WatchMUD is a game made entirely of text. You read where you are, you type what you do, and other people are in the same world with you while you play. This page gets you from a Windows PC with nothing installed to standing in the town square in about ten minutes.
A MUD ("multi-user dungeon") is the ancestor of every online roleplaying game. There are no graphics. The game describes a place, and you answer by typing short commands like look, north or get knife. The world is split into rooms, and you walk between them by compass direction. Creatures in the world are called mobs, and some of them fight back.
You connect with a small program called a MUD client. People in 1990 used bare telnet. You don't have to: the client below is free, friendly, and runs on Windows.
You don't need telnet, ssh, a terminal, or anything else. Mudlet is the whole kit.
WatchMUD isn't in Mudlet's built-in list of games, so you add it yourself, once.
Next time, WatchMUD is in the list on the left: click it, then Connect.
The game greets you and asks one question. Everything you type goes in the input line at the bottom of Mudlet's window; press Enter to send it.
y. If it asks for a password instead, someone already has that name: disconnect, connect again, and pick another.Names are permanent. There's no renaming and no deleting, so don't make a throwaway "test" character with a name you'd want later.
Next time you connect, type your name, then your password, and you're back wherever you left off.
You start in Temple Square, in the town of Wrathrock. Here's roughly what you'll see, with what you type in grey:
Temple Square The main square of the town. People come and go. East is a donation room, south is the marketplace. [ Exits: North, East, South ] <100/100hp> south Market Square The center of town, where people come to trade. To the east is the general store, and to the west the smithy. [ Exits: North, East, South, West ] <100/100hp> south …a few rooms later, out in the Hollowfields… The Millpond … An angry goose lowers its neck and hisses at you. <100/100hp> consider goose Angry goose looks like a fair fight. (power 1; you are 2) <100/100hp> kill goose Ok. You hit angry goose for 3 damage. Angry goose hits you for 2 damage. <98/100hp>
The line in angle brackets is your prompt: your health, now and at most. It turns yellow, then red, as you get hurt.
A good first outing:
help to see every command. You can't break anything by experimenting.equipment. You start with a little gear already on.south through the market and out the south gate, down the trail to the Hollowfields, the farmland where beginners hunt.consider it. "A fair fight" or easier is fine. "Would probably kill you" means exactly that.get all from corpse to loot it.recall to go straight back to Temple Square from anywhere, as long as you aren't in a fight.quit when you're done. The game saves you.You can always type help for this list in the game. Most commands have a short form; n is north, i is inventory.
| Type | What it does |
|---|---|
| Getting around | |
n s e w u d | Walk north, south, east, west, up or down |
look | Describe the room again (l for short), or look goose for one thing in it |
exits | Where you can go from here |
recall | Straight back to Temple Square |
| Things | |
get knife | Pick something up. get all takes everything; get 2.knife takes the second knife |
get all from corpse | Loot what a mob dropped |
drop knife | Put something down. Dropped things crumble after half an hour |
wear, wield | Put on armor, take up a weapon |
remove | Take something off |
inventory, equipment | What you're carrying (i), what you have on (eq) |
repair all | Mend worn-out gear, at the smithy west of Market Square. Free |
| Fighting | |
consider goose | How a fight would go, before you start it |
kill goose | Start a fight. It carries on by itself until someone dies |
flee | Try to run. It doesn't always work |
| You | |
stat | Your health and power |
role | Whether your gear makes you a Tank, Healer or Striker, and why |
color off | Turn the game's colors off, or back on |
| Other people | |
who | Who's playing, and where |
say hello | Speak to everyone in the room. 'hello works too |
tell Ana hello | Speak to one player, wherever they are |
shout hello | Speak to everyone in the game |
quit | Save and leave |
role to see the reasoning.[bot] in who is a bot that hunts and gives its loot to the donation room, east of Temple Square. They step aside when you arrive, and they can't chat. Type help bots for more.help.