PENNMUSH  [codebase]
The most widely deployed MUSH server. Softcode, a long release history, and one
of only two codebases in our survey that answer both MSSP and a pre-login WHO.
https://www.pennmush.org/

Games we have identified as running this codebase
  34 listed, 0 archived
  /games?codebase=PennMUSH
  Measured in their handshakes: CHARSET, MSSP, UTF-8, MXP

PennMUSH descends from TinyMUSH by way of a 1991 fork, and it is the server most
long-running roleplay MUSHes run. Its defining feature is softcode: a functional
expression language, edited from inside the game by anyone with the right bit
set, in which a large fraction of any given MUSH's behaviour is written. A
PennMUSH game is not so much configured as programmed by its players.

Versions read as 1.8.8p0 — a major, a minor and a patchlevel — and the
patchlevel moves often. Games frequently run a version several patchlevels
behind, which is unremarkable.

WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE FROM OUTSIDE

PennMUSH is one of only two codebases in our own 38-server survey that answered
both routes we probe. It offers MSSP when asked, and it answers a WHO typed at
the login screen, and on the game we measured the two agreed — which is rarer
than it sounds, and made PennMUSH the control we tested other servers against.

The pre-login WHO matters beyond convenience: it is how the MUSH family
publishes a player count at all, since most of the rest of the family offers no
MSSP whatsoever. See MSSP [/reference/protocols/mssp] for why that split is the
reason this site probes four layers rather than one.

CHARSET negotiation is normal on modern PennMUSH, which is why accented names
survive the trip.

RELATED SERVERS

PennMUSH, TinyMUX, RhostMUSH and CobraMUSH are four servers with a common
ancestor and a shared vocabulary — a builder who knows one can read another's
softcode with effort. They are not compatible: a database does not move between
them without a conversion, and function libraries differ in ways that matter.

SHARPMUSH

A .NET reimplementation aiming at PennMUSH compatibility is in development, by
the same author as this site. Nothing on this page is measured from it, and it
has no games in the catalogue.

See also
  TinyMUX — /reference/codebases/tinymux
  RhostMUSH — /reference/codebases/rhostmush
  CobraMUSH — /reference/codebases/cobramush
  MUSH, MUD, MUCK, MOO — what the words mean — /reference/mush-mud-muck-moo
  MSSP — /reference/protocols/mssp