@Vorpal What I'm not sure about is how they'll launch the next Avengers movie without having to spend the first hour dealing with the fallout of this one.
Spidey and Thor 3 are coming next year and Black Panther is followed closely by Avengers: Infinity War in 2018, and only the Hulk is part of Thor 3... so unless Black Panther is is, it's hard to see it.
But since the Russo brothers are also in charge of Avengers now I have a lot of faith in them to pull it off.
@kay I use it too. Of course it's such an ancient piece of software it's starting to develop its little quirks; for example copy+pasting out of it on Windows 10 works... inconsistently.
@Derp Way I'd do a Dark Sun setting is stick the PCs in an oppressive theme; a very powerful Sorcerer-King whose rule is lax, allowing plenty of corruption to seep into every level of local government. Characters would need to hide their true intentions from the law, play nobles working on their own agendas, work as Templars or be wizards on the run themselves.
Throw in an external threat (another slightly more powerful City-State is looking their way seeking to enslave/kill everyone) to give people a second long-term baddie and reason to not allow the inevitable resistance movement have a quick victory - unless that's also part of the plan. The challenge is to offer the latter things to do which are meaningful and go somewhere in a sustainable way without allowing them an immediate resolution.
By pinning PC factions against each other but giving them a good reason due to the dual threat to not simply go into an all-out war you can have politics (traditionalists versus reformists, loyalists versus rebels), variety of roles for PCs to play, and the unstable balance of power could allow for some interesting twists (if you have the chance to off your Sorcerer King, do you take it, since he's one of the main reasons the city's enemies hesitate to attack?). Etc.
I'd play that.
Sometimes I wonder if we're regressing. Or maybe we're just in a two-steps forward one-step back phase.
For instance I read that in the 80s when they were writing Beverly Hills Cop Axel Foley wasn't black in the script; he had no race. Eddie Murphy just took him, made him his and the fact he was black gave him a better edge (on top of Murphy's own mad talent at the time of its peak).
That's what I'd like. Characters who are played by whoever can do a better job, as long as we avoid pointless blackface phenomena. As long as it's not a stretch, that's all I can ask.
So... dunno, if you pick Scarlet Johansson for a role in an A-list movie that's gonna cost $100m I can kinda understand the producers - they needed a big name for their big-tent film. But if that's going to be a distraction in the script then it shouldn't happen anyway, it'll just detract from the movie ('why did this white girl grow up and went to school in Japan?' isn't a question that was asked at all in Ghost in the Shell).
@SG said:
@FiranSurvivor said:
Now its starting to sound like Harry Potter but with tits, swords, and monsters.... Hm.
Every time you TS with someone you have to give them a sexy
trading cardSTD?
FTFY. 
One of the main hurdles about most fantasy novel-derived games is geography.
A large number of at least the most popular ones - for a reason - revolve around things taking place in different locales around their world. That lets the reader become exposed to a complex political and social web of relationships, antipathies and plot lines as they are brought together.
This doesn't translate well at all to a game. If you have things happening in say, three very interesting areas on your grid which are separated by weeks of travel (and your setting doesn't allow for seamless, easily accessible teleportation or the such) then you're effectively splitting up the playerbase by forcing them to either be resigned to the fact there are people they will rarely interact with or stretch suspension of disbelief by meeting the guy who's regularly at Castle Black one day and King's Landing the next.
So that should be resolved before the game opens.
@Ganymede said in Good or New Movies Review:
This isn't just any generic A-list film, however. It is an A-list film based on material that has a very strong connection to Japanese culture. I mean, you wouldn't cast a Scotsman as an Egyptian God, right?
Oh wait.
I wouldn't cast a Scotsman as a Spartan either but... damn. 
@ganymede said in Let's talk about TS.:
1. Set boundaries: You have limits. Declare your limits.
Absolutely agreed. I liked your earlier comment too - once you know what your limits are, don't change them. Not for anyone. Not even and especially if they push.
3. Then set expectations: How often do you want TS? Is it a garnish or the main course when you come online? (Yes, double-entendre there, har har, GTFO.)
That's a tough issue to bring up, I think. A poster here brought up in a recent thread she had someone as-a-joke-but-not-really-hah-hah complain about the regularity of TS, and I've been shared pages in the past by people who explicitly state that's what they're on the game for.
Basically this whole thing works - shockingly! - when both people involved want the same thing. What I'm wondering is how often folks are honest, either to themselves or to their partners, about how often they do want this to happen. Is it a fallback on a rainy day when not much else is happening or the, as you aptly put it, main course?
4. Then discuss what you like: Do you prefer the grinding, descriptive, purple-prose TS, or the light-hearted, fun-having TS that leads to injuries and escapades?
Another sensitive point here is that in the early stages it might seem presumptious to start the conversation at all. You meet someone you don't know too well OOC yet - maybe you're chatting in pages about video games or whatever, then RP starts heading into that kind of direction... it's a step forward to start busting out the sex questions.
1. Never give out personal information.
Agreed. Not just for TS, for anything online. For me even Facebook is reserved to very very few people.
2. Never talk about RL sex partners, past or current.
I mean, whatever works for people, but it seems like a huge red flag if anyone does. Talking about marrital issues while you're posing bumping uglies isn't just crossing the IC/OOC line, it's more like setting it on fire.
3. Never agree to chat, swap pics, or otherwise interact away from the MUSH of this forum.
Danger, danger!
@WildBaboons That's because the universe doesn't conspire to provide the exact right circumstances and showcase how brilliant a politician is on games like it does in books.
@Ganymede said in Good or New Movies Review:
Being Chinese, this fills me with an immense amount of loathing. That said, if they could make Kingpin and Stick compelling ...
I think producers underestimate us. I get both major arguments being used here; that they need A-list names for big productions and to create a sense of identification in their intended audiences ('white folks identify better with white characters'). They are just wrong.
The new Star Wars movies seem to work really well - and they are led by ladies. Ray isn't a great heroine, she's a great character, and I can't wait to watch Rogue One when it comes out. Would I have liked a kick-ass Jedi guy spinning lightsabers? Sure, I watched Anakin do it for two movies and it was kind of blah, not because he wasn't male enough but because those films sucked. Conversely I can't bear to watch Aeon Flux or Resident Evil, but that's not because females star as action heroes in those, it's because they were horrible!
Make a good movie, make it make sense and it will work. Don't and it won't.
How hard is that?
@kestrel said in Let's talk about TS.:
In my experience I'm almost alone in this within the MU* community (or maybe alone in being honest about this?) but most of my RL partners have been fully aware of my text-hobby and would consider TS cheating.
What you probably never want to do is be on the flipside of that.
In the late 90s I had an IC relationship with someone's RL wife who was also playing on the MUD, and he was having TS as well... until his regular partner dumped his character. Things went poorly after that, and in fact it was one of the few instances of real drama I ever encountered. This was beyond my control, and it's even arguable communication wouldn't have helped as by the time anyone (including my own IC partner) was aware there was a problem it was too late to resolve it or salvage a lot of ongoing RP which ended up having to be basically scrapped.
On every occasion when someone disrespected my request (e.g. attempted to initiate sexy stuff after I'd specifically said I wasn't cool with that), it was abundantly clear that they had serious mental health issues and that I should avoid engaging with them regardless, so I wasn't sorry to cut them loose.
What I don't want to communicate is stuff that should be self-evident.
For example there's no such thing as OOC exclusivity, jealousy, any of that. Basically if these things need to be explained then there really won't be a need for them to.
Even my time (and not just for TS) is my own, within limits; sure, if I suddenly stop playing for two weeks I should let people know, but I don't want to explain myself about not logging on one night when I was tired or went to bed early.
@Ganymede You know what's funny though? A lot of us have said this exact thing, and yet it's yet to be done. At some point the-collective-we need to put our money where our mouths are.
@Vorpal And yet that lady is so easy on the eyes.
@peasoupling There's probably an argument for squicks to be a thing even on non-sex based games. I mean... I don't see what they could hurt.
If you never want pregnancy RP just stick it in there. Wait, are we doing phrasing?
@Roz No, it's Ithil, the new MUSH I uh, started and erm yeah.
No way have I edited my post.
My heartbreak was Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Never before have I been so wrong about expecting a series to be bad, and then they went and cancelled it.
The new wave of film/TV critics blogging 'journalists'.
Clickbait, 100% of them. Commonly attacking the most successful movies and shows based on wild speculation and sensationalist articles without any substance - "will Rogue One be a massive failure for Disney? It seems to be wasting its cast!". What? It's not even close to being out, all we have is a freakin' trailer! "It might be trying too hard to stay in the timeline of existing movies so it can't have its own identity".
Or while Game of Thrones is drawing near-record ratings I've seen no less than three Yahoo! first page articles attacking it ("has it become really predictable? Is this the beginning of the end? They are running out of villains.") The real villains of the show have barely been seen and its big-time players are still ascending, what the...
'Clickbait' should be a swear word.
@templari The song is such an earworm... I first listened to it when WoW first launched and at any given time I can replay it in my head