This website, like the DEAD6 game itself, is currently under construction. As such, the content of the site will be continually updated over the course of the next year and is not expected to be complete until Summer of 2006 - about the same time that our focus will shift from documentation to the creative description of the active game world.

Of course, during this time, our efforts to transform the raw Rapture code-base into the DEAD6 game engine will be relentless. We do not yet have, and will not announce a date when DEAD6 will be opened for player connections until our developmental milestones have all been completed, tested, and given the stamp of approval. We can say, that it is quite unlikely that DEAD6 will conceivably open for play until the Summer of 2007.

The following list is here to let those following the construction of the game be able to follow our progress. As such, updates will relate to code-base development, website content and creative description of the game world with links to relevant sources and documentation provided when possible.

The DEAD6 RPIMUD is a commercial text-based adventure and role-playing game that requires absolutely no software to be installed on your computer to play. Creating a new human character is free and can be completed in a matter of minutes. All you need to play is a valid e-mail address so that we can set up your player account and send you a secure password to connect to the game server.

Once you have created a character and joined our player-base you will find yourself immersed in a richly detailed, original science-fiction adventure created by Wade Gustafson, Martin Hultberg and Tim Sawicki. DEAD6 is powered by the Rapture Game Engine developed by Iron Realms Entertainment, and has be programmed from the ground up to be a completely unique and unequaled game engine tailored to the specific design and needs of DEAD6. As a commercial venture, DEAD6 has a dedicated full-time paid staff attending to the continued development and maintenance of the game, scenario design and implementation, as well as to the needs of our players.

There is no defined series of events that you must progress through to complete DEAD6. In fact, there is no end at all. The game runs continuously night and day, and is played by dedicated role-players all around the world. Think of it as a traditional table-top RPG on a global scale.

Every player has the ability to affect the lives and livelihood of every other player - for better or for worse. Will you choose to become a ruthless bremmen slave master and bend other players to your will, or will you be a human colonist who survived the Red 6 Tragedy and now rallies the native orum slaves against the bremmen rule? Perhaps you will choose to be a sorlican savage, protecting your hunting grounds from wild kish, or maybe a vicious tip whose only interest is killing and eating every living thing that crosses your path. The choice is yours, and the development of your character is limited only by your imagination and role-play. The future of Memphalis is literally, yours to decide.

There are many other text-based games available on the Internet, and most of them are classified under the familiar acronyms of MUD, MUSH, MOO, MMORPG, and others. With so many choices, why choose to play DEAD6 over the other games that are out there?

The majority of all text-based games played across the Internet are derived from a handful of stock code-bases and stock world files. Many of them are nearly identical with only superficial differences seperating one from the next, and most of these are developed by weekend hobbyists who, while they love what they do, are able to put time into their games only during their spare time. Often, these hobbyists disappear for months or years at a time, leaving their games in operation, but relatively unattended, under the hope that the founder may one day return. The end result is typically the trickling off of players until the game sits unplayed and everything that you, as a player, put into it, is lost.

Several things make DEAD6 unique. First and foremost, DEAD6 is a commercial venture, meaning that thousands of dollars have been put into the professional development of the game. While we purchased a license of the Rapture Game Engine from Iron Realms Entertainment, Rapture serves only as a basic foundation of network connectivity code. Beyond this, every aspect of the game from character generation, our location coordinate system, our advanced turn-based combat system, skills, commands, et cetera, has all been programmed from scratch by our staff. This means that DEAD6 is literally unlike any other text-based game in the world. Our area descriptions, non-player characters and objects are all unique creations, and our attention to descriptive detail is found in no other game in existence.

Our staff is paid for their time and does not consist of hobbyists or volunteers. That said, while it is free to create a human character to play on DEAD6 so that you can spend some time in your new character's shoes and make sure that they fit you, your free trial period lasts for only 30 days. At the end of that time you must visit the Spend Credits section of this website and purchase credits that can be used for your monthly maintenance fee for the characters you wish to continue playing. Credits can also be used in-game to purchase restricted equipment, restricted parts and/or restricted trainers able to teach your character to perform rare skills.

While DEAD6 contains too many features to compile a complete list, we've put some of our more notable, fun and innovative features in the list below. In addition to all these, new features are being added all the time, as are new potential discoveries and inventions for our players to unleash on the game world.

To understand the environment presented in DEAD6, you must imagine a distant alient planet that has been ravaged by the impact of a comet. Nearly a thousand years have passed since that cataclysmic event, but the post-impact world has a preciously thin atmosphere, is covered mostly in high snowy mountains, glaciers and tundra, and is home to several races of sentient aliens along with an entire ecosystem of natural predators. It is this world that humankind set out to colonize when the air and oceans of Earth had become too polluted to continue to sustain human life indefinately, and the corporate rule began to see the profits awaiting them with sucessful otherworld colonization.

This world is represented in-game by various sections called coordinates that can be of any size - from a small indoor room to a vast outdoor stretch of tundra. Each area can have several smaller areas within it, representing different places such as the corners of an indoor room or various locales of an outdoor one. Each coordinate is described more generally than the specific areas within it, and landmarks present in your current coordinate or distant ones can be viewed from your area if you are close enough to see them. This helps you to navigate through the game world.

To move around, your character can walk, run, fly, et cetera, from area to area and coordinate to coordinate by use of directional commands such as east, west, up, down, and others. You can also move toward landmarks by way of a trek command, and you can enter and exit structures and vehicles when you come across them.

As you move about the game world the look command will probably be one of the most frequently used commands available to you as it can be pointed toward an area, object, or another character. Objects and some small characters can be picked up and added to your inventory, and then carried around, used, worn, wielded, or otherwise manipulated as you see fit.

Every attempt has been made to make the game as interactive as possible with the emphasis placed on realism and role-play. For complete details, and to get a better understanding of the game and our unique features, be sure to read the player's guide from beginning to end.

DEAD6 is beyond all other things, a role-playing game. The term RPIMUD stands for Role-Play Intensive Multi-User Domain, and thus, as expected, role-playing is a requirement on DEAD6, not an option. Our players invest a great deal of time, and a little money, into their characters. As such, it is common for players to have a personal and emotional attachment to their characters, just as you will likely develop for yours.

All players are expected to conduct themselves in a mature and responsible manner. Sexual harassment, verbal harassment, and any other kind of harassment are strictly forbidden, as is MUDsex and vulgarities not appropriate for minors. There is no age requirement for a player to create and play a character on DEAD6, and as such, your actions should be kept on a PG-13 level at all times. We reserve the right to remove characters from play if they are found to be disruptive to other players and/or in violation of our terms of service, rules and policies. It is likewise unacceptable to go around attempting to kill, mug or otherwise harm player characters or non-player characters unless it is in-character for you to behave in such a manner. While it is perfectly acceptable for a tip character to role-play such mindless activity, most members of the civilized races have laws and punishment for such criminal activity.

Due to the fact that DEAD6 is so very unique, even among other RPIMUDs, it is likely that you will come across new or young players who are not familiar with the concept of role-play intensive games, our theme and background, and even the mechanics of the game. We ask that all of our players maintain a high degree of civility when presented with out-of-character questions from inexperienced players who are struggling to learn, understand, and participate in the game. Continuing to draw in new players to DEAD6 will ensure that the game thrives and grows over the coming years. Our new players are our best natural resource - respect them and help them whenever possible.