A mud stands for multi-user dungeon: a purely text-based highly interactive online RPG game. No pretty graphics, but an immersive, interactive, multiplayer community where there are always people online, with far less of the latency ("lag") problems associated with most online games. The good news is that if you're reading this, you probably have the software on your machine to play, but you just don't know it! Telnet is simply a different way to use the Internet, and even if you don't have it, there are plenty of places on the Net to download the necessary software for free, for example tucows. You can also use the telnet applet at our site to play, although a direct telnet connection is considered better.

Muds such as this game first started in 1978 by a man called Richard Bartle, and at the last count there were over 3,000 out there hidden away in the corners on the internet. One thing almost all muds have in common is that they are absolutely free, and are only sustained by the amount of time and energy in which all the players and immortals (builders and coders) pour into them just for the love of it. All muds are different, and this FAQ concentrates on the Wheel of Time mud, currently at wotmud.org:2222. Many of the points do hold for most muds, so this guide should help you, even in the case that you choose not to play here. The sequence of documents assumes that you know almost nothing about mudding, and wish to have an overview of how best to go about surviving - it is geared at the complete novice. There are 29 parts to this guide - although it will take you half an hour or so to read it, believe me, it's worth it, as players tend to have little sympathy for those that ask unneccessary questions, especially knowing that this guide is online.

Before going on, a sincere request: this is a totally free game, it always has been and always will be. We work at it as much as possible for no other reason than we can. However, we all have real jobs etc, so we'd sincerely appreciate your helping us if you can by spreading the word: tell a friend the game, suggesting http://wotmud.org/ as a link to related websites that you might come across on your WWW travels or putting up a link on your own website! Essentially, the more the merrier, and the more players we have the better we'll be able to reflect the Wheel of Time world with all its various groups etc. Ideally, we'd like to have about 250-350 people online at peak periods (currently we're at about 100). So please, it's a great game, and it's totally free, so let people know about it!