openmud.org · CONNECT 57600
▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄
╔═ D O O R : OPENMUDnode 1 · ansi
▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀
bulletin

Dead game.
Living haven.

For decades it was abandonware — a landmark of the dial-up era, sealed inside binaries for machines almost nobody still runs. You could remember it; you couldn't really play it. At least not without legacy software and emulators.

Newhaven is its haven. The whole game — every race and class, every spell and combat roll, every room, weapon, and monster description — re-implemented faithfully in Python and SQLite. Not emulated. Rebuilt.

The name is the town where every adventurer begins, and the promise of the project: a safe harbor where a classic can be kept, studied, played, and nurtured for another thirty years.

imported, to the last record

The whole realm, accounted for.

╔═ REALM MANIFESTv1.11p · verified
Rooms26,694
Weapons383
Passages62,022
Armour pieces532
Monsters1,101
Spells1,379
Items, all told1,950
Shops178
Classes15
Abilities19
Races13
Questlines23
Every room, item, and monster carries its original description — the world reads exactly as it did.
why it matters

Old soul. New bones.

> fidelity

Faithful to the last formula

Every race, class, and spell rebuilt from the original data — down to the mana curve and the to-hit math. Nothing approximated that didn't have to be.

> multiplayer

Shared over SSH

One authoritative game loop, an event-driven engine, and secure shell access. Open a terminal anywhere and step into the same realm as everyone else.

encrypted · key-based · no telnet
> portable

Runs anywhere Python does

Pure standard library and SQLite — no dependencies, no build step. A Pi, a FreeBSD jail, a laptop, a phone: if Python runs on it, the realm runs on it.

> in development

Playable now, evolving fast

Core gameplay is in and the dev realm is live. New systems, quests, and fixes land continuously — and beta testers help decide what comes next.

play test the beta

Come adventure in the dev realm.

1

Self-register

Run the command with your own alias in place of gamertag. No forms, no signup page.

2

Read the reply

You'll receive connection instructions for the dev realm right there in the response.

3

Adventure — and report

Connect and play. It's early days: expect the occasional bug, and tell me when you trip over one.

─ self-register for beta access ─
# swap in your preferred gamer alias
$ ssh -o IdentitiesOnly=yes \
       -i ~/.ssh/id_ed25519 \
       -p 2222 \
       new@openmud.org "beta-dev-chaos gamertag"

  → you'll receive connection instructions to the dev realm

Most of the core functionality is complete — but I'm still turning up the occasional random bug, which is exactly why I'd love some play testers. Come break it (gently), and let me know what you find.

under the hood

One engine,
many doors.

The engine mutates an authoritative world and emits typed events; clients render them. It never does its own input or output — that one clean split is the whole trick.

It's why the same core serves a single player at a prompt and a crowd over SSH — and why a Textual desktop app and a browser client are the next doors onto the same realm. (Coming Soon!)

// the contract
command engine events
mutate world (authoritative)
emit Hit · Cast · Move · Died
events client your screen
terminal · ssh · textual · web