Nope, sorry, going back to default. The 'Slick' theme kills the editor options, which is where stuff like the poll, gif button, spoiler button, link, image etc. buttons are. And I'm sure none of us remember all the formatting by hand all the time.
I'll see if I can find more skins for the themes, but until then, I'm not sure if I have many other options for the too light / too dark problem. ![😕](http://musoapbox.net/assets/plugins/nodebb-plugin-emoji/emoji/android/1f615.png?v=4vfms5ns7sl ":\")
@auspice said in Forum upgrade:
I am about to swap us off of nodebb's default theme onto another one. Seeing if that'll help things out.
It would appear this skin has only two modes. Light or Dark. 
But if people hated the new default nodebb so much, maybe it's better? I dunno.
The other themes look super weird tho.
I am about to swap us off of nodebb's default theme onto another one. Seeing if that'll help things out.
@admiral said in New forum toy!:
I hate gifs. How do you disable them from being seen? I could have sworn there was a way. x.x
https://www.pcmag.com/article/345706/how-to-stop-animated-gifs-from-auto-playing-in-your-browser
So, doctor visit today. Went over lab work. I am... not diabetic! I am not even pre-diabetic. My numbers on that front are, apparently, great! High cholesterol, tho I'm imagining anyone even remotely overweight is in that camp.
I do have a vitamin D deficiency. Easily resolved.
We're gonna up my topiramate and hope it helps this recent spike in migraines. Also going back on the ambien for insomnia. Woo.
@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.
@fortydeuce said in Creative Outlets:
Music.
Music music music.
Playlists everywhere.
(Derovai@Arx would listen to The Shins' whole back catalog if it were IC, basically. Spencer@New Prospect theoretically listens to the Killjoys album from My Chemical Romance -- don't knock it; it's very good. Last PC a few years ago theoretically listened to a lot of Foxy Shazam and The Clash. And so on.)
I totally forgot about music! Yes, I love to build playlists for my characters, too. Though they take time, often. It'll start with a song here, there, and build up over time.
I made something work!
Some of you will love it. Some of you will hate it.
Which is basically business as usual around here.
In the bar above the edit box, there is a new, self-explanatory button. It says GIF. Click it.
Enter a search term.
Select a gif.
VOILA.
What ways beyond the standard (background, RP, basic wiki) do you express things for your character? Do you do any to help you get into your character's head? Or any that are just for fun?
Additionally, what creative / inspirational methods have you found that work for you? What helps kickstart ideas? What helps organize ideas? If you're in a rut, creatively, what gets you out of it?
I've begun doing some aesthetic boards for myself and others. They fall squarely into the 'for fun' category. Been doing them here and there because, well, I've gotten to that point of the last few months of my degree where I'll hit a wall some days and just have to do something wildly different for a little while. There's an etsy store full of neat cross-stitch designs from a guy who did similar. Though his was initially an all-nighter of "design pixel cross-stitch instead of study!"
These are a Tumblr RP thing, I think? I'm guessing. I was introduced to the idea by a friend. She makes pretty awesome ones. I'm still kind of new to it.
But as an example, here's one I did for John Constantine on Gods & Monsters:
(You can see the others I did here.)
It's fun, relaxing, and so wildly different from the other stuff I do (work + school) that it's a really nice brain break. But it also helps me keep in the mindset of the characters I'm working on. I honestly might begin using them for stories I do moving forward because it could be used for characters, settings, scenes, plots... You could even expand and make them bigger.
Another thing I've done with my recent plot is break out Microsoft OneNote. I love the structure of it; haven't found a replacement I like (Evernote just doesn't do it for me, I'm afraid).
Anyway! I like that I can arrange things sort of like a physical scrap book. I have sections: notes, brain storming, a place to put logs, a place to put my summaries, a place to put NPC profiles, location profiles, etc. Instead of just a big GDoc or .txt file (the way I've usually done it!), I have this one thing I can just flip to and it's arranged more how I think rather than a big document I have to scroll through or a series of them open in multiple tabs. It's all self-contained in one program that's neatly organized and labeled.
I'm not sure I'd apply it to anything outside of plotting, but I really appreciate it for that purpose. Honestly, it's done wonders for me for organization as a tool. I highly recommend trying methods until you find one that really truly works. It's like going from 'yeah, I use this and it does the job but I don't enjoy it' to 'holy shit I actually have a passion for this again.'
@scissors said in Encouraging Proactive Players:
The better option is to drop plot hooks for the more active players, those players who are known to share information with others. Ideally, give them a personal stake in the plot. Drop the hook in @mail works, but even better is introducing it unexpectedly in RP. Doing it this way makes the plot personal to the player, and they are more likely to respond positively.
This is how I naturally work. Mostly due to the fact that I come up with plot ideas on the fly (I'll often just be RPing and start crafting a plot over the course of RPing with people; it just happens) and also because I want things to come naturally. So I'll grab the people the ongoing plot is with and go from there.
But also because I want them to spread the plot. I want it to be organic. I do this. When I have a plot? I carry it into other scenes. Casually RPing? Mention the plot. Bring it up. Talk about things that happened. I know a few other people who do this, too. And then, hopefully, they'll bring that person into the next scene and so on...
My fear from there using +events is sort of: ok, it gives them a reminder of when the next scene is scheduled (for the next big "Action" event), but..... will someone not involved sign up blindly? Will people get mad at me because they're not allowed in (mind you, if I've made bbposts, offered to RP, other people in the plot have offered to RP, etc.... I don't really feel guilty here)?
I prefer organic methods to 'schedule a +event for every single scene in the plot' and these do work better on smaller games. It also just feels more... story-like. To put it like a script, the +events, to me, feel more like your act breaks. The big, climactic scene before the commercial. For everything else, I'd rather people just page me to go 'Hey, can name and I check out this?' or to just grab people and go.
Right now I'm trying a style where I just do smaller scenes with a few people here and there to tell parts of the story as it goes (with the hopes that they involve others via the organic method or that people will come to me asking to be hooked in) and then bigger scenes for those action! events. I feel like it might take some weight off my shoulders and prevent burnout from happening before the plot (which is one of the largest I've undertaken) is over.
@darinelle said in Encouraging Proactive Players:
From my perspective, "Encouraging Proactive Players" boils down to one thing: Take the idea that the squeaky wheel gets the grease, set it on fire, throw it out the window and let it burn down the neighborhood.
Now you have time to find the people who are consistently making plot for other people, sharing the love, spreading information, and doing things that make a RP sphere great - and you can do something nice for them. Whether that's spending a little extra time writing some lore for them, or creating a horrible character that spends months terrorizing them at random (cough) or taking them on an adventure plot or just giving them a chance to shine - spend time to do things for people who are already willing to use at least part of their time to do nice things for others.
Sadly, on most games, those running plot rarely get to participate in plot and because there's so few plot runners left, they often get overwhelmed until they burn out for a while.
It'd be amazing if there was an ST's ST out there.
@icanbeyourmuse
I do my best to avoid the "you found nothing" on follow ups. The only time this happens is in scene with rolls. Someone fails a spot check? They're not gonna see anything.
People who have been in scenes I've run can attest that I try to give everyone something to find. If four people pass the spot roll, they each get something different to see, even if it's only marginally different. This way it's not always the first person in pose order getting the spotlight.
Same goes for follow up. I know people won't spot everything in the scene itself. I've been on both sides and I've been through enough school to know. It's the blind men and the elephant conundrum. What I see vs what you see isn't always the same. I have the complete puzzle, you don't. I err on the side of giving too much information because what I think is a glaring neon sign might be subtle to the players.
I've outright told people "Let me know good times for you guys to talk to <important character for plot>." And a week later I had to go hey, remember that guy? In the plot? The one that I brought up in the other plot scene last night? You guys haven't given me any times you're free to do a scene to talk to him.
"Oh yeah we forgot about him."
How much more can I do, really?
Most of my plots are investigative things & long-term. They're not really monster-of-the-week unless it's meant to be the kick-off for something. But I will tell people that there is more or that it is a one-off only. I've always done this.
...sadly people will ignore it both ways. I've had people take my this is a one-off, there is nothing else and insist to dig further (this was back when people were very proactive) and I've had people completely ignore things when I send them on scene one of SPOOKY INVESTIGATION TIEM!!!
Again, if I have NO IDEA WHAT THEY WANT TO DO... what am I supposed to schedule?
Do they want to go here? there? Do they want to talk to this person? That person?
Do I schedule twenty scenes to cover every possible avenue? Do I page every person and spend half an hour holding their hand and walking them through every possible outcome they could take?
Why is it so much to hope that people might actually take some initiative and go 'page storyteller=Hey, you said to let you know what we'd like to follow up on. I'd like to have a scene where we go talk to that museum curator sometime.'
Why do I need to +event/create <museum followup/library followup/brainstorm session/investigation scene/clue chat/other followup/witness investigation>, page person a=what do you want to do?, page person b=what do you want to do?, page person c=what do you want to do?
If you all honestly feel the entire weight is on the storyteller to hold everyone's hand and show them the way and walk them through every option their character has, every idea their character might have, every path their character might consider to take, every question their character might ask...
... I don't want to ST anymore. Why are you ever roleplaying if I'm just going to be playing your character for you?
@thatguythere said in Encouraging Proactive Players:
@quinn said in Encouraging Proactive Players:
I Some people will NEVER legwork a thing.
I think I am one of those people. I am more than happy to chase down plots through scenes but the second it becomes put in a request thing i tend to drift away. I don't mind RPing being in a library looking for things but the whole +jobs structure has always reminded me a bit too much like game homework so I tend to avoid it.
Which leads into my thing for encouraging active players eliminate bureaucracy whenever possible.
I would not mind running such a scene, but if no one ever tells me they want a research scene, I'm probably not going to just run one off the cuff... because most people don't want scenes like that. In my experience, most people don't show up to scenes like that. They show up to the big flashy action! events.
So you need to at the very least alert your plot runner to the fact that you want to do research via RP. If you never say a thing, they can only assume you don't want that thing.
I generally add OOC notes to my stuff, wrap up scenes with OOC notes, etc. for people to let me know if they want to do more. If they want to follow up on something. If they want to see more scenes. I try to make myself as available as possible (as a Staffer, a player, an ST). I know I am an available person because when I Staff, people are generally perfectly comfortable coming to me with questions (about CG, wiki help, concerns, etc...)...
...but I almost never get followup on plot. This is why I think that the vast majority of people just want to be spoon fed their plot.
@lisse24 said in Encouraging Proactive Players:
Because the ST is the one person who absolutely needs to be on hand during that time in order to answer questions?
If people want to do legwork, research, etc... I will gladly do so. But in recent plots I have run... I think I have had maybe two people, in the past six months (and a handful of plot threads, scenes, etc.) actually do so. Everyone else has just wandered off and never said a peep.
I'm not going to drag and wheedle and beg people who show zero interest in doing anything else. I'm not going to go through the rigamarole of scheduling (we've had rants on how hard it is to schedule multiple people!) just to sit down and hang out to chat.
If someone wants to do this, they can reach out. I will make myself available to join in, but if a player wants to do legwork? Wants to research? Wants to brainstorm? They should indicate wanting to do so. I am not going to drag people along who show zero interest in wanting to do so.
And I have never seen anyone indicate an interest in wanting a special +event just to kick up their feet and brainstorm for a few hours. There's a reason downtime actions have always been submitted to STs outside of TT/LARP sessions. People generally don't want to waste RP time on going back and forth over 'But I wanna do X' 'Well I wanna do Y' 'Well I wanna do Z' - if you enjoy that, kudos, but most people don't. They want action, not sitting around dithering over what to do.
It's why the best scenes start in media res. Want better than +mail? Start a gdoc or similar. Use a talk page on a wiki. I'm trying a new thing where I keep all relevant logs in one place and I keep a running summary (like a short story) of the plot so far, to keep people up to date.
But sure, +actions/+request/+whatever people could submit to me as an ST? That'd be great. But I have yet to be on a MU* (except maybe one; I think BiTN had a system for it) with them without being CC'd onto a +request that also clogs up Staff jobs, sadly.
@tinuviel said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:
@auspice Shave it. Wear wig.
You buying? I'd like mermaid hair, plz. Something non-itchy.
@lisse24 said in Encouraging Proactive Players:
Maybe schedule a post-action/downtime scene in between action scenes to give the chars involved a chance to debrief/talk/plan?
Why should that be on the ST? Why should the ST have to schedule time for the players to do their research? To do their planning? To do their legwork?
If I'm running an investigative plot, should I have to:
... at that point why not just skip those last six things and just jump to the next +event and go 'OK so you would have done X, Y, Z and gotten these results.'?
And +actions are nice, but you're assuming all plot is run by Staff.
Not all plot is run by Staff.
@lisse24 said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:
@auspice said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:
Desperately need haircut. I think the length (my hair is heavy, it has contributed in the past) is causing some of these recent migraines. Can't afford haircut (since haircut is cost of haircut + cost of rideshare to/from because I don't have the free time to spend a couple hours on the bus).
I'm dangerously close to trying to cut it myself.
Do it! It's ridiculously easy to cut your own hair if you don't mind a little length. There are a couple of different strategies, my favorite involving tossing my head upside down and using a hair band - I've never gotten more compliments on my hair than when I did it using that method.
You can find videos on YouTube.
I'm just so scared of fucking it up. I know what looks flattering on me and I doubt I'll come out remotely close to pulling it off. 
