Posts made by Arkandel

@HelloRaptor It never has before.

@Coin said:

Do we really think snipe-slash-car-mechanic chick can't be a sexual being?

And if this isn't what was meant, then maybe a rephrasing or clarification is in order.

Of course they can be. But the selection of PBs for a wiki - as far as I can possibly tell, someone can correct me if I'm wrong - is supposed to be roughly representative of what the PC looks or feels like by default. So if I'm playing a savvy high-end corporate lawyer and chose Matthew McConaughey as his likeness I wouldn't post the cowboy hat-wearing shirtless scenes from him in Magic Mike. I'd pick ones where he's wearing an expensive suit and tie to convey an idea of what I'm going for there.

It's got nothing to do with whether he gets busy in the bedroom after a big win at the courthouse and more with the impression I want to project for what the character is about. If I was playing him as a bar owner or showman? That would be a fit.

I suppose the idea is that the character is hypersexualized but their player doesn't want to TS. I mean you're right, it's a bit weird, but it's not incomprehensible. Also, some people who proclaim they never TS don't really mean never.

My own question is why people who don't play sexual concepts have bikini-clad models as their PBs. If you're playing a tough sniper-slash-car-mechanic chick then what's with the boobs?

This fits in so many threads. Game of Thrones: The Musical – Peter Dinklage.

@Coin said:

"It hurts no one" is not a reason to not do something,

This sentence hurts my English Teaching heart.

Mission accomplished!

@lordbelh I have no issues with nudity whatsoever, less so when it comes to the usually quite attractive PBs people pick.

But if I'm sitting at a subway station and decide to take a peek at people's characters to pass the time I'd rather know in advance what the likelihood of boobs is. It's not a big deal either way, but you did say you failed to see how it hurts anyone at all - this could, potentially. I guess.

@lordbelh said:

I fail to see how it hurts anyone at all.

The scenario I can think of is the generic NSFW one where you open a browser tab in public to look at someone's PR logs or whatever and get surprise boobs instead.

@HelloRaptor I used to have artwork for PBs - it seemed better to draw a likeness from a comic book for example than just a random actor or model. I had people comment on that unkindly since it seemed (apparently) odd to mix those visuals with real photographs of actual people, so I conformed to the norm. Whaaatever.

The only things I begrudge wikis for is that people use them instead of descriptions (in fact for many wiki pages there's nothing in there other than pictures and a name) and that occasionally there are these absurd - even for MUSH low standards - arguments about who has the 'right' to a likeness.

@Tempest said:

Slightly off topic. I have no problem with TS, in some sort of context, I don't even care if there wasn't any lead-up RP besides one pose saying "joe and jane met in the bar and went back to jane's place", but I get really bothered by people who send random semi-sexual (or blatantly) pages or ooc poses/etc when in the ooc room or alone in some room for whatever reason. And there seem to be quite a few of them.

Yeah, on non-sex based games that's creepy. There's flirting, and there's ... that.

@Derp said:

On Eldritch, I'm not sure it's that much of an issue. You already have some pretty conservative wiki policies on appropriate imagery (I've read them, and I sadded, because there was a picture that I wanted to post where like, the top half of a butt is visible, but it went against the guidelines, so I didn't....).

I've seen oh-so many tops of butts at places like Walmart. So many more than I ever wanted to. Man-cracks everywhere.

TIL: Eldritch is more chaste than Walmart.

@Misadventure said:

Why aren't you named August?

Because that's not my name! But also because family. It's a cool system on Eldritch, they're not like TR ones.

As of yesterday:

Eldritch: Daniel Darleth (Werewolf).

Dogs.

@7Wonders said:

Personal circumstances like 'this player had a medical condition that has them offline at abrupt intervals' or 'they have a weird IRL work schedule' are one thing. Circumstances that are a big barrel of self-created drama llama are totally another.

Also, past a very conservative point please do yourself a favor and don't accept 'medical conditions' as an excuse for breaking game policies. If my self-diagnosed Asperger's syndrome is causing me to be a dick to your players that's not good, but if I get away with it it's so much worse.

Another note: Although it's too late now, advertise/spread the word when you're ready, not earlier. A game's launching time is critical since players are fickle.

I.e. if you start the game then aren't prepared to handle the initial load of +jobs or your staff aren't around to run plot or work on their spheres or your theme still needs work, etc then players will start logging out and few of them will check back later to see if those issues were resolved in the mean time.

Go all-out when you're ready to handle them if you want to keep them around.

@Coin said:

@Arkandel said:

@Thenomain Do you think the game's ready for the opening day? In terms of CGen, handling XP spends, etc?

... cries laughing ...

... then laughs crying ...

Ah, the joys of staffing. Are you enjoying your power and authority yet?!

@Tempest I highly recommend The Broken Empire series. It's a bit grimdark and very cynical but so well written, and self-contained. A follow-up series is midway now in the same setting but reading the first isn't needed.

Alternatively The Lightbringer series is more traditional fantasy, with a pretty original magic system. It reminded me of Sanderson a lot in that the author clearly spent a great deal of time developing it as a building block to base his plot on.

@Thenomain Do you think the game's ready for the opening day? In terms of CGen, handling XP spends, etc?

Right? I hadn't heard of this particular anecdote but it sounds plausible.

Look, there's a kind of player who're basically Storyteller jocks. With them it's all about the things they can do to others, the monsters with big stats they created or the gross things they threw at the PCs. They brag about it, too ("so the spirit had 15 dice and it negates defense, AGGRO! Hahaha!") like it's a mark of pride.

I was lucky enough to not be that familiar with the practice until some time on TR when I was invited to some plots which literally started before +inits were rolled; like, we'd start in front of a house where Things Had Happened (how did we get there? who are the other characters? why is my PC with them?), then the bad guys spot the party and they attack. I think at this point since there's nothing else to take pride in - I mean it's not like it'll get marks for creativity or development - the Storyteller just goes overboard with stats and grossness of guts and innards hanging from walls, or giant bloodshot eyeballs with teeth and whatnot doing the attacking.

So it's possible those people @Coin is talking about add NPC casualties in the same list - which is lazy more than anything. If you're worth your salt at all you don't need to go kill the characters' Best Friend merit NPC if you want to create an emotional impact; instead buckle up and use your keyboard to type things which amount to an NPC of your own who's interesting and cool enough for them to care about them. Give them a sense of purpose, generate ties with the party, create rapport, breathe life into them... then butcher the living fuck out of that fucker. Then enjoy the players' hearts breaking and relish in the taste of their tears.

Or, you know, whatever.

@Coin When it's -25 with the wind chill the last thing I want to do is be riding a bicycle.