Best posts made by Arkandel

@Kestrel said in Good TV:

@Admiral said in Good TV:

https://io9.gizmodo.com/orlando-jones-has-reportedly-been-fired-from-american-g-1840432889

Well that's a shame, I liked that show, and he was the best part of it. Guess I won't be watching Season 3 and onwards.

EDIT: Scratching my head here as to why anyone would make this decision. Did they read the book? Did they read that chapter in New Orleans? Why on Earth would anyone think Mr Nancy's speech was "too much" for a show based on this book?

Why would they fire an actor for the lines he spoke? Did he act them out badly?

@Admiral said:

I know zilch about coding but I'm curious about why every game that comes out is on its own server.

It's basically like this:

A server is a machine. It doesn't run 'games', it runs all sorts of things, some of which are games like a MU. It's very rare these days for a server other than some piece of hardware in someone's literal basement to be used for just one game, since it's extremely wasteful. You know the port any MU ever uses (6000, 8100, whatever)? That's so the server knows which of these more-than-one programs it's running you're talking to.

What MU* runners usually rent is a share on a server. You're given some space on their drives, access to their database, etc.

An address is just that - it's an arrow pointing at the server above. More than one of those arrows can point to the same server. It's the port that differentiates which is which.

So for example a server like mechanipus.com can (and does) run a bunch of games. Eldritch conducts its business at port 6666.

Would it be possible to have a single MUSH address host multiple games? You appear in the start room when you make a character and then select which game you play from the list available and go from there.

I think what you're talking about isn't different games. It's one game with different grids, staffs with +job buckets of their own, and a central nexus with exits leading to those different grids. But you'd also need separate channels, +events, separate controls so staff from one game can't spy on players from the others, etc.

It's not necessarily a bad idea, you could try to flesh it out further, but the administrative logistics is what could do it in even before you can solve the code issues of segregating every single thing between the sub-grids. The overhead might make it save less than you may think it should compared to the traditional model, but once you explain how you'd deal with the above maybe there could be merit in it.

It's not really an 'anger' thing, but that's because I don't know what the appropriate emotion is for something like this.

I was reading an article on my Facebook feed about the anniversary of the massacre of Kalavryta where basically Nazis executed a whole bunch of civilians in retaliation for the local resistance.

What got my attention from that is the story of an Austrian soldier among them who opened the door of the burning school building they had put women and children and allowed them to escape. When the German General (Karl von Le Suire - he didn't end very well, since he died in captivity after Stalingrad, which I'm okay with) found out he had him summarily executed.

So this is what gets me though. There's no mention of that soldier's name anywhere. He did something insanely brave at great personal risk - and he's just "that Austrian soldier".

@Apos I've had someone tell me my RP style was close to someone who had stalked them, and although it wasn't likely I was that person, they couldn't take the chance I might be.

So yeah, I guess it happens.

P.S. I wasn't!

@Auspice said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

My dumb ass wore the wrong glasses today.

I think the issue is you put glasses on wrong.

To me the unsolvable problem with GoT as a MU* (same as many fantasy worlds) is always population fragmentation.

Unless you're willing to handwave the logistics of getting from A to B (which is doable but it'd destroy my suspension of disbelief in the long run) or to sacrifice entire chunks of cool places people can play at, you're going to end up with some of your players in King's Landing, others at the Wall, etc.

And that sucks.

@Coin said in RL Anger:

@Derp said in RL Anger:

@mietze said in RL Anger:

Maybe guys would feel scared in that way though, dunno.

I actually had a guy I knew 10 years ago show up where I work and start with the smalltalk. Wasn't no big thang. Dudes, we think in different ways, I think. I still hang out with that dude, we went and saw Batman v Superman this weekend.

Did he show up specifically to find you?

Also, it's not so much "dudes think in different ways" as it is "society teaches dudes that inappropriate things are okay", which is what was being said above.

It's also different on a physical level. Most guys either can take care of themselves - or at least think they can which for the purposes of being concerned amounts to about the same thing - if someone got weird.

For example I've lived in some iffy neighborhoods in the past, I never thought twice about going out in the dark to grab something from the convenience store or whatever. Or walking to a parking lot on my own, etc.

@SG said:

How much of the campaign do you foreshadow?

Foreshadowing is fine, telegraphing everything is not. You can be coy and a certain amount of that can work great to build anticipation, but let it sit for too long and it gets stale. Your players will just want to get to the part where the payoff's at.

To give an example.

A while ago I ran a plot in a fantasy game where Warder trainees were being taken around the Borderlands (a hard place next to the Blight where hordes of monsters resided) to show them how people there survived under such a constant threat. So I took them to an old fort, made sure to drop hints - it was under disrepair, it hadn't seen active duty in decades, the only soldiers manning it were old veterans and disfavoured grunts - so it was pretty obvious to the players a siege was coming, it was just a matter of time.

So allowing the upcoming fight to generate tension is a good thing. But if I let it stay at that over a certain point the same people I'm counting on to be excited and nervous will get complacent and bored - the more time passes without the other shoe dropping the more annoying it gets as they get into conversations about the state of the world (yawn, they can do that outside a plot) and generic tactical chats ('this is how I'd defend that ancient iron gate') when they could be struggling to stay and keep each alive under wave after wave of flesh-eating monsters.

Then I can (and should) give them time to have those exact conversations between waves, which carries far more value. Now they're bonding in the face of death, not having a bar conversation.

Foreshadowing is one tool you have as a Storyteller but so is pacing. They both need to be engaged for either to work.

@HorrorHound said in RL Anger:

So, do you guys normally froth and bark at each other like this?

Sure, but for the most part it's well natured. I habitually disagree with people (who're wrong all the time, obviously) I have a lot of respect for.

@faraday said:

@Arkandel said:

But it is. I mean it's still considerate to ask before joining but if you're in an actual public place - I'm not talking the back room of a bookstore but a busy restaurant or something - then being annoyed if someone walks in is unreasonable.

Being annoyed if they walk in is unreasonable, but so is being annoyed if you walk in, ask to join and they tell you 'no'.

But that's what I'm saying, it depends on the context.

For starters and before I say anything else, I'm not staying for a scene where I'm not wanted. That'd be ... well, it wouldn't happen.

Otherwise if the scene is about people talking on their own then yes, trying to butt in - especially if they're not particularly welcoming, let alone actively adverse to the idea - is a douche move. But if it's about something else that specifically draws attention and invites intervention fuck that. If my character pulls a gun in a downtown restaurant at lunch time I don't get to tell people they can't be there because they might call the cops or try to stop him and that 'ruins it for me'. It's not cool.

If the setting is some seedy watering hole in a bad part of town at 1 am then there's an argument to be made.

It's all context dependent.

@Kanye-Qwest said in RL Anger:

@Arkandel said in RL Anger:

@Kanye-Qwest said in RL Anger:

Seriously, @mietze, you need to lighten up and learn to take a compliment. Maybe if you ask nicely (or just state your own perspective) Derp will tell you how should react to things.

You make me facepalm even when I'm agreeing with you. You do the cause you're trying to defend more damage than good by defending it the way you do.

Wait. Which cause am I damaging (instead of defending), here?

You are too eager to jump down people's throats and throw sarcastic, hostile comments around when you disagree with them; it seems important to you that there are sides, that there is a conflict, and that someone is out to get you so you're hitting back as hard as possible.

This makes it hard to hold a dialogue. Other people aren't the enemy, every argument doesn't need to be turned into a personal attack.

No, I agree, that's a more annoying phenomenon. I don't always mind (and often want) new people to come in and give the scene a jolt but not always, and it's impolite to assume - especially when the setting is kinda public but not a lot. I mean I get it, people are bored in a room waiting for something - anything - to happen and then something is so they just want to be part of it, but when a bunch do so the original scene is buried under walls of text from all these newcomers. That's not fair.

Asking first is never a bad idea, and please be prepared to take 'no' for an answer. It's not personal if there are already 4 people there and your inclusion would swell the numbers further.

@deadculture said in RL Anger:

I think you defeat that sort of lapse in rationale with good arguments, not mockery.

Mockery only serves to infuriate and dig one's personal view further into a trench.

Yes, basically. If someone is wrong you attack the arguments, not the person.

What does mockery achieve? Sure, it makes you feel better for a couple of minutes but so what?

@Sovereign said:

@Arkandel

I was unaware the word's meaning was arcane. Is there something wrong with the dictionary definition?

I think so -but @Roz's post covers my answer as well.

I've seen (and sometimes but not always have been part of) groups doing their own thing on the side. It's usually when they have at least one active ST with a story to tell for them so they have a strong internal theme running.

So there are different layers of exclusion to consider. In this case 'outsiders' aren't going to be necessarily invited in, even though I don't think I've ever seen that happen - sooner or later there are crossovers, new romantic interests, etc to blend the lines of who's part of the group or not. But then again that doesn't mean the group isn't interacting with the game in general, participating in its metaplot, diversifying its interests by reaching out to make connections outside of itself.

So it's up to you (the generic 'you' that is) to decide if that's a clique, and if so, whether it's detrimental to the game due to its internal insider-only access to certain resources and plot devices. In other words if being a clique is an undesired formation or if it's a building block of like-minded individuals with a strong identity.

@Apos But are they jarred out of it? If I responded to your disagreement with insults for example it'd have been as likely to put you on the defensive and just dismiss everything I'm saying ('Arkandel is just a fucking idiot' - you might actually have been right about that ) as to actually take what I argued under consideration.

It's very difficult to look at someone calling you names and admit they have a point at the same time, you know?

And some staff just have a specific kind of game in mind. If you have (what you consider) a great idea for a Vampire sphere with its politics and metaplot, you might not want to dilute that by adding Werewolf on top of it.

But yeah, some splats work better in multi-sphere environments than others.

@surreality said in RL things I love:

I am prepared, MSB. I am prepared for you today!

<MSB sees your bet and raises you a normal Friday TS drama>

How are you planning to keep it from being an island-sphere (doing its own thing aside from all the others) and at the same time keeping its identity (so the PCs aren't merely yet another weird kind of Superfriends)?