Totally and utterly LOST

[Phacoschwein]

(Does this belong in “Help and Tutorials” or “General Roleplay Discussion?” Sorry if it’s in the wrong place, but any mods are always welcome to move it.)

First things first: I am Phacoschwein (Pax or Phaco for short). I am a talented (or so they say), albeit not experienced, role-player. I alternate between two computers: one at my boarding school with telnet, one at home with SimpleMU. I have a great affinity for Pumbaa, and am therefore eager to roleplay him on Kings And Vagabonds.

There’s just one problem: I have no experience with MUCKs whatsoever, and therefore am (as the title suggests), utterly and totally LOST in this promising new world. I’ll do my best to address all my questions in the following post, and be warned, I have a LOT of ‘em. Here goes:

I’ve only been active on one (forum-based) RPG before, and because it was Digimon-based, I had a clear point from which to start: my character finding her Digimon partner’s egg. However, in this instance it’s less clear where to get going from. Should I, like, have my character just waltz onto the scene whenever I see fit? Or how about writing a – how you say – pose with them as a youngster (that’s the point from which I intend to begin), demonstrating their personality and awaiting anyone who wants to interact with them to come along and do so? Put simply, my first question is: where to start?

I’m also muy confused about how “posting” (or posing) works. The RPing method I’m most comfortable with is to see someone’s latest reply, type up a response in MS Word pretty much making it up as I go along, then paste it into the reply box. That approach is out of the question here, correct? I personally don’t think I could cope with typing a pose while everyone can see me editing and adding to it – let alone where I can’t see the text as it appears! Or do I type the text into my client, hit “enter” when I’m satisfied with it, and it becomes public only then? I take pride in making my RP posts read like extracts from novels, and I hope that can be transferred to MUCK-based role-play.

Now, I hear that the position of Pumbaa is open, and as an almost psychotic fan of his, I’m totally stoked to hear that! I truly believe I’m the right person to walk in his shoes: I know his personality inside out; my writing abilities are well above average (I’ll link to one of my other RPs if anyone wants proof); I’m very interested in delving into his psychology and history. I’ll be honest here: being able to do exactly that is my main motive for wanting to jump head first into this MUCK.

A “different incarnation” matters very little to me (I’m actually thrilled that his character is more likely to be taken seriously here – unlike elsewhere in this fandom), and I’m more than prepared to abide the three-hour-a-week rule. For a while now, I’ve had a whole family and history laid out for him in my head, which kind of intersects with that of my own fursona – whom I’m also interested in playing here, and who possesses what could pass for a special ability. This is already way too long a post to describe it in detail, so I’ll refrain from doing so – but rest assured, I will.

In my perspective of the LKverse, Pumbaa is about five years (or the warthog equivalent) younger than Mufasa, so am I right in thinking I should be able to slot his birth quite nicely into the current timeframe of the RP? The problem is that the “family” I’ve devised for Pumbaa consists of nine characters, all of which are pretty much essential to the group dynamic – and that’s not counting him and my fursona. Nine is really too many to juggle, especially just after starting out. What would be a possible solution to that dilemma? My intention is to start quite shortly (or possibly immediately) after Pumbaa’s birth, but how exactly can I set that up without needing to commit to nine characters I need, but don’t exactly want?

Most of all, what I need is for someone to explain as many technical aspects of a MUCK I need to know in more detail than the HELP screen or the Rules page of the website, but still in language I can understand. When it comes to the role-playing/writing aspect, I pretty much know what I’m doing – I’m just utterly clueless when it comes to the technical stuff, and I fear what will be my downfall. How do usernames, OOC talk, “setting yourself idle” and logs work, and all that?

There’s bound to be at least a few issues I neglected to mention, but no way would ALL of them fit in the post

I get every third weekend off from my boarding school, and thankfully, this coming weekend is one of them. After you lot have been so kind as to explain the ropes to me, I’m planning to dedicate a weekend to MUCKing around on Kings And Vagabonds. I look forward to it muchly. ;D

Sorry for length of the post. If you think this was a chore to read, you should see my IC posts back on that other RPG

[Bahati]

Either Telnet or SimpleMU will work wonderfully. SimpleMU is by far the better program to work with, but I know many of our players have access to only Telnet when they're at school, so you're in good company.

What we can do is a arrange a tutorial session with one or more of the wizards, who will teach you the basics of MUCKing. It's almost identical to roleplaying over AIM or on forums except for the fact that play tends to be quicker and written in present tense. There are other, smaller differences--like being able to move around through your environment, choosing which area you want to RP in. It's all text-based, though. No worries. ;)

What times are good for you?

[Chisulo]

I concur with Bahati. We may be able to slot a tutorial session in. It's easy to get comfortable with the commands and such as well. Took me less than a week, and I was such a horrible little n00b.

I think you'll like MUCKing, by the way you wrote of other RPGs.

[Kiniro]

Welcome to KaV! :3

If you have nine characters in mind for Pumbaa's family, I'm afraid you'd be hard-pressed to find them all players. What I would recommend for this particular situation is to find someone who's interested in playing one or two which you feel are most important to the character development and plotline you had in mind, and then 'spoof' the rest- which means you play characters who aren't really there as part of your real character's pose or as a pose on its own without even incorperating the character that you're playing from.

[Lindani]

Not to be petty here or anything, but...

Aren't I already Pumbaa's player? I have him in my altlist and everything... haven't played him because I'm not even sure if he's been born yet. And having a newborn warthog piglet running around by himself wouldn't make a whole lot of sense.

However, phacoshwein, if you have ideas for his family, I'll be happy to take them and apply them liberally to all affected areas! And if there's anything I can do to make your MUCK life easier, let me know. Heck, let us all know. It's what we're here for.

[Chisulo]

I didn't know he had a player set-up, Lindani. You also have 8 other alts, too. In my opinion, if we let Pumbaa be taken by this obviously obsessed(xD) new player, it would guarantee us a new player, and make it easier for you to work on your already active characters. Just a suggestion.

[Phacoschwein]

Thanks for making me feel so welcome I'll see how many members of Pumbaa's sounder I can find players for.

While I'd be delighted to have the moder- I mean, wizards explain the ins and outs to me in detail, there's a problem: I'm in the London time zone (though not in the city itself), which can make online conversation slightly difficult. However, I hear there are at least four different time zones in the USA alone - if people can get around that, I don't think it'll be *too* big an obstacle.

Here's a page you can use to compare time zones. If any wizards would let me know what time would be convenient for a tutorial session on Saturday (in both time zones), then by all means lay some tutorial on me! ;D

Personally I reckon some time between 11am and 4pm (London time) would be good for me, but if you'd like to suggest a better period for your needs, please let me know!

EDIT: Ah. Before I can attend "class," could someone let me know where and how to enter the address of a MUCK (thus connecting to it) into SimpleMU? A n00bish question, perhaps, but I'm sure I'll be able to make up for it once I've got started RPing

[Asrohc]

"File" -> "New Connection Wizard" and fill in the blanks. Choose MUSH/MUX/MOO when it prompts for type of game.

"connect guest guest" at the welcome screen.