Review Submitted By: Wilderop
Author Status: Player
Started on The Inquisition: Atonement: A few years ago.
Submission Date: Feb 20, 2009
TMC Listing: The Inquisition: Atonement
The following review is the opinion of the review's author [Wilderop]
and in no way represents the opinions of this website or its staff.
The Inquisition mud is a unique mud unlike any other enforced
roleplay mud. On many MUDs magic has become mundane, but on the
inquisition, to have magic truly makes you a god among men. This is
achieved by staging the game in a setting where magic is outlawed and
even the slightest deviation from the current religious order means
extreme consequences, often death. To obtain magical abilities
requires one to navigate a social climate where every player is afraid
of even being associated (in public) with anything even hinting of
magic.
Roleplay always comes first on the inquisition, but the code that's
there to support the roleplay is also top notch and unique. Players
have complete control of their environment, but unlike a MUSH the
roleplay is expected to remain within the bounds of code as long as is
doesn't interfere with roleplay.
For example, combat happens by writing combat emotes where the game
parses your entries for certain keywords and takes into account your
skills, what direction you are facing, where in the room you are (the
rooms are 3d) if any injuries (like bruises, scrapes, cuts, fractures,
or broken arms) are hindering your movement.
The same level of detail applies to all coded crafts in the game,
which encourages roleplay and creativity by allowing players to work
their way up in a guild while learning about a trade. For example, if
you want to be a fletcher (making arrows), you'd have to be adept at
both woodcutting (so you could go cut down some trees), woodworking
(so you can make the shafts for the arrows) and fletching (so you can
put it all together. You even have the option of killing birds and
skinning their corpses for feathers, if you don't want to buy them
from a shop.
What's most important about the code is it supports your rp so you
can focus on the meat of the role-play and not little technicalities,
the code is there to make the world you're in apply the normal rules
that usually exit in real life. Like when you talk at a bar, not
everyone in the tavern can hear you (if you keep your voice low), but
the code goes a step further and lets little bits be heard adding
mystery to what otherwise would require additional suspension of
disbelief.
There are of course some negatives about the inquisition. The
immortal staff is not on as much as players would like. The player
base is fairly small, making finding a roleplay partner in the middle
of the day sometimes a challenge. It can take a while before your
character is established and gets to participate in 'juicy'
roleplay (With the risk of certain death people are careful who they
run their mouth in front of).
However, if you like a good mystery and are up to the challenge of
surviving as either a good citizen or secret rebel (or somewhere in
between) then come try theinquisition.org port 5050.
