Insomnia FAQ

Insomnia is a fantasy Multi-User Dungeon: an online world you explore with typed commands and prose. You create a character, move through rooms, talk to other players, fight monsters, solve problems, join a class path and gradually learn how the world fits together.

It is not a remake of a modern MMO. It is older, stranger and more text-driven. The joy is in reading a room, trying commands, discovering systems and finding other people in a shared world.

Insomnia was created in 1993 by Mork and Vx at Coventry University. They had met as players on Elephant MUD, downloaded an early MudOS driver and the Nightmare Mudlib, then used that as the starting point for their own online world.

The first home was a Sun server. After that, Insomnia lingered in obscure corners of the internet for years. The current version is a resurrection: old code, old jokes and old player culture running on a newer FluffOS setup with a modern web client wrapped around it.

The easiest route is the browser client:

Web client: https://www.insomnia-mud.com/client/

You can also use telnet or a dedicated MUD client:

Address: insomnia-mud.com
Port: 4000

Mudlet, TinTin++, MUSHclient, CMUD, zMUD and other classic clients should work. A dedicated client gives you scrollback, triggers, aliases and custom layouts. The web client is better if you want to start instantly with the site visuals, map and control panels.

Open the web client, enter your character name and password, or create a new character if you do not have one. The large terminal is the actual MUD: read what appears there and type commands into the prompt.

The client adds useful controls around the text. The compass buttons move in available directions. The room image panel gives a visual hint for many areas. The vitals and experience bars show survival and progress. The side selector can show panels such as inventory, score, skills and body status when the MUD sends that information.

The map button opens your explored map. It is deliberately personal: it shows rooms you have discovered, highlights where you are, draws known exits, and leaves unexplored exits as stubs. Interior and exterior spaces are kept visually separate so stepping into a shop, tunnel or building does not squash the whole town map into one unreadable mess.

Start with simple MUD habits. Read the room description, check your character, understand what you are carrying, and move one step at a time. The game will often tell you more than you expect if you slow down and read the text closely.

If a command gives you useful output, read it carefully. MUDs are full of clues hidden in plain text: exits, item names, NPC hints, help files and room descriptions often tell you what kind of action to try next.

Begin in and around Lucidity. Treat the town as your base: learn the square, roads, shops, guild areas and nearby low-risk routes before wandering too far. The map page and the web client's explored map are both there to help you build a mental picture.

Aeloria is the gentler early-game thread to pay attention to. If the newbie sprite appears or speaks up, treat it as a guided nudge rather than background flavour. It exists to teach the rhythm of old MUD play: read the room, notice names, follow hints, and learn how the world responds.

Do not sprint randomly through exits just because they exist. Move, look, read, and backtrack. If a room sounds dangerous, it probably is. If an NPC, sign or object looks interesting, it is usually worth investigating in a cautious, curious way.

Insomnia has classic and less-classic paths including fighter, mage, cleric, ninja, rogue, druid and witch. If you want the most direct start, fighter is usually the easiest idea to understand: hit things, survive, improve. If you like systems, spells, stealth or rituals, the other classes have more texture.

For magical or ability-heavy paths, the spells command is not just a list of flashy attacks. Think of it as a status window for what your character can attempt, what still needs learning, and which resource costs or restrictions matter. It rewards reading, not button-mashing.

Do not over-optimise your first character. Pick the fantasy you actually want to play, learn the world, and ask other players or wizards if you get stuck.

Combat is text-driven. You will see messages describing attacks, wounds, spells and danger. Watch your hit points and other vitals. If things go badly, flee, retreat or stop picking fights above your weight.

The wimpy and wimpydir commands are there to express your survival instincts. Broadly, one controls when you try to run away and the other gives that panic a preferred direction. They are not a replacement for judgement, but they can stop a bad fight becoming a heroic disaster quite so quickly.

Progress usually comes from exploring, fighting appropriate enemies, completing quests, learning your class systems and understanding the world. Death is part of old MUD life, but reckless deaths are still annoying, so carry light, read warnings and do not assume every monster is there for a brand-new character.

If you die, do not panic-scroll. Read the death and afterlife text carefully. Old MUDs usually tell you what state you are in, what you have lost or kept, and how to get back to playing. Your first job after death is to understand what happened; your second is to recover your bearings without charging back into the same mistake.

Use ordinary speech commands when people are nearby, such as say hello. Some communication commands depend on your character, level, location or configured channels, so check help and watch the login text for what is available.

If you need help, be specific. "I am new and standing in Lucidity, what should I try next?" is much easier to answer than "what do I do?" Old MUD people are often odd, but they usually respect someone who reads the room and asks a clear question.

Some things are old. Some things are being restored. If you hit a bug, note what room you were in, what command you typed, what happened, and what you expected. Then contact the admins or shout for Mork or Vx if they are around.

You can use the contact page at /contact/ or email admin@insomnia-mud.com. Useful bug reports are gold dust; "it broke" is less useful than a short transcript.

Money in Insomnia is practical rather than decorative. Expect it to matter for shops, services, equipment, food, supplies and the small conveniences that make a dangerous life less ridiculous. Pay attention to prices and to whether something you are carrying looks valuable, useful or merely heavy.

The economy is deliberately old-MUD in spirit: coins, loot, shopkeepers, odd valuables and player judgement. A new player does not need to become a merchant immediately, but should learn the habit of checking what things are worth before throwing them away.

Insomnia begins with Lucidity as the social and practical anchor, then spreads into roads, guild halls, shops, sewers, forests, graveyards, mines, stranger dreamlike pockets and newer rebuilt regions. Some areas are funny, some bleak, some nostalgic, some hostile, and some are clearly still being excavated from old code.

Think in themes rather than routes. Town spaces tend to teach services and safety. Wild places teach caution. Underground places teach preparation. Class spaces teach identity. Early Aeloria material and the newbie sprite are there to help you learn the grammar before the world becomes less forgiving.

Very, when people are around. MUDs have always been half game and half weird communal text space. Insomnia has the expected social tools: broad channels such as newbie and chat, direct tells, local speech, boards, and the small rituals of people recognising each other by old names.

It is also famous for its souls: emotes that let players perform little social actions at each other. They can be funny, affectionate, bizarre, childish, rude, or all of those at once. Souls are not really "content" in the modern sense; they are part of the old social texture of the place.

No. Insomnia was created by and for adults. It does not exist to be family-friendly, educational, polished, or safe in the modern app-store sense. There is no sexual content as a design goal, but there is plenty of swearing, rude language, bleak jokes, bad taste, and very British humour.

If you like sanitised fantasy, Insomnia will sometimes feel grubby. If you like old internet comedy, pub sarcasm, inappropriate NPCs and systems that still carry the fingerprints of the 1990s, that is closer to the intended spirit.

No. Insomnia does not insist that you stay in character, write elaborate backstory, speak in cod-medieval dialogue, or treat every tavern conversation as theatre. You can roleplay if that is fun for you, and you can also just play the game, explore, joke around, fight things, chat, build memories and leave it at that.

The only real expectation is that you do not ruin the fun for everyone else. It is a place to play, not a rules-heavy roleplaying society.

Because that is Insomnia. It deliberately mixes a recognisable Tolkien-ish fantasy base with British comedy, Monty Pythonesque nonsense, old political jokes, period references, in-jokes, and areas inspired by famous books, films and television. The result is not a clean franchise world. It is more like an old shared hard drive full of fantasy, jokes, grudges and memories that somehow became a place.

That chaos is part of the identity. One area may feel like classic dungeon fantasy, another like a pub argument, another like a half-remembered film reference, and another like someone built it at 3am because it made them laugh. Do not expect perfect tonal consistency. Expect personality.