I'm opening my Big Damn Vampire Game by or before August 6th! We are accepting applications and by God, we have a (work in progress) wiki at www.ModernNightsSF.com

Connect at mux.modernnightssf.com port 4000

DO IT

Relevant details:

• Modern-Day Vampire: The Masquerade set in modern day San Francisco.
• You can play Vampires, Revenants, and Ghouls.
• We are using Minds Eye Theatre systems such as Status to bring relevance to political and social/mental concepts.
• Players can accumulate Background Points through our HRed Influence system and give them to whoever they want or claim them for themselves so that characters can can give out tangible rewards and favors that correspond with their RP
• We are opening up all 3 sects (Anarchs, Sabbat, and Camarilla), all clans, all non-extinct bloodlines, and all blood magic except Dark Thaumaturgy.
• The leaders of all 3 factions (the Bishop, the Baron, the Prince) are NPCs at first while we get settled, but we expect you to topple these NPCs and take the reins.

Staff Details:
Mostly seeking helpers for Malkavians Ventrue and Toreador!

The way that staff is divided is by clan. Clan staffers are responsible for the needs of the players who play the clan(s) to which they are assigned.

Also seeking helpers for:

• Gangrel
• Brujah
• Ventrue
• Malkavian
• Toreador
• Tzimisce

Duties N Such:

• Approve character generation applications
• Be a storyteller and tell stories, such as by droppin' in on peeps to scene on them and planning things ahead of time
• Designate two or three NPCs who are canonical or made up for use in the game's plot
• Coordinate with the rest of us through a Googledocs repository
• Frankly, resolve those rare but improtant times when a player is upset.

Staff Conflict Of Interest Rules:

• You can play however many characters you want, but you can't play the same clans that you staff.

The newsfiles and helpfiles are available, most of the code is finished enough to be alpha tested, we have maybe 10 rooms left to desc. The CYOA-style chargen is done enough to play with, although blood magic was just put in yesterday and it may get all weird on you.

Connect At:
By URL: mux.ModernNightsSF.com:4000
By IP: 64.13.172.53:4000

So me and a buddy made up The Problem Player Field Guide and I train staff with it.

Personally,

I don't do a long list of "this is what asshole behavior is not allowed here" rules because everybody already knows what good and bad behavior is, it's not ignorance that causes bad behavior, it's disrespect. I also am very anti house-rules set up for 'mechanical fairness' for the exact same reason. People put "mechanical fairness" house rules because "what if it's abused?" Well, if it's abused, you tell that asshole in particular to stop abusing it or else you'll take the ability away from them.

The corrective action that needs to occur should be contained to the people the problematic behavior is affecting and only those people; nobody needs to know that Bob is putting on a show in the OOC lobby unless they're suffering through it. When you 'fix' a problem and then you post this big ass announcement to uninvolved people I suppose you could say "this shows players we're proactive", but you're supposed to do that shit anyway, and to me that's like posting an announcement that I processed someone's +job.

Players requiring corrective action need to be told

1. The problem
2. Why it's a problem (not why it's wrong, they know better)
3. The proposed solution
4. Consequences for not cooperating
5. Do you understand?

And always, always back up your shit on the consequences you intend to give them.

CHORIZO STUFFED CHICKEN D:<

Preheat oven to 375 because we gonna bake

1. Get you some chicken, either butterfly and beat the fuck out of it so it's rollable. or cut holes into the chicken for imminent stuffing. If you've never filet-ed before then what you do is you put your hand on top of the meat so you can feel what's going on and then you drag your knife parallel to the table along its length, and you leave like, ehhh, a quarter to a third of an inch of meat as a connection between the butterfly halves. And if you're JD you have to do this with your pocketknife because your Hipster-White (that kind of white) boyfriend doensn't know what the fuck a whetstone is.
2. Get you some chorizo. If you live somewhere where they SELL CANNED TORTILLAS (WHY) so you're not going to get any chorizo, just buy some goddamn pork sausage and put a shitload of garlic in it and enough comino/cumin and/or chili powder in it to make you think "gee whiz marge, this smells like tacos," voila, good enough.
3. Spice the chorizo the way you want. Basically just make it taste like whatever type of Mexican food you're happy with with pork as your base. If you don't have a preference or a clue just spice that shit with more garlic than chili powder than comino (cumin) and then mince up some onions, bellpeppers, and jalapeños into there.
4. Get the chorizo to ... just get really hot in a pan I don't know cooking words. You generally don't need to add butter or olive oil to a pan when chorizo is in the picture because it's super greasy.
5. While the chorizo is purging itself of trichinosis, prepare the chicken for stuffing. Either butterfly the chicken and then beat the hell out of it so that you can roll it up and secure with toothpicks and/or string, or cut pockets into the chicken. You want the chorizo halfway cooked.
8. The name of the dish is "chorizo stuffed chcken." I believe in you..
9. If you're one of those Clean As You Goers don't fucking clean that chorizo pan yet. In fact, leave some chorizo in there and keep it warm.
10. Bread the chicken. You're too forgetful for panko bread crumbs and if you just take a hammer to the nearest bag of tortilla chips you've got this.. Put some salt and pepper and garlic on that shit so it tastes like something on the outside. Now pour out some milk and whip an egg into it, now dip your stuffed chicken in that and then roll the chicken in your uh, 'bread crumbs'.
10. Bake for an hour. You can make sides. Jalapeño cole slaw is fab with this and rice is fab with this.. Both of those take like 10-20 minutes or less to achieve, so you've got more minutes to kill, so make a cheese sauce to go on top of the chorizo.

OPTIONAL CHEESE SAUCE

1. Once the chorizo you left in the pan is cooked all the way, set that aside somewhere.
2. Get the chorizo pan hot again and pour some beer in it. It needs to be a beer hipsters put limes in. Bring it up to a boil.
3. Pour like half a mouthful of jalapeño juice in it. Or pickle juice if you're a pansy.
3. Once that gets boiling, pour more milk than you did beer. Like ... 1 to 1 1/2 ratio.
4. Now turn the heat down and fill up the pan with cheese Like Monterey Jack, or mozzarella. Or a combo.
5. Stir and stir and stir until you're pretty sure you have cheese sauce. If you really need to thicken it, go with flour.
6. Stir in that chorizo you set aside. If your name is Heather or Courtney or Blake I guess you can ~~garnish it with cilantro~~.

Another thing,

I used to and I still hear/see people spending like TWO OR FIVE HOURS fucking negotiating with players. As a staffer, you are not there to be their friend, you are there to be their game leader. You make the decisions. Your job is not to change their mind about your policies, your job is to enforce your policies.

Enforcing your policies means explaining them, showing the player how to act in accordance to them, and making sure the player understands the consequences for not acting in accordance to them. You can do this in a manner that is completely respectful and professional. NOBODY is entitled to exceptions to rules everyone else follows, so NO, you can not negotiate an exception. NOBODY is entitled to acting like a shithead, especially on an online platform where (a.) you have a backspace button (b.) you can come back when you feel better, no matter how bad your gluten allergies are or how many heart attacks you've had. And NOBODY needs an explanation as to why you have expectations for courtesy among players and staff.

Yes, you want to be just/fair and respectful to your players, even the asshole ones. You will need to listen to them because their feedback, even when rudely stated, is necessary for you to be a good leader. But in so doing, you need to be on top of your shit. You need to be aware whether the discussion you're having is confronting the bad behavior, or whether it's discussing its cause and context. Because you can discuss its cause and context for a year and not fix the bad behavior.

ETA

YOUR STAFF ARE PLAYERS MAN

I really like By Right Of Blood. With the recent slow but stead influx of new players I am optimistic about it, but I am sad that I have to work uphill since I let it get completely ruined into a Staff And The Superfriends Sandbox during 2013 and 2014.. (I didn't know who Yseulte@HM was and let her essentially be head staff)

The way I did it was by suffering that stupid-ass "I don't want to hurt my friend's feelings" delusionalness. I did not have the common sense to realize that if you don't want to take corrective action on a staffer because "they're my friend," pick up your nutsack and do it the fuck anyway.

That 5-part thing I mentioned doing to players, you do to staff too:

Like,

(1) I noticed you haven't been logging in to your staff alt.
(2) I know RL can be really distracting and stressful, but the game needs to move forward. If there is something going on that's keeping you that I can help with then we can talk about it later, but in the meantime your absence from staff means that your jobs and your plot are going stagnant and the slowdown is discouraging players.
(3) So, I need to know by tomorrow whether you can get these jobs and scenes moving within the next two days. .
(4) If you can't, I will need to reassign your +jobs and involve an additional storyteller in your plots so they can move forward until you can make time.
(5) Do you have any questions or concerns about this?

And then keep and log that conversation so that later on if they fuck up again you can have another chat with them Because you're going to get "you never told me"-ed.

(1) Hey, I need to talk to you about those +jobs and scenes we talked about last week because I haven't seen your involvement in them.
(2) I've had to rearrange those +jobs to StaffJimbo and StaffBertha and the workload is unevenly distributed as a result so some +jobs are taking longer to fulfill.
(3) I need you to make a decision whether or not you have the time to continue staffing here.
(4.) If you choose to remain on staff but your +jobs continue to need reassignment, then I will need to go ahead and remove you from staff and find someone who has time.
(5.) Do you have any questions? I know that this may be disappointing. Please don't be mistaken: you are always welcome to play here. But if the game can't move forward, then there's no game to be a player on.

See, it's beautiful. If they get butt hurt to the point where they stop being your friend, then you did not lose a very valuable friendship, because apparently the only currency in your friendship was an online game with strangers about imaginary people.

I look for a nice playerbase, but the make or break part for me is how easy it is to create a character and actually join the play.

Aw shucks, y'all are making me blush

Half Mexican and then Mutt-White-Mostly-English-And-Irish on my dad's side which results in me being asked what my heritage is now and then.

One time these weird white supremacists were asking me what "breed" I was, that was awkward and creepy and uncomfortable.

Then there was this one Australian chick, while I was out of State. When she found out I was from Texas she proceeded to shit-talk Texas as being just a racist shit-hole and that she's above that. I kind of just let her ramble about how diversity conscious she was and went on to talking to her friends.

We were talking about school and work and she just interrupts me with "so what is your background?" I answered with my educational background since I thought she was trying to catch up to the current conversation, only to get, "No, I mean your BACKGROUND, what is your heritage.?" Oh. okay, woman who just told me race shouldn't matter, I'm half Mexian and half Irish. So I tell her, and she's all "Oh, I'm part Maltesian." I asked her, "Oh, you mean like the dog?" and she fucking didn't get the joke because she was too busy telling me how exotic Malta is.

So, I want to provide a user-friendly platform for experimental NWOD and GMC and OWOD games. because I have 80% set one up. The idea is a person with a game idea but little to no coding ability should be able to whip up a game. At this point, it needs lab rats, so what I want to do is host multiple games on the same database to hammer out specific needs and wants for spheres that I do not play and do not staff for and thus would otherwise not have an opportunity to learn about, so I can find out what options need to be in it. Once a few games have been set up and run on it for like a year or so, then I can safely say "Hey, you can plug and play your own game, have all this code."

WHAT THE HELL IS IT?
It's a game with a script on it that sorts players by &_game attribute so that commands like +sheet, +roll, +where, +who, and +jobs refer to information and options specific to their game. You share game space with other people. It's scripted because the end idea one day is to give people who are like "what is linux" a Game In A Box they can copy and paste into their MU* window and get going. All they have to do, code wise, is fill in some blanks. I understand that Mux In A Minute exists but I think it's ugly dog shit.

PROS AND CONS

• PRO: Free MU* hosting.

• CON: You're on your own for a Wiki.

• PRO: Your game can be ready to play as soon as your grid and news files are ready (unless you require code that does not yet exist).

• CON: This is scripted, not hard-coded, so that means that your game co-exists with other games. If you want to move your game to an independent solution you will be able to, just not instantly, because I'll need to make a copy of the original, make sure the other games are wiped off of that copy, and then send you THAT copy. I'd still do it, you'd just need to give me notice.

• PRO: You do not have to touch anything server-side, ever.

• CON: You CAN'T touch anything server-side. Since this is geared towards non-coders this shouldn't be a huge con, but you should be aware of it, and also that you can't log in to #1 to @admin things. It's not very often that you have to do that in the first place, but again, be aware.

WHAT ALREADY EXISTS?

• ANY SYSTEM:
  • A +Job system that lets you switch and flip between games.
  • Game-sorted +Where and +Who
  • A Character Generation system you can fill in the blanks for
  • An Equipment system that lets you generate game-specific equipment lists. Equipment given to players can be concealed, stored, or equipped so that stuff like +glance will tell someone that so and so is armed. It probably has bugs in it since it's the newest thing.
  • A pose XP system which you can customize the gain-rate and weekly cap of, a +vote system which you can customize the restrictions of X a day and blah blah, a +Rec system, what the fuck am I missing, Oh, also I am pretty sure there's an XP system that rewards you for signing in but I haven't used it in ever. But anyway, XP systems.
• Old World Of Darkness 20th Anniversary Edition:
  • Character generation, +sheets and dice rolling for Vampire, Demon, and Werewolf (+Fera); Mage and other spheres can be put in there real easy-like.
  • Sphere commands for Vampire, Demon and Werewolf since those were the ones I got asked for first (by that I mean mechanics for the shit specific to them are laid out, werewolves can shapeshift and their stats get buffed, vampires can +pump their physicals, etc. etc.)
• *New World Of Darkness and GMC:
  • Character generation (GMC and NWOD) for Vampire, Werewolf, Geist, and Changeling with merit pre-requisite checking because I HATE CROSS-REFERENCING, and if someone explains to me how the FUCK Changing Breeds and Demon work I'll put them in, too.
  • The sheet, dice rolling, etc. shit doesn't exist yet but it'll exist in a few weeks since I just have to bring the NWOD diceroller and sheets I already made back in the day.onto this game's dbase and make sure they're friendly to my little like, you know, mix-and-match structure.
  • Sphere commands for Changeling lying around somewhere from when I did Keep Austin Wyrd which totally flopped because I was an idiot and didn't supply good story (I'd like to bring it back since I do have a story for it now) but the code is solid.

WHY THE HELL DOES THIS EXIST
Because I've coded for other people since like 2008 and I've kept everything and decided one day I'd make it relevant again by throwing it into a pot and make it hierarchal to a game-control object so I can make a Mux In A Box The Way You Like It system.

HOW THE HELL WOULD BBOARDS WORK
A shitload of BBs with locks, frankly, so it'll be horrifying to type +bbread on staff-side if you want to see all that shit, but I've logged on to games like The Screech and seen like "+BB 251" so I, mean, it won't kill you.

WHAT DO I DO TO GET A GAME?

1. I recommend you to plan out your grid first. I do require you to have your grid rooms named with a consistent prefix (or prefixes), like, you know, the name of the city or the name of the game. For immediate example all By Right Of Blood grid squares are prefixed MIAMI, MIAMI BEACH or EVERGLADES. So, if I wanted to extract my game's grid, then I could run a search for anything beginning with MIAMI, MIAMI BEACH, or EVERGLADES. That way, if you ever need to move, it won't be a GIGANTIC PAIN IN THE ASS. because you can get all your grid sorted out. Don't worry about characters, they will have a &_game attribute that says "This person is playing on this game" so they, too, can be sorted out if you need to move.

2. Tell me these things:

• What game you're using (CWOD? NWOD? GMC?) and if your setting is historical such that you need shit like "Technology" and "Drive" replaced with Ride and ... Magic. Or something.
• What spheres? And of those spheres, what do you want to allow or not allow? I had someone once ask me for Demon and Bastet and Vampire.
• If there are limitations you want in CG like "nobody can have fight stats over X", tell me those too. It's a matter of setting up if statements.
• Your desired XP system. Available options are pose xp,+vote, timed release, +rec, and I am working currently on a Beats system. You can mix and match and have more than one.
• Your desired policies on character advancement. You can make it like BROB where you just walk up to an XP room and spend your shit without staff bothering with it, or you can make it a request system with staff aproval, or you can mix these options so long as you tell me what you want the XP commands to not auto-allow players to buy.

3. Pick a port number that isn't 7373, 1870, 8989, 1930 or 2015 since those are taken.
4. Entrust me with your email or phone number so that I can notify you personally about any possible downtime stuff, like server updates.

WHAT WOULD STAFFING BE LIKE?
Instead of being set "wizard" or "royalty," you'll be given an attribute that tells the Staff Commands what people you have permission to use its commands on. You'll be able to do All The Things, from sheet management and approvals to going (un)dark, you just won't be able to peek on other peoples' stuff.

The exception is if you need to find out if Jimbo is being an asshole on neighbor games. You can +alts/gamecheck Jimbo. = Reason. That'll open up a global +request that is CCed to all staff (ALL STAFF D:). The contents of the +Request will list Jimbo's alts on the other games and be accompanied with your comment. So, +alts/gamecheck Jimbo = Jimbo keeps throwing epic temper tantrums when he loses combat scenes, be warned, and it'll come out like JImbo (Jimbob on GeistMUX, Kayla and Jody on ChangelingMUX) keeps throwing epic temper tantrums when he loses combat scenes, be warned."

A_kazlauskas on the Skypes.

Hahaha.

What I usually get from outside of Texas is

1. "So that's what the Texas accent sounds like?" or some other comment on how either I talk like I'm from Texas or I talk like I'm NOT from there

Or,

2. How many guns do you have (answer: what kind?) and/or "Allow me to debate you about gun control." Dude, I'm not here to debate with you, I'm here to enjoy your city. I'm not fixing to vote on issues that will impact your life and I'm not fixing to pass or veto some political bill, so just calm your titties.

ALRIGHT WE NEED ONE MORE STAFFER

Are you good at any of these clans:
Gangrel, Ventrue, Caitiff, Setites/Serpents, Nosferatu?

Because our Nosferatu/Setite lead had to step down to RL stuff. So, if I can get a staffer to volunteer either take up his old things, or just shuffle clans with you, you can be the grand poobah of those 2 clans.

Sweet merciful baby Jesus all swaddled up in his blanket don't even know his own name yet

We're going to be opening soon

We need some Anarchs. C'mon, son, you could be the Constable, the Ambassador, or the Engineer whose job it is to be an asshole and fuck with everybody's havens. Imagine the potential.

We are accepting applications and by God, we have a (work in progress) wiki at www.ModernNightsSF.com!

Modern Nights is accepting applications as of today and yes indeed, we're opening on August 6th! We're building our wiki at www.ModernNightsSF.com.

Now seeking helpers for Malkavian and Toreador, they are very popular and so I'd like to secure a backup staffer.

We have two new staffers, and the clans have been shuffled, so that is 4 story staff and 3 coders. Sweet! I would like to see some part time helpers sign up so we have backup people.

And we don't have Giovanni available. We would if we had a staffer for it!

@HorrorHound
Oh I'm asking, goddammit.

A Cockpit?

Like

Are we talking some furaffinity shit, here, are we talking part airplane? What do you mean cockpit?

It's like a fursuit, but more like a mecha, yeah?

ETA: Would s/he drop in like the fuckin' borg queen?

@DnvnQuinn Revenants are basically ghouls who were born that way and don't need to suck off a vampire every month.

I am glad there is excitement :D!

I am still looking for staff, though, for reals. We can do this whole like, "Three man band tagteamorama" for a bit, and probably longer than usual because I have automated so damn much but, if I could get a staffer for each of the core clans then I'd be such a happy thing.

I'm opening my Big Damn Vampire Game by or before August 6th! We are accepting applications and by God, we have a (work in progress) wiki at www.ModernNightsSF.com

Connect at mux.modernnightssf.com port 4000

DO IT

Relevant details:

• Modern-Day Vampire: The Masquerade set in modern day San Francisco.
• You can play Vampires, Revenants, and Ghouls.
• We are using Minds Eye Theatre systems such as Status to bring relevance to political and social/mental concepts.
• Players can accumulate Background Points through our HRed Influence system and give them to whoever they want or claim them for themselves so that characters can can give out tangible rewards and favors that correspond with their RP
• We are opening up all 3 sects (Anarchs, Sabbat, and Camarilla), all clans, all non-extinct bloodlines, and all blood magic except Dark Thaumaturgy.
• The leaders of all 3 factions (the Bishop, the Baron, the Prince) are NPCs at first while we get settled, but we expect you to topple these NPCs and take the reins.

Staff Details:
Mostly seeking helpers for Malkavians Ventrue and Toreador!

The way that staff is divided is by clan. Clan staffers are responsible for the needs of the players who play the clan(s) to which they are assigned.

Also seeking helpers for:

• Gangrel
• Brujah
• Ventrue
• Malkavian
• Toreador
• Tzimisce

Duties N Such:

• Approve character generation applications
• Be a storyteller and tell stories, such as by droppin' in on peeps to scene on them and planning things ahead of time
• Designate two or three NPCs who are canonical or made up for use in the game's plot
• Coordinate with the rest of us through a Googledocs repository
• Frankly, resolve those rare but improtant times when a player is upset.

Staff Conflict Of Interest Rules:

• You can play however many characters you want, but you can't play the same clans that you staff.

The newsfiles and helpfiles are available, most of the code is finished enough to be alpha tested, we have maybe 10 rooms left to desc. The CYOA-style chargen is done enough to play with, although blood magic was just put in yesterday and it may get all weird on you.

Connect At:
By URL: mux.ModernNightsSF.com:4000
By IP: 64.13.172.53:4000

I look for a nice playerbase, but the make or break part for me is how easy it is to create a character and actually join the play.