WARNING SPOILERS
This post and thread will contain MAJOR spoilers for the game Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, avoid it if you want to avoid being spoiled.
I feel the Witcher universe would make for a fantastic setting of a MUSH. You have a lot of themes that come together and the potential for a truly unique world if you build off of what has already been established. You could easily set up a Lords & Ladies MUSH, but with so much more.
Here are some basic ideas I had for such a game.
What is Canon:
Its been stated by the author of the Witcher books that he doesn't consider the games Canon. Hes an old Polish guy so its not a surprise hes not in on the hip new thing of Video Games. I feel to get the best of the world you need to consider both the books and the games Canon. Considering there are no Witcher books that are set during the time of the game, it should work. (The games takes place 5 years after the ending of the last book).
Setting/Geography:
The game and the books established a pretty rich world with various kingdoms and empires, obviously influenced by real world peoples and places. There are several large cities that the game could be based on, and in some areas of the world the cities are close enough you could easily establish multiple locations.
Witcher 3 itself adds a big thing though. Other worlds~Insert Text Here~. Its already established that there around countless other worlds in the Witcher 3 Universe, some populated with sentient creatures. (You have the elven world that the Wild Hunt is from, and you also visit a barren desert world that Avall'ach tells you was once an ocean world inhabited by a sentient race.) We know that Elves come from their own world, entirely possible that so do dwarves and other humanoid creatures. We also know that all the mythical beasts such as Griffons, Cockatrice, Basilisk, Chorts, Fiends, Sylvans, Succubi, were deposited on the Witcher world by the Confluence of Spheres, meaning they also came from other worlds.
You also have a MAJOR point where the worlds are not limited to typical fantasy fare. Ciri states in the last half of the game "I visited a world where everyone had metal in their head (cybernetic implants?), waged war from afar (guns?), and everyone had their own flying ship. (flying ship...)"
You can really spice up stories with a sprinkle of other worlds, or have almost a Shangri-La type setting where different worlds are numerous and connected.
Setting/Time:
I feel the best place to set the world is obviously after the end of Witcher 3, likely a few hundred or so years in the future so that you don't run into the issue of having to play major characters such as Geralt, Ciri, Dandelion, ect ect.
Characters:
Who would you play? When I originally thought the Witcher world would be a good place for a MUSH, I was worried it would be limited in the type of characters you could play. Peasant, Lord, Soldier, Sorcerer/Sorceress, Witcher.
Doesn't seem like much, but kind of crimping off WoD you have to create your own concept and go from there. Having finished the game, there actually is a ton of concepts that are open and would fit, and the introduction of other worlds also opens the box on the types of characters that could be played.
Mechanics/Code:
I have zero experience here. As is obvious. Im an ideas guy. I know how to dig, connect rooms, and I can kind of cobble together stuff with other bits of easy to use code. (Kind of made a space combat simulation on AoA when I was staff there by creating special weapons and armor to simulate ships)
I feel the experience system can't be level based. I want this to be a MUSH, not a MUD. Combat should exist, be important, but not be the end all to be all.
Of course there is something to be said to have a game that is combat heavy focused and the focus is Witching and doing contracts to hunt monsters...
I'll probably add more later, but those are my ideas for right now...