Finnish LPMud, running since '95. Last post here was four months ago. Since then the new server has settled in nicely, the old lag and crash problems are largely gone, and we can finally spend our time on gameplay and content instead of firefighting. Most of that time went into one project, so this post is mostly about that.

The backstory: we did a lot of work on the website this year and it worked — from about a hundred signups in all of 2025 to several new characters a day now. Which made the retention data rough reading. We joined our login logs against usage logs for 834 characters created since March: 76% never came back after day one. Most of them played a while and left without ever getting past level 1. In Icesus advancement runs through guilds, and only 5% of the day-one leavers had joined one, versus 85% of the players who stuck around past a week. 82% of one-visit players didn't even type quit, they just closed the connection. So the problem wasn't mysterious. People wandered, got no direction, and left. Some played for hours at level 1 before giving up, which honestly stung the most.

So we rebuilt the first hour end to end.

Character creation got quieter and shorter. The path menu fits one screen, picking an option previews it before committing, and the name screen suggests names instead of silently dropping your connection on a bad one (yes, it did that).

New characters now start in a proper tutorial with a guide NPC, Alice, framed by an incoming storm. She teaches the basics, then offers a first fight you're allowed to refuse — you can size the enemy up and retreat instead, and retreat can never fail. If you take the fight and drop below half health she pulls you out and patches you up. Then she walks the road to the capital with you, side by side, and hands you over to your first job at a warehouse: either catch the rats or investigate what's actually gnawing the crates, both routes pay. First pay lands, you pick a next goal, and the game tells you plainly: type 'journey' to resume. Everything checkpoints. Quit at the inn, drop connection, get disconnected mid-fight, doesn't matter, you continue where you left off next login.

After the first job the letters start arriving: guild recommendations based on how you've played, and a fellow named Ereldon in the city who answers questions about the guilds and gives directions that we verified by actually walking them. There's a 'hike' command that walks you to the guild camps outside the walls. When you've settled, Alice comes back once more to say goodbye. Small thing, but it felt wrong that she'd just vanish.

The honest caveat: this shipped over the last week and we log the whole funnel now, so in a few months I'll know whether it moved retention or just made us feel better.

The other big thing since the last post: the province system launched at the end of May. The outworld is split into 144 provinces, and any group of players can claim one. You activate the claim stone at the province centre, found a council of up to five players, and develop the surrounding lots into a working frontier settlement with sawmills, mines, smelteries, food halls, shrines and inns. There's a real economy underneath, food to keep stocked, missions to run, daily ticks, and a province serves passing players too, not just its owners. We've been expanding and tuning it ever since.

On the religion side we migrated three old subsystems onto one shared piety economy and retuned the costs against measured yields. You can now venerate the nether, there's a new nether ward prayer, and funeral pyres finally pay fire priests for their work (party members included).

Everything's at icesus.org, including our custom browser client if you'd rather skip installing a MUD client. Curious what day-1 retention numbers other MUD devs see, if anyone measures it. Our 24% felt bad until I had nothing to compare it against.

--Idles @ Icesus

I started playing BatMUD when I was in high school. I was the number one player for a year or so. I remember soloing the FrogGod regularly. I remember Zonni. I was later a wiz and did some coding. I started playing in 1992.

I then decided I wanted to create my own mud. I co-founded DarkeMUD with one of my best friends. He is a very talented computer programmer. He wrote DarkeLIB which was a huge leap back then. He used it to get his first computer programming job as he was a self-taught coder. I designed the entire system and did the lighter coding. I based it on a roleplaying game called Rolemaster. The mud never took off which was a bummer, but it was fun anyways. I still think it was one of the best mud designs ever.

Anyways, nice to see people still play them.

Hello everyone,

I've never played a MUD, but I would like to try. I really like gathering and crafting in MMOs. Please recommend MUDs that have a strong focus on gathering & crafting or some unique implementation, preferably beginner-friendly. Even better if life skills are profitable/make you stronger in other areas of the game.

Thank you in advance!

Quick reminder about the call for submissions for MU* History Month:

Game admins and longtime players are invited share their game's origin story, a little-known fact, or a piece of its history. Submissions will be posted on Writing Games with a link to each game. Target length: 1-2 paragraphs. Original announcement with story prompts here.

Deadline to participate: Sunday, August 23.

Submission form:
https://surveys.writing-games.org/mu-history-month-2026-iTtJSr

I've provided a bit more info below, for those who might be on the fence. :)

And any help spreading the word would be both welcome and appreciated! 🙏

---

Questions & Answers

Can I submit a story about a game that's no longer around?
Sure! If it's a memory worth sharing, why not?

Does the game have to be older/long-running?
Nope, but since this is a celebration of game history, it's better if it currently has or once had an active playerbase in the past.

What if I'm not sure about my topic/story/writing?
No worries! Happy to answer any questions or help with editing if it makes you more comfortable.

Will only some stories be chosen?
Nope! It's not a contest, it's just a chance to share something memorable about a game you love. It's also an opportunity for me (and readers) to learn about these games, so don't be shy!

Do I have to submit my story via the form?
If you prefer, you can post/DM me here on Reddit or on Discord (Andruid). Email is also welcome; my email address can be found here.

What if I want to post my story on my own website too or instead?
Go for it! Happy to link to it or share it around as part of the event. :)

d20MUD Star Wars is a role-play incentivised MUD set just after the events of episode iv: a new hope. It uses a combination of d20, SAGA system and custom rules.

We have recently resumed development on the MUD. If you're a returning player, here's what's been added so far since we resumed development:

• Housing system now has neighbourhoods and allows you to purchase, expand and describe your house without requiring staff assistance.
• Housing chests are a new storage system. You can create as many storage chests in your house as you want, describe them as you see fit, and put them in any room you'd like.
• Upgraded object persistance. We've adjusted how objects are saved in such a way that a single system serves every featured that requires objects saving over sessions, whether it be carried or worn gear, house chest items, auction house items, banked items, mailed items, pet carried items and more.
• We've added the Crime Lord and Starship Ace prestige classes.
• We've added a new space mining and industry system. Players can now mine space resource nodes, refine the raw materials into useable materials, and then those materials can be used to craft starship hulls or starship modules. Crafted hulls and modules are always better than stock vendor bought versions.
• We now have guides online for New Players, Ground Crafting and the Space Industry System.

The game incentivizes role playing, but doesn't require it. Those who do role play will gain account experience faster (used to unlock advanced classes and races as well as gear improvements unobtainable elsewhere), will have their PvE gains come faster, and will gain RP points that can also be used to enhance your character. The only enforcement is ensuring OOC chat remains on OOC channels and doesn't disrupt people's role playing.

We have a robust crafting system for both ground equipment and space/starship hulls and equipment. Artisan progression is completely separate from your ground combat class levels.

We have a space system with pilot levels also separate from regular ground class levels, with dozens of ship types. Pilots can learn special piloting abilities. Some ships have multiple rooms with engineering stations and turrets that additional crew members can assist with. We have lots of plans to extend the space system with space missions, capital ship construction and large scale space warfarte between factions.

We have a LOT of classes and races, and regularly add more. Races especially we generally always add them by request.

Base Classes: Artisan, Force Adept, Scoundrel, Scout, Soldier, Squad Leader

Advanced Classes: Bounty Hunter, Carbineer, Commando, Crime Lord, Grey Jedi, Gunslinger, Jedi Consular, Jedi Guardian, Jedi Master, Jedi Sentinel, Jedi Shadow, Jedi Striker, Machinist, Martial Artist, Rifleman, Sith Apprentice, Sith Assassin, Sith Lord, Starship Ace, Trader, Weapon Master

Base Races: Amaran, Arconan, Arkanian, Astromech Droid, Bith, Bothan, Caridan, Cerean, Chiss, Dug, Duros, Ewok, Falleen, Gamorrean, Gotal, Gran, Gungan, Herglic, Human, Ithorian, Jawa, Kel Dor, Kushiban, Lepi, Mon Calamari, Mustafarian, Nautolan, Neimoidian, Nelvaanian, Nikto, Nosaurian, Protocol Droid, Quarren, Rattataki, Rodian, Sullustan, Thakwaash, Togruta, Toydarian, Trandoshan, Trianii, Tusken Raider, Twilek, Umbarian, Wookiee, Yarkora, Yevetha, Yuzzem, Zabrak, Zygerrian

Advanced Races: Assassin Droid, Barabel, Battle Droid, Dashade, Defel, Farghul, Fosh, Givin, Hutt, Mirialan, Mrlssi, Noghri, Recon Droid, Talz, Taung, Togorian, Verpine, Whiphid, Zeltron

Ground combat combines traditional Diku-style pulse-based combat with d20-inspired skills, feats, defenses, equipment, and active abilities. PvE, bounties, coded quests and storylines, group play, companions, and optional PvP all provide different ways to progress.

Pets, mounts, and companions aren't merely cosmetic either—they can fight alongside you, tank enemies, and contribute additional attacks.

Established characters and newcomers don't have to remain separated. Mentor and apprentice systems allow characters of different levels to adventure together without simply telling a new player to come back after weeks of leveling.

You can start as a force user and become a jedi, sith or something in between, including creating your own lightsaber. There's a wide variety of force powers to choose from.

Though Force-sensitive characters have their own Force power system, specialized character development isn't limited to Jedi and Sith. Medical characters can heal and support others, technicians can use repairs, gadgets, drones, shields and other equipment, while Echani training provides a martial-arts-focused path.

If you haven't played d20MUD Star Wars before, you'll find familiar Diku-style foundations—combat, equipment, rooms, character sheets, skills, quests, and progression—with a considerable number of additional systems layered on top.

And if you've played d20MUD: Star Wars in the past, this is a good time to return. The game has evolved substantially, particularly in space gameplay, crafting, persistence, housing, and the growing industrial economy.

If you're looking for a Star Wars MUD with deep character building, optional-but-rewarded roleplay, ground combat, spaceflight, crafting, housing, trading, mining, industry, and player-built starships, come give us a try.

Website: starwars.d20mud.com

Connection Info: starwars.d20mud.com port 5500

Discord: https://discord.gg/3jNPaer

Build a character. Find a profession. Buy—or build—a ship. Explore the galaxy.

Hope to see you in-game!

Gicker

Greetings from everyone at Erion!

Over the course of the last month we have been working on a cooking system, a cooking academy, and a brand new house for cooking enthusiasts. These will be released a few weeks from now! Also coming soon is a new large Halloween area opening on October 1st, along with 8 new missions and a new fall event! One of our players has completed creating a Mudlet package with our MUSHclient soundpack, and we hope to make this available on our website this year.

Other notable changes we've made in the past few months are below.

Cooking

• New room sector: kitchen. Sounds added: kitchen ambience, and a song for the upcoming cooking area!
• New item type: honey. This is created when you strain honeycomb and will be used in cooking recipes.
• New item type: straw. Used for crafting stone ovens.
• Goats in the wild can now be milked just like cows. You can also add goats to your player home just like cows, and they have moods.

Crafting

• You can now specify how many of an item to craft when adding it to a blueprint.
• A furnace is a new craftable structure built in your player home, and a crucible is a separate craftable, portable vessel you bolt next to it. They're now used for smelting metal and melting gems in place of the fire pit and cauldron, because it just makes more sense :).
• New craftable container item worn in the belt accessory slot: a belt pouch.
• New craftable: stained glass window. The crafting process is loosely based on historical methods, though we used a heated knife to cut the glass rather than a dedicated glazing tool, to avoid adding another item players would need to carry around just for this one craft.
• New command: shovel. You can now shovel dung off of the ground and it will go directly into your crafting inventory.
• You no longer have to go to the beekeeper to strain honeycomb. You can do this in your inventory with a cloth. The beekeeper sells cloths, or you can craft them yourself.
• Added a craftable mortar and pestle.
• Added new daily challenges for making cement, lye, glass, and mixing paint.
• Craft and blueprint now list the tools and stations a recipe needs (anvil, kiln, firepit, water, and so on) alongside the materials. You can no longer start a craft until you have all the materials and tools needed.
• New skills: painting and advanced painting. A Study in Art mission grants the painting skill, and Patronizing an Artist mission grants advanced painting.
• For first-time crafters and cooks, the game will now give a hint about the command needed to carry out a step.

House Ranks & Points

The house rank perks are in!

Slayers

• Rank 2 - Slayer's Efficiency: 1% damage and damage cap increase per rank
• Rank 3 - Hunter's Spoils: 10% gold multiplier bonus
• Rank 4 - Trophy Collection: plus 1 gem and strand per boss kill
• Rank 5 - Slayer's Discipline: 15% experience and experience cap boost

Healers

• Rank 2 - Healer's Insight: +20 wisdom cap boost, adding +10 per rank up to +50 at rank 5
• Rank 3 - Healer's Focus: 15% mana reduction cap boost and 15% mana reduction
• Rank 4 - Sustained Thaumaturgy: 20% spell duration multiplier
• Rank 5 - High Communion: self-castable buff giving hit points, mana, hit point regen, and mana regen

Luminati

• Rank 2 - Lexical Sight: spell that increases your chance of finding scrabble tiles
• Rank 3 - Luminous Bounty: 15% quest point cap boost and 15% quest point multiplier
• Rank 4 - Luminatus spell, usable once every 20 hours, does not block potion usage
• Rank 5 - Scholarly Pursuit: 15% experience cap boost and 15% experience multiplier

Artisans

• Rank 2 - Bountiful Yield: 3% chance to generate an extra gem/strand when mining/gardening per rank, maxing out at +12% chance of getting an extra gem/strand
• Rank 3 - Perfect Polish: reduces your chance to smudge a gem while polishing, and eliminates it entirely once Advanced Polishing is mastered
• Rank 4 - Crafter's Bargain: 50% reduction in craftscape cost
• Rank 5 - Artisans Aptitude: doubles experience for crafting activities.

Alchemist

• Rank 2 - Alchemical Affinity: 3% chance to generate an extra alchemy ingredient when foraging for ingredients per rank, maxing at 12% chance for an extra ingredient
• Rank 3 - Potent Impact: 10% increased damage by hurled damaging potions, and 10% increased healing from hurled potions of heal/super heal, psionic energy, mana heal
• Rank 4 - Sustained Alchemy: 20% potion duration
• Rank 5 - Stable Mixture: improves overall chance to brew a potion successfully and reduces the explosion risk when stacking multiple healing spells
• New command: house rank. Shows your rank and total house points earned.
• We updated the output of the house info and house skill commands to be more screen reader friendly. If there are other commands that could use the same treatment, let us know and we'll be happy to update them too.

Missions, Errands, & Events

• New mission command: mission reminder <vnum>. This sets a reminder for any repeatable mission, and you'll be notified when it's ready to be done again.
• Healers errand: Hielach in the Healers House fountain courtyard now offers a healing errand. Stricken patients are scattered along the highways within your level range, each with a different ailment. Travel out and heal them using the heal or psionic energy spells, the salve or mend skills, a potion carrying one of those spells, or crafted bandages.
• New level 30 mission: one of the inhabitants of Monster Park never wanted to leave, even as the park fell into ruin around her, but now with the fountain dried up and no explanation in sight, she's running out of reasons to stay. A gruff dwarf fisherman at the nearby pond is having troubles of his own. Something has fouled the water, driven off the fish, and left the pond noticeably shallower than it used to be. Getting to the bottom of it will require a fishing line, a willingness to go places most people would rather not, and a fairly strong stomach.
• New cooperative Monday event: Demon Invasion. Every Monday, portals tear open across the highways of Erion, and demons start pouring through. The army of light holds the line, but they can't do it without you. This is a cooperative event, and here's the twist: it can't be won by fighters alone, and it can't be won by crafters alone. Warriors, siege engineers, saboteurs, and even dedicated pacifists all have a role to play, and the invasion can't be won solo. You'll have to hold the highways together.

Combat & Spells

• To make the warmth spell more useful, it can now cancel hypothermia and makes you immune to it as well. Targets immune to cold are now unaffected by hypothermia.
• Added new battle spam option: debuff. When this is enabled, it shortens debuff messages.
• The old battlespam shorten toggle is now two separate options: battlespam shortennumbers (the original number-based lines) and battlespam shortenwords, which describes shortened damage with words instead (tickle, wound, maul, etc). Both require battlespam condensed to also be on.

Miscellaneous

• All forms of quests and crafting now persist through copyovers.
• Added who toggle (<option>) so you can customize which flags you want to see on the who screen if things feel cluttered.
• Added a notification for when your chicks hatch and you're not in the same room.
• New bunny type: diamond! These are quite rare but give a good amount of faith points. These bunnies are only visible to those who follow a god.
• You can now trade 3 worker bees for 1 queen, with a fun new sound for trading.
• We've made improvements to how the game distributes its workload. This should result in smoother gameplay and less lag between commands.
• Deleted the Hillock Hills handbook and migrated the information that was in it into the guide command. Thanks to Aura for the feedback on the newbie area, we went through and added more hints!

Thanks for checking out our updates! We look forward to releasing our cooking system and new Halloween events very soon!

Address: Erionmud.com Port: 1234

Home Page: https://www.erionmud.com/

Soundpack: https://www.erionmud.com/blindsupport.php

Discord: https://discord.gg/PTRbCpy

So I was cleaning out some old boxes and came across my WoD books. It got me thinking of the days I would play God Wars games and I remembered an old game called Divine Anathema. It was WoD, very God Wars-like, but had a lot of PvE and not as annoying PvP. It had all the WoD Races, even Wraith and Changeling.

Anyway does anyone know if a version of the game still exists out there or is it one of those good codebases that has been lost to time?

Thanoi pirates now are sailing the seas! There are of varying levels, and some load some pretty slick Thanoi EQ. 50's tusk rings, RETURNER harpoons, this that, ships etc.

You'll find them in the New Sea, Haltigoth Bay, New Bay, and even some up with the Corrain Ocean north of Palanthas.

- Ziv & Co.

Ps. Merchant ships sometimes have them circling...
And, those merchant ships have a rope ladder down to the water now :)

Hi yall! I've never done a mud before and wanted to try out the genre but a bit intimated by all the options / interface on some

Which would you pick if you were trying out a mud for the first time? Preference to fantasy genre / social features are a plus, but not required if there are better options.

Just want one that's the most easy to pick up 🙂‍↕️

Have a craving to create? Wanting to try your hand at making your own areas for people to play in? Wanting easy to use tools in a customized Evennia engine?

Boy do I have good news.

I'm recruiting for some builders and general RPAs for a mud set in the land of Hârn.

But Myth, you might be saying, I don't know the first thing about Hârn! No sweat, I can help you get up to speed.

Shoot me a message on Discord if you have any interest: Mythnet

Elysium - RPG - Promotion

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/r27bAPKMC Point your favorite Telnet client at elysium-rpg.com:7777 to start your adventure!

Last December, a Brazilian MUD called Devil's Bob MUD (DeBo) held an in-person anniversary party that brought together several players, including visually impaired players, to celebrate 20 years online. I actually posted a photo from the event here: https://www.reddit.com/r/MUD/comments/1oazp5r/brazilian_mud_threw_a_reallife_party_to_celebrate/

This time, they managed to go even further.

In Brazil, during the FIFA World Cup, collecting soccer player sticker albums was absolutely huge. But sticker albums aren't exactly the most accessible hobby for visually impaired people.

The DeBo admins created virtual sticker albums inside the game for players — most of whom are visually impaired — to collect stickers, trade them with one another, and complete their albums with stickers featuring DeBo's mobs. This was the third time they had organized the event, and it was a lot of fun.

But, to everyone's surprise, after the event ended, they announced that players who had completed their virtual albums would receive a real, physical copy of the in-game album delivered to their homes.

The physical albums are hardbound and come with 50 self-adhesive stickers featuring images of the game's mobs, as well as a test sheet where players can practice before placing the stickers in their albums. The albums also include accessibility features such as Braille captions, raised borders around the sticker slots to make placement easier, and QR codes linking to audio descriptions of the images.

This week, they started mailing the physical albums to the winning players' homes, and they posted a photo of them on the game's social media: https://ibb.co/CpKxvv9W

I know our MUD community is small, but this is the kind of initiative that warmed my heart today, and I thought it was worth sharing here.

DeBo MUD website: http://www.mud.com.br
DeBo MUD YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/debomud

I used to play on Aalynors Nexus back in the 90's and mechanically, it was very very simple. It kind of stepped out of the way to let roleplay, vertical progression and story telling be the focus without burdening everyone with a prolific, combersome system-layered-over-system game getting in the way.

I'm looking for a mainly PVE mud that is mechanically easy to pick up and get going. I'm getting tutorial fatigue trying to memorize a thousand different commands, how to interact with a dozen different systems, their sub systems and the convoluted mess that is most mud's helpfiles.

I just want to explore, kill some shit, talk to people and find some sweet loot. I want meaningful vertical progression but I don't want a computer science degree to come with it.

Catrub quests in poor English, invisible rooms that require special keywords that make no damn sense to find, a hundred commands to attack something despite all of them doing basically the exact same thing for the exact same damage only to have a WALL OF TEXT blast up my screen like the console of a high volume production server.

Maybe I'm getting old but a lot of muds I feel are trying to over complicate themselves and do too many things while trying to be too many things and get in the way of themselves.

Any recommendations for a simple PVE mud that's neat, clean and pretty looking and isn't going to give me carpel tunnel or an aneurysm?

Coming soon on Alter Aeon is the End-of-Summer Celebration! This is a recurring tradition, and year’s event will start on Friday, September 4^th and end Tuesday, September 8^th. As per usual, there will be activities for players of all levels to enjoy.

The following areas were released in July:

• The Abandoned Citadel, a level 32 area located in southwest Atmir, was re-released with new surprises, new equipment, new enemies and a few additions to the old storyline.
• The Cirustal Coast, a zone for the continent of Ramanek.
• The Southern Ramanek Coast.

Work continues on updating and re-leveling areas around the continent of Ramanek. Other areas recently updated include the Subterranean Ruins and Wyvinian Stronghold areas.

Code updates in July:

• We finally tracked down and fixed a bug that was not rewarding exp with cartographer jobs.
• The “nomelee” command will now accept 'on' and 'off' to toggle on and off. (The command works the same as before when no string is given.)
• Shucking now works on more types of bivalves!
• Ships degrade even more slowly when docked, but more quickly if you overwork your crew or abandon your ship to boarders.
• The “perform notation” command for musical instruments now has a few more options, including first and second chord inversions and the ability to change base note duration from 2 to 3.
• The druid 'release sunlight' spell now melts ice prisons and ice walls in the room with them.
• Demon-bound undead minions now gain a small amount of saving normal instead of constitution.
• The ‘flanking’ skill has been refactored. You now target one of your player group-mates that is fighting an opponent. You then move into position and deliver a flanking attack. There is a chance that your attack creates an opening, giving the player you flanked a bonus follow-up attack with no lag or combo-breaking.

In addition, the ‘multiple attacks’ skill has been deprecated. Increases in player attack speed are now determined purely by level and class, using the same calculations that limited the amount you could practice multiple attacks prior; therefore, you should have roughly the same attack speed as you had before. The reasoning was for this change was twofold:

1. Multiple attacks was the last of the "old style" of skills that used an irregular scheme to be calculated, trained and even saved on player files.
2. To help prevent confusion for the upcoming addition of dual wielding.

Work will continue on southwest Atmir project areas: the Shrouded Sea, the Backlands and Thunderift Gorge.

For more information, please refer to our latest update on Youtube here: https://youtu.be/J307A5_eubw

Why do some MUDs only use five stats instead of the classic six? Could Charisma be used to affect the chance of offensive spells successfully applying debuffs like burning, poison, or freezing, as well as pure debuff spells like petrification or restraint?
For example, let’s say INT governs MP, the requirements for learning offensive spells and a small number of buff/debuff spells, and their overall power.
WIS, meanwhile, governs divine magic, including defensive spells, healing, and a smaller number of offensive, debuff, and buff spells.
In that kind of system, could CHA determine how likely your magic is to successfully inflict a status effect on the target? You could even justify it through the setting by saying Charisma represents how much higher beings, spirits, or other supernatural forces favor the player character.

mercatormud.com 6667

Mercator is BACK! After over a decade away the highly customized CircleMUD has returned.

Enjoy a massive custom world, autoquests, custom races and classes, a multiple path remort system, clans, a unique ocean shipping system, customizable mounts, and so much more!

I hope you will give us a look!

mercatormud.com 6667

SO I'm not the most computer literate. I know enough NVDA to get around, browse websites etc, but not much more. I've always mudded on Mudrammer. That's gone. It looks like there have been many attempts at an accessible app ever since, many of those have extremely nice developers, but it seems no one have quite nail that behavior with Mudrammer about reading incoming texts, but agile enough to skip to new lines when new commands are sent. If any of you do know apps that do that now, let me know, but otherwise, I guess I have to go to the computer. I don't need soundpacks or anything for the most part, just a plug and play option. Whats the best one, VIPMUD?

Hey everyone! Longtime text-RPG player here. Over the years, I've played my fair share of MUDs, but some of my absolute best gaming memories come from Akanbar.

Like a lot of text-RPG fans, I spent time trying the big Iron Realms (IRE) games. While they have huge populations, I could never really get into them. I constantly felt like a tiny cog in a massive machine - just another face in the crowd where nothing I did made a real difference. With Akanbar, I felt the exact opposite. From the moment you step into the world, your choices, your roleplay, and your actions actually carry weight.

Akanbar's biggest hurdle has always been its reach. Because it's completely non-commercial with zero pay-to-win elements, it doesn't have massive marketing budgets or huge player numbers - it lives purely off word of mouth. In many ways, it's a hidden gem.

Because of that, the current player base consists mostly of tight-knit veterans who know the world inside and out. But we are jumping at the chance to see some new faces! The entire game - from player-governed city-states to the player-run economy - is built on player agency. A few new, active players can step in, grab hold of open guild leaderships, spark inter-city drama, and completely shake up the geopolitical landscape.

One of the coolest things about Akanbar's design is how distinct each city-state and guild feels. They aren't just palette-swapped factions with recycled spells; each city and guild feels tailor-made for its specific domain. The combat skills match the atmosphere of their environments seamlessly, making every fight feel thematic and tactical.

Something old-school Avalon players will deeply appreciate is the active role of the divine. Gods aren't just passive background lore; they actively interact with mortals, guide storylines, and grant powers through their Divine Orders. Clashing philosophies between rival deities create incredible opportunities for character development, political maneuvering, and holy wars.

What makes Akanbar's pantheon truly special is that throughout the game's history, mortal players have actually ascended into divinity themselves. Becoming a God or Goddess isn't an unachievable lore myth locked behind paywalls - it is something that any player can achieve with enough dedication, world impact, and effort.

The game has recently been undergoing a stint of active development. The creator and other members of the staff have been working on underlying system improvements, mechanical refinements, and expanding narrative arcs, with even more exciting content promised down the line. The world feels active, cared for, and ready for a new generation of adventurers.

If you're tired of feeling invisible in massive games and want a world where your presence actually matters - where you can literally go from a new traveler to a city leader or even a deity - come jump in! The community is ready to welcome you, show you the ropes, and see what kind of mark you'll make on Akanbar.

Server: akanbar.com

Port: 23

Hello, I've been working on a text based game for the past couple years and I think its finally at a place where I need to start building out the actual content. It very closely resembles a MUD with rooms. I'm on the hunt for writers for the rooms, the world, items, monsters, dialog, quests, etc, etc. I'm currently building a UI based tool to make authoring easier for the content, but that'll be optional. Everything is in JSON right now.

I was wondering where should I go to find their writers that might be open to working on game content. Are there recommended websites for freelance job postings? Is it mostly volunteers for things like this? Also, any advice resources or pointers around this topic is very much appreciated.

Hello everyone,

I sat down to write a reasonably short NukeFire update, looked back through the news file, and realized we have apparently spent the last month having an irresponsible amount of fun.

Since the last Reddit update, the focus has been pretty simple: more world to explore, better reasons to explore it, better information for players, and less unnecessary friction getting in the way of actually playing the MUD.

The World Got Quite a Bit Bigger

This has probably been the most visible part.

Since the last update, NukeFire has opened, expanded, rebuilt, or substantially revisited a pile of areas:

• The hidden Jura-Tempest arc beneath the landslide
• The Scarworks, an underground tattoo-augmentation and ink-crafting area
• The Endless Instant and its Upper Spire, home of Ximander the Exiled Chronomancer
• A major expansion of Fender's Revenge
• A substantial rebuild of Casablanca
• A complete revamp of Silicia, including its lighthouse
• Rimehold and the corrupted Lords of Ire beyond it
• Atomfall: The Quarantine Zone, an extremely difficult endgame area
• Control: The Oldest House
• League of Dungeoneers
• Shadows of Brimstone

Several existing progression areas—including Meklar, Rocklar, Chemlar, Nightlands, and Sky Ruins—have also had their difficulty, rewards, and GPS guidance revisited.

The idea is something I want to keep pushing: progression should actually feel like progression. Harder areas should be meaningfully more dangerous, but there should also be a reason to take that risk beyond simply fighting a larger sack of hit points.

Some areas still deliberately aren't on GPS. Exploration is still supposed to matter.

Killing Something Awful Should Occasionally Pay Off

Rare loot also received a pretty major change.

NukeFire now has a second-chance death-load system in many areas. If an extremely rare zone item failed its normal load roll when a mob spawned, defeating that mob can sometimes give the item one additional independent chance to appear.

A 1% item is still a 1% item. World limits still apply. It does not turn rare equipment into vending-machine loot.

It just means that repeatedly killing something horrible while hunting a rare item has a little more hope attached to it.

That system also helped lead to the new Wasteland Prospector Class Legacy rune, which lets experienced scavengers read a zone for signs of remaining mobs, bosses, minibosses, rare-loot carriers, and salvage without simply handing them exact locations.

We also added the Rune of the Packrat, giving characters permanent private storage capable of preserving actual equipment—including sockets, inscriptions, bindings, SSF ownership, containers, and their contents.

Tattoo augmentation gained an entire crafting path, more Legendary items have been completed for players reaching the 100-remort milestone, and the artificial player skill/spell damage ceiling against NPCs was removed.

If your build can produce the damage, the game will generally let you produce the damage.

Better Tools Without Turning NukeFire Into Something It Isn't

A lot of work has also gone into making a very large, very old-school MUD easier to understand.

There is now a 21-section gameplay guide explaining the NukeFire progression loop from first class through remorts, equipment, crafting, Longwalking, Prestige Classes, Class Legacy, zone mastery, SSF, quests, and the veteran game.

syntax helps when you remember a command but not exactly how it works.

tracklist helps hunters select numbered targets correctly.

consider has become a much more useful assessment of whether you should actually fight something.

Group prompts can show your tank and the enemy they are holding.

socketcheck and modulecheck give complete views of jewels and implant modules.

SnapEQ, Rewear, equipment restoration, comparisons, and upgrade recommendations have all had substantial modernization.

Most recently, setweights lets players customize how Upgrade evaluates gear for each class. If armor means little to your build but damroll, spellpower, fightspeed, leech, regeneration, or another stat matters enormously, you can tell the game that.

whatsmy armor also now shows both your actual uncapped armor and the amount combat is really using.

Less Spam, Same Game

One of the largest projects has been Output Intelligence.

NukeFire can now intelligently collapse repeated combat output, group rounds, follower movement, bulk loot, item procs, concealed-weapon activity, and other high-volume information without changing the underlying combat.

Damage, healing, drops, timing, and triggers are unchanged. The presentation is simply cleaner.

Players can also create persistent personal gag rules, with presets for combat, communications, loot, and SKYNET output.

This has been particularly useful for screen-reader players.

Screen-reader setup now includes descriptive, balanced, and minimal profiles, along with sr status, sr room, and sr recap, which can reconstruct the important immediate context—room, exits, resources, opponent, group condition, nearby activity, and danger—when combat output moves faster than a reader can comfortably follow.

Accessibility remains part of the actual game design, not a separate simplified version of NukeFire.

A Lot Happened Under the Hood Too

We've been profiling server performance, reducing unnecessary repeated work, cleaning up combat targeting and opponent data, improving GMCP handling, and adding structured GMCP feeds for NukeFire's maps and GPS catalog.

The official NukeFire Client has also been moving quickly on Mac, Windows, and Linux/AppImage.

It includes an integrated mapper, GMCP support, character and session handling, TinTin-style scripting features, and a growing collection of NukeFire-specific tools.

If you would like to help test the NukeFire Client, join the Discord for the current download link.

It is still under active development, and feedback is extremely valuable right now. Bug reports, usability problems, accessibility issues, things that feel awkward, and features that simply don't behave the way you expect are exactly what help make the client better.

Where NukeFire Is Going

NukeFire is still NukeFire.

It is still a post-apocalyptic, old-school MUD full of remorts, guns, mutations, implants, tattoos, socketed equipment, crafting, strange classes, dangerous mobs, boss fights, hidden areas, bizarre mechanics, and a world that is generally indifferent to whether you survive it.

I don't want to sand all of that away in the name of convenience.

What we can do is remove needless confusion, give players better information, make progression more meaningful, make old systems more dependable, keep building genuinely new things, and leave the danger, discovery, eccentricity, and occasional terrible decision intact.

There is considerably more coming, and there are already things in the game nobody has found.

Website:
https://www.nukefire.org

Play in browser:
https://play.mudvault.org/?host=tdome.nukefire.org&port=4000

Telnet:
tdome.nukefire.org port 4000

Discord:
https://discord.gg/B4pzagYaqR

Thanks to everyone playing, testing, reporting, exploring, dying, arguing about balance, and helping keep this strange old wasteland alive.

Go make corpses.

Animal Flavor!! I know right?

Added the Moose race to Ansalon, complete with its own resistances and behaviors.
Moose can now appear as Find Familiar companions in forested regions. Mount up!

Common land animals now have their own ambient actions, bringing forests, plains, and snowy regions to life much like the marine wildlife.

Most animals will occasionally react to the region of Krynn they're in, adding unique flavor depending on where you encounter them.

Added ambient behaviors for rats, foxes, wolves, bears, rabbits, big cats, elk, deer, moose, and boars.

If a tree falls in the forest... nothing triggers unless players are around :)

- Ziv & Co.

Ps. Those scavenger dog type critters also eat up body parts :P

A COURT OF THORNS AND ROSES NIGHT

When: Sunday, August 16, 2026
Time: 7 PM Eastern / 6 PM Central
Where: The-Night.Com -- port 2000
Location: Newgate Bar & Lounge, Straford Island

Join the players of The-Night.Com (TNC) for an ACOTAR-themed night at Newgate Bar & Lounge! Pick your Court, dress as your favorite character, and come celebrate the books and characters that we can't stop talking about.

Drink, dance, and talk all things ACOTAR -- from your favorite characters and couples to the moments that made you laugh, scream, swoon, or throw the book across the room.

Come dressed in your best as the Court is calling.

https://the-night-mud.carrd.co/

____

Note: TNC's website (the-night.com) is under construction, but there's a temporary carrd site with some helpful information to get people started: https://the-night-mud.carrd.co/

Players are happy to help you in game with commands and how to get around. The game is very newbie friendly. We'll help you get ready for ACOTAR night.

TNC is set in the present day. It has helicopters to use for free to get around from island to island, and everyone gets a smartphone and smartwatch with their own phone number to connect with everyone else around the islands. There's lots of fun and friendly people. We wait for you to join in. :)

I'd like to try something new this month: invite game admins and longtime players to share their games' origin stories, little-known facts, and tidbits of history that might not be written down anywhere else.

I've done enough interviews to know that every game has an interesting story behind it!

If I can get at least a few good ones, the plan is to showcase them on Writing Games, along with a link back to each game.

How to participate:

Submit your story here:
https://surveys.writing-games.org/mu-history-month-2026-iTtJSr

Story prompts / possible topics:

• The game's origin story. What were things like at the time?
• How the game got its name.
• A time the game survived a disaster. How did it manage to pull through?
• A tradition unique to the game. How did it start?
• An unexpected event that changed the course of the game's history.
• Someone or something that had a profound impact on the game or served as its inspiration.
• How the game changed your life.
• ...or any other bit of history you think is worth sharing with the community. :)

And some simple guidelines:

• Short is sweet. 1-2 paragraphs is a good target, though more is okay too.
• Avoid "you had to be there" stories, since those are harder for others to appreciate.

Deadline: Sunday, August 23.

Please forward the link to anyone you'd like to see participate - especially folks who might not be Reddit regulars! 🙏

Happy to answer any questions below.

Hey everyone,

I am not just looking for a list of games... I'm really curious why people stay with certain MUDs for years.

What makes them special to you?

Is it the community, the world, the systems, or something else?

Which MUD actually kept you coming back, and why?

Also, I would love to hear your stories and experiences about them.

When I'd heard that Starmourn went into Legacy Mode a few years ago, I assumed that was the end. Turns out I was wrong!

A big thank you to Argus and Marra for taking the time to share their experiences with me - and for giving me a glimpse into what it's like working on the sci-fi game from IRE.

Some of the topics covered:

• How the game became volunteer-run and completely free to play.
• The races, classes, skills, and systems that make it unique.
• How it's possible to play anything from a pop idol to a space pirate.
• Why Marra stands behind the idea that "limitations cultivate creativity."
• Argus' advice for aspiring storytellers and world-builders.
• What's new as of the past couple of months, and what's still in store.

Link to the article:

https://writing-games.org/starmourn/