‘We can continue Pratchett’s efforts’: the gamers keeping Discworld alive

A text-based, multiplayer role-playing game based on the works of Terry Pratchett, the Discworld MUD has been in constant service for 30 years

Sir Terry Pratchett's Discworld has a long association with video games. Not only was the author himself a fan of Doom, Thief, and The Elder Scrolls, but the relationship between his satirical fantasy world and video games goes all the way back to 1986's The Colour of Magic - a text-adventure adaptation of Pratchett's first Discworld novel. Later games based on Pratchett's work include 1995's Discworld, a notoriously difficult adventure game voiced by actors including Eric Idle and Tony Robinson, and 1999's Discworld Noir, a 3D detective game where you play as the universe's first private investigator.

But the most ambitious Discworld game in existence is not officially associated with Terry Pratchett at all. The Discworld MUD is a text-based multi-user-dungeon" - an early form of online role-playing game where everything from places to in-game actions are described in words. Created in 1991 by David Pinkfish" Bennett, the MUD has been in consistent service for over 30 years, and today offers the most detailed depiction of the Discworld outside of Pratchett's books. Not only does it feature most of the key locations, from the city of Ankh-Morpork to areas such as Klatch and the Ramtops, it has seven guilds, player-run shops, and countless quests and adventures featuring many of the Discworld's most notable characters. It even has its own newspaper.