Text RPGs have been around since the 80s. Most people think they died with the dial-up era. We've been running five of them continuously since 1997, and we're still adding to them. Free to play. No download. #MUD #TextRPG

The Sideshow is open. The Ringmaster swears nobody can beat its acts. NO ONE, in fact, is his exact wording. One lot left. HELP IRON CARNIVAL #IronRealms #MUD

The Mechanical Prophet doesn't write the fortunes. Players do. Two lots left. HELP IRON CARNIVAL #IronRealms #MUD

The Midway won round three, so Fehn's Big Ball is loose on the grounds. Three lots left. HELP IRON CARNIVAL #IronRealms #MUD

He'd fit right in. Weird Ones Welcome #IronRealms #MUD

Two of the volunteer admins who keep Starmourn running gave an interview: how the game went volunteer-run and free, and how you can play anything from a pop idol to a space pirate. writing-games.org/starmourn/ #Starmourn #MUD

The Food Court won round two. Chef Barnybias Crumb is serving, and the food is actually good. The pie eating contest has no interest in your dignity. Four more to come. The next opens in five days. HELP IRON CARNIVAL #IronRealms #MUD

The Menagerie won the first round. A gryphon fledgling, a lunar fox, a ku'ati kit, and a bucking ram that will put you in the dirt in front of a crowd. Five more to come. The next opens in three days. HELP IRON CARNIVAL #IronRealms #MUD

AREA MAN ATTEMPTS TO REFER HIS OWN ALT, reports the Herald. The tribunal reminds citizens the recruitment bounty requires a second person. Yes, they checked. ironrealms.com/referrals-gui… #IronRealms #MUD

The Iron Carnival is open in Achaea, Aetolia, Lusternia and Starmourn. Well, mostly it's a building site. Six attractions, all under construction. Pitch in on one and you're voting for it. Every five days the one with the most help opens. HELP IRON CARNIVAL

It's a place. Twenty-two rooms, identical in every world it lands in. What's in them is the part we're not saying.

Great noclip doc with Raph Koster on how MUDs became MMOs, going back to the 1970s. MUDs are still the greatest games ever made. youtu.be/kHu709a0sp0?si=9-OC…

The Herald reports: bringing a friend into a text game now earns you both rewards as they hit milestones. Details in the guide, including what the tribunal thinks of your alt. ironrealms.com/referrals-gui… #IronRealms #MUD

The curing system took me two weeks to understand. The combat meta took a month. Some classes have skillsets I still haven't touched after years. None of that felt like a wall. Good. That means you're getting somewhere. play.ironrealms.com #MUD #IronRealms

Something is coming to Achaea, Aetolia, Lusternia, and Starmourn. Same thing, all four games, at the same time. We can't say what it is yet. There's a dwarf involved, and he's already complaining.

Ask a MUD player about their first nemesis and you'll get a name and a grudge that's still warm. The rival who waited outside the gates. The person you just couldn't beat. Who was yours?

I've talked to people who found these games in their 40s, convinced they'd missed the window. They hadn't. A few of them are now running guilds. There's no such thing here. play.ironrealms.com #MUD #IronRealms

You start with a sword and a city that doesn't know your name. Then someone hands you a leadership vote and you've got seventy people looking to you for decisions. Until you're leading a city. play.ironrealms.com #MUD #IronRealms

People joke about playing a character like it's embarrassing. But the ones who lean in hard, the ones who actually commit to the bit, those are the players who are still here ten years later. That's why it worked. play.ironrealms.com #MUD #IronRealms

Nobody warns you that "I'll just try this text game" turns into a 437-row spreadsheet of every affliction and the herb that cures it. They stack faster than you can react, so you build a system or you keep dying. 800 days later, best game I've ever played and I regret nothing.

Most games that tried to simplify text RPGs just stripped out the parts people actually cared about. The complexity isn't a bug they forgot to fix. That was the point. That's why it's still here. play.ironrealms.com #MUD #IronRealms