DartMUD
Encyclopedia
DartMUD is a well-known MUD
, or online text-based fantasy role-playing game
, started in 1991 at Dartmouth College
. It pioneered several interface and game play innovations which were later used to greater popular success by games such as Ultima Online
.
has mentioned DartMUD as an influential game in general and regarding many specific topics, such as hex mapping, simulationism
, player-run economy, and crafting. Other mud developers have occasionally mentioned DartMUD on MUD-DEV, the MUD Developers' mailing list. Koster and others often cite DartMUD as an innovative MUD that failed or fell short in execution.
DartMUD was one of twelve MUDs selected, by virtue of its Google
search ranking, to receive player surveys by authors Anthony Faiola and Alexander E. Voiskounsky while researching their paper "Flow Experience of MUD Players: Investigating Multi-User Dimension Gamers from the USA".
The founders of DartMUD decided to try to capture the unpredictability of the Rolemaster
RPG's open-ended die rolling system using a custom implemented Cauchy distribution
function. The unpredictable extremes of the Cauchy function have occasionally resulted in very memorably improbable results.
DartMUD also uses a seeded random number generator
, which allows for certain similar "random" events to produce identical results, simulating the pointlessness of attempting certain actions twice: if an action failed once, it will fail again unless something has changed in a subsequent attempt.
Creatures in DartMUD possess "shapes" — a creature's shape file determines how many limbs it has, how many objects it can hold, natural armor, relative size and durability, and effects when one or more limbs are disabled. Players may choose races which have from four to eight limbs, including one to four hands.
for learning similar skills provide incentive for characters to specialize, encouraging player interdependence.
Due to the player-run economy, crafting skills provide greater game rewards than thief skills. In fact, since thieves mainly prey on other characters in DartMUD, they are generally hunted and killed if discovered. Since combat is not required to advance, some players thrive despite avoiding violence altogether.
(RP) is not enforced by the staff. Rather, a confluence of factors — prominent among them permadeath, player interdependence, and the desire for wealth — create an unsimulated political system. "An armed society is a polite society" (Robert A. Heinlein
) is a good summation: characters behave themselves in public and do their scheming behind closed doors. Using out-of-character communications to influence game play is against the rules, and the creators reserve the right to delete and even ban problematic abusers.
Players new to DartMUD have been advised to use a "disposable" character for their initial learning process, anticipating that they will make mistakes in their early socialization; a fresh start once the initial learning curve is past allows for community engagement with a clean reputation.
Castles and Guilds form factions; tensions arise from wars and shifting alliances.
DartMUD is maintained by donations from staff and players alike — since 2004, more than half of operating expenses have been covered by player contributions using PayPal. Unlike many other MUDs which encourage player donations, DartMUD never has conveyed any in-game reward or recognition to players who donate.
MUD
A MUD , pronounced , is a multiplayer real-time virtual world, with the term usually referring to text-based instances of these. MUDs combine elements of role-playing games, hack and slash, player versus player, interactive fiction, and online chat...
, or online text-based fantasy role-playing game
Role-playing game
A role-playing game is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting, or through a process of structured decision-making or character development...
, started in 1991 at Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...
. It pioneered several interface and game play innovations which were later used to greater popular success by games such as Ultima Online
Ultima Online
Ultima Online is a graphical massively multiplayer online role-playing game , released on September 24, 1997, by Origin Systems. It was instrumental to the development of the genre, and is still running today...
.
Notable Contributions
DartMUD "Firsts"
The actual dates of the first implementation of these ideas in MUDs or MMORPGs are not well documented and competing claims exist, but DartMUD was first, among the first, or an early adopter of the following:- Permanent Death: DartMUD is targeted at hard-core mudders, people willing to risk permadeathPermanent deathIn role-playing video games , permanent death is a situation in which player characters die permanently and are removed from the game...
— a common occurrence — in order to make their accomplishments that much more meaningful. - Hex-Based Wilderness Map: DartMUD implements a hex mapHex mapA hex map, hex board or hex grid is a gameboard design commonly used in wargames of all scales. The map is subdivided into small regular hexagons of identical size.-Advantages and disadvantages:...
in ASCII textASCIIThe American Standard Code for Information Interchange is a character-encoding scheme based on the ordering of the English alphabet. ASCII codes represent text in computers, communications equipment, and other devices that use text...
an innovation which helped shape later games. - Numberless Interface: DartMUD differs from earlier LPMudLPMudLPMud, abbreviated LP, is a family of MUD server software. Its first instance, the original LPMud game driver, was developed in 1989 by Lars Pensjö...
s in that it is class-lessCharacter classIn role-playing games, a common method of arbitrating the capabilities of different game characters is to assign each one to a character class. A character class aggregates several abilities and aptitudes, and may also sometimes detail aspects of background and social standing or impose behaviour...
and level-less. AttributesAttribute (role-playing games)An attribute is a piece of data that describes to what extent a fictional character in a role-playing game possesses a specific natural, in-born characteristic common to all characters in the game. That piece of data is usually an abstract number or, in some cases, a set of dice...
, skills, hit pointsHealth (game mechanic)Health is a game mechanic used in role-playing, computer and video games to give value to characters, enemies, NPCs, and related objects. This value can either be numerical, semi-numerical as in hit/health points, or arbitrary as in a life bar....
, and magical auraMagic pointMagic points are units of magical power that are used in many role-playing, computer role-playing and similar games as an expendable resource that is needed to pay for magic spells and other abilities, such as special attacks...
are represented using generalized text descriptions, rather than specific numbers. - Crafting: DartMUD has had a three-stage crafting system since 1992. Initially, the system allowed for in-game farming (resource extraction), milling (resource refinement), and cooking (finished goods creation). The system has since been expanded to include wood, metal, cloth, stone, and ceramic-based skills, as well as herding, hunting, and gathering, allowing for a relatively comprehensive model of a medieval economy.
- Player-Run Economy: DartMUD attempts to model a realistic economy: storekeepers don't have everything players need, nor do they automatically purchase anything a player acquires. Of all the innovations listed here, a Player-Run Economy has been the most problematic and contentious, and multiple tweaks to the economic model have been made in an attempt to balance realism and game play.
Reception and influence
Game designer and industry author Raph KosterRaph Koster
Raphael "Raph" Koster is an American entrepreneur, game designer, and author of A Theory of Fun for Game Design. Koster is widely recognized for his work as the lead designer of Ultima Online and the creative director behind Star Wars Galaxies...
has mentioned DartMUD as an influential game in general and regarding many specific topics, such as hex mapping, simulationism
Role-playing game theory
A role-playing game theory is an academic or critical study of role-playing games as a social or artistic phenomenon. RPG theories seek to understand what role-playing games are, how it functions and how the process can be refined in order to improve the gaming experience and produce more useful...
, player-run economy, and crafting. Other mud developers have occasionally mentioned DartMUD on MUD-DEV, the MUD Developers' mailing list. Koster and others often cite DartMUD as an innovative MUD that failed or fell short in execution.
DartMUD was one of twelve MUDs selected, by virtue of its Google
Google
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
search ranking, to receive player surveys by authors Anthony Faiola and Alexander E. Voiskounsky while researching their paper "Flow Experience of MUD Players: Investigating Multi-User Dimension Gamers from the USA".
Design Considerations
The primary limitation on character actions is a 'concentration' system. The exercise of player skills reduces the chance that a subsequent skill check (of any skill, not just the same skill) will be successful. This penalty goes away fairly quickly, but it serves to prevent abuse based on the speed of prepared (e.g. client-side macro) input.The founders of DartMUD decided to try to capture the unpredictability of the Rolemaster
Rolemaster
Rolemaster is a role-playing game published by Iron Crown Enterprises. Rolemaster has come in four separate editions. The 3rd edition, first published in 1995, is also known as the "Rolemaster Standard System" . There are two editions currently in production...
RPG's open-ended die rolling system using a custom implemented Cauchy distribution
Cauchy distribution
The Cauchy–Lorentz distribution, named after Augustin Cauchy and Hendrik Lorentz, is a continuous probability distribution. As a probability distribution, it is known as the Cauchy distribution, while among physicists, it is known as the Lorentz distribution, Lorentz function, or Breit–Wigner...
function. The unpredictable extremes of the Cauchy function have occasionally resulted in very memorably improbable results.
DartMUD also uses a seeded random number generator
Pseudorandom number generator
A pseudorandom number generator , also known as a deterministic random bit generator , is an algorithm for generating a sequence of numbers that approximates the properties of random numbers...
, which allows for certain similar "random" events to produce identical results, simulating the pointlessness of attempting certain actions twice: if an action failed once, it will fail again unless something has changed in a subsequent attempt.
Creatures in DartMUD possess "shapes" — a creature's shape file determines how many limbs it has, how many objects it can hold, natural armor, relative size and durability, and effects when one or more limbs are disabled. Players may choose races which have from four to eight limbs, including one to four hands.
Skills
DartMUD is a classless system, which means any skill may be learned by anyone. However, only some skills can be self-taught; others must be learned from a non-player character (NPC) or player teacher. Many skills aren't taught by NPCs, forcing a greater level of player interaction. Skills are improved by practicing relevant tasks of increasing difficulty, not by spending experience points. While DartMUD doesn't have classes, requirements to practice skills to improve them and positive feedbackPositive feedback
Positive feedback is a process in which the effects of a small disturbance on a system include an increase in the magnitude of the perturbation. That is, A produces more of B which in turn produces more of A. In contrast, a system that responds to a perturbation in a way that reduces its effect is...
for learning similar skills provide incentive for characters to specialize, encouraging player interdependence.
Due to the player-run economy, crafting skills provide greater game rewards than thief skills. In fact, since thieves mainly prey on other characters in DartMUD, they are generally hunted and killed if discovered. Since combat is not required to advance, some players thrive despite avoiding violence altogether.
Role Playing
In DartMUD, roleplayingRole-playing game
A role-playing game is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting, or through a process of structured decision-making or character development...
(RP) is not enforced by the staff. Rather, a confluence of factors — prominent among them permadeath, player interdependence, and the desire for wealth — create an unsimulated political system. "An armed society is a polite society" (Robert A. Heinlein
Robert A. Heinlein
Robert Anson Heinlein was an American science fiction writer. Often called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was one of the most influential and controversial authors of the genre. He set a standard for science and engineering plausibility and helped to raise the genre's standards of...
) is a good summation: characters behave themselves in public and do their scheming behind closed doors. Using out-of-character communications to influence game play is against the rules, and the creators reserve the right to delete and even ban problematic abusers.
Players new to DartMUD have been advised to use a "disposable" character for their initial learning process, anticipating that they will make mistakes in their early socialization; a fresh start once the initial learning curve is past allows for community engagement with a clean reputation.
Organizations
In DartMUD, magic items are rare and characters rarely gain special abilities; consequently, more mundane objects gain greater significance. As characters accumulate wealth, they require a place to keep it. Like other LPMuds of its era, DartMUD initially had no facility for equipment storage. As available disk space and processing power increased, storage facilities were added to the game in the form of collective resources for which players could strive: Castles, Guild halls, and Inns.- Castles are the seats of power of noble houses, which are implemented as player-run feudal organizations. The leader of a noble house is established by a process of swearing fealty—to conquer a castle, an invading group must eliminate its defenders and seat one of its own members on the throne. Castles typically have extensive defenses, crafting facilities, and as many player rooms as an Inn.
- Guild halls are the domains of a guild, which specializes in a specific area, led by a guild master elected from the membership. They have more modest defenses and facilities than a castle, and are located inside an established city.
- Inns are located in cities, and have rooms for rent, and are regularly targets for thieves.
Castles and Guilds form factions; tensions arise from wars and shifting alliances.
History and Ancestry
- 1991: DartMUD is started on a MotorolaMotorolaMotorola, Inc. was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, which was eventually divided into two independent public companies, Motorola Mobility and Motorola Solutions on January 4, 2011, after losing $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009...
68030-based NeXTNeXTNext, Inc. was an American computer company headquartered in Redwood City, California, that developed and manufactured a series of computer workstations intended for the higher education and business markets...
computer owned by a Dartmouth CollegeDartmouth CollegeDartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...
graduate student, hence the name. - 1994: Due to the original site host's departure from Dartmouth, DartMUD moves to an Intel-architecture LinuxLinuxLinux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
system hosted at a commercial ISPInternet service providerAn Internet service provider is a company that provides access to the Internet. Access ISPs directly connect customers to the Internet using copper wires, wireless or fiber-optic connections. Hosting ISPs lease server space for smaller businesses and host other people servers...
, Hawaii On Line. The change from a college-based project run by volunteers to a commercially-promoted service with a part-time overseer resulted in significant staff turnover. At the same time, Hawaii On Line's promotion drew a large number of Hawaiian residents as new players. Several architecture-specific optimizations in the LPMud driver and DartMUD mudlibMudlibA mudlib, short for mud library, is a library of code forming part of the technical infrastructure of a MUD. Though different varieties of MUD may be considered to have mudlibs, the term is most often used with LPMuds. In an LPMud, the mudlib consists of interpreted code written in the LPC...
had to be removed or re-coded, and DartMUD has been running on commodity Intel Architecture systems ever since. - 1995: When Hawaii On Line stopped funding its local games, DartMUD moved to the Rose-Hulman Institute of TechnologyRose-Hulman Institute of TechnologyRose–Hulman Institute of Technology , formerly Rose Polytechnic Institute, is a small private college specializing in teaching engineering, mathematics, and science. RHIT is highly regarded for its undergraduate engineering program, which US News and World Reports ranked in 2011 as No...
. - 1996: When the Rose-Hulman staff member hosting DartMUD left the Institute, DartMUD moved to a UCLA graduate student's office. At this point Accursed LandsAccursed LandsAccursed Lands, abbreviated AL, was a MUD, a text-based online role-playing game, founded in 1996 and operating until 2011. It was an early example of the "Roleplay Intensive MUD", or RPIMUD, style of game.-Setting:...
was created by five DartMUD creators and one long-term player, and initially shared the same server. Accursed Lands was informally referred to initially as "DartMUD II" during its development phase, but creative differences led to the dissolution of the initial Accursed Lands startup team, and development continues to this day on both DartMUD and Accursed Lands. - 1997: DartMUD moved to another company where a staff member worked.
- 2003: DartMUD moved to the home broadband of another staff member.
DartMUD is maintained by donations from staff and players alike — since 2004, more than half of operating expenses have been covered by player contributions using PayPal. Unlike many other MUDs which encourage player donations, DartMUD never has conveyed any in-game reward or recognition to players who donate.