User:Vashti/Discworld MUD

Discworld MUD is a free MUD based on the Discworld series of books by Terry Pratchett. It was founded in 1991 and opened to the public in 1992. The world has developed over time to the huge size it is today. It consists of several big cities (Ankh-Morpork, Bes Pelargic, Genua and Djelibeybi) on two continents, many small towns scattered around, and hundreds of thousands of rooms which form the land between the cities and towns. Many of the Discworld characters wander around on the disc. At any time, there are usually between 100 and 200 players online. The MUD is based on a custom mudlib and uses its own LPMud driver.

Over 500 soul commands allow refined roleplaying, from crying to hopping around in circles. All is possible, but roleplaying is not compulsory and many players choose to play in a purely social role, performing valuable services, moderating legal disputes or writing plays, or the other extreme, "numberchasing" - advancing their own skills as quickly as possible. Combat and theft between players is only possible for those who opt for "player killer" status. All other players are protected from other players (but not from the NPCs that can cause enough trouble for the unwary).

An interesting feature of the MUD is that your prowess at various activities is based upon your skills' "bonuses", which are based upon your level in the skill and the various stats (such as strength, dexterity, and wisdom) that affect that skill, forming a weighted logarithmic relationship. Advancement is unlimited, but the higher your 'level' in a skill, the less effect gaining another level will have.

Politics
The major political entities on Discworld MUD are the guilds and the player councils.

Guilds
The majority of players join one of the six basic guilds - organisations that handle training and career advancement. These six guilds are the guilds of assassins, priests, thieves, warriors, witches and wizards. They are loosely based on the Discworld novels, although there are differences - in the novels, for example, warriors, wizards and witches are not considered to be Guilds in Ankh-Morpork.

Someone who has not joined a guild is said to be an adventurer. Adventurers lack the cheap advancement and social structure provided by guilds, and so most players join a guild as quickly as possible. However, a few players choose to remain outside the guild structure and play as adventurers.

Many of the guilds have specialisations - further choices that need to be made concerning the player's role in the guild. Each guild has a refined set of special commands and abilities.

Assassins
As detailed in the published Assassins' Guild Diary, the Ankh-Morpork Guild of Assassins is split into six academic houses (Viper, Cobra, Scorpion, Tree Frog, Raven and Black Widow Houses), after the style of notable English public schools such as Eton College. Black Widow House is an entirely female house, and since its introduction in 2002, all new female assassins have automatically been assigned to it. Male assassins are randomly assigned to one of the other five houses, although these houses are not entirely male. The guild is led by a player guildmaster, elected from the body of the guild by its membership. Each House also has its own housemaster, who is elected in the same fashion and may have belonged to any House in the past. However, ultimate authority resides with the guildmaster.

Warriors
The Warriors' Guild has no parallel in the books. Since the guild was split into ten smaller subguilds in 2004, there has also been no in-game institution known as the "Warriors' Guild", although the name persists at several levels of the game.

The old institution was run by an elected guildmaster and assistant guildmaster. Three warriors were appointed to the rank of Squire to assist with the operation of the guild. However, since the guild was split there has been no player administration.

Wizards
The Wizards' Guild is based on the Unseen University from the Discworld novels. The Institute of Illusory Learning is a secondary instituion based in Klatch, which has no parallel in the books. There are also hedge wizards, who are associated with neither institution. The IIL and the hedge wizards have no political structure.

The UU and IIL have a level system where First Level is awarded at Guild Level 40, Second at 60, Third at 80 and Fourth at 100. After that there is competition amongst members of an Order for that Order's allocation of Fifth, Sixth and Seventh level wizards, with Rating, Guild Level and time since last death being the factors considered. Senior Wizard (sometimes unofficially known as Eighth Level) is an elected position in the UU Orders that brings with it acess to the Senior's Bedroom, which contains a closet that functions similarly to a vault. The position also enables the player holding it to use the "discipline" command which causes the target to be thrown down some stairs by the UU porters.

Politics
The game world is divided and sub-divided into several political regions. The cities of Ankh-Morpork and Djelibeybi are run by councils of elected player magistrates, and some guilds are "player-run" - that is, operated, within limits, by leaders who are again elected from within the playerbase. Despite an effort by the Djelibeybi council (usually referred to as the Klatch council, after the Discworld continent and coding area in which Djelibeybi is located) to seize control over those areas with no player council, it is generally held that there are no written player laws which apply to these areas, and that only the game's acceptable use policy, invariably referred to as "the rules", applies.

Ankh-Morpork has seven magistrates, notable current and former magistrates including PncessAmy and Sined. Djelibeybi has 5, the most famous of whom was Penguin (formerly known as Nard).

The Thieves guild of Ankh-Morpork has a political system very similar to the assassins except that their specialisation leaders must come from that specialisation.

The Priests guild is divided into 7 religions, each of which has its own High Priest and Ministers. The High Priest has the ability to marry players to each other and loses his position on dying. For this reason, High Priest elections can be quite frequent.

The witches guild has no political structure.