Hello, Many in the realms know me as Savroth. I am a newbie to this game, and boy do I feel it. But best of all, the playerbase and imm base are helping me along with this wonderful game whilst still being in character.

The realms are populated with a myriad of races and classes. From spell-slingers, rogue types. To berserkers and monks. Where this game shines is it's varity. You wish to be a giant of dark decent. Become a Jotun darkknight. You wish to fight the doom and gloom as a warrior of the light become a paladin! You wish to toss axes the size of your opponent, be a minotaur! They even have racial legacys, which reward certain race class combos with certain bonus skills and other bonuses. By no means are they game-breaking, but might add that edge you wish for flavor or playstyle.

Whilst our player-base is currently small, we would welcome you with both open arms, and good role-play. I've been mudding 8 years, and this one is easily one of the top 5 best in my memory. Please, come give us a visit. You may find yourself a fan aswell.

To start, Abandoned Realms (affectionately known as AR to those who play it) is absolutely one of the most intense games you will ever play. The first time you enter PK and you realize that you could lose all of the precious things you worked so hard to achieve, your heart rate rises and you will likely get the shakes. After your first kill, you'll be elated. After your first death, you'll only want to go and get more.

The combat system is no longer the stock system so associated with common muds. Instead, mid combat skills and changes of spells, depending on your class are an absolute requirement. This means that even if you have better items then anyone else, you may find yourself in a bad situation if you aren't prepared.

The world is in depth and the role play is amazing. Those who would claim to the contrary have never really tried to interact with others, only be interested in the player killing. Trust me when I say, that the true joy comes from doing both.

Finally, this game offers Custom Races and a constantly evolving list of new races, classes and areas. As well as new spells and recently added religious boons, for clerical classes to call upon in times of need.

Do not miss this game. It is the be all and end all of Muds.

This MUD has a great deal of potential but there are significant issues, particularly balance. There is a message during character creation that states, 'newbies are advised to avoid mage classes.' This immediately put a bad taste in my mouth. Why are players who love casters to be punished? The more I played the MUD, the more I realized, the main coder/IMP must surely be a melee/fighting fan and somehow burned in the past by some overpowered caster. Casters are incredibly nerfed in Abandoned Realms to the point that there's really no reason to have them. They have advantages at higher levels, however, for some reason the owner wants people to go through mostly frustration instead of fun while leveling this class. Even their advantages at higher levels are not enough to make the nerfs even close to being fair or reasonable. Clearly it's bias, any player will see this, though original/veterans may be blind to it. Again, Why punish casters?

There is no original storyline. Everything is stock, 'Thera' stuff. Roleplaying is enforced, however, even during peak hours with 15 or so players on, there is no roleplaying at any time. The only roleplaying is when someone asks for help and says 'Ye' or 'thou' in the sentence.

Immortals are frequently on but there are no global quests, major wars, invasions, etc. there's no special events of any kind that I can tell.

There is an XP penalty for playing hybrids, who already have the penalty of being the 'jack of all trades master of none.' This, in addition to the intentional nerfing of all caster classes, makes me think another possibility, that the owner believes magic of any kind is something only hardcore, veteran players should be allowed to use and enjoy, not for newer players. Basically, don't play this MUD unless you REALLY, REALLY like to play a human warrior or a human. Plenty of other fun, pretty, exotic options in the menus and helpfiles, but again, they're there only if you want to go through hours of torment and dying/corpse retrieval (if it's still there) rather than actually having fun and enjoying your class's unique abilities while you develop your character.

On the positive, the classes as far as flavor and concept are pretty cool. The spells, skills, combat style system etc. all are very interesting and fun, however, you can only really enjoy them again if you are a long-time veteran, getting immortal assistance or otherwise cheating, or if you're not lucky enough to be in one of those categories you are playing a human warrior or human thief. Another positive, the equipment seems to be coded/written well. I like the 'old school' medieval theme and the area quests are quite cool as well.

So much potential but too many balance issues to ever be a long-term success. I've heard the owner has much of an ego, so most likely the changes will not be made. It will fade into oblivion as most MUDs do.

I wouldn't worry about fairness if you play this game. They've added a lot of new stuff over the years, breaking a lot of things in the process. I was a consistent voter and supporter of the place until today. There's really not much to say. It was a fun game, and it could be entertaining, with all of the various pk skill paths for adapting to other players,but in the end it just really fizzles out when you discover that the people actually working on the game don't seem to care about balance. They made a recent decision to move a stat that improves hitting through enemy defenses back onto strength, which was previously moved to dex so that giants didn't just kill everyone and dex races had no chance. I attempted to argue rationally, and the imp in charge puts words in my mouth, saying that I must believe elves should be able to 'rambo' anyone, which is patently untrue, as elves were struggling before hitroll was moved. I don't really like people being manipulative and I told him he was being dishonest by putting that out there, especially as elves were already struggling in warrior and hybrid guilds. At this point, he made not so veiled insults as to my intelligence boasting about how he has a physics degree, and that I would be unable to comprehend how to solve such mathematical problems as I didn't have the brains. I showed him and anyone else who wanted to see the issue with moving hitroll a multitude of posts by other players and the Imp himself stating that elvish races were worst in the warrior guild, and this is prior to the hitroll nerf for high dex races by giving bonus to hitroll and damroll back squarely only to giants. For this, he called the posts inflammatory (presumably because it show's he's contradicting himself, and also that he has a bias against game balance against elves or for giants), and banned my account. If you want to play this game, do so without expecting opinions to be taken seriously, while being given veiled and obvious insults by the people that run it, and without expecting balance to be given serious thought other thanhow they can make the game run well for their bias.

Abandoned Realms is a great MUD. I come from a myriad of others and there's none that get your heart pumping like this one. I started MUDing in a pure PVE MUD almost 2 decades ago on AOL called Terris and its sister MUD Cosrin. I played Magestorm right before this, so I had grown a thirst for online action games be they MUDs or FPS. Since then I've played a few MUDs here and there and none give me the same excitement as Terris/Cosrin once did. That is, other than AR which really does. The excitement and adrenaline this game gives me through PvP and RP is incredible. The imms have stepped their game up, bringing RP events regularly, and ensuring there is balance among the classes so that everyone can compete and participate. The imms of the various cabals often interact with their members, sending them on quests or assassination missions. Games like Imperian, etc. really turned me on to PvP, and it is a wonder that games like Abandoned Realms haven't reached the same popularity considering how in depth PvP is. The game has been around forever, and I doubt even the most seasoned vet doesn't learn something new about PvP every now and then.

Recently there's been a rash of new areas, and new developments with old ones. New combat spells, new skills for classes. To touch on one that is pretty cool, Dark-knights can now summon steeds to ride upon that come with both pros and cons in combat, but help them track good around the Realm no matter where it is.

The Herald and Mystics along with their respective imms are always using their particular skill-sets to bring role-play and diversity to the game. Be it holding events that can help players earn increased experience, skills and even titles - or officiating weddings, you can almost always find one of these folks around - often helping newbies. In fact that is the prime job of the Mystics, to help newer players, and their skill-sets are aimed towards that end.

So if you're looking for a new hobby, 'home' or just a place to blow off some steam with other role-player pkers, AR is the place for you. In fact I'd say AR would appeal to any brand of MUDer.

Its a well developed game and has many good points. It takes thought and some learning to pk well. It has the most balance I've seen.

The classes are interesting and all unique from each other. I played it on and off, due to other things. I played by the rules, and people violated the rules on multiple occasions when interacting with my character in game. I did not whine or threaten to leave. I saved what happened to logs, showed the admins, and the person deleted their character because his style coupled with his antics revealed him to other players. Not due to any staff involvement, which were playing a hands off approach to him. Multiple occasions, roleplay is enforced, but it is either silly or one dimensional roleplay. A few really roleplay deeply.

I came back after some 6 month hiatus to look around. Character creation screen. Finish the process. Denied with 54 days left on ban.

Now, my thought is, 'that's strange, I haven't played for six months and last time I played I left. I don't break the rules, and I maintained my composure in game even when others were blatantly breaking rules against me.' So, I wait a few days. I log in again. 54 days remaining on what they call a 'siteban'. Note the time is the same.

Apparently, this means a whole network is banned, of which I am a part. Great. The same thing apparently happened to AOL. All of AOL is banned from connecting because of a few players that broke rules. Estonia as a whole country is banned from connecting for the same reason, a single player broke rules repeatedly. And now myself. All because of someone else. Now I'm understanding Martin Niemöller's poem quite a bit differently.

So, I bring the issue up on the forum. My response from Davarus, a staff member, is 'I thought you left because I wouldn't ban mico'. Not a 'I'll look into it', or 'because of this and that', just a snide comment because, well, that's who Davarus is.

I write about the state of the forums, and what sort of policy it must be to kill off whole groups players from connecting, due to individuals. To understand what the forums are, go to 4chan. I see the exact same thing there. People are rude to each other. They insult each other and call each other names. Multiple people that continue to play have cheated and time and again created new characters, and stick around the forums.

Dispater and Rem have been banned in game for cheating and exploiting the game. yet they still play and talk to the staff, occasionally trading insults. Another major contributor is not a cheater, but simply abuser. Anyone he disagrees with is personally abused, and the staff allow it because he's their Clifton buddy. When newbies come in, and make a suggestion for the game, he insults and abuses them. Davarus and others go on as if nothing happened. They treat it like a joke, but anyone else who does that has their post removed, is warned, or banned depending on the mood of the mod.

If you can understand the picture, its like a club. Preferential treatment to members that are in the 'group', sod everyone else. One has to think, what would a newcomer see this as, looking at the forums?

The forums also has many threads devoted to complaining about low player base. You'd think that a person who didn't do anything would receive some form of help. I said that I dont think running a mud by banning whole locations is very good for the game, Davs response is that my belligerent post caused him not to want to bother to look into it. Good for him, its his game while the real owner is away, but that's exactly what children do when they get upset. Oppositional.

And the ban stands at 54 days still, a week later. Consider that all the imms are aware of the ban in effect, and none of them cared to help me. They seem to find it much funnier to talk about their incompetence at performing banning properly in response to my problem. And then do nothing.

That is the state of the game, how its run, what the community in it amounts. There are a few good people there, but far between.

The Abandoned realms mud has one of the most balanced combat systems out of any pk game I've ever played. I've seen several balance issues that were pointed out by myself or other players, which the immortals listened to and fixed almost immediately.

The community is newbie friendly and while competitive, supports each other. The staff is laid back and is completely okay with palling around with the players, and when there is rule breaking they are quick to enforce those rules. I've stopped playing several times over the years due to work or inability to log in, and I've kept on coming back.

Abandoned Realms or AR for short, has come a long way since I first started playing. Like most MUDs out there it started with biggest sword wins, but after the years it started to change. It went from biggest sword wins to the new combat system. which is pretty easy to grasp once you try it out. New spells and skills, 4 different cabals (clans).

I have jumped from MUD to MUD and no matter how many new ones I try I keep coming back to AR. It is one of the best games out there with things happening all the time.

Abandoned Realms (hereafter referred to as AR) is a MUD for users that are experienced. AR's system is roleplaying and player-killing, with decent emphasis upon the RP, and heavy emphasis upon the PK. The world is fantasy-based, with a touch of borrowing from some well established stories to complete the picture.

Classes are fairly standard; clerics, rogues, fighters, etc. You can play a healer-cleric, or a battle-cleric (shaman), a thief type or the assassin-type (ninja), and other classes have similar 'splits' as well. Bards, rangers, most of the classes one expects on a mud are present, and quite well-thought out.

AR's races are also fairly standard, but yes, there are some not-so-standard races for you to play with as well. Feeling adventurous? Try a minotaur. Feeling like being safe? Yes, you can play a human. Drow, illithid and a handful of giants are also on the list of races one can play.

Race/class combinations can be rewarding in their own right, AR makes them even more rewarding, if you happen to pick the 'right' combination. These Racial Legacies are not numerous, nor should they be, but if you happen to play an Elven Ranger, you get something other rangers do not. If you play a Drow Ninja, you get something other Ninja do not.

Questing is easy on AR. Mobs that have quests give them to you upon entering the room. There is also a Task system, which involves one's guild master, and a fairly lenient time limit to complete them.

AR has, for the more roleplay oriented types, cabals and coteries. Cabals are a 'join for life', at least the life of your character, organizations that revolve heavily around PK/RP. Cabals are ideal and alignment-based. The coteries are less alignment-based, and heavily ideal based, and revolve more and the RP aspect.

My time on AR was short, but well spent. AR gets three nods out of five.

First I'll write it as facts then my impressions. Its stated as a RP enforced PK driven mud. It has a number of classes, and many interesting skills and abilities for each class and race combo. Weapons have different abilities of parry effectiveness and overcoming your enemies defenses of dodge, shield block, parry, dual parry.

Classes are balanced by racial stats, humans get 101 points in stats, and Fire giants (the game's strongest race) get 94 points spread across strength, intelligence, wisdom, dexterity, and constitution. You pay for more powerful races in vulnerabilities and other weaknesses, as each stat factors into your defense skills. Another factor is the experience cost, which is greater for races and classes that are more specialized and have slightly more power at the higher ranks.

But, that doesn't necessarily mean they will crush everything. a human warrior is a 0 exp cost combo, but can easily use its great stat distribution and lack of vulnerabilities to be on the same level, with the appropriate equipment and GOOD use of skills and tactics. There are rares and unique items in the game, and power for all classes is more or less defined by their items, although if you play poorly, you will find yourself killed and your enemy taking all your nice items, making them even stronger.

If you join you will notice that even veteran players play human warriors. These players are distinguished by a cabal tag such as [Knight], [Legion], or [Keepers].

Keepers are a recent addition to the game, and act as a balancing force between good and evil, due to in the past the game swinging badly in favor of knight or legion. This new cabal introduces an almost mercenary element, but with a roleplay reason of existence,a and only true neutrals may become these types. They may even deal with the Justice cabal (a group designed only to uphold the law in Seringale, whether helping good or evil in the process), if they should be warring against legion or knight.

Many rank 50 characters in the past have distinguished themselves with RP that goes above and beyond the norm. There is a lot of written history and all characters that wish to join cabals must have a historical background and a well written description.

Different weapons carry different abilities in combat. Some are low on offensive strength, the ability to get around enemy defenses, but high in defensive strength, the ability to parry enemy attacks, while others are the opposite. Two handed only weapons are usually high in defense and offense, but do not confuse a two handed mace or sword with something only two handed like a polearm or staff.

In addition to weapon differences, some work just as well, or less well in the off hand when dual wielded. Also, spears have a bonus capability against the dodge skill, and axes have a bonus against shield block.

All this culminates in very complex fighting with the weapon type and combat type system. dual wield beats > sword and shield > two hand > dual wield, for combat styles. Segment > blade > shaft > segment, for weapon types. Combat and weapon styles and types have effects on parry and the usage of powerful skills, that if you dont achieve superiority, cannot be used. So you must use the proper weapon in a given fight to pull off these great skills.

Around 50 players actually play and surge times at every 40 hours intervals in the week doubles your experience ranking capabilities. This will allow you to easily find groups and enemies as there are around 25-30 players on at these times. Players exist all over the globe, so more often you will see around 10-15 players during peak hours in U.S. time, and 1-5 players during the late night/early morning hours in the U.S.

My personal opinion: I love the game in its mechanics, skills, items, races, classes. there are many very skilled players to fight, so no shortage of a challnge. however, apart from the few exceptional roleplayers who are also good fighters and ranked 50, as well as the constant influx of newbies who want to RP, there seems to me to be a nasty element in the game, which comprises many immature people who continually break the rules of the game.

In my time on AR, I've been cussed out OOC, explicitly told by fellow lowbies that RP isnt really important, and that they just do it to put on a show for the imms, and killed in some really stupid alignment breaching ways.

There are few players and even fewer imms, which makes it a hassle to play sometimes, particularly when someone is breaking rules and no imm is around to catch them. I have to admit that recently the imms have been a lot more present, but it still doesn't remove the bitter taste in my mouth from experiencing the kind of counterstrike RP that I've had the displeasure of being on the end of.

Neutral halflings. There's been one person, or perhaps two, who constantly push the limits here. They take any excuse to kill you and take your stuff. I've had neutral halflings that wished to 'test themselves' so attacked me and ended up causing my death. To me, being complicit in someone's death like that is roleplay for an evil, not a neutral thats also a halfling.

Another neutral halfling, and the one that spelled the end of my enjoyment and time playing AR, decided to blackjack (knock out) one of my groupmates to rob him, while we were ranking in the forest. I defended my groupmate by attacking the halfling and running him off. I didn't chase him, I didn't try to kill him. He went and healed far away, and while we are again attempting to rank, he came into the room invisible and killed me. I'm sure if my characters alignment had been good, that halfling would be denied on the spot, but because I played an evil duergar, this peanut gallery that plays the character and supports him killing me stated that it was my fault because I attacked him, and apparently attacking him gave him precedent to kill me.

I would've understood if I had caused his death through the defense of my groupmate, although I was just doing that, being defensive and not trying to murder him. I would've understood if I followed him and killed him, or if I followed him, and he turned around and killed me. That would have been his right to survival. But instead, I left him alone and he came back to murder me. Thats crap.

When I bring it to light, there's an overwhelming response against me saying this neutral halfling had the right because he was chaotic neutral, even though chaotic neutral doesnt mean free right to murder by the helpfiles of the game.

Last I checked, this character hasn't been alignment outcasted, and still plays. So, either imms have to catch them in the act or counterstrike RP is all that really matters in AR. Those exceptional people are wasting their talent feeding a small group of people who just want to kill anything and everything, as long as the counterstrike RP role is fulfilled. 'He attacked my, and thats why I killed him'. complex characters, alignment actually meaning something, I think not. Its too bad because the mechanics of the game are so good that these few 'vet' players who pull this crap ruined it for me and a few others as well.

Abandoned Realms is an incredible game for those interested in a Player Kill MUD with a RolePlay enforced environment. Those who enjoy PK and RP alike will enjoy what Abandoned Realms has to offer.

I personally feel that AR blends PK and RP effortlessly. You won't find the mundane of some MUDs and MMOs (lleeet haxorz) here, but players who put effort into their character's storyline and description long before they even create him/her. You'll also find players who take time to learn the game to enhance their skill, for that is what matters there. PK is a skill that comes with playing and dying a little, but once you've got it, the rush is like nothing playing any other game can offer.

I think another player said it best, 'AR is a really great mud, as far as muds go. Really good job with immersion, caring staff, quite original and dynamic combat system, and not the least of all a very dedicated playerbase. I'd easily call this a community in a strong sense.'

So come join the fun. *Players with skill and cunning will find themselves with honour and prestige among the masses http://www.abandonedrealms.com/players/index.php?sort=rating

*RP is important and fun http://abandonedrealms.com/strategy/roleplay.php

*Four distinct cities Seringale http://abandonedrealms.com/realms/areas/seringale.php Darkhaven http://abandonedrealms.com/realms/areas/darkhaven.php Valour http://abandonedrealms.com/realms/areas/valour.php Timaran http://abandonedrealms.com/realms/areas/timaran.php

*Three exciting Playerkill cabals. Knights http://abandonedrealms.com/realms/cabals/knight.php Legion http://abandonedrealms.com/realms/cabals/legion.php Justice http://abandonedrealms.com/realms/cabals/justice.php

*Three roleplaying coteries. Heralds http://abandonedrealms.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1659 Mystics http://abandonedrealms.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3486&highlight=mystic Patrons http://abandonedrealms.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2627&highlight=patron

'A world of politics, intrigue and war awaits you...' he said, 'Your mind, your resolve, even your spirit will be tested here... '

The main purpose of this review is to answer some of the questions or complaints (if you can answer a complaint) of some previous reviews of Abandoned Realms I've read.

Brandon Brown in his review implied that clans do not exist in AR. Although they are not as prominent as in other MUDs they do exist and allow an incredible amount of flexibility in AR as the individual player creates the clan, including the name and leadership roles and then guides the clan to either ultimate success or failure.

Brandon also commented that help for newbies seemed difficult to find. I do not know the exact time period when Brandon wrote his review, but I would presume a while ago, because a group, The Mystics, have been reformed for the sole purpose of helping players new to the MUD. He said that rarely anyone answers the newbie chat. After level 10, players cannot use the newbie chat channel, but certain groups, such as the Mystics have access to the newbie channel and can answer the questions of those new to the MUD.

Brandon brought up the issue of a lack of storyline to Abandoned Realms. The reason there is no overriding story line is because the players are the story. If you look at the website under the history of Thera you will see accounts of large battles and first and second ages. Those events actually happened. The names mentioned there were actual players. They made the history of the MUD.

As a staff member, you should expect a heavy bias in my review, although I will say first and foremost I want to give you facts about the game, I dont want to pull punches or make any false promises. So here goes.

First the shortcomings:

1) Code changes. These occur very slowly, so slow it frustrates even me in fact. We have changes announced 6 months ago that still haven't been completed. So that's a real negative I think. Some of the players are quite disgruntled with this, which I think actually hurts the process back in turn, a vicious cycle. As you can imagine, if you are an Imm on a mud, you want to have fun to, and if you're being pressured to get changes done, you're probably likely to stop finding that fun to do and find something else. This is bad because all the change go through the single owner. It has the enormous benefit of the game's classes all being done in the same vision, wonderful for game balance. So its not all bad. In the past, Imms have had disagreements about the direction the mud should go in, and this would lead to a 'too many cooks spoil the broth' syndrome, some classes being really diesel and others notably over-complicated. Now its all sorted out, already, lucky for new people.

If you were new to the game, this wouldn't be bothering you for a year or two, because the mud has too much unique material for that. Down the road.. yes. Some classes are bland after the second play or so, as they haven't received their polishing yet. Others, like warriors, you can play with every race (and there's 16) and receive a different experience from it. That's pretty amazing. Hopefully all the classes will eventually get there.

2) Playerbase.

For me this is the biggest negative with AR. It quite literally used to be triple digit back in 1998, the mud's heyday. Then its dropped off quite quickly, max 80 in 2000, 60 in 2001, etc.. I'm looking at 7 logged in at the moment, max on of 25. This was a mud that had so many people on it when I started, and most vets remember that time, so there's some tension over it. Now some places have a lot worse, that's for sure, but you wish for what you got 'used' to, if you understand what I'm saying.

Main reason that's a problem is that the mud was primarly pk, so, say back in 2000 when you were level 30, you would have 16 people in pk range. Scary. Now you're lucky if you're not the only one in that. Although there are cabals to join, and since they have to wait at 30 for applications, you are guaranteed someone in pk if you wait around. And I do believe it is worth the wait. I'm always looking for the next big thing to make those ranks more fun, but there's no real substitute for another human being, as you'll no doubt know.

3) The pk/rp merging of genres.

Here you see a rift between the mush-like people who seem to just want to rp / kill mobs and hate pk, and the pk-happy people who hate them back and won't do any. Result: neither group is satisfied, although the guys that actually enjoy this quirky blend of rp/pk do seem to love it. The playerbase sure could use more people like that. I think this counts against the mud in this phase of its existence, as I am seeing a dominant group of mush-types, with a few skilled pkers. The mud is straddling the divide nicely I think, but a lot of players dont seem to be doing that quite so well. I might be misjudging this one being a pker type myself.

4) Promotion.

It is with a tinge of sadness that I say this. There are muds that, no joke, have better playerbase than AR because they market themselves a lot better. We don't do banners or anything, we rarely bother with mud reviews. I see other muds pretty darn similar to ours thriving because they're getting the word out. Kind of a reason why I posted a review too. I would especially encourage you to drop by and try this mud if you've never heard of it. You might be surprised. Very surprised. This mud is the proverbial diamond in the rough in my opinion. Hopefully we'll get an ad-banner one day.

Now the good points about the mud.. they're numerous gameplay-wise, as any good mud should be, and the website does a nice job of introducing those to the browser. I'll give a few:

Racial legacies -- this was the best thing added to the mud in the last five years period. Suppose you pick, say, a duergar thief. Then you get two unique skills due to your duergar heritage, that aid your thievery. Why is this great? Because duergar thief having a vuln to water makes it an otherwise unpopular choice. This puts them in the mainstream again.

The 'raid' areas -- Winter, the vast underdark, volcanoes, vampire haunted mansions, all sorts of fun and dangerous places to go in. If you dont explore these, and you played this mud, honestly you are missing out on a great experience. My only complaint about those areas would be they are designed for big groups, and since the game is a competitive one, it sort of goes against the grain. Areas built for two people to handle might have been wiser. Though I haven't seen much complaint about this to be honest...the camaraderie is really high amongst the guys that run those areas. I just personally prefer it to see people kicking each other's guts out.

Newbie friendliness -- i won't say its unmatched on muds, what I will say is its competitive... I think AR is leading the genre in newbie friendly amongst the *truly* free muds like this.

Game 'pk' balance -- whenever I play the game myself (now remember, I am on the staff, since I'm a major contributor) I sometimes get quite euphoric about the game's balance. I can't help that feel that the game is done ...just right. You have to equip your character and that's an important task, but you have to equip it the right way. That includes procuring rare items from other player's corpse. Then in battle, you have to worry about things like, is my weapon quite appropriate against his? Since flails will beat daggers easily, given equal eq. Skill can overcome eq disadvantages, but only by so much, and with experience, you can tell how much. Now of course, if you fight outnumbered (e.g. 2 on 1) your character cannot possibly get strong enough to stand a great chance against that, its seldom that anyone can dominate the playerbase, and the best players will definitely go down 3 on 1. I think that's the way it should be.

I'll skip the rest of these, and just move on to Imms. The owner is a creative genius, which is probably due to his liberal arts backgrnd. If nobody is playing a class due to lack of interest, you can be sure he's got plans there. I'm a coder, and obviously I'm around a lot so that whenever Imms are needed (e.g. to fix a bug, or deal with rule abuse) there's often me online. The rest of the Imms are more like gofers for us two, helping the playerbase out with questions and doing some roleplaying stuff. In the past, Imms have gotten impatient with the other Imms, and you could definitely see the effect that was having on the players as well. Imms are picked quite selectively, but somehow this still happened. As of now, AR has a good solid Imm team where everybody gets along 100%.

Well I dont want to hit the 10k word limit so I'll end there. I hope that this has been informative.

Looking for a MUD where the staff care? Where they regularly update content and you can post a question/comment/idea/bug on the boards and get a reponse from them within the day or the next day? Longing for a MUD with player run factions (known as cabals) that actively war with one another for power? Perhaps you're looking for a MUD that's RP based and doesn't accept or allow any OOC to ruin or break the atmosphere... maybe you're looking for a MUD where you can do your own thing. A MUD where power is just over the horizon, fame, notability, fun... all of it awaits you at www.abandonedrealms.com

I've been playing this game for a while now. When I first joined, I must admit it took a while for me to fully understand and get into. But since becoming more familiar with the game I wouldn't play anywhere else. The staff care more than any game I've ever played, which is probably 60% of the reason I couldn't quit AR even if I wanted to. To go to another MUD where you barely hear from the people making the decisions, or rarely get even the smallest of updates would be a tragedy.

So let's talk about the simple yet complex and completely unique fighting system. It like anything else in life takes some practice to become good at, but once you've come to understand it you'll find yourself only getting so much better, interacting with the cabal politics, the coterie politics, and everything else.

Perhaps pop in for one of our surges? Surges are implemented to allow players who just can't play as often as they'd like to still advance in the game. During a surge you get double exp. and a greater amount of gold when you hunt, plus other boons. See the forums for more info on when the next surge will be. They're generally on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, and Sundays at varying hours to allow anyone in any time zone to participate.

And that's not all... The PK is nearly without flaw, the RP is stable, the imms care, the skills/spells/songs are awesome and the game is unique. What's ten minutes of your time to try out something new? You might like it.

Abandoned Realms has been my mudding home for around 8 years now and I've seen many changes since I started. I dont often write reviews but I think that the amount of new content and changes that I have seen over the past year have been so outstanding that it deserves a mention. The past year has seen more changes than I've seen in the previous 7 years of playing and it's been fantastic.

There is a new combat system which makes PK'ing much more interesting and requires more skill than ever, the coders have done a wonderful job with lots of new areas, racial legacies and so on. This is an evolving and improving mud, there are many more changes promised and the future looks very bright indeed.

I would encourage anybody who enjoy's PK'ing and RP'ing to give the mud a go. It's a very skilled and enjoyable place to be, with an incredibly hard working IMM staff who have fresh and original ideas and also a growing playerbase.

Abandoned realms has been up since 1997 and since has created a devout following due to the discipline of the administrative staff and their dedication to creating a highly balanced, interesting PK MUD where skill, quick thinking, and a decent knowledge of the realms is required to win instead of merely having the most 'buff character'. The main immortal, Burzuk, is extremely intelligent and is more interested in making the tough and sometimes unpopular decisions that in the longrun result in a better mud rather than just adding in as much things as possible and appeasing the playerbase. As a result AR has a solid code that encourages balanced fights and the use of skill instead of a massive conglomeration of poorly thought out races, skills, classes and abilities. In addition the codebase has been streamlined resulting in a faster mud with much, much more stability than your averege rom mud. The other immortals also do their job well. Torkalen is the most active and helpful immortal I've ever seen. He's always on and will bend over backwards to help any newbie. Others like Clesa, Merindol and Resatimm are also extremely helpful and in no way are on a 'power-trip' as a result of being an immortal. Overall the immortal staff is helpful and amiable. Despite this, cheating is policed heavily and very few people get away with breaking the rules. It is also an RP-enforced mud with plenty of dynamic and interesting RP constantly occuring. Invasions, cabal wars, and interesting character to character interactions occur while the Herald cabal documents it all and publishes it in their Theran Mystique. The code, however, is AR's best aspect. To list off just a few of the many changes to the standard ROM codebase it's based off of... A built-from-scratch, fully customized OLC. Though I'm not an immortal, I've worked with it before and I can say without doubt that it's the best OLC I've ever seen. A built-from-scratch mobprog system that allows mobs to do things you've never seen before on a mud. (i.e. the occasional, organized goblin attacks on the city of Seringale, with a goblin extermination squad fighting them off) An innovative and unique cabal warfare system. The ability to make 'hardcore' characters. Hardcore characters can only die once and those who make it to level 35 get a headstone in the cemetary of lost heroes. We've never had anyone make it to level 50 (the highest level) yet, but just recently someone came really close. A customized quest system (we've had one for a while, but there is a brand new one currently in the process of being implemented) that has in-depth quests rather than the 'get x item and give it to y mob' that you see on every other mud. A streamlined and extremely stable codebase. Intelligent, static PK ranges that prevents unfair fights while still allowing interesting battles. Cigar, cigarette and pipe smoking. Smoking some items creates some very interesting affects (and I don't just mean changing your stats around a little. Try smoking a cigar dropped by the druid north of Seringale) Rare and unique items. More powerful than normal items, but not excessively so, often times the only way to get one of these items is through PKing, which encourages battles. Highly thought out cabals which serve an actual purpose, instead of just taking up space. Being in a cabal is not necessary, but if you do join one, it will vastly change your mud experience.

A highly thought out battle system. The choices you make will greatly affect your outcome in battle. For example.. Offensive spells are split into 3 groups. Mental, maledictive and afflictive. Instead of the generic save vs spell there is save equipment that affects each one of those skills. Wearing this can alter the battle dramatically. For example, it would be wise to wear save vs maledictive equipment when facing a shaman, but save vs afflictive equipment against an invoker. While if you're playing a healer you almost always want to be wearing a hefty ammount of save vs mental. The generic save vs spell equipment still exists as well, affecting all 3 of those categories.

Warriors need to choose wisely on what weapon to use. Bows and arrows can't be dodged (unless a thief, ninja or bard is using counterbalance, which increases their ability to dodge while only using a single 1-handed weapon) or parried with 1-handed weapons, but can be easily stopped with shield block. Two handed weapons can stop arrows, though not as well as a shield, and are affected twice as much by enhanced damage. Dual wielding is often best for all out offense, but lacks defense. And using a shield is the best for defense. Depending on what you're facing and who you are, you will need to decide wisely on what to equip. (for example, warrior vs warrior, a dual wielding warrior will get beaten by a warrior with a bow. If that warrior switches to a shield, he will be beating the one with the bow, unless the one with a bow switches to dual wielding..) (that was a huge rant, I know)

All classes and races are built from scratch. Favoured weapons for warriors which are different for each race. Racial legacies that add incentive to playing certain race/class combinations (i.e. the elf ranger) A huge, huge selection of unique and customized spells and skills. A huge amount of custom areas while a few of the stock ones around town to make the new player more comfortable. Built in alias command to level the playing field against those without huge mud clients. Races with their own unique skills and abilities, such as the sliths swallow corpse and shed skin, the illithid's leech, shock and cone of force, the werebeasts transform and probe, and several others. A custom newbie area that lets newbies learn the mud through interaction instead of sitting their reading for an hour. Travel spells adjusted to make PKing more fair. An illusionist can no longer instantly gate across Thera at the first sign of danger. A bit of preparation is instead necessary. Minor battle issues, such as the affect of stats, etc, have been refined to a state of balanced perfection. Reputations that others can see that can be set by Heralds. Special commands for roleplaying, such as the 'esay' A condition system that limits the amount of times you can die (around 60) unless special 'con quests' are undertaken. Characters can last a long time, but not forever. Being killed truly means something on AR, and is to be avoided. A special quest race for human dark knights, the vampire, with an extensive list of custom skills and spells. However, they are not easy to get, and have their own weaknesses. Bards that have songs that must be sung, with an instrument, and have actual lyrics. Customized, intuitive helpfiles for everything you could imagine. A smart description editor .. and so on. There is also a huge list of the changes to be added, and of course, nothing is put in merely for the sake of adding new things. Everything put in is carefully examined and thought out with the question of whether or not it will truly improve the mud. So if you're a quick thinker, think you've got some skill at PKing.. or you're a good roleplayer and like interacting with other players, AR is the mud for you. You certainly don't have to worry about sitting around and then suddenly being killed in two-rounds by some 'uber-character' with 15 ranks on you and a perfect set of equipment. As I said before, getting ahead on AR requires skill, not having a buff character (although, having a perfectly trained character with a perfect set of equipment helps). This is written by a long-term player (8 years) who actually sucks a the game but sticks around to get kicked around anyway. I have no immortal experience on it.

I have been an avid player on Abandoned Realms for about 5+ years which is a testament to the MUD's continual growth, addictive gameplay, achievements in balance, devotion to both RP and PK, and no-nonsense but accessible immortal staff.

First, growth: the mud is huge and continually growing. Large volumes of areas are all connected by a river system which gives you the option to take the highroad, although the other option of going the long way is still available. The areas may be numerous yet after a little practice and exploration, they all fall into place and navigation quickly becomes easy.

Second, gameplay: shared enjoyment of the MUD is central to Abandoned Realms. The immortals voluntarily devote a large amount of time to enforce rules that benefit everyone. The implementors keep the MUD absolutely free while also spending copious amounts of time to add classes, races, and cabals (clans).

Third, balance: good and evil are well balanced by which skills and spells they receive. Goods generally have powerful defensive (and some good offensive) skills while evils have equally powerful offensive skills. The forces of good versus evil are only imbalanced by the individual fighting skills of the players, where the balance of power should be decided. Neutrals are also numerous and help or hurt both aligns as expected. Skills and spells are continually analyzed and sometimes slightly adjusted to perpetuate balance in the game.

Fourth, RP/PK: some characters decide to roleplay more than they PK, and there are certain cabals that provide for a more RP friendly environment. All players are expected to learn at least how to defend themselves or run away, as PK is encouraged and is by no means frowned upon. However, PK is restricted in certain ways during lower levels to eliminate experienced players from taking advantage of newer players, and even while PKing, RP is greatly encouraged. I learned how to PK by dying to more experienced players when i started off, before the low level PK restrictions were enforced. I feel that the new rules foster a much more newbie-friendly environment. There are even certain 'reward' races such as the undead race, and the vampire class, and also the Assassin Cabal which are reserved for those who show the highest RP and PK abilities.

Fifth and lastly, the immortal/implementor staff: the IMPS and IMMS have seen many people come and go, and the ones who are remaining are the ones who genuinely care about the MUD and therefore do not tolerate cheating or undue partiality to certain people. The IMMs' attention is equally attainable by the new player who quickly learns how to PK or RP exceptionally just as much as a player who has been around for years.

If you are searching for a mud where medieval and mythical roleplaying combines with intense fights and even larger cabal wars, http://abandonedrealms.wolfpaw.net is the first step into the most addictive game i have ever played. Check out the forum to grasp the basics before connecting.

Heck, kind of makes me wonder why I'm still playing these games, but I've been playing this game for about 6 or so years now. I've played all kinds of other MUDs and online multiplayer games, and even though I've come across a few which blew me away with the level of depth and detail(all were pay to play sites), NONE have been able to hook me and keep me as addicted as this one. Every time I take a break and move on to doing whatever else I move on to(drinking, partying, spending months doing military training, jail time, whatever) I always seem to come back just to get as hooked as I was the first time around.

For the most part, the RP of the veteran players is excellent. It really adds to the atmosphere of the game, not to mention with the heavy PK, the paranoia factor as well. If you're a tree hugging, squirrel petting druid or paladin or whatever you may be, you better be sure that dark knight or shaman that's in your PK range is just itching to snuff your little light out of the world. Same on the other side as well. If you're a necromancer or an illithid, be sure that paladin or monk will be coming for you so that his new little newbie buddy can rest easy just a little longer.

The main thing though is the balance of the game. Every race, class, ablilty combo has been thought out carefully before and after implementation so that no single race or class is more powerful than the other. What it all comes down to in the end is skill. The battles can be long, short, easy, hard, and always guaranteed to get your sweaty little hands dripping crap all over your keyboard threatening to short everything out. [All of this is at the higher levels of course where battles can rage on for what seems like an eternity.]

It's been over 6 years and I still haven't covered every inch of the realms. Maybe because I'm lazy, maybe because I'm scared of all the nasty superpowered baddies that hide in the darkest corners of the realms. The immortals are always active and tinkering with this or that, expanding the realms or tweaking things to add that little extra bit of realism or whatever it is they do.

And as to the newbie friendliness of this game which I keep reading about in other reviews... When dealing in a heavy RP and PK environment, you have to know who to ask. If you've just made yourself an evil fire giant berserker, there aren't really going to be that many lightwalkers out there who are willing to turn you into the melon bursting machine that you think you should be by playing a walking charcoal briquette. And if you want help from the other evil badasses running around in the game, good luck. It's in their character to look out for themselves alone.

Try a neutral(I wouldn't recommend thief to start out with) or good character to start out with. Goodies always help each other out and you'll find a lot more people willing to help out and even protect a healer, than they would an up and coming dark knight.

Once you get into the game and start to know people, it's very easy to make friends AND enemies that you'll have for quite some time. The community is closeknit, and once you get past the newbie stage, you'll be hitting the ground with both feet running. Probably trying to help keep your newfound gnome friend from being splattered by aforementioned fire giant berserker.

I recommend this game to anyone with a love of RP and adrenaline pumping PK. Go check out the site and forums for any questions or info you might want. They've been redone and are extremely helpful to the newbie. There's always someone on the forum (especially the immortals) willing to answer a question anyone might have.

My brother introduced me to this mud, since he seems to play it often. I would like to point out, despite the reviews of the past, what this mud is now:

First, newbie friendliness has much improved from what it seemed like before(based on reviews). Granted you are definitely not supposed to learn everything in a week, but there's so much to grasp, any amount of help will still require time to figure out. A lot of newbie friendly people who mention through the newbie chat have been quite helpful, although the help is not always clear cut. I've been left confused by some people's answers, and others I've had enough clue to figure it out, although in most cases it's still not a straight answer. Exploring is quite annoying, as with any mud, people just want to know where they are going. Having known a few places outside of the main town, it made it a little easier.

This mud also is very straightforward with its rules. They enforce it without you knowing sometimes. I do read the rules of every mud I go to, and sometimes I test them to see how well they are enforced. It is a way for me in part to determine how good a mud is. And boy, they do a good job of enforcing the rules. One night, my brother had found some equipment from a character and decided to save it for this one, by putting it on an unlikely NPC(I kept complaining about crappy equipment). Between characters there is a 10 minute log time period to wait before you can sign on again, unless it's the same character you just logged off. About 20 minutes have passed, and I had logged on this character to retrieve the things. With all the time that has passed you could assume that you're not being watched, but no. As soon as I picked up, I was immediately transferred to the 'You're in big trouble' room, and had to go through the step process of the rules. It was very clever to have, and at the end it gives you the choice of pleading or not caring. I went the former. The imm made sure I knew which rule I broke and promised not to do it again, and if I get caught I'll have to delete, which is fair. Anyway, fairness if anything is well enforced in the game, with people having the same opportunity to anything.

One thing I am a little disappointed about is the playerbase. The TMC reviews, although I would assume years old, claims 50-100 in peak hours, but I barely see up to 30-35 on peak. I really wonder why this is. Anyway, I'll hope to bring the playerbase up, by inviting other people, since I do like this mud. Good job AR.

When I read that it was newbie friendly I figured I'd give it a chance thinking at least I wouldn't be tossed into empty space with no clue or help to learn. Boy was I wrong! I wandered, with no help whatsoever, and then when I explained I didn't understand something, I got snubbed. No help, newbie friendly is not what I'd call it at all. So unless you know everything forwards and backwards or have a friend there that does, don't expect to be treated 'friendly'.

Well, as the power was down on the Mud I normally play, I went to check out one that had been recommended by a player of mine. I am an Imm on one and will be an Owner of another one coming out shortly.

However, after adjusting to the new mud and getting a set of eq for my Invoker, I was taken away from my group and transported to a room with no exits where I was demanded to change my name by one of the immortals there. It was not profane or anything, as I was not there to cause problems, merely to have fun. So I am stuck in that room, with the Renaming Bouncer, with no avenue of escape until they approve of my new name.

My name was Christophe, as I have used on countless other Muds. Nothing dramatic, as it is based on historical, 13th century Spainish spellings, meaning Christ-bringer. However the staff, after dismissing my explaination, could only say, 'It is obviously cutting it too close to Christopher.' No comment on my explanation, or reasoning for the decree. This is something I do not tolerate on my Mud, and will not choose to play in myself.

So much for bringing a sense of the past, in a game BASED in the past! Imagine that. Maybe that's just my history degree talking though. Anyway, I would have to not recommend this Mud to potential players. It was terribly difficult to get around in, unless you know people to level you going in, and many of the features that I am accustomed to, such as color, maps on the screen, character customization and even basic command structures are lacking.

I would give it a reluctant half-star on a five star scale.