Best posts made by Coin

@Wizz said in The Celebrated Company of Mongrels:

@Ominous

This is probably a good place to mention that if the write up didn't make it clear, rape and pillaging and other war crimes are gonna be a hard no when it comes to "things PCs can do."

I am not interested in having them explicitly on-screen as a storyteller/GM either, I think the implication of those things happening is dark enough for my dark fantasy pretendy funtimes.

Just in case that was a concern.

A romantic approach to mercenaries, the same way a lot of media romanticizes pirates. Good stuff.

• All but one (the first, at age sixteen, small and on my ankle) of my five tattoos are Lovecraftian references;
• the more people insist I have to like/enjoy/watch/read/listen to something the less likely I am to be able to;
• I don't like onions, roquefort, mayo, or ketchup;
• I have a cat--I named him Ulthar;
• I work in an office for my country's Council of Science and Technology in an administrative capacity, i.e. paper-pushing;
• I have about four different writing projects I want to do, but am notoriously lazy;
• my favorite soda is root beer;
• unless you're in way-South Australia or New Zealand, chances are I live further south than you.

@Ghost said in MU Things I Love:

I just realized that Zack Morris from Saved By the Bell is prime Ventrue recruiting material.

"Sir, take a look at this candidate. By age 16 he was the secret power behind his school, a music producer, and sold the services of his friends to his monetary benefit."

"Intrigued...do continue."

I mean...

@Too-Old-For-This said in MU Things I Love:

@Ghost He also had the ability to stop time for however long he needed to arrange everything to his liking.

This would remove him from candidacy as it is obvious the Silver Ladder got to him first and Bayside is his Cryptopoly.

I rather modern times, frankly. Not sure I would dive into another historical-era game.

@aria said in Good TV:

@highfalutin said in Good TV:

You on Netflix was kind of excellent. Super uncomfortable in the best way to be uncomfortable.

I just finished it. Having read the novel when it was released, I.... have complicated feelings about the show. I mean, I loved it. I really loved it. But the book made me deeply uncomfortable with its fascinating portrayal of the narrator and how truly disturbed and delusional he was. The show made me deeply uncomfortable with myself, because despite knowing from the very beginning -- even without being familiar with the book, so no spoilers -- that he's a fucking psycho stalker, I actually really liked him and was kind of rooting for him at the end?

I'm not sure whether that says more about the incredibly fucked up idea of 'romance' we have portrayed in media or about me, but either way, I'm sitting here pretty skeeved out by having thought to myself, "Aww, Joe. You'd be such a great guy if you weren't a violent lunatic." And this is from someone who reacts with an instinctive, visceral anger to the slightest hint of Nice Guy (tm) bullshit after horrible real life experiences growing up.

IMO, it's kind of the point.

People who are dangerous to you, me, and society at large--stalkers, murderers, etc.--aren't all bad, in the sense that there are a lot of parts of them that are probably good. It's just that they don't really manage to outweigh the bad. He's not a nice guy who jaywalks, or a nice guy who shoplifts, or a nice guy who does a little too much blow and forgets date night.

He's a guy who stalks, murders, imprisons, and has a skewed view on what is appropriate, what boundaries are, and his own entitlement... who is other than ALL OF THAT, usually a nice guy.

If you are only a nice guy for 5% of your existence, you're not a nice guy; you just seem like it.

@faraday said in GMs: Typical Player/GM Bad Habits:

@Coin said in GMs: Typical Player/GM Bad Habits:

Let me roll to find the right avenue of investigation or interaction.

There has to be a balance though. Everyone realizes that players don't have the same skills as their PCs. But without players making decisions as to the approach, everything boils down to just dice with no actual storytelling.

I play a lot of Shadowrun, which is often built around heists. Rolls are used to give you tips as to the feasibility of various approaches, but ultimately planning the heist is the whole point of the game. If you just boiled it down to "I roll to figure out what's the best way into this building" and then "I roll to figure out if we succeeded" then it's no fun.

Combat is often done this way too in most games. The GM doesn't make you roll to figure out what the best attack is. You choose the attack, and the dice tell you whether it worked. I don't see why investigation/bluffing/etc. should work fundamentally differently.

Yes, but there's a fundamental difference between, "we are using a tactic that may or may not work, and even if it doesn't work, moves the story along" (as could happen with planning a bad heist and having it go pear-sheped) and "we are taking a tactic that will lead nowhere, the storyteller knows it, and does not provide further avenues for progress". If you tack on a (common) smug comment about how "evil I am, bwahahah, I'm the most evil ST ever, bwahahaha" from the GM because they feel they are so smart because no one can figure out their plot, and you've you got a pretty frustrating time.

@skew said in Resume Advertisements Board:

I think it's a great idea. I mean, could use Shout in the Dark? But something more specific for this purpose might be nice.

Having gone through the "Hey new game who wants to help!" a few times, it definitely can be rough.

edit:

@BobGoblin I don't have 10 people I like.

That's because you like me and I negate like at least 30 people on account of my being an asshole.

@ZombieGenesis said in Good or New Movies Review:

@Coin ***=NSFW content***

click to show

See, that didn't bother me because they did show howThor was really feeling at times(the scene with him and the Hulk in New Asgard for instance). I've known people who handled PTSD related situations in exactly the same way; they put on a mask of a fun-loving snarkster and buried themselves in drink. It's also a comic book movie, a separation from reality, and it led to some funny scene and, IMO, added character depth to Thor. Obviously these are just my opinions, however.

***NSFW content***

@Pyrephox said in GMs: Typical Player/GM Bad Habits:

@Killer-Klown These days, I take a lot of my GMing tips from watching really good movies and TV shows. Shows that deal with very competent protagonists (like Leverage, Person of Interest, etc.) give some very good tips on how to challenge characters like that without no-selling their abilities, and how to have setbacks, reversals, and complications that don't amount to 'and you find nothing' or 'this is a dead end'.

These days, I will sometimes literally sit down with a pen and notebook and watch an action movie, or a mystery show, and write down how it handles plot structure, revelations, setbacks, and clues. And try to translate those dynamics for RPGs. It's made for more interesting and dynamic games, to me.

Not long ago (couple years?) I was rewatching Fringe and I found myself taking notes regarding how they tie in all the conspiracy shit together in the long-run.

That show is a masterclass in "look at all this shit you thought was random one-offs or inconsequential information that is suddenly fucking amazing clues".

I think the dissemination of real life information about people should be a no-no, but I like to think everyone's on board with that without it having to become a rule or whatever.

@Arkandel said in Accounting for gender imbalances:

I wanted your folks' opinion on an actual real issue.

So I work for a tech company. We're not huge but we're growing pretty fast. Up to a year or so ago we had very few women working in actual IT positions - there were several among our tier 1 customer support but among our 100+ developers, sysadmins and QA we had no ladies at all. This has started to shift over time, and now we have about a dozen, but the demographics are still pretty skewed.

Here's the thing; I'm building a new team within the sysadmin group now, and among the applicants whose resumes are making their way to my desk there are some women. However we have zero female staff within the team itself, and never did. If any are hired it would be the first.

I don't know (I have no way of knowing) how that would feel. How awkward, intimidated or comfortable someone might feel despite the best intentions from everyone involved to make them fit in and feel part of the group... I haven't had to deal with it.

But some of you might have. What are the challenges? What has gone wrong assuming good intentions were in place? What mistakes were made despite those intentions? What can I do from my end to make things smoother?

I'd appreciate any input you have.

I work in an office space that is majority female and when I came into it, I was literally the first male in a while. It was fine.

I think the first thing you should do is definitely take the temperature of the room now regarding gender issues; figure out what your current team thinks, what their stances are, and that way you can start to see if there are any issues you might need to address before, during, or after the hiring process.

Beyond that, the truth is (IMO) that the only way to balance the scales is for you to hire women and show everyone they are welcome, respected, and valuedwithin the work environment.

@SinCerely said in MU Things I Love:

When @Herja emotionally wrecks you with her exquisite storytelling and you can't stop thanking her and then you pause to wonder if maybe your therapist needs to know about this but decide that it's not unhealthy because it's a little like your favorite TV-show with all your favorite characters in your favorite storyline having a meaningful character-development arc but a hundred times better because it's a story you helped make and aaaghhhh-

-and yeah that's a GoT gif, bitches because IT HURTS MORE.

My therapist absolutely needs to know this stuff what are you even talking about.

@magee101 said in RL Anger:

@Admiral said in RL Anger:

@Auspice If it makes you feel better I don't recall you ever telling me anything about your sex life or anyone else ever telling me any such information either.

I think more people know about @Auspice having a sex life from her bitching about someone talking about it than people actually talking about it

... damn, dude. Tape a filter over your mouth, maybe that'll help.

@DareDaemon said in The ethics of IC romance, TS, etc:

@insomniac7809 And in general staff can also selectively spy when they suspect rulebreaking behavior may be occurring. And so long as that's done with proper care that's also fine.

Ew, no.

Nonono.

If staff is ever going to have any sort of "spying" on their players (even the possibility of such) they need to have it in huge rainbow letters on the front page and repeat it after each step of chargen.

That's super creepy and if you're going to be that fucking creepy, please let me know ahead of time so I can not be there.

Lovecraft Country's first season is over.

I would have preferred that its ending be a bit more akin to the type of ending the book had; but I understand the choices made and I did enjoy it quite a bit, though I feel it's perhaps one of the story's weakest points.

I also finally looked around and it seems Misha Green did very much apologize and acknowledge errors made in Episode 4 (some commented on here), and that was good. Sometimes writers (and artists in general, but especially the people in charge of the narrative) make mistakes, and it's not the mistake, but the reluctance to own it and acknowledge it and change that's the problem. So I'm glad she's not like that.

I have to say, as a fan of Lovecraft's world-building, narrative style. and themes; I always loved that he freely gave his universe and world(s) for other writers to explore. But once I clicked (when I was old enough and wise enough) to his racism, there was always a discomfort there. I tackled it in a lot of ways, some were good and some were bad.

It was then very strange to me that the author of the book Lovecraft Country was a white dude. I read it in 2020 and spent 4 years thinking Matt Ruff was a Black man (because I assumed, and never checked) until I picked the book up finally and read it. It felt really weird.

It really does feel like full circle to have a talented team of Black writers, actors, and artists receive that and make it their own, not just by portraying it and writing it for the screen but by changing it and telling the story they want. That's what adaptation is all about. I'm actually really glad that the TV show is so different from the book, because it means it's more theirs than a straight, blow-by-blow adaptation would have been.

All in all, super glad.

I'm not sure how or even if they're gonna do a Season 2 (it's not confirmed, but it's clear they want to), but if they do, I hope it keeps up this level of quality, 'cuz damn.

I'm not arguing whether there is a right or even an expectation. I'm saying that spying on other people's RP (where spying is watching them without their knowledge) is creepy as fuck behavior and if you, for any reason, including valid suspicions of cheating are willing and able to do so, you should to be up front about it.

That's all.

@ganymede said in Good TV:

@greenflashlight said in Good TV:

I just realized She-Ra and the Princesses of Power is a failed TV show because at no point did Catra get the zoomies.

It really didn't fail at all. It's just one of those shows that would have been up for Emmys all over the place if it wasn't localized to Netflix.

@faraday said in The Savage Skies - Discussion Thread:

The leader-admiring thing? That's a subtlety and I can see both sides. Personally I would not be bothered by a character who had been convinced by propaganda that their country's leader was a good guy, even if that leader were Stalin or Hirohito. Especially if it were coming from a place of wanting to explore that character learning the truth and coming to grips with the reality that their beloved leader was partaking in war crimes. Admittedly, though, that might be too subtle for most MU stories and I wouldn't blame anyone for wanting to nope out of it on principle.

I'm not sure it's too subtle for most MU stories; I do think it's too personal for most discussions about broad themes on a MU, though, in the sense that most people even on the game are probably never going to perceive any nuanced or slow character shift, if Kazuko decides to play it that way, simply because she probably won't interact with 50% of the game's entire player base over the course of its existence, especially not to that intimate a level.

A lot of very deep and meaningful and character-driven stories are told on MUs and most of us just don't see them, and that's fine, it just also makes it difficult to use that as a column for discussion on threads such as this one.

@groth said in Good TV:

@greenflashlight

But even if you go with original version, why couldnt Maria Stark be african american and Tony mixed?

She could. In fact, in Ultimate Marvel she's Latina. However: if Tony were obviously mixed, his experience and the level of privilege he moves in within the society he was raised in would be different.

Being rich and white and being rich and black (even mixed, even if your father is alabaster) is still very different in the U.S.

It depends almost entirely on how I go about my character creation process for that character.

I do it in several ways:

1. I want to play a specific type of character; I visualize, conceptualize, and then find a PB that more of less fits and don't worry about it (I worry a little more if part of the concept is the character being a specific ethnicity);
2. I see a PB, get an idea for a character for them, and use them, because the character built itself around the PB in my brain. This is obviously the best one for the 'find the perfect PB'.