MUSH Survival Guide: Apping

Chapter 1: Bare Bones Minimum- wherein MUSHing is talked about in comparison to other mediums, and clients are listed.

Chapter 2: How Do I Shot MUSH?- wherein basic mechanics of communication are described.

Chapter 3: Can I Haz Character Nao?- You're here!

Chapter 4: Everyone was Kung-Fu Fighting with Lovebeams???- Getting your character ready for our combat system (aka 'csys'), combat RP advice, and other goodies.

Chapter 5: Wait, What's This Thing You Call 'Roleplay'?- Where we discuss the ins and outs of obtaining roleplay and the tricks behind scene-planning.

Can I Haz Character Nao?

Welcome to Chapter 3. If you're reading this, you should have done the following:

1: You should be able to access the MUSH.

2: You can do guestly things, such as communicate on the channels and bother people in the lounge. This is important, since this will help you if there's a question you need answered.

Guestly Behavior

While we're all pretty easy-going and happy to help, remember that you are a guest. That means, like someone coming into some dude's house, there's a general protocol to follow. Unless you know said dude, you wouldn't automatically raid his fridge. This is sort of the same thing. Many of these suggestions come from past experience with many types of guests, so while this may seem just common sense to some, players have encountered this before many times. Feel free to add any tips here!

• Try to use the guest channel for guest-related things. To do this, type +guest or +g to speak on the channel. It should look like this:

+g I love you all!

The OOC lounge gets spammy, so it's easy to lose questions. The guest channel has a handy color to it, making it easier for people who are on it to see your question.

• Sometimes you may log on and get tons of people welcoming you. Other times, you'll get none. It's not due to a lack of enthusiasm, but due to the fact that there's often a lot of bot guests that log in and promptly disconnect.

• On that note, if the OOC lounge spam is hurting your ability to concentrate, type 'q' to go to the Quiet Room. It's a useful place to be if you need to concentrate on something, but want to be open to pages from other people or chatter on channels.

• While this may sound silly to note, communicate clearly as you can. This doesn't mean 'you must type like you're writing a novel', but try to make sure you're communicating your ideas clearly. Sometimes it's easy to forget that, if you're new to a place, there's no cues there to go on like facial cues or body language. No one's going to know your sense of humor, your likes and dislikes, and what pushes your buttons, and we don't want to scare you away!

• Answer questions. People may try to clarify things with a question- try to be aware of them and answer. It's okay if you overlooked or missed something, but we've had guests in the past who set themselves on a certain track that's hard to decipher. If you're overwhelmed, though, feel free to admit to it! Sometimes we get overzealous in trying to help.

• On that note, ask questions! This is a good idea no matter who you're apping, or even if you have your character. If you're apping an FC, you'll want to talk to your castmates -- check out the '+cast' command for a list. If you're apping an OC, you'll want to talk to some people from your school or organization, if any of those apply (listed in +classes and +orgs respectively), and also from your cast if you're apping into an existing theme. They can help fill you in on details related to your interests.

• Be flexible. Many people come on with a set idea of 'I want to be Sailor Sun' or 'I want to have suchandusch ultra super power' while not realizing that these may not be appropriate to our setting. This gets further complicated when they try to stamp their character concept in any way possible into our setting, while ignoring suggestions. It's okay to be stubborn, especially if you have a good idea, but try to be as receptive as you can!

• If staff rules 'no' on a part of your character concept, such as their Path to Power, or an aspect being something that may be too sensitive for the setting, this is where it's not good to be stubborn and insist, unless you think there's a misunderstanding. People may be able to help you find an alternative that's even better!

• Weird tidbit: ~_~ on Battle Fantasia MUSH generally tends to mean 'flutter eyes' rather than irritation. So, when someone goes 'These brownies are heavenly! ~_~' they're not annoyed with those brownies. It's sort of an extension of adding a ~ to the end of sentences to indicate a singsong tone, innuendo, or playfulness.

• Battle Fantasia MUSH is constantly evolving, so you'll see +help files bork up, different sources contradict each other, or files suddenly updated in reference to a ruling staff had to make on the spot. Let us know if you find something contradictory or confusing, and if policy doesn't reflect what's in one +help file, let them know so they can change it! They'll <3 you for it.

• If you do something wrong and someone corrects you, it's okay! It's nothing personal. Some things you won't know about unless you're told. Just make sure you learn from it; we all make mistakes, no matter how long we've been roleplaying. It's the downside of communication over a text-based medium!

• If you have an app sent in, be patient. As a general rule, a build for the character needs to be made first before an application is approved, and sometimes, they're just busy. A good rule of thumb is to ask after a week. Feel free to hang out in the OOC lounge in the meantime! Catch up on board posts so you'll be partly caught up. Just use +bbcatchup <board numbers you've read> when you get your character. Click on pictures of kittens. It's all good.

• Be nice! Seems like simple advice, but remember, you're a guest. Certain things are going to seem bewildering and even annoying simply due to being new, and there's nothing wrong with asking questions to clarify things. It's better that than let frustration get pent up inside you.

Application Tips and Hints

Here on Battle Fantasia MUSH , we have an application system, as opposed to a @pcreate system where you can create your character right out of the gate. We do this to make sure concepts fit within the game and that the player has researched the right things. The application is available here. While application styles can vary from person to person, here (will be) an example.

Here's some critical tips to ensure a good application:

• Read the +help files, either on here or on the MU*. It doesn't matter if you've watched all the shows, or none. Things from each show have been layered upon one another like a tasty lasagna of lovebeams and crystals, topped with a healthy amount of plot from RP itself. The Theme Primer exists to fill you in on the barebones basics of how a given theme has been integrated into Battle Fantasia, while the Cast Pages often have further information about a given theme.

• Do you want an OC (original character), or a FC (Feature Character)? If the latter, make sure that character is appable, and make sure that character is open by checking +cast. For example, Sailor Saturn from Sailor Moon is not appable at this time. On the other hand, if you want to know if someone who isn't on the inappable list -or- the cast list feel free to ask if they're available!

• You can absolutely make a totally original magical girl theme for your character, that other people could even join you in! For more information, please see: Original Themes. You can also integrate magical girl themes that are as-yet unplayed on our game. For more information, please see: Theme Adaptation.

• Once the MUSH has been around for a while, some FCs will have gone through multiple players. You don't have to match their RP note by note, but this brings up another point: time will pass (slowly, 2 OOC days to every 1 IC day).

• Keep in mind that the application staff is very thorough on apps; applications are more a collaboration than a job interview, especially when it comes to original characters. What they'll be looking for are qualities that will allow a character to mesh well into the MUSH's social fabric. While your idea for a character can be badass and could be a strong enough concept to be the main character of their own manga, staff may still send the app back for some clarifications or suggestions for changes.

• Do your research. While no one can act like they're an expert on Japan, Japanese modern society is not a mirror reflection of western culture. The Culture page has files to help you, and you can ask questions on the guest channel. No question is too stupid or obvious to ask! Sometimes you'll be surprised by the answer. For example, Japanese are strict on guns, and not many people have cars. A well-researched and well-thought out application is more likely to be approved much faster, even on the first try.

• Protagonists (or, for that matter, antagonists) don't have to have extremely dark pasts in order to be interesting or qualify themselves as playable characters. Don't mistake 'dark' or 'grim' as a tactic to use in order to generate people's interest in a character- sometimes it's the more subtle characters that get the most attention due to how they interact with others.

• Roleplay a character type *you* want to play. While this can be subjective and some characteristics will be favored over others, don't play a cheerful outgoing female high school student when you have no interest in playing such a character.

• By the same token, try to make sure you provide yourself hooks right at the beginning to get yourself involved with other people. If you're apping a quiet, reserved character, give them several means to thrust them among people like a job, family member, pet, hobby, being elected to some student council position, or some other hook that gives you ways to set up reasons why your character is somewhere. Staffers are likely to be wary of characters who provide no means or hooks to provide for RP, as those players may not be prepared to get the ball going, so to speak.

• Put any character secrets into your application. They may be a secret to most of the MUSH, but staff needs to know everything important about your character.

SCHOOL spelled backwards is LOOHSC!

If your character is in elementary, middle, high school or college, you'll have to figure out what school you go to! We ask that everyone attend one of our three Sister Schools, for connection's sake (though unlike Infinity, Juuban and Ohtori's aren't all in one giant skyscraper; the public university has its own building, etc).

• School: Juuban Public School - A perfectly ordinary Japanese public school.
• School: Infinity Institute - A hypermodern charter school that is also Secret Hogwarts.
• School: Ohtori Academy - An ancient, proud private school with as dark a past as its future.

The guiding principles that sort out the three schools are a great way to select a school, and we encourage you to peruse them!

Organizations...?

Unlike on many other games, Battle Fantasia's organizations are not monolithically central to roleplay and plot -- or even to most peoples' personal motivations and loyalties. Many, even most, magical girls are not members of an Organization. Many antagonists are, simply because they need to band together to survive the tsunami of lovebeams. But they do exist to provide loose coalitions, and act as an organizational tool OOCly.

Your choices are....

(Mostly) Protagonist Organizations:

• The Magic Association - Gray haired wizards, ancient traditions, equally ancient rivalries and responsibilities.
• The Tuner Organization - Modern, ruthless monster-hunters who have unionized for their own survival.

(Mostly) Antagonist Organizations:

• Dark Fall - Monsters from other dimensions out to destroy (or destroy, then conquer) the rest.
• Ends of the World - A very (and mostly) human secret conspiracy to control the world.

HENSHINHENSHINHENSHIN

If you're apping an original character, you will need to make up your own main transformation -- and before that, you'll need to carefully define their Paths to Power.

Original magical girl themes can be basically anything, within reason -- and taste.

Paths to Power are a way to organize your thoughts about the 'magical' part of your character concept; distilling it down to be smoothly fit into our magical girl setting. Want to keep it simple? Just have your character stumble across some kind of transformation Artifact. Even more complex concepts are expected to have an Artifact of some kind.

If you're thinking about integrating a new but not original theme, it's worth noting that the Paths to Power are an excellent filter for taking a theme and making sure that when it comes out the other end, its tone and ideals are compatible with the magical girl universe. Forcing any theme to conform to the Paths to Power is not, however, indicative of whether that theme should be integrated at all. Direct adaptations of non-magical girl themes are very, very unlikely to be approved. Using ancient legends as indirect inspiration is more possible, but will require discussion with the staff.

Got all that? Then onward to Chapter 4!

Special thanks to Alice and Trish of Persona MUSH for this guide!