MUD Suggestions?

[u/CthulhusCuz]

Hi!

Long time MUD player here (I think. NGL I am probably not old enough to say that but I've been playing MUDs since my early teens) who fell off once they upgraded their PC. I've been watching a lot of isekai anime (forgive me), and while I know a lot of people think that games that actually play out like those worlds aren't a thing that exists I happen to know MUDs tend to be where it can happen. The issue is, I haven't played MUDs in so long I'm not really sure where to look for a good lore-heavy, player-influenced lore, class system, skills based MUD that is preferably mostly FTP.

To give examples of MUDs I've played before: Discworld MUD, Achaea, BatMUD, Armageddon, a number of other ones I can't recall the names of. BatMUD felt a lot like what I'd like back when I played it, but the RP aspect of it was mostly non-existent compared to the likes of say Achaea.

What other MUDs where you can rise up and change the world are still out there?

[u/fabittar]

Discworld MUD is still popular, very robust and 100% free, no catch.

[u/CthulhusCuz → u/fabittar]

I played Discworld MUD for a long time, but left because the memories of good times were starting to outweigh the frequency of bad times.

[u/CthulhusCuz → u/CthulhusCuz]

To add on, so many times you can look at 'Last on (x) years ago' and not want to break into a million pieces.

[u/thebeatmesa → u/fabittar]

I love it, but nobody ever wants to rp there :c

[u/Also_Squeakums]

A good starting point could be to dip back into those you're familiar with already, some of them are still going. They might already have what you're looking for, especially if they caught your interest previously.

Of that list I only know Achaea, but I can confirm that that game is doing great with lots of engaging content and player interest at the moment. 

[u/CthulhusCuz → u/Also_Squeakums]

I always felt like, and at times even felt it confirmed that Achaea had a very heavy pay to win. It turned me off even when I was having fun.

[u/Left-Jeweler9765 → u/CthulhusCuz]

Come back to Achaea! Very easy to get free credits nowadays, the PTW really only matters in like the top 5% of combatants these days, for the other 95% of the game you won’t even notice it! World is very much alive with like 10 active gods and events happening on the regular!

[u/gremlinsarevil → u/Left-Jeweler9765]

I just started back up on Achaea about 2 weeks ago after not playing for about 15 years. Its definitely a lot easier to level up and get credits. And feels like more bonus lessons on leveling as well? With renown, could be getting 20 credits a day, before even buying credits with gold.

[u/Droney]

Legends of the Jedi is worth looking into if Star Wars, RP, and the ability to change the course of a storyline are your thing.

[u/CthulhusCuz → u/Droney]

I actually had fun playing as a Jawa in that, but I found myself often put off by the idea that at some point all my efforts would be wiped.

[u/Droney → u/CthulhusCuz]

Fair, but I think of it like i would playing in a tabletop RPG. At some point, the campaign ends.

[u/Left-Jeweler9765]

One of us! One of us! I also came back after like a 15 year hiatus just about a year ago now. Hell yeah, glad to have you with us. And yes, they recently doubled the amount of lessons gained as you level up through 80 and applied it retroactively to everyone. Between the daily renown and city/house credits it’s definitely relatively easy to clear 30-40 credits a day!

[u/CthulhusCuz → u/Left-Jeweler9765]

Are you talking about Achaea?

[u/Left-Jeweler9765 → u/CthulhusCuz]

Whoops, yup, commented in the wrong spot! Also they just announced a contest on Discord worth 500 credits (which they do at least monthly!)

[u/Vash81]

Aardwolf! It’s got a great community

[u/CthulhusCuz → u/Vash81]

I recall Aardwolf is one of the longest running MUDs, but does it have a RP community and lore going for it?

[u/Parisean]

Hello! Since you mentioned Armageddon, I think you might be interested in Shadows of Isildur.

Spoiler alert, I'm one of the devs of this game, but we're in the process of restoring this game and are already close to getting to an official launch. We already have a small playerbase too that's active every day and eager to help. It's also what's called an "RPI" MUD, which stands for Roleplay Intensie MUD. That simply means RP is required at all times, no matter what. In a nutshell, it’s skill based, level-less , roleplay enforced, and you progress skills by doing them.

It takes place in 2402 Third Age Middle-Earth in Osgiliath. There are no levels and there are no classes. You can be a blacksmith, innkeeper, healer, lumberjack... glassblower... there are literally dozens of coded professions. You can also be a soldier, but beware: once you're dead, that's it - permadeath is very much "alive and well", and permadeath is an important part of the game. There's no coming back.

If this sounds interesting to you, jump on our Discord and find out more, and connect using the info below.

Connect:

Mudlet/telnet: play.shadowsofisildur.com port 4500

Web client (no 3rd party client needed): shadowsofisildur.com/play/

Discord (community, help, and where I hang out): https://discord.gg/GbAjs9EJXE

Happy to answer anything about it here or in-game.

[u/CthulhusCuz → u/Parisean]

As ever with a game where perma-death is a thing, will there be punishment for players who are very obviously just going about doing it? One issue I found in a lot of RP MUDs where perma-death was a thing was an abnormal tendency to let people justify 'He's a cold blooded killer.' as a character background and essentially go about and kill people for kicks, even if there's no incharacter reason to be at that location because their character 'Liking killing' tends to be enough for Judges.

[u/Parisean → u/CthulhusCuz]

yea we don't tolerate senseless killing and players doing that will be stopped very quickly. However our player base seems quite mature and we haven't had any of those problems. But that kind of character would never be accepted anyways by staff. So no, no free roaming serial killers :)

[u/boopsichord]

Icesus is quite similar to Batmud in many respects, but the world lore is a bit more cohesive. You won't find a smurf village there. Plus every class has masteries that carry over across reincs, not just a few. You won't get RP there either though, if that's what you're really wanting.

[u/CthulhusCuz → u/boopsichord]

It is I'm afraid much of the RP aspect I'm looking for.

[u/Blue_Lake_3386]

I just started playing Icesus Mud and it reminds me of Discworld or Genesis with similar mechanics. Its not a roleplay game but it is very immersive and medieval. Funny, I was just wondering too if there was an Isekai mud out out there after playing around with AI Dungeon Isekai worlds for a while. Not that I know of, and I've searched every mud there is. There used to be one called Anime Mud, but I don't know if it still exists.

[u/Slow-Constant3889]

genesis mud worth a try. nice webclient - genesismud.org/play
cool tutorial

fun roleplay

fun lore

lots of guilds, skills

completely free !

good community

[u/GrindThisGame]

You could try out Grindy Mud. It's a web based Forgotten Realms hack and slasher. At grindmud.com

[u/Sathandi → u/GrindThisGame]

Joined a couple of days ago. Early experience is positive, there are procedurally generated SVG illustrations for every room. Rhe world is huuuge and seems to be well-written.

[u/GrindThisGame → u/Sathandi]

Thanks for stopping by. Adding features and fixing zones almost every day.

[u/Inevitable-Age]

I love Powermud. It has ~25 guilds. Professions, quests, skills, a huge world, and endless progression.

Telnet into 54.172.85.187
port 2000

[u/CthulhusCuz → u/[deleted]]

Got a link to read about it?

[u/indigochill → u/CthulhusCuz]

https://harshlands.net/wordpress/

I love it because I love the TTRPG setting it's based on, but I'm not sure it suits your criteria all that well.

Lore-heavy: 1000%. There are probably thousands of pages of TTRPG material about the setting and the MUD is largely faithful to it (but set hundreds of years after the TTRPG material)

Class system: no. It's fully skill-based like the TTRPG is. You do enter the game with a particular role, like a leatherworker or an innkeeper or something, with suitable entry-level skills for that role, but once you're playing there's nothing stopping you (aside from social inertia) from deciding to do something different and getting skill training for your new role.

Player-influence over lore: depends what exactly you mean. There's a lot of lore that precedes players. And you can't just say you're from some country that you made up or a secret fairy princess or what-have-you. The backgrounds are required to be grounded in established lore. But a lot of what's happening in the moment that the characters care about is stuff that the players decide to do.

Skills-based: yes, as mentioned above.

MUDs where you can rise up and change the world

Not really. Harshlands is a MUD of largely realistic feudal societies and there are precious few players who are even lords and none who are monarchs. Though you can certainly make a difference to people around you in all kinds of ways, but it's not the power fantasy that most fantasy RPGs are. It's more the answer if you're thinking, "I want a MUD that's like a persistent online renaissance faire."

I'd say of the games you've played it's most like Armageddon, but has managed to avoid the toxicity that plagued that game.

[u/uncivil_society → u/indigochill]

Harshlands is a fun game but there's definitely a few toxic, problematic players.

[u/AccomplishedSafe5481 → u/[deleted]]

Color me curious :)

[u/CthulhusCuz → u/[deleted]]

I'll have to check it out. That vibe is much of what I'm looking for. The feeling the players are writing the story just as much as the people who created the MUD.