@Tempest At least from my POV the question didn't have negative connotations. I meant it literally... it's good to know who's involved in a project, especially an ambitious one, since it sounds like it's going to involve a lot of work both to design and run it.
@tragedyjones Who else is involved? Anyone we know?
'Cause that's a lot of spheres you got there, man. Who's staffing this puppy?
@Botulism Sure, but why?
I want to ask that of the thread in general - it's not just to list which of our favorite shows or books 'would be cool to see as a MU*', but maybe let's try to think of ways it'd actually work.
What kind of PCs would people play? Are they opposing each other or the environment for the most part? Are they placed in the timeline of the original work or before/after the events depicted in it?
And a big one is... how much difference/impact would you want them to be able to have? For a Battlestar Galactica MU*, positioned before the TV series should PCs be able to strike a truce with/destroy the Cylons? In a Walking Dead MU* should they be able to find out what the cause for the apocalypse was (or cure it)? Etc.
Let's stretch our design muscles a bit here. What's a sacred cow and what rules can we bend or break to make a better MUSH?
@ZombieGenesis said in Which canon property/setting would be good for a MU* ?:
I'd love to see something utilizing Dragonlance or Masters of the Universe personally. I kinda get why there are not MotU games but I'm shocked at the lack of Dragonlance games.
ArcticMUD was huge when I was starting out, and it was based on Dragonlance.
Into The Badlands. Characters belong to different Baronies, maybe also to some neutral factions like the monks or mine owners, and let them go to town - heavy emphasis on martial arts (of course), betrayals and post-apocalyptic intrigue.
My candidate would be The Broken Empire world in Mark Lawrence's books.
It's grimdark fantasy set in a pseudo-medieval setting in our future, where something happened to fuck up reality. Technology is about the usual level in fantasy but there are rogue modern weapons out there - malicious artificial intelligences, branches of deterministic mathematics that can predict or enforce the future - while the barriers between Earth and other places have been weakened by the apocalyptic events of the distant past to occasionally allow horrors to break through.
And in the middle of all that humanity is broken into a hundred mini-kingdoms, each of them ruled by a monarch (some of whom are puppetted by wizards) struggling between themselves to defeat, subdue or ally themselves all the way into ascending to become Emperors.
The combination of classic fantasy, hardcore politics, a rich and open setting where GMs can run their own thing without that much thematic restraints... it'd be fantastic.
Hey folks!
It's a Monday, just the right day for creative shitposting. 
So this one is about using existing settings - such as from novels, TV, movie etc similar properties - to base MU* on. We're not necessarily going to be talking about actually doing so; this isn't a thread about actually creating a new game. I'm just wondering if you've read or watched something really cool you'd think would make a kickass MUSH.
One caveat; let's keep it somewhat 'original'. I know, it's not original since we're basing it on something, but let's try and focus on stuff that's not already out there - so no Star Wars or DC Comics or anything like that. Let's go a bit indy with this.
Thoughts?
Changeling always seemed rather underpowered to me compared to other splats. But then again I never had a Lost character for long, so maybe I'm missing something here.
@The-Tree-of-Woe (I can see Mage and Demon both having a huge effect on multisphere games that's not always welcome, but what did Changeling ever do to you? )
By the way, I was curious and bored enough so I went through Civil War 2 and the recent Captain America retconstory arc.
I just caught up all the way to Secret Empire #0. You know, it's not bad.
At least I like it more than the DC stuff which at this point I don't even know what the fuck is happening at all, Rebirth made my head hurt trying to keep up with the Flash stuff alone.
@Gingerlily said in Strange Game Dev Inquiries from surreality (condensed):
I just think it is so easy to pause for a moment and consider 'what is the purpose in expressing this thought this way?" and also the 'Is this going to be hurtful to someone' and if it is then 'Why does hurting them feel okay to me?' Different people have different feelings, introspection, etc about that kind of thing.
True, and everyone has different policies on how to approach the issue. In that way I'm usually less cautious around my friends (or at least people I've known for a while) since I sort of have some awareness of their tolerances; a joke I crack in Ganymede's expense might not go over very well with a near stranger.
And (I'm sure) folks who know me also know I can take a hit - sometimes we're mean around here, and occasionally I do a double-take when someone snaps at me over an unexpected topic, but at the end of the day I hope we're all still... generally okay with each other. Friends, internet friends, co-players, whatever it is.
The list of people I actively dislike in all of MU* is tiny. There's a much longer list of people I like, though. As long as the fact remains I'm sticking around with this hobby of ours.
@Gingerlily said in Strange Game Dev Inquiries from surreality (condensed):
So this thread inspires a question for you.
MSB a net positive for the hobby, or nah?
PostScript: This is not an actual question, I am trolling Ark because it just seemed to work here.
I think people can disagree, even fight, anywhere. I've seen similar arguments taking place on a public channel, for example.
MSB doesn't have the exclusive on these things, you know? Sometimes it doesn't go well and folks walk away pissed off. Other times a disagreement can be civil - I don't think @Ghost is hoping I get food poisoning, for example.
@Ghost said in Strange Game Dev Inquiries from surreality (condensed):
I'm exiting the thread, but I want to let it be said that when someone who's made a post seeking constructive input that she's worked hard on, for a game idea, getting nitpicked until she says "fuck it" and walks away, leaving the rest of us to look forward to the upcoming games run by the people who henpecked her to death...is not constructive.
I don't disagree. And believe me that I like @surreality a lot more than @bored, whom I don't know at all.
Either we have rules we kind-of sort-of try to adhere to or we don't. Tossing them aside when it's a friend involved, even if they are right, is wrong. If you had criticized @bored severely but civilly I wouldn't have said a thing.
See you on other threads.
@Ghost It is not. Constructive is asking them to stop and notifying an admin to take action if they think it's beyond the forum's rules.
Calling people names in the name of justice is not constructive.
@Ghost said in Strange Game Dev Inquiries from surreality (condensed):
Good luck on you and your friend's 7th Sea game, you lifeless fuck.
Can we please try to stay 'mildly constructive' here?
@surreality said in Strange Game Dev Inquiries from surreality (condensed):
This is totally not on topic, but... it would probably surprise you how many people play on Shang from work.
It's really easy to play Shang (or any MU*) from work in certain industries; for instance I've got a bunch of consoles open filled with text. One more pointed at a MU*, unless it happens to contain ASCII art or something won't stand out to a random passerby - until of course they stop and actually start to read.
But say, I had a coworker stop and ask me once about Eldritch's (I think) wiki because it had a big blood splat image right on the front page.
It really depends on the company. I've worked in places where as long as you did your job no one really gave a shit if you played Starcraft while stuff was compiling, and I'm aware of businesses where you could be let go over reading your personal e-mail. The onus is on players to know what's okay for their circumstances.
@surreality Well, it's not porn, but for most of us it's not safe for work either. But that's my point - very little is safe for work.
IMHO this material is inoffensive but whereas people ought to be opening anything of the sort from work is up to them, since they're the ones who have to know what's considered acceptable in general. For example some workplaces wouldn't approve of anything that looks game-y at all - it's not about the boobs, per se - but others openly have Facebook tabs open since that's the company culture. But they are the ones who should know what's right for themselves.
Seriously, it's not worth worrying about.
@surreality said in Strange Game Dev Inquiries from surreality (condensed):
While I can photoshop some of this, that, too, is work I need to know if I should be budgeting hours for. Concerns? Comments? Do you have any guidelines or examples from your workplace that could be shared?
As long as the first page isn't too NSFW I wouldn't worry about it for a wiki. I'd never go browse random people's wiki pages from work anyway since there's no telling what amount of nudity (even if it's just a bikini-clad model or guy stretching his abs) will pop up, and actual pages I might 'need' to view - say, house rules - tend to be very image-light anyhow.
@Ganymede said in Strange Game Dev Inquiries from surreality (condensed):
That said, I'm a bit leery of the idea myself. In my experience, games that have mundanes (non-narwhals) and specials (narwhals) attract staff favoritism accusations and acts.
How so in this case though? If all of them are equally available without special approval?
