Nuclear War MUD


Nuclear War MUD, abbreviated Nuke, is a MUD, a text-based online role-playing game, founded in 1992.

Game characteristics

The MUD is set in a post-apocalyptic world with cyberpunk elements. Civilization has been destroyed by a nuclear holocaust — hence the name of the MUD. The only effective remaining organizations are street gangs and megacorporations.
Street gangs are the most important affiliation that player characters have, and provide both objectives and special abilities with which to carry them out. Examples of gangs are the Hackers, who carry personal computer "totems", and the Inquisitors, who believe that the nuclear apocalypse was a "cleansing".
Nuclear War has been noted for implementing the "chat channel" mechanic, a common convention in MUDs, through a thematically justified piece of equipment, a radio which must be tuned to the frequency of the channel one wishes to access. Similarly, where the term for staff on many MUDs is "wizard", a term Nuclear War went live with, a change made a few months after release subverted the convention by calling staff "scientists", with the "Gods" becoming "Administrators" or "Arches".

Reception

Nuclear War has received critical praise, particularly for providing an alternative to the medieval fantasy settings otherwise pervasive in the MUD genre and for providing strong support for new players.

Technical infrastructure

Nuclear War MUD is an LPMud running on the MudOS game driver and a custom mudlib once based on the LPMud 2.4.5 lib.