MUSH

What is a MUSH?

MUSH stands for Multi User Shared Hallucination :), it's a computer 'game' in which the player is placed in something rather like a text adventure with rooms, objects and other players that can be interacted with. All the other players are real people too, hence the 'multi user' name. MUSHes are a very sociable thing and even if one doesn't want to partake in any MUSH related activities as such they can still have a chat and meet with other people (possibly from around the world) that are there with you.

The world is created by the underlying MUSH server program and also by that program's own programming language (known as 'MUSH code') that players can use to build new objects and places for themselves and/or the benefit of others. It's a very powerful system and although there are many inherent similarities between MUSHes there is also a lot of room for customisation, not least in the 'theme' of the MUSH. That is, the thing that governs the way the locations appear and how characters in the mush go about role-playing those characters. Such role-play is not essential and some MUSHes place a stronger influence on it than others.

As with most things it has to be experienced to be understood. A computer and a telnet program are all the things you need to gain access to a MUSH. You can use the 'guest' character (most MUSHes provide guest access) to look around although almost all MUSHes are happy to welcome new members very quickly, usually via an e-mail request or a chat with the administrator of the MUSH, it's completely free to join. When you do join though you are subject (out of common decency more than anything) to abide by the rules of the MUSH, normally these are quite obvious things like don't be offensive to people and try to join in.

There are variants called MUX, MUCK etc. that are the same in principle as a MUSH but have a different code base (the underlying server code) and they are therefore differentiated by name.

What are these :) :/ :D symbols all over the place?

These symbols are known as Smileys. They are a simple representation of inflection/emotion in text. I have a brief guide to Smileys here for you to find out more about them.

What does this 'btw', 'atm', 'afk' stuff mean?

These acronyms help get ideas and common phrases across quickly when typing them takes time and your time is better spent typing other things. I have a brief guide to Internet Chat Acronyms here that you might like to check out.

Ok, where do I go ?

There are many, many MUSHes world-wide and a complete list of them is near impossible to make. The best way to find new MUSHes is simply to talk to others on the MUSH you're on :) You'll always find people that are on other MUSHes than the ones you know about. Some Internet providers may be able to point to a few good ones or indeed provide their own.

Here's a list of the MUSHes (or MUXs, MUCKs) that I'm on. (As character 'Del')

The links to the hostnames will take you to those MUSHes directly if your browser supports telnet:// protocol calls.

Other MUSH links

A common way of using MUSHes is a MUSH client, the most popular of these is TinyFugue a.k.a. TF. Most Linux distributions have this as a package now. e.g. under Debian apt-get install tf

For those afflicted with Windows, you might want to try SimpleMU instead.

Source code for the server program:

• MUX 2.x the server on which I run my dooferMUX and which I have contributed code to.

There is a well maintained list of MUD and MUSH site links and other MUD related information known as The MUD Connector