Is there such a thing as an offline, single-player MUD?

May 4, 2006 6:49 PM

Is there such a thing as an offline, single-player MUD?

I quite enjoy wandering around a text-based landscape, completing simple quests, bashing random monsters, collecting loot and buying swag. However, I rarely have anything to do with other players, who seem to only want to kill me or borrow money.

So, is there such a thing as a single player MUD? (Yes, I know it's an oxymoron.) Can I install a MUD server on my XP box? Do any MUDs make their world available for off-line use? I know all about rogue-likes, thanks, but I'm looking for something in a MUD interface.

posted by obiwanwasabi to sports, hobbies, & recreation (25 comments total)

have you looked into playing zork or any of the other text-based adventure games from the late 70's / early 80's using an emulator like AppleWin?
posted by aberrant at 6:58 PM on May 4, 2006

Do a search on Interactive Fiction, both here on Metafilter and the web at large. You will find a ton of stuff. You should also look for old Infocom games.
posted by Roger Dodger at 6:58 PM on May 4, 2006

Thanks, but I'm not really looking for something with a plot. I just want the typical MUD experience of running around killing random respawning stuff, stealing their belongings and going up levels, only by myself and offline. Think Nethack with a Zork interface.
posted by obiwanwasabi at 7:02 PM on May 4, 2006

If you download cygwin (a windows linux like environment) you can probably compile any codebase you liked from your multiplayer experience and telnet to yourself. There are some servers made for Windows too, just google.
posted by moift at 7:03 PM on May 4, 2006

Actually a bit of "just googling" looks a little sketchy as far as turning up any of the codebase names I remember, you'll probably have better luck getting a mature system if you go the cygwin route.
posted by moift at 7:08 PM on May 4, 2006

The genre you're looking for is called "text adventure," and more recently, "interactive fiction." That should give you plenty of google fodder. There is tons of this stuff online. There are even annual competitions for people to write the best IF games. Seek and ye shall find.
posted by knave at 7:21 PM on May 4, 2006

It doesn't sound like he's looking for IF. He's looking for a role playing game. MUDs and IF have similar interfaces, but the games are (usually) very different.

How about console RPGs? They're not text-based, but the gameplay is similar to MUDs (wander around exploring, kill monsters, level up, buy cool new weapons). I'd suggest picking up a Gameboy Advance SP and a copy of Final Fantasy: Dawn of Souls. See if that does it for you.

The only other thing I can think of that comes close to what you're looking for is old BBS door games like Legend of the Red Dragon and Usurper. These games are only marginally multi-player, since they were primarily designed for asynchronous interaction. (Usually player interaction is limited to sending messages and unsophisticated PvP battles.) You might be able to get these running locally on your PC, or you could try playing them on a telnet BBS.
posted by aparrish at 7:43 PM on May 4, 2006

Thanks for the IF suggestion, but I'm specifically NOT looking for IF. IF has a plot and an ending, and time stands still when I stop typing. In IF, those kobolds near the old well don't attack me in real time, killing me if I don't do something about it, and they don't respawn when they're dead, I can't steal their stuff and sell it at a shop that's full of random gear, and I get a score rather than experience.

moift is getting closer. I'm after a ready-to-go MUD I can download and run on my desktop. I don't want a codebase that lets me write my own MUD for others to play - I want to download somebody else's MUD and play it offline.
posted by obiwanwasabi at 8:45 PM on May 4, 2006

Sorry about that, posted before I saw your follow up post.
posted by knave at 8:57 PM on May 4, 2006

Mud Magic pointed me to a Java-base MUD that says it runs under Windows.
posted by turbodog at 9:07 PM on May 4, 2006

Sounds like NetHack might be close to what you're looking for. It's all ASCII, but it's used to draw mazes, so it's not straight text.

Good news is it's all about the hack and slash.
posted by kingjoeshmoe at 9:12 PM on May 4, 2006

SMAUG for Windows (SMAUG is a pretty popular codebase, a derivative of DIKU and MERC). Then you can download plenty of areas at the Smaug Area Exchange.. other relevant links here
posted by ori at 9:12 PM on May 4, 2006

Oops. Just realized you know about nethack. Nevermind.
posted by kingjoeshmoe at 9:13 PM on May 4, 2006

SMAUG supports both aggro and wandering mobs (i.e. monsters that roam around and attack players).
posted by ori at 9:14 PM on May 4, 2006

There are two main singleplayer text-based game systems still in use; interactive fiction (Zork-style), and dungeon crawling (Rogue-style). There aren't any that I'm aware of that do both things at once, although Zork 2 had a tiny bit of it. All longhand typing games I'm aware of are IF, without exception. (that doesn't mean that none exist, but I've never seen a single-player MUD.)

Honestly, the roguelike interface is really better for dungeoning than a text prompt. Single-character commands beat longhand typing any day. There are a bunch of great games in this lineage:

Rogue (the one that started it all... not really worth playing anymore, though.)
Nethack (the 10000-lb gorilla in this space)
Angband(essentially endless gameplay, almost zero plot, but lots of fun anyway)
Omega (This was buggy when I last looked, but it was very ambitious... Angband-style dungeons, overland areas, and towns with guilds and suchlike, a little bit of plot)
Larn (an old, simple roguelike, but fun)

Here is a resource page that includes all these games, plus other ones I haven't heard of.

If you can get past the single-character commands and the text-based "graphics", these are very good games. Nethack in particular is amazing. (I realize you know about this, but I'm including this comment for the benefit of others who might not.) It is one of the most intricate, detailed games ever done. You can literally play for years and still see new things.

There was a time when Nethack was accused of having 'everything but the kitchen sink.' So they added -- I kid you not -- kitchen sinks.

It's still in development, which should tell you something.
posted by Malor at 9:27 PM on May 4, 2006

Thanks ori - that's great!
posted by obiwanwasabi at 9:29 PM on May 4, 2006

Oh, I should have mentioned that out of that list, Angband is probably the closest to what you're looking for. Time only passes when you issue commands (ie, it's not realtime), but the feel is quite MUD-like in many ways. Endless levels, endless monsters, lots of neat treasures to find.
posted by Malor at 9:29 PM on May 4, 2006

I know you've already marked a best answer, but I've got to second Legend of the Red Dragon (from the ol' BBS days). It has exactly what you're looking for (monsters, trading, all that stuff) and (I think) is really just a DOS executable of sorts, so it should be easy to run on your PC.

Problem is, LORD is currently a for-sale game! If you go to the link above tho (to wikipedia, and from there to the official site), you can buy it without much fuss. I'd encourage you to have a look at it.
posted by ranglin at 9:51 PM on May 4, 2006

".Hack" may be near what you're looking for. (It only runs on game consoles, though.) It has a long term plot, but I get the impression you don't have to pay much attention to it.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 9:54 PM on May 4, 2006

Oh, rats. You said you wanted text based. "Never mind."
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 9:54 PM on May 4, 2006

Kingdom of Loathing doesn't really fit the parameters you specified (it's browser-based, so it has some graphics and is on-line), but may nevertheless be the sort of thing you are looking for.
posted by inkyz at 10:46 PM on May 4, 2006

That's very cool, inkyz - thanks for the pointer!
posted by obiwanwasabi at 12:35 AM on May 5, 2006

I was always partial to lpMuds and their derivatives over Diku and a few months ago I found a windows compiled version of lpMud which seemed to work flawlessly. You just run the server in the background and then use your favorite client to telnet in.

I can't remember where I downloaded it but if you want the files I have, I can either email them to you or put them up briefly on an FTP server.

The only catch is that you'll have to write or download your own worlds. This set only has a small world which is supposed to be used as a base for you to create your own content.
posted by pandaharma at 3:07 AM on May 5, 2006

Here's a site where you can find the latest LPMud updates, documentation, and links to various worlds:

murpe.com/lpmud
posted by pandaharma at 12:05 PM on May 6, 2006

Thanks pandaharma - I'll see how I go!
posted by obiwanwasabi at 11:21 PM on May 7, 2006