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Actually, let's consider this from a more popular source - Star Wars. If a Lucas decided to bring suit against a mud that was using "Star Wars" in the title, the appropriate legal action would be Trademark infringement, not copyright violations. One of the advantages for Lucas with a Trademark action instead of a copyright one is that it doesn't matter if the mud claims it was an original (i.e. non-derivative) work. All that matters is that you are using a Trademark without permission.
On to your next point - developing a theme for your mud does not automatically qualify any work built for it as a derivative work. As we agree, a theme cannot be copyrighted, only a particular expression of a theme. A separate expression of the theme is not a derivative. Think of it this way: Let's say you are compiling a book of poems about ogres in the bathtub. Just because you have an original idea doesn't mean that everyone who writes poems for your book with ogres in the shower has written a derivative work. Each work is a separate, original work - unless it was a work made for hire.
RE: copyrighting themes
17 USC §102(b) In no case does copyright protection for an original work of authorship extend to any idea, process, system, method of operation, concept, principle, or discovery, regardless of the form in which it is described, explained, illustrated, or embodied in such work.
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