I don't particularly like science fiction (other than Isaac Asimov) but these were excellent:
Basically they are Ender's Game meets Hunger Games set in the a dystopian caste-based segregated society where lower classes are oppressed by the ruling one. They are amazing page-turners, I burned my way through those books and can't wait for the third.
@icanbeyourmuse said:
My biggest problem
with playing crazyis people get way to emotionally invested in their char.
FTFY. 
@Coin said:
@Arkandel said:
But nothing can be done about it.
I think the best reaction to this sort of thing is to tell the person this. Just be like, "Look, this kind of soured me because you have no reason to tell me all of these secrets about this sphere and you're not really trying to cloud it in mystery or give it any sort of respect in context, so I'm just gonna go."
Sometimes people get the point. Other times they don't. But sometimes. Just sooooometimes.
Besides, if we do nothing every single time there's nothing can be done because we don't actually do anything.
Two reasons.
Because I don't want to be that guy. I don't like generating friction, there's enough drama out there.
Because it's my peeve. For all I know someone else doesn't mind or even likes that stuff. It's not wrong per se, they aren't crossing lines or (afaik) using OOC information, they just fail to meet my completely arbitrary standards for roleplaying. I'm not sure that gives me the right to chide them for it, you know?
... but it's mostly (1).
I think when I attributed part of the blame for not being able to inflict horror on mechanics I misspoke; that would imply the system was ever meant to convey or generate it. But that's not the case, not even for those which advertise themselves as "games of personal horror" - they are not. The moment names and abilities are assigned to things the veil of mystery is gone because there's a framework for what it is or could be.
Is something from beyond the grave stirring in your kitchen? Well, man, there's a best case and a worst case scenario here; you either have what it takes to stop it ("pft, I got Death 3") or you don't and you'll suffer whatever mechanical fate is in store (death, insanity). It's cut and dried, since almost every system that I've ever seen including Cthulhu variants is designed with adventuring in mind; you got your numbers and your opposition has its numbers. There's an encounter and a resolution.
My idea of horror (which of course each player has a different one) is based on the unknown, the unthinkable. There's no resolution, there can't be one because what's happening is so unfathomable. There's no opposition because the things that are happening are phenomena, manifestations, not monsters with motives and goals; even if you manage to find that rite which silences the indian graveyard under your house you're not safe because you don't know what just happened, or why it started or ended. You don't know if the wards you're hanging outside your window do anything. All you know is you're this tiny fleshbag who witnessed something massively bigger than themselves and you're scared shitless because of it.
But how to channel this into a plot... I don't know how. It doesn't help that PCs tend to be terribly competent on their own ("I roll int+occult, can I tell what those signs on the ceiling mean?") or that they can call for backup and get someone who believes them. PCs never need stand alone. They never have to wonder if they aren't losing it because when they all know a whole lot of supernatural stuff already exists why doubt this latest insanity also does? Sure man, I've seen ghosts, I've fought zombies but what the hell are you saying, spirits? Those don't exist, are you nuts?
But I'd love to. I'd love to run an actually scary story.
@lordbelh said:
Mind, being SuperFriends doesn't mean you have to actually spill Sphere secrets. In fact you really shouldn't unless you can't help it. And if you do spill secrets, them being your SuperFriend is not an excuse, and you shouldn't expect other PCs or NPCs to give you a break because feelings. Especially you shouldn't get OOC angry.
If anything I get OOC irritated when people do this for no reason. Just the other day my Mage was in a room where someone started just spilling everything about a sphere which wasn't theirs either. It hadn't even come up! It was just, like, a conversation starter - 'hey, let me tell you all about <X>'. And it was accurate, too, not colored by perception (and misperception) or clouded in something resembling dread or incomprehension but straight to the point, like a wikipedia article. My PC had no reason to mind that, in fact it probably benefits him, but it pissed me off.
But nothing can be done about it.
Horror is hard to pull off on MU.
For starters there are usually mechanics and the instant there are mechanics it means you lose the unknown; there are rules in place. Characters have alternatives, powers, abilities, stuff they can do. And (far worse) enemies have names - they are ghosts, undead, tentacled monsters, whatever.
Barring cases like @Coin mentioned I think intimate horror stories can probably only be told In PrPs, and probably one on ones at that, probably in sandbox. Even then it'd require a lot of trust toward the ST.
If anyone else has a good argument or anecdote to prove me wrong though I'd love to hear it.
@Wizz said:
A lot of people bitch about cross-sphere always "turning into the Superfriends,"
It's basic human nature (even if the creatures involved aren't entirely human any more) to form rapport and camaraderie after facing adversity together.
So while it's not mandatory that this will happen I don't see why it's unreasonable barring external thematic reasons; if there's no competition over resources or other reasons for them to clash, it'd actually be a pretty natural result especially after months of being allied in PrPs, fighting on the same side, etc.
What I don't like - but it's a peeve more than a real complaint - is when people sit at a bar and provide exposition about spheres which sound like they're quoting the game manual. "A Sin-Eater is a hybrid between a ghost and..." At least cloud it in some mystery. Make it sound like it's not cut and dried.
This may be off-topic (and I've no idea how much interest the concept itself can get) but can the idea of true metaphysical horror - the really creepy stuff - translate into a game?
For example I ran into this today: http://imgur.com/gallery/7TJO8 . I'd love to instil PrPs with this kind of primal raw WTFNOPENOPE but it's very difficult. Since it'd need to start with normalcy then within an instant turn it into something else.
Ideas?
@Sanguine said:
@HelloRaptor I will allow you to be the first person I launch a grizzly bear from a catapult at.
What did that bear ever do to you. 
@Miss-Demeanor said:
On combat: I still miss Aikido, Qinna, and Chain Weapons. They may not have been broken like Kung Fu or Combat Marksmanship, but they were FUN. Also... Martial Arts in GMC is still totally broken. Ask anyone that's fought against my Bruja.
Is grappling still a nightmare in GMC? (At least I always found it to be one)
@HelloRaptor said:
I keep thinking of the people I know who like Vampire, and the looks on their faces when they see that, and I cannot stop laughing.
Out of morbid curiosity, why? I'm probably missing something.
Monday mornings are hard, amirite?
As it turns out, Monday mornings during a snow storm are harder. And the best part is that after I'm back home I'll need to spend an hour shovelling just so I can get out and do the same thing tomorrow morning.
<fistshake>
I don't know how they could have missed that in the first edition. Fighting styles in particular weren't simply broken, they made certain things absolutely mandatory. Stuff like Combat Marksmanship, Kung Fu or Fencing so far outstripped everything else there was never a real choice in whether to get them or not; you either did, or you had a third or less of the combat pools someone else did.
Even then it could be argued that wasn't a big deal since everyone had access to the same things. But the true issue was that since attacking scaled so much better than defending, combat very often came down to who won initiative and got to one-shot the other guy. Dead people don't get to fight back.
@silentsophia said:
Edit: Or those damnable resume builders on websites. I HAVE ONE. JUST TAKE IT.
Although I know exactly what you mean, from the web sites' perspective it's better if they can present employers with a single format for every resume submitted than pretty much a different one per applicant.
@lordbelh said:
I also mostly liked WoT, though in the end I just wanted it to fucking be done already. I thought Brandon Sanderson did an excellent job at that.
By the way, his Stormlight Archives is off to a really great start I thought.
The novels in the Stormlight Archives so far have been amazing. Oddly, although I've read most of Sanderson's books, this series was the only one I really enjoyed.
The rest of his books were always good reads (Mistborn, for example, was solid) but not truly top-notch in the way that they could get an emotional response from me or I truly cared about the characters. They just made me want to find out what happened, to solve the mystery, since in his books there's always a mystery.
Until The Way of Kings Sanderson to me was an excellent world builder but only an okay storyteller. Maybe that's when he finally hit his stride.
@HelloRaptor said:
Why are no posts about how those other books failed to be enjoyed by everyone?
Yeah, I'll reiterate the above: Because not everybody everywhere clamors about how you just HAVE to read those other books. It was more or less the same with the Wheel of Time books. They were mostly trash, but their fans were fans and god help you if you didn't enjoy them.
Point out where in this thread this happened. Or, if it did, shouldn't the peeve be about those people and not about the books they are fans of?
I usually couldn't care less what other people don't like that I happen to but it just seems to come down to a very hipster-ish thing, you know? I don't like these books which are so popular - also because of that.
My take on the Song of Ice and Fire saga is simple; they are far from the worst books one could read. There are quite likely books in this thread which are worse.
Why are no posts about how those other books failed to be enjoyed by everyone? Is none of them a derivative of some other, possibly better original work?
I don't want to sound butthurt just because they're some of my favorite works (good job, eh?) but I am curious.
