Several of the people who have agreed to be involved in the development of TFA are not familiar with MU*s in general. As a result, some questions about what MU*s are and what they can do have arisen. These are poor attempts to give some answers - further questions should be addressed to me (Melissa), and I will attempt to answer them more clearly. This may result in a Question Sheet being developed.

Additionally, past attempts at development have shown how incredibly difficult it can be to design a game that was started in one person's head. From code to theme to policy, it all needs to be internally consistant and that can't be done without guidelines, unless all involved happen to be telepathic. I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm not. So below, as they get written, find the philosophy and guidelines for the game.

The philosophy and guidelines are required reading for all people who work on TFA. This is necessary so that we all start from relatively the same point. I don't care if people who are familiar with MU*s read the MU*-basics information, but it wouldn't hurt.

Many people use MU* to refer to all variants of MUD and TinyMUD alike, while others use MUD as the generic term. Largely, these essays will use MU* to refer to all, TinyMU* or Tinys to refer to the TinyMUD tree of descent and MUD to indicate the remainder.

Anyone who is working on TFA is welcome to ask me about Greenhouse. They are also welcome to ask me to expand or add to this information.

A Basic History of MU*s (5-Aug-04)
A basic history of MU*s. Very short. Includes search suggestions.

MU* Basics (5-Aug-04)
The basic idea of how MU*s work, and some very generalized information about perceptions associated with MUDs and Tinys.

MU* How-To (???)
How to generally interact with the majority of MU*s on the net. This is more instruction manual than essay. Please give me feedback on if this would be a useful thing to have.

Game Policy Philosophy
How the policies are made, and why they are made as they are.

Code Deisgn Philosophy
Coding style and overall design - and why it's being done this way.

Vision and Ultimate Goals
What I see as the point of the game, what I think players and admin should be able to get out of it, and where I want it to go.