I started playing Lensmoor in Spring of 2002, at my best friend's urging. I have never regretted this decision! There is a plethora of things to do provided you have a good imagination. I love the fact that this game is completely in text, not a big fan of fancy graphics and video-game style games. I've tried other MUDs, but nothing comes even close to what I've experienced at Lensmoor.

A word of advice to newbies: When you create, turn off channels that will be rather spammy as I got quite lost in the beginning because the screen rolls text so quick and I read -everything- in the beginning. These channels would include Grat, quest, info, and ooc. Grat is the congratulations channel where friends lend encouragement for goals met. Quest channel tells you who all in the game has just completed a quest, as well as immortal game announcements. However, regardless of whether quest is turned off or not, you will still be informed about immortal run global quests in such a manner: [QUEST] Arawn has announced a quest! Upon seeing this message you can type 'quest info' to see what the quest is about. Info is a channel that lists who has logged on or off, as well as level gains and deaths. When you are learning its really not necessary to have this channel on as why should you care if 'Sue has attained level 76!'? OOC is a channel for out of character conversation, which can cover any number of concievable topics from thanking immortals for restores to your average chatroom banter (with PG-13 limitations, of course...) These can be toggled on/off in this manner: channel 'boardname' (example: to turn off grats- channel grat).

There is a wide variety in the playerbase itself. Though the game is localed in the USA, players hail from many different countries. We have several from the Netherlands, Canada, England, and countless others besides. We even have a player stationed in Iraq currently who plays from the desert! The MUD is PG-13 rated, though more restricted than the movie ratings. We're PG-13 due to the violence, so profanity is not tolerated on Lensmoor. Keep it off the public channels. No need to worry about your 10 year old seeing a bunch of trash on the screen. Most of the players are older, however. You'll find stay at home moms, adults who play at work and home (shhh, don't let their boss know!), teenagers who play at the library, at school.

If you are totally new to the gaming process, don't be afraid to ask for help. The Newbiehelp channel is exactly that, help for newbies. Established players use it as well, for their own questions. No one knows everything, and many players make it a point to keep newbiehelp on to assist everyone. If you need help getting established as a roleplayer, many players are configured as willing to help, though one should not see this as this person will level and equip me... the label is meant for those who are willing to help people roleplay. Their status can be seen on the 'who' list. Any player who is a helper will have cyan (light blue) brackets around their level as well as 'Willing to Help' on their whois file.

There are clans for just about every person's style: evil, good, neutral, chaotic, and the non-playerkilling (NPK). With the non-playerkilling clans, there are two to choose from. The scholars (Sykin) and the crafters (Artificers). I have yet to make a playerkiller character so I cannot speak too well for their clans.

The playerbase in general is friendly and involved in keeping their game as fun as possible. You will find that players usually display a preference for what continent they play on. The continent of Lensmoor is composed of the 'haves' and Antrippa is composed of the 'have-nots.' Lensmoor is lush and enlightened, Antrippa is harsh and desolate. These two continents are at war. Recently two new remort races have been implemented and flagged as Antrippa only races. With the addition of Gilska and Genie races, roleplay opportunities expand! If you enjoy a challenge, Antrippa is the place to be. If you enjoy taking it easy and having plenty of others around, Lensmoor continent is what you'll enjoy.

What I enjoy most about Lensmoor is the ability to craft items. There are 28 separate craft skills that can be learned and they vary from collecting raw materials such as lumberjack, farming, and mining to refining crafts woodwork and metalwork to finishing crafts such as magecraft, baking, and blacksmith. You are able to craft weapons and armor as well as enchant them with a variety of properties and stats as you desire. Jewelry and clothing can be made by players, as well. Though many are fine with collecting game-loaded equipment, many like the customization they can take control of with crafted equipment.

Marriages are available to characters once their character is both at least age 16 and level 10. Keep in mind however, that there is no option to divorce if you make a mistake. There is the ability for players to create their own families through the mate command. This may or may not result in a pregnancy. Some races cannot procreate with the other, and some may only through use of fertility potions granted by the immortals. Gestation periods vary and there is no guarantee for a live birth. If your character has a death, the pregnancy is lost. Some races lay eggs. Once a live birth occurs you are prompted to name the child, which will become a playable character that starts the game at age 7. You can then decide to play the child yourself or seek someone in the playerbase to play the child character.

(Some of the things I spoke of were taken directly from helpfiles in the game, if you ever have questions and are unwilling to ask on open channels, there is a helpfile for every spell, skill, immortal, command, etc. You can also find a list of all helpfiles on the Lensmoor website.)