Posts made by Bad at Lurking

Eh, I just assume that everything I type on the Internet is being monitored by somebody, somewhere, sometime, even if it is some poor bastard at a data collection center getting called in for a manual check of my communications because as a gamer, I talk about stuff that no doubt makes several NSA algorithms twitch.

If I were truly worried about staff watching me digitally bump and grind, I'd just make sure to make it a more uncomfortable experience for them, than me.

"Okay, in this sandbox sex scene, we're going to be Cthulhoid merfolk, working our way through the Cephalopod Sutra. But I'm going to narrate in the voice of Bob Ross. Annnd go!"

Honestly, nothing is more depressing to me than the thought I have to provide adults with a detailed guide on how not to be assholes to each other.

I am working on a MU right now and thus thinking on the nuts and bolts of running and playing on one. For me, OOC rooms are a very mixed bag, with a moderate slant towards the negative.

My go-to examples are with superhero games and the weird queen bee cliquishness of most OOC rooms, wherein somebody playing a female character (usually a highly sexualized one) decides she owns the room. Lots of flirting with the objects of the player's desire, lots of in-jokes and scene analysis, etc. New players, or players with characters that person doesn't want to type fuck are generally ignored or given fairly unsubtle hints to shut up around her majesty. It's especially jarring when the welcome channels are actually welcoming, but your first interactions with the players are not.

But beyond that, I remember back when Fallcoast had this guy (and my apologies if anyone reading this IS that guy) who would spend 24/7 in the OOC room talking about how his were-spider could and would kill and eat your character. You would log in with a new character, somebody would ask what you are making, and the dude would explain how his character was going to murder yours. Every time. For hours on end. With page references. Over the years, I made a dozen characters on that game and that dude was doing the same shtick all day, every day, forever. He's probably still there. And I watched it scare off a few new players.

I agree that OOC communication and a sense of community are a good thing, but I tend to find the idea of policing an OOC room for politeness and a general lack of predatory behavior (sexual and otherwise) distasteful and a little exhausting just to consider.

Honestly, I'm less worried about people oversharing and being nasty to one another because as was pointed out earlier, the best thing to do in a lot of those cases is to gently move folks to pages, their own channels or, if they can't help emotionally bleeding on others, moving them off the game entirely.

What I'm really trying to find a polite, neutral-sounding wording for at this point is 'don't be an OOC Room Asshole'. I have had ten minutes in the OOC room convince me I don't want to spend any time on that particular game at all. Admittedly, it's more common in my experience on superhero games, but it's happened elsewhere as well.

Something about the OOC room brings out the inner mean girl (regardless of player gender) in some players, which is, for reasons I've never really been clear on, tolerated by fellow players and staff.

I am grateful for people's thoughts and not trying to be consciously uncharitable. What gives me pause about rules like 'no controversial topics mentioned ever' is my real world experience dealing with that idea and tabletop gamers specifically.

The majority is almost never encumbered by rules like that. Everybody else, however, can be.

I want to extend good faith and a strong welcoming vibe to everybody. But I don't want to do that at the expense of having some people think they have to hide or put up with low grade aggression and/or bigotry to make 'socially conservative' people comfortable.

If we're applying the living room, well, this MUSH will be the living room of a gay dude who isn't at all neutral on the idea of making that space welcoming for everybody of good will and good faith.

When you tell potential players that they can't talk about being women or queer or trans or people of color, you are telling those people they aren't welcome.

A simple 'Be polite and kind to one another' covers not calling each others nazis or freaks.

@Auspice said in Legends of the Old Republic - In Progress Star Wars Game:

@Bad-at-Lurking said in Legends of the Old Republic - In Progress Star Wars Game:

I am already working on concepts. So far my favorite is a Jedi who isn't a terribly good Jedi (he's a little too fond of nice robes and comfortable suites at the Four Sectors), but he is a pretty good diplomat. He's also haunted by the nagging force ghost of his great-grandmother who was a great Jedi and wants him to do better.

"When I was your age, I'd already helped bring the pirates of the outer rim to justice!"

"Well, I was thinking of trying out that new Sullustian sushi place near Senate Plaza. That's a step in the right direction, I think."

I have your PB:

That's actually kind of brilliant. =D

I am already working on concepts. So far my favorite is a Jedi who isn't a terribly good Jedi (he's a little too fond of nice robes and comfortable suites at the Four Sectors), but he is a pretty good diplomat. He's also haunted by the nagging force ghost of his great-grandmother who was a great Jedi and wants him to do better.

"When I was your age, I'd already helped bring the pirates of the outer rim to justice!"

"Well, I was thinking of trying out that new Sullustian sushi place near Senate Plaza. That's a step in the right direction, I think."

I ... have to admit that I'm a bit hesitant about, um, arch-villaining my potential playerbase. If that was your point?

Wait, was that that your point?

@Auspice That's probably a better policy, all the way around!

Here is what I'm thinking of. It's not perfect, but I think it gets across the important stuff without trying to be some pseudo-legalese charter.

Rule 0: Be Excellent To One Another.
Don’t be a jerk to each other or staff. This includes harassment, stalking, exploiting code bugs and anything else that might end up being problematic. Give each other the benefit of a doubt and be kind, OOCly, to your fellow players and staff. We’re all here to have fun together.

Rule 1: Be An Adult.
Players and characters must be 18+. No NPCed minor characters may be posed in sexual situations, whether participating or merely present. Whatever players get up to in private scenes is their business, but no sexual situations or violence beyond an R-rating should be posted to the website.

Rule 2: Be thoughtful.
Rape, sexual abuse, graphic torture and similar topics are not things we’re exploring on this MUSH. Don’t introduce them as elements in scenes, plot points or parts of backgrounds. In addition, respect your fellow players and staff members and their comfort levels. If somebody asks you to fade to black on a scene they find disturbing, do so. That doesn’t mean the consequences of IC actions are avoided, it just means the players and staff will work out the outcome without the details and stress the player is avoiding.

If you have a question about any of the above rules or want to discuss the possibility that you or somebody else may be breaking them, please talk to us. Staff can’t enforce rules if we don’t see or hear about the rules being broken and we are eager to work with players to help make the game more comfortable, welcoming and fun for everybody.

I am looking for short, clear, reasonable MUSH policies to steal emulate. Does anybody have any favorites?

And very happy holidays to all.

I found out this evening that I'm basically fired as of Monday. BUT that's a good thing. I'll be honest, I almost cried tears of relief. My stress level has been through the roof since the summer and only having been crushingly poor before kept me at that job.

I have a reasonable amount in the bank for rent and utilities and the larder and basement freezer are full. I'm very comfortable for an extended job search, if that's what it takes. Hell, I might just decide to skip winter this year.

I know my boss didn't mean to give me an amazing gift, but he did.

[img]https://i.imgur.com/2FoknuG.png[/img]

Oh no! The peasants are rising!

(Which, given the amount of yeast cultures the average one plays host to, is hardly surprising.)

I find it it odd to see the idea of 'there are going to be too many Lords and Ladies on this Lords and Ladies game, soon!' Also odd is the idea that other people just not pursue in character and out of character goals in order to make sure another set of players have enough IC money to pursue their own goals.

It's realistic, but not fun.

Lightsaber noises intensify

In the interest of being more helpful, I have a couple of Star Wars adaptations of the SW rules set I can throw at you but both of them are a little odd and contain some eyebrow-raising bits from the old Legends continuity. (Stuff like sentient crystals who are basically droid-riding inorganic Jedi, for instance.) But if you don't have them, they might be helpful in some way.

Germane thought: I am always willing to give almost any system a shot. If it doesn't cripple the game, it's all good. (For hypothetical divinity's sake, I played on Windy City and that system was so bad it would have given the Rolemaster guys pause.)

Tangential thought: The Old Republic! Yes, please. I could write a ten page essay on why, but just imagine a middle-aged man making light-saber noises and pulpy prop-airplane-as-space ship drive sounds for several seconds and it basically would convey the same meaning.

@ZombieGenesis Oh the lamentations of the classic Buffy mush players can already be heard.

Hm. I need to go looking to see if there's a version of Cine-Uni softcode out there somewhere.

@ZombieGenesis Unisystem is so underated. And the last version I know of (the one in Angel) was perfectly streamlined for this sort of thing, with the trait packages for supernatural and normal archetypes. (So you could buy 'werewolf' and 'nerd' and hit the grid ASAP.)

I keep coming back to the idea of 'The Series: The Mush'.

Basically a shared universe (ala most anime mushes) for the cheesy, fun urban fantasy TV shows like Buffy, Supernatural, Grimm, Highlander, The Crow, etc.

There have been a couple of fun places that tried it, but I think they failed because they tried to bring in urban fantasy novels and/or video games as a part of the same world, when the conventions are really quite different in some ways and because they split everything up into several urban centers, like a superhero mush.

I keep coming back to the idea of lifting 'Seacouver' from Highlander: The Series and throwing all the glorious oddness into one big pot while keeping things semi-cohesive. Basically, fun, cheesy supernatural drama with a distinct 'tv show' flavor, as opposed to WoD games.

@Admiral Eh, there's so much I don't want to deal with with in the WH40K universe. So many stylistic and cultural and tonal assumptions of the setting that are wildly unpleasant for me. Personally, I'd be more happy with something like Andre Norton's Solar Queen novels than weird uber-macho space fascist playgrounds.