Posts made by Arkandel

Damn you people and your i-things!

@Ganymede You guys should roll to see who wins.

Help a guy! I'll be stuck on a plane for 9+ hours soon and I'm looking for stuff to do; I'll have a tablet and a Windows laptop with me (the former is probably what I'll use though unless somehow I ended up without anyone sitting next to me), and of course there won't be any internet connectivity. Also keep in mind if you recommend laptop stuff I won't exactly have copious room to use a mouse, so controls ought to be simple.

What single-player games can help pass the time? Any somewhat less-known TV series - especially mini series I can binge on - that you can recommend?

Hit me.

@Salty-Secrets I think sometimes we attribute people-problems to system-problems.

The idea of Hollywood recasting for 'prettier people' in general is hilarious given the baseline attractiveness bar is set so high to begin with, unless someone's specifically supposed to be ugly (in which case they are hideous).

@HelloProject It's all different, but that doesn't mean it's better. It definitely doesn't mean there's no racism, in fact just the opposite; in Europe racism is a powerful, ascending force that's threatening to take over governments.

For example there are apartment rental ads on newspapers openly stating "no Albanians"; hardcore stuff like that aren't hidden well beneath the surface. Or someone's economic status could be assumed from their ethnic group; in countries flooded with refugees seeing a brown skinned person might be instantly associated with someone who's broke, looking for work or panhandling.

Politics are also closely associated with reality - there's very little buffer between what you see on TV and what impacts your life. The USSR falls apart? There are suddenly Russians everywhere trying to make a living. War breaks out in the middle east? Thousands of refugees are showing up in boats (or drowning in your seas) within a few short weeks. It's all ... direct, in your face. It's not necessarily happening to you but it sure does affect you right away, something North American folks might not be used to.

@Derp Being european at heart it's a bit more puzzling to me to associate race with culture - although I'm not saying racism doesn't exist over there, mind you, since that would be absurdly ridiculous to even suggest! There's just no plausible correlation, no specific words or even music... nothing that connects skin color to behaviors.

I guess if anything over there we're more about national stereotypes; the French are lovers, Italians are eaters, Germans are methodical robots, and yes Russians are drinkers.

@Ganymede The way I interpreted that is that if you have something on your sheet (or you're working towards it) then it should be portrayed somewhere in your RP as well.

So you wouldn't need to roleplay learning xenolinguistics which yes, is boring as fuck especially if you're only doing it to check a box because the rule says you need to do it to get the skill (which is the bane of my existence, doing scenes you don't want only as to cover some requirement for <X>), but you should make it part of your poses while it's happening - perhaps you used the wrong term for stuff, or grossly mispronounced an insult so that it sounds like the endearing term for someone's intended lair-mate, or you're asking if the language even has a concept for puns... that kinda thing.

I think though that should be a thing in general, and not a given. I've met characters in WoD with 3s and 4s at Academics (because they're used for stuff like Theban) whose players portrayed them as uneducated street-level punks or whatever.

@HelloProject said in A Constructive Thread About People We Might Not Like:

Have fun! I hope everyone learned something! I hope this was more helpful than the average Cirno post about race.

One could conceivably hurl a hastily chewed Taco Bell lunch down a toilet and it'd be more helpful than the average Cirno post about race. But yours was quite insightful, yes.

@Ganymede I wouldn't trust a catalog to be worth a damn. There'd be fake entries, people plugging in alternate facts for themselves or their favored ones/mortal enemies, and of course there's always self-serving bias in these things. I've seen some people disrespected way more once they were done staffing for popular games than they ever were when it was desirably by others to make sure they were on their good side.

For better or for worse an organic reputation and asking friends about specific folks is probably the most reliable option we will have.

... But I'm still impressed by @Paris' misadventures. Damn, son.

@Tinuviel I would buy that more if I wasn't on St. Petersburg to see all those Russian stereotypes ("everyone drinks vodka ALL the time... comrade!").

I see where you're coming from though.

I'm only talking about my own playing preferences here, but perhaps it will relate to others. So the crux of it is if social rolls enhance my roleplay I absolutely want them in it; if they detract from the experience I don't.

At the matter's core it's as simple as that.

So for example if I'm in a scene with 2 other people and we end up debating 'how far would that have changed my mind' or 'was empathy really the right skill to use instead of subterfuge' or even worse 'sec, let me ask staff if this is how it works' and these things aren't the exception but the rule then I want no part of it. If rolls interrupt the scene's flow and I spend more time waiting to interpret what we rolled than typing up the next pose then I don't care enough any more; I'd just want the scene to end.

Rolls - to me - need to be extremely simple, fast and specific. I need to be able to push a pose out telling a lie, roll to see if my lie is caught or not, and then the next person sees the result and starts typing their own pose based on the result.

I can understand some situations are more complex than others, same as (for example) a grapple roll in GMC sometimes takes a bit to navigate through all the assorted factors you need to consider, but on a day to day basis it has to not get in the way of RP.

@Meg said in Progression: Time/Resource rather than XP:

@Arkandel

Certainly, there are some benefits to letting players who can play more get more of 'x'. Whatever x is (resources, XP, spotlight, etc etc). But there are also cons too. I know you and I have both been in scenes on Arx where people were chasing votes and newbie XP without a regard for /stories/ and, you know, roleplay.

Sure, I hate that. But on the other hand that's not the only kind of absurdity I witnessed (which isn't a knock on Arx); for instance there were was at least the person who would only participate in plots about the war and nothing else because he considered everything else 'a waste of time'.

My point is you can't fix people through systems or even their absence. In fact you probably don't need to - as long as they don't get in each other's way it should be fine for a game to cater to different playstyles. But the tools you get through carrots shouldn't be underestimated - you can offer incentives for behaviors you want to encourage and nudge your players in a direction you'd prefer them to go without forcing them to do it. If someone is doing exceptional things you can reward it, if there isn't enough of a demographic you can make it more attractive, and so on.

I'm not saying there's no other way to do such things in say, a time/resource system like the one discussed here, but I think they're still worth having.

And there is always that unbalance for people who can't play as much to overcome, or people that will tax themselves trying to do too much to keep up. Keeping things fair across the board is beneficial, too, to other players. It just depends who you want to benefit from the system.

Let's be honest though - a player who's online a lot, someone who's active and involved will generally have advantages either way. Even on completely statless games the oldbies still have advantages not available to characters just rolling out of CGen; they have connections, name recognition, IC ranks, ties to the metaplot, a history to draw from, all that stuff. All you're doing through systematizing these factors a bit more is ensure the distribution of bonuses reaches everyone, not just the more prominent figureheads.

@dontpanda So what was the future like?

@Paris said in A Constructive Thread About People We Might Not Like:

After I left my SO (and that game), they, their friends, and this person especially, tracked my IP and kept a list of known sightings and updated IPs, and either got me banned, or hunted my PCs with their alts while using their staffbits to track me while I was unfindable-- even if we'd never interacted before. They were allowed to do this until I took a long break, and then on my return changed my writing style and the type of character I played. I was able to avoid them for years after that, but about ten years later, my ex found out who I was, and started right back up.

Wtf do you find these people? Between that and the person who reported you to staff for the plot (she?) repeatedly asked you to run... damn. That's some big bucket of badshit crazy right there.

@HelloProject said in [A Constructive Thread About People We Might Not Like](/topic/1618/a-constructive-thread-about-

So, if nothing else, I do understand the fear, even if I've only experienced a few race things in MUing.

The only weird thing about race I've encountered that stands out is how few non-white PBs are used overall. It doesn't seem to just be that we 'play what we know' because lots of people play the opposite gender, or green-skinned aliens or robots or whatever. It always seemed strange though.

@Meg said in Progression: Time/Resource rather than XP:

I disagree, to some extent. It is about the game that you (ambiguous) want to make, whether you want to reward investment or not. I've played on games where there is no XP, no resources, nothing. I was still invested in the game because I was invested in the roleplaying I was doing and the story I was playing.

Sure, and I agree, having both played and enjoyed such games before. But that's not the kind we seem to be discussing here.

And that is a perfectly legitimate strategy to have. That you want people invested in the story for the sake of the story, not the rewards that they are getting from a system of code, without bringing in 'how much you RP' as part of the equation.

In my experience it's not an either/or. Some really excellent roleplayers care about their XP and the cool things they can buy with them. I think there is a compromise between "I play on this MU* for six hours a day so I should dominate everything" and "there is no systemic goal to chase".

I know Pax and I and others have talked about this to death. There were a number of other things that could be given for being active. But I also just don't think it is necessary.

No, it's not necessary. I'd argue though that it's beneficial.

The keys to a good social confrontation system (for me):

• Ease of use - if it's too complex it won't be used.
• Clarity of result. People shouldn't use them as mind control ('I win! You're no longer catholic.')
• Overall use; this is tricky since it's a cultural trait, but the game should be encouraging social risk, PrPs and metaplot as much as the physical equivalents.
• Allow flexibility. This always bugged me; you can be a specialized 'niche' fighter ('I'm a swordsman') and still be generally super useful in nearly every combat scenario, but the 'social arena' is so wide it's hard to be good at intimidation, diplomacy, manipulation, catching lies to match an equal range of social challenges.

Anything I missed?

I like it, @Sparks. One remark only - the people who can play 24/7 shouldn't be dominating, I quite agree on that, but the flipside is not rewarding investment; the person who plays should still be ahead - with diminishing returns, staggered caps, whatever is preferable... but carrots are still important to have. Players do like chasing them.

@surreality Fair enough. I deleted my comment.