Nanvaent is one of the oldest muds there is. It's a highly developed medieval style mud with a huge play area, over 30 races and 14 guilds - something to suit every play style.

Nanvaent is very newbie friendly When you start, you will appear in the immigration office as a human. A short hop north will take you into the newbie area, where you can learn all about the races, guilds and basic commands. There is a CHAT and NEWBIE channel to speak to other players and to get help.

I have tried quite a few other muds but Nanvaent is always the one I go back to. Very simple to get the hang of (the easiest I have found). I have yet to start a character without being kitted out and given money by higher players within a few hours.

If you are new to muds, fancy a change or are just curious - try Nanvaent. We are a happy, friendly bunch from both sides of the pond.

Join Nanvaent, have fun, make friends - become one of us. See you there

Nanvaent is one of those rare things, a game that can keep me coming back to it. You know how it is...you buy a new game for your pc, and no matter how much fun they are, you always get bored eventually.

Not so with Nanvaent. I’ve been playing since two of my friends got me hooked when they went to University in 1996. I played for a bit, and was told that I should go to the next “Nan Party”, so I went along. It turned out to be a weekend full of fun – drinking, laughing, telling stories about Nan, meeting new people. All in all, great fun. So when I got home, I logged on again. This time I recognised some of the names, and was able to talk to a few more people than just my two mates. This helped me no end.

As a newbie, I found that I got lots of help from various kind hearted people, especially when they quickly realised that I hadn’t a clue what I was doing – this is still my first MUD! However, once I got to a slightly higher level, I found that I was a target for serial killers, which led to me starting new characters. Eventually I became tired of having to change character every time one of these serial killers logged in, and I drifted away for around 3 years, before coming home drunk one night and logging in.

Now, I’ve got a character in almost every guild (10 out of 13), and most of them are fairly high level. I’ve got three addicts (level 100+), including one character that reached the dizzy heights (at the time) of level 211, and became the Guild Master of the Clerics guild. The serial killers have gone away now, or limit themselves to established players, so as not to scare off newbies, which is a good thing IMO.

Admittedly, the days of regularly having 30 players on at a time are gone, and no-one spends their Saturdays playing and competing with each other to get the latest football scores onto the Sports channel any more, but it’s still fun. There have been more and more (and more!) quests added since I’ve been playing, and even two new guilds. The guilds have all been beefed up, and the arena fights have brought a new lease of life to the game – PVP without losing a life is a lot more attractive than being unexpectedly slaughtered “with extreme style and precision”.

It’s my 11th year here now, but I still come back time and time again, because of the people. I’ve made lots of friends here, and no matter how you’ re feeling, there’s always something to laugh at, someone to talk to, something new to do, somewhere new to explore. I’ve been to over 10 Nan parties and meets, met loads of people IRL, including some of the players who came over from the Netherlands and Greece, and even people who came over from America. I’ve yet to meet any of the Aussies or Kiwis, but they’re on my list!

In short, Nanvaent has become and been a way of life for me, and it could for you too. All you have to do is login, and don’t be afraid to ask for help.

Nanvaent was once a great mud with a helpful playerbase, in the last few years the mud has gone downhill. In the attempt at keeping players the admin have 'relaxed' the rules on swearing over channels, are actively 'turning a blind eye' to cheating, char sharing, etc. If you are not apart of the 'in crowd' you have rumours started accusations start. In the last 6 months a lot of players have left the mud due to this.

In short if your either not 'apart of the incrowd' or female (and willing to do 'stuff' on webcam as some have done) your not going to have a good time playing this mud.

In 1998 when i started I could rate nanvaent as a 13+ mud due to the fact of graphic discriptions of killing, etc. Now in 2005 with the relaxing of rules, I wouldn't be happy seeing any kid playing this mud due to a few players and creators happily spamming the chat channel with swearing and harrassment.

This is my personal opinion and I've personally seen the cheating/harassment going on.

When I first started with Nanvaent it struck me that it was a huge place. You first enter in the village Nanvaent (some races begin elsewhere) where guilds, shops, and a library can be found. And it easy to travel to cities with the coach when you are a newbie. Also following the main roads takes you to the main cities. The world has many jungle's, plains, deserts where you can get lost and wich makes the experience more real..

About the players I can be short, some are helpful(most are), and there are the nasty kind who try to attack you. Just as in real life.

The builders are very active in creating new area's to play with, but on the downside the Guilds have recently halted in progression. But everyone agrees that once we find the right people the Guild domain is going to be active again.

Have a look at telnet://nanvaent.org:23 or visit www.nanvaent.org See you there, Jaguara(Jag)

Nanvaent is a great mud, you never get bored, because there is always something to do whether that is killing countless npcs with friends that you will make or going on one of the 84 different quests of varying difficulty.

The age difference in Nanvaent is quite large. I, myself, am one of the youngest players starting when I was 13. Some of the people i have met, are over 40. People are always there to help you, and most guilds are easy to get used to.

I only play one mud, and this is the one, some people have been playing it for over 10 years and ive met one or two people that have been playing for longer than i have been alive.

I hope to see you on Nanvaent sometime, its great fun, and new players are always welcome.

Nanvaent is the MUD of choice for me for many reasons. [quest and kill medieval setting mud]

DETAILS There is great detail in a concentrated way for most areas. You will often notice ambient messages, nearly always varied [you won't see the same exact ambient msg repeated over and over]. The environment can be heavily examined and often this leads to quests or new areas or just fun surprises [ and deadly surprises].

There are varied texts for many thing, although not everything. For example, one monk skill, slam, has over 40 random descriptions that can be generated during it's use. Although it is not one of the most colored MUDS, it certainly has many colored texts, especially for important texts.

Races are generally quite different and unique, rather than simply different cosmetics and stats [ not always though ] Many races have unique commands and some have unique equipments they can wear. Even the best players/creators who have played forever still only know probably 80% of the game, there are incredibly large amounts of secrets, secret areas, etc although not always useful or good [aka deathtraps].

QUESTS There's a wide variety of quests that are very unique and designed to be realized and solved by the play as they play [Partly Nonlinear]. The rewards ranging from befriending npcs who will aid you, to powerful items or skills that you may keep, to a simple thanks =P, all quests give quests points which increase skill. While asking for quest info in public is discouraged, if you have trouble, most players are willing to talk with you privately to provide aid.

GUILDS/JOBS The different jobs[guilds/classes whatever] are designed to be unique from each other, and generally feel that way, basically meaning that each job will bring a totally new experience and style of play as opposed to 'different' jobs with nearly similar skills named differently.

All the standard jobs[fighter,wizard,knight,cleric,thief,bard] are there, with many more unique jobs such as necromancers, monks, foresters, barbarians, wolf pack, and elementalists. While some guilds such as necromancers are 'subguilds' each guild has its own separate skills, which will not carry over. Necromancers aren't a continuation of wizards, they have their own skills and lose their wizardry, wizard too have their own skills for people who choose to stay wizards.

ENVIRONMENTS: Built from scratch basically, many unique and large environments, while areas may not be large from a simple run, they often have multiple hidden, or connected areas that increase their size and complexity. Night/Daytimes. Weather [often but not always cosmetic], diseases [bad, very bad]. Complexity and detail are key.

COMMANDS: There is a pretty powerful alias system [ one of my turnoffs to a MUD is a weak alias system ] that allows aliases within aliases, and multiple chained commands. Syntax feels pretty natural most of the time [ open with , put in , get all , 2 , and 3 -> third z in the room]

RPIN: Rping is rather weak, if done, it is usually done/implied through soul/emote commands. It is allowed but not enforced in any way. This is for personality RPING, jobs are very well built and realistic in many ways, thieves can mug and steal items from enemies, NPCs necromancers raise will be intact with their skills/race and can be given commands/equipment rather than simply transforming into generic zombies etc.

Players: There aren't as many players these days, the average being around 10-20, which is the purpose of this review. =P Most have quit from overplaying the mud so they can get on with their lives. Generally, players are friendly and even playerkillers/ serialkillers will help you with information and knowhow [ until you get into their range ( within 10 levels ). However since the motto of the game is: explore and discover, some people tend to tell you this rather than giving help. It is true that its .often. more fun to find out things yourself rather than having it ruined, but if you really need to know, try asking different people privately.

Gameplay: Food and drinks provide healing, but aren't required, you have a health and energy bar which decreases as you get hurt [you can not know exact damage dealt, and exact current hp/energy] degrees of damage are shown through messages [ you cut/slash/lacerate/create a gaping wound etc]. Stats are chosen by the player and slightly effected by races, stats heavily influence abilities. There is a VERY VERY wide range of choices for race, and uniqueness is attempted. NPCs tend to be well designed and well descripted, often they have several unique messages or descriptives, and many die deaths specially described for them rather than just 'you kill x, it dies' Combat is in rounds and is fought automatically leaving the player to use special skills, switch attack modes, use items etc. Mud clients, triggers, etc are allowed, as long as it isn't used to play FOR you, to cheat [multiplay where characters interact with each other], etc. PlayerKilling is allowed within 10 levels, a killer becomes bountied, and many kills will make them a serial killer [ANY level player can attack the serial killer], there are safe grounds protected from PKs. All jobs/guilds are well made, unique, and balanced to be powerful. All the jobs play like you would expect them to, and all jobs are very good/powerful. While there are no bad/weak jobs, the playing difficulties of jobs do vary.

I dunno what else to say really, so here goes anything else i can think of. The strengths of this game are in the gameplay, descriptions, and quality, its weakness might possibly be in RPing, it is slightly hard for unskilled players since it only gives 9 lives [more can be bought], it is extremely complex in areas and descriptions [makes quests harder, and newbies get lost very very very often, even advanced players can find themselves stuck in an area than most people have not seen or heard of]. Creators/immortals usually don't interact directly in the game.

Give this mud a try, and make sure to try the various guilds, while you may not like most you play, there maybe be one that you enjoy greatly because of the different playing styles. (make sure not to throw away the newbie guidebook, it's useful)

Btw you might see me: Kuch/Shini/Sait/Shift/Shirk

Nanvaent is a friendly and interesting mud with many different guilds and areas.

From wild mountains to the creepy underdark where dark elves roam, from the coppermines full of rodents to the mining settlement which has a curse on it at night, from the big cities and bright lights to the remote fishing villages reachable by scow.

They all have their charm and now with the most recent additions, two remote celtic villages in the wilds of Mhaolain, we the players have yet more to explore and discover.

For that is the trademark of Nanvaent, to encourage exploration and discovery. There are so many ways of being addicted to Nanvaent and at level 100, you become a full blown addict!! You may not find it such a doddle to get there though.... come and find out!