As a MUD, Xyllomer turns out as an excellent example of why not to play one. You can still see the original brilliance behind the design of the game. The original designer/writer was clearly extremely good, putting their personality and their soul into a quirky and interesting creation that can still sometimes be glimpsed through the noise every now and then. Sadly, that creation has been buried and obscured under years of 'writing by committee' and hand-me-down admins which have really had no idea what they were doing, pulling the unique and quirky flavor steadily into generic and bland. What started out as roleplaying Cordon Bleu is nowadays a month-old freeze-dried TV dinner. At the beginning, though it's nice. You walk around, you meet people, you make friends. And these friendships grow unusually strong: The lack of a transparent who-list, of any kind of world maps, of channels and the very restricted tells system seems annoying at first but actually sets up an ambiance where you take other people more seriously than on other Muds. And that's where it all really falls down. There's two kind of players on Xyllomer; the Germans and the Not-Germans. The germans are hosts and the original players of the game, while the Not-germans are everybody else. You can already see where I'm going with this, can't you? Yes, there is a very strong, very profoundly rooted 'ruling class' on this Mud, and while at first this isn't a concern for the newbie player who's just exploring the world, once this newbie becomes an oldbie and tries to rise up and affect the other 'fun' areas of the game, all he will find is an unclimbable wall of hostility and derision sneering down at him. What happens then, largely due to the aforementioned ambiance, where every player seems just a bit more important or larger than they really are, is constant never ending feuds and bickering, where one piece of the playerbase tirelessly and intensely pushes for change and for improvement, while the other piece, the piece that could MAKE those changes and improvements, laughingly dismisses their pleas calling them childish and misinformed. This circus is always to be seen in the game's forums and message boards, both in and out of character. What's sad is that Xyllomer's law and guild leadership system is almost genius, letting important decisions about justice and leadership be up to the playerbase and cutting out the admin. Of course, the system has always been in the hands of these German 'ruling class' players, who all know each other outside of the game. Whenever an important vote comes around it's common to see dozens of characters who havent been online in years suddenly waking up again to cast their vote and go back to sleep. Guild leaders are for the most part players who are never online or active in any way except for when their buddies alert them that someone else is trying to become leader Then... Read More

Xyllomer started off for me with a bang, I loved the world, explored the quests, got in a guild, built up my character. I also made a bunch of friends that I am loathe to leave and that's why I keep logging on and playing every day. Basically, my only gripe with Xyllomer is the BOREDOM! There's just nothing to do, ever.. All the additions and changes are always to things that already exist. Stuff that doesn't really change the game anyway, like the religions, the 'combat system' which really isn't, the ships, judges that go inactive as soon as they get elected, etc, etc. God changes and changes are announced and none of it really matters for the actual game in the end. It's still the same thing it was years ago, only less intense, less interesting, and more bland. I can't count the times when a game session for me has been just sitting around in the Elohim tree room and just chatting and messing around with emotes with some friends. That's basically it for me really these days. It's weird because a lot of games get new stuff added constantly, while this one just gets the same things shifted around, over and over. And the new players?! There are NONE. No new players ever come. All 'new' players are really just alts or people with an alt pretending to be new for fun. If you are really a new player who has never come to Xyllomer, PLEASE come and play, we need you! What else...the guilds are really all the same, they all use the same combat system and apart from few really little things, there is no difference. We also have a bunch of really old and bitter players who stick around just to remind us how much the game has declined over and over. These wouldn't be such a problem in another game but with the low population that we have, they really are visible and annoy the heck out of me and others. But you know what, I still like this game because of the friends I have in it, and will continue to play it, and I hope you will give it a chance also! :)

I joined and tried out this mud on the recommendation of a friend. I usually play RPIs. I find the RPI ambiance excellent and was very skeptical that a reputed PK-mud could win me over. However, my friend assured me that this mud's roleplaying and immersion were something that I had to see and that would make me leave my other muds. So, I gave it a chance, and here are my impressions on the whole experience: - It was a pain to create a character. Now, I am a guy who IS USED to a grueling RPI-type character creation, and let me tell you, this mud went far aboye and beyond anything I've ever seen with steep requirements for detailed descriptions, extensive backstories, justifications for every possible thing, and the sad thing is that later on none of that was used in the game by anyone at all; the effort just went to collect dust. - The email response from admin (which is required for your new character to be accepted) was very slow and unresponsive. I waited more than a couple days which is usually enough for me to scroll down to the next mud on the list out of boredom; I stuck with this one for the sake of my friend. - Once in the game, first thing I noticed was people going OOC very often. And almost always for the same reason: To ask if I was really a 'newbie' or rather just some old player's alt-character trying to get a free ride. This annoyed me on two levels: First, this assumpion really lays bare how few new players this mud gets which does a lot to dispel its charm, and second, I wasn't even LOOKING to get anything handed to me, but everybody assumed that since I was new, I must be looking for a handout. - On a corollary from the above point, I always look forward to building up a little starting wealth, yet in this mud I was freely given so much stuff (after the requisite suspicious are-you-an-alt questions) that nothing had any value. - Gameplay with other people amounted to typing 'join name' and then being treated to a whirlwind of scrolling rooms and screens of text as I was dragged through various mob-areas and drilled on the intricacies of the fight-engine (which doesn't actually seem that intricate). - One thing which is surprising is the quality of the emote engine. Here is something which pleased me to no end, as it is flexible, easy to use and powerful. At the same time, it was so very sad that nobody ever used it for anything, or at the most, used it in the most simplified, superficial way possible. Such a waste. - Finally, the thing that tipped the issue for me is what I would call the strong OOC nature of the MUD. Make no mistake, this is and will continue to be an OOC MUD. Players know other... Read More

Warning: Since I am one of the people who work as admin for Xyllomer, my personal opinion is of course, biased by this. However, I would like to mention a few changes that the game went through in the last years, which we cannot currently note down on the profile, since the person who created the profile is currently inactive. I have played Xyllomer for over thirteen years now, without interruption, and despite being one of the coders, I still continue to find new things, and usually I am never bored, when I play. Of course this also means I have to be active myself. Xyllomer went through a low in the winter of 2005/2006, but by now it has recovered and regained some playerbase. The decline in the playerbase is probably notable on most MUDs nowadays. Changes to the game include adding subraces as well as cleaning up and filling many of the empty rooms which were added to Xyllomer when it merged with Morisot. The amount of rooms we count is rather near 10000. We have an active wizardstaff, who work continuously to improve the game and add new things. However, we try to keep interaction with the players during their playing time at a minimum. Discussions about changes are done separately, on boards, the Forum, or in meetings, to keep the in-game feeling intact. What we do need is new players, this is what probably all MUDs need. We also need the old players, they are those who transport the history of the game-world to the new generations. For me Xyllomer is unique in a way, since it combines aspects of PvP as well as intensive roleplay, quests, guild culture and exploration. We strive to make this possible while maintaining the fun for all parties. If you tend to one of the extremes, Xyllomer might not be the best choice, but if you enjoy all the aspects to be had in a MUD, then I would definitely encourage you to come and play! While the MUD may be a challenge, and not the easiest to start on, the players on the MUD definitely are very helpful. We maintain a line for new players, where you can ask general questions about the game. The game is completely free to play, the only thing you need is telnet (however a mudclient or mushclient is helpful there). For starting help you can also post at our external Forum at: http://xyllomer.ruhrpott-united.de/phpBB/index.php

Xyllomer was once a very promising MUD, with a dedicated, responsible staff and even more importantly, an extremely zealous playerbase. The code was fresh and engrossing, room descriptions lively - in essence a book you could immerse yourself (or more likely your character) into and effect real (more or less) change on that fictional world. The MUD, though, took a turn for the worse. Other than the normal ebb and flow of playernumbers, severe administration and code changes in the MUD forced regular, long-time players to quit. Warrior combat for example, once one of the more entertaining features of a MUD whose combat system has never been too involved, became even more stale as a result of a drastic code upheaval. Now it is nothing but varying shades of gray, everyone possessing exactly the same abilities with differing text, and but one useful ability in the whole lot. Current administration failures are another key factor in what has become the decay of a good MUD. Where you could complain about the rampant translation of In-Character problems to Real Life vendettas (and vice-versa), and general immaturity among some of the remaining players in Xyllomer, you definitely would not want to hear that when referring to the administration. But sadly that is the case, with the current administration regularly acting as if the playerbase were of no consequence at all, and quickly silencing any with a differing opinion to theirs. This leads to an even more monotonous MUD than already existed, with a rapidly diminishing playerbase (I last saw 20 people online counting the staff - and this during 'high player times'). I've been a faithful follower of this mud for 10 years on and off. In that time I played but two characters, the more recent one being Sivan. But due to these 'recent' changes and what could only be called current, childish administration, I believe my time here is up. It is frightening to check your total stat-numbers and figure you've wasted around 260 days on what is now a worthless venture. I simply did not have any hope left that the situation would finally change for the better. Shame, though, Xyllomer was once a good MUD. Player of Sivan

Well, I gave this game a shot for five months. I must say that the first impressions were excellent and right in line with the positives of another review further down this list that I read. Nice room descs, nice quests, nice mob scripting etc. Sadly, the review also lists many negative shortcomings of Xyllomer and although I decided to overlook them and give the game the benefit of the doubt, MOST of these shortcomings soon revealed themselves as all too real... a feeling of emptiness in the world, boring static roleplaying, a feeling that there was a lot of OOC stuff going on that I wasn't privy to. I could actually deal pretty well with all of this... But the single thing that broke the game for me was the guild joining system (or complete lack thereof). It is sad and ridiculous that I have been playing FOR FIVE MONTHS straight and still my character HAS NO CLASS. Even more so that there are people in there who have been playing FOR YEARS ON END and are still waiting to get into a guild or who have just given up entirely and settle for playing just as the generic beginning adventurer class, forever. I have no idea what goes on with the guilds, or what is the matter with the system, or who's supposed to be in charge and isn't doing their job, but there is definitely something seriously wrong going on somewhere. Many people are willing to stick it out or discuss it in the forums but I have not and will do neither. A game should be enjoyable as is without needing to get into a big fight with the admin over changes that need to be made... so I gave the whole thing a chance and nothing happened, so I move on to another game. Angela.

I'm a mud-hopper, and maybe that's the reason I got the impression that I did from this mud; on the other hand, I know other people that feel the same way. Xyllomer tries to do many different things all at once, and whether it succeeds or falls flat on its face is entirely to the judgement of the player. Whether your opinion is positive or negative, you'll find many people to share your view. Xyllomer seems to be one of those 'love it or hate it' things where each member of its audience unfailingly ends up either as a converted zealot or as an estranged deserter. I find myself the latter. The mud in itself is basically a never ending player-killing war between two main guilds and a few neutral guilds on the sidelines. The "good" guild is on the low end of the power scale and easy to join by newcomers to the game. The "evil" guild is very much on the high power end of the scale, and is reserved only for long-time players who have achieved out-of-character recognition by the administration or other players in power. Added to this is, of course, the roleplaying committee which strives to keep everything in-character and relatively interesting, and firmly maintains over and over that there is fun to be had in the game outside of combat. In the end though, roleplaying tends to bottom out at not speaking out of character and saying "Let's go hunt" instead of "Let's go get some XP". On top of this is the world, which is nice, and includes several dungeons which are fun the first time around, and mining, herb-gathering, and trading mini-games. As correctly pointed out by a previous reviewer, the mining, alchemy and trading "guilds" are not real guilds at all, but rather crafting professions which you can take on top of your actual guild. It is common to have players try to pass these as full guilds when confronted by criticisms on the game's lack of the same. They are not. Xyllomer does a few things in an entertaining way, however, in the end I found it does none of them particularly well. There's good player combat, but Carrion Fields and Achaea do PK much better. There's roleplaying and ambiance, but Armageddon and Isildur do those much better too. There's exploration and dungeons, but Discworld and Retromud are superior on that. There's crafting and minigames, but DartMud pretty much takes that cake. There's something to be said for trying to be everything to everyone, but if you have a specific preference for any of these, chances are there's a better mud out there for you.

You wrote: "The most you will ever see is a half-hearted clicheed-to-death lazy attempt at a backstory... that has absolutely no relation to the actual events in the game.... such as "My father was killed and my mother prays to tharandril", for example." I seem not to understand what actual events you are reffering to. If someone doesn't want to play his father is alive and the mother is praying to Tharandil (for whatever reason perhaps she prays to Tharandil cuz the father died) I see nothing wrong with it. A backstory should not be attached to actual events. How shall this work. You start the char not as a 8 year old, it starts at age of 18 or 20 I think so a background story should _not_ have anything to do with actual events but more with the past of the char until you asked him first time you see and talk to him or her. You wrote: "I do not participate in forums and really don't think it should be required to participate ina forum to enjoy a MUD game. That is a point against it, not for it, as far as I can see." Actually not all do participate in the forum. But the forum is the best place to post ideas, talk about stuff which might be interesting for the MUD and give ideas to wizards who may implent one or the other idea. As the game is IC itself only the Forum is the best place to communicate OOC and give hints where the MUD lacks something and I think compliments are welcome there, too. You wrote: "You know exactly what I'm talking about when i say basic adventurer class, I just mean the general class-less state you start out in." Thats the freedom you have in Xyllomer. You are not put into a class at the start. If someone wants to RP a farmboy from far away how can you argue that he knows how to disarm an orc and lands a high-kick into his face with a somersault over it placing a big sword directly into its heart? A farmboy who only knew how to harvest a field can't do this, right? But nevertheless there is a Warrior guild to join which is not playerun and open to all the class-less chars who wants to join a guild and make exps on their own by hack and slash for instance. If you decided to be a Warrior of course. You wrote: "The guilds you can join right off are not truly guilds at all. They are crafting or combat professions which anybody can join at any time, even when they already belong to a guild. Another weak argument." Thats not entirely true. You can't join a combat profession guild and join another mainguild. There is the Merchants Guild and Alchemist Guild which is available to all even when being in a mainguild. The Merchants Guild for example offers therefor way... Read More

Oh, I reviewed Xyllomer alright.. Xyllomer. This Mud. As in xyllomer.mud.de. That one. Yep. Everything I said stands. Who wants to spend time with someone who doesn't put effort into their character? I completely agree with you. The people in this mud put very little, if any at all thought or effort into their character. The most you will ever see is a half-hearted clicheed-to-death lazy attempt at a backstory... that has absolutely no relation to the actual events in the game.... such as "My father was killed and my mother prays to tharandril", for example. That is exactly what im talking about. I do not participate in forums and really don't think it should be required to participate ina forum to enjoy a MUD game. That is a point against it, not for it, as far as I can see. You know exactly what I'm talking about when i say basic adventurer class, I just mean the general class-less state you start out in. That is such a weak argument I can't even believe it. I can assure you, I meant and still mean xyllomer. And I also agree with the other review: To go 5 months without seeing any good or even half-good RP is truly strange. I went 5 months on Xyllomer without seeing it. That's why I left. And yes, I am speaking about Xyllomer. The guilds you can join right off are not truly guilds at all. They are crafting or combat professions which anybody can join at any time, even when they already belong to a guild. Another weak argument. To join any real guild requires gret amounts of intense player and admin interaction which can go on for weeks, months, and years. which would be FINE, except the interaction isn't there. You don't get people teaching you and guiding you into the guild you want. All you get is promises and waiting. And waiting. And promises. "Yeah, keep roleplaying, it takes roleplaying to get into the guild." months later.... "yeah, just keep roleplaying, dont worry, it takes roleplaying and forming a bond to get into the guild... just keep roleplaying" ... and waiting. And waiting. And nothing happens. It's all promises. It's all talk. The result and the action is simply not there. So yeah, if you enjoy to roleplay that you're waiting... forget my review, and go for this game. It IS about Xyllomer though. This game. Yep.

I'm still pretty fresh to the world of Xyllomer. But I can tell you this much... It is big, it has depth, and a surplus of distractions beyond RP. What little time I've been able to spend in the game the staff and players alike have been more than helpful in explaining all the systems and commands of the game. There are different factions at war, as well as neutral parties if you'd rather avoid conflict. The one thing I find annoying about the game is that it has areas such as Dune that blatantly steal from other worlds, so the world does not feel entirely original -a pointed-eared blue-eyed newbie

I have played Xyllomer for about 10 years now, on and off. Sadly, some of the negative sides mentioned in earlier reviews are true. BUT. Those can be found easily in any other mud I have tried. And after all, I found a civil behaviour and empathic roleplay always overcame those problems. Much more importantly: 1. You wont encounter anyone named 'Killdude' or 'Killor' or 'R0xx0r'. 2. Xyllomer is FREE. No shareware like some other muds out there, calling it donations and then giving you exp for money. 3. No silly races like winged avians, Cat furred humanoids, reptiles, turtles, sirens, wolf-men, etc. (At least not as players! :) ) 4. No random stat generation. 5. No reading through tons of bytes of help files before actually getting in on the fun. 6. No global chat. (No auctioneering players either) Just IC-crafted gemlines and guildlines. (And a newbieline) 7. Last not least, you cant do 'who killdude' and see his life-story, level, stats, achievements. If that interests you, go and ask. (Better dont ask about level and stats though.) Ive tried some, and with all its downsides, Xyllomer is the Queen of MUDs out there. With a rising playerbase once more, I am sure I will again spend months of my life in its realms. Its tight atmosphere and wonderfully player-developed history have drawn me in once, ten years ago, and I hope it will draw you in soon as well.

This mud I learned quickly evolves just as the Admin sees fit. If you are a player and you are not right in line or you do something that they don't particularly like, forget it. Constrainment is the attititude and hypocrisy is the game. I would reccomend if you wish to try this mud to not waste your time.

Anyone with a computer and a normal internet-connection can play Xyllomer. Please visit: http://www.xyllomer.de for general info how to start. If you have further questions before you want to try us out visit: http://xyllomer.ruhrpott-united.de/phpBB/ Thats our Forum with some open categories to ask questions beforehand. The game is free. No hidden fees. No donations can be done to gain any special advantage over other players. So, don't try to check ebay for Xyllomer related stuff :) It is a well-established MUD from 1991 and under revision all the time offering new quests or new areas. The system is constantly updated by the Wizards (coders) who maintain the balance of this game. Player-killing (abbr. PK) is possible. It is not really encouraged as this MUD offers a great variety of RP. The best thing is there is not code-support needed if you like to make a Clan on your own or if you like to RP a lot. It is all in the game everything ready to use. If you like to use the implented extra code which makes it a bit more easier to get your RP working, feel free. Your friend with one character might be your mortal enemy with the next. It is not allowed to use more than one char at the same time but you are free to generate more than one char. You have to wait 30 minutes from logging out one char to logging in another char. Was done out of fairness reasons and it works. So to speak, there is no interactions between your characters. It is a medieval fantasy world. Admin has been actively removing areas taken from fantasy literature and replacing it with more Xyllomer-like content. New races have been added to Xyllomer and races from copyright(?) fantasy literature have been taken out. Xyllomer prides itself with its originality where everything is player governed. RP is needed to join a guild. Typing 'join guild' without being accepted first is not possible. A basic understanding we want to make sure with this when a devoted follower wants to join the Clerics guild for example. It would be poor RP if you just want to use the miracles of this guild but have no clue what the god stands for when being a Cleric. It all has a deeper sense to be accepted into a guild. It is no disadvantage rather an advantage as the one accepting you (mentor/trainer/master/teacher....) will be the main one who is showing you all the tricks additionally to the guildmembers who is helping you of course. The areas themselves are excellent written, it is a very dynamic world every region has it's own little dynamic things, you will see the waves crush on reefs etc. If you have zero imagination then you are right here. The dynamic stuff is pulling you into this world. When you see the dynamic coded dripping of water in a wet cave you can nearly smell the moldiness around you helps... Read More

I love Xyllomer. And I can't agree with Angela writing things which sounds more as she played another MUD or wanted to do a review for another MUD. The world is big and sometimes you won't meet people where you rest or wait. There are many other places in the world people spend their time. You just need to ask someone (you can even ask in the beginning on our newbie-line to get hints where peope meet) as we prefer we all stay in character just ask in an IC way somebody you meet. Can't agree that there is boring static RP. It is the question what you make out of it. If you do not add to the story of Xyllomer people may find you boring of course. But after 5 months (or what you wrote) you should be ok with the world and know at least some things of Xyllomer that your char has a little story behind even when it is only that you are born in Razza and your father was a trader and died some years ago and your mother is praying in Tharandil's service or such. I mean who wants to spend time with someone who doesn't put some effort into the own char to first give the char a little story before adding a bunch to Xyllomer. And after 5 months (or what it was) you are able to have a tiny story for the beginning. OOC stuff is talked about on our FORUM. The majority stays IC and it is good like it is. There is always the opportunity to tell the people if they can stop please the OOC talk (which is rarely going on) as it spoils the fun. I know from experience that everyone understands it. But for the fact you really wanted to review Xyllomer you should know: When you play several months and your char has still no class (we call it more soul or guild) then I don't know but sounds you made something wrong. I know that some guilds are really easy to join and we have the Razza Warriors which offers the Common Fighter Soul with combat specials which is free to join without having a mentor to invite you. Classes per se are not existing. Don't know what you talk about when you mention the adventure class. This sounds you really didn't mean Xyllomer. Further you are free to join the Merchants or Alchemists and if you choose the dwarvish race there is a raceguild called the smiths who can forge weapons and armours which only them can forge and which makes the dwarves unique to a point. A whole crafting system for everyone is available in the future and wizard(s) (the coders of this MUD) is/are coding it. The players are looking forward to it which gives a wider variety of RP and something to do when you do not want to Hack and Slash or hunt others in or... Read More

Seems the last reviewer was not aware that it needs RP to join a guild and even though a class like she called it is easy available. The Common fighter Soul (CFS) is available for anyone who didn't decide in joining a guild by now. This mud is based on communcation and getting things known in character and not everything out of character from the beginning. If you can't open your mouth (or type anything) you are wrong in a text-based mud. Sorry to say this. If you just sit around and wait for things to fly into your lap this won't happen. Action is needed from every char. I am not sure if the last reviewer sat around and did nothing I just wanted to point out that a game needs to be played and not idled. If you have no time to play a mud (in general) do not complain if your char won't advance or that your char is not noticed at all. Other chars may find you boring or your attitude strange and therefor didn't invite you to join a guild, Who knows.

Well, I gave this game a shot for five months. I must say that the first impressions were excellent and right in line with the positives of another review further down this list that I read. Nice room descs, nice quests, nice mob scripting etc. Sadly, the review also lists many negative shortcomings of Xyllomer and although I decided to overlook them and give the game the benefit of the doubt, MOST of these shortcomings soon revealed themselves as all too real... a feeling of emptiness in the world, boring static roleplaying, a feeling that there was a lot of OOC stuff going on that I wasn't privy to. I could actually deal pretty well with all of this... But the single thing that broke the game for me was the guild joining system (or complete lack thereof). It is sad and ridiculous that I have been playing FOR FIVE MONTHS straight and still my character HAS NO CLASS. Even more so that there are people in there who have been playing FOR YEARS ON END and are still waiting to get into a guild, or who have just given up entirely and settle for playing just as the generic beginning adventurer class, forever. I have no idea what goes on with the guilds, or what is the matter with the system, or who's supposed to be in charge and isn't doing their job, but there is definitely something seriously wrong going on somewhere. Many people are willing to stick it out or discuss it in the forums but I have not and will do neither. A game should be enjoyable as is without neding to get into a big fight with the admin over changes that need to be made... so I gave the whole thing a chance and nothing happened, so I move on to another game. Angela.

A lot has been worked on recently, most namely a great many helpfiles have been updated or completely rewritten to allow even better support to the players. Following player requests for more variety on the races to play, nearly half a dozen new subraces to existing races have been added. All with their unique background and quite many already have special race quests to allow players a good start into the world. The new subraces include woodelves, highelves or halfelves for the elven race, northmen or areedes for the human race or hill gnomes and brooklings for the gnomen race. Give Xyllomer a try, it sure is worth your time !

Xyllomer is, of course, the best mud around! If you search for a mud where your character can develop into many different directions and choose between a bunch of guilds, deities and varying ways of life, Xyllomer should be your first choice. Most everything in our world is governed by players, be that guilds, town-councils, courts or similar. You can play an independent Warrior as easily as a fanatic priest or magician. You can join battles and wars from the 'good' against the 'evil', or maybe just watch them from afar in order to write a newspaper article about it or simply because you don't care. I have played Xyllomer for ten years and despite the usual little problems which every mud has now and then, it has always been my first choice. I appreciate how many choices my chars have and how easily one is drawn into a complex game with so many facets of life. It is fun to have my char be a part of all those who add to this and give the mud a neverending story and history by their presence. Try it!

Been playing this mud for several years now. Had a lot of fun, frustration, anger, tears, joy! There are a few things that need work on like the CFS (quite boring). BUT these things are happily being constantly updated... Generally the players are quite cool, always some muppets, but you get that in any game/life. The gods are well thought out, the crafts/guilds are pretty easy to understand. Only mud ive ever stuck playing, I have several chars, and all of them are fun to play. RP is generally very good. My advice is to try this mud :)

Ah, Xyllomer. I spent several years on it. I whiled away many many hours in the skills/roleplay treadmills. Now I will stop, and in doing so, leave my review here for others. In a nutshell, Xyllomer is a mud that gives an excellent first impression, followed by a nice interesting early game, which slows down to a ploddish middle game, and crawls into almost complete paralysis in the long-term game. Good Points: - Classes you're familiar with: The usual elves, dwarves, gnomes, etc, nothing too creative here but something you can get comfortable with quickly. - Nice clean skills system: Not a lot of stats around to confuse you, everything is told through descriptive euphemisms, ie. poor, good, very good, excellent, etc. - Atmospheric: The descriptions are simple, to the point, and at the same time paint a very nice picture. Walking through an area really gets your imagination going with the things you see. You see characters by a description when you don't know them, and there is no global chat. - RPG enforced: there are different say commands to talk both in and out of character, and people by and large respect them most of the time. - Good quests: Quests are nice and plentiful, interesting, and original the first time you encounter them. - Friendly people, when you can find them: It's extremely difficult to find and meet anyone, but once you do meet someone and get them to hang around for more than 3 seconds, they are generally friendly. Bad Points: - A world too large for its population: the most people playing at one time you will ever see is around 20 - 30. With most of them invisible from the who-list and no global chat, this is WAY too few to ever get a feeling of community, and the world will always have that queer vaccum feeling of an empty Mud. - Stale roleplay: For some reason, and with some exceptions, the player-characters in Xyllomer fall prey to the "I'm a perfected version of my real life personality" problem. The result is a world FILLED with quiet, smug, strangely super-intelligent and super-wise people who never say the wrong thing, use big words, are always right, and are always very very pleased with themselves. - Unbelievably slow and tedious guild interaction: The running of and authority over guilds is left almost completely up to a few players which may or may not be active players, and who are often invisible from the who-list. You start with no guild, and to join one you must find one of these very elusive and very indifferent people, and 'prove' yourself worthy to join, which, thanks to the mechanics of the mud, often includes literally waiting for MONTHS with no word from anyone, searching the entire game world for one person who does not want to be found, and being made to jump through any hoops that this person can think of. - Excessive restraint of powers:... Read More

Xyllomer is, of course, the best mud around! If you search for a mud where your character can develop into many different directions and choose between a bunch of guilds, deities and varying ways of life, Xyllomer should be your first choice. Most everything in our world is governed by players, be that guilds, town-councils, courts or similar. You can play an independent Warrior as easy as a fanatic priest or magician, you can join battles and wars from the 'good' against the 'evil', or maybe just watch them from afar in order to write a newspaper article about it or simply because you don't care. I play Xyllomer since ten years and despite the usual little problems which every mud has now and then, it has always been my first choice. I appreciate how many choices my chars have and how easily one is drawn into a complex game with so many facettes of life. It is fun to have my char be a part of all those who add to this and give the mud a neverending story and history by their presence. Try it!

Oh my. Xyllomer. The MUD I've spent over 250 days of my life on, and I am supposed to sum up its greatness in a small review. Well, here it goes. My favorite part of Xyllomer is the playerbase. Everyone, no matter if they mean to or not, is so helpful when it comes to being new, and even, depending on if they are not hated by them or not, when you are a well developed character. I've had the priveledge of meeting several members of this MUD and both IC'y and OOC'y they are great people. I also love how you have so much choice in this game. You can be a mystical mage to the dashing druid.. the frolicking fighter to the pesky pickpocket, and more. With the ability to have more than one character, you do not have to feel you are stuck forever with one guild, because you can have a mage and a fighter, or however your combo suits you. This gets worked on so much and the wizards do a great job of keeping more and more variety to the game. The code is unbelievable. I've taken a gander at a bit of it and the wizards truly are dedicated to keep going at it for the players and taking out their time for us. They are also normally right there for help if you find yourself stumped and cant figure a command out or just even to joke around with. Most of the wizards love a good laugh, with a few exceptions.. *cough*Soldaria*cough* (kidding!) I've spent so many days on this game, and there is still places that I have yet to venture, and I see new places quite often that I have never seen or even heard of before. The world is quite large. I also enjoy the different races you get to choose at the character generation. Their stats make them feel more realistic to what they really are and being able to play a twelve fingered little gnome is every womans dream. There is a great variety on guilds, which has their different difficulties to get into, based on how secretive they are. As this MUD has a lot of PK involved in it, you also can choose a neutral lifestyle, perhaps making your coin by trading and alchemy rather than going out with your buddies to kill things. The possibilities are great. Well, I am sure you are asleep by now, so I will have one last thing.. if you sleep.. you have dreams! Haha!

There are very few MUDs that even compare to Xyllomer. It is not your average Diku clone. This might impact some people who used to that style of muds and used to levels and everything tied to levels like level based PK, zones etc. Xyllomer is a consistent and huge world with continents, ship routes, trading and warring factions. Being 'newbie' doesn't save you from being killed, but being careful and playing your role as youngster will surely do. I experienced in other muds that nothing saved me from being killed if i was in the 'level zone' of a PK guy. On Xyllomer you can choose to not be part of killings, but actually it isn't the system that protects you, it is the players. This, of course, holds until you break the in character rules. The MUD offers entertaintment for quite a wide range of people. I am mostly an explorer-style player, and I still enjoy the MUD after more than 10 years of continuous play! During this lifetime, there have been several wars and unique events, with rocks falling from the sky, closing a demon portal, the discovery of a whole new continent, ending the threat of various villains (brought to life by the admin). My character (a mage) researched a brand new spell, etc. There is plenty of possibilities to gather XP, by solving unique quests (that are not diku style autoquests), killing monsters in teams or getting XP for roleplaying. We do have those squatter types, who mostly just sit on the square and talk to each other, as long as your topics are in character, you are welcome. The mud also offers entertaintment for players who would like their character getting rich. The traders of this world own fleets of ships which trade among the continents. Some of these ships are so expensive, my character (after 10 years) couldn't buy them - well, i wasn't after money. Yet, these different characters (killers, explorers, traders, squatters) interact daily in roleplay.

Xyllomer is a very fantastic MUD

Hello everyone. Xyllomer is among the best muds I ever played. We had a period of decline, and we hardly ever had more then 10 players online at a time, and it lasted a longer then normal time, but admin worked hard on recovering the mud, and now the mud is alive. New ideas have been coded, the gods have been reworked, which means alot of new RP has been introduced as all the guilds were affected. To this day, I play and even now after 4 years I still enjoy it, as something new is always happening. It is the best MUD i have ever played, and still is the only mud I have played continuously. I strongly suggest if your looking for a good fun relaxing mud, you try xyllomer. The wizards work hard to make the game more exciting, and for the most part, they succeed

The game is roleplay encouraged, PK is possible and unrestricted but is frowned upon when there is no legal IC cause. Many use common-sense so newbies will not get into trouble at any time if they do not want to get into trouble. This means, if you are thinking you want to play a real evil char and you run around berserk-like "just because" you will not get away with this. There is a relatively large (peak today 37) and consistent group of players. Xyllomer recovered from loss of players which we all have forseen and knew that it was just a matter of time until Xyllomer recovers again. Players are also spread all over the world: Canada, USA, Germany, UK, South-America etc. which means Xyllomer can nearly guarantee that there is always a small group online no matter what time of day. Players and the wizards (consisting of administration and coders) help new players learn what is needed if you can't find something on the well-written ingame helpfiles. Most can be found out In Character (IC) but every MUD has it's own syntaxes we are aware about. Creative players also offer descriptions for your char to write or for custom tailored clothes you want to buy as we have many native speakers (Primary Language: english) playing Xyllomer. And of course Roleplay advice is available for those seeking it. If you have further questions before you want to create a char I may direct you to visit the PHP board on: http://xyllomer.ruhrpott-united.de/phpBB/ There is a section called "Everyone" where you can post without registering. Do not hesitate and ask.

I would like to clear up some things. The previous review I wrote was right after some major ooc changes in the mud. These drastically affect some characters more than others, including me. Now then, I must be fair and say this: The wizards and admin of this mud did recently make drastic changes as I noted, and some of them to us (AW's a particular guild) sucked pretty bad. However, we are going to get a unique oppurtunity to be in the formation of our new theology. This change though in some people's opinions was not brought about the best way, was done by the admin in order to in their minds overall improve the mud and the theological structure of the mud. This will make it more structured for new players and the whole god angle will be much easier to roleplay into, in the future. I remarked on what I thought of the changes and now I say that I do not like them, and in my mind it wasn't the way to do them, but they have been done. I actually believe that reguardless of the commotion the changes may cause and the anger it causes to jackasses like me it will end up bettering the mud in the future. I would suggest that a new player choose now to play xyllomer, because many new aspects of roleplay are opened and the admin is working as hard as they can in their mind to improve it. Everyone has biases, and I have them. I feel like others in the mud do too, but it still doesnt take away the fact that despite all the things that have happened in the mud, I am still back playing. So in the end what do I reccomend? I reccomend that if you haven't tried this mud, that you should.

Oh how the naysayers cry JEDAL at ever turn. Actually, to provide some background to these complaints: The evil guild and their god thing had been an outstanding issue for years and years. The god was followed by two groups of people due to a single wizard and single player creating the evil guild without really talking to the first group of people who were using the god, creating a splinter faction. In a world where gods are supposed to be able to step down and transmit their true word to their followers, two groups highly disagreeing on what the god wants or supports shouldn't exist on such a level, the god will speak or decide who he supports. The fix for this was decided over a lengthy amount of time and discussed with the guildwizard of the evil guild. I feel the admin acted fairly, indeed with more fairness than the original formation of the evil guild. Roleplay in the form of visions were given to both sides at the end of this conflict (again, more rp than it had begun with) and the players are free to deal with it as they choose. Also, honestly, that guild was not known for excessive RP to begin with. I stopped playing Xyllomer for a while due to the lack of players, but I've begun once more. Playerlevels are rising, more things are being revealed, and we have a good board. I advise people not to be discouraged by a overly vocal minority and give it a shot.

First of all, I like to use the name of one of my characters so people can know who I am. Second, I can vouch that Travin played for 12 + years and that there are not many if any very skilled coders currently, though it certainly is a need. There have been a lot of changes recently. Some drastically affecting characters, though they were just minor changes. For instance one evil guild called the Asgoth Warriors just had their entire god ripped from them and a choice offered in the midst of 10's of thousands of hours of roleplay to switch to a new god or some other stuff. Basically they entirely ruined thousands of hours of roleplay of a few less liked players in an evil guild. The prophet MarCais, is no more than a liar now and a fool for following a human (yeah our god became human all of a sudden or rather a mortal raised to godhood). This is the biggest crock of crap yet to this day in this mud. Is this mud fun? It can be very fun Is it run fairly? No, not by any means. Should you try it out now? Well players are starting to come back and it is fairly interactive. My advice if you try it out, be in a good or neutral guild and buddy up to the wizards and admin best you can and you will have a great time.

Now that Xyllomer fills again with live and more players it is getting more fun with each day. Newbies we could hopefully help a bit to come along concerning the ones who needed help and guidance. Others I have seen are quite comfortable with Xyllomer now getting used to the syntaxes and commands, getting used to the level-less system, getting used to the thing that how you treat someone you will get either a positive or negative feeling about some chars running around here, it all belongs to their roleplay of course. And last I have seen, there was a big gathering of people again at common places which used to be full of helpful players. All in all, it is worth to try Xyllomer, we are not dead, we insist that we are still alive and that the MUD is playable better than ever with players coming back and new ones trying Xyllomer. Come, want to try us, too? Be welcomed.

First of all, if this Travin hasnt played Xyllo for a very long time how can he know that there is no new skilled coder around. He is not up-to-date with Xyllo anymore. I have seen new areas and even some new quests. There will be always skilled coders and new things therefor. Second is, that he played it for 12 years he said, so why did he play Xyllo for that long and is complaining about Dune parts and Fremes and Sandworms and whatever. It just shows that this MUD is a great MUD if someone is playing it for 12 years, ok, he got deleted for some BS he caused, but this shows again that the Admin cares for the mud and banish people who do not behave in a community with players. Everything has two sides. Admin won't delete just because they do not like your nose. I think I cannot add anything more than Stonebeard wrote. This is a fantastic mud with a level-less system which is something different you may not know from other muds. There is neither an annoying line where you hear everyone telling something. We got lines here where you can let you add with your friends only, besides the normal guildline of course if you ever want to join a guild. You can even stay guildless and the game offers still some variety and people help you neverless. The code is well done, almost bug free, and we have some extreme skilled coders and now and then we got a new area to explore or new quests to solve. More events hopefully will follow soon. It is up to you to decide what occupation you want to be involved in. It is up to you in which deity you believe it just needs to fit the guild. There exists a wide variety of gods and goddesses that you may serve. Holy to evil deities and variations on even those. The only thing you need to bring with you is Roleplay. We are waiting for you. No fear. Want to try your Roleplay? You are more than welcome.

Greetings. Strange, reading the previous reviews, I somehow feel like playing a completely different mud. But that may come from the fact that I play at a different timezone than those that previously submitted posts or that I play in a different guild. However, I will report to you how _I_ experienced the mud and what I found there, or didn't find. First of, I play in one of the good aligned guilds, which tend to be the guilds that newcomers most often end up in or receive most help from. Although the start in Xyllomer might be a bit harder than in many other muds I checked out over the years, the effort put into character development pays off. Generally people are helpful, and when out of character (OOC) stuff like game mechanics such as syntax questions or how to do things generally are concerned, even the in character (IC) enemity is most often put aside and you get helped, from one mud player to the other. That is something I have not experienced in many muds. People being able to clearly distinguish between IC and OOC. It is true that there are often very few people around, during daytime (CET) usually only around 10, twice as much in the evenings or at night. Of those some choose to hide from the characterlist, most are freely visible on that list. As a newbie one learns quickly which are the "usual" places at which you find company or help. One such place is the Padorn Temple of Rokoon where many people meet before and after sermons to plan the next training lesson or exploration party. As was written in an earlier review, joining guilds can sometimes be hard work, as you most often need another player to function as your mentor or teacher. This of course means that you have to convice your future mentor that you are the right one to become the new student. Once accepted into a guild, often enough a whole new universe opens to you. You get more involved in the "politics" that governs the world, get to know some of the elusive people that do not get themselves listed in the player list, and gain access to a community of players that will welcome you with open arms. Not that you cannot survive and have fun without a guild, being a member greately increases the game experience. Coming back to the little statement I made at the start of my review, about me being a member of one of the "good" guilds, I also want to mention the "evil" guilds, at least from my perspective, as I do not have a character that is member in any of the "evil" guilds. The "evil ones" are not so much different from the good guys, although some of the "goodies" will refuse to deal with them, which is usually well handled and roleplayed according to the different backgrounds, there are also seemingly endless between... Read More

I have not played xyllomer in a very long time but people seem to want to discuss this with me so I will post a general reply on here so maybe I can be left alone. I was deleted a few months ago because Soldaria (the current admin of the now pretty much empty mud) decided that he didn't like me. He and other players/wizards Nube, Leila, and Shiann decided to continually harrass me and attack me verbally and physically and then I am deleted for no reason whatsoever. Now what does this have to do with a review about a mud. Well I played xyllomer for around 12 years and it is one of the better muds out there as far as code goes though no new skilled coders have really come along so nothing really new comes out. The concept is severely lacking in that it is pieced together from various fantasy novels (I mean come on there's an area named Dune complete with House Atreides, Fremen, and Sandworms). The players(there are very few left I'm told) are mostly nice sadly it is the pathetic excuse for administration and their obvious bias that continues to lower the playerbase. I made several friends there over the years and keep in touch with many of them. Another problem the mud has is that noone really cares anymore. The ones that sit and bitch and moan constantly tend to lower any sense of roleplay or reality. Essentially it is becoming what Soldaria wants it to be, a private club for a few people where others may show up but if they get any kind of upperhand or advantage in any form they're promptly run off or deleted. Trethan was deleted because Soldaria didn't like his post on here! I have the log so feel free to contact me if you want to read it. Overall Xyllomer is pretty much sank except that if you want to play a weakling with a loud mouth or a general kissass you'll be readily accepted until you get more xp or do something smarter than those previously mentioned at which point you will be removed one way or the other. I don't know who plays anymore but there used to be ALOT of good people who wanted everyone to have fun...sadly I think those people may be gone so I advise you to look elsewhere for a mud. The mud can either turn around or crash into the ground, if it eventually does turn around check it out it used to be a really good place. The guilds are cool when they're populated and the monsters are fun. The "roleplay" must involve you bending backwards to please someone else so it's quite lacking but otherwise if it gets turned around I still advise you to check it out but please don't contact me to talk about it I'm done with it. To all the cool players it was fun.

Well well well, There were some of us who came on here a while back and had some negative things to say, to which the admin immediately started ponying up and said we were lying. I recently checked in on this mud again that I have been playing for over 9 years and realized that hey, we were right. The mud has dropped to an average of around 8-12 people on at any given time and as few as 2-3 at many times. Now some would say this is because of a dying interest in muds etcetera. However, I think it is odd that so many players including 10 that I can name off from the top of my head quit playing due to the biases of the mud, the lack of intervention from the owner on the current admin etcetera. Now people can say whatever they want or yell about whatever or flame me however they want, I just wanted to say that what we predicted, and what we were talking about almost destroyed this mud. Now I logged on here recently and decided that I would check it out again. The whole of the mud is actually a great mud. The coding is generally pretty good, and the possibilities endless. Perhaps after everyone realizes how their whining and code changes and upgrading and downgrading this and deleting him and her for nothing hurt the mud in the past and will desist from such interfering activities in the future. I would encourage you to try this mud out again and see if things have changed like I am, but be on the watch for those who would be babies.

Xyllomer is a really fine and well-cared for mud. Not only is the general attitude of your fellow players newbie friendly, it also allows you to follow the path you really want to take. Although I must admit that it may sometimes take a bit time before you can become a member of the guild of your choice, it also makes sure you know what is comming and that you will fit in. Unlike many other muds, you will be actively awarded for roleplay. I more than once found that in the course of a debate with a couple of fellow players about the one or other topic significant amounts of experience points had been earned. At times the mud is really alive, with nearly 30 players around, sometimes however, just a dozen or so are around which is why new blood would be really welcomed. So, if you are looking for a mud rich in atmosphere where players really decide the fate of the world, come for a visit. I am sure you won't be disappointed and hopefully you will stay.

Xyllomer has been my preferred MUD since May 2002. Was my first MUD, and since I started I have tried many other MUDS, but none are as good as xyllomer. There are lots of things to do, lots of areas to explore, so much to keep you busy for a very long time. The guilds are well thought out with well-designed goals. The chance for PK exists if you align yourself with the good or bad sides, but there always the option to just sit in peace and RP as a trader, commoner, whatever your imagination desires, cause thats what a MUD is all about. To this day, Xyllomer is still my first choice for a MUD, even with the difficulties we have had between players and admin. But dont take my word for it, log on and explore it with an open mind, and you will see what I am talking about.

Well, I have been playing since around 2001. I have had tons of fun and sometimes get mad, but its still all good. The MUD have lost its touch though, as several persons have stopped mudding due to real life and stuff but thats ok. Also, lately there have been tons of discussions between players and everyone rushed in into the fray. It have got nasty sometimes, insulting, and such, which kinda makes people want to stop playing. I come here to have fun, not to be insulted because obviously makes me wanna quit the mud. Xyllomer is awesome. The players, as Travin said are awesome too. Most of them are friendly, sometimes they get too involved in the game that I wanna take a plane to where they live and bop them from time to time :) About the one-sided admin.... They are trying to do their best, if they had done something horribly wrong, they would have been deleted as we know it happened a while ago already with two admins (not deleted, but demoted). Im still happy with Xyllomer, very happy. I strongly suggest everyone to try it, the only problem is the lack of playerbase, but that can be worked out. The code is awesome, there are many rooms, wars are cool, guilds are great.... i have played several muds, but Xyllomer is still the one for me :) Thanks for reading! poAjax SATAI RULES!

one more thing sorry I forgot this. Someone gave the speech that the mud is not a democracy etc etc etc. Well I'd also like to remind people who have played for a long time and inform people who maybe weren't around. The machine that xyllomer runs on was paid for by player donations so before you run around swinging your mighty ballbat of deleting everyone remember you just might delete someone who helped buy the machine.

Well I been silent for awhile, but now I'd like to leave some reviews/thoughts on xyllomer. Be prepared because this one will be a long one. I played xyllomer for around 12 years since 1993 and I must say the overall experience has been GOOD. Yeah I said GOOD. Most of the people are pretty cool and the code is very excellent, but I leave that in my good points section which will be at the bottom since I like to finish on a positive note. Bad Points: 1. All my chars were recently deleted with the only warning being from Nube saying she found no evidence of harrassment. In the @news her and soldaria(signing for the entire admin of course but we all know that's not the truth) say I bent/broke rules and harrassed players. Of course they were never able to say any rule that I broke because I didn't break one and if harrassment is putting in a harrassment report on someone else (Leila) then I guess I'm guilty. 2. The Admin have a large preference base of who gets special stuff and who doesn't. If you're let's say leila for instance you can call people whatever name you want, be coded permanently naked, spy on whoever you want or basically do what you like with little reprocussions because Soldaria and Nube like you. If you're someone like Trethan, who was a completely new player and very hard to teach some basic concepts of roleplay, you get interfered with on a constant basis then deleted because they didn't like your review here. Sadly that's the fact. I don't think it's a nationality issue I think it's who whines the most and who has the most ooc friends. 3. PK is completely interfered with. If you PK a friend of the admin expect deletion or being ordered not to kill so and so "or there will be consequences". 4. The players have completely no say it's mainly just soldaria and nube who have any say in what goes on on xyllomer and if you don't fall into line with their concepts then you get deleted or so harrassed you stop playing. I'd like a count on how many players complained about my deletion I already know but if someone would like to fess up the number that would be most excellent. Ok that's enough negativity for one day. I'll sum the negative stuff up with TOO MUCH OOC INTERFERENCE AND PREFERENCE ON THE PART OF SOLDARIA AND NUBE. The positives: 1. I highly suggest trying xyllomer out. If you like to be a peaceful roleplayer there's room for that if you want to fight many wars(and aren't too successful) then there's room for that. 2. The guilds are pretty awesome and reasonably balanced. Evils got fewer people but a little more power and goods got a ton of people but not as powerful so makes for some interesting interactions. 3. The people on xyllomer are 90%... Read More

I think the last time I reviewed this mud was in 2002, so I guess it was time to do so again. As a gaming system, everything I said about Xyllomer in 2002 is still pretty valid. As MUDs go, Xyllomer is one of the few that is still free to play, offers wide opportunity for roleplay, mob-killing and player-killing all in the same context. The biggest draw of Xyllomer is still, for me, the lack of incessant reminders that you are playing a MUD (no numerical values for health and fatigue, no global shout channels, no one asking you "in-character" if you are s/w/f or from China). This, and the fact that you do not need to spend anything except time to make your character develop and grow, is what sets it apart from 90% of all other MUDs for me. The biggest detriment in Xyllomer, to me at least, is the lack of player base right now. During weekdays (GMT), there are roughly 8-10 players online at one time. Weeknights and weekends, this changes dramatically, with anywhere from 20-50 players online at one time. However if you only have time to play during GMT weekdays, you might find the world to be a little bit empty. Finally, it is true, that from time to time inter-player or even inter-admin flame wars erupt between two parties. It's a bit shameful when the involved parties use a review site such as this as a sort of message board to ping-pong witty replies to each other, instead of actually leaving one concise, honest review. I hope that players considering a MUD to visit will still give Xyllomer a chance. After all, the best way to make an informed decision is to try something out yourself, and then decide. And of course, as always, MUDding takes up a lot of real life time. Any MUD can have a detrimental effect if you spend too much time gaming, especially on students. So remember - have fun if you MUD, but don't forget about your real life as well.

It is true Jaspher what you have said, and it is sad. The truth is the admin do not seperate themselves enough from the mud and their biases to be able to be efficient admin. They are so caught up in proving the mud to be excellent or trying to prove they are right, that they make decisions based on how they feel and will not look at all sides of issues. The truth is, Trethan was quite a different sort to join the mud, as are many. And that was what made it great the virtual melting pot of cultures inside a mud. It was becoming more dynamic, and more diverse. of course some can't handle this because they want it to be exactly as they want and they want everything to happen exactly as they want so they try their best to get such players in trouble. The truth is, If you are a nice person and want roleplay no deeper than I am good or evil and I worship this god and eat and drink and kill monsters. Go ahead. If you want intricate roleplay dealing with many different types of people, roleplay that sometimes involves aggression and differences and pk and strategy for wars. Planning and training, then don't look at this mud, because as of late the people who play are lost in it. Take everything personally and forget one of the most important things about any RP games, or MUDS. It is just a game.

I had just started trying out Xyllomer, when I read the reviews and decided to find another MUD instead. The problem wasn't so much the negative reviews, but the responses to them. When a MUD doesn't have the self-confidence to handle bad reviews as well as the good, when even the Admin resort to personal public attacks of players who express an opinion that is less than positive, then in my eyes, it's time to move on. I don't want to play in a game where the players and admin attack me if I don't enjoy myself. A gentle suggestion - if you really want to attract new players, try to have the dignity to ignore the bad things other people have to say. Just write some good reviews yourselves, and highlight the benefits of your game. 'Cause this bickering, even from the highest levels of the MUD administration, looks seriously childish.

This mud the past 8 years of my life has been a fun getaway. However, very recently it has become entirely political. If such things ever get resolved, then it will once again an excellent mud to play. However, for now, as an honest opinion I would not get too involved with it until such things are resolved. Right now it is supposed to be an intricate roleplay mud integrated with player killing which opens up many more aspects of roleplaying. However, recently if you are evil and you continue to player kill the good side (even if they come after you) and the right person complains (one who is friends with admin and close to them) then you will get deleted. Hopefully people will soon realize that when a good character hunts an evil character or spies on them or insults them that it can have consequences and they won't be too immature to seperate the events out of character from in character, rather than taking everything that happens to their character as a personal blow against themselves.

Dear reader, if you are here to read a REVIEW, please skip a few lines down, after all this "place" is here for people who do not know Xyllomer, and who would like to know something about it. Before I come to my review, I would like to comment a thing: It is really sad how some people seem to get off on character assassination of a MUD while they spend a considerable amount of time there nearly every day. It's almost as if they didn't want any new people to come and share the fun. Maybe then the MUD can't be that bad after all? I just wonder why they think that trying to harm Xyllomer in such a way will endear them to the rest of our community. Of course everyone has the right to freely write what they think here, and we are far from trying to moderate what people write here, but we are also free to consider their attitude and actions, when we need to decide if they are doing intentional harm to the MUD. Constructive criticism is certainly appreciated, but the right channel for that is to mail us inside the MUD, since we don't read the reviews here every day. I hope that in the future this place can once again be used for reviews, and not for flames. If you don't like the MUD, you don't have to play, or write anything here. If you go to the effort of writing here just to flame, well, this must mean you really feel very strongly about the MUD, else you would just go and find a better place to play. REVIEW: The past: --------- I came to Xyllomer in 1993, after playing two other MUDs which were strictly non-PK. The first days were hard, since I had to learn a lot of things anew. There was no global channel, people actually expected you to know about religion, races, guilds, and most of all, you don't know anyone from the start. You get to know them when you meet them. The moment people noticed I was a newbie, they started to help me around, so that I could learn about the world. The slight threat of PK always hung in the air, so that my first character was actually killed very early on. However it was not as bad as it sounds, it was new, and thrilling. PK of young characters is really not happening very often, and when it does you usually get an apology, or you were asking for it, by seriously provoking the other person. PK in general is tolerated as a part of the roleplay around the characters, while massive PK without provocation has always been frowned upon, and in severe cases wizard intervention was needed. Roleplay was and is supported and asked for. You create your story, or participate in an ongoing event. Slowly, day after day I started to learn more about the world, which enormous.... Read More

If you seek a mud that asks you to fully immerse yourself in your chosen role, Xyllomer is surely where you should go. First of, you are not bound to a certain role. You have it within your power to evolve, change and change again. The only constants are your gender and race. Your believes can evolve, your occupation can, and of course so will your knowledge and the understanding of the mud. Don't be too fixed on what you plan for your character, as the development of your character might lead him or her somewhere completely different. As for the guilds that are available, well, some are easier to join than others. Some take real time and effort where with others you get invited quite easily. But mind you, even if you embark on the more difficult journey to join one of those guilds that take really work to join, there is always soo much to do. People are usually quite friendly, and even the "bad guys" help you out, if it suits their role. Unless you give them a reason to be unfriendly, which might be your chosen faith, your race or most likely your attitude, they are mostly friendly and helpful. Sure, there are also bullies around, at least I heard there are, fortunately I never met any yet in person. It could be though that I lost the one or other piece of equipment or coin from my money pouch to a skillful thief, but hey, so is life. All in all, I can only recommend Xyllomer. It has a great bunch of players, helpful and friendly wizards(immortals) and definately is fun to play. And, important to me, has enough stuff to be explored, learned and interacted with to keep you playing for a long, long time. Shrinivas

Europeans play, Americans play and Trethan is still playing. I find it more than disgusting he tries to tell you that germans have other norms. It just shows you dear readers what narrow-minded thoughts he has. Seems nothing is wrong, perhaps the attitude of him to ruin this fantastic mud is wrong because he is frustrated by something happened to him which he caused by himself? He introduced himself to the world as the man with largest penis or what it was. Still it is a medieval RP mud and he obviously got forced to change his introduction. Which is all correct. If he can't accept that he plays in a fantasy medieval environment he better goes to another mud which I hope he won't do and ruin other muds with his attitude. He better leaves Xyllomer and takes his unfair playing OOC friends with him, so the wizards can concentrate on coding instead of looking after those strange players. This mud lost many good Roleplayers because of players like him, but hopefully the Admin will be more strict in the future. Seems some players needs more rules than others. Mostly because some do not know the words "common sense". If players can't solve it, the code has to solve it which means the Admin has to solve problems. But I think every mud has such problems. Since there was an Admin change I look forward to enjoy Xyllomer again and I personally trust the new Admin fully. And surely players like him thinks "when it is not written down exactly I am allowed to do it." Common sense guys, common sense. But well, the freedom we got is hopefully at its end. Sometimes it is not possible to play without strict rules which you can read black on white. And I pray that those players leave Xyllomer and some Roleplayers log in here instead. There are many many friendly people around who help newbies. It is just your attitude how you wanna play your char. If you are kind, people are kind towards you, too. If you introduce like stated above do not expect someone is helping you.

Not a bad mud if you are European. Dont expect a fair and balanced gameplay unless you do live in Germany or have a German background. It must have something to do with German social norms or something. Some players have recieved extra code for their players to help them stand out more in the world. I have asked for the same courtesy and recieved a huge NO due to lenghty emails but Europeans do seem to have more code than, well anyone I have recieved several emails from the administration of the mud all containing insults. Administration is clearly not top notch. I have sent many emails about something being wrong with character as commandwise but it usually takes a complete week or two to get any advice or help back. Americans need to stay away from this mud!! Its just not gonna work out (trust me).

While some seem malcontent with Xyllomer as a whole, I've had 10 years worth of good experiences on this mud, despite being on another continent than the admin and perhaps more tellingly, minimizing OOC contact just to a few friends who play. A new administration has also come into effect and the game is becoming dynamic once more. I'd say that if you're looking for a new game, Xyllomer is certainly worth a try.

Just another couple of thoughts. Over the years that I have played I have found that many of the Wizards tend to get IC information and give it OOCly to players. And if you are not part of certain groups then your chars will get no where in the game. Oh and dont get to close to anyone in the game on a personal level, this is a protection for yourself. Once certain people find out about your life then they tend to spread half truths and lies if they do not like you. Even though this game is supposedly played and run by adults it is more like a junior high school popularity contest, if you are not in the in crowd you are beaten up and kicked around and walked on.

There is now far to much interferance from the Wizards with the RP of the Mortals. When Wizards go as far as to change the status of faith and make rules for the mortals to abide by but then change those rules to suit thier moods, I tend to loose faith and desire to play. Also there are so many players that are in the game only for the ultimate strengths and powers that they can get and once they have them tend to force thier idea of RP onto those people that desire to only play in peace and quiet. All of this tends to change the aspects of the game and makes it unwelcome to many players. The basis of this game has changed drastically over the past 6 or 7 years that I have been playing. It has lost its charm and desireability. If you are looking for a game that is stable and has good RP and little Wizard interferance then I suggest you keep looking.

ALDAMIR! There you are hiding! ;) -Arsan-

Greetings, I have been playing Xyllomer for around six years now. Yes the game has changed since the time I began and I find that to be a positive thing rather then anything negative. If the game remained the same, it would stagnate and become boring. Xyllomer is anything but dull. The game evolves through the characters; your actions do have a huge impact on the world around you. If your character slaughters everyone then tries to befriend them a month later, I doubt you will be trusted. There are real politics in the game and people can become emotionally involved in their characters. There have been nights I have gone to bed in tears because of something that happened to my character. And other times I have wanted to open a bottle of champagne to celebrate a victory. The game draws you in, the people are real behind their characters. It is true social interaction where your actions do bring consequences. I have noticed that the administration is very reluctant to interfere in the role playing of players. They will only intervene if the role play is against the very clear rules of the game. Be you a player in Germany or the United States, whether or not you are playing a good or evil character, the same rules hold you. The administration is concerned with keeping the game fun for the entire player base not just one or two individuals. If you have a problem, they will sit down and speak with you at great lengths and work with you to solve your problem. I have met some people from this game that I value in my life greatly, true friends that I have taken the time to meet person to person. The wizards of Xyllomer are constantly coding, either updating older code to work more smoothly with newer innovations, (The mud has been around for a very long time) or introducing new areas or abilities. In the end Xyllomer is what you make it to be. Cheers! Aine

I have to comment the last two reviews as I think they are very unfair. Xyllomer has a base of players and wizards from all over the world. For me, a lot of real life friendships have developed from this game. Not only within europe, but I have also visited friends in the United States. Roleplay is enforced indeed and people are very tolerant considering roleplay. However, it is not enforced that you use whatever you consider roleplay to spoil the game for others. If you do that, be it by sexual haressment or by trying to spread political opinions like fashism or by exploiting bugs to enhance you characters position in an unfair way, you will be punished according to the severity. I think in Xyllomer this is handled in a careful way to ensure that everyone can have fun. In fact, I am having a lot of fun because the big majority of the players and wizards respect each other and create a very nice roleplay atmosphere.

I used to love this mud. I really did. Roleplay was awesome. The atmosphere was great, everything about it made it the most perfect all around mud. I still play now..not as much as before..and now mainly to keep up and on the weekends some. Why? Because this mud has gone downhill and I may well continue to play less and less until it seems to improve. The roleplay is sporadic at best. Wizard interference is miserable. People take too many things IC---OOC and vice versa. I guess I'll always play this mud some because of the tie it holds to me in my early mudding years..but I hope to see player attitudes and OOC stuff improved soon.

Well sadly I must advise that unless you're of german or european decent that you find another mud to play. As long as you're american or western and they find out your time will become much rougher especially if you do anything that the gemrans do not like. They claim that roleplay is not enforced which is not exactly true. If you're friends with a wizard or a german then roleplay is not enforced but if you're not then wizards will constantly interfere with your roleplay by taking over npcs or basically just fixing things in their favor. Xyllomer used to have a nice atmosphere but it's so riddled with Out Of Character politics and buddy systems that there is hardly a point to it anymore.

As a friendly little bird told me, I forgot to mention one of Xyllomer's biggest advantage in my previous review! Xyllomer is 100% absolutely free! You are free to send me money in the mail, but in the mud they will do you no good! We do not agree that paying money should grant you better stuff! We dont agree with exchanging dollars for levels, credits, or any other form of favors. In Xyllomer, everyone starts out with a clean sheet. Everyone has an equal opportunity, and everyone gets equal attention from the admins, if something happens. You want code support for an event? You want a small favour? You want ANYTHING from us? You dont bill us money. You ask us nicely, explain to us why this is a good idea, and might bring something to the game, and guess what: You might get it. Again, 100% free. Studying the top of the list here on topmudsites made me almost choke on my coffee. There was a time when muds on a general basis were free. I see this time is long past. Join us, because we keep these values, and cherish them. If you come to one of the mudparties, chances are, the admins will be spending money on YOU, not vice versa ;)

Xyllomer is a mud that has been constantly evolving and expanding for 13 years now. It is massive, advanced, and highly addictive. We offer a world that is huge, rich, and complete. Areas seamlessly lap over each other, so that players do not notice a difference. This results in a world that can be 100% mapped, without any inconsistencies. Now with a huge world, moving from one side to the other takes time. Xyllomer has solved this by adding shiplines between the different continents. These shiplines also opens up a window into the ascii map of the world, for the players, as you see the lands as you sail by. In addition to these shiplines, players can also buy their own ships, to sail freely as they want. Perhaps you want a small and quick ship, to get from one place to the next quickly. Perhaps you would want a trading ship, to ship exotic goods from one place to the other, making a huge profit. Everything is up to you. The cities are player-governed, with most of them runned by an elected judge (player character). However, we also offer different government types for the different regions, and we host a jungle theocracy as well as a large-city democracy council. You begin your life in Xyllomer as an adventurer, with only your own goals and wishes deciding your faith. You might want to become a warrior, fighting with one of the many different fighting styles. Perhaps you like drinking, and singing songs, and pubs are like your second home? No problem, a bard fits that description well. Maybe you don't even like honest work, and pickpocketing seems like the easy way to go. Well, you can do that too. We have many *very* different guilds, suiting most styles of playing. Some of them are closely-knitted and open to the public. Some are secretive, and hard to find. Some are not even guilds, but more like professions, based on the individual. To mention some, in Xyllomer you can be a warrior (several warrior guilds with very different concepts and playing styles), a cleric, a priest, a mage, a psionic, a necromancer, a thief, a bard, a druid... We also have many global systems, that in other muds are often guild-based. In xyllomer, herb searching and alchemy is a global system, as well as mining and forging your own equipment. Searching for secret places or hidden treasure is a global feature, so you can search anything, and anywhere! We've also done our best to remove any numbers from the players view. You will not see your physical attributes in numbers, but in textual descriptions instead. Same goes for skills, and anything else that can be measured. Character development is advanced, and you are given alot of room to customize your own character. Your character grows stronger and more experienced in a seamless manner, and you can emphasize which of your physical stats you deem important, and wish higher than rest.... Read More

I've been playing xyllomer for over 11 years. I've played other muds but none has held my attention like Xyllomer has. Xyllomer has a few flaws but if you are patient and can work around them you'll have a wonderful time here. Positives: 1. The classless system is very nice in my opinion. Noone starts out a banker. You work your up through education and networking. And the possibilities of becoming a completely independant mage fighter cleric super god are nearly impossible. Also you have a wide range to choose from and with the implimentation of the common fighter soul(a nice feature), you can learn warrior skills and basically strike out on your own. 2. The people in general are very friendly once you get to know them. There is a nice range of differences in people(I think so anyway). If you do try to pull the mysterious bit without the background then you'll probably just be ignored. 3. The wizards(coders) in general are very friendly and do ALOT for the game, sometimes without praise(which sucks). 4. The roleplay is not dry like in most muds that I've played. You have the possibility to be good neutral or evil and can generally find sympathizers for most causes(and enemies). Your actions will also dictate how people treat you(in general). 5. Through OOC(Out Of Character) boards and an irc channel(#xyllomer) you have alot of say with what goes on inside the game or you can atleast post opinions. Negatives: 1. This mud is not newbie friendly. Efforts have been made in that direction but it is generally hard to get started without a massive amount of help from more experienced players. Also it's a little difficult to tell good from evil, and you'll typically run into atleast 1 egomaniac that will belittle your character just because they are new, but don't be discouraged because for every one of those there is someone willing to lend a hand. 2. Most people don't use the game time system so if you run into some badluck you will be waiting to join a guild for more than a year. Also, I must agree with what someone previously mentioned it's time waited that most people depend on rather than the actions of your character, though again there is some movement away from this philosophy. 3. On occasion a wizard will interfere with mortals and really tear apart some great roleplay, but 99% of the time they're great. And the admin are ESPECIALLY good at helping you out even if it's just listening to some complaint. 4. There is alot of OOC politics involved with alot of stuff. Getting into guilds or getting life quests. Summary: All in all Xyllomer is a great game. If you are new to it just keep your head low and find someone that is friendly, stick to them and you'll do exceptionally well. The world is immense and fun with a billion possibilities(houses children guilds ships judgeships). Also out... Read More

I started mudding on Xyllomer in 1998 because a few friends introduced it to me. I've been addicted to this world ever since. I've tried out some other muds to see if I could have the same fun in other worlds with a bigger player base, but I have not found the same kind of excitement as I've found in Xyllomer. Sure it's cool that in some muds you can become a Psionic or Necromancer from the very beginning, but where is the challenge in that? In Xyllomer you are put in the situation where you make relationships with other characters so that you can join the guild you wish to join. Some guilds are harder to join than others because some guilds are more powerful than others. This is good because this way, there aren't fourty some necromancers wandering around with their zoos of thirty undeads each. This brings balance to the game that the players can control. I am confident that good roleplay will guarantee you a position in the guild. And if all else fails, atleast you have the relationships you have built with the other characters which brings more opportunity and color to the game. Though Xyllomer does have its bugs and flaws, it is some of the best coding I've seen in the muds I've played. The combat system is the best I've seen in all the muds I've tried. You aren't able to spam a bunch of spells at every tick, but it is coded so that you need to be strategic about which special or spell to use at every moment of the fight. This allows a lower level character with better skills and strategy to be able to defeat a higher level character with with less skills and less strategy. There are so many more good things I can say about Xyllomer, but then this would get too long and people would stop reading. The only real complaint I have of Xyllomer is the relatively small player base. But that's why I post up this review. Hope to see more people join this addiction. po Aarn

I started playing this mud back in 96. Continued playing til about 2000, and then quit. This mud imo is the best out there. All around oppurtunity for roleplay and everything. Some people are against PK, but you cannot have a true fully functional rp mud unless PK is involved. It is a part of life. And at xyllomer we try and make it as good of rp as possible. Anyways, Check us out. Best mud around. Great players. Awesome quests and rp interaction. 5 stars. I quit in 2000 came back this year in 03. Cant truly ever quit hardly. You'll come back someday. PO Jedal

I've been playing Xyllomer for over a year now. It's the only MUD I play. I enjoy it immensely, and as it's been pointed out here, it's an intensely role-playing MUD. That having been said, I think it's important that new players to Xyllomer realise that other players will react to their new character's actions. I have seen some newbies log on, and go into a town and act in an outrageous manner, just because they want to see what they can do, without thinking of the consequences...and then they get shocked when they end up dead or beaten to within an inch of their lives...or in other instances, ignored or shunned, because they refuse to roleplay and cooperate with others. Xyllomer can be fun, if you can manage to suspend your disbelief and actually become your character for a few others. I have never played a MUD before this one, not even so much as a paper and pen D&D game, but it didn't take me long to get the feel of it. I think, for someone who enjoys a good roleplay, this is an excellent MUD, and not hard to get along with, if one will just treat others with respect and consideration, and not whine OOCly, whenever they are being called into account for their actions. poDemaris

Hello! I read your comment about the rent with equippment. In my opinion it is a great system, because it forces people to use hotel rooms or buy houses. The pickpockets then get a chance to break into these hotels or homes. There might be more reasons for this system, but this is one which add a great deal of fun for the thieves guild.

Xyllomer is a great mud, but like any mud it does have its flaws. I say flaws but its probably just player preference. I didn't meet anyone there that wasn't in character. Nevertheless I got more frustration from the game then enjoyment. I admit I HATE "rent" or any "rent-like" system for that matter. Mostly because I don't understand why you would want to limit realism in such a way. In real life if you had a full platemail suit and fell asleep(logged off)wearing it pieces wouldn't be magically missing. Another thing is for a mud so inclined toward roleplaying, it doesn't explain in the least bit as to why my character(not me the player) can only have 5 items. Sadly Xyllomer has this "rent-like" system. Instead of rent you can only keep 5 items when you logoff/back on. This is very restrictive in my opinion and isn't a newbie friendly system. There is nothing like putting all your money in a bag... only to find out when you log back in you lost the bag and anything that was in it. Although you can keep bags with the right command it is illegal to trick the game into storing more then 5 items using bags.(Although I doubt money counts for this, I believe any newbie in his right mind would of course hide his money as soon as possible) As a newbie it has a nice tutorial to explain the basics which it does nicely... at the end of the tutorial you get a note to some sailor... Now I get as addicted to muds as the next player but there is times when you have to log out... even if its just for a few minutes. Sadly this happened to me... and I was rewarded with losing the note when I logged in, it "blew away in the wind". Not to mention my money which I hid in a bag I received after the tutorial. So with my note gone I had no idea what to do next, where to go or whatever. Then I started getting hungry but when I went to get something to eat is when I noticed I lost my bag which I put money into just before I logged off. With this said what choice do I have then to use OOC information to reach my goals? I ended up selling some of my newbie gear to try to raise money to set sail to the island I thought had the guild I wanted to join... of course I couldn't afford the boat ride even after selling my newbie gear. As a player, I like to know what I'm going to be playing... I don't need to know the spells I'm going to get or anything... but if I want to be a necromancer, then I want to be a necromancer shortly after I joined the game! Don't get the wrong Idea, I'm pretty patient with everything and I enjoyed limited... Read More

Greetings Travellers, I could not explain any more details about Xyllomer than have been explained already however I have one detail to add. Its roleplaying, the only reason to MUD at all, difficult at most but highly thought provoking and creative here. Many people are good roleplayers and with the MUD events themselves so varied it is often very difficult to find out if the roleplaying as actually part of the MUD or not. However the one thing I wanted to say is that people should try to learn about the history of the world if trying to roleplay properly and try to base their ideas on the history to make it more believeable and more realistic in the game i.e. dont start talking about being kidnapped by aliens just yet. One more thing too...the wizards should try to come out from coding in their secret hideaways a bit more to add stuff to the game again in terms of roleplaying great demons and stuff...they have done before and gave so much more to the game than they will ever know.. Thanks to the wizards, We owe you all our free time, Runes

Xyllo is definitely worth a look. Granted, I have only played a handful of MUDs so I am am not well versed in what's out there. But after a 5 year hiatus from online games, Xyllomer (nee Padermud :) ) is the only one I returned to. There is RP to be had, although it is just not as widespread as it should be. Player control of guilds as mentioned in a previous post is a great feature. Knowing this or that wiz can be a factor, but all in all, it's a fun game Check it out for a few days.

Xyllomer is an excellent mud for the roleplayer or explorer. *There are many tools to aid RP: a flexible emote system, customizable speech, racial languages, descriptions instead of names before you meet and remember someone, almost no numbers, and gradual stat improvements. *The main problem I see with roleplaying on Xyllomer is finding people. With no global channels, restricted tells, and a world that is a little too big for the fairly small player base, it can get very quiet. Sometimes I just end up mob killing or trading or shoplifting because I can't find anyone to talk to. But when you do meet people, if you can manage to hook them, it can be great. *Player killing has no restrictions. This means that you will always be held accountable for your actions. You can't act evil then hide behind your level. However, it also means that some people can bully younger or weaker characters. Luckily, the player base is pretty mature and there isn't as much pk as you might expect, and it is mostly between those guilds/religions that are at war. Also, a stunmode option and protected arenas allow for dueling without killing. *Guilds are player-run. You don't pick a class at creation. You have to roleplay your way into the good guilds, and the best guilds are really difficult to get into. The upshot of this is more roleplaying, and more realism. The downside, well, don't count on being able to make whatever character you want. I know a lot of people waiting a long time to get into a guild, or giving up on their first choice. *The economy is player-run. You can be a merchant, shipping goods from city to city on your own custom ship, or by woolly mammoth! Or you can be a thief, helping to energize the economy by taking care of the surplus goods that build up. ;) On the downside, there are no true pirate skills. *Politics are player-runÉwell, in some places you can vote for the judge, who makes the laws and punishes criminals. Some of the most popular areas are monarchies (or theocracies) and few people really get to participate in politics. *The world is beautiful and absorbing. Almost every room has something extra to examine, such as furniture and flora. Outdoor room descriptions change with time and weather. Most of the npc's are decently interactive, and the quests are challenging and interesting. So come play Xyllomer! It's evil vs. good, but you may have a tough time telling the two apart, when the outlaws uphold the law and the honorable scoff at it, when singing a song may be an act of war but the really mean people have trade monopolies, and the difference between good and evil hinges on whether the heart was still beating when it was ripped out.

I like certain aspects of Xyllomer, and dislike others. I will try to be as objective and impartial as possible; this is not intended to be a gush or a slam, but I have mixed feelings about this mud and I want to get the across. On the good side: Atmosphere is definitely very well-made. The different classes and races are very different from each other, each with its own flavor and history, as well as its part of the world they can call home, with their own rulers and everything. You can really get a vivid image of the fantasy world while playing Xyllo, and become immersed in the world (if you limit interaction with other characters a little). Very interesting and varied areas, complete with weather descriptions, good interactivity, even herbs growing in the wilderness and gems in the caves, etc. Quests are great. Overall really interesting, varied and fun to discover and do. Sadly there arent that many, but those that are there, are pretty nice and thought-provoking. Nice skills, guilds are very different from each other, and even though theyre pretty imbalanced, they all seem to live and interact together well enough. A few people do try their best to help newbies and make them feel comfortable, though it is definitely not easy to do. On the bad side: The roleplaying. Definitely. If by role-playing you understand things like... being in-character means simply not mentioning anything of the real world, thats it. 99.9% of the characters are the exact same serious, mildly arrogant, 'silent-but-dangerous' type of character who never speaks except to give greetings, orders, threats or some ultra-clever remark, never makes mistakes, is never wrong, never gets emotional, etc etc etc. endless powerleveling disguised with the euphemism "hunting" so as not to go "out of character". having an "intense roleplaying session" means you're either standing in a room where two enemy teams are spouting insults at each other for hours on end, or you're busy making up IC terms for game play related stuff: "How well do you feel you master the skill of haggling? -- Oh, Id say im Average, but with training I might get to be Quite Good". Characters with leader positions are the always and forever the same, played by people with OOC relations and friendships to the mud 'wizards', and the only reason for there ever to be a change is when one of them decides to stop playing altogether. Roleplaying joining a guild just means waiting around doing nothing for a few weeks or months while the guild leaders "test your patience" for no reason, sometimes going into months or even years. the odd player who refuses to give anyone his name for "mysterious reasons" ...then yeah, you'll have a good time roleplaying on this mud. On the other hand. If in your opinion roleplaying means a social atmosphere, where each character is unique and has their own story, where people act *different* from each other, there... Read More

I write this review in response to the past review here (and the many many people ive heard complaining in the game) that complains about Satais being these hostile bullies who will beat up people weaker than them. These people who complain, dont see the brilliance and the deepness behind the roleplaying here in Xyllomer. They expect that just because a guild is described in the helps files and websites as 'honourable' and 'just' and 'protecting the weak', then that means that in the actual game, the guild will behave like that. well, that would be boring, and shallow, roleplaying. The whole idea here is that you, as your character, start out with the idea that the Satai group is indeed out to protect people and work for "good", just like any innocent, young person starting out in life in this world would believe. but then, as you progress and get deeper in the game, being bullied and intimidated many times, you find out that it is anything but. This gives you and your character many opportunities and growth and revelations and good roleplay. That's called depth. Let me give you an example: Many people have probable read The Eye of The World, from the series The Wheel of Time. well, in this book, think of the group called the Children of the Light. See, if you read this book, you are nodding your head agreeing with me right now. If you haven't, here is a small description of this group: "... Their long cloaks, pristine white and embroidered on the left with a golden sunburst, just cleared the mud and puddles on the street. Their hands rested on their sword hilts, and they looked around them as if looking at things that had wriggled out from under a rotting log. Nobody looked back though. Nobody even seemed to notice them. Just the same, the three did not have to push through the crowd; the bustle parted to either side of the white-cloaked men as if by happenstance, leaving them to walk in a clear space that moved with them. Children of the Light. Whitecloaks. Men who told people how to live, causing trouble for those who failed to obey. If burned farms and worse could be called as mild as trouble. 'They don't look like much to me', said Mat. 'Full of themselves though, aren't they?' " See what I mean? This paragraph describes the Satai guild to a T. In fact id go as far as to say the Satais are an almost perfect execution of Robert Jordan's creation, by the roleplayers on Xyllomer. Is this bad? No. Its the game. Kepp in mind, in a medieval society, peasants *did* get bullied, trodden upon, and pushed around by stronger people, especially authorities like the tax collector and noble guards. This is what the Satais bring to the game's atmosphere. If you have no guild to protect you, or if you are in a guild weak combat,... Read More

This mud is one fo the best I have ever played. It offers a character devolopment that is more up to the player then the game. The mud starts up classless and it is up to you to decide what occupation aka guild you want to be involved in. There is a wide variety of gods and goddesses that you can serve ranging from holy to evil and variations on even those. This also invokes a need for roleplay more then most muds could even hope for. Overall a great game.

Hello, I searched around many muds for a few months before I came across Xyllomer. Since then I have experimented with a few more but none have come close to Xyllomer in combining roleplay with the enjoyment of occasional (due to RP of course) player versus player wars. There are also loads and loads of locations to indulge in hacking mobs if that is your thing. ;) In addition to the lots of positive reviews on this site there was one mentioning problems starting out as a newbie in interacting with a minority of players. To some extent this is true as a few players (especially bad guys) do not feel it is then char's nature to help people out. Equally there are often occassions when the player is busy: he is trading, has been summoned by his guild master, is responding to a guild-mates call for help in a war or whatever. Overall though I certaintly found the players accomadating to newbies, especially if you took an interest in their guild or god or interests. Although there are some players who prefer to exist outside the guilds it is, as a newbie, best to join one so as to have lots of more experienced players on hand, accessible and willing to help. There is a range wide of guilds and gods but it is undeniably harder and more time consuming to get into mage and "evil" guilds than it is to get into warrior or "good" guilds. That said, with the exception of Necromancers, there are plenty of players in each guild and, usually after interviews and so on, you will be accepted into the guild. There are lots (hundreds) of different skills but the beauty of the system is that, in order to become a respectably sized char able to kill mobs or follow whatever path he wants, only a few basic skills need to be trained. The other skills are undeniably useful but they are by no means neccessary to a char. The ideal is that skills matter far more than exp based stats and this is the case. However, in order to take part in the player wars, a char does need a reasanoble level of skills and stats. That said there are one or two disadvantages to Xyllomer. One is that the world is very big, although knowledge of only one continent is essential, and navigation does take a while to get your head around. (check maps of website for help though). Another is that newbies do not know anyone when they enter the mud. However help can be got on the newbie line and certain places (eg Padorn Inn) get a very high volume of players passing through or sitting around in. To finish off come to www.xyllomer.de, read the info, try Xyllomer and see how it fits your notion of an ideal mud. If you like the idea of lots of global channels and OOC chat and random Pkilling it be... Read More

I tried this game out on reccommendation of a friend, and it has some amazing features. The world concept is well thought out and the mud is huge! My main concern for this is that although there are some newbie friendly features, many of the players are relatively hostile to newbies. My small character was attacked for no rational reason and was told that basically 'tough sh-t.' If you can get over this sort of bully behavior, there are a lot of great players as well. But I would reccommend giving the guild of satais a wide berth until you are big enough to handle a beating without feeling the pain.

I am an old RPGer, from the days way back when we played with pencil and paper, dice, rule books and a game master who set the stage and coordinated the game action. For many years I hesitated to try a mud because I feared to become addicted to a point where gaming would take more time out of my schedule than I could afford. Eventually the pen and paper games disappeared from my life due to difficulties of arranging for get-togethers by gamers no longer loitering in schools with plenty of time on their hands, and some years later I did rationalize an excuse to try a mud. The mud was Xyllomer. The transition to a debatable fantasy reality negotiated with a game master to the rigid computer-run reality of a mud was harsh and I almost quit as soon as I had started. But then I got the hang of it and the addiction took hold. Since than I have tried many other muds on many occasions and read reviews of many, many more. Most other muds I tried you would have to pay me to play. A very few were good enough to hook me for a couple of weeks (e.g. ATP and GEAS, just so you know what other muds this proponent of Xyllomer likes, as this may give you reference points). However, Xyllomer is the only one I have continued to play consistently over the course of... hmm... how many years is it now? I seem to have trouble remembering time keeping in the so-called Real World... ;-) Why this loyalty to Xyllomer? Only Xyllomer gives me this unique mix of fantasy, realism, adventure, exploration, playability, society, roleplay, and atmosphere that allows for both, the suspension of disbelief in a made-up world and a marvelously better alternative to the mundane world my real life self has to deal with daily. Perhaps it is just the effect of familiarity, but only in Xyllomer I can stand in a desert town and truly feel the hot sun and desert wind, the dust in the air... In Xyllomer live several (mostly 2) alter egos of mine who definitely are living lives much more worth living than my RL (real life). The loss of time in my RL when playing Xyllomer is made up for by awarding me with the joy of living these other lives which I can take into my RL and even use therapeutically to better deal with my RL hardships. For instance, when something has me really down in RL, I can play Cugel who has a so much better life as an advanced mage who is an accomplished researcher with several volumes of published books (they really exist in the mage's library) lives in a great house (his own tower - not completely finished yet but great) and travels the world at the speed of thought, or I log on us my young alternate character (not named here, sorry *grin*) and myself... Read More

Xyllomer has a fully player driven society of amazing complexity, supported by active wizards. Xyllomer is where I learned role playing. Whereever else I go, I miss the strong RP athmosphere that is guided and guarded and lived by both the environment and its inhabitants (PC and NPC). That is the one reason why even very old characters come back to Xyllomer every so often. Simply the best RP MUD I ever found.

Xyllomer is unlike any other mud that exists today. It is run on it's own dedicated machine (sponsored by the players) and has it's own (much used) IRC channel called #xyllomer, on ircnet. Xyllomer features several guilds, none of which are 100% alike. If you want to play a freelancing mercenary for hire, or a wandering bard who sings his own songs, you got the option of doing that. Some guilds can be fairly recognizable by their names, such as the atlantis magicians or the evil necromancers. (You can read more about the guilds on our website: www.xyllomer.de) Xyllomer has it's own unique system concering combat and 'leveling'. The combat is not a direct 'you hit, they hit' type, and the system we use for levels lets you have more of a seamless progression rate where you gradually improve your statistics and so on. This is again reflected in the skillsystem which is, as far as I know, one of the best systems around. And we are still improving it. The world itself is governed by player characters who get elected as judges in the respective area by it's citizens (other players). And just like in the real world, some of these judges can be bribed. :) All I can say is: Give us a try - you won't be sorry!

Xyllomer is a fantasy-based roleplaying MUD loosely based on custom LP-Mud code. For those of you who are not really technical, this simply means that when you play in Xyllomer, you will not necessarily see things like numerical values for your character health, skills, or levels. Xyllomer is more focused on the roleplay aspects of MUDDing, while still having the options of combat and leveling up. In this way, you get a unique blend of the best of both worlds in this MUD. Enough realism to not have a purely hack-and-slash world with annoying shout channels and number-popping. But enough excitement to still have trainable skills, character leveling, battles, wars, and even playerkills, if you so desired. Xyllomer truely is a unique MUD. I have tried other MUDs before, and have never been able to stick with them. Either, they offered too many numerical values, and that annoying 'Midgar' newbie training scenario, which always took away from my feeling of roleplay. Or, they offered so much roleplay, that I felt I could not get anywhere in the world without investing massive amounts of time and effort to gain connections to advance my character. Xyllomer is not a perfect MUD, but it does its very best to combine all of the advantages of a roleplaying MUD with all of the fun of a hack-and-slash. If you're a veteran MUDder and you want to try something new, I highly recommend Xyllomer. If you're new at MUDding, I think Xyllomer is also very user friendly, but be warned-- it will probably spoil any of your enjoyment of other MUD systems if you get used to the unique system of playing. And always remember -- MUDding is fun, but it is just a game! MUD only when YOU have FREE TIME, and remember to take care of your real life as well, no matter where you end up playing!

I have been playing on Xyllomer since about 1994 (I think). Although I took a few years off due to personal reasons, I have since returned and found this fantasy role-playing world better than ever. The world is constantly improving with new areas to explore. The fantasy role-playing is strong here and can be as good as you want it to be. There are endless amounts of things to do, anything from training, questing or buying your own house!

Xyllomer hosts the perfect mix of roleplay and player hostilities. The world is fully original yet closely related to the fantasy themes. Its player base is virtually from all over the world. But well, technical details like these will better be displayed in the database entry here for Xyllomer. Let me just say this: I started mudding five years ago, with this mud. I tried other muds over time, but never long stayed there. Xyllomer got a flair, a certain mix, an atmosphere other muds don't have.