DartMUD
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| DartMUD | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Various |
| Release date(s) | 1991 |
| Genre(s) | MMORPG, MUD, RPI |
| Mode(s) | Multiplayer |
| Platform(s) | OS Independent |
| System requirements | Telnet connection |
Dartmud is a well known MUD, or online text-based roleplaying game. It is notable for being the first MUD to have permanent death, and a numberless interface. It's also the first MUD to use a hex based wilderness map, an innovation which helped shape later games, such as Ultima Online.
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[edit] World
Ferdarchi, the world of DartMUD, is large, covering thousands of hexes. Travel over this distance can be quite difficult, as the game implements a "concentration" system, which controls how quickly one can perform any task, including movement.
[edit] Skills
DartMUD is a classless system, which means any skill may be learned by anyone. However, not all skills can be self-taught, and in cases such as these, they must be learned from NPCS, or other players. Many skills aren't even taught by NPCS, and so this forces a greater level of player interaction. Skills are learned by practicing increasingly difficult applications of the relevant skill, not by spending experience points, and some of the most advanced players progress in spite of avoiding violence altogether.
Skill "groups" include combat, magic, stealth, crafts, languages, and a teaching skill with which players can aid each other's learning. Player interdependence is strongly encouraged by this and by the broad range of skills (crafts especially) which are more easily used with the help of others.
[edit] Role Playing
DartMUD's roleplaying (RP) is not enforced by the staff of creators. Rather, a confluence of factors - prominent among them permadeath, player interdependence, and the desire for wealth - create an unsimulated political system. "An armed society is a polite society" (Heinlein) is a good summation of this: characters behave themselves in public and do their scheming behind closed doors, where they hope they will not be overheard. Out-of-character communications are against the rules, and the creators reserve the right to delete and even ban problematic abusers. New characters are usually given several chances and helpful advice from older players.
[edit] Permanent Death
In the beginning, DartMUD was populated by extremely hard-core mudders, people willing to risk permadeath - a common occurrence - in order to make their accomplishments that much more meaningful. All goals and accomplishments are defined by the players. The game is not as harsh as it once was, but the same idea and structure prevails. This style of gaming is not implemented in larger, customer based games; for instance, no major MMORPG today has permadeath because the majority of gamers are unwilling to risk losing large investments of time and emotional investment. On the other hand, lack of risk makes the actions of characters less significant, and there are no repercussions for poor behavior.
[edit] Organizations
The mud has few 'perks' - magic items are rare and characters rarely gain special abilities that are not potentially available to all. Consequently more mundane objects gain greater significance, and as characters accumulate wealth they require a place to keep it. Thus the development of noble Houses and Guilds.
There are four castles for the four Houses of DartMUD. Control of a castle can be achieved through diplomacy or force of arms. The benefits: a comfortable place to live, secure against all but the greatest of thieves, and inclusion in a large group of characters. Drawbacks: the risk of involvement in wars. Conquering an established House is a daunting task, as this requires a full scale attack not only against its members (among whom may be some of the finest mages, warriors, and thieves of the land), but taking and holding it against their friends and allies as well. Nevertheless, a cycle of wars can be traced back through DartMUD's history to its inception in 1991. Some attempts fail, others succeed, and on rare occasions single groups have managed to gain great power over all the Houses - though never for long.
Guilds are located in cities and share many of the same attributes as Houses. The main difference is in their purpose: for instance, the Healers' Guild is comprised of mages specialized in healing, and at times in Ferdarchi's history of bloodshed it has been the only reprieve for castles at war. The Rangers are a collection of warriors who want no part in castle politics. Guilds are rarely as powerful or as ambitious as Houses and seldom involve themselves in war.
[edit] History and Ancestry
DartMUD was started in 1991, on a NeXT computer owned by a Dartmouth College graduate student, hence the name. It moved to a Linux system in 1994 when the original site host left Dartmouth. Several architecture-specific optimizations in the LPMud driver and DartMUD mudlib had to be removed, and DartMUD has been running on commodity Intel Architecture systems ever since. After Dartmouth, DartMUD was hosted by a commercial provider, Hawaii On Line, a change which brought a number of changes in the game's emphasis. After Hawaii On Line, DartMUD was hosted at the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology and UCLA. The last two hosts were provided by DartMUD staff out of their own resources, as hosting prices dropped and staff age and affluence increased.
Of the six sites DartMUD has had to date, Hawaii On Line was the only commercial host, and the only entity which promoted DartMUD as a service. The change from a college-based project run by volunteers, to a commercially-promoted service with a part-time overseer, was the biggest transition DartMUD has experienced to date. At the same time, with Hawaii On Line's promotion, a large number of Hawaiian residents began playing DartMUD, many of whom continue to do so.
Many of the original staff of DartMUD had been previously associated with LustyMUD.
In 1996, five DartMUD creators and one long-term player started Accursed Lands. Accursed Lands was informally referred to initially as "DartMUD II" during its development phase, but creative differences led to the dissolution of the initial Accursed Lands startup team, and development continues to this day on both DartMUD and Accursed Lands.
As mentioned in the introduction, DartMUD was the first MUD to implement several of its key features.
