Posts made by Auspice

@roz said in Visit Fallcoast, sponsored by the Fallcoast Chamber of Commerce:

@auspice said in Visit Fallcoast, sponsored by the Fallcoast Chamber of Commerce:

@wretched said in Visit Fallcoast, sponsored by the Fallcoast Chamber of Commerce:

yeah people can 'use their imagination'

Using your imagination on a text based game.

How novel.

That's kind of unnecessary. @Wretched isn't alone in being a player who uses grids to get a sense of space and geography for a MU*'s setting. I mean, yeah we can all use our imaginations, but we still use character sheets and have files about setting and theme to give structure to a game. A grid's size and structure informs how players understand the setting. Yes, grids can totally be too big. They can also be too small, and temprooms aren't a viable replacement for an actual grid for a large number of players.

They're the one that began the argument that you can't get the concept of a large city without a large grid.

If a grid is too large, I can't set foot onto it. I can't find my way around. And you know what happens on every fucking game I have ever been on with a big grid?

'Let's RP.'
'OK.'
'Any ideas where?'
'No, I have no idea where anything is.'
'Me either.'
Commence never RPing because either we'll wander aimlessly and end up hopelessly lost or we'll be too intimidated to find anything.

And no, +hangouts doesn't work, because I've yet to see a game ever keep it updated. Oh, let's go to X loca- nope, doesn't work. What abo- nope, that's not there anymore. And the last game I was on with +travel, the locations rarely actually took you to the location +travel said it would.

So yeah, I'll stick to a smaller grid that makes sense and temprooms to flesh out the locations I need as I need them. Instead of 10+ Street A, Street B, Street C, Street D... per... right, district.

How the fuck often do people actually RP on the street anyway?! If in part because it gets old seeing people zip on by as they wander hopelessly lost.
<OOC> Sue says, "Oh, sorry! Just trying to find something!"
Sue leaves.
Sue arrives.
<OOC> Sue says, "Sorry, I'm just trying to figure this out."
Sue leaves.
Sue arrives.
Sue leaves.
Sue arrives.
Sue leaves.
Sue arrives.
Sue leaves.
Sue arrives.
<OOC> Sue says, "Hey, do you guys know where The Coffee Shop That Isn't This Coffee Shop But Is the Other Coffee Shop Built To Help Flesh Out The Forty Empty Grid Squares is?"

@wretched said in Visit Fallcoast, sponsored by the Fallcoast Chamber of Commerce:

yeah people can 'use their imagination'

Using your imagination on a text based game.

How novel.

@tinuviel said in Visit Fallcoast, sponsored by the Fallcoast Chamber of Commerce:

@wretched Yeah, and how much of it gets used on a regular basis?

All a grid needs:

• 'Districts' to represent the city.
• Notable locations (bars, shops, university, sphere hangouts, etc.)
• Player builds

Big sprawling grids just lead to people getting lost and feeling overwhelmed.

@wretched said in Visit Fallcoast, sponsored by the Fallcoast Chamber of Commerce:

will have a much larger grid than Fallcoast does.

Because that's just what every nWoD game needs:

a larger grid.

So I hear Fallcoast is 'rebooting'

Which means it's time to unearth...

THE VIDEO

(Thank you, forever, for this, TJ.)

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

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

tbh if I could afford a tablet, I'd probably do more art. The last time I had one (a cheap Wacom years ago), I actually loved working with it. Somehow I 'connected' better with working digitally than I do physical tools. It might be that ease of fixing mistakes, maybe? I'm not sure.

Try a Huion. Much cheaper, and the quality of the one I have rivals the old Wacom Bamboo.

I mean, I can't really afford any new hobby (time / money) right now anyway.

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

@auspice That's fair I suppose, I do all my line art digitally too.

tbh if I could afford a tablet, I'd probably do more art. The last time I had one (a cheap Wacom years ago), I actually loved working with it. Somehow I 'connected' better with working digitally than I do physical tools. It might be that ease of fixing mistakes, maybe? I'm not sure.

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

@auspice I can't imagine inking not being a thing anymore. So many artists are fucking /sloppy/ with their pencils...

It's pretty much all digital. So while an artist may draw it in pencil, it's scanned over and gone over digitally. Yes, some artists do their own inking still, but I'm talking professional industry side. By and far it's just not the chain anymore (penciller, inker, colorist, etc...). Colorist you still see, yes, but the art level (pencils / line art) is pretty much one and the same person now. When DC, Marvel, etc.. look for an artist, they expect that person to be start to finish.

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

@auspice
Wow, I have been reading and discussing comics since the late seventies (my older cousins taught me to read with them before kindergarten because it was the easiest way to keep me occupied while baby sitting) and that chick has the stupidest comic based stance I have ever seen.
Trust me I read a shit tonne of 80s indies and yeah some of them were hard as shit to make out because of bad lettering, hand lettering doesn't somehow make your art purer though done wrong it can sure as shit make it impossible to read and enjoy.

It's also disparaging to so many in the indie industry.

Indie comics are an industry. They get just as much (almost more) shelf space than the "big two" (Marvel & DC) now. They are given the respect of those two. Making your own is legit, sure, but even webcomics use digital means to letter their comics now. It's cleaner, it's more legible, and if people can't read your comic, they aren't going to bother.

I love hand lettering. Facts: there's only about 7? remaining 'master hand letterers' in the world. This isn't a comics thing, these are people who are such masters of hand lettering (such as signs, calligraphy, etc.) so as to be considered masters of the craft. It is wildly hard stuff.

There is a reason it was just as separate a role back in the day as line artist, colorist, inker (which, btw, is no longer even a role in comics). Letterer? Now often done by the writer, which is why I had to learn it in class.

But many of these so-called indie artists use letterers. But, y'know, these are the ones being bound and sold on store shelves. Not making black-and-white zines.

But y'know what? This was one of the very first panels I worked on in my assignment for class. I think it came out looking great for my first attempt ever:

So she can fuss all she wants. I'm gonna, once I have free time again, find some artists who have offered up pages (there's some out there) to work on to build a portfolio and try to find work to do to make extra money.

Other people won't be so fucking snobby.

So in my comic class, I had to learn how to letter comics. It's not easy, but I found I enjoyed it.

And I recently posted on FB because I know comic artists and I know people who know artists... to say hey, if you or anyone you know ever needs a letterer, lemme know.

And a chick replied to be like: 'if you don't do it all by hand, you're just a graphics editor.'

Me: 'Uh. They haven't done lettering by hand in the industry since the early/mid industry.'

Her: 'Well us indie artists do it by hand and I know mainstream artists who do it by hand.'

I told her if she wants to look down her nose at me, she can. I'll survive.

But still, ffs. And you know why you're indie artists and generally stay that way? Because hand lettering usually looks like shit because none of you put the time, effort, or thought into it that the letterers back in the day did. You just slap some letters down without thought for important things like kerning. I know a shit. ton. about hand lettering. I love the hell out of calligraphy. And you dicks put the least thought into lettering out of all of your art.

So sit there and sneer about 'letterers' all you want. Your 'indie comics' are zines you print out at Kinkos, staple, and sell for $2 at punk shows. They aren't even the official indie comic industry, WHICH BY THE WAY USES LETTERERS WHO USE ADOBE ILLUSTRATOR.

ETA: And yes I know that's what her comics are because I've seen and never bought them. Why? Because you couldn't read shit. BECAUSE THE INK BLED INTO ALL THE WORDS. Go figure that paying attention to spacing, having wide enough openings on your a's, e's, etc was important. But what do I know. I don't 'actually' letter.

@thenomain said in Random links:

Steven Soderbergh shoots entire film on iPhone.

I'm honestly looking forward to this movie.

So I haven't played Eclipse Phase at all yet (I haven't done much TT at all in years save my regular oWoD OTT group, sadly), but here's my question:

why not sort of do both ideas (if I'm reading correctly)? In MU*ing, there's really two "primary" groups. You have your people who are focused more on social RP and your people who are focused more on action RP. Why not craft a city that's focused 'around' a hub/training facility/whathaveyou?

You could have your merc set (Envoy types if we're going for an Altered Carbon reference) based out of here. This could be where they launch their missions from. And then the entire city around it could be for the socials.

People can then pick and choose what PC they have. Most people could have two characters. They can have their ACTION PC at the base and their SOCIAL PC in the city. But the ACTION PC can still go into the city and hang out between missions. This wouldn't really conflict, it sounds like, with the limited gate use, either.

The only limiter would be 'social PCs cannot go on heavy combat missions,' but that'd be why you'd:
a) Encourage people to have two PCs (or to pick the ACTION PC if they absolutely must go on heavy combat missions)
b) Run social / light combat / mystery plots in the city, too

Again, I haven't yet gotten to play Eclipse Phase, but from what I know / see, I think getting 'both worlds' here isn't out of the question and most people play more than one character as it is. You may have to put some limits in place, sure (SOCIAL PCs cannot engage in the heavy combat missions, ACTION PCs cannot engage in the social / light combat missions... but most MU*s have genre/group-based plots as it is, so it's not like this will be a pearl-clutching horrifying shocker to most people anyway; just make sure your STs retain balance in who they run for).

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

@lithium I'm the same when it comes to writing. I can type up essays like nobody's business, but put a piece of paper and a pencil in front of me and my brain can't fathom the idea of a word.

Goes back to my above when I mentioned why I warn people about not trying to turn 'ya I love to RP!' into writing as a career. I wish someone had given me that warning before I began applying to art schools.

...or that I'd just focused on photography while there. I took it as an elective and it's the only thing I haven't 'lost.' I desperately wish I could afford a good DSLR kit so I could take it more seriously even as a hobby.

Art is one of those things where either it's something you enjoy and you need to keep it in the realm of enjoyment or you are driven to do it. I am driven to write. I can't shut it off... which has actually led to me needing to put up more boundaries. People tend to take advantage of that and it's starting to wear me down even more. I work full-time. I'm in school full-time. I'm a person with chronic health issues who lives on her own (which is not easy!). And I have my own projects I wanna do.

I can't always be a creative faucet for people. Constantly filling in details for stories, characters, projects. Helping edit stuff. Provide feedback. Years ago I wondered why some professionals (in various fields) I knew began going: 'No, I will not 'go out for coffee' with you unless you're a close friend.'

I totally understand now. That 'going out for coffee' was just a ploy for 'I want to pick your brain for two hours.'

Please don't do this to people. We feel used. And the thing is, for someone like me, my brain will often flip its switch into 'creative work mode' before I even realize what's going on. Before I can even say 'Hey, no, I can't do this right now, I have too much else on my plate.'

So before you launch into 'So I have this character Foo and they're doing Blah but I'm hung up on Flippity and I need to get to Floppity' ... try to go 'Hey, do you have fifteen minutes to discuss some writing stuff?'

Yeah, making it work just killed it. And that's also part of why getting back in is so hard.

I can look back at what I once could do and now I can't and it's just even more soul crushing. Like 'ffs I was once halfway decent. I once had my instructor holding up my work in figure drawing class as what everyone else should be aspiring to. WHAT HAPPENED.'

And now I can't even fucking doodle.

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

@auspice

So, would you say that it's more 'you want to do it and lack the motivation' or 'every time you try to do it stuff just flies right out of your head so you have no idea what to draw'?

The latter. Like if I just open my journal / grab a sheet of paper and a pen, I end up freezing up and have no idea what to do with it. I might draw a few squiggles or a shitty zentangle-ish thing and that's it.

I used to draw a ton when I was younger. I even did a semester of art school after high school and that's really what destroyed me. Turning it from hobby/fun/joy into work was soul crushing (which is why I warn a lot of the 'I love to write!' crowd not to trick themselves into thinking they can be an author; I am driven to write).

I miss drawing for the joy of it. But now when I go to do so, I just draw a blank. But if I have something to draw from, as an inspiration (or a step-by-step), I do all right! But I want to find a path to get back to where I can just doodle and sketch again without needing to have some sort of reference or similar on hand.

I'm going to try joining a doodle challenge group. I'm hoping between, a) a simple daily prompt, and b) a group of people doing the same thing at the same time, it'll help.

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

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

If I ask for advice and say: 'I've already tried X and it didn't work for me'

MAYBE DON'T SAY 'JUST TRY X'

If I had a dollar for every time someone said 'I've already tried X' but there was either a typo, a syntax error, an inclusion or exclusion of brackets, etc... I'd have a lot of dollars.

Well, that's more a matter of 'You have a code error going on there.'

This was me in a FB group for journaling going: 'Hey, some of you are great at sketching. I've been trying to get back into it, but every time I try to 'just draw,' I freeze up and can't get anything going. How did some of you get started, improve, etc.? Did any books, YouTube videos, sites, particularly inspire or help you out? And please don't suggest 'just draw' because I have been trying that for over a year now and it hasn't worked for me.'

and the first person: 'Just draw. It's the only thing that ever works.'

Thanks.

If I ask for advice and say: 'I've already tried X and it didn't work for me'

MAYBE DON'T SAY 'JUST TRY X'