RenoMUSH - The Biggest Little Game on the Net

tragedyjones · Jan 22, 2015, 9:42 PM

Reno, Nevada is a city of cycles. Growth and decay. Fortunes rise and fall. Happy little lives end in a quick spilling of blood. And behind the cracks of the World, the Darkness creeps in. RenoMush is a World of Darkness Storytelling game, combining elements of The World of Darkness with the Gamelines of Vampire: the Requiem and Werewolf: the Forsaken in a persistent online roleplaying environment.

Just as the Material influences the Shadow, and the Shadow impacts the Material, nothing on Reno occurs in a vaccuum. Little things cause small ripples, but everything has an impact. An argument in Elysium spawns a few rumors and bad blood. A Death Rage downtown? That brings in heat.

Reno does not have an ongoing metaplot, it is designed to be a dynamic world in which the players and the world impact one another. There is no stated goal besides telling cool stories.

The point is, your actions should matter. If you feel you have done something that should change the world, let us know. Did you kill a hobo in the street? Did you purge a hatred spirit from a trailer park? Did you blow up a bus full of nuns? Actions have impacts, and we aim to make it so that you can see your changes in the world.

Connection information: http://reno.mechanipus.com:7639

tragedyjones · Jan 22, 2015, 9:43 PM

For those wondering why I am actually bothering posting an ad, well, to promote our upcoming Season 1 of Requiem storyline!

Coming Soon: Requiem Season 1 - A House Divided

In the next week or so, we will be beginning our first "Season" on RenoMUSH. A Season is a spherewide plot designed to impact the game and provide RP opportunities for the entire sphere, but also not last indefinitely.

Our first Season will be for Vampire, and is entitled "A House Divided".

For four score years, the Kindred of Reno have been ruled, loosely, by an elected body - the Midnight Senate. This group has gone through changes three times, peaceful elections every 25 years.

Not even for the immortal Kindred, however, can things remain unchanged forever.

Tensions among the seven active Senators come to a head. A proposed change to Praxis law threatens war. Some of the Kindred of Reno are old enough to recall President Lincoln's paraphrasing of Jesus Christ - A House Divid Against Itself Cannot Stand. But when the Beast cries for vengeance, will the city ever be the same?

Please Delete · Jan 22, 2015, 9:45 PM

This post is deleted!

Arkandel · Jan 22, 2015, 9:48 PM

@RDC said:

I personally would like to sound a recruitment call for Bruja and Giovanni. These two bloodlines will feature heavily in the upcoming Season and will be instant reasons for you to get involved.

What's a Season in this context?

tragedyjones · Jan 22, 2015, 9:49 PM

@Arkandel said:

@RDC said:

I personally would like to sound a recruitment call for Bruja and Giovanni. These two bloodlines will feature heavily in the upcoming Season and will be instant reasons for you to get involved.

What's a Season in this context?

See above - "A Season is a spherewide plot designed to impact the game and provide RP opportunities for the entire sphere, but also not last indefinitely."

Arkandel · Jan 22, 2015, 9:50 PM

@tragedyjones said:

See above - "A Season is a spherewide plot designed to impact the game and provide RP opportunities for the entire sphere, but also not last indefinitely."

Ah my bad, fair enough.

Please Delete · Jan 22, 2015, 9:57 PM

This post is deleted!

Arkandel · Jan 22, 2015, 10:01 PM

@RDC Right, I'm tired. Reading comprehension issues. Yeah, that makes sense.

Kireek · Jan 22, 2015, 10:34 PM

I have mixed feelings about this advertisement about where the game is going.. its definitely a big case of... I'll beileve it when I see it..

Reno nearly died becuase of a lack of staff assistance in running things.. so if they are willing to pick up the slack unlike what they did before.. perhaps there is something to look forward to! Again though, I wouldn't recommend getting too invested.. but..

Coin · Jan 22, 2015, 10:43 PM

@Kireek
Way to have faith in your fellows, brah.

To everyone else: get invested. If you have a character in Reno that mucks with vampires, or a vampire, get invested. That's the only way what TJ is trying to do is going to work. So get invested, participate, and make it worth his effort.

Sundown · Jan 22, 2015, 10:46 PM

I've recently started playing there for the first time. From my experience, there's plenty of activity. I don't see Reno as dead as others might be saying. However, I wasn't mushing during the slump. For me there's currently more potential RP than I can get to.

tragedyjones · Jan 22, 2015, 10:59 PM

@Kireek said:

I have mixed feelings about this advertisement about where the game is going.. its definitely a big case of... I'll beileve it when I see it..

Reno nearly died becuase of a lack of staff assistance in running things.. so if they are willing to pick up the slack unlike what they did before.. perhaps there is something to look forward to! Again though, I wouldn't recommend getting too invested.. but..

We are partially changing our path - Reno was meant to be a Sandbox at launch, not a staff running things for people type venue. We're working to bridge the difference a bit.

Please Delete · Jan 22, 2015, 11:40 PM

This post is deleted!

Kireek · Jan 23, 2015, 12:38 AM

@Coin
Hey man, it is nothing personal,its just a measured and reasonable observation of the activity spikes and lulls of the game. There is nothing specifically wrong with the game.. there have been some eyebrow raising moments for sure, multiple times.. and some choices that staff made that I question but all in all, the game isn't bad, nor filled with crazy people, its just has been suffering because of a few poor policy choices.

1.Sandbox without a large enough player base to support said policy was one..
2.Poor choice in RELIABLE staff- which resulted in the appearance of high turnover- which doesn't exactly instill high morale in the player base. Paigow(?) for at least 2-3 months ran the majority of jobs in the game by himself, he burned out fucking hard, replacements or help hired evaporated in 2-3 weeks. RDC is the current replacement for that person, and if he does it all by himself? He won't make it. In 2-3 months TJ will need to find another person to shoulder the entire jobs burden by themselves all over again.
3.Announcing on WORA the creation of another game by TJ while his original one was already showing signs of suffering.. and claiming it's a success is another. It wasn't a good judgement call, lets just say that.
4.And what few plots that were run by Staff during the earlier sandbox phase were almost always sitting as dead jobs for weeks at a time.. thus lessening the urgency and desire to continue with specific plots.
5. There was some OOC drama at one point that just kinda petered out.. without any real action from staff.. one of the spheres more or less collapsed because of it.

None of these by themselves are a death knell, nor are they particularly offensive, it just.. makes people lose interest, its a natural occurrence, and right now, RDC, and TJ seem earnest in trying to work their way back up.. its already working to some extent, but I'm not about to bet on this horse until I see more sustained activity.. I'm not overly jaded with the game, but I will be watching activity changes and staff action- as @tragedyjones said above. Perhaps something will come of it man.

Coin · Jan 23, 2015, 12:09 AM

@Kireek
You failed to grasp the message I was trying to deliver with my reply to you. I will elucidate:

If someone who has gone through the effort of making a game--which I can tell, because I am in the midst of it, is actually pretty demanding--posts saying that they are going to try to ramp up activity actively, if your immediate response is to scoff and say, "Pfft, yeah, I'll believe it when I see it," then you're not actually doing anything productive. In fact, you're being counter-productive, because if you had any sort of influence, even if just passive, on other people who read this forum, they might decide not to go and invest themselves in the plot, not play there, and not give Reno the thing they need to make any attempt at plot work: players. You are actually discouraging people. You are, in fact, helping it to fail. For what? So you can then say, "see? told you so"? Come on, man. You could have at least said, "It's nice to see that they are attempting to step away from detrimental behavior," and left it at that, instead of the exact opposite.

Please Delete · Jan 23, 2015, 12:24 AM

This post is deleted!

Kireek · Jan 23, 2015, 1:09 AM

@Coin
Listen man, if it hurts your feelings, that's fine, but Reno has gotten basically a free pass for like 6 months with nary a word said bad about it on WORA and here. It was fortunate, and lucky because no ones been so upset by the game that they have to post something on it. (Which again speaks to how well things went that the game more stagnated than collapsed)

I got your point, but your issue here is that I'm discouraging people from playing... Nay, I'm just relaying the facts of what happened, if that upsets you.... if facts upset you man, than I can't help you. There were problems, and if they are trying to fix them, great, but its going to require work, a lot of work, a lot of effort to get trust back and it ain't easy. If you want to sugar coat everything man, that's your prerogative, but it ain't mine. If people are going to be buying a used car- they should know things about it. If that's discouraging for people, hey, that just means you have to double down with your effort yah? SHOW that I'm full of shit, instead of complaining that I'm hurting your feelings. The best part? If I'm proven wrong, I'll be right there playing the damn game and being like, THIS PLACE IS GREAT. And hey, the staff will get the smug sanctification from that I expect them to. It's only fair.

I'm aware of what things are like now. I've seen all the staff members in question, and I'm aware of most of the things going on as RDC says its happening. Hey, new WW staffers, great, I've seen them, they've worked on some of my jobs for me, and Reno will be prepared for 2E..

Still doesn't change whats happened and what you have to work from. If they want help doing it, hell, I'll sign up and do whats needed, I've volunteered for things before, worked on things, but it doesn't change the past and what needs to change.

Thenomain · Jan 23, 2015, 1:00 AM

@Kireek said:

Listen man, if it hurts your feelings, that's fine

Keep it civil, please.

Coin · Jan 23, 2015, 1:13 AM

Oh, boy, where to start?

@Kireek said:

@Coin
Listen man, if it hurts your feelings, that's fine, but Reno has gotten basically a free pass for like 6 months with nary a word said bad about it on WORA and here. It was fortunate, and lucky because no ones been so upset by the game that they have to post something on it. (Which again speaks to how well things went that the game more stagnated than collapsed)

First of all, just because I think your attitude towards this advertisement was counter-productive and made damn sure that you were aware of it doesn't mean that you hurt my feelings. I have no feelings about this one way or another, because other than having a character that I don't play much on Reno, I have no investment. But I could, if I wanted to, and I might, now that there's something to invest in. So the point I was making was that if I had been someone who could be swayed by your comments (it scares me that there might be someone like that, but I have to believe in all possibilities, no matter how remote) I may have decided not to do so and been discouraged by someone who can't actually see positivity.

I got your point, but your issue here is that I'm discouraging people from playing... Nay, I'm just relaying the facts of what happened, if that upsets you.... if facts upset you man, than I can't help you. There were problems, and if they are trying to fix them, great, but its going to require work, a lot of work, a lot of effort to get trust back and it ain't easy. If you want to sugar coat everything man, that's your prerogative, but it ain't mine. If people are going to be buying a used car- they should know things about it. If that's discouraging for people, hey, that just means you have to double down with your effort yah? SHOW that I'm full of shit, instead of complaining that I'm hurting your feelings. The best part? If I'm proven wrong, I'll be right there playing the damn game and being like, THIS PLACE IS GREAT. And hey, the staff will get the smug sanctification from that I expect them to. It's only fair.

Again, it doesn't hurt my feelings or upset me. It calls up the part of me that used to go out and run for student body just so people like you didn't get to run shit in high school, but other than that, it doesn't hurt my feelings; the only one with hurt feelings here is probably you, since you apparently have a chip on your shoulder regarding Reno's activity (despite @tragedyjones being completely forthcoming and honest about its metaplot-lacking sandbox nature from the very start).

I have spent the better part of this month posting here and trying to express my views on what I think could be done to help the MU community. Guess what, being a negative jerk in the face of someone trying to drum up activity for their game doesn't even register as a 'way to help'. You're not doing people a favor when you run your mouth; you're just discouraging them.

I'm aware of what things are like now. I've seen all the staff members in question, and I'm aware of most of the things going on as RDC says its happening. Hey, new WW staffers, great, I've seen them, they've worked on some of my jobs for me, and Reno will be prepared for 2E..

Still doesn't change whats happened and what you have to work from. If they want help doing it, hell, I'll sign up and do whats needed, I've volunteered for things before, worked on things, but it doesn't change the past and what needs to change.

It may not change what has happened, but it sure as hell makes it unnecessary for you to rant about everything that was wrong on the place where they're advertising their changes.

It's also really easy to criticize people when you're not doing shit to help. So let me put this in the most traditional way possible: when people are advertising for their game, if you don't have anything nice to say, I suggest you don't say anything at all.

Go open a thread on the Hog Pit and rail against them all you want; but actually discouraging people in the very same thread they are trying to advertise on is a pretty dick move, dude.

So sorry if that hurts your feelings.

Sundown · Jan 23, 2015, 1:14 AM

Kireek, what you're writing is so far from my experience on Reno, that I really have to wonder what was going on before I joined the game.

As a concrete example, here's my experience so far. I made a mortal character who's now involved with three distinct groups of vampires. There's one potential werewolf lead that I want to pursue for RP. And there is a group of 4-5 mortal and various other characters that I am involved with through a currently ongoing plot. I've probably forgotten something. There's so much RP that I consider myself busy and I often feel bad for having to put off one scene for another. So much so that while I've been trying to chargen on another game, I never seem to have the time to properly focus on it.

It was actually a staggering difference from my experience on the Reach. Nobody gives a shit if you log in on TR. You're a drop in the ocean. On Reno I actually feel like my character's actions matter.