THE Discworld MUD - An Overview

                 By William McCole. (6/4/98)

WARNING - THIS ARTICLE COULD SERIOUSLY AFFECT YOUR INTERNET USE
AND PHONE BILL!!!

Whilst looking through my back issues of SynTax, I discovered
(much to my disappointment) that there was not very much on MUDS.
Since I only discovered them recently (and only 1 so far at that!)
I thought I better do my bestest. :)

I discovered MUDding during my second day at uni. The PCs in our
halls of residence (I don't even have to go outside the building!)
are 386s and run win3.1, and we only have 4 Mb Hard Disk space per
user (so games are out!). That only leaves.... Telnet! I have now
decided Telnet is far too useful for a DOS program, Not only do I
Mud with it, but I also check my Mailbox using ELM (Yes, we do
have Netscape, but it's version 1 and it goes at 0.02 MPH!).

Anyways, a friend introduced me to the delights of the Discworld
MUD as we are both Fanatical Discworld fans (It's true! I have all
the books!  I read the plays! I eat the cereals!). The idea of
playing what essentially seemed to be a large, multiplayer text
adventure instantly appealed to me, and the fact we could do it
for free through the Uni server system made it all the sweeter.

The Discworld mud is very easy to pick up, despite the large
number of commands. Basically you have a raw character (a Newbie)
who must do an initial quest (to find a Womble's lost brooch)
before being admitted into the game. After this, you must find a
guild, kill stuff for experience, and do other quests. Having
zoomed around Ankh-Morpork for 12 hours (not continuous I might
add!) I was busy mapping it and trying to deliver a parcel.

The Discworld is a very interesting place, and the idea of
wandering its streets and roads certainly will appeal to any
Discworld fan. Most of the characters are present (Carrot, Nobby,
Detritus etc.) and Ankh-Morpork certainly seems to follow the
Streets Of Ankh-Morpork map by Stephen Briggs and Pterry himself.
The puzzles (quests) are a little difficult to find, but they are
well thought out and quite challenging.  Initially your character
is pretty poor, but it is often helpful to get a group of other
characters to hang about with and protect each other.

When you start, you are in the entrance to the Mended Drum on
Short Street, with the warriors' guild just up the road (south to
Filigree Street, west once, and then south to the entrance). There
is a vague map built into the game, and the game follows the
'Streets' map and the Discworld Companion. I was trying to build
up an accurate map of Ankh-Morpork for quest purposes. It was very
very difficult, but I have a friend who mapped it already and
'borrowed' her maps. If you want them I can send you them.

The major problem with the MUD is the dreaded Lag, which has been
personified as a monster with its own agenda. The monster is
pretty funny, but the lag time through the Discworld server can
sometimes be pretty bad, and it is really annoying! If you can
survive this, then you will enjoy the Discworld mud. Just think of

it as an exceptionally slow responding text adventure. Which is
what it is after all!

In the MUD your character can do all sorts of things, try typing
'look at soul' for a list of the actions you can perform, things
like grin, moonwalk and sing. They are pretty funny but many are
useful when you talk to people. And try not to get lost in the
Library!

I hope this will make some of you go try the mud. The easiest way
in is to Telnet to
Discworld.imaginary.com
with a port number of 4242.

I recommend visiting the official website first, find it through
Yahoo (Search for Discworld mud). I can't remember the exact URL,
but I think it's
HTTP://discworld.imaginary.com 5678
This will give you a FAQ and some other useful info.

Since starting this article I have spent some 4 days between my
characters on the Disc... At the moment I am awaiting word from
Hobbes, one of the Creators/wizards/immortals/overlords (basic
Maintenance staff) about getting myself made a Cre as Catch. With
any luck I'll be giving back what I have got from the disc by
Coding locations and NPCs soon!

With any luck I'll see you there! Look out for Scorpio or Catch
the fighters, Rik the Wizard or Denarii the priest (they are all
me!) or my friends Dillan the Wizard, Negri the warrior and Dinin
the warrior. We all usually kick about together, safety in numbers
and all that!  Alternately you can MUD mail me from the Post
office in any major town on the disc!






                              - o -