Procedural Realms — a Rare Gem Among MUD Universes

Procedural Realms (PR) is a text-based MMO sandbox built on a fully custom engine, where classic MUD gameplay meets roguelike-style generation and Diablo-inspired loot. The project began as a hobby, but over the past couple of years, it has gained a second wind. On MudVerse, it’s still listed as “alpha” yet the world already boasts over 1.4 million rooms, 117,000 mobs, and more than 650,000 items — an impressive feat for a solo developer.

Honestly, if someone asked me to describe PR in a few words, I’d say:

“Imagine if Stardew Valley met Final Fantasy, fell deeply in love, and raised a very talented child together 😀!”

And that’s exactly why this project stands out as a rare bird among the countless MUDs that, at their core, often feel quite the same.

Gameplay and Key Mechanics

After creating an account, your character spawns in the capital hub — the Nexus. Right away, you’re greeted by a short interactive tutorial: it introduces the basic commands, walks you through the combat system, and explains the purpose of various buildings and NPCs. Overall, the tutorial section is well done. You can go through a whole series of advanced lessons that dive deeper into key mechanics, like buying items, learning spells, the basics of crafting, and other nuances of the gameplay.

Once you’ve got the basics down, it’s time to pick up your first quests from various NPCs and head toward one of the portals. Each portal leads to a different biome, and each biome is designed to support a wide range of character levels.

Endless World: Procedural Generation and Exploration

Each time, a new map is generated from terrain “blocks” — ranging from grassy savannas and open steppes to lava-scorched wastelands. Biomes affect available resources (like ore veins in the mountains or rare herbs in the swamps) as well as the danger level, which means in PR, you can truly “grow” alongside the universe, choosing challenges that match your level. Biomes affect both available resources and danger levels, allowing you to grow “alongside” the universe.

The built-in GPS system helps track discoveries, mobs, and resources. The monitor quest command pings relevant targets within your field of vision, saving you from endless backtracking. It’s also a nice touch that crafting materials can be tracked via dedicated commands. Overall, navigating the world feels intuitive and fluid — you can set automatic movement to specific coordinates, making it much easier to hunt down points of interest, monitor quest command pings relevant targets within your field of vision, saving you from endless backtracking.

The Combat System

In combat, the game suddenly transforms… into a JRPG. Each turn gives you unlimited time to think, rather than rushing through /alias commands. This makes PR equally accessible for both sighted players and those with visual impairments — screen readers have no trouble keeping up with the flow of messages.

During your turn, you can see all possible actions: attack, use a skill or spell, drink a potion, or simply run away — the choice is completely up to you.

One of the interesting features is the mercenary system, where you can hire fighters at the Nexus tavern. This way, solo gameplay turns into a team battle, and you don’t have to rely so much on other players being online.

Another welcome feature is the light death penalty— you only lose a small portion of experience, which is easy to recover.

Classes and Skills

The class system in the game is quite formal: typically, you gain passive abilities simply by choosing a class. Active skills are learned by studying ancient tomes, and whether you can learn them depends entirely on your character’s stats. You can easily create an assassin who, among other things, can summon undead allies at the most unexpected moment — or a warrior capable of throwing a couple of fireballs. 

Overall, character building is highly diverse and encourages all kinds of experimentation.

Crafting and Resource Gathering

The project is packed with a wide variety of peaceful activities. From an extensive and flexible system for crafting, resource gathering, herbalism, and cooking, to acquiring your pyour very own pocket dimension accessed via portal, where you can build a house, a farm, or even an alchemy lab

All gathered items can be sold to merchants or at the auction house.

General Impression of Procedural Realms

Having played a fair number of MUDs, I can confidently say that PR is something unique among them. Here are the main pros and cons of the project:

Pros:

• Vast procedural world and replayable dungeons.
• Free class switching — experiment as much as you like.
• Crafting and building that offer dozens of hours of gameplay.
• Turn-based combat: comfortable to play even with screen reader software.

Cons:

• Alpha state: occasional bugs, rollbacks, and disconnects.
• Low player online count.

In conclusion, I can confidently say that fans of JRPGs and games like Stardew Valley will be very pleased with this project. The wonderful soundtrack, created by passionate enthusiasts, only deepens the immersion into the vast and captivating world.

The large number of classes and the ability to effectively create your custom class won’t leave build enthusiasts indifferent, not to mention the loot, abundance that’ll remind you of the glory days of Diablo.

Unsheath your swords, grab your staffs, and stoke the forge fires, travelers — a vast procedural world awaits everyone. And very soon, we’ll meet again across the vast ocean of possibilities.