|
Having played RPI MUDs on and off for roughly five years, I've grown fond of the emphasis on character development, but often wondered whether more diverse varieties of gameplay, like strategy gaming and economic sims, were available; so far, I haven't been able to find any, other than Assault (with its rather cumbersome ruleset) and Federation II, which seems to focus more on eve online's repetitive style of play rather than a more involving, fluid economic structure.
Plenty of gameplay variants have the potential to be used in MUDs, from that of a primitive colony arising in the wilderness to that of animals surviving in a virtual ecosystem, but it seems most games don't even bother with crafting and weather scripts, let alone complex simulations.
Likewise, I've yet to see a great deal of originality in terms of races, skills and settings - most games either employ a host of pointy-eared dandies and midgets, or go the furry route and offer cat-people and fae incarnations, none of which have any significant backstory or "feel" to them; you're very unlikely to find Githzerai, Ctholian elder things and the like anywhere (unless someone decides to write them in as mobs for the hell of it), and even flying or amphibian races seem sparse. While Armageddon does come close to the original Darksun feel, and several other games strive to create a more exciting background for RP or H&S, I've yet to see truly unique environments, the kind that make you want to play simply to wonder at the sights you might encounter.
Given how difficult it is to find exotic games, where novel gameplay elements or interesting environments are to be had, I thought I'd ask the regulars here to share a few titles with me. Is there anything truly original or special out there, or should I contend with the high-quality, albeit standard RPIs I'm playing?
|