I've been addicted to mud for 15 years now and tried a lot of different ones before finally getting hooked for good on Burning. As every other mud, this one has good things and bad, but the good things by far outweigh the bad, imho.

We rarely have less than 20-30 players online, and on Saturdays there are usually 75-100. The world is large - over 200 areas. Luckily there are transporter obelisks in the major cities and on a few other places, so travel is still fast & easy. When you reach level 50 you start over at level 1, either as same class with new powers, or as another class, with their abilities. And at lvl 50/50 you can buy all your stats to max and then you get level 51, 52, 53, etc. Highest sofar is level 85.

This mud is heavily group oriented. You can get xp on your own, but generally it's both faster and safer to team up and do it. Mages are great at dealing damage but won't live long without someone there to protect him. Fighters can deal a fair amount of damage and protect people. Bring in a priest too and you'll have an ok group. Perhaps an animist for some nature spells, a rogue to pick locks, track, peek & backstab? An assassinating nightblade is never bad, except for the opponent ;-] And maybe a templar or warlock for extra power... and some more priests to handle healing, and more mages and... you'll have a PowerGroup! Saturday is PowerGroup day - that's when everyone interested brings his or her best player and we form a larger group (40-60 players) and do our best to bring down gods, ancient dragons, dark masters or whoever has the equipment we so desperately want. And afterwards we split up the loot, using a 'Gambler' to make sure everything is divided fairly.

This is a non-pk mud, so people are generally helpful and friendly. except in the arena (where nobody loses xp for dying). Outside the arena player killing or stealing from others is illegal.

Burning also has a special area called The Well, unlike anything I've seen on any other mud. It's extremely dangerous with lava rooms, dangerous winds, trapdoors, quicksand and lots of nasty monsters with special abilities, many of them deadly. It takes time (and a lot of deaths) to figure out how to survive there, but the rewards are certainly worth the danger.

Other things of interest... If you perform well you might be taken into one of our mercenary groups or perhaps even start your own group. Quests (over 100 and increasing), plus immortal-held quests. An elder system to welcome and help new players, the arena for testing your skills against others, active and friendly immortals (yes, they really are!), extensive help files,...

The bad things are lack of new players, which luckily seems to be turning again. And the easiness to get too lvl 50/50 (I'd have prefered if it was more of a challenge). At higher levels it's hard to get fast xp by soloing, which means people normally team up. This is not nessecarily bad, since it brings people together, but I prefer going solo. Oh, and I'm also (finally) running out of areas to explore :-)

The main thing that's kept me on Burning is the fact that I could never reach a 'final level' or say that I know everything there is to know - there is always another mob just beond my ability to kill, but 'next level I'll make him eat dust!'

Come join us - we need more people to kill the Torture Master and Thor and Thakisis and whatever other evil creatures the immortals are creating to keep us busy. I'm Cindy. Give me a tell if you need help.