Posts made by Coin

@carex said in Let's talk about TS.:

@roz said in Let's talk about TS.:

This whole scenario will just end up in game-wide civil wars and terrible toxicity the first time there's any sort of disagreement among the playerbase.

I'm sure they said something similar about having democracies instead of kings. Giving up control is always a horrible, unthinkable idea to people who have power.

This is not a personal attack, it is just an observation, but the more I read from you the less convinced I am you have a clear separation of the world of gaming and how it works as opposed to the real world.

It is a game. There is no actual oppression in the game because actual oppression can't be avoided; there is an absolutely huge chasm between a king having power (actually affecting your life in a way you cannot avoid because they rule you) and a staffer having power on a game (something that can be easily avoided by just leaving the game).

You are mixing levels of functional reality in a way that would make Theodor Adorno stick his head in a woodchipper.

@the-sands said in Development Thread: Sacred Seed:

@coin said in Development Thread: Sacred Seed:

@Carex

I don't know how to say "alien, fantasy cultures do not have to operate under the same psychological logic and behavior that human beings have, because they are alien and fantastical" any other way, so if this is a problem of you not wanting to follow that train of thought, then that's on your and your inability to suspend your disbelief.

Well, the caveat I would argue is that an alien or fantasy culture operates under the logic of its inhabitants and if those inhabitants operate under a logic that we recognize we can largely predict the outcome (e.g. if the inhabitants regard murder as being a bad thing it is a pretty good bet that there will be laws against murder). To make a culture operating under a completely alien system would require the population to operate under a fairly alien logic, which can make things very difficult to play.

Absolutely, but since it's not "all of one or all of the other" but rather a spectrum we can play with, that can be regulated.

With that said, I absolutely don't see things being set up as a 'rape factory'. Societies in which all inheritance is passed through the male line tends to do that because the 'men own everything'. That does not appear to be the case here, however. Everyone who is seeded gets an inheritance. Furthermore, while there is a general genetic advantage for males in archaic melee combat which results in a cultural belief that 'men are the fighters' the nature of the Seeded upends that and creates a system whereby, I assume, the 'strongest warriors' are pretty evenly split between male and female. It is even possible women might hold a slight edge for some reason which could then offset the fact that in the general (non-player) population of Unseeded men would have a slight advantage in force of arms (I am not proposing modifiers to CG to give advantages to one sex or another as PCs do not typify the general population).

As a result it is completely possible for the society to be based largely around a lot of medieval European concepts (in the same way that something like GoT is) while not being a male dominated patriarchy.

Exactly.

And if Exalted has shown us nothing else, it's that just because something is passed down genetically in a fantasy world it doesn't mean the world has to be dominated by men.

@Carex

I don't know how to say "alien, fantasy cultures do not have to operate under the same psychological logic and behavior that human beings have, because they are alien and fantastical" any other way, so if this is a problem of you not wanting to follow that train of thought, then that's on your and your inability to suspend your disbelief.

@derp said in nWorld of Darkness 1E v 2E:

@ganymede

In the 2e tabletop I was running, I basically retooled Wisdom to work similar to harmony. High Wisdom, cool. You remember that people are people, and the world is not meant to be trifled with... buuuut you also don't see some of the underlying flows of magic, and it is harder for you. To be -good- at magic, you have to dive in... but then you risk forgetting that those rules and formulas you are tinkering with are lives, and people, etc. You have to give up caring for the status quo and natural order if you want power. And you need power if you're going to survive. Where do you draw the line?

To me, it made it make more sense than the book version, which has always felt lame and toothless to me. I would probably do all the games like that, if I had a choice. Ride the line between the basass world of awesome things you know is out there, and the world full of things you love just the way they are. How much are you willing to sacrifice to save the rest of it?

Honestly, so would I. I would prefer if they all worked that way.

@coin said in Development Thread: Sacred Seed:

@lithium said in Development Thread: Sacred Seed:

@coin It does look like there is some overlap, like with the air thermokinetics and the water ice seeded. Both deal with changing the temperature of ambient particulates. Air and the water moisture in the air... which amounts to almost the same thing.

I don't really think overlap is a bad thing, personally. Also, you're looking at it from a physics point of view "raising and lowering temperatures" but this is magic--ice is ice.

I think it's important, when dealing with the classical elements (and thus magical elements) not to get bogged down over what it all means if you're talking about actual, real physics. Ice is ice. Cold is cold. Yes, ice is cold, but cold is not necessarily just ice. Some effects might overlap, some might be similar but with variations, etc.

Avatar, Exalted (Dragon-Blooded), Codex Alera, Legend of the 5 Rings, etc., they all have elemental stuff, we're probably pulling from all of it consciously and unconsciously.

Also, we're not making the elemental powers like Mage Arcana/Spheres (which was honestly my original intent) but rather limiting them to Techniques/Effects (like just Rotes, or Charms from Exalted). So if an effect makes sense for an element, it'll probably eventually get worked out.

@songtress said in Development Thread: Sacred Seed:

Codex alera is a good call too. Sort of.

I wish court of Groves had survived the Pruning, I think have a bunch of plant mages, who flowers, potions, and herbal knowledge made them a force, I mean it could help to explain the technology levels sort of.

There's other shit going on re: plants and vegetation which will probably get worked on once we have certain other things hashed out.

@lithium said in Development Thread: Sacred Seed:

@coin It does look like there is some overlap, like with the air thermokinetics and the water ice seeded. Both deal with changing the temperature of ambient particulates. Air and the water moisture in the air... which amounts to almost the same thing.

I don't really think overlap is a bad thing, personally. Also, you're looking at it from a physics point of view "raising and lowering temperatures" but this is magic--ice is ice.

I think it's important, when dealing with the classical elements (and thus magical elements) not to get bogged down over what it all means if you're talking about actual, real physics. Ice is ice. Cold is cold. Yes, ice is cold, but cold is not necessarily just ice. Some effects might overlap, some might be similar but with variations, etc.

Avatar, Exalted (Dragon-Blooded), Codex Alera, Legend of the 5 Rings, etc., they all have elemental stuff, we're probably pulling from all of it consciously and unconsciously.

@songtress said in Development Thread: Sacred Seed:

After a few hours I thought about adapting a character I have, a young woman considered Seedless who's seeded( tentatively choosing the court of Groves(does it exist?)

@

Court of Groves no longer exists. There isn't really a "vegetation" element, since we chose to go the "non-living" route for the elements (so no "plant-bending" and "blood-bending").

We're also working on making the Courts more than just "The Court of ELEMENT!" and instead mixing elements to make Courts that can be inhabited by more than one (Storms is Air/Water; Basalt is Earth/Fire; and on and on). However, I can share the preliminaries of what elements (and their specialties) will be available:

Each Element has a basic Seeded--you can be Air-Seeded and do all the basic stuff any Air-Seeded can do, including most of the non-exclusive stuff the more specialized Air-Seeded can do. However, if you do have a sub-element, for example, not just being Air-Seeded but also Spark-Seeded, you get bonuses to any of the techniques and effects that have to do with "lightning" (including things like boosts in speed, and shooting lightning bolts!) but have a comparatively harder time doing things that belong to Frost- or Sky-Seeded. Basic Seeded (who have no sub-element) are more the "generalists" of their element.

Fire

• Vulcan-Seeded - Flame-Seeded with special skills in manipulating plasma.
• Pyre-Seeded - Thermokinetic Flame-Seeded who specialize in raising the temperature, both internal and external.
• Smoke-Seeded - Mystical Flame-seeded who manipulate smoke and can peer through one of the Veils.

Water

• Rain-Seeded - Mystical Water-Seeded who manipulate rainfall, humidity, and can peer through one of the Veils.
• Mist-Seeded - Water-Seeded with control over the gasdeous state of water, masters of stealth and obscurity.
• Ice-Seeded - Cold, aloof Water-Seeded with specialized control over the solid state of water, able to create constructs "out of thin air".

Air

• Frost-Seeded - Thermokinetic Air-Seeded who specialize in lowering the temperature, both internal and external.
• Spark-Seeded - Lightning specialists of an explosive and levinquick nature.
• Sky-Seeded - Mystical Air-Seeded who can fly effortlessly and can peer through one of the Veils.

Earth

• Stone-Seeded - Earth-Seeded with control over granite, rock, and other natural forms of earth.
• Metal-Seeded - Metal-twisting Earth-Seeded with unparalleled skill manipulating all kinds of metals and alloys.
• Jewel-Seeded - Mystical Earth-Seeded who are master-crafters, manipulate the rarer minerals, and can peer through one of the Veils.

There's an effort in giving each element something unique, but also in making them all pretty cool on their own. I'm especially stoked about the Air-Seeded and how their sub-elements are working out.

Keep in mind this is a work in progress and I am posting this while @Cobaltasaurus is asleep and she might smack me when she wakes up!

@ominous said in What Do You Want In A New Game (3-options)?:

So we got:

• Rifts
• Birthright meets Naruto/Magic the Gathering/Avatar: the Last Airbender by way of Exalted
• Battlestar Galactica/Voyager

All are interesting concepts. I kind of lean towards #2 because I want a good Birthright game and it sounds like your most fleshed out idea, so has the potential of actually seeing fruition.

@skew said in Wanted: MediaWiki specialist:

@cobaltasaurus Yeah.

oh god, not this asshole(?)

I am finding it impossible to log onto Evennia-based games on DuckClient. I can log onto, for example, Fallcoast and Reno just fine, but Arx and Sacred Seed are not working. I remember being able to log onto Arx before, though, so I am not sure what changed (and I am very code-dumb).

Help?

@ganymede said in nWorld of Darkness 1E v 2E:

@sunnyj said in nWorld of Darkness 1E v 2E:

All I hear about this TS Harmony stuff.

The entire prohibition or stigma of werewolves fucking was so stupid to begin with that its removal in 2E was like the dawn of the third day at Helm's Deep.

They took that out and that's great, but in the new edition, fucking a human is, IIRC, a Harmony trigger towards Flesh (discussion has raged over whether wolf-bloods count).

So if you're a werewolf and you spend a night of passionate, fleshy-fleshy contact with some random human you hooked up with at the bar (or, even worse, suddenly find yourself in a committed relationship with someone who has absolutely no connection to anything spiritual) then that's a trigger towards Flesh--and that makes sense. It doesn't make it a bad thing, it just makes it one more thing that affects a werewolf's day-to-day struggle for balance. It can be an extremely good thing if you're imbalanced towards Spirit.

So the whole stigmatizing of this seems weird to me, especially in this post-TS world we all love to go on and on about where we dfon't judge people's sexual proclivities in their pretendyfuntimes but suddenly decide that if they actually have it mean something to their character and have an effect on their character's progression in a mechanical way, it's "get your TS out of my face omgggggg".

Again, asking staff to read your TS log is stupid.

@cobaltasaurus said in Development Thread: Sacred Seed:

@wildbaboons said in Development Thread: Sacred Seed:

I think I may have worded that poorly but I didn't mean that all seeded need to be on par with each other that way, but that each Court should be. Or not.. but players can be terrible people and I could see antagonist sorts making a bunch of fireball throwers (in this example assuming those are the most deadly) and just trying to take over through superior firepower.

Oh! I get you now! Yeah, the five main courts really all lend to some combat capable magic. So the Fire court isn't going to be able to just roll over the mountain court, because ROCK SMASH.

I'm also pretty certain that this is generally why intermarriage is such a supported thing (beyond, you know, you don't wanna only have your cousins available for marriage). If the families (which are probably the more loyalty-bound units in nobility) are spread among the courts (function-bound) then that helps the courts not be at war with each other.

@tinuviel said in How To Mu*:

One could probably run SimpleMU or MushClient with Wine, too.

I tried SimpleMU on Wine when I attempted Linux years ago and it functioned backwards? Sort of. Like, for example, spawns would open backwards. It also looked weird. XD

@cobaltasaurus said in Development Thread: Sacred Seed:

@coin said in Development Thread: Sacred Seed:

Welcome to Cloria, home of the Sacred Clora Seed, you're a Clorian.

Nnfff.

Don't make suggestions if you don't like'em >:|

Not what I meant! It works fine. XD

I don't know. I wouldn't send staff the log of my TS (maybe there wasn't even TS, it was fade-to-black!) but if my character has sex with someone that would trigger a Harmony roll, then it's not really a big deal? "Yo, did the nasty with someone I shouldn't've, roll me some Harmony," isn't tactless or intrusive or attention whorish, IMO.

If the same person does it CONSTANTLY, then yeah, maybe--but I feel like removing that aspect just kind of further works to stigmatize sex in RP. "omg, it's sexual, keep it to yourself!" Like, come on.

I'm not saying staff should have to read logs--if that's the case, that's dumb (though I don't see why staff would feel the need to)--but otherwise it's like: yeah, roll for it, okay, up/down, next.

@tinuviel said in nWorld of Darkness 1E v 2E:

@magee101 said in nWorld of Darkness 1E v 2E:

all just 1-1

Except 5s. I believe they're supposed to be two points instead of one.

Not in second edition / GMC, IIRC.

That was back in first edition in which if you wanted the fifth dot of something at chargen you had to pay double.

@cobaltasaurus said in Development Thread: Sacred Seed:

@wildbaboons said in Development Thread: Sacred Seed:

@cobaltasaurus said in Development Thread: Sacred Seed:

Are the Seeded not involved in Combat?
Some are-- those with elements that lean more toward combat (fire, storms, etc). But they have to have enough control over their powers to be combat capable.

This seems to contradict this:

@cobaltasaurus said in Development Thread: Sacred Seed:

I'm thinking that perhaps they have magic duels, where they go at each other with their powers

It would probably be a good idea to make sure every Court has some sort of combat capable magic that's more or less on par with their peers. Fireball throwing verses someone that can make mist and rainbows wouldn't be a good duel

I'm not really seeing the contraction? Physically the Seedless are better at combat: e.g. they are stronger, faster, and can take harder hits. Where as the Seeded have access to fire balls.

But re: the latter, I'm not sure that all Seeded need to be on par with each other re: combat capabilities with their magic, someone whose power is to summon mist probably shouldn't piss off the crazy firemancer.

I mean, we don't know what system we'll be using yet, but I sort of envision it more like: yes, the Seedless are heartier and a little tougher, but it's not a HUGE difference. You can still have a Seeded that is stronger than a Seedless, etc., it just takes more effort. Think of it sort of like Race modifiers in D&D: elves aren't as strong as dwarves, for example.

An even better example might be the spectrum from Mage/Sorcerer to Fighter/Barbarian, wherein there are many things in the middle (Cleric, Druid) that are a little bit of both. I mean obviously we aren't Classifying, but don't think of it as a HUGE health/strength gap; it's more just a reason why the Seedless are better naturally suited for physical combat (but the Seeded can do it, too).

The idea is that the Seeded are more in-tune with elemental magic and that takes a toll on their bodies--it's a small toll, but it's there. The Seedless are able to concentrate on their physicality. Plus, the Seedless FAR OUTNUMBER the Seeded, so while there are probably a few Seeded soldiers (often in high ranking positions, such as generals, etc.) the Seedless make up the rank and file of society as a whole.

That said, there will probably be dueling. Normal dueling. Magic dueling. Lots of dueling. In fact, I am kind of keen on coming up with a specific system (social-wise, not code-wise) where different types of duels are used to settle different types of disputes.

Thaaaatt being said, @Coin and I probably need to sit down and work out a) the thematic abilities of the elemental magic, and b) the mechanics to then back them up.

This is going to be a pain in the ass and I don't know how we're gonna manage it. Yay.

We do finally have a name!

Welcome to Cloria, home of the Sacred Clora Seed, you're a Clorian.

Nnfff.

@rucket said in Development Thread: Sacred Seed:

@cobaltasaurus But that's four. Who is the fifth!

Count again.

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.