My main MUD was Avalon the Legend Lives, but I have played Achaea, Aardwolf and a few others that I cannot think of mostly due to the fact I didn't even last a day on most of them including Aardwolf. I am so happy Starmourn is here and I can finally move away from my home MUD of Avalon, Starmourn is my new home now and it's been fun thus far.
I played Furgle in Achaea, he's not very well known at all and I only spent a total of maybe 3 months playing him.
(Scatterhome): Cal says, "We're called
Scatterhome after what everybody does at
the end of the night when it's time for
someone to pay the bar tab."
(Scatterhome): You say, "Which by my
calculations, it's your turn to pay."
(Scatterhome): Brantar says, "That's what
my calculations have come to."
(Scatterhome): Paavo says, "My math adds
up to that, yeah."
(Scatterhome): Cal says, "Bastards."
I play MUDs for RP. Played a bit of Aardwolf, It was too random for me. Achaea was my main for a long time. Hoping Starmourn can give me the sci fi fix.
A spin on this thread might be: how did you discover your first mud?
I was a poor uni student with an old hand-me-down pc that couldn't run any new games. I was vaguely aware of text based games because a few years earlier at school some friends had talked about a wheel of time BBS.
Almost 5 years ago a friend of mine told me about text based games and I tried to play one, but they never showed me how to connect to one and made it sound so complicated and my friend didn't actually understand it and had a friend of hers set it up for her with some sort of client and some sort of UI stuff. I think the client was like Mushclient or something that I can't remember.
Almost two years later I had just moved in with my girlfriend after being homeless for a year and all I had was a cheap cell phone that had little data and couldn't run any games. I remembered text based games and decided to see if my phone could play them. I found Avalon and was told about an android client and I was hooked to text based games ever since. It's been over two years now since I made my first character in a text base world.
(Scatterhome): Cal says, "We're called
Scatterhome after what everybody does at
the end of the night when it's time for
someone to pay the bar tab."
(Scatterhome): You say, "Which by my
calculations, it's your turn to pay."
(Scatterhome): Brantar says, "That's what
my calculations have come to."
(Scatterhome): Paavo says, "My math adds
up to that, yeah."
(Scatterhome): Cal says, "Bastards."
At the age of 9 I got heavily into D&D in a small town called Rehovot, Israel. The town's defining landmark is the Weizmann Institute of Science, which has produced numerous Nobel Laureates and Turing Awards over the years. Because of the town's very small population, and the gargantuan size of the institute, its economy and employment revolves almost entirely around STEM research and high-tech development. Basically if Silicon Valley and MIT were a country, this would be it.
What this means is everyone I grew up with and went to school with there came from a family of high-tech/science nerds and geeks. D&D was cool. All my friends were playing it. We were the clique that ruled the school. There was nothing shameful or counterculture about it and I had no idea that it was considered weird elsewhere until I moved away to the UK, aged 12.
So I turned up at my new school with my jumpstart science education and pile of D&D books and was like 'hey peeps where the D&D club at?' And then everyone looked at me weird and someone pulled me aside and said I can't be seen talking nerdy like that or I won't make any friends. Cue depression and RP-shaped hole in my soul.
So I went to Google and typed in 'online roleplay' / 'online D&D' and somehow Achaea showed up. I got instantly hooked and that's the story of how/why I discovered my first MUD! It wasn't the same as hanging out with RL school friends and playing tabletop RP without stigma, but it was definitely better than being the odd duck in an English girls' school. The friendships I've made online through MUDing over the years have lasted me a lifetime, and in many cases transcended the online/RL barrier.
"They are elect to whom beautiful things mean only Beauty." — Oscar Wilde
"I'll take care of it, Luke said. And because he said it instead of her, I knew he meant kill. That is what you have to do before you kill, I thought. You have to create an it, where none was before." — Margaret Atwood
Aetolia was my first 13 years ago and was my main - I still play it today. I dabbled in the other IRE games, but they never really stuck until Starmourn. I tried Avalon once.
Played Lusternia religiously for many years, but got tired of the stretch thin and having to buy too many credits, so I played Achaea for a year or two. Then I sat, dormant, waiting for Starmourn.
In the early 2000s there was no D&D in my home country, Honduras. It's not that it wasn't popular--nobody had even heard of it. I have no idea why I was into roleplay at the time (I was 13 and mostly into Harry Potter fanfiction) but somehow I stumbled upon Imperian. It's been on again, off again between Imperian and Achaea since then. I could never get invested enough to stick around for more than a few months. Ever since the announcement of Starmourn, I've really been keeping up with everything and I've liked it so much that I think this time I'm sticking around for good.
Also @Kestrel my best friend works at Weizmann! Small world.
I played a few. Akanbar was my first. It was great back in the day, good community, immersive roleplay and a combat system based on First Age Avalon. Besides Avalon itself (Legends) which I played years later, Akanbar had my favourite atmosphere, guilds and fighting. It's gone offline now, but well done Zycandos and Karakus for creating something special.
Later I played a few of the IRE games and Avalon, choosing Avalon over the ire games because it suited my personal taste much more. I have always disliked grinding in games, and in Iron Realms games it was always a requirement which I found a chore whereas in Avalon I never once had to bash or grind. Just learned my skills and played the game. Loved the feeling of freedom it used to have too. Also found that everyone on the ire games was using a scripted system and combat there was not really feasible for a non-scripter like me. Personal taste wise wasn't into there being loads of fantasy themed player races too, though that would be a plus for some.
Currently I am playing Starmourn when my internet allows it. I have to commend its creators so far, usually don't like the tutorial part of muds but this story mode thing is actually really well done, enjoying it! Also like that combat doesn't look like it's going to be overly imbalanced towards scripters. It's a really well made world. Pew pew.
Stumbled across Avalon in grade 9 with some friends in the Library. We died laughing when one of my friends typed 'spit Jaskar' and it actually worked.. Librarian kicked us out and wrecked the MUD fun.
Found Achaea in 2007 and have played there off and on since.
OH HELLO ME.
I got banned from so many MUDs in grade 9 in the library. Turns out when you're a 14 year old girl, you shouldn't go around saying so on MUDs. 😅
I vividly remember one called Millennium where I got into an argument with an admin who appeared and took me to this dungeon place and told me I can't go around saying stuff like that. And at the time I didn't know games like this had admins, so I just thought it was one of my friends trolling me. One guy named David especially was a jerk whenever I'd try playing games with the nerd group. So I knew I was being trolled, and I just wanted to get back to where I was. So I'm trying to KILL THIS ADMIN and it's just not working. He's like "your weapons are useless against me," and I'm like "I know it's you David, I hate playing this game with you around" and the admin is like "then how about I make you disappear?" and then the admin deletes my character.
I hated David and never played another MUD with him after that.
Not gonna lie @Indecision, when I was a 14 year old girl, the internet was a seriously hostile place to be a woman. That includes the IRE MUD communities!
Every now and then I still see a "there are no girls on the internet" joke and I quietly chuckle and mutter under my breath, 'Amateurs.'
"They are elect to whom beautiful things mean only Beauty." — Oscar Wilde
"I'll take care of it, Luke said. And because he said it instead of her, I knew he meant kill. That is what you have to do before you kill, I thought. You have to create an it, where none was before." — Margaret Atwood
>Star Wars: Rebirth - Dead/defunct now, but one of my favorites due to the gaps in the coding (it was the admin's hobby project I think. I was an unconventional little twerp-smuggler), this is also where I developed my love of sci-fi space MUDs which there seem to be surprisingly few of? Few thriving ones anyway.
>Ivalice - Loved this because of the amount of Final Fantasy scenes purpose built for reenacting your favorite moments but with your own characters. Final showdown with the server Big Bad(tm) in Mako Reactor 1? Sure. Tearful goodbye to a party member in Garland's castle? Sure. Good times. Never did work out the materia system. Or the combat system. Or anything really. (the 'kupo' emote was my favorite, despite being a human)
>IRE's lineup - I tried. Oh boy did I try my best at all but Aetolia, as Aetolia just didn't click for me. Tried Imperian somewhere in the early '00s, got intimidated by the level of world-building, lore and general RP of Ithaqua at the time (I was still mucking about in Akanbar at the time)
>Bowed out of Akanbar around the '10s, and generally out of the MUD medium as a whole as I had found a post-apocalypse MMO to get engrossed in.
>Imperian - Returned here after my MMO got a bit sparse in the RP department, and had moderately written myself out of the game there. This Imperian go around was much easier, whether due to the game relaxing its hardcore stance somewhat over the years or my own increased experience I'm not sure (probably the former). Stuck here for a while until Starmourn was announced, and much to the disappointment (they weren't exactly surprised, as I didn't really 'fit' Imperian too well) of my usual playgroup/online friends circle I came to Starmourn, abandoning Imperian utterly.
I forgot I was going to call myself Ike while in chargen, so now I'm Zarrach.
Mostly Imperian. Dabbled very briefly in Achaea, a little bit more in Aetolia. Played for a while in a beta for an IRE clone with a great concept and terrible management.
As an adolescent, I fell in love with Raymond Feist's books. Then I found Midkemia Online, which introduced me to MUDs back in 2010. It was also a great way to start getting into MUDs because I loved the novels so much. Interacting with the characters I only used to see on pages was goddamn mindblowing as a kid.
Sadly, MKO closed down a few years ago.
Since 2017, I've been on Achaea, having one heck of a time.
I was there on Lusternia's opening day. Some of my earliest memories include trying to build up New Celest's power back up from -1000 by hunting leeches and starsuckers for 2 power each.
Didn't play it for over a decade and frankly I'm not missing it much.
Hrm. So, let's see. Gemstone, Dragonrealms, Materia Magica, Clok, Aardwolf and Batmud both very briefly. Geas a couple of times, again very briefly. All the Iron Realms except Aetolia I think. There's a couple of others I no longer remember the names of, that didn't seem to be around anymore the last time I tried to search for them.
I've used the CoffeeMUD code, but never played in it. I've also used the Evennia code, but never made a functioning game with it.
The longest stretches were in Dragonrealms, which I loved but often couldn't afford, and in Midkemia Online.
[Cassandra]: Poet will be unsurprised to learn that she has unread news.
Comments
Ive dabbled a lot, but Achaea is my home mud.
Starmourn is a new mud beginning.
Hahaha like I have enough free time to play Starmourn. I'll crawl towards the level cap and get there one day.
I played Furgle in Achaea, he's not very well known at all and I only spent a total of maybe 3 months playing him.
(Scatterhome): You say, "Which by my calculations, it's your turn to pay."
(Scatterhome): Brantar says, "That's what my calculations have come to."
(Scatterhome): Paavo says, "My math adds up to that, yeah."
(Scatterhome): Cal says, "Bastards."
I was a poor uni student with an old hand-me-down pc that couldn't run any new games. I was vaguely aware of text based games because a few years earlier at school some friends had talked about a wheel of time BBS.
I tried a handful of muds and fell into Achaea.
Almost two years later I had just moved in with my girlfriend after being homeless for a year and all I had was a cheap cell phone that had little data and couldn't run any games. I remembered text based games and decided to see if my phone could play them. I found Avalon and was told about an android client and I was hooked to text based games ever since. It's been over two years now since I made my first character in a text base world.
(Scatterhome): You say, "Which by my calculations, it's your turn to pay."
(Scatterhome): Brantar says, "That's what my calculations have come to."
(Scatterhome): Paavo says, "My math adds up to that, yeah."
(Scatterhome): Cal says, "Bastards."
What this means is everyone I grew up with and went to school with there came from a family of high-tech/science nerds and geeks. D&D was cool. All my friends were playing it. We were the clique that ruled the school. There was nothing shameful or counterculture about it and I had no idea that it was considered weird elsewhere until I moved away to the UK, aged 12.
So I turned up at my new school with my jumpstart science education and pile of D&D books and was like 'hey peeps where the D&D club at?' And then everyone looked at me weird and someone pulled me aside and said I can't be seen talking nerdy like that or I won't make any friends. Cue depression and RP-shaped hole in my soul.
So I went to Google and typed in 'online roleplay' / 'online D&D' and somehow Achaea showed up. I got instantly hooked and that's the story of how/why I discovered my first MUD! It wasn't the same as hanging out with RL school friends and playing tabletop RP without stigma, but it was definitely better than being the odd duck in an English girls' school. The friendships I've made online through MUDing over the years have lasted me a lifetime, and in many cases transcended the online/RL barrier.
"They are elect to whom beautiful things mean only Beauty."
— Oscar Wilde
"I'll take care of it, Luke said. And because he said it instead of her, I knew he meant kill. That is what you have to do before you kill, I thought. You have to create an it, where none was before."
— Margaret Atwood
Also @Kestrel my best friend works at Weizmann! Small world.
Later I played a few of the IRE games and Avalon, choosing Avalon over the ire games because it suited my personal taste much more. I have always disliked grinding in games, and in Iron Realms games it was always a requirement which I found a chore whereas in Avalon I never once had to bash or grind. Just learned my skills and played the game. Loved the feeling of freedom it used to have too. Also found that everyone on the ire games was using a scripted system and combat there was not really feasible for a non-scripter like me. Personal taste wise wasn't into there being loads of fantasy themed player races too, though that would be a plus for some.
Currently I am playing Starmourn when my internet allows it. I have to commend its creators so far, usually don't like the tutorial part of muds but this story mode thing is actually really well done, enjoying it! Also like that combat doesn't look like it's going to be overly imbalanced towards scripters. It's a really well made world. Pew pew.
I got banned from so many MUDs in grade 9 in the library. Turns out when you're a 14 year old girl, you shouldn't go around saying so on MUDs. 😅
I vividly remember one called Millennium where I got into an argument with an admin who appeared and took me to this dungeon place and told me I can't go around saying stuff like that. And at the time I didn't know games like this had admins, so I just thought it was one of my friends trolling me. One guy named David especially was a jerk whenever I'd try playing games with the nerd group. So I knew I was being trolled, and I just wanted to get back to where I was. So I'm trying to KILL THIS ADMIN and it's just not working. He's like "your weapons are useless against me," and I'm like "I know it's you David, I hate playing this game with you around" and the admin is like "then how about I make you disappear?" and then the admin deletes my character.
I hated David and never played another MUD with him after that.
Every now and then I still see a "there are no girls on the internet" joke and I quietly chuckle and mutter under my breath, 'Amateurs.'
"They are elect to whom beautiful things mean only Beauty."
— Oscar Wilde
"I'll take care of it, Luke said. And because he said it instead of her, I knew he meant kill. That is what you have to do before you kill, I thought. You have to create an it, where none was before."
— Margaret Atwood
>Avalon: First Age - got started here
SM reminds me of MKO in alot of aspects, which is why im enjoying it so much.
Please dont ever introduce a billion salves to heal yourself.
I've used the CoffeeMUD code, but never played in it. I've also used the Evennia code, but never made a functioning game with it.
The longest stretches were in Dragonrealms, which I loved but often couldn't afford, and in Midkemia Online.