| TorilMUD | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | Kris Kortright, project community |
| Engine | Sequent |
| Platform(s) | Platform independent |
| Release | 1996 |
| Genre(s) | Dungeons & Dragons MUD |
| Mode(s) | Multiplayer |
TorilMUD is a MUD, a text-based online role-playing game, and is one of the oldest and largest of its kind. [1]
TorilMUD is set in the Forgotten Realms Dungeons & Dragons campaign setting. [1] Toril is the name of the planet where the continent Faerûn, which "Forgotten Realms" refers to, is located. Its technical infrastructure is based on the Sequent derivative of the DikuMUD codebase.
Kris Kortright, a developer from the MUD Black Knights Realm, founded Sojourn, [2] set in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, [3] in 1993, along with Tim Devlin and John Bashaw. Sojourn was based on the Sequent codebase, the Epic spell system, and areas from Black Knights Realm. The City of Waterdeep was the first zone built entirely for Sojourn. Brad McQuaid was an avid player of Sojourn. Seeing the commercial potential of virtual worlds in the course of his MUD career, he went on to create EverQuest . [4] With Kris' permission, he used it as the model for the city of Freeport in EverQuest. [5] In 1996, due to creative differences between developers, Sojourn was forked into two projects, TorilMUD and Duris: Land of Bloodlust. [3]
The developers had also previously worked on Copper II, Copper III and Black Knights Realm. [2] The oldest zone on TorilMUD, the Lava Tubes, comes from Copper II, and the Underworld and Alterian Wilderness zones are from Black Knights Realm.
Sojourn was based on the Sequent codebase, the Epic spell system, and areas from Black Knights Realm. The City of Waterdeep was the first zone built entirely for Sojourn, and remains TorilMUD's most heavily populated hometown.
Sojourn continued until 1996, when a difference in creative vision among the staff led to the project being forked into TorilMUD and Duris: Land of Bloodlust. [6] [5] Of the two, TorilMUD is regarded as the more direct inheritor of Sojourn's legacy. [1] Toril continued until 1998, when it became Sojourn 2, and underwent another rebirth in 2001 as Sojourn 3. Kris retired in 2003, and Sojourn 3 was reborn as TorilMUD, or as the old-time players refer to it, Toril 2. Throughout these rebirths, the areas and code continued to grow: there are currently 300 zones (with several more nearing completion), 16277 types of monsters/mobs, and 13753 different items.
Many TorilMUD staff members were staff on Sojourn 3, Sojourn 2, and some are even from Toril 1, providing a degree of continuity. All Toril staff started as players on the MUD, giving them a great deal of personal experience with the game.
Brad McQuaid was an avid player of Sojourn and, after its demise, TorilMUD. Seeing the commercial potential of virtual worlds in the course of his MUD career, he went on to create EverQuest . [4] [5]
An Engadget article from 2011 noted TorilMUD for its direct influence on the MMO industry. [7]
A multi-user dungeon, also known as a multi-user dimension or multi-user domain, is a multiplayer real-time virtual world, usually text-based or storyboarded. MUDs combine elements of role-playing games, hack and slash, player versus player, interactive fiction, and online chat. Players can read or view descriptions of rooms, objects, other players, and non-player characters, and perform actions in the virtual world that are typically also described. Players typically interact with each other and the world by typing commands that resemble a natural language, as well as using a character typically called an avatar.
Forgotten Realms is a campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) fantasy role-playing game. Commonly referred to by players and game designers alike as "The Realms", it was created by game designer Ed Greenwood around 1967 as a setting for his childhood stories. Several years later, Greenwood brought the setting to publication for the D&D game as a series of magazine articles, and the first Realms game products were released in 1987. Role-playing game products have been produced for the setting ever since, as have various licensed products including novels, role-playing video game adaptations, comic books, and the film Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.
Ed Greenwood is a Canadian fantasy writer and the original creator of the Forgotten Realms game world. He began writing articles about the Forgotten Realms for Dragon magazine beginning in 1979, and subsequently sold the rights to the setting to TSR, the creators of the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game, in 1986. He has written many Forgotten Realms novels, as well as numerous articles and D&D game supplement books.
Faerûn is a fictional continent and the primary setting of the Dungeons & Dragons world of Forgotten Realms. It is described in detail in several editions of the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting with the most recent being the 5th edition from Wizards of the Coast, and various locales and aspects are described in more depth in separate campaign setting books. Around a hundred novels, several computer and video games and a film use Faerûn as the setting.
Elminster Aumar is a fictional character appearing in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. He is also known as the Sage of Shadowdale, and is depicted as a powerful wizard featured in several novels by Forgotten Realms creator Ed Greenwood. Certain aspects of his appearance and demeanor seem to echo Gandalf, Merlin, or Odin.
DikuMUD is a multiplayer text-based role-playing game, which is a type of multi-user domain (MUD). It was written in 1990 and 1991 by Sebastian Hammer, Tom Madsen, Katja Nyboe, Michael Seifert, and Hans Henrik Stærfeldt at DIKU —the department of computer science at the University of Copenhagen in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Player versus player (PvP) is a type of multiplayer interactive conflict within a game between human players. This is often compared to player versus environment (PvE), in which the game itself controls its players' opponents. The terms are most often used in games where both activities exist, particularly MMORPGs, MUDs, and other role-playing video games, to distinguish between gamemodes. PvP can be broadly used to describe any game, or aspect of a game, where players compete against each other. PvP is often controversial when used in role-playing games. In most cases, there are vast differences in abilities between players. PvP can even encourage experienced players to immediately attack and kill inexperienced players. PvP is often referred to as player killing in the cases of games which contain, but do not focus on, such interaction.
Mystra is a fictional goddess in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game.
Abeir-Toril is the fictional planet that makes up the Forgotten RealmsDungeons & Dragons campaign setting, as well as the Al-Qadim and Maztica campaign settings, and the 1st edition version of the Oriental Adventures campaign setting.
LPMud, abbreviated LP, is a family of multi-user dungeon (MUD) server software. Its first instance, the original LPMud game driver, was developed in 1989 by Lars Pensjö. LPMud was innovative in its separation of the MUD infrastructure into a virtual machine and a development framework written in the programming language LPC.
A tank or meat shield is a character class commonly seen in co-op video games such as real-time strategy games, role-playing games, fighting games, multiplayer online battle arenas and MUDs.
A mob, short for mobile or mobile object, is a computer-controlled non-player character (NPC) in a video game such as an MMORPG or MUD. Depending on context, every and any such character in a game may be considered to be a "mob", or usage of the term may be limited to hostile NPCs and/or NPCs vulnerable to attack.
Hate is a mechanism used in many MMORPGs, as well as in some RPGs, by which mobs prioritize which characters to attack. The player who generates the most hate on a mob will be preferentially attacked by that mob. The act of initiating such situation is called "getting aggro" or "pulling aggro."
Sequent was a DikuMUD derivative codebase developed by Raja Kushalnagar. It was a text-based online role-playing game that was an accessible DikuMUD based MUD. It added several new playing areas with shorter text descriptions that was designed to be accessible to users with sensory disabilities. It also supported more players online at the same time by being hosted on a Sequent multi-processor machine at the University of California, Berkeley, and was first started in March 1991.
The Mud Connector, abbreviated TMC, is a computer gaming website that provides articles, discussions, reviews, resource links and game listings about MUDs. The site lets MUD owners, administrators and enthusiasts submit information and reviews about specific MUDs. The site contains over 1000 MUD listings and designates a subset of virtual communities suitable for children. Mud Companion magazine praised the site.
LegendMUD is a text-only MUD game founded by a group of friends including virtual world designer Raph Koster. It features historically significant story elements and award-winning gameplay. It opened publicly on February 14, 1994. It has received critical praise for its research and attention to detail in reconstructing past cultures within the game context.
Lost Souls is a MUD, a text-based online role-playing game set in a medieval fantasy world. It has an extensive history of technical innovation in its field and has received critical praise.
Genocide is a MUD, a text-based online game, focused exclusively on player-killing. Founded in 1992, it was influential as the first such "pure PK" MUD, and has met with positive critical response. Genocide's ideas influenced a number of MUDs that emulated its pure player-versus-player orientation.
This is a glossary of terms common in multi-user dungeon (MUD) multiplayer virtual worlds.
Here it is — the big one! Sojourn is gone but not forgotten, and Toril is the new king. [...] Still based on TSR's Forgotten Realms world, Toril has kept Waterdeep, Bloodstone, and all its other great areas [...] Toril has over 300 players at peak hours, and closer to 100 at times when you wouldn't expected to see more than five players on another MUD. [...] There's no doubt that Sojourn is alive and well, and living in Toril.
This code is moving into a new version named Copper III, which should be present on the given Mudlist. When this Mud went down in mid-1993, a different Mud spawned from it into what was known to many as Black Knights Realm [...] The creators of this world would move on later to form a TSR-backed Mud known as Sojourn.
Once upon a time, boys and girls, there was a gargantuan MUD named Sojourn. It had over 400 players at peak times, and some of the most highly modified code in the land. Following faithfully in the wake of TSR's Forgotten Realms (AD&D), the MUD enjoyed an enormous wealth of areas, characters, and ideas from that role-playing game. But gods are vain and so are coders. Having different opinions on the future direction of Sojourn, they took the code and went their separate ways. The world was split into two main offshoots: Duris and Toril.
Once upon a time, boys and girls, there was a gargantuan MUD named Sojourn. It had over 400 players at peak times, and some of the most highly modified code in the land. Following faithfully in the wake of TSR's Forgotten Realms (AD&D), the MUD enjoyed an enormous wealth of areas, characters, and ideas from that role-playing game. But gods are vain and so are coders. Having different opinions on the future direction of Sojourn, they took the code and went their separate ways. The world was split into two main offshoots: Duris and Toril.
Multi-user dungeons (MUDs) | |
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