@Alzie said:

I did not expect that from a thread about a yes-first game we would delve into such philosophical questions as:

• Is man born with a set of universal understandings
• Is human nature evil by design
• What is winning?
• The sociopolitical ramifications of not being a hard ass
• How humans react to authority
• Is trust innate or earned
• Learning the phrase 'Pon Farr'

I am glad to know that I subscribe to this forum, just so that I might see these conversations pan out. I suggest that @Glitch change the name of this topic to 'Deep Philosophical Ramblings' post haste, we're sorting out mad fucking truths in here.

Well, when you ask the question of how to run a mush, you're effectively asking the question "How do I best rule the tiny nation of Roleplayistan". Philosophers have been chasing the governing question for millennia.

EDIT:
Groth asked what I consider qualifications for leadership, and that's what I answered. I'm not quite grokking what you're asking for some reason. Derp.

Because nothing says "Marvel 1963' like a game set in 1964 that includes Batman, Superman and Wonderwoman.

Have we just hit a point in the hobby where we've whittled down to 50-80% people with cluster-b personality disorders who keep things going by swapping games/abuse circles? Because I keep seeing a steady drop in an already long out-dated medium, and it seems like the majority of people holding on are either doing so to maintain social connections with friends, or are just too entrenched in malfunctioning behavior to stop beating a dead horse.

@Arkandel said:

When a thread like this essentially says 'hey, we've been doing things one way for a while, is there a different approach maybe that could work to improve things?' and some responses come down to 'no, we are all horrible people barely kept in check by the iron fist of empowered dictators who'll smack us back in line if we don't toe it and we'll turn on each other the moment that stops happening' it's... disheartening. Not because I think that's the case - I don't - but because that makes me wonder what their own view of the hobby is. If it's that bleak what are they doing here? If they're that burned out... why?

I'm out of the hobby right now and just sitting on a server and tinkering with code here and there, uncertain what to do with it. Your post got me thinking about that space, and while things do look pretty bleak, I'm still dumb enough that hope springs eternal for another game (something something insanity doing something over and over again and expecting different results, etc.).

Here's why I'm burned out right now: I'd join a game, make a character, enthusiasm was high. Within one to three months, the following would happen:

• Chargen takes a month and is filled with needless busywork that serves no real purpose.
• Chargen design is poor. I'm underpowered or the entire game is overpowered. I can't figure out what is expected of me, or I'm immediately pounded for being underpowered.
• Theme is scattered, inconsistent or missing entirely.
• Policies are either so open to interpretation as to be useless/abuseable, or are so restrictive and ideologically heavy-handed that I dare not speak or move the wrong way, either IC or OOC.
• One or more staff members is suffering from some manipulative, maladaptive behavior and hamstrings plot, fun, character approval, etc., and starts making drama for me or others.
• The game is an idle-fest for old friends to hang out and chat with each other over lunch and maybe RP once every 2-3 weeks in a rushed clustermess of scenes clearly intended for their characters only. If you're new, screw you.
• Someone starts a simmering rumorfest that explodes weeks later like a popped zit, causing everyone to leave or someone to start a new game, or people I was trying to RP with to get banned.
• New game starts somewhere else, everyone leaves.
• Code is confusing, broken, badly documented, used for spying, all-consuming, or nonexistent.
• Game is based on an RPG I have to download, buy, research, and spend hours of time I don't have reading just to know what the hell is going on.
• People RP as if they are on twitter or facebook. Nonsensical disjointed posts in 140 characters or less plox
• YOU WANNA HAVE SEX WITH MY CHARACTER RIGHT WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DON'T DO THAT CAN'T YOU MAKE AN EXCEPTION
• A Queen Bee and her flying monkeys descend on me like plague rats.
• Can't find anything to do after a couple of weeks. No one wants to RP unless someone has a planned scene/event/plot run by an ST.
• Some toxic person begins to grind me down over a course of months until I can't stomach logging onto the game anymore.

It could just be me, but there's a laundry list of burn-out reasons you can autopsy and mull over at your leisure. I still have moments of hope for making a new game, but right now, it seems like it's not worth the risk.

It sounds like what is going to be needed for a yes-first game is staff training in 'how to spot the behavior of narcissistic abusers'. Even professional therapists and lawyers can miss these guys if they don't realize what they're looking at. Read up on overt/covert narcissistic behavior and if you are prepared to spot the red flags and usher these people off the game before they can start the manipulation fests, you'll probably weed out 99.9% of ongoing unreported abuse/explosions.

@Apu

I haven't been playing Superhero-themed games for a long time, but something I've noticed as a recurring theme along the several I've dinked about on is that all of the major villains, or indeed anyone of any real import or leadership role, are all locked in a dust-gathering gun safe that only staff has the combination for. Some games won't allow you to play a villain at all, which seems to me like shooting yourself in the foot, especially if the game is in any way shape or form faction-based.

Does anyone know the reasoning behind this, or when this became popular? I'm assuming it's to prevent people from forming Mr. Sinister's Harem of Mutant Wives or General Zod's plot for the longest possible character squatting in internet history, but that's almost along the lines of "cutting off the hands of the musicians".

I've seen some games do this because they actively want to prevent PVP roleplay of any kind, but that's at the very extreme end, so I'm assuming that's the exception rather than the rule.

Eventually on these 'No Badguys Allowed' treehouses the game degenerates quickly into The Real Housewives Of Westchester County for lack of anything else to do: the street-level villains cluster together and the heroes cluster together and never the twain shall meet.

Trying superhero games and after 2 months I'm ready to abandon them as a lost cause. Between try-hard poses crammed with more NPCs than Skyrim and 90's Matrix Bullet Time 'Look at how badass I am' along with a 30-45 minute wait time between poses, not being able to do more than four 'turns' in an entire session, people who don't read what you wrote, horny lesbian superheroines slug-trailing up my leg, ridiculous TPS Report applications/corrections, the "I Have A Main Character And Will Not Touch The Peasants Beneath Me" friend circles, and now random rule 63 genderswaps of major characters (not canon) for no discernible reason, I'm ready to either retire or look at some other genre/theme.

But not WoD. I've heard too much.

I've found it helpful to treat staffing and headwizzing as if you are in an office environment. I know there are those that decry this, but establishing a hierarchical level of respect and authority, and a well defined set of jobs for everyone down the chain of command really helps. If your staff know what is expected of them, both in behavior and game function, there will be less stress all around, and you will know where things are getting fouled up. This also eliminates issues I've seen among staff where 2 people do 90% of the work and burn out very quickly while the other ten staffers are faffing about on social media all day and then doing staff work really fast for one of their friends.

All rules and policies should be written towards moderation. Too lax and people will take advantage of you, too tight and people will find loopholes.

Keep some professional distance between you and your staffers. NEVER hire on someone you are in a relationship with. Only bring friends into staff if they are friends you are 200% sure can handle being disciplined, corrected, demoted or even fired without destroying your friendship.

Make to-do lists. They are super helpful.

Have staff meetings, if only so you can touch base with each other, address new game needs, brainstorm ideas, or go over problems together.

Don't be afraid to shutter the game if there are more bad players than good.

It's actually better to approach candidates for staff and ask them rather than make people staff who are seeking the position. While you will sometimes get the genuine person who wants to help you, almost every other time it's someone who is seeking power for power's sake.

Make sure your theme isn't so niche no one will actually play it but you.

About to have an ex. There's only so much narcissistic abuse I can live with.

I let my characters idle into oblivion. The game was fine, I was just never able to RP. There's a set window of time where most activity takes place, and if your RP window falls out of it, forget it.

When I was available to RP in that time, and people agreed to RP with me, I had to wait 2+ hours for the friend circles to stop talking to each other before they went, 'oh yeah, someone asked to RP'. There was at least one instance where I waited 10 hours to find RP. I was proactive. I had ideas. I got 'sure, let's rp'. And then it never happened.

Unrelated to this game (again, I find no fault in it), perhaps the 'no one does anything' common complaint on MU*s is related to MUSHes being treated as extended Facebook/Twitter/Discord chat servers for friends instead of games.

Wiki should be optional. I guess I'm an old fart in that I prefer to have everything you need on the MU*. You're there to play a game, not fill out a TPS report for the privilege of pretend adventures.

Would you consider auditions for multiple people who want the same character?

This is pretty much the idea some friends and I were kicking around as a MUSH to build. Minus the entire tabletop aspect. I am intrigued and wish to subscribe to your newsletter.

@Meg The 'if you build it' open play game was run in 2004. I did have a TF game, the reason it was disorganized when you got there was because one of the people on the game I was brainstorming with decided to invite a bunch of people on the game before I could even so much as build a room or turn off login screen create. Said person then had their sister open a wiki "on my behalf" without telling me, and before I knew it I had a bunch of people who were looking at me expectantly for RP while I simultaneously had to build, code, write news files, chargen and try to run plots all by myself, which is kind of like trying to finish putting the chassis on a car while while it's going 55mph down a highway.

Yeah, that's going to mean things aren't as transparent or open. They weren't even there to BE transparent.

@Meg And what game was that? I weren't aware you were on a MUCK in 2004.

@Rook I built one of those some time ago. Unfortunately, 'If you build it, they will come' proved to be false.

@WTFE said in POLL: Super Hero MU Gut Check:

Unethical players will use dice to their power pose advantage too. It just shifts the point of their being assholes around.
Dice are not the great equalizer their advocates seem to hold them. Here's a trivial hack off the top of my head: in chargen make your character invincible, for all practical purposes, in one specific area: say ranged combat. Give them loads of numbers on a ranged attack and loads of numbers on damage avoidance/elimination. Then just carefully avoid any scene in which your advantage can't be used. Suddenly you have a character who cannot lose when played, even though the all-holy dice are there to adjudicate things.
There's a million ways for assholes to be assholes. There's only one sure-fire way to stymie an asshole: don't be there. Avoid the fucker and walk away. This could be as blatant as:
<asshole> has arrived.
home

"Don't feed the cancer cell and it dies" is what I've heard this referred to. Always what I was told to do. 80% of the time it works.

The other 20% are staff and then you just have to turn around and exit the game.

I'd pitch for an 80's-90's X-Men, Agents of SHIELD, Gotham or Justice League.

@Meg Thank you, I will. I was hoping to learn something and I did. I appreciate your response.

@skew I'm going to stand back just a bit and see if someone else steps up, but if the situation gets dire, your copypasta line sounds like a good one.

To be fair, I had never heard of the character prior to joining the game. I had to do a lot of googling to find out why people were complaining. Guess I have half a brain.

I had to give some details on the situation just to verify that A) I was not witnessing someone being treated poorly by a lot of people for no reason and B) that my perspective was not off. I was willing to be corrected if that was the case. I can see that I didn't handle even the post as tactfully as I'd intended, but there you go.

Edit: The answer to "Is it Killgrave/Daken" is "None of the above."