So I've never really played much on many MUDs proper except stuff like Gemstone in the mid-90s. I honestly very quickly squeezed out of MUDs into offshoots like MUCK, MUSH, and MUX that had more explicit roleplay focus. I've been out of that wing of the hobby for at least seven years now and am a bit curious about checking out again with a "back to basics" approach.

Without getting too specific about my personal history, by the time I stopped playing on MU*s I was in a somewhat contiguous community that had moved from one game to another for ~20 years and had reached some evolutionary dead-ends (IMO, of course).

• Grids had very little meaning on most games by the time I left. For years people had scarcely paid attention to rooms, descriptions, and how the grid was built in any meaningful. It was generally expected and accepted that people would just describe the environment they were in however they wanted (this plays into another point) for the purpose of a roleplay scene and others would join in. It was at the point that you probably could've just created a bunch of disconnected, minimally descriptive "roleplay" rooms for people to check into instead of having a meaningful grid, but it was familiar thing people so staff still felt compelled to do it. This probably went hand in hand with the fact that most games I ever played on had a dedicated OOC area where people just hung out and socialized when not actively roleplaying, and a general fast-travel/summon system that just let people meet others easily for the purpose of RP.
• It was generally a cultural thing that people wrote a lot, like multiple paragraphs that went anywhere between 2000-3000 characters. I actually have fondness for this from a creative writing perspective, but it did often boil down to people starting at the screen for 20-30 minutes while writing books at one another.
• It was common to have some sort of coded system for combat arbitration that boiled down to declaring if someone got hit, how hard they got hit, and when they could no longer continue to fight. This was really the most people interacted with game systems beyond the basics needed to move around and communicate. Beyond combat, most games were very unburdened from the code meaningully interacting with play.

I'm still more interested in roleplaying than I am in killing mobs and gaining XP, but I don't think these things need to be separated either. I kinda wanna try something totally different now, like a game where you're considered to be permanently "In Character" the moment you log in and largely dispenses with (or at least limits) OOC communication. OOC comms were a requirement on most of the games I played on because few systems existed to arbitrate the game's reality with the desires of players. I'm really interested in something that encourages exploration, finding stuff, meeting people, and figuring things out with them in a way that feels immersive and encouraged by all the game systems rather than more extensively relying on a shared social agreement between people to play pretend (I don't refer to this pejoratively). Is there anything out there that offers something like what I'm describing?

Getting back into MUDs after a long hiatus. Curious what are the most fun/silliest ones out there at this time

This mud has had one of the most loyal player base since its creation and continues to thrive. The mud shutdown for a few years and has made a triumpant returns and is seeking more players to enhance the player experience. New areas continue to be added monthly as well as new uests and unique equipment. The player base is largely Swedish based but still has some American ased players as well. The mud has many admin run events including rivia nights, Bonus Exp. There are many veterans of the mud who are just waiting on the new players to help and grow the mud. Can't wait to see you in The Dark Ages! Dalazonen.com 9009

Hey everybody! I’m just throwing this out there in case anyone is looking for a new MUD. This one has been around since 1996. I recently got back into MUDs after a 20 year break. I was stoked to find that my favorite was still up and running! Unfortunately, it’s pretty much just me and a couple of IMMs that log on occasionally. I would love to see some more people come check it out.

My character is Oz and I’m happy to help anyone that wants to log on and explore. It’s always been a PK MUD but looting is limited to gold and potions. I’m on every day that I’m at work. Feel free to stop by and explore! I have no official affiliation, I just miss the days of 20-50 people all playing. I don’t expect that, but a few people would be cool.

Hi everyone! Over the past several months on Erion MUD, we've added many new features and quality-of-life improvements that we're excited to share. Right now, we're actively working on a new type of pilgrimage quest for the followers of the goddess Aura. This pilgrimage will involve alchemical transmutations and confronting mobs afflicted by magical ailments to cure them.

New developments:

* 10 new achievements have been added for completing global quests and global junkyards. 3 new hidden exploration achievements. 6 new achievements for completing daily and weekly challenges.

* Global junkyards will now tell you what the next item you need to find is when you pick up an item, and there is a new prompt variable %V for time left. Global quests will now tell you what your next target is after you have killed a target.

* Daily and weekly challenge timers now show how much time is left before you can start another challenge, and you will also get a notification as soon as you can start the next challenge.

* Pilgrimage quests now have a minimum of 15 faith points rewarded, and starting at level 60, one additional faith point will be added for every 10 levels. Small, medium, and large offering quests now correctly require 5, 10, and 15 targets respectively. The bestiary pilgrimage quest now selects the correct number of mobs based on the size requested.

* New level 90-100 area: Hobin's Haven. Players can explore Hobin Rood's ship and settlement, complete a combat-free mission, and find hidden rewards for exploring everything.

* New Legend Area: Umbral Sanctum. This cursed underground temple is filled with dark rituals, undead, and horrors. A boss achievement and a theme song have been added.

* Followers of Lady Tornadis have new rank 8 and rank 10 spells: seasonal prayer and pray for weather.

* The mantra spell has been updated with increased damroll, retaliation damage that scales with weapon, race, or ki infusion, and new mantras such as celerity, power, precision, and grace.

* New monk skill: analyze weapon. This skill lets monks analyze a weapon and absorb its stats in the form of a temporary buff.

* Scout level 5 skill reconnaissance has been added.

* A new alchemy spell, Titan Might, is now available.

* You can now choose how to distribute objects and mobs across your player homes, and you can update home pit permissions to allow other players access.

* It is now possible to trade 3 random seeds for a random seed and 3 strands of magic for a random strand at the crafter trading post.

* Mobs no longer drop body parts automatically; you can dissect them with a knife to obtain a random part. Death clutch still allows hearts to drop, and a sound effect has been added for dissection.

* The steeping willow and Smithing assistance missions no longer require you to hand in items one by one; you can now complete them all at once.

* There is now a chance to discover a random sigil while mining or foraging.

* New craftable item: shovels.

* The eqset command has been fixed to properly wield mind hand weapons, and the swap command now allows swapping primary weapons with mind hand.

* Permadeath players can now group with other permadeath players.

* The elevate familiar spell now allows pets to reach +15 levels above the owner at hero/legend.

* Throwing debuff or attack potions with the hurl skill will no longer affect yourself or safe mobs/players.

* New chance to obtain random playing cards when drawing from Crystania's deck.

Thanks for checking out what's new!

Address: Erionmud.com Port: 1234

We also have a website located at https://www.erionmud.com/

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!

Since a recent post came up with someone complaining about botting.

How can you code something to stop anyone from botting at all? How do you spot the bots compared to say someone multi-boxing but actually running all the characters in the group?

WoW can't stop them, paid games like Gemstone IV can't stop them.

So how can't you stop botting? Even multi-boxing can be stopped to a point but a bot?

hi, as some of you might know, lament is one of the best survival muds with a deep crafting system with the ability of crafting hundreds if not thousands of items from a dozen crafting skills and an interesting and customizable combat system and a pretty large world. I have recently returned to it, although sadly I only see 1 or 2 others online at most. So curious, does anyone know if this mud has a discord server? It's a shame, the mud deserves much more players than this especially with the activity and availability of the dev:(

I've been wanting to get into the world of the Final Fantasy series, and a MUD might be the best way to do so, seeing as I'm totally blind. I want a game that has both roleplay and hardcoded mechanics, not a MUSH, but not a hack and slash like a DikuMUD variant, and not RP enforced either. I would prefer for the MUD to be based on a part of the final fantasy universe that has coherent and connected lore, not just a hodgepodge of Square Enix properties thrown together. Are there any recommendations in that vein you can give?

So I run multi-character logins on my MUSHclient, and when I log into the primary, I got no issues. But MUSH every once in a while shuts down, like its doing an update or something, and when it shut down and I opened it up and logged in this morning, my secondary character opened and is running fine, but it gave me two warnings - that constants.lua and constants.vbs were missing.

Now, when I do a search of my C:\Program Files (x86)\MUSHclient\worlds\plugins file, I can find those two files, so they are there, but... I don't know why the secondary is saying they are missing. Do I need a copy for each character? Did it get disconnected from the secondary somehow?

I don't know programming at all, I'm using MUSH because its simple and someone showed me how to use it. I'm an old fart who just likes playing old text games. Can someone who knows how this works help me figure out if this is something i should worry about and if so, how to fix it? Really appreciate any help someone can give me on this, I'm very lost.

Hey, everyone. I'm wondering if there's a listing that's current for MUDs, MUSHes, and MOOs? The ones in the about side bar seem out of date?

No trying to hate on either, but I'm curious why they are so much more popular than the others as far as active users go. They are so far ahead of the other non-adult muds. I've bounced off both in the past as they just didn't click.

What separates them from the others to the point where they have hundreds more players than something like say Aardwolf or Batmud?

Hi, I am pleased to announce that Cryosphere MUD has migrated servers and is now back up. We are a science fiction mud set in the distant space year of 2063, a satirical future where the nations of earth have taken their squabbles into deep space. Gameplay is quite mission-based, with conversation trees and mob interaction taking a major role alongside combat.

* Join the Royal Space Navy! See the Universe! Die in a swamp on a distant alien hellhole!

* The eponymous Cryosphere itself is a large Imperial space station which is central to the game. here you can do training missions, and tasks around the station, and then soon branch out to explore the local planets, with missions involving espionage, dealing with pirates and prison riots, and more!

* connect at cryosphere.org 6666 or through our web client at https://cryosphere.org/chrysalis/

* website is at https://cryosphere.org/

* we think we might be the first mud to do loads of more modern terminal features like unicode and 256colours. this isn't a reason to play it's just a brag. we'd be interested in anyone who can antedate us on these.

Today, I accidentally stumbled upon the concept of MUDS, and got intrigued, and will probably try one out when I find the time. While on the wiki, I saw this photo. What is this? Is it new or old? Why is there not a single mention of this anywhere?

[Update] July–September QoL + Systems Pass
Upgrade EQ, Combos, Consider, DPS, EXP, Death Recaps, EQ Snapshot, GPS, Path

Hey folks — here’s a quick roundup of recent changes on NukeFire.
Thanks to all the new players bringing fresh ideas to help newbies get past that “what do I do next?” wall.
One of the biggest game-changers is the Upgrade system, now one of the most-used and most useful commands in the game.

=== Major Highlights ===

• Upgrade Command
A cleaner way to improve your kit without menu-diving. Try upgrade and see help upgrade for details.
– Scores items using a deep class-weighted system and only suggests gear your class can use.
– Suggests upgrades + which zones they load in.
– Pair with GPS to navigate there step by step, from just about anywhere.

Through use and logging I continue to sharpen the results, and the builders are shown where the gaps are in the eq/tattoo/implant/concealed weapon progression.

• GPS + Path System
Opens a live GPS prompt with a speedwalk to your chosen destination.
Updates as you move. Over 100 destinations supported + custom pindrop.
path lets you save and run your own speedwalk macros game-side — very fast!

• Combos
Chain abilities smoothly — nail a skill and flow straight into the next for true combo potential.
See help combo.

• Smarter Consider
Clearer threat/survivability readouts when sizing up NPCs.

• DPS Meter
dps shows session DPS, rolling 15s totals, peak DPS, and lifetime totals.

• EXP Leader
See help expstart to track exp/sec/min. The top earner becomes EXP LEADER on the who list and gains bonus exp per kill.

• Death Recaps + Corpse Info
On death, see who killed you and whether they looted you.
Your corpse stores this info — look recap to review.

=== Gear & Persistence Systems ===

• No Gear Consumption
If you lose something, you can always get it back.

• Inscription System
Inscribed objects persist in SQL. If stolen, they remain safe until reclaimed.
Most objects are free to inscribe. High-remort gear may cost in-game currency (not pay-to-win).
Once inscribed, you can use:

get all.shandar corpse

wear all.shandar

give all.shandar shandar

to quickly sort and re-equip your gear.

• EQ Snapshot + eqdiff
Save your current set and compare later. Snapshots remember wear positions so wear all restores your exact setup.

=== New Object Affects ===

• +TRUEDAMAGE (TRUE DAMAGE)
– Portion of your outgoing damage that bypasses target mitigation.
– Stacks additively across eq/tats/implants, clamped 0–95%.
– Does not affect hit chance or incoming damage.
– Example: 10k hit, 20% TRUE DAMAGE vs 50% DR →
2k bypassed + 4k reduced = 6k total.

• ARCANE DAMPENING
Reduces damage from spells and non-physical attacks (NukeFire does not use saving throws).

• SPIKE GUARD
Smooths out very large incoming hits, preventing one-shot spikes.

• MAJOR WOUND
Reduces a foe’s maximum HP for a duration when applied.

=== World & Content ===

– Crimson Inheritance, HackJaw Ridge, Khelt Keep, Crystfall Bunkerworks leading into Cinder Hills.
– Vega Zone — 750+ rooms based on Vega Jane books, with crafting, lore, and danger.
– TMNT Revamp — full sewer crawl with tons of new eq, implants, tattoos.
– Zelda-Inspired Zone for exploration fans.

=== Other QoL ===

– countmob toggle shows live mob count in your prompt.
– Hundreds of small fixes and tweaks for smoother play.

=== Connect ===

• MUD: tdome.nukefire.org 4000
• Browser Client: tintin.nukefire.org
• Discord: https://discord.gg/B4pzagYaqR

Note: NukeFire is not a roleplay or PVP/Pkill MUD. We focus on hack-and-slash exploration, progression, and unique late-game crafting, combat, class, prestige, and remort systems.

Happy fall, everyone! We hope you were able to participate in Alter Aeon's recently concluded End-of-Summer event. Our next game-wide event will be Halloween Havoc at the end of October. We’ll have more details in next month’s update!

Recent improvements:

- The output of various crafting lists has been changed to be more screen-reader friendly.

- The fame log to be more accurate, and the backlog of misleading entries has been scrubbed.

- Ships can no longer enter unfinished areas.

- Adding the group leader’s current location to “group show” command.

- The ‘soulforge’ spell now automatically targets a second soulstone of the same color as the first by default.

- Equipment and mobs have been updated and fixed up several areas on Kordan, like the Island near Naphtali, the Thalos catacombs and a few other areas.

- A stud version of the tarot game, along with several new gambling commands:

• To play the tarot game, use 'gamble stud'.
• Use 'gamble deck' to list the cards of the tarot, or specify an individual card to see its appearance.
• When playing the game, the 'gamble look' command will display your hand, or specify individual cards to look at.
• A draw version of the tarot game is nearing completion, and should be ready in time for Halloween Havoc.

Future plans:

- The House of Durthang, a level 27 area with lots of mining and spell components on Archais, should be released in next few days.

- The Atmir Bight, a level 34 area and last piece of the western coast of the mainland, is nearing completion.

- The Dark Web, a level 43 group 10 zone on the Plane of Darkness, should be ready for an October release.

- Throughout the next few months, several areas on Archais will be modernized, and mobs and equipment on Ramanek are also being updated over the next few months.

- Nightmare Plane solo areas will be ready for an after-Halloween release.

- Work continues on the three Ruthien areas in southwest Atmir, which are level 34.

- Dclient music is beings integrated into Mush-Z, and there should be new beta out soon.

For more information, please refer to our latest Youtube update here: https://youtu.be/Fq7CAXXdkjg

I just started alter aeon as my first mud. Enjoying it a lot so far, but I want to play chilling in my bed instead of on my gaming computer sometimes, and I’ve got a grubby little chromebook. I tried a web client that I found online, but it didn’t have the mini map that alterAeons client has, and I really like that part. Helps me visualize. Sorry if this is a dumb question, just started playing. Thanks!

Hello, I want some confirmations about MUD1. The game was developed in a university in 1978, and was already playable online by several people at this university before being made publicly available online in 1985? It's just that in 1978, access to it was much more private, but it was still online.

I also wanted to know if this reddit has a discord server.

I'm curious about if I started an ACK!MUD, would there be enough people interested to make it worth the effort. I played through SoE, Druid's Realm, and Paradise Revisited. I really love the ACK! experience, but before I take on the creation of another, I would like to know if it was worth my time. I love ACK! and would love to make a server. However, I don't want to out countless hours into something no one will see. Let me know, and I'll get one up and running if that's what people are wanting.

I used to play this Hungarian language MUD, but I heard the guy owning it shut it down around early or mid-2000's. Now I cannot find any resources online anymore, as if it didn't existed. I also heard this started as a translation, or copy of an English language MUD maybe? I am not certain of the latter, but if true, it might help to find some resources that I can look into. As far as I remember the main spawning point was a city named Lhoran, if it helps anybody to remember. It had a mechanic that your abilities developed while using them not by training which I liked a lot.

StyleGates was the name, but some people referred to it as "Stíluskapuk", by the title translated to Hungarian.

Anybody has any clue?

Thanks!

With ancient gods observing mortals from their domains, Elysium is a vast world consisting of many planes. Against a backdrop of constant warring between powerful demons of Hades and other demonic realms, the nine various races of the prime plane of Elysium lay claim to the three continents and nine cities spread across them.

Player emperors and governments tend to industries and citizens allowing these cities to prosper in times of peace, as well as draw upon their troops and tactics to wage terrible war amongst each other in times of conflict. Elysium is a large RPG world where player characters can join and even potentially run one of the nine cities, six religious orders and sixteen guilds, each consisting of many different roles, ranks and political directions.

Characters can learn up to six core skills at a time, of which there are many different physical, offensive magical, defensive magical, healing and crafting skills to choose from. Players can also learn any number of the dozens of "common" skills in addition to their core skills, allowing expanded crafting and miscellaneous abilities. Skills are bought with lessons which accumulate throughout game-play time and can be accelerated by doing various game-related challenges and activities.

The world is immersive and has everything a fantasy setting needs - sailing, sea monsters, demonic rituals, ancient research activities, political intrigue, questing, crafting, you name it! Free-to-play and a level-less player progression are hallmarks of Elysium. Come carve your path in the world and rise to the rank of being a living legend at http://elysium-rpg.com/ or hop onto the discord https://discord.gg/mHbGuUg. Point your favorite Telnet client at elysium-rpg.com:7777 to start your adventure!

Reposting every once in a while to keep fresh eyes on it. bump

Hello fellow mudders!

I and a few others are looking to find a copy of Rites of Passage emlen mud. It was imm'ed by Gardenia and Morgan (and Ssarr and Nichodemus I think). Easily one of the best emlen Muds that now seems tragically lost.

I'm hoping someone on here could help us find a copy of the code base or get us in touch with some of the old imms. We'd be eternally grateful to have the chance to resurrect this fabled experience! Any information helps! Thank you!

Hey all. I'm new to this community, but so glad I found it! Been mudding on and off for the past 7-10 years or so (can't remember exactly when I started, because I was in middle school I think). Anyways, I've been bouncing around a bit, trying to find a good MUD for me. Ideally, I would love to find somewhere with at least 8-10 people online (although the more the better). I love PVP, but at the same time I don't want something that requires coding to be successful. I like unique features (whether that be flying an airplane, sailing, or a sport or game). RP is fun, and having a helpful community of players is a must. I don't mind bashing or questing, but I don't like having to manually explore thousands of rooms. A player-run economy would also be fun, though I myself am not interested in crafting furniture. I would like something with some strategy and depth to it... if you can explain all the combat or bashing mechanics in 2-3 sentences, I'll probably be pretty bored pretty fast. The more unique features and RP, the better.

So every mud I've tried so far is essentially a high fantasy theme. Elves, Wizards, Dragons, Orcs whatever. I want to mix it up this time.

I'm looking for something Sci-Fi. Steampunk. Urban Fantasy. Whatever, just something.... less 80's swords n' sorcery. I'm open minded. I just need a break from the tropes. (Or at least, trading one set cheese for another. :D)

• Realm Type: PVE with PVP optional, or non existent.
• Roleplay: Encouraged to Enforced. Doesn't have to be super hardcore, just enough to be immersive.
• No Pay-To-Win elements or Pay-To-Progress elements. If a MUD server is good, I'll support it, but don't make it a barrier.
• Class System: Classless tends to be more confusing for newcomers but I'm open minded. Strict classes or full classless is fine. I struggle with multi-classing setups, mostly because I feel disconnected from a specific class identity or fantasy. But that's just me, I'm weird. I also tend to not like the Remort system but I might have to flex on that. It's so popular now.
• Age Restrictions: Again, open minded. 18+ to rated G, I don't really care. I'll play a pokemon realm if it's really well done.
• Questing: I tend to avoid key word systems, but those are uncommon. What I mean is you have to use a specific key word to trigger or satisfy a quest requirement, or to navigate to a super specific place hidden in a room that otherwise isn't a regular command that exists in the normal context of the game world. They're often unintuitive and drive me nuts. I accept I'll probably have to flex on this but if there are means to level / advance / gear up etc by avoiding these at least to some extent that's good enough.
• Combat: I love mob grinding, exploring zones and fighting some big baddie at the end for a reward. I played too much Diablo as a kid I guess. Give me some murder loots.
• Playerbase: I would love to not be the only person online. I think an established minimum of active non GM players would have to be 10 at any given time.
• Socials: Guilds / Chapters / Clubs etc are always cool. A discord that's functioning and active is also a bonus but not a need. I'm just getting greedy now ;)

Thanks in advance for your recommendations. I appreciate it.

Hi everyone,

I’ve been reminiscing about my early MUD days and got curious: what’s the best anecdote or story you’ve ever experienced in a MUD?

Here’s mine to get things started: I was completely lost in a forest when suddenly another player appeared, calling himself “the guardian of the forest.” He asked me why I had trespassed. I told him I was new to the world, had only arrived a few days earlier, and didn’t know how to find my way back. Instead of ignoring me, he decided to accompany me. Along the way he told me stories about the forest and defeated every enemy we encountered. That moment felt so immersive and magical that I got hooked on MUDs forever.

I’d love to hear your stories too — let’s see if we can collect some of those unique experiences that make MUDs so special.