h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

The obvious one is "obey the rules of the owner of the conversation". For example, in Camelot people are actively encouraged to steal one another characters. Whereas others are somewhat more restrictive. If you don't like the rules somewhere, don't play there... {of course, default rules apply in Misc Chat and other unowned places }

Another is that continuity doesn't work across multiple areas in general. For starters, most of us are virtually in several places at once. Another is that time moves at different rates in different conversations. There are exceptions to this, of course...

> "Don't control another researcher's characters."

MUSHers expand on this somewhat - they say you shouldn't directly OR indirectly control someone elses characters. This means you shouldn't say stuff like:

"Fred runs Jake through with his sword, killing him instantly",

but should instead say something like:

"Fred thrusts his sword towards the belly of Jake",

which means that Jake has the option to reply either:

"Jake screams as the sword enters his guts, and falls to the floor lifeless"

or:

"Jake nimbly sidesteps Fred's attack, and takes cover behind a nearby ".

It also gives Jake a chance to roleplay his death scene to full effect, should he want to die. Such scenes can last several posts...

Oh ... right. I ought to include something about that, and one-post solutions, too.

you can also try the "No he/she didn't" ploy. If some one, in the heat of battle, does something to your character/equipment/creation that you don't like, just say no, and add a reason why. example: I dropped a couple of tons of water on a non-character firecat. the response was that water didn't effect a mythical creature. So, if someone kills you off with a sword thrust, just say, no, because I was stepping back, and you missed.
one clever person countered a breach of rules like this: a researcher brought 2 non-player creations into a scene, which then attacked another researcher's character. the response was amusing. the second researcher pointed out a rule that the attackers had broken, and had the two attackers vanish in a puff of logic.
It keeps the game rolling, and the person who goofed realises his error, or laughs at your comeback.

Hey, that's cool.