The Two Towers (MUD)

The Two Towers, or T2T, is an LPMud, a multiplayer text-based role-playing game, set in Tolkien’s universe at the time of events in the third volume of Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. It can be played via a direct telnet or java connection, or through a mud client.

Description
The world depicted in The Two Towers contains many thousands of uniquely described rooms, thousands of non-player characters, tens of thousands of objects, and hundreds of quests. The world holds, in total, nearly a hundred thousand rooms that players can explore. The regions represented in the game include Eriador, Rhovanion, Gondor, Umbar, Harondor, Harad, and Mordor. The scope ranges from cities such as Bywater and Minas Tirith to small homes and farmlands, as well as huge dungeon complexes such as the Mines of Moria.

The Two Towers also includes representations of most of the members of the Fellowship of the Ring who were living during its setting.

The Two Towers is set in the world of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. In particular, The Two Towers depicts the date of March 15, 3019, Third Age when Minas Tirith was under siege. The mud plays host to a battle between good and evil, with the free races (Hobbit, Sindar, Silvan, Dwarf, Edain, Dunlending, Dúnedain, and Eorling) generally contesting against the minions of Sauron (Uruk-hai, Easterling, Númenórean, Haradrim, and Variag), although members of the free races may choose to betray their heritage.

History
The Two Towers began as a project between a few students and has from the start been free of charge. It is run with help from player donations and the administrators' private funds. Under constant development from the very start, the game is now a complete virtual world almost completely identical to the geographical properties of Arda, with game areas including west and east Middle-earth, Harondor, Harad, Umbar, and Mordor. The ability to play as a minion of Sauron was removed in 2001, then reintroduced in 2005 after a major overhaul.

Playing
In the game, players explore the fantasy world of Tolkien, fighting monsters and enemies for treasure, equipment, and experience points. As they progress, players advance in level, gaining power, reputation, and different skills and abilities. Sometimes the reason for attempting to gain levels and power, is so that they may join a Guild or Clan. While some players choose to interact with one another in PvP (player versus player) combat, others pay great attention to their characters, writing custom descriptions and tales for their adventures to better interact in a roleplaying environment. Others may choose to use the world as a chatting device to interact and socialize with other players.

Technical infrastructure
The Two Towers runs on the MudOS game driver with a mudlib based on TMI-2.