Posts made by Arkandel

@Lisse24 C'mon, people here have a spat about some character and hate each other for years. Imagine if your ex took your dog on the way out the door.

GoT - no spoilers, just a bit of trivia I read last night!

Apparently Bronn and Cersei's actors contractually can't share a scene, since their actors went through a bad breakup iRL years earlier and they wrote that into their contracts that they can't share the screen.

Seeing your hated ex every day you go to work for years must be awkward!

@Kanye-Qwest Even though I liked the Defenders more than you did, I do think something's increasingly missing from Marvel's Netflix titles and that's inspiration. I think they are beginning to run things by the numbers there instead of continuing to innovate.

When Daredevil launched I was speechless by the production values - I haven't ever seen fighting choreography like that in a TV show, and the Year One feel was really well handled in my opinion despite a few awkward dialogues. And Jessica Jones was just freakin' amazing, portraying for the first time heavy duty PTSD in regards to a supervillain while running a tight, interesting script (and Tenant was incredible). Even Luke Cage was fun - the music, the style of the series was pretty good even though I found the ending a bit cheesy.

But Iron Fist and the Defenders didn't try to excel, they just... ran a show about exactly what's on the tin. Not bad, not great, just... a show. They didn't even try to use Netflix' unique format (not having to cater to commercial cuts, realizing many viewers would binge watch, etc) to do something particularly cool.

It felt kinda like they mailed those in. Nothing wrong with that but it puts them on par with The Flash and Marvel's Agents of SHIELD, not a tier over them.

@Ominous That's just depending on the nature of the campaign being ran - I've seen similar/identical groups playing Vampire on table-top for instance.

I don't think D&D is inherently less about storytelling than say, Werewolf is. You can definitely run the latter in an episodic mission-based manner as packs do one hunt after the other.

@Livia Evelyn? Was that the LS nun? If so I know you!

@Livia I don't know! I don't see the difference in that regard - sure, if you're level 7 and I'm level 2 we can't quite adventure together but as you said, a 150 XP GMC Gangrel and a post-CGen 20 XP Mekhet will have a similar issue, and you can always still roleplay with me regardless of the gap - which in itself that's a conversation topic to kick-start the scene ("wow, is that a magic sword?").

To be honest the reason I thought it was weird was there are all these well known settings around, with super detailed and multiple books and novels written to expand them, which aren't getting used. I'd love to play in Faerun or Krynn.

I always thought it was really weird there were so few roleplaying D&D or Pathfinder MU* around given how popular they are on table-top.

@Ominous I'm almost never concerned about players exploiting systems on a design scale - that can come later. My issues with vote implementations are several, such as favoring

• cliques and circle-jerking
• huge public scenes
• spotlight seekers

just to name a few.

@Tempest My hatred for +vote burns eternal.

@Lain said in Eliminating social stats:

I think you're appealing to the exact psychology I'm griping about, though. People in reality weigh the physical appearance of their partner above any other thing. People who look good get megalaid, not sure if you noticed. So if the default orientation of PCs is "sapiosexual," there's a pervasive issue of unbelievability, no matter how "natural" the ebb and flow of the scenes all feel to you.

I think that's a generalization, come on man. Above any other things? I don't know about that.

Since one of the main arguments for getting rid of social stats is that depending on them occasionally produces really weird behaviors that defy human nature, it should be noted that not depending on them makes normal human behavior abnormal on these MU*'s. The PC snowflake plot armor stuff is one such example. So is sapiosexuality being the norm.

Look at it this way - if a roleplayer is good enough they can make their character appealing no matter what. It's not cheating, I'm not talking about playing the traits up... but simply portraying an unintentionally funny, fascinating character who might not be wealthy, witty, intelligent or attractive but the writing skill of the person behind the keyboard makes them awesome.

There's no RL equivalency for that. A poor, dull, dumb and ugly person iRL isn't that appealing in the real world.

I was thinking yesterday it would be fun to have MU* where all players are henchmen. Base it in Gotham, make each 'faction' be part of a villain's group, offer opportunities for advancement some some trope reversals and go to town.

Mystery? Try outwitting the Bat. Action? You're running away from that Robin brat who's chasing you from rooftop to rooftop. Risk? You get to give the Joker some bad news.

@Lain said in Eliminating social stats:

@Arkandel said in Eliminating social stats:

But I really don't think the fix is giving people a reward for using them. Awarding Beats for accepting failures and stepbacks have been part of nWoD MU* for years now and I can't say I've noticed a real difference in the use of social attributes even though arguably there has been one in other areas of those same games.

But I think it makes every kind of sense.

I don't know anyone who picks their partners, whether it's for TS/romance or anything else from politics to coteries/packs, based on their social stats. If you want to pick a lover for your PC would you ever choose the average roleplayer with Presence 4 and SL4 over the exceptional one with Presence 2 and no related merits at all?

@Lain I think the matter of cheating or at least players trying to favor their characters by ignoring inconvenient social attributes is exaggerated in this thread's context; if these traits added value - not XP, but actual fun things that promote and advance roleplay - then they would have caught on way better than they have.

To me the main issue is that instead of helping RP they get in its way. Either they're simply awkward, interrupting the scene's natural ebb and flow to introduce themselves, or they produce mismatching results between poses and dice rolls while trying to cover the very wide spectrum of all human social interactions even in their abstract fashion.

But I really don't think the fix is giving people a reward for using them. Awarding Beats for accepting failures and stepbacks have been part of nWoD MU* for years now and I can't say I've noticed a real difference in the use of social attributes even though arguably there has been one in other areas of those same games.

You guys.

@Aria MSB's main exports are snark and judgement.

@bored said in Eliminating social stats:

@Arkandel said in Eliminating social stats:

Just to make a quick note here, although that's my stance on the matter and I believe it's what makes the most sense, it'd be silly of me to make a thread asking people what they thought then not listen to them.

You are entitled to your patient tolerance and open mindedness. I laud and commend for it.

I do not share it.

I don't think that's what it is.

In my head lots of things make sense because I only cherry-pick what I would like to do and the kind of game I'd like to play, but it's good to be reminded those things are not universal. In the past I've caught myself thinking I just need to explain this better or maybe if I just rephrase this again the other person will finally understand and agree, because obviously there's no other way - if they just got it then how could they not think the same way?

But even more so, if we simply assume this is the right call then why make the thread at all? We got all these pretty experienced people around with different experiences and views so let's put them to some use. Some of those fuckers might actually have a point, you know?

@Ominous What do you mean by servers? I'm curious, are you referring to non-MU* games or something else?

@bored said in Eliminating social stats:

@Lain I am participating in the thread to support @Arkandel's general notion that the best solution to this whole thing is probably to throw it in a flaming hobo garbage can fire.

Just to make a quick note here, although that's my stance on the matter and I believe it's what makes the most sense, it'd be silly of me to make a thread asking people what they thought then not listen to them.

I'd love to see an argument that proves me wrong. It's easier to have social stats in a game than not to, since people are used to them as they are part of just about every table-top RPG, and departing from the existing paradigm is never easy or without consequences.

For example for all I know if a game is launched some players will come, notice just that, and bail without giving it a chance. No one has left a game because Manipulation is a stat in CGen though.

Chris Paul is a Rocket. Paul George is a Thunder. Kyrie is a Celtic. Isaiah is a Cavalier. Jimmy Butler is a Wolf.

Goddamn but the NBA off season is more fun than its regular season.