TMC Reviews: Dragon's Fang

Dragon's Fang is a mud based on Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series, and plays this out to the fullest. With a wonderful RP environment, and 100% all-original areas all based off the series, the immortals of DF have done an excellent job in keeping with the theme of Robert Jordan's world. Joining a guild is quite fun at DF. Players get a wealth of knowledge from their website as far as guilds and RP, and there is even an online application process for joining a guild that requires a lot of personal (IC) information. You must have a proper description in place, as well as give a full background story of your character before you are even considered. Knowledge of the series itself is certainly a plus, but doesn't seem necessary with all the information provided on the website. The arcane art of channeling (using magic) on DF is a lot of fun. You may grow up as a women channeler who has been trained by an elite group of people or a 'wilder' who has trained on their own. Wilders may cast more potent spells, but are limited in the number of spells they may cast as opposed to women who have been trained and have a greater list of spells available to them. Males who wish to weave spells may, but are hunted by women since male channelers are unacceptable in this world. For people who prefer physical combat rather than magic there is a plethora of options available to them. Becoming a warder (A protector of a female channeler) or an adventurer who prefers to be alone, or even joining a band of fellow warriors to help you further your combat abilities are just some of the possibilities.

The atmosphere on this place, from the time I started, to the time I wrote this review was incredible. I have rarely come across such a nice group of people on any mud I've ever visited, and they deserve praise in this area. Immortals and players alike were helpful, informative, pleasant to talk to, witty, and seem to really care about what's going on there and how the new players are doing in their land. It was not overdone either. If you have a question it gets answered. A few may stop by to chat for a moment to see if you're ok, but will not badger you in any way to make it annoying. I was involved in a couple of RP sequences on DF, and people play their character's well. Although I'm not very experienced with RPing I found that RPing on DF was quite easy, and a lot of fun! The helpfiles to get you started seems to be plentiful, and there is a wonderful command for newbies that allows them to go to certain places (like stores, inns, center of town, etc.) at will! This is a truly helpful command indeed as it allows players to worry about gameplay and not locations of everything in your beginning levels.

The world of DF is large, and although the room descriptions themselves are decent, I think they could have spent a bit more time on them. I detest the word "you" in any description, and they have done a nice job at keeping that to a minimum. Unfortunately, the word "you" is still used though, and with a bit more work they could really make some great strides in the description area. The world is laid out relevant to RJ's world, and although distances are much smaller between cities, you can still get a feel of how RJ wanted his world to look. They advertise on MC an average of 25-49 players, and from what I've seen thus far that is somewhat accurate though more towards the range of 15-25 than 25-49. Equipment on DF is nice. Equipment, Leveling by killing monsters, and stats are all considered OOC on DF and therefore any character may use any piece of equipment in the game. Pkilling is legal here and has no limit providing it's the outcome of an RP event. There is no senseless killing allowed here on DF. Players not only level by killing monsters, but level by RPing as well. The only way to gain certain spells skills or ranks on the mud is by RPing, so if you do not enjoy role-playing at all I would suggest you think twice before logging on to this game. Leveling is slow, and gaining the top ranks is even slower. In talking with some of the long-time players of DF I've learned that some of them have been working toward top rank for many years, and still have not achieved greatness (although they are very powerful). There are 199 levels on this mud not including many separate individual ranks, and levels help in the traditional way by gained hitpoints, trains to raise stats, and availability of new spells/skills.

This mud was pretty easy to learn as far as basics go, but is still a long way from being a completely newbie-friendly mud. There is a lot to this world, and they only way to gain great EQ immediately is to buddy up with some higher-level characters (which as stated in atmosphere section is quite easy to do). The world itself, being based off a series of books, can also be a bit confusing to those who aren't familiar with the writings of Robert Jordan. Yet with all the information on the website given it's quickly picked up to anyone remotely interested in learning the history and background behind the world of DF. In my time spent there I've noticed quite a few crashes, and some lag problems at certain hours of the day. I'm told by players that this is a direct code problem, and in talking with the head coder I truly believe he is doing everything he can to reconcile these minor annoyances. At times the mud seems to be thrown into a constant loop, and other times it just crashes completely, but when it does crash it immediately comes back up and you're good to go.

Aside from some rather major stability problems that seem to keep arising on DF, it is a wonderfully written RPG. Friendly players and immortals add to what is already a beautifully created MU*, and furthers itself even more by the great role-playing that goes on in their world. If you are a pure Pkiller and only care about gaining power through killing mobs and other players, then this is definitely not the place for you, but if you love to role-play, and enjoy attaining greatness through very hard work and lots of time, then give DF a try. I think you'll be as impressed as I am with what they've done.