What are MUSHes?
Take a Mush Tutorial - basic commands
Learn to build rooms on Mushes
Mush is believed to stand for 'Multi-User Shared Hallucination', and in current times has come to be called
'Multi-User Shared Habitat'. Okay..the name doesn't tell you much.
A mush is a text-based virtual reality. It's a series of Chat Rooms, linked by 'exits' (if you type an exit
name, you'll go to a different chat-room). Unlike IRC and AOL's chatrooms, each room can carry a description, as
well as objects that can do different things. Characters, the representations of players, can also have descriptions,
and can carry objects that do things. This makes a MUSH an incredible place to hold a roleplaying campaign, because
you can build the actual spaces in which the party wil l travel and the monsters and characters they'll meet. Some
mushes have as many as 100-200 users online at a time, all doing different things and talking, so it's also a great
place just to go and meet people without the cost of a long distance phonecall. MUSHes are
free!
There's the key of the success of MUSHes...the players can talk together, build, program and describe new rooms
while on the MUSH. The rooms can be anything -- hotels, towns, space stations, forests, open sky. You could even
make a room that was described as the inside of a person's body and allow people to wander around inside! And,
it's all free.
Like the rooms, the characters can be anything too. This is an important aspect of the games.
On these games, race, sex, clothing, appearance and other base physical factors do
not play a part in how you are received by other players. You can be ANYTHING!
You are free to whatever you'd like to be, and your words (both in your description and what you say in conversation)
are what will determine how popular you become. It's a wonderful world, where instead of having your place in the
group determined by how you look or what you wear, it's determined by what you choose to say.
AN EXAMPLE OF A MUSH ROOM and some Conversation:
The Enchanted Forest(#200RJ)
All around you, massive chestnut and beech trees rise in summer splendor. Flowering vines drape from branch to
branch, showing you in a blizzard of pink and white petals as the breeze blows. A thick carpet of emerald green
moss lines the floor of the glade, carpeting the maze of roots, which create soft nooks in which to sit. Birds
sing, and you can see the occaisional flash of blue as the Sapphire Ravens, the guardians of the enchanted forest,
patrol their territory.
Contents:
Loki - Sapphire Raven Guard
Tamira
Joe
Skinny
Azernath
Exits:
Town Square-<Town> Deeper Into Forest-<south> Dragon Glade-<north> Sapphire
Lake-<east>
Joe says "Hi! I'm looking for a good place to build a spaceport style adventure.
Anyone have an ideas?"
Azernath says "You should try the science fiction building area. You're in the fantasy area now. Some have
made Sci-fantasy buildings here...it depends on what you're making."
look Azernath (this is a command you might use
to find out more about someone or something.)
Azernath
You see a large blue dragon, covered in irridescent blue scales. The blue is a deep midnight along his spine, but
fades into stripes of royal blue and then light blue along his belly. His wings are neatly folded along his back,
but you can see hints of green in the membranes. He has rows of horns all down his back to the tip of his tail
that look like they might have been carved from a smoky jade. Atop his head, two spiral gazelle horns rise gracefully
from above his ears, and his long muzzle sports rows of tiny jade spikes. His eyes are golden, with catlike slits,
and they regard you with friendly interest.
Carrying:
Amulet of Healing
Mark of Distinction from the Raven Guard for excellent service
Take a Mush Tutorial <- teaches you how to reach a MUSH, and how to move around and
talk to people
Return to Mush Resource Homepage
A Not-So-Brief Overview of MUSHes
Written by Dee Dreslough. This page is Public Domain - feel free to copy and distribute.
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