IfMUD

ifMUD is a perl based mud where many regular and longtime IF community members chat. Although the ifMUD allows for regular mud features, it is mostly used as a chat server. You can sign up for an account at http://ifmud.port4000.com.

The original host of ifMUD was Liza Daly (Liza). For several years, John Cater (katre) hosted ifMUD on a server in his basement. In the evening of December 5, 2010, ifMUD moved yet again to Justin de Vesine's (vimes's) virtual basement at http://ifmud.ziz.org.

Notable Locations on the ifMUD

A simple map showing how ifMUD's more notable rooms are connected to each other.

• Adventurer's Lounge. This is where everyone comes to chat, 99.9% of the time. To get here, just type in a "lounge" command. The lounge's name and description changes on an irregular basis, but it's still the Lounge. Also notable for Alex, a useful parrot "bot" that can answer questions like "who is inky?" and "what is a corknut?"
• Dorm A. The default home for new player characters.
• Massive Auditorium. This is mostly used for the XYZZY Awards ceremonies, but it's also been used for announcing the IntroComp and Erins winners.
• Toyshop and Floyditorium. There's several toys and gizmos here, but the main attraction is Floyd, a bot that lets people play an IF game together, and offers some non-IF games like Werewolf as well. See also: ClubFloyd.
• Edifice Towers. A large eleven story apartment complex, where players can create their own apartments, if they wish.
• The 'Carousel Room' Bar & Grill. The Bar has sometimes been used as an interview site. In recent years, it's used as an extra place to chat after an XYZZY Awards ceremony.
• Spoiler Room. A room in which people can discuss games without risk of spoiling them for others. Mostly used during the IF Comp to abide by the judging rules.

Emergency Backup Mud 2

If ifMUD is down for whatever reason, people may log onto ebMUD2, the Emergency Backup Mud 2, at schep.homelinux.net port 4000. Thanks, schep!

ebMUD2 is a completely separate mud with its own playerset and a different geography, though, so users must sign up all over again or use a guest account to use it. The command "connect guest guest" is how to casually log on there.

If ebMUD2 is down, try Guncho at game.guncho.com port 4108.

Previous backup muds

In past years, there were other backup muds: Fink-Nottle's newtMud, David Cornelson's daveMud, testMud, and Allen's ebMUD.

ebMUD, the Emergency Backup Mud, used to be at ebmud.nitfol.com, port 4000. It was a completely separate mud with its own playerset and a different geography, though, so users had to sign up all over again or use a guest account to use it. The "lounge" command took players to the firepit there. On March 6th, 2008, nitfol.com shut down permanently. Allen, nitfol.com's maintainer said, "Due to misuse by a coworker, I have to disallow access to nitfol to anyone outside the company."

Mudmeets

Occasionally, some members of ifMUD will get together and meet in person; this is a "mudmeet". Sometimes short games are created at mudmeets, for example: Pick Up the Phone Booth and Aisle in 2001, the games of Summer Beachmeet 2002 Comp in 2002, and the games of PAX Speed-IF at PAX East 2010.

Game Appearances

ifMUD settings or characters have appeared in:

• Pass the Banana (Admiral Jota; 1999; Z-code)
• Being Andrew Plotkin (J. Robinson Wheeler; 2000; Z-code).
• Are You A Chef? (Adam Biltcliffe; 2001; Z-code)
• The Weird Sister (Roger Carbol; 2002; TADS 2).
• The April Fools Day game that accompanied Guncho's announcement ("Stan Juprak"; 2008; Z-code)

Links

• IF and a MUD - a gentle introduction to the ifMUD by Stephen Granade.
• The ifMUD FAQ and ifMUD Charter are must reads for 'newbies'.
  • ifMUD For Beginners - an FAQ for the non-technically-inclined.
• ifMUD Maps: Overview - by David Welbourn.
• ifMUD listing at mudstats.com.