Best posts made by Coin

@pyrephox said in Development Thread: Elements: Courts of the Sacred Seed:

Okay, the Chef element really intrigues me, because I think it could add a real meaty component, especially for Seedless. Basically, stealing from several niche anime:

Ingredient Hunters. Maybe there are rare, dangerous ingredients out there which have boosting/altering effects on how the Sacred Fruit is metabolized in a Seeded's body - like, Fruit broth made with the heart of a newborn firedrake allows fire Seeded to cast at a reduced mana cost until it's been digested (say, 24-48 hours), and if you can add some of the milk from a wild windchaser, a flying mammal found only at the tops of the highest canopies to make that into a rich soup, you get reduced mana costs AND your flames are resistant to wind magic. Or something like that.

Someone has to gather these ingredients, and the nobles sure aren't going to do it (note: you'll have to /enforce/ this with theme and mechanics, or else the nobles are gonna want to be mages AND chefs AND ingredient hunters), so it falls to those scrappy, hungry, fearless sorts who go out into the godawful wilderness, risk getting horribly murdered, and drag back delicacies for the meals of the nobles, selling them for enough to make comfortable livings - as long as they don't get injured or killed in the process.

If you go off of it that way, then you can have three main entry points for 'roles in the game': Nobility, with a focus on magical adventure and intrigue and politics. Chefs, with a focus on intrigue (you can't tell me that rivals don't want to poison each other's food, or sub out high quality for fake Fruit to cripple each other), and crafting (I suggest a robust 'recipe' system that allows Chefs to really get creative with food and that rewards investment in multiple skills - like, maybe instead of just a 'cooking' skill, have several skills and/or special techniques that Chefs can purchase). And Ingredient Hunters, with a focus on wilderness adventure, combat, and weird skills like being able to use /everything/ from a beast - these guys, ideally, would be a little like Monster Hunters from the games, and swagger into town wearing bizarre equipment created from skins, horns, and teeth of their kills, dragging the broken down corpses of nightmare beasts for the market. More, two of those paths would greatly favor Seedless characters over Seeded, which should balance out the inherent I HAVE MAGIC awesomeness of being Seeded.

Especially if you're strict about NOT letting the Seeded go in and take over the Chef academies, or become the best Ingredient Hunters. Maybe those low status Seeded can dabble in one or both of those careers, but it should cost them.

Maybe being Seeded means you give off certain types of pheromones/whatever that wildlife are either really reticent to get close to (making it hard to hunt certain things) or predators REALLY wanna eat (making it very, very dangerous--like, 99% mortality rate for Seeded to go out Ingredient Hunting).

@Admiral said:

I know zilch about coding but I'm curious about why every game that comes out is on its own server.

They aren't.

Would it be possible to have a single MUSH address host multiple games? You appear in the start room when you make a character and then select which game you play from the list available and go from there.

These exist.

I imagine it'd be difficult to code different 'approvals' so you don't get people from the wrong game on the wrong grid. And different staff buckets for different games. And etcetera.

Harder than it seems, but far from impossible.

Plus they would all need to be the same game system if they're going to share chargen elements.

Not necessarily.

But what if you run multiple single-sphere chronicles on the same MUSH? I imagine that would be somewhat easier to handle, code-wise. Since you wouldn't need to separate things any more than they are on any multi-sphere game. You'd just need separate grids and that's just a matter of building rather than code.

The reason this popped into my head was because I was looking at MU*s out there and population is an important indicator to me on if I am willing to try a game. If there's no community for it, well. I guess the game itself isn't worth my time.

However, if these single-sphere games were merged into a single MUSH hub (possibly even with a shared OOC experience between them) it might make them more attractive to players while also allowing games to survive with the smallest of playerbases.

In general people who want "populated MUs" want them for the scattershot "I can always find RP" value. What you're suggesting wouldn't really work since even if the other spheres are booming, if yours isn't, you're shit out of luck (unlike multisphere games, where you can cross over).

How Do We Age?

• Aging in these people (not foreigners) is different, and they don't even count the passage of time in years, but just seasons (so instead of saying "the Spring of 1994" they actually say "the 1994th Spring").
• Aging in seasons means they don't count "years" (the concept probably exists, as in "one cycle of seasons"); their entire process is counted in Seasons and each person has their own progression and season moments of change: Spring is their childhood, through puberty; Summer is the beginning of adulthood and marks their age of legal sexual consent; Autumn is their middle-age, and by its beginning they are expected to have settled into a way of life and profession already, and/or finished their studies; Winter is their elderly age, all the way to their deaths.

How Do We Talk?

A lot of their slang is based off of plant metaphors, and playing with the "verbing" of certain terms in different ways. For example, young people refer to sexual intercourse as "pollinating" ("He came over last night and I pollinated him for hoooourrrrs"), but other versions exist, such as: to pollen (ejaculate) ("I got him so worked up he pollened right in his pants") and to pollenize, which is a one-night stand or extremel casual relationship ("Yeah, we pollenized, but we didn't tend each other").

Which swings to: "tending" is "dating" and "gardening" is dating several people, while "having a secret garden" is dating several people when they don't know about each other--also used for cheating "tending my secret garden" and cheaters "secret gardener", not to mention the person you're cheating with, your "secret flower".

Just some ideas. It would be cool if people came up with their own slang, and the game had a huge glossary of it.

@Ganymede said:

@Sovereign

While I concur that people often feel wanted due to their own actions or those of other people, it is under-whelmingly simplistic to not include cultural or societal expectations into an evaluation of fixing what might be a problem.

If you're going to run a Vampire: the Requiem game, for instance, paranoia and power-mongering are essential to the theme and setting, and, very often, players have to bend over backwards to find a reason to be inclusive.

And I'm usually someone who is fine with bending over backwards to include someone despite theme stating that I would be perfectly within its scope to knock'em into a Sarlacc pit at the first chance I get. And then people push their luck. (Sometimes I push my luck. I think pushing your luck and taking big risks is the best way to have a great experience, but that's my opinion.)

I agree that @Sovereign's view is overly simplistic.

@faraday said in Earning stuff:

@ganymede said in Earning stuff:

It’s a little more difficult to do this on a WoD game.

Is it really? WoD is not my thing, but I am passingly familiar with it. It seems that there are any number of 'important events' that you could build stories around if that were your aim and if you steered characters into story-appropriate roles. (Which is why BSGU forced everyone to be in the mission-oriented departments.)

There's nothing wrong with saying that's not your goal - with having more of an "open world" concept where people can make anything they want. But... as @coin said:

@coin said in Earning stuff:

Many people come to online gaming to replicate and immerse themselves in the kind of stories they see the heroes and protagonists partake in on television and the big screen, or they come trying to find a way to do what they used to do in real life in tabletop with their friends back when they had time and didn't all live further away and didn't have life-sucking jobs

If a significant part of your intended audience is looking for something that your game design just flat-out can't provide then you've got issues. It's like saying: "OK I know you want X but I'm going to give you the complete opposite of X! Enjoy!"

I would say the people that have the issues are the people who come to online gaming to reproduce something that the medium can't provide, actually.

@Ganymede, I'm running a game that needs activity to thrive. If a player doesn't do anything because they have RL obligations, I'm not going to shun them or punish them, but I'm not going to continue to reward them beyond whatever passive experience sthey'd be gaining. That creates a whole lot of resentment among those that are active.

I don't consider it narrow-minded or short-sighted; rather just taking a stance in the sort of policy I want to adapt for the game I'm running.

There are elements of my game that support people who want to run their own stories in their own slice of the setting without having to deal much at all with those outside of it. I did this specifically so that people could enjoy the game at their own pace as much as possible.

I have played on The Reach for a long time, I played on HM, and before that I played on a game with a much more "miserly" XP awards, and I've played on games without XP at all. Based on my experiences, this is the system that I feel will best represent a compromise between these styles of experience systems.

Exalted. I haven't even played since first edition (Power Combat, awyiss!) but if I am going to be honest it is the game I have been the most passionate about ever, both playing and just mucking with the system and reading the books and content.

@faraday said in Earning stuff:

@coin said in Earning stuff:

I am also referencing games that are probably much larger in the terms of player bases, where not everyone can be part of the big plot in a way they find meaningful.

My intention was not to be demeaning, so I'm sorry if it came across that way. I'm just pointing out what I believe to be a fact that you yourself alluded to first - if the players are coming to a game with an expectation that the game can't fulfill, then there are going to be issues. That doesn't mean the players "have issues" or that the game sucks - it just means that there's a mismatch of expectations that's going to cause strife. Setting clear expectations can help.

Personally I see that a larger percentage of players want the "heroic style" versus the "everybody's a supporting member in the overall game story style", so I think games would save themselves a lot of headaches by catering more towards that mindset. But that's in no way implying that folks who cater to the other mindset are doing something wrong.

The problem is that not everyone understands "heroic style" as "everyone is heroes," which is my point. A lot of people are coming from experiences and searching for something that means they can be special within the world they are immersing themselves in--if everyone is special, then no one is, and that doesn't fulfill their expectations.

Also, and I guess this wasn't clear in my initial post, these aren't things I believe are conscious; they're unconscious expectations, and when they aren't fulfilled, the frustrations manifest and the causes are misattributed.

@Kanye-Qwest said:

This is what I mean by organic. If two characters are in a public place, having a public scene, anyone there can join, or comment on what's going on, whatever. Just like in real life, there are rude and polite ways to insert yourself in a conversation/situation.

Also just like in life (I prefer RP that strives for some level of realism in interpersonal interaction) if you are in a public place and a discussion suddenly turns private, you don't teleport to a broom closet or carry on like you're IN a broom closet, getting angry at those who intrude. You get up, make an excuse, and leave. Or delay the Omg Private moment until later.

Maybe I'm in the minority, but I don't like paging people to ask if it's ok to join them, and I don't like the ooc room discussion that devolves into "oh so sorry! Smileyface smileyface smileyface." and "I'll just ignore this and we'll time stop and pretend we never came in here and you didn't see us ok?" I don't mind a quick ooc 'cool to join in?' just for the sake of being polite, but I think if you are in an IC hangout and you are roleplaying, that's a public scene and anyone can participate.

The thing about this is that you don't seem open to compromise.

You don't like paging people to ask if you can join them, but you also don't like people getting up and walking out if you join a scene that had, previously, turned quite private and that they evidently don't feel like including someone else--potentially a stranger--in. The dynamic flow of the narrative is important to consider, too. Sometimes the scene loses its spark if a person has to deal with someone else interceding, and to me that's more important than your desire for "realism".

Asking if you can join is a compromise: you're reminding them they're in public, but you're respecting their scene and their roleplay.

@mietze said:

I love rituals/cults. I know a handful of others who do as well so when we've been able to coordinate schedules (which doesn't happen often) it's fantastic rp. I actually have many notebooks and regular books collected over the years for inspiration for writing/development! Even 1 on 1 those are awesome engaging scenes.

I love IC nemeses. I have been one and had one quite a few times. What I have sadly learned though is that while I find I rarely have to vet the person I'm going to be frenemies with, since the people who are serious (vs. the Victimize Me! teeheehee People) are almost always awesome...I do now know it's good to know who their friends are. If they hang with ooc white knights it's not going to be worth the ooc drama and headache.

That's why if I know I'm going to be someone's nemesis, you can be sure my character will get super pissed at people who interrupt their nemesis-ing.

That's my archnemesis you're messing with. NO ONE GETS TO FUCK THEIR SHIT UP EXCEPT MEEEEEEEEEEE

I have a little brother. I know how this works.

@three-eyed-crow said in Earning stuff:

I mean I'm personally of the opinion that 'Other players being special detracts from me' is one of the most toxic impulses in this hobby but that's maybe another conversation.

I completely agree; but it's also not entirely an irrational or illogical extrapolation from the way we're fed fiction and storytelling, like @Arkandel said.

Can you guys PLEASE stop making me type shit that's in agreement with him? It's going to give me a migraine in my soul.

@Kanye-Qwest said:

@Coin

I am all for people getting up and leaving a public place if they want to go have a private scene, I just don't see why it can't be handled IC.

And you're right, it can definitely interrupt the vibe of a conversation to include the jackass who just walked in and started eating off the floor. In which case, cast the jackass a disdaining glance and ignore them like the nuisance they are. Just again, do it IC.

All manner of silly arguments about intentions and ooc tone and on and on and on are avoided if you don't get into OOC discussions when it isn't necessary.

The problem is that they are necessary, from other people's point of view, and you're dismissing that because it doesn't conform to yours. It would be like me saying: "Yeah, well, I don't care about your need for realism, and you should always discuss things OOC with me first because that's what I enjoy and how I like it".

Predictable outcome: we don't RP together. Except your way makes me have to deal with you dropping into my scene because you felt like it.

See what I mean when I say you don't show signs of compromise?

@Pyrephox said:

@Coin said:

@Pyrephox said:

@Coin said:

@Pyrephox said:

@Coin said:

@Pyrephox said:

@Coin said:

@Pyrephox said:

@Coin said:

@Pyrephox said:

@Coin said:

@Pyrephox said:

@Arkandel That would be an awesome relationship. Especially for vampires, who literally CAN nurse grudges into eternity.

I always wanted a Professor X/Magneto relationship - where two people who were very close personally had been split by ideology, and were each passionately committed to destroying the works of the other...all the time hoping that "winning" would make the other person realize that they were Right All Along and they could be besties again.

Dibs on the Ordo Dracul vs. your ... honestly, the Order can be an ideological enemy to just about any other Covenant. >.>

But they're all vampires. And vampires are terrible.

So picky.

I'm a picky bitch, it's true! I just never got into the appeal of playing Vampire. At least, as it seems to be played on MU*s. I can see the appeal of the scrappy, newly-dead trying to maintain sanity in the face of an eternity spent playing meaningless political games with corpses that literally have nothing better to do with their lives.

I have never been able to understand the appeal of playing the corpses that literally have nothing better to do with their lives than meaningless political games, and...that's the game.

All right. Mage then? [ducks]

Only if I get to throw some goddamned fireballs.

Changeling, then. I woudln't want Paradox to outshine me as your nemesis.

Hell yeah. Changeling crazy is the best crazy, and I get to throw goddamned fireballs.

You probably would have liked my first changeling on The Reach.

Probably! I stayed faaaaar away from that sphere during my brief time on the Reach, though. Seemed like too many people were going into it with the intent to reenact OOC grudges from previous games.

Yeah. That was a thing. I was ... sort of removed from it, but in the middle. Because reasons. >.>

There are always reasons. REASONS.

Ahem. Back to the more general topic. Another type of scene I'd love to see more often is referred to, in TV Tropes parlance, as the "wham episode". Something that significantly shakes up the status quo or the assumptions, and then everyone has to move forward from there. I love plot twists. I want more plot twists, and Grand Reveals.

I love these. One of my favorite characters on The Reach (and his whole family) was secretly a dreaded cultist. His closest-thing-to-a-girlfriend and one of his best friends were both Ferals (which on TR were basically the world's response to Things That Must Not Be). He literally spent most of his time with the enemy. He loved them. He really did. He cherished them, loved them, slept with them, helped them, rescued them, was rescued by them, and in general acted and behaved like you would expect a nice guy with a bit of a violent streak but clear delineations regarding who he was violent to and with would.

But behind that facade, he was a baby-killing, infant-eating, human-sacrificing, Outer Thing-worshipping cultist.

I never got to play it out...

But I really, really wanted to eventually have it come out and have his friends--his loved ones outside his family--turn on him. Because he betrayed them. He constantly and consistently betrayed their existence and entire reason for being. And they should have wanted him dead, buried, gone.

But he was a Sin-Eater and they are notoriously difficult to put down and I would ahve loved to roleplay that--to roleplay the heinous, brutal shake up of that revelation and the subsequent small war that would have errupted, because believe me: he loved them--but he would have murdered them for his Lord in a heart beat...

... or would he?

And that would have been the best part!

@thenomain said in Experienced Tiers or How much is too much?:

@ganymede said in Experienced Tiers or How much is too much?:

@thenomain said in Experienced Tiers or How much is too much?:

It's possible that the way FH is doing it means that you're playing five distinct types of characters (one per power level). I don't know the long-term effect of it so I don't know if it's good or not, but this is the closest I can be to being optimistic about them.

It means you can do that, yes. It also means that no one person can have more than one alt starting at the highest tier. That's in stark contrast with The Reach and Fallcoast, where you could have a slew of PCs at the highest XP level.

What is the goal of either method? That is, what is it you think that makes one method better than another?

I remember running a scene on The Reach for the End of the World storyline in which I had this big eye-thing that shot a laser from its one eye.

Yes. I did that shit. Deal.

Anyway, I hit this one dude's character--some Mage, fuck if I recall the name--and he goes "HOW DID IT DO THAT MUCH DAMAGE? I HAVE [insert insane amounts of Armor and Health and whatnot]". So I told him to bring it up after the scene.

And he comes all incensed about it and he tells me he thinks it's unfair he was hurt when he has all these defenses and I just was like, "well, yeah. It's that powerful BECAUSE everyone here has all these fucking insane stats--otherwise where's the risk of THE WORLD ENDING?"

I mean of course he didn't get the point because LOL the world would be different if logic triumphed that easily, but YEAH.

@Kanye-Qwest said:

@Coin

You think it is necessary for people to ask your permission to rp around/at you in public, and I'm uncompromising?

Actually, I was referring to:

if you don't get into OOC discussions when it isn't necessary.

Because what is and isn't necessary isn't solely within your purview of preference.

I might not prefer you just drop in on my scene. You would rather be able to drop in on any scene. You asking if it's okay to drop in on my scene is a compromise, because it's a middle ground between two preferences. I can deal with you paging me and going, "Hey, can I drop in?" And more often than not, I'd probably say yes. You, apparently, can't deal with asking a question OOC because it infringes on your desire for realism... I guess.

In before: "better to ask forgiveness than permission"--this is a stupid addage worthy only of people who are going to give shallow apologies for doing whatever they want without regards for consequences and/or people who procrastinated so much that they knew if they asked first they may get in as much, if not more, trouble than if it's wrong.

I just printed the shit out of all this stuff on my work printer. >.> Later I might print out Kiths and Seemings, too. I'm making myself a little Changeling 2e corebook, bitches!

@bananerz said in Rosters: To PB or Not To PB?:

would you be fine with your image being used by strangers with no control, perhaps in ways that truly go counter to your own personal beliefs?

I mean, as long as they aren't claiming to be me or that whatever they're doing is also my belief/intent/whatever then there's no real problem.

The problem with image copyrights comes when they're used to promote or sell things--because then you're implying the person whose image it is is in favor of you buying/acquiring/making use of something.

I mean, would I be made mildly uncomfortable? Probably, because that's a gut reaction. But if I stop and think about it logically, it's not really something ethically or morally problematic, IMO.

@skew said:

@Kanye-Qwest said:

@skew said:

I seriously want to have a building on fire, and for someone to pose in without waiting for a set, or without asking, or anything. Just once. That would tickle me.

If you're in a public rp room anyone can come to, isn't it sort of on you in that case to be like "Oh hey, since you just walked in - we just set this building on fire."

A few times (maybe a dozen in the 3 years I've been MUing) I've had people enter a public room and pose in before I have time to notice that a new player has entered. Like, while I'm in the middle of typing, or looking at my fingernails. I recall a player who was notorious for typing one or two sentence poses, and typing them fast. You'd get the 'enters' message, and then 30 seconds later he poses in.

I definitely feel the people who are in a scene should offer up a set, and some information, but the person entering gives them no time to do so, and doesn't ask, what can you do?

Troll them. Trollt hem as hard as possible.