Best posts made by Coin

@admiral said in Good or New Movies Review:

Disregarding the opinions of others is a very enlightened and forward thinking way to live your life, Mr. President.

MAGA.

Damn, are you so salty regarding your Commander-in-Chief that you've resorted to comparing me, a heavily left-leaning foreigner, to him as a critique on my disregard for artistic journalism when it comes to whether or not I like a movie or not?

Damn. Congrats. That's a new level of silly.

I feel like this warrants an amendment to Godwin's Law, 'cuz comparing people to Nazis is legit now a days, anyway.

@Arkandel said in How Do I Headwiz?:

So if you are going to do this then staffing itself had better be fun enough for you to keep doing it. You might have 'a character' but that character can never be or do what other PCs get to. It'll always be the headwiz's alt, never Bob or Jane.

At the very least, make sure that wshen you create a character, it's one that you can be content playing at the lower tier of the character's sphere / context.

Make a werewolf who cares about his neighborhood andlittle else; make a vampire who has his own vendettas and doesn't really have an interest in court politics; make a Mage who's really more into the small Mysteries and not in fighting big battles against the Abyss. It will limit what you can do in some respects, but it's just as easy to include people (and even easier to include just the people you actually want to RP with) this way, and it doesn't generate conflict of interest.

Another great thing to do is make a character who has a very specific niche, and then make that niche valuable in a peripheral way to the plot you're running. Many people will wail about Conflict of Interest, but it really isn't. If my character specializes in Maeljin lore, and I'm running a sphere-wide Maeljin plot, then having my NPCs refer the active characters to my PC is just good sense and a way for me to play my character, contribute to the plot, but leave the spotlight on other people.

A third thing you can do is divorce the plots your character is involved in from the setting in some way. Many people run plots outside the city the game in general is set in, etc. You can be awesome and even run stuff for yourself and your friends without destabilizing the local structure or having people wail Conflict of Interest.

It bears mentioning that I come from a culture where Conflict of Interest is viewed much less strictly, and in my experience, often led to much less drama than the strict, overbearing paranoia I've found in MUs, where everyone is super worried about whether or not one person's alt is helping their other alt.

I forget to shave, and then my beard grows horribly and not at all well, so I remember, and it's a process. I might eventually splurge for an electric hair clipper that I can just use for that daily five-o-clock shadow that I suspect won't get me as laid as the media purports.

@HelloProject said in How Do I Headwiz?:

@Ganymede said in How Do I Headwiz?:

@HelloProject said in How Do I Headwiz?:

I basically went into this project with zero intention of using XP at all. My intent was always to entirely replace XP with something else. I highly recommend reading the DICE system and seeing how what you want to do would apply to that.

The DICE System doesn't really eliminate XP at all, from what I read. It simply eliminates the idea of advancement without doing anything. Instead, the DICE System seems to permit improvement when you spend Time to do so, which is sort of how I envision handling XP in my system. (To wit: spend X Time, get 1 XP.) And I like how the DICE System makes you choose between character advancement and developing character assets.

Then that does kind of bring up a good question.

Is there a way to eliminate XP? Should I even try? People have seen my game thread and my concept, is the elimination of XP an endeavour worth pursuing, or should I just try to refine XP to work in a way that's not shitty?

Anime-based stuff is always going to be a headache. Because on the one hand, you have power levels, which is conducive to XP. But then on the other hand, you have (as famously ubermemed by DBZ) the fact that when push comes to shove, power levels don't mean jack or shit.

I would rather divide the player base into tiers: Protagonist, Support, Sidekick, Antagonist, Henchman, Disposable, etc., and then instead of XP, give them something akin to the Unisystem's Drama Points, which are basically points you can spend "in the moment" to do things that you normally couldn't (or that are special in some way or another). Have a system that allows a character to spend enough "power points", or "hero points", or whatever, to "jump up" a category for a moment.

Maybe if you spend 5 points as a Sidekick, you can do something at the Protagonist level--suddenly Krillin busts out a badass Destructo Disc that cuts Vegeta's tail off, or Piccolo kills Raditz (and Goku, SPOILER) with his Special Beam Cannon. They're not on the main Protagonist/Antagonist level, but they can be momentarily. Otherwise, their abilities all function at the lower tier and any inter-tier interaction is a. nominal, and b. always going to end up in favor of the higher tier.

You can probably make it more nuanced by making there be more than three basic tiers--make it 5, make it 7, whatever you need. But this basically provides a way for a consent-based game that has a mechanic for back up the different power levels intermingling and affecting each other while respecting the "does he have the heart/balls/spirit/soul/resolve to do the thing" trope that so much Anime runs on.

(extra e.g.: that moment where a character normally thought of as weaker than the protagonist loses their shit and wails on someone much, much more powerful than them for a prolonged period of time can be the outcome of a player blowing ALL their special points. Of course, once the scene's over, they're out of points and probably exhausted and useless for a while...)

P.S. This would also be a good system for comic book MUs, especially if you separated the categories of levels. Like, Superman has Strength 10. Metallo has Strength 8. Sure, Superman is far stronger, but Metallo's close enough to go a few rounds anyway, and he can spend special points to do "Strength 10 stuff". Same can be applied to pretty much anything.

@Royal said:

I use MUDMaster. Hasn't steered me wrong before. Especially for light and easy use.

Your face is a MUDMaster.

@HelloProject said in MSB MU*?:

@Thenomain Well, I think 8bit MUSH and MUS*H count, but who knows. I don't really hang out on any.

I think a MSB MU would be useful for a community hangout that's less effort than making a forum post.

How much effort is making a forum post? I mean, really.

I met an ex through online roleplaying (not MU, but same difference). It didn't end well, but I don't blame the medium we met on, just poor decision-making on both our parts when it came time to wrangle a long-distance relationship when she had to go home after vacation [her clamining she could handle it (she couldn't) and me deciding to give yet another (third) long-distance relationship a try]. There's a lot more details to put in there, but they're mine.

Current girlfriend is new (she plays tabletop RP and we actually just started a call of Cthulhu game with some friends of mine, so she's understood the concept of MUing when I've explained it to her) and I am not MUing at all, though that's less because of her specifically and more because I have been socializing way more in the past year and that has cut down on my availability and time for it. Also, I am back in school (and doing pretty well, which only happens when I attend class and actually put in some time and effort into it). So between a full-time job, classes, a girlfriend I see on the weekends, and finding a night every week to hang out with a friend or two, my free time tends to be extremely erratic and I just end up filling it with a random video game.

Typically League of Legends.

Essence Reaver Volibear FTW.

@D-bone said in Which canon property/setting would be good for a MU* ?:

Again though, because of this how does one represent a witcher in game without it being totally unfair to Bob who apps a regular human soldier dude because he doesn't want to play a witcher? This is an insurmountable problem of player agency.

A good quote: In a Star Wars game- everyone plays a jedi or no one is a jedi. Everyone plays a witcher or sorcererss or NO one plays a witcher or sorcereress

I don't actually see a problem here, unless you were planning on having a limited number of Witchers/Sorceresses, and everyone else is screwed. If anyone can play a Witcher/Sorceress, then it shouldn't be an issue. People who play normal people or soldiers or whatever are just people who prefer lower-tier characters, which is actually a thing.

Just the trailer. Show comes later.

P.S.: Cloak and Dagger is way, way, waaaaaaaaaaay better than my expectations. Freeform actually did good.

So is this like steampunk (as opposed to cyberpunk) Shadowrun?

I'm totes down.

@haven said in Dead Celebrities 2018:

@tnp said in Dead Celebrities 2018:

She hasn't died yet but from the tone and word choice of the reports, it sounds like Aretha Franklin doesn't have long left.

That is not how this thread works.

Seriously, what is wrong with everyone around here? I am concerned.

Long live the queen.

@Ghost said in POLL: Super Hero MU Gut Check:

@Coin Agreed.

On more than one occasion, I've seen less ethical players on SuperConsent MUs claim a very powerful character and use said level of power as a walking justification for powerpose and/or ignoring the powers/skills of other PCs.

It basically ends up like a hostage situation. PowerPlayer feels powers justify success despite consent. Staff intervention may end up necessary to stop PowerPlayer, but then it could be construed as staff railroading.

This latter is a fallacy, though, since one of staff's roles is to stop abuse. Also, it's not railroading if you take the bit away, it's just taking the bit away.

<.< >.>

A similar thing's happened to punk (and I hold as much respect for hip-hop and rap as I do for punk; I grew up with both, one in each hand).

You can see the way punk changes into punk-pop in the mainstream if you follow, for example, The Offspring or Green Day's discography and evolution. Offspring starts with a self-titled that is harsh, political, songs about war in the Middle-East ("Tehran"), the absolute apathy, cruelty, and dismissal with which society treats women, especially women who are victims of assault ("Jennifer Lost the War"); they moved on to Ignition, one of my favorite albums, which has songs that dig deep into problematic relationships ("Dirty Magic", "Sessions") and police brutality ("L.A.P.D.") and bullying ("Kick Him When He's Down"); and then Smash, with themes like gang violence ("Come Out and Play") and the mentality behind road rage ("Bad Habit"), revisiting toxic relationships ("Self Esteem"), and drug abuse ("What Happened to You?") and isolation ("Alone"), along with more world-spanning political tracks.

I mean, with a start like that,y ou think: damn, they're gonna be like this forever. But then Ixnay on the Hombre was a little more poppy, Americana had "Pretty Fly for a White Guy", and Conspiracy of One was their last album to have any sort of real political message.

Same thing happened with Green Day and basically all mainstream 90s punk in general, you basically see it almost across the board, and everything that followed it. Once Blink-182 and Sum-41 took the stage it was over. Some bands hold on tight: NoFX, Bad Religion--but others fall to the wayside: Pennywise, Rancid.

You still have that underlying stream of the original message of that music in there, if you dig deep--but it gets constantly smothered by the mainstream stuff producers of the music industry that, like @Warma-Sheen said, push their agenda for sales.

I mean, the music industry made Johnny "Rotten" Lydon and Jello "Can't Shut The Fuck Up Between Songs" Biafra basically give up. If you can kick the rebellion out of those two dudes, then yeah...

@Chet said in POLL: Super Hero MU Gut Check:

Just remember the theory if you need it.

Spider-Man was invented by Steve Ditko as an enemy of The Fly, an old superhero back when the formula wasn't pervasive. The Fly was a geek fighting for world peace, and Spider Spry was an evil heel wrestler type fighting him. The Fly took off on a fantasy fan spectrum, kind of like you see with the more passive readers that read stuff like Tolkien or Rowling, not the hardcore fans. But Spider-Man takes Spider Spry, the nerd that gets jacked, and gives him an ethical trap: if this character appeals to you, Peter Parker, you put on the suit and get beaten up by all these villains that outgun you.

Case in point: In Kevin Smith's Mallrats, Stan Lee comes out of the closet as having written himself into Dr. Doom.

dude, you make no sense, lol.

@gingerlily said in What the fuck happened to Hip-Hop?:

There's tons of great hip hop around now what even is this thread?

I love how we are constantly posting about 'how everything was better then' (usually the 90s) and yet also 'why aren't young people doing the thing we do on this forum'.

I'm as ancient as most of ya'll but we could dial the evidence back!

For reals. People sounding like crusty old farts around here.

@tangent said in POLL: Super Hero MU Gut Check:

@Wizz Do they actually have games where they stick that close to canon? That hasn't been my experience on any of the games I've played, but I certainly could be wrong.

Also, @Coin created #3. He is the OG #3

This one time some dude was being super pretentious about reboots and he called Superman: Earth One a "reboot".

I told him it wasn't a reboot, it was an alternate continuity. Reboots imply something is getting sent back to its origins while this specifically was, you know, a different take on Superman's origins.

He was super condescending. So I did my best pit bull impression and I bit down and didn't let the fuck go until he got SO FRUSTRATED he compared me to Hitler and left the game, and never came back.

Ugh, the good ol' days.

@arkandel said in Good TV:

@wildbaboons said in Good TV:

@arkandel said in Good TV:

Wheel of Time? Gimme. That's cinematic as hell.

That is probably the one I am most excited about... but also the most pessimistic. I'm sure it will be better than the FXX thing, but I'm not counting by much

I think it will come down to the budget and buy-in from the talent involved. It's not even just about money, as you can pay for decent directors, casting directors and even actors but sometimes you get Game of Thrones... and sometimes you get Chronicles of Shannara.

But the comparison doesn't really work, now does it?

Game of Thrones at its cheapest costs about $9 mil for an episode; Shannara at its most expensive costs about $4 mil for the same.

The first is on HBO. The latter started on MTV.

It's not really a comparison you can make.

@Meg said in Where do you draw the line in having your character take what would otherwise be an "IC" action for them?:

@Coin said in Where do you draw the line in having your character take what would otherwise be an "IC" action for them?:

@Meg said in Where do you draw the line in having your character take what would otherwise be an "IC" action for them?:

@Coin said in Where do you draw the line in having your character take what would otherwise be an "IC" action for them?:

This post ended up way more aggressive than intended, but I'm totally committed now, so fuck all of you.

If you ever post anything less aggressive now, we'll know it's OOC for you.

Your mom is OOC for you.

The character of @Coin is aggressive and makes bad jokes. That's all you get to be from now on.

That's all that I was ever taught to be.

William Goldman.

To the pain.

@Thenomain said in POLL: Super Hero MU Gut Check:

@The-Tree-of-Woe

Yeah, but I'm often the person who has to make this level of decision, when I'm the coder. I try to impress on people that how information is available is dependent on what the information is. I am always concerned at making sure that the information makes as much sense and is as easy to find as possible. (I've always learned information defined as: Data that is Accessible & Timely.)

I am more than willing to change my own methods of garnering information, but unless staff assures the data is accessible to the average dunce, then who cares where it's kept?

I'm always looking for input, so in that sense there is no finality and therefore no "agreement". Only "improvement". This has never been an either/or debate.

To be fair, @Thenomain, this is a contentious point you and I have always had passively: you as a coder are always looking for a way to do things how it makes sense to you, and while you're usually pretty good at asking me (when we work together) how I prefer it, sometimes you just like how it looks or feels one way from backstage when I absolutely hate the way it looks from the user point of view, and you do what you want. This is not me fist-shaking (I do that at you in private!) it's just pointing out that oftentimes coders make decisions from a coder point of view, when the BULK of the people using the code are not, in fact, coders.

I personally fucking loathe having all the info on the game. Honest to god, I hate typing MU commands to pull up sheets, help files, news files, boards... it all just clutters my god damned MU window, scrolls it, and often--if I am in a scene--rips me right out of it because suddenly the place where the scene was happening (the MU client window) has a bboard, or a help file, or a news file on it. I vastly prefer clicking on my Chrome and checking the wiki, then coming back to the client and reimmersing myself.