ON THIS PAGE:
ON THE MATTER OF ROMANCE
THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT TINYSEX [Guest Speaker]
ON THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN TABLETOP RPGS AND MUSHES
PLAYERS CAN CARE AND FEED FOR MUSHES TOO! [Guest Speaker]
ON THE TYPES OF POWERPOSING
ON CANNED SPEECHES
| ON THEME | ON CHARACTERS | ON CONSENT |
| ON ADMINISTRATION | ON CODING IDEAS | ON GEOGRAPHY |
| ON COMMUNICATIONS | ON ROLEPLAY | ON MAGIC |
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Knowing The Rules in General
WHO MAKES THE RULES?
Let's start simple : in case you hadn't realized it, a roleplaying Mush is NOT a democracy. It can't possibly be - it would be almost impossible to get anything done if it had to be referred to a popular vote first, and as people came and went each week, the "majority opinion" could constantly be fluctuating from one extreme to another on any given issue without rhyme or reason. Consistency in OOC Rules and Continuity in IC Roleplay would become meaningless phrases, with no one authorized to enforce them even when other people objected.
For those of you who are familiar with Science Fiction and Fantasy literature, I point out the example of the various "Shared World" projects that have been attempted throughout the 80s and 90s. Usually at least 6 or 8 different authors end up contributing material, each one usually sticking to stories highlighting characters of his/her own creation, but in which other people's characters can play supporting roles, and all of them are bound to use the same basic street plans, political background, etc., to make it clear that all their efforts are occurring as part of a larger whole. In other words, the "Shared World" concept might be called a direct ancestor of the modern-day Mush, and so lessons that applied to one might apply to the other in a modified form.
Larry Niven, Science Fiction author extraordinaire and a man who has created many an interesting world in his day, has twice been involved in group efforts to create a "shared world." In both cases, he was one of eight people invited to participate. One of them (MEDEA) actually became a complete, published book; the other (THRAXISP) never made it. Here's what he had to say on why MEDEA (edited and completely dominated by veteran author Harlan Ellison) was more successful : "Eight creative people once set forth to produce another shared universe. Good things emerged, but no book. In the case of THRAXISP we were eight creators all created equal. You MUST have a dictator."
In other words, SOMEONE has to have the final say in the ground rules, be able to settle policy arguments once and for all by saying, "Having heard the arguments Pro and Con, I hereby announce that we will NOT have unicorns in this imaginary world we are creating! Live with it!" This Dictator's decisions may not be "perfect," but at least they are likely to be pretty self-consistent and coherent so that everybody can understand what the new rules are on a particular point. Ideally, of course, all these decisions are based on a single "Big Picture" in the Dictator's mind of what he wants the finished product to look like, with every little rule fitting together into a coherent system to make it all work. The Dictator (frequently called a God in mushing circles) may choose to delegate authority to other people in certain areas, but ultimately the responsibility is all his.
Basically, if you choose to play in his yard, you either play by his rules or you don't play at all. If you don't like it, you can go somewhere else. Or even start your own mush, although that's a considerably trickier undertaking than it may look at first glance.
KNOWING THE THEME
If you find yourself tempted to argue vociferously with local interpretation of a particular theme, there are two things you should be aware of first:
ONE : Ultimately the Admins of a Mush have the right to decide what their theme means. You can try to persuade them to change something, but you're not in a position to insist that they are OBLIGATED to do things your way.
TWO : Before you try to change their theme, it would behoove you to fully understand it. I once saw somebody arguing, on a book-themed mush, saying in effect, "I've never actually read the books, but when I do, I'm sure I will find that the magic-users were required to do such-and-such." His guess was wrong, but the whole argument was very weak when he frankly admitted he didn't know what he was talking about :) Surely you can do better than that.
What do you do if you are dead certain the Dictator is wrong? Or, for that matter, if there's an area where you feel he hasn't made ANY decision yet, and REALLY ought to?
You lobby. You present your case as clearly as you can. You explain why the current situation won't be as enjoyable for people as your proposed reform would be. You keep your temper and answer his questions politely. If, for some reason, you and he simply can't agree, you either A) shrug and learn to live with it, or B) quit and go somewhere else.
But BEFORE you can do all this, you had better be THOROUGHLY familiar with the "theme," so that the Dictator (and his assistants and advisors) will see that you aren't speaking out of pure ignorance.
If the theme is closely based on a historical setting (Renaissance Italy, let's say) you would do well to read a few books on the subject before you start arguing about the current Official Interpretation of Theme on some point or other. If you actually feel that a certain law or custom in Renaissance Italy, though a historical fact, ought to be changed because it will make Roleplay better, than you are perfectly free to say so - but your arguments are likelier to be listened to with sympathy if it is plain that you are at least AWARE of what the original rules were, and not just saying, "I don't know why you want to do it this way, but I INSIST you change it just to make me happy!"
If the theme is closely based on a fictional setting, such as a series of fantasy novels, you would do well to read them as soon as you can, and ESPECIALLY to read at least a couple of them BEFORE you start arguing about what the Theme "is supposed to be." Again, even if you feel that something which existed in the books (slavery, let's say) ought to be deleted from the Mush rendition of that culture, you should at least KNOW what was in the books and what wasn't.
If the theme is an original one, specially created for this mush, you are obviously dependent upon whatever online files the Wizards provide to educate you about it. Although if (for example) they say that several aspects of it are based on the old Roman Empire, then it wouldn't hurt for you to read one or two books about the Roman Empire to get a better "feel" for the subject. In the case of an original theme, there isn't much point in your telling them that they are not paying enough attention to the source material, since they are creating that material to suit their own purposes as they go along :) If you DO have to argue, you had better be prepared to give cogent arguments concerning why you fear a current policy will be detrimental to enjoyable RP for all concerned, rather than enhancing it.
NOTE : If you are interested in starting out in a mush where the theme is something you are ALREADY familiar with, and thus can discuss intelligently from the start - such as Tolkien's Middle-Earth, or the World of Darkness, or Star Wars - I maintain two webpages listing every active M** (yes, including MUDs) I can find which is based on a "pre-existing" theme. One lists all M** based on previously published fiction, and the other lists ones based on any other imaginary setting (films, TV, etc.). Follow these links:
M** Based on Preexisting themes of any medium except printed fiction
ON RULES IN GENERAL
Read ALL of them BEFORE you start serious Roleplay on any mush. Granted, this may take an hour or so in some cases. But playing ANY game without knowing the rules is an exercise in futility. If you want your character to be happy and prosperous on that mush for months or even years to come, then why not invest one little hour in making adequate preparations so that you know what you're getting into when you start RPing there? If you're lucky, the whole kit and caboodle is available as a single text file accessible via the webpage, which you can download and read in one sitting without constantly typing online commands to move on to the next paragraph. If you're just moderately lucky, they don't have it all on the Web in a SINGLE file, but they DO have everything converted to HTML and you can read a series of linked pages in your browser by just clicking on titles with your mouse. If you're unlucky, and you have to log onto the mush and start typing each little filename to bring up one screen at a time . . . well, grit your teeth and get started. My approach in such situations is to activate the Logging function in my client, type those commands as quickly as possible until everything has flashed across my screen, then open the log in a word processor window and read all the rules in one sitting - and retain the file on disk for future use.
Once you have read the rules, you will probably be able to avoid most of the truly ridiculous errors that often give Newbies (people new to online roleplaying) a bad name. For instance, I have personally witnessed this one several times:
Somebody new to the mushing scene logs onto a mush based on a popular fantasy series which he has already read. He discovers that a certain name (the name of his favorite major character in the books) is not being used by anybody else. Without doing any further research, he ASSUMES the role is available to anybody who wants it and creates a character with that same name, expecting everybody to instantly accept him as being one of the "stars" (or Feature Characters, as we call them) of this imaginary world. Then he blinks in shock as somebody older and wiser (in terms of mushing experience, anyway) notices what has happened and pages him with a warning that he had better change his name as soon as possible, because he's breaking the rules by just grabbing it without authorization.
If he had just taken a little time to read the rules FIRST and create a character LATER, he would have discovered either A) That no "Features" were allowed, meaning you couldn't use ANY of the character names from the books for your own characters, or B) That Features WERE allowed, but before creating one you were required to fill out an Application Form explaining why you should have it, and e-mail it to the Wizards for them to consider, and they would say Yes or No. Where such rules exist, they are always explained in files accessible on the mush, and often on the webpage to boot. This Newbie made no attempt to learn the rules of the game before trying to play the game, which would only be common sense with any type of game, and it's not surprising if other Players who are already established on the mush, and who DID read the rules before they did anything else, find themselves doubting that he has what it takes to make a conscientious Roleplayer.
ON THE REBEL IN THE SYSTEM
Once upon a time I read a lengthy post on a certain Fantasy Mush, written by the Player of a Feature Character taken directly from the original books which this mush had accepted as its thematic foundation. I don't have a copy of his post handy and will have to work from memory, but his basic point was this: In the books, his character had been renowned across the world as a very old and very powerful sorcerer, and ordinary people meeting him for the first time (if they knew who he was) tended to give him a wide berth, say as little to attract his attention as possible, and sigh in relief when he went away. Or occasionally someone flatly stated, "I don't believe you're really him," or "I don't believe in sorcery anyway," and got a nasty lesson as a result.
Certain old friends, such as monarchs of nations which this Sorcerer had historically supported, might not be so afraid of him as all that - usually - but they were likely to be polite when they had to deal with him.
But on this mush, he felt that a great many people - too many to be ICly justifiable - seem to get their kicks, on the occasions when they met him, by sassing him to his face (so to speak), insulting him, and generally making it crystal-clear that they weren't afraid of him one bit, no sir! He felt this trend was grossly unthematic, given the reputation his Character was supposed to have acquired across the last several thousand years for being ruthless and temperamental.
Having read the books, I agreed with him all the way. I should note in passing that I never roleplayed one on one with him (or with any other sorcerer on that mush) so I can't swear as to the accuracy of his claim that a lot of this nonsense was going on, but my experience on various other mushes leads me to suspect that his observations were perfectly justified.
Many times a mush is based on some theme, historical or fictional, where there are some rigid social structures (like Medieval European Feudalism) and it was EXTREMELY dangerous for someone at a lower level to brazenly flout the accepted customs concerning proper respect towards one's social superiors. Read a few history books and learn something about how radical the First Amendment to the United Constitution must have seemed at the time (that's the one about Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Press, and other ridiculous ideas that would have made a medieval aristocrat laugh himself sick at the very idea that any self-respecting government would permit such things).
There are at least three basic motives a Player may have in trying to act, in such a situation, as though his character is "just as good as anyone else!"
1) Ignorance of the appropriate thematic background.
2) A lazy tendency to act as though he was interacting with people in the atmosphere of the United States (or some other country with a representative democracy) in this day and age, no matter what the theme says.
3) The desire to be a nonconformist, to show that his character is "braver" or "smarter" or "more independent" than the rest of the herd.
Motive One is the least excusable of the three. Of course, this presumes that resources were readily available - such as online files written by the Wizards - to correct the problem and give the Player a good idea of what a typical character would feel like when he found himself face-to-face with Features/Elite. It is generally a mistake for Wizards to blandly assume that any Newbies who arrive will - if they choose to stay - ALREADY be intimately familiar with the source material (historical or fictional) from past reading. And if the theme is Original, created specially by the Wizards for the occasion, they had best be very explicit indeed concerning what the local society is like.
Motive Two is not a very good one. We call it "Roleplay" for a reason. The ideal Roleplayer does not just do what he, personally, would do in a given situation, but what somebody else (his artificial PC) would do, with an eye toward such questions as "Is it consistent with the theme, and does it make life more interesting ICly?"
Motive Three is interesting enough to deserve a lengthy discussion. Let's get started on it!
First, as the Feature's complaint which I paraphrased at the start of this chapter should demonstrate, bravely defying a big tough Sorcerer (or Duke, or Superhero, or whatever) when you're just an "ordinary" person who is very vulnerable to the Bigshot's IC abilities, is NOT a radical new idea which will impress everyone with what a rugged individualist you are. It's been done to death, and it's likelier to get people looking at you sadly and muttering OOCly, "Huh. He doesn't even know how to Roleplay!" Not, I hope, the reaction you were striving for.
Second, some people probably refuse to "bow and scrape" to a Feature/Elite because of their stiffnecked RL pride. They haven't managed to grasp emotionally, even if they understand intellectually, the fact that what their character does ICly, or what other people do to him, or say about him, has NOTHING to do with what you would or wouldn't do (or permit to happen) in RL. They feel that if their commoner character "Hu the Stableboy" actually kneels down when "King Joyse" enters the room, that THEY (the Player) have somehow demeaned themselves OOCly. This is ridiculous, but I can see how a person could fall into the trap.
Once upon a time I had begun OOC discussions with an acquaintance concerning ways to set up a TinyPlot to kill off her current character (since she was thinking of quitting the mush anyway and figured she might as well go out with a bang). After she logged off, I sent her a mail message suggesting a few possible approaches to the problem, and I believe I titled it : "Killing You (Nothing Personal)!"
The next time we were both online simultaneously, she paged me about the matter again, mentioning in passing that she thought it was a funny title. I commented that I had decided "Killing You" just might, conceivably, offend her a little - almost look as though I were some sort of personal enemy - and I had figured I should add the paranthetical comment to remind both of us that it was, after all, only a game we were talking about.
In retrospect, I suspect most roleplayers on a mush are probably capable of calmly discussing ways that their characters might kill one another, without getting too worked up over it or feeling that the Player (and not just the PC) is somehow being "threatened." But is the same true of discussions of what degree of humility an IC "Commoner" should show to an IC "Aristocrat?" It seems that it often is NOT, possibly due to the problem of "losing face," as it might be put. Roleplaying a physical struggle such as a duel with swords - and losing it - doesn't scare a good Roleplayer, and even roleplaying a gallant death against overwhelming odds in a worthy cause doesn't necessarily scare them . . . but the very suggestion of roleplaying a little thing like a [fill in] seems to horrify many. It feels undignified. It feels like a violation of the "civil rights" that many of the children of the later part of the twentieth century are finally beginning to take for granted in a way that their ancestors, not so long ago, never would have done.
But I repeat: It's ROLEPLAY. Trying to adapt yourself to acting in accord with different laws and customs in a different time and place is excellent exercise of your mental muscles, and it's guaranteed nonfattening, nonaddictive, and it won't give you cancer! An awful lot of other popular forms of "entertainment" (smoking, drinking, gambling) can't say the same.
My advice is this : if you aren't prepared to play according to the theme, don't play on that mush. And look on the bright side : someday YOU might be one of the big Features or Elite (royalty, even!) and surely YOU will want the peasants to be showing the proper humility at that point? But you can't expect them to give more than you did, under the same circumstances.
Okay, how many things were wrong with that character description?
I'll just mention a few of the most obvious points, then I'll give a detailed list of things that you should - and shouldn't - do in your own descriptions.
"The mightiest warrior of the fabled land of Testosteroneia." This statement presumes that either A) you have heard of him before and know his life story, or else that B) you can tell by a single glance at a total stranger that he is from Testosteroneia, and the toughest warrior they have produced lately. Neither of these things should be taken for granted in a description.
"Surely the strongest man in the world." If that's meant to be taken as a simple statement of fact, it's ludicrous. How can Cronkheit's Player know that you weren't RPing with Hercules yesterday night? If it's merely meant to be taken as a description of the "impression" you ought to get from looking at Cronkheit, it's an attempt to force your own PC to reach a definite conclusion on the spot, again without paying attention to the fact that you may have met other men just as muscular or more so. Statements of an absolute (the strongest, the smartest, the most beautiful, the most skilled swordsman in the world) are always risky and should generally be avoided.
"Though still a mere 27 years of age." I don't know about you, but if I can even guess the age of an adult human being within 5 years I figure I'm ahead of the game. And I don't think I've EVER said, "Aha, he looks exactly 27 years old!" and turned out to be right. If age must be mentioned, you could say, "He still looks less than thirty years of age," or something that would be a little closer to giving an idea of the general "range" that somebody seeing him for the first time might estimate him to be in.
"You feel your knees go weak." Most veteran Roleplayers HATE descriptions that effectively "force a pose" upon them, or try to.
Having covered some of the things the description SHOULDN'T have said, but did, let's examine a couple of things it probably SHOULD have said, but didn't.
On the subject of Cronkheit's clothing, we know he's wearing a headband. We know he's wearing leather boots. But is he wearing anything else? We can certainly hope so, but the writer of the description didn't actually say that, did he? Cronkheit may be risking arrest on charges of "public indecency" or some such thing (not to mention the risk of catching pneumonia if the weather gets chilly).
By the way, what's his general skin color? Assuming for the moment that you don't know what the typical inhabitant of Testosteroneia looks like, right now you only know this particular specimen has black hair and blue eyes. His skin (for all we know) could be pasty white, brown (natural or tanned), yellow, red, black, or any other color under the sun.
He's muscular, but is he taller than average? Or shorter than average? He may be the most muscular dwarf in the world, near as we can tell from the description.
You get the point? If a Roleplayer had written that description in all seriousness (instead of my inventing it as an extreme example of what NOT to do), he would have been accused by his peers of trying so hard to "intimidate" people that he failed to give a complete picture of just what this oh-so-frightful Barbarian actually LOOKED like. Now let's examine the Do's and Don'ts more systematically, shall we?
Trying to "force a pose" on the observer is a bad habit. "Your jaw drops and your heart pounds as you observe the rare beauty of Dejah Thoris, princess of Helium. You can't tear your eyes away from her, etc." is NOT going to win friends and influence people. Really.
Likewise, trying to claim that your character is the "most" something, or the "best" something, or simply is like nothing the viewer has ever seen before, is a bad habit. Other examples : "Reed Richards clearly has the sharpest scientific intellect of any person you have ever met." "Never have you seen such a beautiful woman as the Princess Buttercup, not even in your dreams." How can you possibly know that this will be true for all your viewers? You can't. As a general rule, avoid the superlative and just say, "A very intelligent-looking man," or "A very beautiful woman," if you have to mention it at all and think you can get away with it.
On the other hand, things you would do well to include in your description are:
Gender. Skin color. Hair color. Length of hair. Facial hair, if any. Eye color. Are your eyes slanted/almond-shaped (as Caucasians often refer to the common eye shapes of the Far East - if you don't mention it, most mushers will probably assume that you are "round-eyed" instead)? Perhaps some indication of your approximate age (I would not normally put in my description, "Laurent is 25 years old," but I might put "Laurent looks to be in his mid-twenties"). Approximate height and build (even if it's something as vague as "tall and lean") are also advisable unless, by default, you want people to assume that your height and build are simply dead average for a character of your ethnic background, age, and gender (whatever "dead average" may mean in that particular culture).
And don't forget clothes : basic description of what sort of clothes you're wearing (is it a one-piece jumpsuit, or a blouse and skirt, or a tuxedo, or a military uniform?) as well as the colors thereof. If there are any "accessories" you normally wear/carry in plain sight (weapons, jewelry, a purse, a backpack, whatever) add them too.
Cover all that in your first draft and you've got a basic description ready to go. Now, there are little frills you might want to add (strictly your personal decision in each case), such as : what sort of voice do you have (for musical purposes, human voices are considered to fall into 6 basic categories, ranging from Bass at the low end to Soprano at the high)? What sort of tone is usually in your voice, what sort of expression is usually on your face, do you move your hands about a great deal, do you smile often, do you move gracefully, do you have any visible scars, is there anything else noticeably "unusual" about your appearance such as an exceptionally large nose or a visible limp in your left leg or a streak of white in your otherwise dark hair, and last but not least, are you rather good-looking?
Veering over into the subject of placing geographical references in your desc, we find some potential pitfalls. Do you want to say right up front that you are a typical specimen of a certain ethnic group? This can save you some time IF you can be sure your viewers will be enlightened rather than confused by it. If this is an ethnic group which exists as part of the theme and is well-known to other groups, you're probably being reasonable in saying something such as, "Soton seems to be a typical Vulcan male," on a Star Trek mush, since presumably virtually every sentient being in the Star Trek setting ICly knows exactly what a typical Vulcan is supposed to look like - and so does every Roleplayer on the OOC level.
If you are part of an IC ethnic group which most of the people around you won't be familiar with ICly, it gets trickier. And what if you want to describe yourself in terms of a RL ethnic group in order to help your viewers identify with things they have encountered in RL, such as "Yabu looks like a typical Japanese man", or "Yvette has a slight French accent", in a setting where ICly nobody has ever heard of "Japan" or "France?"
I don't have hard-and-fast answers for that last question. I admit that if a slight French accent is an important part of your vision of the character you are creating, even though she lives in a world where there is no such place as "France" on the map, there's no surefire substitute that your potential viewers will likely understand and be able to "hear" in their imaginations. "A slight Arbonnais accent?" "A slight Ferrieres accent?" Fans of Guy Gavriel Kay's fantasy novels might read either of those phrases and think, "Ah yes, she means she has a FRENCH accent!" but nobody else would. Basically, I suppose it's just a question of what you think you can get away with in a particular mush's environment. Of course, if you DO say "Japanese" or "French" you have to remember that while this communicates a tad of information OOCly, ICly people aren't going to know where your accent comes from.
The Tales of Ta'veren Mush, which promises to be a real champion if it ever actually opens, has some outstanding webpages for anyone seeking further guidance on mushing and roleplaying. Try this one first : http://fly.ccs.yorku.ca/mush/rpres.html .