Back at the gym after the holidays. They had a pretty good personal training sessions package I'm taking advantage of, too, to work on form and possibly hit deadlifts again - which I'm always worried about since decades of bad sitting posture and desk-jockey work have done bad things to my lower back.
But man, I'd love to get away with deadlifts. That'd be awesome.
To me it doesn't matter. Games are games. Would I play a Marvel Comics game where I can't have superpowers? No. If they chose a setting where only a handful of people had them then I'd conclude they chose badly - at least when it comes to the kind of game I'd find enjoyable.
After all The Force Awakens is a kickass movie but it's not made to be RPG friendly, that was never a concern its screenwriters had at all.
Maybe once more films come out and the setting expands that will be different or perhaps game runners can customize and add to theme in order to accommodate the fact players will want to play all the things... or maybe it's simply not a good place to set a MU* in if they're unwilling to do either.
What's with girls claiming they come across as guys around here lately? Is that a thing?
It depends on the crowd for me.
If it's non-gamers then RPGs are "a kind of board game" and MU* are "a game I play online". No need to try to explain anything further usually for the latter, they won't care.
If it's a gamer then RPGs are "an MMO but played in real life on a table with pen and paper" and MU* are "a text-only MMO".
Once I figured out how interested they are (I don't think it's ever come to this step) I can go into greater detail.
Two quick reviews.
The Magicians. Based on a pretty good urban fantasy novel series - I really liked the pilot. It was fast paced (way more than the books) and it worked on most levels. I want to see how it's followed up though. If you want your modern-day mage fix or inspiration to play one on a MU*, this is a good place to start.
The Shannara Chronicles. I mean it... looks really good, there's blue screens everywhere filled with pretty CGI in post-production and they picked a lot of hot actresses and actors for the eye-candy factor... but that's as far as MTV (!) managed to ride the GoT wave to ratings as far as I'm concerned.
GoT succeeded because it has (and shows) some depth, there are warring factions, different points of view, a lot of moral gray. Here there is nothing, there are evil demons and roguish young heroes rising to fight them. Also the casting wasn't nearly as successful, other than Manu Bennett and John Rhys-Davies these folks can't act. Like, at all. Maybe it'll pick up I guess.
So, why did you pick whatever alias/username you're using for MSB?
For example 'Arkandel' is my handle online for a bunch of things, and it hails from one of my earliest AD&D characters - he was a non too bright Elven gladiator who really wanted to take back Myth Drannor.
What's your excuse?
@Cirno I saw that but I... don't see the point. Who ever visits profiles more than once to set their own info? It's not even like Facebook where you see your own 'wallpaper' every time you use the site.
@Coin said:
@Arkandel said:
@Cirno said:
There are a decent amount of black mushers on this very same forum. Some of us have even made, or will make, games.
Wait, you're black?
I'm not sure if you're trolling the notorious troll or just kind of don't pay att--wait, no, you just don't pay attention. >.>
... In retrospect I'm not sure which of the two would appear more likely to any casual observer who knows me. So, I guess, fair enough!
But give Cirno some credit here.
@Tempest said:
The important question is, can you be force sensitive and have a lightsaber.
Gonna assume not, since 9/10 Star Wars MUs seem to outright ban that or save it for staff-pals. Which is why the genre has died, IMO. I don't wanna play some goddamn Han Solo knock-off. I want a lightsaber.
See, so many multiplayer Star Wars games make the same stupid design choice. When many players think of the setting they want to play a damn Jedi. Or Sith, whatever. And yet even in the MMO (well, the first one at least) actually playing a Force-user was reserved for a tiny minority - screw that.
It's like running a World of Darkness MU* where 1% of the players get to be vampires or werewolves and everyone else has to be mortal. Not chooses to be because that's what they feel like playing; has to be.
Nope.
@Cirno said:
There are a decent amount of black mushers on this very same forum. Some of us have even made, or will make, games.
Wait, you're black?
@Warma-Sheen said:
No kicking wolfmen in the nards? Man, this deal is getting worse all the time...
Well, no one said you can't kick them in the nards.
@BallisticOrange said:
I'm with @Misadventure to approach a theme breaking player OOC first, and apply consequences, be they OOC or IC, afterwards. I like to think the faux pas is unintentional unless proven otherwise.
That's a good idea. Sometimes people do things wrong not because they're trying to break the rules or troll but because they misunderstood the theme, MU* etiquette conventions or simply don't know the rules well enough.
I think it was noted recently there's a big difference between how the same game is played on table-top, where PCs are often mavericks, special or the exception to the rule and on MU* where by definition the deviation from the mean is smaller. It's easy for someone to simply log on not knowing how things are done 'round here.
@Ghost said:
The gotcha really is interpretation of theme.
Let's use WoD as an example. Vampires are dead. Even the books state (IIRC) that the rush from blood is better than sex and to make certain things happen that make sex possible (like BONERS and WETNESS) a vampire needs to spend blood. Logically, I would interpret this in theme to mean that not every vampire would use sex as a hunting mechanism, or the idea of spending precious blood to obtain precious blood might seem beneath certain vampire mentalities.
You are right in that it's all about interpretation of theme. The correlation between vampirism and sexuality isn't cut and dried, there's been a lot of debate on this.
But yes, what it comes down to is people want to roleplay sexual themes, and unless it can be demonstrated convincingly overriding that preference serves games I don't see why it ought to be enforced otherwise in any particular way.
If it's utterly stupid (you're apping aT800 Terminator for a Harry Potter game) then just say no. Point them at the wiki about what kinds of concepts are appropriate and just be ready to answer questions - newbies make mistakes, maybe they aren't trolling intentionally.
If it's somewhat plausible but still wrong say no but offer ways to run something similar. If it's Shadowrun for example they can't play an evil robot from the future but maybe enough cybernetic parts will do the trick?
If it's plausible but you are kinda getting butthurt because it's not exactly what you'd play, stay the hell away from it and let them play what they will. People won't invest creatively in your game if you interfere too much.
That's about it, in my book.
Getting a parking ticket on the evening of new year's eve. When I've paid for parking and the stub is displayed on the dashboard.
Contesting it now which may or not work. Bah.
@Entropy said:
I've just said that I'm just trying to make a game for people who are dissatisfied with the ones they have at the moment.
Alright, yes, fine. How?
What will you do to achieve this? How will your game prevent staff from being corrupt or hogging all the things?
What are your ideas? Not your goals or aspirations, what is your system to achieve them?
@Ganymede said:
You can use softcode to do it by setting a DARK object in the room that records poses.
@Misadventure said:
Don't forget @forward!
What about rolling for detection? Not to mention if you got caught that'd have altered the scene retroactively, which is problematic. And if it's done by immobile means (say, a camera) how much is caught?
I'd be inclined to borrow a page from @Ganymede's book and make players figure out who got to see what - OOC anonymity will be tricky given the complications which can arise.
@Coin Fair enough, but then the character is a glorified NPC. I mean if I'm logging Magneto on once a month for that event it doesn't feel like he's my PC, you know? He's a character I occasionally play to achieve a certain effect, not one I log on any time I want to roleplay and have some fun for my own sake.
Basically I'm saying it's the reason I wouldn't play a villain rather than that he wouldn't get to win.