City of Hope Mush

 So if you look on the mush list, one of the most populated mushes you can can find is City of Hope.  Ask anyone in the mushing community and you will likely get mixed reactions on this but I can tell you I've tried the mush three times, and it ended the same way every time.

Let's start with the positive.  The mush is huge, the grid is well populated, the staff is active, and as long as you dont cross certain lines you an do most anything.  Hangouts are occupied, plots are strong (they come and go) but if you are basically bored and wanting to pass a lot of time and do the main advantage of mushing in general which is stories with other people for free, City of Hope is not a bad place to be.   It is a refugee from the heydays of the mushing era in the 90's where there were a dozen mushes with City of Hope's size and level of depth.  It supposed a number of spheres actively and has a close knit community that works to include new members; the spheres that do this tend to vary but the last time I was there that was Demon or Mage.  

So what's the problem?

The problem is GMPCs.  They are myriad.  They are gods.  And they are not to be Crossed.  (Let's not even talk about  Cross which is its own problem, but every mush has one of those) but the concept of fair staff adjudication absent interfering with your own plots vs their characters? Does not exist.  The techno mages in particular are a basic justice league that will drop the hammer IN CHARACTER on any character that they feel is a problem and the Garou, IN PARTICULAR, will hunt down and murder with extreme prejudice anyone they believe breaches the veil.  To be clear, my personal experience was just petty arbitrary stupid rulings but I saw this stuff going on around me ALL the time and just couldnt in good conscious remain on a mush where this lasts.  To be fair, the staff only uses fig leaf language to understand that this is their playground and they can do as they like.  Over the years, the after the fact, "We had to discipline XYZ person" because he slept with the rival of my PC and I made up this reason" has lessened though they still occasionally do it.  And also to be fair, I havent been on the mush in about three years; so MAYBE its stopped, but I doubt it.

Either way, if you want to enjoy a character that can do as they like until it is randomly and arbitrarily snuffed from on high, this is the place for you.  

Modern Nights Mush

 This is a review about a text based world of darkness game.  So this mush has a lot going for it; specifically a doom clock that is actually enforced, this is important to a game like World of Darkness, because it means that there are real story consequences for the game like breaching the Masquerade.  It's a curious mix of Mage and Vampire, mostly vampire with Mage at about half the population of Vampire at the time of writing the review.  The game is described as Street level, and it is set in San Francisco.  It also has a somewhat engaged staff, and they adapt based on player feedback.  Finally, it is the first mush I've seen to use M20 and V20 rules.

That's where the positive ends.

The real problem with the mush is the head wizard, Batty.  And it isnt going to change.  Basically, once Batty gets it into her head that you dont fit in the game, she is not going to give you a fair shake.  I went through three total rewrites for a minor sorcerer character and a mortal and kept being told no. On the surface, this is what a mush should do, but its more complicated than that.  The initial reason I was told no was because a vigilante and 'powerful' technosorcerer were not thought good fits for the game.  I was originally transferred to Cylon because the mortal mage, Google, was idle for a while.  Batty was distant but nice.

All of that changed when Batty thought I was trying to make a technomancer.  I tried to clarify that I wasnt, and she accepted it, but it was obvious that she was on edge after that.  The response I got to my character the last iteratoin was THREE PAGES, and she took it over directly from Cylon.  Suffice to say, I politely replied, "I think we have incompatible views on your game" NOT because her game was badly run but because I've dealt with mush staff for over 30 years, and I know when a battle is lost.  If you can get on the good side of staff, have at it, but if you feel that they are against you, they probably are and you should stop wasting your time.