1.2. What different kinds of MUDs are there?

1.3. Where are MUDs located?

1.4. How do I connect to a MUD?

1.5. What is a client program?

Amarons Origin

1.1. What is a MUD?

A MUD (Multiple User Dimension, Multiple User Dungeon, or Multiple User Dialogue) is a computer program which users can log into and explore. Each user takes control of a computerized persona/avatar/incarnation/character. You can walk around, chat with other characters, explore dangerous monster-infested areas, solve puzzles, and even create your very own rooms, descriptions and items. You can also get lost or confused if you jump right in, so be sure to read this document before starting.

For a nice anecdote about the origin of the name, I quote Richard Bartle, co-author of the first MUD:

[...] I am WELL aware what "MUD" stands for, and maybe once every 2 months have to tell
someone. The "D" does stand for "Dungeon", but not because the original MUD (which I
co-wrote) had a dungeon in it; rather it was because there was a hacked-up version of Zork
doing the rounds at the time, which bore the name "Dungeon". We thought that this program
would act as the archetype for single-player adventure games, so we called our game
"Multi-User Dungeon" in an effort to convey some feeling of what the program did. As it
happened, the genre was promptly called "Adventure games" after the Colossal Caves game
"Adventure", so we were wrong in that respect. By then, though, we had our acronym.

Going by this definition, multi-user Quake certainly qualified as a full-fleged MUD, as you can wander around and affect your environment, and can communicate with other players. In the interests of sanity, however, this FAQ will only cover the more traditional primarily text-based MUDs.

1.2. What different kinds of MUDs are there?

TinyMUD is one common type of MUD, but there are many different types of MUDs out there. The Tiny- and Teeny- family of MUDs are usually more social in orientation; the players on those MUDs tend to gather, chat, meet friends, make jokes, and discuss all kinds of things.

The LP- family of MUDs, including Diku and AberMUD, are usually based on roleplaying adventure games; the players on those MUDs tend to run around in groups or alone killing monsters, solving puzzles, and gaining experience in the quest to become a wizard.

There are still other types of MUDs, such as MOOs, UnterMUDs, and so forth. Each type has its own unique style, and players are rarely forced to stick to one type of playing - there's no rule that says an LPMUD _must_ be a combat-oriented MUD, or that a TinyMUSH _must not_ be a combat-oriented MUD. If there's one thing MUDdom has, it's variety.

You may wish to check out the LPMud FAQ, posted to the rec.games.mud.lp newsgroup periodically by George Reese.

 1.3. Where are MUDs located?

Several different services provide lists of currently-running MUDs. One of the best is the MUD Connector, reachable at http://www.mudconnect.com/ or in our case Amaron which is telnet://amaron.mudservices.com:6001 or the website at http://amaron.mudservices.com

You can also get mailed a current list of muds by mailing to [email protected] with SUBSCRIBE as the subject.

MUDs are run on many fine computers across the world. To play, all you have to do is telnet to the MUD's Internet Protocol Port, and you're in business. Some MUDs have a policy called registration to cut down on abuse of privileges; you might have to send mail to the administrator of the MUD in order to obtain a character.

It's important to note that MUDs are not a right, and your access is granted out of trust. People usually have to pay to use processing time on the large, expensive computers which MUDs often run on, and you're being given a special deal. Which brings us to another point: MUDs can't really be run on anything less than a largish workstation (currently), so they're usually on academic or corporate workhorse machines.

1.4. How do I connect to a MUD?

There are several ways to hook yourself up to a MUD's Internet port. First, you can use telnet once you find out the MUD's network address and port number. If, for instance, we knew that ChupsMUD was at the network address pickle.cs.umsst.edu at port 4201, we could type:

(on most systems, including UNIX)

telnet pickle.cs.umsst.edu 4201

(or, on some VMS systems)

telnet pickle.cs.ummst.edu/port=4201

and we'd be ready for action. If we get back an error saying something like host unknown, we'd want to do the same thing, only using the machine's IP address, like this: telnet 127.0.0.1 4201.

Your second option is to scout out the many fine client programs which exist for the sole purpose of providing a friendly and useful front end to MUDs. (See client, below.)

Some things that can go wrong:

If you're using straight telnet on a VMS system, you might have to make sure that your terminal
has newlines turned on. If it doesn't, the mud's output will get spewed across the screen in a
most ugly fashion.

If you can, make sure that local echo is turned on in the options menu.
Otherwise you won't be able to see what you type.

If you see just a login: prompt when you connect to the mud, then you're probably not
connecting properly. You have succeeded in connecting to the mud's machine, but not to mud
itself -- make sure you specify both the mud's hostname and port number.

1.5. What is a client program?

Telnet is a rather ugly way to connect to most muds, since it doesn't do any fancy text wrapping, and if someone says something while you're typing out a line, it will make a mess out of your line, making it hard to see what you're typing and hard to keep track of what's going on in the mud. A client program is simply another program you use instead of telnet to connect to a mud. Clients also provide useful things such as macros and the ability to gag or highlight certain mud output. Clients are available for anonymous ftp from several sites.