The setting is a Land filled with abandoned human
buildings, and now overrun with fantastical creatures.
The game is text based. Before you faint in shock, I'd
like to point out some of the advantages of this :)
Graphics date very quickly - text doesn't. While
Doom and Quake1 have become old in just 3 or 4 years MUD2 has
been running for a couple of decades and will still look good
in a couple more.
Text can convey atmosphere in a way graphics never can. You
can smell rotting flesh, feel a cold chill, touch a flame...
If you want something better, that displays colours and can give
you contextual information about the state of the game, or if you
want a telnet client that doesn't look like something out of the dos
age, have a look at the clients page of this web site.
Please look at the websites mudii.co.uk
and mud2.com
if you want to get an account. They also contain a great deal of other
useful information.
When the game starts up you will be shown a prompt
saying something like:
Option (H for help):
Just put in a P and press return and you will get a list of
your 3 character slots (known as Personas). Since you haven't
chosen any name yet they will all be blank.
Choose any name you want up to 10 letters long and press return.
As you play the game will automatically save your persona (unless you
die), and when you play again you can use the name you created or
make another.
Inside the Land itself there are a number of things you can look at:
Type HELP SAY to get a long explanation of how to speak to other people.
Just remember the best help you can get is by speaking to other players!
(Wizards and Witches especially will always try to be helpful).
This list will be followed by a description (in green) of the Tearoom itself, and another
list of player's names - these are the people in the tearoom with you.
You can type SIP TEA here to get your first point, and you can leave at any time
by going NORTH. Just remember though, you will have to QUIT and come back into
the game to get back to the safety of the Tearoom.
This is all perfectly Normal!
Everyone else has been through it, it is just part of getting used to the game, so
don't get put off by being killed when you are new. When you get into the game
you will be able to look back at it and find it funny how you managed to die in
so many different ways :)
In brief, when you are lost you can type OUT (O for short), and you will
always get back to the road that runs through the middle of the land (eventually). Or you can
type SWAMP (or ZW for short), which will take you to the er Swamp - which is
to the south of the road and at the western end of the land. If it is raining
you may have hassle with swollen rivers, but hey it's an adventure :)
If you can see another player when you type LOOK (L for short) you can talk to them
by typing something like
You can talk to anyone in the game directly if their name is on the list you
get when you type WHO. Say the list went something like this:
This would work unless Topcat was deaf for some reason, or of
course he might just ignore you :)
You can also shout to everyone in the
Land, but I won't tell you how to do that. No-one else could
tell it was you anyway (except the Wizzes, who are exceptions
to most things).
You can see what level you are by typing LEVEL (LVL for short), and
you can see what all the levels are by typing LEVELS (LVLS). Generally
someone with magic will be higher than you.
You go up the levels by gaining points...so how do you score points...
Minor Means
Evil Means
When you are new it is best to concentrate on finding valuable objects
(VALUE ALL, VAL T) and dropping them in the swamp (DR T), as the others
are dangerous until you know what to do.
To get out of a fight you have to FLEE (F for short).
If you just type that though, you may well stay in the same
room as your enemy, and they will attack you again, so the best
thing to do is to flee in a direction, eg. F OUT (F O for short).
And then keep legging it to safety!
The lower your stamina is when you flee, the fewer points you lose...don't
hang in there too long or you will lose the lot. As a general guide, flee when your
stamina goes below 30.
(N.B. When you flee you drop everything you were carrying).
Sometimes when you are asleep you will dream. If you say the word you see
in your dream before anyone else does you will wake up and gain
some stamina.
You can also eat objects called wafers to regain stamina, be warned they don't
all work...
1. What is MUD2?
MUD2 is a virtual world in which you can interact with
other people and your surroundings. It runs 24 hours a
day on Wireplay. The game lets you do almost whatever
you like, though it does direct you towards gathering
valuable objects, and killing game creatures.2. How do I get hold of it?
The game itself runs on a remote server. What you need
is the software to access it. And you should already have it!
Most browers include a default telnet client, which will start up
if you type telnet://mud2.com or telnet://mudii.co.uk in your
browers search bar.3. How to create a character.
When you connect, you will be asked to type mud
or mudguest. If you don't already have an account
type mudguest. You will then be able to play in a restricted way
(without saving your characters) until you sign up properly.
You then choose if you want to be male or female - this makes no
practical difference to your stats and can be changed later so don't
get worried about it :)4. What ingame help there is.
From the prompt - Option (H for help): - you can type L
to wander around the library system (typing Q to get back).
Type HELP to get a list of commands and examples of how to use them.
Type FAQ to get a list of questions and answers about the game.
Type INFO to get information about the point of the game.
(In addition you can type TOUR from the tearoom to get a tutorial, or
to see where all the best treasure is in the land).5. What to expect when you start.
As soon as you have chosen your name and sex, you will start the game in the
Tearoom. A list of other people's names (in red) will run up your screen. This is the list
of everyone else playing (bar the invisible people).6. Dying, expect to do alot of it.
When you start you will die alot. You will be attacked by nasty creatures which
wouldn't dare if you were a higher level, you will drown, you will blow yourself up,
you will touch a magical stone which causes instant death...7. Why making a map matters.
Wandering about aimlessly is ok for a while, but when you really want
to know where you are or need to get somewhere you need a Map. Loads of
players remember large chunks of the Land in their heads, but believe
me you are going to have to write down some sort of Map for
yourself to look at at home.8. Talking to other people.
Other people are what lift multi-player games above single player games.
Other people can be cruel, kind, helpful or ignorant. They add spice to the game.
Generally, if you are polite to them, they will help you out when you are new.
say hi, im new
(or) "hi there
(or) 'hiya
Topcat the tippetytop necromancer
Abigail the swordswoman
topcat hello there
(or) topcat"hiya
(or) topcat'hello topcat9. Aim of the game.
The aim of the game is to rise up the levels, from novice to
Wizard or Witch. As you do this your strength, dexterity and
stamina will rise to normal levels (you start puny), and you
may gain fabulous magical abilities.10. How to score points.
Major Means
A) By picking up treasure (GET T), and dropping it in the SWAMP (DROP T).
B) By killing monsters, called mobiles in the game (KILL RAT).
C) By solving puzzles, like working out how to get into the mausoleum's tombs.
D) By performing one of the 8 tasks.
E) By surviving for long enough, without quitting, that the game rewards you.
D) Getting another player of a higher level to kiss you, or hug you.
E) Being lucky enough to be shot by Eros, quoted at by the Raven, pushing
the reset button along with everyone else etc etc etc.
F) Some players kill other players, getting points for it, and
also stealing whatever treasure they were carrying.11. Losing a fight.
You aren't going to do this on purpose, but you need to know
what to do when it happens!
You can see how well you are doing in a fight, as your own
stamina is displayed to you every time you are hit, eg
(40/55) means you have 40 left out of 55 total. When you
hit your opponent you also get told an estimate of how
injured they are.12. Healing yourself.
The basic way to heal is to sleep, type SLEEP...don't do it while fighting!
Best thing is to sleep indoors, and preferably in a bedroom if you can find one,
cause you won't get woken up by people shouting if you sleep in one.13. Can't Flee, or get stuck.
Some monsters won't let you flee away. In this case you need to QUIT as soon as
you flee, and get out of the game entirely. Then you can come back into the
tearoom. eg FLEE OUT.QUIT (F O.QQ for short).
If you get completely lost or want to go and rest in the tearoom for a while you
will also need to QUIT and re-enter the game.