Tutorials

This page contains various tutorial or help posts that were put up on the MUSH at one point or another; some may still be around, others may have timed out by now. Here we go!

Primary Advice For Everything

TALK.
TO.
PEOPLE.

It is much better to ask for permission than forgiveness. There are no exceptions to this, and a lot of issues on the MUSH that get brought up by people, openly or privately, are caused by a lack of communication. If you're not sure about something, ask. If what you want to bring up is potentially problematic, ask. If you're planning to do something big, ask. You'll solve a lot of your own problems this way!

Code Stuff

Setting Up A VRRoom, by Lain

The Virtual Room parent is something I wrote in order to allow players to extend their objects allowing them to build rooms within them. The commands are similar to the MUSH building commands and there is a help command (vrhelp) once you have the object setup.

Here is how to create and set up the objects, just replace "Bob's House" with whatever you want your object to be named:

@create Bob's House
@parent Bob's House=#2609
@set Bob's House=!no_command
drop Bob's House
enter Bob's House
+setup
vrhelp

The code is provided free to use and modify, though I ask that you at least give me credit for the original code. Any bugs and questions should go to me (Xiph Theora) either through page or @mail. Pages can get lost in the spam, so if I don't reply, @mail me, and if I still don't reply, try paging my alt (Shemune) as she gets a lot less channel spam.

NOTE: Make sure to enter all the commands. If you do not finish (specifically the +setup command), it will seem like the game is eating any other commands and not doing anything.

Making A Cast Object, by Homura

@create <Name>
>> I suggest always adding an acronym as well; for example, Bright City <BC> as the full name of your object. This allows easy entry by going 'enter bc' instead of having to write the whole name.

@lock <name>=me
>> This prevents anyone but you from moving the object around.

@set <name>=enter_ok link_ok
>> This makes the object enterable and people can set their home there.

@parent <name>=#2613
>> This gives the room the new grid layout (it's optional).

@desc/@idesc <name>=description
>> The latter lets you describe the inside of the object (for people in it) and the former lets you describe what people see from the outside. This is ideal for short vs extended descriptions, like 'you see a city' instead of five paragraphes describing the city.

Drop the object in the appropriate grid room (for example, Tokyo might be best dropped in the Asian Plains, but it's up to you).

Enjoy!

Graphical +Stats, by Homura

+gstats and +gscan are graphical alternatives to +stats and +scan I coded out of boredom.

To make the graphical +stats and +scan your default:

@set me=!no_command
&CMD_SCANALIAS me=$+scan *:+gscan %0
&CMD_STATSALIAS me=$+stats:+gstats

To reset back to normal:

&CMD_SCANALIAS me
&CMD_STATSALIAS me

This display has a lot of hidden functionality that will only actually appear when you use a sigmove, boss mode, buff or debuff-- otherwise it's hidden for the sake of not taking up too much space. If you have any, try them out!

General Advice

Surviving MCM, by Laine

So as I've mentioned before, especially when I retired from staff, I was suffering from some pretty severe burnout before I came to MCM. This really turned around in a big way, obviously, but I do know what it feels like, and I can see it happening a lot here. There's a reason for that, though. Even in the time I've been here(and I'm not an old hat like some), there's been a number of big changes. Most of them are for the better, but the biggest changes have been organic and they can kill someone's desire to play... but not through maliciousness. Through activity.

When I first came here, the MUSH was healthy, don't get me wrong. However, most of the activity was through target battles and random battle scenes, and a few running TPs. TP scenes were usually 2-3 per week, at most, and were often 'fight the big monster' with occasional scenes that changed things up as well. Social was not unknown, of course... in fact, it was more common than you might remember. The point is, you could coast along and attend TP scenes regularly and be pretty involved with most anything.

Those days are gone now. We have TP scenes running every night, just about. It's gotten to the point that people are neglecting the lighter RP of random pickup fights, which is ironically what kept the MUSH alive from the beginning. It's not a bad thing that there are tons of TPs. It IS a bad thing to approach the newer, more player-driven world with the ideal of the old Mush. It will kill your drive, and kill the drive of those around you. How? Well, let's just see how to AVOID that.

ATTENDING TPS: As I said, there are tons of TPs running now. Many of them are long term. Trying to do ALL THE TP STUFF will just burn you out faster than a flash pan. There are two things that you can do to help with this.

First off, attend fewer TP scenes. Yeah, you heard me. A more comprehensive answer, though, is to find out how long the TP is running and how many scenes there are, and how intense it is. If it's particularly long running, spurts of activity are perfectly fine. TP runners can also talk with people and run more scenes, but make them smaller to account for this. Smaller scenes in greater number helps TP runners by reducing their stress, while it simultaneously diversifies play groups because the same people aren't attending every scene. This can be a problem in, say, the Madoka TP where every Puella was in almost every scene, plus the Unionites most attached to them. By the time we added in all the 'essential' players, scenes were 8-9 people and then took in others. This will also let some of the less active people participate and have a little moment to shine, since the 'big shots' of the Mush(as a few people are seen) won't be in the limelight quite as much.

This philosophy leads to a lot less of the other thing you should be avoiding, which I have chosen 'butthurt' for the technical name. There's a lot of this because people can't fit into scenes, or can't seem to find the right point to join in. Take a step back, relax, and talk to a TP runner if you really want to be relevant. Realize, too, that your TP runners have lives and may need time, and may not even be able to accomodate what you want. It's okay. There are other things to do on the Mush, every night. There are cool players just about every night poking around on RP for random scenage, and these 'random scenes' will often spawn their own epic storyline without a TP associated, or lead into an interesting TP.

In summary: spread yourselves out a bit. Don't try to jump into what the current fad seems to be, and pace yourselves, TP runners and players both. You'll last a lot longer.

Character Advice

Character Lifespan, by Vruasa Telash

Going to keep this one short and sweet folks.

So, to put it simply: Characters have a limited lifespan. You may enjoy playing one for an incredibly long amount of time. You may not be ready to give them up. But I see a lot of people out there who sit on the same character indefinitely and, although they try and struggle, they don't really manage to do anything with them.

Over time, a roleplayer loses the voice of his characters in his mind. Usually, he also gains the voice of other characters, or maybe makes some of his own.

It's hard sometimes, but past a point it's time to let go, and a lot of roleplayers don't seem to know when to do that. My advice is, if your character is just a string of failed launches, or if you log on your character only grudgingly and feel vaguely bad in your gut about doing so... let them go. Find something new. Refresh yourself.

Eventually, the old characters will probably return to you in some way. But if you just keep pushing a character that is a pile of burning flesh that would make Darth Vader flinch in sympathy, you're just spinning your wheels.

A Word On Evil Characters, by Vruasa Telash

During some discussion on 7-MUSH-Discussion, there was some talk of evil characters and how difficult it can be to play them. I want to discuss that a little bit, because people seemed to have difficulty with a very simple concept and I didn't get much time to try to discuss it there.

Evil people are people.

They have motivations, sometimes understandable sometimes not, but the foundation of 'being evil' is not evil itself (most of the time), but rather working towards accomplishing a goal in ways that are generally harmful to other people. An evil character doesn't wake up one morning and think, 'I am going to murder some babies today.'

An evil character MIGHT think, 'I need to bring my dead wife back to life. I'm perfectly fine with performing a ritual involving the murder of some babies to accomplish this.'

This is still a horrifying action. But it is COMPREHENSIBLE, and even somewhat sympathetic.

When you are playing a character who is evil, do not focus on the fact that they are evil. Focus on what they want to accomplish, and from there WHY they are willing to accomplish it in extreme ways. Some characters that are antagonists may not actually BE evil, but rather work with evil people to accomplish a thing they otherwise believe in. Here's a few common but understandable villainous motivations/situations/archetypes to chew on:

• MISPLACED LOYALTY: Anakin Skywalker to Senator Palpatine, General Leo to Gestahl's Empire, Zuko to Firelord Ozai. These people really weren't bad guys (although all of them followed a very dark and questionable path), but it's not easy when your buddies turn out to be horrible monsters, and it's not hard to be influenced in bad ways by people you respect and care about.

• SINGULAR DEVOTION: Haku to Zabuza, Seta Sojiro to Shishio Makoto. Characters like these are very similar to the above, but tend to take things more extreme. They don't necessarily constitute bad people themselves, but they do slavishly follow somebody who really IS all that bad, and will tell them to do awful things. They might hate every second of it, or they might not. Either way, they listen, and obey.

• LOFTY IDEALS LAID LOW: Probably the best example of this that I can come up with for you here are the various iterations of Zeon from Mobile Suit Gundam. They've got a very real reason to be fighting against the supposed "good guy" force (disclaimer: gundam has little to no unambiguous good and the protagonist factions ALSO tend to nerve gas millions of people), but for the most part they're just people banding together to fight for their rights. Unfortunately, their leaders just happen to be Space Hitler or some analogue thereof.

• FOR THE GREATER GOOD: ... And sometimes, evil people really are in the right. Most of the time this is used to justify horrible things that aren't actually justifiable. Sometimes though, the antagonist is the one working to save the world and, unknowingly, you've set out to destroy it.

• VILLAINOUS UPBRINGING: Or maybe your character is a pretty normal person and just got indoctrinated into their evil by whoever raised them. It happens. Lotor of Voltron was hardly strictly evil by nature, and Azula wouldn't have been nearly the monster she was if she wasn't emotionally manipulated by her father and raised in a militaristic society.

• SIMPLE SELFISHNESS: I've got to reiterate this one. Somebody who is just selfish to the extreme is textbook evil, and it's pretty easy to play. A normal person would certainly want to bring their wife back to life if she died. Same with a best friend, or family member. Where a normal person might seek out an ideal solution like the Dragon Balls, this person is pretty okay with sacrificing random people they don't know for the one or two they do.

They'd also definitely want to defend themselves if they were to be attacked. Or defend their friends, etc. This person just takes it a step farther. Eye for an eye is their bare minimum, and they'll take more from you if you take from them. It's not hard to put yourself in these shoes.

In conclusion, some food for thought: Given a choice, would you rather be the person getting executed, or the person doing the executing?

OCs, FCs and Attention by Supporting Role

Every once in a while the topic of OC vs FC sell comes up on 7 or on other channels. It is, put simply, a very heated issue for numerous reasons. The chief complaint is that the Mush in general does not pay much attention to Original Characters, but a popular FC will often be pounced upon and doninate discussion quite easily, with very little effort. Though less common, FCs from obscure themes can also have this problem, so we'll group them in with OCs for purposes of this discussion.

The fact of the matter is, the instant recognition is one of the major advantages of playing an FC. This is always going to be true, and it will always be more difficult to garner attention as an OC than as an FC. While it is true that people here do tend to have tunnel vision when dealing with characters they know, and often unintentionally ignore new people in a discouraging fashion, this is not universal nor malicious in most cases. Therefore, staff is not going to sit up here and dictate from on high that people MUST pay attention to new OCs. All we will say is that players should remember common courtesy in discussions, radio conduct, and general RP.

What we can provide are some suggestions on how to get your character noticed, and what effort it takes. These work equally well with FCs, but are much more important for OCs due to the lack of an existing lore and fame.

METHOD 1 - SLOW AND STEADY: The easiest, yet slowest method to gain attention for your new character is to simply attend scenes. Unfortunately, scenes are not guaranteed to show off your character or spotlight them in any way, especially TP scenes or intros of other players. For this reason, it is an excellent idea to combine this with constant socialization over radio, and remembering that expressing interest in another's character ICly will often result in reciprication. Some people are fine with remaining relative unknowns for some time and slowly building up reputations, but the cruel fact of this method is that it requires relatively high activity and a great amount of patience. It is the most long-lasting sort of attention, however, and this method can be combined with the other ones to aid in gathering a reputation. In fact, it should always be used to some degree.

METHOD 2 - SCENERUNNING: If you are good at running scenes, you can introduce your character's theme, and the character itself, by running scenes. This must be done carefully, as you can quite easily oversell your new character and make the attendees feel superfluous. This therefore works much better if you are introducing a new theme, and your character will gain attention by being a part of that interesting new setting rather than directly.

METHOD 3 - INTRO SCENE: Despite its name, the intro scene does not need to directly deal with your character. This method requires prenegotiated contact with one or more other players willing to present your new character in a scene. Intro scenes are generally the most surefire way of garnering immediate attention, aand also have the advantage that the player in question need not be a skilled scene runner, as someone else is doing that. The downside is that it requires someone willing to intro your character, but several players are willing to perform that duty for new alts. Unlike 'first scenes' in general, intro scenes also have the advantage of being specifically tailored to show off your character's abilities and/or personality, and furthermore are one of the few times that staff will actively frown at someone for attempting to steal the show. Making another character's intro scene about /your/ character, or otherwise being highly disruptive, is very bad form.

METHOD 4 - PESTER INCESSANTLY ABOUT YOUR CHARACTER ON OOC CHANNELS: Don't do this.

TP Advice

Writing TPs, by Blue Elf

So you've decided to write a TP proposal, huh? A lot of people are intimidated by this, especially at first. Don't be, it's really not as hard as it sounds. Even so there are several pitfalls you should avoid, and this guide is intended to help with them.

WHAT THIS GUIDE IS NOT

This guide is not actually a guide to walk you through making a TP. Each plotline is different, and the format and layout of each can differ radically. By their very nature, the structure of a TP is more fluid and the judging more subjective than a character application, so in many cases it is impossible to give a 'how to write' guide.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

So if we can't help you by providing a guide in how to write it, despite the title of this one, what can we do? There are some tips available.

First off, TALK to people. If you have castmates, discuss with who would be affected by this the most. Make sure they're OOCly okay with this, and solicit opinions from them. TP staff as well are available for ideas and discussion, though we are not here to write your app for you. What we can do is help you past some uncertain blocks, such as how to reveal critical information that needs revealed, or discussing villain PLs if you are using coded combat.

KNOW your audience and their availability. If a critical member of your cast is going on a 3 month world tour in 3 weeks, this probably isn't the time to launch your world-shaking TP.

BE AWARE of other ongoing plots and trends. TP staff pays attention to this, and will nix too many TPs with the same theme in a row, especially a particularly delicate theme like betrayal or mind control.

WHAT NOT TO DO

DON'T use something too obscure and complicated without giving time for explanation. Many themes and plotlines are by their nature a little hard to grasp to those unfamiliar with the source(e.g. Exalted), so care must be taken to present the plot in a manner that others can understand. This may require adding extra time at the start just to run a few scenes familiarizing people with the situation.

DON'T make your character(PC or NPC) the only one who matters. While it is fine having a particular PC or NPC pivotal to the plotline, it is extremely important to let the participating characters feel that their contribution did something. Read your plot summary, and if everything would go exactly the same whether or not the other players are there, then your TP will not be that enjoyable for others.

DON'T write things on rails. Players will do unexpected things, and with very few exceptions, no fights should be unwinnable. The plotline should advance regardless of who wins a fight, though this does not require multiply-branching paths. Simply have some idea of a way to reward an unexpected victory or clever usage of a power, it doesn't have to require derailing the plotline. It is acceptable to have a scene or two on rails to set up the plot, but if more than ~20% of your scenes are immutable and lack participation, you should revisit your plotline.

DON'T be upset if your TP character doesn't get the PL/Bossmode/sigmove you want. A villain doesn't need to be a PL38 unstoppable beast to be a threat. It is up to your plotline to present a viable threat that does not depend on a villain being unstoppable.

WHAT WE DO LIKE

Flexibility. If your plot is reams and reams of text about how each scene will go, that's a black mark. If you need something accomplished by the participants, it is better to put in some suggestions and leave the details up to the players rather than design your plot around a specific item or power, unless your plot is ABOUT a specific item(say, the Triforce).

Accessibility. Limiting certain scenes in participation is okay, but broad plot participation is encouraged.

Multiversal. This is a new one. We've had a lot of plotlines that are specific to a theme and only use that theme's resources. Mixing thematic elements is a good thing here, and we'd like to see more of it. Be careful when doing this, however, as it is better to focus on a single imported element unless you really know what you're doing, rather than mash everything together. Also be extremely careful about assuming one theme's elements have superiority over another's. While that is sometimes the case, it is better to take an element that is completely different from one theme and put it in another to spur the plot.

IN CONCLUSION

We can't write your plot for you, but the above should let you avoid some pitfalls. Even so, TPs are often forced into multiple revision cycles. This is normal, and keep in mind that we are simply trying to make a plot that everyone can enjoy. Good luck!

Writing TPs, by Nathan Hall

A companion piece to a post I made on 14, on Abstractum.Net, is some transparency I'd like to offer in how the TPs I run are designed, and the methods that are used to give them their open-ended and extremely malleable nature. Some of the scenes I've been doing have, doubtlessly, seemed like they were a bit on-rails and just plain exposition. That is why I feel it's best to expose a bit of my design philosophy.

To be entirely frank: A majority of the world-building and plot-building is done on the spot, and is based on the investigations and exposition requests and speculation that people are doing immediately. Or, on simple, small flavor elements they add to their poses. This is extremely difficult to explain, and must, I feel, be shown in example.

For an example, I'll use Psyber's Node, the City of Division. While visiting a pocket world that a race of fantastical creatures live in, and going to see their Queen, one of the other characters who he had brought along mentioned that she was expecting to go see Queen Mab. I found this interesting, but contradictory to past events. So, I decided to say that in this setting, Queen Mab is actually dead. But this implied a massive past catastrophe, so, born entirely out of a stray slightly-sarcastic question of "are we gonna go see Mab?" There is now, in that setting's history, an event where another faction razed the Winter Court.

Another example: Recently, a User ran their first investigation into a Node. While they were boarding a ship, they said, to nobody in particular, that they requested permission to come aboard. In this setting, I was already planning on a ghostly sea presence elsewhere, so, by saying that, she gave me the idea of every single ship having an autonomous ghost captain, one that she had just now interacted with. So, through one tiny bit of flavor text, she established a major fact about the setting.

These things can be pursued as far as players will take them, and in some cases, are. This was done in Sburb, where pursuit of a random crop eventually turned into a redefinition of the entire planet's structure, where pursuit of a single NPC turned into a redefinition of the entire political scene, and other things like that. It is important to me that my players understand one thing in particular: Any rails you find yourself on are being constructed by you, actively, and no, I'm only about one step ahead of you at any given time, even I don't know a lot of the twists that will come later.

Besides a sparse few intended concepts I intend to drop in a given node - twists, setting elements, characters, etc - everything else is all you, and you will shape my settings and plot through pressing in any given directions. When you attend my scenes, I encourage you to keep this in mind. Ask questions, be weird with flavor, push on anything you find interesting at all, and I will often try to come up with something wherever you care to make a lot of effort to investigate. I've tried to make my settings as absolutely malleable as possible, and it's a good idea to keep in mind that this extends to your passive interactions as well as your active ones.