Some Knowledge

MUD stands for Multi-User Dungeon.  It is a text-based game played over the Internet.  MUDs have been around almost since the start of the Internet.  Playing a MUD is easy enough, but can be just as involved as playing any graphical online game.

To hook up to a MUD you will need what is called a client.  These games work on an implementation of telnet.  The standard Windows telnet client can be used to play a MUD, but it will lack a lot of the functionality of a dedicated game client.  ZMUD, Portal, and Pueblo UE are examples of clients that are commonly used to play a MUD.  Some of these are available in free versions if you don’t feel like paying money to play games.

Most MUDs are free.  Also, you can contribute to the running of a MUD by making a donation, but this is not necessary.  The MUD will be run on a server.  You will need to specify the URL of the server and the port you want to connect to, as well as any password you have for your character, in the login screen of your client.  Go to the MUD website you are considering playing and read any information they have on how to set up and play their game.   One MUD I have played off and on for a number of years is called Materia Magica.  Once you have downloaded and set up the client software you will need to play the game, it is time to hook up to the game and begin playing.

Unlike graphical games which are controlled by the mouse and hotkeys on the keyboard, MUDs are driven by words.  You will need to learn a list of commands available in the game in order to play.  The simplest of these commands are the ones to move in different directions.  The movement commands are usually n, s, e, w, u, d for north, south, east, west, up and down.  There may also be corner directions like ne and sw.  Commands are entered into the command line of the client window.  Some other common commands are look, get, inventory, stand, search, equip, drink, eat, and anything else your character might do in a fantasy world, like for instance kill things.  It takes a while, but most of these commands are just common English words.   Once you learn the commands and know how to navigate around the environment, playing a MUD is similar to playing any other roleplaying game.

Most MUDs give you some kind of room description for the room you are inside at any given time.  You can say things to non-player characters or to other players.  You can tell other players private messages.  You can yell or shout if you want to broadcast your thoughts to the general population.  There will not be any artwork besides the occasional text art.  The world of a MUD is conveyed by the words on the screen.  Combat is similar to most graphic games, in that you trade blows with your opponent, but you can also add spells or other skills into combat by typing commands.

Once you play a MUD for a while you will get tired of typing in whole words to do certain common things.  Most MUDs accept single letters as commands for certain common actions such as typing k instead of kill.  If you have a functional game client you can do what is called an alias.  You basically program a complicated command for some action into one short command.  This would look something like this:  #alias d {get water bag;drink water;put water bag}, which would get your water from a bag, drink water, and put your water back in the bag all by typing just the letter d.  With aliasing you can make many complicated things like casting spells very simple to command.

Another complicated thing you can do with game clients are action commands.  An action, or trigger, is a command that your client sends automatically when it receives a certain string of text.  An example of this would be standing up after you slip and fall.  The command for this might look lik: #action{you slip and fall.} {stand}.  Every time you get the message from the game that you have slipped and fallen, your character will automatically stand back up.  If all this seems like programming it is because it is programming.  The meta-language these commands are written in is called TinTin.  The # symbol specifies that this is a command to the client software to do some function.  With TinTin you can program complex game actions such as wandering around a city hunting certain mobs and taking their loot.  This is called “botting” and is sometimes disliked by game administrators.  It is very interesting to write these little programs to play games, though, and it can be a rewarding part of your game experience to work in this area.

If you are interested in exploring fantasy worlds and have enough of an imagination to visualize environments based on text you read, a MUD can be a fun game to play.  It is a chance to become immersed in a fantasy setting and meet other people who also enjoy gaming.  There are thousands of MUDs available on the Internet.  It is something to look into if you are looking for different games to play.