How to get a Character on Cajun Nights MUSH

Who are you? — The Player

To get a character on Cajun Nights MUSH, you first must decide what kind of character you want to play. There are many choices, yet, your choice might not be currently what we have room for on the MUSH. So, it would be best if you come onto the MUSH itself, or send mail to the Sphere Lead who would be dealing with you and your character, and see if your character concept is a good one which will find a niche here on the MUSH. Detail your idea to the Sphere Lead, see what kind of character they are looking to welcome, and work with them. If you find that your concept is a viable one, you could just write up a character application and send it along to the Sphere Lead. But it’s a lot of work to do, just to find out that the MUSH isn’t accepting any applications for the type of character you want to play.

Once your character concept has been approved, you’re going to have to write a character application. This is a large task where you detail your character, explaining everything about them for the Sphere Lead and their Staff to inspect and then, hopefully, approve. When you are writing a character application, there are the basic things that are required:

“Copyrighted Fictional Characters from other Genres will not be accepted.”

• Your Email Address
• Why do you want to play on Cajun Nights?
• What do you think you can bring to Cajun Nights?
• How long have you been roleplaying?
• How long have you been mushing?
• How familiar are you with mushes and mush code?
• What other mushes have you played on? – How long?
• Who were some of the other characters you’ve played?
• How familiar are you with the White Wolf – World of Darkness game system?
• What would you like to do with your character?
• Where, in the realm of roleplaying, would you like to take your character?
• What things would you like to explore through roleplaying with your character?

Don’t feel discouraged if this is your first time roleplaying, or and your first time on a mush, or even both! New players bring a refreshing, electric, excitable and contagious, energy with them which all players and staff will sense. If you don’t know how to mush, that’s okay, you can pick that up quickly enough, as well as the basic concepts of roleplaying. As for the rules of the game, or the political makeup of the world? Well, don’t worry about that. Play a simple character. Such as a normal investigative reporter, or a criminal. Someone you would find in the real world.

As your character learns about existence of the supernatural world around them, so do you… It’s exciting, new and a wonderful experience to learn about vampires, werewolves, mages and such all for the first time. Why not learn about it as a character as well? It’s a unique roleplaying experience that only happens once. It is best to take advantage of it. Imagine the possibilities of learning about all this from a third person? You are learning all this out of a book, but from someone explaining it all to you. It would color your perceptions of the world, and make your character prejudice, or influence your character in such a way that it might just be a brand new point of view which others would find unique and interesting and make you a desired character to roleplay with.

It should be stated now that normal everyday characters, mortals, who have no contact or knowledge of the supernatural world around them can be created on the mush without prior approval of character concept from any staff member. You can just log onto the mush, go through our ‘CharGen’ (Character Generator) and create a character. Which will then be looked at by our Sphere Wizard in charge of Mortals, and usually approved if there aren’t any outstanding points of concern to deal with. This process is relatively fast and can usually have characters approved and roleplaying within under a week’s time.

Game Mechanics

With your correspondence with the Sphere Lead, you will most likely have decided upon the strength level of your character. Perhaps your playing a very old Vampire, or a new Vampire. Or your a new pup who’s just found out he’s a Werewolf. Or an old and experienced Mage. Whatever has been decided, and initially approved, you should have some idea of rules on how to build your character. You should then build your character using the White Wolf World of Darkness game that your character would be found in. Keeping in mind the restrictions placed upon your character by the Sphere Lead, and the House Rules of the MUSH.

Our House Rules can be found both on the MUSH itself, as well on these webpages. Additionally, on the MUSH immediate and up to date House Rules will also be found on the Bulletin Board systems of the MUSH, and until they can be moved to both the permanent location of the Webpage and the +HRD files, can only be found there.

When you roll up and build your character, you should do this fairly, and honestly. All characters are usually checked by hand and by a series of mathematical computations which determine the Experience Point cost value of your character. If it is higher than the expressed agreed upon amount, your character application probably will not be accepted. So, please be open and honest with your Sphere Leads, as well as your other fellow players when on the MUSH. Cheating is not abided by, and will be dealt with accordingly.

Generally, if you are allowed to create a more powerful character then that of a starting character. You are usually given a bulk amount of additional Experience Points to work with. Though, some Sphere Leads might have a different method or system of creating older, powerful, more experienced characters then your generic starting characters from the game books. This should take care of all the game statistics that we need to build your Character Sheet.

• Game Statistics:
  • Character Name
  • True Character Name
  • Nature & Demeanor
  • Clan / Tribe / Tradition
  • Attributes (organized by: Physical, Mental, Social)
  • Abilities (organized by: Talents, Skills, Knowledges)
  • Advantages (organized by: Background, Virtues, Merits/Flaws, Others)
  • Special Supernatural Advantages, such as Vampire Disciplines, Rituals, and such
• Character Resources
  • Allies
  • Enemies
  • Contacts
  • Mentors
  • Resources
  • Status
  • Influence
  • Possessions
  • Gear / Equipment
• Character Appearance
  • Age
  • Apparent Age
  • Date of Birth (Date of Death if applicable)
  • General Description
  • Distinguishing Marks / Features / Habits
  • Hair Color / Style – Eye Color
  • Height and Weight
  • Race and Nationality
  • Sex
  • Style of Dress

Typically, any stat that is above three or four must be explained why it is so high in the background.

Background

Next comes the background for your character. Here, we want you to detail the life experiences of your character. There are a number of things we look for in a character background.

On Cajun Nights we use a structured background system to store all this information about your character into blocks of text called ‘Attributes’. This system can be read about more in detail on the mush itself. It is best to organize all your information in point form. Do not write your background/history as a story. If you wish to write a story about your character’s past, and some of the events that have occurred on the MUSH, you may do so. Perhaps putting it on a webpage of your own, or posting it somewhere for everyone to read, or just giving it out to the staff members who might be interested in reading it. Keep your information simple, tight, organized and in point-form so it will be easy and quickly read. We organize the information in these various sections:

Staff Background

This is generally your entire background that the staff will have access to. You character motivation, secrets and important information will all go into this section. It is best to keep the first page of this section trimmed down and simple because the staff will have to reference it every time they deal with your character when they wish to gear a plot or story around your character. Keeping things simple and organized is best. Things you should include are:

• Character Motivations – What makes your character do the things they do?
• Long Term Goals and Desires
• Weaknesses and Flaws
• Strengths and Merits
• Character Profile
• How does your character feel about themself? – Life in general? – Others?
• What successes and failures has your character achieved?

Once you have detailed these things you can go into the background details itself. You can write this like a story if you wish. But generally this doesn’t help staff find the information they want. If you want to write background stories about your character, then go ahead, and perhaps you will gain extra Experience Points for doing so. You can even write up all these things and create yourself a webpage about your character which can be linked to this one. Things you might want to consider are:

• Where is your Character from?
• What was childhood like?
• Family? — How does your family feel about them?
• How did the early years of their life shape your character’s personality?
• What secrets does your character have?
• What goals, motivations, does your character have? – Why?
• Who are your character’s Friends? Enemies? Allies? Contacts? Mentors?
• Why is your character where they are today? What brought them there?
• Why is your character in New Orleans?
• What is your character’s personality like?

Next you will detail how your character became supernatural.

• How did it happen?
• Why did it happen?
• How did it change your character?
• How did it change the lives of those around you? Friends/Family?
• What does your character think about it?
• How did they accept it?

When we look at a background we care more about the ‘whys’ and ‘hows’ instead of the ‘what’. We are not so much interested about the fact that your character was beaten as a child by other bullies. We want to know how this has influenced your character as a child, and now as the character you are about to play on the mush. Does your character protect the innocent and weak because of it now? Do they go out of their way to beat on bullies whenever possible? We always want to know how the events affect your character. Things you might want to consider are:

• Supernatural Political Affiliations – Who does your character like/respect? hate/fear?
• Attitudes about the Supernatural World
• Attitudes about the Mortal/Normal World now

Backgrounds One, Two & Three

The next thing we want are background information that public at large can access about your character. What do people know about your character? What can they find out if they do some digging and research? This is broken down into three separate sections and should be detail thusly:

• Level One — This is public “common” knowledge. What everyone knows about you. Word on the Street info. Facts that could be found out pretty easily about you. Rumors or here-say as well.
• Level Two — Hard facts about you. All must be true- NO rumors. Things that would take some digging to find.
• Level Three — Criminal Record. Arrests-Convictions and Suspicions. Things only the Police, Security and Governmental Agencies would be able to find out. Also any secrets that you might keep about your past.
• Misc — Any minor information, blood bonds, Haven, Chantry, home, Caern, business, family, sire, boons, friends, allies, contacts, enemies, retainers, familiars, herd, mentors, pack members, influences, alt-identities, etc. Information is best displayed in Point-Form. Information that should be known and might change rarely.
• Update — Information as to what you have achieved since playing on the mush, and what your current/temporary goals are. How your character has changed and developed.
• Fame — Accessible by anyone. If you have the Fame merit, setting your FAME background will allow you to tell other players about your famous character.

Supernatural Backgrounds One, Two & Three

Much like regular backgrounds, Kindred Backgrounds relate information about your character if he or she is a Vampire. We also have Garou, and Mage background areas as well. The varying levels of this area represent levels of secrecy.

• Level 1 — Common Knowledge, Rumors, or Simple Gossip. Lineage, Generation, Fame or Infamy in the Supernatural world are placed here. This information can be gotten through Harpies, gossip mongers, or just asking around the Vampire/Werewolf/Mage Population of the city. If you haven’t lived in New Orleans long, there might not be much to relate, but if you have, there most likely would be more.
• Level 2 — Much more difficult for other players to discern this information on you. It contains facts, no rumors or heresy. You may have contradictory information in Level 2, as it is the truth, rather than rumor in Level 1. Information in Level 2 could be such things as Known Ghouls, Contacts, Domains, Status, and so forth.
• Level 3 — Deep Secrets. Your affiliation to Sabbat or Camarilla for instance. Anything dark and deep that could be found out eventually. You should not be afraid to tell some secrets here, as the chances of another player getting this info are very slim.

General Information

If you’d like to get to know the MUSH a little better, try checking out our help files (type ‘+help’ for a list and ‘+help topic’ to read – for example, ‘+help theme’).

We also have many bulletin boards filled with information (type ‘+help bb for info on using the Myrddin Bulletin Board system). There are also Com channels where you can ask for help. Type comhelp for info on using them. If you have any questions, please type ‘+staff’ and page a staffer for help.