An offshoot of HATEMOO (Hell: After the End), which itself was an offshoot of HellMOO, InfernoMOO is a post-apocalyptic text-based MOO (MUD, Object Oriented), that allows a large degree of freedom to its players somewhat comparable to games like EVE Online. You may go where you want, kill who you want, and rob whomever, but prepared to deal with the consequences, as the same can happen to you.
Following the same basic premise as HellMOO, there are some key differences with InfernoMOO. Some of the things many people found uncomfortable (see: the murder or molestation of orphans) have been phased out, there is more focus on Player Versus Player combat, and several key systems have either been changed or otherwise redone, with admins and wizards currently active and adding more content or mixing up old content on a daily basis. Even so, this is not a game for kids. Sex tropes are in full effect, and while the game is entirely in text, it can have rather graphic descriptions of the actions taken by the player and others.
Also has its own wiki.
InfernoMOO provides examples of:
- After the End : The main setting. A few bastions of civilization have managed to rebuild yet, and have even developed some advanced technology.
- Ambiguous Situation: Was the Collapse actually a nuclear apocalypse? Or did something else happen, and that's why there's Shoggoths, Ghosts and other interdimensional horrors running around? The existence of a particle collider and Labyrinth and The Abyss near Ground Zero in the Necropolis imply that this may be the case.
- Back from the Dead: Cloning technology is abundant, and is the primary way players and NPCs who have died come back. Zombies can also resurrect on their own if intact and left alone.
- Call a Hit Point a "Smeerp": Armor and certain mutations grant resistance to damage, and are collectively referred to as "soaks."
- Changing Gameplay Priorities: At first, the primary goal of most players is to gain experience, though combat, journals and achievements, in order to get stronger and face challenges that give better rewards, then use these rewards in order to get better gear. Once you've reached a certain point, experience gains starts to fall off a bit, and more mutations are difficult to come by, so the game turns a bit more sandbox-ish as you find ways to amuse yourself.
- Class and Level System: Averted. Your ability to do anything in the game is dictated solely by your skills and stats, the latter of which are chosen at character creation and can later be improved at the gym and through implants or other buffs. As you gain experience, you can use the points to increase skills relevant to your current goals by training with NPCs or other players who have a higher raw skill than you.
- Corporate Warfare: Players primarily unite under corporations in order to pool their skills and resources toward a common goal. When two of these entities start duking it out, things can get ugly.
- Critical Existence Failure: You can have all your limbs broken, be brain damaged, on fire, covered in acid, infected with AIDS and severely wracked by radiation mutations, but as long as you have that one last hitpoint, your character can potentially survive.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Absolutely abounds in this setting. You can potentially die from a number of diseases, an unwanted pregnancy unleashing itself, various (fairly brutal) fatalities that change based on the weapon used, being dissolved by the secretions of different creatures (or even the air itself, in some areas), accidental (or intentional) admin dickery, slowly turning into a zombie (and being forced to kill your undead corpse to get your gear back), by having your unconscious body processed into soylent... there are many ways to die, and some even give unique achievements for doing so.
- Cyberpunk: Heavy cyberpunk influences, including all-powerful corporations, cybernetic implants, futuristic weaponry, laser weapons, and much more.
- Cyborg: Players can count as this, as you can get augmentations that increase any available statistic (brains, senses, endurance, cool, brawn and reflexes) as well as several utility implants that allow you to be better at hacking, see in the dark, or have babies as a genetically wrecked mutant.
- Damage Typing: All damage is typed into several different categories, each with different potential effects. This is included, but not limited to, bleeding from slashing damage, breaking a limb from beating damage, getting stunned or going into shock from taking too much damage at the same time, being set on fire and taking periodic ticks of damage, or getting slowed down from extreme cold.
- Death Is a Slap on the Wrist: If you keep your combat experience up to date, the most you lose is the gear on you, which can usually be replaced or reacquired.
- Death of a Child: Players are actively encouraged to kill as many things as possible for the valuable experience they get in journals, and one job involves feeding a live baby to the shoggoth.
- Dodge the Bullet: Averted. Firearms negate much of the bonus dodge gives, making armor (or not allowing enemies a chance to hit) the only way to prevent the damage.
- Driven to Suicide: Due to the nature of the setting this won't stop your suffering for long. Because of this, however, there's plenty of reasons this might be beneficial.
- Expendable Clone: All characters, both players and NPCs, fall under this trope, as if their body does die they generally wake up in a cloning facility shortly after. At worst, you'll be artificially aged a little, which can be countered with certain drugs.
- Fantasy Kitchen Sink: At first glance, you have a fairly typical post-apocalyptic setting, with a splash of Magic Genetics and just a twist of Fallout. Delve a bit deeper and you'll find things ranging from Cthulhu Mythos references, aliens, sky pirates, dinosaurs, and a variety of other things, with new content being added periodically, all adding up to a fairly unique world.
- Guide Dang It!: The learning curve is fairly steep, especially for those new to text based games in general, and the game has a bit of hidden depth and nuance to everything from combat to crafting. Players are highly encouraged to ask for help if needed, to the point where an entire net exists for that purpose.
- Healing Factor: A couple different mutations can lead to this, such as Iron Liver, which converts the energy from alcohol into healing, Solar Sponge, which can heal you if you're hot enough (or even on fire), and Zombie players that are gorged on brains, to name a few. Players who have gotten the Salamander mutation can also mend broken limbs.
- Heart Container: Endocrine booster modules act as this, able to increase a player's default health from 30 to 55 one point at a time, though after a certain point you need two modules to get that extra boost.
- Human Resources: Comes in a variety of colors based on the material used to make it.
- Item Crafting: Some basic necessities are available for purchase from NPC vendors, but most of the end-game armors and weapons need to be crafted personally by the players.
- Jack of All Stats: A possible character type to play. You will be sufficient in most things that you do, but players who specialize will dominate you in those areas.
- Ludicrous Gibs: Go ahead, see what happens when you try to sit in the same square as a clusternuke pellet, any other large enough explosion, or get hit by a train. If the force of the blow is big enough, parts may be thrown into adjacent rooms.
- MegaCorp: Weyland-Utani is the premiere megacorporation in the setting, and the primary reason Freedom City and its cloning facilities (and inhabitants) still exist.
- The Minion Master: Characters that take the CHUD mutation have a form of this, as they can get a number of NPC chuds to follow them around and help beat stuff up for them. Individually, they're not terribly effective, but you can have quite a few minions.
- Magic Genetics: Generally the name of the game with the mutation slot system, and you can mix and match to your heart's content (not counting mutually exclusive ones for balance reasons). Mutations are taken to enhance your stats and skills, and can range the gamut from basic physical ones (to increase your Brawn or Reflexes), to Psychic Powers allowing flight or setting people on fire with your mind, to game changing mutations that can dictate the way you play the game (such as vampirism or becoming an abomination).
- Min-Maxing: The name of the game for those who specialize in certain areas: brawny fighting types, brainy crafting types, support characters.
- Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Most characters fall under this in some aspect, as with sufficient mutations you are far from the baseline human, with the potential to be a zombie, vampire, CHUD, hideous freak, abomination, or many things in between, usually with a dose of implants and psychic powers to boot.
- Goes even further with some enemies. Hippopotamus-like radioactive giant ants and cyborg laser-shooting giant sharks, and Scientologist Jihadi Child Molesting suicide bombers are among some examples.
- Non-Combat EXP: This is the vast majority of your XP until incredibly late game. XP from Journals/Achievements, completing jobs, travelling and even getting a first time kill. It's considered more valuable than combat XP because it persists over rerolls, while combat XP does not.
- One Stat to Rule Them All: Reflex is the single most important stat in the game and it's highly recommended that players max out reflex first. The reason for this is because all weapons use Reflexes; it directly contributes to all of the weapon skills except Fists, and all melee weapons have their speed determined by it. It also determines Dodge, another super important skill.
- Our Vampires Are Different: Unusually for vampires, the ones in Inferno are susceptible to disease (after all, vampirism is a disease. Also strangely they also take a steep -4 to Brains. Like typical vampires, they're weakened horribly in the sun and get a significant (+2, as much as +4 if they keep themselves fed) to Brawn, Endurance, Senses and Cool. They're generally considered DifficultButAwesome.
- They have several other quirks to them too in line with classic mythology, such as being automatically critically hit if a harpoon or stake hits their chest. Female vampires also birth bats.
- Our Zombies Are Different: Players with the Zombie mutation gain some additional resistance to taking damage, but their heads become much more vulnerable in combat. They also gain buffs from eating the brains of other beings, and if slain in combat with their body intact, can rise from the dead if left alone.
- Player Versus Player: The game as a whole. You could potentially be killed for stepping in the same square as another player, just because they felt like it, in the middle of the somewhat protected Freedom City.
- Police Are Useless: To varying degrees. Sufficiently skilled players are fully capable of avoiding or outright killing most security sent their way, especially in a group, and different areas have different levels of protection.
- Freedom City's SWAT division (which only appears if you get over 100 stars) is an exception: When they show up, people tend to run.
- Psychic Powers: And how. As your character gains in experience, you can take mutations that allow you to set people on fire with your mind (and occasionally get mental illnesses), teleport at will, fly around using their mind, project into the astral realm to scout (or rip a hole through it to be used for travel), generate electricity for combat and defibrillation of dead players (or charging your batteries)... the list goes on. Even characters that don't choose to specialize in these tend to pick up one or two useful ones.
- Radiation-Immune Mutants: Usually averted, but Abominations are completely immune to gaining rads and thus radiation sickness. This doesn't, however, protect from the irradiation damage type.
- Sanity Slippage: If you become too stressed out (getting over 450 Stress) you have to relieve this stress or suffer a mental break, netting yourself a Mental. Abominations get it a bit different; they go into a murderous rage.
- Status Effects: A multitude of these effects can be inflicted on or by your character, including bleeds (from slashing weapons), stuns (from power attacks), poisons (from certain weapons or areas), broken limbs (from beating weapons) and a wide variety of diseases as well.
- Stuff Blowing Up: Grenades, miniature nuclear bombs, ACTUAL nuclear bombs, grenade launchers, flashbangs... bombs are plentiful in the post apocalypse. Just make sure your skill is up to par.
- Taking You with Me: Suicide Belts are a thing, and can occasionally even the playing field or cause a close match to become a draw. Grab the enemy player, pull the cord on the belt, and hope that they don't escape.
- Tell Me How You Fight: Different fighting styles are available to choose from both before and during combat, each with varying effects. On two ends of the spectrum, pacifist yields the greatest defense, while lowering attack speed and preventing power attacks, while berserker has you attack much faster at the cost of accuracy and defense, and no longer being able to use the dodge command.
- Vibro Weapon: The Shiver Sword, generally considered THE endgame sword. It's PC 2 and is described as dealing "apocalyptic" slash damage.
- Video Game Cruelty Potential: Say you want to drug another player, lock them in a room that they have no hope of getting out of, and let them starve to death or kill themselves. That's perfectly fine. Part of the fun is being inventive in how you do so. See also Cruel and Unusual Death above.
- Walking Wasteland: Abominations give off radiation, which can either be dangerous or a non-concern depending on one's gear.
- Weapon-Based Characterization: There are plenty of ways to build a character, but most of them revolve around picking and excelling at a particular weapon type, as you won't last long in the post-apocalypse without a means to defend yourself. Generally speaking, you can tell what a character is good at by their choice of weapon, though characters with more experience can make up for lack of natural talent by spending raw experience to train in other weapon skills for some variety in their combat style. The main categories are as follows:
- Axes / Carry a Big Stick / Hammers: Clubs require Brawn and Reflexes to be proficient at. Things like fire axes, crime sticks and piston hammers are all grouped under the Clubs skill, alongside the basic baseball bat or lead pipe. Can occasionally be seen on Brain Clubs builds, resulting in a Genius Bruiser.
- Bare-Fisted Monk / Power Fist / Natural Weapon: Fists require Brawn and Endurance to be proficient at. Affects your ability to fight bare handed, while using fist weapons such as the tesla gauntlets, or when using natural weapons like ripper claws, zombie claws, or abomination claws.
- Sinister Scythe: Spears require Reflexes and Endurance to be proficient at. Affects your ability to use all variety of pointy sticks, which can include anything from the humble sharp pole to the zap brannigan. Tends to mesh well with Psychic Powers, as high Endurance results in better Focus.
- Cool Sword / Katanas Are Just Better / Blade Enthusiast: Blades require Cool and Reflexes to be proficient at. From a basic switchblade to the boss springsteel, these are the sharp and pointy weapons of choice for cool types and vampires.
- The Gunslinger / Handguns / Sniper Rifle: Firearms require Cool and Reflexes to be proficient at, but Brawn affects the speed of the weapon. It covers most projectile weapons, from the simple .22 revolver, to the EMP shotgun, to even the futuristic Lasblaster. Guns ignore a good chunk of Dodge, so they can be very useful in PvP scenarios, but ammo is generally difficult to come by or expensive for the better weapons.
- Epic Flail: Whips require Senses and Reflexes to be proficient at. Affects your ability to use weapons requiring a bit more finesse, from the basic antenna whip to the deadly urumi. Generally the crafter weapon of choice, as Senses also affects your Craft skill, and since both Senses and Reflexes factor into Dodge, Whips builds can result in a hard hitting, hard to hit character.
- Science Hero / Gadgeteer Genius: Science requires Brains alone to be proficient at, though other statistics such as Brawn and Reflexes can affect speed and accuracy of the various weapons. Affects ability with a small but varied set of weapons, such as the tesla rifle or proton pack.
- Throw Down the Bomblet / Mad Bomber: Bombs require Brains and Cool to be proficient at. While not a true weapons skill, it can be useful for tossing grenades or other explosives into an adjacent square without losing a hand. Does not award XP for enemies killed using explosives.
- Psychic Powers: Focus requires Senses and Endurance to be proficient at. Also not a true weapons skill, and usually used as a supplementary weapon, some have been known to make Lethal Joke Character "Wizard" builds primarily for PvP.
