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There are at least three different approaches you can take here:
1) "Anybody can have as many characters as he can handle. What do I care?"
2) "You can have no more than one Feature and/or High-Powered character at once, but you can
have in addition
A) A fixed number of ordinary 'mortals.'"
or
B) As many ordinary 'mortals' as you like."
3) "Each player can have a maximum of X number of characters at once, period."
[TO BE CONTINUED]
My definition of features runs as follows : A Feature Character is every character who first
appeared in the source material (if the mush is based on somebody else's previous work) AND
any character generated specifically for the mush who becomes a local institution such that when
his original player departs, the Wizards look for someone else to take over the role.
FEATURES DRAWN FROM THE SOURCE MATERIAL - THE
INVULNERABLE
OPTION
Consider one of the great tragedies of the "Let's have Features!" approach, the rise and fall of the
DUNE II MUSH (officially defunct since around June of '96, and in awfully bad shape for
several months prior to its actual closing). I wasn't there, but this account is based on information
received from conversations with various veterans of the place.
The Number One Wizard of Dune II, the man who created it and maintained control over it for
quite some time, chose to have it start 10 IC years before the book DUNE by Frank Herbert, first
of a series, opens up. (The Book begins around 10,191; the MUSH began in 10,181). He
permitted several people to set up important Noble Houses by taking the surnames, and often the
personal names if any were provided, from the books. Most noticeable were Duke Leto Atreides,
lord of the planet Caladan and head of his Great House (House Atreides) and Baron Vladimir
Harkonnen, overlord of the planets Giedi Prime and Arrakis (and possibly others, for all I know),
hereditary enemy of the Atreides. In the book DUNE, the Baron captured Leto in 10,191, Leto
then committing suicide before he could be tortured for information.
Meanwhile the online rules for Great House behavior permitted a variety of things to be
attempted to gain power over one's enemies (and even kill them). Formal duels, hired assassins,
military raids . . . all the usual fun and games of feudalism. In other words, it was very possible
for a major character to really and truly DIE as the result of enemy activity (yes, WITHOUT
explicitly consenting to the idea. Playing on such a dangerous mush was considered to mean you
implicitly consented to the constant risk that the Assassination Rules, etc., would be used against
you sometime). In theory, any Head of a Great House was of approximately equal importance in
IC terms to any other, and was at equal risk.
EXCEPT : the Number One Man wanted to steer things inexorably in the direction of the
opening scenes of DUNE (the novel), with the result that in practical terms it was IMPOSSIBLE
to actually kill someone featured in the novel (like Duke Leto or Baron Vladimir) ahead of time,
but quite possible for them to participate in killing some other important noble who was NOT a
prominent Feature Character in the books (and yes, this actually happened as time went by). You
can imagine the marvelous effect it had on everybody's morale as this double standard became
painfully obvious.
If your attitude towards Features, combined with your attitude towards the future timeline (if any)
of your MUSH, permits some characters to regard themselves as invulnerable no matter what
they do, but capable of slaughtering the rank-and-file characters around them, you have made an
awful mistake.
FEATURES DRAWN FROM THE SOURCE MATERIAL - THE
VULNERABLE
OPTION
In contrast, my own alma mater, REGENT OF DUNE MUX, a sort of "sequel" to the defunct
DUNE II, took a more pragmatic approach to the problem. Their attitude may be paraphrased as
follows : "There were six books in the Dune series. Our MUX opens up immediately after the
conclusion of Book Two. Prominent characters of the first two books (if still alive in the original
continuity at this point) are permitted as Features, which any player may apply for. However, we
have decided that the events of Book Three are not expected to occur in our continuity, and thus
fans of the original material should NOT assume that anything which occurred in, or was
revealed in, Book Three (or any later volume) has ANY bearing on the IC 'truth' in this MUX.
Features who were still alive and kicking at the beginning of Book Three are just as vulnerable to
assassinations, etc., as any other Player Character."
THE ABSENCE OF FEATURES
OTOH there's the approach that CUENDILLAR MUX took with regard to the "features"
mentioned in the original material. At the time Cuendillar started, the fantasy series which they
were using as their "theme" had published seven volumes (with an undetermined number still to
go). By the end of the seventh volume, the central character had been generally recognized as the
long-promised messiah figure who was going to lead the forces of good in the Final Battle with
the Dark One, and this central character (called the Dragon Reborn) was already giving orders to
the general populace of at least 6 nations.
Cuendillar MUX opened in a timeframe corresponding to the period immediately before Chapter
One of the first book of the series called The Wheel of Time. However, the Founders of
Cuendillar MUX chose to dispense with Features entirely, except for a set of 13 very powerful
and very slimy villains who (in the books) are just awakening after a quick, refreshing 3300-year
nap (I guess they forgot to set the alarm clock). In other words, geopolitical events roughly
similar to those in the books (certain wars, invasions, the return of these 13 villains and the
coming of the Dragon Reborn) will probably still happen in due time, but NOT with the same
heroes at the heart of these occurrences. Such PCs as are still hanging around at the appropriate
time will have the chance to play a role in these "front-page news" events, but nobody's role is
"guaranteed" just because they have a special name.
FEATURE CHARACTERS CREATED IN-HOUSE
Let's suppose you have established a certain set of characters as the Royal Family in the major
city of your MUSH. Call them King Joyse, his wife Queen Madin, and their three lovely
daughters, Princess Myste, Princess Elega, and Princess Torrent. Assume that the King is
politically dominant (male-oriented succession here).
Three RL months after your Mush opens, the player of the King has to drop out. He's awfully
sorry but it's unavoidable. Other demands on his time in RL, and all that. If you didn't plan ahead
for this, you find yourself forced to hastily choose between several options.
1) Arrange a plausible excuse for the King to disappear from public view for quite some time.
This is the customary practice when a relativiely obscure character unexpectedly stops RPing for
an extended period of time, but Kings are harder to come by.
2) Arrange for the King to die IC (assassination, maybe) and RP the matter of the
succession.
Advantages:
A) It stirs up interest in the political process (hopefully).
B) It at least provides an explanation IC for why the King isn't around anymore.
Drawbacks:
A) This sort of thing happens much more frequently in mushes than it does in real life. If you're
going to kill off a major character every time a player quits, you're going to end up with a
cemetery that's ridiculously overcrowded. And think of the future - if this happens again and
again, what will you do? What will people think if within the first six months of the mush, three
of the five Royals have strangely dropped dead?
In the ADVISE AND CONSENT series, dealing with Washington D.C. politics, Allan Drury
ended his first volume with a bang by having the President of the United States drop dead of a
stroke. The Vice President was sworn in as the new President.
Approximately one IC year later, during a Presidential election year, the new President is killed
in a plane crash and a bitter contest for the party nomination breaks out between the Secretary of
State and the Governor of California. At the end of the fifth book, an assassin kills one candidate
and the other candidate's wife.
Now, these events occurred in five novels written over a period of about 15 years, but when you
read the entire series back to back within a couple of weeks (as I did) the cumulative effect is one
of disbelief. In just over one calendar year, we've had two consecutive Presidents and one major
Presidential candidate kick the bucket. It's starting to look like being in, or seeking to be in, the
Oval Office is the dumbest possible thing a politician can do unless he has a death wish. [I
should mention in passing that the first two deaths were entirely natural/accidental, not part of
some global conspiracy]
In other words, Drury was so interested in short-term gains (have a real shocker at the end of
every odd-numbered volume so the reader doesn't get bored) that he sacrificed long-term
credibility by repeating himself so obviously. If you start holding an IC funeral every time a
player defects from your mush, you'll end up in the same trap.
3) Advertise that a job vacancy exists, and invite any interested parties to apply for the job of the
King - playing the same old character, that is to say. At this point you have made King Joyse a
Feature Character of your MUSH. You have said, in effect, "This character is not just the
personal property of a single player, he is an Official Institution. Come back in a year, or in five
years, and you will probably find this same character still making waves unless he dies as the
result of a carefully orchestrated TinyPlot."
Frankly, if you think there's any chance you'll want to implement Option Three, you had better
plan ahead for this from the very start of the mush and make it clear to your players that
"Characters of great IC prominence, such as Royalty, are not JUST yours. They are Features. We
want them to stick around for the long term. If you leave, they stay active with a new player."
The alternative is something I have seen happen once or twice: a player wants to get his character
dramatically killed since he's about to quit anyway, and a Wizard steps in and orders him not to
do it. BAD policy, if the player had no previous reason to think that would happen.
Different mushes, depending on the nature of their themes and the personal tastes of their
Wizards, have different approaches to this question. I have no special axe to grind on this issue,
but will merely outline some of the options that others have found useful and maybe something
will strike you as useful.
One common division is this:
People with magical power, or people with great political power (local royalty, upper nobility,
etc.) need to go through an Application Process. Everybody "normal" can go through CharGen
and get approved very quickly, if they need approval at all.
Another is this : Feature Types who start with high rank (Captain Kirk of the Starship Enterprise)
need an application process. Everybody else starts out as an entry-level
officer/diplomat/bureaucrat/whatever, exactly the same status as any other newbie in the IC
social structure, and has to work his way up in an IC fashion. Of course, this pretty well requires
that the IC social structure be very rigid, with everybody permanently on the payroll of one
government or another, and none of that "wandering mercenary" or "traveling entertainer" stuff
that you get in the medieval fantasy mushes.
Another variation is deserving of special mention, being (AFAIK) unique to the Regent of Dune
MUX. Regent divides characters into three groups, creatively labeled Level One, Level Two, and
Level Three (hereafter called L1, L2, and L3 for short). Their basic social unit is the Group,
which may be a Noble House, a powerful business organization (the Spacing Guild, for instance),
or some other influential organization. The Head of any Group is automatically an L3. "Feature
characters" who appeared in the original material (a series of SF novels by Frank Herbert) are
also granted the minor distinction of being L3s.
L2s are the staff of a Group. Possible niches for them to fill include Mentat (a human computer
and strategist), Physician, Security Officer, Wife of the Group Head (yes, this is a male
chauvinist culture), etc. L2s and L3s have the advantage (or handicaps) of being able to carry and
use special weapons, special trained abilities (including certain psychic abilities that would be
called "magic powers" in other settings), receiving a regular income from his Group Head, etc.
OTOH any L2/L3 who finds himself going for an extended period of time without sufficient
spice and water finds himself dying. He can be defeated in a duel and even killed by excessive
injuries in fighting or by a carefully orchestrated assassination (with a little luck on the enemy's
part).
The differences between L2s and L3s are very minor - mainly a matter of IC/OOC status, and
having a few extra perks in how many special abilities you can begin your existence with. Both
go through the same CharGen process, although L3s must pass an Application Process first.
Coming down to L1s - the L1 is sometimes billed as being meant for a newbie player, but that
doesn't do it justice. Advantages of the L1 include these:
He need not fill out an application and wait for approval; the CharGen process for him is very
simple, he can change his name, description, and background story at any time and nobody cares;
he is outside the various macro systems that can be so pesky - such as any risk of being
involuntarily killed or dying of thirst.
On the drawback side, a L1 cannot hold high office in any Group as a L1 (such as Security Chief,
Physician, or Member of the Ruling Family). Traditionally the L1 does some RP with established
L3s until they decide if they want to offer him a job. But the L1 is not just a "temporary"
character, he often sticks around permanently providing a backup for the RPer when the dealings
of his L2 have hit a snag, providing an extra face for crowd activities, filling in a bit part in
somebody else's TinyPlots when they need an outsider to do something important, etc.
Yet another variation worthy of note is a Character Type which is, as far as I know, unique to
Crypt MUX. This is the Victim Character. The basic idea is this: when you create a character and
designate him as a Victim, you are essentially announcing to the world: "Hey, all you villains out
there! This character was MADE to suffer! I'm WILLING to let him die! He is ready, willing,
and able to Consent to all sorts of injuries, etc., as long as there's some sort of point to it all! Page
me and let me know what sort of evil schemes you are plotting which a good Victim could
highlight by dying in the middle of it!"
I can see how this would liven things up. It gets kind of frustrating for villains on consent-based
mushes, when they want everybody to act scared of them despite the OOC knowledge that they
can't hurt a fly, if the fly is a Player Character, unless the Player gives his Consent. Here, at last,
is someone upon whom they can lavish all sorts of special attention with the smug knowledge
that there WON'T be any pesky last-minute rescues just as they are reaching for the scalpel to do
a little experimental surgery. Then they can post the logs of the TinyPlot in which the Victim
played a starring role, and their fellow Players can shiver and say, "Oh, that Doctor Diabolical is
one EVIL dude! I can't BELIEVE he did anything so coldblooded to a fellow human being!"
]TO BE CONTINUED]
If you want to run a TinyPlot in which there is an emphasis on violent crime (murder or
attempted murder, mugging, purse cutting, assault and battery, or even rape), you have a problem
- unless you don't mind having the perpetrator become a wanted man with a price on his head if
identified. Most Players don't want this to happen to them...
So you can create an alt or use a puppet. I like puppets, myself, they're so versatile. Also, it
makes your life simpler if your main character is doing something else (establishing an alibi, if
need be) while your puppet is clubbing a man over the head and grabbing his valuables
elsewhere, all in the same window so you don't have to keep switching back and forth. I suspect
that if puppets were more popular, we would see more violent action and less smalltalk in the
bars :)
Things a puppet can do with impunity (at least, without having the actual Character be thrown
out of the bar for good): Swindle, Blackmail, Burgle, Pickpocket and Cut purses, Murder, Beat
Up People to Teach Them A Lesson, Forge Documents (you can do that too, if you know how
IC, but it's risky), Carry Messages That Will Look Very Suspicious If Read By Police... You get
the idea.
There is another possible for function for puppets, one which never really enthused me. Using
your puppet as an inconspicuous silent observer of the roleplay other people might be doing.
I remember a roleplaying moo where veteran residents encouraged newcomers to create puppets
so that they could, at least, watch other people roleplaying. Puppets were disguised as dogs, cats,
pebbles, and I forget what else. If several people were gathered in a single room, there were often
puppets being teleported in from other IC Areas to watch the "fun."
I experimented with this method of achieving vicarious RP satisfaction when nothing better was
available (a very common problem - the moo in question had several different Areas, and it was
supposed to take several RL days to travel from one to another, so if nobody was online where
you were that night, you were stuck), but I never fell in love with it.
Why not? Well, part of it is that I've never been very big on "spectator sports." I understand that
there are people who actually enjoy watching basketball games (or baseball, or football) on
television, several hours a week, perhaps hundreds of hours a year, but I never really saw the
appeal.
Another part is that watching other people roleplay feels slooooooow. You see, I can type over 70
words per minute, but I can read text placed on my screen by somebody else about five times
faster than I can type it. If I roleplay an hour-long scene with someone, I feel involved. I am
doing things. I am making decisions, and typing them as fast as I can. But if two other people
roleplay an hour-long scene with me lurking in the background, it only produces enough reading
material to keep me busy for twelve minutes or thereabouts - and that's assuming that whenever
one player finishes typing something and hits ENTER, the other player IMMEDIATELY starts in
on his/her rebuttal . . . and doesn't hesitate until he has finished it and hit ENTER himself, and so
on. In practice, it's quite possible that what with RL delays and so forth, their hour-long session
will produce no more than eight or nine minutes of reading material for me. And if I'm a silent
observer (via puppet or something) then the likeliest outcome is that I glance back into that
window every 10 or 15 minutes, spend 2-3 mins catching up on what I've missed and then I focus
on something else again. It hardly seems worth the trouble. Whatever I am actually DOING in
another window is probably going to seem FAR more engrossing than keeping an eye on
somebody else's "fun." If there's something about this Roleplay that I should actually know about
for future reference, then hopefully somebody will log it and I can read the log in one fell swoop
when I have the time, later.
As an afterthought, it occurs to me that some mushes have "unwritten" rules setting up rigid
social barriers between Puppets and "real" Player Characters. I am reminded of a case I observed
once on a Fantasy mush where the posted rules clearly stated that each Player could have only
two (2) Player Characters at a time. The rules, however, placed no particular limitations on
puppets. Accordingly, many Players (including myself) kept one or two Puppet Characters handy
for times when their regular PCs were unable to provide sufficient Roleplay. One lady's Puppet
Character became so well-integrated into some ongoing roleplay that a Player Character (a Royal
Prince, no less!) asked her to marry him. She accepted. So far, so good, right?
I was not actually a witness to what happened immediately after that, but it appears that at least a
few of the local Wizards and Admins went bananas. For some reason, they felt it was
"impossible" and/or "against the rules" for an IC Wedding to be staged in which one participant
was a "real" Character and the other one was a "mere" Puppet. My personal feeling was that A)
OOCly, there was nothing in the rules against it, B) ICly, there was not supposed to be any
visible IC difference between "Puppet Characters" and "Player Characters," so it seemed
perfectly reasonable that two compatible people of opposite sexes would get married, and if one
of them was technically a puppet that didn't give the Wizards any excuse to interfere in an
arrangement that made these two Roleplayers happy, was perfectly thematic, and didn't
inconvenience or offend any other Player to the best of my knowledge, and C) If the Wizards
hadn't had that stupid two-character limit in a mush with at least 14 distinct Areas and too few
PCs to keep them all active, then the lady would have been playing this third Character as a
regular PC rather than a Puppet, so it was their own fault if Puppets were getting more IC
opportunities than the Wizards had counted on. I was also laughing for a bit in RL because it all
seemed such a childish thing to worry about.
Sadly enough, nobody asked my opinion. As the result of a complicated deal which I only heard
about afterward in vague terms, the original Player of the Prince's fiancee handed the
"ownership" of that character over to a friend, who created a new PC with the same name and
description and began making preparations for the Royal Wedding.
I mention this story so that if you think, for some reason, that there should be lots of limitations
on what a Puppet can do, as opposed to what a regular Player Character can do, such as getting
married to a PC, holding high political office, being a magic-user, etc., then I strongly urge you to
say as much in your newsfiles on the subject of Puppets so that you won't be caught looking
stupid at an unexpected problem the way the Wizards of that aforementioned Fantasy Mush
were.
As last word of advice, I strongly recommend your Code Room in the OOC Area have a sample
puppet for people to @parent from so they can get their own. For some reason, I have found that
trying to instruct someone online in how to create and properly code their puppet is frequently
harder than it looks. I eventually got to the point where I would code a puppet myself, and then
give it to the new owner. There has to be a better way, I kept telling myself . . .
