I have been mudding steadily on Discworld for several years now and have to admit it has largely usurped my life. Full of the rich humour of Terry Pratchett's books and with a hefty portion of original humour from the hundred's of creators; exploring can vary from dull to interesting to uproarious laughter.

I have tried several other MUDs and by and large don't find them worth the time of day. Discworld is about far more than kill, kill, kill and it is incredibly user easy. While most muds have barely written commands and huge complicated help files; Discworld has obvious commands, the syntax command option and if all else fails: useful help files. The parser system also enables the easy separation of multiple items of similar or the same type.

One of the things I like most about discworld is the detail. The descriptions are always complex, relavent and interesting. Room descriptions can go on for several lines and you can look at a table, the legs of a table, the glint of light and the play of shadow. Some descriptions could even be a key to one of the quests that are hidden all over the place. Quests that grant items are few, but they can be very rewarding to solve even of themselves.

Almost all items have both a short description which you see in a casual look at the area which contains it and a more detailed description which is revealed on closer analysis. You can even check the dimensions and weight of an item. Spell and command descriptions are also invested with great detail and humour.

The choice of how your character develops is wonderfuly vast. You can become a great musician, a clothing maniac or an author. You could be a wizard who does nothing but conjure food and turn people into frogs or an old hag who makes peoples noses drop off.

There are thieves, four different assassins guilds, 9 warriors guilds, 6 priest guilds, the witches and the many orders of wizardry from elemental to seer to playerkilling hedge. There are newspapers to write for, shops and houses to own, hundreds of pieces of furniture and thousands of clothes. You can design your own weapons, clothing and armour or chose from the hundreds of options available.

The numerous skill trees and teaching options enable the advancing of skills that have nothing to do with your chosen profession as well as the easy advancement of your primary skills within your guild.

The Mud itself is huge, far too large for the playerbase really, but through the 'talker' and various clubs you are always connected to the other couple of hundred online members who are great sources of humour, friendship, useful advice and blatant unhelpfulness (though for every joke answer you get you will get several real pieces of advice). There are dozens of villages, huge cities that are much larger than the total area of some other muds and the endless, endless terrain. NPC's, players and talking trees can be found in the most unlikely places and there is never a shortage of things to kill if your tastes run that way.

There is exploration experience, command experience and idle experience for those who prefer a more sedate life, as well as the large experience rewards killing can give.

Playerkilling is allowed to those who apply to it, and is compulsory beyond a certain level for assassins and the Last Order of Wizardry. It is not forced upon those who prefer the life of an NPK.

Roleplaying is welcomed and for the truly dedicated there are features in game such as 'Roleplaying mode' which mean you are not distracted by out of character conversations. For those less interested in roleplay the mud offers an abundance of chat channels, killing methods and group options.

The Admin is also always on the look for new creators and playtesters. So if you are tired of the poorly written little muds out there, or just want to try something a little different. Be sure to give discworld a try, I promise it is worth the effort.

__ Scholarly Elanor the Wise of the Ancient and Truly Original Sages of the Unbroken Circle, the Fifth Level Wizard.