Introduction and General Information

  1. What is Viking MUD?
  2. Game rules
  3. So how do I play?
  4. How do I connect?
  5. How do I create a character?
  6. What's special about Viking MUD?
  7. When did Viking MUD first open?
  8. The in-game Administration
    1. The in-game Power/Responsibility Hierarchy
    2. Brief explanation of positions
    3. Departments
    4. Who does what?
  9. The non-profit organization
  10. About the main page
  11. What hardware/software does Viking MUD run on?

What is Viking MUD?

Viking MUD is a so-called "Multi-User Dungeon" (MUD) game. This means that there are several users (also known as players) who are a part of the same game at the same time. Unlike EverQuest, Viking MUD is not a game with fancy graphics, but a traditional text-based MUD.

Viking MUD is a volunteer non-profit organization, with an independent in-game hierarchical administrative structure. See The Administration for in-MUD organization.

So how do I play?

In order to play, you need to connect to our MUD server via telnet. Before connecting, you should really read our game rules .

How do I connect?

Note for Windows users

Don't use the "telnet" command! Some versions have serious bugs that make connecting difficult. Instead, download software such as PuTTY. See also our brief document on connecting with PuTTY.

General connection information

Viking MUD is running on connect.vikingmud.org (194.63.250.163) port 2001 . If you want to play, use a specialized MUD client, or open a telnet connection directly.

Knubo has made a java client to connect, which requires java 9+. The client can be downloaded from Github or directly from Knubo's website.
Then you run it either by double-clicking on the .jar file, or running the command java -jar VikingMudApp.jar

How do I create a character?

Assuming you have connected, you should read the document on creating a character. (You can skip this step if you have created MUD characters on several MUDs before.)

What's special about Viking MUD?

For the experienced LPMUDder, Viking looks very much like old Genesis, the first LPMUD. We have not changed the layout of the backbone area, mostly for nostalgic reasons. However, other things are very different from the 2.4.5 mudlib we started evolving from in February 1991, such as the various areas that have been added.

VikingMUD is a rather social MUD. Communicating with other players (the commands tell, shout and chat) cost no spell points.

Playerkilling is allowed under very special circumstances, such as areas designe with that in mind, but in general, you may not attack other players. (See the rules.)

There are several guilds on VikingMUD.

In addition to the guilds, there are two clubs for the players to join. The Bastard Batallion and The Eagle Club

When did Viking MUD first open?

Viking's "official" opening date was the 7th of February 1991, so we're definitely one of the oldest MUDs still around. Except for two longer (more than a week) periods of downtime in 1992 and 1993, Viking MUD has been running almost continuously since the first startup (even since the testing began in the autumn of 1990).

The Administration

The Power/Responsibility Hierarchy

Viking is based on a top-down power and responsibility structure, and is not a democracy.

  1. Administrator
  2. Arch wizard (experienced with Doc/Driver/Law/Mudlib/QC/Server work)
  3. Junior arch wizard (works for the arch wizards)
  4. Area/guild creator/maintainer (codes, invents, fixes)
  5. Proctor (can promote new wizards)
  6. Wizard (can make areas etc)
  7. Student wizard (can become wizards, but is no longer mortal/eternal)
  8. Mortal/eternal (plays the game)

Brief explanation of positions

Position Description
Administrator Main authority, Boss, God, whatever. The buck stops here.
Arch Wizard Person responsible for administrating a particular area of expertise.
Jr Arch Wizard Arch Wizard in training, inexperienced arch wizard, or arch wizard with smaller responsibility.

Departments

Here's an illustration of the department hierarchy.

Department hierarchy (docs, driver, law, mudlib, quality control, server, web)

Documentation is something that both driver, mudlib, QC, server and web people deal with, while the QC and law departments tend to cooperate on related issues. If there are no specific arches with responsibility within a department, that responsibility defaults to the administrators.

Who does what?

Title Name Departments
Administrator Drake Law, Mudlib, QC
Administrator Kralk Law,QC
Administrator Moreldir Docs, Law, Mudlib, Web
Arch Wizard Gaia QC
Arch Wizard Iomi QC
Arch Wizard Knubo Docs, Mudlib, QC
Arch Wizard Postkasse Docs, Law, QC
Retired Arch Wizard Dios (Server, Web)

About the main page

The main page shows an image of a tree, with the letters "Viking MUD" at its roots. The tree is Yggdrasil -- the world tree of Norse mythology. The picture was made by Jan Ingvoldstad (Dios). A smaller version appears near the top left on each (more recently updated) page on this site, linking back to the main page.

What hardware/software does Viking MUD run on?

Viking MUD primarily runs under some kind of a Unix system. For more details, look at our system information page.


Last update: 2024-12-05 19:00 UTC
Updated by: webmaster