A muck is a kind of mud; that is, a virtual world where people connect and adopt a personality. This is called Role Playing (RP).
The fun of roleplaying is you can become anything that you want, within the place's theme. You can become a medieval warrior, a wizzard, a whale... an otter, a Lion.
There are many kind of MUDs. However, what distinguishes MUCKs from the rest is that it's not optimized for fighting, and instead it is meant to create worlds of the furry kind.
In the specific case of BusaMUCK, the theme is the Disney movie The Lion King. BusaMUCK has a set of Feature characters (FCs), who play the characters in the movie (Mufasa, Simba, Sarabi, Sarafina, Zazu, Scar, the hyenas, etc..), but the fun doesn't stop there, the world of Busa is not centered around those characters. It depicts a vast part of Africa, where many animals live beside the Lions of Pride Rock. There are other Lion Prides (and even rogue Lions), Leopards, Cheetahs, Hyenas, Otters and even warthogs.
For a glimpe of what you could become, you can just take a look at the inhabitants listing, but don't feel shy to become an animal that is not listed there, you can be any African animal, any at all.
There exists one restriction, however. humans are not allowed in the muck. While we are aware that there are humans in Africa, it is our thought that having humans would just detract from the overall experience. BusaMUCK has other rules and regulations, which can be consulted when you connect.
So, by now you should hopefully be wondering, "How do I join?". Well, it's very simple.
If you just want to try it, see if mucking is your cup of tea, you may just click here. This will open a telnet window and connect it to the host 3bassets.com, in the port 8888
The default telnet program is awkward for most users. In windows, it has local echo disabled by default, which means you don't even see what you type! But fear not, telnet is not the only way to connect to BusaMUCK. You can use any of the so called MU* clients, such as the following:
MUSH Client: This is a very popular client for windows. Is it very easy to install and configure, its interface is pretty by default, and it's easy to use too. It is shareware, and the registration fee is USD $20. Don't worry, though, it is fully functional even if you don't register, it just takes longer to start. Download it here
Trebuchet TK: This is a multi plattform client that uses the TK programming languaje. The downside is you need to install TK first, and then the client, but it is quite feature rich, and can be automatically upgraded online. Trebuchet is not only free, but open source, so you will never have to worry about paying a dime. It's homepage is here
Pueblo: Puebo is a graphical client for Mucks. It has a very nice interface, and is easy to install. It is also free. BusaMUCK doesn't provide Pueblo-specific support, but you can still use it. You can download it here.
Once you're connected to BusaMUCK you'll want to log in. Initially you won't have a character, so you can be our guest. In order to enter as guest you need to type connect guest guest if you're using telnet, or configure your client to connect with the username guest and the password guest to our server (3bassets.com in the port 8888)
As a guest you can explore the world and meet your fellow animals. However, as a guest, your species is amoeba, and there are a number of things you can't do; so you'll want to request a permanent character.
Requesting a character is a very simple process, simply type @request and answer the questions the muck will ask you, such as what you want your character name to be, your species, your gender, etc... After that you will receive an e-mail containing your password, and so you can change your client's information to connect as your new charactername and with your new password to connect again. We recommend you change your password (using the @password command) as soon as you connect with it for the first time, and that you then reconfigure your client yet one more time.
BusaMUCK is running under a slightly modified version of TinyMuck version 6.
It is ran in a nice server called Amy that resides in the Netherlans.