@tragedyjones said:
Date girl for a few weeks, have slight falling out, remain friends. Feelings grow, she gets a boyfriend. See each other, romance rekindles much stronger. Wait too long, she is afraid to leave her boyfriend and I won't see her while she has one.
Just one question - you won't see her while she's with someone and that's fine. Do you think if you would that she'd go for it?
Because if so then that's a pretty bad mark right there for the lady.
Is this an unpopular opinion? The exact mechanics, XP availability, city selection and aspirations code aren't very significant in terms of making a flagpole game.
IMHO staff selection, plot availability and setting (meaning making different interesting concepts available, so think 'post apocalyptic' or 'dark ages' rather than 'Chicago') are all far, far more impactful.
Second opinion: these days modern codebases matter. An Ares nWoD MUSH would be something to see.
@Auspice said in Which text editor?:
only one is correct.
I want you to be honest here. How bored were you when you made this thread? 
@Livia said in What game system would you prefer for a big-tent nWoD project?:
@Pyrephox said in What game system would you prefer for a big-tent nWoD project?:
Depends on how much RP I get. The only CoD game I'm on, getting any RP at all is pretty hard, and I've been faded myself with work stuff, so none in the last few weeks. But before that? 3-4 a week, assuming a scene a day. Fewer scenes, usually fewer Aspirations (although sometimes you get lucky!)
I get that it varies, based on activity and availability, sure. But that still feels like so much 'paperwork' to me.
YMMV.
My experience is that a significantly smaller number of people files for aspirations at all than those who do.
The ironic thing about that is, on games with a limited XP 'income' in general that alone creates disparities due to diminishing returns.
I must be seriously unpopular. Nobody tells me anything about anyone else's personal life.
Careful what you wish for...
@Ganymede said in What game system would you prefer for a big-tent nWoD project?:
For a MUSH, I don’t really mind if the Aspiration system were pulled, but you really have to have Conditions for CoD to work properly.
I think it works fine. There's no reason to not have it there, especially since there are legitimate uses for it.
The thing is many players don't like filing for things on a near constant basis. That gives an advantage to those who do.
The answer should be a system that rewards XPs in different ways and caps or puts the weekly behind diminishing returns so some players can't dip their toes into every pool to get ahead.
@WildBaboons said in RL Anger:
Or Arkandel will start detailing all the aches and pains in his old, decaying husk of a body.
I wonder what the character limit is for posts.
@Pyrephox said in What is the 'ideal' power range?:
It's a struggle to accommodate them in the typical 'find thing, beat up thing' plot without making it either trivial for them or impossible for anyone who isn't them. I think a game has to be built to give them an arena that really showcases the privileges and perils of power...and most games aren't.
I agree and I like your phrasing. Let me go down that path a bit.
The majority of plots on MU* tend to be one of two things; either combat-oriented "find thing, kill thing" as you call it, or social get-togethers. There is no deep reason for this other than convenience - although it's definitely possible to run different scenes as well these are easier and don't require the ST/GM to know much in advance about the characters who'll be joining.
For example if I create an +event to go kill a Bad Thing up in the mountains the footwork needed in advance is pretty limited. I don't even have to know who's going to join (which might be decided based on who's online at the time, no matter who signs up).
However throw high level characters at this and it's all different. Why does it take two Archwizards and the Lord Captain of the Paladins to down an owlbear? I'd have to turn it into a dragon instead, but then what about the two squires and the fledgling bard who joined as well, what is their role in the party? I'm either going to challenge the highbies by things that would decimate the lowbies, or I'm going to bore the former with the trivial threats I throw at them. Either way that won't be fun for half the participants.
This isn't to say that plot runners are lazy. It's that we all tend to take the path of least resistance, and that includes creating themes for entire MU*.
Now here's the rub: How are these issues best solved? For example is a forced power curve successfully addressing the problem given @Tinuviel's point earlier about mechanical stagnation when effectively there is no longer a progression? Does gameplay suffer in a different area when the carrot of power advancement is no longer present, effectively treating one issue but creating another elsewhere?
@Ghost That's basically every single CW show. About 70% of the plot would be gone if only people with every reason to talk to each other spoke to each other.
@Ghost Although this lingers close to being out of topic, if you think of "the IP" as "common ground recognizable by players" then it becomes easier to see.
I might not have the time or inclination to invest in a new fantasy game - whether that means learning the lore or the mechanics. However if I know it's D&D set in the Forgotten Realms there's an instant association in my head with what it entails; it might be the d20 system or that there's a city called Waterdeep somewhere, there are sorcerers and bards and paladins, but the familiarity itself is informative and I get to make an easier, more informed choice of whether to play there.
I don't know what Once Upon A Time In Hollywood was about ('Hollywood', probably) but I know I loved it and I couldn't stop watching until the end.
***=Also I spent the whole movie waiting to see if Brad Pitt's character would kick as much ass as it was hinted in the trailer***
@Kestrel said in Gap between RP fantasy and RP reality:
I was expecting the conclusion of this post to be 'find another game', because that's what I thought the first two paragraphs were building up to. And that's what I would do if I really wanted to play a scarred up war vet who kept getting dragged into birthday party RP! Sounds to me like a clash between player interests vs. existing game culture & setting.
Why mangle your desired character concept to suit a game that can't provide what you really want?
Because just like sometimes life gives you lemons, MU* give you birthday parties. And sure, you could drift off, try to perservere or try your luck with a different crowd in the same game, or you need to adjust.
While we're in control of our PCs and despite what the game's theme is, other people factor very heavily into what we actually get to do on the grid. Sometimes you sign up for gritty survival (since that's what the wiki implies) but get Zombieland instead. You could leave and look for gorier pastures but it's not the only option.
@Auspice The one thing about books-versus-TV is that the budget for books is unlimited. For TV in shows like this sometimes either the special effects look crappy for what they're trying to portray or the script is written in a way that doesn't expose them.
But overall the Magicians is exceptionally well made, and the casting works on every level.
@LittleLizard On top of what others have said, make sure there are provisions in place to keep the plot rolling even if the initial group of PCs are no longer present for it.
These days any plot that takes more than 2-3 weeks from beginning to finish has to account for this since you can't quite count on players sticking around in the game. Folks disappear.
If only Bob, Jane and Jane know about the artificial black hole your mad scientist is building underneath the city to destroy it and these three just stop logging on, but others are still interested, you need to have a way to engage them without logical inconsistencies or starting from scratch.
@Roz said in Good or New Movies Review:
Haven't seen the latest movie yet, but it's absolutely nuts that there wasn't an outline and narrative arc planned out for the trilogy as a whole.
Like how Darth Vader's arc or even relationship to Luke (or for that matter, Luke's relationship to Leia) was meticulously planned out in the original trilogy? 
Just call this guy's bluff and make a thread on MSB about him!
How do you make it interesting though? What sets the SoIaF apart from any other generic low-magic fantasy setting - for me, at least - is the plot, its particular setup of interesting characters, political stability being torn apart by a dynamic from internal and external forces at the same time, etc.
A GoT game placed in some other non-book related time period (and I'm including the Egg and Dunk stories in this) won't have the advantage of using tropes other book series-inspired games arguably have. For instance a Mistborn or Wheel of Time game would still have the rules of magic for characters to play with, but what would differentiate this from any other gritty/realistic world?
@Lemon-Fox said in Good or New Movies Review:
@Arkandel said in Good or New Movies Review:
Star Wars - The Rise of Skywalker Pitch Meeting
Cool link! Still enjoyed the movie.
Oh, it wasn't meant as criticism anyway. All of the Pitch Meeting videos make fun of the material and find plot holes, even for movies the guy who creates them loves. Watch the Endgame one, for example.
One of my many rules of thumb is that if I ever need to 'keep logs of everything' what I really "need" to do is stop playing that game.