[Scrod Fungus]

[Wik]

As long as you're willing to try a MUSH, I might have just the place you're looking for.
We have one OOC channel that is used for newbie acclimation, and can be easily turned off. No IC channels.
We don't have magic points or experience. No killing mobs here. Your reward is a well-rounded character that finds a niche in our evolving world.
Our crafting system is extremely varied and fulfilling, with thousands of items.
We are extremely immersive, with a creative and competant playerbase and staff, weaving extremely interesting plots.
Our combat is reffed like a tabletop game, allowing for flexibility that's impossible with code.
Unfortunately, we do have an HP system, with no specific damage code.
We have permadeath. When you die, we bury you. Or leave you in the ditch, if you're just a peasant.
We are a middle fantasy, magic-fearing, totally original-themed MUSH.

If these sound good to you, I'd suggest looking at Chiaroscuro, at . Thanks, and I hope to see you soon.

[lanthus]

Sounds alot like DartMud to me.

[UnderSeven]

I would be very surprised if anything new in reguards to those criteri came up. There are very few that fit it (you could probably count them on one hand.)

[Letrus Abbot]

fits all of your criteria, particularly in originality of theme and gameworld. It's a low(almost none at all)-magic Roman fantasy theme, RP enforced.

The only OOC at all is the 'welcome area' where you create your characters and talk with other players, once you enter the gameworld, it's all strictly IC. The 'gameworld-wide' communication system is IC, and there as a result of an IC organization.

Complex and brilliantly designed combat system with heavy elements of strategy. Level-less and classless.

Permadeath. Yes. The PK system is even being revamped currently, and the playerbase has always demanded good IC reasoning behind pking. Multiplaying, scripting, triggering etc are strictly forbidden.

Active admin, active playerbase (there is -always- at least a good large handful of people around even in the most off hours), regular additions and improvements and ongoing admin. created storylines and events add to the environment and immersiveness of the gameworld.

Yes, it's ptp. Trying it out is always free though. Worth a look at least, I'd say.

[Scrod Fungus]

[Scrod Fungus]

Of all the thousands of games out there... not a friggin' one of them come close to what I'm looking for without wanting to slip their hands in my pockets, or blocking me from AOL.  

The MUSH was very promising looking, but I'm afraid my aspirations did not leave enough room for dishing out money to get cool stuff.  Sorry, folks, I'm a cheap bitch.

Jesus Christ.  And people wonder why I'm trying to build a MUD despite my evident ignorance when it comes to coding and programming, Linux (I've been raised on Windows), servers and what-not, and any matter of jargon.  I'm after the enjoyment of gaming for the sake of gaming, of showing off intellectual superiority with a powerful imagination over the rest of the drab human populace in a world where most kids can barely advance themselves past the concept of 'kill mob'.  

Gah.  v.v;

Sorry, frustrated.

[Jazuela]

Are you willing to consider a game that meets or exceeds most of your criteria, but falls short on a very small bit of it? If so, perhaps Armageddon is for you.

1) It's free, no "add-on" stuff for extra, just plain free.
2) No levels, but it does have its own equivalent of classes. However, those skillsets (guilds/subguilds) give the character a very wide variety of skills, which eventually branch out to other skills that the character doesn't start with. It's a fairly realistic, logical setup.
3) It's an RPI, in the strictest sense. No global OOC capability whatsoever, both intensive and strictly enforced roleplay, and the code supports the intensity.
4) There is an "OOC" command, which can be seen by anyone in the same room as the person using it. This is used -very sparingly.- Example of why it is needed: newbie shows up and doesn't know how to get out of the building. His -character- would know. His -player- just needs some syntax help. Player asks, ooc, "Syntax to get out of her please?" Someone in the room answers, ooc, "Syntax is leave." Boom. End of OOC discussion. Another example of why it's needed: Characters want to meet tomorrow at 9AM to discuss a trade agreement. But, the game world has its own calendar, which can be difficult to translate to real-world time. Player oocs, "Tomorrow 9AM eastern okay?" Other player oocs, "Make it 9:30?" Roleplay resumes. That's pretty much the extent of OOC in Armageddon. Once in awhile it'll go further than that but if a newbie needs more help than a 1-line answer can provide the players are great about bringing the newbie to an unpopulated area so they can talk OOC without disrupting RP for everyone else.

5) No "exp" but there are health points, stamina points, stun, and mana. It's a completely OOC code device to help the player know whether or not they're about to drop dead and if maybe they should get the heck outta there. If you are being attacked, or attacking someone/something stronger than you, or a spell backfires, or you're walking in the desert and dying of thirst, seeing nice text sentences is nice but you might miss it with the room/activity echoes. Having those numbers available for you to see (you don't HAVE to see them - in ordered to see them you have to either set a prompt echo up, or type stat and/or score) can make the difference between your character's life and death.
6) Physical damage, unfortunately, is measured only in how many HPs you have. When you look at an injured character you will only see whether he is in perfect health, in moderate condition, stunned and unable to move, etc. etc. and whether or not he's bleeding, and to what extend (bleeding profusely, for example). There's been occasional discussion on how some folks would love to see injury-locations added to the code, but so far the staff hasn't implemented anything like that. HOWEVER - while you are getting injured, the code WILL tell you where the damage is being done. So you at least will have the opportunity to hold your battered arm, or press against the gash in your belly, etc. etc. in a RP'ed manner.
7) Permadeath - you betcha. It wouldn't be a very good RPI if it didn't have this!
8) Genre: Inspired by a combination of Dark Sun and Dune, with many familiar ideas in the world (some of the critters you might recognize), but this is nothing even remotely resembling a "stock" game. Semi-post-apocalyptic fantasy (no dark elves, the dwarves do -not- have beards, no "hobbits" but instead rather nasty halflings that eat what they kill - including you), harsh desert world.
9) Crafting, emote system, help files, improvement and new skills learned by DOING things, not by sitting there absorbing experience and checking into some trainer to train off points, totally hard-core roleplay, no cuddly cutsey empaths bouncing around giggling while they bleed from every pore on whatever is left of their skin.
10) Top-notch staff of Implementors and Immortals.
11) No list of 20-zillion verbs/socials. You learn the emote system, which allows for extremely dynamic, almost limitless expression.
12) It -is- a DIKU derivitive, but it is absolutely positively NOT a "hunting" game. You -can- play a combat-oriented character and some people do, but I don't know how to stress enough that hunting/killing mobs/pking is -not- necessary to become immersed in the RP world. You could start out with a warrior-type skillset and end up opening your own bakery, or start out as a "burglar-type" skillset and spend your character's life living in the lap of luxury as a noble's aid or spy for the noble's house. Your skills don't have to have anything to do with what your character DOES, in other words. They can, but it certainly isn't necessary and many people will pick a skillset only because they want to use a single skill that set comes with, and not bother ever trying to use the other skills.

Again, Armageddon does fall short on some of your criteria, but I feel it exceeds several, and meets most, so perhaps you might want to look at their website and decide for yourself.

[Scrod Fungus]

[prof1515]

Harshlands and Shadows of Isildur are very good MUDs which are level-less, class-less, perma-death, no-OOC (limited to the same as Armageddon), no experience, everything's skill based, wounds are location-based ("a small brise on the left thigh, a moderate laceration on your right arm. etc.), and they feature extensive and wonderfully detailed and well-written worlds. No stock crap here, at all.

I highly recommend both games.




I don't think you'd be disappointed by either.

Take care,

Jason