Carrion Fields has a unique place in mudding from my personal experiences. It has a very in depth class/race combination system that adds great depth and strategy to the PK atmosphere it provides. That being said, that diversity also adds to the signigicant roleplaying enforced environment provided there. The reason I enjoy CF so much is because each of those elements add challenges within themselves in such an atmosphere. Roleplaying a good paladin and being able to actually you know, smite evil are two very different things. Dealing with that adversity and admiteddly steep learning curve can be challenging from a roleplaying perspective as well. What makes CF different is a very interesting and detailed Cabal system in which players can join factions and receive different powers and skills with each one. Each has different dogmas and distinct positions within. From the Emperor of Thera to the Sunwarden of Thar-eris, there are a ton of fun options and growth potential within these cabals. Immortal interaction is an important part of CF, while you won't see immortals fighting in the mortal battlefield, they often provide guidance and empowerment to characters who wish to embrace the religions they teach. It provides even more depth to a character on the PK and RP levels. CF is vast in terms of areas with a huge amount of secrets and hidden things for explorers. Characters can and do get created simply to explore portions of the vast world. Be it journeying to Hell, Shadow Planes or mysterious Silent Tower, there is always something to do that provides significant challenge and reward. I'd encourage anyone looking to challenge their reflexes or their roleplaying prowess to give CF a try. I had been out of mudding for years but CF brought me back into the fold and i haven't looked back.

Well, it's been awhile since I was running around in Carrion Fields. I do remember it pretty well, though. It was mostly a very vibrant, enjoyable kind of time, even though helf of that time was spent running for my life. I never got to learn and master all the intricacies in the game, and even relatively newbie players were able to clean the floors with me, not to mention the PK teams that rove around mercilessly all the time. However, if I had the time nowadays I would certainly go back and give it another shot. It is a very deep and yet very well made game and the rewards in gameplay are worth it.

Allow me to introduce myself, I am a resident of Thera. Tucked away in a grim corner of the ever-changing and patently unmapable digital landscape that William Gibson called cyberspace is where you will find us. Me and others like me. Carrion Fields is a MUD (multi-user dimension/dungeon), a text-based on-line role-playing game. That's right, I said text-based, as in no graphics at all. The tourists who stop in for a visit, rolling up a character race and class that they think will be fun to play, know it as Carrion Fields or CF for short. But for the people who spend years of their lives there, people like me, it is known as Thera. Before I say more about who I am and what it means to be a resident of Thera, I feel that I should clarify a few things. In truth, anyone with a computer and a reliable connection to the internet can enter the world of Carrion Fields by directing their browser to www.carrionfields.com. Once there anyone can find out all they need to know to get started. The game is free. There are no hidden fees. You cannot “donate” to gain any special advantage over other players. And the character class/race system is constantly evaluated by the game-staff to maintain a competitive balance. The game involves player-killing (PK), meaning that other players can and will kill your character. The rules of the game preclude announcing, in any way, who is actually sitting behind the keyboard controlling a character. Your friend with one character might be your mortal enemy with the next. Let me conclude this brief explanation by saying that if you decide to enter Thera for a visit, regardless of past gaming experience or skill, you will officially be a tourist. The land of Thera is brutal, harsh, and fiercely competitive. Anyone who is actively walking the lands is in constant danger of being blackjacked, bashed, blinded, or just plain killed. And when I say anyone, I mean everyone. You will be hunted, you will be stalked, and you will be killed in the most efficient means available. There will rarely be forewarning of the coming attack. It will simply happen. And, if you are merely a tourist, you will not survive. The citizens of Thera poses the most brutally efficient minds on Earth. We know no equal in any arena. We are a diverse bunch. We hail from the four corners of the globe gathering in a constant struggle to improve and challenge ourselves. And you are not the challenge. But please do not get me wrong, it is possible for a tourist to take up permanent residence in Thera. It happens all the time actually, and the people of Thera welcome new residents. It is even possible for a newcomer to win a fight or two, against other newcomers. But when you finally do meet with a resident ... it will be as if every action you take is before... Read More

There is more fun than frustration ahead of you if you decide to begin playing this mud. It's very complex as far as getting to know the areas, classes, cabals, races, economy, etc, but at the same time you're learning, you get quality interaction from every direction. There is a helpful NEWBIE channel if you're ever stumped before you try ranking up past 10, and there's always someone willing to answer your questions. Just try to remain in character at all times to avoid trouble! PKing on this mud can be very overwhelming to a newbie due to its complexity and growth over the past ten years or so. I would recommend playing a hiding class like a thief or assassin. Either way! The Carrion Fields MUD is by far the best mud I've ever played. Carrion Fields has its ups and downs, but if you roll with the punches and hang in there until you figure out things, you could be a great player! Have fun.

Carrion Fields is a roleplaying/playerkilling MUD, where roleplaying is enforced. In practice, enforced roleplaying means that there is no OOC interactions between characters and that all characters have descriptions that tell what characters look like and that you won't find people named Leetkillah walking around. Playerkilling is restricted to characters near your own level via xp-based restriction. Playerkilling starts as level 11, and characters below that level are referred to as newbies. The system of Carrion Fields is class-based, which means that each character picks race and class in the character creation and the character will be of the chosen race and class for the rest of his life, class/race change is not an option. Multiclassing is not an option in CF either. Available races are human, elf, half-elf, wood-elf, dark-elf, half-drow, storm giant, cloud giant, fire giant, arial, felar, dwarf, duergar, gnome, svirfnebli, orc and minotaur. Of these classes, minotaur is limited and those of necromancer class are able to become one of the two undead races, lich and mummy. Available classes are warrior, berserker, thief, shaman, healer, druid, transmuter, shapeshifter, invoker, conjurer, necromancer, ranger, bard, assassin, anti-paladin and paladin. Of these classes, shaman, healer, druid and paladin are priest classes and need to be empowered by their god. This is because CF controls the RP quality of priest characters, and empowerment is gained by talking with a god of the sphere you were born under. The races and classes are fairly well balanced and the classes are genuinely different. I can't decide which race/class combination would be the best or worst, which says something about game balance. I mentioned spheres in the last paragraph. In CF, every character is born under a sphere, that governs what kind of a person he becomes. So basically, sphere is a one-word parameter that helps to define the character's RP. Sphere is not random, and choosing one is compulsory for the character. It means more to priests, as religions in CF are bound to spheres. I also mentioned that minotaurs were limited. This means that during any given time, there can only be a certain amount of minotaurs in CF. If CF has maximum amount of minotaurs in the world, new ones cannot be rolled. Minotaurs aren't the only limited thing in CF, as many of the powerful gear are limited as well. This means that when the limit is full, people have to PK other players to get the piece of limited gear they wanted. This way, acquiring items of great power gives extra incentive to PK. CF's world is called Thera, an anagram of earth, and it is a medieval fantasy world. All areas are consistently of this theme, and some of them are influenced by various worlds of fantasy literature. CF prides itself with its originality, and the staff has been actively removing areas taken from fantasy literature and replacing it with more original content, though some residue of the influence of the fantasy worlds remains the... Read More

I have been playing Carrion Fields since it was about a month old. From time to time I try out other muds. I don't just sample another MUD to see how it compares to CF, I really sit down and spend 20+ hours to see if I will like it based upon its own merit. After trying out the other muds I have come to two conclusions. The first is that there are a LOT of good MUDs out there and I will give out a general thanks and praise to all the admins, developers, and players for their dedication to the text adventuring that we all know and love. The second conclusion that I have made is that not a single one is as well developed, as unique, and as fun as Carrion Fields. It is true that Carrion Fields has a very steep learning curve but that doesn't mean that it is not enjoyable at every level of play. Think of Carrion Fields as a high performance sports car. The CARRION FIELDS sports car will be driven to its maximum performance level and potential by a seasoned and experienced driver but a 16 year old novice driver will enjoy the ride just as much.

I've played carrion fields off and on for several years. So after reading the numerous reviews lately that oddly enough seem to be written by the same person, I figured I'd toss in my $0.02. First thing I'd like to point out that I strikes me as funny, the people that seem to loathe this game so much, oddly end up playing it for YEARS. I don't know about everyone else, but it doesn't take me years to figure out that I don't enjoy something and/or it's unfair. The learning curve was brought up. Yes, it's slightly steep. But I would argue that once you have the basics down, the field has now become fairly level. I have taken breaks between characters, and everytime I come back things are different. Not so different that I have to relearn everything, but different enough that it isn't the exact same routine I ran with the last char that I had had. Learning curve pk-wise, well that takes a bit more testicular fortitude to get the hang of. You kind of have to let go to figure that one out. Stop worrying about what little gear you do have, stop worrying about "losing" so much, and just jump in with both feet. You are going to die, probably a lot, but pay attention and try and figure out what you did wrong and what the other guy did right. Some people just don't like games they can't hit god-mode on. Also, if the imms catered to the veteran players, they'd never change anything. Here is a log someone posted of an interaction they had with my character at the lowest levels involved in PK where what little RP there supposedly is, is non-existant. www.qhcf.net/cforum/logs/vpost.pl?62721 As far as roaving gangs of pk'machines, yes occasionally a group of people that have reason to be murdering other people get together and go out to lay waste. However, with my most recent character, I'm in the hero range sitting with right around 150 hours played. Almost all of my fights have been either 1v1 (if more than 1, I chose to be the aggressor), where I was ganged badly one time and I could have escaped it had I wanted but due to RP chose to stay and die. I'll also note, that one of my personal greatest satisfactions of this game is to single handedly take apart one of these groups. As far as the staff. I have seen sincere constructive critisism that they have in fact accepted. What they don't tolerate on their boards are trolls. It seems a lot of people who post in a very inflamatory and trollish way, think themselves quite innocent. Yes, they are human and yes mistakes are made, but I would say for the most part they do an outstanding job both OOC and IC. Most of my characters are uncaballed and do quite fine. Regarding the imbalance of the classes. They are balanced very well. if... Read More

Carrion Fields...well I've personally played this game for almost four years now myself. Where has the time gone!?!?! Anyhow, in those four years I've cheered, I've laughed out loud, I've sworn at the top of my lungs, heck, I've even beat my head on my desk a few times. All in all though? I've had one hell of a time playing this game. Granted there is a learning curve, but its just that...learning. Its fun, I remember the first time I found that piece of gear on my own that I always saw others wearing. I remember the first time I found a certain prep. These moments were exciting and a rush! Not to mention the feeling of accomplishment you got from finding it. Now of course I didn't find every single item I use nowadays in game on my own......I, get this, actually asked In Character where I could find something. And you know what? People actually took the time to show me. Well, after a few helping hands and some notes I took I became a better player. And at the same time I learned how to look for things. So onward, well below there was a review saying how this mud is so newbie unfriendly. Well, its just not true. First of all they have done things recently to help newbies even more. You can now even ask questions OOC about game mechanics and such all the way to level 15 now. Before it was level 10. There is a vast helpfile system that is constantly updated, a top notch newbie academy that I have yet to find rivaled in other muds, and then there is this... The other day I logged in a new character and made my way through the various quests and what not and got to the point that I said I needed to get some gear. Well off I went down the trail I had forged over the years, finding the things I knew I would need from my notes and such. I had this worked out now like an exact science. I think I could even do this in my sleep. Here in about an hour I would that that low level set I needed. Ummm...uh-oh...wait a sec...where is that item I ALWAYS use...Oh, its been moved. While my first reaction is to get upset, I sat there for a minute and thought...hey, you know...now anyone has just a good a chance of finding these items. This just goes to show that things are constantly changing in the mud, it challenges even those seasoned in the mud to not become set in one way of doing things, but instead to always be on the lookout for new things. Granted this isn't a daily occurance that brings a level of frustration to the player, but instead a reminder that the Imms are hard at work up there trying to make this a balanced game. Speaking of IMMS, these guys selfless... Read More

Well, reading the last two ignorant posts have made me decide to share my two cents about Carrion Fields. Carrion Fields does have a steep learning curve, but I believe most muds do. CF is very strict on staying in-character and role-playing while you are playing. Hecnce why the newbie is not used for asking such silly questions as "where do I get a better sword" or "where is the bakery from my guild"... If you are not able to ask these questions in-character within your RP, then you do not need to be in a RP mud. That simple. Very easy to do. The Veterans of this game(which I am not) are very aparent in the game when talk with them. I would 90% of them readily help newbies by showing them around and teaching them things about CF, as long as the newbie isn't being a retard by acting out of character. I myself recently spent a good 40 minutes helping a very new person learn how to use simple commands such as get, put, open, and the look commands. Very frustrating for me, but I am glad to help out the newbies. Onto the comments about the terrible immortals and their such quick, harsh, and un-justified punnishments... Shangin spoke of this, and he spoke of gear hoarding characters and abusing game mechanics... But those who interacted with him knew that he did just this, which the immortals watch for because it against the rules, and they punnished him justly for it by not allowing him to simply "request" gear from goodie NPC's and hoarde gear like he was. The Immortals do not unjustly punnish mortal characters. If you need proof, check out this characters death post on the officials... http://forums.carrionfields.com/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=4&topic_id=43546&mesg_id=43546&page=2 This character was one that made it his purpose to dispute, spite, bad-mouth, and challenge every immortal in the game in every way you can think of. If this immortal staff is soo terrible as these two people who posted here make it sound like they are, this character's IP would definately have been banned/denied and the character wouldn't have lasted as long as he did. I don't know who the other poster was, but Shangin had terrible, mindless role-play, and THAT is what got him into trouble. If you break rules, expect to be punnished, as I would guess it is anywhere. Yes, the Immortals are an ever-present part of CF, which is what makes it fun. They give out FAR more rewards than they do punnishments, hands down. Rewards in forms as nifty titles tagged onto your name, extra class abilities/spells, fun immortal run quests, and so on. By no means does everything always happen perfectly, but it is far from corrupt as these two reviews, which are the same person, would have you believe. As far as the Immortals catering to the veterans? Come on. The immortals have gone strides in trying to cater to all the newbies. There is a beginning... Read More

This mud is for you if you like endless hours of doing repetitive tasks before your character heroed and have the Capacity to have fun. Like most newbies, you'll tend to become a "lone" explorer while trying to be more powerful. Well, you can be a loner in CF but being powerful, that never happens to you until you have play the game for 5 years or so. During that time, you will find frustrations, anger, no fun, no satisfaction of accomplishment, immortal troubles (I swear you will get into trouble with them, even if it is not your fault) which can harmfully affect your real life. The only way to get better is spending the first 2-3 years learning about the weakness and strength of all characters to be able to react to different situations; this is the Steep learning curve they talk about, there's no way to shorten it. Why such a learning curve? Well the immortals carter to the veterans to keep them from leaving the game, thus adding codes to keep the veterans challenged, while making the game extremely hard to grasp for newbies. By the time you are competent enough to realize what is going on? You, then will face fights againsts oods because this is how the roleplay is. The veteran player base (which is the majority) always travel in hords (2,3,4 or 5). They Will gang and kill you in a blink and full loot you without a word or a look. This is where frustrations, anger and challenge they talk about come in. Here comes the resentments: -Behind the scenes, the OOC connections are real and going strong. This very reason is why there are hords of one team at a certain time and hords of another team at other times. There is an ICQ channel for exhanging cheat secrets and an unoffical site for even more OOC communications. Trust me, they won't let you in their circle that form since the game started a decade ago. -There are hording characters. They hold on to valuable, limited items so their opponents can not get it, thus gaining an upperhand. They go out of their way to manipulate every single game mechanic to gain an upper hand on you. For instant, the veterans will use triggers/alias that will detect: "You are here. Kill you." Meaning that if you run into this player, the bot will attack you while he does not need to input anything into his client. Okay, pick a random day, you probadly are naked and recently die, but you can't get another good set of gears because the horders hord it and all the good gears are limited. Due to the overactive involvement of the immortals in the game, you will see favoritism from the gods. This is the game for them as it is for you. They implemented the changes so that they too can have fun while you try to have fun. While this is fair... Read More

I have been playing this CF for 2 years. This is what I have experience: If you have read Arn's post a few below, he is an immortal from CF. As a result, take his words about CF as you will. The areas are well written. Your enjoyment of CF increase as you explore and learn to beef up your character with potion, roots, herbs and the likes. The immortal staffs are there to answer newbie questions on the newbie channel. Questions that are allow to ask on the newbie channel are technical questions such as (How you I pick up the sword?) Questions that are not allow and won't be answered on the newbie channel (Where can I get a better sword than what I have on me right now? What's the direction to the Bakery from the Guild?...) The immortals are strict and bias. They are actively involve in game play, but are too involved. They actively observe your actions in their ramdom snoops. Thus, if they do not like your style of play, they will deny/ban/or take away special abilities without a second thought. For instant, if you have a character that you spend over 100 hours on it, one day, your character fights with an opponent that they deemed bad roleplaying on your part. They will punish you harshly, including banning your character from returning. I myself a victim of it. I was not banned but my character was handicapped by the immortals, which forced me into deletion because my character can not compete with other character on the fair level anymore.

Just wanted to say one thing. As a veteran MUDer, this is the best PK/RP MUD I have played so far; granted, I haven't played them all. It can be hard for people new to MUDs in general, but for a new MUDer, this game can be picked up rather quick. Just have a open mind, a good memory, and quick fingers.

I'll start this review with a simple philosophy of my own, do not fully trust reviews [of any kind] till you have experienced the product, same thing with this review. Then you have the choice of disregarding the review, or believing it. Carrion fields has minimal roleplay, in my limited experience [I rather cut it short] of a couple of months in it. It's basically a pk mud with a "mandatory rp tag that doesn't come into effect much". Hack and slash. A fixed-in-stone line separating evil and good. This is as much rp as any gets; evil kills all, good kills evil. All the cabal/such roleplay is just the icing, and there's no cake. It's pretty easy to level and get good items, [was reading the review from longmudder and not too sure what the fuss about items and leveling]. Just get a couple of people and presto, levels come fast [too fast I think..]. Items? Try to affliliate yourself with a veteran [try to recognise them for the veterans they are] and you can easily get all the 1337 items with some doing. Ooc friends once acquired gives a huge edge, despite all the rules and so on. After all, which mud has been able to prevent ooc communication? Good skills may seem important, but in this mud. When you get the 75% in your skill level, it's good enough. Good items will pave the rest of the way, since leveling will hone the skills up. It's very true, good [not unique nor excellent, just better then average and easily available] items is the key to leveling and then skills, to easy pking. Death and looting is almost unseparable in pks, as in the case with Cf. Items are all easily recovered with help, so it's not a big deal. Levels come fast with groups and knowing places, so losing xp is nothing too. But experienced players with new characters like to prey on new players [just reach lvl 11] and then loot them, There are rules about looting people clean, so they just take the really good weapons/armours that sometimes noobs are given by others [in pity]. And we have a useless noob with no good things now. But that's pk for you, just roll along and make a comeback. Most players I interact [group] do not roleplay much, mostly they just want to go to a new area, see what's there and kill to level. That's my experience with groups, or else they would just want to get a bunch of people and go terrorise other pks of same range/different align. I don't find this mud to start with, not that 20001+ squares is not big, but rather, most of the areas are rather straightforward and easy to find. After a few instant deaths here and there, you'll learn fast. There're still many places I have not been to though. I find the classes pretty unbalanced. But this is in the realm of players/immortals... Read More

I would like to respond to Aarn's review on 6/27/05 before I post the full length one I have written. First off the majority of negative reviews are from players that no longer play a mud for good reason. Most staff invest years into the mud they work on. So if a player says some thing that they do not agree with or offends them. It is common for the out spoken player to feel the wrath of that staff member in game. Many do not speak up until they no longer play. Not defending the other person here. But I don't think some one's review of any game is invalid just because they no longer play for what ever reason. 1. I have to agree. You can really tell the staff has poured there hearts into creating area's with such detail. And I can not think of any other free to play mud that has come close when it comes to this. 2. Yes there is a vast amount of items and gear. But a new player really has no idea what is good and what is junk loot. You can compare items to see what might do more damage or protect better. But this can be very misleading as many items have magic or other hidden bonuses that the compare command will ignore. You can learn from other players what items have value. As it will be the items they always loot from your corpse after they kill you. 3. I agree that this game is not for the casual player that likes to spend most of their time role playing. You don't need perfect skills to be competitive. You need far more then just that. More often then not you will die to a player that has a better grasp of game mechanic's then you. No matter how well you train your skills up. Sujesting other wise is silly. 4. Not together true. I have played other muds that role playing is mandatory that are much more strict. We also all know that random mindless grief killing equals pretty much no role-play. No matter what watered down rp justification is given if one is at all. I was told by a staff member that was just the way things are till you reach very high levels. Then the role playing improves . If you want to role play stay below level ten so others can not kill you. Or power level till you reach high levels. 5. While the concept of the first part of this sounds great. The negative effects it produces are worse. You get players that have been around for years. That drag new players out to hunt just for the exp bonus. They zip through the hunting area's and low levels so fast. That they do not learn any thing. Within a very short time they are level 10 or above. And being killed every time they sit down to to... Read More

This MUD has a lot of features, and content which set it far above the rest of it's 'competitors'. More areas, more classes, more races, more complex spells/skills/supplications all give the user a very high playability factor which isn't close to being matched by any of the other codebases that attempt to compete with it. The playerbase is large, and ultimately more skilled then most, though it does have its share of asses, as all MUD's do. The top end area content, in particular, is truly something impressive and if exploring is your favorite part of MUDding, CF is definitely the place for you with at least 8 high-end 'Areas Explore' areas, and all but one I visited, and I must say that they are really something special. Simply put, CF has options for every type of player and every type of character. Unfortunately this comes at a price. Classes are horribly unbalanced from a pk standpoint, and cabals are not much better. Constant swings of huge armies of either good or evil (and sadly much of this is OOC coordination) depending on your login times means playing an underdog will amount to a lot of frustration. The amount of time required to have the generally accepted definiton of a 'successful' character is very high. Do not play CF if all you have to offer is an hour or less a day. Low-level killing and pointless pk are also something that goes on at a higher then normal rate then most of it's competitors. The top-levels of this MUD however do have a lot to offer even a veteran player, provided you can endure the garbage to get there. CF's playerbase at it's highest levels can compete with any other in terms of PK/RP, in my opinion. Regarding Longtime Mudder's review below, it did have a lot of truth to it, but also a lot of bias in it. I imagine this is due to the confrontational attitude of the staff. I could list many things they do wrong, but ultimately, I will say only that they take constructive criticism very poorly, and have never, in my 3+ years of playing there, EVER admitted to being wrong about anything, despite logs posted on non-official forums that prove the truth. Take from that what you will. In the end CF does have a lot to offer. Players however need to ask themselves how much pain they want to endure to get to the enjoyment this MUD can offer when everything does fall into place.

Hi. My Name is Coherent Drunkard but you may have seen charaters like Yuber, Sakard, Melchisedec and so on. I've played the mud for 4 years now and look at me, I'm still playing. First of all, I love everything that is medieval. So CF was the key to unleash the fury of my brain to create fucked up roles and just have fun! And second of all, thanks to CF, my english is a bit better (I'm a french canadian) and well it shows. I've had tons of fun and many hours spent roleplaying, playerkilling, exploring, sitting in my guild wondering 'Hey, what should I do today?' and so on. Great game for everyone I say and I'll keep on playing until it dies or I die or well...life just choke me with his collar and drags me away from it!

I would like to respond to the review posted by "Longtime Mudder" on 6/26/05. I'll begin by pointing out that this player was recently permanantly banned from our mud, and has since emailed various immortals over 30 times in complaint, often posing as someone else backing up his own views. Unfortunately, he has now brought his juvenile angst here. Now, as an immortal on CF, I'll attempt to reply to his "points". 1. The world his huge, and all original. We're fairly happy with our size at the moment, and in recent times have been focusing on updating older areas rather then adding lots of new ones. I don't think you'll find higher-quality areas on any mud. Not sure what he's talking about regarding the movement system. 2. There is lots of gear that is quite useful, including things you can buy from shops. We also have helpfiles that guide new players to areas suitable to them. Much of this information can also be found out very easily in-character from your fellow mortals. 3. There is a steep learning curve on CF, it's not for people who don't want to spend any time learning a game. We have many tools available to help, however, including a newbie channel designed solely to allow imms and other players to answer new players questions. The comment about having to perfect your skills and spells to be competitive is, quite plainly, false. 4. Not sure where this one came from. Roleplaying is more strictly enforced on CF then on any other mud I've ever seen. Lots of other muds say "roleplaying encouraged", which we all know equals pretty much no roleplay. On CF, it's mandatory and enforced. 5. There are players that play with other people they know OOC. We have rules on permagrouping, and the levels of behavior we allow from groups like that is much more strict then you'll find in most places. While people try to swap gear amongst their own characters or their friends for OOC reasons, we're quite adept at catching them. I can say confidently that this rarely or never happens. 6. We welcome newbies with open arms. While they still have to deal with the learning curve, we do help them along. I think you'll find the majority of our players are quite helpful. There are always a few bad apples though. 7. Our economy is fairly straight-forward and intuitive. It is not a main focus in our game, so it's also quite simple. 8. Dying is dying. When you die, you might lose your things. This is integral to the foundation of CF. That being said, I think quite a few people recover all or part of their gear when they die. It all depends on the situation. (Dying on the Eastern Road or at the Galadon Market Square probably equals losing everything. Nothing wrong with that.) 9. Some of the most fearsome characters in CF history have been uncabaled for all or of... Read More

I would like to respond to the review posted by "Longtime Mudder" on 6/26/05. I'll begin by pointing out that this player was recently permanantly banned from our mud, and has since emailed various immortals over 30 times in complaint, often posing as someone else backing up his own views. Unfortunately, he has now brought his juvenile angst here. Now, as an immortal on CF, I'll attempt to reply to his "points". 1. The world his huge, and all original. We're fairly happy with our size at the moment, and in recent times have been focusing on updating older areas rather then adding lots of new ones. I don't think you'll find higher-quality areas on any mud. Not sure what he's talking about regarding the movement system. 2. There is lots of gear that is quite useful, including things you can buy from shops. We also have helpfiles that guide new players to areas suitable to them. Much of this information can also be found out very easily in-character from your fellow mortals. 3. There is a steep learning curve on CF

I'd just like to comment on the previous review dated 6/26/05. I've been playing CF on and off for about 9 years now, and while much of what "Longtime Mudder" posted is true, much of it is also quite spurious. I find myself often in the position of disagreeing with the Immortals (the staff that runs the game). However, on the other hand, I appreciate what they do (quite for free), so I try to do so in a constructive way (they may disagree with this). Yes, some of the Imms can be downright prats at times, but hey, they're human. "Longtime Mudder's" review seems more of a way to lash out at the Immortal staff by hurting them here than any type of real critique of the MUD. In any case, I agree that the MUD has become too large and sprawling for the amount of players currently on board (generally about 30-70 summers, 40-80 winters). Yes, the learning curve is tough. Yes, OOC teams have been known to terrorize the MUD.* Yes, the economy system is awkward, and yes, fires in your hometown can be very annoying. However, the 14 point list of "Longtime Mudder" is a somewhat cartoonish sketch of all of CF's most annoying features, without giving credit for its hundreds of amazing, well-thought-out and unique features. If one were to spit out the name of any current online game, I'm sure a disgruntled player would have no trouble rattling off 14 features that are annoying, without regard for the cool features, or the steps that are being taken to fix the broken features. In any case, I would encourage anyone reading yesterday's review to keep the above in mind. CF is not a game for everyone. It's tough. The learning curve is steep. However, like anything, you get out what you put in. I'd encourage anyone reading this to give it try for a few weeks and find out for themselves if it's a game for them. *Note on OOC teams: These have been caught & banned by the staff for the most part. The poster seemed to me to imply that these were somehow sanctioned or ignored by the Immortal staff, which they are not. However, there have been recent instances of rule infractions that were reported & either not dealt with visibly to the playerbase or ignored. Take this statement with a grain of salt.

This is not a good game in my opinion and some reasons for it are as follows: 1) World is annoyingly huge, connective areas run on, and if you do not know it you are going to be vulnerable. Couple that with a system of movement that has been shown to be outdated and disfunctional. 2) Hugeness of the world means you will never learn where to get the gear you need without putting in way too much time. 3) The learning curve is unreasonable and level sitting is rampant but as a counterpoint it is necessary because advancing without perfecting your spells, supps, skills will leave you dead. 4) Roleplaying is not enforced as it should be, evil acts by good players occur all the time. Immortals do bizarre actions in front of playerbase and some of them claim to be about but realistically they are dormant. 5) OOC aid via friends goes on a lot. Players let knowledge of other character cross over to their character all the time without plausible explanations. Items as well seem to mysteriously get transfered, usually via an intermediate so it is "within" the rules. 6) Extremely unfriendly towards new players. No veterans players group at lower levels and at PK initialization they find you to kill you. 7) Economy system that is awkward, unfriendly and downright boring. Any worthy item that may have been left around ere the onset of bartering will be gone. And therefore out of reach because of inane level restrictions on items at merchants. 8) Death is poorly done. Looting fully is the norm with no looting code to make it semi tolerable. 9) Fires in your hometown as a new player. Come back weakened to the healer and die because of fires. Not pleasant. Caballed players will kill non-caballed players of equal skill constantly. Caballed players against non-caballed players of weaker skill is a joke. 10) No have decently safe havens for players to interact outside combat. 11) Classes are unrealistically unbalanced to the point that some of them are pointless to try. Many players refuse to even look at a specific race/class combo because of this instead of approaching it from a roleplaying view. 12) No longterm story arcs. None. What little there are last maybe a month, if lucky. Roleplaying is actually hindered greatly by game mechanics that force a player into full time combat. 13) No secondary skills to be picked to make the game less tedious. Makes having a role other than a rampant killer much less fulfilling. 14) Erroneous posting of playerbase levels on CF's listings. Very erroneous. They are in a position of pb levels ranging from 10ish to 60+. If you want a frustrating game solely based on PK then CF will work for you. If you want to be able to have PK there as a motivator but not all consuming, move on.

In this review I'm going to take a slightly different tact. Carrion Fields is about two things, RP and PK. I'm going to give you a log of both at, in my experience, their best on Carrion Fields. Here's a log of some rping. The background you need to know is explained within. http://www.qhcf.net/cforum/logs/vpost.pl?56192 Here's a log of some pking. What you need to know is detailed within. I should note that the follow log is not mine, but a character named Tjoks. He was the leader of the group, the Outlanders, that you saw some insite into above. http://www.qhcf.net/cforum/logs/vpost.pl?56194 I hope you enjoy these and they give you some insite into CF. Also, please remember that when you read that CF is free, it really is free. You cannot buy perks that would give you an advantage over other characters, period. Your skill and your roleplay and your knowledge and creativity determine how well you do, not your pocketbook.

I have been playing Carrion Fields, since 1994. One of the first things that caught my attention was the lack of ooc areas in this mud. The smurf village, space aliens etc you get the picture. Nothing in this mud has been placed, or constructed, without thought to what it's place in the world will be. Everything has a reason for existing in CF. The thing that excites me the most about Carrion Fields, and keeps me playing for 11 years, is that literally ANYTHING can happen. I was a member of the Battle Ragers with my first caballed character, and much to everyone's surprise, we found out our LEADER was a spy of a rival cabal. I have seen people that insisted they were a bird, that could shapeshift into a person. I've also seen a warrior that refused to practice any skills but one, because he was roleplaying sloth. When these types of things can exist, and flourish in a mud, the doors of creativity are literally thrown wide open. PK does not just exist on Carrion Fields, it is encouraged, and happens often. So in this case there is no ultimate imm protection if someone is in your PK range. You can take on anyone as long as they are within your experience range. This is strongly influenced by cabal wars, that can rage all night and day. You see movies where fortress' or castles are under siege, it is a reality in Carrion Fields every day. To truly see the wealth of play, and information on Carrion Fields, you have to try some Explore Areas. These are extremely dangerous, but fun areas, that have huge pay offs but huge risks as well. The descriptions alone are rich and well thought out. Plus believe it or not, there are treasures in these places that NO ONE has ever found. You have not truly experienced Carrion Fields til you visit at least one of these places, and there are many! I will still be playing Carrion Fields for the unforseeable future, and it is because of our dedicated imm staff. They work very hard, are unpaid, and produce (in my opinion) the highest quality product to be had. The Imms also run well thought out, in depth religions, that any can follow. This game is completely free. Many of the other "free" competitors are pay for perks muds. You can be extremely competent, but the guy that pays for higher quality gear is going to take you out. Carrion Fields is a completely level playing field, and WILL NOT take money for ANY kind of in game advantage. The game is supported entirely by our IMP Jullias, and optional donations by those that feel inclined to help out. Do yourself a favor and give Carrion Fields a try.

Do you want to know why I stabbed myself in the heart the first time? Because the fair maiden would not take my hand nor handkerchief. And do you want to know why I stabbed myself in the heart the second time? Because the game was a dream in which I died. A lance straight through my heart had me gasping for air with my one good lung and smearing the pooling blood into "CARRIONFIELDS.COM:9999" on my cheap linoleum. I was introduced to Carrionfields on April 19th, 2000, the day after the release of my Figure 8 album. I didn't want to see the reviews. I didn't want to watch the news. I had a stack of boring indie music magazines sitting on my coffee table unread. I was using them as an ashtray along with the rest of my livingroom. I slumped into my couch and was tying off my arm when I heard a knock. Turns out it was somebody I used to know decided I needed some help. Intervention or whatever, so they came with their particular brand. They gave me a little room and one of those boxed up computers with a monitor behind some strong glass. Like the ones you can make photos on at the grocery store, or pretend to anyway. There wasn't anything else in there. And the screen just blinked with this green text on a black background. A skull asked me by what name I wished to be mourned. Mourned? I needed a hit but they were doing my stash already. I heard them trashing the place trying to find it and then the eery calm of junkies on the tit. I got bad in a day. Quicker really. The screen just sat there, even as I tried to kick it through. I wasn't going to die like that, to the prompt of another machine. But it stayed. My body was on the rack and my brain was the full rage. The complete anger of almost-satiation interrupted at the very last moment was on me continuously along with flu pains and an inability to eat. I gave in and pecked out my name. It was day two and I knew I was dying. I gave the deathscreen my details. E-L-L-I-O-T. I found the keys slowly, deliberately. I communicated with the reaper through a locked up computer in an empty room -- this modern life. My first suicide was with a keyboard. Now I never believed in any of that energy to energy crap, or any Christian good old boy trash either, but there I fell. Reincarnated as some kind of promising youth in a land of dragons and magic and real gods with lightning and fire hail. I couldn't believe. I got the dream I'd always dreamt and I lived in it for years and years. I believed in myself. I was happy. I married. I found treasures and made fortunes. And then it came. It had to It... Read More

Qn: Who are you? Ans: Long time (ex)player and family man. Qn: Er, your point of this review? Ans: A colleague of mine swears by the DOOM genre, another by Half-Life. And yet another SIMs. Myself? I like Warcraft (and CF, of course!). To each his own, can't compare apple to orange. So basically, don't compare one MUD with another. They all cater to different needs and satisfaction. With that... Carrion Fields is NOT for everyone. It is not at all elitist; it's more towards 'CF is not for the faint-hearted'. What you need is time, dedication and many on-line hours. That is why many (like me) find it hard to maintain the on-line dedication due to work, family and real-life responsibilities and commitments. Yet we keep coming back for more! Qn: So you did quit, right? Ans : Yeah, but I'm still contributing to the forums, reading updates and voting (read: voting) in the Top MUD rating. I'm sure if real-life commitments were toned down, I'd be back playing this awesome and deeply satisfying game in the long haul. Qn: Why? Ans: Because CF goes so deep in its on-line social and entertainment roots that you cannot just 'quit'. Having played the MUD for so many years with so many hours of contribution, it feels so attached to you. So many friends and people, ranging from the Imms (and the ex-Imms), the leaders of cabals, the RPers, the PKers and even the newbies (who have turned vets over the years) have contibuted to the growth and essence of the game, both in social gaming satisfaction and community spirit. Like Dr Frankenstein said "It's alive!" Qn: Did you play other MUDs that were less time-consuming? How did your on-line social life go? Ans: I never thought of playing another MUD. Nothing, I repeat, nothing comes close against CF with respect to the adrenaline rush when you PK, solve quests (without spoon-feeding) and rewards when you RP and play well (you earn it = you keep it, what an achievement!). I've tried a couple of other MUDs while playing CF, but didn't like them at all. Too social, too many players, no landscape change, no lines drawn between gods and mortals, lots of six-year-old talks about schoolwork, movies and subjects not pertaining to the game, etc. Qn: And? Ans: The way the Imms handle the environment and interaction process makes the game believable but challenging. For hardcore gamers and RPers, you will appreciate the tight control. For others, you will learn the tight-rope of RPing to a higher level and enjoy a close-encounter-with-the-divine kind of gaming. So to sum up, CF is not for the faint-hearted. If you think you have what it takes to endure the high learning curve and the very challenging, everchanging landscape, you will be greatly rewarded in both the entertainment and equally satisfying and rewarding experience of mudding. And savor it too, as I did!

Hi. First off, Carrionfields is a terrific MUD. I want to say that when I started playing it was very hard. I could not feel where I was but now that I have learned. Playing my character is second nature and I like it a lot. I guess that I don't have a terrific lot to say about the specifics of the game. I mean it is hard to describe it. The thing about Carrionfields that I like is there is something like a continuum from roleplaying----playerkilling and inbetween it is a mix. Well you can choose where you want to be pretty good, except not at the ends. It is hard not to ever be a part of playerkilling and roleplaying is definitely required but it can be shallow or very deep whatever you want. I want to say that the continuum is why I play though I think. Because when I am at work giving powerpoint presentations to people that don't care and trying not to break down and cry because my black leather coat feels like a white straight jacket I know that it is temporary and really I am going to come back to play Carrionfields at night. I used to get anxiety really bad but Carrionfields has helped me because it is always the perfect escape. I playerkill probably more when things are not going so good and maybe roleplay more when I am feeling alone. Since it is always a mix of those I just choose on the continuum and escape is there. Thanks for reading. Try it out you won't be disappointed!

Between my 3 PCs, I've got 2.5GB RAM and enough money in video cards and peripherals to buy a small South American country. All this to watch 8-bit text, descriptions suitable for the 15th century, scroll by via 25-year old Internet technology. Crack would have been a cheaper, and more efficient, addiction. Carrion Fields is the most engaging, thought-provoking, adrenaline-producing game I have ever played. I rolled my first char sometime around 2000, never having mudded before, and quit shortly thereafter - partly because of my new job, and partly (mostly) because I sucked. Over the next three or so years, I would roll another and play for a week or two every now and again before something else came up (read: I sucked). Each time, I'd go back to my gaming console du jour, and quickly and effortlessly get bored of every game I owned. A little over a year ago, it dawned on me that CF was a game that needed to be learned, practiced. It is not unlike a game of chess - given some effort, it can be very rewarding. The Carrion Fields can be explored for the rest of your life without every secret, strategy, item, area, or character combination being unlocked. The immortal and mortal involvement in the shaping of the game makes it a living, breathing environment that changes from day-to-day. Politics, love, war, poetry, racism, religion - these are very real things in CF, and produce a culture that you can get lost in for hours. I often find myself - after a long session of getting killed on a major road, completing a quest in some long forgotten outpost, perfecting that l33t skill, and discussing philosophy while drinking some crazy concoction at the Inn - logging out and having to check myself from talking to my RL friends like some medieval cleric. I used to dream in Tetris. Now I dream in skills, spells, and supplications. In short, if you're willing to take on a game that requires thought, patience, and more than a little bit of practice, there is no better game than this. You WILL get frustrated. You WILL swear you'll never play again. But you'll come back. They /always/ come back. --- "Characters tend to be either for or against the quest. If they assist it, they are idealized as simply gallant or pure; if they obstruct it, they are characterized as simply villainous or cowardly. Hence every typical character . . . tends to have his moral opposite confronting him, like black and white pieces in a chess game." -Northrop Frye

By what name do you wish to be mourned? The Carrion Fields started up when I was getting heavily into Diku MUDs, the old days of Copper, Black Knight, and the Renegade Outpost. I was just as avidly pursuing graphical rpg's and AD&D's barely-old Forgotten Realms titles, which I started playing on my trusty Commodore 64, years before. Since the revolution of the 286 and this strange thing we had called UNIX, I'd been poking around with a couple of friends looking for a good mud to play. Now the above statement is somewhat loaded, since in those days "looking for a good mud" entailed a requisite of dedication, creativity, and outright fervor. It was often as not another mudder who directed you from one to another, unless you were privy to one of the priceless mud lists that circulated via the new electronic mail. I stumbled into the Carrion Fields soon after its inception, and have been a devotee ever since, with years on and off. One caveat I will lay down before proceeding: In Thera, in the Carrion Fields, the Gods are supreme. There are very clear, established rules, none of which necessarily apply to them. This is not the Deity of warmth, love, and special bonuses because you are the pinnacle of evolution and/or the cosmic purpose. This is a savage land, and its Gods reflect that. They themselves war with each other in the Heavens, and terrible prices are sometimes paid. Yet they can be quite capricious and unpredictable... so if you're not into realism, surprises, and letting go of your ego to play a character, CF might not be for you. The game has a strong center in both realism and roleplaying. There is an equation for everything, and some mechanics may feel strange at first, but always ask: What would I do in this situation? What would my character do? -and you should always be fine. Roleplaying is enforced, and is equally (at least to me) as demanding and rewarding as player-killing. Player killing is based on experience points, with a "range" being those within approximately 30% of your exp total. This does not begin until after level 10, just a hop skip and a jump into your journey to becoming a true hero at the 51st title of your guild. Thus, if you are new, you have a good long while to get into stride, learn the basics, get other players to help you out (happens quite often), and read up on the forums at the official and unofficial websites BEFORE you are in the reach of harm from other players. Despite this PK-intensive savage garden, players are most often integral to each other's growth and success. Experience bonuses are given to groups of two (small bonus) or three (large). You probably won't begin your journey through Thera alone if you don't wish it. This brings me to one of the great assets of CF: the playerbase. Reading through the it... Read More

I recently read something about the governor of Massachusetts and his middle of the road stance on stem cell research. It was hypothesized that his reluctance to alienate the more Christ-filled of our country was due to his future plans of running for president. Like political candidates or career criminals with rap sheets two miles long, characters in the Carrionfields enjoy rich histories that never leave them. The slightest action -- from accidently mentioning the phone just rang or eating that magic pill with your magic-hater -- will haunt a being until his end. The roleplay within the Carrionfields is of a serious kind and for a serious player. It is expected to be always-on and perfectly consistent. Characters take action not necessarily in 100% consideration of their gear, constitution or desire to not be dead, but rather in the deep consideration of the desire of their imagined personality*. It can be difficult at first to fully immerse one's self in such a serious game for such serious players with such serious roleplay, but once done it is well worth it. I have picked up one very helpful trick along the way. When I roll a character and start his or her life (say, a fire giant anti-paladin), I regularly ask myself: If I were running for President of the United States of America, and in addition to being 35 years old I had to be a fire giant anti-paladin, would the Republican attack dogs seize on any of my past actions as evidence that I was not, infact, a fire giant anti-paladin? Would they produce pictures of me wearing Uggs and say, "he wore fur-lined boots just for the +5 charisma. No real fire giant anti-paladin would be caught dead in Uggs." With this in mind, I rarely slip up and I always have a good time. *: Unless, of course, the character's personality is one and the same with the player's personality. Some players suffer this fate and as a result become angry when they die, lose their gear, unghost and are killed again (or when something else bad happens). There must be some of these players on every MUD and there are some** on the Carrionfields. There are also, however, those who understand roleplay. Those who dream of soft green text on a black background scrolling by. **Expressed as a percentage of the playerbase, I would guess about 20 to 30%.

The problem with CF is that it's so addictive. I've been a player for what seems like forever, since about 1997, and no matter how hard I try to quit I come crawling back for more. My schoolwork would definitely improve without it, that is for sure. If you can stay away from all of the drama that occurs outside of it: mIRC chatrooms, unofficial websites, AIM/MSN/etc. groups it can be a magical place. If you do get involved in that stuff you quickly come to the realization that some of the people you're playing with simply aren't likable. I doubt that this is a Carrion Fields phenomenon, it's probably more of an internet-anonymity-so-I-can-be-an-idiot phenomenon. The immortals do a fantastic job of trying to limit the influence of this OOC force and, for the most part, there isn't a whole lot of in-game impact. If you can put those chatrooms and web pages away the magic comes back fast. Unfortunately, because of the learning curve so many new players speak about these pages and chatrooms often serve as a source of information, like a walkthrough you might buy for the latest PS2 game. All that said, I'll probably be playing CF for the next 40 years because clearly all of my attempts to quit so that my schooling and career might improve have failed. The cabal wars, race/class choices, roleplay opportunities, and work that the imms put in are top notch.

Great Mud, but lack of OOC channel and means to obtain information prevents me from giving it a really good score. I've played this mud for about a year, I played it that long because I obviously like it. It's an great mud with an incredibly deep PK/RP. But it's not a mud for newbies. The general imm policy is to be helpful to players but not give them specific numbers. They like being mysterious, when asked of the effects of skills/spells they'll usually direct you to a help file, which offers a great RP story and a general idea of what a skill/spell might do, but the rest is up to you to find out on your own through experimentation. The IMMs did such a great job with the various skills/spells that there are multiple variables for almost every one of these skills, and depending on location/skill/weapon/stats/size etc etc etc almost all of your abilities will have varying degrees of performance as well as side effects. And there is no way to know exactly what effect an ability had in a given condition because you are not made aware of the exact effect the skill/spell had on your target, and it is not possible to target yourself. In short, it's impossible for anyone to learn it all in game. Thankfully there is an 'unofficial' forum where this kind of knowledge can be obtained easily. Anyone that wants to play this game should bookmark "http://www.qhcf.net" and use it as a reference. There's an incredible amount of information to be had there, granted some of it is outdated or just wrong altogether, but the amount of usable information there can shorten the amount of time it would take for you to be a competent player by years. Since it is such a PK intensive mud, at least a rudimentary understanding of PK is required to even walk down a road, (In fact, some roads are likely to be one of the most dangerous places to be in the mud at any given time) you need to invest the time to learn how to PK. Doing this could take months even for an experienced mudder already well versed in PK, RP and exploring, to someone new to mudding altogether the complexities found in CF combined with the lack of easily accessible information it could end up being a really frustrating experience. In summary, CF is like the major league for mudders. it has an extremely high learning curve, and isn't very newbie friendly as far as muds go, but if you've outgrown your mud and you are looking for a challenge, and willing to stick with it and learn the game it will likely be the last mud you'll ever play.

I have been playing this for about a year now. I will adit the game has a kind of steep learning curve if you are new to mudding as I was. But, once you get to know the main areas a little and where to regear easily, the game begins to loose it's difficulty and become more and more enjoyable. The roleplay, for the most part, is quite decent. Though there are the few characters no and then who decide to get retarded, but I guess you will have that. The race/class choices are great. The skill/spell system is awesome, I am always finding something new or a different way to use a class. The IMM's are usually always around, even if they aren't visable, and pretty much always willing to lend a hand in explinations of questions or listen to about anything you have to say short from needless bitching. This game can become very addictive after you start building a character, and always leaves you wanting more. I suggest you check it out if you haven't already. Tuefle

THIS REVIEW SOLELY COVERS THE ROLEPLAY OF CARRION FIELDS. SHOULD YOU WISH A REVIEW OF OTHER ASPECTS OF THE GAME, THERE ARE OTHER REVIEWS THAT COVER THOSE MORE IN-DEPTH. ROLEPLAY SIMPLY: The Roleplay of Carrion Fields is crazily in-depth. It is so deep that nearly every player in the MUD will not step out of character for anything. Every action they make in the MUD should and generally is governed by their characters beliefs, personality, morality, and ethos. These are all vague ideas that you come up with yourself. In a sense it is like acting. While extravagent performances are great, only great actors can act subtly. This subtelty in CF comes from interweaving your role into everything you do. ROLEPLAYING AND PK: No, we don't yell "DIE SCURVY DOG!" or even explain to you why we're going to try to kill you before we do it. We don't have to. But the PK itself is part of the RP. The two are interconnected, never seperate. If I kill you (which is unlikely, since I suck), it is because it my character for some reason feels he should. If I don't tell you why I've killed you, it is because my character doesn't feel he should have to. He is arrogant like that. This is subtle RP. It is there, it is assumed it is there, and if it ISN'T, then the Imms will notice it sooner or later. CASUAL ROLEPLAYING: I will stress further that you never stop roleplaying. Everything you say or do should be what the character would say or do. But there will be casual times, when not killing something, that there will be more in-depth RP. Say you're resting or sleeping with your groupmates, waiting for the residents of the area you've just cleaned out to come back. One may say to you or to the other, what God you worship. This will trigger a theological discussion, or maybe just cold dismissal. "Shut up." could be RP, as long as it is how your character would react. The world of CF is dark and gritty, the characters in it generally aren't looking for pleasantries or MUDsex. Yes, attack first, ask questions later, because if your character doesn't attack first, his enemies will. CABAL/RELIGIOUS ROLEPLAYING: Depending on where your character places himself in the many scenes of Carrion Fields, he could have any number of enemies. These enemies are not just enemies because its written in the game that they are enemies, they are because their very beliefs may be counter to your character's. You are very likely fighting for your Emperor, for power, for money, or for moral righteousness. There are religions and cabals for nearly every ambition you may have set forth for your character. You can become a student of one of the Gods (played by Immortals), you can become his priest. Earn a tattoo for following this God commendably. Or earn status in your Cabal, or even leadership, for actions... Read More

I am a player of Carrion Fields since 1996. CF is my second MUD, and I have never tried any other MUD since I have found CF. If it is ever closed, I will probably stop MUDding at all. I long wanted to write a review about this MUD, and now I think its time. First of all, CF is probably not for everybody, so one of the purposes of the review is to give the reader some additional information on whether to try it or not. Some people who tried CF couldn't cope with its atmosphere, and that usually results in them crying publicly about how bad CF is and how nobody should ever try it, and it would have been easier if they just didn't come to us at all. So, please read and see for yourself whether to give it a try. The world of CF is huge (over 20000 rooms, over 200 areas), and what is most important, it is pretty consistent. You won't find war robots in one area and singing candies in the nearby area across the road. It's midieval (oh my, hope the spelling is correct here) fantasy, and all of the areas are written in that style. The detail level in the areas is very high, and there is a lot of automated puzzles/quests built into them. There are easy areas for low levels, and there are very difficult ones for high-levels (highest levels are called heroes). people who love exploration will find a lot of interesting things to do in CF, and a lot of surprises, both funny and nasty. Some people complained about too little color in CF (they like the word "tree" to be green and the word "water" to be blue, but I guess this is a matter of getting used to. I play with color OFF and use highlighter triggers in my client to show only the most important things, and I think this is the best way. The English, both meaning and wording of the descriptions and actions are usually very high quality, so read into the text, not into the colors, and you'll be alright. There are I think about two or three areas which are not CF-unique, such as Arboria and Emerald Forest (though even those two have been worked on to add new features, such as mob actions and quests), but 99% of the areas you won't see anywhere else. Some people also had issue with very long roads and the fact that on the road most of the rooms have the same or similar descriptions. To that, I can answer that the purpose of the road is to connect places, so don't stay on the road, go to places and see them. Though even on the roads you get echoes of birds flying above you, hares and deers crossing the road in front of you and other cool stuff, to make those 40 seconds you spend on the road monotonous.... Read More

I have bounced from several MUDs in the past months. I'm a casual gamer, never been great at MUDding or anything like that. I found CF on this site and gave it a try. It was interesting, in depth, well set up and very active. Certainly I died a few times, to both mobs and PK'ers. But it's part of the game, right? However, I have since quit CF and will no longer be playing it. Why you ask? Simple. Because of the IMMs. It's great coding, but very very very poorly run. There is no RP (whatever they claim, it is untrue, but I will get to that). There is no help from the IMMs beyond the help files. I'm an independent type player, but the two times I have asked questions of the IMMs I have not been helped, but rather been told "tough" and "deal with it". Once may not be surprising. The IMM may have been in a bad mood. But two times straight, at different times. For having such a large and helpful admin base, they do very little to help. Here is the gist of the second incident. I had just recently been killed (I was exploring, my own fault.) and was waiting on my body to return to the "pit" so that I could get my stuff back. While I'm waiting in supposed "ghost" form (invulnerable right?) it occurs to me that my ghost protection ends before my gear will return. So I consider finding a better, safer spot. But, there are other players there, so worried about the safety of my gear, I invis myself and hope to last. As my ghost protection runs out, I am attacked and PK'ed. Not too big of a deal, except for the permanent loss of vitality, hastening my perma death. So I return to the pit, and continue to await my gear. It returns, and I get it. And poof, the server closes the connection. I spend several minutes trying to log back on. When I come back I find myself having been killed, again, by the same person who first PK'ed me. I told this to an IMM, and the grand total of his help was "tough luck". I asked him if it was not possible to reimburse in some way, but no, because the other player may not have been aware that I was link dead. Now, my problem is that if there were any RP (Even a simple "Die scury dog") before the character attacked me, he may very well have realized that my lack of response meant something. But no, the game and the IMMs have conditioned players with a "swing first, RP later" attitude. Players are forced to be so concerned about their eq and their lives that RP must take a back seat to any threat. Because of this, this conditioning of the game and players to not RP, and because of the IMMs refusal to fix... Read More

This is regarding the review titled Disappointed & Disgusted. The posters comments were directed at characters that autodelete too quickly. The posters comment was "This unnescessary deletion is strictly arbitrary, & shows a lack of care & respect for the playerbase from this mud's administration!! " Now then, to refute this comment, straight from the help file about autodeletion... >>Low level characters will autodelete sooner than 30 days. You have one week of not playing at level 1 before you will delete, and you have two weeks of not playing from level 2 through 10 before you will autodelete. Levels 11 and up have the standard 30 day deletion. Since this is in the helpfile it's clearly not arbitrary and they don't go off on a whim and just randomly delete characters. The mud itself keeps track of that internally and removes all the over due accounts. The poster also stated that "I guess the playerbase are all addicted mudders who have no life outside the mud, but I have a life, & have had no other trouble on any other mud except this one." Not so, in the time that it took for him to write this review, he could have logged in his character and immediately log out. I have noticed characters that have been made over 2 years ago and they are still around by using this method. The immortals do this because they want to keep the game fresh and new. If everybody had a character that was 8 years old, the game wouldn't be as dynamic, it would remain stale. Just like in real life nobody is around forever and meeting new people keeps life exciting. Now with all that said, I have been playing Carrion Fields for 5 years and not once did I have a character autodelete on me. Nor have the immortals been ever unjust or biased against my characters in anyway shape or form. I'm sorry that the poster feels like that and I'd like to welcome them to play Carrion Fields again. If you can't find time to play a hour every 2 weeks just try to sign in and sign out and play later. It takes just 2 minutes of time and everybody has that much time. :)

I have had it!! This mud has a time limit on playing your character & if you haven't played in X amount of time, your player gets wiped!! And we're not talkin about months, but days. I'm sorry, I actually like the mud, but hours of playing time were wated on 2 separate characters when I coundn't play for a couple of weeks due to real life concerns, & when I finally returned my character was gone, wiped, nada!! I guess the playerbase are all addicted mudders who have no life outside the mud, but I have a life, & have had no other trouble on any other mud except this one. Some muds will delete characters that haven't played in 6 months, so they can clear up their database, but this mud is ridiculous in how fast they will delete your character if you've been idle. I will never, repeat, NEVER waste one second of my time on this mud, except to steer people away from it. This unnescessary deletion is strictly arbitrary, & shows a lack of care & respect for the playerbase from this mud's administration!!

Been playing CF for about 6 months now. A co-worker wouldn't shut up about it and made it sound like the greatest thing. I had played other MUDs in the past but had trouble getting involved in them. I think initially CF can seem overwhelming, especially to someone who doesn't have someone helping him along. But, after you are more comfortable with the basics and moving around it becomes an amazingly fun game. By far the greatest aspect is the enforced roleplay. I hated playing MUDs that were filled with punks who would whine and spam you with notes when they died. Look forward to playing for years to come.

I love CF. I don't have a lot of game playing time in my life, and what little I do have is spent here. I'm a casual CFer, my skill and knowledge is not exceptional, and I rarely to never reach high levels, but I enjoy my CF time immensely. I spend most of time exploring and interacting with the wide variety of areas and NPCs, or roleplaying with the many mature and interesting characters. That, and of course trying to survive in a harshly murderous environment. Life in Thera is difficult, and bloodshed is just the natural order of things (although there are religions and regions and peoples devoted to dreams of peace, pacifism is not a viable choice in this brutal world, even the most peaceful must justify aggressive self defense). I've never had a problem with the learning curve (once accepting that I don't have the time to become terribly skilled at the game), especially with the addition of the well-designed Newbie Academy and extensive help files. There is a frighteningly steep learning curve, however, for those that desire more elite skills. This too, I enjoy, separating the best from the rest, and the best of the best. Everything in CF must be earned, not even existence is taken for granted. I've recently spent time checking out the other MUDs on the top 50, and I can't find a single one that compares with CF. I find the commands and system intuitive, internally consitant, and easy to use. Much like chess and other strategic games, the basics are simple to learn, but the advanced game allows for nigh unlimited improvement given enough practice and training. The roleplaying is superb, the only MUDs I've found that can compare on that level have substandard systems, and less internally consistant and emotionally evocative worlds.

My friend in summer school cause we messed up in the schoolyear told me about the eff...ceeeff so i was all about trying it out one day after school. It was pretty cool. There was no mouse so i had to learn to type better before it was really cool. i played it for like nine months before my parents got mad and told me I needed to be doing something with my life. I was gonna stop anyway though because it isnt really fun. I always had to do stuff that was just work and wasnt fun just for good moments roleplaying or playerkilling. There are muds that do better playerkilling and muds that do better roleplaying because the carrionfields does not pull off the hybrid well. That is my opinion. jelbet

I have been playing Carrion Fields since 1997. I was bored, and looking for something to do. Being a poor college student, I had no money to buy new games and no car to get places. I heard about MUDs and did an internet search and a whole list of them cropped up. To be honest, I chose Carrion Fields at random, but it is a decision I’ve never regretted. Carrion Fields is a world like no other. The best part about it is that it’s free to play, for as long as you like. The big disclaimer is that this game is hard. This game is challenging. This game is a chess match. It will take a long time to become good enough at this game to compete at the top level, but if you make every gaming session a learning experience, you should get the hang of it in a month or so. That being said, you will die in the beginning. A lot. You will get lost. A lot. You will beg for help. A lot. But you will also learn. A lot. New players will find this game frustrating. There are thousands of commands and tens of thousands of rooms that a lot of the veterans have down pat. It takes a lot of practice and experience. Nevertheless, if you are willing to put in the time and effort, and are up for a challenge, you can become proficient at it. Immortals don’t hand out special favors based on “contributions.” Titles that show you are beyond the norm, and tattoos that mark you as favored by your deity must be earned by the player through hard work and effort. The Immortals of Carrion Fields are in my opinion strict but fair. They do a good job in enforcing the rules and weeding out cheaters. They also do a decent job of rewarding good players. There are no global chat channels. There is no 1337 haxor-speak, or whatever. Example: “d00d u just got pwn3d!” is not welcome here. Telling your group “OOC: I have to go to the bathroom,” is frowned upon and will earn you a lot of strange looks. Racial slurs, advertising and mudsex are not wanted here either. There is no multi-charing or botting. The Newbie Channel is a good place to ask questions if you are below level 11 and is highly recommended. The helpfiles are quite detailed and definitely a necessary evil for any type of success. The online official forums are places where new and old characters can ask questions. Roleplaying is strictly enforced. There are some, like myself, who put forth a mediocre effort into their roleplaying and concentrate instead on player-killing. Then there are some who intently focus on their RP to the extent of writing songs, poetry, creating informal clans and living a deeply enriched background story. These people are the “actors” of Carrion Fields and they play their parts well. You will often see people... Read More

I have played Carrionfields on and off for almost a decade. No other game I have ever played has been able to come come to the gaming experience that Carrion Fields offers. This is an honest appraisal of the MUD, including its strengths and weaknesses. In summary, carrion fields is extremely deep and textured, but also extremely difficult and challenging. Its primary features include cutthroat but balanced playerkilling and an environment condusive to deep roleplaying at the higher levels. It takes a long time to learn, but offers an unparalled entertainment experience for those who commit to learning its intricacies. Carrionfields is -=COMPLETELY=- free forever unlike some other muds who claim to be free but offer "premium" quests and other advantages for those who send in money. Carrion Fields is a game for those who want a real challenge. Let me make it clear, this game is HARD. It will probably take at least a month or two of playing (around 100-200 hours) for a newbie to achieve basic proficiency, and at least another year to be able to compete with the "elite" players who have put in 5,000 hours + into the MUD. There are tons of commands to learn. There are tons of very cool areas to explore, quests to solve, and "secret" items to discover. Carrion fields is a game that is impossible to "master". No matter how much you play, the imms are always adding new quests, skills, classes, races, areas, items, etc etc. There are some areas that are so secret that I have never even been able to find. I have been amazed by how much carrionfields has evolved over the years, to a depth that I never would have thought possible. But you have been warned, learning curve is very steep. Compensating for the difficulty of the MUD, however, is tremendous depth. The game is has enough depth and texture to offer more than sufficient reward for those who are willing to stick around and learn the intricacies of the MUD. The reason carrionfields is such a special MUD is due to its combination of roleplaying and playerkilling. Officially roleplaying is required and enforced, and the immortals do indeed enforce a minimum standard of roleplay. There are no global channels and players are expected to remain in character around 99-100% of the time. As you might expect however, there are varying degrees of commitment to roleplaying within the playerbase. Some players simply do the minimum roleplaying required, whereas others have highly developed roles to the extent that they spend most of their time writing poetry and conversing with other characters at the Inn of the Eternal Star. Generally, at the lower levels (1-30 approximately), the roleplay is of a lower quality. But as one approaches the hero ranks (31-51) the quality of roleplaying increases exponentially. It will be sufficient to say that if roleplaying is your main objective, you should find carrionfields an extremely enjoyable experience at the higher levels. facet... Read More

Gave it a try, it just tried my patience. After reading reams of helpfiles and navigating a somewhat annoying Newbie Academy, I ventured forth into the land of Carrionfields. Thera, as the inhabitants refer to it, is large. Too large when you're in the middle of a 50-room long road hitting "east" over and over and over again. There doesn't seem to be much point for the road-length as areas come largely with their own scale, but you get used to it or at least learn to stomach it. There are 51 mortal levels and for the lower 20 or so expect to spend many three minute resting sessions waiting for movement points. I made it to within a few levels of 51 before leaving and never looking back. Why did I stick it out? Promises. Most of the experienced players don't seem to play much at the lower levels, choosing instead to move up to hero-level where, supposedly, the fun begins. I learned quickly how to avoid getting repeatedly killed by the 80% asshole playerbase (seriously, they ^enjoy^ knowing they are ruining another's experience) but learning how to be the aggressor took a little longer. The classes are somewhat balanced in fighting but teams quickly ruin any good design efforts. I quickly found near the hero level that it was almost impossible to test my abilities against another player because it's 'join a team of three other characters or get walked all over by a team of five other characters.' Okay okay, I found a couple good fights alone but it was not the norm. THere are some nice areas that become available at the upper levels but they don't make up for the lack of good fun play that you expect from a game. Epsilon

Inexperienced players, boring hack 'n slash, laughable RP, and too many people powergaming to count. Sorry all, not even good enough to be called MUD. -Arval

I have been playing carrionfields for nine years now, with one four break in the middle. CF has changed much since that time, so I am going to focus on how it is today. PK, classes, races and game mechanics: I am a chess player, a poker player, exfencer, and rather enjoy RTS games. No other player vs. player experience that I have ever partaken of touches CF. The classes are objectively different. Each class has a completely different feel to it. Even between classes with similar foci, say thieves and assassin's the play style is different. Thieves are true masters of stealth and larceny. Assasin's though quites stealthy are not as good at lurking about as thieves and instead have abilities to help them in combat, but have the ultimate one shot kill. A thief can ruin yourday with almost no risk to himself, but 99% of the time cannot kill you, and if he messes up, will probably die. An assassin can kill you, but it is always risky for him, but if he does mess up, has ways to fade back into the shadows and get away. This is just one small example of how the classes work. Additionally, many of the classes are quite customizable, so a Fire Giant warrior who uses axes and maces really PLAYS differently than an elven warrior who uses daggers and whips. These differences change the way you think and act when you play different combinations within one class, rather than just making you do a bit more damage and dodge a bit less with one, and vice versa with the other. Areas: CF has no stock areas, and no areas based on outside mythology, with one glaring counterexample which no one would complain about. The coolest thing about cf's areas is that, by and large, they make sense within the life of Thera (the name of cf's world). One good example, in the main town, Galadon there is a lumber yard where various mobs are processing raw wood into lumber. There is sawdust everywhere, and the different steps in the process have corrosponding parts of the lumberyard devoted to them. Then, just to the west of town there is an area called the Weald. It is a huge vibrant forest replete with lumberjacks, someof whom are cutting down trees, some of whom are carting logs to galadon. Further into the forest there are ranger who are making war on the lumberjacks, and this conflict has the feel of realisitic politics and economics within the world of Thera. Furthermore, there are amazing exploration areas designed solely for the most powerful adventurers, including The Inferno, which is the only non mythos area in CF, but takes Dante's great work and makes it an interactive experience that only a large group of supremely powerful adventurers could hope to withstand. RP: The rp here is differen't than anywhere else I have ever seen. Most places with an rp heavy environment are around... Read More

This is the first review ive written for any game. I have been playing Carrion Fields for the past 4 years. This is not a very long time compared to a lot of the other players there who have 10 years behind them. I would say i am lucky to have started mudding in Carrion Fields. Its a very dynamic, immersive, challenging and adrenaline filled mud. RP - RP is required. I find this great for a number of reasons. I dont like it when people play a fantasay game with knights, warriors and mages while talking about the NBA game. The immortals do a great job at enforcing RP. As you play you will run across some very unique and interesting characters. Any mud that does not have RP, IMHO, is just a glorified chatroom. If thats what you need, go to AOL. PK - the player killing system is superb. Hundreds of skills to use, all balanced with the rest of the classes. The PK system is level based and you cant get pk'd under level 11, very newbie friendly. You have a huge amount of options in PK, from weapons to wands and scrolls and potions. Cabal System - the cabal system is great as well. Check out the site for more details. RP is required to enter these cabals and you must act accordingly or you will get the boot. Evil cabals, order cabals, magic haters, empire, forest people...its great. You can play outside of the cabals if you wish and go on your own. Rules - i like the way the immortals go out of their way to enforce the rules of the mud and ban cheaters. Cheating is not taken lightly here. I love this about Carrion Fields. Its all fair and square. Dropping link to avoid being PKd will get you killed. Mud Size - CF is huge. Tough areas and easy areas, exploration only areas, puzzle solving, quest completion. Its just massive. Thousands of items to use or buy, great stories and info regarding areas. New areas come in regularly, new items, new quests. Imms - the imms staff is great. They help you out if they can and are extremely newbie friendly. They strive to bring balance to CF and to weed out the problems with both players and the game. If you are looking for a mud that is immersive, challenging, fun as hell, adrenaline rushing and RP or PK to your heart's desire, Carrion Fields is great. It suits PK characters, RP characters, exploration characters, something for everyone. Do what you like and be what you like. No spam, no global channels. Check out their site and try it. Have Fun and die well :)

I have been playing carrionfields for around 5 years now. First mud I ever played, a friend of mine was talking one day about a thing called pk'ing and gathering a 'phat set'. I had no idea what he was on about until he told me the details. From then on I admit, I have been an addict. I have tried other muds, have tried different types of muds, but for me nothing beats CF. Not only has it been the easiest mud for me to pick up, understand and enjoy as a newbie it has been the most enjoyable. The rp is mandatory so you don't have people commenting on their homework or their jobs or whats on tv, you have people who enjoy escapism and enjoy letting loose. There is player killing but it is experiance based, so a level 51 character can't rock up to a level 1 character and proceed to beat him with the pwned stick. There are so many areas now its not funny, extremely fun with all the exploration that you can do. I have been playing for 5 years now and I still have absolutely no idea about some areas, which is good because it means I still have alot to learn so it keeps me interested. The immortals run a tight ship, always ready to listen to problems or ideas brought up on the offial site, always ready to be curteous and swift in responses to problems in game and the amount of work they do is amazing. If people are out there looking for a completely and totally free mud that you will never have to pay one dime too if you don't want to, a mud where you don't have people talking smack to you because they died to a fleshy mouse, where you can pk if you want, or just rp your way to recieving quest items and a nifty title or where you can form in character bonds that help you expand your own abilities then no joke, this is the place for you.

About a week ago I was given the chance to become an immortal on Carrion Fields. I had been a player for almost 10 years, and I thought it was about time I give back a little to the game I have enjoyed so immensely (and for free). 10 years is a long time to do something, anything, but yet I still love and enjoy this game. It has survived through Diablo, Might and Magic, D and D games of every kind through Pool of Radiance to NeverWinter Nights, and it is still what I played. I have yet to find something that compares with this place. But there are enough reviews that are from a player point of view, this is the view from a extremely new immortal. I sought to join the staff for the sole reason that I have gotten thousands of hours of enjoyment and have not been forced to pay a dime. I have donated money over the years, but I thought I could put my creativity to work and make the place enjoyable for mortal players as the immortals who have been on staff now did for me. This new part to play in Carrion Fields has certainly given me a different perspective on things, and I will say that so far, my view of Carrion fields, their Immortals, and the game has gotten even better. Friendly, helpful, professional, curteous, and sometimes undyingly funny, I know that I just joined a group of people who want to be here. And I have a feeling that most got here just as I did. Although it didn't take them as long as it took me to realize it. Most of the immortal staff have been players themselves at some point, and have gone through the trials and tribulations that every mortal suffers. Gives them a great perspective. I will say although that everything is not just a bed of roses, there are disagreements, between players and staff immortals on changes that are done or should be done, that will always exist. But player constructive player imput is never ignored. It is discussed and dealt with behind the scenes, a scene I am just now privy to. And I am amazed on how much player suggestions get discussed and rolled around. This does not mean they are put in although. I guess you can't always get what you want, but this mud definitely gets you what you need to have a great time on the many facets you could seek. Be it roleplaying, Player killing, exploration of great areas, to puzzle solving, and risk and reward. All of it is in there. It has what you want, and, enjoyably, it will force you, only slightly, to expand your horizons into these other parts, just for a taste. Which not only creates a better player, but a more enjoyable experience. Coming from an old time player, it is well worth the time to learn it. I... Read More

if you like rp this is the game for you there's buttloads of it. if you do not like boring dull rp with no channels to talk on and socialize then this is NOT the game for you even suggesting a global channel and five people go off on you. I am the one that rp when it comes to me but it was so uptight about rping and stuff that I did not like it a lot. When i would apologize for not using a dwarf accent and saying that i'm not use to rp i get a dumba** answer. I did not like it but that is because i don't like rping 100% of the time.

CF (carrion fields) has been a great experience in the time that I have played. Having now played CF for about a year and a half, I have found this game to be an immense pleasure. The mandatory roleplay makes it idea for those that wish to become lost in an age far removed from the burden of everyday society. Within CF is a vast makeup of races, classes and cabals. You can honestly create thousands of combinations within these specifics and never once play one char. as you played another. Even within a single class, there are numerous avenues in which you can approach the class. (Warrior legacies, Invoker paths, Shapeshifter foci, etc.) Each experience a new one of it's own. The IMM staff is more than active, with many being visible at numerous hours throughout the day. Whilst one may not come in direct contact with an IMM during their playing adventures, the support offered by them through their website is hard to find anywhere. The role feature allows you to customize your chars roleplay, and even allows you to evolve through the hours you spend with the char. While learning a new game and it's mechanics are always a challenge, the PK situations you are bound to encounter will be a great tool in learning both strengths and weaknesses of both your char and the other chars out there. An overall great experience with vast helpfiles and even players willing to guide you along in char. I have nothing but praise for CF and the way it is administered. My experience so far has proven to be most rewarding. The staff itself is willing to hand out praise where warrented as well as discipline when needed. This in and of itself keeps things more so on a level playing field as well as providing a unified answer regardless of the IMM handling the situation. A constantly evolving game, Carrion Fields continues to grow and evolve into a more and more exciting experience. If you have ever enjoyed playing a MUD where roleplaying is a must and PK is something you find as a thrill, then I encourage you to come and create a char. and test your mettle with that of a growing number of players.

Carrion Fields has got to be the ultimate online gaming experience. It is a world where you can lose yourself for hours at a time in some of the best roleplay any mud can offer. I would recommend this MUD to anyone and everyone who is actually looking for a challenging and time consuming harmless way to kill a few hours of the day. However, if you're just looking for a place to idely chat with people about the news and weather of your local hometown, this isn't the place to do it. Roleplay is a must, and that's a good thing. I remember my newbie days on the MUD as the best playing I've ever experienced on any game. It took me about two years to fully grasp most concepts of cabals, pk tactics, areas, and religions, to where I felt confident in the mud and my ability to pk and roleplay to par. It is just that intricate..or else I'm just a slow learner..one or the other. The Imm staff at Carrion Fields is the absolute best thing the MUD has going for it. They always maintain a solid roleplay, and there are higher up Imms around constantly to whack anyone who does anything shady on the head. In the seven years I've been playing, I've only had two instances with Imms that I found unfavorable. Other players of the MUD will of course ridicule and laugh at you, but usually the loudest of these are newbies themselves and don't know any better. There is overall a GREAT playerbase there, with people willing to help guide you along or nudge you into the proper way of doing things if they notice you look totally lost. I wouldn't have played this MUD for as long as I did without having heroes like Jhyrbian, The Great Rumpus Cat, Pico, and Kadsuane to look up to! And I did sort of meet my future wife on the MUD about 6 months ago, and we were able to stop mudding altogether, it is probably one of the best things that could have happened to me, since this game is so addictive. Oh, and the relationship thing is nice too. Sorry for the rambling, happy mudding folks, I encourage everyone to try Carrion Fields out for themselves.

I have been playing Carrion Fields for going on nine years and have never tired of it. From the nearly limitless replay of the warrior class to the mystery of the shapeshifter class to being a priest of the various religions, there is simply no game I have found anywhere that can match it. That it is *free* is just icing on the cake. There are extensive helpfiles, a very well-designed Mud School, and a staff that welcomes with open arms any willing to pick up a sword and roleplay. I cannot speak to how easily it would be for an outsider to come in cold turkey (you can ask for help on the newbie channel if you need to), but if you stick it out it will reward you every day. Come see for yourself!

I'm an old hand at carrion fields, but I thought I would share with everyone some of my experiences, and let them draw their own conclusions. My first character was in the 1st age, and was inducted into Battleragers by Crellan himself. Though my pk stunk, and my roleplay was terrible, I had a terribly interesting experience that hooked me for life. In the short life span of my character, I learned about the constant cabal wars in the world, and how they function. However the most interesting incident was when our cabal leader betrayed us, (he was a double agent for Shadow cabal) and the morale of the cabal went to hell. Now the interesting part was not that he betrayed us, but the sheer fact that that was an option on this mud. When it comes down to it, your options are infinite in this world. I have since had many characters of note, many heroes, and one leader of a cabal. However I would also like to take the time to address some people's opinion on our "nazi-esque imms". I have admittedly cheated ic in my earlier playing career, and the imms told me the facts, and gave out the punishment. No ridicule, no meanness, no punishment beyond the crime. Since that time, I have also had many more innocent accidents, that were also treated extremely fairly. I accidently charged an empowering immortal, I betrayed an empowering immortal, I have even given quite a bit of lip IC to other imms. All of these situations either ended up reconciled as an accident, or with IC punishment appropriate to the act. The Imm hierarchy at Carrion Fields is large, and structured. Most times they cannot act without several other Imms knowing exactly what's going on. Because of this you don't get the bastard Imms, that just want to screw with you or your character. I have had an extremely positive experience with Carrion Fields, and have had for about 8 years. The world is immense, and the role play (if you make the effort) is quite good. If you want a true impression of the mud, stay for more than a few minutes, ask questions, learn from mistakes, and you will get all that you want out of your character.

The Carrion Fields. CF is undoubtedly one of the toughest muds around, i know i've been playing it for 8 or so years. I've seen more than most players will ever fathom but the best part is i've yet to see it all. That's right 8 years and i'm still seeing new things. I've seen people come and go then come back and leave only to return once more. Too many "What ifs" on this MUD. What if i had explored all those quest areas? What if i hadn't died in the blood rites of the Battleragers? What if i was Emperor with an army at my fingertips? What if i had become immortal? What if? Like i said. Eight years for me. We have one of the most veteran playerbases around, i've seen clueless newbies evolve into prime time power players, i've seen the elite start to sweat during crunch time. I've almost seen it all, but not quite. An ever-expanding world guarantees ever-changing experiences on CF. What i love the most about it, is the challenge.. when you get into the game and have learned the basics.. somehow claw your way into the Hero pk range, you'll know who has skill and who is learning. You'll take your bumps like so many others have during the years, but you'll learn or you'll die trying. People expecting a happy-go-lucky world where you can sit around with your pals drinking your beers and talking about your latest adventure will be in for quite the surprise. Chances are your beer is poisoned and your pals are the ones that did it. Stay on your toes if you decide to join, they're not called the CARRION Fields for nothing, and trust me as a guy who has seen almost everything, there's plenty of Carrion to go around. Cheers. Jhyrb.

The work that has gone is appreciated. They have many features that are seen on few muds. Their storyline, however, is rather unconnected. Their "RP" enforcement seems to be based on Immortal whims rather than any true enforcement. Their treatment of newbies if Nazi-esque to say the least. As someone who's mudded for close to 9 years, I've been to newbie friendly muds and non newbie friendly muds. This was definitely not friendly. I personally spoke with three newbies in the space of an hour who were so disgusted by it, they won't be coming back. Guess I was a 4th. Got a question? Sure. Ask it on the newbie channel. After the first 4 people tell you harshly that this isn't a "chat channel", someone will answer you. Then, you level again in silence. (Don't respond to their answer! That's chatting!) Of course, if you've got connections, you're safe. You've got grouping partners, equipment, gold, friends, and some actual interaction with people. The mud itself seems very nice. The code is stable, albeit somewhat laggy, with a LOT of nice features, however unless you're the "in-crowd", don't bother making a newbie.

I have just hit my 10th anniversary of mudding. I have played just about every free mud out there that I have seen on the top mud sites list. Yet, there is one mud that I was introduced to over 8 years ago that I call my official mud home. What I look for in a mud that makes my playing times enjoyable is a collection of different aspects. I don't like it when the imm staff coddles its player base. I want an imm staff to be the gods of above, who only show themselves to reward or punish. I want the interaction with an immortal to be special and unique. I get this with carrionfields. I not only like having unique areas to explore, but, I want the rewards of my explorations to be appropriate. Nothing bores me more than to get an overpowered piece of gear for doing something simple, or vice versa. Strong roleplay is required where I play. Unique characters add color to a mud, and too many times, I have seen a mud where every class thinks, acts and uses the same tactics of everyone else within the same class. At carrionfields, there have been so many different personality traits within different classes that you never know what you are getting from the player until you actually speak with them. Foul-mouthed, ill-tempered paladins. Anti-paladins who hold honor in their highest esteem and so much more. Alternate routes of traveling. So many muds need you to walk a certain path to get to a certain area. In carrionfields, the implementors have made so many multiple paths through Thera, a player could live his entire life without setting foot into a city. I highly recommend Carrionfields for the mudder who wants to create their own path and make their own destiny in a world where the possibilities are endless, and where an immortal staff works tirelessly to continuously improve the mud.

I have recently started playing Carrion Fields again. Before I stopped, I had played for four years. I had a decent handle on the game, area knowledge, pk ability, ect. I have returned after a year and a half. At first, it wasn't noticable, but as I leveled up it began to become more apparent. While the fundamentals play remained the same, it was like being a "noob" all over again. The new religions, subtle changes to classes and not so subtle changes to classes, the abundance of new areas, changes to races, ect(I'm sure I'm forgetting quite a few things). The staff puts a ton of effort into keeping the story of the game moving along, expanding the game, trying to make sure the field of play is level on all sides. I honestly believe the level of ability from the staff and playerbase is above and beyond that of most other muds. I'll stop before I start to ramble. Hopefully my point got across. The staff, the playerbase, the quality of the mud. I've never seen another mud where it all click's like it does on CF. If you like a challenge(and I mean really enjoy a challenge), then give it a try(and by try, I mean make a character, and hero). Whether it's the challenge of pk, exploration, or you want to create a three dimensional character, you'll have a good time(frustrating at times, but fun).

Don't play carrionfields. Don't do it. You'll regret it. It will ruin your schooling, get you fired from work, destroy your social life. And you know what? You won't care. CF is simply the closest thing to a living, breathing virtual world that there is. Sure, the pk system is the best of any video game, anywhere, due to the sheer variety of possibilities within each class, and more importantly the complete lack of overlap between the classes. Each class plays differently. A ranger *feels* like a ranger, a thief *feels* like a thief, etc etc. But the thing that really makes CF vibrant is the level of role play that permeates the entire mud. Your average rper on CF would be the best of the best on most muds. The best RPers (the Imms, in general) make their chars live and breathe like nothing else. There are numerous chars at any given time on cf that bring their surroundings to life. You can see their pores, you can hear the sqeak of the floor boards as they stroll into an inn, you get chills when a lich turns its gaze on you. So don't play carrion fields, because once your hooked, you'll never quit.

Best game out there; not just mud, but game. I've been playing off and on for a few years, and have hit a lot of aspects of this game, including the legendary liching process. (That alone is worth a visit to learn about, if you haven't yet.) I've played some of the other muds, including the graphical ones like Everquest, Dark Ages of Camelot, etc. Stand alone games like Diablo and Nursing Home Tycoon (tm). It never fails, I always come back to CF. It beats them all, hands down. The question is why. There is no good answer; this is about as complex as a game as you'll find. Most of the other muds I've visited roleplay in a tongue-in-cheek manner. Sort of a "Yeah, we'll say thy once in a while, but we'll also say dude and roxxor alot to show how hip we are." The roleplay in CF is very, very good, to the point that the imms and players alike will raise an eyebrow if you bring any 'real' world stuff in the game. And that’s the way it should be. If you want to play, go all the way. This definitely isn’t a chat-room “my teacher suxxors” kind of place. That said, if you want a real challenge, this is the place to be. It’s a bit like chess in that it’s somewhat easy to get in, look around, see what’s happening. But it’s far more challenging to do well. It’s simply a lot higher class than most games out there. The sheer complexity and ingeniousnessessess (ness) of the areas is incredible. Areas like Hell and the Silent Tower will blow away any other area on any other mud, and I would bet money on that. I’ve created characters for the sole reason of exploring these areas, and there are still things left to find. The atmosphere is a very solid rp-wise. You can pretty much take on any role that you can imagine. Want to be a bloodthirsty drow bent on world domination? Great. Want to play a ‘reformed’ drow dedicated to making the world a better place? Fine. Harder to pull off, but fine. Not only do the other mortals/players have impact on your success, but if you do pull off something interesting, the imms have all sorts of nifty things to reward you with. Special titles (you can’t just title yourself here, meaning you don’t have a bunch of morons running around with titles like “Spazking the whipper of llama’s asses”, although you might get that title given to you if you can, in fact, whip the llama’s ass.) There are also special quests given to some players resulting in unique skills, spells, or other bonus treats. You have a wide range of possibilities. Blood-thirsty warrior, political backstabbing intrigue, masters of magic, underground thieves, shadowed assassins, whatever. Or go against the grain and do something unique. We’d seen elves go bad, drow go good, and everything in between. If have... Read More

I've played Carrionfields off and on since around 1994. It's truly been the game I've played more than any other. While I wish at times that I wouldn't play "quite" as much, I've gotta say that it's one hell of a good time and I appreciate all the work that goes on behind the scenes. When I started, it took me a while to get my feel for things, where things were, what to do, what to wear, etc. Since I've joined, the Immortals have implemented a wealth of features to make starting on the mud much easier. These include: A "newbie" channel where you can ask questions and get direct aid from Immortals, Revamped help files that provide much more information than was previously able to be accessed, and an increased "safe" range where you can play and not be attacked by other players. The size of the mud has exploded since I first played. Many, many new areas have been written by the immortals with new ones going in on a fairly regular basis. They're looking to grow and I wish 'em the best. The game itself is both Player Killing and Roleplaying focussed. Roleplaying is required and it's not a hard thing to do. You've got a wealth of examples in help files, from NPC's, the Immortals, and some amazing players. Plenty of variety in the classes with many ways to make a character stand out from the others in your guild. I'm rather suprised that more mention isn't made of perhaps the most glaring difference between CF and the other current top muds. Of the first 4, Carrionfields is the only one that you don't have to pay to play. Not a cent. No paying for extra experience, practice, trains. Free. To me, this is HUGE, especially given the possibilities on CF. Though it's sapped away years of my life, I've still gotta give a hearty "2 thumbs up!" (Probably three if I had 'em)

Having played Carrion Fields on and off for the last six years, I've experienced it both from the perspective of an utter newbie as well as a semi-veteran. Note that I said "veteran" and not "expert". That I still don't consider myself an expert after six years should give you some idea of the complexity and richness of Carrion Fields game-play. There are quite a few things about Carrion Fields besides mechanics, though, that set it apart from other MUDs. Chief among these would have to be the top-notch volunteer staff. They're plentiful, competant, hard-working, and exceedingly responsive to bug and game-play issues. Contributions by past and present imms are the main reason Carrion Field's room count is so large and is made up almost entirely of non-stock areas. Whether it's in the context of running long-term quests or in adminstering their religion, the immortals set a role-play standard that's hard to match. Another nice thing about Carrion Fields is the extent to which the various class/race combinations are matched against one another. Though at times it can be extremely frustrating, you'll find on Carrion Fields that every class has its foil. Your assassin may excel at fighting paladins, but beware the ranger hiding in the bushes. Your shapeshifter may run roughshod over warriors, but you'd better hope he doesn't get put to sleep by a necromancer. Etc. Class specialization further complicate matters, with several classes being able to customize by choosing different skills. Paladins can dedicate themselves to shield use or two-handed weapons; shapeshifters can study two of five different focii; invokers can try to learn all seven elemental paths or focus on a few in-depth; thieves can mix and match skills from five different paths; warriors can specialize in two weapon-types, etc. On top of this you have mandatory role-play. Those players unwilling to immerse themselves in the CF story may find this stifling, but for others it can be quite entertaining. Players who exhibit poor role-play, for instance a good-aligned character who slays innocents, may find themselves smitten by an unseen immortal and/or lose key skills and spells. Even more egregious OOC behavior can result in denial. Such punishments are not handed out unreasonably, though, and serve to preserve the immersive aspect of the game. Lastly, let it never be said that Carrion Fields is a static environment. New areas, classes, races, quests, and cabals are constantly being added, and done so in a consistent in-character manner no less. No matter how long you play there will always be some game-play nuance you haven't yet grasped, area you haven't yet explored, or role-play angle you haven't yet tested. One warning to new players: the other reviewers are not kidding when they say that Carrion Fields is not a safe place. It is aptly named. Expect to die, a lot, as a new player. Take your lumps, learn from your mistakes, and before long maybe you'll be the one giving out lumps instead of taking ... Read More

Best game I have EVER played!

I'm a player of about 6 years in Carrionfields. During my early stage of mudding Carrionfields, I've tried other MUDs. Initially they seem enjoyable but after sometime, they get stale. Why? Becoz the landscape, Immteractions, players, shifting of powers all somewhat is stagnant. It becomes a social environment where everyone knows everyone. Not so for Carrionfields - the landscape is everchanging and the powers are always shifting. New classes, skills, races, all with unique abilities and balance to the game, adds realism. Players lend their support and feedback which are taken seriously. In Carrionfields, RP-PK is of utmost important (IMHO). There is no-nonsense from cheaters, and perma-grouping and multikilling. The Imms are newbie-friendly (newbie-friendly is not hand-holding), role-playing as Imms of their religion themselves and always ready to make their presence felt and enjoyed. They come in to balance the game, and make sure the players enjoy it. For a player, one has to immense himself in his character, live it out to flesh and bring out what he desires him to be. Don't expect the easy way out of the Imms help you just because you whine. Players are generally helpful if you are in their political cabals. For newbies, the Imms don't hold your hand and walk you thru'. It will be tough initially, but rewarding as you learn to grasp the game mechanics. Players are rewarded for their role-play and quests are plentiful. All in all, Carrionfields adds a new dimension of online gaming from normal mudane work and study. Girlfriends have been ditched, laundries piled high, classes skipped so that players can have longer hours in Carrionfields. Yes, that drastic. Here's some personal views : Learning Curve : High (probably about 12 hours with a couple of character deaths) Playability : Long (this is a long-time hobby and very addictive once you start going) Replayability : High (every month or so, new quests, new shifts in powers, skills and new Imms) Landscape : Dark and dangerous and real. Expect to die a lot (of course there are newbie areas but like real life, there is a high chance of fatality. No pain no gain.) Items/Armor/Equipment : Huge and variable (you cannot imagine how huge the items are and unique in each area) Areas/Rooms : Huge and well-written. Each area has a certain theme and echos. Most stock areas are gone replaced with meaningful ones that add to the game. Immortals : Always ready to help and guide. Don't expect straight answers from them in quests and areas. They are dedicated and resourceful. Immteractions are really fun and enjoyable. $0.02.

Having read several of the other reviews of Carrion Fields, and seen the differing views of various players, I'll add my own view. I first played this mud about 8 years ago, took a five year break from mudding altogether, and then came back. The first thing that struck me was how much had changed. Classes had moved from the generic towards far more distinct styles. In the mud today some classes (such as warriors and thieves) have so much potential variety that it is easy to make a character that is unique in terms of abilities as well as roleplay. It is not only the classes that change. The mud itself is extensive. Very few, if any, of the playerbase know the entire mud's layout, and the pace at which new areas are added means continual interest for those who like exploring. One thing I would stress about this mud is that it is a role-playing and player killing mud. However, different players will put different weightings on each of these when they play. Players new to the mud will have to accept that real people are going to be trying to kill their character, and if those people have had three years of practice they will manage to do it (possibly a lot). It is also true to say that the easiest victims are lower level characters, so once you level past the characters who prey on them you should find life a little easier. A bit of perseverance will usually pay off, and you should find that with each successive character you are more successful too. One thing I would stress is that you will improve a lot faster if you treat every death as avoidable and ask what you could have done better. While everyone is forced to contend with the player killing aspect of the mud (which I regard as a good thing), the standard of roleplay is generally reasonable, and in some cases exceptional. The immortal staff do reward good roleplay much of the time, which helps encourage it. In summary, if you are looking for a player killing challenge, Carrion Fields is one of the best. If you are looking for a world both extensive yet deeply descriptive, with a real history, Carrion Fields is that place. If you are looking for a setting to bring your character to life, the trials and tribulations of Carrionfields will give you plenty of material and diverse individuals to develop things with.

I think this mud gets unfairly described by "official" viewers that just pop in for a day or so. It can be a daunting challenge to learn or adjust to Carrion Fields, but if you're looking for a long-time hobby in a mud that's really what you want. I say that because the reason it's daunting is it's size, the number of features, and a large immortal staff that is constantly cranking out things to make it better. There have been several changes to help newbies looking to get their feet on the ground in Carrion Fields. First, the Academy (and I know...I hate going through an Academy) was redone to reflect the spirit and the themes of the mud. It's tedious and long to go through, but if you can do it, it's the fastest way to learn the game. The upgrade integrated simple, rewarding quests that teach even the greenest player the ropes of a mud. Second, there's a newbie channel now for the first 11 ranks of the game. Incidently, there isn't any player-killing during those ranks...so you should have time to adjust and ask your questions. Third, I think their official website at www.carrionfields.com is a good resource to new players. However, after you do adjust, you have a deeper and more challenging mud than most. The place is huge, so if you like exploring and quests you should be in heaven. They've gotten rid of almost all of their stock areas, so you'll be experiencing something totally new everytime you turn around. I feel the classes are balanced and unique. They've each gone through several evolutions and Carrion Fields now has the "standard" classes in ways I've never seen them coded. Warriors have weapon specializations and now, towards the very high ranks, learn one of the new features called 'legacies'. Conjurers delve into the different planes of existence to call upon devils and demons or angels and archons (depending on allignment.) Thieves, the most recently revamped class, now can study under different guildmasters of the realm and learn different styles of thievery. Anyway, I totally understand why we get a lot of 'it looked really neat but it was hard' reviews. I just wanted to throw in my two cents since I've put in the hours.

Carrion Fields is a nice MUD, with a good race/class database and a very interactive world. The critisms I had was that the Player Creation/Training process is VERY time consuming. You must complete several quests and it is hard to get money, food or any other goods before you must fight monsters to get to another side of a cave in the early training levels. Also, the monsters to not rest until you or they are dead. They will follow you from room to room. Challenging at an early stage when there is no chance to get any good weapons/protection. Also, death is tedious and takes longer than it should to get back to human form. Ghosts can still be attacked. It's fun, but it just got boring while I was still in the academy. Hope this helped, Letum Vire (Experienced Roleplayer who has tried 25 MUDs)

I am going to try and make this review as objective as possible. To start off, I have been playing here for over 6 years now, and I have played every class to at least near hero. In my opinion, the learning curve here is huge. I love the playerkilling aspect, which is probably the only reason I survived my newbie days. I'm not trying to convince you not to try it out, but it will be a definite challenge. I tried to get 3 other people to play and none of them were up to the challenge. Don't get too frustrated, because just as the help file states... you will die... a lot. The land here is everchanging, with I would say roughly about 1 new area going in every 1-2 months. Sometimes more sometimes less, but there is always something new coming. This allows the MUD to keep a freshness about it. It actually sort of levels the playing field out a bit. For those of us who have played a long time, chances are if we take a break for a few months. We missed out on a lot, and thus have our own learning curve to overcome. This is only from my personal experience tho. I've tried a lot of different places, but I always end up back here. I imagine I will probably always be here in some form or another until CF mysteriously disappears from the net. So to sum it up. CF is not easy, it is the hardest MUD to play I've found. It is also the most fun. There is nothing like the first time you outsmart someone else, make your first solo pk, destroy a group of three all by your lonesome, get into a cabal the first time, get your first tattoo, your frist trip into hell... and the list goes on and on. Yes it's hard, but it's worth it.

This mud is the best free mud out there. There are so many player options that anyone can fit there personality, and It is really nice how strictly the role playing in inforced. If you like to get really deep into fantisy books or games this is the place for you!!!

This is a great MUD site. Although the commands take some getting used to the creatures are awesome and the action is intense. Having players interact is an awesome way to go. And the helpful Immortals make it easy for newbies. Carrion fields rocks!

Carrion Fields... I could go on and on about how long I've played, and how much fun it is and all that, but I won't. Others have already done that. What I want to talk about is the quality of the mud. I've played at various other muds, and it seems like most of them are run by 18 year olds on a power trip. It means in many cases that the mud isn't built well, or consistantly. That's not the case on Carrion Fields. Each of the immortals have been around for a while themselves, playing and building the game. They hold themselves to even higher standards than the players when it comes to RP. And their areas are built with style. They make sense. Another thing that CF has that I rarely, if ever, see. Their own forums, run and moderated by the staff of the game. A place designed to ask questions and get answers straight from the immortal staff. The staff is also committed to balance in the game. You've all seen the uber-powerful characters that ruin the fun on any PK mud. Things like that don't exist on CF. And on the odd occasion where someone does crop up who is exceptionally skilled, and successful, there's always a group of Paladins to hunt the lich, or a group of anti-paladins to chase the Paladin, or whatever. The world is growing, expanding...and what's even better, maturing. The staff, and the players, are in general very into what they do. Details are hashed out endlessly, in order to improve the world. Steps have been taken recently to make the realm slightly more newbie friendly, while still keeping within the rules. Mandatory, and followed, RP is always a plus for the serious gamer, as is the sheer variety of character options. Ok, I think that about covers it. Come, give it a try. As a matter of fact, give it two or three tries, so you can really get a feel for the variety that is available in the MUD. Ashambala

The Carrion Fields, ah, where to begin? It's the bar, the standard to which all other muds, especially roleplaying and playerkilling ones, aspire to. Sure, you have your general qualities for characters, the physical statistics, the race, the class, and a freeform description. Also, the unique ability to write your character's history, life story, and/or purpose with the "role" command. This allows only the Immortals and perhaps once in a lifetime privileged mortals to see into the heart of your character's life. Hidden statistics like luck make things not nearly predictable, and the climate of the playerbase is varied and interesting. It's interesting, you'd expect a mud that has such intense roleplaying requirements to have a fair, or maybe sub-issue (Pardon the reference) playerkilling population. This is not the case. The wars that occur in Carrion Fields are of an epic scale, and waged by the strongest, the fastest, and the greatest of intellect. The true masters of strategy come to this place, and it's hard to work your way into if you're a beginner. Is it even worth it? In a few words, absolutely, by all means, YES. It's that sheer adrenaline when you're chasing down a would-be assailant you surprised outside the deep Silverwood, pitting all manner of skill and pure intellect against another person. This isn't about who's got the big sword, in many cases (though the big ones don't hurt your chances) - it's about who's creative in the way they fight, who can circumvent conventional battle methods, and rise to the challenge. The cabals, the religions are eloquently done and hold quite a bit of interest and legacy. First timers, check out all the helps, play a character or two (I suggest starting with a warrior-type, perhaps an assassin, a ranger) and checking the basics out. When you feel like you have a good grasp on some things, and want to know if there's more to this place than people slaughtering, I recommend the Inn of the Eternal Star. You'll find it comfortably nestled in the central part of the land, along the East Darein Road. You'll be welcome to a drink and a meal, a few stories, and if you get a chance, check out the Lyceum, a grand place filled with seven (REAL) years of the history of Carrion Fields. Epic wars, the quests that shaped the face of the world... why, the Second Age was ended by a mere mortal knight.... Might you do the same? I recommend it highly. Check it out.

A decent pk mud with potential greatness. The main problem is the lack of level requirements to use equipment. There is a requirement for purchasing equipment, but that is easily circumvented by other players buying stuff for you. This results in people who have established characters on the mud outfitting their friends or perhaps their own newer characters with stuff they wouldn't normally be able to get. As a result of this imbalance the pk system, which does have level requirements, is rendered ineffective as anyone in your pk range could be using level 30 equiment while yours may only be level 15. I believe it's a major problem which discourages new players, myself included. Hopefully, someone will fix it.

I've been playing Carrion Fields for about 3-4 years now off and on. This wasn't my first mud. Anyways here goes- This mud has the absolute best system of pking out there. Bar none. Period. Experience based, using experience penalties to better races and classes. The Imm's are pretty nice. The world is huge. I mean, really huge, and its easy to wander. Fun, too. A new "experience for exploration" thing makes exploring worth your while now too. No matter what type of character you want to play, there's some race class combination out. A good mix of inherant race abilities makes the world interesting (and damn scary sometimes). Which brings me to my major problem with the mud. This mud has extremely good role-playing requirements in it. And the Imm's do a good job of keeping it that way....to a point. As brought out by another reviewer...lower rank (about rank 11-25 sometimes upto the 30s still) player killing is insane. And really not role played in well. In CF, an accpetable RP reason to kill someone is: Get a strong group together, run to a place where a people in your pk range normally goto get experience. Say your 'hunting' and kill them. For pretty much no appearant reason, many times. Safe rooms are few and far between. Also, your various guildhalls throughout the land are not safe, which i consider to huge mistake in my opinion. The player run 'police' system can be...eh....a bit off. The police don't always 'want' who should be. Many times people who retaliate are the one's who end up getting wanted. Since yells can be confused. Also, since player run, the police aren't always 'on' and havoc usually breaks out during these times. Trying to avoid killing others just to 'hunt' them is really hard to do because then they'll just come after you. If you decide to play this mud accustom yourself to dying. Because it will happen.....a lot. And many times the reason of your death will piss you off. Also, Don't trust everything you hear either. There's a lot of rumors in CF too i've found out. The biggest one being "There's no pking in cities". This can be turned into a true statment by making it "There's no pking in Galadon." Anyways....back to good things it has. The cabals are Imm set, and really do cover a wide range of types and skills. There's a cabal for most everyone's taste. They can be hard to get into though but, its better than letting all in. And cabal's aren't nessacarry. You can make a very successful character without being in a cabal. Realism-wise this mud is GREAT. No one is unbeatable really, and to make a good character you do have to play the character well because there is not one class better than another. Race-wise pretty even too. Giants seem to be a bit over-powered, in my opinion. But most giants learn slowly so it gets out...kind... Read More

This mud is the single reason i got into mudding, it is a larg world were people acctually rp, and are disciplined accordingly. This is the best mud i have seen around. Immortals are nice, and help newer players. The map is sort of hard to follow but it wouldn't be fun unless you had to do some adventureing. Hundreds of peices of equipment, and constant change are a few of the things carrion fields has implimented to make rp funner for anyone.

I've kept coming back to this game in the past years, even though I've got God only knows how many games I could be playing and have on my harddrive, this is the most fun game I've found ANYWHERE! I was introduced to this MUD as my first MUD, and all the rest are just weird, this was easy to learn and simple to play, and it was fun! Best damned MUD out there :)

Carrionfields was my favorite mud for years. It is huge, many rooms and a realistic feel. The 'rp' required leaves much to be desired as i often found people talking and yelling about RLife in general. The mud has gone through quite a few changes, and now seems to be moving in quite a new direction. The once dark and forboding lands, full of murders and cold blooded cabal wars now has easter egg hunts....hmmm... I can say this was the best PK mud i have ever played on. The classes were well balanced and quite developed in what each could do. The god system is well flushed out and appears to be quite active now ( i remember waiting 3 months to see my god once, only to have him tell i wasnt worthy hehhe ) The mud is stable, has good unique code and IS the PK mud that all others try to imitate. The areas and codebase is constantly being developed, and the playerbase is HUGE. I dont really like the 'happy' atmosphere they are projecting now, but it is a great place for anyone to play. It just lost my cup of tea. enjoy

To begin with, I have been mudding for nearly 7 years now, almost the length of time Carrion Fields has been in operation. I have the benefit of having been around from very nearly the beginning of the MUD and so I have witnessed its growth and changes over the past few years. Sometimes I stray but always in the end, I end up "coming home". That being said, I begin my review... The MUD itself has become much more serious than it was initially, with serious roleplaying not only becoming the norm but being expected not only by the Immortals but by most of the playerbase as well. If you want to roleplay, I can assure you that you will be able to find someone on the MUD who will play along as well. I have seen few truly successful characters on Carrion Fields who were not good examples of roleplay. Excessive player killing is often discouraged if there is not some form of roleplaying reason behind it (ie, a paladin who seeks out evil, a necromancer who studies death, etc). Now, this does not mean it does not happen, unfortunately, which brings me to the next portion of my review. In the lower ranks, player killing is rampant. There are those individuals who have become proficient with particular classes and spend their time assaulting all who pass within their range. These player-killers often excel at terminating "newbies" and since there has been an influx of such people of late, these individuals seem to be content to sit at their rank and chew through the masses of those unfortunate individuals. Having been a newbie at one time and having experienced a sense of "newbie-ness" each time I have returned to Carrion Fields, I know this can be an unpleasant experience. I have nearly left the MUD on several occasions because of people like I have described. Each time, however, I set myself to the task of making it past these individuals and have always pushed through to the hero ranks where things, for the most part, allow me time to breath. So, if you don't mind a learning curve of sorts, you will find the MUD to be a most enjoyable experience if you can only tough out the lower ranks. Once there, you will discover that there is always more to explore, more riddles to solve, and more friends to make. The roleplaying becomes much more frequent and the oppoetunites for quests and adventure do as well. In short, if you enjoy roleplaying, you will find such in quantity and in quality with Carrion Fields. The politics of the MUD make for an extremely enjoyable experience for those who like to participate in such things. If you enjoy player-killing, the challenge of new opponents awaits. If you are easily discouraged, do not like to roleplay, or are looking for a purely hack and slash MUD, Carrion Fields is not the place to play. For those are... Read More

This game has many good ideas. It can be addictive if people will be willing to commit to it. It has many different areas to explore. I myself have visited a few including Camelot, Forest of Nowhere, and some others, the names escape me at the moment. It has lots of different types of classes and races, from Transmuters to Assassins to Paladins to Magi. It has a friendly player population. People are always willing to answer questions. There is almost always a 'Immortal' online to aid if possible. I myself was invited to many groups in order to gain 'ranks (levels)'. Now this all might sound nice. If you were allowed to choose between being a playerkiller or not. However you are unable to. Once you become level 10, anyone within 30,000 experience of you can kill you. I myself was slain 3 times, each time I greet someone, they kill me. That was no fun and some people may not like this. One time, I was just healing after dying and as soon as I regained my regular form, someone killed me. If you can handle the playerkilling, this game is for you. However be warned, it may ruin your fun when you get killed a few times, suffer penalties, and have no money. Ah well, good luck and see for yourself.

I have been playing carrion fields since 1995 and although it was a struggle at first to take in so much information (it was my first mud) it's addictive quality was in its origionality. The Immortals of Carrion Fields are tireless in their effort and this is reflected in the combinations you can play in the game. You never have to play the same combination twice and this is enhanced by a high level of roleplaying in the game from the players which again is a testement to the Immortal staff who enforce it with an iron hand. In the beginning this enforcement seems unjust but as you progress as a player both in skill and roleplay the rewards are there for you from the staff with quest skills and spells available to those who show exceptional ability and even those who are seen to be trying hard. The origionality of the skills spells and classes is what keeps you coming back from warrior's specializing in different weapons to transmuter mages who can becoem shapeshifters or arcane spellslingers or even the coveted becoming of the necromancer to be a full blown Lich with awesome effects. If you haven't tried carrionfields by now, I think you shouldn't delay. Play.

I've been playing on CF for about five years. I'm probably going to stop after my current character dies of old age (CF has hour limits on character lifespans to encourage distribution and freshness), so I've been pretty reflective on the subject. Why do I like this game? Huh. I suppose what I like most about Carrion Fields is its extreme versatility. There is literally something for everybody in this game. You have the power players, the mushies who laze about talking, mixtures of the two.. you have just about everything. What this means is that as much as you are challenged by the game and its implementors (there are scores of in game quests with rewards big and small, not to mention Immortal or Mortal-run quests or the simple acts of clothing yourself and warding off beasts or exploring over a hundred fresh and innocative areas, one of them a virtual thesis on the Inferno, another a tribute to us old timers that grew up on Zork (Silent Tower) - and in character interaction is usually required), you are to an even greater degree challenged by the other players, whether it be strategically/tactically (the player killing aspect, both individual and between groups of people) or intellectually (negotiation, roleplaying, problem solving). It is a game where playerkilling is encouraged, but roleplaying is required. It's been so long since I was a newbie, so I can't comment on how newbie friendly it is (I know I often don't have time to stop and chat with newbies with my high level char), but I can say that the Imms have implemented a newbie channel to answer basic questions, and, speaking for myself, when I just started a new char, I do take the time to help others, and I'm sure other long-timers do, as well. So, it's definately worth a look. Just promise yourself to devote more than a quick glance to it so you can fully appreciate the game's diverse, rich nature. See ya in the Fields (until my current character dies, in which case you're on your own - good luck, try to keep a sense of perspective :P)

I've told my wife that I'd lay off CF for good. Let's see - that was about 4 times in a span of 2 years. I am a computer games fanatic and have played immensely amount of games - anything that moves on the screen. I have also played a couple of MUDs, but never lasted long there. CF keeps haunting me, I dream about it, think about it, it's so addictive. Frankly, I have just told the players in CF that I'll be leaving (2 months ago), but here I am back again. Why? 1. The world is big and there are a lot of explore around, with no-holds barred of being killed in the process. We learn, right? 2. The RolePlaying mandatory rule is keeping me in. I've seen characters get the boot becoz they are not consistent with their RP. Not many MUDs enforce RP like CF d. 3. The PK is pure adrenalin rush. I remembered tossing in bed from my first death and gleed for joy when I had my first PK. The players are smart and learning with different strategies to overcome their shortcomings. This is the Challenge. 4. The Imms are not there seen but always around. I like it that way. They shouldn't be seen so much but yet everyone knows they are lurking, watching you. They are a bunch of dedicated staff and very strict, yet helpful. 5. Empowerment for certain characters. This creates Imms involvement and boost up RP to even a greater extent. 6. The players are great and I have come to know many friends there. Too many players makes it difficult to interact and too little is a bore. CF is nice for me. Well, just remember that you are still living on earth when playing CF. People have gotten over the edge becoz of it. G'luck!

I have been playing for like 5 years and I have had my fair share of run in's with the immortals. Yet while swift and nasty in punishment, they always give me more and more chances :) Some people actually enjoy making a char just for the roleplay experience. But not everyone does, so how do they relate to other people in it for the pking? Well you want to roleplay, because it gets you the good stuff. Roleplaying leads to cabal powers, tattoo powers, even quest abilities now and again and special titles which leads to respect (titles are not so cheap as most muds). So when they say roleplaying is encouraged, its not just some comment you read during the motd. Its actually encouraged via reward. The game while easy i would think to start off, it would take quite some time to get to a position where you dominate. But the same is true of most muds, though cf is so complex. I like to proud myself on working out the ever changing game mechanics. But something as simple as bash has like 7+ variables on it. It always proves a challenge to predict things. The mechanics are extremely complicated compared to other muds i have tried out. All the classes and cabals and what not have so much depth to them. What I dislike the most about cf, its too realistic for me! I rather rest for a tic before sleeping after a fight. I'd rather go to 5 different towns and not get tired at low levels. I would rather be able to eat and drink during combat. All these things they put in for realism, so that may appeal to you.

Things I like about CF: 1) CF has some of the best roleplayers I've ever met on any MUD. While there are always newer players who aren't used to it yet, the more experienced players and IMMs are without par in my opinion. 2) The PK system there is rough but fair. Essentially, you can only fight characters who are near your own level. Roleplaying is enforced, however, and "random PKers" tend to end up being denied by IMMs. The overall effect is that your enemies are scary, but you aren't being bashed into the dirt every two seconds by people you've never met. 3) The classes are very unique. The abilities are very far from stock, and the coding is intricate enough to reward players who try clever combinations. I've been to MUDs where they claim "75 classes", but they all feel like slight tweaks on the four stock ones. CF has 15, I think, but no two feel at all alike. 4) The IMMs are constantly adding to the game, whether it's areas, ongoing quests, new skills, or whatever. When I've roleplayed well, I've gotten cool rewards. When I've screwed up, I've gotten my due as well. =) I've never felt abused by any of the Immortals. 5) There are virtually no OOC (out of character) places or channels. The major exception is a channel that only very new characters can here, which is for questions and answers about how the game works. I've always found it very distracting to good roleplay when some doofus is talking about the Lakers game in the background. =) 6) A lot of ongoing quests lead to major changes in the game. For example, a major city just invaded a nearby town, and sacked it. Players had a chance to fight (on either side), and it was a fun way to keep things dynamic. 7) The areas kick ass. They're not only unique (well, most of them), but they're challenging and have a lot of quests, hidden secrets, and cool mobs that do clever things. 8) The "role" command. It's tough to explain, but it makes playing complex characters much easier. Things I don't like about CF: 1) It's a challenging game to learn. You can expect to be fairly clueless for a while, although the help system there is deep enough to answer most questions eventually. IMMs are usually good about pointing you in the right direction, but they definitely dislike spoonfeeding. 2) They still have a few stock areas lying around. 3) Some classes (notably invokers) require a lot of practice to be any good. (Granted, invokers that have been around a while are fairly scary.) I'd definitely recommend playing either a warrior or an assassin to a new player, and they are easier to get the hang of.

Well, I'd say, if they could make the MUD more realistic and add some good roleplaying, that would be a terrific MUD! I'm playing CF for pure PK reason, IMNSHO true roleplaying doesn't exist on the MUD. By that, I compare it to the real life roleplaying games like, AD&D, stuff like that. I noticed they speak of average 75-100 players? Err... I'd rather say it would be around 40-50. Some times during days there are no more than 20 people on, the tops are 75-100 though. So that's just pure boasting from their side. By average, you mean average. Not some fancy number that looks better in the records. Well, that's my opinion. Play CF if you like PK, else, don't. If you like roleplaying, there are a lot of MUCH better MUDs that this one. Send me a mail and I'll give you some advice. Drex.

I've tried to play other muds, and they just don't have what Carrion Fields has. Once you get into your character's role and being to act and react like he/she/it would(by this I mean consistent roleplaying)you will find that other roleplayers will be drawn to you(or you to them). The imm staff is great at offering opportunities for you to play outside the norm if you are both up for it and willing to put forth the effort. It doesn't have the 200+ players on-line at a time, but in my view it should be about quality and not quanity. I also like the fact that there are no ooc channels, outside of the newbie channel that you have for the first ten levels. Which I also think has been a great benefit to the newbies. While there are colors, they won't give you an anurism like some muds I've seen. Nor is it a chat room cleverly disguised as a mud. Between the work the staff puts in on areas, code, and quest. Not to mention the quality players, the world is more dynamic than any other that I've seen. Disagree if you want, but hero one character and we'll see if you aren't addicted.

Warning: Semi-longish. I own about 50+ computer games ranging from First Person shooters(like Quake), to Real-Time Strategy(like Starcraft), to RPGs(like Everquest). I own an Atari, Nintendo, Super NES, Sega Genesis, Game Boy, Nintendo 64, Playstation, and Playstation2 all with many games that I spent way too much money on. Can you guess what I do with my time? I'll give you a hint.. I don't play any of those. I play Carrion Fields like I have for the past 3 years. Why you ask? Well, the reasons are many. The Imm-staff is great, only the best Role-players and Hard workers become Imms. Their dedication will quickly be seen by any when they log onto CF(Carrion Fields) and see the 'Newbie Channel' that has been set up to help anyone new to the game. Next the numerous quests and areas are what seem to impress people. As you go through from place to place, you should be able to see just how much effort has gone into CF. The roleplaying on CF seems to range from bad(everyone seems to have a few) to stellar(I used to play roleplay-only MUCKs for about 2 years before I came to CF, and some people here put those people to shame) with the average roleplaying fairly well if you roleplay with them. Overall I have to say that I am more than satisfied with CF and believe that if you are looking for a good MUD to try and are ready for some challenge, CF is the MUD for you. Give it a try, you have nothing to lose. :)

I have played many of the other MUDs out there but this one is the most original one I have played. The game balance is excellent. It is a true challenge.

I've played MUD's off and on for about 3 years now, not to mention being a avid computer gamer. Nomatter what new game comes out, no matter how many new MUDS I try, I always find myself comeing back to Carrion Fields. It's easy to learn, simple commands and a newbie channel with help from the player base and IMM Staff make it easy for newbies to start, while Cabal wars, quests and the limited player killing make it a must for the adrenalin junkies! I love this game!