Finding roleplay

[Pyrephox]

@Arkandel Just the phrase "Babylonian nazi gold" hints at epic. Were these time-traveling Nazis who had taken over Babylon?

[Lotherio]

It all goes back to what Faraday said:

These days my policy is just "run what you want, just don't wreck the theme."

I ran stuff on one of @Seraphim73 's places nearly weekly for a few friends that had zero impact on theme and their meta but kept me and a few daytime folks having fun. Zainy Indian Jones Scientist vs Scientist mayhem and all that it was, probably measurable damage amounts on the scale of some places but barely a breeze in comparison to their scale.

Don't wreck theme, words to live by.

[Arkandel]

@Pyrephox said in Finding roleplay:

@Arkandel Just the phrase "Babylonian nazi gold" hints at epic. Were these time-traveling Nazis who had taken over Babylon?

Oh, I'll type this out. It might as well be somewhere on MSB.

So on HM several years ago the VampSphere was very busy, the MU* was at its most popular and sphere staff were constantly rotating and essentially non-existent. We had to take care of our own st

I started a plot involving a mysterious torpid Elder, the Babylonian, whose tomb was discovered when PCs tracked some Brood down to an underground complex of caverns where they were conducting some unholy ritual on him for their own purposes.

Now, before I started I did speak with staff and got the go-ahead on it. I started a +job to which they were CCed, and for the first couple of sessions they were responsive. Keep this in mind since it'll become important later.

Things got rolling - there was a lot of creative talent in the VampSphere active at the time, in fact several of those people went ahead and ran or staffed games of their own later on - and since we were starved for story the plot got pretty busy. The arc lasted for something like 10-12 scenes over a period of a couple of months, involving most of the Covenants, then it reached its conclusion (of what I was planning to be the first chapter) in a huge scene with something like 18 PCs in it. I had a blast, and other players seemed to as well.

Through those two-some months I was posting updates on that thread constantly. I documented every scene,complete with posted logs on the wiki, but I was also including my intentions, thoughts for future instalments etc... yet no one was answering any more evne though the +job was getting huge. I also paged staff several times during this period to get their attention to it but they seemed idle and never got back to me. It might be useful to also note several staff alts were present for the entire arc with their PCs; this was hardly a covert operation, OOC or IC.

Anyway, at the end of all this the victorious Kindred laid siege on the caverns and destroyed the Brood there, disrupting the ritual. They recovered the slumbering Elder's coffin (still without any real idea about what they were actually dealing with) and in the chamber they also discovered assorted WW2-era German artifacts, uniforms, and a small chest full of gold bars marked with swastikas. All of this had been in the +job weeks ahead of the encounter, still without any comments of any kind. As far as I know no one bothered reading it until well after the fact.

Well, after the fact I was bitched out by some members of staff about those Nazi gold bars. It's not authorized! Who told me I had permission to introduce them to the game?

At first I actually thought it was an actual joke - no one blinked an eye at an army of PCs waging war on the Brood (which I had actually been permitted to use, which on HM was very rare) conducting dark rituals on the carcass of an ancient vampire but that's where they drew the line? But as I paged and finally got responses from sphere I realized they were quite serious; they were pissed off about it.

I was very disappointed given my prior investment juggling people's schedules, running PrPs, answering +comm jobs there so I made a short response apologizing if I overstepped, informed the involved players the PrPs were over effective immediately, took my ball and went home. The whole thing exploded on WORA when those players got upset about it but by then it was too late anyway, I had lost my appetite for plot-running on HM.

And that's the Nazi gold story.

[Ninjakitten]

@Coin said in Finding roleplay:

@Arkandel said in Finding roleplay:

Rules aren't needed because everyone knows each other and/or can be trusted to possess common sense but because that is not true.

This sentence doesn't scan.

It actually does, but I had to read it twice. Adding a comma (and possibly emphasis) helps. "Rules aren't needed because everyone knows each other and/or can be trusted to possess common sense, but because that is not true." I.e., the reason rules are needed isn't (etc).

[ThatGuyThere]

@faraday said in Finding roleplay:

@Lotherio said in Finding roleplay:

I was with the definition, my gripe was more about not liking scheduling, approval, and getting staff involved (to approve or to reward) but now I think I'm with @Thenomain and those the days before 'PrP's ...

But that's the thing... even back in 1996 we had TPs run by players. On some games (Maddock) it was free-for-all where you could run whatever you wanted, and on other games (B5) there was a +tpview system where everything had to be submitted and approved and it tied into a events notification system if there was a scheduled date... did I miss the "good old days" somehow?

Might be another of those genre things. i played on or at least poked my head in as a guest on pretty much every WoD game in the mid-90s(93-97) and on them it was mostly what Theno has already described a bunch of players together, sometimes with preexisting relationship some times just as strangers deciding hey lets do something. Sometimes it lead to other things sometimes it was as simple as the bar we were in getting robbed and everyone trying to figure out how to stop it with out revealing what you were, none of them were ever really scheduled in advance.
Now sometimes if you had an IC pack/coterie/cabal etc you would then take turns planing out things as well which is really more similar to what I think of as a PrP in the usage I normally hear it.

Edit to avoid double post: I humbly suggest we use the term Pick up scene to describe the old days thing, much like a pick up game of basketball you played with whomever was at the court and looking for fun.
So with the help of lat term. I really do agree that PrPs are good and necessary and quite often fun but boy I have to admit I sure do miss the old days where Pick up scenes were easy to find for when you wanted something crunchier then social.

[Lithium]

My system on PrP's is that players can run them so long as they don't violate the (listed) theme points on the PrP help file /and/ do not break theme. Breaking theme is important, and is a very /expansive/ thing. It stops not only the Smurf Revolution in downtown Los Angeles, but it also stops people acquiring .50 caliber sniper rifles off a drug dealer on the corner as well. Just for examples.

Anyone can run a PrP, at any time, and so long as it follows those rules (le-gasp, rules) and they post an edited log to the wiki, while mailing staff the unedited log that can be approved for bonus xp or whatnot, then they get the bonus goodies unless they break theme.

That might be to restrictive to some, but it works for me, and I hope it doesn't restrict what people do on my game.

[Lotherio]

@ThatGuyThere said in Finding roleplay:

Edit to avoid double post: I humbly suggest we use the term Pick up scene to describe the old days thing, much like a pick up game of basketball you played with whomever was at the court and looking for fun.

Devil's advocate, and cause the edit was down after I totally agreed with an upvote of the original content ...

Pick up scene and the old days thing ... I've had them start with a random hook and develop into multiple month long ordeals. Some of us can do this on the fly and prefer to go that way, others like to plan ahead. Its still a PrP even if it starts as a pick up scene, and even if all subsequent scenes come out on the fly without much planning ahead.

[Coin]

@Ninjakitten said in Finding roleplay:

@Coin said in Finding roleplay:

@Arkandel said in Finding roleplay:

Rules aren't needed because everyone knows each other and/or can be trusted to possess common sense but because that is not true.

This sentence doesn't scan.

It actually does, but I had to read it twice. Adding a comma (and possibly emphasis) helps. "Rules aren't needed because everyone knows each other and/or can be trusted to possess common sense, but because that is not true." I.e., the reason rules are needed isn't (etc).

If anything, it should be, "Rules aren't needed if everyone [...]"

At least, for it to make any actual sense. <.<

[Ninjakitten]

@Coin

No, it does work. Equivalent: Doors aren't needed because we can walk through walls, but because we can't.

[Coin]

@Ninjakitten said in Finding roleplay:

@Coin

No, it does work. Equivalent: Doors aren't needed because we can walk through walls, but because we can't.

You're right. It was just a horribly constructed sentence, then.

[Ninjakitten]

@Coin
I absolutely agree on that point. (Sorry, @Arkandel!)

[ThatGuyThere]

@Lotherio said in Finding roleplay:

Devil's advocate, and cause the edit was down after I totally agreed with an upvote of the original content ...

Sorry about that I don't normally edit if folks have already plused or minused a post but I didn't notice it had been +1 ed until after I hit enter on the edit.

[Coin]

@Ninjakitten said in Finding roleplay:

@Coin
I absolutely agree on that point. (Sorry, @Arkandel!)

Don't apologize to him. He's a monster. Look at what he did to that poor syntax. Just horrible.

[Arkandel]

@Coin said in Finding roleplay:

@Ninjakitten said in Finding roleplay:

@Coin
I absolutely agree on that point. (Sorry, @Arkandel!)

Don't apologize to him. He's a monster. Look at what he did to that poor syntax. Just horrible.

Your mom didn't complain.

[Coin]

@Arkandel said in Finding roleplay:

@Coin said in Finding roleplay:

@Ninjakitten said in Finding roleplay:

@Coin
I absolutely agree on that point. (Sorry, @Arkandel!)

Don't apologize to him. He's a monster. Look at what he did to that poor syntax. Just horrible.

Your mom didn't complain.

My mom's English is out of practice; she hasn't actually written/read in the language in over a decade, save for some scattered vacations here and there. So her perception of your monstruous disregard for a simple comma is a negligible defensive argument, you fucking monster.

[Arkandel]

@Coin said in Finding roleplay:

monstruous

Hah-hah, you made a typo.

[Coin]

@Arkandel said in Finding roleplay:

@Coin said in Finding roleplay:

monstruous

Hah-hah, you made a typo.

It's just an archaic spelling of monstrous. I didn't typo, I added the u deliberately, because I'm better than you.

[Arkandel]

@Coin said in Finding roleplay:

@Arkandel said in Finding roleplay:

@Coin said in Finding roleplay:

monstruous

Hah-hah, you made a typo.

It's just an archaic spelling of monstrous. I didn't typo, I added the u deliberately, because I'm better than you.

Allow me to put the 'u' in 'fuck you' then.

[Coin]

@Arkandel said in Finding roleplay:

@Coin said in Finding roleplay:

@Arkandel said in Finding roleplay:

@Coin said in Finding roleplay:

monstruous

Hah-hah, you made a typo.

It's just an archaic spelling of monstrous. I didn't typo, I added the u deliberately, because I'm better than you.

Allow me to put the 'u' in 'fuck you' then.

Why would you need to do that? Who spelled it 'fuck yo'? I'm going to guess that was a typo.

[The_Supremes]

@faraday said in Finding roleplay:

Tangential note: I understand why sometimes staff wants to require approvals on PrPs - I used to be that way myself. Trust is hard when you're worried about players doing crazy things. But in time I've realized that strict PrP policies will discourage even the most enthusiastic players from running anything. Or they'll just ignore them and run it anyway. These days my policy is just "run what you want, just don't wreck the theme."

I require approvals for PrPs on my site, but it's not so much about players doing crazy things as it is two other concerns, collisions with established canon, and what I call New Puppy Syndrome(tm).

Player wants to run a PrP. Great. I love it. Before they do it, I ask for a basic synopsis up front and give it a quick scan to make sure they're not running into problems. E.g. if their PrP needs the city's vampire prince to do X, but another PrP or TP has explicitly established that he's magically prohibited, or incapable of doing X, we need to amend because otherwise the game's canon winds up self-contradicting. I've seen years-long meta-arcs go completely off the rails over this. Collisions aren't a reason to reject a PrP, and historically when PrP STs needed to borrow established NPCs they were perfectly happy to take advice or requests about substitutions.

New Puppy Syndrome, however, is a big drain on staff time and resources. An ST may have a finite interest in their own PrP. They want to run the scenes, they want the things to happen, and then they're done. But their players, and folks who hear about these events second and third hand may want to poke at these goings-on or the aftermaths. The PrP ST, however, is done with it and no longer has interest. This is fine, but that means the aftermath RP (usually investigation type stuff) lands in staff's laps. I need to keep tabs on what PrPs are running, have been run, etc, so that when I get weird +requests from players that make absolutely no sense to me otherwise, I know who's new puppy this is that they got bored with and sent back to the shelter. Unlike with the real puppy, there's no ethical failing here, but taking a first look at a PrP before it goes live lets me be ready for the secondary and tertiary effects it might have.

I certainly don't think the approval process needs to be anything more than a look-over. The only PrPs I'd actually reject are on the order of "I want to run the PrP where the world ends and everyone on grid dies."