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Old 04-05-2014, 09:23 PM   #1
Bookie
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List of RPI MUDs

I am currently developing a MUD with a friend of mine and we are trying to make an RPI mud.

I wanted to play more of them so I can get a feel for them and bite on a couple of the ideas. Don't mistake my intentions though I'm not planning on completely copying other games, I have my own ideas already in mind but I still would like to get a feel for other games that are styled like this)

I want to play real RPI games not people that claim their game is an RPI. I want the whole package(perma-death, ROleplay Strictly enforced and rewarded, etc)
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Old 04-06-2014, 03:01 AM   #2
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Re: List of RPI MUDs

There are quite a few, some in various levels of development like Black Sands, Lament MUD, and Shadows of Isildur - and some have been around since before I was born like Armageddon, and Harshlands (SoI is arguably the first RPI, but it's going through a transitional period(?) currently). You have small deviations, such as the MUDs with the Inquisition theme (whether The Inquisition: Legacy and The Burning Post are RPIs or not is debatable by some) and Dark Isles (under development).

To get the full measure of what most define as the 'RPI experience' I suggest Armageddon. If you want to play without much player interaction, but want to get a good feel for the type of detail presented in RPIs, I'd suggest Lament MUD - huge, fascinating, interactive world but very few players.

Good luck!
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Old 04-06-2014, 03:14 AM   #3
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Re: List of RPI MUDs


I've played armageddon. Very beautiful game but at the same time the theme is kind of corrupt desert post apocalyptic yet still medieval world. Which is very very unique but different from what I have in mind for my project so that is why I want to check out other games that are considered RPI.

I'll check out Lament and I'll even check out the two that you mentioned that were debated being RPI so I can see why that is the case.
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Old 04-07-2014, 11:51 AM   #4
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Re: List of RPI MUDs

For a different theme and a different codebase, and for a particularly rich "roleplay enforced" experience, there's the cyberpunk Sindome MOO. I don't know if this is helpful - it seems to me that the technology driving the game and the world theme might not be as important as perceiving how immersion is played, how game rules encourage and enforce immersion, and how coded systems can be designed to support and enhance immersion (help you avoid resorting to the OOC or meta communications, even with GM's, as much as possible).
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Old 04-07-2014, 06:55 PM   #5
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Re: List of RPI MUDs

This begs the question of what is a real RPI game is? Does anyone know?
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Old 04-07-2014, 08:26 PM   #6
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Re: List of RPI MUDs

Considering how much argument defining that term turns into, I say let it stay confusing.

Personally, I prefer to get to know other players on an OOC level as well as IC.
This opens up more situations where you can take more controversial options with people you know will go along with it well. (Or won't, and you know not to go there)

Last edited by Ghostcat : 04-07-2014 at 09:59 PM.
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Old 04-07-2014, 10:31 PM   #7
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Re: List of RPI MUDs

The OP is looking for information, not opinions. If you're not sure what an RPI is, then your game isn't one of them, and you have nothing to contribute to the conversation.

To the OP: I'm pretty sure you've seen mention of all the RPIs available and open for play, including one or two in beta testing.

While Sindome isn't an RPI, it does have an interesting theme and the MOO code might give you some ideas for expanding your own game when you get working on it. Some of MOO's building tools can be adapted to DIKU, and vice versa.
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Old 04-07-2014, 10:43 PM   #8
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Re: List of RPI MUDs

Alright, here's my definitive list so far.

Armageddon: The RPI with the largest playerbase. Set in a desert themed world reminiscent of Dark Sun and Dune. Player death can be very high out in the wilds, and the learning curve can be steep. However, it's a huge world, with a huge history and a lot of secrets, and the intrigue and scope of the mud makes it amazing. I've been playing it the longest and most consistently.



Shadows of Isildur: A LoTR-themed mud, probably the second most populated RPI until it went on hiatus. A favorite bit of this RPI was feeling immersed in a larger-scale environment- standing on the walls of Osgiliath or fighting through the streets of foreign fortresses. Currently languishing in beta.

ParallelRPI: The spiritual continuation of the sci-fi-horror episodic mud Atonement. Parallel takes place on a blasted and post-apocalyptic moon settlement. ARPI generated some of the most intense and harrowing scenes that I have seen and I loved it. PRPI is still trying to find its place, but it's a fun mud nonetheless. Pretty survivable until **** hits the fan IG, and runs an SOIesque codebase.



Harshlands: The original RPI- you'll note that HL, SoI, PRPI and Black Sands all have a similar feel codewise, because I believe they are all based on Traithe's RPI engine. Harshlands is much slower and less on the PC death than any other RPI I've played, seemingly tending towards more social-class RP than the others. A very detailed world/history, tons of unique religions, and lots of interesting concepts (if only there were people to fill them).

Black Sands: A small-scale RPI set in a besieged city. It feels very similar to Armageddon as far as class/guilds go, and is at a very early stage. I've enjoyed the characters I've played there, but it's very situational to find interactions/goals in game.

Evolution of Esos: A very neat, if niche RPI, codebase more similar to Armageddon. The imms will jump in and animate lots of stuff, but it's a very small population, and afaik all the PCs are elves. It didn't have that much to actually do in game, but is very admin-supported.


Disclaimer: I have played all the above, but I mostly 'play' Arm, SoI, and Atonement/PRPI.

Others that are less typical, more OOC channels, more XP oriented gameplay:

Sindome MOO: Cyberpunk MOO. Pretty fun. I'm not that familiar with MOOs, though.

Haven: MOOish? Interesting concept- Lovecraftian Horror meets Vampire the Masquerade meets Twin Peaks...but there's a lot of sexually-centric content (it can seem like a lot of the characters are vehicles for mudsex) and I never really liked the grind/combat system.

Accursed Lands: Big, interesting, lots to do. Really empty, and suuuuuuper grindy. Not very good documentation/instructions on how to do stuff. But you can totally sit and do stuff all day.

Echoes of Albion: I'm not sure this exists anymore.

Dark Isles/The Inquisition/Burning Post: I can never keep these straight, having dabbled in most. They're fun, but I could never really be happy with the emote-for-xp and/or use emote-code-words-in-coded combat kind of stuff. I prefer typing 'kill soldier' and letting the code take it from there, mixed in with free form emotes and focusing on the group dynamics.




I'd also check out FutureMud, a codebase in development for RPIs.
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Old 04-08-2014, 02:56 PM   #9
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Re: List of RPI MUDs

edited due to lack of interest.

Last edited by beanluc : 04-08-2014 at 03:33 PM.
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Old 04-08-2014, 03:32 PM   #10
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Re: List of RPI MUDs

Last edited by beanluc : Today at 02:33 PM.
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Old 04-08-2014, 03:52 PM   #11
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Re: List of RPI MUDs

Do you have a codebase in mind?
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Old 04-08-2014, 05:38 PM   #12
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Re: List of RPI MUDs

Come on Jazuela, you know I was just trying to start an interesting argument for the enjoyment of all. We all miss the days of long winded pointless arguing over who is Roleplay Intensive and who is not.
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Old 04-08-2014, 10:12 PM   #13
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Re: List of RPI MUDs

It's called trolling, it's also called crapping on other peoples' sincerely-written threads. Cut it out.
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Old 04-09-2014, 03:26 AM   #14
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We are also an RPI.

Carrion Fields has:

- Permanent death
- Roleplay enforced
- Extensive combat
- No safe zones
- A pretty hands-on Admin team

And so on. We've just turned 20 and we have a decent sized player base. Also many other MUDs over the years have been built on our code. If you're taking a tour of RPIs, don't count us out either.
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Old 04-09-2014, 08:08 AM   #15
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Re: We are also an RPI.

According to your website's help files, when you die you are reincarnated to your home town. There are penalties, but it's clearly not permanent death. Permanent death is only due to old age. But if someone PKs your character, he comes right back to life again. That's not even somewhat like an RPI, or even a little bit like "permanent death."

Also, you have levels, and your emote system isn't a system at all, it's just a single command, and instead, you use the socials that non RPIs use extensively (most RPIs have a couple or three socials available but most RP activity is done via the emote system).

All that being said, Carrion Fields does have a well-written and extensive help file, which any MUD creator would want to look at. They also have a solid and successful history in the MUD world genre and for that reason, if nothing else, new MUD developers would want to take a peek at the very least, to see what they're doing right.

Basically, Bookie, you shouldn't limit your experiences to RPIs, to make your RPI. You should keep your experiences broad, and then narrow the information down to whatever you feel you can use to create your own. If you limit your experiences to a very narrow field, you'll have less to draw from and this will be evident in your finished product.
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Old 04-09-2014, 10:46 AM   #16
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Re: List of RPI MUDs

Jazuela I should elaborate. We do have permanent death, but not as a result of one death. There are several ways to die:
- Age death (by character hour.)
- Constitution loss (constitution is loss for every non-permanent death.)
- Deletion.
- Various other ways such as by questing to become an undead being as a necromancer and failing the ritual correctly.

So if that was unclear, I apologize. You are correct that your first death isn't permadeath though.

The emote system has standard socials (ready made), but there are custom player entered emotes, and various other commands can be used to emote such as customized voices (esay) or custom string for sleeping/resting/waking. It's true that some players opt for ready made socials, but it isn't uncommon to use customized 'emote' for advanced or more in-depth roleplay.

You're right we have levels too. Don't mean to mislead anyone here with misinfo, so take it for what it is.

Last edited by PhasmaInMachina : 04-09-2014 at 10:52 AM.
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Old 04-09-2014, 01:40 PM   #17
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Re: List of RPI MUDs

It's called a joke. Really. Lighten up. Unless you want a new thread started that is not a joke and takes us all back about 4 years for a 100 thread argument on the term RPI? Let me know, but I'm pretty sure no one wants to start a full argument like shown here:
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Old 04-09-2014, 07:29 PM   #18
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Re: List of RPI MUDs

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Old 04-10-2014, 02:22 PM   #19
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Re: List of RPI MUDs

I'm not even going to--

ah ****.
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Old 04-11-2014, 05:10 PM   #20
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Re: List of RPI MUDs

A friend told me about this thread as I haven't checked this site in quite a long time. Thought I'd pop in and correct the errors they told me about.

First off, there's no debate regarding The Inquisition not being RPI. Years ago, the owner of TI admitted that she started calling her game RPI because she thought it sounded good but that she had absolutely no experience with any other MUD, RPI or otherwise, from which to make such an assessment. The justification for calling it such was supported by a broad definition of RPI that was so broad that it included H&S games which stated that their policy was "RP is discouraged". That hardly makes for a convincing argument.

SoI is not the first RPI. It's not even the second, third or fourth for that matter. Armageddon was the first RPI, followed a couple years later by Harshlands. SoI doesn't arrive until RPIs had been around for a decade with Forever's End and its sequel appearing before it (Chronicles of Ritnarium was also in development around the same time as SoI as well).

The games listed by Bogre all use the RPI Engine but that code is derived from the Diku derived Harshlands' code created by Charles Rand, aka Rassillon. The code evolution began with Harshlands' code which was then used by Wade Gustafson's team to create Forever's End and its sequel. FEM's variation was used to create Dark Horizons which lingered in a state of development for a decade or so and periodically seems to pop back up as its owner decides to work on it again. Harshlands' code was also used by Chad McHenry, aka Traithe, to create Shadows of Isildur. In late 2003 Traithe made an early version of the code available as the RPI Engine. This code was used by a slew of projects, nearly all of which failed to launch or are still in development. Less than a decade ago, Harshlands decided to swap out their original code and begin using the RPI Engine, albeit with modifications, or more to the point removing some of SoI's modifications to the HL code.

Historically there have been three different code lineages used by RPIs. The first is Armageddon's code, used by the RPI of that name. The second is Harshlands' code which is represented today by the RPI Engine variant instead, the original no longer used by any games except Dark Horizon (which itself uses some variations introduced earlier by FEM). The third is Southlands' code used by that game, now renamed Evolution of Essos. A fourth and fifth were started, the fourth being developed by a game that opted not to make it an RPI and reinstated some features from the CircleMUD base they were using and the fifth being the still-in-development FutureMUD code. Technically FutureMUD would be the sixth as my own game started work on what would have been the fifth RPI code attempt but gave up on it as my staff got drawn away by the perils of life, work, family, illness, etc.

Funny enough, the buddy who told me about this thread wasn't the only old RPI friend I chatted with last night. Another old colleague from my days on SoI's staff contacted me last night and we were discussing the old days and the current state of RPIs. Between the two conversations, it was a grim analysis. While there are a few good people still hanging in there on some games, for the most part the RPIs have declined dramatically in the last decade. I have an article on just that topic which I wrote back in 2010 that I should post. In it, which I titled "Why RPIs are Dying (or Dead)" I broke down the reasons for the RPIs' decline over the last decade. Mind you, they're still a source of better role-play than most RP MUDs but the gap between them is much, much smaller. It really wasn't by virtue of other games stepping it up, which they did, so much as the RPIs compromising their own principles and the decline in quality of players and staff. But that, as I already noted, is a discussion unto itself and not one for this thread.

Anyway, just thought I'd pop in and clarify the errors that I'd been told about. Hope everyone here's fine.

Take care,

Jason aka prof1515 aka Falco

Last edited by prof1515 : 04-11-2014 at 06:16 PM.
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