I will say, part of why I'm really really glad to be doing through the classroom management sections of my certification stuff is that the childhood psychology section (which included all the legalities around when/what to report) was depressing, so I'm glad to be moving onto something that feels more... fun and productive.
I know the other was important, but.
Well, considering I intend to make logs required for increasing stats/skills pertaining to magic, I do hope this will occur. I feel that RPing the experience of learning (and fucking up) magic should be a feature of the game.
So I believe we're on the same page. I just misunderstood your post. 
I know the other was important, but.
FWIW a bunch of my clients lost at trial (and face significant challenges in post-conviction) because of the testimony of mandated reporters. So it often does help children who need it.
I know.
I really do.
Look, I went through some shit in childhood because my parents were reported to CPS (and managed to get out of it and proceeded to make my life a living hell because even though I wasn't the one to report it they were and still are convinced I did). It's....... it's a messy system. In so many ways. Reporting is important. People being willing to report. People being willing to follow through.
And I think/guess my own experiences are why those sections were so difficult. It was difficult to read about the reporting. It was difficult to read about stuff like ADD and think 'jesus christ why did no one ever recognize this in me' but I guess/hope/pray I'll be better for the kids I teach someday.
@Arkandel
I still intend to have a high risk level. Not 'your character might die at any moment' risk, but 'If you are ICly fucking around and Staff finds out, you may end up with consequences.' Might not be immediate (as it should in some cases), but maybe they catch the attention of something nasty that starts hunting them down.
I'm all about supporting peoples' fun, but I am also a supporter of ICA=ICC. People who want to be able to do whatever they want and violate whatever laws of physics and magic they want and always have happy fun sparkly times where nothing bad ever happens probably shouldn't play on a game I run.
@il-volpe & @faraday - TBH, since Ares uses Ruby, I might have an easier time. My best MU* coding was done in MOO, which is object-oriented programming. Part of my issue in MUSH is the way the code is written tends to confuse and frustrate me. I'm already (very slowly because work/school) working on learning Python. Adding Ruby was already a plan, long-term.
@Thenomain said in Random funny:
@Auspice said in Random funny:
For the teachers on msb:
Not for English teachers, though.
I forgive the lack of an apostrophe for meme layout sake.
@Arkandel said in Magicians Game:
@Auspice Are you planning to support playable non-wizard specials? There were lots of really weird shit out there.
Not out of the gate, likely.
The game will initially be at Brakebills and, until the first arch plot (to open the way to the Neitherlands) is done... the only place the RP will be.
After that, I'll likely see where characters go and what they do. Do they end up focusing on Fillory? Start crafting their own worlds to access via fountain? If there ends up being a lot of interest in Fillory, I'll probably start allowing Fillorian PCs.
(Also, in case anyone asks, re: Children of Earth ruling Fillory... That will likely be NPCs; probably ones already there.)
I feel dividing playerbases too early can hurt a game long run. And for a game that may be small (tho it does seem to have a lot of positive interest, based on this thread!), I think keeping things focused and accessible RP for all at the beginning can be important.
So in the past few days, I've read a few stories (including that one on cheetahs ![😕](http://musoapbox.net/assets/plugins/nodebb-plugin-emoji/emoji/android/1f615.png?v=4vfms5ns7sl ":\")
) about the mistreatments big cats suffer in/around Africa and it has made my heart hurt. So I reached out to my friend who is a charity streamer on Twitch to say 'hey, can your next big event be about this?'
(This guy does 4 big events a year. His goal, on Twitch, is to be 'the biggest charity streamer.' We're RL friends. He's amazing. He keeps a consistent stream schedule. He still keeps his RL job. His summer stream, he raised $17k for Children's Hospital. He has a partnership with Game Stop now, for example. The guy is outgoing, charismatic, and really, truly cares about what he does.)
I had Tweeted this at him since he's at TwitchCon rn. His reply was that he loves the idea and we should talk about it when he gets back. I mentioned I can think of 2 potential charities off the top of my head and can prob find more. Well, other streamers are already weighing in that they love the idea and viewers, even, are jumping in that they wanna see it happen, too.
Like, I'm all for the Extra Life stuff, but..... afaik no one's really done anything big to help these animals yet. If I could help get even a single event for that rolling, I'd be so happy. I love big cats. I love them to the extent that if I wasn't so damn science dumb (I have dyscaulculia so I struggle af when it comes to that shit) I probably would've gone into biology/zoology so I could work with them). So if I can be a catalyst that helps get money into their conservation efforts it will make my day/week/month/year. and the fact that a growing number of other people are into it, too, is all the better.
I like having an OOC area to go to because sometimes I am not up to actively RPing or I am preparing for a scene, etc. I don't always engage in conversation in said area, so I'd be fine if it was just a Quiet Room.
However, I feel the concept of 'get rid of all OOC rooms because people need to be RPIng not hanging out!' is dangerous. I have been on games that have taken the 'It's a place to RP, not hang out' too far in that they expected if you were online, you were actively RPing, period. As in Staff would begin paging you and hassling you if you were alone in a room on grid. (I bailed super quick the last time that happened. It was a new 'policy' on said game.)
But, in my jaded opinion, I think if your reason to get rid of OOC Lounges to eliminate the problematic element (like people who give play-by-play of RL or who are being dicks to people), you're not going to do anything but drive them elsewhere. Maybe to Public channel, which is fine, but they may end up doing the same on Sphere channels... which is less so (as those are often used to locate RP).
All in all, those problematic off-putting people are still going to be there and you (as in Staffly 'you') are still going to have to talk to them.
@Auspice I was looking at that, how sturdy is it?
It's not OMG STURDY but it's pretty decent.
So the base is one of those cat scratching pads, then it's got a basic cardboard frame. Then a pair of cardboard beams to hold up the second level's pad. Ike weighs roughly ten pounds and she was rolling around up there (I put catnip down :P) and it didn't budge. It's finicky to assemble (what isn't?), but part of that issue is she was climbing all around the bottom half attacking my hands.
They both love it so far.
@lordbelh said in Magicians Game:
A good way to add the thematic risk of magic is to allow 'pushing past your boundaries', ie, trying to cast magic that you're only so-so familiar with. But at higher difficulties (or perhaps adding power to your spell), and where if you fail you've accepted the consequence by trying. This gets around the really terrible mechanic of random dice destroying your character when she's trying to light a candle, while still allowing a sense of danger and risk if you really want to go the extra mile.
I will likely do something along these lines (great way of looking at it), using FS3's 'embarrassing failure' result level as sort of a botched roll.
Something that compounds my ADD and is probably a large part of why it created anxiety in me is I have dyscalculia (dyslexia, with numbers) and one of the symptoms of this is audio processing. I have a delay in processing the things I hear. Especially through speakers.
It's why I hate talking on the phone. Why I insist on watching things with subtitles.
If I'm talking to someone with full headphones (not a single earpiece) and there's limited background noise and they speak clearly, I'm fine. But if there's noise or they mumble... Nope. I'm really grateful for my new coworkers, actually. They've been really cool about being willing to take or make calls (unless, y'know, we're too busy and I have to).
But it makes talking on the phone really, really hard when you have to force yourself to focus on one. single. thing. And then even when you do......the chances of making out what you've heard are really low.
I had to take a call today at work and it was for making a temporary badge and I got the name right except for one letter (f not s!) and I actually had a little celebration for myself.
For some people, talking on the phone while multi-tasking is no big deal. For me it's next to impossible. I can multi-task otherwise really well (when I have to run the SOC solo, that's 8 monitors to watch and handle information on and I love it because my brain runs high speed). But you add in talking to someone on the phone (in person is fine!) and I just become a bundle of nerves.
This is why, I think, I had my major nervous breakdown from working in a call center. It's not 'just' anxiety. It's anxiety born of this processing disability that's compounded by my ADD.
Exactly, with the RP. You can do things as you RP.
Play a MOBA and... anything else? Nope. Raid and anything else? Nope.
That's why multiplayer games that aren't like, quick matches are out for me, for the most part.
@Arkandel said in Good or New Movies Review:
Endgame.
It was incredible. It was a different movie than I expected as it set its pieces up, then it went from strength to strength.
I don't know how any franchise, including Marvel/Disney's, can top this. We might have just peaked for some time.
Feige really gave us a gift.
''this is the werewolf tea sipping society scene at the garden party center, formal attire required''
...I require this now.
Immediately.
Make it happen.
Please, for the love of god.
So, in answer to the 'it's on the player to quietly extract themselves' situation...
... I have seen players do this and then be attacked by the ST. In an 'oh my god I put time and effort into making a scene for you and you don't appreciate me!' sort of way.
I think people are scared of that happening, so they just sort of get to where they either want warnings up front or they try to force themselves to stomach it because they don't want to risk pissing off an ST.
It falls back to the 'failure to communicate' issue, sadly. But it's def. not a 'omg this is just shitty players refusing to politely excuse themselves.' I can promise that's not always the case (I don't doubt it sometimes is, mind you).
@Arkandel said in Good or New Movies Review:
@Lotherio said in Good or New Movies Review:
***=That was the only scene that got cheers in your cinema?***click to show
That was the same moment that got cheers in my theater. 
@Roz
That's sort of how I feel about the thread. I'm not suggesting that an ST list a major trigger as being part of their intended scene to take the onus of 'therapist' onto their shoulders, but to sort of open that door of communication.
To say 'I know this maybe a potential issue, so I want to make sure you are forewarned and prepared. So you know that if this will be an issue, that this isn't the plot for you.' and so that people that don't know you also know, in the future, that you're probably pretty open-minded to talk to if, say, something comes up someday (perhaps on a future plot) that they struggle with. It puts the sign on the door that says 'My door is open, I'm cool. You may not need it today, but it's there the day you do.'
So that next week, when you run the scene without a warning, but midway through something totally different irks them (maybe they're having a clash with another player and unsure how to handle it), they feel that extra layer of comfort reaching out to ask 'Hey, can I get your help resolving this?'.
We stress and stress and stress and stress communication here and a lot of what I keep seeing on this thread is well the other person needs to come to me, first.
...which is kind of a failure to communicate, itself. I don't give a fuck how awesome you think you are, if you're new on a game, Bob has no clue whatsoever if you're someone he can actually sit down and work something out with.
Depression-induced insomnia is the pits.
@Cupcake said in A Constructive Thread About People We Might Not Like:
How has she behaved thus far? Someone's indicated she has the uber-enthusiasm thing going and for them it's an irritant. Has she exhibited the known toxic warning signs, and if not, is it still within the time frame that she usually would by now?
It wasn't just uber enthusiasm... it was a sort of fake enthusiasm/friendliness. To give a specific example: our mutual friend, Byron. He tried to engage her in conversation in the OOC Lounge and she just flat ignored him, to the point that he logged off for the evening.
It was the steamroll effect. The 'I am HERE I am LOUD I am SUPER FRIENDLY... but I will ignore those I don't like while being super loud and active enough that hopefully no one will notice.'
And to me that was v. toxic, but I didn't see it affecting anyone beyond myself and the one friend, so I didn't voice anything at the time and then the migraines ramped up and school got super busy, so I was inactive (thus unable to see if it was a one-off incident) until it cropped up in the thread.