ShadowGate is a MUD that offers an amazing depth.

It is defined as much by its stories and its mechanics and both are continually evolving. We've recently lifted our time restrictions on leveling, character creation is being redesigned to allow new characters to modify many of their choices easily up to the point in which they are no longer a newbie character.

The newbie area is being redesigned to be more newbie friendly. One of the biggest issues with our MUD is that it has a very steep learning curve, we are actively taking steps to reduce that to the point that new players will hopefully see it through and stick around. I can assure you that if you do then you will be in for a wonderful surprise :-)

I invite you, if you are looking for a MUD that sticks very close to D&D 3.5 edition to give ShadowGate a try today! We have a very clean, easy to to follow interface, and mechanics which are better than probably any other MUD out there. We're also open to suggestions as we continue to evolve, so come, join our MUD and further our story!

See you in the game,

Saide

Well, I was looking for something new and interesting in a mud and though ShadowGate might fit the bill. The concept is sound and they've done a reasonable job of incorporating/adjusting D&D 3.5 into the game. The problem I found while wandering the newbie area is lack of cohesiveness and follow through. First blush was that the room descriptions felt rather repetitive and the area had a rather incomplete feel to it.

The syntax to utilize various NPC shops wasn't consistent even among the newbie area shops and had no particular reason why. Command syntax beyond kill and a handful of other staples varies wildly from job to job and is generally clunky. There's something neat about the concept but the application comes up sadly short. Many help files are missing or incredibly difficult to access and a lack of up to date online information on the site makes trying to figure a lot of things that are basic almost everywhere else a frustrating chore.

This one has potential but needs a strong hand to bring it all together. Too many hands with too many ideas about how things should be implemented rather than all working toward a set standard has left a bit of a mess. Tightening things up, little more creativity in newbie area descriptions, and full sensible access to all the muds help files could make this one great.

Time for my review :) Shadowgate is the only True D&D mud I have been able to find. If you are a D&D fan, you will absolutely love this mud! Many rules. such as skills, stats, save and more are taken from Players Handbook. So if you have some knowlegde of the basic D&D system, you will create your character easily. And most likely enjoy how close to the books it is to play this game :-)

Shadowgate is VERY roleplay enforced. If you like this is very indevidual I guess. But fact is that when you meet other players in the game. Many will expect you roleplay the character you have chosen. This should not scare any new players away, as a lot of the stable playerbase is really friendly and always available to help out newbie. If you do decide to try out this MUD. Don't be afraid to spam the newbieline with questions. I think it is very much expected to be honest :)

PK is available, but it is often restricted by roleplay. The reasoning behind that statement. If you roll a good aligned character, people will generally not appriciate if you go on a killing spree. You can of course make a evil char, who don't mind the weekly kill. But the Imms/avatars/Wizzes (call them what you like), will often implement gamewide consequences. I.E. If you kill an other player in a city. The City-guard will 'hear' the rumor that you have killed within their walls as you will be wanted in said city. Often guards will attack you on sight and drag you to jail for punishment. Sometimes even set a golden bounty on your head! You can PK without such consequences. But I'll let you discover how yourself ;)

I will try keep my review to a minimum, as I don't bother to read huge 20 pages reviews myself :p

But in general: )This mud is Very Roleplay intensive, and the stable playerbase do enjoy roleplay and will often engage you in roleplay.

)Admin/Imms/Avas are still keeping the game alive, creating world-wide roleplay happenings (not on daily or weekly basis, but they will occur).

)Newbiehood. As on any mud is the hardest time in the game! But both players and imms will often do what they can to answer questions. Never be afraid to ask.

)I recommend logging on and trying, if you enjoy the D&D system and the roleplay this system offers. You will enjoy this MUD as well.

Shadowgate's biggest draw actually is the RP, I can honesty say there is no mud with better RP. Though you won't find anything more then basic meet and greets, tea time or goof off until around level 25.

The reason for this is because until you reach around that level everyone around your level will for the most part be busy grinding, grinding and grinding and the imms don't really want to bother with low level plots and stuff.

So if you are interested in just getting right in there and having an adventure you may be disappointed.

This wouldn't be so bad if not for the level capping and stuff slowing the grind to a crawl. So you do need a lot of patience to play this game.

Additionally there is such a high player turnover at the pre level 25 levels that keeping a dependable party is hard. Finding them to begin with is pretty hard as well as contacting strangers is not easy and relies on them answering a meet and greet flag at some location.

And not having a party is very bad, your death rate will be very high without a party slowing your leveling even further.

Oh and you can't just grind in a safe place, the game forces you to go on scavenger hunts at random places all along world forcing you to explore, meaning you will need a party or the willingness to die a thousand deaths.

On the issue with syntax shadowgate is so and so, you can often get help from a mod if you are close to the right syntax at lower levels but not quite right, and often the game itself will help you along. But you will find issue with syntax a whole lot still and need a thesaurus handy. Especially with the mandatory quest which is a nightmare. And since they have a variety of programmers there is 0 consistency with the syntax. And its all case sensitive. But it could be a lot worst.

Lastly there is the exploration itself, now a good thing is that the maps seem to be logical which is to say its very easy to remember your way relative to other muds, in fact if you are new at muds, this mud is probably among the easiest with which to find your way around.

Even the maps that are supposed to be confusing and complicating, teleporting you at random are easier to memorize then you might think.

The bad thing? The sailing. Once you start sailing the boredom will tear at your skull. 2,500 squares to explore alone in the initial water and you can only move one square every second or so, no rapid movement through it and the waters like to toss you around.

But once you get to level 25 and the RPing begins, the plots will suck you in, the community is helpful and good at the plots, and it becomes very fun, with the only annoyance being the sailing.

At the same time, it will be around this time that you start finding yourself out of things to do. One of the biggest problems is that there is a total ban on giving any ic or ooc help in exploring dungeons, finding areas, finding places, finding items anything. And often time the syntax is so non-intuitive that a thesaurus won't help. So when the RP slows down, you will find yourself either sitting in an inn doing nothing or making rounds on the various dungeons spending many futile hours trying to find out what you need to do to continue on in that dungeon.

The only problem with the community is that 80% of them seem to have chosen to play an arrogant character and there is a pretty large glut of humans, half-elves and elves and drow and not much in the way of dwarves and other races.

But don't let that stop you, there is no mud with better RP once you reach it.

Oh and one more thing, there is no mud that feels more like DnD in existence either. If you are the kind that loves making characters and watching them develop then truly this is the MuD for you.

This review is solely the opinion of the author based on 10+ years of experience as a player.

Shadowgate is an old MUD and it has some die hard players. It can be fun, but you should know a few things before investing time.

1. Skill means little on this MUD. Your level progression is limited by your play time. For top level, Admin requires 15 days play time (yes, that's ridiculous and yes it is down from 30 days).

2. Expect immortals to be invisible, to talk behind your back, to post sticky notes about your play that only they can read. Expect upper levels to also talk behind your back (known as 'HM's' or 'High Mortals'). Its like a pack of middle school girls.

3. Immortals play favorites big time. They cheat too. And they have no compunction about deleting accounts of players that they disagree with. --- Just to give you an idea, I posted some comments on an off mud yahoo board and had my account deleted, full disclosure.

This MUD used to kick some serious butt, but it has gone to the dogs. If you really need a rule, it should be hardcoded. Unfortunately, Garrett hasn't figured that out yet. See for yourself. You've been warned!

So started playing in 99, the mud has gone through much change. However, it's still a great place to roleplay and do some text based D&Ding. Player base is down a bit but the mud has gotten some major updates moving towards 3.x. Be nice to see some new blood.

The mud is RP enforced so expect to stay in character. There is a system of imms(coders) and avatars(dms) that run the mud. However, players are encouraged to not rely on dms for rp. There is a knockout system for pk so pks can lead to all kinds of rp, including capture torture or whatever creative plots can be thought up.

Classes can be combine in 3.x fashion and include psion, mage, bard, paladin, antipaladin, knight, thief, bard and fighter. More information can be found at the newly created shadowgate wiki. Shadowgate.org