Guides — Icesus MUD

Getting started

MUD games explained: what a multi-user dungeon is, how it works, the history and types, and how to start playing one free.

Start with Quick Start and Alice’s new tutorial. Follow the road to Vaerlon, learn the essential commands, and save your first adventure.

What makes a text RPG different from CYOA, interactive fiction, and graphical RPGs, with Icesus as a persistent example.

Six free MUDs compared on what matters: world depth, active development and community — and how each one starts free in your browser.

Six MUDs you can play in your browser with no download, what each is best for, and how to start.

Design areas, NPCs, quests and stories for a living world with a real audience, instead of an empty solo project.

World design, MUD programming and engine choice, hosting, and the hardest part: finding players.

Start in the browser, then move to Mudlet or another desktop client when you want more control.

Mudlet, Blightmud, TinTin++, TinyFugue, MUSHclient and browser clients compared honestly — all free.

Official drop-in HUD: vitals, EXP, casting, cooldowns, an enemy panel, and channels. One install, no triggers.

Install Mudlet, connect to Icesus, choose readable settings, enable logging, and keep your first profile clean.

Safe trigger sets for Icesus roles: highlights, party tools, crafting, bot rules, and why momentums stay manual.

Use Icesus GMCP for vitals, rooms, party grids, casting, cooldowns, screen reader mode, and manual momentum UI.

Terminal-native Icesus setup with split-screen input, UTF-8, autoconnect, auto-reconnect, and a working config.

Classic TF5 setup for Icesus with visual mode, worlds, hooks, UTF-8-friendly settings, and reconnect behavior.

Modern Rust terminal client for Icesus with Lua triggers, timers, keybinds, server aliases, and GMCP status output.

Windows classic. World setup, automatic 256-colour output, and the UTF-8 plugin that makes Finnish characters work both ways.

Legacy Windows clients, still supported. Terminal type, screen width, and the ASCII transliteration Icesus applies for them.