[shaner646]

I've been playing MUDs, MUSHs, and whatever you want to call them for a while now. I played Gemstone 3 back when it was free if that helps you. Lately though I've been looking for a MUD and I can't find one that I really get into. This is what I'm looking for:
*Realistic- The game needs to be realistic. The game should be RP enforced or manditory. Otherwise, it just takes away lots of the fun. Most of my other preferences come back to this one. This doesn't mean the environment has to be a real place but it should be interesting. It should also have good room descriptions.
*Level-less/class-less- I hate levels and classes. The point of gaining a level that improves all of your stats like inteligents for killing a kobold just seems stupid to me. Also, the point of joining a class and being restricted to those skills annoys me.
*GUILD-LESS- This is for the same reason as the level-less/class-less reason. I hate having to join a guild and then only being able to use those guild skills. I want to customize my character to make them as useful as possible.
*Crafting skills- I don't want to play a MUD where all you can do is kill things. I want there to be skills that allow you to make things. Also, it would be good if players could become healers. Owning a shop would be really good too.
*Player Housing- It doesn't matter if you have to build it or you can just buy it, the point is that you have somewhere to live.
*Equipment saved- Personally, I don't think I need to include this but apparently there are MUDs out there where your equipment doesn't get saved.
*Dedicated playerbase- It doesn't matter to me how large the playerbase is just as long as I won't be the only one on sometimes. I like having people around to RP with.
*FREE- I don't have money to spend on a MUD right now so I'm looking for a free one to play.

These are important but I might be able to overlook them if the game is really good:
*Races- I don't want there to be 20 races in the game. The most fun games I've played have been games with only one race and one race only.
*Restricted PK- This one doesn't really matter that much to me but I prefer restricted PK over none or all PK.
*Large World- I want a large world to walk around in but if the world is fairly small I'll be able to ignore that if the game is amazing.
*Their Own Client- I just don't like MUD clients like GMUD or Fire Client. I prefer playing MUDs with their own client. It doesn't have to be amazing. For example, the client that Achaea uses is fine.

[The Vorpal Tribble]

I recently posted an advertisement for my mud Accursed Lands that I've played for nearly 6 years and it fits nearly every last one of your criteria.

We are RP mandatory and I have yet to find a more realistic MUD. To even get light you must chop down a tree or gather sticks, whittle a torch or make a bonfire, and then use flint and steel to light it, and even then it'll take some practise to get used to. Weapons and clothing will also slowly wear out, and even our moons have phases that casts a certain ammount of light. We have no hit pools but area of the body that sustain individual damage. You can be maimed in the head and still have your body, legs, arms, and, possibly, tail, in perfect shape.

We are skilless and craftless.

We have no guilds, though there are occassionally purely player-made organizations.

We also have a massive ammount of crafts makable with their own skills. Here is but a small list of crafting skills you can learn:

Basket Weaving
Butchery
Carpentry
Cobblery
Coopering
Embroidery
Fishing
Gem Cutting
Glass Blowing
Glass Making
Glass Working
Herbery
Knitting
Metal Working
Smelting
Smithing
Leather Working
Logging
Mining
Pottery Working
Sewing
Spinning
Stone Carving
Tanning

and quite a few more.


Player housing is not yet been introduced, though it is being worked on. However, we do have rentable cabins and tents with tables to keep your items on, and also inns where you can rent rooms for as long as you like, with chests to keep your stuff in.

Equipment is always saved.

We are a 'very' dedicated player base generally around 18-30 on at any given time, though it has been as low as 5 at 4am on weekdays near holidays or as high as 50 on rare occassions. We have 200+ total.

We are free and will always be free.

We currently have 5 races and all are original except for the humans.

We are not restricted PK because that would actually take away from the realism. You can kill someone, but you better be able to explain yourself or the law may soon be after you, perhaps even bounty hunters.

Terrinor is gigantic, with literally millions of rooms, though most is, naturally, untamed wilderness.  We have surface levels, oceans, rivers, sky for our soon-to-be-coming flying races and an extensive underground area that dwarfs all the others combined (and no, we don't have dwarfs).

We have a java telnet reachable from the website, but not sure if you'd count that as our own client.

We've recently had a couple dozen or so new players come and become addicted to AL after seeing its detailed realism. We've love to welcome you as another.

[Jazuela]

Armageddon seems to have all of what you "need" and most of what you'd "prefer."

Realistic: Extremely. From "intelligent" critters to awesome descriptions and everything inbetween.

Levelless/Classless: Check.

Guildless: In the sense that you refer to, yes. We have "guilds" and "subguilds" which are sorta like skillsets, which branch out to other skills as you improve the primary ones. But it's not something that you "join" it's just the set of skills you start out with based on your RP preferences. Repeat: Skills (in the "primary" not the "secondary" skillsets branch, so you're not just stuck with the initial skills, you pick up a variety of new ones as you improve.

Clans: I think this is more like the "guilds" you refer to. Like joining a Noble house or a mercenary guild or a merchant house. They're not just empty buildings with NPCs that you practice "warrior-spit) on endlessly, and have very little (if anything) to do with your skills. They're groups of the community that exist for an actual reason and interact with the rest of the world accordingly.

Crafting skills: Check - plenty, a great variety, and a great variety of things "pre-packaged" in addition to the ability to submit RP'ed logs of you working on something that doesn't exist yet, and if it's approved they introduce it to the game.

Player housing: We have House Nenyuk, who operates the rentals in each of the two major cities in the game. The merchant character (played by a player) rents apartments and a few houses to other characters for a yearly fee and you get the key. Only the richest of the rich own their own homes. It's a very harsh desert world and the vast majority of the population are poor.

Equipment saved: Check

Dedicated playerbase: Check. Peak times are closer to California evenings than New York evenings, and during peak times it's around 40-60 players. At 4 AM you might only be one of 3 people in the game, but hey - that's what you get for being up at 4 in the morning

FREE: Yep, check.

Races: Limited, but unique (except for humans who are pretty much human, with a few mutations for exceptions) Elves in Armageddon are NOT like Tolkein elves. They're more like Dark Sun elves. Dwarves do not have beards and are not all grumpy miners. They're hairless, and they run the gamut of expressiveness.

Restricted PK: It's only restricted in that you can't just create a character whose purpose is to kill everyone in sight. It's a serious hard-core roleplaying environment, and PKing some guy just "because I can" is not met with approval.

Large world: Check. In one quarter of one city there are several hundred rooms. There are several quarters in each city, two cities, a dozen or so outposts and encampments, plus thousands of wilderness rooms seperating them from each other.

Their own client: Nope. They have a java client, but you're better off with whatever you prefer that's available elsewhere. I use mushclient and it does what I need it to do, but my needs are -extremely- simple. Pale background, dark text, copy/paste ability, a decently sized buffer, and text logging and unlimited scrollback. That's all it takes to make me happy. But it also lets you create triggers and macros if that's what floats your boat.

The URL is ginka.armageddon.org and you cannot log into the game without first applying for an account (IT IS FREE - COMPLETELY). You never have to pay anything, ever, for any aspect of the game, and in fact you're not allowed to because it's a Diku derivitive. But you still need to get an account and submit an application for your character. So read the main website and check out the GDB (their forum) if you have any questions.

[John]

Originally Posted by (Jazuela @ Mar. 02 2004,01:27) We have "guilds" and "subguilds" which are sorta like skillsets, which branch out to other skills as you improve the primary ones.

i think it'd be safe to call these Classes (and probably stop confusion). Yes, we do have classes, but as Jazuela said, we have most other things on your list

Armageddon has the typical classes Ranger, Warrior, Thief, etc. But it also has other classes which are Psionist, Stone Elementalist, Water Elementalist among others. It's important to have these as classes because while you aren't born a Warrior or thief, your born these. You're born a stone elementilist, you're born a Psionist. It's something genetic that makes you one of these. You have your races (human, half-giant, etc) which your born (obviously) but some people are born with something extra that makes it so they are a Stone Elementalist or a Psionist.

However you'll hardly ever hear the term in-game. Your more likely to hear Magicker and Mindbender

You can also choose Thief as your class, and live a perfectly stealing-free life. Never ever stealing.

Sub-classes also allow you to customise your character more.

Originally Posted by (Jazuela @ Mar. 02 2004,01:27) Peak times are closer to California evenings than New York evenings, and during peak times it's around 40-60 players. At 4 AM you might only be one of 3 people in the game, but hey - that's what you get for being up at 4 in the morning

I'd say your more likely to see 10+ people on in the morning. In fact these days it is rare to see less then 10 people on in the game ever (however it is possible, I think one time there were about 3 other people on, but these days that is the exception not the rule ).

Jazuela also said each QUARTER of a city has several hundred rooms. I wouldn't go that far, I'd say each quarter has close to a hundred, but not several Several hundred in the two main cities definitely But not in each quarter

Also, just to stress, it is very easy to make a non-combatant character. We have merchants, crafters, bards, miners, salt-gatherers, cooks (I've seen people attempt doing nothing but cooking, don't know how well they fared, I tend to die or they do before I find out ), rumor mongerers (I've done this one before ), servants, personal aides, guards (semi-combatant), spice gatherers (spice is a drug in Armageddon), gamblers (I've never seen somone make a living solely on this either in-game OR in real life ), beggars, whores (don't have to mud-sex just cause your a whore), concubines, thieves, magickers (for some it can be a job ), gangsters, burglars (if you ever find a lock-pick you'll be doing better then I am I've been playing for 2 years and STILL don't know where to buy the #### things) and more.

We recently had a discussion here about allowing people to have code and staff support for being tavern waitresses and waiters. Doesn't mean it will be possible anytime soon, but as a playerbase we do like to open up non-combatant roles (we also like to open up combatant roles too ).

Good luck

[EDIT]: aye aye aye. I need to cut down on the smileys

[Hephos]

Originally Posted by *Their Own Client- I just don't like MUD clients like GMUD or Fire Client. I prefer playing MUDs with their own client. It doesn't have to be amazing. For example, the client that Achaea uses is fine.

That will cut the available muds down quite a bit.

Currenly, there is only a very _few_ that have their own client (except for the *cough* java telnet applet). And none of them are free except for ours http://www.sharune.com as far as i know, which however does not meet some of your other requirements.

[HaiWolfe]

Hey there. You may want to give Shadows of Isildur a try, as from the sound of it we fit nearly all of your needs. I'll mention up front that it is set in Tolkien's world of Middle-Earth.

Realistic - We are an established RPI (roleplay-intensive) MUD, one of the handful that exist on the internet (games like Armageddon, Harshlands, and FEM are other examples).

Levelless/classless - There are no levels and no classes. SoI is entirely skill-based, and you pick which skills you want during chargen.

Guildless - There are no guilds. Skills are chosen and developed independently of a 'guild' system.

Crafting skills - Our crafting system is so big that we have a webpage dedicated to it. Check it out here.

Player Housing - Building or buying a house in the game are both viable means of getting someplace to live, provided it is fully roleplayed out and contact is made with the staff through E-mail.

Equipment saved - Yep.

Dedicated playerbase - We reach nightly peaks of around 30 players, and have reached more than 80 players online for large roleplay events. Our discussion forums are frequented every day, housing an active community.

FREE- Absolutely.

Races - We offer all the races documented by Tolkien, however the majority of them are restricted. You will probably only run into humans or goblins/orcs during the lifetime of your character, depending on which side (Gondor or Mordor) you play on.

Restricted PK - PK is allowed provided it is fully roleplayed out with good in-character justification. Going on a random murder spree on a whim is not.

Large World - We have about 3000 rooms built between the cities of Minas Tirith, Osgiliath, and Minas Morgul, and the lands between them. With an active staff team, the gameworld is being expanded every day.

Their Own Client - We do offer a simple java client to play through here, though the majority of our playerbase uses clients.

A couple additional things:

Characters are by application only, meaning you'll submit your PC to us after completing chargen, at which point it will be reviewed by a staff member or guide and either accepted or declined. This generally will not take more than 24 hours, and is in place to ensure that those who may be out to ruin the game for others don't get through.

We do have permadeath, meaning you'll have to apply for a new character when your existing one dies. This may be a turn-off to some people, but I guarantee you the adrenaline rush when your beloved character is fighting for his or her life is unlike any other MUD experience.

Hope you'll come check us out!

[Realedazed]

Originally Posted by (HaiWolfe @ Mar. 02 2004,05:33) Realistic - We are an established RPI (roleplay-intensive) MUD, one of the handful that exist on the internet (games like Armageddon, Harshlands, and FEM are other examples).

Just curious, what does FEM stand for?

[Spazmatic]

Originally Posted by Currenly, there is only a very _few_ that have their own client (except for the *cough* java telnet applet). And none of them are free except for ours http://www.sharune.com as far as i know, which however does not meet some of your other requirements.

There are quite a few. Most of their "mud clients" suck beyond belief, though.

[Dubthach]

Originally Posted by I recently posted an advertisement for my mud Accursed Lands that I've played for nearly 6 years and it fits nearly every last one of your criteria.

I was impressed by the description of your mud, Tribble, but I only got as far as the following prompt:

Originally Posted by You must provide valid information to play here. Your real name:

Why would you ever need this information, let alone before a person has _tried_ your game!?

Dub

[The Vorpal Tribble]

Well, for one, its just a little added thing to try to keep players from using more than one account if possible. However, I know for a fact that half our players don't actually put their real name and its not really a mandatory thing. I'm not exactly sure why we have it... but I put mine 6 years ago and never had a problem because of it. The Creators just use it to gain familiarity with the player base I suppose.

[Hephos]

Originally Posted by (Spazmatic @ Mar. 02 2004,21:11) Originally Posted by Currenly, there is only a very _few_ that have their own client (except for the *cough* java telnet applet). And none of them are free except for ours http://www.sharune.com as far as i know, which however does not meet some of your other requirements. There are quite a few. Most of their "mud clients" suck beyond belief, though.

Quite a few? Care to give me some links, would be fun to check them out...

[Grendal]

For realism I too would like to recommend the Accursed Lands.

Part of what makes our mud more realistic is the time frame in which it takes to accomplish something.

Walking in the city you move from one "room" to another in about 1 second. It's not an instant motion. You are walking, not instantly teleporting.

Jogging through the woods takes longer. Mountain terrain even longer and if you don't know your way around swamps, I wouldn't even venture there.

We have several modes of traveling, Walking, jogging, running, sprinting, sneaking, swimming, underwater movement, (flying is coming soon) and these movements are also modified by your physical position. Are you standing, crawling through the bushes, lying down slowly making a belly crawl through the high grass of the plains. You could be stooping, staggering and maybe a few others I'm unaware of.

The slowest movement I can think of is walking through the swamps. Moving from one area to another can takes several minutes. But if you have a wild boar sprinting at you, ready to ram a tusk through your skull, I would suggest a faster mode of travel. RUN FOR YOUR LIFE !!!!!!!!

This simple aspect of movement really shows how much planning and foethought our creators put into making a realistic environment.

I could go on and on about every aspect of the Accursed Lands, but I won't. Some things should be left for you or others to discover on your own.

Personal discovery is also something that AL prides itself on.
Someone new can enter tha game and make a discovery that no one else has before. The world is so huge and new things are placed in the game all the time. We aren't told when or where new things are added, so that gives everyone an equal chance to discover something completely new out in the world.

I recently discovered how to craft something that I believe no one else has ever crafted before. It was quite a thrill for me to have this knowledge and then in turn be able to be the one others come to in order to learn how to craft it as well.

Oh well, I could ramble on some more, but alas I must go.

Hope you give the Accursed Lands a try


Cya in the game.


Grendal

[FortFakeName]

Hey, I really don't want to write up some really long description saying why you should play what I'm going to pick. I've tried all of the RPI muds mentioned above and I can say without a shadow of a doubt (pun intended) that Shadows of Isildur is the one for you.

I've only been playing it for 3 weeks now but it has me hooked. Good game, great roleplaying. You should really try it out!

cheers,
BOBBY BOB BIL BOB

[Spazmatic]

Originally Posted by Quite a few? Care to give me some links, would be fun to check them out...

Google.

In particular, try "custom mud client" and "our own mud client", to get a few right off the bat. If you can't work from there, I'm scared for your continued sanity.