I have a number of memories of Brus and this made me very sad to learn yesterday. He was a steady and steadfast presence, particularly through my years of playing oWoD Mage. A chunk of time was spent yesterday with various "old Mushers" that remain in my close circle remembering the man and the fun that we had. RIP Brus. 
Getting old is really sucking, I gotta say.
So, just for disclosure, I'm a librarian IRL. And while I've not got a Discord Book Club in my pocket (our only Discord server is for teen use), what I do have is a Facebook Group that's a bookclub that chats twice a month for people to share what they've been reading with as much/or as little info about their opinions as they like. Open to ANYONE really, but direct invitation to @cirim13 since the magic words "book club" were mentioned. Night Owls Book Group - We chat at 9pm Eastern on the 1st and 3rd Thursdays of each month. It's an aspect of the job, I'm always all for talking about books & sharing recommendations of my own.
Mind you, I have several "ins" for how I can see the books that are upcoming. Mostly book distributors such as Baker & Taylor and Midwest Tapes. But there are a couple of things that we use & give out to the public to see to see a decent number of what books are upcoming:
Neither of them are perfect, but it's something. Most retail sites also have some kind of "what's upcoming", but it's also not accurate these days. The Covid closings have pushed a lot of publication dates back by months if not a year+.
I got a completely impractical but lovely to look at wooden book-stand, the sort that sits on a table and holds a book open nicely. It's very nice, and I keep setting books on it and standing back to admire them, but I seriously do not have a house furnished to make it practical to leave out all the time. (My house is a small 1940s Sears kit house that is 950 square feet of living space.)
And a Dana Scully Barbie doll.
And a piece of scrimshaw set into a pendant on a chain. The scrimshaw is a family heirloom, obtained a long-long-long time ago by a grandmother, but being given a piece of it was a surprise.
@Arkandel said in Resume Help:
As I said, I'm not sure if that helps you at all, especially for fields other than mine.
It, honestly, very much depends on the field. My experience has been that educational fields can be really particular about it. I tend to get a lot of high school and young college age individuals come into the library who want to "fill out an application" but these days libraries are pressed to make sure that they receive resumes. Not all decisions are based on a resume, but more attention is paid to those that are thorough on skills, that tends to lead to the interviews we get. But other fields I've worked in they barely paid any attention to my resume.
I help teenagers and college students write them as part of my job. I would be willing to take a look at yours to give pointers? And I can give you some of the same advice that I give them, if it helps:
But honestly, I'm willing to help.
I haven't updated this in a LONG time, but I was asked about what I'm doing presently so resurrecting this just for updating purposes because why not.
(Not quite as much free time over the last few years so I've been much more sporadic. A lot of time spent teaching the next generation of gamers how to game! But I still find some time.)
This topic makes me feel old, thanks for that @Arkandel!
With that said, I've been doing this hobby a LONG time and I've come to several personal observations when it comes to RPing the IC romances/TS/Etc. YMMV on these, of course.
While I've played Poly characters before, it's actually rare and I kinda suck at it. In part because...
I'm REALLY picky about just who I want to have my character in IC relationships with. If it's not someone I know, I tend to quietly "check references" because I've had some truly bad experiences with people failing to recognize that IC intimacy does not equal OOC intimacy and that makes me very uncomfortable very fast. (And in a couple cases led to RL stalking that had to be addressed to the NOT FUN of everyone.)
Having been on the staff end of actually being called in to help mediate a situation of "we're gonna have a fun, if a little rough, kinky sex scene" that 2 days later turned into the female PC trying to start a super-war by telling Mages & her Changeling IC Boyfriend that her PC had been raped by a werewolf (Who didn't know she had an IC boyfriend, insert other complicating crap such as them spending time in her bed which probably would have smelled like said boyfriend who also lived with her.) - who was then being hunted down by those she reported it to, and she OOC several times lied and told players that it genuinely happened that way - and ultimately logs of both the scenes and OOC conversations involved between people had to be read by staff - I rapidly lost interest in paying any attention to who spends time with who situations and am a fan of OOC disclosure because that type of train wreck really does ruin the fun of many people.
I'm not vegetarian or vegan, I like burgers, chicken and eggs too much. I am one of those people who would be content to eat the same food at each different meal on a daily basis, especially when I am very busy. (Example: I eat 2 eggs for breakfast and have a cup of tea for breakfast 6 out of 7 (and sometimes 7) days a week.) What I eat tends to be seasonal, lots of salads through warmer weather as sides, steamed vegetables as sides through the colder weather - or I have a lot of soups/stews.
I don't do artificial sweetener at all, I prefer unsweet black tea and lots and lots of water. Occasionally I drink soda. I'm the mother to kids who won't drink anything carbonated at all, which I've always found kind of funny (but personally am totally okay with, it's healthier anyway).
I wish I was ready to the "I need STs!" phase, but I'm not quite there yet. But if I can get all my ducks in a row and my cats wrangled soon....
There was really nothing remotely nerdy about my family when I was born (way back in the 70s), except I was an avid reader of anything I could get my hands on, including stuff I eventually got to read that I probably should not have read. From age 3 - 10 I lived on a farm in the middle of no-where in Nebraska and all there was to do was read and ride my bike and otherwise "play outside" unless I wanted farm work to do. So I read everything that came across my path. (I literally have report cards with the comments added by teachers indicating that I read too much and to please discourage me from reading as much as I do at home, they were sure it would be unhealthy for my development. I was also a quick-learner that there were things that should not be told to my parochial teachers & family that I was reading that wouldn't be approved of. I did read Playboy (thanks, Dad) for the articles.)
About halfway through elementary school I started playing a musical instrument, thus ensuring my future status as a "band geek". And in 7th grade my parents divorced, which is significant because my mom started dating someone (who eventually became my step-dad) and he was just out of the Navy. He had been a SEAL, and while in the Navy between missions his SEAL team apparently spent a good chunk of their travel time playing D&D with him running games for them. So when he got out of the Navy, and involved with my mom, for this new blended family (there were 6 kids total + 2 adults = 1 heck of a gaming table) D&D was our family bonding. He was also my introduction into the vast world of books of a fantasy and horror genre. I was probably the only 9th grader who had read all of Lovecraft's works, could quote large chunks of Beowulf and I wrote an English paper on Chaucer's Canterbury Tales that same year. My reading comprehension level well surpassed anyone else in my school. For that I got to be the Academic team's English captain.
D&D 2nd ed. being the gateway game that it was lead to ALL MANNER of geekdom and nerdy activities and I continued through my mid-twenties just obsessively reading all the stuff I could get my hands on. I tell people I'm a 2nd generation nerd, raising a 3rd generation, because that's basically accurate - but I wasn't born into it, more like adopted.
@Tinuviel said in How do you like things GMed?:
@2mspris said in How do you like things GMed?:
I adore any kind of "group" over a dozen "lone wolf" concepts apping into a game
I do as well, but that's not the point. If you gather half a dozen random people for an event, it's not guaranteed that those six people are going to be from the same group unless you specifically run something for that group.
You're right.
That comment was specifically in regards to the overall difference in mushing now vs how it used to be - not specifically on "how I like things GMed".
@faraday said in How do you like things GMed?:
Plus on many games the character concepts have so little reason to interact that it becomes hard to orchestrate something for a random group.
I genuinely think this is a often an issue. I haven't seen a lot of staff on games do "Whatever you are doing, I'm going to drop in on you and something is going to happen." stuff since I was on Denver. Players don't seem to welcome the "random things happens" as widely as they once did, and any more character concepts are so widely spread all over the place that it is a struggle. I adore any kind of "group" over a dozen "lone wolf" concepts apping into a game, but there is not a lot of moderation and direction across the board on staff to make that happen generally.
@Tinuviel said in How do you like things GMed?:
@2mspris said in How do you like things GMed?:
You're gonna have players who do that. I had a player who did that when I ran the aforementioned scene and exploded the Starbucks. 1 player called 911 and planned to leave. Another player whipped out a phone and proceeded to video as much as they could get. 2 other players jumped in to try to help.
Sounds like perfectly reasonable responses to me. If you want them to investigate the exploded Starbucks, give them a reason to care. Give them a reason to violate their sense of self-preservation.
Sure, sometimes players just don't get it, but other times it's that they're not being given enough impetus to go down the rabbit hole.
Absolutely, those were reasonable responses to me. If I want only the players who will do a specific thing, then it's my responsibility to say that from the start. And I wanted pcs to be doing what they were going to be doing when that happened, to me that is the point of running something for players - otherwise you might as well just write up a narrative and post it to a bboard's news reel. The GM is responsible for providing NPC reaction to what the players are doing - the PC who elected to call 911 and leave? She did have to figure out how she was getting out of there. Her car was parked close to the explosion, she couldn't get her car, she was going to walk out - but which direction when a crowd was rushing to get away as well, will she dive into the crowd and potentially get hurt? Will she go a different route, etc. The PC who videoed the entire thing later told a cop she had it all on video, but refused to give over the recording, etc - that turned into plotline that also went on for a few weeks. Communication is key, but it's also important to be flexible.
@faraday said in How do you like things GMed?:
I mean that's fine, but at the same time... players can't go out of their way to avoid the plots handed to them and still expect to be entertained.
"The Starbucks just exploded!"
"OK we leave and call 911."
"Um. OK. Cool. Thanks for coming. Event over."
You're gonna have players who do that. I had a player who did that when I ran the aforementioned scene and exploded the Starbucks. 1 player called 911 and planned to leave. Another player whipped out a phone and proceeded to video as much as they could get. 2 other players jumped in to try to help. And the 1 PC cop that joined immediately after jumped into help. I have found if you involve players who aren't necessarily 1 person and their 4 BFFs you are more likely to get a random selection of responses - not just everyone going along with 1 person.
It helps, I think these days with mushing and running plot (or +events, if you will) that when you set up that +event giving some kind of summary of what is going to happen. If I announce "Come to Starbucks for a memorable time!" and fail to indicate a reasonable # of players to be involved or timeline for it to run - it conveys a very different thing than if I say "Something dangerous will be happening in this block of the city on this day/time - if you have cause to be in that neighborhood, I'll take the first 5 signups and it will last X-amount of time." then I have communicated to them what I am doing/what the risk might be/and that I expect the players to give me that amount of time they have signed up for as well as I am giving that time to them.
Recognizing that my own GMing methods are not those used by everyone else, it honestly depends upon the plot line that I'm running and what the end goal is. When I know what the end goal is of a story (Is it to create a long story arch? Is it to create character development? Is it to just have something to do?) then I know how I will approach it.
If it is an intro or some part of a long story arch, then I have specific points of information or occurrence that need to get conveyed and those will be planned. Example: I ran a plot line not to long ago, it had the intended consequence of a) increasing "crime/gang activity", "ousting a corrupt group" and "bringing in an FBI group" that were meant to be part of a longer story arch. The players coming into the scene (of which I limited signups to 5 people) knew that the scene was going to be potentially dangerous, depending upon their actions, but not immediately dangerous to them. I also set a time limit on the scene, what I had in mind would be done in 3-4 hours. (Never ending scenes have happened to me before, they tend to be meandering and pointless and frustrating to me.) I began the scene by having everyone describe, rather mundanely, what they were doing within a fairly large area where something was taking place.Then I blew up a Starbucks. What happened next was entirely character reactions to that, to the situation that had happened - some reacted by quickly leaving! Some reacted by leaping in to try to help people. The scene of what happened was scripted in-so-far as the thing that happened, but beyond that thing (that I knew would create the long term things that were planned) the rest of the scene was player driven.
I handle character development scenes similarly, where each individual scene is treated a bit like a book chapter - I have a specific thing meant to come up/be handled within their individual PRP, say for example something from a character's past is coming back to haunt them. The introduction scene might just be them having something happen that reminds them of that past, or they see/think they see someone they know, etc. Quick, 2 hour scene, right there, they can involve a few other PCs if they choose, if not then it's NPCs. The next chapter is a more direct interaction with that thing/person, then the next they go to confront/or spy, to learn more about what is happening. But each of these turn into little "mini-scenes" but I do put a bit more preparation work into these than I actually do the larger things, because you don't know just how soon you will need the details.
And then the "just something to do" scenes, those are a bit more broad and open. Usually a social event? Open to however many PCs want to jump in (though I do still set a time-limit, usually 4-6 hours depending upon what it is and what's happening). I set a scene, I occasionally toss out something pre-planned that is ambiance and watch in the event NPC interaction is called for.
I've been in this hobby for a long time, I didn't actually like trying to GM much of anything before playing on The Reach (which was a few years ago, but in the overall of how long I've been doing this it's not been that long ago). Around that time I started participating in these real-world "Game Mastering" competitions and befriended a number of professional GMs who gave me a lot of tips to help me get more comfortable and challenge myself doing it. So while I was on The Reach I started taking those tips and doing little scenes - I ran these things I referred to as "Choose Your Own Adventure" plots, where I would have X-number of people sign up, every person was to give me a story element for the story to be told (I think one of them the story elements were: Puzzle Box, Music, Green Light, Skull. Another one had: Mall Santa, Tinsle, Light Saber and Baby Jesus (That was a Black Friday story, which itself was an element.). But I would run these "mini-stories" for 4-5 random players, usually last about 3 hours, and found myself getting a lot more comfortable with it as well as overall good feedback from the players involved (because I would ask, that was the point of trying to improve for me.).
Not quite 2 years ago, I shared that I had just started sponsoring a "Tabletop Gaming Club" for elementary school-aged kids out of the library where I work. Fast-forward to the present and this particular Gaming Club (which the kids that participate in it refer to it as HAK Club) has been so popular that we featured it as part of our summer reading programming for the past 2 summers in the library where I work + it has expanded into 2 groups. HAK Club Lvl 1 and HAK Club Lvl 2. The Lvl 1 group is still the original model, 5-6th graders, while the Lvl 2 group are Jr. High kids who want to learn more mechanics and build on what they picked up from the first group which was learning to role play, do collaborative storytelling and also the basics of the system of choice for the kids. (They all seem to prefer playing D&D 5th Ed, but we also keep Pathfinder, Savage Worlds and Hero Kids available for them.)
And now the older of those Lvl 2 kids have actually started coming in on their own to the library and setting up a gaming table to run a game for their own friends, letting the Tabletop Gaming Bug spread to other kids!! This is something that has had me incredibly happy.
And tonight I just found out that the Gen Con Trade Day Event that I submitted to teach other librarians/teachers how we started this and the ups/downs of it since it began has been accepted and will be part of the line up of events offered on Trade Day. So I had to share, with people that I figure will get why I'm so very-very excited about this.
@Coin said in Horror MUX - Discussion:
Whether anyone respected his privacy, well.
She really was a nosy and bossy oldest sister, so she didn't respect anyone's privacy. And when a living brother showed up, there were reasons to thoroughly look into his past. She didn't care what that past was though. She collected secrets, she didn't tell them. (Well, she didn't tell family secrets - she told a few other people's.)
HAHAHAHA.
Yeah, man. Yeah.
Devlin.
I mean, he knew it was wrong, okay? It was a secret he kept from his own family, and he was runnin' around sacrificin' people and shit with them because all the St. Johns were Silthite Cultists, lololololololol.
Wait.... kept from his own family? Since when do you think you were keeping any secrets from Crystal, Baby Brother? You're so cute.
