DIGITAL HANDS
Fredrik Ekman: Ryds Allé 3:106, S-582 51 Linköping, Sweden ([email protected])
©1997 Fredrik Ekman; first published in Other Hands 15/16.
MUD - Role Playing in Cyberspace
The two Orcs facing us seemed to realize that they would stand no chance. My companions and I smiled grimly as we drew our swords and advanced towards them. I could feel the weight of my weapon, the fabled Iceblade, as magic energy radiated from it. The battle against the Orcs is hardly worth relating. Brom, the Dwarf, got scratched in the arm by a black scimitar, but its edge was fortunately not poisoned. Leaving the corpses behind us, we advanced towards the dark mouth of a cave, wondering exactly what the Orcs had been guarding. I could hear the mage Bildbert starting to mumble the well-known words of a light spell behind me when suddenly a hideous roar rose from inside the cave. Brom whispered one word between clenched teeth: "Dragon."
Does the situation seem familiar? This could be taken from any normal role playing session, but it could just as well be taken from a MUD. On the surface, there are two obvious differences. One being that in a MUD, the computer acts as GM. This is done in the same way as in a text adventure: the player types commands in simplified English, which are then parsed. The other exciting difference compared with normal role playing is that the players are usually spread all over the world, connected to a common server through the Internet. In the example above, Bildbert could be situated in Australia, Brom in Kansas, and I would naturally be sitting here in Linköping, Sweden. A typical MUD on an average day might link a couple of dozen players.
The first MUD was developed in 1979 by Roy Trubshaw and Richard Bartle at Essex University, England. Trubshaw decided that it should have a fantasy setting and Bartle designed the game world drawing inspiration mostly from Tolkien, D&D and other role playing games. Today there are hundreds of MUDs on the Internet, and they are of many different kinds. Some, which are close to the original concept of treasure hunting and hack-and-slash, are called Diku. Others, LP MUDs, are geared towards quests. During recent years there has been a strong movement of so called "social MUDs." These—which go by various names such as MUCK, MOO, MUSE or MUSH—are characterized by having little or no combat rules. Users spend their time expanding the game and role playing a character, often being very serious about it. Playing a MUD (mudding) can be very addictive and has been known to ruin exams for more than one student.
Since the original MUD was inspired by Tolkien, the step to making MUDs completely based on Middle-earth was of course very short. Today, there are three such MUDs open and at least eight more in different stages of planning or development.
Those three which are open today interestingly represent the three most popular types of MUDs. MUME (Multi Users in Middle-earth) is a Diku MUD. It is primarily based on ICE's interpretation of Middle-earth and its areas are very detailed. It also has a reputation of being one of the hardest Diku MUDs around. Few adventurers live to experience the highest levels. Elendor is a MUSH. For a MUSH, it has relatively advanced combat rules, but emphasis is nevertheless on socializing. Those who play well are "promoted" to one of the characters from The Lord of the Rings. The third, and the newest of the three, is The Two Towers, an LP MUD which eventually will feature a huge quest to find and destroy the One Ring. All these three are set about the time of the War of the Ring.
I would recommend mudding to any gamer with an Internet connection and too much free time. Meeting and playing with people from all over the world can be extremely worthwhile, and exploring the MUD universe is usually very exciting too. One of the few problems I have with MUDs is that since many different people tend to be involved in the building of them, their quality—even within a single MUD—usually varies, to say the least. The MUDs mentioned in this article are all well above average and are herewith recommended.
Telnet (and home page) addresses for MUDs mentioned in the article:
Elendor: elendor.sbs.nau.edu 1893 (http://where.com/Elendor/)
MUME: mumegw.pvv.unit.no 4242 or shire.ncsa.uiuc.edu 4242 (http://www.sparta.lu.se/~mume/)
The Two Towers: towers.angband.com 9999 (http://www.angband.com/towers/)
Quick guide to get started with mudding:
All you need to get into a MUD is an Internet connection and a Telnet program. Exactly how Telnet works differs depending on your operating system and software.
Once you have connected to the MUD you will be prompted to enter your character name and password. New players usually just have to fill in a name and password of their choice. If this fails, the name is probably already taken. In some MUDs, you must then choose race, occupation and so on. When this is done, you will enter the MUD and receive a description of your immediate surroundings.
You can move about by means of compass point abbreviations (*n*, *ne*, *e*, ^Å). If you see an object, such as a book, you can try to *take book*, *examine book*, *read book* or perhaps *open book*. You can also communicate with those close to you with the *say* command, for example *say Hello, I am new here*. The most useful command for the beginner is without any doubt *help*. should begin thus: "...). If". I suppose this is due to my word processor trying to be clever or something.