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[MrWiggles]

Navitas: The City Limits is a mush inspired by the Dresden Files novels by Jim Butcher. You can consider it a World of Darkness alternative place. It uses the PennMush code base.

The Mush is player vs. player centric, but social and none combative characters are welcomed and needed.

Navitas takes place in Southern California, in Orange County. Current there Orange, Anaheim (Including Disneyland) and the supernatural underground town, called 'The Burrows.' The area is becoming very attractive for all sorts of super natural creatures due to this area recently forming the wellspring for a new major leyline, and altering the flows of several other moderate/major leylines into the city.  This is making the area highly important for the various super natural metanations and overall supernatural creatures are attracted to the area.

Spoiler: Character Generation (click to show/hide)

Character Generation on Navitas requires staff approval before play, but fairly open and none restrictive. You're encourage to create your own unique badass human or original super natural creatures. You can do this with the aid of Plug Ins. https://docs.google.com/document/d/17N3O6nIJWqqHMCEonrNYRLTrfjC0NlXrLGB7aUM292w (WiP)

There a host of 'standard' super natural creatures that are common in the world, and selectable as a race template in CG. And I'm hoping that creatures you create will also be added to the template for others to choose as well.

The Race Creation is an application process so that eh Staff can get a handle on what you are, and we work on a series of comprises to allow you to play the character you want.

The stats are made through a Point Buy System. Cores (skills) and combat actions are to be determined.

Equipment and personal belonging is pretty free form, as long as the character Background is sensible for those belongings.

Character Starting Wealth (covered in greater detail when describing the Econ System) is also background dependent, however wealthy characters don't have absolute control over their wealth and can be used by Staff for game events.

And then the player will need to submit a background for their character. This is to show they got a decent understanding of the game, and their background elements can then be formally integrated into the game in some ways.

After that there some questions to answer, such as character goals and loose outline of what sorta powers you want in the future. These questions, is so we can avoid disappointment and headache in the future. I dont expect you to stick with these goals, and will be little bit sad if you do. This is just to help with understanding the game and with Staff understanding what cha want to do, so we can facilitate that.

Spoiler: Combat System/Game System (click to show/hide)

I know a lot of the posters here are generally Mudders so the combat system for Navitas is going to be different experience. First and foremost is that it is role play dependent. Without the combatants posing their actions and reactions, the combat system is utterly boring. Its primary purpose is to be a neutral arbiter, to offer grounding for your reactions and to provide balance between combat actions.

So you both, in general, mutually agree to enter combat. Then the turn order is set, and then the first person writes his pose with the actions he doing against his opponent. He inputs the combat action(s) and target(s)s then ends his turn. His opponent is prompted to select his defenses to see if they pass or fail and receive damage.

This is mutual story telling and about having a good time more so, then winning the combat. Ideally you get two players trying to tell a mutually good story and trying to win the combat instance. (And its very epic when this happens.)  The attacker describes in his pose; how and where he's trying to attack you. The defenders then gets to write his defense, and if they failed describe where they hit and how they effected him. And you do so while respecting the feedback of the combat system. You have this back and forth until its concluded.

System wise, the combat system is Skill focus (over stat focus or equipment focus) using your Cores. You're encourage to get a series of unique combat actions. The system can handle support roles quite effectively; such as healers and buffers.

There are stats and energy pools.

Stats:
Strength, Constitution (bodily toughness), Endurance (bodily stamina), (manual) Dexterity, Agility, Willpower (Mental Fortitude),  Finesses (magical dexterity).

Energy Pools:
Health, Navitas (Energy), Stamina, and Action Points. (Action Points are limiters for how many actions you can take during your turn.)

Combat Actions can have cost from any of the energy pools. They can effect any stat or energy pool. These effects can more traditional 'instant' effect, or take place over multiple turns (poison damage or continual healing).

The combat system doesn't recognize range, as its very awkward for mu*s to do this, so I've left that up for Role Playing context. Though inferred range is used in some instances.

Combat Actions can have pretty interesting interactions with each other. There Strong/Weak and Cancel/Ignore.
Strong and Weak are conditional crit hits or crit misses. There are the Combat Types (Melee Range ect ect) and the combat action Composition (damage type and what the combat action is composed out of). These elements are treated with logic gates to see if they're effect(s) are triggered. The trigger effect(s) can be as complex as the normal combat action effects. (Players dont have to worry about configuring this, Staff program in each combat actions. I'm just giving a lite techincal overview of its capabilities).

Cancel/Ignore are similar to the above but are automatic hit or misses.

Character themselves have a default Strong/Weak & Cancel/Ignore. So with some experimentation, you can discover what your opponent has an advantage or disadvantage over. If you happen to aquire an item of power, you can have some neat self discovery with this system as well.

Combat Equipment and Transformation are handle with the same sub system (call the Alteration System). They can alter every facet of the character and individual combat actions. As an example, a universal combat action could be 'Physical' (which generically encompasses melee hand to hand fighting). Then you equip your Sword, and that exchanges the Composition of 'Physical' from Blunt to Sharp. (This is a pretty mundane example, but you could have a transformation, into, say Werewolf, which changes your Physical attack to have sharp damage, and give you a universal Weakness to Silver.)

The Alts have a series of triggers with different effects as well. Such as a damage threshold to disengage the Alteration. A chance to kill you automatically per round. A chance to fail to engage due to a skill roll.  These aren't all the triggers but some of the more colorful ones.

The last bit of the combat system is the none combat skill contest system (Arbiter System). This handles none combat  player vs. player contests, or skill contests from more traditional table top RPGs. It can also handle ad hoc skill contests to. This system is largely supplemental.

But yea. The combat system is fairly expansive, and bows to RP context more often then telling player's no. To gain new combat actions or alts, the players write an application and pays XP for them. Staff then programs in the request and gives them to the player. There generally a conversation between the Staff and player to work out the details of the action. Balance of the combat action is left up to staff.

Spoiler: IC Knowledge and Rumor System (click to show/hide)

So one of the key design goals of Navitas is how to disseminate information to characters individually and do so over time so they aren't overwhelmed and just ignore the information.

So instead of having a expansive wiki covering the game, I've decided to use an IC Knowledge System. The Knowledge System is a database of small digestible Factoids.

The Factoids are no larger then two paragraphs and describe some element of the game's universe. Players will have Knowledge Cores (skills), and will gain new Factoids every week. Each Factoid has an Obscure Rating. The Obscurity Rating, is pretty much what it says on the tin. How obscure the Factoid is. Its variable though. So for one Knowledge Core, a particular factoid would be more obscure, but for another, it fairly common knowledge.

As an example.

Orange County Transportation Authority
The Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) is a civil service providing cheap public transportation, via bus routs all over orange county for a flat fair. Bulk of the routes run during the day, but some run late into the evening.
City Life:15  Burrows Life:90

City Life and Burrows Life are example of a Knowledge Core, and the number is Obscurity Rating. So for the Burrows Life knowledge, knowing about the OCTA is far more obscure then if you had the City Life Knowledge Core.

Now, this system also lets me retroactively insert new information into the game. Such as, if we had a Bruce Wayne Character who is a celebrity due to his immense wealth, I can inset factoid about the character when they're approved. And Characters can know about Bruce Wayne without ever having to talk to the player. I can use this system to also retroactively insert information for game events, like Tiny Plots.

The Rumor System uses bulk of the Knowledge System infrastructure, which is why they're grouped together. During play, players can submit Rumors about Characters. These rumors don't have to be accurate. They're staff approved. (To prevent to many duplicate rumors or erroneous submissions.) This system can also be used for game events, like Tiny Plots.

The Rumor System is meant to help give reasons for characters to meet each other. Hopefully it'll also stop that awkward, and tired 'meeting for the first time' rp. Which if you play on Role Play enforce or intensive places, can get pretty repetitive and boring. These rumors are handed out once a week, and more or less random. These rumor expire after a while. Characters can elect to keep some of these rumors. This forms a pseudo reputation system.

Spoiler: Monsters of the Week (click to show/hide)

Monsters of the Week, is pretty much what it says on the tin. They're a game ran event that are meant to be completed in 1-4 scenes ran weekly. Generally these are one off monsters to try and defeat, but not always. If you've watch shows, like Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Friday the 13th the TV series, it can also be a mysterious that needs to be solved.

These are suppose to be quick game events.

Spoiler: Items of Power (click to show/hide)

Navita's chief inspiration is the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher, but its not its only inspiration. Its other inspiration is Warehouse 13 and SCP Wiki.

There will be a series of unique items that give characters  various abilities. They're meant to be be a source of conflict for characters. And they should be stolen and taken from each other, as often as possible. New Items of Power (IoP), will be introduce to the game on a semi regular basis, while old (or unbalance) IoP will be cycled out of the game. I have a few IoP planned that'll take a few RL years before they can be effectively used.

There three IC Organizations meant to handle IoP. The Warehouse, The Library (More or less the Library from the Liberian tv movie series) and SCP.

The IoPs will be scaled in such a fashion, where IoP meant for lower 'level' characters wont interest higher 'level' characters, and high 'level' IoP will be dangerous and or unusable to lower 'level ' characters from wanting them. This is an attempt to keep the contest for IoP on a more level playing field.

The number of active IoP will be kept in a ratio of active players. I'm thinking a 1:3 ratio, IoP to Players.

Spoiler:  Economy System (click to show/hide)

The Economy System is totally stolen from d20 Modern, Wealth System. (And its under a OGL.)
Though some of its assumptions are changed. This isn't a very detail econ system, as you'll find on some Muds. This is a very abstracted and overall a simplified system.

When I was working on the Items of Power, I discover that it was perfectly reasonable that some characters would want to to hire NPC Guards or Private Eyes, to protect their IoP, or to hirer Mercenary Extraction Teams or Thieves to steal IoP from other players.

So players can buy items or services without a direct need for Staff. (Which reduces staff paperwork.) And characters can use this system to bargain between themselves.

These services include but not limited to, private ambulances, or private doctors. 

It includes the ability to make purchase from various black markets.

And includes the allowance for characters to go into debt.

It doesn't really support any sort of character crafting, but characters can hold jobs and get hired by other characters. If there a real call for this, I'll add it in later on.

Its pretty much, and equipment and personal belonging buying system.

Spoiler: Destroyable Grid (click to show/hide)

As I said earlier, one of the design goals of Navitas was how to disseminate information to characters individually. I've also played on fair amount of high action text games, from muds to mushes. Something that sorta bugged me, was that if my combat session included marring the environment or destroying it, no one else knew. And worse off, this applies to places with a sense of a continuity, is that an RP can happen there soon after and they cant react to the fight that just happen there.

A recent and very silly offender to this, was on Bleach the Beginning Mush; there was this Ice Cream Parlor, that for some reason because a high traffic RP room. And a lot of combat happen in this room, and nearly every instance of combat, the ice cream parlor was totalled. The windows were destroyed, the display cases wrecked, and generally the store employees would be described as running off. Yet, the next day, or even next hour, the same thing would happen. And this mush was meant to have a sense of continuity. So the fight that happen previous should impact future RPs there.

So I made each room, hold a set of different descriptions of 'Destroyed Levels'.  Characters can select these levels, and the rooms description would change. Then with a timer, would over time, go back to the default descriptions. Characters can leave notes to give better context for what happen. With conjunction of +finger profiles for rooms and the rumor system, characters, can if they want to, figure out who did the fighting in the room. This system will also be used for IC law enforcement (police as an example) to find out what happened.

This system also has the capability to store alternative description sets. So for game events, I can switch out descriptions for entire areas. There also a few other effects I can do with these system too.

Spoiler: Character Progression (click to show/hide)

So Navitas is a Role Play enforced mush, and characters gain XP from either submitting logs or reviewing logs.

Navitas will employ Mercutio's Scene System to have an in mush logging system which then I'll be adding an anonymous peer log reviewing. (As in players will grade each other logs). Essentially, you role play, submit your log to be reviewed then other players review said log. The grades are then averaged and that turn into XP for the characters inside the log. The reviews are only anonymous to other players. Staff can see how each player is reviewing, and who they are reviewing. Their grades can then be weighted, or muted. These modifications can be done on a per character they review or universally for each review they do. Reviewers will also be paid in XP as well, which will respect word count. I've been looking into making a small smart phone app to review logs remotely, but thats a future addition.

Spoiler: What Are Characters Suppose To Do? (click to show/hide)

I don't know. Character Things. The game doesn't have a pre set goal, or an end goal for characters. They're meant to set up their own goals, and try to achieve them. Its pretty open ended.

Eventually, I expect players to form Factions, and to inherent places of authorities in the games more formal factions as they grow in power and knowledge of the game world. Since the game is focus on Player Vs. Player, something I'm trying to do, to stop Older/Stronger Players from harassing new players is to change how they relate to each other.

One way you can change this, is to maker older/stronger players be in a position of authority over new players. So Older Players use New Players as tools. And thus give newer players direction and structure.

There are some things that I hope some characters will try to do. Like, learn Necromancy, or try to discover immortality, or other more insane things. I'm fairly open to letting players shape the world. A TP that I have planned out, for about 2 years after the game opens has the distinct possibility to make the game start over.

navitas.mudhosting.net port:2975 [updated 11/21/2013]

[MrWiggles]

World Information

Spoiler: Difference between Dresden Files and the Mush (click to show/hide)

So, the major difference the mush and the novels, is that, the mush is a little bit more generic? Generic not the exact word, inclusive? I consider a lot of urban fantasy to be more or less compatible with each other. So you'll see Immortals from the Highlander series, Gargoyles, from the Gargoyle series, the Liberian from the The Liberian series and different shows here or there. Though they've been grounded to conform with Dresden Files.

There is no masquerade. The super natural world is fully known about by the rest of the world. Magic isn't immune to the Scientific Method. Though Magic can't be industrialized. (So you can make a magic light bulb, but you can't make billions of them.) But this doesn't mean that your average person is readily aware of it, or see it. Its rather obscure and rare, relatively speaking. But most major cities and all States do have means to deal with Super Natural assholes.

Super Natural Nations still exist, but their sovereignty is in a class of its own, in a catch all term called, a Meta Nation or Meta Sovereignty. Its a long understanding that the super natural community will do its best to keep its own members in check. And in exchange the super natural community provides services for the mortal communities. This wasn't always so, but when Humanity started to out grow the Super Natural community, the balance of power shifted. The Super Natural Community, overall understands that the Mortal World can exist without it, but they can't exist without the Mortal world.

Dresden Vampires have been replaced outright. Don't get me wrong, I love the Dresden Vamps, I think their awesome. I even like Thomas. Somehow, Jim Butcher manages to do Emo Vampire correctly, and he isn't an annoying prick. However, the most highlighted vampires in the novels is the White Court, and among them the Raith Family; the sex vampires. And Navitas isn't a game about sex. Its been my experience where you have a game not about sex, but you have a highly sexual faction within the game, that it just breeds drama. So for gameplay purposes and game atmosphere purposes, I've chosen to avoid this issue. So they've been replaced with a vampire of my own designed, based on the four humors.

And the last bit, is that the novels aren't cannon for the mush. The Mush is in no way trying to replicate the timeline of the novels, or the overall story of the novels. In my view, games which try to do this, always have to break away from their source materiel. And often times leads to more headaches then it does anything else. As it forces the Game Administration into becoming the 'Authority' on the source materiel, this leads to bickering over how to interpret the source materiel application on the mush.

Spoiler: Magic (click to show/hide)

Magic in the Dresdenverse seen more as a tool, instead of an answer. Wizards are generally human, and can pull elemental forces to their command, but once it leaves their control it acts as naturally as it would otherwise.

Wizards use their willpower, and drawing from the NeverNever (Fae Dimension) to produce their effects, as well as pulling from life itself. Wizards abilities to use magic comes from their own belief that they can. So, if you can't stomach burning someone alive, then you'll have a hard time conjuring magic to do so.

This works better as a conversation. Ask questions and I'll answer.

Spoiler: Stock Races (click to show/hide)

Vampires
Can't be urban fantasy without vampires? Now, due to game play and game atmosphere reasons, I've chosen to replace the vampires from Dresden Files with one of my own creation. My vampires  have two design goals; be actual monsters and disallow the emo vampire bullshit.  The vampires are based on the four humors. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humorism

The original vampires were doctors, trying to find the ultimate cure. And from a certain prospective they did. Vampires don't suffer from diseases, heal progressively fast and live considerably long lives, possibly immortal. There isn't one origin of vampires, but there are origins in Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece, Ancient Persia and Ancient Babylon. The Babylon vampires are obviously the oldest, while the other three, only have a few scant centuries between them, and since they have a couple of millennia under their belt, that would be like twins bickering over being the the older one because they were born a few minuets earlier.

Like a lot of things in the Dresdenverse, intent is important. It takes a lot of hard work to become a vampire. It takes about an IC year, needing to kill about 12 victims in order to feed from their humors organs. And they need from still living victims, this is very important. After they sire themselves, then its treated like a regular diet, though they dont need to consume the humor organ every time they need to feed, but the humor they consume needs to be, still be from a living victim.

If the vampire is only drinking the humor organ, then they get immortality, disease immunity and heighten senses. Though if a vampire wants actual super powers, such as heighten speed, heighten strength and fairly fast regeneration then they need to feed off the humor organ.

If the vampire ever got tired of being a vampire, then, like most diets, if you stop using it you stop utilizing its effects. No real ill effects either you just start being a normal human again. Intent matters for this as well. So, you can't, say, capture a vampire and starve them back to being a human.

Politically, the vampires are a unified front. Their collective wealth is inexhaustible, their real limit on their resources are the number of vampires there are. Internally, each humor is vying for control of the other three. And they'll often be working at cross purposes with each other.

The vampires have a large estate in Orange County, and its consider foreign soil. The estate was form sometime in early 1700's.

Wizards
Wizards are humans who develop the ability to use magic. Most folks who can use magic, are what known as a 'minor talent' meaning that their abilities are fairly limited and unable to develop.  In general, they aren not consider a wizard. Someone who has actual ability, furthermore the ability to grow their capabilities are consider full wizards. Wizards are a bit tougher then normal mortals, but not physically stronger or more aware of their surrounding. They have an excellent ability to heal, but not especially fast and its not uncommon for wizards to live multiple centuries.

The White Council is the metanation for all wizards. Once a human starts to develop magical ability, they are consider under the purview of the White Council. The authority primary purposes is to just regulate wizard power, but they've been also known to protect mortals from predatory super natural creatures. The modern White Council came into being during the bubonic plague out breaks during the last wizard civil war. (The civil war was over, weather wizards should self restrict themselves in abilities. This war has some fallout that has yet to be dealt with.) The White Council have seven laws of magic governing their use, break them carries a death sentence. The White Council enforce these laws with their Wardens. The Wardens are a combo of Police and Military. They're all trained combat wizards, and aren't afraid to kill you with a shotgun or grenade

The Phantoms
The Phantoms are ghost, though not a regular ghost. Most ghosts are compositions of memory and a soul. Phantoms seem humans who've transmuted themselves into ethereal forms. Largely they function similar to ghost, but have an easier time effecting the physical world.

The Phantoms are split into two groups; the Watchers and the Wraiths. The Watchers, are what on the tin, they watch and observe. They generally dont interact with anyone though. The Wraiths aren't a collective of Phantoms, but a term used to denote Phantoms which try to use their ability and form for personal gain or other nefarious shenanigans.

Immortals
These are humans, who had the ability to use magic, but through an unconscious intent change their ability to use magic into extending their life, and ability to absorb another Immortal soul. They're slightly tougher, stronger and faster then normal humans but their primary strength comes from a their skill due to a longer life. Immortals don't have a collective group.

Gargoyles
Gargoyles. These things are pretty much the Gargoyles form the disney cartoon show. Though they tend to be more nomadic, and the clans vary their disposition. So its not impossible to find, evil gargoyles or mercenary gargoyles. A neat ability, is that when they rest during the the sunlight the materiel composition matches texture and color of what they're on.

Were Beasts
Were animals. Humans that can turn into different were animals. They dont have a collective body either, but like were creatures form loose bands. Most werewolves are self taught, and can't be transmitted to someone else.

This isn't always the case, if you, somehow manage to survive a Loup-Garou attack, then you get to be a super badass feral killing machine about once a month.

[Ringmaster]

This looks amazing, are you working on this game by yourself or do you have other people helping you develop it?

[MrWiggles]

The design is entirely my own. The combat system (A3) has been worked on, since 2008, for a different project. The mush has been worked on since 2010. I've gotten a fair amount of folks helping through those years. Only one that has stuck with me since then. Most have went MIA, but thats pretty common with these projects.

[beorn080]

Two questions:
How many average players?
How fast is the turnaround on approving characters?
I must say I've been looking for a new MUSH since the fall of H:ATEMoo, and anything that uses the SCP wiki as an inspiration is a plus in my book.
Edit: Moved the edits to a new post for visibility.

[MrWiggles]

We're not open yet. I'm getting ready for an Alpha Opening/ Open House Soonishly.

I'm not sure how long CG will take. This is something that troubles me. I'm currently working on CG. With aim to make it give pertinent information to CG staff readily. I know it'll go faster if we can have a real time talk. The real bitch is that their two application stages. There Race Application and then Everything Else Application.

I've got an estimated 10 players initially interested.  I plan to, do something wacky, and actively advertise my mush.

[beorn080]

HellMoo/HATEmoo managed to fix the sex in game part, but that was solely because the players hunted down "sexhavers" and griefed them off the game whenever they appeared. Though, Hell/HATE seem to be nothing like this.

I noticed that you said this game is PVP centric, but all PVP must be agreed to by both parties. Is there any way around this? Any possibility of forcing a contest? I hate to keep bringing up HATE, but some of the most fun times I had in it, and the tensest, were being chased around the game world by foes I had no chance of stopping, teleporting/flying/jumping/running away from them and praying for a lucky break or a strong NPC I could duck past. Even at the endgame stages, there were times when other, similarly strong players were able to force me to run like smoke and oakum, or hold running fist fights in my Corp HQ while setting them on fire with my mind and trying to get a decent weapon, or I myself managed to chase players clear across the game world.

[Detrevni|inverteD]

This sounds like a really cool MUSH. I'll be keeping my eye on this thread for further updates c;

[MrWiggles]

I noticed that you said this game is PVP centric, but all PVP must be agreed to by both parties. Is there any way around this? Any possibility of forcing a contest? I hate to keep bringing up HATE, but some of the most fun times I had in it, and the tensest, were being chased around the game world by foes I had no chance of stopping, teleporting/flying/jumping/running away from them and praying for a lucky break or a strong NPC I could duck past. Even at the endgame stages, there were times when other, similarly strong players were able to force me to run like smoke and oakum, or hold running fist fights in my Corp HQ while setting them on fire with my mind and trying to get a decent weapon, or I myself managed to chase players clear across the game world.

Well, like most Role Play Encourage and Role Play Intensive places, there is ICA=ICC. Though I've been staffing and playing on mu*s with similar PvP structures, and this isn't that much of an issues. Generally the players that require a forced consequences are problem player to begin with.

In general players are willing to play out conflicts and resolutions, and they're willing to play out outcomes that aren't in favor for them.

[quinnr]

Well, this appears to be pretty interesting and I'd definitely check it out at least. Following this thread.

Ah, yes, if it's PennMUSH I have some basic coding experience in it, as well. MUSHCode is fun!

[inEQUALITY]

Haven't done a MUSH in forever, and never could get into one long enough, but with all my free time nowadays, I'm interested. Looking forward to the alpha opening!

[MrWiggles]

I have some unfortunate bad news.

A combination of getting staffers to stick around, and then also be productive have proven to be very problematic. 2 of my most skilled staffers, decided to make a mush all on their, which I have been helping with here and there.

But the real damning news is that hellspawn of mu-world.net/, the very gracious server admin can no longer provide hosting for the game. And I cant afford a home for Navitas or host it locally.

This means that Navitas is being shelved, for the foreseeable future.

[Fikes]

Out of curiosity, how much would it cost to run a Mush server?

[ScriptWolf]

Noooo, also what was said above how muh is it going to cost you ?

[MrWiggles]

Its not very much money. About as much as netflix account per month really.

But I've been unemployed for 3 years.