Best posts made by Alzie

@Templari Some of us don't have an issue with current events? I won't be hauled into your justice because you feel like your sense of it is right and you don't get to imply that because I won't rally to your flag I'm somehow wrong or complacent with bad behavior.

@Balerion said:

@jeshin Just to clarify, before someone reads too much into what you wrote, we have never suggested that we have the authority to send cease and desists to any other game (and we have never attempted to do so.)

Yet this is a thing you have done, loudly and very publicly, in the past. So let's not pretend that you're a saint.

I don't know if anyone has seen this, but Legend of the Five Rings just recently came out with a beta for 5E. Now, I happen to like 5E from a coding perspective because it pairs down a lot of the shit that you had to code into CG/The System. I was wondering what other people happened to think of the 5E system otherwise.

For those that do not know about the 5E system, here is a link to the beta on drivethrurpg. It's free.

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/223045/Legend-of-the-Five-Rings-RPG-Beta-Rulebook

I will say that one of my favorite rules as it stands is that you can now be a useful crafting specialist out of CG. In 4E, you could start with the star smith clan and never smith a sword your entire campaign because the TN was an outrageous number. In this edition, you can actually make a useful sword even at the beginning of the campaign if that's your shtick.

In other news, would people play an L5R 5E game? (This is my real purpose for posting this because I'm shameless and have been considering a new game)

I don't really understand why anyone is surprised that the thread was moved. It literally devolved into enarai insulting everyone's intelligence, 3 pages of people posting reaction gifs and then Tempest giving the following as a response to a request to stop filling the thread with fuck you gifs:

@tempest said in Fixing United Heroes- Too bad we cannot talk about it on the game:

We have special permissions.

Because fuck UH in particular.

Now you're surprised and abhorred?

I'm pretty sure we've asked this question before. I don't think my advice was well liked then either, but eh. Coming from someone that has ran large scenes consisting of 20+ people, or scenes in shadowrun that used decking, magic, astral and combat all at once, or scenes that were split into several different groups at once, this is my take on the matter.

As it pertains to the storyteller themselves

1. You have got to understand your rules. I can't even begin to express the annoyance that players and other staff alike feel when you're trying to limp along in a scene where it's obvious you haven't read a single fucking book. Just stop. Learn first, Run scenes second.
2. You have got to stop worrying about making everyone feel good. Yes, the scene should be fun. Yes, people should feel valued. However, if you spend the time necessary to deal with absolutely everything and everyone in the scene during the scene then that scene will take days.
3. It is okay to shunt rewards and info dumps to job or @mail. Not everything has to be given during the course of the scene if it's not directly pertinent to current events.
4. Pay attention. More than players, this is your only job. If you can't pay attention, don't run the scene.
5. Don't be afraid to say no. If you can only deal with 3 people, say no. If you really don't want that rock to be more than a rock, say it's just a rock. If you really don't want someone to solve everything on their own, say no. It's okay. It's okay to say no.

As it pertains to posing

1. It is okay to let players pose your NPC's reactions at times. You do not need to pose a skeleton's reaction to being killed. Let the player have fun with it.
2. If it's a truly large scene that will take time, put a time limit on poses. Then enforce it. And don't feel bad about it at all. Let them pose when they can get to it.
3. On the other hand, if you put a time limit on poses, you have to be available to answer questions. Nobody appreciates missing a pose because you were too busy to answer a question.
4. Remind people when it's their turn to pose. Scenes can get fast, it's okay for players to lose their place. Just because your game has a pose tracker doesn't mean you should rely on it. Do some work for yourself.

As it pertains to PVP

1. If you have to handle preparations, do it by job. Otherwise your first day or hours will be nothing but you emulating a very accurate micromanaging clock.
2. The first thing you do at a PVP scene is ask what they hope to achieve with the kill. I guarantee you that the players involved will shit their pants and gape. Nobody ever asks that.
3. PVP scenes are tense enough as it is. As staff, you have to take a firm stance. You cannot entertain arguments during PVP. As many people know, I am the king of the giant red warning banner. It clearly states I'm gonna do this thing and we aren't going to discuss rules until after all is said and done. That's as much for the players involved as it is for the staff, because otherwise it devolves into days upon days of minutiae. Been there, won the t-shirt.
4. Really, your job as staff is in some part to avoid the kill. If you can do that (GMC is especially about this) then you should. Don't be afraid to negotiate with your players. Sometimes the only reason the kill is happening is because one or both players don't see alternative options.

As it pertains to stories in general

1. Running a scene is about giving the players something to experience. It is not necessarily about making them feel awesome. I've ran just as many combat scenes as I have investigation scenes as I have horror scenes.
2. Know your audience. Don't give knowledge guy a gun and expect him to kill things. If he wanted that kind of RP, he probably wouldn't have made a knowledge pc.
3. It's okay to make things up on the cuff. I mean, we all plan these things way in advance right!? Right!
4. Don't think too much about enemy design. Primarily, worry about the story leading up to the enemies. That's more important than the enemy itself being hard to conquer.
5. Sometimes enemies don't need to roll a lot of dice, they just need to use a mechanic that makes people think. Like RFK's Queen of the Damned or Changeling Killer plot.

The most important rule though is if you aren't having fun, don't bother running a scene. Your scene is a reflection of yourself first and foremost.

@bored said:

rather than acknowledging that an exploitable system should be fixed.

I await the day you find a system that involves numbers that can't be exploited. Even gambling can be exploited. I've got plenty of years to wait.

You don't buy drive because it's useful, you buy Drive because one day in the future, there will be that guy, who tells you to roll that skill and you will be the only person in your crew with that skill and then you'll be like this:

Edit 5/27/20: I now have enough PCs to separate by Active and Gone. Probably have an addiction. Maybe.
Edit 8/18/21: Updates

I guess this is a thing then.

Active PCs:
Odalis - City of Hope - Not Really
Gizmo - M * U * S * H
ccubed - Legends of the Jedi Account (Yes, a MuD!)

Inactive, Dead, Gone PCs:
Alzarath, Takeshi - Serenity Mush - Dead Game
Akane, Yoshiko, Tanja - Requiem for Kingsmouth - Alas, We knew her well
Takeshi, Jinnie, Kaoru, Monk, Chi, Maximillian, Adelaida, Carmine, Momoko, Aeric, Some Geist - Reach - Dead Game
Aeric - Metro - Dead Game
Ayame, Aeric, Momoko, Akari, Byron, Hifumi, Hwan-Iseul, Lieselotte, Yuzuki - City of Hope
Masayoshi, Boris - Gundam Mush - Crazy Dead Game
Takeshi - Naruto Mush Rivalry - Dead Game
Akane - Fallen World - Dead Game?
Akane - Descent Mux - Dead Game?
Cyril - Fate's Harvest - It was fun and then the fun train rolled out
Lieselotte - Fallcoast
Lieselotte - Fear & Loathing - Dead Game?
Teutonic, CandyMan - Shadowrun Denver - Currently Inactive
Elstrin Naevon, Faylen Nerea - Ithir Mush - SadFace
Lumiya - Clone Wars SWD20
Oili, Ornella - Arx
Eugenia - Liberation Mush

Staff:
Oureadalf - Reach - No Longer
Gizmo - Avatar Mush - No Longer
Oukranos - RFK/ Head Coder - Alas, No Longer
Teuton - Fallcoast
Udon - Miami - Probably never happening

@arkandel If we're talking about travel specifically, My personal opinion is that no game needs a grid. It's an expected feature of a game, but the reality is that nobody actually RPs in 90% of the rooms most games have. The reality is that you could open a game with a clear theme and maybe 10 important, constantly used locations alongside a coded RP Room creation wing and it would work just as well.

The problem is that if you do this, people will stare at you like you're fucking nuts.

At the least, lets give them credit for creating a site that states it wants to talk about all text based RPGs equally and finds an ingenious way to make it so that only muds end up really being talked about. Let's be honest, automated systems was a great decision as far as criteria. It's vague enough to be subjective and just clear enough to disqualify most of our systems since they don't decide rp.

@Auspice What about the difference between Tone and Voice? That's always a good one.
Tone and Voice in Writing

@Thenomain There is an error in your list sir. You listed The Reach as coding experience. Clearly, The Reach was a Psychology Experiment and the code that existed inside it was an exercise in human endurance. You should list The Reach under Ironman Challenge where it rightly belongs.

If you played on RFK and ever wanted your wiki back or if you didn't play there but wanted to read about the systems, I might have something for you.

https://rfk.vertinext.com

A copy of the wiki was found and I've set up a read only version of that copy from 2018 here. Enjoy!

Note: DPL is there but doesn't work most of the time.

@ThatOneDude I downvoted you for bing. You should feel bad. You should feel so very bad. Bing? Seriously?!

I too am playing a new fangled sanctified

@Sonder Ever:

So are we upset that someone took an action to move a thread using a tool that's 100% transparent? It's a forum. It's easy to see if something wasn't moved or deleted. This is silly.

@Arkandel @Auspice

This is exactly what I've been waiting for. A++ @Glitch

@Balerion said:

@Alzie I think what you mean is that we've sent cease and desists on other occasions not related to BoD? Which is true. We have never sent a cease and desist regarding our game or any other ASoIaF game, but yes, we have sent DMCAs regarding copyrighted content that has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with BoD.

That is a legal right one has. Exercising a legal right is neither saintly nor sinful.

Yet, we are all painfully aware that you have in fact gone to other games (And even in this thread you have stated) and stated that they are not allowed to exist because they do not have the permission of GRRM, only you do. So trying to wiggle out of it by saying 'Well it wasn't about BoD specifically' is silly, because it was in its entirety about BoD even if you never mentioned it specifically and only ever referred to GRRM's series. In any case, we have established that sending cease and desist letters and DMCA notices on GRRM's behalf is not a right you have unless he has given you that right legally by naming you his representative in these matters. I'll assume he hasn't named you his representative in these matters and I'd say that's a fair assumption since if he wanted to spend his time sending DMCA notices and cease and desist letters, he would probably hire actual lawyers. So far, he has pretty much demonstrably demonstrated he does not give enough of a fuck to waste his time considering how many places his IP is found.

@il-volpe We'd very happily cross-promote other games based on GRRM's intellectual property, provided they were authorized by GRRM to do so, of course. We'd suggest games seeking that approval avoid having administrators who participate in forums dedicated to trolling and mocking GRRM, though, as it would probably prejudice him against approval.

He says, as if GRRM is trolling the internet for his hate forums.