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Frequently Asked Questions - All FAQs

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A definition for the term 'mud' as well as a more in depth description can be found at the Wikipedia MUD entry

You need something called a mud client, which can be anything from a simple telnet program to a dedicated and complex program used for connecting to and playing muds. Please check our help guide for Getting Started.

Popular themes may be found here. The search engine can be used for themes not having their own category. 

Muds which require roleplay among their players and have ways to enforce roleplay should use the Roleplay Enforced option. They may only require you to keep out of character communication on certain channels, or they may require you to stay in character always (RPI).  Otherwise, muds which desire roleplay among their players should specify that they are Roleplay Encouraged. If they offer incentives, such as in game exp, money, items, etc. for role play, then Role Play Incentivised should be chosen.

These are all names of mud server types (code bases).  While many are derived from some of the older codebases (DikuMUD especially), they all have their own style, features and look-and-feel.

MUD Clients have come a long way over the years.  You have different options depending on how you're connecting.  Though this list is far from exhaustive, we feel it provides the best choices for any given platform.

Here are our suggestions:
  • MUSHClient:
    Platforms: Windows, Linux (using wine)
    Price: Free
    Overview: One of, if not the most popular clients out there. It can also be run successfully via USB thumb drive as well as being able to save sessions across multiple machines using services such as Dropbox.
  • MUDLet:
    Platforms: Windows, Linux, Mac
    Price: Free
    Overview: Another very popular choice, still receiving updates, but very, very solid in its current form. It provides pretty much anything a MUD player would want.
  • CMUD
    Platforms: Windows, Linux (using wine)
    Price: $29.95 USD (Free 30 Day Trial)
    Overview: The successor to the extremely popular zMUD, it is a solid MUD client with many features and worth the price for the dedicated MUDder.
  • Blowtorch:
    Platforms: Android OS
    Price: Free
    Overview: Easily the best of the Android apps. Development has stopped for now, and sometimes there are instability issues, but even still, it is bounds ahead of the other apps on Android. The ability to create and plce custom buttons makes for a much more seamless playing experience.
    Download Link or in Google Play
  • MUDRammer:
    Platforms: iOS
    Price: Free
    Overview: Probably the best of the iOS apps, it does a lot of things well and is a good solution for playings MUDs on your iPhone or iPad.
    Download Link or in the App Store


When you sign up for membership an email gets sent to you within 5-10 minutes, containing an activation link.  You must click or copy-paste this link into your browser to activate your account.  Please check your spam folder for this email as well.  If you missed the email, you can try logging in again, which will re-send the activation email, or you can contact us and we can activate your account manually.

We offer several ways to find muds, that's what this site was created for! We offer a simple search engine, advanced search engine and a way to view muds based on their theme, codebase, play style, and more.

We recommend you start with our simple search engine, just click the Search button on the menu and enter some text in the quick search field. Try using individual keywords that might be found in a mud's name or description to help track down what you want.

Our advanced search engine offers many more options for searching and online help is available from the page by clicking the question mark.

Finally, in the main menu and the page footer, we display lists of MUDs pre-sorted by theme, code base, play style, screen reader friendly games and games that are hiring new staff.

Try relaxing the constraints that you put on the search, the options that you specified are too restrictive and no muds match them all. Also note that some of the options will only work if you select one of them.

In truth, you do not have to select any keyword at all, just leave that blank if you want. If you are not getting any matches you should try relaxing the options that you have specified, try removing them one at a time until you do find a match. 

Try reading the player submitted reviews for the muds, where available.Player reviews are linked from the listing of individual muds, provided reviews are available for that mud (not all muds are reviewable or have had reviews submitted). Try to be open minded though as players' experiences vary from mud to mud. 

Most of the listing views will also have a compare button for each listing.  By clicking these you can compare multiple MUDs side-by-side, which could help you see differences that could aid you in your decision of which to try first.

A codebase is a type of mud server. A codebase generally consists of the source code which can be compiled to create a working mud server, though some codebases are available in precompiled binary formats.

MUDBytes.net currently has the most comprehensive listing of different codebase sourcecode available.

The user account used to submit the MUD has the sole ability (aside from site admins) to edit a listing.  It is recommended that MUDs which desire multiple staff be able to edit a MUD listing create a shared email account using gmail or hotmail (etc.) to submit listings.  For listings that we created by the System (which was done when the site was launched to populate with content), any registered user can claim the listing by clicking the Claim button.  More information on claiming listings can be found here.

Please follow the instructions here if the listing admin is no longer available.

MUDList and other MUD web sites offer forums for asking questions about coding. Try posting a description of your problem on one of the coding boards and include as much information as you can, including any error messages you may see, and report any snippets or code changes you made which might have caused the problem. Be polite and patient and perhaps someone can help you get your mud back up and running. 

You must first become a member of MUDList, but don't worry, it's absolutely free. Just visit https://mudlistings.com/index.php/register and fill out the required fields.  An activation email will be sent within 5-10 minutes.  Click the activation link and you'll be able to sign in and post on the forums here.  Ensure you check your spam folder just in case.

If you're looking for staff for your mud (coders, builders, etc.) You have a few options.  We have our own staffing forums, and other mud sites also have staffing forums.  Additionally, you can edit your MUD listing and find the field for hiring staff.  You can select as many from this field as you like.  To select multiple options, hold down the CTRL key (Command key on Mac) as you click each option.  Prospective staff can peruse the MUDs that are hiring pre-sorted list to see which MUDs are hiring for the position they're interested in.

For finding players you can advertise on our MUD promotions board, and ensure you have a MUD listing already created and up-to-date on our site.

We require that each type (players and staffing) of advertisements are kept to once per week at most.  This includes bumping your post throughout the week.  If you have something substantial to add, such as new features, or responding to a question or comment on your promotional thread, it is fine to post again in the thread.

Yes you may.  When posting links to vote on other sites, you must follow the rules of that site.  For example, The MUD Connector requires that all voting links be clearly marked as voting links.  You may also solicit reviews for your MUD, however you cannot offer rewards, in-game or otherwise, for positive reviews.

Player submitted reviews should be factual and contain detail regarding the player's experience within the mud. In general, player reviews should not be used as a basis for starting a flamewar against a specific mud or person involved with a mud. Positive reviews submitted by a mud's loyal players can do a lot to attract potential new players. Players are not to use the review forum to flame a mud due to personal disagreements with staff or players, flame bait will not be accepted.

MUDList does not have a traditional voting system.  Instead one is able to 'favourite' a MUD they like or enjoy.  We maintain lists of the most favourite-d MUDs.  When it comes to these lists, only users who have been active (have logged in or visited the site already being logged in) in the past 3 months will be counted towards the totals for ranking purposes.

Submitted remarks should not include profanity, personal insults, and accusations of wrong doing must be supported with personal experiences and observations and state that the ideas are the submitter's own personal opinions.

Detail will vary, but we ask that you include as much detail about the mud as possible. "This is the best mud I've ever played" and "This game rocks" are not considered a complete detailed review.

The user account with admin access to a mud listing has the ability to respond to a review.  They can use that opportunity to address concerns or complaints.  

If the review is extremely defamatory and appears to be a case of trolling, creating multiple accounts to submit multiple bad reviews, or other unfair/abusive situations, there is a button at the bottom right of a review similar that looks like a caution sign, which can be used to report a review to the site moderators.

We ask that only one review per player per mud be submitted please. This does not apply for comments, as you may submit as many comments as you like. However, we ask that you submit only one comment at a time. Do not split your remarks into several comments and submit them all at once. 

Starting a mud is a daunting undertaking, and running the mud thereafter even more challenging. We recommend to all would-be mud administrators out there that you first spend a good deal of time working on an existing mud as a builder, coder and administrator. It is advisable that you first understand all that is involved with running an established mud before even considering creating one of your own. Organized documentation regarding the creation of a new mud is scarce, but we know of the following sites which may help answer some questions:

//snible.org/mud/mudstart.html

For LP muds we specifically recommend a visit to //www/lpmuds.net - LPmuds.net 

We first recommend that you learn to program outside of a mud environment. There are plenty of free coding tutorials out in the Internet.

Once you have an understanding of programming in a higher-level language such as C, C++ or Java (muds can be written in other languages as well) we recommend that you download a stock mud source package and try to learn the inner workings by examining the source code of a working codebase, such as Circlemud. You can find many mud codebases ready for download at //www.mudbytes.net, an excellent resource for providing source code of muds and mud-related programs. 

It is highly recommended these days to get yourself a cheap VPS.  VPSDime.com, for example, offers a server with 6 GB of RAM and 30 GB of disk space for only $7 USD a month.  However VPS servers require a decent knowledge of linux systems, as you'll have to set up everything yourself.  Google search 'Linux LAMP tutorial' to get yourself started.

If you don't want to deal with server setup, maintenance and security, there are some MUD hosts out there that are reasonably cheap, though historically they didn't offer much in the way of RAM and disk space resources for their packages.

A couple are: