Best posts made by Arkandel

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

I won't go over the er, finer points of TS here.

I will mention one thing though - if your only goal in meeting someone is TS just make it clear somehow. It's not always obvious on non-sex MU* and it makes a great deal of difference especially if the other character (or player) isn't into that... or you!

I've been in situations where I had active roleplay I enjoyed and once they figured my character was romantically unavailable they vanished, which can be pretty frustrating.

So I needed a power strip for the living room with more USB ports since by now the number of devices in the household is exceeding my original expectations.

Fine, I ordered one from Amazon. A few minutes later I realized that, hey, since I own a Google Home and the price difference between regular and smart power strips is pretty small I might as well get a new toy! Then I could do stuff like have the lamp turn on/off at certain hours of the day, etc... it could come in handy. So I canceled the order and put in a new one for a spiffy smart bar.

Hooray! There's a box waiting me when I got home from work a couple of days later. I open it, plug it in and start following the instructions I had pulled up online... but the damn thing doesn't want to connect to my wi-fi. "Hold the reset button until the light starts to blink", it says... but there's no reset button, there's just this unmarked little red button, and no matter how much I hold it nothing's blinking!

I must have spent thirty minutes under the coffee table going through various internet invocations to reset it. I'm a goddamn professional, I troubleshoot networking for a living! Why was this damn thing refusing to cooperate with something advertised as simple enough for commoners? Hell, it's supposed to take 30 seconds, why is it not working after I had tried everything?

And then it hit me... Amazon sent me the original order. The one I had cancelled.

I had just spent half an hour of my life trying to get a piece of old fashioned, dumb power strip to connect to the wi-fi.

Not my brightest moment.

Personally I have a decades-old policy; if I am ever on a game I come to feel I need to permanently log everything, I leave that game.

Fuck that noise.

Man, on MSB we can't even apologize without debating about it.

@2mspris "... that said, welcome to the game!"

Mine: Late 90's, a WoT MUD I staffed on was using a 'democratic system' to make decisions. That meant there wasn't really anyone in charge per se, anything was voted on by a committee, and the politics were pretty intense.

It had led to these long meetings - we're talking 4-5 hours each - to determine everything, which were spammy and boring as hell. Anyway, one of my RP partners at the time and I were TSing over pages while waiting for the next vote.

... And she maved, posing it into the room instead of sending it in a page to me. Did I mention her RL husband was the meeting's chairman?

There was a long silence afterwards, like 30 seconds of it while people read what was on their screens to make sure they saw it right... and then everything devolved into pure chaos.

Yeah.

@Thenomain said in Difference between an NPC and a Staff PC?:

When does an NPC become a Staff PC?

When the NPC serves a staff member, and they are not a plot device for a specific plot/sphere.

Some signs for such NPCs:

• they are played pretty frequently as opposed to just when it serves plot reasons
• they have special relationships (and spend more time) with some players who often happen to be friends with the staff member
• they are not allowed to switch hands and be played by a different staff member
• they resolve (rather than be catalysts for) plotlines with the PCs helping them rather than the other way around
• they fit most definitions of a Mary Sue even if they happen to be 'tormented' in unique, snowflake-ish ways

As you can tell this happens often enough that it's pretty cliche.

Speaking as a Storyteller, not as a player.

I always wanted PCs who are overwhelmed or afraid for their lives. IC speaking there are many brave people around, many stupid people around and many weird people around but few who actually let the plot get to them; who will take a long wide-eyed look at the insanity of a situation and allow it to make them go 'nope, nope, shit, I'm outta here' instead of ... well, instead of treating it like a TV show where it doesn't really matter what happens because everything will turn out okay in the end.

It's rare to see it as a Storyteller. I bring in NPCs the characters have every reason to fear but they don't show it. They'll give lip, stand defiant, try to negotiate... but they won't ever lose their composure, back down or be intimidated. Sometimes I'd like that as well, to see the hopelessness sink in. Everyone conquers their fears, it seems.

I don't know if this is a rant or a request for comments but here goes.

I've been running PrPs on Arx which has been fun; for starters there are always people (so...many...people) which means I never had to postpone things because no one showed up. For another the system is super easy to use - for the uninitiated there's a @check command which is the equivalent of +roll/+dice on other MU*, and since there is no official mechanical system you just roll whichever stats you want, such as say, dexterity+athletics... and that's it. It couldn't be simpler, which was a godsend for me since I figured it'd focus people on posing.

However!

This is hardly an Arx-specific thing but I really wish some players would stop trying so hard to be nonchalant and cool as a cucumber about everything that's happening. Building atmosphere while dealing with a large number of people, most of whom are OOC unknown to the runner, is tricky to begin with without having characters show up literally yawning about the possibility of assassination attempts and demonic invasions. On top of this I introduced challenges (tied to metaplot after discussions with staff) to which OOC response was somewhat lukewarm - it's as if as long as it doesn't involve apocalyptic-level events that can wipe civilization if they aren't stopped it's not worth their time.

This is a pretty hard issue to solve. I don't know that it can happen on the ST level. If constant escalation is the only way to keep things interesting that's a dead end plot-wise.

The other thing is... it's no secret Arx has an emerging dino issue since people - especially ones present in alpha - have a crapton of XPs and gear, but public scenes even now consist very clearly of the haves and have nots. The same challenge ("climb a wall") is barely made or failed by some while others score as much as three times the necessary difficulty they need to achieve it. This effect is only going to become more prominent and it will increasingly turn newbies and casual players irrelevant; it's disheartening to play a healer when the person next to you is a better healer but also a superb swordsman and expert politician who's also a High Lord with a glowing sword that talks and solves crossword puzzles.

Overall the activity level is so high things continue to be fun, but I'm curious to see if others have ran into similar challenges. Perhaps this is just what I've encountered so far and it's more anecdotal than I think it is. For the time being what I'll do is limit the scope of upcoming PrPs and aim them at smaller, more focused groups to see if that works better.

@hobos said in Wish Fulfillment RP:

Thought this was really insightful. I definitely notice people reacting with OOC unhappiness rather than IC play sometimes when their concept is challenged by another's IC play. I do find it a problem but it's also human nature and seems to happen whether or not wish fulfillment is involved. Here's an example: a player is trying to roleplay a benevolent mafia boss named Ruff Dooley.

Yes. My (quite real, albeit from a few years ago) example of this was when a friend rolled a chef in a World of Darkness game... and an existing PC's player who also happened to be a chef complained to staff about it. There can be only one. This was in a game set in freakin' New York, too.

@devrex said in Wish Fulfillment RP:

In a tabletop, if Player A takes a wizard you don't take the wizard, you take the cleric or the rogue or the fighter. It's the same impulse that has people asking "what does the game need?"

Also yes. This comes from a place of social insecurity. "If I just play <X> people will want to hang out with me". Of course that's a fallacy; it's nearly never the concept that matters, it's how they are played. How fun you, the player, are is an infinitely bigger draw than what's on your sheet.

That all said, there is *still nothing wrong with wish fulfillment. Play that elegant, sexy, deadly Fae assassin whose parents were murdered by vampire mobsters and grew up being trained by ninjas. Fucking go for it, why the hell not? Just... don't begrudge anyone else for being special, too, or compare their flavor of 'special' to yours, and it'll all work out in the end.

@Coin Yeah - what I don't understand, and I don't mean that sarcastically, is how anyone who's watched The 100 can expect most characters to not be total assholes to each other. Especially among the delinquents, those kids on the show were goddamn jerks.

It's like going to a hardcore Vampire political game and hating backstabbing and snarky attitudes. Hell, it's probably not entirely unlike playing an FPS if what you're looking for is a first-person RPG.

Games can't be all things to all people and, more importantly, they shouldn't.