@lithium said in Creative Outlets:
The current trend of give everyone tons of xp is to me, homogenizing. Nobody is special if everyone is.
Well sure and I agree, but I'm not sure how that applies to what I was saying unless you meant it to be something new?
I just remembered another thing I figured out helps me a lot, and it came from an unexpected direction at the time... spend justifications.
So on Haunted Memories and then partially on The Reach you had to justify (some of) your +xp spends. It was of course typical red tape bullshit passed down from one generation of staff to the next without really thinking it through, but as I was going through the paces I found out both that I liked it, but also that it helped me; there are stuff - usually solitary activities - my characters were up to I never thought about since they never saw the light of day. Stuff that was just a bit too boring or irrelevant in an interactive fashion came out as did details about their downtime and passive interests... and that made them more real in my head.
Actually later on when I played on a Kushiel MUSH and on Arx I found journals worked mostly for the same reason. I didn't use them to summarize stuff I already knew as much as to try and come up with stuff my characters knew and I didn't... which was always more than I had figured, once I started typing them out.
Dunno. Maybe I just like writing about RP.
@seraphim73 said in The Eighth Sea - Here There Be Monsters:
@bored I hear you on the bait-and-switch between pirates and monster-hunters. It wasn't our intention, and we're definitely going to try to course-correct back to more pirate-y stuff. As for the combat-of-the-week... yeah. You've got some valid complaint there. We've been pushing several more non-combat plots, but a lot of the plots are currently combat plots.
That's one way to look at it. The other way is to figure out what the hooks are for non-combat plots to plug into; if I'm playing a diplomat, a shrewd investigator, a fast-talking rogue... what am I going to be useful for?
I think this is the case where you might need to create a universe before you can make a tree in it - which isn't to say the structure for such a thing doesn't already exist in your notes, because I'm sure it does, but because it has to emerge through daily play as well. The world needs to feel like there's a place in it for characters of different alignments before plot-runners will feel inspired to go "oooh, you know what would be cool to throw at these guys right now?".
@faraday said in Creative Outlets:
In my experience, the overwhelming majority of players never read character decs. Folks can lament about the “good old days” and moan about lazy people all they want, but it doesn’t change the reality. Descs should be considered supplementary info for those who care, and the essentials captured in glance and emits as appropriate.
I used to read descriptions more. Ever since PC wiki pages became a thing I do so more rarely - that's the only thing that's changed at least in my use case.
@Lithium, I won't debate that the posed description issue any more since sounds like a pet peeve. 
We all have them and you're entitled to yours.
@lithium said in Creative Outlets:
@arkandel said in Creative Outlets:
@lithium said in Creative Outlets:
@arkandel You're making my point for me. You can RP the small things without forcing people to read the same thing over and over and over.
Well, I never advocated spamming.
Yes you did, if you don't even have a description, and you are trying to point something out to multiple people about mood, or habits, or the situation, and you have to include your clothes /every single time/ you are, advocating, spamming.
Hey, you're putting words into my mouth now. Well, into my fingertips.
I never said you had to keep including your clothes every time you pose, or whenever someone new joins the scene. I never said anything about not having a description - all my characters do because... why wouldn't they?
Spamming is pointless repetition. If I tell you my character is wearing a black hat with a feather in it three times in the same scene then yes, that's spam since it doesn't add anything usable that wasn't there before. If I do so in the entry pose - especially if I promptly use it in a future pose to indicate my character treasures it - then it's not pointless.
Maybe you (specifically, as an individual) don't like to read about clothing, or moods, or you prefer a certain style of RP over others... that's perfectly fine. But it sounds like you're dismissing other perfectly legitimate ways to play some players enjoy - although I could be wrong about that.
@lithium said in Creative Outlets:
@arkandel You're making my point for me. You can RP the small things without forcing people to read the same thing over and over and over.
Well, I never advocated spamming. 
@lithium said in Creative Outlets:
Yes people respond to what people look like, but there are /so many/ multi-descers out there that are /easy/ to use and manipulate on the fly. There's absolutely no reason to need to pose it every single time rather than set a multidescer up.
The assumption you are making is that there needs to be a reason to pose things. Posing is the reason for it; I can have a wrinkled shirt in my @desc yet bring it up in a pose with some extra emphasis to draw attention to the fact my PC is a slob, or always late, or add an extra detail for just this scene (it smells of too much detergent! its front pocket is all stretched out! it's losing its color around the shoulders!) to help set the mood up later in the scene.
Hell, there doesn't need to be a reason. Roleplaying doesn't need to be efficient - writing perhaps does, but when it comes to character actions I appreciate details that might not even come to be important. Put as many Chekhov's Guns as you like and only use one or two of them in the end, make me wonder why they're there - feed me false leads and red herrings. Go for it, I'll like it.
Because we don't all like the same things, and eventually RP finds a way for those who do appreciate similar ones to group up together.
@tinuviel said in Charging for MU* Code?:
The only thing I'd worry about with charging for MU* code is the problem of scope creep. If people are paying money, they're going to start thinking they're in charge of what you do.
Well, to be fair, with good reason. That's what hiring someone for money means.
The issue is imposing reasonable limits to where that work begins and where it ends.
Snow. It's like a movement debuff - a 75% increase to the time it takes to commute to work.
@zz The best thing about it - for me - is that it gives me an instant idea of what the other person's mood for RP is currently like. Nothing gets me more creative than someone sinking effort into their poses.
@roz You are the anti-Arkandel. I hate large grids. I get lost.
@ganymede said in Encouraging Proactive Players:
@kanye-qwest said in Encouraging Proactive Players:
I definitely don't agree. If you want to 'vent', whine, and complain, do it to your friends.
To be fair, there may be a handful of people out there who do not have any friends, like Arkandel.
What I lack in friends I make up in uh, er, other stuff.
<cries into his work mug>
@kanye-qwest said in Encouraging Proactive Players:
If you want to 'vent', whine, and complain, do it to your friends.
Nothing wrong with venting on a public venue unless you're overdoing it or you're being a jerk. Anyone can go "OMG screw Mondays... amirite?" on the public channel. It's fixating on your issues for half an hour afterwards that's a problem.
Don't whine on channels about other people getting things.
In my experience that's typically a way to apply pressure. They aren't really whining, they're asking for more stuff for themselves but over a venue they believe gives them deniability ("I wasn't really saying Bob didn't deserve that sword! I'm just chatting, hah-hah.")
Don't whine publicly about people not loving your char or not responding to you fast enough. That isn't just a player being human, that's a player being a negative brat.
Yeah, I got nothing here. I'd also add public boasting about how awesome your character is and how much you love them and how great RP is over and over again because... come on.
And if you let that shit fly, your environment becomes INUNDATED with it. Everyone should be free to whine and snark and complain /sometimes/, right? Wrong. Wrong, or the whining and complaining will overwhelm the atmosphere.
IMHO within measure there are no issue letting some air out. The problem is when things get out of hand because because won't STFU about it, either in the short or even the long term. No one wants to deal with a chronic whiner.
@ganymede said in The Eighth Sea - Here There Be Monsters:
I definitely second this. The folks are reasonable, and by that I mean they are helpful to newbies and quick to address problem players with prejudice.
Agreed. I'd definitely give this game another chance if some tweaks are made, because they really do have a lot of potential. Everything is in place for the MU* to succeed - staff, code, wiki... it just needs a little more oomph.
@auspice One of the reasons I don't like to staff as a plot-runner but I run PrPs is the increased liberty to say 'no'. People get testy and presumptuous about their 'right' to be in a scene if staff runs it, and frankly... fuck that noise.
@lithium said in Creative Outlets:
I love writing descriptions.
I just wish people read them more.
I love posing descriptions. I just wish people posed them more often.
@pondscum said in The Eighth Sea - Here There Be Monsters:
I had a similar experience to @WildBaboons. Timezone issues meaning activity was low when I was able to play, and events being mostly EST evening making it early hours of the morning for me.
Which now that I think about it is a separate issue, and maybe something staff here can look into and tweak.
T8S, by its current nature, is very dependent on PrPs; there are no obvious venue for characters to generate their own roleplay in everyday RP, at least not before a critical mass of stuff has already happened they can draw from.
It's in many ways the same pitfall as say, Werewolf games run into. If there are no NPCs to fight, since there are no IC politics and other kinds of goals, what do people do?
It's fixable, though.
@wildbaboons said in Creative Outlets:
@arkandel said in Creative Outlets:
I've never gotten a character right in my head until I played him in at least 5-6 scenes with different people. It just takes me that long to stretch him out, see what makes him tick and experiment with different voices until one just feels like him.
This is why i hate writing backgrounds more than a couple sentences long. I don't know how they are, how they were shaped, until I get a chance to play them a bit
I love writing backgrounds. They don't help me one bit, but I... like writing backgrounds.