@Wizz said:
Daaaaaaaaaamn, shit gets DARK in the anger thread. But seriously if you need to roll on them let us know.
Pfft, oh yeah. So much this. If you absolutely positively need a bunch of competent, discreet people to help you get away with committing a crime then never mention it again, MSB is your community.
@macha said in How do you construct your characters?:
Sometimes I will be randomly watching a movie or a show, and something sparks, then builds from there into a concept, etc.
I do that with books. Sometimes it ruins the book a bit for me ("oh, no, that plot twist wouldn't work for a MUSH", as if it was the writer's duty to ensure it could).
What astounds me is the widespread idea online that just because this season was disappointing to 'many fans' it will somehow harm the producers' career.
For starters the viewership was extremely high. You don't lose your job, or a potential job, because of criticism; you lose them because you didn't make money. Downvotes are unimportant compared to dollars as a metric.
For another everyone whines online. It's non-stop, no matter what's put out there someone will complain, demolish and hate it. It's basically required for all of those people to either not be on social media or to ignore it else they will go crazy. And if people will complain no matter what it's impossible to tell if they are right or wrong.
@bored said in The limits of IC/OOC responsibility:
Blame lazy staff, the ever present corrupt/just stupid need to give people feature characters, etc.
Although I agree we (as a whole) tend to copy things other games did without thinking through them too much, malevolence not necessarily the case here. Sometimes it's the source material that's responsible (cue all the Kushiel L&L games here) and other times the emphasis is elsewhere - I've criticized Arx at times but no one in their right minds would blame those people for being lazy or corrupt, you know?
I do agree that making the higher tiers of ranks both much more powerful and accessible cuts other roleplay right at the knees because if I can go to Jane Supernoble directly to get what I want, why would I bother bugging May Kindanoble about it? In a realistic world I probably wouldn't be able to get an audience as easily, or I wouldn't have enough to offer to be worth their effort, but on a MU* both Jane and May's players need to roleplay as much as I do so generally speaking the path of least resistance goes over May's head.
Once again I will mention resource management. It's the real missing piece from politics on MU*; without it granting favors, making meaningful political decisions and maintaining friends (or creating enemies) due to the cost of your choices bears a lot less weight. If you have such a system then it opens a lot more venues for alliances and out-maneuvering others.
Folks, I asked for advice - and I'm thankful for your insights.
However even if we disagree with someone can we please not dissect their every word looking for offense? Not only is that the wrong attitude for this forum but it's also not constructive.
Obviously women are not being treated fairly in the workplace and there's a lot we can and must do to address it but I don't think bringing down the temperature a notch on the thread will hinder our ability to discuss ways to do so.
@rook said in The Death Of Telnet: Is It Time To Face The Music?:
What I'm asking is: How would you completely redo MU* so that it is not command>output in two windows? Is that even a goal here?
As far as I'm concerned, the 'goal' is to let game creators be able - technically able - to design the interface they want.
With telnet you have basically no options.
Give game creators such options and someone will eventually come up with a way to cause a shift in paradigm.
It would also serve to make conversations such as the one you're trying to have actually productive more than purely theoretical, too... because, like it or not, at the moment we can just debate on what could be, but won't be, since there's no platform we can use to make it so. I'm not saying we shouldn't be talking about the possibilities, just that this explains why we're not getting in as much depth as we could - it's because it's sort of futile at the moment.
The latest episode of Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. was pretty damn good.
What an underrated show.
@faraday said in The Death Of Telnet: Is It Time To Face The Music?:
Given that the current state of affairs leads potential game-runners to "Step 1: Do you have a coder", I would turn that back and ask why the community really wants to put more onus on the coders. I'm not saying it has to be all rainbows and sunshine, but man... it's really hard to keep swimming upstream against a constant tidal wave of negativity.
I've no answers for you. If it helps though it's the same as anyone who steps up to do stuff we all need; PrP runners get bitched at, staff are routinely considered corrupt, strikingly handsome forum admins are told they suck, it's just how it is.
But if it helps, those are only the loud voices - and my unsubstantiated claim is that many of those haven't even MUSHed for some time. Most people just go by their day to day routines enjoying themselves and they're quite glad to see things being done for them; those are the ones you're actually working for.
If it helps. 
Garth Ennis is the comic-books equivalent of a shock-jock radio DJ. He's deliberately offensive and gross on the level of a maladjusted teenager, TBH. He and Mark Millar are two authors whose popularity I will never understand, and Amazon made the right choice in trimming down the content of the series. It's still very explicit and dark, but in a way that is mostly not completely cringey and awful.
It's funny that you mention that because I've been a fan of both writers - Ennis more than Millar - so perhaps I can share my perspective.
Both of these guys rely on shock value at times and they can go too far; in fact some of their finest moments are from when they skirt the line. As such they've both created some amazing comics in the past whose serious moments are right there at the top with any other authors; Ennis' Hellblazer run is downright iconic, his Hitman was so fucking good and in my opinion he created penned the definitive Punisher run as well. Millar I'm more torn on; the first year of Ultimates was pretty well done and then he just seemed to get lazy or too carried away - the second year wasn't nearly as good, and then the whole thing went to hell.
But Ennis has a trait I've seen only rarely - in that way I'd compare him with Terry Pratchett. He can write these weird-ass absurd situations and focus on humor then he can flip a fucking switch and blindside you completely, pivoting into really serious characterization and dramatic, intimate moments for his characters.
I describe Katee's character as "Starbuck, if she had her shit together"
I know what all these words mean but what you are describing does not compute.
@darinelle said in Coming Soon: Arx, After the Reckoning:
Which is not to say we don't run social plots. As GMs, we believe social/diplomatic characters are not only important but are important enough to build plot around.
It's just significantly harder to set up a successful social plot.
To run a good social plot you generally need to know the PCs involved, you need to manufacture a situation they can leverage their particular which in politics can take some effort, you have to come up with interesting NPCs and assign them distinct personalities to leverage those social skills against. The cynic in me must point out you also need to deal with players who try to fake having social skills through their ranks and poses even if their dice don't support it; if my high-strength duelist happens to also be the Voice for a House he can hijack the spotlight in a diplomatic meeting, but your quirky artist can't be in the frontlines of a jousting tournament as easily.
To run a combat plot you need a 5 minute setup ("orcs are raiding the village! go save them!") and your players are off to the races.
The path of least resistance mandates that while that's true more combat plots will be ran than social ones. Which means more players will pick combat-oriented characters since it provides them with access to stuff they can do. It's just how it is, unless considerable effort is placed in to keep this from happening (which would involve combatants not finding it as easy to rise to positions of authority as others can, for example).
@Warma-Sheen That is one take on the character - perhaps your favorite one, but not by any means the only interpretation. Keep in mind Logan has been around for decades and he's been written by multiple people, all with a bit of their own twist on him.
Logan has been as you describe him. He's also been seen as highly regarded, a team leader, a sought-out romantic partner (the guy has been around), an unstoppable killer, a father figure, etc. They are all him.
@ghost said in Social Systems:
Social rolls won't get rid of metagaming
I think three types of systems - in tandem, not individually - would help run a political landscape. It wouldn't get rid of metagaming, but it'd go a long way.
Social stats mattering to whatever degree the game deems appropriate and thematic, allowing characters like Littlefinger to exist.
Resource management offering the game the concept of consequences, without which politics are meaningless. If you don't have to make hard choices what are you doing?
Offering an incentive for people to lose. We can't seriously expect everyone to "like losing" or even to be okay with it - but give them something back so it's not a constant zero-sum game. Did you lose to a master politician? Damn, you must have learned something from them in the process! Get some XP, a modifier to future rolls, something.
Another factor I definitely pay attention to (but I don't know if it's as important to everyone) is how much effort staff puts in. How excited are they about their own game?
For instance if the game is small I expect staff to have more time to invest per PC, giving extra attention to giving hooks for RP, background tips... just going the extra mile. Or plots - they should be able to customize what's being done a great deal compared to running stuff that's a little more generic, as they'd have to do if they expected 5-7 characters from an active playerbase of a hundred.
But yeah, if you show up thrilled to be running your dream game you bet I'll respond to it. If you sit on the general channel and handle CGen no different than any other MU* then that kind of thing is contagious too.
@VulgarKitten said:
I would be okay with it. Who doesn't want some humor on their commute?
<raises a hand>
I want people on commute to be silent robots. At eight o'clock on the subway, don't talk. Whatever you do, don't you goddamn laugh. Or giggle, cut that shit out. Just stand/sit there and be taken to your place of daily torment in exchange for money already!
@sunny Nearly everything @Ghost mentioned applies to just about everything online, and people do need to be careful. There are ways to do that though, and for example:
Don't reuse passwords. Ever. You don't know who has access to them, how they are stored or if they get stolen regularly. There are plenty of services - LastPass is online, KeePassX uses files stored on your machine/phone - that can help you keep separate, distinct authentication for everything you use.
Have a throwaway e-mail account and use it for everything that's remotely sketchy. MUSH and games in general absolutely fall into that category - don't set your real name on it, just keep it as a mailbox you don't ever intend to check unless you need a password reset on the spot.
If you are downloading torrents or such it's always a good idea to have a proxy service. Mine costs something stupidly low like $15/year and the provider keeps no logs, but they mask your IP completely. Sure, if the NSA is after you they could probably work something out but Joe Asshole who runs the MUSH you pissed him off on will look at the IP you logged on from and see something from Miami or Florida when you've been to neither of those States in years.
Finally, and this goes without saying or it should... does anyone who visit MSB not understand there are simply people who don't like each other? Or that there are jerks among us - and I don't just mean "folks I don't like to RP with". Don't distribute your photos, address or identifiable information unless you want them to have it. I'm pretty confident that goes twice for female gamers but it's a good policy in general.
Just some ideas.
To me it's pretty simple; not everyone's playstyle is everyone else's favorite. Some of us like and prioritize some things (combat, mystery and horror, romantic/sexual tropes, writing styles and responsiveness, etc) different than others do.
In fact we've discussed most of those in great length in other threads right here.
As such we'll indeed go and find some fun playing with those whose strengths are in the same areas we enjoy. There's nothing wrong with any of this as long as we also don't go out of our way to be assholes to folks who just like different playing styles.
You'd think that's a low bar but it's not. How many times have we seen someone complain here that other people are locked in rooms together, heavily implying they are having teh tee-es, and being annoyed about it? How many times have we seen others shit all over a canon character out of entitlement? How dare they play Batgirl as a happy-go-lucky crime-fighter instead of a brooding uber-hacker? It's ruining everything!
It's a big hobby. Many different interpretations of fun fit within it, and maybe we just need to back off others, stop worrying as much about what entertains them and concern ourselves with our own sense of enjoyment.
I still can't get over just how good The Mandalorian is.
So glad that Rogue One style Star Wars storytelling didn't die with that one movie.
The production values in the premium TV shows these days is what blows my mind.
What they did in Game of Thrones, now with The Mandalorian, and they're promising to do the same with upcoming shows like the The Witcher, Lord of the Rings, Wheel of Time... Yes, a large part of that is money but also advances in technology, the incredible logistics to produce works spanning 10+ hours per year, the music scores, even writing screenplays for this different long format as we had TV before but it always required time for commercials, recaps, etc.
I just really hope it's sustainable.
@kanye-qwest My whole life I wanted to play on a Lord of the Rings MU*.
My whole life I have avoided doing so because players will destroy the fond feelings in my heart about the setting.
