Okay ... I did this once, then began converting what i had done to work as a MUD. It is still a work in progress, but this is what i have learned.

1) use strict; -- It will save LOTS of headaches later on

2) Use modules for everything -- Don't try to cram it all into one large file. Break it up. Have your movemnt commands in one modules, fight commands in another, etc ...

3) plan for the future. Make it EASY to add features. More player information, room info, object info. No matter how much you plan when you start, theres always something you have forgotten.

I like using data dumper to dump hashes to text files and get tehm back again. It cuts down on a lot of coding, you don't have to parse any text files. In fact i put all my config stuff in a hash and dumped it to a file that gets loaded when the game starts.

Good luck ... i hopy you have more luck with it than i have ... I have been away from the project coding for another mud for so long that mine is prolly dead ...

Get something good going, RPG games in perl will rock.

Mbond