An offshoot of MUD-type text-based online games, MUCK games, in general are more dedicated to depth of ยดroleplay than MUDs.
Where a MUD will often be possible to play without other players around, by going out and hunting the game's automated monsters using its automated systems, a MUCK is usually far more reliant on player intervention. On MUCKs, the game's systems will almost always be designed with the intention of merely providing roleplayers with a firm framework for their play, rather than a system so comprehensive it could act as an alternative.
As a result, monsters generally have to be 'puppet' objects operated by player judges, rather than automated 'mobs' for players to hunt on their own, and almost all action on MUCKs needs a player or plot-runner/judge at its heart for anything to happen. Effectively, MUCKs are the Pen & Paper RPGs of the MU* world, and have a reputation for a heavier emphasis on roleplay than most MUDs.
The name is a pun on MUD and doesn't stand for anything in particular (Though some may insist it stands for Multi-User Character Kingdom). The original programmers basically said "Once you get deeper in the Mud, it becomes Muck".
Compare Text Parser, a system used to understand text commands in Interactive Fiction. Contrast Play-by-Post Games, roleplays built as users post stuff in a forum.
Tropes common to MUCKs:
Examples:
Fan Works
- TouhouMUCK
: A roleplay MUCK based in the Touhou Project Universe.
Websites
- Furry MUCK: The oldest recorded (and certainly oldest still active) MUCK.
- Furscape MUCK: Another old MUCK, with a hard sci-fi-based theme.
- Redwall MUCK: Active since 1997, though not as much as it was some years ago, a MUCK built around the Redwall universe.
- Southern Cross: A large, long-standing MUCK drawing from the various Final Fantasy games, although primarily set a little over a thousand years after the end of Final Fantasy VII, the aftermath has led to a kind of light-post-apocalyptic fantasy world. Presently in its fourth major incarnation, with each focusing on a different part (and in one case, period - one incarnation was set very shortly after the coming of HOLY) of the game's world. Predates, and by now diverges somewhat from, Squaresoft's post-FF7 canon, but still contains surprisingly prescient similarities here and there. Now defunct due to funding issues and the creation of SC: Heroes of Space
- Southern Cross: Heroes of Space: Southern Cross' 'successor'. Based on a combination of pulp-sci-fi influences and very, very loose roots in the original Southern Cross' Final Fantasy premise, SC: Heroes of Space is an experimental MUCK with significantly less emphasis on in-depth lore (and to a certain extent, roleplay) than its predecessors. The idea is to create a light roleplay environment with a particular focus on epic space adventures, tied into a highly automated browser-game-type web page.
