The two towers mud
| title: | The two towers mud |
| url: | link |
| download page: | No link! |
| license: | Donation |
| genre: | MUD |
| developer: | T2mud team |
| platform: | Mud |
| release: | 1994, Ongoing |
| features: | text |
| last edit by: | Dark |
Description
The date is the 15th of March 3019. All across middle earth, a battle is being fought as the free peoples of the west resist the might of Sauron the dark lord. Despite the triumph outside the walls of Minas tirith and the death of the witch king of Angmar the situation seems hopeless. The captains of the west march fruitlessly on the black gate of Mordor in a last effort to distract the eye of the dark lord, even as another host of orcs and fel creatures assault the fair land of lothlorien. Even in the peaceful lanes and woods of the shire, ruffians commanded by the disgraced wizard Saruman are burning and despoiling the land..
Even aside from the current unrest, mdidle earth is still a wide and wild place, with dark terrors sleeping beneith snow capped mountains, ancient treasures to be found, and broad rolling lands where adventure and danger wait for anyone who has the courage to seek them.
The two towers mud is firstly a representation of almost the entire world of middle earth as imagined by Tolkien. From the lonely mountain and the city of dale, to umbar and rune in the south, to more familiar locations like Bree, Mirkwood or rivendell, all containing chances to explore, battle enemies, and complete literally hundreds of quests; close to a thousand by some counts).
First, choose whether your character will join the side of freedom, or will take service to the dark lord, then choose a race. The free peoples obviously includes such races as Hobbits, dwarves, Eorling and Dúnedainn, while servants of Sauron will allow players to experience the world as Easterlings, uruk-hai, or variags. Uniquely, though some races are more naturally inclined to some professions; as Gimly himself says, Dwarves aren't built for pony back, players will need to seek out a trainer for the profession they want. Professions include warriors riders, assassis and thieves, as well as wizards and rangers for the free races, and sniffers and necromancers for the Dark Lord's servants. Each profession has four main skills associated with it, however characters are also permitted to learn 4 other professional skills up to a level of %60 (though they will decay over time), meaning that there is a lot of variation for growing your character, or having a couple of specialisations.
Though the game features a lot of combat, fighting to advance your skills, as well as gain money to pay skill trainers, combat here is generally slower and simpler than in many muds. This is because of the main thrust of the game, questing.
Almost every area of the game has some task or quest to do; remember to check the hint channels including hint quest and hint local for information, especially in the new player towns. Most of these quests are surprisingly logical and possible to work out provided a player is aware of the world around them, even though they sometimes take different commands. For example, if a room description mentions a bush, examining the bush might yield a description telling you "The branches look as if they might be pushed aside", whereupon "push branches", might reveal an exit hidden by the bush. Quests also often involve many different activities too, from planting fields, to building ships, to helping the dwarves do a little mining.
Where most mud games also feature a search for equipment, the two towers has a rather unique approach. Being set on one specific day in the world of middle earth, every four real world days the game resets and all equipment is restored to where it came from. Even when logging out normally, unless you specifically rent a room in an inn, your character will drop all their equipment. Unusual though this system is, it creates a situation where the primary mode of advancement comes not through what gear your character gets, but how they advance their skills and train their stats, leading to a surprisingly free and easy game, albeit one it might take a little getting used to if you've come from other muds.
As well as a massive amount of single player action, the game also features several multiplayer options, these include a range of guilds and organisations to join, from relaxed pipe smokers to bands of honourable warriors, to regular battleground events in which you can directly take part in the battle for Mirk wood, on either the side of the dark lord or the free peoples, earning experience and loot in the process.
The game's accessibility has recieved a great deal of work, and indeed continues to do so. by setting accessibility on during character creation, or in game settings, a large amount of ascii art, even including signs or other decorations is converted to normal text. ~This is especially notable on the game's staggeringly huge wilderness map, where typing "map", will tell you what terrain is around your character, including points of interest, roads and other geographical features.
Prompts can also be customised, and even some in character displays such as the lists found in the skills and score commands have been optimised for screen readers. The developers are also very open to accessibility requests too, indeed often a note to one of the immortals is all that's needed for an immediate fix.
The game is entirely free to play, however the mud accepts donation, both on their main site, and monthly via patreon. Patreon donators also get discounts on 2t merchandise from their online store as well
Additional resources
The above website includes a lot of helpeful links and information, including the game's own newsletter and regular podcast to keep uptodate with happenings in middle earth.
while other players in game tend to be helpful to new players in their questing activities, you could also check The t2 quest info site found here For a little extra hint or two. ,/p> br>
As the game has been around for such a long time it has garnered quite a lot of interest, such as It's own page on the one wiki to rule them all, or This page on the Tolkien gateway
With a full representation of middle earth,f rom pipe smoking and diverse languages, to history, geography, and of course a vast world of wonder to explore, the two towers mud is an absolute treat for tolkien fans, and with it's atmospheric writing and absorbing quests, also a great experience for more casual fantasy readers who just want a truly immersive text game, especially those looking for something different from the usual hack n slash.
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Updates: entry 28 Jan 23 and description 28 Jan 23