Dreamwalk MUSH

Demiurge

Main

Dreamwalk MUSH is a game about dreams built on old MUSH ideas. In it, you are a dreamwalker, a lucid dreamer who can travel to other people's dreams from across dimensions (a Space Marine might have a dream where he meets Alice In Wonderland), and even alter those dreams. In Dreamwalk MUSH EVERYBODY is a builder, but they have to spend Lucidity to build anything, and it's way more expensive to manipulate another person's dreamscape than your own... but it still can definitely be done. (Type lucidity once logged in to see costs)

The point of the game is threefold, to:

build up your own dreamscape as time passes
meet other dreamwalkers, and interact with them, and
explore the infinite dreamverse, hopping between dreamscapes to meet new and unexplored places

Character Creation

Considerations Before Starting

Becoming a Dreamwalker requires you consider a few things. Most importantly:

who they personify in their dreams,
what their dreamscape is like,
which universe your character is native to (optional), and
what their role in that universe is (also optional)

Who They Are In Their Dreams

Enter with a concept of who they are in their dreams. This is important. It is your character's presentation to all other characters. It is who they are on the inside, which becomes the outside here in the dreamverse. Is The Space Marine a poet? Perhaps instead of defying the norm, he's exactly what you would expect him to be in his dreams: a warrior. Whatever the case may be, have an idea of who they think of themselves as while dreaming.

What Their Dreamscape Is Like

Not who they are, but what they dream about. What are the places like? What are the people in them like? How do things work, what is going on there? Duke Nukem's dreamscape might be full of attractive women in skimpy yet high class attire; starlet outfits and the like. A djinni's dreamscape might reflect the wishes of his masters, and the negative consequences wrought upon them for asking for those things. A Sopranos character might dream about that one time their boss insulted them, over and over. Whatever the case may be, have a compelling idea in mind.

Which Universe Your Character Is Native To

Your character isn't always asleep. When you, the player, are logged off, your character is either awake or in some kind of dreamless sleep. He can't enter people's dreams because he isn't dreaming, but his dreamscape persists when he stops dreaming, allowing other dreamwalkers to enter them, observe them, and even alter them.

People from all different universes dream. Space Marines dream. Alice in Wonderland dreams. Sopranos crime family members dream. There is no limit to which universe you can be in. You can use an existing one, create a derivative one, or make an entirely new one. The only key is that you make it somehow interesting to other players. If you fail to do this, you might fail as a player.

What Their Role In That Universe Is

So you've decided where your character resides, but not who they are. If you're playing an Alice In Wonderland character, you need to know which one; after all, the disposition of Alice is very different from the disposition of the Red Queen. Formulate an idea of their role. It does not need to be fabulous to be interesting. A grunt office worker can be a terrifying anti-hero in his dreams; a person's soul often isn't reflected in their situation.

Actually Making Your Character

Simply create the character and log in to the MUSH using the web client or your favorite real client; the host is dreamwa.lk and the port is 1736. That's all you need to do. When you tell us you're ready, we'll have a private conversation with you about your idea and log it. You don't need to write any of the stuff down, but you need to explain to us your idea in a way that covers all those topics. Then, after we've considered the totality of your idea, we'll sign off on it, approving your character, or tell you what needs to change to convince us to sign off on it.

Lucidity

Lucidity is how you get things done. It's how you build new rooms. It's how you describe and name those rooms. It's how you create sympathetic connections to people when you run out of your first three sympathy tokens. It's how you build bridges between people, and tamper with other people's dreamscapes. There are two main ways that are currently implemented to get more Lucidity:

Actually roleplaying

You get Lucidity based on a combination of how many people are in the scene, and how many words you wrote. While quantity doesn't translate directly into quality, more is better ceteris paribus, and it's something that can be calculated objectively.

Idling

We want you to stay logged on! Even if you're just chatting OOC, that's better than disappearing. For every hour you're online, idling or otherwise, you get 150 Lucidity.

Reminder! The actual game is hosted at `dreamwa.lk` on port `1736`. The website is located at `http://dreamwa.lk`.

Remember! You can always use the `lucidity` command for important information

Demiurge

Techie Stuff

Repository (and relevant branch): https://github.com/TheStranjer/aresmush/tree/dreamwalk/master

Development Cycle: A minimum viable product has been reached, and now it will all be incremental. However, if players actually use this, it will evolve to make it more fun for them, and their input will be greatly appreciated

Shoutout to @faraday for writing the engine this operates on.

ixokai

I'm intrigued by the weirdness of this. But novel approaches to mushing appeal to me lately.

Demiurge

@ixokai said in Dreamwalk MUSH:

I'm intrigued by the weirdness of this. But novel approaches to mushing appeal to me lately.

That's great. Why not give it a shot then?

EMDA

This does seem like a neat idea. I hope some people come up with universes that play well together.

I'm pretty leery of encouragements for people to just stay connected, but I get the purpose. You mention the 150 lucidity per hour thing. How much does that amount to in relation to lucidity costs for expanding your dreamworld and how much you might make in a scene? How large of a starting dreamscape can a character make off the bat?

Is there any interaction between the universes characters come from, given the emphasis on it being interesting, or would other players mainly come to know about your waking world through whatever elements are pulled into your dreamscape?

Demiurge

@emda said in Dreamwalk MUSH:

This does seem like a neat idea. I hope some people come up with universes that play well together.

I'm pretty leery of encouragements for people to just stay connected, but I get the purpose. You mention the 150 lucidity per hour thing. How much does that amount to in relation to lucidity costs for expanding your dreamworld and how much you might make in a scene? How large of a starting dreamscape can a character make off the bat?

Is there any interaction between the universes characters come from, given the emphasis on it being interesting, or would other players mainly come to know about your waking world through whatever elements are pulled into your dreamscape?

I'm glad I wrote a lucidity command that's designed specifically to list this! It automatically updates as I add new features, too, so if you do choose to log on, you can rely on that for accurate information.

Here's what the output of it current looks like on my character:

 ==> Your Lucidity is 339

 ==> Lucidity

 Lucidity is how you get things done. It's how you build new rooms. It's how you describe and name those 
    rooms. It's how you create sympathetic connections to people when you run out of your first three 
    sympathy tokens. It's how you build bridges between people, and tamper with other people's 
    dreamscapes. There are two main ways that are currently implemented to get more Lucidity:

 ==> What Things Cost

  *. Describe Own Room: 500
  *. Describe Other Room: 1500xthe barrier of the room being described
  *. Rename Own Room: 500
  *. Build Room Base: 1500xnumber of rooms you have
  *. Sympathetic Connection: 5000xnumber of sympathetic connections you already have
  *. Barrier Increase: 1000xnumber of barriers room already has
  *. Erect Bridge: 2500xthe total barriers of both rooms
  *. Bridge Toll: 25xthe barrier of the room being entered
  *. Details Home: 500
  *. Details Other: 1000xthe barrier of the room being detailed

 ==> How To Get More

*. Idle. We want you to stay logged on! Even if you're just chatting OOC, that's better than 
    disappearing. For every hour you're online, idling or otherwise, you get 150 Lucidity.


*. Actually Roleplaying. You get Lucidity based on a combination of how many people are in the scene, 
    and how many words you wrote. While quantity doesn't translate directly into quality, more is better 
    ceteris paribus, and it's something that can be calculated objectively.

How much starting Lucidity, if any, is kind of up for debate right now. I'm not sure if you should get any (leery of this), or if you should get like 10,000 (wooo, seems a bit much!), but you should probably get something so you can start scening early.

I might write in a lucidity/gift <player>=<quantity> command soon, so that older players can help newer ones out.

EDIT: The larger the scene, the more you make. It's calculated by: 10 x players x word count, per post you make.

Salty Secrets

This is pretty interesting. What kinds of systems are used for characters interacting in competitive manners? Typical combat system, dice, coin flips, free-form? Do characters have special attributes set on them to determine how strong and weak they are, or is everyone assumed equal due to dream-world madness?

My experience with multi-themes is that people like going for the craziest most powerful characters they can get away with, which hurts players like me who prefer to play more mundane existences, so I'm curious to hear what your approach to this is.

Demiurge

@salty-secrets Right now, I don't have a combat system. If I do make one, it will be implemented incrementally, and will be totally custom. Also, being the craziest most powerfulest abstract concept or whatever likely wouldn't matter even if I did institute a combat system, because dreams are essentially magic and you can expel Death itself from your dreams because you thought it wasn't real hard enough.

I wouldn't be worried about getting "pwnt" by God characters.

TNP

Sounds interesting. One thing though leapt out at me...

and how many words you wrote.

I don't like the idea of encouraging nonsensical purple prose that takes a half hour to write and even longer to interpret. It actively punishes those who pose concisely.

Demiurge

@tnp said in Dreamwalk MUSH:

Sounds interesting. One thing though leapt out at me...

and how many words you wrote.

I don't like the idea of encouraging nonsensical purple prose that takes a half hour to write and even longer to interpret.

Yes, I've definitely considered that. But honestly, I think I'd prefer to tolerate purple prose people over one-liners. The calculation of Lucidity per post can be modified and tweaked over time. I'm definitely open to ideas.

Ominous

I really like this idea. It's similar to one I had where PCs were gods who were molding the godly realm using mana, and stealing some ideas from the Mystic Empyrean RPG.

ixokai

Okay I'm giving this a chance-- I like unusual things these days, having played all the boring things we've all been playing for decades. I have some concerns; the boss listened and though he didn't agree in the end, I can't expect him too, but he heard me out respectfully and clearly thought about what I brought up.

After having first scene (well I'm in the middle of it but the data point that matters is now clear), some of those concerns are mitigated to a large degree (though not entirely)

I went full on heavy duty sci-fi nerd in my characters dreamscape. I kinda made my own little mini sci fi mush! Complete with a pair of rogue AI's (that are opposed to eachother and me).

Plus, hey, Ares! Without FS3. I mean I like FS3 don't get me wrong. Its just fun seeing someone take Ares another way.

Testament

Here's the question that I'm wondering that others may of had as well. If there's other characters from other worlds, does that mean we can play a character we've played on another MU here? Just, you know, their sleeping part.

Either way, I'm interested. Original concepts I'm down with.

SunnyJ

@demiurge said in Dreamwalk MUSH:

@tnp said in Dreamwalk MUSH:

Sounds interesting. One thing though leapt out at me...

and how many words you wrote.

I don't like the idea of encouraging nonsensical purple prose that takes a half hour to write and even longer to interpret.

Yes, I've definitely considered that. But honestly, I think I'd prefer to tolerate purple prose people over one-liners.

my man

ixokai

@tnp said in Dreamwalk MUSH:

Sounds interesting. One thing though leapt out at me...

and how many words you wrote.

I don't like the idea of encouraging nonsensical purple prose that takes a half hour to write and even longer to interpret. It actively punishes those who pose concisely.

This is a very valid concern, but after having a scene there-- lucidity is VERY generous to the point while yes someone can write purple to the stupid and get more, its self-defeating. I just won't RP with someone who is that boring again. I had a fun dynamic scene and got about 40k lucidity doing something crazy for my character (who is basically an AI not robot how did everyone get into calling him a robot! If you cut him he bleeds!) like going in a car chase with in a dingy cab escaping evil cops. During this scene I posed as I generally do, my partner posed reasonably and not in a way that seemed to just waste time/space to get more points-- everything seemed meaningful and interesting-- and we just went with it.

Was fun.

faraday

@ixokai said in Dreamwalk MUSH:

Plus, hey, Ares! Without FS3. I mean I like FS3 don't get me wrong. Its just fun seeing someone take Ares another way.

Yes! I kept trying to tell folks that they weren't joined at the hip but it's nice to see somebody demonstrate that! Also kudos to @Demiurge for how quickly and cleanly this got put together.

Testament

I got a character going with a friend and we've made some preliminary plans. I have to say, this is one of the most unique concepts for a game. And I'm utterly fascinated to see where it goes.

I really like the idea of creating your own little world, creating bonds with other dreamers and then creating bridges with those dreamers to visit their dreams.

I don't know if there will ever be any kind of grand unified theme or metaplot or whatever, but at this point, I don't care. I really like it.

I think this is the first time in a long time I've seen a mush so something utterly different, to my knowledge at least.

Some people say their butt is awesome when really it's just a boat. In this case, it's a really nice butt. I think I'm using that old WORA analogy properly.

Three-Eyed Crow

@testament said in Dreamwalk MUSH: