Okay, so maybe Dawn of Time is not the best code base choice. I have been looking for muds running it and I can't find any running a skill-based system instead of level and/or class based system. If I have to rip the level code out (okay, it isn't actually ripping, more like changing some stuff around) I might as well go with Smaug since I know it is easy to make that change to the base code. Kahuna says as long as he doesn't have to admin or (sigh) play, he would be happy to do a little coding for me.
I am also having trouble finding a host. I don't mind paying, but I really don't want to pay more than around five bucks a month. I just don't want to sink huge amounts of money in at the 'oh wow, you have ten rooms' stage. All I really need is the shell, one background process, some actual space and bandwidth (smaug is not a big eater) and a few connections. If anyone has any host recs that might work please let me know.
While searching for Mud related info I found a couple of cool tabletop-oriented sites:
Newbie DM shares a couple of free (and amazingly cool) mapping tools he found .
RPG Bloggers is a network of game blogs. Sort of a blog listing other blog entries. Lots of articles and posts on tabletop gaming.
And Gaming Brouhaha lists and discusses RPGs designed for busy adults. There is a followup post on the subject HERE that includes links to several indie presses.