                                VISIONS by Melnmarn

        The mud, ShadowGate is an AD&D, second edition, based mud.
    The mud will follow all aspects of AD&D as closely as is possible 
    in a text based mud. 

        With that said, let me tell you how I see this mud developing.
    First, it is based on the Waterdeep module of ad&d. The city of 
    Waterdeep will be the center of the world. The crossroads so to 
    speak. Branching away from waterdeep, in all directions, will be the 
    world of ShadowGate. 
        ShadowGate itself is a world, a planet in all aspects. there is no 
    4th dimension, no other worlds. Just ShadowGate. 
    It is a world of mages,rogues, clerics and fighters. as well as many 
    different and dangerous monsters.
        It is a cruel world, to lonesome travelers, as they will die more 
    often then not. Travelers who wish to explore the area's of 
    ShadowGate, should not only go in groups/party's but should have a 
    good balance of the various classes of players. Therefore the area's 
    coders should keep this in mind as they build their area's. There 
    should be a good mix of monsters, so the players can't go in with a 
    bunch of fighters and expect to survive. 
	Player Killing is not something I see here. I may add an arena
    where players can revenge wrongs done by others, but this is just a 
    maybe. I would prefer for the players to use thier imagination and 
    get revenge in other ways. If an arena was constructed, neither 
    player would 'die' from the battle, they would lose only their 
    possessions, to the winning player. Neither would lose or gain 
    experience from such battles.
	Travel in Shadowgate will be limited to normal means of 
    transportation. There will be no magic portals. I see this place as 
    a planet, as I have said before. There is a *lot* of room for area's.
    especially since I haven't restricted the size of the planet.
    transportation to hidden or out of the way places can be done with 
    other then portals. Some uses of portals are accepted, as long as 
    they don't magically transport you to another area. 
	I know, your probably asking yourself, how do I do that. So here 
    is an example.

    I have a tower, to the west of Shadow. to get to the tower, you must 
    wait til a certian time, then go to a certian section of road. when 
    the portal is open, a player can walk to the north to the tower. This 
    portal doesn't teleport the player, it merely hides a section of road, 
    until a specified time. then let's the player see the hidden road. 
        This type of portal will be accepted. Teleport Portals are the 
    type I don't want.
        Flying.. I see flying as a plausable means of transportation. one 
    thing to remember though, is although quicker, flying somewhere takes 
    time as does walking. So all flying should be done in increments, with 
    delays so the transportation isn't instantanious.
        Magic needs to be limited, the stronger the magic, the more 
    difficult it should be to get, and it should not last long.
     	
   	I see quests as a major driving force in the mud. There should be 
    a good assortment of them and they should be challanging, and require
    cooperation between characters. 

	Imigagination is what I want to appeal to. Not some hack and 
    slash, but a game where people get together to get through the hard
    stuff. 

	You may have noticed, I have said a lot about players grouping 
    up. I would like to mention what I feel is an effective group. 
    They would consist of one mage class, one cleric class, one rogue 
    class and one or two fighter class. This is an average party. 
		
			More to follow...

