Discworld MUD

Discworld MUD is a free-to-play Multi User Dungeon launched in the early 1990’s, based on Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series. It’s possible to meet many characters and travel to the areas seen in the books. So far, the MUD seems to take place during the events of Night Watch or The Truth, but it’s hard to tell. New features are constantly added to the game.

The player starts as an Adventurer and can choose to join one of six player-run[1] guilds: Assassins, Priests, Thieves, Warriors, Witches, and Wizards. Each guild has a number of specialisations and different primaries. Or the player can stay an adventurer.

And there’s much more to that.

Tropes used in Discworld MUD include:
  • Absurdly High Level Cap: There’s an achievement for reaching guild level 800. Only one player has surpassed guild level 700, and guild levels of 1000 or more are theoretically possible.
  • Already Done for You: Quest-related NPCs and items usually take half an hour to reset, so sometimes it’s already “done”.
  • A Homeowner Is You
  • An Adventurer Is You
  • And Your Reward Is Clothes: A few quests.
  • An Entrepreneur Is You: Player-run shops.
  • An Interior Designer Is You: You can decorate the interior of a building that belongs to you, and the game will give a text description of the items in the room.
  • Back Stab: Thieves and assassins get this as a command. Everyone can learn the similar Ambush command.
  • Badass: High-leveled players.
  • Bare-Fisted Monk: Those who decide to fight unarmed.
  • Beef Gate: Almost all NPCs can be killed, though, if the player is a high enough level. The rare few who can't be killed are generally harmless newbie helpers or annoying joke characters. (And even many helper/annoyance NPCs are very killable.)
  • BFS
  • Bottomless Bladder
  • Can-Crushing Cranium: The player can do this to Roo Beer cans.
  • Capital City: Ankh-Morpork, where most newbies start out.
  • Capture the Flag: A popular game, where non-playerkillers can be playerkillers with no repercussions. There are tournaments between and within guilds sometimes.
  • Cast from Hit Points: There’s a spell that requires the caster to cut his/her hand, and the blood turns into mist that deals damage to the target.
  • Character Level: The way to level up is by spending experience points on primaries.
  • Church Militant: Many priests.
  • Cloudcuckoolander: The NPC Sokkard.
  • Color Coded for Your Convenience: It’s possible to color otherwise gray text to make things recognizable (group members, for instance).
  • Cooldown: The “berserk” command for warriors.
  • Continuing Is Painful: You get 7 lives (any more you have to buy, with the price for the first rather high and growing quickly), you lose all the unused exp, and your stats get big penalties (for weaker characters, this might mean that you're not strong enough to get everything from your corpse). This has spawned one of the most useful player organizations, the Rescue Recovery Unit (RRU), who upon death, can be called to retrieve your corpse, resurrect you with a specialized priest spell (get some of that unused experience back) and some are powerful enough to retrieve you from even a dangerous zone.
  • Critical Existence Failure: Averted. The more injured you are, the more difficult it is to fight.
  • Dangerously Close Shave: There is an NPC in Ohulan-Cutash who is a Shout-Out to Sweeney Todd who even warns you beforehand that he'll slit your throat when you get a shave from him. But hey, dying this way gets you an achievement and a percentage of another achievement and creates pies that taste like you.
  • Dartboard of Hate: Whenever players start a new game of darts, the dartboard has a random creator's face on it. The nose is the bullseye.
  • Death From Above: Some wizard spells. There are also a few ways to die this way when not in combat. Such as pulling the black lever in Pumpkin Town, even though a sign tells you not to.
  • Defend Command
  • Destroyable Items: Most items have a condition, ranging from "excellent" to "a complete wreck". After enough damage to an item, it'll break and disappear permanently, but there are ways to fix it up. Also, eggs.
  • The Dev Team Thinks of Everything
  • Diminishing Returns for Balance
  • Disproportionate Retribution: An inversion:

Constable Flint says: You, Tabs, are hereby sentenced to 3 hours and 20 minutes of maximum security arrest for the murder of a city guard, obstructing an officer of the Watch in the execution of his or her duty by fighting in public, the murder of a watchman, one hundred and seventy-one instances of assaulting an officer of the Watch and disturbing him or her in the execution of his or her duty, six instances of malicious vandalism of a valuable public service, two instances of manipulating property of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch with the intent of breaking convicted criminals out of jail, thirteen instances of killing an officer of the Watch and resisting arrest.

Sokkard wisps: But once again, Barry the incredibly clever little cornflake works his way all the way to the top of the spoon without anyone noticing!
Sokkard wisps: The student opens wide...
Sokkard wisps: He lifts the spoon, and puts it in his mouth...
Sokkard wisps: He closes his mouth around the spoon...
Sokkard wisps: Barry is in the mouth...
(Two) Sokkard wisps: And I'll tell you the rest next time BECAUSE IT'S a CEREAL.

  • Punny Name: Several NPCs and players; Tique is fond of making different puns with his last name. There's a category in the Osrics [dead link] for best name, where the top names are mostly puns.
  • Purely Aesthetic Gender: The only major thing affected by gender is whether a player can join the witches’ guild (can’t be male).
  • Rage Quit: Probably the reason why corpses of newbies with their stuff are found, but the player isn’t online.
  • Regenerating Health: Usually 3-4 HP per “heartbeat”. Bandages, healing roses, and healing tea speed it up.
  • Schmuck Bait: There are signs that warn players not to do certain things, and the game teaches you early on that it’s a good idea to heed them. Some players don’t.
    • There are also some tough NPCs that have short descriptions that resemble weaker NPCs. "Look"ing at them or "consider"ing them usually gives the player clues that they shouldn't be trifled with.
  • Scratch Damage: Averted. Once the player is a high enough level (something like that), weaker opponents have a hard time landing a hit. If they manage to, the player’s “skin absorbs all of the blow”.
  • Shiny Sense: Lights, like yellow stone rings.
  • Shoplift and Die: There are certain areas where it’s a very bad idea to shoplift. For non-thieves or thieves without a license, shoplifting in Ankh-Morpork gets you heavied (money and items confiscated) and left hanging on Brass Bridge with one hit point.
  • Shout-Out: Many, most noticeably in the achievements and jukebox and pre-reboot songs.
  • Stance System: Combat tactics.
  • Standard Status Effects: Fear, poison, paralysis, blindness, and rarely, turned into a frog.
  • Status Buff: Berserking.
  • Status Line: Can by seen by typing “score brief”, or with a client that has that option.
  • The Trope Formerly Known as X: A quest in Genua involves a parody of this.
  • Wallet of Holding: Dangerous to have, though; there are a few ways to lose your money.
  • Warp Whistle: Twisting a blue crystal ring teleports the player to a random area.
  • Welcome to Corneria: Although NPCs can react differently to certain sayings, most likely “help”, to start a quest.
  • Wizard Needs Food Badly: Averted. Your character never gets hungry or thirsty, unlike other MUDs.
  • The Wiki Rule: Here.
  • You Can't Get Ye Flask

put coin in machine
Cannot find “coin”, no match.
put coin into machine
Cannot find “coin”, no match.
place coin in machine
Try something else.
leave coin in machine
What?
stick a goddamn coin into the slot of the machine
Try something else.

    • The 'syntax' command is very helpful in figuring out how to get the flask.
  • You Get Knocked Down, You Get Back Up Again: Averted. There's a "trip" and "shove" command that, if successful, forces the enemy to crash onto the ground, where they can't attack until they get up, while the one standing can.
  1. ↑ except for warriors
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