I began playing this mud 8? years ago. Originally it was because the mud I originated from was full of drama and had a low Player base so sides were chosen and the mud I started on was falling. I searched for a mud that was challenging but fun , focused on gameplay and had things to do I found two: a mud that has died and this gem. Of the two games, Kingdom of the Lost amazed me, I began and started plowing through the original newbie zone I rolled a rakshasa(a lycan type race) and out of the gate the moon rose and I was transformed, claws burst out damage was enhanced I felt like a god(at the time). Just as I was clearing mobs, gaining xp, random mods were popping giving me tokens , restoring me , changing my quest tokens around....the transformation wore off and I got owned. The players on the mud are addicted, they have been around anywhere from a couple to 10 years and are more then helpful at times.

Kingdom of the Lost has an amazing but smaller group of players now, it puzzles me.

Races/resists: Kingdom of the Lost has a wide variety of original and more traditional races, but they all evolve through stat max which you cannot train it must be gained through xp gain. There are Three stages to each race , This latest character I am playing was a lizardman evolved to a dragonkin and obtained the secret dragon transform into a dracolich, there are also other secret races such as ghost vampire skeleton and I believe its shadow elf. By obtaining these you have no distinct advantage other then different resists to certain types of damage. All of the races have different resists , some high some low and with gear or runestones can come to a point where that damage type does not hurt you.

Classes/skills/stats: Each class chosen has 4 tiers and every time you tier you have 2 choices to branch to the next class. Every skill is trained on use after a few trains, all stats are gained from combat or doing something that stat influences, example: grouping fleeing leading casting and such.

Fun: Runestones to tattoo into your body 10 slots some class restricted, enhanced drops enhanced damage more attacks flying increased drops so on so forth. Custom armor/weapons combining all kingdoms quest tokens into one piece of custom armor to raise certain resists you have weakness too..addicting. Gems and moxes to put into your gear adding shield and weapon flags. Legendary mobs with a chance to drop legendary stones which you imprint into your armor , they gain levels do things passive, defensively , aggressively and talk to you.

In all the return I have had to this game has been wonderful, I have been welcomed back and I have never seen a mud with such original concepts and beauty when it comes to coloring areas or balancing stats and would advise anyone seeking a challenge, or looking for a community to check this out and see for yourselves.

Kingdoms of the Lost is a well thought out and developed mud that continues to evolve. Active Implementers and coders make improvements and modifications a few times per year.

Like most muds, there are a variety of classes and races, however included in those are racial evolutions and class tiers which allow for a wide variety of different skills and spells. While two characters may both start out as Wild Elf Scouts, they can evolve quite differently through game play, making one eventually a Siltha Dragonslayer with hunting skills specific to dealing deadly blows to dragons, another may choose to become and remain as a skeletal Grey Elf Druid with very different skills and spells from the Siltha.

Simply reaching level 200 (the highest level in KOTL) does not in any way ensure that you will have a strong character. While it is true that you will have obtained all of the skills and spells possible for that character, you may not be very good at using them. Improvement of skills and spells is done entirely through their use, with only the very basics of the skill being practiced with a trainer. Not only does rushing to level 200 (which is actually 500 levels, 1-50 at first tier, 1-100 at second tier, 1-150 at third tier, and finally 1-200 at fourth tier), it may prevent you from fully exploring the detailed and extremely interesting areas designed for specific level ranges.

As with most other muds, questing is required to obtain the strongest equipment possible for your character. And while quest equipment is far better than any mob equipment available, the greatest equipment is built by the user, following strict rules on the creation of custom equipment at a very high cost in quest tokens. These quest tokens must be obtained from multiple kingdoms as each kingdom's quest tokens are required to add different aspects to the custom equipment. There are a total of 8 kingdom questmasters and and 2 special quest masters, therefore 10 different color quest tokens. Questing for a full set of custom equipment can take well over 2000 hours of playing, ensuring that those who enjoy questing have plenty of opportunity and need to continue questing for years.

If questing and grinding out levels really isn't your thing, roleplay is encouraged and rewarded with roleplay xp (rpxp). RPXP is used to advance in your chosen profession within your kingdom or to advance within your religion (of which there are 5). Religions also provide a range of spells to their followers, how many of those spells you get depend upon your rank within the religion. Like the kingdoms, these religions are run by players, and one can be recruited, promoted, or banished depending upon ones in-game interactions.

RPXP can also be used to learn new languages so that you may speak to other races and hide your conversation from eavesdroppers. By default everyone knows the Common Tongue and a language specific to their race. Learning a new language requires not only the required amount of rpxp, but also requires that you find an instructor for that language, something you are likely to miss if you attempt to level as fast as possible as many of the instructors are in low to mid level areas.

Between four and six times per year, the Immortal staff runs Festivals in the different kingdoms. Some of the features of these festivals include the ability to buy runes and quest tokens if you have enough gold. Generally you cannot purchase quest tokens or runes with gold, however gold can be extremely useful during these festivals. Also at the festivals there are contests of strength, bonuses to all, and sometimes other themed contests such as a Halloween costume contest. Additionally, near the end of the festival there is often a blind auction, where a bag of unknown contents is put up for auction and can contain anything from a worthless lump of hardened dung to a Legendary Stone, the most rare and sought after item in the game.

A Legendary Stone is generally obtained by fighting the most powerful mob in the game, currently that is the Grand Master Assassin. While it is possible for an individual to defeat this foe, it is highly recommended that he be fought in a large group. If you are extremely lucky he will drop a Legendary Stone, an item which can infuse any piece of your equipment with a personality which will grant you additional spells and skills unavailable in any other way. Don't feel bad if you defeat this foe and do not receive a Legendary stone, they are exceedingly rare and many have fought him repeatedly without ever receiving this most powerful of rewards. These Legendary personalities also have levels, which require a great deal of xp. If you truly enjoy grinding out levels, you can continue to try to level your legendary, even long after you have reached level 200 yourself. Each Legendary has 11 levels from 0 to 10. To my knowledge no one has ever reached level 10.

With 25 races, as well as the ability to become a vampire, ghost, or skeleton; and 8 final tiers for each base class (scout, mage, fighter, priest, or rogue), many people choose to create multiple characters to try out the different possibilities (only one may be logged in at a time). Of course between quest equipment, rare runes, roleplaying, and Legendary equipment, there is also plenty to keep you busy for years on any one character. While it may seem overwhelming to new players at first, the Imm staff, extremely helpful and friendly playerbase, help files, and websites devoted to providing game information and suggestions for improvement will have you feeling comfortable with your character and building your first custom piece of armor in no time.

Kingdoms of the Lost has a small, but dedicated playerbase. The players make the game enjoyable, and the IMMs actually listen. It will be difficult for me to express and summarize many of the awesome features in KoTL, but I will do my best.

Many times I have suggested an idea to watch it be discussed by the playerbase, approved, and eventually implemented. This type of feedback has refined the game, and made the play much better.

KoTL is a roleplaying MUD in which you can gain roleplaying experience (rpxp) by conversing with other players in character. The rpxp may be exchanged for rank in one's religion (with the approval from the Supreme, of course) or converted to real experience. With enough rpxp, you may purchase a deed to a house, and build your own player home. This encourages the players to truly roleplay with each other, and as such, you get to know each character well.

For any roleplaying MUD, race matters. You will find the race you have always wanted to be with 25 selectable races, 4 retired races, and 3 racial modifications available only through gameplay (Ghosts, Skeletons and Vampires). Gaining stats through killing mobs or questing, characters grow in strength while playing. Once a character has reached their maximum racial stats, they transform to the next evolution of their race. An example of this would be a Lizardman turning into a Dragonkin and then a Dragon.

Of course, as you gain experience, you will also rise in skill. There are five selectable base classes: Scout, Rogue, Fighter, Priest, and Mage. For the first fifty levels, you will play as the base class. Once you hit level fifty, you will tier to the next class of your choosing (you may choose between two classes at each tier). For example, a Priest may choose to tier to either a Monk or a Pastor. Once you tier, you begin life again at level one. You tier at levels 50, 100, and 150, to finally cap at level 200. This means each base class can ultimately become one of eight different specialties.

Do the math. With 25 races and 40 different end-classes, thats 1000 different combinations! This wide variety of races and classes makes each character truly unique.

With player-run religions, and automatic quests, there is plenty to stay busy with. Dedicated players and IMMs that listen make this the best MUD I've ever played, and as a result, I've stuck around for years.

I've played different MUDs for over a decade on and off. I tried numerous ones but have only found 2 I really like. The one before KotL is going rapidly downhill and I stopped playing there a few months before I found out about KotL. Yes, you guessed right. The second MUD, and now also the only MUD, is of course Kingdoms of the Lost.

What can I say about KotL what hasn’t been said already? All the different features have been described already on earlier reviews so I'm not going to go through them again. I'm lazy, so sue me.

At the current moment there is only one problem haunting the place: lack of 'new blood'. It is a really good MUD with a rather small, but friendly, playerbase and the IMMs are top notch also - always listening to what you have to say and developing players’ ideas.

There is something to every type of MUDer out there. PK system is separated so you have to choose for yourself during gameplay if you want to be a part of it or not. Also there are quite many secrets to be discovered about special races and so on. And by secrets I mean secrets - nobody will just tell you them, 'You have to see it for yourself'.

Roleplay is highly encouraged and greatly rewarded. Basically it is possible to level only rp'ing... that is if you are up for it. Overall it is a healthy mix of everything one can look for in a mud. I highly recommend everyone to come and check it out by themselves. Word of warning though... this place tends to become really addictive ;)

I'm going on my 14th year of consistent mudding and I have played many, many muds, moos, mushes, whatever you see I've played it. There have only been a handful of muds that I have called home, this is one.

When I tried KOTL I was fairly sceptical because when I read a review and decide to stop by and check it out it usually consists of a few minutes, a few levels, deciding I don't like it and leaving... But I have been playing constantly ever since. It has great gameplay, unlimited options to create a character, roleplay is almost player enforced and plays a huge part in the game.

You can hack and slash if you want all day or quest. There are almost always 10-15 people on who are very helpful, there are constant code upgrades, and new code goes in weekly. But the best thing is there is so much to learn and so many new things to see! The coders have done an absolutely wonderful job with this mud it is very thought out, as are almost all of the areas. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS MUD FOR ANY SERIOUS MUDDER. You will not be disappointed, give KOTL a try.

Ragnok

Kingdoms of the Lost is a very good and unique mud. Throughout my years of mudding and trying out new ones I have only found 3 muds that I thought were interesting enough to play for more than 30 minutes.

This mud has a very friendly, dedicated, and hard working imm staff, as well as players who are willing to answer a new players questions. Besides having an excellent and helpful playerbase, this mud has great gameplay as well as a good roleplaying environment.

There is an extensive choice of races to choose from and each of the basic classes can reach many different tier levels. This provides an opportunity for diversity and for each player to be unique in their own way. Races can also evolve into more powerful versions of their race and gain more innates as well.

There are alot of great and unique additions to the code which make this a great place to play. Too many good features to list here, my suggestion would be if you're looking for a fun mud to play that supports hack and slash, roleplaying, or exploring, whatever style of gaming you prefer, then this would be the ideal mud for you to check out in this player's opinion.

I've been playing Kotl for nearing a full year and I can vouch that you will never find a more friendly group of players, immortals and all around fun game than this one. I've tried other muds and I still stick with Kingdoms of the Lost. Players set up trivia games are friendly to chat with and are usually helpful when you have a question or are lost.

The best part I feel about Kingdom's of the lost is how newbie friendly it is. If you're looking for a fun run around hack and slash, but at the same time feel that you have a reason to enjoy personal one on one roleplay or large room roleplays between players of the MUD, then this is the MUD for you.

The Good- Beautifully thought out and unique. The game itself is awesome. You never run out of things to do in this mud. Whether you are questing for a custom made weapon or armor, leveling, perfecting spells and skills, ranking in religions or kingdoms, roleplaying for the many benefits of rpxp, there's always something you can be doing. And all of these things take a lot of time and patience.

The Bad- The game says I've put in over 180 hours into it, so I really believe that I have a right to this opinion. Now, the problem that I have with this otherwise perfect game is the social aspects of it. I wouldn't say it's incredibly newbie friendly and unless you make a scene when you first enter the game you'll likely go unnoticed.

The playerbase is not big. An average of 10 people are on, sometimes more, sometimes less, but I'd say rarely more than 25. There's something called 'prewipe' in this game and most of you know what I'm talking about. Yeah this game had an older version and there was a prewipe where everyone recreated. Now if you are 'prewipe' then you're almost automaticaly cool and yeah, you'll have friends on the mud. If you're not, then you seriously have to work hard to 'be cool enough' to have friends here.

Now, the mud is great on its own, but who wants to play an online game (with people from all over the world on the same game) when you can't socialize?

So here's my final words : The game is GREAT. I just think they need to work on the newbie friendliness, and overall friendliness. There is an air of arrogance on this game, and yeah, the older players definitely deserve respect. But this game is an RP game, and in an RP game I just don't understand excluding those around you simply because you think you are better.

This review is my opinion based on observations of players and imms while playing on KoTL over the past six months or so. It is not meant as a destructive review, but one that might get people who love a good roleplay to get involved and to help put the family back into the MUD.

As far as Mud play, read Magus's review of Oct 8, 2004, it describes the world in vivid detail. The Mud also in many respects tries to keep a family friendly atmosphere.

Since the Mud wipe and redesign, many things have changed in the realm of players and imms. The number of players has dropped considerably and the imms have appeared to lose something.

First the play. There seems to be an emphasis on realism like food and drink. And there are a few players who agitate for more restrictions based on reality. This is fantasy, not my daily job! There are ways around some of it, but it makes the game more work and less fun.

Second the players. The lack of players I see stems from two issues. The first is the lack of a PK system. While I do not like PK, too many people who mud seem to. I would like to see the Mud continue without PK since it seems that PK causes a lot of problems with the spoiled brats who just want to destroy people's hard work. Secondly, many of the people who remain seem to have formed little groups, apparently geographically related, but not always. There are a few people who still go out of their way to help you with spells (and some even do it for free) and to invite you to group, but not like before.

And third, the imms. I do not know any of them personaly, but overall, if you have a real problem with the programming or a bug you can usually get help. What I have seen is the imms acting like sex starved high school freshmen over the imm global broadcast channel (not blockable). And that gets some of the players doing the same thing over the out of character channel. Pinning people on a wall with passionate kisses, fondling thighs, sucking ear lobes, and more detract from the aforementioned family rating. Also, there seems to be a bit of edginess toward people complaining about the way things are implemented. Granted a few doth complain excessively, but it makes it not a good environment for making a complaint/suggestion (depends on the suggestion too).

Overall I like the Mud, the depth of play and the options make for a lot of fun. But there are problems in the system and maybe all it would take is a new wave of fresh people who do not care about PK and just want to have fun exploring, leveling, and sharing life OOC.

Well, back to KoTL, I have some skills to GM!

When I was first introduced to KoTL, I didn't know that such games existed. I figured that I would drop it after a week or so, because like many people would justify leaving it, it had no pictures. But over the first few days, I literally became fixated on the game to the point where my social life was severly hurting. But enough about that.

KoTL introduces you to a vast world, spanning two continents[at the moment], which has over 100 areas. Each area is unique in their own perspective, and have been built by Immortals and Players alike. The storyline behind Volain[The world which KoTL takes place], is a very deep and detailed one. Roleplaying isn't enforced, but most if not all the players enjoy doing so.

Upon creation, there are literally thousands of ways you can configure how you want your character to appear. There have to be atleast 50 races from which you can chose from. And beyond that, you can customize hair, eye, and skin color, and you can chose which type of 'build' your body will have. 5 different base classes to chose from, each giving you the opportunity to Tier into 14 seperate and individual classes. Needless to say, you wont see a mass of a single class.

When you create, you have 7 Kingdoms to chose from. All of which give you as a player a bonus in battle[which is amazing]. The Kingdoms themselves are extremely varied. From a quiet, peaceful kingdom in the forest-- To a war waging, barbaric kingdom in the hills. From a knightly, honorable kingdom, to a dark and gloomy kingdom hideen away in the swamps. Each Kingdom is varied to fit your own specific type of Roleplay.

The coding on this MUD is simply excellent. I have at some points tried other MUDs, but have always dropped them and came back to KoTL because things here are fairly simple to understand. Not to say that KoTL itself is simple, lord no. Every week something new is being implemented by the Immortal Staff. They implement their own ideas, or ideas that have been suggested by Players themselves.

How this MUD goes about with Equipment and Gaining Levels is simply amazing. There are four basic types of equipment: Normal, Runic, Quest, and Customs. Normal equipment never changes, though you can add onto them. Runic equipment gains levels as you do, and becomes stronger all the same. Quest is fairly the same when compared to Runic, except you can only purchase them at Kingdom Questmasters, and are a lot more potent. Customs are by far the best way to go, you create your very own, personalized equipment once enough of your Kingdom tokens hae been acquired. With a single custom, you can basically handle a great deal of things. But why stop there? You have atleast 20 slots for customs, imagine the power that you will have when you are basically immune to 95% of the monsters around.

Monsters are extremely varied in the areas on KoTL. Ogres, Fish, Wolves, you name it and we have it. Some areas even have their own 'boss' Monsters. The Bosses are a lot more higher level than the rest of the monsters and usually give you an item[Usually runic] when you beat them. We also have 'Legenday Bosses'. We have one at this point, the Grand Master Assassin, and good lord he is one tough nut to crack. Even for the more experienced players, they find themselves needing to team up to take this beast of a creation down. The reward for beating him? The fact that you have just beat one of the most powerful monsters on the game is enough on its own, but there is a small chance that he will drop an item, a Legendary Stone, which comes with its own special abilities. These little items are extremely rare, and hard to come by.

The tiering system here is easy to understand, but is an incredible one at the same time. On first tier, you level till you hit 50, then you tier into another class of your choice. On second tier, you get reset to Lv.1, then you have to hit 100 to tier into third tier. 3rd is 150 to go into four, and Fourth tier is the last level. All those levels seem impossible to gain? Not really, there will always be people around your level who you can group with, and the whole lot of ya can go out and hunt together.

Your race can also evolve! Each race[excluding humans who dont evolve], have three evolutions. When you evolve, your stats get reset to 13, and the base grows in number. You also gain racial abilitles that aide you in your fights across the lands. Needless to say, you'll always have something to do for your character.

When you beat a monster in a battle, you gain silver, gold, and perhaps an item which the monster was holding. You can also gain stats for your character, you can find gems to sell or shatter into quest tokens, or you can find Runestones! Runestones give you special abilities that you wouldnt regularly have. There are runestones that give you stat bonuses, increases your resistances to the elements, and there are some that do other things. One such example would be a Runestone that allows you to instantaneously travel from one Kingdom to another[a real plus for questing].

The Immortals and players here at KoTL are very friendly, and go out of their way to help the newer players. The newbies, they have their own area that they can go to to learn the games basics. Now, for more experienced players who know what they are doing, they are given the option of forgoing the area and going straight to leveling.

Along with being in a Kingdom, you can join one of the 20 religions here at KoTL. Again, the religions are varied to fit your style of Rp. If you're a peaceful person, Galr is the way for you. If you want to just kill kill kill, Sys'Kee is waitin' for a player like you. You can also gain ranks in your religion! By gaining ranks, you can be granted new spells which aide you in and out of battle! You can also gain ranks in Kingdoms, I forgot to mention that.

Well, that's my review. Hope some of you who are still reading this will check us out, I'm sure you'll be thoroughly entertained. Seya around!

Let's see, I have mixed feelings about this mud. I will not say that it is an entirely addicting game, but yes, you will find yourself caught up in the leveling in such.

I have been playing MUDS for several years now though and I have gone through about 20 or so MUDS trying to find one that can actually be understood and fun. Finally I had a friend suggest KOTL to me and I decided to try it out. The noobie area is EXTREMELY long and yes, gets boring and overwhelming, but that is because of the many different things this game has to offer. It took me many hours to actually finally figure everything out. But there are so many players willing to help out that it becomes not too overwhelming.

The game provides much diversity that it keeps you interested, although there are some setbacks to the game. The mob based kingdoms and religions take away the player to player interactions, but at the same time it seems like it helps avoid countless arguments and such. Another thing that gets a little frustrating is the amount of time you need to spend questing in order to progress in the game. But I mean there isn't anything in the world that doesn't have its flaws.

Overall, I find it to be a very fun game where the immortals aren't a bunch of jerks who use their power to ruin your game experience. The players are friendly and its a nice place to play and also just talk with friends. PKers can be satisfyed through the Bloodsworn system and at the same time the people who do not want to PK don't have to worry about anything. A lot of complaints are avoided and everyone is satisfied. This has to be one of the best MUDS out there and if you are interested in starting up a new character, think about coming to KOTL.

-Bartain

I have written very few positive reviews about a mud, despite playing hundreds over the years. I have finally found the perfect mix, for me, of roleplay, questing, player killing and immortal involvement. This is absolutely my last mud and it is wonderful that the best came last! You will notice a real theme and it is something that really excites me as an experienced player!

Roleplay: Religion- player driven, code supported. Kingdoms- player driven, code supported. Marriages- player driven, code supported. The list goes on and on. The really important factor is that while roleplay is NOT enforced, it is absolutely pervasive on the mud. The game just brings it out of you and the players help make an environment you can really get lost in without any formal requirements. Again, we have a player driven environment with immortals supporting you.

Questing: Automatic Questing- Excellent code with multiple questors, some hidden in fact, and dizzying opportunities to use your hard earned tokens on custom equipment, stock quest gear, or even trade them to others for goods and services!

Immortal Events and Quests- Well thought out, executed and the rewards are generous but not easy to get!

Player-Killing: You can do it or be serene. There are level ranges. It is balanced and generally is done in character for good reasons. There are coded consequences if you do not! Player policed and code supported!

The Staff: There is a mature ownership of the mud with a real commitment to continuing the mud for years to come. They do not hire twinks, children or morons. They are tolerant of players but will step in quickly to put a halt to a problem player. I am a real stickler on immortals (been one for a long time other places) and have had no complaints so far. I have been generally impressed!

Features: Too many to name all the features, in fact if there is any negative aspect it’s the sheer complexity of the games features. You can 'socket' gems into equipment to improve it, develop custom equipment and so forth. The races are fantastic and the classes are balanced.

If you like player driven and code supported muds with mature and polite staff and a great mix of RP and good old-fashioned gaming…I expect to see you there. Log in and get to level 10 by killing the mobs in the starting area and then use the newbie channel to get to know the players. Today there were 40+ online.

Connect at kotl.org 2222 and check out the website at www.kotl.org.

Xess

I'm not going to go into detail over the gameplay; the other reviews have pretty much covered everything there is to know. Instead this is more of an opinion of KotL.

For the past 8 years I'm played steadly on another mud, in that time I've tried different places but after a month or so the game became boring and I'd go back to playing my original more heavily. Until I started playing KotL.

At first I must admit it was a bit tough because there is a certain group of older players who are quite cliquish and can be rude to newbies at times, however they are in the minority and it shouldn't put people off this great game.

That being my only gripe I like that the game can appeal to different player types. Pk'ers, Rp'ers, loners, each type can find many hours of enjoyment on KotL. The game is interesting and varied enough that there almost always something you can be doing.

I think the best part of KotL is the staff. It's very rare where I've seen such an active staff base before. They are constantly playing, interacting and developing the mud in order to make it better. Additions, bug fixes are constatly taking place. Truly the best imm staff I've seen.

KotL might not be for everyone, but for me it's my new mudding home.

I don't recommend this MUD if you wish to have a life of some sort. After only two or three days of playing, you will be wholly addicted.

The first thing I have to mention is that KoTL is extremely, wonderfully colorful. It's not blaring or excessive, but it makes the whole text experience much more vivid than the monotonous gray I've seen on nearly ever other MUD.

I like the automated quest system. It gives you a goal to work to, and leaves plenty of time to roleplay inbetween. :) Roleplay is highly encouraged. You can even restring pieces of equipment to fit your character's style (I'm a restring addict, actually), which I think is so awesome. It's a great way of bringing out your character's personality. For those of you who dislike PK, you can easily go serene, which removes you from the PK aspect of the MUD. The zones are colorful, completely unique and so much fun. I adore wandering through the castles and finding secret passages ^^;;.

One thing that makes KoTL stand out so much is the staff. They're really one of a kind- Patient, hard-working and dedicated. There's always one on to help if you really need it. In addition, the IMMs are pure fun! You'll be surprised at how outgoing and generous they are. They'll randomly bonus tokens, experience and even Crystalline Tokens, which are very valuable.

The playerbase is also amazing. Everyone is so helpful! There are a number of players who will answer any questions you have and lend out help to whoever needs it(I certainly will :). They're funny and out-going and a lot of fun to MUD with. I consider a great many of them good friends. :)

Overall, KoTL is a perfect 10. There is no other MUD like it, and I think everyone should at least give it a try. You'll be addicted in no time ;)

I normally don't like to play muds. Normally. Except for KoTl.

I came when KoTL first opened, and watched it bloom from the very beginning. Since then, the already large and entertaining mud has gotten larger and much more involved. It was such a refreshing change from the standard muds that I had been involved in beforehand. Offering 5 kingdoms (soon to be 7) to begin your character's creation, and then 15 different religions you can roleplay to join (and 5 more if you're lucky you eventually might be able to roleplay your way to lead)...allowing for a great deal of creativity, depth and range for each player. Add in tons of race choices, HUGE class system (and a website to help you figure it all out)...There are no cookie-cutter characters at Kingdoms of the Lost.

What surprised me about the Immortals of Kotl is that they treat their staff position seriously, and still talk to the mortals and are friendly. They help out newbies, joke with oldies, code, fix- I'm not sure how they manage it all. If you ever have a problem, the entire staff will look into it. I'm never worried about running into a bug (which hasn't happened since the very very early days) or really anything at all... because I know the staff is understanding and helpful- and they'll do whatever they can to make the gaming experience fun for me.

Newbies will have NO problem getting help if they want it. Even at the wee hours of the morning, when only five or six people have been logged on, I've created alts to see how newbie-helpful Kotl was, and I was assisted by THREE of the people online. At peak hours, I would say it's impossible to not find someone to help get a new character started. This is where I think KoTL REALLY rocks- we've got helpful and nice players. There is always someone on to tell you about the equipment to use, the places to try to level, give you information about the roleplaying aspects, ANYTHING! Immortals and mortals both- very helpful.

Roleplaying. We've got some people here who are downright impressive. It's the first place I’ve seen where people actually take the time to roleplay accents, speech patterns- you can find some wonderful people to roleplay with. This I think is a place where a lot of other muds fail, and KoTL rules. Roleplay experience is even offered to reinforce the experience!

The PK system is wonderful- making sure that a roleplay reason is required before you attack someone else. This way, inexperienced players don’t have to worry that as soon as they certain level, some bored oldbie is going to come and kill them. Serenity is also offered for those who prefer to skip out of the whole player-killing experience. It's great. If you're worried about being attacked 'just cause' on some other mud- try Kotl. You wont be upset.

The quest system allows you to buy quest gear, or save up and create even better custom gear. It's great because it allows for those who want to put lots of time into their character, they can get some really powerful gear... but it isn't REQUIRED to level and have fun in the game. I love this about KoTL... you don’t HAVE to quest to level, but if you want to quest, it's rewarding and takes long enough to prev2ent it from being too easy. Now, because of this system, newbies who want to roleplay a very headstrong character who wont respect others, etc, etc- You will not be able to stand up in PK fights to people who have spent the time to quest. Be warned.

There's even a system in that will give you special gems and runestones from the corpses of some of the creatures you kill when you're leveling. These gems can be put into your equipment to give your character stat boosts (different things boosted depending on the gem that you find... each one being different from the next). You can also find Runestones that you tattoo to your body, which also give your character special benefits. The entire system is very complex but GREATLY rewarding.

Areas are great, players are great, and Immortals are great...KoTL is an addictive ADDICTIVE place. Beware.

I know that I didn't list any of the bad things about Kotl. This WAS done on purpose. If there are any problems with the mud at the moment, I’ve already talked to the staff about it and they have plans in the work to fix it. This, again, makes KoTL shine. If you have a problem with the mud - the staff will listen and try to fix it. I've yet to see them not correct a problem and make the game even MORE fun.

Reaunt Vanguard (Yes, I’ve recreated and this isn't my current name)

Hmm, what can I say about KOTL. I normally play odd or annoying characters to try to force rp to happen, but I find it easy to come by here, if you find the right people. It's very newbie friendly, of course I tend to turn off newbie or question/answer channels myself because of the spam that they come up with at times.

Imms are friendly, helpful and playful. I've played alot of MUDs before that the imms you don't hear from that much or they don't talk and are just serious, but here they joke and tease the players. Makes things more enjoyable and a better environment.

The mud has alot of features and even some things that I've still learning how to play with. Lots of areas to play in and tons of equipment to find. Some areas have small twists and plots, but most players don't seem to find them. Only the ones who read the areas and follow them through. Well then I guess they tell others and it just cascades after that. :) Know what really gets people going, you walk up to a door in a city full with people and keep yelling that you can't open the door, and wait until someone comes and helps you since your character is just too short to touch the knob. :)

Well, hope you come by and join the family.

'Jasper hopes you not an evil wizard, Jasper don't like them evil wizards, Jasper gonna be a powerful wizard one day, Jasper every tell you thats?'

I've been here for about a year now and the mud does show that it is still in beta. There are only areas up to around level 170, and the mud supports levels up to 200, so they need more of those. Also, classes are somewhat unbalanced, but less and less so all of the time. Mages, who were the 'weak' ones a few months back often say now that they are on par with a fighter.

Now, I am used to player kill, and it is hard to do that here if you don't spend lots of hours playing on here. In the mud's defense, they claim to be heavy roleplay, low pk priority, so I can understand that.

All in all, I can't think of any reasons not to recommend kotl to play. The players are fun, the staff is helpful and always around, and its quite original. I'd simply state that it's worth playing, I just hope you have alot of spare time for it.

"The statements I make in this review are based on my personal opinion and experiences."

Kingdoms of the Lost is an extended mud. It has many, many features built atop a rom codebase and has one of the richest collections of non-stock areas. Enough to keep a player busy for a period of a year, after which, as I found, many regret having spent their time there.

I've made alot of features for this mud, and I'm sorry to say that I myself regret implementing them, because the mud did not turn out the way it should. The bulk of additions give the mud an incredible first impression, but the long term players find themselves battling alts of people that have cheated severely, taking away the fun of growing big (which is very time consuming).

When I found the implementors cheating with their alts, and was told to accept it or to leave, I could not stop thinking of the players that had prev2iously been deleted over things much smaller. And that is a shame, because the work that was done on the mud (including alot of good work from the implementors) goes to waste.

Other than that, the mud is heavily quest-based. The classes are still somewhat unbalanced (cough), but growing strong is a matter of equipment, so everyone can eventually have a chance of equal battle (between players). The player base is a good one, many friendly and helpful players are more then willing to guide you around the mud, and I've found the newer staff members to be very friendly as well.

If you're up to some double standards (immortals and players) and feel like a mud with rich features, this is a mud you'll like alot. Just remember that, after you've grown large in character and attached to the mud, it is a matter of whether the implementors (and their alts) like you that will allow you to have a pleasant time, and not how hard you try playing on it.

Bodros von Horstmann, former main coder of KoTL.

This mud has some very interesting features, the quest tokens that you can use to buy quest equipment or create custom gear, the socketgems and moxes that can be added to equipment to increase their stats, runestones with specific attribute bonuses etc, and runic equipment that levels with you. There is also a decent remort system using tiered classes, and race evolution when you max out your stats.

There are also quite a number of special weapon flags that can result in awesome weapons. The only problem is that if you are starting as a new player, you are never going to catch up to the power of the people running around with full sets of custom equipment. And against them in a pkill situation, you have no chance.

The mud has a small player base, which is dominated by one group of extremely well equiped people who all seem to owe allegiance to each other, so unless you want to jump on their bandwagon or just avoid them all together, you are at a disadvantage as a new player.

Some of the players will call this 'roleplaying', but it is a thin excuse for some to be able to bully and murder new players they have a disagreement with.

Some of the other drawbacks in the mud: The mobs of the realm are also not 'intelligent.' You can attack, flee, come back and most mobs don't remember you.

Items become 'owned' by a character, which prev2ents you from giving them to somebody else or auctioning them off. This is only for runic equipment, but in the end when all the equipment you want to end up having is runic, it results in characters not being able to lose any equipment. This means that even if you are able to pkill one of the super-equiped people, they lose nothing but some gold, quest tokens, and stat points that they can easily regain. In my opinion this really takes away from the fun of pkill, which is competition between people and occurs where you are at risk of losing something you had to work hard to get. In KOTL, there is no risk.

Another drawback is the inability to get things identified except by mage classes. This makes it very hard for new players of other classes to try and figure out what equipment they should keep. It also ends up again benefitting the older players giving them even more advantage since they have most likely created a mage just for identifying items as an alternate character, or have made a mage class their main character (this seems to be the dominant class, since mages can 'gate' to mobs, which allows for easy questing and the accumulation of quest tokens to buy quest/custom eq).

In the end this is an enjoyable mud for some of its unique features, but I found it lose it's luster quite quickly because of the lack of a good player base with balanced sides in pk. Most people sit around questing for the majority of time once they have gathered a decent set of eq.

The best thing that could happen to this mud would be a reset of the player files to level the playing field, otherwise I don't see the player base growing because it is already dominated by a group of super equiped players.

Sylke

I've been playing different MUDs for about five years now, but I must say KotL is the best yet. My first night playing I was greeted warmly by the players who assisted me with getting on my feet, helping me get equiptment, leveling, teaching me the way around the realm, and so on.

The character creation itself is a little time consuming, but is well worth it. Rather than having the normal race, class, gender, selection they give you a wide range of qualities to choose from, hair color, eye color, body type, ect. which in my opinion makes for a more diverse population.

The immortals are all wonderful, taking action whenever needed, they don't let any cheating go unnoticed, making the game itself more fair and while it may be challenging, it's much more enjoyable.

From the imaginative areas and room descriptions,to the friendly players and staff, KotL is a wonderful place for any mudder.

I had never really played any MUD's before this one. I had always thought that text based games were extremely lame. I was at Summer school when another player of KoTL introduced me to my new addiction. Great fighting system, overall. Many different classes to choose from and the tiering system is awesome!

Many different races put in for some great roleplay. The different races get their own bonuses! Getting the chance to be a dragon is really awesome.

The equipment is varied, as well. Everything is thought of from swords, to armor, to shoes even! It's great. You can also restring your equipment, at the cost of some gold, to anything you want! It's really great.

KoTL is completely free, and that's a plus for anyone who wants something to do during the days.

What can I said about Kotl that hasn't already been said except the honest truth. I am not a regular player there so I will not buff it up and lie to you making you think it's the greatest thing next to cotton candy, because it's not. It lacks originality and character. It's the same old same old. It may have a few slight differences, but nothing is completely original. Mob run quest, quest tokens, socket gems, quest gear, custom gear. It's all the same you can find at alot of the newer or revamped muds these days.

However, you may find it comforting to know that the imms like to play snoop and they will silently snoop you no matter what you do so don't do anything bad and if you plan to go to the hotel with that special someone, know now, don't do anything real bad or you will be the talk of the oc channels. The immstaff press hard about not revealing to other characters who other players alts are, but they have no problems breaking this rule themselves.

So take heed young adventurers if you're looking for a good mud, don't stop here. Keep travelling my friend and one day the road less travelled will open to reveal a much better landscape.

ta for now Sanen Jadestorm

There's alot of good things to say about KotL so far, from what I have seen. I've been playing here on and off for several months now, and each time I attempt to take any kind of a break from it, I wind up missing the people and atmosphere enough to come back. It's not a 'fast' MUD. You don't hit max level in a day or even a week, like most places I've been to. Questing is a big part of improving yourself, but if you log the hours, you do get rewarded for your effort. Roleplay is encouraged greatly, and the roleplay experience system really takes advantage of this.

I still haven't nailed down the one or two things that catch my eye. There's actually quite a few small things weaved together that do that for me. There are still some shortcomings, like class balance can be an issue, and there's not enough areas yet to reach max level, but the staff always seems to be adding changes and updates, and they are still listed as a BETA MUD, so it's understandable. Honestly, given the many original ideas, and all-new areas, when this MUD does come out of BETA, I'll probably be quite glad I was one of the first to find it.

There's a lot of MUDs out there claiming to be unique, and all of them are vying for player attention. Simply put, this is the one I keep coming back to.

This is a really great mud, it has so much more than a stock mud. Multiple kingdoms, all sorts of gem, runestone, etc... systems, as well as cool stat game and evolution and tiering systems.

A fair amount of roleplay exists here, but there is also quite a bit of PK (although you don't have to involve yourself). I'd give it an A+.

Also the number of players is fairly high, averaging 30+ at peaks times, even on weekdays.

Kingdoms of the Lost is a very good and unique mud. Throughout my years of mudding and trying out new ones I have only found 3 muds that I thought were interesting enough to play for more than 30 minutes.

This mud has a very friendly, dedicated, and hard working imm staff, as well as players who are willing to answer a new players questions. Besides having an excellent and helpful playerbase, this mud has great gameplay as well as a good roleplaying environment.

There is an extensive choice of races to choose from and each of the basic classes can reach many different tier levels which provides an opportunity for diversity and for each player to be unique in their own way. Races can also evolve into more powerful versions of their race and gain more innates as well.

There are alot of great and unique additions to the code which make this a great place to play. Too many good features to list here, my suggestion would be if you're looking for a fun mud to play that supports hack and slash, roleplaying, or exploring, whatever style of gaming you prefer, then this would be the ideal mud for you to check out in this player's opinion.