Posts made by Arkandel

Alt right.

@ganymede Yep. And sometimes corporations get really dumb about it, too.

"We want to pay $X for this guy, not $X + $2k annually".

This is a valuable person to the organization. Do you really want to risk losing them over a rounding error in the firm's profits then need to replace them with someone who will be paid more than that amount to start with and who, if you're lucky, will eventually be just as good and valuable as this person already is?

But they often do.

Adding to what @ganymede said. Being in management has exposed me to a lot of 'behind the scenes' stuff that goes on when corporations look for suitable candidates, interview them, hire them... or let them go.

Although you could land into a good situation and be looked after, no one is obligated to do so. For example rates aren't decided by what you are worth, but by the minimum you will accept or stay at the role you're filling; you could do research on the current job market value for your job but unless the powers that be decide you intend to leave, or that you already have a better offer on the table, why would they pay you that if they can pay you less? It's as simple as that.

In fact managers are often confused when folks don't do that. This guy makes what? Why is he still here?

Look after your interests. They are not necessarily aligned with anyone else's.

The Last Kingdom.

It's George Martin approved. And now Arkandel-approved, I guess!

My friends. Not just the ones from childhood but later in life as well.

My best friend until I was... 14-15 used to be just a bit of a rebel. He wanted to date very badly, as soon as he was old enough to drive one he bought himself a motorcycle to impress chicks, he got into the tourist industry and was eager to work toward becoming a concierge.

Now he's a priest, extra right wing, making borderline racist anti-immigrant posts on social media.

My best friend from my postgraduate degree was always a bit of a jerk. I lent him money to fix his car (never saw it back ), and had a reputation for cheating on his girlfriends - I still remember going to watch Blair Witch Project with him and his gf at the time asked him to put me on the phone to verify he was actually out with me.

A few years ago he got a girl pregnant and ended up marrying her. We talk very rarely these days but he started messaging me out of the blue today to convince me vaccinations are evil and made some weird comments about God's judgment - I dunno.

Sigh. That actually upsets me.

@saosmash Charge a commission. Demand a tithe. It's your right.

@pyrephox said in MUs That We Would Love To Make (But Won't):

Yeah. I think this is where support comes in. @Devrex 's suggestion about having staff partnering with potential runners, working through mechanics with them, or being on hand to provide pinch hitting support (whether it's running a specific NPC, or what.)

It's harder to shadow someone running a plot, or to coordinate them so they can run NPCs within the scope of what you're looking to accomplish, than to do it yourself.

If it's an investment in hopes of encouraging a new ST? That's probably still worth it. But it can very easily be more stressful than just doing it, for no payoff at all.

@runescryer said in MUs That We Would Love To Make (But Won't):

A thought...

Rather than leaning all-in on PRP, how about this:

When players go through CharGen, they get 'bonuses' from submitting Subplots for the game. Not necessarily subplots that involve their character, but for the game in general. These are then used by the GM's of yhe game to create stories and events to run.

This has been suggested before - basically creating a 'library' of plots, as modular as possible, so that GMs can more or less pick one up from a pre-approved pool.

The problem with that is exactly what you'd expect. It's not coming up with the concept that's the blocker. Most people can cook up a "my dog was kidnapped by a goblin, get her back!" questline, WoW-style.

It's running it. That takes more time, effort, following up.

@devrex said in MUs That We Would Love To Make (But Won't):

Weirdly I've seen less of this over the years, not more. Most players I've run into and have run for have been kind, appreciative, helpful, and forgiving. Everyone's mileage surely varies there, though. I offer this not as a refutation but more to offer a sense of hope...many players are awesome!

It's because we fixate, to an unhealthy degree, on the negativity.

I'm kinda retired now but I've been in this hobby for a very long time. I've ran hundreds of PrPs, some for just one person, some for an entire sphere. The vast majority of those went either okay or people were grateful whether I really knew the source material intimately or ran the exact themes they were looking for or not.

The last sort of 'big plot' I ran was on Arx (yeah, that was a long time ago). It was just a dumb idea, kind of a training exercise for whoever wanted to join where they had to scale a wooden tower wet with traps and grab a flag from the top or something. I didn't even know what rolls to use on Arx's system so we made them up on the spot. Like 20 people got involved? There was no reward of any sort. The winner was a random sailor. It wasn't tied to running metaplot or politics in any conceivable way.

I got the impression folks liked it. Did it blow their minds? No. Not every PrP needs to do that.

Just run something if you want to, don't if you don't.

All I wanted to say in this thread is... don't count on plots being run if you're a game-runner. Design the MU* in a way that it won't be boring unless you find a bunch of volunteers, as they don't grow on trees.

@zombiegenesis Yeah, that's fair. Maybe an 8-ball kind of code which, if at least half the scene's participants silently activate, spits out a random encounter in the room.

@zombiegenesis said in MUs That We Would Love To Make (But Won't):

The answer can't be, "let other people entertain me". That's the road that leads to stagnation and RP death. I think we're collectively trying to find ways to inspire people to find way to entertain each other. Even if it's just for a few hours.

That's true. But I think it's also not "let's all do something that doesn't come naturally to some". It won't work, either.

I think the answer is in automated unscripted PrPs to bridge some gaps. I doubt though there is a singular 'silver bullet' approach that will just solve this problem.

@derp Not quite. Everyone can respond to a scene. Some people are even quite good at feeding off of existing cues, writing really good poses, being fun to be around... but they can't (or won't) create new plot threads.

To some people "hey this scene is getting stale, I'll make a drunk NPC start a fight" comes naturally. Others don't want to deal with being in the spotlight for that.

@derp I think one of the reasons 'bar RP' is so popular is that some players find solace in how formulaic it is. You don't need to get creative - the only 'expectations' are to reply when it's your turn, describe what your character is doing at the time, maybe what they look like (which you can just have in a @desc or even an image on the wiki) and you're done.

No one can tell you you're doing "I have short dark hair and I'm drinking a beer" wrong.

But the perception of PrPs is that someone could say you're doing it wrong. There's a plot hole, it doesn't make sense! That magic spell doesn't work that way, stupid! This NPC doesn't have the authority the whole premise is built around, ugh! You ran combat but you're not doing initiative right, learn the rules first you noob!

... It doesn't matter whether players scrutinize or get this mean about PrPs (the majority are just happy to have someone run anything...). That's the fear. And it's enough to keep folks from trying it out.

Compared to drinking at a bar? It's not even a contest.

@zombiegenesis Yeah that makes sense.

I think I just meant it in the sense that only rewarding XP (which is the obvious and easier way to incentivize PrP running) isn't necessarily the best way to do it.

It's just that most MU* don't have in-game ways to quantifiably reward... stuff on a regular basis. I suspect they would need to be built from scratch to facilitate that - for example in a L&L game that could be resources (gold, etc), in a comics game perhaps items that temporarily boost a character's power but will deplete if they stop running plot, etc.

@zombiegenesis said in MUs That We Would Love To Make (But Won't):

On a comic game? I guess it depends on the specific universe but something similar could happen. Cool perks that don't overpower a character or unbalance the game. Some players helped you run that Thanos/Infinity Gauntlet plot? Their PCs are now the guardians of the Infinity Gems(ala the Infinity Watch comics).

Another way for comic book games could be to use PrPs as a way to 'unlock' canonical characters. So Batman isn't playable by staff friends or first-askers who park on the character but people who have ran PrPs before. The idea of course is hopefully that they'll use the character to drive plots instead of just locking themselves up in a room with Catwoman until the end of time.

@bear_necessities Well, essentially the idea has always been pretty simple - run a PrP, get some XP (or other in-game bonuses).

Mind you, this is no silver bullet. Those have gotten abused in the past. The simplest way is by people who ran them only for their friends (i.e. the people they'd be doing it for anyway), and so if you didn't have access to plots before you probably wouldn't now either.

Another way reward systems misfired is when people ran unplotted scenes just to collect them. "A birthday party" kind of deal.

But even then at least something happens. In smaller MU* when nothing happens for long enough it can be a game-killing condition, since people get bored and leave, then when other players log on they find no one else on, get bored and leave, etc... until there's no one left.

@zombiegenesis said in MUs That We Would Love To Make (But Won't):

I think if people want to get the most out of the modern MU scene they need to embrace the idea of self-contained plots and running things themselves for themselves. I know that may be easier said then done but it's how I feel.

That's one way to do it but is it a realistic expectation? People's approach to being willing to run plot in general haven't changed to a large degree before, so why would it start now?

I think a better way around it is to assume nothing will change but give people tools to have their adventures ran automatically. Think more 'Diablo 3 random dungeon' than anything. Many combat-y plots aren't very deep anyway, so you could potentially package a game so that when there are scenes going they can go have political RP and when there's nothing else going on go fight orcs or whatever.

@macha said in MUs That We Would Love To Make (But Won't):

@arkandel See, for me? I'm TERRIFIED of running plot. What if they hate it? What if I have to switch things around and I fuck it up? What if I change things and they hate it? AAAAAAAHHHHHHHH

No, I get it.

All I'm saying is games need to account for it, since it's simply the reality.

@betternow said in MUs That We Would Love To Make (But Won't):

Or, GMs could not be the only source of plot and let players run their own stuff, make up their own cases to run for others, come up with their own NPC patients with X or Y illness for PCs to solve, etc. Then GMS only have to focus on big, world-changing stuff

In most MU* I used to play this was pretty much the default. In some of the sandbox ones it was really the only option other than when staff ran very occasional scenes.

Unless something has changed, the truth of the matter is the majority of players want to participate but not run plot. It's not really a matter of whether they are permitted to; in fact unless there are generous reward systems encouraging them to do so, it tends to not happen outside small groups of players running scenes for each other.

Here's a question, while we're just shooting the shit (*).

Which original TV series would actually make for a good MU*? How would you set it up?

(*) Unlike what we usually do, which is talk about important stuff like mature adults.