@Ganymede I agree that the lack of pose order in FS3 combat is definitely a feature. I think it's awesome. And while I wouldn't call it a bug, I do think that it's a contributing factor to lessened interaction in the midst of a combat scene -- even if I agree with Fara that the size of the scenes is probably the larger factor.

@fatefan Try the library. I'm also looking up The Dark Crystal to see what's out there and there's...a lot, actually. Creation myths and prequel stories and whatnot. But anything with Brian Froud's name attached will likely be original material, he's the one who created the world with Jim Henson. 🙂

Don't be afraid to make mistakes

I've often encountered a presence of perfectionism, or the mindset of staff must always be right, often times to the point where it becomes confrontational. Iunno, for myself I'm actually walking into this situation embracing the mindset of screwing up. Because of this I'm not afraid to try new things or out of the box approaches in plots. If they don't work, that's ok. No one is going to lose a limb over it ... unless they rage punch their computer I suppose. But really, the fear of screwing up can sometimes push people into this box of refusing to admit when they are in fact wrong. I don't want to be that person.

Highlight the Good
I'm a professional educator, and one of the things we talk about is classroom management. Really, a MU isn't terribly different than a classroom. Lots of people with different backgrounds, different individualized goals but trying to coexist and cooperate. It's really an appropriate analogy. So I brought some of the pedagogy we use into the design of how we interact. Every week we highlight the positives we see from players. I think it's a good way to let people know we appreciate them and to show other players the sorts of things we're looking for. These range from behaviors on game to working with staff through issues or handling plots. If you see a behavior you like and want repeated, bring it to the forefront.

Expectations
I don't think any of us like that unknown expectation. This ties in a bit to the first one, I try my best to make sure my expectations are clear; but I'm also going to make mistakes. If there's confusion on them, it may well be my fault. I'll own the mistake, clarify the expectation and roll on. But when everyone knows what we're trying to accomplish it makes things a lot smoother.

Purposeful RP
I'm still experimenting with this. One of the things I've been working towards mentally and now in execution is how to make plots meaningful and rolling. I kind of place my expected plot time to be around 2 hours. That's not a lot of time to get something in. So one of the things I'm doing is asking players to be very specific about their goals. A player who asks to 'look around' isn't being specific, they're fishing. If the player is having to fish then I'm not doing my job as a Storyteller. I want players to be focused in on something. If I haven't given them bait, I'm wanting them to guide me into something they're interested in doing...and I haven't done a great job of expressing that expectation yet; one of the things I've been drawing feedback from players on. But regardless, this is with #1; I'm screwing stuff up but having fun doing it and I think (based on talks) the players are having fun helping me work through things.

Feedback Loop
I run a plot, I ask for feedback, I use said feedback to adjust what I'm doing to run the next plot a little bit better, then get feedback... this is the cycle. The biggest challenge I'm finding is getting players to give feedback that isn't always positives. Believe me, I get a huge smile when they tell me how much they enjoyed something (and I like that a ton) but I can't improve on positives; sure I can do more of them and certainly plan that in, but I'd also like to address areas of deficiency. The feedback loop also works the other way, I try to give players direct ideas on things to pose about. What would be useful for me as a Storyteller to know regarding their character at that time. The challenge lies in that this is a bit different than we're all used to in some regards so breaking those habits may take some time, or restructuring.

Ask for what you want
If you don't ask for it, you won't get it. I tell players I'd like X Y and Z in their pose, I tell them I want a specific goal from them in their pose, I tell them to be specific about what they are investigating so I can give them a specific roll. All these took was simply asking for them. And the more I've asked, the more they've done it and it's entered a pretty good interaction relationship. I want poses every 15 minutes, I stick to that. One of my big goals right now is 6-8 GM poses per scene every 15 minutes (so 1.5-2 hour scenes). That doesn't provide for a lot of 'fluff' time, but rather we need to get to the meat of the plot; which requires us to be focused. All of it is circular I guess, and again, far from perfect but like I said in point #1, I'm ok with screwing up and making mistakes.

@Thenomain Amusingly enough, only when I read that did I realize one of the things I can safely say I've evolved a different response to.

Namely, I have less patience for people who will throw 'it's just a game, get over it!' at anyone who has an issue with their behavior, but will pitch an unholy fit any time something even seems to be going other than their preferred way. (Or explode when someone says this to them.)

Basically, my patience for 'But that's different!!!' when the only functional difference is that it's them rather than anyone else has an expiration date. (This is fairly broad-ranging, but this situational example works well.) I'll only engage with these people with full empathy for so long before I begin to distance myself from them unless they seem to be cluing in.

@Thenomain said in What do you enjoy about STing?:

@krmbm said in What do you enjoy about STing?:

@Thenomain said in What do you enjoy about STing?:

Does that mean you can't also be appreciated for your work?

Yes. I definitely didn't mean something benign like "no need for accolades, it's a labor of love." <.<

Who said anything about "need"? I don't know why you can't accept a complement, but you do you.

I'll take his compliments.

@Tinuviel said in Asynchronous Plots in Ares:

@Groth I get the idea. But that doesn't really make practical sense. What if you were killed in your day-to-day RP? Or started dating someone? Or any number of other things that could dramatically change or invalidate any "it hasn't happened yet" RP.

The concept already depends on people being okay with finding some way to justify it. We already bend time, as Tat puts it, when we say what time of day or if something can happen after or before some other scene. We used to have “night zones” for Vampire players. Time bubbles with combat time stops (as horrible as those wretches were). We’ve gotten in some good practice.

So if you can let go the idea that Mush time is strictly chronological, then it should be manageable in those rare times where something that divergent does happen.

I understand your level of concern (Ares Discord is tired of mine, so boy do I understand), but I don’t think it’s worth putting too much worry into besides as a conversation piece.

@GamerNGeek I get that general idea, but I'd love to hear more detail. Do they mean things like change a government, or kill off a major character, or like advance to all electrical cars al la Watchmen, advance the space program, have telepaths as part of the judicial system, etc?

Star Wars Age of Alliances is pretty good. I'm on there and enjoy it.

Other than that I haven't found a good one that was stable (and by stable I mean the staff wasn't crazy).

@Ghost I dunno, I'm not a huge fan of crossovers at the best of times, and I'd want to focus on the MK cast and their roles and relationships to each other. If you introduce a whole other fighting game cast, you risk one greatly outweighing the other, or spreading so thin that people feel like the character they app won't get to really interact with the people in their character's orbit, discouraging them from apping in the first place, I think.

At any rate, when I looked at Match of the Millennium, it seemed like they had four people from every series that didn't have much to do with each other. Which might be fine for people more creative than me maybe??? But I like to keep it focused and the characters close.

EDIT: I'd dig a Street Fighter-only game though. ... Weirdly enough I wouldn't mind crossing it over with SNK/KOF, but that still has the same problems; the two settings just gel a little better.

@Cobaltasaurus simples! Take a roster char! 🙂

My roommate in college. "Sarahn i will be the only girl in this group, i don't want to go alone. Can you come for the first meeting?" It was a tabketop group of 5 guys ranging from old school to7 years older.

They owned the local gaming store. I think I was bribed with a life size han solo cardboard stand up. We stuck around, hell they gave me a job in the store between jobs till I picked up another. They added my husband in - thats a long story that eventually saw one guy leave the group in a snit. They were there when we had our kid and our subsequent wedding. They helped me through my husband being deployed, we traveled across the border every two weeks for 4 hours for gaming night with them when I immigrated to the US.

They were my portal to all this. We are meeting up at gencon next year if money permits. I can't imagine life without scott the elder, scott the youngern geroge the computer guru, bart the stoic, chris the never aging, andrea the knitter. They hijacked my wedding even, five minutes to have me combat my maid of honour in - we played tt star trek - a rite of combat to marry my spouse. Complete with lirpa's and tgey supplied the dice for rolling to have us kiss.

Man. Memory lane. Nerd origins are fun.

@Jennkryst said in Shadowrun: Denver Plot(s) - Conversation:

@Thenomain said in Shadowrun: Denver Plot(s) - Conversation:

I can’t be an otaku?

Otaku (おたく/オタク) is a Japanese term for people with obsessive interests, particularly in anime and manga.

Well...darn?

Otaku was the SR2/3 term for what would become Technomancers, in SR4/5

So we can blame Tom Dowd? Because...that's not even a little bit of a stretch for me.

I run into a number of similar issues. Some of these aren't necessarily new for me, but these are what I work on:

I'm another person totally cool with creating spotlight opportunities and setting myself as support for others. Like most folks, it's frustrating when this is never reciprocated. I've stopped hoping for it to happen to avoid disappointment; I never expected it to happen but I've shifted toward a conscious expectation that it won't. It may be pessimistic, but it prevents the disappointment, and turns the times it does happen into something much happier and shinier, and I find I am more grateful for them. Still working on the frustration part.

"I cannot fix everything." Some days I have to repeat this out loud for a while. Stereotypical Libra. Seeing both sides of the problem is not the issue. Can it help find a solution? Sure, sometimes. Not always. I need to find a way to chill some regarding those times it doesn't, because in those cases, seeing both sides of the problem that has no solution is knowing those two sides are unhappy.

Even if a problem has a solution, most of these things involve compromise. Rarely does this mean everyone is happy; it generally means everyone is somewhat happy and still somewhat upset, because there's typically give and take involved. Work on trying to not dwell on the grousing the 'give' part involves or consider it a sign of being some horrible failure, because there's usually continued grousing, even if the solution works out well for everyone.

There's more than that, but that's all my brain is up for for now.

One way to separate power levels without tamping down on refresh (which is certainly an option), would be to gate your stunts or stunt equivalents. If some people - say dragons and cyborgs - get access to stunts with stacking bonuses and your average beat cop does not, then even at equivalent refresh the former will in theory have an advantage in their specific areas of competence. Bear in mind that situation aspects and the 'create advantage' function of many skills can serve as an equalizer in these kinds of interactions but that's probably okay?

I think a good question though would be 'do you want to hack fate specifically or would you want something more pre-packaged'. Because there is a LOT of Fate out there that can be used. Legally, even (thank goodness for that CC-BY licencing scheme).

I mean, just for reference, the message is

%% There's no scene running here. Starting a scene will activate repose and make it easy to share the scene with the web portal. Just do scene/start if you want to start one.

Anyway, to answer the original question...

I play on both Spirit Lake, which is very OOCly transparent, and Arx, which is not. I like the way it works for both of those games. With SL, I like knowing OOCly what's going on because I feel like it fosters that collaborative environment.

On Arx, I think there's so much lore and so much of the theme is built around it and the mystery of it, I like not knowing things OOCly unless I know them ICly. I think that works very well for the IC theme.

So really.. my answer is.. it depends on the theme, and what 'feel' you want from the game.

Reminds me a bit of classic RPG Bureau 13. You should read it for inspiration if you haven't come across it already/

@Cupcake said in Re-Igniting Playspiration:

Should I be Kondo-ing, or grit my teeth and keep trying? Is there some other tactic to consider?

I wouldn't suggest muscling through it and gritting your teeth. That tends to result in resentment. Sometimes no matter how hard you beat the horse it won't Jesus.

My advice:

Step away. Make some tea. Ask yourself what you are really looking for in the hobby, if there was a time you had that, and how long it's been. Ask yourself if you currently feel like it's possible to get back to that. Is there hurt? Does the hobby make you feel negative things that dont feel good? (Self esteem, exclusion, unwanted).

You know you, and if you don't, knowing you will almost always help you find your way through times like these. When it comes to hobbies or social stuff it's not always a particular game or a person that is ruining it, but it can be tied more to unfulfillment of something that you may not be consciously aware of.

Example.

I was "forever GM" for my RL tabletop group for about 12 years. For 12 years I held this candle that I would get to PLAY in a Star Wars RPG game. For 12 years I kept running games my group loved and would always dangle this "okay who is running next?" carrot. No one ever bit. Eventually I said "after this one I'm done running, so if we want to keep playing one of you needs to step up." The group drifted apart rather than try to run, and I never got my SW game.

I was upset. After some tea and instrospection I realized that it wasn't because I never got my SW game, but because I had relied on my friends to give back and they never did.

Now, as a result, it wasn't a happy ending, but at least I am more aware that I need to seek a new gaming group rather than try another single year of beating my head against that wall. Unfortunate, but at least now I can own my feelings on the issue.

Waitwaitwaitwait! Nononono! I got it!

Modern Day Dragon Age. Especially triggered by the Kirkwall Coffee mini-series.

Kirkwall Coffee

I don't know how this would work, but I doubt it could be done with any degree of seriousness and still be any good. Serious moments, but not "gritty fantasy" serious.

And we'll get some info on the state of the Sabbat in the PG.