This is less of a recipe and more of a recommendation: try spices in your coffee! I don’t mean just the good ol’ cinnamon (though that’s nice too), but things like cardamom, nutmeg, ginger, cloves, and my favorite allspice. Especially now that the weather’s getting colder, the pumpkin/christmas spices are really nice in brew. They also work in black tea (see: various types of chai), hot apple cider and hot cocoa. They also work really well if you sweeten with brown sugar or maple syrup.

I don’t like chewing on spice, so I usually add it to the coffee grinds/tea leaves, but a sprinkle on top ain’t too bad.

Hi there! I’m looking to get back into MU*ing and would love to re-connect with people. I was She-Hulk the building staffer at the first Crucible City (Mutants & Masterminds game), and mainly played Samantha Covenant the supernatural P.I.

On The Reach I played Pepper the terrifyingly happy Cheiron Hunter, and Q the Mortal.

On Haunted Memories I played Bela the Mortal, Lucrecia the Mage & Tea the Changeling.

On Darkwater I played Ida the insect Fairest, Eve the broken city Mannikin and a handful of others. On Darkwater the Return of the son of Darkwater I also played Ida.

On San Francisco MUX I played Ida the Insect Fairest again.

On City of Shadows I played Heloise the Fungal Changeling, Celandine the tiny fury of the three witchy Gale sisters, and almost created a werewolf named Perish.

There’s tons of people that I adored playing with and would love to get back in touch with.

New current ( as of February 2024 ) : I have an active and approved character again! You can find me as Gwen on City of Glass.

@Cobalt said in City of Glass - Discussion:

head on desk Someone write my character for me.

Cobalt. Cobalt. I made a character on this game.

I MADE A CHARACTER

It’s been literally half a year since my last attempt. YOU MUST JOIN. D:<

An actual recipe this time! For all of you I have unearthed my slightly customized Guinness Chocolate Cake recipe.

For the cake: butter for pan, 0.5 cup Guinness stout, 10 tbs (1 stick + 2 tablespoons) butter, 1 cup unsweetened cocoa, 2 cups superfine sugar, 1/2 cup sour cream, 2 large eggs, 1 tablespoon vanilla extract, 1 cup all-purpose flour, 2 1/2 tablespoons baking soda.

For the topping: 1 1/4 cups powdered sugar, 2 packages (or 16 ounces) cream cheese at room temperature, 1/2 cup vanilla or maple yogurt, preferably whole milk. Optional: make it a 1/4 cup whole milk yogurt and 1/4 cup heavy cream, or otherwise alter the balance as you prefer.

1: Heat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9-inch springform pan and line with parchment paper. In a large saucepan, combine Guinness and butter. Heat on medium until butter melts, then remove from heat. Add cocoa and superfine sugar, whisk to blend.
2. In one bowl, combine sour cream, eggs and vanilla, mix well. Add to Guinness-butter mixture. Add flour and baking soda, whisk again until smooth. Pour into buttered pan, bake until risen and firm: roughly 45 minutes to 1 hour. Place pan on a wire rack, leave cake in pan until completely cooled.
3. For topping: using food processor or the raw power of your own mighty muscles, blend cream cheese with powdered sugar until smooth. Add the yogurt/heavy cream, mix until smooth and thick enough to be spreadable but not runny. Make sure to take taste samples, some like it sweeter and some less.
4. Remove cake from pan and place on platter/whatsit. Ice top of cake so that it resembles a frothy pint of Guinness. Devour.

This is my modified version of Nigella Lawson’s OG one, which you can find here on her site https://www.nigella.com/recipes/chocolate-guinness-cake - the original version is also in milliliters and such, for my fellow non-americans.

Arise, chicken! So half a year later I actually have an approved and active character on a game again. You can find me as Gwen on City of Glass!

Whew, this is a tough one. Hmm. Maybe…
A) My ESL still shines through, and there are certain things that I can never stop spelling a certain way. I use a mix of British and American spelling (it’s “colour” not “color”, but it’s also “truck” instead of “lorry”), but I also misspell a lot, or use weird grammar. For years I would also smash colors together a la “whitepink”, “greyblue” etc, because that’s how we do in my native language.

B) My OOC behavior. I am very chatty, very friendly, use and abuse smileys from to ^_^ without shame.

C) I seem to have fallen into a pattern of making either beautiful evil or monstrous good: I love noir femme fatales as well as characters that look innocuous and harmless but are actually completely vile or amoral, but I also love making characters that look terrifying or grotesque but are actually super kind.

@mietze I’m in that area too. It’s so unnatural feeling. I miss rain like crazy. Everything is dirt colored and dirty feeling and sad.

@Kay I went hunting through my logs and here’s a room description I really like.

This was a restaurant on Crucible City 1, I don’t remember if I described it or someone else did but I always thought it makes a really pretty mental image.

The cafe part of La Cantina, this inner courtyard has had much work done to give an illusion of being outdoors. The roof sports a bona fide glass cupola, the floor is covered in green marbled stone plates, and there’s enough man-sized potted plants (evergreens to palm trees) that the air is perpetually perfumed with a refreshing green aroma.

As one enters through the dark oak double doors, there are wooden staircases leading up to the landings, the latter edged by intricate copper railings that glisten with tender care. The landings are also dotted by man-sized potted plants, though these are all of the flowering variety to give sweet scanted barriers between the private tete a tete tables for two.

Below in the courtyard, the seats are mostly benches in white painted lacy wrought iron as well as sturdy wooden chairs around larger tables and the glass fronted counter with its display of pastries and copper-bronze-steel coffee machines.

As the hours have sped away from the daylight ones, the ambience in the cafe has become more intimate. Little red-glassed lamps have been lit on the intimate tables up on the landings, something sweet, forlorn and classic is crooning from the radio at the counter, and the handsome baristas are just as busy shamelessly flirting as they are in pouring coffee.

It’s raining. Finally like real, solid rain. And it’s washed all the smoke and dust away, and the air is so sweet and clean I can’t really describe it. But I am definitely following the advice of the smoke map notice.

@Kestrel said in Good things in Mushing:

Finding a niche of our incestuous little hobby that’s filled with people I don’t know and have never played with before.

Yeees. That’s such a fun and bewildering thing. It’s rare!

@GF That sounds like you want chai latte without the black tea, right? If spice is ok with your food limitations, here’s a rough recipe:

Get a pot and toast cardamom pods, whole cloves, ground nutmeg and a cinnamon stick over medium-high heat until it starts smelling really nice, usually 1-2 minutes. Add in a half inch piece of finely sliced raw ginger and a cup of water and bring to a boil. Once boiling, lower the heat to a simmer and cook for about five-ten minutes, depending on how strong you want it.

Optional: black peppercorn (omitted in case that’s too spicy for you) and star anise (I don’t like it myself). Basically think flavors you like in chai tea or gingerbread cookies etc. You can also totally use ground spices if you don’t have whole ones, just be careful they don’t burn when toasting.

Add two cups of milk (and optional vanilla essence) and lightly simmer for five minutes. Remove from heat and strain through a strainer into two mugs.

You can also use this to make really delicious spiced hot cocoa, I do that a lot in holiday season.

Hello! A buddy of mine has expressed interest in trying out MUs. They’re into gaming but have only played tabletop role-playing games, and did not even know MU*s were a thing.
I realized as I have not been playing regularly myself for quite some time, I have no idea what currently available games out there might be newbie friendly.
Please help with ideas for games for them to try out! Any and all suggestions are welcome, though I’d prefer to stick with MUSH/MUX so I’ll be on familiar code turf when I help them, but Ares is also a-ok.

@Kay IT IS RAINING

Currently willing to sell non-existant firstborn to game Gentry able to provide a Changeling the Lost game. Even more so if it’s multisphere in some fashion or another.

Seriously, I need an outlet for my “I want to play a candle/dragon/book/avatar of murder/troll/mirror” etc shenanigans. I need my Changeling hit!

Also I know I’m not alone, you’re guaranteed to have a super popular game on your hands.

@Snackness said in City of Glass - Discussion:

@Kay Sovereign?

I have absolutely no frame of reference as to whether or not this was him, but that’s who I thought of from your description.

That’s it! Rex/Sovereign/et al, that’s who the name sent off an alarm in my head over, and possibly something about the writing style. No idea if it is that person but thank you so much, that’s what was sending off the alarm! It was driving me a little batty to have that nagging sense but not being able to pin down where it was coming from, only that it had to do with the name.

The Real Tuesday Weld has been one of my favorites for many years. Sadly they are ending, they are making just one more album. But here is a new song of theirs, with a lovely October appropriate music video. I think this would make a good themesong for a lot of different characters.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uorVQp5F30

You dress like it’s the 1970s

Reading R. D. Laing in Brompton cemetery

You’re still in love with Susan Pevensie

You wander through life

Books and songs kept you in line

I dream you sometimes, sometimes

Whose that girl you met in A+E?

Shared your bag then stole all your cutlery? 

I heard that she died

Just seventeen and so alive

All those London lives

Some surrender
, some survive
I miss you my dear, dear…

Love Bone Dreams Blood
Love Bone Dreams Blood

You wandered through life

Drugs and blood could not suffice 

All those London lives

Some surrendered, 
some survived

I miss you my dear, my…

Love Bone Dreams Blood
Love Bone Dreams Blood

You dressed like in the 1970s

You were dreaming of Jackie Kennedy 

But it all worked out the way it was meant to be

Your life and love safe in my memory
My dear, my dear, my dear.

@IoleRae Sunny!! Hello! I’m happy to see you around too, I hope you are doing good also. I’ve survived the past few years and everything, just been low on MU*ing energy. I’m hoping to get back into, I really miss playing with people. I know we’ve bumped into each other on a couple of games in the past, though the specifics are lost to the fogs of time for me. Are you playing anywhere these days? How have you been?

@Pyrephox said in What has changed?:

@Arkandel said in What has changed?:

@Pyrephox said in What has changed?:

But one good thing about MUDs is that you usually can log in at just about any time and Do Something that has an effect on the world, or on your personal character, whether any PCs or staff members are logged on at all.

Yes, if I could warrant a guess as to what a transformative property for MUSH should be at the moment on a technical/design level, that would be it. Giving people stuff to do when there is no RP to be found at the time.

I honestly think that’s been a significant part of the success of Arx and somewhere like Firan. I know when I was playing Arx, if I was having trouble finding RP, I could still log in, play the haggle game, or make tchotchkes, and still feel like I was moving my character forward, even if only a little bit. RP was BEST, but if the energy or opportunity wasn’t there, I could still play.

Agreed. Those mini games on Firan was what kept me returning to it for far longer than I normally would have. Especially crafting.

@KarmaBum Thank you, I will take a look at those!

…
You are standing in an open field west of a white house, with a boarded front door.
There is a small mailbox here.

@TNP Infocom games were my MU* gateway drug. I remember my jaw dropping at the idea that I could play these text-based RPGs with other people. It was a whole new world!