Posts made by Arkandel

@thenomain said in Using an SSD as cache (Windows 10):

@wildbaboons said in Using an SSD as cache (Windows 10):

But why? If you're already using an SSD there will be no benefit. You'll just be copying from one ssd to another

I have one SSD for the OS, and one HDD for many programs. (coughgamescough)

I only use HDDs for backups, generic downloads and stuff I absolutely don't care about access times. For example media I play off of my Plex server don't need to be on an SSD, but games would fall into that category - for me.

@pyrephox said in Mismatched themes and expectations:

As to why? Mostly just that. Everyone has something that really revs their engine, and barring strong guidance from a GM, a lot of players will want to bring that into every game they play.

Correct, and it's so hard to even inform your players what you would like to be portrayed let alone distinguish between them simply being creative and trying to think outside the box - which is a wanted commodity - and disrupting what you want portrayed in the first place.

For instance consider a post-apocalyptic setting. The idea staff have in their heads might be something hardcore, dealing with resource depravation and the trauma of losing their way of life, but I come along and I'm interested in playing out how to return to a civilized state; maybe I'm playing a scientist who knows how to make solar panels, and my goal is to turn the rough settlement into a Flintstones-like utopia.

How does staff reconcile the two visions, or should they? Is it better that I get The Talk, or to deal with it IC as I'm presented with the challenges inherent in such a difficult task? Should I be allowed to be successful and, if so, to what degree?

Ultimately where is the line between me trying to play out something I think is cool, and turning the game into something its runners don't?

@sunny The only agenda I care about is civil discourse. If the consensus is indeed that this is a non-issue and that it's been used in the past to falsely portray trends or disguise them as something they are not then that's fine.

But for example I remember - I think it was @Cobaltasaurus - who was distraught on TR while she was trying to start then run a exploration/adventure based Mage sphere and it was forced into becoming a political one instead.

So this does appear to happen, and it has an impact on games, which seems to warrant a conversation.

@lithium said in MU* Gripes and Peeves:

@arkandel said in MU* Gripes and Peeves:

Although I agree with the sentiment regarding TS-shaming, the original tangent was triggered by the question of why would people go to a certain kind of game when they're looking for something else. So why a well populated game if they only want to play with very specific people? Why a diverse game if what they are after is a specific kind of theme (which could be sex, or highschool RP or hardcore politics or MLP or whatever else).

This sometimes causes friction since these folks try to introduce or overemphasize their desired tropes, overriding the intended theme.

Any theories on it?

Probably deserves it's own thread Ark

Go on, you savages. Theorize!

@auspice said in Favourite Quote (Inspirational or Otherwise):

@arkandel said in Favourite Quote (Inspirational or Otherwise):

No one else here has a growing document of usable quotes for future character inspiration and wiki pages? I know it ain't so.

I just hit up https://www.brainyquote.com/, tap a few topics relevant to the character, grab a dozen or so quotes, shuffle through them to find the ones that feel right and steadily drill down until I get the ones I want.

If I tried to keep a document it'd be too massive and unwieldy.

I keep the best of what I ran across books, web pages or even lyrics because sooner or later they will come in handy. I'd say I have about 30-40 of those, some more readily usable than others.

No one else here has a growing document of usable quotes for future character inspiration and wiki pages? I know it ain't so.

Yeah, I've been using google search for our domain for years. The built-in nodebb functionality is terrible - I suppose I can look if there's a plugin that works better than the default.

This last page in the thread is beyond me.

I'll go with an inspirational one.

Today I'll do what others won't so tomorrow I can do what others can't.

@theonceler Eh, it's still an iconic Spidey villain we haven't seen in a movie. And the visuals are cool.

I mean who are we left with that would translate well to the big screen without being a ripoff of another character or too reliant on continuity (which would confuse the hell out of new audiences), yet feels like a real threat for Peter?

@jaded Oh sure, they could run Maximum Carnage or whatever (although I bet you Carnage will end up being the generic evil scientist CEO guy from the trailer in the first movie).

But even then there'll be no personal connection. Peter won't feel guilty about the symbiote since, well, he won't have had a hand in releasing it into the world... Venom and Carnage will simply be just... villains to him, same as any other.

I feel it's a missed opportunity. Spidey plotlines work best when there's guilt involved.

Anyone else kind of annoyed the Venom movie looks like will have no connections to Spider-man at all?

Aside from OMG COMICS CONTINUITY the symbiote won't be obsessed with Peter, there won't be a reason for all the spider motifs (logo on the chest, webs), etc.

Also I'm not crazy about using the old copout for the origin story they seem to be using: it was an evil mad scientist CEO who did it.

@coin Also while during active school shootings cops hide behind cars and wait them out, let's arm middle aged teachers instead. That'll fix the problem.

In a world that seems to admire John Macclain types who kill the bad guys on sight, I'm proud of Toronto for making a hero out of the cop who didn't shoot the mass murderer even though he could, and would have suffered no consequences for it, and even after he was repeatedly provoked into doing so.

Local stores have been inviting police in to give them free treats in appreciation - for not shooting the bad guy.

@kestrel said in Real life versus online behaviors:

in my case, I'm an obnoxious vegan

Holy crap. @Auspice, @Ganymede why isn't this already against policy?

@derp said in Good TV:

I don't remember this being frowned upon so much. Plato and other philosophers talked about it at some length, especially as it pertained to the original idea of soulmates and the three genders.

It definitely depends on who you read. Also different cities disparaged each other for propaganda purposes, Corinth was supposed to be the most liberal city of antiquity, etc.

The part I was referring to is touched upon briefly here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homosexuality_in_ancient_Greece#Love_between_adult_men .

Anyway, I'll stop going off topic before someone sics the moderators on me.

@tnp Customs differed between city-states, for sure. But also keep in mind that their mindset at the time was completely different than the modern one, and so were their hangups.

This is mostly about males since that's what we simple have more information about, but love was written as divided between the 'higher' and 'baser' kind, where the former was between men because it was emotional and not of the flesh (since, after all, it was frowned upon).

Where this all gets really creepy by our standards - and waaay out of this thread's scope - is that boys were expected to be chosen to be mentored by an older man who, if their family thought he was worthy, would train them in hunting, buy them their first breastplate and a goblet.

Anyway. Yeah. Different times.

@kanye-qwest said in What Is Missing For You?:

@arkandel ok like give an example god

Then it wouldn't be their radical changes but mine!

But say, don't do another City by Night nWoD; maybe a Vampire/L&L hybrid set up redneck country where the bloodsuckers are getting stalked by angry Werewolf rednecks pissed off about some old family drama. Or it's Star Wars in the Old Republic and your PCs are all Sith trying to beat the fucking tyrannical Jedi who've established a tight-fisted theocracy across the Galaxy.

Popular settings done differently.

We've all seen stock nWoD, sandboxes, L&L based on simplified mechanics, etc.

Doing something completely radical might have a niche but throwing some assumptions aside and modernizing an 'old' favorite instead of copying much of what came before with a facelift could be interesting.

That way you can have players ready and interested in what you're doing without repeating the mistakes of the past (you can instead make new ones of your own ).

@faraday said in Heroic Sacrifice:

@arkandel said in Heroic Sacrifice:

Fair enough, but many do.

Yeah, I wasn't meaning to downplay the impact of XP loss when it happens, merely to illustrate that you can take advancement completely out of the equation and a lot of people still won't want to start over purely for social reasons. As you say, it's not a systems problem, which is why I don't think it's going to be solved through systems/incentives.

Agreed, but I think that's not relevant to most of this debate here. I mean the question isn't really how to handle character death but overall adversity.

You don't lose the character - which we agree on carries heavy social consequences - because someone called them a poohead and everyone laughed OMG.