Review Submitted By: Sue
Author Status: Player
Started on Lensmoor: April 23rd, 2002
Submission Date: Jul 2, 2007
TMC Listing: Lensmoor
The following review is the opinion of the review's author [Sue]
and in no way represents the opinions of this website or its staff.
I started playing Lensmoor in Spring of 2002, at my best friend's
urging. I have never regretted this decision! There is a plethora of
things to do provided you have a good imagination. I love the fact
that this game is completely in text, not a big fan of fancy graphics
and video-game style games. I've tried other MUDs, but nothing comes
even close to what I've experienced at Lensmoor.
A word of advice to newbies: When you create, turn off channels that
will be rather spammy as I got quite lost in the beginning because the
screen rolls text so quick and I read -everything- in the beginning.
These channels would include Grat, quest, info, and ooc. Grat is the
congratulations channel where friends lend encouragement for goals
met. Quest channel tells you who all in the game has just completed a
quest, as well as immortal game announcements. However, regardless of
whether quest is turned off or not, you will still be informed about
immortal run global quests in such a manner: [QUEST] Arawn has
announced a quest! Upon seeing this message you can type 'quest
info' to see what the quest is about. Info is a channel that lists
who has logged on or off, as well as level gains and deaths. When you
are learning its really not necessary to have this channel on as why
should you care if 'Sue has attained level 76!'? OOC is a channel
for out of character conversation, which can cover any number of
concievable topics from thanking immortals for restores to your
average chatroom banter (with PG-13 limitations, of course...) These
can be toggled on/off in this manner: channel 'boardname' (example:
to turn off grats- channel grat).
There is a wide variety in the playerbase itself. Though the game is
localed in the USA, players hail from many different countries. We
have several from the Netherlands, Canada, England, and countless
others besides. We even have a player stationed in Iraq currently who
plays from the desert! The MUD is PG-13 rated, though more restricted
than the movie ratings. We're PG-13 due to the violence, so profanity
is not tolerated on Lensmoor. Keep it off the public channels. No need
to worry about your 10 year old seeing a bunch of trash on the screen.
Most of the players are older, however. You'll find stay at home
moms, adults who play at work and home (shhh, don't let their boss
know!), teenagers who play at the library, at school.
If you are totally new to the gaming process, don't be afraid to ask
for help. The Newbiehelp channel is exactly that, help for newbies.
Established players use it as well, for their own questions. No one
knows everything, and many players make it a point to keep newbiehelp
on to assist everyone. If you need help getting established as a
roleplayer, many players are configured as willing to help, though one
should not see this as this person will level and equip me... the
label is meant for those who are willing to help people roleplay.
Their status can be seen on the 'who' list. Any player who is a
helper will have cyan (light blue) brackets around their level as well
as 'Willing to Help' on their whois file.
There are clans for just about every person's style: evil, good,
neutral, chaotic, and the non-playerkilling (NPK). With the
non-playerkilling clans, there are two to choose from. The scholars
(Sykin) and the crafters (Artificers). I have yet to make a
playerkiller character so I cannot speak too well for their clans.
The playerbase in general is friendly and involved in keeping their
game as fun as possible. You will find that players usually display a
preference for what continent they play on. The continent of Lensmoor
is composed of the 'haves' and Antrippa is composed of the
'have-nots.' Lensmoor is lush and enlightened, Antrippa is harsh and
desolate. These two continents are at war. Recently two new remort
races have been implemented and flagged as Antrippa only races. With
the addition of Gilska and Genie races, roleplay opportunities expand!
If you enjoy a challenge, Antrippa is the place to be. If you enjoy
taking it easy and having plenty of others around, Lensmoor continent
is what you'll enjoy.
What I enjoy most about Lensmoor is the ability to craft items. There
are 28 separate craft skills that can be learned and they vary from
collecting raw materials such as lumberjack, farming, and mining to
refining crafts woodwork and metalwork to finishing crafts such as
magecraft, baking, and blacksmith. You are able to craft weapons and
armor as well as enchant them with a variety of properties and stats
as you desire. Jewelry and clothing can be made by players, as well.
Though many are fine with collecting game-loaded equipment, many like
the customization they can take control of with crafted equipment.
Marriages are available to characters once their character is both at
least age 16 and level 10. Keep in mind however, that there is no
option to divorce if you make a mistake. There is the ability for
players to create their own families through the mate command. This
may or may not result in a pregnancy. Some races cannot procreate with
the other, and some may only through use of fertility potions granted
by the immortals. Gestation periods vary and there is no guarantee for
a live birth. If your character has a death, the pregnancy is lost.
Some races lay eggs. Once a live birth occurs you are prompted to name
the child, which will become a playable character that starts the game
at age 7. You can then decide to play the child yourself or seek
someone in the playerbase to play the child character.
(Some of the things I spoke of were taken directly from helpfiles in
the game, if you ever have questions and are unwilling to ask on open
channels, there is a helpfile for every spell, skill, immortal,
command, etc. You can also find a list of all helpfiles on the
Lensmoor website.)
