Best posts made by Auspice

@Macha said in Dating in the 2020's:

@RightMeow My question is - who is cooking? I mean, I make some good stuff, but only if the stuff is there to make. lol

so it's more 'who is buying groceries' then. or we take turns to cook.

For weather, I like a succinct +weather option. Then I can check it before the scene and decide whether or not to integrate it. Random emits are often not in sync with the RP of the scene, either.

@faraday - as for personal emits, if they're tied to character 'status' (like injuries, for example), they can give me inspiration or help keep me on track.

@RightMeow said in Dating in the 2020's:

The 4 Disciplines of Execution (which is a business book not a murder book)

I'm also in the boat of 'respec with limitations.'

I think you should be allowed a full respec if it's within the first couple months. Especially for little-played characters. Now by full-respec, I'd expect certain things to not change (sphere, major things like clan or auspice or kith...). But it can be hard to fully grok a character or to realize 'I was aiming towards being a ranged fighter, but being a crafting specialist really makes more sense for where I'm feeling this character.'

After that point, I think minor respects are okay within reason. Like @surreality's example. Or someone going through a major life-changing event might adjust someone's Vice/Virtue, or cause a spec to drop...

But the other point to consider is staff workload. I'd only allow things like that once every 4, 6 months. Some people will send requests in to alter shit on a nigh-weekly basis, even when it's not allowed. 'Oh I changed my mind about specializing in X, can I move all of those points?' 'I know I just altered X, but I would really prefer Y'

Everyone is stuck with dots they're not quite keen on. It's just the name of the game.

Min-maxing in a roleplay-focused environment is lame.

My issue with cooking is that I need someone to meal plan.
If you go 'Ok Monday we're having this and here's the ingredients, Tuesday we're having this and here's the ingredients' I will cook every single day my fibro isn't flaring up. And I cook good.

@mietze said in Open Sheets?:

it does kind of lead to no more pub channel/ooc room weird bragging about stats and how the player bragging could kill anyone who looked at him sideways but chooses not to. Which is very very nice.

I do love that about open sheets. That it stops the
Bob +proves his EPEEN stat to the room
Bob +proves his LACK OF MASCULINITY stat to the room
Bob +proves his LACK OF RL to the room

spam

@RightMeow said in The ADD/ADHD Thread (cont'd from Peeves):

@Wretched

All of this. So much of this. The friends one today. I rationally know this isn't true, but...

This hits me a few times a year. I'll just hole up for a couple days once or twice a year and talk to no one because it'll get in my head that everyone hates me.

@testament said in The Churn: an Expanse game:

I should add if you do watch The Expanse, make sure you watch it on Amazon Prime. To get the unedited Chrisjen swearing every other word without making the censors work overtime.

Also

I knew that was the line coming. Like, I'm not to that point in the books, but I knew. I even whispered it to myself before the door closed.

"I am that guy."

God I fucking love Amos.

@Aria said in RL things I love:

I'm not sure which I find funnier and/or more terrifying -- them thinking that's actually how any of it works or that a bunch of people looked at these assholes and went, "By golly, they really seem to have things together. We should elect them to Be In Charge."

You forgot option 3: that someone actually married them.

I'm going to be perfectly honest here...

I really, really dislike when a world DB is included in a client. It clutters it up and often within a very short period of time: half or more of the games are inert.

I love BeipMU. There have been many years when I've been mobile and moving from machine-to-machine and BeipMU has been handy af because it's such a light-weight (since it doesn't need installation, fits on a small drive w/room to spare, etc) client.

But setting up a new client and having a long list of worlds to deal with? Is a headache. Because I don't play all of those. I don't know what they are. I'm not going to pick one at random to play anew and even if mine is there, I don't want to search through the list every time I go to connect.

So unless it's listed separately from the 'Main World List,' I'd suggest just leaving it out.

Now, if it's provided as an 'Import Directory' and you guys plan to regularly update the list? Then awesome. But if it's in the main list, it's going to annoy more people than it will help, IMO.

That said, http://musoapbox.net/topic/2342/a-mildly-complete-list-of-current-games is where we've begun collating a list of games that we personally know of.

@Derp said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

@SinCerely said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

Trying to price the things I make. Knowing there's got to be a balance between the sheer joy of someone wearing my work and charging enough money for each piece, and having it completely escape me and hating that I'm some how devaluing my art and making my craft completely unsustainable at this rate. Hate everything today. I love myself more than this but not making it work today.

I've always found that it's best to set a sort of general, nebulous pricing. Like, calculate the cost of the materials, and sell it at 110-125% of materials cost. That usually keeps the prices fairly reasonable.

ETA: Depending on how low the cost of the materials is, you might be able to do more. Like, 2-3x the cost of the materials involved. The more expensive the materials involved, the less you can mark them up really,

When I've sold stuff I do cost of materials + how many hours it took * what I want to be paid per hour.

My vote was to make it so that games can enable it on their own basis, like most any other feature. Which I imagine you'd do anyway.

I know some people wouldn't be a fan, but I think enough are that it's a good idea. I'd love to be able to page someone who is "offline" and have it waiting for them. @goodstarbuck and I talk back and forth a bit during our work days, for example, and it's sometimes bouncing between phone mu and web client and man, I'd love if I paged him while offline and instead of just being told he's not online I got a message like: 'Sol is not currently online, but your message has been stored in their inbox for when they next connect.'

So it could be viewed on game or the portal.

@gryphter said in Good TV:

White Tiger: John Cena.

I'm sorry, no.
It's Gronk.

@Bad-at-Lurking said in Saving Pages to the Database:

I'm not sure I'd ever want to look at user pages.

Other people's TS is a lot like other people's vacation vids. Theoretically you know it exists, but nobody else wants to see that stuff.

I do.

If popcorn is provided.

Seeing actual improvement in my ability to play Rocket League.

It's a small thing but dangit I need small wins right now.

@Ghost said in What Types of Games Would People Like To See?:.

I'm gonna say flat out (IMO) that because of this zombie apocalypse themes are simply bad for mushing altogether.

Considering how the game we played a handful of years back went, I gotta agree.

Apocalypse settings in general are tough because people gravitate towards making things easy/normal and a lot of people hate playing 'shortage' plots (food shortage, water contamination, illness with no medicine) which are almost necessary to Apocalypse settings.

An easy CG and being up front about things being dangerous, high risk of death, etc (then carrying through on that) would help...but right. People aren't a fan of PC death (or even injury: how many PCs on games with combat do we witness getting over a major injury within a couple days?).

@gryphter said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

I think I'd be hard-pressed to control myself from exploding if somebody saw how I act online or with my friends and tried to tell me I'm not shy. Motherfucker, eat a whole bag of raw dicks.

Right?

When I'm in a social situation where I don't know anyone*, I can't even find my voice. Hell, when I don't know the majority of people, I often can't. Like if I bump into someone in public on accident I probably come off as rude af because my 'Sorry' comes out silent.

Part of why this made me so mad is no one spoke up. Just a week before this, I had an anxiety attack right before a meetup and people in the group were aware. Like they saw me start to walk up, then walk away to take a few minutes to compose myself and they knew why. Like any one of them could've said something, but no.

*the MBD concert I went to is an exception. That band has such a great meaning to me that going to see them is like going to church. But, alternatively, the two book signings I've gone to in the past year, I sat alone, and I barely even said a word to the authors themselves... even though I really really wanted to.

https://idratherbewriting.com/simplifying-complexity/reducing-complexity-by-shaping-into-schemas-esp-story.html

I came across this piece while researching methodologies for the materials I'm developing for work. I think it has applications well beyond the tech writing field and it links to a lot of really good concepts (I totally want this book now).

It taps into why people struggle to adopt new ideas and this is something we face on MUs quite often. Why don't people like original theme as much as established IPs? Why do people skip over these cool systems? Why do people flock to WoD despite even most of its players hating it?

So much of the time our answer is 'make it easier.' Because surely if we lower the bar for entry, people will acclimate? Then when they don't we jump to laziness or stubbornness and while those might be the reasons sometimes, they're also often byproducts of the real issue.

We know that we 'stereotype' (people, situations, experiences) because it helps us inform our actions. When I'm driving, I can observe other cars and make relatively informed (and often accurate) guesses as to what people are going to do before they do it. That guy is being aggressive about edging into the next lane and keeps trying to speed up: he's about to cut someone off.

In the link, they call these 'schemas.' We develop them from birth. Its the brains way of forming familiarity so that even in a largely unfamiliar space, you can find the right behaviors, the right direction, etc..

People play WoD because it's a system they know. They may hate the environment, they may be bored of the stories, but it's familiar.
People don't play OC games as much as IPs because they don't have anything to latch onto to make it familiar.

In the latter, I want to use Ithir as an example because I think their providing real world and media comparatives as reference points helps people settle in all that much more. 'Ah, yes, I know what pirates and House Greyjoy are: I can totally envision this now.'

The solution proposed is to present the new thing (system, setting, etc.) as story. And by story I mean exposition, inciting action, rising action, crisis, climax.... And oh, sure, there's no need for flow charts (though those can be fun!), but by presenting it as story people can be drawn in and envision themselves there.

Do you have a new system? A new method of doing things? Don't just provide the raw data. Don't just spit out 'Do X, run Y, have PCs roll Z.' People balk. I want to ST on Ithir for example, but I don't understand the systems. People can tell me 'just pitch a plot with this command' and 'just tell a story and have people roll for the right things' ... but without context, I'm lost still. It's a new place, I'm absorbing so many things: the lack of context makes yet another thing alien to me.

So I consider this for a new plot resolution system we're working on for SGM. Yes, there's the raw 'how to,' but I know people will be uncomfortable with it at first and struggle to find their way in. But now I'm thinking: what if I present it differently? What if I present a scenario of the system 'in action,' then provide them with the tools (even just mentally) to go through it themselves? And in doing this, what if I provide the benefits to the system for its users? And following these exercises, I can present the actual 'how to' along with encouragement via 'troubleshooting' (you may encounter X, but you can use Y to get through it).

I think for new things (projects, ideas, systems, and so on) approaching the delivery as a story may be a valid way to go. After all, we are all storytellers in some fashion. It's not an easy approach, to be sure (and is clearly heavy on my mind as per the above), but I think it has merit even if it's just considered and not put into full effect.

@silverfox said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

Throw even one "new" person into the mix and I withdraw instantly.

So long as it's like, a 70/30 mix, I'm fine with new people! If I have enough advance warning/prep (we're talking days/weeks), I can handle new people. But I usually shut down for days after (don't leave house, don't talk, barely even interact online, etc.).

But yeah, don't tell me 'stop lying you aren't shy' when literally your only interactions with me have been in groups where 90% of the people present have been people we know. And the one time it wasn't, I sat silently the whole time and you were the opposite side of the room and didn't interact with me at all so you wouldn't even know.

@Ghost

You gave yourself the rule of only Mac gifs.
Not me.
now update your sig in shame.