MUDs, MUSHes, and MOOs, Oh My! A Brief Introduction to MUDs

By Adam Rodman

What is a MUD? According to the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, mud is "wet, sticky, soft earth." However, that has nothing remotely to do with adventure gaming. In that train of thought, a MUD is an acronym for Multi-User Dungeon, Multi-User Dimension, or Money Under Dung. In any sense (well, maybe not the third), a MUD is a fun and extremely addictive escape from real life that is free for everyone to play over TelNet. In order to play, all you need is a connection to the Internet (which I figure you have if you are reading this) and a TelNet client. What? You don't have a TelNet client? Sure you do. If you have Windows 95, it is located at C:\Windows\TelNet.exe. Mac OS 8 (on all of the machines I've tried) also comes with a TelNet client. Frankly, though, I feel that Windows' TelNet client is rather bad, so I would suggest using MUSHClient or ZMud (clients covered below). MUDs are totally text-based, unless you are using a RIP client and MUD, which shows an ugly console. Control couldn't be simpler. Just like ancient RPGs, you type in simple console commands such as look, kill, quaff, eat, say, stand, etc. As the name implies, there are quite a few players on the MUD. An example (taken from a logged session of Leber, foul language was omitted) ...

(name omitted) chats, 'rodman just pulled my last &%*#ing nerve'

<2603(100%)H 1143M 2464V>
Falco chats, 'Capt shutup...'

You chat, 'You apparently don't have many nerves... okay, I'll stop'

<2603(100%)H 1143M 2464V>
Falco chats, 'Touchy, touchy'

You tell Falco 'Arghh.... I forgot how to log'

<2603(100%)H 1143M 2464V>
Falco tells you 'Just copy and paste'

<2603(100%)H 1143M 2464V>
You tell Falco 'No, I did a real log'

Ah ... a friendly game of Leber. Some people take MUDs quite seriously.

There is a strong element of role-playing in MUDs. You character must first choose a class, whether is it Warrior, Thief, Mage, Cleric, etc. Then you choose a name and roll for your statistics. You are then released into the world of the MUD, slaying monsters and players, collection equipment, gaining experience, learning new skills and spells, et cetera.

In order to maximize your enjoyment of a MUD, I would suggest using a good client: Winfiles, Tucows, Zuggsoft (zMUD), or Telegrafix (RipTel).

If you want to visit the author in his MUD playing environment, TelNet over to leber.darkfire.net, port 7777. His handle is CaptRodman.