Starmourn is a free science fiction MUD
The Starmourn sector is a post-Earth space adventure where alien races unit against the ever-present Ishvana threat. Explore a fully original universe and forge your legacy. The stars await you, spacer.
Wetwiring cures you, so you can focus more on the fight.
Starmourn's healing system requires no curatives or potions. Wetwiring is the colloquial name for a network of microscopic machinery that runs through your character's body and cures afflictions on a cycle.
In a fight, damage lands on five key subsystems: Muscular, Internal, Sensory, Mind, and Wetwiring. Your main focus is tracking your subsystem statuses, restoring them when you can, and knowing when to run from the fight. Taking too much system damage can result in afflictions, and you'll have to MEND or REGENERATE to resolve them.
Five Wetwiring Subsystems
No curatives or potions
Diagram of the documented mechanic. Sepsis is the internal system's feedback affliction. Mend resistance, and the balance every mend costs, are why spamming a mend is the wrong instinct.
LOOK Directory list of 3,1 ICE/ @antivirus @honeypot Routes/ north west [106/140 s] INFECT ANTIVIRUS UseSync(3.00) Infect.Result("antivirus", 11) [99/140 *] OpsLoss(3,@antivirus) [96/140 s] OVERWRITE ANTIVIRUS Load("Overwrite self-replicating_antivirus", 300) [92/140 *] OpsLoss(4,@antivirus) Overwrite.Result("antivirus", 24) antivirus.Delete() PasswordUpdate("D") -> Display($pass) -> DE*****
Hacking is a unique skill with powerful rewards
Hacking is a crucial skill in the Starmourn sector for accessing locked areas, embezzling bonus marks, and more! Find a terminal, leave your physical body behind, and enter the grid as a virus.
The grid's map is generated anew with each hack and gets revealed one circuit at a time as you move, and the goal of the hack is to uncover a secret password. Fighting ICE (Intrusion Countermeasure Electronics) like antiviruses, firewalls, scanners, honeypots, and glitches will reveal letters in the password if you defeat their unique behaviors.
There is no Wetwiring in the grid. Your health is called ops, and your attacks are unique to the Hacking skill tree which you level up by hacking increasingly challenging grids.
Since Crew Hacking arrived in May 2026, a crew of spacers can breach one grid together with: HACK CREW OPEN <terminal>
Pilot a fleet of starships you built
Starmourn's starship classes range from zippy little interceptors to dangerous battleships and destroyers to massive superhaulers. You outfit the ship yourself in the shipforge with weapons and components to maximize your output, then team up with another player to mod and amplify it even further.
Space exploration is powerfully built out with unique PvE, PvP, and non-combatant content to explore. Take to the stars and fight unique PvE incursions, defend your Faction in PvP conflict events like Cosmpiercers, destroy Pirate refineries, and more!
If guns and lasers aren't your thing, the space economy is a massively lucrative venture. Collect gaseous minerals and crush asteroids to refine raw materials into finished products, or blow up massive asteroids for a big boon in marks and prestige. Once you earn enough marks, build your own refineries and defend your title as a Tycoon of Industry.
In addition to Habitations, your starship serves as a base of operations and home on jets. Outfit each ship with customizable layouts, room descriptions, and decor to make them your own.
Fleet Mining shipped in May 2026: mine with other players using a mothership with ore crushers or gas compressors fed by smaller harvester ships.
Learn more: Starship basics The economy
Five classes with completely different skills
Each class runs on its own resource and its own idea of a good fight. Fourteen playable races sit on top of that, from amphibious Amaians to the winged, leonine W'hoorn.
Still shipping
Starmourn launched in December 2018 and has been in Legacy Mode since July 2023, which means it is fully volunteer-run. Features keep landing anyway.
Scoundrel’s the second class we’ve announced. Read all about them here!
The economy design in Starmourn is still at a relatively nascent stage, but there are some key ways it’s going to differ from our other MUDs, based on lessons learned over the last 20 years of running MUDs. Better control over currency generation. The ability of players to generate in-game currency (Marks in Starmourn’s case,…
The Cleax are a race originating from outside Starmourn sector, and are one of the most alien of the races we know of. Starmourn first had contact with them about 900,000 years ago, long before most of the Younger Races even existed, when they invaded and were stopped by an alliance of Elder Races. They…
Happy Holidays!
Just wanted to wish all Starmourners a great holiday season no matter what you celebrate, and even if you celebrate nothing at all! More updates coming in early 2017, fear not!
Drop into the sector
Make a character in only two minutes, and start forging your legacy today.
Play Starmourn for free