Best posts made by Auspice

D&D game. The concept was an Adventurer's Guild. So we each had multiple characters and we'd take turns DMing.

My favorite character was my Drunken Monk.
Now, for a bit of backstory: we had a houserule that if you rolled a nat20 on attack, you rolled again. If it was another nat20, you instakilled your foe. Why? Because why not.

Anyway. So my drunken monk was off on an adventure with his guildmates. We end up in a cave an holyshitdirecavebear. So my turn comes up:

"You mentioned an underground lake. Does it have any of those blind cave fish in it?"
DM: "Uh, yeah?"
"Alright. I'm going to catch one."
DM: "Ookay."

So I did.

My next turn comes up (meanwhile, the party is floundering against this thing already).

"I attack the bear with the fish."

Everyone's just sort of facepalm, but hey. Drunken monk. Improvised weapons. I gave no shits I only roll a d4 on damage for them. I WAS ATTACKING A BEAR WITH A FISH.

Nat 20.
DM: "...roll it again."
19.

The DM decided it was just too ridiculous not to: "...You impale the bear through the eye. With the fish."

To this day, one of my most glorious D&D moments.

One of my projects for the class I'm finishing up was a short story. Came out just shy of 4,000 words in the end.

Horror. Cyberpunk.

Love both genres. Never written a story in either.

I think I rocked it. My instructor fuckin' loved the rough draft. Like, we're talking a 100% on the rough draft.Just submitted the revision for the final. 15% of my grade. I think I nailed it. Like I've already identified a place to submit it to. I'm proud of this. I think I nailed it.

...I wrote all the initial drafts, revisions, and notes by hand, too. Ran a pen out of ink. Don't even care. I'm just proud of this shit, damnit.

@three-eyed-crow said in Hello MSBites! Grade your administrators.:

@lithium said in Hello MSBites! Grade your administrators.:

@auspice I am still of the opinion that the Advertisement thread should be an initial post by the author and then locked, so the initial poster can edit it but no discussion about it. Put the discussion in other topics.

I've thought this for a long time and still think it, though I've come to the conclusion that MSB in its current form maybe just isn't a particularly good place for straight-up advertisements. Is there some board limitation that would make the original poster unable to update? Locked to OP and admins seems the ideal for these, at least in terms of them actually serving as ads.

So one of the models of forum software I'm looking at has 'pages' (web site pages) and even KB articles.

I am thinking if we use such a software, we could actually curate actual ad listings.

It'd be some additional work, but it would allow us to be more of a properly informative site.

@peasoupling said in How should IC discrimination be handled?:

See also: you chargen a poor struggling character who finds herself having to resort to shady work to make ends meet, and within five minutes of hitting the grid some slumming billionaire is throwing wads of cash at you and buying you a gold-plated scooter.

So every nWoD game ever? XD

Just for @KDraygo

I did forget, re: Faraday's scene system:

being able to edit poses on the fly.

scene/undo - remove your last pose (great for those times you prematurely hit enter!)
scene/replace - replace your pose with an edited version
scene/typo - silently replace your pose with edited version (good for fixing minor typos)

This way, the scene/log is already clean and ready to go when you're done. No need to edit after the fact. Again, goes back to my hatred of log editing.

I did it. I made it through Part 1 of the Television Writing class... and I got the final grade in today. 96. I actually made it through a lot better than I expected. I fully and completely expected to get my first C.

I get a couple months of fresh air (the class starting this week is about children's books and the following class is sci-fi/fantasy), then we take our TV show outline/treatment and spend a month developing/reworking/hammering/sobbing over it until it's a legit script.

...and then it'll never see the light of day because next season is New Girl's last. Not that I want to go into the TV writing biz anyway.

@scar said in The Eighth Sea - Here There Be Monsters:

Heya! I’m hopping on here to give kudos for how immediately impressed I am with this game’s player management. Intervening with OOC problems can be draining and uncomfortable territory. I see plenty of game admin avoid it through largely non-interventionist strategies but ultimately, that’s how you set the tone for a healthy game and keep quality players around.

I will nip a dozen harassing players in the bud if it means healthy players can go out and play in the open comfortably.

I will do it gladly.

MU*-wise, I'm in that pool of people who plan to learn Python, tho it's not specifically for MU*ing. I want to learn to code. I've always intended to and Python seems a good place to start. It's just delayed until I'm done with school. I graduate in May, so I'll probably start then.

Sooner then that, I have a little project I wanna do. This probably won't interest anyone else, but... one of the Stoics, Seneca, was alive during the time of Jesus. Seneca's brother, Gallio, is actually referenced in the book of Acts. Two very different (Jesus and Seneca) men with different philosophies. It just fascinates me, I suppose. And I've been doing a fair bit of reading on stoicism over the past handful of months.

So I want to take some of Seneca's texts (this and this likely) along with this particular translation of the New Testament and just do my own philosophical study on it all.

Knowing me, I'll get distracted partway through, but it just seems an interesting venture. No, I'm not religious, but I've always liked studying the tenants and mythologies of the various religions.

@Cupcake

I wouldn't have told her. I'd have just told Douchebag 'Maybe you should buy them instead.'

I dunno why people bitch about free food.
I fuckin' love free food. Free food is the best food.

Funny how often Staffers will come out and say 'oh goodness me no our staffer buddy would never ever eeeeeeeever do something wrong. Must have been the person who reported it. Ignore all other corroborating stories.'

@ghost said in Encouraging Proactive Players:

A list of plot elements that theyre hoping to find for their character (TBH, I don't see WHY saying openly that a player is hoping for a romantic interest for their character, or characters to help with a plot involving the disappearance of their sister would hurt)

We tried this on BSU and T8S alike and some players made use of it, but only those who are already prone to running after plot. Most players still just ignored it entirely. Even when it was made clear: 'Hey! STs can utilize these pages to generate plot ideas, particularly ones that will involve your character.'

And that's even a passive way of signifying your interest.

@lisse24 said in Encouraging Proactive Players:

Non-sandbox games

I see more interaction on sandbox games than non-, personally. Might be a YMMV there. But then, I consider WoD to be sandbox? So that might be why.

I do agree with alt-limits, for sure. I don't think killing OOC Rooms is the point though. I find the more camaraderie I build, the more I engage. There's a couple people on the game I'm most engaged on who never interact with anyone else (either in the OOC Room or on channels) and I feel absolutely no draw to interact with them. They never ask to RP with anyone outside of certain people, they never chat, they never... like, who are they? What are their goals? They don't even have a wiki page. I have no idea who they are.

I'm kinda extroverted in MU* terms, but I have no idea how to approach this person. I need some form of OOC engagement. NO OOC!!! would be a reason to never, ever touch a game for me.

OOC engagement inspires me. I've had plots spark out of OOC joking around.

But as an ST... it is so. freaking. disheartening. to run plot and basically have people disengaged unless I'm constantly holding their hand and leading the way. Show me you're interested? Please? Somehow?

Like if you're enjoying what I'm doing, let me know. Somehow. Otherwise, why am I even doing it?

Been having a really rough week. This feedback on my outline for the fantasy short story (that I have to write this week) has really helped:

'This is really rather beautiful work. Every aspect of the outline is well detailed, well written, thorough, and explicitly interconnected with all the others. The result is a vision of the story world and the people who move through it that almost feels like the summary of a story already written. I especially liked the way you managed to write a fantasy story that, through its engagement with the technological society on the other side, creates a dialogue between the genres themselves - fantasy and SF. That's a really nice touch because it allows you to tell a story that involves the audience on two levels - the fictional and the metafictional. Very cool.'

That desc reminds me a lot of the one we saw on the character Caractus had rejected on Arx.

@three-eyed-crow said in Encouraging Proactive Players:

@faraday
In my experience, unfortunately, you'll get more complaints and bad feelings about "exclusion" if a private event is posted publicly where everyone can see, than you will if who can see it is locked.

Which sucks and is another player-behavior problems, rather than a tool problem, but it does make me hesitant to post smaller-scale stuff on a public events calendar.

This is my concern, too. Like, plot I'm running now really is geared towards one faction. It fits best for them, they're the most interested and proactive towards it. I don't want to close it off, but I think I might have to?

I have one single player outside that faction who has kinda sorta showed interest. And I've gone to him with some possible hooks. I have tried so hard. This person is even a friend of mine.

'Hey, would your character...'
'No.'
'Would your character's shop...'
'Probably not.'
'Has your character ever...'
'Nah.'

...I'm about to just say look, man, I don't think I can hook him into this one. I know you want to, but you have shot down every single hook I've given you. Your character has hooks into the one-offs I've been doing with other PC. I will probably be running stuff in the area your alt is in on my alt down the road. I think we need to give up on this plot.

I feel bad doing it, but at the end of the day, he is giving me nothing to work with and he's the outlier.

But people, there is a point where it is not the ST's fault anymore. And I feel like there is a lot of weight being put on STs. Too much, in many cases. There's only so much we can do. It is up to the player to have some agency (a lot of agency). It is up to the player to think of reasons to be in a place at a time. It is up to a player to be flexible. If I am already juggling eight people and working on hooks to get everyone in and I have offered you 3-5 of them and you shoot down every single one... I am probably going to walk away.

The book my story will be published in goes up for pre-orders later today!

Yes, I will be posting with link deets once it does.

The sort of negative person who puts me off of running is the sort of person who is disruptive to the whole process.

Someone who is negative or has a bad day once in a while isn't a big deal. Like you, @faraday. The times we've talked when you've needed to vent? That would never be an issue to me because you're proactive, inclusive, supportive: you provide value in immense ways.

The sort of person that I think @apos is indicating is... well, let me tell a story.

on Fallcoast there was this guy. Mage, playing a PI. From day one, he was off-putting to people. And I say day one because I remember when he was still in CG. Throwing fits on channel because Staff wouldn't let him be everything he wanted to be (and this was on Fallcoast where they were extremely lax in the rules). He wanted to be 21, a Detective, a college graduate, and a 'powerful Mage.'

lolno.

But he wouldn't stop bitching on channels about how unfair it was that Staff wouldn't allow it to happen.

He'd drive people off channels with this.

He finally 'settled' for being 24 and a PI.

Later, I ran a plot for the Law sphere folks. He paged me asking if he could take part. I told him OK, but this is specifically catered to the law sphere (now I had a Time/Space Mage in my sphere, so I'd already written the plot to account for mages; I was OK on that front). I said: 'If you want an 'in,' work with these guys. You're a PI, it's doable, but it's on you to work it out with the other PCs.'

Yes, I should have said no. But I figured ok, I'm not just a player ST. I'm a Staffer. I should give this guy a chance and try to help him out, but he's asking me the day of the scene about joining in, so I can't adjust a lot, but I'll give him a chance and there will be hooks. It's happening on the street, so it'll be easy to walk up. The business owner could hire him (the guy sort of handed him his card and brushed off the NPC overall... )... etc etc.

First round in:
OOC: Guy asks, "What's going on?"
Everyone else, OOC: "Uh, did you read the set pose?"
OOC: Guy says, "Oh I don't like reading those."

Continually, throughout the scene, this guy ignores my ST poses, then throws a fit when he's corrected. When the Law guys (the cops) take IC control of the scene and the PI waltzes up to them and goes 'Hey, you should give me the case' and one goes 'Well, give us your card and we'll call you if we need a consultant' (logical reply to a PI) he begins having an OOC tantrum.

One of the guys actually tried sitting down with him afterwards for a good half hour to explain why cops and PIs don't always get along and why his OOC behavior (not reading the ST poses, arguing with everyone, etc.) was problematic and all this guy did was continue to whine, complain, and have a general fit over how unfair it was that the scene wasn't adjusted and made to fit 'just for' him.

These, Fara, I think are the types of people Apos is referencing. The ones that are just overwhelmingly negative. This guy would have ruined me for STing for a while if the other guys didn't support me in return.

Making a new thread because I know a number of people wanted to know when it released and I didn't want it buried somewhere (because I am EXCITED okay).

The ebook preorders went live today: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B077GS1L96/

$4.99. Release on the 30th.
The last Anthology (Body Horror) had a physical copy as well. If this one updates with one, I'll post to let y'all know. But $4.99 is a decent price point for a book full of short stories.

I RP with someone more when it feels collaborative.

I'm a natural storyteller. I'll craft plot on a small scale with someone, telling stories between us.

"OH NO THUGS ATTACK!" sort of story. I just... create story. It's not just 'sitting around chatting' scenes with me, generally. Story/plot happens because I cannot help but craft story.

I will return to you again and again if you play off of this. If you collaborate.

If you just take and take and bleed me dry, I am unlikely to come back as often.

But the people who are give-and-take. Who will run with the story, themselves? Who will improv? Who will build off of the story I create? Oh, I love them. I will play with them again and again.

As someone told me recently: I get most of his RP (and vice versa) because I 'always have an idea.' He gets a lot of people who 'just want to RP.' And they don't have anything in mind. They 'just want to RP.' Because he's like I am. He'll have story, plot, etc. Those people want to be entertained.

But he knows if I ask him to RP, I have something in mind. Be it new story or part of ongoing plot, etc. There is a purpose to the scene. And vice versa: if he asks me to RP, I know the same.

Those are the people I RP with most (so hi, if you're reading this and want more RP with me... that's the secret. Bring ideas! Engage me! I am not an endless idea fountain I wanna be entertained, too!).