Posts made by Botulism

I try REALLY HARD to kill my players, but they usually live.

My work schedule transition is mostly done now, and I'm back running scenes again. If you had idled as things slowed down when my schedule ate me, now's a good time to check back in. The plot is starting to move again!

@Thenomain

Dude. This. All of this. I played on a cyberpunk game that was NO TS EVER!!!11one, and went back to a guy's place. He was friends with Staff. My character fooled around with his a little (it never got far, and I'm not sure it would have), but dude was being a dick IC (and OOC) and I had my character say as much and walk out on him. Suddenly I get yanked into HS's office and told I'm being banned for TSing. His friend? Totally fine, nothing happened to him.

As for complaints and how to handle them, there's no easy answer. It sucks.

One thing I've found helps - me, at least - is deciding that my game isn't a wide-open, everyone gets a character affair. I don't have a policy of 'You have to do X to be asked to leave'. I'm not paid to manage people and their shitty behavior, even if it's not technically breaking a rule. Act shitty? I may ask you to leave. I run a very active game with tons of plot scenes - sometimes I've run three scenes a day for weeks. I love it. But the moment I'm having to deal with shitty behavior, my enjoyment craters. At that point, it's them or my happiness. To be clear I don't boot people for coming to me with issues, I don't blame victims. But I'm no longer shy about booting an asshole who technically isn't breaking rules because it's 'not fair'. Being a regular asshole is reason enough.

And yes, I try talking to them first. It takes repeated dicketry to get booted.

We have 10 Archetypes open (out of 50 total) and our next story starts March 15th. Come join the Carnival of Wonders! This will be our 5th season, and is a mix of Carnivale and American Gods. I expect it to run 3 months.

@Derp said in How do you like things GMed?:

People can talk about not liking things being 'on rails' or whatever, but sometimes you just gotta use that fiat.

Enh. No, you don't have to. If you have so much of a plan and detailed story you want to tell that players have to go through B, C and D, write a short story or novel. Most players don't play to follow a script or simply have an impact on a story - they can get that from video games. They RP to tell stories together.

And I don't mean to sound dismissive or anything - I used to BE that storyteller you're talking about. I've had my big bad get one-shot killed. I've had players hijack stories just because. I learned how to work around that. There are ways to work around just about anything, and every plot is perfect and fool-proof until it makes first contact with players.

I come up with a premise and a rough idea for an end game, then let the players do what they want. I tend to have scenes where a thing happens and they react to it, and from there they do follow-up, RP fallout, etc. I try not to have a 'right' and 'wrong' way to resolve the plot, and often let them try some crazy shit. Sometimes it works, sometimes not.

Just killed more PCs! Yay!

Other ideas I have still for future stories:

A sci-fi story best described as EVENT HORIZON meets AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS.

A modern day alien invasion story, a la WAR OF THE WORLDS.

A post apocalyptic, MAD MAX style grindhouse.

A coming-of-age horror tale, like IT and STRANGER THINGS.

Silver Screen Hollywood, where it's secretly run by a Cthulhu-ish cult.

A Western take on BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA, as it was initially envisioned.

A psych ward or old sanitarium where your Archetypes are more pronounced and you're not sure who you are.

And so on.

I'll just leave this right here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8PEFyE3cQk

I recently even started making Juggalo names for various archetypes. Nothing good can possibly come of this.

Scholar: Professor Thugnutz.
Defender: Cockstrangla.
Capitalist: Pussyfiend Esquire.
Artist: Vincent van Cock.
Creepshow: Murderwhore.
Penitent: Bitchface.
Explorer: Asspelunker.
Rebel: Fisticunt.

Every so often, I threaten the players with THIS story for a future season:

An alien invasion at the annual Gathering of the Juggalos. You Faygo drinking ninjas are all that stands between alien invaders and the rest of the Earf.

And they keep pushing me to pull the trigger.

So I think I killed about a quarter of the PCs tonight - mine included. That's probably an exaggeration, but not by much. Oh the joys of a game where you can blow shit up and everyone enjoys it instead of losing their shit.

@Derp said in Horror MUX - Discussion:

So for those of us just tuning in, a couple of questions:

From my understanding, players have certain Archetypes that they manifest in specific ways in the game, correct?

Correct. You choose an Archetype, then play different roles based on it over the different stories.

Do players design these, or does staff assign them? Are they limited in number?

You pick from what's available. There's a master list of Archetypes, and as they come open they're made available for a new player.

I.e., can new players join in the middle of a season, and can they play something of their creation with staff approval, or is this more of a roster system? Is it first come, first served, or are there certain spots left reserved for new players?

You can join in during the first half of a story. After the half-way point, new roles aren't brought in. Your role in each story varies - in some stories I pre-write them to fill needs. In other stories, I work with you to make it. And sometimes I let you do whatever, as long as it fits the Archetype.

The master list of Archetypes is fixed and finite, so when we're full, we're full. There's ALWAYS turnover, though.

Slasher is wrapping up in the next week or two, bringing Season 4 to a close. It's been a blast of unexpected feels, tons of tropes and all the bad decisions in the world.

Up next for Season 5? Carnival of Wonders!

I'm really happy with how this story has turned out! I was honestly pretty nervous about trying to follow Prosperity's Price and how heavy and moving that story was, especially with with something that's essentially 80s shlock, but it's actually been huge fun. I'm finally finding my groove, I think, and I don't think I've ever run so many scenes in such a short period of time in my life.

Thank you to all the AMAZING people who let me entertain them, and the crazy few who help me run the whole thing, doing all the paperwork so I can just tell stories. This is by far the most rewarding and enjoyable experience I've ever had on a MU in my 24 years in the hobby.

Thank you all SO MUCH!

Slasher is wrapping up in the next week or two, bringing Season 4 to a close. It's been a blast of unexpected feels, tons of tropes and all the bad decisions in the world.

Up next for Season 5? Carnival of Wonders!

@tempest said in Spirit Lake - Discussion:

@botulism said in Spirit Lake - Discussion:

We have a hard cap, too - it's simply about recognizing what you can capably handle. I'd rather have a smaller game with jobs getting done and plots moving forward than a huge game where half get left out. That's not exclusive for the sake of being exclusive, it's about knowing how many players I can keep entertained.

I am...

A) Not sure how this is relevant.

I was agreeing that having a limit on how many players isn't about elitism, but being able to actually run a game and keep your sanity.

B) Somehow not surprised you got 12 upvotes from the people that populate this board.

Uh. Thanks?

Do you have a "hard cap, but oh you guys who are already on the game can all make alts?"

Nope! You get one PC. Period. You can play a limited number of supporting roles, but they are weak and squishy and meant to be meat for the grinder,

@gangofdolls said in Spirit Lake - Discussion:

So wait, if your PC dies your option is to play a background extra? SRs in other games tend to be NPC+ entities that basically concierge for PCs. Is that what happens here too?

No idea about here. Was only speaking about Horror MU*.

We have a hard cap, too - it's simply about recognizing what you can capably handle. I'd rather have a smaller game with jobs getting done and plots moving forward than a huge game where half get left out. That's not exclusive for the sake of being exclusive, it's about knowing how many players I can keep entertained.

Running scenes for players that enjoy them and have fun rather than complain about anything and everything they can find fault with. It's awesome having excited, proactive players who log on to have fun.

SO MANY SCENES. ALL THE SCENES.

horrormu.com 1880
www.horrormu.com

Horror MUX is a game of mortal horror set in a variety of rotating settings and themes, using different versions of the same characters, and with an underlying connection running throughout.

This is not your normal MU*. You don't write a background and 'make' a character. Players choose an Archetype for their character to embody, and that Archetype takes on a new character/role in each story, given to them by The Director. You decide their gender, name, age, ethnicity and appearance, as well as their personality (informed by the chosen Archetype), but the role they play in each story is assigned by The Director (again, informed by the chosen Archetype), along with hooks for the current story and often some supporting characters you can emit. This way, you get to play who you want to play, but you also play what the story needs played. Stories run as long as they take - each has a specific 'ending', often involving escaping an area, surviving until a certain time, or in rare cases defeating the danger(s). Fighting or killing the danger is rarely a good idea and simply surviving is usually the best strategy. It will usually - but not always! - be clear what the goal is. Examples include getting off a xenomorph-infested space station, surviving on an island until rescue comes, escaping a haunted house that's trapped its inhabitants, and so on. A story can also end with the deaths of all active Archetypes. In this game, there CAN be unhappy endings.

In between stories (or upon death in a story), Archetypes find themselves trapped in a sterile, lifeless place known only as The Facility, with no memory of who they are - or if they're real people at all! - but full memory of each story they've experienced and the role they played. There are no other people in the facility outside of the Archetypes, no cameras seem to watch them, food is provided by dispensers, and there is no exit or any windows. Each Archetype has a personal quarters consisting of a bedroom and bathroom, and clean clothes befitting the Archetype are provided daily, also by dispensers in their rooms. All of their needs are taken care of by unseen benefactors - or jailers, depending on point of view. This existence goes on without any clue as to day or night, season, or year. They can do as they please while in the facility - eating, sleeping, recreation - whenever they please. Sometimes new Archetypes show up, and sometimes old ones just disappear.

Without warning, all current Archetypes will eventually become sleepy at the same time, and once asleep, find themselves in a new story. Once inside, they remember nothing of the facility or past stories, and simply become the role they are assigned. The only ways to leave the story are to die in it or to finish it. Upon death or completion of the story, they wake up back in the facility. The rest of the Archetypes are nowhere to be found until they, too, die or finish the story.

To allow players a way to continue within the story in the event their Archetype dies, they may continue to play any surviving Supporting Roles they have. Their Archetype, now back in the facility, has no knowledge or memory of those events, however. Archetypes may also resume facility RP with any other Archetypes that have died if they wish. A player whose Archetype has died in the story, has no remaining Supporting Roles, and no fellow dead Archetypes with them in the facility may be given a Central Casting character to play. This way there should always be something to do.

Over time, your Archetype will begin to evolve and flesh out, becoming more of a person as the stories and experiences shape them. Facility RP will become more interesting as the Archetypes turn to each other to try and make sense of it all and figure out what's really going on. There IS a deeper meta-story, and things WILL slowly unravel over time.

We employ a modified version of the Slasher Flick system which emphasizes personal horror and cinematic narrative over stats and combat, and this very simple game system is explained on the wiki. There is no need to purchase any books.

We are now in our fourth Season: Slasher!, an 80's romp in true genre style. Past seasons have been logged in their entirety and everything can be read at our wiki. Check it out today!

The following archetypes/players have not been on or active in RP lately, and I need to know if they plan to return or not. If not, no reason needed, it's fine! Just need to have them played or opened back up.

The Athlete
The Dabbler
The Healer
The Hunter
The Idealist
The Lover
The Rebel
The Scientist
The Survivor
The Vigilante

Thanks!