Best posts made by Auspice

@rucket said in MSB Popularity Contest:

All hail @brent, our new overlord.

They're good dogs.

@RightMeow said in MU Things I Love:

@Auspice

I fixed it. YOU'RE WELCOME

OR MADE IT WORSE, ARGUABLY.

She's gonna be found frozen in her shop unable to hand off a message for Symonesse to Bitey because 'oh god oh god I am about to send a messenger to the Queen what even is my life oh god what is happening why even is anything'

@arkandel said in Good TV:

Double post!

Marvel's Runaways trailer.

I am so excited for Runaways you don't even know.

@Meg
I feel like some people need to watch Legal Eagle's COPPA video.

"She filled her dress like a bunch of sleeping kittens. I just wanted to pet every part of her."

This lovely line is from the book Reincarnation Blues, by Michael Poore.

And I might need to read the book based on it alone.

@Derp said in What game system would you prefer for a big-tent nWoD project?:

@Auspice said in What game system would you prefer for a big-tent nWoD project?:

Just up the amount of weekly XP to 2 and get rid of short-terms, IMO. Increase beats earned for PRPs, encourage people to use conditions more. But get rid of short-term asps.

2xp a week is a ludicrously high amount for a 2E game. You will get ridiculous monsters very fast, because people will figure out how to hit it every. Single. Time.

I speak from experience. You will hate yourself if you make that your standard. You really want it to go slower.

And yet, on most games, people making full use of short-terms (as 'recommended') will be earning 2XP per week.

@insomnia said in Dead Celebrities: 2017 Edition:

John Dunsworth - Trailer Park Boys, Haven, 71.

Mr. Lahey!

@Ganymede said in Personal Agency for Personal Boundaries:

@Auspice said in Personal Agency for Personal Boundaries:

Make an opt-in. Make people running scenes, plots, writing shit for the game, etc., label their stuff clearly.

What's the default level of play?

If you have an opt-in, there has to be some expectation of baseline play. What is that baseline? What if baseline RP naturally progresses into a kind of RP that requires an opt-in, but the players involved forget about using the right command and barrel on in?

tbh, for casual RP between two players? I wouldn't want any sort of special commands.

We're adults. I'd like to treat my players as adults who can communicate between one another what they're comfortable with.

'Hey this scene is going towards TS and I prefer FTB. Can we fast forward to the morning after?'
vs
oh before they pose again lemme trigger the opt-in command and make sure I put NO ...

Yeesh.

Most of what I view for this sort of thing are PRPs, events, etc. Things wherein you're going to have a larger group and there's a certain level of non-consent-based RP going on (even on consent games, an ST'd scene removes some level of full agency for the sake of storytelling).

But, I believe opt-in begins at creation, at 'ACCEPT' (if your game has such a stage). Lay out what your game is about, the 'rating' it may have, the sort of things people can expect to run into.

***Just watched this week's Discovery***

I have to disagree that aspirations encourage RP. I think they actually discourage it.

It's more work, for one. You don't just organically RP and earn XP. If your scene pings an aspiration, then you need to submit code to fulfill it and submit code to claim another.

And that if is a big factor, too. If your aspirations are 'meet someone new' and 'get into a fight' and the only RP being offered is from people your PC already knows to hang out and drink coffee....... well, you're just gonna sit OOC until one of the 'net gain' options comes along, right?

So I think that it actually causes additional barriers to RP. Long-term asps are fine and I think smart ones, milled over time for XP ('Cruac to 5' - get a bump every time you buy a new dot in Cruac, RP a scene learning it/about it, etc.) are perfect. But short-terms, I think, cause this scenario in which people feel they absolutely must achieve one every scene to keep up with the XP overachievers and so they sit around waiting for scenes they know they can achieve one or two in a fell swoop.

@saosmash said in RL Anger:

@auspice Holy shit these bras are even cute!

And they soooometimes go on sale on Amazon. Sadly at my size, CK has few and not in many colors (like, black and 'nude')... But it's one of the few decently comfortable bras I've had and I've seriously gotten compliments*.

*Not skeevy ones. Women who ask me what bra I'm wearing because my boobs look awesome and they want one. XD

ETA: Panache makes a great sports bra, too, if you're in need of that.

I do feel like countering people who want to earn XP/have a place in plots with 'but you can achieve stuff socially!' is... unfair.

For one, not everyone wants to achieve social power. Yes, I claimed a Primogen spot roughly 2 weeks after joining F&L by gaining all the boons needed within roughly a 48hr timeframe. I was inspired and willing to fuck with people.

But I don't always want to do that. Sometimes I just wanna be able to dig into the metaplot and PRPs and feel effective and for that: XP is necessary.

They're two different approaches, two different ways of playing, and neither is wrong. But yes, one requires more XP than the other (and if we actually ever used social dice/rolls, you'd damn well want XP for social/political achievements- imagine if you had to roll persuasion or similar to win people to your side).

If I wanna play a vampire who is more a city guardian who fights back against the threats to the kindred, that's just as valid as someone playing a vampire who flirts and bribes their way to power.
If I wanna play a werewolf who is a master of spirits and makes fetishes, I need XP just as much as the combat monkey Rahu because STs, when I make deals with spirits, are gonna have me roll for it.

Vampire may be the easiest (if you're leaning into the political side) to get away without XP, but dependent on player and even character: it's not the only way to play. Sometimes I wanna be political. Sometimes I just wanna be the guy with the sword and Vigor 5.

@wizz

That's the problem with so many of those. A lot of the 'new miracle drugs' for fibro / chronic pain have the same issues. That they cause suicidal thoughts, etc... it's why I won't go near them.

I hate when doctors mislead you like that.

@Derp said in What game system would you prefer for a big-tent nWoD project?:

@Coin said in What game system would you prefer for a big-tent nWoD project?:

This is really the only way to do it. Games that require certain types of activity to gain XP should have a LOT of different means of getting XP (e.g. Conditions, Aspirations, PRPs, SRPs, Auto XP, Votes, Reccs, RS, etc., etc.). The more? The better. Then you set a max amount of XP you can gain per x time period and then you decide how much of that max any ONE source can net you (maybe 50%).
So some people who really like to run huge social scenes that entertain a lot of people might get a lot of their XP from votes, while others who really like to have one-on-one scenes with heav y characterization might get a lot of reccs, while still others who like to game Conditions and Aspirations can do that, and still others who really like to be in all the PRPs and SRPs can get Xp from that, etc., etc.
Create systems for people to get XP from a BUNCH of different ways so that they don't feel overly tethered to a single system, and then limit how much they can get from any one.

FWIW, I don't disagree with you. My point was mainly for Livia, re: the game-ness and optimization stuff. In a game with unlimited xp, sure. They aren't fun for her and she doesn't want to do them. She doesn't have to, and in a capped system, she isn't losing out.

In an uncapped system -- I dunno, man. You either use them or you don't? shrug But I've yet to see a game that doesn't put some kind of weekly cap on it, given how ludicrously easy it would be to become an overnight god.

Many games right now largely offer aspirations and plots as your way to earn XP.

That's it.

And if you're in a timezone like @Livia, you don't really get to be in plots. Which means being left with just one single way to earn.

@wizz said in RL Anger:

@lithium

I'd heard about kickbacks, but it blew my mind to have a doctor straight-up lie to me like that. Or at least to have been exposed to his blatant ignorance about this medication. Like, I commute daily and it specifically warns against next-day driving and that people have reported falling asleep at the wheel. I've TOLD this doctor about having suicidal thoughts in the past, and he didn't mention the reports of overdose on this drug, at all, and gave me about 2 weeks' worth. Like, this just seems fucking inept.

Sounds like new doctor time to me.

I've been there. It blows. And I don't recommend sticking with the doctor if you can.

@Tempest said in Arx's Elevation Situation:

@Sunny said in Arx's Elevation Situation:

@wahoo

I bring it up only because I know what that bank used to look like, and it is problematic to try and say Velenosa is going to feel a significant impact from losing their taxes. Unless Velenosa is way, way worse off than it used to be.

It is.

I feel like @wahoo would be better served with a constructive thread asking how to grow her own house, rather than asking how to stop other people from doing it.

By its very nature, this topic feels less than constructive.

Which is, unfortunately, how things often seem to pan out. The high tier materials becoming illegal, prohibitively expensive, etc., may have plot reasons but it also feels like a 'a lot of PCs have these and we want them to feel special still while slowing down gain so the rest of you are being punished for not getting your gear fast enough'

Which is exactly how a 'We don't want anyone else to be raised without the perfect storm of reasons so we're stopping all elevations' would feel. Like being told: 'sorry you took your time, too bad, so sad, rush to the finish line in the future.'

I think, also, it's silly to put forth 'find other ways to grow' while also being like 'Liege houses shouldn't suffer a loss!' ........doesn't that just give them something to work towards? You can't tell House A 'find things to work towards and put effort into so that House B doesn't have to'

@tempest said in Random links:

@auspice Was that the US vs Japan thing, or something else?

Yep!

You can watch the duel here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-ouLX8Q9UM

@surreality said in Anyone kind enough to help me with oWoD?:

@Coin Especially if it's on that game where the headwiz or whoever makes breeder kinfolk for every wuff with a dong that shows up. That'd likely lead to a poor experience.

Look, she's half of her own playerbase. Gotta respect the time commitment

@sparks said in Backpacks!:

Now, I do not own the Everyday Backpack, but I've heard excellent reviews of it, and based on the durability and comfort of my other Everyday bags, I feel confident recommending it.

I think I looked at those briefly. But at that price range, I'd just shell out for my dream bag: https://www.goruck.com/gr1/

That meets everything I want, but... $300. I can't do that, not even close.

I sometimes miss the laptop backpack I used to have. I finally retired it end of 2015, but I'd had it since 2003. And I only retired it to give it to someone else- it was still in great shape. The issue was it was heavy because it was from a time when they hadn't quite gotten padding for laptop bags without them being heavy af as a result.

@L-B-Heuschkel said in Engaging the Whole Scene:

and you let them, and then you wait for the other guys to get their words in,

So the reason this doesn't work on a MU, often, is that if Mr. Mike Speedyfingers rushes out his action (be it in a pose or OOCly declared), someone else may change their mind on what they're doing because 'oh, he got there first.'

It'd require such a change in mentality across the spectrum for people to be willing to voice their plans even if they match or override someone else's. I've seen it on every type of game I've been on: FS3, D&D, nWoD, statted superhero games, Arx, Star Wars, Star Trek.....

Some people might say 'hey can Mike and I both do that,' but in my experience: most people, in the interests of sharing the fun, will step back and change their mind. An initial plan to bumrush the thug because it fits their PC becomes 'I hold my turn' because Mike Speedyfingers said he was gonna shoot a taser at the thug and they don't want to get in his way, even if he's been front and center the whole time (either out of shyness, a true desire to share, or just not wanting to cause a headache/conflict for the ST: all are valid reasons why someone might not).

That's why it's so much on the ST to control things.