Games on emsenn.net

MUD

Mon, 02 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A MUD (Multi-User Dungeon, later also Multi-User Domain or Multi-User Dimension) is a text-based, multiplayer, persistent virtual environment accessed over a network. Players interact with the world and with each other through typed commands: movement, communication, object manipulation, combat, and — in many MUDs — building and programming the world itself.

The first MUD was MUD1 (also called Essex MUD or British Legends), created by Roy Trubshaw and Richard Bartle at the University of Essex in 1978–1980. It ran on a DEC PDP-10 and was accessible over ARPANET. MUD1 established the core features: persistent world state, multiple simultaneous players, text-based rooms connected by exits, objects that could be picked up and used, and NPCs (non-player characters) with scripted behavior.

World-Building as Programming

Mon, 02 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The MUD tradition produces a distinctive insight: building a virtual world and programming a system are the same act. In a MUD, a room is a software object. A sword is a software object. An NPC is a software object with behavior. Creating a forest means writing code that instantiates rooms with descriptions, connects them with exits, populates them with objects, and defines the rules by which players interact with them. There is no separation between “content” and “code” — the world is code, and code is the world.

Tarot card games

Wed, 31 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Tarot decks were historically used for card games before being widely used for divinatory readings.

These games are typically trick-taking and use the major arcana as trumps. Different regional variants exist, often grouped under “tarot” or “tarock” game traditions.