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GamerDad05 08-20-2013 08:47 AM

New Dad and Son to MUDS
 
Hi,


This has all started with something my Son told me in the car one day.


Before I tell you what he said I will give you a quick summary of my Son.


He is a very smart 10 year old that loves playing games and reading fantasy stories. He will normally reads his Kindle for about 2 hours before going to bed each night. He has been playing Board games and Pen and paper role playing games since he was 5. His gaming skill would likely be similar to the average adult. The first game of the Mage Knight Board game we played he won. I can also say the only game he has not beaten me at is a game called Dungeon Twister.


Anyway back to the car.


I had just given him a rouge like game called Cataclysm on his PC and after speaking to him about this for a while he said this.




Dad I would really like a game that just had words describing everything. That way I could use my own imagination to build the world




So this got me thinking. I looked at all the Interactive fiction that exists and found that there was nothing that was really available that would capture his interest. Then I stumbled across these MUD's.


I am now in the process of trying to work out which one I should use for us. I have never played any MUD's before and would like to learn this at the same time as my son. This is something he and I really enjoy doing together.


My only concern would be the possible content on some of the stories and the only real thing that I think would be out of bounds is of a sexual nature. Any violence and other mature subjects should be acceptable though. I will be playing at the same time as him and also making sure he behaves well.


I have narrowed down my search to Avatar and Discworld.


Any suggestions or advice on this would be welcome.

arden 08-20-2013 09:33 AM

Re: New Dad and Son to MUDS
 
I have never played on avatar so cannot give an opinion about it however I have played on Discword on and off for many years.

i'd try and explain why i like discworld so much but i cant so i simply suggest you log on for a couple hours and take a look, anyone on there will be glad to help you.

Newworlds 08-20-2013 11:25 AM

Re: New Dad and Son to MUDS
 
I would strongly suggest games that you have researched thoroughly and even talked to the Administration or staff about, and played for a week or so yourself before allowing your son to play. Many many MUDs have adult themes and adult players and are not appropriate/safe for your son.

New Worlds Ateraan is one of them. We are an adult only game and while our theme is exactly what your son is talking about (see ) and would be a great game for you and your wife, it is definately not a place for your son in the same vain that a bar, nightclub, or the Vegas Strip are not appropriate venues.

Discworld and Avatar. I'm am unsure about either. Log on and talk to an admin of the game for details or mail them. I'm pretty sure Iron Realms Entertainment have a game or two that would work. I also think Materia Magica might be appropriate, just keep in mind most MUDs are D&D players and are adult in theme and content.

Tristan1992 08-20-2013 03:58 PM

Re: New Dad and Son to MUDS
 
I think most MUDs would fit your bill. There are a few which are about online sex but they should be quite obvious. The vast majority are basic hack and slash D&D themed games. Speaking for the MUDs I know best (GateWay, Rocky and MUME) they're all family friendly in theme. The players are of course another matter. As is the norm these days people lobve to use foul language and some MUDs auto censor that while others don't. All 3 I mentioned have rules against it. One thing too worth mentioning is that the MUD population these days is significantly older than it was 20 years ago when most of us were in our 20's. If you're looking for younger players I'd suggest some of the most popular muds which have 100's (claimed) players at any time. If your son is particularly looking for a challenge as well as an old well written MUD I'd like to suggest GateWay. If he were a Tolkien fan MUME would be his cup of tea, it has recreated Middle Earth in meticulous detail.

Parnassus 08-20-2013 04:03 PM

Re: New Dad and Son to MUDS
 
What I would suggest, although this is probably a bit strange, is to download a few stock muds such as smaugfuss or tba. Go through it and take out anything you don't approve of. If he has his own computer, you can set it up for the two of you to wander and explore. You can even probably set it up for a few of his friends to come join you.

This seems to me that he wants to be a builder as well as play. I really enjoy building and stretching my imagination. The only problem is that I can't really surprise myself with little tricks and so on. However, most stock muds come with stock areas to take care of that. There are even a few places to find extra areas.

I haven't seen any mention of Smaug Building Institute for a long time so I think it might be gone now. There are still lots of places to find help for building for Smaug and running a Smaug mud.



I find TBA stock mud a bit strange to play but some of the areas that come with it are amazing for stock areas (and some others are, well, not so amazing, so it's a bit of an adventure just deciding what to keep).


With your own base, he might decide to look into coding too, which can be really interesting. Whatever the two of you decide, I hope you both enjoy the mudding world.

GamerDad05 08-21-2013 09:28 PM

Re: New Dad and Son to MUDS
 
I have got tbaMud working and will be giving my Son access to it as soon as I have done a quick check for anything that is not suitable.


I am a programmer by trade and my Son is already capable of witting small programs and I will likely pick one of the mention muds and start creating something with him. I can also see there is a fork of the tbamod for d20, this is something he and I could get involved in(D20 is his favorite RPG system)


I will also likely start playing a online Mud with him sitting next for me for the first few goes until I get comfortable everything is going well.


I will create another thread sometime down the track to describe how the process has gone.


Cheers

js_wilson 08-23-2013 06:28 PM

Re: New Dad and Son to MUDS
 
I second the suggestion for tbaMUD. For whatever reason, I haven't been able to get any of the SMAUG family of MUDs to compile cleanly on my vps or own my local machine. I've tried SMAUG, SMAUGfuss, and AFKmud, and none of them compiled without errors. Also maybe check out the tbaMUD test port for your son if you don't want to compile and host it yourself. There is almost nobody ever on their test port, except sometimes me. I play on there alot, and I have never seen another player on there, so it you and your son could have the whole MUD to yourselves most of the time. It's on tbaMUD.com port 4000.

Evilone 08-27-2013 03:03 AM

Re: New Dad and Son to MUDS
 
While creating your own, while your looking, check out Armageddon. Being originally a D&D RP'er back when I was about fifteen, I first started on various RPI MUDs, one of which was Armageddon. It's based off the Dark Sun world. If he wants to RP, then I'd stay clear of Hack'n'Slash.

Armageddon is all about making a fictional character in a harsh, desert world. Theres violence, but anything beyond, is never forced to be RP'd. You can just fade to black. I love Mudding now, but I wish I was like you, and being new, because going from pen and paper to MUDs, totally blew my mind back then, and I bet Armageddon would do it for you too.

PM me if your interested, and I can help you out if needed, if you wanna give Armageddon a go for you and your son.

Fifi 08-27-2013 07:40 AM

Re: New Dad and Son to MUDS
 
I have played Arm for a very long time. You might enjoy it a great deal. It is completely inappropriate for a ten year old. Keep your kid far from the screen while you play.

dark acacia 08-27-2013 03:51 PM

Re: New Dad and Son to MUDS
 
I think the topic creator and his son would like something like Materia Magica, with a big world, lots of quests, and stuff to explore or kill. When I played there I didn't notice any obviously sexual content.

Usually in role play-required games, sexual content is player driven, as people will often pair up and wander off to make their own fun, mainly because the games are less exciting than they think they are and some people plain old want to get off with the computer screen. You're generally safe depending on who's [not] around, but it's not a sure bet.

Games which are created specifically for sexual activity will tell you right away that it's not appropriate for minors.


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