Hello, apologies if this is the wrong place to post this. I’m part of a relatively large (~20 active players) crossover forum roleplay that’s been active for a little under a decade now. We are currently hosted on a website that is not related to roleplaying, though it does have its own RP board. We have had issues with both the administration and the site’s user base in the past and have off and on considered relocating elsewhere. The idea of hosting our own MUSH holds a lot of appeal, as does being able to fully customize our own experience, and AresMUSH in particular with its web portal + game directory seems both user friendly and good for maintaining an active playerbase. I have a little experience with MUSHes, while the other players have essentially none (as far as I’m aware.)
Our setting is a crossover of sorts, populated by characters from various media franchises, as well as original characters. Our posting style is a bit more lenient than your average play-by-post RP, with sort of a modified, more detailed script format being favored over prose, with posts usually around a paragraph in length total. The tone tends towards an urban fantasy/modern vibe, but with superheroes, supernatural anime protagonists, medieval fantasy characters, ancient gods and spirits from folklore, etc etc. Players almost always have more than one character in use, as well, and frequently rotate characters in and out depending on the game’s current mood and their own whims.
What would the learning curve look like for transitioning from a rather lax forum RP to a MUSH? Some of our players are kind of set in their ways, so if we do end up moving, how would be best to make it less daunting for them? Would the structure of our game have to change very much? As far as skill systems go, would FS3 be best for this (As I understand it has no coded support for magic or supernatural abilities), or would something like Fate be a better fit? Apologies for the open-ended question, I just want to get a better idea of what we’re looking at before I commit to the cost of hosting a server. Thanks so much for your time!