Sorry if my english sounds a little bit strange but it is not my native language because I am from Germany.

I visit a lot of MUDs and check them out. RitS is one of the two MUDs I play regularly. It is a Star Wars MUD, so it unnecessary to describe the story. I have played it since september 2003.

1)The race, class, skill and level system

RitS has alot of races like humans, Twi’leks, Jawas, Trandoshan, Wookies, droids or even Hutts. Over 30 races. But not all are available in the beginning. For some (like droids) you have to apply for, because they are more difficult to play.

After the selection of the races you could chooses your class. You must look which proffesion fits to your race. Like a defel would be a very good smuggler (they are invisible). At the moment there are 9 classes available (but there are more planned like merchants, scouts and so on). Here are some examples.

Bounty hunting: The hunter of criminals and all who has a bounty on their head. They have some real nasty skills: breaking bones, torture, poisoning weapons, tracking someone and so on. Hunters have to be in the Guild to develop their skills. That is one of the few points I don’t like. A guild is good, but a Bounty Hunter should be a freelancer too.

Pilot: A good pilot could fly all, speeders, starfighters, big Corvettes etc. They are experts for spacecombat.

Engineer: They could build nearly all. Containers, weapons of all kinds, armors and even spaceships! You could buy blasters, but no will be so good as some player build blasters.

Slicer: They hack into all what could be hacked. Locks, databanks and your bank account! Be careful.

Each class has a skillset, but you also get some skills from other classes. How much skills you can earn depends on which race and class you have choosen. To reach your next skill you have to level up this class. This is done by using a skill of the class. Simply said: A fighter has to battle, an engineer to build and a medical must heal somebody.

2)Space

RitS has a good developed system. They have hyperspace (can’t do much there), realspace and even the atmosphere of the planets are useable. I personally had some spacefights in the atmosphere because someone turned the planetshield on. You can rent a public ship and land/buy your own ship! There are simple starfighters or big corvettes with over 20 rooms. In player build ships you can insert different moudules (e.g. engines, weapons, sensors, cargo). But the best is you can change the description of your shiprooms (it is the same command for changing the desc of your appartment).

The clans even own Capital ship. Ever wanted to fly a Star Destroyer or a SSD? No prob. These giant ships have their own commands. You are captain and just give orders. Like navigation, shield raising or attacking and invading whole planets! There are endless possiblities.

3)Force

Force is the heart of every Star Wars MUD. There are lot different systems how is it handled. In RitS it is determined randomly who has force. First time I heard of it I though it stunk. But after a while I saw the RP possibilties in it. A forcer (Only players and he must be a master) has to sense another player if he has force. If it is so, he can take him his as his pupil and teach him. So only players can teach players force. There are no MOBs who can be your Master. RitS has Jedis and Sith. Each has three levels and each level has a different skill set. To play master and pupil is something special.

4) The staff, players and atmosphere

The staff and players are very friendly and helpful. If someone has a question there is always somebody who helps. RitS is very newbie friendly. PK is possible, but you need a good reason for it or it is declared illegal.

What I am missing are more gamers who like to RP and know their abilities, who play their race and not only their class. Who don’t challenge a Jawa engineer (that's me) to an arenafight just to find out which one has the bigger blasters. We have some wonderful clans here which definitely have some important positions open...