GOAL REACHED.
I just...I am stunned and humbled that came together so quickly, hardly even a day later.
I'm full of so much hope and positive feels and it is a HUGE weight off my shoulders, holy shit.
Thank you, everybody who gave or even thought about it. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
I hope I have the chance to pass this amazing kindness on soon. 
Batman was always a Republican.
He's an obscenely rich man with an entire city as his personal theme park where he can play dress up (with a ridiculously advanced arsenal no less!), beat the impoverished and the mentally ill within an inch of their lives, then catch and release them through an incompetent and crippled healthcare system so he can do it all again.
@Ghost said in TS - Danger zone:
Is it an IC romance scene, or two human beings on opposite sides of an internet connection getting each other horny?
I'm in the camp that thinks it doesn't particularly matter if it's both, as long as what's happening is comfortable for all parties involved. I've also always felt like TS was something that could be enjoyed OOC on an intellectual level (ie, "oh dang, that is spicy") and an emotional level (ie, it is very cathartic to see two characters with a lot of chemistry connecting and being intimate) without it being some weird level of self-insertion, or being odd/shameful that you're enjoying it as a person and trying to make something your writing partner also enjoys.
Being ashamed or overly worried about what it means or says about you is what is very weird to me. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
Walking into a scene with high hopes but a little nervousness because it's gonna be with strangers aside from the fuckin' AWESOME person who organized the whole thing (<3!!!), and then having those hopes exceeded in every way possible.
Just like, CRAZY great RP that happens in a very novel way, shocking revelations that somehow fit your character and the other characters perfectly and leave so much to dig into, the realization that you just made new instant game buddies...
What a great night, I am going to be gushing for weeks 
When another character can walk circles around yours because the player is just that good. Like, nothing to do with social dice, they just know exactly which buttons to press.
It's simultaneously the most humbling, slightly frustrating, and impressive thing.
I love it.
I've gone from being painfully lonely to not really giving a shit.
People kept telling me this is the secret first step to finding someone so...maybe there's hope yet???
¯_(ツ)_/¯
@bored said in Regarding administration on MSB:
Sure, in a very chain-of-consequences kind of way. But I don't think the average (again, sane) person writes a * yelp review thinking 'ahhaha I'm taking these fuckers down!'
I will be honest, it really does seem to me that a lot of us are working at cross purposes here, there are a lot of people who are not here with an average yelp reviewer attitude, come on. WORA had the reputation that that is where you go for "justice," and "throwing back the curtain," which in our community played out a lot like throwing a screaming, crying tantrum a lot of the time.
I've seen that less here, but that attitude still exists - shoot first, ask questions later, make as much noise as you can to wallow in the chaos OUT THE EVIL THAT HIDES AMONG US!!!! and all that. I am not pointing fingers or trying to call anyone out, but it seems to me like there's a prevalent attitude or perception that conflict resolution is about making the conflict as public and ugly as possible as the very first step, which turned this place into such a goddamn dumpster fire for a few weeks, with people gleefully squirting gasoline on it because that is just what they come here to do.
So I have a pitch and I'm looking for feedback before I start seriously investing time and effort. Feel free to make comments and suggestions!
--
The Celebrated Company of Mongrels is a game in an original dark fantasy setting, and also the name of the organization the game will revolve around.
Taking place in the ancient kingdom of Goëtika, society is extremely rigid and (on the surface) honor-based, with no upward mobility between classes and a lot of corruption in the court; this is compounded by both its relationship with the Church of the Crimson God, a fanatical religion that was elevated to the official faith of the realm by a devout king hundreds of years ago, and the subjugation of non-humans that happened nearly concurrently.
Getting denobled, defrocked/excommunicated, stripped of knighthood, etc is fairly easy in the current atmosphere of the kingdom and tensions in all corners are high given that the last king allowed his vassal lords the freedom to openly war on one another, and several small to middling conflicts have burned across the land for a generation.
All players are former nobles/knights/priests/priestesses, non-humans, or commoners who have been disenfranchised or left the service of a noble army to join the Mongrel Company, an extremely egalitarian group of independent contractors where rank is granted based on merit and the past hierarchy is largely ignored.
The themes of the game are unrest, determination in the face of despair, and uncommon or unexpected fellowship. The focus will be on how the Company as a whole will survive/thrive as the kingdom grows closer to outright civil war and other possible conflicts, including the brewing prospect of a commoner revolution in the face of an inept monarchy and religious persecution -- and the growing threat of a neighboring assortment of barbarian clans to the north waiting for a moment of weakness.
Players can take contracts on behalf of the Company, politick with local villages and nobles for support, and generally adventure -- the kingdom is full of old ruins to explore, monsters to hunt, etc.
Because we'll be using Fate, each PC starts on pretty equal ground -- the system's premise is that everyone is competent at what they do and should expect to make a difference.
--
And, a peek at the org itself:
The Celebrated Company of Mongrels
Banner: Several hounds of different coats and colors, pulling a scrap of meat from different corners, on a field of yellow.
Nicknames: Nobles of the court have referred to the company disparagingly as "Nikolev's Dogs," even though the former Captain Nikolev has been dead for several years now; this is said to be due to the fact a commoner -- and rumored half-elf -- is the current Captain Lillian, so it is meant to be dismissive and insulting of her command and the Company all at once. Members of the Company, however, are proud to call themselves Mongrels or "Lillian's Dogs" interchangeably.
Organization: The Company consists of roughly a dozen regiments each under a lieutenant, every three reporting to a Commander, who then serves under the Company Captain. Founded some fifty years ago out of the surviving remnants of several other bands and smaller companies, however, new recruits are often surprised to learn that rank is a somewhat informal affair. While the Captain and then her Commanders collectively have final say in any given dispute, and can give general orders that are expected to be obeyed and/or call the entire Company to battle, each regiment is largely autonomous and free to pursue whatever contract or interest they please -- with the friendly but non-negotiable understanding that the Company will take its cut of any profits.
Culture & Law: While each regiment has a variety of expectations in regards to behavior, and many different traditions and oaths that have survived the test of time, the one consistent and unbreakable oath across the Company can be summed up in a common saying among them -- "We Do Not Harbor Rabid Hounds." This means that any member of the Company regardless of seniority, service, or rank found guilty of abhorrent crimes (especially against one another or the common folk) will be swiftly and unceremoniously put to death.
This is a point of extreme pride in the Company considering some other mercenary companies in the kingdom are hardly better than brigands, and any member who questions or tests this oath quickly learns better or dies.
--
What I'm imagining with this is that while the highest ranks (the Captain and Commanders) will be NPCs, players are free to lead individual regiments as basically sub-orgs with loose internal rankings, and come up with their own cool backstories, uniforms, etc. Every regiment is assumed to have a large number of NPC troops so that players can play as leaders or grunts, whichever they please.
Thoughts? Questions? Concerns?
@too-old-for-this said in MU Things I Love:
The sea battle. That scene was EPIC and BADASS.
That was literally my first scene on the grid with this character I had just picked up on a whim after being away from Arx for like, a solid year? I had absolutely no idea that was going to happen. I logged in the night before for the first time and House peeps were like, "so, gonna go to the war tomorrow?" And I was like
Lol.
But holy shit, it reminded me that, wow, this hobby can be tremendously fun and tense and challenging, and like every single player there was on their A-Game and staff did an amazing job. Good stuff.
I am feeling pretty tired of the negative experiences I have been having in this hobby and no longer think the positives outweigh the emotional harm, and I also feel like maybe I can't get over some difficult and negative things about myself until I have some actual distance to do some healing. I don't know if or when I might come back, I thought I could maybe take a break and come back but after having tried a few times now I don't think so.
I really wish weaponizing other people's vulnerabilities wasn't such a common or acceptable thing even for a lot of "normal" and even popular people in this community (eta: the MU* community just to be clear, not just MSB, lol) but that just is what it is.
I also don't like who I have become when I log in here, I'm a much more petty, cynical and bitter dude than I ever wanted to be, so this is a more definite goodbye to the forum.
We've had some good times and I appreciate the opportunity to flex our creativity and share some laffs.
If you want to keep in touch, my Discord is nthnl#4369, send me a message with your username here if it's not obvious.
Otherwise, keep on keepin' on MSB. Bye!
@reimesu said in GMs and Players:
@wizz No, that's coming from experience. Shit, Dev had to convince ME that my particular joyous bundle of creep was, in fact, being predatory. Because that guy weaponized stupidity like it's a damn art form. But because I communicated, it got sorted and fast.
I really don't know how to explain to you that your experience is not universal if you honestly think it is. Frankly, you got lucky that someone intervened at that stage. Other people don't and holding what happens next against them if they might not have kept receipts after an extended period of gaslighting and manipulation is just shitty, period.
Frankly, after watching you and @derp both go on about this for over five pages now I don't think there is anything that could possibly be productive about anyone continuing this conversation with either of you, no.
@devrex said in GMs and Players:
If the premise is, "manipulators are very good at fooling people" then how do I know the person who flings the accusation isn't trying to manipulate me into kicking someone off my game so as to ensure some evidence they have doesn't get out? If they're really this masterful, then an approach of "Ok, someone said someone else is bad, they gotta go" is just as bad.
Yeah, if I started from the base assumption that everyone has an angle and could possibly be manipulating me in that situation, I would have a hard time understanding it too.
But that just comes back again to having more arrogance and contempt than empathy. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
@devrex said in GMs and Players:
I believe that most of the time, these asshats are just not that clever, that the trail is there if people will just share it.
Then you are underestimating abusers who have literally had decades to perfect their MO in an extremely specific medium and in the process you are doing an enormous disservice to vulnerable players.
I'm not saying there aren't idiots among them, there obviously are. But in assuming that's somehow the majority you are being arrogant and also showing us a really disappointing contempt for the people they hurt.
I don't see a chop doc as being out of place on Tatooine, the exposed part is questionable, but other cyborgs have been on Tatooine in the cannon and covered up as much as Fennic does.
I don't disagree with you that he belonged on Tattooine just for being a cybernetic technician, cyborgs seem relatively common in Star Wars and he or someone like him would obviously be needed there. Again, it was purely the aesthetics that bother me about him. He's in a little shack in the middle of absolutely nowhere, mostly doing these like highly stylized prosthetics for...rich kids? What?? It's just silly!
ETA: I know there is mixed criticism, but from me, one of the older folks that saw SW in the theaters during its first run back in the 70s, Boba Fett has left me excited to see some of the upcoming star wars.
I get that Star Wars in theaters was a formative experience for so many people and completely changed the way we make sci fi. I do.
It was a formative experience for me too, even if I first saw it on VHS instead.
If I seem over the top in my criticism about it that's probably fair. 
It just really bothered me that for such a beloved character they often left directing in the hands of a goofball like Robert Rodriguez and made so many questionable or outright nonsensical choices in the writers' room. We have proof that they could have done better because they already did!
I was good with it near the beginning even with the mods looking half as much like the mods in 60s UK as much as a cyber gang
My issue wasn't that that the Cyborg Mod Squad existed, because again, I could totally have seen them existing on Coruscant or whatever with no issue. But I ask again for the ages: Tattooine? The fuck? These young kids with the disposable income to dress in high fashion and buy shiny, brightly colored mopeds and get cybernetic limbs and shit are just...hanging out on Tattooine, a dust ball ridden with crime, described by Luke as the place furthest from cool possible. Right.
It is just glaringly out of place aesthetically and logically. The most infuriating example of what I mean is when they meet the ripper doc or whatever and Boba asks the guy why he is leaving the internal parts exposed and the dude is like "because that's awesome" like a complete fucking moron even though they are ON A PLANET COVERED IN SAND which would wreak utter havoc to said parts, literally one of the first fucking few lines in New Hope is C-3PO complaining about how all the sand will freeze his joints.
It's just pants on head stupid and amateurish, and proof they didn't stop and think about what they were filming for five minutes, which is how the entire season comes off to me.
If they wanted to have some Cyberpunk in their Star Wars, there was a blatantly better example of the right aesthetic right there: the Nomads. Like, come on now.
The finale was real dumb, imo to probably the surprise of no one, haha. I liked the intentionally comedic moments, that Twi'lek guy is just pure gold, but otherwise it was full of more just purely silly or poorly executed crap. Bah.
For some reason my Facebook feed has been flooded with shitty advertising for nutjob End of Days-style prepper products full of Christian symbolism, dumb "patriotic" gear, and gross Men's Rights video seminars.
What the fuck did I do to trigger this?? How do I turn it off??
Not being someone's friend isn't the same as bullying or treating poorly. So conversation should be had, but there's nothing really that a teacher can do.
I feel like I maybe did not explain the situation well enough. I was pretty upset when I posted it and didn't even get the full story from his teacher until later that day, I apologize. My son did not have three friends individually come up and tell him over the course of the day or whatever, this was something that happened in the classroom all at once. For some reason the subject of religion came up, and when he admitted he did not believe in God, three of his classmates who also happened to have been his friends since the beginning of the school year said they wouldn't be anymore, and other children in the classroom joined in.
Some kids were defending him thankfully, but it was a nightmare, several kids were all telling him at once that they would not be his friend or involve him anymore, and that absolutely is bullying. When he went to the teacher she copped out instead of taking it seriously by saying she couldn't force them to be his friend, which wasn't the issue and she later admitted to me was wrong of her.
Again, as mentioned above, if my son had been Muslim or Jewish or Hindu or anything else, this would be so cut and dry. But for some reason when the discrimination is against agnostics or atheists many people in the US suck their teeth and hem and haw about stopping it, it's a double standard and it fucking sucks.
Luckily, the teacher did the right thing yesterday and dedicated some class time to talking about accepting others for their differences instead of excluding them, and the kids involved were very open to it and my kid was able to patch things up with them.
I appreciate the input and/or the empathy, peeps. This was quite a trip.
I would just tell your son that his friends are assholes.
I mean, they're not, though? They're just little nine and ten year olds, parroting the garbage their shitty parents tell them behind closed doors. I really won't hold that against them and I am not going to encourage my kiddo to either. Before today he was really fond of them, it's just a shame.
I'm more disappointed with the teacher, who had this glaringly obvious teachable moment and didn't react appropriately at all. I asked her about it directly after my son came home seething and near tears, and she admitted that she did not handle it the way she should have and a lot more kids got involved in the argument than my kid initially told me.
She's promised to address it with the class on Wednesday. I think it's crucial that she does, because the intervention of another authority figure can do SO much to counteract bigotry learned at home.
@too-old-for-this said in RL Anger:
Given that students rarely get to dictate what happens in class during school hours, I'm going to guess that that isn't, in fact, it. They do not get to exclude his child from any school activity as they lack the authority to do so.
They can just...not play with him, or choose him for teams, or talk to him at lunch/recess, or...on and on and on. Kids absolutely can shun each other and make each other miserable at school.
I have no idea what you're on about, preventing religious discrimination is absolutely a teacher's responsibility and claiming "separation of church and state" as an excuse to allow the discrimination would be enormously shitty and erroneous anyway as @Derp pointed out.
Three of my son's school friends today told him they will no longer be his friend because he doesn't believe in God, and when he went to his teacher for help and explained the situation, she refused to intervene and said that it's their choice and that it's okay. Cool. Cool cool cool.
