Welcome to Dragonrealms, the best and worst MUD you'll ever play. I'll start with the good. DR has several dozen skills you can train, and the systems themselves are robust and immersive. The experience system is such that you can do something for a while, and then do something else while that experience 'absorbs' into ranks. There are a few really complex and fun systems like sorcery that allow you to use spells from other guilds to customize your character a bit as well.

With 20+ years of development, there are a ton of items, a massive amount of lore, and a huge world to explore. You'll be taking boats, riding mammoths, crossing perilous rope bridges, and flying on balloons from province to province.

There's also a very active and helpful part of the community devoted to writing scripts that will help you get started with some middleware called 'lich'. Or, if you'd rather write your own scripts, there is a dedicated front end (though it's not free) that comes with a wealth of features including a frequently updated map system of the entire game.

For the most part, the community is helpful and friendly. However, like any game, there is a subset of players that are very high level, incredibly toxic, and will kill you for laughs. They can even circumvent the 'strict' pvp policy by just creating monsters in the room you're in to kill you instead of just killing you outright. If they can't summon monsters, they could intentionally blow up boxes and kill you that way.

So it's a great game, but it has a lot of problems. First, it takes a massive time investment to get anywhere. You can start PVP at any point, but you'll find that the vast majority of the PVP community is level 150 or higher, which will require about 4K-7K hours of time in game, depending on how efficient your scripts are. This wouldn't be so bad, as that's maybe 6-8 months of 24/7 scripting.

However, DR has a scripting policy that expressly forbids scripting while AFK, meaning those hours will have to be spent while you're watching your text scroll. If you're caught, you earn stacking penalties of the entirety of your XP, starting at 10%, then 25%, then 35%, and so on.

With how the XP system works, that 10% xp loss is more like 15-20% of your time invested. Diminishing returns in the xp system means it takes longer to earn a rank at higher skill.

There is a server called The Fallen (TF for short) that allows AFK scripting, but it costs $5 more a month. 1 character on the main server is $15 a month, TF is $20. Also, this server is PVP only, so you can expect to die a lot more often.

TF has a lot of other problems as well. It's neglected by staff, and has a history of being punished unfairly. For example, staff forgot to remove a portal to an event. Players kept using it, and staff was furious and cancelled the next event entirely. TF doesn't match the main world due to the neglect, so if you bought the front end with the nice maps they won't work like they do on the main server. TF has an incredibly small playerbase, maybe a dozen or two characters, and is completely devoid of an economy.

The economy on the main server isn't much better since DR introduced microtransaction (or MT) events.

Crafting is practically worthless because MT events have immensely better items. The in game currency is also practically worthless, and most in game items are sold for real money since the items worth having all come from MT events.

Development in the game is stagnant because of MT events. Instead of building the game's systems, or even finishing the ones that are half-implemented, staff builds pay-only events and items. Simutronics, the company that owns DR, was bought by a company that mostly deals with mobile games. I feel like this explains the reliance on MT events to generate income.

So this was my experience. I quit after I lost about 6 months of xp because I fell asleep on the couch watching Netflix. I guess even if I hadn't fallen asleep, I still wouldn't have noticed the script check. The staff actively doesn't want you to get 'big' and will do everything they can to stop you. As much as I love this game, it feels like it's been ruined by the company that runs it.

DragonRealms is the MUD that I first started on and the one I have stuck with from a young age. I played between 2003-2010 and returned in 2016-2018. During the first stint of my DR career I played a character named . At some point he was one of the largest Thieves (not the largest by any stretch, but up there). I also built the largest “family” in DR at the time with around a dozen and a half members. We started a number of IC organizations and my roleplay was a “bad guy” that toed the line of being frankly a bully. In 2010 I stopped playing for real life reasons.

In 2016 I returned. I didn’t return as my old character, because in retrospect I felt that I had been a mean to people beyond mere roleplay. I created a character named Maxwelinski who became one of the largest Bards in that time frame. By now the game had dwindled in population and most of the players would spend days at a time AFK scripting. Roleplay still exists, but only in small groups if you make it so. Eventually we rebuilt a large family.

During this period I “bonded” another character (DR’s version of marriage) and we began a relationship out of the game as well over the course of two years. The player applied to be a GameMaster (GM), the paid volunteer staff of DragonRealms. Previous to this we both had contact with existing GMs, two of whom quit and/or were fired.

I learned a great deal about the inner workings of DragonRealms. I was given GM training materials (despite being a violation of the rules and the NDA the volunteer staff are required to sign as a condition of employment) and I was given access to the GM account of the person I was dating at the time. These are serious breaches of both the employment contract and of the rules, as well as the spirit of the game. I was also regularly kept up to date on gossip, passed logs of cybersex in “private” rooms, and warned of impending “script checks” that would allow me to avoid the punishment for AFK scripting. (This in theory would allow you to leave your character running overnight and progress quickly, but in practice the AFK rule is rarely enforced so it's unlikely I received much of an advantage from this.) A few of the largest characters in DragonRealms are privy to this kind of favoritism.

I learned that almost everything in the game is regularly logged, despite Simutronics policy stating that it is not typical to watch or log players for private reasons. I learned that every venue of “private” conversation, for example private channels, whispers, conversations in the “private” rooms that adult behavior are allowed in, are regularly watched and recorded by GameMasters. I became very uncomfortable with this, because privacy is a concern for me, and I began to avoid all communication in the game as well as to conflict with my GM girlfriend at the time over this. We eventually broke up.

Over the course of the next approximate six months, this GM ex-girlfriend was allowed to put a script on me that recorded my every emote, say, whisper, and action. I would regularly be harassed out of the game (e.g. Discord) if I spoke to another girl in game or any friends she did not approve of. Further, this GM began to copy “alterations,” or unique items players are rarely allowed to write, and introduce them into the game as common items. These included personal wedding-themed and relationship-themed alterations I wrote as well as items based on pictures of my real life clothing – and even items with references to my name and initials – in them. It became an intimidating and frightening form of stalking.

I reported this to the senior staff or “boss” of the game, the Product Manager, who is responsible for hiring. I was told by other GMs that she would try to bury it, which she did. The stalking and harassment continued over the course of multiple events (multiple months) until it dwindled but never completely ceased.

At this point I was informed that the same Product Manager hired an individual who participated in what could be described as a DR-related “hate forum” or 'griefer' forum associated with DragonRealms and chats between 2003 and 2016. (I myself participated on these forums and bullied players for many years through them, which is one of the reasons I did not return on my oldest character, although I never engaged in the racist/homophobic/antisemitic elements of the forum. So I am speaking from first-hand experience on that side of the fence.) This was someone who regularly posted racist, antisemitic and homophobic diatribes on these forums. I reported this, too, to the Product Manager, as well as the rest of the staff and the corporate owners of the game (Simutronics/Stillfront).

During this whole period myself and friends were harassed by friends of the two aforementioned GMs and the Product Manager. The harassment often took on a sexual nature (sexual harassment) and also involved digging up information and doxxing players. Despite writing to corporate and Simutronics customer service multiple times, the harassment continued, the policy stating they would take no action on events that happened outside of their own servers. This despite the fact the same group of people have been engaging in the same behavior in this game for 15+ years.

I received no response from any staff regarding any of the issues I reported, which I found very inappropriate.

Antisemitism, racism and homophobia are deal breakers for me. When I learned that this individual was hired as staff I canceled my accounts. It is one thing to say that you are unwilling to stop the private behaviors of players out of the game. It is another thing entirely to hire staff who have regularly participated in stirring up racial hatred outside of the game over the course of many years.

DragonRealms has many good features, it’s a unique game mechanically in every way. However, the current Product Manager of the game seems unwilling to take a hard stance against the abuse or stalking of players, against sexual harassment by others in the game community, against cheating or rigging events by staff, and most importantly against antisemitism, racism, homophobia and hate.

I will end on a positive note and say that most of the DR staff is not like this. There are other GameMasters who are uncomfortable with the situation as well. However they do not have the authority to do anything and are likely afraid of the consequences of speaking out as well. If the Product Manager intends to protect abusive friends they hired it is the final say.

It is a game worth playing for its mechanical features, but only if the current Product Manager and Simutronics are willing to take a hard stance against the aforementioned stalking, racism, and so on. No game is worth playing if it refuses to stand up against hatred or allows its employees to abuse its players.

I've been to alot of websites and have played a vast variety of mud and text-based games, and have learned about each environment through questions and consistent gameplay, but they all seemed of been lacking something substantial behind them.

When I play Dragonrealms, I feel that I am part of a larger scheme, and though i'm but a lowly individual in such an immensely coordinated community, it does seem that actions I take in one place can almost always have a definite reaction for someone else in another.

It is truly hard to come by such professionaly crafted fantasy-roleplaying games such as Dragonrealms, especially if you are new to them. There are the Bleach games, the Inuyasha games, the mystery killer games, the gang war games, the lets have sex with everyone games, and everything else written that clutters the internet, that offer little substance other than familiarity in the subject and the simplicity in gameplay. Dragonrealms offers an extremely broad variety of paths and options that a character can take and choose as they go along, giving the game a more sophisticated air of play as people are able to go about their lives knowing that their hard work isn't just a carbon copy of the guy sitting next to them.

I feel that most people who play this game learn quite a bit about how to roleplay in Dragonrealms because this is just what it is, a serious roleplaying environment. This is the place where, if you have the will and imagination to create a person with a story behind them and a future ahead of them, then the only thing that limits you is the time and effort you put into it. And there aren't just invididuals with a story behind them, there are whole families as well, with rich heritage and backgrounds to make you believe that they've been a part of the the society for many generations.

The bottom line is, this is a place where people do more than just build a character and level it and make it strong; they create a sound character of sound quality and mind, gaining friendships with people over the community and integrating themselves into the mainstream of economic society, becoming a strong, supportive member of the community, and a person that everyone knows, and knows about.

I believe that anyone that sits down and takes the time to learn the simplest of game mechanics of the environment will find themselves unable to easily turn their backs to this game, dismissing it as graphic-less nonsense. This is a game worth putting time and effort into, if not for the rich experience found in moderate to extensive fantasy roleplaying, then for the many people you will meet along the journey, alot of whom will bring you insight and understanding to the game to make it more fun, as well as give you another quality person to talk to, in and out of game.

I recommend that other people try playing this game; there's a 30 day trial to play, and as I've seen, they do not automatically charge you to continue playing, but wait until you try to log on again after you have run out of free days, and gives you the *Option* of paying. So its a free 30 days of play, without them automatically snatching from your wallet.

Interested yet?

There's a reason that DragonRealms is one of the oldest, continually active MUDs on the Web. The depth of the game is unparalleled while still being accessible to new players.

ROLEPLAYING: If you enjoy roleplaying, the continuity is strictly enforced. Everyone takes care not to be OOC outside of whispers. Skills have IC descriptions like 'experienced practitioner' to cope with the awkward situation of explaining how many ranks you have in a particular skill. (Throwing out a bunch of numbers disrupts the continuity, as people tend not to think of their ability in terms of numbers.) Even wounds are more realistically described. Instead of losing 5 HP, your character might have some minor abrasions to the chest.

CHARACTER DEVELOPENT: The races are all nicely developed, with penalties and bonuses fairly balanced. (No race is worse than any other race overall, even though some races are better suited to some professions than others.) Character development is flexible and in-depth. While every profession has special abilities that can't be used by anyone else, there is a large pool of skills that can be learned by anyone. (Each profession learns different types of skills at different rates; Barbarians learn weapons quickly but lore slowly, for example.) This system allows you to customize your character to a degree not found in most games while maintaining some semblance of realism.

LEVELING UP: One advantage or downfall -- depending on how you view it -- is that the skill system tries to mimic real-life learning. When you gain experience, it does not immediately translate into increased ability. Rather, your mind slowly absorbs the new information. Furthermore, if you gain too much experience for too long, your mind will become murky, which means you need to take a break from training.

Nor do you gain generic experience that increases your overall ability. If you want to get better at a specific skill, you have to practice it. Unfortunately, this means that there are no shortcuts to creating a really powerful character. If you think you can power-level your way into a god within a few weeks of automated activity, think again. If you make the mistake of focusing on your guild's minimum requirements, you will find yourself outclassed by 'lower-ranked' players and unsuited to many of the game's challenges.

In the regular version of DragonRealms, you're not allowed to gain experience or other in-game advantages while AFK. This policy is double-edged sword. On the one hand, it keeps the game from turning into a RuneScape or World of Warcraft affair where most of the players are unresponsive to the game world. On the other hand, some of the required skills are very tedious and boring to learn. This policy is rigidly enforced, and violating it multiple times could result in the suspension of your account.

COMBAT: Combat is deceptively simple at first, but as you become more experienced with the game, you become aware of the complexity of the system. Effectiveness in combat is primarily determined by offensive skills, defensive skills, and balance/position, but strategy plays a key role.

Combat experience does not take the form of experience points gained for defeating monsters. (This helps to create a viable role in hunting parties for support characters who don't kill many monsters.) Rather, you gain experience in whatever skills you're using in the fight. Each monster has a maximum level beyond which it will not teach. This forces you to move on and find another challenge. (You can't become powerful by spending weeks killing low-level monsters.)

Most combat takes the form of hunting computer generated monsters, but PvP can occur if both players consent to it. This keeps the powerful characters from preying on the young. If you're primarily interested PvP combat, or if you want to script while AFK, you should consider playing the unmoderated version of the game.

DEATH: Yes, there's death in this game, and if you don't make sure that you have favors from the gods, that death might be permanent. Fortunately, an unwanted permanent death is rare, and novices don't have to worry about permanent death at all. Higher-level Clerics can resurrect the dead, and if there is no Cleric around, you can depart on your own.

NEW-PLAYER FRIENDLY: Despite its complexity, DragonRealms is fairly friendly to new players. Most of the main verbs have help syntax, and there is an advice system that will guide you through your first steps. Mentors are also available to answer questions, and most players are willing to help if you ask. Lately, the GMs have been revising several of the game's systems to make them more newbie-friendly.

PRICE: The first 30 days are free, but at $14.95 for a basic subscription (1 character), DragonRealms is fairly expensive for a MUD. Hundreds of players have found it to be a good value, but you're just going to have to determine that for yourself.

Dragonrealms is one of the most enjoyable and thorough MUDS i have ever played. Since playing this particular one I have found most others pale next to it. It is like the difference between a music album that is put together well by a successful band and an album that isn't so good put together by a while talented, not so fortunate band.

Dragonrealms has created a formula that blends well and most players (newbs and the aquainted) should find it to be well structured, with plenty of story and background, oodles of gaming options, an exquisite character creation, and very solid gameplay done in after a tasteful fashion.

Many elements of other muds including some original ideas and completely original game history gives the new player a sense of joining something old. And while there are plenty of old MUDS out there this one has so many people in it it literally feels like hopping into a fantasy book of a world bristling with 'traffic' and you can sometimes feel the hustle and bustle in popular places.

Many experienced and long time players and always new characters and players combine with it all to create old gristled warriors with the young new born adventurers.

Leveless and skill based, Regulated and RP influenced ensure you will not be -dissappointed from the get-go. Huge world (so many rooms you will never see them all i guarantee!!).

Bottom line looking for the perfect mud or just something new. Bam, pay to play but it is only 15 a month and the first month is free for THEY are so confident you will stay and play. As am I.

By Jonathan Haggerty Drysordan...friend of Stilicho

Well... what can be said for this game. One, I will tell you that it is really not a game in my perspective even though you have dragons, orcs, gobins and such that you can go around and kill. Before you do such things you must spend much time training your character to be able to hit that orc or goblin, as it is purely based off of skills. If you want to learn a skill you are not prev2ented and in result in order to 'balance' the game many barriers appear to be in the way.

In order to fight that goblin or orc, as stated above, one must know how to fight. Once you join a guild you are taught some basic skills that would help you to fight. But most likely it is not enough to fight many of the nearby creatures of the main town you are places in-- the Crossing. Therefore no matter what guild you end up joining you will always have a steep learning curve before you can fight any of the nearby creatures effectively. The only option is to go to a website that lists for you the difficulty of each animal and which ones to fight in order to get the skills you need in order to advance to the next place in the guild.

This difficulty of needing to know something in order to do a particular task is everywhere. Fletching, tanning, alchemy exists in the game, but one must spend hours on hours training skills in order to get at any significant place in in these crafts. In order to make sure you don't make any mistakes in your fetching, alchemy, or tanning one must learn a skill called Mechanical Lore. However, one learns it best not by doing alchemy, tanning or fletching, but by doing something simply as braiding grass into rope, or mashing things with a mortar and pedestal. You simply type 'braid my grass' to make your rope over and over again until you combine it to make the rope. This is not entertaining at all!

The same kind of repeated command entry is required with many other skills that are non-combat. If you want to be better at casting, then you must spend hours and hours of casting the same spell over and over all starring at the screen scroll the same repeated text over and over. Sorry, that is not a game. To make things even more difficult, automation of this is not allowed. You must, by all means, be interactive with that repetitive text and actions, but for what reason?

The reason has escaped me only to be replaced with confusion. If typing a command over and over yields a proportional increase in one skill, then I will not be sitting at the computer logged onto the game typing that command over and over like some machine.

I've digressed a bit. I apologize. As you have seen I haven't really concluded whether this game is good or bad, though most of my comments have been negative thus far. The reason of their negativity is based upon what I consider desirable in a game. This game tries to mimic reality in it's skill system. In real life you learn how do a particular task by doing/learning the necessary skills or steps. The same is true with DragonRealms, In doing so, it brings a degree of reality to the game. One must spend at least a month of constant, mindless command punching to reach a significant development of their characters. More is needed if one desires to master the game.

If you wish to master the game, expect command punching and many hours of starring at the same scrolling text over and over, as using any automation to attempt to speed something up.... okay I digress a bit to explain...

The first few ranks of a skill are easy to get if you do the right command or actions. However one you get up to rank 50 or so you start getting in ranks at about one to two per hour of constant command punching. When you need eight ranks of a skill among other skills that need just as many it totals down to many hours for just a small increase.

Therefore to make it humanly bearable, automation should be used. You CAN automate the development of skills, but you must be looking at the screen. Imagine sitting and starring at the computer do something while you do nothing. Now, also imagine doing that starring at the screen for hundreds of hours! Is that fun? Of course it is not fun, nor it is it a good use of time. Therefore to save your sanity, say you leave to do something else. In this case you would be in violation of their policy, which says that one must be responsive to the game environment at all times while one is gaining experience. This translates into them requiring you to sit at a computer while your computer scripts the commands for you ( typing all that repeatedly by hand would bore anyone). Does that sound like fun? No and you are paying for them to tell you that.

DragonRealms is far from a game. It behaves more like a simulation (hence the name Simutronics, the name of the company that creates and runs DragonRealms). Simulations themselves are the least gamelike of all games. Dragonrealms just can't decide what is wants to be- a roleplaying game, a simulation, or reality.

Dragonrealms is a great mud. It is a pay to play mud, but after you try the 30 day trial for free you will see why it is the best mud out there. The game usually has about 1200 players on after about 5pm EST on weekdays and all the time on the weekends.

The entire mud is skill based so you aren't stuck fighting creatures for exp. There is a wide assortment of guilds such as the empaths, the healers of the realms and transfer the wounds of others unto themselves, who if they harm a living thing go into shock and lose their ability to heal others. There are thieves, rangers, bards, clerics, paladins, warrior mages, moon mages, barbarians, clerics, and traders. There are also many original races as well as the classics, halfling, dwarf, etc.

The world is absolutely huge. I have been playing on and off for 3 years now and still have seen very little. My main character is a trader so I travel from town to town making money and I have yet to see even off of the first continent, and there are 5 of them.

The players are extremely friendly and unlike all the other muds there is no newbie school but there are Mentors that are always available to help you get started and pointed in the right direction. If you ever have a question just find another player or Mentor.

The thing that attracts me to this game is the fact it is skill based. If you want to learn to pick and disarm traps and boxes feel free. Want to learn how to use that two-handed sword or battle axe go right on. Feel like learning to steal, be my guest (even though it is dangerous and can be deadly!)

There is PK but it has to be RPed. You can't just go around killing people all day long. This is enforced. There is also a naming policy that you must adhere to so you won't be playing the game with players like BigPimpin, etc. The RP is not enforced but it is highly praised and can earn you RP points to use on special items and such.

Try Dragonrealms. It is free for the first month and I guarantee you will love it. They also have a RP enforced version called platinum and a version that is not enforced at all and anything goes call The Fallen.

www.dragonrealms.com

If you ever see Gildok say hi and I will help you the best I can.