There is a mud based on historical Rome, and another I recall reading about some time ago which is/was set in ancient Greece. Using a "real-world" theme is certainly a viable option and could produce a good mud, but most people seem to prefer a fictional setting.

For example, taking your "pirate" mud, you've got the potential for an interesting game. But by adding magic, you would suddenly add a whole new element to the game. By adding monsters and supernatural races, you're vasting increasing the possible character and opponent options. In addition, making up your own setting allows you to "create" history - you don't have to worry about history buffs pointing out loopholes in your theme. Equally, you can add surprises for the players, because it's not possible for them to cheat and read up on what happens where and when.

So in short, while I think your suggestion could provide a fun and interesting mud, you would be losing out on a lot of elements which make muds popular. It's just something you should bare in mind.

But what I mean is, the players would all know what had happened (historically) up until that point. There wouldn't really be any surprises, unless the player knew very little about history and had no interest in looking it up. One of the things I like about muds (like fantasy novels) is not knowing about unusual creatures and places until you meet them.

Another problem with historically accurate muds is that they can cause a lot of hard feelings. For example the Vietnam mud you suggested might be found offensive by players who had lost loved ones in Vietnam. Even historical events from a long time ago could cause offense - for example a mud based on the Crusades would no doubt offend a lot of religious people.

KaVir definitely has a point about why a historically accurate ‘modern’ mud probably would be a somewhat controvarsial idea. Even Word War II, and the Korean war are a bit uncomfortably close in time and the Vietnam War definitely is. The mental wounds have not healed, too many people would be hurt and/or offended. Try to imagine what you’d feel if your father/brother/uncle died in that war. Try even for a moment to imagine the Palestinian or Yugoslavian conflicts as subjects for a mud. Impossible, yes? Well, the psychological problem is the same, even so much more vivid the closer it gets in time.

Otherwise it’s quite possible of course, even using just stock code and snippets. Spells could easily be changed into something more modern and ‘realistic’. You can find a vehicle code, a ranged weapons code and several other snippets, which you could just as well use for tanks, aeroplanes and machineguns, as for carriages and bows and arrows in Medieval times, or spaceships and laser guns in Space Operas. But it would probably be wiser to keep the time distance a bit further from present days. I’d say that World War I or the American Civil War would be about the time limit.

However I don’t really understand the other objections about using real History as the base for a Mud. And I fail to see why it would make things more predictable than in any of the many Medieval, Tolkien or Wheel of Time based muds around. In fact I think that historical or geographical accuracy in the zones and background stories add some spice and flavour to the mud. And several such muds exist. To my knowledge there is a mud set in France during the time of the three Musketeers, and another featuring London in the time of Sherlock Holmes, and most likely there are others like that. In our mud we have an entire Dimension based on ancient Greece and Egypt around 2000 BC, when you generally travelled by ship, and when piracy was an accepted pastime even for the sons of Kings. We use the geography, topology and biology of the Mediterranean countries as basis for it, as well as the authentic history, legends and mythology. It’s quite fun, since the Greek Gods were supposed to wander the earth, interacting with the mortals, and definitely not behaving like any supreme beings. In fact they were a quarrelsome, promiscuous, resentful, envious, violent, passionate lot, usually up to no good. The perfect setting for a RP environment.

However, the general player preference still seems to be Medieval, fantasy based muds. Any poll you make would most likely show that. Possibly some sort of conservatism, since muds developed from the old Dragons and Dungeons roleplay games? Or just a lack of imagination on the side of the creators? I’m not sure which, possibly a mix of both.

Ouch.

Or it could possibly be that the simplist way for both the MUD creators and the players to be involved in a reality-escaping world is to not base the MUD on actual events.

I could understand using a more accurate location for a MUD to be an interesting setting for players, but to try and recreate an actual event seems to lean more towards a historical simulation than a world that devolps around the players actions.

I think you can make a successful game in just about any setting.  If you make the gameplay well enough I don't see why a Vietnam era game can't succeed, as controversial as it might be.  Although I certainly wouldn't call it a "revolution" just a different style of MUD.

The problem I see is what are your players going to do?  To me, a "realistic" day in the life of a vietnam soldier conjurs up images of eating food from a can and trying to fight off jungle rot on my foot.  And no "cure fungus" spell to be found...

The point of such spells in games is to give the players superhuman abilities.  There a very few games I can think of that don't give the player some sort of superhuman power.  Whether it's creating fireballs out of thin air or the ability to be shot 20 times and still live.  I think without this, you will have to be extremely creative in your gameplay.

Didn't someone do one set in 1920s Chicago somewhere? I seem to remember reading about it on TMC. Also, there's AoTT (Age of the Throne), a commercial MUD which I believe is set in the France of Louis XIV.

The problem is that there is just so much information about real-world history. With a made-up theme, you can invent the world yourself. Even with a Tolkien or WoT theme, there are huge amounts of the world and history which is uncharted - which allows for setting creativity. You suggested that Medieval/fantasy muds might be due to lack of imagination, but such settings require more imagination, because nothing is set in stone - the game world is based entirely on the imagination of the game developer. Moreover, as I said before, because the information is all made up by the game world creator, the players can't look up the information themselves. This forces players to explore the unknown if they want to learn more about the game world - or perhaps read the journals and exploits of other players.

As I said previously, a historical setting can work fine, but I prefer to play within a fictional one - and when I create a mud world, I like it to come from the imagination of myself and my fellow developers, not from a book.

I also remember a game that was around for a while based on The X-Files--now granted, that's poking into the paranormal and 'magical' realms a bit, but it's also firmly planted in the real world.

Like anything, your idea could be a good one if you developed and structured it right, but the problems that KaVir et al. have brought up are ones that you're going to need to address before you even begin.  The main question you're going to need to address is where you'll find the sense of drama in your world, where the point is that spurs interaction between players (both cooperative and opposing.)

Secondly, I would be hard-pressed to believe that a MU* based on any specific point in history (like the Vietnam war) would be vastly successful.  After a time, you're going to run out of plots and conflicts, or continue to produce ones that are so similar to prior ones that everything begins to turn stale.

That's another appeal with fantasy/science-fiction original themes (as well as themes based on popular novels that aim to produce a new story in an author's world as opposed to a mirror of that world itself): a good creative director will always be able to create some fresh drama.

I do think the idea is a good one, and one worth exploring further, but you're going to have to sit down and brainstorm all the potential weaknesses and problems that might arrise, and find methods of fixing them before you start inviting players in the door.

Best,
Edward

I think a historical setting would be really nifty, particularly if it weren't perfectly accurate. Even though there is reams of detailed information on historical events, there are still plenty of places to fill in the holes. Did the colonial period have assassins? If so, what were they like? What if a redcoat assassin killed George Washington -- would another player/General rise to take his place, or would the British have surpressed the revolution -- and what would it be like afterwards?

There are so many possibilities if one just takes history to be as malleable as fantasy history. Perhaps one could reenact the espionage-laden Cold War, or JFK's assassination, or the first Emperor of China, who is said to have been destroyed by a fire-breathing dragon, but historians believe it was a meteor.

You say that your theme "sounds more fun to me that spanking a purple dragon with a magical mace", but one of the nice things about a fantasy mud is the diversity of opponents (and thus the diversity of tactics required to defeat them). You can fight dragons, or orcs, or goblins, or any other sort of thing your imagination can conjure up - but in your mud, the players will be limited to killing Vietnamese solders. Hundreds of them. Thousands.

Now as a pure PK mud that might not matter too much - but from reading your latest post, it seems that the Vietnamese solders would all be mobs (or am I misreading your post?). From a strategic point of view it does sound interesting, particularly in terms of organisation and tactics - in fact it rather reminds me of mud concept which was discussed on MUD-DEV some years back, whereby the entire playerbase are thrown into the middle of a savage wilderness (except unlike your mud there are all sorts of nasties out there, and the players are forced to create their own settlements, tools and weapons).

However as far as gameplay is concerned, I think it's soon going to get boring for most players - you just don't have enough options for diversity. A World War II style mud might be more flexible (there are more sides involved, more vehicles and weapons, etc), but personally (and I know you wouldn't like this) I'd much rather see your ideas implemented into a futuristic mud. The players could choose from fictional races, or be regular humans, they could have a wide range of advanced weapons and gadgets, travel around in customised spaceships exploring new worlds and abandoned vessels - think something along the lines of Aliens (or Space Hulk). Now to me, that would be fun - because I'd have no idea what would be out there, and I'd have far more personal customisation available.

Anyway, just my opinion - not intended as criticism. I applaud you for going against the crowd, even though your mud wouldn't really appeal to me personally.

Some quick points though - are you going to have levels? If so, how will you handle the mobs? Different solders of different ability? Also you keep mentioning classes, but have you considered using a classless approach?