I have been playing Darker Realms for about one year now, and although I have taken some long breaks, I eventually find myself back at it. My highest character is level 13 (not too good =p), but it would be probably nowhere if DR wasn't so newbie friendly.

The first thing I found lovely about the game was the character creation. You enter a name, a password, and your sex, then you start playing. I had only tried one MUD before DR (can't recall the name) which had a ridiculously long creation screen, especially if you have never mudded before and have no idea about what Race, Sub-race, Sub- sub race, class, sub-class, etc. to chose. You chose your guild ('class') as you play the game and become familiar with how to play it. There are two newbie areas in the game, as well as several puzzles that can be done for experience. High level players have also been friendly and willing to help get those first few levels.

I briefly mentioned guilds above. Guilds are basically what another RPG might call a 'class', your stats and abilities (even the way you talk in some) change when you join one. Other than the Alchemist's guild, which is actually on the Newland-town map, they all require you to find the hidden guild hall before joining it. Some guilds require a quest, others require a fee to join. There are 7 guilds, the Alchemist's, Cybertech's, Mage's, Paladin's, Shape-shifter's, Dragon's, and Barbarian's guild. This is much preferable to the 400+ classes that might be offered by other MUDs, who require you to chose before ever setting foot in the game.

Another thing about Darker Realms that I find attractive is that player advancement is not based solely on killing everything in sight, but also in taking time to solve heroic quests, such as slaying the Minotaur, saving an Explorer from a dragon, or playing Solitaire. These quests often involve role-play, puzzle solving, and exploration. Like guild hall locations, quest solutions are secret, and I have had to been reminded, by others and myself, that quests aren't meant to be solved in 5 minutes, but that just adds to the great satisfaction of solving a quest, and earning quest points.

The Realms consist of beautiful areas, some just begging to be explored. Many are based on literature, which has actually led to me learning of new things (Jabberwocky). There are consistent characters in DR, many of which have no purpose except to annoy people (The Tourist, may 1,000 curses inflict him in his afterlife...wait, he doesn't have one!!!), and others which are just funny (Jivemimic, or should I say JIBEmimic).

Overall, Darker Realms is a large area filled with amazing areas, interesting quests, and an all around friendly and great game which makes me regret every time I return from a ...break.

Annoyer/Haldir/Alatar/Pallando/Tiresias

I first stumbled upon the darker realms while doing semi-random searches and trying out muds. It was the first mud that I was able to 'walk' into and try out without major time investment. I have since invested more than a little, ok a great deal of time in my attempt to unravel it's secrets.

There is no PK at DR. I like that. The gameplay is fairly simple at first with the typical character creation cycle followed by the seemingly dizzy stumbling about trying to get oriented with the three main areas.

I have since discovered many other areas to explore, with some being hidden only by a boat ride or opening a door and others quite well hidden, with the entrances eluding me to this day.

There are several guild choices and each has it's strengths and weaknesses. Some are easy to join, requiring only that you find the main guild hall to sign up, while others have entrance quests and are hidden. The rewards for aligning yourself within a guild are well worth the effort and add strength and individuality to your character. Advancement is by solving quests and gaining experience through battle with monsters ranging from the usualogres, elves, dragons and the like to more exotic creatures such as the terminator and bugblatter beast of rahl and even a smurf or two.

The quests vary in difficulty and thus in reward. Some quests are dangerous and can cost you your life unexpectedly. The quest system is well defined and a review system was recently updated to show the difficulty and playability of each quest.

There are several special events put on by the Wonderful and friendly staff at DR. These are usually placed around holidays and are often on a weekend. During these events you might encounter some interesting real time games going on like Wheel of terror(fortune) and sometimes quest point trivia. Holloween brings out a demon that runs amok terrorizing the entire world until somebody kills it(cheesy grin). You can get nifty autoloading(saved) goodies that further define and honor your character's accomplishments. The Realms attract an international host of players with varying degrees of ability but they're mostly a friendly lot willing to help anyone who asks.

I have little negative to say about the place. The only thing I would wish for would be that some of the current guild leaders would pass on the torch to someone who could continue to refine them. I have seen promising activity in my guild only to have my hopes, and fears, fade away after a while when the new leader gets busy in real life and can't find the time to continue his work. That's not to say that they need alot of work. Thanks to a commitee system and typo and bug lines, the writing and all the guilds are pretty well balanced to one another and very unique in gameplay. I have characters in several different guilds and they all get played.

My wife says my mudding sometimes seems like a second job. At least I'm not pumping 130$ a month into mindless drivel on the satellite systems and cable.

Bengali Is MAge (x)