Best posts made by Coin

JFC, Elfwood...

I don't think it's unfair, provided everyone had more or less the same chance/opportunity without counting in their own actions or limitations.

If I give everyone the same chance "I am running plots Wednesdays and Sundays" and those plots lead to things such as the ones mentioned above, it's not my fault if you can't make those days because of your life/job/preferences/kids/whatever. It's not. No matter how much people want me to bend, I also have a life, and the days I am willing and able to run things are those days.

Likewise, if suddenly someone gets something from me (in my capacity as staff) and everyone is wondering "gee, how did that person do that, they must be a STAFF FRIEND"... chances are actually much more likely that they opened a +job, or paged me, or something, and asked "hey can I aim for [this]" and I said, "that sounds cool, let's try it!" or even someone putting in an interesting job and me going, "that sounds cool, let's see if I can spin it into a plot!"

But if the players can't make events, don't ask, and don't publicize ideas that interest me and engage me as a storyteller, then what am I supposed to do? Is it unfair that I'm not willing to bend over backwards? I, personally, don't think so.

Now, if they got someone else who was willing to run it and I was unwilling to even speak to that person about details, logistics, and theme re: whatever they wanted (sometimes it's necessary, sometimes it isn't), that would be heinously unfair and inappropriate within our social context.

@surasanji said in Interest Check: Exalted 3rd ed Mu:

@warma-sheen I hear you and I hope to be able to get it done right.. I'm prepared to fail, if it doesn't work out the way I hope.

I agree with you regarding where the fun starts or stops. Exalted is a character driven game (imho), and failure is and SHOULD be on the table even for powerful exalts.

Losing is a huge part of character growth, I feel, so. I should hope my players expect to win some, lose some and write some great stories in the process.

As I've never run a game before, I'm excited to give it a try all the same.

If you're playing Exalted and winning all the time, then why are you playing Exalted?

Like, I get it. Solars are the exemplary best at everything -- that's their thing, excellence -- but that excellence can only come to real light when challenged; if you never find something you actually need to overcome, you're really just a bully. And yes, Solars eventually all basically become bullies, but the point of the game is before, not after!

Lol.

Sign me up for a Solar who fails five times just so he can succeed the sixth.

I remember one game (it was a Pulp-styled Exalted game) where my Night Exalt (and his crew) kept running into this Abyssal pirate who kept kicking their asses, especially my guy. So I lost, and I lost, and I lost, and I accumulated XP, and I built a Combo that included a Perfect Dodge, and a Perfect Attack and an Extra Action Charm; and then I made sure I had enough Essence. And, like, the fourth or fifth time, my Exalt straight up challenged the guy to a duel. Abyssal said yes. And I blew him up. He escaped, but I almost deleted him out of existence. It was awesome.

It would have been real fucking lame if I had been able to do that the first time.

It's also true that eventually the bad guy has to be willing to lose. If you're playing the antagonist, the narrative contract says you'll win or get the upper hand a lot at first, and then eventually get foiled. That's how that works. The problem with letting players do it instead of the Storyteller is... well... players get attached.

@icanbeyourmuse
The site is still small enough the correct people will likely see it, but I think you might want to stick this thread in Code & Code.

Agents of SHIELD finished last night. It was a decent finale for a good show.

@Three-Eyed-Crow said:

What I've wondered about lately, probably more than I wonder about any MUSH-related thing, is if this is actually getting worse. I swear, five years ago it was not as hard as it is today to find people who do shit to play with, and I don't feel like it's strictly a matter of more activity/more games back in the day. Or maybe my rose-colored nostalgia glasses are just getting bigger. I don't know. It frustrates me more than anything else about this hobby.

It is, a little bit. But also remember: most of us are just plain getting older. I know I'm a lot less energetic than I was six or seven years ago about this stuff, and I have a lot more going on. And other people have spouses now, and children, and...

Being tired happens, and it happens a lot more the older you get. And the difference is a noticeable one even between your early twenties and early thirties.

@groth said in Interest Check: Exalted 3rd ed Mu:

@coin said in Interest Check: Exalted 3rd ed Mu:

@surasanji said in Interest Check: Exalted 3rd ed Mu:

@warma-sheen I hear you and I hope to be able to get it done right.. I'm prepared to fail, if it doesn't work out the way I hope.

I agree with you regarding where the fun starts or stops. Exalted is a character driven game (imho), and failure is and SHOULD be on the table even for powerful exalts.

Losing is a huge part of character growth, I feel, so. I should hope my players expect to win some, lose some and write some great stories in the process.

As I've never run a game before, I'm excited to give it a try all the same.

If you're playing Exalted and winning all the time, then why are you playing Exalted?

Like, I get it. Solars are the exemplary best at everything -- that's their thing, excellence -- but that excellence can only come to real light when challenged; if you never find something you actually need to overcome, you're really just a bully. And yes, Solars eventually all basically become bullies, but the point of the game is before, not after!

Thematically Exalted in general and Solar exalted in particular has never been a game where the player characters are expected to face great difficulty in their area of expertise. Rather it's about exploring the consequences of power.

You'll have no problem dealing with the local god, monster or corrupt official but will that improve the lives of the locals or will you bring unintended consequences upon their heads?

I mean, yes and no. When you start, you are absolutely supposed to have some issues; or not, and that brings on the issues when you exceed your grasp.

But it doesn't really matter. I could argue the intricacies of Exalted's themes and what you can do with them and what's the "right way" or the "correct themes" of the game all day, but it's pointless.

Solution's the same.

It took me three tries to get through ther first chapter of the Lord of the Rings. I was fine after that and got through the trilogy, but to this day I remember how hard it was to slog through that first chapter.

I like Tolkien, I just think his writing is not a big deal. His world-building is superb.

I stopped smoking over eight years ago, which resulted in my gaining weight, but I haven't drank any Coke (despite temptation) in three weeks, and I'm going back to kung fu and riding my bike around, so I should shed some weight soon. I remember when I was a teenager and weight was a non-issue because my metabolism was of the gods.

@Faceless said:

1. Have an ending in mind. It doesn't have to be the ending that you eventually come to, but it helps me in planning out a plot. A scenario like a scene in a movie. How did the Terminator end up in that foundry at the end of Terminator 2? Fill in the blanks to that ending and you've established some milestones for a story. None of these milestones may ever be used but you've at least given yourself the general outline of what you'd like the players to pursue.

2. Use the rules. The books have rules. Use the rules. Knowing the rules of the game both helps inspire some sense of confidence in the storyteller as someone who knows what they're doing, and further makes it possible to help teach those who don't have gold medals in Rules 101. Don't know a rule? Looks like an opportunity to learn something new. There isn't a rule? Make something up that makes sense on the fly. Don't bog down your story mid-scene to get an answer, come back to it later and find an answer from staff or someone else who may know where you can find the rule. Also don't be afraid to take advice from a player who may know a rule. On the flipside, don't be the rules lawyer player who disrupts a scene because you want to show how obnoxiously super-smart you are.

3. Get to know other players on your game. I don't mean that you have to tell Joe all about your wife, kids, cat named Sally, or your used condom collection. What I do mean is that the more of a visible presence you are on channels and joining in on the general banter, the more likely it is that people are going to feel comfortable approaching you later in pages to ask about the possibility of running a plot. They say one of the reasons the dog barks at the mailman so much is because he can see him, but not interact with him. He's an anomaly in the dog's territory. So don't be afraid to let the other players smell your hand. Some players may want to smell more though, so be careful.

4. Be willing to accept people outside your clique. It's great to run things for your friends, but MUSHing at this point is social networking. The more you reach out to or otherwise make your stories available to people you normally don't have frequent contact with, the more you network. Networking is good.

5. Run what you're going to have fun running. As has been mentioned previously in the lists of other posters, most players don't know what they want. So run what you're going to enjoy. If you build it, the players will come.

6. Give the players options. Fight, talk, run, drop a piano on the villain, whatever it is. Options let the players know that they have control over their destiny. Even if they walk their characters into a possible death, they made a choice.

7. For the participants out there: don't just offer up the canned "thanks, it was fun" at the end of a plot, event, scene, or whatever. If it was fun, please inform me in a @mail, pages, or right then why it was fun. What did you enjoy? If I get the "thanks, it was fun" and nothing else at the end of something I tend to believe that they're just being polite and something didn't suit their tastes. What could I work on? I'm not asking for an exhaustive review, but give me something to help tailor things going forward for you and others. Was my pacing great but content felt hard to grasp? Was my content awesome but the pacing felt like a crawl? Did I make the common mistake of shooting for Mystery and ending up in Confusing? So storytellers, don't take constructive feedback as an attack.

It's certainly not an exhaustive list, but it's a few of the things that I had spring to mind first.

This is pretty awesome and I am likely to steal it for Eldritch's stoytelling guidelines. Thanks.

@Darinelle IIRC, it's SQL related.

@Sogan said in Kinds of Mu*s Wanted:

Highlander would benefit from A) not being set during the gathering (look at the show Immortals have friendships, even the headhunter types often have a few friends amongst the immortal crowd) which removes the immediacy of the whole decapitation frenzy and 2) Flash backs are your friend. Most of Fitz's appearances were flashbacks made after his death. Ultimately if you can find a way to play up the duality of 'I'm going to outlast everything around me' with the 'There are lunatics who want to cut off my head to kill me and absorb my lifeforc' angles without killing PC's every few scenes it could be fun.

As an aside has anyone else ever noticed how quickly New Immortals seem to accept the idea of decapitating people?

Not really. Plenty of people go into the armed forces and quickly acept the idea of killing other people who are trying to kill them. Humans are not particularly empathic beings when our own lives are at stake, no matter what children's television wants to make us think.

@Auspice said in Good TV:

Hawk is the best. #changemymind

I mean, if you like the character that's basically been modeled after every nerd who was bullied and then became a huge, horrible incel, except this one actually was taught martial arts and is a legitimate physical threat to his peers...

... sure. >.>

I hope he gets a redemption arc.

It's either that, or jail.

At least it's not a POC character in that position.

@JaySherman said:

@Ganymede said:

I attribute this to the movement of games away from rewarding players for just being out and RPing. Most games have opted for a flat-XP increase, with activity-XP increases based on PRP involvement and running.

I also attribute the aging/maturing of the hobby's participants. After a full day of work, my mind would like a little break. With kids, my patience is limited. So, there are fewer people willing to gin up NPCs, PRPs, and other plottage on a nightly basis.

This is likely the case. Curse those RL responsibilities.

I realize that the ability to be on and investigate crap 24/7 is not the case any longer for the vast majority of RPers. I suppose my motivation to gin up RP out of anything and keep IC exploration/interaction going, even when it's only a few hours a week, has remained a habit.

This is going to sound pretty retarded but I have a small notebook where I'll jot down things like 'Talk to Captain Bargle about his first mate plotting to kill him' and then just get to that whenever I have time online.

This doesn't sound retarded. It just sounds like you do in a notebook what other people do on their wiki talk pages or something. I have a whole friggin' wiki now for my game's plots. >.>

Hopefully Cheesegrater's will get me on from work. If not, I'll have to find a different way.

Stripping Feeding Grounds and Herd as purchasable Merits is probably not the best idea. But you can definitely make them contingent on upkeep; maybe even contingent on doing something to be able to buy them. Sanctity of Merits helps players swallow losing dots in something if they don't play the upkeep.

@Wizz said in Good or New Movies Review:

@Coin

I wasn't speaking for you, I was playing off your words.

But as for giving it a rest, nah. I'm as free to express my distaste as you are to disagree, and jumping down my throat about it is just fuckin' rude. Chillax, my dude.

Because implying people who don't need things to conform to their expectations are just lowering them isn't rude at all.

I just find it annoying how people are unable to broaden the narrative possibilities for a franchise/fictional universe; it's always "omg they're ruining iiiiiiit". Every single time. It's tiresome and old.

@Thenomain said in Changeling: The Lost Update [CofD]:

@Derp said in Changeling: The Lost Update [CofD]:

Sin Eaters are not dead things.

Having peeked at the Geist 2e rules, they are now very specifically not alive.

Dropping teasers, here.

When it comes to player arbitration, tho, it's just as much about the complaint as the rules. It's not irony for me to say that it's a lot harder to come up with a good answer if anyone is being a dick about it, and getting a second opinion is critical.

Also, take responsibility for your actions. Make it clear that it's your decision. The buck stops in your lap; own it.

I think the shittiest thing I had to deal with when Headstaff on Reach was when two staffers were using their staff position to help solidify their positions in a...I want to say family faction? They laughed it off until I got directly involved.

Maybe worse was letting the Changeling admin act as sphere lead though we specifically forbade her from becoming sphere lead. Not finding a solution was us tacitly saying "yes, she is sphere lead". I didn't think she should have even been an admin, but such the mistakes we can make when balancing the needs of the sphere to have even a shitty staffer getting things done, vs. nothing getting done.

The problem on The Reach with sphere leads and admins was that if you didn't have the former, the latter was the former, by default. It worked that way all the time. That's the reason I ended up having Geist dropped in my lap even though my main character was a Sin-Eater: I was already an admin when the TL bailed, so I automatically assumed a role that I didn't have the position for. At first I ran things by Head Staff, but eventually Asher was like 'just do what you want' so I set some boundaries, decided I would delegate any and all jobs regarding my PC to Asher, and went on from there.

@SkinnyThicket said in Does size matter? What about duration?:

@ThatGuyThere

I wasn't aware! Is it just combat that MUSHes go turn-by-turn for? Burning Wheel comes to mind as a system that treats duels-of-wit with the same narrative gravitas as duels-of-sword.

Noooo. You are opening the floodgates. [puts on his rubber ducky floaters]

@Lithium said in Marvel: 1963:

@ixokai Don't get me wrong, I am not wanting it to be that way just that whenever I've seen an FC comic game come up, people want to play with the FC's, not with the OC's, because it's the FC's everyone is familiar with and wants to link their story to.

It's basic power fantasy type of thing, writing their own story into the FC's and really, there's nothing inherently wrong with doing that.

It's just been done, to death, and it follows almost a formula.

I hope it is different, but right now it's got two things for it: 1, 1963 I'm not sure most people who MU even remember that time period. So it'll be an odd thing to try and RP. Two it's going to try and mesh characters who didn't even exist into that time period which is going to cause two levels if disconnect.

OC's are going to be a third level of disconnect and that's a lot of disconnect to try and overcome.

I don't want any game to fail (Except Haven but that's another thread entirely) but I /fear/ it's going to turn out that way.

Also: FC's means the same crowd of interested people, which means the same temperament and same mood and same drama.

That's all.

My only gripe with this sort of argument is that you keep saying there will be a disconnect when there won't be. Not for the people who are interested in playing there and who want to. It will probably end up being a much smaller game than other comic book/superhero games, but the people who want to play there will probably enjoy it.

I was poked at by one of the staffers to see if I wanted to go play there and I am considering it, but to be fair: I don't really like the sixties as a roleplaying setting. I might do it anyway, though.

Maybe I'll play Pete Wisdom and he can finally smoke to his heart's content without people being whiny babies about it...