A) In Character.
A) Out Of Character.
A) Short for Player Character. These are usually far more powerful than most beings. See the entry for Elites. This is an OOC-only term.
A) Non-Player Character. These vary wildly in power, though most are much less powerful than PC's. This is an OOC-only term.
A) Slang for a very weak NPC. This is an OOC-only term and somewhat dated. These are usually cannon fodder, i.e. they're there to be killed or are only significant if used in large numbers.
A) A red shirt is a gumbie. This is (USUALLY) an OOC-only term, though occasionally you'll find jokes cropping up about it (for instance, a bunch of NPC troops that are about to be killed might all have red shirts on). There are exceptions; for instance, in at least one theme one of the cannon fodder character types have red uniforms and are informally referred to as "red shirts." The term 'red shirt' is from Star Trek, in which the original series often had security guards wearing red shirts who were killed.
A) SPARINGLY is usually the word of the day. Don't try to auto-win with lots and lots of NPCs. You'll get called for twinking. Expect most NPCs to go over quickly. If your theme allows you some tougher NPCs, go ahead and use them, but beware not to use too many or you might find your tougher NPCs depowered. It's best to use NPCs in the background, many times, while the PCs fight it out, i.e. NPC army vs. NPC army. It is also important that attackers know that they should NOT automatically assume they kill NPCs; they can beat the hell out of them, and defeat them, of course, as they're usually much much stronger than rank and file unnamed NPCs, but it's the controlling player's choice as to whether or not they actually die.
A) A very special type of character that's attached to your character; for instance, a sentient pet-type your character might have would be a sub character. Usually these are "underneith" the main character, though often subcharacters are just as prominent in RP as the main character.
A) A compound character is a character with two or more characters together being played at the same time. For instance, if you were to app two telepathically connected twins and wanted to play them simultaneously that might be a compound character.
A) The Multiverse is composed of a single, huge superplanet (many lightyears in diameter). On the surface various worlds are splayed out (flattened). Instead of magma within, however, there's a huge space-like area called the Void in which whole planets and stars exist. "Above" the Multiverse atmosphere are various different other moons and stars from various worlds. At the very "top" is an impenetrable barrier. Beyond that are more moons and a single massive super star.
A) Warp gates are like Stargates - portals which warp from one place to another - which are both naturally occuring and artificially occuring. Each one can link to a certain number of others, so you have to use a chain of them to get to places. They're controlled by thoughts indirectly so walking along will get you closer to your destination.
A) Aura is the "main character effect." Basically all PC's have aura, as reflected by their power levels. Everyone has some amount of aura (even NPCs), but the heros of the story have much much more. It's unknown whether or not who the person is and what they've done affects the aura, or if the aura is why they are who they are and done what they've done. It's probably a bit of both.
A) An Elite is roughly speaking any player character, and some non-player characters. They have large amounts of aura, and are generally far more powerful and/or effective than a random bystander.
A) Custodians are the guys who created the Multiverse. They were first identified during the Oblivion TP. Some are very powerful, others are very weak, but all of them have some demigod-like aspects. There are good Custodians and bad Custodians - the good ones were dragged along for the ride, the bad Custodians are using this place for their own purposes. At present, only a few Custodians are known, most notably Govic and Eta Carine (from the Oblivion TP) and Katan (from the TP from July 2007, apparently on the good side). More will be revealed in future TPs.
A) Oblivion is a large piece of negative energy and unreality created by the destruction of a previous Multiverse the Custodians created. It was destroyed in a TP early in the MUSH's history, though some pieces are still floating around.
A) Nightmares are the reanimated corpses of Elite-level guys from the previous Multiverse. They are, suffice it to say, Bad News, and are generally a TP-only thing. They seem to originate from the Volatile Wastelands. At least one major war in the distant past of the MUSH's background was fought and won against them.
A) The balancing effect is the IC factor that allows humans to go toe to toe with mecha and win. Simply put it more or less says all worlds are roughly equal in terms of effectiveness in combat. No, it doesn't make perfect sense, but it's the only way to reasonably accomodate so many different themes without outright disallowing most, if not all, of the more powerful ones, or severely crippling some.
A) Standard unit of currency. Think roughly on par with the US dollar. Both the Union and Confederacy have their own credits, but they're roughly equal to each other. They've replaced most national currencies in sub-nations within the Union and Confederacy. This is NOT the same as the 'credits' that come up with the 'inventory' command - those have to do with MUSH programming, and are generally not something players need to worry about.
A) A Target Zone is an area specifically set aside on the MUSH for battling it out. These are usually independant of particular themes, and are valuable for some reason, i.e. lots of resources. Target battles are fought to see who controls it. RP is encouraged to happen between target battles to help exploit these target areas for their resources while the faction who occupies it can control it. RP to exploit these resources is encouraged, within reason, so long as your faction occupies the zone.
A) A battle for a specific Target Zone.
A) A "time bubble" is basically an OOC concept which allows you to RP in a time separate from the rest of the MUSH. This is NOT time travel, but, let's say you're RPing with someone and they have to go. You can pause the RP session. When you resume, the RP session will probably be in a "time bubble" - the RP is going on at the original time that it occurred. This is handy when someone has to pause. Note that when in a time bubble generally you should not use IC radio channels - remember, everyone else is in a different time!
A) ARTHUR is the Union main computer AI. SCION is the 'secured' Union computer AI. FACT is the main computer AI for the Feds, and FURY is the 'secured' Fed computer AI. Though they are usually @emit'd by admin limited use by players is allowed, i.e. using them to get facts. Most of the time ARTHUR and FACT should be used; SCION and FURY are fairly special-purpose and usually relate to high-security things such as changing clearance codes or using high-powered weapons or other CoC matters. That said, Elites still interact with SCION and FURY at times. The AI's are fully sentient and can actually live with their personal memories outside of the mainframe (making it possible for them to be 'saved' should the computer ever be damaged or destroyed). There are several independant copies of each unit in existance; however, most of the time we only interact with those at Union HQ and Confed HQ. These are referred to as '0' units - for instance, ARTHUR unit 0.
A) Some of these are from elsewhere in the document and some are from regular online interaction. Note that none of these are IC terms.
* AFK - Away From Keyboard
* AFAIK - As Far As I Know
* BBIAB - Be Back In A Bit
* BRB - Be Right Back
* DM - Dungeon Master (see GM)
* FTW - For The Win (usually in reference to something considered good)
* GM - Game Master
* IC - In Character
* IIRC - If I Recall Correctly
* IMO - In My Opinion
* IMHO - In My Humble Opinion
* IMNSHO - In My Not-So-Humble Opinion
* Mav - See 'mis'
* Mis - Accidentally using the wrong form of communication, i.e. a typo causes you to put something on one channel intended for another.
* OOC - Out Of Character
* OTP - One True Pairing (usually said sarcastically about a relationship from source material)
* WTF - What The F(favorite end of F word here)