reward players for active roleplaying.

[Valg]

Originally Posted by (Vesper @ Sep. 17 2006,17:56) A solid roleplaying mud that is easy to pick up. A mud that accepts NO donations to benefit your character. One that has a decent class selection...meaning, every class is unique.  I hate seeing Warriors with multi-missile and Mages with ensnare and Thieves with portal. I prefer ROM/Diku/Circle or anything along those lines, though not mandatory. And lastly, one with 10 or more players online on average. Any suggestions?

Carrion Fields is a ROM derivative, operating continuously since April 1994, fulfilling all the criteria you mention.  

You mentioned that you want a game that isn't based around purchasing "perks".  We're not into gimmicks in our gameplay.  Here is a link to one of our thousands of "100% XP days!".  If you want a special reward for your character, you'll need to earn it in the game.

You mentioned that you want class uniqueness.  Here is a link to an ad for just one of our classes.  Thieves play completely differently, as do all of our classes, yet we've had successful examples from every class in terms of roleplaying and combat.

You mentioned roleplaying was important to you.  We frequently update our History forum with events like this, which is from yesterday.  That's part of a worldwide quest involving all sorts of different factions and characters. This is from a few days before that. Things happen on Carrion Fields.

[Kastellyn]

Valg didn't go into detail on our number of players, but I think it bears mentioning.  Carrion Fields has peaks of around 80 players, and very rarely will have less than 30.  I'd say we average about 50-60 players at any given time.  One key point to those numbers is that they're all active players; we don't allow botting or multiple log-ons per player, so everyone you see on the who list is actively engaged in one form of RP/PK or another.

As with anything relatively new, it'll take a while to get used to the differences between your previous MUD and CF.  That being said, I've seen a lot of new players do very, very well at both PK and RP within a short time of starting to play.

Good luck with whatever MUD you choose!

[Imria]

Come give Adventures Unlimited a try.

We're a rom2.4b6 MUD with no in-game benefits for donations.
There is a good selection of unique classes - work is still going into making them different in even more ways.
It's pretty easy to pick up - and if anything seems tricky, there's a comprehensive set of help files and a lot of players ready to help out.
AU is roleplay encouraged (enforced in the PK system), and most of our players do roleplay. We have a temple system and world events designed to promote and further it.
It can get quiet at off-peak hours, but otherwise we'll have around 10-20 players online.

We'd love to have you stop by.

telnet: tharel.net 5005
web: www.tharel.net

[Elora]

A lot of the muds mentioned here are very good. For a roleplay intensive mud, I can recommend having a look at both Armageddon and Carrion Fields. Bear in mind though that  Armageddon has permanent death which might not be your thing.

One I would add to the list is Shattered Kingdoms, shatteredkingdoms.org 1996, http://www.shatteredkingdoms.org . The mud is a roleplay enforced mud with largely unrestricted PK. It accepts no donations of any sort, including the "upkeep" kind.  The pbase is decent, usually with 30-70 players online.  The mud is newbie friendly, each kingdom having well made newbie areas, a mentor command to reach other players IC, and the helpfile accessible via the website, if you wish to prepare before playing. It has 13 classes, 11 races and 6 kingdoms to pick from, as well as a wide array of cabals, churches and tribunals that influence the political and religious landscape.

Good luck finding a new home .