User:Lauren

This is my WIP Total Beginner's Guide to MUSHing. If Batty hates me using server space for this, just let me know. Also, it's not MN specific, but I can edit it and make a MN specific version once I'm done.

The Absolute Beginner's Guide to MUSHing

So, your buddy has invited you to join an online text roleplaying game. Except it's not on Discord, or an MMORPG, or social media, or even an old school forum. It's a MUSH (or MUX, or Ares, or Evennia). And as soon as you check it out, you're immediately hit by a wave of things you don't understand, supported by help files that only make sense if you already know the basics. How do you get involved in the first place - what's this client business, and where do you find one? And then once you log in, how do you actually communicate with anyone, let alone play? For that matter, what does actual play even look like?

In short, WTF is this?

Why bother?

I'm just going to toss an example out of what MUSH roleplaying looks like, so you can decide right away if this is even appealing to you. Here is a snippet of an example roleplaying session involving three characters: John, Mary, and Susan. Something like this represents about five to fifteen real time minutes, depending on player speed, of roleplaying.

<insert fake scene here>

Regardless of your feelings on these three characters specifically or their little tea party, does this format of roleplay interest you? If yes, then read on. This guide won't teach you everything, but it should get you to the point where you can connect, interact, and - when you have to ask for help - understand the answers.

The Very, Very Basics

A MUSH (or MUX, or Ares, or whatever your particular code base is called, often simply referred to by the all encompassing "MU*") is a text based virtual space that you connect to using a special client or web portal, with - in general - a unique login used per character. This means:

Text Based

While some code bases may, under limited circumstances, support images (such as small avatar pictures), it's otherwise all words. While clients have a GUI, the MUSH itself doesn't; all commands have to be typed out, not clicked on from a menu.

Virtual Space

"Virtual space" is not some airy metaphor: MUSHes are literally divided up into virtual rooms, somewhat similar to Discord channels. A room is the basic unit of a MUSH. When you're in a room, you'll see a list of the other connected characters in there with you. If you use the game's basic commands to speak, or write out your character doing something, those players will see it. You'll be able to see the room's written description, as well as the descriptions others have written for their characters (and they'll be able to see yours). Most roleplaying occurs between characters in the same room.

You can only be in one room at a time, and you cannot simply immediately switch to any other room you please. Instead, rooms are connected with exits: custom commands within each room to take you to a neighboring room. You may need to pass through several rooms and exits to get where you're going. This network of connected rooms is known as the grid, from the (very) rough grid shape it makes if mapped out. Games can and do create entire virtual cities this way, with a web of rooms representing city blocks and the businesses and homes that branch off from them.

Clients and Connecting

Just as you need a browser to see web pages and the Discord app to connect to Discord, you need some sort of special client (sometimes embedded in a web portal, accessible via browser) to play a MUSH.

Also like a website, each MUSH has its own IP address, usually with a human readable DNS attached: e.g., mush.mushhosting.com. Unlike a website, MUSH addresses also have port numbers.

While some games do have web portals on their sites, it's generally easiest to find and install a client. These come with a variety of features, but for now, all you really need to do is connect. This will require the game's address, including its port number, and should be fairly self explanatory once you get the client installed.

Should be.

An incomplete list of clients, some of which are no longer being updated:

• MUSHclient (Windows - no longer updated)
• SimpleMU (Windows - no longer updated)
• BeipMU (Windows)
• Potato (Windows, Mac, Linux)
• Mukluk (Android - but seriously, don't MUSH on your phone, it's terrible)
• Duckclient (Chrome - yes, you can play from a browser)
• Atlantis (Mac - though Potato seems to be recommended more highly)

One Login per Character

Each character you play is its own unique object in the game, with its own login name and password. (Ares also has general player accounts, one per actual player, to which all your character logins are attached. Other code bases do not.) If you want a second character, you need to make a second login.

Other Basic Concepts

Before we get into the actual commands used, including how to log in, there are a few other basic concepts worth explaining.

IC/OOC

As MUSHes are roleplaying games, they draw a distinction between IC (in character) and OOC (out of character) actions. In character is what your character does; out of character is what you, the player, do. IC and OOC are very common abbreviations, to the point of being used in some commands, so learn them well!

The Grid

I touched on this earlier, but the grid is the network of rooms that make up the game. Grids are usually divided into IC and OOC sections. The IC part is whatever city (or other area) the game is set in, and where roleplay occurs, while the OOC section may include an OOC lounge for chatter, character generation (abbreviated to "chargen"), and rooms full of information about the game.

The phrase "going IC" refers to leaving the OOC section of the grid and going to the IC part.

Scenes

A scene is, well... a scene. You presumably already know what that is. I include this because MUSHers talk a lot about scenes; they're the basic unit of roleplay. I owe her a scene, I'm in a paused scene with him, I scened with him the other day (yes, "to scene" is a verb on MUSHes), etc.

Staff

You know what staff are: they're the people that run the game, DM for the game, code for the game, etc. Not all staff members (also known as "staffers") will do everything; one person might be code staffer, while another runs plots. While fellow players can be very helpful, they may not be able to give you a definitive answer to every question, and they won't have the authority to do certain things. Staff will.

For historical (and code) reasons, staff members are often called wizards, or wizzes, though sometimes this will only be true of the lead staffer in a particular area. A game may have a vampire wiz and vampire admin, for example. They're both staffers who run things for the game's vampire characters, but the wiz is actually in charge, while the admin is only a helper. The chief staff member on any game is usually called the head wiz.

On most MUSHes, by convention, staff member names follow a theme, such as animals, Shakespeare characters, robots from fiction, etc. The actual theme varies by game.

Connecting

Okay, so you've got your client downloaded or your web portal open. Once you've done that, connecting to the game will take you to the game's login screen. Once at the login screen, you can create a character, log in to an existing character, log in as a guest, or see who's online.

Character Creation

To create a character, go to the login screen of the game and type:

create <name> <password>

Where <name> is your character's name, and <password> is the password you want. Very occasionally, a game will have this option turned off, and you'll need to email the owners to get a login. This is usually for invite only games.

MUSHes can't handle multiple characters with the same login name. This isn't a policy decision by the owners, but a feature of the way the games are coded. If you pick a name and it's already taken, you'll get an error message. Just pick a different name.

Existing Characters

To login as an existing character, go to the same login screen and use:

connect <name> <password>

Easy!

Guests

Some games also allow you to connect as a guest and look around. If this is allowed, the command to do it is usually "connect guest" or "connect guest guest" (the second "guest" is because that's the guest account password!).

WHO

If you type "WHO" - yes, with all caps - you'll get a list of who's online. Keep in mind that, because MUSHes have one login per character, seeing 25 characters connected does not mean that 25 unique players are connected.

The Rudiments: How to Talk, Move, and Read the Rules

Once you connect, you'll land in a room, typically in the out of character section of the grid. There are a few commands, common to every game, that let you see who and what is in there with you, communicate with them, and move to other rooms.

Look

By typing "look", you can see the written description of the room you're in, a list of the other (connected) players in it with you, and the available exits. Some rooms will have non player items in them, known as objects, which will be listed with or near the player list. The exact format of the player and exit lists will vary from game to game, but they should be obvious and easy to read.

Typing "look <player>" or "look <object>", where <player> or <object> is the name of a player or object, will show you the description of that character or item.

Communicating to the Room: Say, Pose, and Emit

There are three basic ways to communicate with people in the room with you: poses, says, and emits. These will be shown to everyone else in the room. Each command has a long version and a short version. There's no difference between these, beyond how long they take to type. Save your fingers: just use the short versions.

Say

Say is not commonly used during actual RP, but it's reasonably frequent in OOC (out of character) chatting. To use it, type:

say <stuff>

or

"<stuff>

Where <stuff> is what you want to say.

Say is unique in that when you use this command, what you see and what everyone else sees are different. If you type:

"Was it something I said?

You'll see:

You say, "Was it something I said?"

But - and let's pretend your character name is Bob - everyone else in the room will see:

Bob says, "Was it something I said?"

Pose and Semipose

Pose is your roleplaying workhorse. Most play is done through poses (and emits, which are basically poses - see below). Posing allows you to write out what your character is doing, including dialogue, while automatically prepending your character's name. To use it, type:

pose <stuff>

or

:<stuff>

If you type (and again, let's pretend your character's name is Bob):

:pauses and huffs. "Or was it something I did?"

Everyone in the room will see:

Bob pauses and huffs. "Or was it something I did?"

Semipose is basically the same command, but doesn't insert a space between your character's name and the pose itself. It's useful for adding an apostrophe or comma after your character's name, and that's it. To use it, type:

semipose <stuff>

or

;<stuff>

Important note: Posing is almost always done in the present tense.

Emits

An emit is basically a pose that doesn't automatically include your character name. That's it. (Note that there are still ways to tell if it's an emit or a genuine pose, so don't try faking a pose from another character!) To use it, type:

@emit <stuff>

or

\\<stuff>

For example, if you type:

\\Scowling, Bob crosses his arms. "I don't understand what her problem is!"

Everyone will see:

Scowling, Bob crosses his arms. "I don't understand what her problem is!"

OOC Says and Poses

Most games will, in addition to this, have a command for OOC (out of character) remarks. It's usually the following:

ooc <stuff>
ooc :<stuff>

The first one will produce a say with some variation on <OOC> attached to the front, while the second produces a pose. For example:

ooc I gotta go, sorry.

Will show to the room:

<OOC> Bob says, "I gotta go, sorry."

While:

ooc :waves and runs!

Will show:

<OOC> Bob waves and runs!

Basic Movement

To leave a room and go to a neighboring room, you'll need to use one of the room's exits. An exit is basically a special command, custom for the room it's in, that will take you to a particular neighboring room. Looking at a room's description will list the available exits, sometimes labeling them "Exits" or "Obvious Exits." They will almost always have a section in brackets, such as in the following:

<E> Exit
[E] Exit
Exit <E>
Exit [E]
<E>xit
... and so on

You see how the exact format might vary, but there's always an "E" in brackets of some sort? That "E" is what you actually type to use the exit.

Communicating Outside the Room: Channels and Pages

Of course, there are ways to talk to people who aren't in the same room as you. The two that every game has are pages and channels.

Pages

Pages let you send private messages to people who aren't in the room. You can page someone - or several someones! - with the following commands:

page <player1> <player2> <player3> <etc.>=<stuff>

or

p <player1> <player2> <player3> <etc.>=<stuff>

If you wish to incorporate a pose into your page, rather than just sending a message, you can use:

page <player1> <player2> <player3> <etc.>=:<stuff>

or

p <player1> <player2> <player3> <etc.>=:<stuff>

Lastly, if you get lazy and don't feel like typing out another player's name (or list of names), the following commands will page the last person you paged:

p <stuff>
p :<stuff>

Be careful if you're having multiple conversations in page, as this is a good way to send a message to someone you didn't intend to!

Pages are almost always used out of character, although they are rarely used for in character communication, such as telepathy. (Many games with telepathy will have special code for that, however, and staff there typically prefer that you use it.) Your friends may page you to say hi or set up a scene, for example. Pages are also sometimes used to send players copies of poses they missed, either because their connection died or they left the room just as another player was hitting enter on a pose.

Channels

Games also typically have a channel system (the helpfiles for which are almost invariably terrible). Channels are ways to talk and make short poses that are not limited by room. Rather, anyone on the channel will hear what you say. Most channels are for out of character (OOC) chatter, but a few sometimes represent in character (IC) communication. Channels can be turned on and off, and some channels will be restricted to certain types of characters.

The actual commands for talking on channels vary by code base (MUSH vs. MUX vs. other things) but it's usually an abbreviation of the channel name, sometimes preceded by a +. For example, a channel named Public (for general public chatter) might use one of the following commands:

pub <stuff>
+pub <stuff>

Many games have newbie, help, or questions channels, some of which you may be automatically added to as a new character or guest. There will often be a message displayed showing what the channel is and how to talk on it.

News

Games need a way to convey information about themselves to players: their settings, their rules, etc. By convention, these are called news files, or just news. This is where you'll find all the basic information that staff wants you to know about the game. You can see the entire list by typing "news" and any individual news file with "news <file name>".

...Or you can just go to the wiki. Every modern game has one and they're a thousand times more convenient than typing "news blahblahblah" two dozen times.

Other Concepts

A few more useful concepts and terms for you to know, before you get started.

Game Culture

Every player has their own ideas of what constitutes good roleplaying: how long poses and descriptions should be, how they should be formatted, how long is reasonable to wait between poses, should you switch into writing poses in the second person when there's just one other player in the room, how much OOC chatter is desirable in a scene, etc. Some games have players with wildly differing answers to these questions. When this happens, it's usually not a problem: players will adapt and/or self segregate with others who match their playstyle. On such games, however you choose to play, you can probably find others who will either match or accept your chosen playstyle.

Some games, however, have a game culture that tilts in particular directions. You may have a harder time here if your play doesn't match their expectations. This is no excuse for other players to be outright rude to you, but it might be harder for you to find RP.

How do you know what you're dealing with? Well, you can ask, but observing usually works just as well (if not better) for many of these aspects of play. (In my experience, reading descriptions to see what length is typical is much more useful than asking how long a description has to be. The latter usually gets you something unhelpful like "however long it needs to be.") Have scenes with a variety of people, and see what - if anything - is typical for the game you're on.

Set/Sceneset

"Hey, can I get a set?"

A sceneset, or set, is a pose detailing what's going on in a scene. Literally, it sets the scene. These are typically done at the beginning of a scene, and when a new player shows up in an existing scene.

If you're entering an existing scene, before posing your own character's entrance, it's generally a good idea to get one of these, or to wait a few poses to see what's going on. This lets your character react appropriately to what's happening, rather than, say, bouncing in happily and trying to hug someone who's actually bleeding out on the floor.

Pose Order/Three Pose Rule

Pose order is the order in which people will pose, and it goes around in a circle. For example, John may pose first, followed by Susan, followed by Mary, at which point it's John's turn again. Keeping to a pose order ensures that everyone gets a chance to pose, and that faster writers aren't effectively "talking over" those who take longer to type. The actual order usually arises organically in a scene, though some games do have pose order commands. Generally speaking, it's rude to cut ahead, but there are exceptions.

One of these is large scenes. A common way of dealing with this is something called the "Three Pose Rule," or 3PR. Basically, you have to wait for three other people to pose before you pose again. This ensures that no one speedy typist dominates the scene, while still allowing things to move along.

This is one of those things that varies from player to player and game to game. Some people care very much about keeping to pose order, while others don't. When in doubt, it never hurts to ask what your scene partners prefer.

Logs

A log is just a copy of the text output during a scene, such as all the poses and any descriptions you looked at, saved as a text file. Technically, a log can be a copy of any text output from the game, but when players talk about logs, they usually mean scene logs. Some people log everything. Some never log. Some wikis will allow players to - with the permission of everyone in the scene - post logs that aren't too sexual or violent.

Logs are also sometimes kept as a way to keep players up to date with what's going on even when they can't attend a scene - such as a long meeting - in its entirety. If someone has to go two hours into a three hour meeting, but their character would stay, a log will help fill in what they missed.

Logging is done by your client, so you'll need to look at your client to figure out how to turn it on and off, and where to save the resulting text file. This usually is quite simple.

Some games will automatically log everything, with the logs accessible to staff, who may use it to confirm OOC harassment or IC actions. The game's news files should have something mentioning this, if it's the case.

Spheres

World of Darkness games are usually divided up into "spheres." This usually refers to the different game lines: games may have a vampire sphere, a mage sphere, a wraith sphere, etc. Spheres usually have their own themes, plots, and focus, and often their own staffer. Staffers for one sphere may not necessarily be able to run things or adjudicate dice rolls for other spheres.

Some games may also separate crime and/or law enforcement into their own spheres.

Approval

Most games do not simply allow you to create a character at the login screen, head out onto the IC section of the grid, and start playing. There is some sort of approval process to make sure your character fits the rules and/or theme of the game. This approval process can be very simple or very involved, and can involve anything from going through a brief, coded character generator to emailing a detailed application to a staffer. This depends entirely on the game you're in, and sometimes on what you're applying for (or "apping") as well. Check your game's news files (command: "news") and/or wiki for more information.

Some Other Terms

Lastly, a handful of terms you'll hear thrown around, and their definitions.

AFK

"Away from keyboard." Just what it says: the player had to step away from the computer (or phone) for whatever reason.

Bar RP

Social roleplay that's basically just mundane small talk. The archetypal bar RP scene is when two characters meet at a bar, ask each other where they're from and what they do, sip their drinks, and then go their separate ways. ["Except it takes two hours of my life that I'm never getting back!" - ed.] Not all bar RP is boring, but it does have that connotation.

Idle

When a player isn't posing, paging, talking, or otherwise interacting with the game. Used as both an adjective and a verb: players can be idle, be idling, or they can just idle.

TS

Short for "tinysex." (A lot of old school MUSH stuff begins with "tiny.") Erotic roleplaying. Included in this glossary so that you don't have to ask in game, blissfully naive, while everyone around you snickers awkwardly.

Slightly More Advanced Code

So, you can move around and talk to people. Great! But people are using all sorts of other code. How do you set a description on yourself? Somebody just whispered to you, what's up with that? And what the hell does "places available" mean?

A Slight Digression: + and @

A lot of the following commands start with + or @, and you're probably wondering why.

Firstly, if you're playing on an Ares game, you need to get out a big shaker of salt to take this section with. On Ares games, these commands don't start with those special characters, and sometimes have different names entirely. Should you skip this section entirely? Probably not. Ares is based on MUSH, in theory if not actual code, and so many of the basic concepts are the same. What you should do, though, is check the help for your individual game.

With that out of the way:

By convention, commands hardcoded into the MUSH itself start with @. "Hardcoded" means that every game running that particular code base will have that command, and many code bases share commands in common. These commands came with the server when the game owners set it up. Hardcoded commands almost always have their help documentation listed under "help", but good luck finding much helpful in there as a new player.

These are contrasted with softcoded commands, which - again by convention - start with +. These are commands that are added later, using a special MUSH scripting language. While some softcode is shared between games, it is much more variable by nature. Softcoded commands usually have their help files under a command called "+help" (where "+help <command name>" brings up the helpfile for an individual command).

As for why + and @ specifically, when a single uniform special character - or none at all - makes more sense: I have no idea.

@desc

Descriptions - also known as "descs" - can be set with the @desc command. To set your own, use:

@desc me=<description>

If you want to include line breaks or tabs, you'll need to use special characters, otherwise the MUSH will just eat up any extra whitespace.

%r - Adds a line break
%t - Adds a tab indentation

Lastly, if you want to be notified when someone uses the "look" command to read your description, you can copy and paste the following block of code:

&adescribe me=think -- %N just looked at you!

More Ways of ICly Communicating

There are a few more ways of communicating in character with other people. Besides phone code, which is so different from game to game that I can't begin to write a guide, two commands that most every game has are whisper and mutter.

Whisper

All MUSHes have a whisper command. Whisper can be used to privately send a message to another character in the same room. Unlike page, it only works on characters in the same room. Additionally, while page is usually used for OOC communication, whisper is typically IC. You can whisper by typing:

whisper <player>=<stuff>
whisper <player>=:<stuff>
whisper <player>=;<stuff>

Those last two options will format the whisper as a pose.

+mutter

Many, but not all, games also have a mutter or +mutter command. It works similarly to whisper, as a way to quietly and ICly speak to another character in the room - but unlike whisper, it will show certain parts of what you said while randomly concealing the rest of it. Each game's command works a little differently, but the general idea is that you type something like this:

mutter <player>=<stuff>

As an example, let's say that you, Bob, wanted to mutter to Mary. You'd type:

mutter mary=Did you get home okay to your mom?

You would see something like:

You mutter to Mary, "Did you get home okay to your mom?"

And Mary would see:

Bob mutters to you, "Did you get home okay to your mom?"

The rest of the room, however, might see:

Bob mutters to Mary, "... ... get ... ... ... your mom?"

Check your game's +help (type "+help") to see if it has a mutter command and exactly how it works.

Movement

Remember how I said that you can only move between rooms by using exits? I lied. There are ways to immediately jump to another room, but they all have their limitations.

Also, unless your character can teleport, these are all out of character ways of moving around quickly. Your character is assumed to be going the normal way, even if you're skipping right to your destination.

Home

Typing "home" will instantly transport you to whichever room you've designated as your character's home. If you're a new character, this will usually be automatically set as one of the OOC rooms. If you get your own in character home room on the grid, you can change it using a command called @link. To do this, stand in the room you want to designate as your home, and type:

@link me=here

Note that you can't just set any and every room as your home. Rooms that can be homes have to be specially marked in the code. If you're having trouble, talk to staff!

@Tel

@Tel, short for @teleport, will also immediately move you from one room to the next. You need to know the database reference number - or dbref - of the room you're trying to teleport into. That's the number that the game uses to actually keep track of the room. (In MUSHes, everything is internally identified by its dbref, rather than its name. Even you! Rooms, items, and players can be renamed, but dbrefs last until the room, item, or player is destroyed.) The room will also need to be marked in the code as one you can @teleport to; not every room is. If you know the dbref and the room is set up for it, though, the command is:

@tel #<dbref>

+ic/+ooc

These are commands that most games have. Typically "+ic" will transport you to your last location on the in character section of the grid, while "+ooc" will take you to the out of character part of the grid.

Mail

Games come with built in mail systems for sending messages to other players. They work pretty much like any other private messaging system on another platform. That's the good news.

The bad news is that the commands vary subtly between codebases, and they're pretty much all hardcoded, so you have to deal with the help files in "help mail", which are never very newbie friendly. The commands to read your mail are generally similar across codebases:

@mail - Gives a numbered list of your messages.

@mail <#> - Reads message #.

@mail/read unread - Reads all your unread messages.

Actually sending mail varies enough by codebase that, if "help mail" or "help mail-sending" don't do the trick, you're better off asking someone for assistance.

Other Players

Aliases

Because character names can be long and annoying to type at times, MUSHes allow for players to choose a shorter (or longer, if they really want) alias for themselves. This is something other players choose for themselves; you can't assign custom personal aliases to other players. If you don't like typing their name or the alias they picked, tough luck.

Aliases can be used in pages, mail, etc. - basically, anywhere a character's full name would be. If you don't know what a character's alias is, it's often displayed next to their name in pages (in parentheses), in their +finger, in +who, or other places. It depends on the game and the code base used.

To set your own alias, you can use:

@alias me=<alias>