MUD II: The Multi User Dungeon

"Road between lands". Aaacchhooo! I had caught a cold, but what did I care... there was an expensive necklace lying on the road, just begging to be taken. I obliged, pocketed it and crept westwards along the road - straight into the arms of the most horrific ZOMBIE I have ever seen. Aaaaggggghhhhh! Don't panic. Aaaggghhhh! DON'T PANIC? Completely forgetting that I had no weapon, acting out of panic (yes panic), I tried to kill the Zombie.

It was looking bad. Here I was, fighting an horrific Zombie, with no weapon; virtually no remaining hit points; and no hope OR glory. Rationality returned, and I fled west, dropping my precious necklace as I did so (sob sob).

Totally exhausted, I fell asleep in the road. Aaaaaacchooo. I had regained some hit points before being woken by my sneezing, so encouraged, I fell asleep again - only to be woken by (you guessed it) an horrific Zombie attacking ME, and he seemed to be a very familiar (and now angry) Zombie at that! RUN AWAY! RUN AWAY! I fled for my life once more. I could see this becoming a habit.

Hmmm. "Road opposite cottage". It sounded to me like there just might be a cottage nearby. Sure enough, after finding some pretty flowers, a graveyard, a dense forest and a Swamp, I "stumbled" back to the "Road opposite cottage"; and from there into the cottage proper. Once insioe the cottage, I found a warming fire, and so fell into deep slumber. ZzzzzZzz. I staned to dream the most unusual dreams, and THEN... I dreamt that I was being tickled. I WAS being tickled!

I opened my eyes, and saw Draben the warrior waving at me. "HI" said Oraben. I said "Hello". Draben asked "You new?" "Yeah"', I answered. And so began the partnership of Kirm and Draben. We didn't realise it yet, but we were to become like blood brothers, in Life and (more frequently) death!

Draben informed me that I could gain experience without killing the monsters (commonly called mobiles) by finding T (treasure) and dropping it in the swamp. It's quite handy that there is such an abundance of T in the land, if only you kno where to find it, and you know how to solve the many varied puzzles. It's also quite handy that everyone knows instinctively how to get to the swamp!

Of course, some T is protected by guardians, so it was inevitable that the Kirm/Draben partnership would end up mobile bashing... and sure enough we did! By the time we first braved the Goblins, Draben was strong enough to wield an axe, and I had been lucky enough to locate the elusive magical longsword. Needless to say, we relished our victory, after lots of rest and trust! The Dwarves, Snakes, Basilisk, Ogre, Troll, Dragon etc. had better watch out for the mean team!

Once we had attained a certain level, Draben and I stood a very high chance, after performing a simple task, of acquiring certain magial abilities - thereby beginning our slow ascent to Wizdom. Of course we attempted! Draben was most ecstatic at becoming a Sorcerer. Kirm the sorcerer, however, was not to be - not in this lifetime anyway! .

I am told that I should have been encouraged by the now familiar SOMEONE POWERFUL telling me "never mind, you'll probably be luckier next time round", but to be honest, I was both devastated and extremely dead! I knew from previous experience (grin) that there was usually at, least one Wizard or Witch watching invisibly from the clouds, and I wondered "Why couldn't they save me?!" Ah well, Kirm would live again. Death was beginning to (pun intentional) become a way of life for me. If it wasn't the mobiles, it was a player killer, and it if wasn't either of those - then it was something else!

MUD is a DEAD fascinating game. It is both huge, varied, and terrific fun! Death in combat is DEAD i.e. nailed in a coffin. Some multi-user games extend play time by introducing many levels, each taking many many hours to attain. It can't be denied that death is a very common event in MUD, but presuming you can avoid death (hehe), the journey to Wizdom should be quite speedy! There are many ways to laugh in the face of death, all of which I will leave for you to discover. What is initially seen to some as a negative aspect to MUD should in turn become positive. It is the prospect of dying that provides (large amounts of) adrenalin, so this will increase as you rise through the many levels to Wizdom.

The parser to MUD is an achievement in itself. If you enter a command that it doesn't understand, then it will show you (diagrammatically) WHY it didn't understand you. I have found myself amazed many times, when typing a stupid "non-existent" command, that the game actually obeys it!! As an extension to regular parsers, such commands as DROP HEAVY OBJECTS, GET 1 KEY, EXAMINE UNLIT STICK, DROP LIT STICK, DROP T will be correctly acted upon. The best trick, to me, has to be the fact that you can synonym-ise any word to an abbreviation. i.e. SYN BUGMANGLERS "BM". Now, BM refers to the BUGMANGLERS.

MUD provides an extraordinarily sophisticated level of gaming. A great deal of thought has been put into the coding of the system; the design of the land and the devious multi-player puzzles. Quite apart from any other gaming systems, MUD, quite simply, is the most advanced (and fun) piece of software that I have wer had the pleasure to use.

MUD is now being run by the Wizards' Guild. You can play MUD on 081 553 3155 (1200/74) or 081 478 4488 (1200 or 2400) at 8/N/1. Should you wish to try MUD, log on as MUDGUEST. You will then be able to play as a guest. Should you then wish to open an account, leave a message at the Mail command, stating your name and voice telephone number. The current listed prices for MUD start at £2.00 per hour, and reduce with bulk purchase. At the time of writing, special offers are being run, thereby further reducing the cost of play.