Rants & Raves of Jasmine’s Fiction

What would you do if you were lost and trapped deep in the depths of the catacombs crawling with undead corpses hell bent on ripping the flesh from your bones; AND you have run out of healing salves and all your orbs have vanished?

Or what would you do if you were walking along, minding your own business when a filthy shadow creeps up behind you and buries a shark tooth knife in your back?

And what would you do if you were sailing as fast as your leaky schooner will take you, trying to get away with whatever limbs you have left as a pirates ship filled with the meanest cutthroats nipping at your heels because you were stupid enough to fire your starboard cannons upon the ship?

Welcome to Merentha!  For the uninitiated; this is a text based, fantasy themed RPG (role-playing game).  I’m sure most of you will have seen graphic computer games where buffed up heroes and scantily clad heroines run around hacking and slashing demons and monsters.  Text based games are the same – the sole objective is to kill as many monsters as you can, as fast as you can without getting yourself killed in the process; and the only difference is that instead of pictures it uses words to describe everything.  This is not a game for slow readers!

It’s a MUD or Multi User Dimension where the game is hosted on a server and people from around the world can access this server and play.  It’s run by ‘Immortals’, basically the people who code the MUD and ensure that the rules are adhered to by the players.  Break the rules and you will get ‘dested’ (where your character is permanently deleted).

Interested?  Well then let’s get you started!  First you will need a character.  What do you want to be?  You can choose to be one of the mighty Fighters.  Not feeling so tough?  How about a stealthy Rogue instead?  Not sure how sneaky you feel?  Ok, you can try a nice, soft profession like a Cleric.  Too boring?  Let’s try a Monk then!  Still undecided?  How about some Magic in your life? 

Ok now for your character’s race.  Giants, Centaurs, Imps, Nymphs, Elves, Dwarves, Satyrs, Kobolds, Kenders, Faeries, Orcs, Drows, Gnolls, Werewolves, Artrells, Dragons, Goblins, Ogres, Halflings, Trolls, Hobbits or if you want to be boring, Humans too.  Oh and don’t forget to pick a cool name for your character!

You are now a newbie and you can start killing as many monsters as you wish!  Eventually you might want to join a guild or a kingdom/queendom, participate in the numerous ‘wars’ or special events that come up during the holiday seasons, solve quests and perform good deeds too. 

My mates and I have had some pretty fun times in Merentha.  Honestly for me, the really unforgettable events are the ones where my stupidity reigned supreme.  Like the time I opened fire upon the Pirate’s Ship and nearly got myself sunk to Davey Jones’ Locker.  Or the time I agreed to fight to the ‘death’ in the Arena with an Artrell Bard about 35 levels above me.  FYI – An Artrell is an insectoid species with FOUR arms; a Bard is a singing, knife wielding assassin with a special ‘fast’ attack; so basically I died standing at 16 hits per heartbeat. Then there’s me trying out my new, practically useless & BACKFIRING spells on monsters that could literally beat my head in with their bare fists.  And then one time I accidentally attacked a friend by mistake and got myself killed in the process, and him thrown into jail for killing me.

The best bit about these games is that one gets to meet lots of people who eventually become good friends.  I now interact with many of these players on a daily basis and I’ve even been ‘MUD-Married’ twice!  Unfortunately, MUDs are very much like real life as there are nice people and there are not so nice people.  One knows about players getting PK-ed (Player Kill) for rare armour, feuds that turn into full fledged wars, backstabbings & slander, contract killings & corpse looting – oh this list could go on.  But we focus on the fun and friendships and let me tell you what friendships they are!

Kudos goes out to all you Merentha citizens – Ursa (Bear of my life), Lost (my oldest and smelliest mate), Khayman (mutton munching vampire comrade), Cye’Ren (my Jedi Master), Whistlerick (my Murphy’s Law Magnet), Himiko (my EXP machine), Dalen (my crazy fishing Pirate), Briseis (my beloved guildmistress), Legato (my pimp daddy), Eplictees (my smile & pounce), Bacchanal (my tour guide), Merk (my MUD-hubby), Cirsta (my orange provider) and so many more people…  I can’t name everyone but rest assured that I’ve bitten each and everyone of you and I love you all for making Merentha such an enjoyable experience for me. 

Now who’s up for a party?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 19th, 2006 at 5:59 pm and is filed under Games. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.