Although I have stopped visiting Legend except for a minute or two now and then to poke in, I have enough years of experience with it to have the pros and cons pretty well nailed down in my mind.

The writing and acts are phenomenal. The areas come alive with the robust flavor of history, thanks to lovingly crafted room descs by skilled writers and almost as many unique and memorable acts as there are rooms. Many of the best areas were written by immortals who no longer administer at Legend, but even among newer areas, poor execution is rare.

The code itself, at least on the user end, is really incredible too. There are enough skills to allow you to do practically anything you want either in battle or in roleplay, and only a few of them are totally useless. The fight code is refined and gives you tons of options. Player battles are intense and highly rewarding to those who take time to develop strategies. Legend's interface is clean and highly customizable.

Legend does require grouping to be successful. If you're a busy social bee, you won't have a problem. Loners will have a hard time, and for some character professions, XP can be all but impossible to achieve without being part of a large group. You may want to find another mud if you prefer to go it solo.

Immortals on Legend are a mixed bag. Many of them are great people who care deeply for the game and the players, while some are highly standoffish and abrasive. The immortal culture is highly exclusive, resulting in only a handful of new immortals every few years, and the turnover among newer immortals is high at times. Some years back a period of infighting spilled over into the mortal community, and since then a culture of authoritarianism has slowly prev2ailed. Rules are rigidly enforced with warnings, which are given out fairly frequently because...

The players are also a mixed bag. As I mentioned before, Legend has really refined and rewarding code features for fighting and for roleplay. As a result, it has over time attracted a fairly incongruous mix: players who like laid-back roleplaying, and players who like hardcore, balls-to-the-wall playerkilling. This strange dichotomy is offset by a healthy number of people who like to practice both in some measure, but the bottom line is, the resulting playerbase is a cumbersome group of people with different interests, tastes and sensibilities. The paradox is that, in trying to provide a complete experience for each group, Legend ultimately fails at both.

Years ago, Legend's reputation for its excellent fight code attracted a lot of serious PKers who were essentially in it for the sport and had no use for roleplay. This resulted in a lot of bloodshed that raised the cries of those who were used to RP-motivated sparring, and many of Legend's original players left in disgust. Over the following years, attempts by the immortals to satisfy both groups have resulted in a partly permission-based PK system so ridiculously convoluted, you could spend a whole week familiarizing yourself with the rules of who can be killed and who cannot. This system naturally no longer satisfied serious PKers, who themselves largely evacuated the mud, leaving behind finally a disjointed playerbase of RPers, PKers, and those who like to do a bit of both. If you belong to that middle group--if you enjoy some good-natured light roleplay but nothing too serious, and you like the occasional PK fight but not too cutthroat--you will probably love LegendMUD. If you lean heavily to one side or the other, you are likely to be disappointed in what you find.

One piece of advice for the adventurous roleplayer wishing to give Legend a go: turn off the chat channel. Chat is pretty much an in-game IRC channel where very little in-character conversation happens. If you don't mind OOC chat, this channel is frequently enjoyable, but if you want to really immerse yourself in RP, kill this channel immediately.

Overall, LegendMUD provides a great experience for a particular type of mudder, and if you fit the description, I can't recommend it enough.