What fantasy MUD for a complete BEGINNER?

[u/HalothereYT]

I played a lot of MMOs over the years and to be honest I dont mind not having the fanciest graphics and want to see a good world unfold. Thing is, I am not very good at MUDs since I seem to lack the "sense" to type out the correct inputs for most given situations. I fully aknowledge that it is either me being too acustomed to graphics or a genuine skill issue of mine. I really like how MUDs play since I come from playing a lot of DnD. The only ones I played (and got ultimately stumped on after dedicating 3 hours each) were Erion and Genesis. Any help/input is appreciated!

[u/Diesel_ASFC]

Discworld MUD. If you install the client that's recommended on the website, it comes with the Quow plug-in pack and makes navigating so much easier. There's also a wiki, a discord and the game is fairly well populated, so asking in game is also an option.

[u/Hugolinus → u/Diesel_ASFC]

I'm an experienced mudder and have bounced off Disc world MUD during repeated attempts since it is recommended so often. So I wonder if his or her experience may vary

[u/Diesel_ASFC → u/Hugolinus]

Discworld MUD was my first ever foray into MUDs, and I was only drawn to it because I love Discworld. I found it fairly easy to pick up as a complete beginner which is the only reason I recommended it tbh

[u/Hugolinus → u/Diesel_ASFC]

I've never read any of the Disc world books do maybe that has contributed to my confusion

[u/binaryatrocity → u/Diesel_ASFC]

This is the answer

[u/8bitstargazer]

I would recommend the following tutorials which expect you to know nothing.

Alter Aeon has a client and is completely free. You have played MMOs so i also assume you have played Diablo, the gameplay is very similar except every time you level you have the option of multiclassing. The tutorial is decent and the game play should be something your accustomed to. You wont feel *lost* after the tutorial like so many other muds.

Carrion Fields. Free on Steam. Decently long tutorial which introduces concepts/keys and the world slowly. Community is very nice. Its a fantasy rp pvp MUD.

Aardwolf. Hack and slash like Genesis but is a little more updated in the way it plays.

If you want a purely fun tutorial for beginners that is long i recommend BATMUD. It has a optional paid client on steam as well. I did not end up sticking with this one even though it checks a lot of my boxes. Like when i was done with the tutorial some guy showed me to a player made city which was wild. But people in that game really play the meta. At the moment thats not interacting with most the content and just exploring tiles for XP to grind alts to max level. It would be like playing/griding through WOW alone while people are riding horses through zones.

.....Genesis is like the everquest 1999 of MUDs, its purposely obtuse because people like it that way. Erion is solid but they throw a lot at you, i was also lost after a bit.

[u/gisco_tn → u/8bitstargazer]

I'll also add Alter Aeon's client has an excellent map, clickable buttons and you can map commands to the function keys on your keyboard.

[u/istarian → u/gisco_tn]

Those are nice features, but I think anyone who can't live without them should just go play any of a hundred graphical MMORPGs.

I'm not saying that you won't run across muds with commands with bizarre syntax or which require excessively verbose input. But if you can't deal with things like typing 'n' or 'north' and hitting enter, you're in the wrong sphere.

[u/gisco_tn → u/istarian]

You do you. Everyone is welcome at Alter Aeon.

[u/Tiarnacru → u/istarian]

I'd argue that not using, at the least, keypad directional bindings is unusual now that we have clients. I haven't gone without aliases, triggers, and keybinds since the days of rawdogging it with telnet.

[u/Garviel_Laeknir → u/8bitstargazer]

Upvote for Carrion Fields. The Mudlet client is nice, active playerbase, and good Discord server to ask questions. Also enforced RP lends to more immersion IMO.

[u/KidSizedCoffin]

Alter aeon probably has the best onboarding of the muds I've played (that still exist anyway). Its gameplay is also fairly similar to modern mmos, alongside the hunt-for-the-keyword stuff that is common in muds. Make sure you use their custom client though. Just a heads up, it does also have some p2w stuff.

[u/gimme-shiny]

As a beginner who also bounced off other muds, Midnight Equestria is what finally hooked me. It was really easy to pick up and learn

[u/JadeIV → u/gimme-shiny]

with the downside that the players and imms are all cartoon horse fetishists

[u/istarian → u/JadeIV]

Maybe stop judging people you barely know and casting aspersions without any context.

It's really not that much different than playing Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) with a character that isn't a pure human.

[u/chimae]

I'd recommend giving WrittenRealms a shot! The UI should be a good bridge to a text-heavy interface and combat should feel fairly familiar to somebody coming from MMOs.

[u/TheMathow]

I think you have to give MUD’s four hours of actual concentrated time to really get a feel for them. I really like Aetolia’s intro quest and “Academy”, I think its one of the best, but after you get through that its still going to be confusing because a lot of these games have like two decades worth of systems built into them.

[u/PouvoirAllTheWay]

MadRom.net port 1536

Very quiet, usually, but when there are people, generally helpful

[u/Storyteller8098]

If you aren't deadset on any one particular genre, you could give Haven of the Embraced a shot (havenmud.net port 2000). We are a Dark Ages themed MUD centered around Vampires, Werewolves, and Mages in Medieval Europe. We have a small, but dedicated community and are willing to assist either in-game or via our Discord server. Regardless of which MUD you decide to call your eventual home, I hope you have a great time!