Review Submitted By: Pale
Author Status: Player
Started on Forgotten Kingdoms: 1999
Submission Date: Nov 12, 2005
TMC Listing: Forgotten Kingdoms
The following review is the opinion of the review's author [Pale]
and in no way represents the opinions of this website or its staff.
Forgotten Kingdoms is a very unique MUD with a lot of good
roleplaying opportunities to a very restricted extent. This MUD's
base on the Forgotten Realms is controlled drastically to the point
where you're playing a basic game of D&D from the Player's Handbook
in an already created world. In the past they accepted many things,
such as good aligned Drow, Half-Drow, Liches, and many others.
However, come to date, you have to earn the right to play these
things, previously by applying. If they felt you were a 'good
enough' roleplayer they'd let you. Today you have to earn points in
their special point system which is not very easy to do at all. To sum
that up you are stuck with Moon Elves, Shield Dwarves, Lightfoot
Halflings, and so on for a pretty long while, so long it's not really
worth the headache and unfun chores to butter up to the IMMs enough
just so you can play a Wild Elf.
Another thing that displeases someone is their roleplay as the
deities. A major experience I have had in the years that I played
there is you could not even speak a deitie's name without them
getting upset with you. Even some of the good aligned deities were
like this. In True Forgotten Realms most of the deities even have
flaws, they are not able to hear all and no, they do not always watch
over Waterdeep, which happens to be the most used city you can go to.
In this MUD saying the name Cyric more often than not bought you a
death that starts an RP that often gets others killed til you wait
about 30 minutes to get ressurrected.
Speaking on death, they have a strict rule that you must act like
you've never died before in actions, however in roleplay you can,
very carefully, admit to being killed before. Let us point out that in
many D&D stories death has reached characters several times. Some of
these characters, especially the rogues of not so evil nature, admit
to death rather jokingly. Take note on the third official module from
Neverwinter Nights, the halfling henchman admits to such rather
playfully once you ressurect him.
There is also a very harsh system in joining a church, and without
joining a church you can't, that's right can't, worship a deity.
You can roleplay an aspirer, but that's it. They also restrict it to
allignments, you have to match or match as close as possible to the
deity your character wishes to follow, and you have to fit the 'right
class' as well. Even though some good alligned people of some cities
worship Beshaba, they don't seem to care much. Not to mention they
give you a near impossible quest for your level and class. On a rare
occasion will they allow you to do one that's easy, but only when
you've either buttered them up enough of the IMMs actually feel they
should show off their 'newbie helping skills' as I've heard it
stated before.
Many of the characters people play are in some way concieted or
paranoid. Not many stick by the true nature of the Forgotten Realms,
just like the MUD itself. The IMMs have taken a perfectly great world
and bended it over their knee and spanked it a few times to make it
just a dull and pointless experience. While yes they offer some great
code and a lot of really good systems, the overall cost of all this is
to feed and bend to the utter will(which is a very controlling will)
of the IMMs, especially Mystra's who seems to have the overall say of
it all. I do not recommend this MUD if you want pure FR RP, but if you
do not mind being controlled just for the benefit of a few code
systems then play away. I just would not recommend this to anyone who
loves variety at all.
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Submit Comments About this Review
Comment Submitted By: Jadom
Author Status: Player
Started on Forgotten Kingdoms: 2001
Submission Date: Feb 3, 2007
(The following review comment is the opinion of the comment's author
[Jadom] and in no way represents the opinions of this website
or its staff).
I know this review is a bit old, but I personally tend to read
all of the player reviews for any MUD I am looking into, so I
thought I would respond to some of the 'points' made for
prospective new players.
The Special Roleplay Applications are, as the name implies,
primarily for 'Special' RP's, read: complex or difficult
roleplays outside what is all ready available. They exist so
that the Staff can be sure you have a good grasp of what it is
you want to do and knowledge of it as it relates to the Forgotten
Realms setting.
I personally have submitted two such applications and both were
approved within a couple of days. Both were also submitted only
a couple of months after I had started playing, so it was hardly
a matter of 'buttering up' the Staff.
The 'Special Points' he refers to is the Kismet System. You earn
Kismet simply for hours played, other players can reward you with it
for good roleplay, and deities can also give you Kismet. It is not
very hard to earn at all.
It is required for different races because those races often have
significant stat and ability boosts that the Staff do not want to
see abused, and there are also some roleplay consideration, goblins
and orcs cannot go traipsing around Waterdeep for example. It is also
required for some of the more distant/less populated hometowns, to
ensure that the player has enough experience to get around and find
things without as much help as is readily available in Waterdeep.
Regarding IC interaction with Deities. I have had characters who have
chatted with deities, and even got a gift from one when my character
was on the receiving end of one his Priests pranks. If deities tend
to show up angrily when you say their names I'm inclined to think it
was /what/ you were saying about them that got their attention.
There is no rule that you must pretend that you have never died, or
only talk about it in furtive whispers. It is required that you treat
death as a serious event roleplay wise. You can't just stand up,
shake the Priests' hand, and carry on about your business.
The alignment restrictions for joining a Church are mostly true to
FR. As for the differences, and this ties back to the mention of Good
aligned drow, it is because even in FR evil followers of good
deities, or good followers of evil deities are the exception rather
than the rule. The problem that arose was that without the
restrictions in place, everyone wanted to play the exception, which
rather defeats the purpose.
To the best of my knowledge there are no class restrictions on
joining a Church. As for the faith quests, like many of the NPC
quests, they are generally not meant to be solo'd. They are
designed to encourage you to interact with other players by
getting help and advice from them. And from a purely roleplay
prospective, a faith quest is a fairly big thing, they are not
going to ask you to just nip down to the local tavern and get
them a tankard of ale.
For the last part, since he didn't actually provide any examples
of this 'conceited or paranoid' behavior or how someone wasn't
remaining true to Forgotten Realms, I won't really respond other
than to say in all the years I played FK until RL events pulled me
away I always found both the players and staff to be helpful and
friendly, and I never found another MUD with as consistent and high
a standard of roleplaying.
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