Revision as of 20:43, 8 February 2020

This news file is a compilation of rulings about roleplay and plots on the MUSH.

Roleplay

Long Memory

Long Memory is a rule that exists to smooth the player and character experience, and allow popular themes to continue to provide interesting plots with a minimum of gymnastics. Characters having their every defeat remembered forever, or even the defeats of other characters that bear their name -- such as someone always remembering the time they solo beat all 8 of Wily's Robot Masters, and thus, never respecting any Dr. Wily character -- creates an environment that is poor for engaging in combat. Characters having an infinite expanding on and off-screen knowledge dossier on every theme they've been to or heard about similarly violates the spirit of this idea, as well as the spirit of our Advantages policy and the wonderment of our genre of game.

At the time of this writing, MCM has been open for 14 years. Many different characters, plots, and interactions have come and gone and will continue to do so. In the interests of characters and settings not being "solved" by long-term characters on the MUSH, we don't allow information about past content to remain live on the MUSH indefinitely. This is especially the case with content from source materials and characters that have since been dropped. The exact time frame in which content should no longer be referenced isn't set. Some content may be deliberately sunset sooner, as in the case of source materials no longer valid for play, but as a general rule-of-thumb it's reasonable to expect that anything 5+ years old is iffy.

This ruling is rooted in revised Power Copy rules from 2016, wherein we put an expiration date on stolen Advantages on the basis that -> The reason for this is that we don't, for example, want the Sailor Moon of 2008 to make the decision to let Power Copier X steal her Moon Crystal Power and for the Sailor Moon of 2016 (almost certainly not the same person) to have to live with that baggage. <-

FacHead Permission

FacHead permission is required for factional betrayal/defection, and long-term infiltration. Strictly speaking, Staff has overriding authority on whether or not these go forward, but if a FacHead is uncomfortable with the idea, it's strong grounds for denial. It is possible to petition Staff for permission without consulting the FacHeads, but we will require a fair explanation as to why we should allow this, and it is likely that we will say no and tell you to go speak with the relevant FacHead(s) anyway.

Plots

Plots are often referred to by the term "TP", which is shorthand for "TinyPlot", a term generated from an early MUSH codebase's name of TinyMUSH. A TP is pretty much just local cultural jargon for what you'd expect: A story, run by players.

Here at MCM, we think plot applications are horrible, time-wasting bottlenecks. So we require them as little as possible. Which is to say, pretty much only when you want to do a plot so enormously momentous that the entire Multiverse has to take notice-- a Global TP.

Plots may not require players to surrender their character's applied-for advantages or combat attributes as a condition of entry.

Seek Staff permission and advice for plots that:

• Involve visible long-term capture or mind control / temporary defection of a Player Character.
• Involve violation of core policy, especially scale and interaction policy.