MUSH Etiquette

Players & The Community

Appropriate Language and Content

Pokemorph MUSH can be considered 16+ mostly for the presence of gruesome violence and heavy themes. The world has a dark history, and gritty events still occur on occasion. These themes include fantastic racism, internment camps, torture, terrorism, war, and character death.

However, we have a range of players with a broad variety of ages, backgrounds, beliefs, desires and comfort levels - as such, we expect all players to treat each other with respect and understanding, and discuss their comfort levels OOCly before engaging in dark topics in RP.

Refer to our Code of Conduct & Rules for further clarification.

Chat Channels & Channel Conduct

Pokemorph MUSH has a number of chat channels in-game available to players (as such, we do not have a Discord server).

The Public Channel (aka Pubchan or simply Pub) is a great place to converse with other players without the commitment of roleplay. As long as the Code of Conduct is followed, anything goes on Pubchan. Some people prefer to stay In-Character even when chatting on Pubchan; though this is not a requirement, and not everyone does. The Pubchan is a great place to get to know the playerbase.

There is a Roleplay Channel specifically for players to seek, well, RP! This is not a channel for casual chatting - it is only for seeking RP, offering to RP, and/or discussing the scene setup.

Morphnet is an enforced In-Character channel that functions as a chatroom system for Prism Island’s citizens. Anything said here will be considered IC for the character speaking.

Guest Channel (aka Guestchan) is where potential players are able to chat on the game and ask about PMM. Feel free to join and talk to our guests if you’re feeling helpful!

MUSH Culture

In contrast to some other RP spaces, it is a common part of MU* culture to remain at least partially In-Character at all times. Some characters may be fully IC even when speaking on chat channels or through private pages; other players may opt to drop it when discussing serious issues or in private conversation.
This is not required nor expected conduct, however; if you prefer to only play ICly when engaging in RP scenes, feel free to do so!

It is also part of MU* culture to respect other players’ privacy in regards to alternate characters (AKA “alts”) they may have. It may be considered rude to ask someone what alts they have. Many players are open about who their alternate characters are, while others wish to keep their cards close to their chest. If you are curious about a certain person’s alts, we recommend you check their +oocinfo; if they do not have alts listed, please respect their privacy. And in turn, if you wish to share who your alts are, we recommend you list them on your own +oocinfo! (Note that you do not have to list all of them - only as many as you wish.)

Public vs Private Scenes

So the Code of Conduct & Rules apply to public scenes, but what about in private? What constitutes a “public” vs “private” scene?

A public scene is one that takes place in any publicly accessible space on the MUSH’s grid - city streets, wilderness, beaches, businesses, and/or docks are examples of public rooms.

Private scenes are ones that take place behind locked doors - literally! If there’s a lock that restricts access from any player character, it is considered a private room. These are typically character homes (i.e., apartments or houses).

It is our policy that what happens in private rooms is up to players’ discretion, so long as all players involved follow the consent law and no local or federal laws are violated. This does include ‘adult themes’ such as excessively violent, sexually-charged, sexually explicit, and/or paraphilia-focused roleplay scenes. It is the players’ responsibility to confirm the ages of all RP partners when engaging in scenes with adult themes. Failure to do so may result in a warning, and engaging in such scenes with players who are legal minors may result in an immediate ban from Pokemorph MUSH.

Roleplay Consent Law

As PMM’s roleplay is free-form and consent-based, all scenes, even battling and fighting between characters, falls under the “consent law”. According to this “law”, you cannot have your character even so much as lean on another player’s character without their OOC permission, let alone harm them in any way. RP is collaborative story-writing with a focus on player enjoyment; always needing to “win” is a fast way to have everyone lose. Moreover, it’s common courtesy to make sure that each player involved is comfortable and in agreement to the actions that are taking place.

This is a very important rule. Some players may be too shy or cooperative to object when you start forcing your character’s actions upon them - while this may seem okay since you weren’t told “no”, it is rude to the other player, and potentially damaging to new roleplayers who may then assume this is how things are done. This is a responsibility you have as a player! Doing something to another player’s character (or property) without OOC consent is considered godmodding or powergaming, and will not be tolerated.

There are several ways of acquiring OOC permission, the two most common being “attempting” and “asking”:

You may make an attempt in your pose, leaving it open for the other person. Komori smirks, and brings an arm up to lean on Suki.

To which Suki may choose to accept (Suki frowns as she's leaned on, looking away from Komori.), or reject the action (Suki side-steps, avoiding contact with Komori.)

Or you can ask OOC, and pose determining on the reply:

<OOC> Morita says, "Can I pick you up off the ground? I won't hurt you, just lifting you up"
<OOC> Venipede says, "Sure."

Morita scoops up Venipede with both hands, lifting it to eye level with the Chansey-Morph.

Alternately, if Venipede does not grant permission:

<OOC> Morita says, "Can I pick you up off the ground? I won't hurt it, just lifting it up"
<OOC> Venipede says, "I'd rather you didn't"
<OOC> Morita says, "Ok. How would you react to Morita trying to grab you?"
<OOC> Venipede says, "Run away before she could catch me"

Morita reaches down to pick up Venipede, but she's not fast enough to grab the bug!

If you feel that an RP scene you have participated in has been a violation of the consent law, or if you preemptively want mediation for a ruling or compromise, don’t hesitate to consult any Staff on the matter.

RP situations in violation may be retconned, if necessary.