Rosters: To PB or Not To PB?

[faraday]

@thatguythere said in Rosters: To PB or Not To PB?:

@bananerz said in Rosters: To PB or Not To PB?:

people getting very precious about said PB (but it'll wreck immersion if we have 2!).

This gets me, how small of a world to people live in to not run into folks that look like each other...

It bugs me in the same way that it would bug me if you had the same actor playing two different roles in a TV series. It's not: "Wow, character A looks a lot like character B... what a coincidence" it's "WTF is wrong with this casting agent that they put Chris Pratt in two different roles in the same movie?" (Unless of course that's the whole point of the movie.)

I won't claim that it's rational, because of course two people can coincidentally look alike. It just bugs me. :helpless shrug:

[Coin]

@faraday said in Rosters: To PB or Not To PB?:

@thatguythere said in Rosters: To PB or Not To PB?:

@bananerz said in Rosters: To PB or Not To PB?:

people getting very precious about said PB (but it'll wreck immersion if we have 2!).

This gets me, how small of a world to people live in to not run into folks that look like each other...

It bugs me in the same way that it would bug me if you had the same actor playing two different roles in a TV series. It's not: "Wow, character A looks a lot like character B... what a coincidence" it's "WTF is wrong with this casting agent that they put Chris Pratt in two different roles in the same movie?" (Unless of course that's the whole point of the movie.)

I won't claim that it's rational, because of course two people can coincidentally look alike. It just bugs me. :helpless shrug:

There's also a difference between "similar enough to confuse" and "identical".

@faraday let's play twinsies!

[Bananerz]

Player A gets on the game first, takes PB A because so dreamy.

Player B arrives later on, has another great concept that is approved and takes PB A because so dreamy.

Who is in the right here? Are you saying that because the prior person claimed the PB that they did the right choice for casting? Because I can point to a lot of movies and shows where actors were terrible.

Are you saying that having the PB means you own some type of right on the PB when you actually don't have the copyright to that image and/or likeness? That seems hypocritical.

*edited, swapped around words

[Roz]

@bananerz said in Rosters: To PB or Not To PB?:

Are you saying that having the PB means you own some type of copyright on the PB when you actually don't have the right to that image and/or likeness? That seems hypocritical.

That's a huge leap of hyperbole.

[Bananerz]

@roz Saying someone can't use a PB because you're using it, when you're using it without actual rights to it. Yes, that's hypocritical.

[ThatGuyThere]

@coin said in Rosters: To PB or Not To PB?:

There's also a difference between "similar enough to confuse" and "identical".

Given we are talking about actors for most played by, Bruce Willis in Blind Date and Bruce Willis in Diehard look far more similar than identical. And there are plenty of pictures of each that could be used for played bys.

[WildBaboons]

I used to share a PB with my characters cousin, but were very different. One was long haired and messy, the other well-coiffed and put together. Just called in a family resemblance. (Mine was the handsome one)

But to play devil advocate here.. if PBs make such a different why bother having a desc at all and not just some simple appearance inputs to filter out the possibilities? Hair/eye/skintone/etc.

[surreality]

@wildbaboons From what I'm seeing mentioned about 'on sheet' traits, things like hair/skin color/eye color are actually written up on the character sheets like any other stat.

Suggestion: if there's a target set of features that would be genetically relevant to a bloodline, suggest a real world regional origin for intended features/appearance rather than just a descriptor word for skin color?

This is not to say there aren't people of every skin color everywhere, but with just a color listed, ex: 'umber' or 'bronze', you could end up with a fairly wide mix that runs into a different problem, namely 'do all brown people look the same to you?' -- which can very understandably and reasonably cause offense, too.

It's much easier to smack the smart-ass who picks the blondest dutchwoman ever as 'Southern African' upside the head over this than to repeatedly have to explain why someone from India and someone from Bali and someone from Spain may all be 'bronze' in theory, but that doesn't mean they're interchangeable based on the word choice or indistinguishable from one another. (It also might make it easier to find characters of mixed heritage when and where relevant, since someone could search based on the target countries of origin, whoever is doing the searching.)

[faraday]

@bananerz said in Rosters: To PB or Not To PB?:

Who is in the right here?

Why does it have to be a matter of right and wrong and not just "first come first served"? MUSHes deal with things as limited resources all the time - comic book characters, special roles, whatever. What's the big deal? I mean, I understand the argument from @ThatGuyThere and @WildBaboons that people can share PBs in the "we just look alike" vein but you seem to be taking a pretty adversarial approach about it.

[surreality]

@faraday I have to admit, I got annoyed about this once. Once. One game I was on, I had a whopping two characters, both using PBs I hadn't seen in circulation before.

Within two months or so, both of them were duplicated on that same (edit: small, even!!!) game.

I'd never complain about it to the players personally, bear them any ill will, or stomp my feet like a huffy princess to staff about it, but that really did feel pretty shitty in that, "Aw, jeez, come on... " bad luck sense.

[faraday]

@surreality said in Rosters: To PB or Not To PB?:

I'd never complain about it to the players personally, bear them any ill will, or stomp my feet like a huffy princess to staff about it, but that really did feel pretty shitty in that, "Aw, jeez, come on... " bad luck sense.

Yeah, I mean, on my games it's just coded into the system. Once a PB is taken it just ... can't be taken again. I can get folks being disappointed because someone else beat them to the punch, but I really haven't seen any drama resulting from it. Frankly there's enough of "OMG Chris Pratt again?" going on that I'm happier not having duplicates of them.

[Seraphim73]

@arkandel said in Rosters: To PB or Not To PB?:

I used to use artwork for PBs. I was told that was weird.

I kind of like artwork so long as it fits the "style" of the game. And yes, that's incredibly subjective.

[Ganymede]

@seraphim73 said in Rosters: To PB or Not To PB?:

I kind of like artwork so long as it fits the "style" of the game. And yes, that's incredibly subjective.

Yeah, like, on a space opera game with spaceships, robots, and lasers, I'd kick anyone bitching about anime PCs straight in the tail.

[Seraphim73]

@ganymede said in Rosters: To PB or Not To PB?:

Yeah, like, on a space opera game with spaceships, robots, and lasers, I'd kick anyone bitching about anime PCs straight in the tail.

Right, or clearly sci-fi artwork on a fantasy game.

[ThatGuyThere]

@faraday
I would be in favor of some compromise limitation like a year range, for example if someone uses 1995-2000 Bruce Willis then no else else can but if someone wants to get Moonlighting 80s Bruce on it is fair game.
I mean looks for some people do change a lot, I would think it was ludicrous that someone would be told no on using On the Waterfront Marlon Brando because someone else was using Island of Dr. Moreau Brando because if you show me pictures of those two if I didn't already know they were the same person I would not believe it.

[Bobotron]

@bananerz

You make your policy 'yes, multiple people can use the same PB' and fire the asshole who starts screaming like a petulant child about it. There, problem solved. Holy shit.

[Cobalt]

I 100% do not care if there are five Scarlet Johansons or twenty Adelaide Kanes or fifteen Jensen Ackles or thirty Chris Pines running around. Whatever.

I've even in the past made it a thing with PCs when they end up picking PBs that I was using for NPCs. @Tempest had a mortal character on, Darkwater GMC, that used Eva Green who I was using for the Autumn Queen. We made it a thing, and everyone thought her PC was the Autumn Queen's Fetch.

:3

[Doozer]

@cobaltasaurus And that's creative.

If I bump into them I do the whole doppleganger thing. "Hey, we look a like, we could be siblings!"

Cause it does happen. Not a big deal.

@Kanye-Qwest Just think happy thoughts. Don't dwell.

[surreality]

@shincashay said in Rosters: To PB or Not To PB?:

@cobaltasaurus And that's creative.

If I bump into them I do the whole doppleganger thing. "Hey, we look a like, we could be siblings!"

Cause it does happen. Not a big deal.

If I ever did the parody game thing, there was an XP bonus for either playing it up like this, or making a plot out of it, etc. Also for 'major PB change mid-stream and everyone pretends not to notice' soap opera style, since it was all about silly TV and MUX tropes and being silly and having fun with them.

[Lithium]

This has sidetracked a bit, but, I would rather pick a PB, or be able to change it. I was able to get into my roster on Arx a ton more once I swapped the PB to fit his written description better in my mind.

As for the multiple people using same pb (And even the same picture sometimes), it doesn't weird me out that much because I am one of those who still reads descriptions