Presently, there are but two other functioning RPIs that I'm aware of:




There have been others but last I heard they were all closed down (or at least when I tried to access them their game and/or website was no longer functioning). There are a few others in development but none are close to opening, including my own.

Take care,

Jason

I'll throw my hat in with prof, here. Armageddon, Harshlands, and SoI are pretty much the only mandatory RP muds worth mentioning.

And, in the world of RPI's, you don't get 'above and beyond' Armageddon. It's the final word in kicking ass.

-WP

These three muds form the niche genre of RPI's. An RPI, not only enforces RP, they all impose permanent death, and expect the players to constantly interact with the world realistically, while the world treats them the same way.They have no global channels, no who lists, and all require character applications to ensure that the game world is preserved, from the moment a new character enters the world. At this point SOI, Armageddon, and Harshlands are the only games in town.

Role-play Intensive or enforced muds also exist, but are not RPI's. It's a weird semantic thing. This is a larger pool. Your best bet is to read reviews, and do searches based on the criteria outlined.

I guess, what I'm saying is you might want to further define whether you're looking for an RPI or an RP enforced game.

As far as I know, the only muds utilizing full perma-death are Armageddon, SoI and Harshlands. They all require a char app. So, it's a trade off. Since you don't like Armageddon, I guess I'd recommend SOI. If you find that's not for you, there's Harshlands.

I really think perma-death should be a searchable field.

In addition to the recommendations made above, you might also try out one of these two MUDs:

- I haven't played there personally, but they are a levelless and classless roleplaying MUD, and from the looks of their website, have a lot of in-depth documentation and thematic content. They don't have permadeath, however (though according to their FAQ, death is no easy experience and it's possible to die for good under the right circumstances).

- Also not strictly an RPI, as leveling is involved, but it is classless and features permadeath. Very unique theme in which players roleplay as members of rival deinonychus packs in prehistoric Pangaea. Its playerbase is still small, but the quality of roleplay I've seen is good and I'd say this MUD fits both the new and unusual categories you described. <g>

You should perhaps try Dartmud. It's leveless. There is permadeath. The level of 'realism' is high, in terms of interacting with the world.

I'd go with SoI, solid LotR game with some cool stuff in it. Unfortunately, like the other three role-play strict games, it takes a little getting used to.

Towers of Jadri!
It's leveless, classless, the theme is origonal, and it has permanent death.



Now, be aware, Jadri has a global OOC channel. Which I think takes it out of the RPI running, but the roleplay standard is still quite high. And considering Jadri isn't the easiest to learn the global channel can be quite helpful.

If you haven't tried The Inquisition: you aught look at that as well.

It is leveless, perma-death, and currently looking for players. Especially players who want to play the many non-combatant roles in the world (which is what it sounds like you want to play): clergy, inquisitors, barristers, criminal investigators, thieves, merchants, doctors, nobility, secret agents, mages, bards, gamblers and drunks (and any combination of those).

The game, in brief, plays out more like one of those dinner murder mystery games than a MUD. All the characters interact with one another as they go about their daily business and try to figure out which ones are the mage characters, and get them burned at the stake, without getting sent there themselves or offed by the mage (perma death). The world is low fantasy, taking much from medieval or Renaissance cultures. Magic is real, though, so there really are witches.

If you like mysteries, you'll probably like this game.