Its not lack of empathy ... its the way it has destroyed academic pursuit and freedom of thought. There are healthy ways of discussing these topics (and re: Oriental, I am aware that that term is not new and its history). The way they are talked aboutt is not healthy. And I don't mean on just a "gosh, people get so sensitive and angry about this" ... I mean on a level of professors, teachers and students whose lives are being ruined, jobs lost, careers destroyed, because Sally the Pink-Haired SJW decided that the way you talked about the history of that Oriental rug was just so fucking triggering that they "felt the violence of that microaggression and gosh they just couldn't leave their room for days because they were crying". THESE PEOPLE NEED TO SERIOUSLY FUCK OFF. And they need to be told, not just by academics like me, but by people like you to GET A GRIP.

Would like to echo @Brunocerous statement. I've posted before supporting Fear & Loathing, and think it has a lot of potential. Politics in the vampire sphere is definitely starting to heat up and there are some great PrPs going on. There is a lot of productive cross-sphere RP as well. As the Praxis is just ICly reforming, now is a good time to get involved.

As part of that, I am looking for someone to play my own vampire character's childe. Caius is rather old-worldy and does have a bit of a hard time fitting into the modern Las Vegas nights. When his childe was Embraced is up for discussion ... either back in his old days, in the 1920s when he was active in San Francisco (He was on Cofab and is a transfer) or even something recent to his reawakening in Las Vegas. His bloodline can be problematic for some people, so its entirely optional as to whether the person activates it.

My other character, Book, also has extensive family in Las Vegas (his descendants). The Book family can comprise of any sphere and some are active members of the police force and city government. If you're interested in that as a different route, happy to explore that too.

Anywho, just a couple of RP hooks if one is looking for a good way into the RP at Fear & Loathing. After Reach and Cofab, I left MU*ing for awhile and am glad I tapped into this place upon returning. It is a good group of RPers and the Staff are attentive (full disclosure, I came in a month ago as Encore to help out with +jobs and such). Join us!

Links to my character pages in case anyone is interesting in playing something connected:

http://www.fandlmux.com/Caius
http://www.fandlmux.com/Book

-Ataru

@Catsmeow

"I have never heard something stupid referred to as 'that's so hetero'."

You don't know many old queens (like myself) then. Believe me ... we have as many words and occassions to call out stupid straight behaviour as they do. If not more.

"I can use what voice I have to speak for those that cannot."

This is a good sentiment. But be sure you know what you're doing. Most gay people are quite good at speaking for themselves. One of my biggest pet peeves is straight people telling me whether I should be offended by someone else's behaviour. I once told a male, straight friend of mine who was arguing with me about gay rights and other gay social justice stuff and telling me that I ought to be offended by so and so's behaviour and I wasn't being a very good gay person because I wasn't offended. My response: "Do you take dick up your ass? No? Than fuck off and don't tell me how to be gay."

Now putting the shade aside a bit, in this particular situation there was no ability to know what this guy was thinking and the couple involved (whom you should not engage in a 'loving' manner and 'white knight' it) didn't appear offended. I'm gay and I'm offended by people being any more intimate in public than a peck on the cheek or holding hands. But then I'm a prude queen. So doing nothing is absolutely the right response. Know what fights to fight and if its not your actual fight, than be DOUBLY sure before getting involved.

@Kanye-Qwest said in Bump In The Night: A Chronicles of Darkness MUX:

Tolkien is a horribly dry and boring writer, and elves suck. @tragedyjones is on to something.

Well there's goes my PhD dissertation.

I'll just end with this for now....

"For at present we all tend to one mistake; we tend to make politics too important. We tend to forget how huge a part of a man's life is the same under a Sultan and a Senate, under Nero or St. Louis. Daybreak is a never-ending glory, getting out of bed is a never-ending nuisance; food and friends will be welcomed; work and strangers must be accepted and endured; birds will go bedwards and children won't, to the end of the last evening."
—G.K. Chesterton

@Ghost This is why when I first log into a game, I name the charbit Ataru. It might get renamed after I come up with my concept, but I like to be transparent about who I am. If people know me from here and want to say hi, great. I just got into that habit.

Everyone's advice has been very good so far. I would add that especially at the beginning KNOW your Staff. They don't have to be friends. You've been in the community for awhile. You know the people to a degree. Know who you are hiring. Be proactive and ask people whom you feel you'll be able to trust with the opening of your game. As your game progresses, this can change as you meet new people on your game and maybe bring them on to staff. But even then ... know them. And don't put anyone in any real power on your game whom you can't trust implicitly to make the right decision should you not be there.

@Meg said in RL Anger:

Also to throw this out there, I've very rarely ever needed to refer to someone by their race. What context are you all (ambiguous term) running into this that it's becoming such a big issue that you can't just /not/ call someone an Asian?

Mostly, they like to be called their names.

I'm actually with you here ... unfortunately young students today define themselves more by their various identities than their names. That's not hyperbole.

On SW games that had restrictions/apps/FCs etc to take care of the Force apps, it always lead to drama. If avoiding that drama is what you're intending, then find some way to not have a gatekeeping mechanic. Either allow Force users from the get go and tweak the lore in that region of space to explain why you might have a cadre of Jedi or force users or whatever there ... there are a lot of narrative choices there, OR set the game in a time/place where it becomes a moot point ... I specificially chose 100 BBY on the Chu'unthor for the setting of my Star Wars game for this reason, totally freed up Force/Jedi apps .... OR don't have them at all. Like at all except as an occassional NPC plot villain/quest giver or whatever.

Any other system I've seen used, in the end just didn't work, created confusion or frustration and certainly brought about resentment.

For those following the thread, this is being pursued and development is commencing. Yay. I will use basic CoD stat system altered obviously for the Dune universe. Probably won't install that till after I've finished the grid and news files and such. Thank you all for the interest. Keep following here for updates!

So I came across this trailer recently ....

https://youtu.be/KhjQyDMzKWI

So anyone who knows me knows I am an Agatha Christie nut and in particular a fan of Hercule Poirot. Now I have my favourite version of "Murder on the Orient Express" and that is David Suchet's. He really brought the pathos and faith crisis of Poirot on to the screen like no one else. This looks like an amazing cast, and while I'm a fan of Brannagh, I'm not sure how he'll do as the "Belgium detective". Here's hoping. If you've never seen, by the way, David Suchet's version of this story, it is Season 12, Episode 3 of his series.

The whole series is an absolute masterpiece of TV and that episode as well as the last season (season 13) is some of the finest TV ever made.

@Misadventure It is a great city. I loved growing up there and worked at Seattle Opera for awhile. But I'll say what I've always said to people ... either know someone there ahead of time or expect to work at making friends. Granted there are so many people there who are people who have moved there, its probably rather different now than it was back in the 90s. Sparks might be able to help with how it is now.

@HelloProject said in RL Anger:

@Ataru So what you're saying is that Seattle is how I feel about all these goddamned gentrifying hipsters who are ruining my city and acting like they're entitled to push us out because they have money.

Yeah pretty much ... but it has less to do with who has money or hipstery stuff or race or anything ... it just has to do with native Seattlites having an elite attitude about being native Seattlites. Its a very closed community and they are relatively outnumbered by people who have moved there over the last few decades. I'm not saying they're necessarily snobbish ... its more just a latent resentment.

@Kanye-Qwest I remember showing my parents the Big Lebowski and first my mom said to my dad, "Its your brothers ..." and then he said, "Its like watching a documentary about southern California."

@mietze I meet so many people who either moved to Seattle back when it got cool to move to Seattle (20ish years ago), moved more recently, are thinking of moving, etc etc etc.

I will tell you a private little secret from a native Seattlite who has been away from it long enough that I don't give a shit that I'm sharing the secret anymore.

Native Seattlites (I'm talking about the people who are multi-generational ... and I mean like really really native Seattlites ... pre-1980s before there was even a whiff of coolness to the city) will always detest anyone and everyone else who comes to their city. They probably won't show it overtly because it is an obsessively polite culture (you can sometimes spot native Seattlites by their almost off-putting politeness), but believe me its there. The sense that the Emerald City is or was their paradise (and it was) before the rabble started coming because 'hey, Seattle is so cool'. For them, prices went up, development spread across what was pristine land, gang violence actually became a thing rather than some fantasy that happened elsewhere (well, minus the Yokuza or Russian mafia, but they they politely did their thing in their little enclaves). None of it was good. Sure, they'll talk about how wonderful the big Seattle boom is ... publically ... but seriously, they resent every single person who moved to their city post about 1990. Its not a racial thing or a class thing or any of the other identity things. Its just a matter of watching their city be one thing and then become another (granted their view of Seattle before all of this is with rose-tinted glasses, but reality isn't important when it comes to perception).

There's a reason why for a long time there was a posterboard on the I-5 heading into Seattle that had a picture of a blonde-bikini clad woman that read, "Californians go home, we don't want you."

Whenever I've had friends talk about moving to Seattle, I have always warned them ... make sure you know someone. Have some connection to someone before you go. Because native Seattlites are very closed community. They'll be polite, but they won't open their circles to you. Now this has probably changed now that the non-natives outnumber the natives. I haven't been back to my native city in some time and as much as I love the climate, I came to loathe the place.

I'll paraphrase a comment my mom once made about her native California, "Its the most beautiful piece of land on God's green Earth, unfortunately the Seattlites live there."

I hope she is alright @Pondscum .

I'm leaving London shortly. Waiting for my train. It's been a tense weekend.

Also yes Fuck You IS.

waves hand I am not the Ataru you're looking for.

Everyone's advice has been very good so far. I would add that especially at the beginning KNOW your Staff. They don't have to be friends. You've been in the community for awhile. You know the people to a degree. Know who you are hiring. Be proactive and ask people whom you feel you'll be able to trust with the opening of your game. As your game progresses, this can change as you meet new people on your game and maybe bring them on to staff. But even then ... know them. And don't put anyone in any real power on your game whom you can't trust implicitly to make the right decision should you not be there.

Crypt and Aether are two of the games I played of which I have the fondest memories.

Former Aetherite (played Orman Kai and Rani Rajan) and CryptMUX player (played Ortrud, Old Meg and the fae, Decay)