Posts made by Arkandel

@coin MSB is a write-only forum.

@lisse24 I like how the guy asked "HEY WHAT WOULD BE A COOL NAME" and we were like "HERE IS A LAUNDRY WISH LIST OF THE GAME I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS THIS YEAR".

Double post! The key in implementing something like this would be to never let the system get in the way of someone actually going out to have fun, participate in PrPs, etc. It should only cover downtime.

To use the same example as before, Hermione went on plenty of adventures herself. The difference is how she spent the rest of her time; she hit the books while Harry flew around on a broomstick and shit.

@misadventure said in MUSHgicians elements:

@coin It sounds like you want something as complex as Ars Magica, with its study rules and ratings for books and research, and a bunch of Verbs and Nouns to study.

However, the details are only going to be talked about IC if you learn in downtime, so who cares how many classes it takes to learn something? If you need more than 50, then make it take more than one class to learn a thing. Also, there is a ton of lore, countermeasures, an alternate forms like alchemy, etc to learn.

I feel dirty for typing the words but Coin has a pretty good idea there.

The reason I like this system is that it forces the player to make organical and meaningful choices. Do they improve their raw understanding of magic and improve on their skillsets (think: Hermione Granger) or do they work on their practical applications and become better field agents, sacrificing something in the process (obviously think: Harry Potter).

They are both very useful aspects if done right, just in different ways, and finding the balance you want for your character adds depth on both the systemic and roleplaying end. So it matters very much.

@skew said in Is there a game about...:

@arkandel I actually was working on this, first converting ThenoCode to Rhost, then converting from CofD to Vampire V5. I got the first part done, and before the second came, I jumped on Chontio. Thusly, my game is no more!

But I do have Thenocode converted to Rhost, if that is any more appealing to anyone than Thenocode on Mux.

When you're done being in a galaxy far, far away maybe you'll feel like helping people drink blood again! It'd be great to have the option of V5... I miss Vampire: the Masquerade dammit.

(Let's have a generic thread looking for certain types of games. I can't recall if we already have something like it)

... Vampire: the Masquerade V5? Has anyone already looked into this, or are there any in the works?

@surreality said in Learning how to apply appropriate boundaries:

In part, it's because they are think of it as a fight or a contest instead of a conversation. Any time someone makes the mental transition from 'conversation/communication' to 'fight/contest', the whole frame of reference changes dramatically.

It might not be the worst thing about this, but it also doesn't change the conversation only for that person but it can for everyone participating in it.

Take this somewhat harmless example. I'm in a scene with you and Gany. My character says something confrontational IC and yours comes with a great snappy comeback... then Gany says, OOC, "hahah, she put you in your place Arkandel!".

The moment that happens it ruins a lot of that scene for me, as it's reframed from an IC encounter we can all enjoy into an OOC zero-sum game where one person can emerge as the winner as long as the other loses.

When it happens and I start looking at the same RP from this meta-perspective I can very rarely get back into the groove afterwards. I just don't know of a good way to come back from that.

@sparks said in Automated Adventure System:

On healing, one thought I had was that you could heal more often than the limit (which I might reduce to 30 minutes in Shardhavens), but it would cost you an amount of AP equal to the minutes remaining. I.e., if there was a 30 minute timer and you heal someone and ten minutes later they desperately need healing again, you could wait for the half-hour to tick over or pay 20 AP to skip the 20 minutes remaining.

I don't know Arx-stuff so this might not be applicable to your system at all, but maybe you could borrow a page from WoW's mythic dungeon cooldowns.

So basically the way they did it is that there are some skills on WoW which can be incredibly powerful, enough to turn the tide of combat completely. For example you could resurrect a dead character while combat's still taking place, turning certain defeat into a potential victory. Or you could buff all your group's power by a lot for a limited time.

The two ways WoW limits those, but keeps then important, is by time and by total number of uses. So either you can use your supercharger once every 3 minutes (and since mythic runs are timed the total number of applications is limited too), or you can only use your combat rez X times in the whole run.

Now... you might not be able to count on time being the limited factor here like WoW can simply because people take different times to pose (although I don't know, maybe you do time the runs in your system too). You could however use number of applications instead, which should still work - say, "you can heal your teammates X times in the same run".

@faraday said in Learning how to apply appropriate boundaries:

I don't think it's quite that black and white though:

"Your character is an emotional train wreck and I can't deal with that. I insist on you toning it down if you want to continue RPing out an IC relationship with my character."

"My character is an emotional train wreck. If you want to continue RPing out an IC relationship with our characters, you have to take the good with the bad."

To be clear: As long as both my partner and I are okay with whatever's happening on the OOC level then I couldn't care less about the characters. It's just not a concern at all on any level. If we're both into cannibalization then I guess someone is about to fry, IC!

The only issues that matter are on the OOC level.

@pyrephox said in Learning how to apply appropriate boundaries:

"Modeling a healthy relationship" is not the point of dramatic, romantic, or comedic fiction, anymore than people ride roller coasters to learn how to drive. Healthy relationships are pretty boring unless you're inside of one, and they don't generally make good, gripping stories that give people emotional catharsis.

Yes, in fiction. If I'm writing a book I can include whatever level of dysfunction I see fit, and no one has much of a right to tell me otherwise; they can not read it, or not that I was wrong in writing it.

In roleplaying that gets awfully tricky really fast. My idea of a dysfunctional IC relationship, which to me OOC can be fun to play out and work towards a resolution, can be full of triggers for you OOC. I can be told I was wrong in insisting you play it out with me.

< wanders around aimlessly, walks into walls >

@ganymede said in Learning how to apply appropriate boundaries:

It's not precisely the same as a Weinstein, and you're definitely not pulling a Kavanaugh, but pulling a Duckie is still a shit move. In some perspectives, it's a worse move.

You didn't just lose me, I don't even know where I am any more.

@surreality said in Learning how to apply appropriate boundaries:

For the most part, it looks like a lot of 'I like you just fine, but I don't want to <thing> with you.'

The way I mean it is this.

Me: "Hey Surreality, we're currently having fun hanging out/playing PCs in a coterie. Let me run a story in which I kill your alt and eat her."

You: "We do have fun, but I'm not into being canibalized!"

Me: "I'd like you more if you were!"

That's the gist of it, in my opinion of course. I.e. it's not about pushing your boundaries slightly (which you already covered) or seeing if you'd try something you don't often do just in case you end up having a good time if only because you're doing it with me, your buddy. No, it's about trying to push you into doing something you already 100% know you don't want to do at all, no matter the company.

It's not about who you're doing it with but who you are, and my best argument - my only one, really - can be summed down to this: "But I'd like you more if you were someone else".

All the other stuff, the quid pro quo, the 'look at it this way', the attempts to reframe it into "it's just IC" or trying to make it sound like it's all about you being a good sport or a better player or... whatever... it's all obfuscating that one request. Sure, I like you now, but I could like you more if you were into things you're not into. C'mon. It'll be fun (for me).

A lot of the mockup conversations in this thread basically come down to this:

I would like you more if you were someone else.

We'll, do you want to be someone else?

https://talkiesnetwork.com/2018/11/26/aquaman-has-screened-here-are-the-first-reactions/

@packrat said in Automated Adventure System:

I can guarantee that if you make a ring (or a nipple ring) that gives +1 Luck but does not announce this then that mostly means that its secret powers will only be unlocked by assholes who are willing to equip items then +roll three hundred times in their bedroom before loading the results into a spreadsheet and comparing to the unassisted statistics.

I agree with the request but not the characterization. If you base a system on numbers someone will crunch them out; it's just another puzzle to be solved. It doesn't make someone an asshole.

@aria said in Holiday materialism! Let's talk gifts.:

My boyfriend reads this forum, too, so I'm being subtle like a punch to the face.

I'm sure it's not that bad.

Look, @insomniac7809 - this is for you!

I take it all back.

The nVidia Shield is one of my go-to toys for this season.

As an example in my home rig I run a Plex server on my desktop where I download all sorts of media. I can stream it very easily via Chromecast to the TV with one caveat - the Android app defaults to video compression ignoring thr server's settings to play this at a local resolution.

The Shield is a superior option to other approaches (I don't wanna haul a laptop around, and even very portable computers to run this stuff (Raspberry Pie, etc) will need a bulky wireless device around to control them. nVidia gives a remote and a gamepad if I also want to play Android games on the TV.

Here's an easy link for US-ians out there since it's the season to be discounted: https://www.kitguru.net/channel/generaltech/damien-cox/nvidia-shield-tv-is-25-off-for-black-friday/ . There may be other better deals, too.

So, folks... let's bring it out here since the holidays are approaching and many of us are looking to buy (or ask for) some cool things that won't end up in a bottom drawer somewhere.

What's on your list? Let's keep it reasonably affordable so no cars or anything, even though you can include higher end stuff like laptops if something stands out. Don't hesitate to mention fillers, little knickknacks or anything just plain neat.

And do us all a favor - if there's a link for your item or a sale, drop it in the thread.

Yay consumerism!

@ifrit You can consider volunteering your services to an ongoing project if you can find one that's close enough to your preferences in the mean time.

That lets you network more, hone your skills and help out while you're at it - new developers are usually in high demand, and with less pressure on you to get too much done right away.