Posts made by Coin

@surreality said in Respecs.:

@arkandel said in Respecs.:

Another factor here are common genre tropes; from training montages to revelations in dreams, depending on the kind of game these sudden bursts of insight would be more... appropriate.

Not gonna lie, I picture almost any XP spend as having its very own cheesy 80s style montage sequence.

I have seriously considered (albeit, for the parody game concept) requiring NOT a justification for spends, but that people submit a song for their 'I learned a thing' montage.

...even with learn times and all the rest I may do this anyway if I do a thing, not as a requirement, but as a generic fun dorky whatnot. Because fun dorky whatnots are fun when they're optional, and I think the fun to be had from silly little bits of characterization like this are vastly underrated on the whole.

First person to use "Eye of the Tiger" for a Brawl raise gets banned.

@arkandel said in Respecs.:

@coin said in Respecs.:

Something not enough games do which would be really sweet: time skips. Might also help with the plausibility of stuff.

I've considered that, but it's just hard to coordinate for everyone. A time skip might be awesome for me right now but maybe you're in a different IC situation?

Handwaving stuff is a great thing. Yer a doctor, Harry!

"Guys, we're time-skipping in a month, make sure to get all your shit together. Thanks."

Something not enough games do which would be really sweet: time skips. Might also help with the plausibility of stuff.

@arkandel said in Respecs.:

@faraday said in Respecs.:

@arkandel said in Respecs.:

It holds zero water. If that was the case no character in nearly any game should pick up new skills at a high level after CGen; it takes going to medical school for years to become a surgeon after all, so if you started with Medicine 1 you should never raise it past, say, 2 - if even that. The same thing applies to melee; you don't become a kung fu master or gain a BJJ elite belt quickly 'realistically'.

But... that's exactly the path that some systems take. I wouldn't allow somebody to go from First Aid 1 to "expert surgeon" in the game for precisely the reasons you describe. You may not like it, and that's fine, but to claim the argument holds no water seems uncharitable. Managing IC plausibility is a thing for some people.

Fair enough, I'll ammend my statement: I personally consider skills (or powers, where applicable) to be organic parts of a character's growth and arc, so I don't like systems which place artificial limits on that growth by essentially capping it universally to a snapshot taken after CGen. While some characters can grow without that reflecting on their skillsets I don't support enforcing it across the board.

However it's unreasonable to assume everyone shares that view, so I withdraw the argument.

The argument is still functional within context, though.

If the game allows people to buy traits from a minimal to a maximum within a short span of time, then respeccing and buying traits at high level that you didn't have before is less of an issue.

@darc said in San Francisco: Paris of the West:

@bobotron said in San Francisco: Paris of the West:

@admiral

What's the Vampire sphere landscape like? Requiem 1e is something I'm interested in, and I would love to know if there's actually political interplay incentive, or if the sphere itself is reliant on partying with other spheres (no offense intended).

Couple of things to help that: Ever see the John Wick movies? Remember the gold coins that were used to purchase 'stuff' in that unusual world? That is how Vampires on Paris of the West handle Prestation. Doing things for a vampire gets you coins. Requesting a favor? It'll cost you coins. Want something from the Prince? Coin. Banes and Boons start to make sense for once. If that doesn't help political play, nothing else will.

Aside from that... the Vamp TL was chomping at the bit to get political RP started, so Court is going on RIGHT NOW despite the fact that we're not officially 'open' yet.

We were gonna do that for Vegas with @tragedyjones and @skew. Neat. I hope it works.

Got a 10/10 on a midterm and a 9/10 on another midterm.

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

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

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

people getting very precious about said PB (but it'll wreck immersion if we have 2!).

This gets me, how small of a world to people live in to not run into folks that look like each other...

It bugs me in the same way that it would bug me if you had the same actor playing two different roles in a TV series. It's not: "Wow, character A looks a lot like character B... what a coincidence" it's "WTF is wrong with this casting agent that they put Chris Pratt in two different roles in the same movie?" (Unless of course that's the whole point of the movie.)

I won't claim that it's rational, because of course two people can coincidentally look alike. It just bugs me. :helpless shrug:

There's also a difference between "similar enough to confuse" and "identical".

@faraday let's play twinsies!

@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.

@arkandel said in Respecs.:

This will be a very open topic.

How do you feel about allowing/offering respecs - rebuilding an existing character using their current XP but picking traits, powers etc from scratch - in a game?

Should there be limitations? What problems can arise from the practice? How (and if) does it affect the game at large?

Discuss.

I think if there is a respec policy it should be clearly laid out and enforced. Personally, I think it shouldn't be allowed to go to far (radical changes, like taking a leveled trait from 5 to 0 or vice-versa). Unless the POINT of a respec is radical changes, in which case, again, explicitly detailed. Also, if Staff decides to change something significantly (either because: it was House Ruled before and now it's not, it wssn't and now it is, it was custom and now something official is taking its place, or whatever) then any players with it who bought it because of what it used to do should be allowed to get a refund if they want.

@arkandel said in RL Anger:

My best friend from childhood has turned into... not a great person, and it bothers me even though we haven't spoken in years. But we used to be really close, and it's upsetting to see him on FB (I guess I should just unfriend him) posting really inane things.

A few days ago he was making posts about Athens Pride 2018 that were ignorant at best, he supports goddamn neonazis openly. The hell, man, you were never like this when we were 14. Dammit.

I suspect abandonment issues are to blame. Your departure from his life had destroyed him. It's all your fault, @Arkandel, if only you hadn't been such a horrible person.

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

@coin It was a specific example of a real thing that happened. Staff did step in eventually. The point I was making though is still the basic players gonna be players point.

Oh, well, yeah. But that's what staff is for.

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

@three-eyed-crow I was thinking more along the lines of, "This character has a POC PB and is described unambiguously as a POC, but I'm gonna use Jared Leto."

People are ultimately gonna do what they're gonna do, with rosters. Sometimes, you're going to be frustrated. It is the Way of Things.

"Staff does not object to the change of a Rostered character's PB, as long as it follows the basic guidelines of appearance, especially when it comes to race/skin tone."

And, I mean, yeah. If I'm stasff and someone described as a POC suddenly gets a player who wants to make their PB Chris Pratt, I'm gonna go ahead and say "nah".

My country's Congress just passed the law to depenalize abortions--they are currently voting article by article. after that, it swings to the senate and we see if they disappoint or not. Huge step forward.

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

Or does it just not matter if you feel you can change them once you're approved?

This one.

@rinel Exactly.

Donate my functional organs and bury the rest near a tree withotu a casket for rapid decomposition.

Some of these are legit.

Some remind me of Douglas Adams and his, "the spaceships hung in the sky in the same way bricks don't."

@jaded said in What isn't CGen for?:

All the relevant sheet attributes that need to be explained should be:
Mostly merits or spends pertaining to background like Allies, Sire, and so on. While some of that can be abstracted like Contacts can be - there are some that need further explanation beyond stats on a sheet.

For example, I handled a chargen where a person had a 1 dot Mentor who gave them a 5 dot Relic item on a game. That required more in explanation than just 'he really liked me.'

IF HE LIKED YOU THAT MUCH WHY ISN'T HE A HIGHER MENTOR RATING HUH HUH HUH??????????

For things like Bone/Blood or Mask/Dirge, I've always been partial to making people choose at least initially and then allowing them to change later if it doesn't fit, without any hassle. Especially if new, custom ones are introduced into a game that fit the character much better.

For things like Sires, Fetches, adn background stuff like that, I am all for making that shit up in play if the player wants. That can be some of the most fun interplay between characters if you start interweaving your background on the fly (and also for plots--I love it when people let me play with their backgrounds in a plot so I can write something compelling).

As for justifications for high stats--nah. Look, if you don't want a stat to be above X at chargen, just cap it. Simple. Otherwise, let people take that shit.