Don’t look at me like that it’s a serious question. Do you like to play games?

Good, I thought you might. After all who doesn’t enjoy a good game every now and again! But what about a game that is won over time, sometimes months sometimes years and is perpetually changing and growing? Would a game like that interest you? If so I’ve got the scratch for your itch. It’s called a Multiple User Domain/Dungeon (MUD) and when it comes to online gaming there is truly nothing quite like it.

MUD?! What the hell is a “MUD”?

A mud is a multi-player text based virtual world where you solve puzzles, go on quests, go adventuring, fight other players, team with other players, fight non-player characters (NPCs), operate farms, craft weapons, train pets, and MUCH, MUCH more.

If you’ve ever played Dungeons and Dragons I’ve probably caught your attention by now. If you’re a Everquestcrack or WoW addict I’ve probably caught your attention as well. For you Everquest and WoW folks I apologize, but stick with me for a few minutes, please. I can personally guarantee they won’t be going anywhere anytime soon so you can always go back to them after you read what I have to say.

Wait! Before you roll your eyes and go trundling off because “Dungeons and Dragon’s is for geeks!”, or “I’m too old to play Dungeons and Dragon’s, or any other game for that matter.” you should at least read some more about “mudding”.

Types of MUDs

There are three ways to look at the types of muds out there. We’ll take a brief look at each one.

Roleplay centric

In roleplay MUDs you take on the persona of your character. The entire time you are logged in you are “in character”. Everything you do is based on how the character would act and react. Everything. Every word said, every action taken. Some MUDs are more strict than others when it comes to roleplaying. If you enjoy writing and being creative this might just be the type of place for you.

Hack-n-Slash (HnS)

In HnS MUDs you run around adventuring, spending a lot of time questing, hording coins (gold, silver, platinum, etc), exploring, and hacking and slashing (hence the reason they are called HnS) “baddies” to gain experience points, and whatever else the coders decide to give you for your efforts. In this kind of MUD roleplay is often optional, and depending on the situation you may or may not use it.

Educational

There’s a subset of MUDs which are supposedly educational. I’ve heard of them, but never logged into one and messed around. I’ve heard mixed information about them, but they are out there for your enjoyment should you be curious. Don’t worry, later in this article I’ll be showing you where to go to find MUDs on your own.

Each type of MUD isn’t usually exclusive unto itself. There are elements of roleplay in HnS and HnS in roleplay based MUDs.

Finding a MUD

There are several good resources online for finding a MUD that caters to your wants and “needs”. One of the best is The Mud Connector (TMC). Another resource is Top Mud Sites (TMS). Either one is good but, personally I prefer TMS due to the, what I consider to be, friendlier interface.

I found one, now what?

The next step is actually getting connected to the MUD. The vast majority of MUDs are accessed using a telnet client. You can either rely on a bare bones client (which I do not recommend) or you can download a more robust client that has been built especially for mudding. The most popular example is Zuggsoft’s zMud client. My personal favorite is Game Axle’s Portal client but zMUD for me is a close second. A Google search for “mud clients” will turn up plenty for you to choose from.

Once you’ve found a client you’ll need to get some basic information from the MUD itself. The information is usually found on the website associated with the MUD. For example if you go to The Dragon’s Den website in the header you’ll see it says “dden.discordia.org 2222″ that is the information you’d need to connect to that MUD. The first part is the resolved DNS name (hostname) and the second part (the 2222) is the port number the MUD accepts connections on. The name and the port number is unique to the MUD. Other MUDs you’ll need to spend a little time looking around their sites in order to get the correct information.

If you’re going to use the Windows built-in telnet client you would do the following.

1. Click on start and then click run
2. In the blank “run” box type “cmd” (no quotes) and press enter
3. In the command prompt window that pops up type telnet and press enter
4. On the new prompt (it should say Microsoft Telnet>) type open [hostname] [port number] – For the Dragon’s Den example it would look like open dden.discordia.org 2222

I’m connected now what?

In this section I’ve included some commands. The commands look like [blah]. When you type them out you don’t need the brackets ([]) just the type the word and press enter to execute the command.

As soon as you connect most MUDs will prompt you for a username and a password. Assuming you’re new the screen will print out something like “This looks like the first time you’ve visited us [Bob] (or whatever your name is). Would you like to continue [y][n]? At this point you’ll then go through a character creation process. If it says “Enter Password” or something similar after you enter the username it means someone else with that same player name already exists. Choose a new one.

After you’ve created a character you’ll likely be placed in a “newbie” area where you’ll spend some time learning how the commands work in game, and other bits of necessary information. If you’re real lucky you might even get to [wield sword], [wear armor], and [kill monstername] to get a few pieces of copper and an experience point or two. It all depends on the MUD.

This is also a good place to start learning a little bit about the MUD in general since you won’t be having to fight off looters. Your best friend in mudding is the “help” command. Try it, [help]. Read through that information. You’ll also find you should be able to do the same with a particular subject. Try [help newbie] and see what happens. On most MUDs, assuming they have a well maintained help file system you could literally spend months reading the files themselves. But don’t waste your time until you need it. Then just type [help blah]. Of course if nothing comes up you’d be stuck unless you knew how to type [chat How do I blah?]. Better yet type [help chat]

Beyond the help files

Help files are great and all, but there’s a whole world beyond them. This is where you start playing. The culture of the MUD you choose will quickly become evident to you. If you intend to be successful you’ll always want your verbose mode on (at least to begin with) and a pad and pen handy while you get started mapping things out. The verbose mode will allow you to read everything that is written which is very important when it comes to finding doors, money, traps, monsters, and whatever else. Keep in mind that nearly everything you read was written by one of the builders and/or coders (often called wizards and gods on MUDs). In many instances they also did all of the programming using an object oriented language such as C, or more likely LPC.

What does a room look like?

Again it all depends on the MUD. Some are very long and you’ll literally be interacting with an entire story as you explore the area while others might be as eloquent as:

The gravel on the road is red. A tree stands off to the side.

An example of a more colorful room would be something like this:

This old weathered dock extends out into a wide river. The dock is wobbling and unstable, and its boards are shot through with large areas of decay. Brackish water roils and seethes below, dark shapes drifting through the currents and noxious fumes rising through the dock’s numerous gaps. There is a large cast-iron bell affixed to the dock on a mount made of wood and leather lashings. A heavy mist covers the river, muffling sound and dimming the light of the sun to a wan, gray illumination. In the distance, a dark shape looms, its outlines made indistinct by the mist, but the jutting shape suggests an island.

Don’t worry I’m the one who wrote both of those descriptions. The first one I just made up for this article and the second I wrote a few years ago. Just pointing that out so no one thinks I’ve violated their copyright or anything silly like that.

In the second description you’d probably want to do something like [exa boards], or [ring bell]. You get the idea.

How much does it cost?

The vast majority of MUDs are free. In fact if you’re going to spend money spend it on a graphical game such as Guild Wars, or WoW. If you’re low on money and your computer isn’t all that hot you’d probably enjoy playing on MUDs.

The MUD type

The type of person who you will often find playing MUDs is:

• Inquisitive. He’ll enjoy spending hours solving puzzles sometimes even days, weeks, or months
• Patient. She’ll realize that they can’t “beat the game” due to the nature of it. How it is always growing and in development
• Able to read well. In order to play a MUD succesfully a person must be able to read and pick out key components. For example you’d want to know when your partner took a lightning bolt to the fact and needed healing when you’re playing a Cleric. In the middle of a battle that would be easy to miss if you can’t read quickly.
• A quick typer. Playing a MUD can’t help but improve your typing speed.
• Imaginative. He’ll be able to use his mind to create the world described instead of relying on someone else to show him graphics. It’s much like reading a book. If all you saw in your mind was words the book would suck.
• Social. MUDs are highly social by nature. You’ll be playing with people from all over the world, talking to them, interacting, making friends, making war, and whatever else.

That is by no stretch of the imagination a complete list of they kind of person you’ll come across playing MUDs, but it is a basic example of that person.

I’m interested how do I get to a MUD?

Personally I recommend Dragon’s Den both because I’ve played and coded there, but also because when it comes to indepth story telling I’ve never come across another one quite like it. So to get there telnet dden.discordia.org:2222 and start making a character. Please note if you are using Windows Vista telnet is not active by default. In order to activate it you’ll need to put the following in the command prompt (copy/paste).

start /w pkgmgr /iu:”TelnetClient”

If you really want to be brave you can try the java based applet that many muds offer. Here is the one for Dragon’s Den. Of course you could always download a real MUD client and not have to worry about it. And it bears repeating you’ll want NEED a MUD client if you expect to do anything except get frustrated.

And there you have it. A brief introduction to mudding. Addiction with a twist. You’ll use your brain. So like I said, Go play in the MUD!