The winds are supposed to change. That's where that whole phrase comes from, right? 'The Winds of Change.' OooOOoo. So impactful.
Except they haven't. Not here at Reno. Not in a long, long time.
Reno was birthed from the mind of a mad genius. Blackjack, as he was known here and then ( @tragedyjones ), worked with a small cadre of like-minded crazy folk to create a dynamic environment. And they succeeded in that. Beautifully. He has our respect and gratitude for opening this place. He'd probably prefer gifts of money and/or beard grooming products, but our respect and gratitude will have to do.
Then Wendigo came along, scooped this pearl up out of the dust where it had been left abandoned, brushed it off, shined it back up some, and Reno lived on. She took her leave somewhat early on, but dedicated staffers kept things going.
And then the winds blew, and Mechanipus closed its doors. Reno faced closure. There was brief discussion about opening a new game on a new host, maybe set in Charlotte SC or up in the Pacific Northwest somewhere, but ultimately it was decided that we should throw things at the wind, and be all, "Fuck you, wind! Change sucks!"
So Reno was transferred, intact, to Kydance. And it's been a glorious run, kept vibrant with story, a steady stream of new and wonderfully creative players, and a metric fuckton of effort and dedication from the staff corps.
But this time, we can't ignore the wind. We've run out of sharp and pointy things to throw at it. Our voices are hoarse from all those "Fuck you, wind!"s. Reno's contract with Kydance is up, the first of the year.
Before you freak the hell out and stop reading to engage in an epic display of Muppet-arming, do read the next line, at least. I promise I'll be done waxing prolific shortly.
We will be renewing the contract.
This time, however, we're going to take a beat and do a pretty massively spectacular overhaul on this place. When we reopen, hopefully within a reasonably short timeframe, we won't be Reno anymore. All characters, all builds, all of the everything in the history of ever omg (okay not really but you get the idea) will be gone.
When we reopen in early January, the doors will be flung open onto a new city: Portland, Oregon. Contrary to rumors that are apparently already making the rounds (to the eye-rolling of those actually in the know), we will still be offering Vampire, Werewolf and Mortal/+. The only sphere we are dropping, at least for the time being, is Hunter. Because Hunter is still 1e. When that changes, it will likely be brought back. Maybe others, down the road. We'll see!
Watch this space for further details.
@scorn said in Reno is closing! ....Or is it?:
When we reopen in early January, the doors will be flung open onto a new city: Portland, Oregon. Contrary to rumors that are apparently already making the rounds (to the eye-rolling of those actually in the know), we will still be offering Vampire, Werewolf and Mortal/+. The only sphere we are dropping, at least for the time being, is Hunter. Because Hunter is still 1e. When that changes, it will likely be brought back. Maybe others, down the road. We'll see!
There most likely will not be a Second edition of Hunter. I highly doubt it. It's a splat that doesn't particularly need a second edition. Mortal Remains updates HUnter-specific things to GMC/Second Edition and everything else that's Hunter-related can be found in the CofD corebook and Hurt Locker.
"Excuse the hell out of you. He's a bag of dicks. I'm a carefully curated box of cocks." -- to @GirlCalledBlu upon being misrepresented.
If you need some codey help here and there, feel free to hit me here.
@scorn said in Reno is closing! ....Or is it?:
But this time, we can't ignore the wind. We've run out of sharp and pointy things to throw at it. Our voices are hoarse from all those "Fuck you, wind!"s. Reno's contract with Kydance is up, the first of the year.
What are you planning to do with the MUSH's new incarnation that you couldn't do with the previous one?
@arkandel I'm not sure if I am about to actually answer your question but I see Portland as a chance to take the community we have (assuming they follow), add to it in a city more familiar, and drop the fuckton of baggage that our old characters have.
I'm not ashamed to say I intend to play a reimagining of my current character. I love my guy but he was heavy and I'm so excited to go at him fresh. I've already begun research.
I think Arkandel is implying that changing settings may not solve underlying issues that made Reno unattractive to some players.
“It is better to live doing the things that you like. It is foolish to live within this dream of a world seeing unpleasantness and doing only things that you do not like.” -- Yamamoto Tsunetomo.
edited because this is an advertisement thread and this isn't the place for these questions!
Good luck, the pacific northwest is a big and inherently spoopy setting, so I like this idea. Did you know the PN has the largest concentration of serial killers in the US? Which MIGHT make it in the developed world, but I dunno the facts on that. Spoopy!
@ganymede said in Reno is closing! ....Or is it?:
I think Arkandel is implying that changing settings may not solve underlying issues that made Reno unattractive to some players.
I mean I kinda think that, but I didn't want to go into any detail on an advertisement thread.
I am however genuinely interested in seeing what the new game's staff's thoughts are about this. Obviously it's a hell of a lot work to create a new grid, alter spheres, probably modify/add code... so they must have really good reasons for shutting down the Old Thing and open a New Thing.
So I thought those reasons could be relevant, and that they might want to inform potential players about them.
I suppose I should have been a little clearer but I'm excitable so that happens.
It's not just IC baggage. There is OOC baggage as well. I'm thinking about old, dusty rules and policies. Tired storytellers, contained within the setting and theme. I'm an optimist and think a new house can make a whole world of a difference.
Reno, beyond its initial incarnation, was about preserving an environment that someone else had made. Allowing people to continue their personal stories, in a setting they enjoyed and were familiar with.
Portland is an entirely new setting. It's no longer about preserving someone else's legacy, but creating something new. The area is wonderfully rich with story already, and within the first week of planning alone, we've come up with even more that we want to add - all nestled beneath the umbrella of a defined metaplot that will affect all spheres and encourage (or even necessitate, at times) cooperation.
It's not going to be a shiny, happy world of rainbows and frolicking unicorns. The city will be vibrant with culture, as it is in the real world, but the hope is that the dark and gritty underbelly of it all will be creepy as fuck.
One of the issues we ran into with Reno was that our generous XP policy led to a heavy population of 'dinosaurs.' We're going to be toning that back, at Portland. Things will be more challenging. People won't be able to sneeze in the general direction of a Rank 5 ephemeral and wipe it out of existence. Risk will return as a prominent factor, and along with it, we hope, more of the 'darkness' that's supposed to be a core theme of the World of Darkness.
On a smaller, sphere-specific scale, an issue we've long noticed across many games is the disjointed nature of the Mortal/+ sphere. Generally, it winds up being comprised of scattered 'lone wolf' types, who don't really fit in anywhere and usually wind up feeling pretty left out of the game overall, unless they manage to tie themselves somehow to someone(s) with a supernatural template. We're changing that at Portland. Plans are still in early stages, but we hope to create an active and cohesive sphere for these folks, complete with backstory of their own and two distinct factions they can get involved with.
The changeover is still a couple of months out, but the people involved are massively energized and already working like crazy on all this. Meanwhile, Reno will remain open all the way up until we switch to Portland, to allow people to finish out their characters' stories.
@scorn said in Reno is closing! ....Or is it?:
One of the issues we ran into with Reno was that our generous XP policy led to a heavy population of 'dinosaurs.' We're going to be toning that back, at Portland. Things will be more challenging. People won't be able to sneeze in the general direction of a Rank 5 ephemeral and wipe it out of existence. Risk will return as a prominent factor, and along with it, we hope, more of the 'darkness' that's supposed to be a core theme of the World of Darkness.
For the love of everything holy, please implement an XP cap.
“It is better to live doing the things that you like. It is foolish to live within this dream of a world seeing unpleasantness and doing only things that you do not like.” -- Yamamoto Tsunetomo.
Absolutely. And may very well be lower than the XP cap that was in place at Reno. We're still discussing policy changes. 
@scorn said in Reno is closing! ....Or is it?:
Absolutely. And may very well be lower than the XP cap that was in place at Reno. We're still discussing policy changes.
I think 50 XP is reasonable to start with, personally.
I'll probably be there. We'll see how my schedule works out.
Can I be a HALF VAMPYR like Blade, or M'lady?
@ganymede said in Reno is closing! ....Or is it?:
@scorn said in Reno is closing! ....Or is it?:
One of the issues we ran into with Reno was that our generous XP policy led to a heavy population of 'dinosaurs.' We're going to be toning that back, at Portland. Things will be more challenging. People won't be able to sneeze in the general direction of a Rank 5 ephemeral and wipe it out of existence. Risk will return as a prominent factor, and along with it, we hope, more of the 'darkness' that's supposed to be a core theme of the World of Darkness.
For the love of everything holy, please implement an XP cap.
If you're updating to the modern ThenoCode (As I don't know if it exists in that version), you can definitely turn on a cap on the auto-xp, then leave it to things you do to "earn" xp. Would advise.
As it's oh-so clear from this thread alone, one of the biggest issues anyone opening a WoD MUSH has to face is how nearly everyone has their own, sometimes mutually exclusive, opinion of what it ought to be about.
@arkandel Which is why one of the things that is really, absolutely needed, is for staff to have a clear, strong, well-communicated vision of what a specific game is about. WoD games have an unfortunate tendency to regress to the mean because everyone just kinda dumps their own assumptions in and you get a muddled mess where people kinda just do their own thing until they get bored and drift away.
A strongly themed game will not be for every player, or every character, but the players that it IS for will be more engaged, excited, and active with one another.
@pyrephox said in Reno is closing! ....Or is it?:
@arkandel Which is why one of the things that is really, absolutely needed, is for staff to have a clear, strong, well-communicated vision of what a specific game is about. WoD games have an unfortunate tendency to regress to the mean because everyone just kinda dumps their own assumptions in and you get a muddled mess where people kinda just do their own thing until they get bored and drift away.
A strongly themed game will not be for every player, or every character, but the players that it IS for will be more engaged, excited, and active with one another.
all the upvotes
@scorn said in Reno is closing! ....Or is it?:
One of the issues we ran into with Reno was that our generous XP policy led to a heavy population of 'dinosaurs.' We're going to be toning that back, at Portland. Things will be more challenging. People won't be able to sneeze in the general direction of a Rank 5 ephemeral and wipe it out of existence. Risk will return as a prominent factor, and along with it, we hope, more of the 'darkness' that's supposed to be a core theme of the World of Darkness.
This makes me generally excited. The theme in recent years has been to throw XP at players, specifically through the tier system, but I don't see those games having a ton of success getting people out there and interacting.
(Can you put a cap on alts, too?)
On a smaller, sphere-specific scale, an issue we've long noticed across many games is the disjointed nature of the Mortal/+ sphere. Generally, it winds up being comprised of scattered 'lone wolf' types, who don't really fit in anywhere and usually wind up feeling pretty left out of the game overall, unless they manage to tie themselves somehow to someone(s) with a supernatural template. We're changing that at Portland. Plans are still in early stages, but we hope to create an active and cohesive sphere for these folks, complete with backstory of their own and two distinct factions they can get involved with.
I'll take some mortal factions, yes please.
I suppose I should have been a little clearer but I'm excitable so that happens.
It's not just IC baggage. There is OOC baggage as well. I'm thinking about old, dusty rules and policies. Tired storytellers, contained within the setting and theme. I'm an optimist and think a new house can make a whole world of a difference.
