MUSH Guide Part Five
Welcome to the MUSH Survival Guide! This guide is tailored around Dream Chasers MUSH, but much of this advice can be applied for any MU* centered around roleplay, though many parts will be entirely subjective.
This guide also contains text and advice from many people, as this is something anyone can add advice or update. If you run across something that confused you that you wish to put in this guide to help others, or something you know more about and want to clarify, put it in here!
Here's the chapters so you can skip ahead as necessary:
Chapter 1: Into the Wilderness - How to connect and log on to Dream Chasers MUSH.
Chapter 2: Crowded Street Corner - Wherein basic mechanics of communication are described.
Chapter 3: You'll Never Be Alone No Matter Where You Go - How to be a good guest, what to expect for the application process, and how to construct a well-rounded haracter.
Chapter 4: Wings - Where we discuss the ins and outs of roleplay, obtaining roleplay, and the tricks behind scene-planning.
Chapter 5: Stage of Death - Navigating the Gunslinger system, combat RP advice, and other goodies.
Stage of Death
So, it's finally happened. Words are thrown, consequences catch up, or you're just not sure you can play nice with someone at the other end of their ARM, or your ready spell. Or vice versa. It's time for the Gunslinger combat system.
To call it this is a misnomer, as really it's a way to do combat that allows you and everyone else a way that keeps track of who did what, as well as add an element of chance. In a big scene, this can mean all the difference, especially when reading through several poses of text.
Here's the thing: it *is* optional, as some scenes may be better done entirely through poses, especially between players who have something in mind. However, you're going to likely be in a Gunslinger battle sooner or later, so this guide will help you smooth out that potential learning curve so you can have some fun!
Pose Order
Pose/action order becomes a little more rigid during combat. Make sure you don't take actions any more often than all of your opponents collectively. The general rule is for everyone fighting each other to have one turn each +round (excluding +bosses, but more on that later). The most basic example is two characters: in this case, we'll call them Juan and Tia.
"Buttface!" Tia yells at the curly-haired man, taking his sandwich right off his table. Juan bolts up from his seat, knocking it over with a loud clatter, and slings a punch at Tia. "Them's fightin' words you no-good elf!"
Juan is attacking Tia, so he's going first.
Juan cast fist, placeholder
Tia has to react to Juan's attack. Checking the +queue, she sees this:
FIST|2|OW HURT
In order to figure out what she will do, Tia can check her +health, her +stats, her attack list using +attacks.
Tia can either +evade, +guard, or +charge. These do different things. There is also +accept, for cases when you want to accept a buff or healing spell, or want to eat the full damage of an attack with no upsides in return.
Tia is ICLY busy stuffing her face with the sandwich, so she reacts with a +charge, giving her more FP for the next round at the cost of eating the full damage of the attack.
CSYS: Tia charge, ow
Now, Tia must pose back. She could retreat, as peace is always an option, but this wouldn't be much of a tutorial. So, Tia will pose getting hit by Juan's attack, how it hits her, and is going to up the ante with a spell.
Tia's face has only the sandwich to protect her from Juan's fist. She is thrown back, crashing through Juan's table. "Your sandwich sucked anyway!" she yells. "Time for you to cool off!" An icicle forms in the air by her hand, and shoots straight at Juan!
+attack Juan=Ice bullet
Notice that Juan doesn't pose 'Juan punches Tia's stomach!', nor does Tia pose 'Tia's icicle hits Juan!' That's for the csys to decide. Anyway, Juan hates puns, as well as ice, so he +guards!
CSYS: Juan guard, that pun was terrible
That's a +round!
Permission
If you want to do something that may mean you have to assume something in your pose, just page the player for permission first. Also, it's a good idea to just ask in general, especially if what you may do might change a social scene into a combat scene.
In fact, let's rewind this scene to just when Tia steals Juan's sandwich. Juan thinks it'd be funny for him to punch Tia, but that might not be the sort of scene her player was wanting. Thus:
p tia=hey mind if I punch you Tia pages: go for it, you goober, she'd love a reason to get in a fight with someone she has a crush on
Permission is great that way.
Big Combat=
If it's one on three, you need to wait for all three of them to go. Same for vice versa. The three, in that example, are all on the same side, and mixing things up a little that way is generally more fluid, as long as it isn't rude.
Specifically addressing the issue of jumping the queue to get the 'killing blow' on a big boss, it is expected and accepted for those who haven't gone yet to continue attacking the boss after the csys says they're down but before they've posed, and boss GMs are best served by doing a final pose that includes everyone's attacks taking it down together, unless there's a clear reason to do otherwise.
In big scenes, try not to only RP between your character and your opponent; if you also banter (or bicker) with your friends, react to them being knocked around (or especially amazing), and so forth, and you'll all have a much more interesting scene.
If everyone in a scene is willing to use consent instead of the csys for combat, by all means have at. Just remember the usual rules of engagement, which apply to coded combat as well: don't no-sell your opponent, by which I mean 'pose brushing off their every action as though they're so ineffective as to be unimportant'. Don't pose the effects of your actions, only your actions themselves; it's up to you how you swing your sword, but it's up to your friend how much blood is drawn. Do try to make everyone feel as awesome and empowered as possible.
For an example of how a fight can go, please see: Sample Fight