Hello folks,

When @EmmahSue asked me to take over MSB in what seems like yesterday but was actually a long time ago I was still very much involved in the hobby and spent a fair bit of time on this forum.

However that hasn't been the case for a long time. I haven't played on a MUSH in almost two years and even when I did it wasn't for long. I still occasionally post here but MSB requires better than that; it requires someone who can do the community justice and pay this place the attention that it deserves. It was a fun run, but it's reached its end for me.

@Ganymede has made the foolhardy decision to take MSB. From now on the law-bot is in charge. Please offer congratulations and/or condolences as you see fit. :)

Many of you have been advocating for changes to our policies I have been reluctant to make so perhaps this will serve as a new beginning in that regard as well. Either way, I have every confidence Gany will knock it out of the park.

I'll continue to stick around to support MSB mainly in a support capacity until I fade into the sunset or perhaps find a game that makes me active again - who knows!

Again, thank you everyone.

MSB, meet Sylvanas, second of her name.

Yeah so she's a yet another foster failure. In fact this household has yet to experience a foster success. Apparently once in there's no getting out.

What sealed her fate is how well that motherfucker fit in with the other critters. Especially with Winnie, the little hyperactive dog I was a bit worried about - they fucking love each other. They sleep together, basically entwined like long-lost siblings.

It took her a week to win everyone over. Gus, my older cat hissed at her once. Now they play all night long. Ruby, my old dog doesn't care for cats (usually he just ignores them completely, even Gus); but he's nuzzled Sylvie in front of my shocked eyes at least once.

What the fuck. Eh, whatever. She can stay I GUESS. But damn she eats like she's been starving her whole life (all of like, eight weeks). She eats her food, the adult cat food, the dog food, treats. She's making me do the cat litter constantly which I think it's on purpose.

@Admiral Yeah, please don't promote genocide on MSB.

I wanted to clarify something here folks, and I think it might warrant its own thread. I'll cherry pick one post although it's not really about that one quote but generally speaking moving forward.

@shelbeast said in Fear and Loathing (Official Thread):

@auspice I think that, maybe, if someone other than someone gushing all the time about the game (indicating a clear bias), had made that call...

I would have made the exact same call. @Auspice has my full support in this, not that she needs it. It's in the forum rules - we don't go into in-depth discussion, particularly negative discussion, on ad threads.

Please remember two things:

1. We don't moderate on MSB, but we do try to make sure threads fit their categories. Since this one was moving into a more controversial direction it was split up into a different section of the site where it can be discussed at any length. @Auspice did her job.

2. The vast majority of the posters here asked us to maintain a more civil attitude and keep things on-topic. That's what we are trying to do. You can't have it both ways, guys.

Conversely, forum administrators can have any opinion about anything at all, just like everyone else. We don't censor, we don't edit or delete posts, but we do have thoughts of our own. In my case mostly dumb ones, but we do have them!

Thanks for reading!

Please welcome, sympathized with, offer condolences, shame and revere @mietze who has agreed to help us keep the madness somewhat contained by becoming an MSB administrator.

Your well-being is not expendable, your presence on a game is.

I didn't always realize this and I hadn't always enforced that on myself, and I should have. But the power to leave when the cons of being on a MU* outweigh the positives is essential.

Nothing excuses it. I firmly believe that now. Not 'but I still have friends there...', certainly not 'but I've already invested so much time in it...', or even 'if this one person finally leaves...'if that person finally understands...' .

If I stop having fun I leave. That's it.

Also leaving shouldn't be a statement aimed to be leverage. Don't expect people to follow you ("If you're my friend why are you still on <X>?" - it's because they might still be having fun, dummy), don't hold your breath for the game to suffer because you're gone (and if you do, please examine your motives).

And for the love of Cthulhu don't make any last-second melodramatic motions, long posts or bridge-burning to signal your exit. Inform any actual friends or regular partners you're going or how to reach you if they want to, then make a graceful exit.

@auspice Not MSB-specific, but if anyone tried to give me limitations about what I can or can't do outside of their game, I would explain very carefully where exactly they can shove it, and walk away.

Zero tolerance for doxxing. Account banned.

If he returns please flag him and we'll take measures. If posts remain with RL information on them please let us know and we'll delete those, too.

Locking this thread.

@Ghost One of the main reasons MSB exists is to create a persistent identity for people to associate with and hopefully create lasting relationships independent of transient things like characters on individual games.

So boo.

McCarty et all

@greenflashlight

@warma-sheen When I was still playing one of the questions what often came up was how to handle PC-killing when their players clearly valued their characters differently.

That is... you're playing a witty rogue. You've invested time and effort, expanded his alliances and made sure he's been involved in some plotlines for months. I roll a thug with the most basic background staff is going to accept.

Then when we get in a scene I pick a fight. Sure, your character might still win (assuming he has some combat stats, since you've been playing him for longer). But the stakes are different. If my PC loses what is actually lost? I could get the next thug on the grid in a few days. If the dice don't go your way, well, you have to mourn a prized PC.

@visquaine Aren't a lot of these tropes applicable to actual comic books as well, though? I feel it's not MU*-specific.

When you sign up to write one of the DC Batman titles you have control over what the character does today (within, I'm sure, some narrow rails as well) but none of it is permanent. None of it will 'stick'. You may write a great antagonist for him with a personal vendetta and a twisted relationship to the hero, and then the next writer after you might never reuse any of it or butcher the nuances that made it work, change its core themes into something completely different or... whatever. Comics are packed with this kind of thing.

It's a package deal. If we want control over a character, we can create one. If we play, write or use a canonical one with others - it's temporary. Our story will never be the definitive version. There is no definitive version.

@faraday Yeah and that's the thing, too. Some of us do have friends who send weird messages, start playing new games, join different guilds etc... and from whom randomness like that wouldn't be completely out of place.

@gremlinsarevil said in Don't Join Discord Servers!!!:

@juniper the message should really be more "Don't join random discord servers out of the blue."

That's the catch, it wouldn't appear to be out of the blue. One of your existing contacts would be 'inviting' you to join them.

@zombiegenesis said in Comic Games And Scope:

The Hulk, for instance. Superman is just as strong but can fly, is super fast, has heat vision, super-senses, etc. It's mitigated by the fact that on a Marvel game you might see someone like Hyperion or Blue Marvel or Sentry. Which is why I've played it, I've run it, and it's entirely possible I run one again someday. Even so, there is something about characters being less special.

Is that a real problem, though? I mean, is balance the reason you'd want to mix Marvel and DC characters in the first place? Or is it to see these different heroes interact?

Because balance doesn't work internally either. Superman has those powers in the DCU whereas say, Robin doesn't have any. And yet it's perfectly doable to have them share the screen in the right plot and as long as their players play them according to this dynamic.

I see no reason Superman and Daredevil wouldn't mix just based on their power sets.

Obi-Wan Kenobi might have started slow, and the first few episodes definitely had their flows...

... but what a goddamn finish. Damn.

@derp said in How do you discover books?:

@reimesu said in How do you discover books?:

@derp Luke? No. Leia was, but that's because she was adopted by royalty.

Yyyyeah but their mom was a queen, and then went on to be a galactic senator.

Right?

Padme wasn't royalty, that was 'just' the title she got as an elected representative of her people. Her children, if Anakin hadn't gone uh a little off the rails, wouldn't have had inherited titles even if she had lived to raise them.

Arise, thread, from the dead!

So recently I discovered there's a name for one of my favorite tropes in literature; progressive fantasy. That's the kind of book where a protagonist starts from humble beginnings, they go to some kind of school or undergo training, and then by the end of the story they become badass.

Examples of this include the Feist's Magician circle, Raven's Shadow by Anthony Ryan, Red Rising by Pierce Brown, The Magicians by Lev Grossman, etc.

I was also made aware there's a LitRPG 'free' genre out there that often follows those same tropes but the quality is very touch-and-go (as they are often written by unpublished, amateur authors so you get what you get) and they are actually a bit more mechanical than I'd like. Like... some of them actually have character sheets attached to their novels, which is too much.

Does anyone have book recommendations to make?

What might mitigate the loss is making sure that, along with the IC parts, you don't have to also suffer OOC loss.

For example in some games the character name itself is our identity. Our closest friends might now my PC, Bob died and now I'm playing Rick, but others who're not paying as close attention at a time might not. So chats, hanging out, all that other peripheral stuff might make the game feel lonelier for a while since when you're on it's not the same as before.

Then perhaps get busy creating associations again with your favorite people. You don't need to recreate the same affiliations, but coming up with good reasons to be regularly in scenes with the folks you're having the most fun with should be done right away as you design a new PC. That makes the transition much smoother and more fun than needing to carve not just a niche all over again but while missing people you like -- and who like you.

Just some ideas!

This is totally not me, fuck y'all.