[citywisdom]

Hey, guys. I'm looking to get back into mudding/mushing/acronyming and I'm getting kind of overwhelmed digging through the ginormous list of games. I've read through the threads on finding a MUD, and I've gone through the search engine every way I can think, but some of this stuff is pretty hard to pin down unless I spend a week figuring out a game's theme and mechanics, go through character creation, get approved, wander around the game environment for a while, and then figure out the hard way that it isn't what I wanted.

Here's what I'm looking for, and I would be grateful for any advice.


1.) Mandatory roleplay.

Fantasy MUD, sci-fi RPI, whatever - I'm looking for a game where the focus is on engaging RP.


2.) No/avoidable PK.

I'm fine with the risk of permadeath if I RP a poorly planned coup against the queen or whatever, or if there's a PK aspect to the game which I can completely opt out of, but PK is just genuinely not my thing.


3.) Allows for a flexible schedule.

I'm a full-time student, so I won't always have time to play. Games where my character will die/lose all their equipment/be exiled/whatever if I don't log in every day are probably not a good idea for me.


4.) Friendly to queer/female players.

If the in-game world is full of harsh injustice, no worries, but I've learned that I get pretty miserable playing a game where the admins allow their female/gay/whatever players to get harassed on OOC channels/forums.


5.) No pay-for-play.

Sorry, I'm broke.


I'm not super concerned how large the playerbase is so long as there are enough people around that I won't be logging into an empty landscape, and I'm flexible in terms of genre and codebase. Mostly I'm looking for a game with a friendly admin staff and playerbase and interesting avenues for RP.

I'd appreciate whatever recommendations you can make!