When you live with difficulties you find certain things that are UNACCEPTABLE. One those trolling for trollings sake, which happened. And two, next to no advancement even in six years. I have been playing a long time and never even made it past newbie levels due to the game letting the newbie sink their toe in the water then push them in. There is a lot good about this mud. But it's playerbase is dwindling. I remember high times of 48 players. Now the imms are rarely on. The fools who play are becoming elitist.There are trigger users abound. What's worse, the game is being soiled with the playerbase being fused with trolls, and internet fools. I am sorry Retromud. But you are no longer my home. I advise anyone to steer clear of this tourist trap. Even paradise can be spoiled by the right souls.

I first got into mud's after finding one that was themed to a favorite series of novels back in 2009. I was not satisfied with the limitations on character types so i started checking into other muds. The next one i tried had syntax heavy quests and level caps unless you did this and that and only 1 character allowed. I kept poking in here and there until I found Retromud. Here, a player has race and guild combinations that would require a mathmatician to figure out the number. 63 different races and 19 guilds to choose from when making a new character. After 20 levels in a players starting guild they can choose secondary and tertiary guild pathings depending on what that player wants their character to be. The game is very finely balanced and if a balancing issue is discovered, fixes are made. Player equipment is 'threaded' to that character so storing equipment between boot is not necessary unless you want more than your character can carry ;). Characters use a combination of experience points and gold to train skills and study spells so character advancement is more a matter of what the player does than what higher leveled players one travels with do. The difference in levels between party members affects the exp division between party members as well. This balances out power leveling and in my opinion, gives greater satisfaction when you reach the higher levels. With all the different race and guild combinations, one may after playing a bit, want to try a different character but not want to start completely over. The Druid guild members have the ability to reincarnate a player. After dropping off equipment in safe spot and banking gold, a person can go off someplace to die spectacularly and have the druid can invoke the reincarnation spell. The player can then pick whichever new race and guild they want with only a minor tax on experience points. The player with their new body and career can then go pick up their stuff and play in their new role. The volunteer staff are very fair and are always at work making new places to explore and fine tuning the mud. New races occasionally pop up as well as new secondary guilds. As far as muds go, I do not think there is one better.

Daemian

RetroMUD is an old MUD spanning six worlds with many dungeons and thousands of rooms to explore. It is highly detailed and original and features many races as well as many classes and subclasses, and the attention to detail is perhaps its greatest asset.

Characters in RetroMUD join a guild which teaches them the skills and spells they will need to survive as adventurers. As they master their guild, they can go on to more specialized guilds to learn new tricks to make them more useful in and out of battle. The combat and advancement systems seem to be unique to this MUD, though some spells are clearly homages to games like Dungeons and Dragons or shows like 'Dragonball Z' and 'Inuyasha.'

Players advance their skills and spells 5% at a time, and the percentage most often determines how likely the skill or spell will fire successfully. Each advancement costs gold and experience, though at newbie levels the gold cost is waived up to a certain percentage. Unfortunately by the time a player has to start paying gold to train a skill or study a spell, the skill or spell is still at a level that is somewhat unreliable. Players save their experience points to advance not only their skills and spells, but also their character levels and guild levels which mercifully only require experience.

Recently RetroMUD allowed new characters to start with every spell and skill up to level ten at 100%, which saves a huge amount of time and expense, but the next ten levels are still very difficult and time consuming to advance through if you want to have skills and spells that are at least somewhat reliable, and this seems to be a big turn off for new players. Gold is very scarce at low levels, and often an hour and a half of farming will provide enough gold to advance only one or two skills or spells by 5%, assuming that you know the best places to farm and can farm them alone without dying. Unlike gold, experience is in abundance, and it is easy to accumulate a lot since you earn it from exploring rooms as well as killing monsters. The disparity between the rate of earning gold to experience is so great that you will eventually carry around a lot of unusable experience points and risk losing it by dying.

Though RetroMUD has always prided itself on being a party-oriented MUD, parties are rare and generally the people who put in long hours of farming to get into the upper echelon are the ones who make and attract parties. Newbie and lowbie parties are not uncommon, of course, but they do impede the already slow advancement since everything has to be split at the end and so the emphasis tends to be on solo farming. Once you do get to the point where gold is not an issue, you've probably spent at least a couple years in the game, but you can easily reincarnate into other guilds to try out other things since gold will not be an issue for you.

RetroMUD's best features are its unique guild and skill system and its sheer size spread out over six diverse planets, and it's worth checking out if only for that. The very slow advancement can turn off players who like to advance their characters quickly or steadily, and on an Internet with gaming alternatives that provide faster advancement and more opportunities for partying, RetroMUD really cannot afford to turn players away. If you don't mind the tedium of really slow advancement and just want to log on for a little while just to tinker around with a character, then RetroMUD may be for you.

Around since 1994, RetroMUD is one of the old MUDs out there that is still around and flourishing. Under constant construction, RetroMUD has expanded itself to have six vast worlds worth of exploration, 18 very unique and individually themed primary guilds to join, with many, many more secondaries and literally hundreds of tertiary guilds, as well as having over 60 different races (and UNIQUE races, like unicorns, dragons, floating eyeballs, energy people. . . We're NOT talking about 60 different flavors of humanoid with minor stat changes. This is a MUD, not a Star Trek convention, after all.) to choose from, giving an unparalleled level of customization to every character.

Now, I'm a roleplayer, though not everyone is and that kinda' makes RetroMUD interesting. The game is a 'roleplay encouraged' game, so there are perks for roleplayers, in order to keep enough around for a stable roleplaying community, yet without the mind-breaking rp enforcement of some games. This means, for the roleplayer, that if you ever feel like just relaxing and talking about game related things in an ooc context, you're perfectly free to do so, without an angry admin breathing down your neck about how ooc things don't belong here and you need to find another MUD, etc. It also means, unfortunately, that you might be trying to roleplay, and along comes Billbob, the level 89 powergamer, saying things like 'Any of you wanna' midrow blast for a farming party? We're also short a protter.'

RetroMUD offers an outlet for pvp activities, but pvp is not a part of standard gameplay. This means if you want to constantly live your life on the edge, fearing an attack while plotting out the destruction of another player, this isn't the place for it. Pk is essentially outlawed, except under special circumstances or in special places. To let out your pvp urges though, there's wars and capture the flag arenas, where anything goes, and fields may be mapped out with ancient shrines, flying islands and bridges, and even trebuchets, to name just a few. Plus, it's anything goes, and with a game as diverse as RetroMUD, with as many classes, spells, powers, skills, weapons, and a well ordered party system, this means group tactics can quickly become quite diverse, altering the whole face of gameplay with everything from teleportation, barriers, summoned pets, and attack spells, to diverse status effects, stealth abilities and prots.

In general, though, RetroMUD is a party MUD. As your level increases, you'll find that it becomes more and more necessary to cooperate with your fellow players to accomplish your goals. There are always places to farm or mess around solo, of course, but after a point, one cannot expect to tackle the local boss monster alone, eventually needing to get as many as eight different people together and combining powers in order to finally take out the foe. Parties aren't usually hard to find, fortunately, and the social aspect of this makes for a great community, but the anti-social be warned: this is an online game. You play here with the expectation of playing with others.

-Kereth

First of all, I would just like to say that I have been playing this MUD for almost 10 years now on and off, mostly on, heh. But my point is no matter what game's I play sooner or later I always end up with this one. With dozens of guilds and over 20 races to choose from you will never get bored making a character here. There are always people on willing to lend a hand, if you are respectful and courteous, people who log on that are annoying will quickly be shunned by the player base. If you're just starting out on RetroMUD I would suggest a Dragon/Monk, this is a good way to get a feel on the game and explore some, you can always find a druid to reincarnate you which means you get to choose another race/guild with a tax to your total exp gained. Most likely the greatest learning curve would be mastering the world transport system...ie. navigating through the Retroverse's 6 planets, but with patience and a little research, world transport becomes easy. I could go on and on about how great Retro is but you should probably just give it a try yourself, you wont regret it..and you may even become hooked...like me.

Come in and play. Links: http://www.retromud.org http://retrowiki.wikidot.com http://www.spheral.com/retromud/forum/

RetroMUD is an LP-type MUD with fully customised areas. There are usually between twenty and fifty players online, depending on the time of day. Roleplaying is encouraged, but not mandatory. The MUD is free to play.

The RetroMUD universe is structured in six planets, each of which has different cities and areas. Not counting the planet surfaces, there is a total of over 15000 rooms to explore. Characters can be one of currently 62 races, many unique to RetroMUD and all different, such as the anakim, a race of good aligned half-angels, or the evil, reptilian vypirs. Each character starts in one of 18 primary guilds, which provide spells or skills according to the guild's nature. After finishing the primary guild, characters choose from many secondary and tertiary guilds which expand on that training.

The MUD's overall theme is medieval, with a battle between the good and evil gods and their followers being the driving force of most player and non-player characters. A large number of quests are available to players which vary between pure puzzles and difficult combat. Individual themes are original or inspired by carefully researched historic environments, ranging from Dark Age Europe to Mesoamerica and Polynesia, and including various fantasy settings.

RetroMUD is friendly to newbies, who receive free equipment and various advantages in terms of the rules, a newbie guide that helps with getting around and access to many newbie areas of appropriate difficulty. Combined with a channel for questions about the game and a very helpful playerbase, newbies can thus be assured of getting answers when stuck or confused. Newbies are also encouraged to begin playing by exploring the cities and areas; at low levels, this yields a considerable number of experience points which get the character far enough to be able to fight.

Among negative aspects of the game, the lack of freeform emotes is the most noticeable. Although there are several hundred defined emotes with a similar number of adverbs to modify them are available, there are still situations where these are insufficient. Another is that because roleplaying is not mandatory, interacting with other players while staying in character can be difficult. Nevertheless, there are usually opportunities for roleplaying with like-minded players.

The game is addictive and can be played for years. Few players have seen everything. The players and staff are friendly and helpful. I recommend RetroMUD to anyone interested in playing with nice people in a beautifully designed universe.

RetroMUD is a complex and unique universe (referred to in-game as the Retroverse) populated by many different races. Players are known as Gifted Ones, beings with psychic and other superhuman powers, allowing them to perform feats of magic and raw strength beyond that of mere mortals.

With 30+ races to choose from and even more guilds, the possibilities are endless when it comes to combinations. You could be a Werewolf Fallen, wielding a living sword and reaping souls for the glory of The Nameless One, or you may choose to be a Treant Monk using your powerful martial arts to maintain balance in the Retroverse. No matter what your roleplaying style is, RetroMUD has a combination to suit it; from blaster and support types to tank and ranged combat, the only limit is your imagination.

RetroMUD also has a dedicated staff of Wizards and Administrators to enforce the rules of RetroMUD. For instance player killing is strictly forbidden, but several times weekly a war event is held in which players can freely slaughter each other without any penalties such as experience or stat loss. Also, theft and cheating are dealt with quickly and strongly, and rules such as this are what makes RetroMUD stand out to players looking for a peaceful and fun mudding experience free of diablo-esque smack talk and abuse.

This MUD also boasts a strong newbie helping system, every guild has a leader, a mentor, and a champion all of which are capable of and expected to help the beginners to gain a strong foothold in the game. Since RetroMUD is a party based mud, there are obvious advantages to teaming up with your fellow players, most areas are specifically desiged to be tackled with the help of your peers, which helps to generate a strong fellowship among players as they depend on each other to acquire equipment, as well as a healthy level of competition as players collect rare pieces of equipment or, explore more and more of the Retroverse, or even complete the 90 or so level quests which halve the cost of the next level upon completion!

All of these factors have influenced me to stick with Retro over the years, and there are many more that i haven't included that are sure to have you hooked just as surely as me.

RetroMud is an extraordinarily diverse and detailed fantasy mud. It is mostly team combat oriented, and while roleplay is encouraged and rewarded, it's not required. This is, in fact, it's biggest drawback: it's one thing to assault a nun or a demon-summoning cultist, it's another thing entirely to do so when accompanied by someone who spouts hitpoint totals.

On the other hand, the areas are vast and immersive, with engaging descriptions and (normally) great attention to detail. I come from a MOO background where each room was expected to have dozens of unique verbs or examinable features, and while RetroMud doesn't normally hit the dozens, it certainly has enough to give it a great feeling of depth. NPCs are plentiful and interesting, though conversation is normally a little thin. Quests abound: roughly 100 are 'official' level quests with a few details up on corkboards at all the pubs in the world, each granting half-cost advancement for a particular level. Counting these there are probably over 200 available, ranging in difficulty from simply asking the right person the right question to requiring dozens of hours of research and exploration and combat.

Possibly best of all, exploration gives experience. Just entering a new room gives xp! Many areas are intricate and mindgame-like, as well, holding secret rooms or intricate backstories for those willing to look at the right clues, search under the right beds, destroy the right weapons, or bribe the right guards. Many players forgo levelling entirely until vast swathes of the six planets have been explored.

In terms of sheer numbers, I've never seen a mud with as many rooms (over 15,000), races (over 60), guilds (19 'primary' ones, such as Templar and Merchant, and hundreds of secondary and tertiary guilds that you can path into), and skills and spells (over 1,000). Especially impressive is that these seem to be quite well balanced, no mean feat as any game designer could tell you.

For new players, an excellent help system a 'mentor' ooc-channel are available.

There are a few other notable pros: there are great themes for each planet (ranging from dinosaur-inhabited jungle to subterranean cave systems), there is the ability to reincarnate and keep most of one's experience, people spend experience on skills and spells instead of using the idiotic and tiresome 'practices' idiom, there is equipment that grants flight or water-breathing (and the worlds are 3D, you can soar through clouds or flit about in the seas), and there is beautifully detailed weather. Ok, fine, sometimes it rains, still...

There are also a few other notable cons: you need to buy a castle (or rent a room in one) to keep equipment across the daily world-cleansing, there's a slight tendancy towards fighting over roleplaying, there's only very restricted player killing, and being in-character doesn't guarantee that others will interact with you in-character.

Still, as examples: Leprechauns can only see in light and ultra-light places, Shadows can only see in dark and ultra-dark places, and Hephastians can see anywhere. To my mind any mud that goes to such detail as to say which brightnesses each race can see in is worth a look at.

Welcome to RetroMUD, A complex and expansive world of fantasy adventuring. RetroMUD is challenging, exciting, and player friendly. It is a PK restricted MUD, and very newbie friendly. The diversity of races and classes makes 'Soloing' hard. Basically you will need to team up with other players to take on tough monsters and complete bigger quests. The great part about this is that non-serious, abusive, or disruptive players tend to go away all on their own. Once they figure out that they will have to work with others, they simply look elsewhere. This makes for one of the best player-bases in the MUD world. I have also noticed that the admins are quick to remove abusive players and fix bugs.

Roleplaying is encouraged and rewarded on RetroMUD. To me, this is a valuable and important part of Retro. I enjoy immersing myself in a role and sticking to it. If you like roleplay give retro a try!

The combat system is well thought out and challenging. No matter what your level you can always find a place to be challenged in combat. Races are slot restricted in a logical way, and yes, they are actually correct about wielding (EG you can't hold too many things at once). This also makes for logical racial compatibility with Guilds. For example, creatures without limbs make poor fighters since they can't wield weapons. These limitations are conversely rewarded with other benefits that make those creatures ideal for certain guilds. Put these various races/guilds together into a party and you have a small army working together to conquer big monsters.

The magic system is also excellently designed. There are literally 100s of spells in the game, ranging from very general use to VERY specific. I also appreciate that spells can't be spammed. If you start another spell, you stop your old one! This makes complete sense to me, and is considerably more logical than MUDS I have played in which you could step up and spam Magic Missile 50 times, then walk away and have a snack while your spam did the work. This also applies to skills as well.

The skill system seems to be great, I haven’t had much experience with it, since I play a race and guild, which doesn't use many skills, but rather relies on spells. From what I have seen and read though, it is nicely done. There are also literally 100s of skills, ranging from a simple headbutt in combat, to very complicated and difficult skills like resizing high level EQ. Basically there is something for everyone there. If you want to make items and assist players with their EQ, there are guilds for that. If you want to just Smash and kill, there are guilds for that too, and various combinations of both.

Enough about the greatness of RetroMUD, lets talk about some downsides. The biggest one for me is travel. There are several planets in RetroMUD and once you pass a certain level (15) getting around can be hard. Basically each planet has it's own Travel system and you have to learn or be shown how to travel inbetween. Getting off some planets can be near impossible without help from the right guild. I am still learning how to travel between worlds, and to me, this is the weakest point of the game. Getting lost and stuck is no fun (although it is challenging)!

Clans... there are none! I would love to see a clan system created, which might include clanhalls, clan chat, and maybe even clan wars. It simply isn’t there. I don't know if it’s in the works, but it would definitely add more to the game. Overall: I give RetroMUD a 9 out of 10. Give it a try, I guarantee you will keep Coming back!

I first began playing RetroMUD about a year and a half ago. I have been playing MUDs since 1996 and have played a lot of MUDs. Very few MUDs have ever met my standards. What I look for in a MUD is something that is unique and offers something more than just repetitive combat. I first learned about RetroMUD from a banner on a MUD search engine. To tell the truth the name RetroMUD always turned me off trying out the game when I frist saw the banner about 3 years ago. I would see the banner and go RetroMUD? What kind of name is that. Finally one day i decided to take a look at it. I first went to their website. There was a lot of information and I learned that it was an LP MUD. Why is that important? Well, it completely depends on personal preference. I tend to like LP Muds because of their system command structure, and that they usually have races and more focus on RP than DIKU based MUDS, but that is just a personal preference.

RetroMUD's website was very well done and provided alot of information about the game, races, guilds, skills, and spells. This was important to me because I have played a lot of games with poor websites (little or no information) and was simply turned off to the game from the lack of effort in their public presence on the web. I am not saying this is one of the most important features, but it was a major factor in helping me decide to try RetroMUD for the first time. I was intrigued by the many races and the significant differences between them. I was amazed at how many guilds you can choose from, and the idea of a guild path. Probably the number one factor in my trying this game for the first time was the Dragon race. I mean whoa, I can be a dragon? I wonder if they are powerful? How is it balanced? Those are some of the questions that led to my first character on RetroMUD.

In RetroMUD you get exp for every new room you explore. This is a very good thing for newbies and at first I found it to be fairly entertaining. I began to explore the 'Retroverse' and I began to see some really neat features that I had not seen on other MUDs. There were 6 worlds with their own individual features, methods of interplanetary transportation, layout, and theme. The first feature that stunned me was depth. And when I say depth I mean that you can fly and swim above and below the current plan. RetroMUD has a color ASCII wilderness map, and that map is not two dimensional but three dimensional. This means you can fly up into the clouds or swim to the bottom of the ocean.

An example of a neat feature that I have not seen anywhere else is the planet Raji. Raji is the air planet and is made of many floating islands. You need to fly from island to island to get around. There is also a ship that can take you to the major islands, but true freedom on this planet requires flight.

The Races of RetroMUD are amazing. In most MUDs I have played races are just a different set of standard stats. Meaning if you are a strong race you have a bonus and a weak race you have a penalty to the appropriate stats. In RetroMUD stats are not the only thing different about races. Races have individual and different racial commands, emotes, size, armor slots, regeneration rates, skills and spell maximums, and vision. The vision aspect of RetroMUD can be very anoying, but whoever thought of it was a genius. There are races who can only see in the dark. I have never seen that on another MUD. Most of the time races with dark vision can pretty much see all the time. In RetroMUD there are four different light levels and races can be divided by what light levels they can see. This can sound complicated, but it adds an interesting twist to the game playing a dark seeing only race trying to find your way around on a well lighted world.

Guilds on RetroMUD are another feature that makes RetroMUD stand out. RetroMUDs guild system is extremely complex but allows players the freedom to pretty much create any character they wish. The maximum level in retromud is 100, during those 100 levels you join various guilds. These guilds give you skills, spells, and stats. By the choices you make you form a guild path that determines what kind of character you are. From a mage specialized in poison damage to a fighter specialized in fencing weapons. Another significant feature is the inclusion of trade guilds. Merchant and Alchemist are guilds that allow players to be intergrated into the economy of RetroMUD. Armor and weapons can only be worn if they fit your size. Thus they need to be resized by a merchant. Weapons don't keep their resize past reboot, so they need to be resized every day. Alchemist can add elemental damage to your weapons.

RetroMUD is an extremely complex game, that's why I like it. However it is not very newbie friendly. In order for a newbie to succeed here he either has to have had some experience with MUDs, have a friend that can help them learn, or be very determined. RetroMUD has a lot to offer players, but it takes a long time to get there. Leveling is slower than any other MUD I have played. This can lead to a lot of frustration. Another important fact is that RetroMUD is not really a solo MUD. As you gain levels it will become more and more difficult to solo. So if you don't interact well with other people you will struggle in retromud. However if you are a friendly person who is willing to learn you will enjoy the how different players come together to take down tough opponents.

Come and join us, though the path be long and difficult, the journey will be worth it.

Strega Streyclaw

Just like every other mud on the internet Retromud has both positive and negitive sides. We get people who want to break rules, kill newbies and idle players. We get our share of trollers and cheats, and yet, they have not really done much to the game play iteself. When a troll comes on we know that they came because Retromud is a great mud. We know that when we even have the worst people coming the the mud that alot of people do know who we are.

Unlike most muds we even have support guilds, guilds that help in fights but they themselves do not fight. Merchants work with equipment and weapons, the protect, resize, and repair them. Alchemist enchant weapons and equipment with different elemental powers like fire, lightning, cold, holy, or unholy. Biomancers heal people and remove the scars of defeat. Bards help chear on and enhance others who do fight so that they will do even better.

We also, like other muds, have fighting guilds. Monks can use both weapons or fist as they advance in the guilds. Paladins have shields they can enhance to become even more powerfull than a normal shield would ever be. Fallen have a sword that they can enhance and enchant as well. We have Fighters who use little to no magic at all and a Jomsviking uses both magic and might to win it almost every battle.

We have over 15000 rooms in which you get experince points for exploring atlest 12000 rooms. We have guilds that can make and maintain castles, chests, and castle golems for defending the castles.

Out of all of this, one of the greatest problems new players have found is that this mud is not for soloers. I came to the mud wanting to make a powerfull Monk, after a few years I saw that I prefered Merchant to Monk and so do others. So why not come and see for yourself, who knows, you might start Fallen and end up Bard.

I used to play MUD long time ago and I wanted to get back to it. I spent a good deal of time looking for a good place and finally I tried Retromud, it is free and looked like a good roleplay-oriented place.

First it was a bit difficult to pick up a race & guild amongst the very vast choice, but their the website nicely provided relevant info.

Then I started playing and immediately I was amazed by the level of help you can get from both the system [wonderful online help] and also the players [guilds are a friendly users-classes system].

The game itself is very well planned, with area locked by levels and the very useful newbies advantages. Guilds are well balanced and if you ever get bored, you can always reinc into something else.

My personal favorite feature of retromud is the built in command / alias system that allows me to play without too much hassle even from my old telnet terminal.

Right now I am still a newbie, but have already made many friends, got involved in my guild development and keep exploring the really vast world. Every time I log on, I find new things to do and new place to visit.

For me retromud is definitely a five stars place.

RetroMUD is a MUD with a large scope of options. It has 19 primary guilds (classes), 53 secondary guilds, and around 220 tertiary guilds (Divided into paths). To further diversify the choices, there are a total of 62 races available for selection. This allows for a large variety of combinations to choose from. This, of course, runs into the problem of functionality. Not all combinations work, such as giant mage, which would fail due to a low hermetic max. Some races require good alignments, making Fallen a less than optimal choice.

The way guilds work in RetroMUD is quite complicated compared to other MUDs that I have tried. You have a primary guild, where you may level up to 20. After that, you have a second guild, which is in reality flavor and is nothing more than a few more spells and skill. The real point of the second guild is to determine what Tertiary guilds you may join, which specialize you and give you the largest bonuses to statistics and skills/spell. Unfortunately, not every path works out as you would hope. The secondary guild Dischordian is a literal dead end, leaving those who choose that guild rather lost as to where to go after level 34. Luckily, not many are actually like that, but asking around about guild paths before you follow them is usually a good idea.

Something I enjoy about the MUD definitely is the community. Everyone in general is friendly and helpful, assuming you listen. Many people are more than willing to help Newbies on the mentor channel and the MUD itself has coded in Newbie advantages to help Newbies ease themselves into the flow of the game. Many questions that are asked are covered in the numerous help files located in the game, so it’s a good idea to check there, and if you can’t find it, ask about it. General tip, don't ask a question on mentor then whine about the answer.

RetroMUD is, in its complete form, a party MUD. This is not a solo MUD. Newbies in the beginning solo yes, but in later levels parties are *required*. General form of a party is tanks in front, bios healing tanks, and blasters casting damaging spells. If you don't function well as any of these, good luck finding a party. Luckily, most guilds can perform somewhat decently in one of those defined roles, assuming you train your skills and spells.

A few points to mention is that storage in this MUD for your equipment is pricey and takes a long time to get enough money to afford it. If you don't have storage, you can't keep your equipment. Newbies start with some equipment every time though. A factor I personally dislike is that if you die many times with enough scars, you lose stats, sometimes even PERMANENTLY, which I guess is even more incentive not to die. They may be minor, but it bugs me personally. Also, if you come to this MUD for RPP, prepare to work for it. A lot. Normal custom emotes must be earned by RPing, and you have to find other people to RP with, to vote for you so you may gain RP. You may also write stories on the off-chance some person reads your story and thinks 'wow, this is good'.

All in all, RetroMUD is a wonderfully balanced MUD. There are a things incomplete, things bugged, but everything IS being worked on actually and not just being ignored. In any case, the community makes a few points for this MUD in itself. If you choose to play RetroMUD, prepare to spend a lot of time on it as training and leveling takes a longer time than in most MUDs. Not that I mind.

This is a very interesting MUD, playability is sharp, even the help files are well written. The only thing that I do not understand is the heavy emphasis on non-player killing. Since in creating your character you choose everything from alignment to clan, there is a strong emphasis that it would be the opposite, ie. intense clan and/or guild wars, etc. For example, I play a Fallen. One would think that based on my particular ethos (kill everything in sight for the Nameless One), that when I went a killing spree amongst some priests that this would spark some form of reaction from the 'good' guys. However, it seems that to initiate any form of PK, there has to be a reason, a review, and permission to do so.