Experience

An obvious motivation for playing MUDs is to see your character grow as they gain experience, a noun which in itself bears one of the major distinction between MUDs.

Many MUDs for instance, rely on fighting for bringing experience to their players: the bigger the monster, the larger the reward. Some other MUDs rely upon exploration, or role-playing.

In Frandum though, only questing will help you grow stronger. Your life as a Frandum player will be a struggle to prove your worth to the gods, until they decide to grant you the gift of immortality. Performing quests, whatever they are, is the only way to have your power acknowledged by the gods.

When you die, the gods will ask you to redeem yourself by donating items you find to their glory. Each item you donate will help pay back the favor the gods bestowed upon you through resurrection.

Background

Spawned from the swedish game DUMII in 1993, Frandum has since evolved on its own, never relinquishing its origins yet finding its own way into the multitude of fantasy worlds. The world has long been an aggregation of areas built by the different generations of Wizards, until a big picture began to appear.

Over the last few years, a slow yet deep work has been overtaken to merge the existing areas into a global pattern, and to set into place a coherent world, with its own races, its own kingdoms and its own history, so that we are now confident the world of Frandum is unlike any fantasy world you have seen, even though the references to famous novels, movies or legends are obvious in many areas.

The balance

Soon enough will come the day where you will have to choose the God/Goddess that will enlighten your path, the one that will grant you magical powers and for whom you will fight all your life along. Three choices will be possible: join the damned cohorts of Shezael, the Dark Queen, join the legions of Justice with worshipping Reset, God of Balance, or join the forces of goodness, with following Galanhir, Lord of Light.

This choice is of course not innocent, and only souls confident in their aspirations and beliefs can make it, lest they should break the rules of their church and be severely punished. Once aligned, you will be able to influence the balance of the world, and hopefully make it lean on your side: light for the goods, darkness for the evils and perfect balance for the neutrals. When your side is the most powerful, you are more powerful too, your spells are more efficient and succesful and your God/Goddess' strength increases, slightly changing the world's inhabitants.

Maps

The game proposes maps based upon four levels of "zoom":

• A vicinity map displaying the long names of the surrouding rooms but on a small grid (building)
  
• A medium map with the initials of the room (ideal to find directions in a city)
• A remote map with only one letter per room (for orientation in the wildnerness)
• A feature map displaying specific characters based upon the civilization level or vegetation type of the rooms

Sample screenshot - Medium map

These maps are generated automatically, based upon the rooms you have visited: you will see "x" on the maps hinting at places you have not visited yet...

Sample screenshot - Feature map

Other features

The game implements notions of object and monster types, and their properties: it is easy to find a sword which will be more efficient against orcs, or a jeweler who will only buy goldsmitheries. Thus, don't be surprised if you catch cold after spending too much time in the tundra: fortunately, you may gather fruits and leaves from any plant to help you brew potions. And these are only examples...

Characters in Frandum tend to be the same on a given level of experience. The main differences come from their history rather than a class they would have chosen at the beginning of the game. Thus, a player who chooses a race, an alignment, who learns various spells and skills, or who joins certain guilds, will differentiate from players making other choices, but none will be "optimal".
Once they become Wizards though, players will be able to choose a class and specialize in the three realms of fighting, magic and priesthood.

Frandum has no chat channel or such (at least for beginners), but we enjoy a lot speaking together in the Crossroads of Wildstone (CoW). Otherwise, if you want to be heard by someone else, you have to be in the same room, or to be experienced enough to use spells. If you wish to speak to someone in particular, the page command will notify them of where you are, but they still need to know how to come to you :-).

Killing other players is totally forbidden in Frandum, yet you can always try to kill the wizards, if you are fool enough not to be afraid of the revenge they will take! Yet if you really want to compete with other players, you can always challenge them without any danger in the arena due north of the CoW, or to participate into a Tournament of Death.

Last but not least, we have developed a specific client for Frandum in order to enhance your gaming experience: learn more here.