Philosophy

A lot of people get into MU* when they're in high school or college and discover, years later, that even though they might not have had a lot of time to begin with during their studies, they have even less time upon starting careers or families. The Head Staffer of Gloom MUX is one such player and wanted to create a game where people with important obligations could play and still feel as though they contribute as much as players who have more time on their hands.

Gloom MUX is designed to provide a platform for two different types of RP:

  1. Impromptu scenes cobbled together by whoever happens to be online for players with lots of availability.
  2. Organized scenes planned around the schedules of players who have very little availability, much like a once or twice weekly tabletop game group.

Staff exists on Gloom MUX to approve applications, approve plot +requests, maintain the game on a physical level, and offer guidance as needed. Although they will run plots and scenes, this isn't their primary function; they rely on characters to act as storytellers for one another because that is, at the end of the day, what the hobby is really about. Two people writing with each other in a scene are being storytellers for each other, whether they give themselves credit for it or not — but for the sake of straightforwardness, when we talk about being a storyteller on our site and in our news files, we're talking about coming up with a plot, big or small, and playing the role of Narrator (though that's not to say a storyteller can't write their own characters at the same time).

Take the time to read what your scene partners are writing and find ways to acknowledge what they're trying to communicate in your own poses. Familiarize yourself with other people's characters and think about how your characters might interact with theirs, so when a player asks on +pub or in the Welcome Room if anyone wants to RP, you have some idea of what you might be able to do. In the same vein, if you're the one asking if anyone on the game wants to scene, try to contribute an idea or two when you make your pitch — a suggestion might be just the thing your fellow players need to get the creative juices flowing.

Above all: Be patient and good to one another.

Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License