Hey folks,
just in the last few days I’ve really become very interested (probably one of those ADHD micro-obsessions) with trying to play a MUD or MUSH. I’m a long-time tabletop RPG GM, and I’ve been diving into retro games lately. It feels like it should be right up my alley!
That said, I haven’t had a great experience with my first little foray. I’ve had some software issues accessing some of them, and others are simply dead. It sounds like Gemstone IV is super popular, but I don’t want to jump into a neutered experience (and I certainly don’t want to pay to play from the outset!).
I’m hoping to try a few more, but it would be great if anyone has: (a) specific ones that they think are still great, so that I can feel more sure that it’s worth the trouble of getting set up on and used to a specific MUD. (b) advice about getting started!
Thanks for any input! =)
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Lots of folks here are making good recommendations. Don’t forget some of the OG MUDs like Legend of the Red Dragon. There are quite a few internet accessible BBSes still running the classic game.
I like that it has an exhaustion component to the gameplay that only lets you do a few actions a day (that you can do in as short as 5 min if you want). This means you’ll never find yourself too deep in the game because you’ll have to wait until tomorrow for more turns. It also gives you something to look forward to the next day to see what happened in your absence between daily turns.
Ooh that’s a very cool aspect; as someone with a wife and a job I find I have a lot less time than I used to for gaming so something like that sounds really appealing! That said, I’m also hoping to experience the multi-user part so I’ll have a hunt around and see what’s still got folks playing!
I tried MUME, and it’s awesome so far; and lots of folks still play every day who have been playing since the early 90s which is wild!
There are some multi-user aspects to LORD (Legend of the Red Dragon). You can trade and communicate with other players through turn based messages (like mail). Additionally you can attack other players that are not staying at an inn, or be attacked yourself by other players.
Because its turn based, you can attack in your turns, and instantly see the outcome of the offline player. The computer plays their part in battle so you can choose to try to finish the battle or try to flee if you are getting your ass handed to you. As a defending player you’re not there for the battle so you log in you see the transcript of what happened along with your fate and that of the other named player. Its surprisingly exciting even reading it after the battle!
I bet, that sounds awesome!
Discworld MUD! If you know Discworld, you know why you should play it. If you don’t know Discworld then go read a few Discworld books instead of playing a MUD 😄
This mud has been around since 1990. I was one of the founders when I was in college, but no longer have the time to invest in it.
I used to play the crap out of A.V.A.T.A.R. As of a few days ago, it was still alive and active.
That’s great! What’s Avatar like? Why did you like it?
definitely looks like its still active on mudstats.com!
My friend got me into it, and it was the first and only MUD I ever really got into. So kind of loved it by default. I tried out a few others but never really got very far beyond the first few levels in each.
Beyond that, it was intuitive as far as MUDs went, had a massive world and lore, and was well “modded”.
I second Gemstone, but batMUD is fun and so is Solace. There was this one also based on Runescape I played a while back but I dont remember the name.
Nice; thanks for the suggestions!
Solace doesn’t even show up on mudstats.com (which is a tool I just found last night to see how active various muds are)!
Gemstone and batMUD both seem kind of like pay-to-play options; is that your impression? No shame on that, I wouldn’t mind at all if I’d been playing for years and would know I liked it!
I dont remember paying for batMUD but gemstone for sure has a paid option. iirc you can play Solace here: https://solace.i-read-you.ru/ and they have their own trackers at https://solace.rs/
StickMUD has extensions for mudlet to bring you quality of life enhancements for 2026.
Multi User Middle Earth (MUME) was my go to as a teen. I periodically think about getting back into it.
MUME
I’m jumping into this and it’s very cool; thanks for the suggestion! I think the very-clear shared lore makes it so that it’s not a huge amount of work to get into it (for me anyway), and that consistency means you’re not going to have the weird issue that some of these seem to of clashing archetypes and themes (e.g. a telekinetic alien, a brooding goth gunslinger, and a magical rainbow pony walk into a bar).
That said, I do think the shared lore may restrict freedom a bit (I don’t know how plausible it would be to work towards making the events of the third age impossible…like leading a peasant revolt in Gondor or something).
I played Gemstone for a very long time.
I would avoid it as it’s mostly bots now.
