I came to Kushiel MUX, looking for an interesting game that had a
historical theme. I had become discontent on the current game I was
playing on, due to high OOC angst and drama. I had never read the
books at all, yet I had no problem fitting my character into the
scheme of things and getting sucked right in.

The Cosmic Cuttlefish, winner of the "Most Disorganized Spaceship" award, is a lovely place to MUSH. I have found that the staff are friendly (and nigh-omnipotent, I can only assume their blood is 50% coffee by now) and what few players are on are top-notch. The theme is a unique retro sci-fi comedy that summons up memories of Douglas Adams' unique style of writing. Character creation is smooth, there are plenty of openings for players of pretty much any description (I play as an intangible Quantum Entity that got stuck in the hyperdrive and was approved in seconds) and I enjoy the chaotic absurdity in everything from the captain (which was, when last checked, a bucket in one of the broom closets) to the Hampster Processing Facility of dubious origin and purpose.

So, I decided to close my latest attempt at a game. The funny thing is since that time in the last 3 days 4 different games have asked me to look at things for them. I suppose I should be honored. But I keep seeing things that gave me issues. So I thought I’d put together a little post about things I learned from my failed games. For those of you that don't know me from jack. I'll give you a little BG on me to start with

Background: Impster has been running table top games and larps since 85. I start playing games on Compu$erve and GEnie a year or so before that time. These games would come to be known as MUDs. Believe it or not I was playing back on GemStone Ver. I and II (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GemStone_IV). I've lived in Oklahoma, Seattle, Florida, and Texas. I'm a Rep for Steve Jacksons Game, AEG, and I used to be part of white wolf (yeah, big deal everyone's a rep for some of these companies ;). I've been involved in national 'fan clubs' from StarFleet To Klingons To the Cam. In most of those orgs I somehow get sucked into local and national leadership positions. Granted I haven’t done any of that for over 5 years. And I've staffed on a handful of games and I've made 2 failed attempts to start my own MU* games. So I've been around a while. And when it comes to games I've been known to cheat. Yes, I fully admit if I sit there and roll dice that comes up and says everyone dies. I will normally ignore the dice if it doesn't make sense for the story. To me the story is the most important thing not what the dice say but by the same token I've been known to adjust the dice against the players because it made sense for the story.

The sixth Innovations in Text-Based Gaming Conference will take place on 13th October, at 3 PM (US Central Time). The first half of it will be hosted by M*U*S*H (mush.pennmush.org 4201), and the second half by MPUG (puggy.mushpark.com 9033).

ITBG will be opened with the keynote speech by Temperance of Shangrila. After that, the following four presentations will be held: