Is there any reason why everyone can't just move discussions on a given ad to Mildly Constructive and then if they get heated to the Hog Pit and leave a link to those threads in the original?
I understand that it is a bit of extra effort but it seems like the easy way to achieve both goals, notification and discussion.
I especially love the idea of using a preexisting wiki for the character stats. So much less work for the players. Well done!
On this one, I am not inclined to take advice. I would rather court trouble down the road than adopt a tone that is less civil than the one I'd insist on in polite conversation. I completely understand where you are coming from and I appreciate the advice, but I'm just not that invested in coming off as a tough guy or hard case.
I have been waiting to play a mincing, well-dressed, urbanely snarky Kakita duelist my entire adult life. (Seriously, I already have a back story written up and everything.)
Fair enough! 
I like the 'parallel dimension'/wormhole stuff myself. Or take a page from Marvel (or, God(s) help us, Gor) and have Mongo as a rouge planet that settles into a 'counter-earth' orbit.
@Bobotron Thanks!
Some of the advice in this thread was very helpful for me. Eventually I did just that. Came up with the tone and content that worked for me after taking the best of what came up here.
@WTFE It's a sphere gap voltmeter. And zappy plasma magic happens between the big metal doorknobs. Who wouldn't want a picture of that?!
@admiral With respect, there are times when that's a burden that sucks for the people who have to put up with that same discrimination in real life. Why should some people get a pass into Narnia and others get hassled at customs?
Now that I've spent a month learning how to crash do basic MU* maintenance, I'm ready to start working on theme and a grid.
I know that I definitely have no interest in doing yet another X of Darkness game. That market is well-served and I don't have anything sufficiently interesting to add to that dialog.
My first thought is to run a game set in an 'original' theme. For certain values of original. I'd like to do something that is basically set in a kind of shared television urban fantasy universe. Combine elements from shows like The Secret Circle, the Gates, Supernatural, Teen Wolf, Charmed, Buffy and such into a coherent framework inspired by those shows but not directly emulating them.
There are some good games out there that let you create characters from various fictional universes, but I would like to run a world with no feature characters and a coherent cosmology to tie the elements together. A lot like how tabletop games like Monster of the Week, Monsterhearts and Urban Shadows work.
The reason I specifically list TV drama Urban Fantasy shows is that they have an episodic framework and generally low to mid-level power cap that makes them much more suitable for a MU than say, the Dresdenverse or any other number of books where the protagonists can drop mountains on people routinely.
I also have some ideas towards a 'plot in a box' kind of code, drawing on ideas from Primetime Adventures, that would work especially well in that kind of setting and be a little more engaging than the random plot generator stuff I've seen a few times.
My only worries are attracting players and staff. Does this sound like a game anybody would want to play, assuming decent staffing and plotting? Or staff, assuming a Head Wiz that isn't insane? (Mostly.)
If the concept of the game doesn't inspire me, I generally look for a mechanical hook and then build a character around that, fleshing them out as we go.
If the game does inspire me, I throw the vague statement of 'I'd really like to play there' into the bottomless pit at the back of my conscious mind and start looking at/refreshing myself on source material.
For instance, T8S is interesting to me, so I dug out my copy of Under the Black Flag and downloaded a couple of Sabatini e-books. (Captain Blood and The Sea Hawk are out from under copyright and free!)
Now, after a couple of days, I've got the character's 'voice' in my head. I know why he went down to the wine dark sea. I know why he hoisted the black flag (well, decided it was better than dying) and who he was before he cast in his lot for a short, brutal but free life.
Now I just need to find a picture that suits the lean, small-framed, weaselly little man in my head and do a couple of test paragraphs. (I think he's going to be semi-literate, because he'd be the type to keep a journal.) When that's squared away, I'll app.
It's 50/50. If I'm not inspired, I have to do the same thing. And that isn't to say that my characters are fully formed before I ever start the app. Just that the general essence of who they are and two or three big, life-defining moments are clear in my head.
@peasoupling said in How do you construct your characters?:
ely erudite, and sometimes quote Aristotle or an assortment of wholly outdated authors in reaction to the weirdness of the setting. Sure, the 17th century is the century of the scientific revolution, but we'll have none of that godless heretical nonsense, thank you.
I don't know why that just popped into my head, but it did, and now I am having a hard time doing anything other than struggle to work backwards from that into an actually playable character concept.
Other times I start with actual concepts, though.
I'm not even trying to go for a fully educated character, because when it comes to the humanities, the average well-educated person of that era is ... intimidatingly well read and grounded in languages and the classics. My BA doesn't stack up. Latin, Greek, rhetorical training, poetry, natural histories and the classic Greek lit and Roman political works, probably French and/or German if they have scholarly or literary pretensions and a working knowledge of their artistic traditions.
Yeah. I'm not qualified to play an Enlightenment era scholar. 
@sunny Yep. Like I called it earlier, it's a 'fun tax'.
If two people want to play vampires or space elves or something, one of them has to put up with real world prejudices because, well, in a world with supernatural horrors, multiple sentient species and other fantasy/SF weirdness it just breaks immersion to believe that people might not be harassed or hated because they aren't straight white dudes.
Because, um, reasons.
@sunny said in How should IC discrimination be handled?:
"I don't want to deal with this in my fun time" =/= "Nobody anywhere ever should have to deal with this in their fun time." I'm not really seeing anywhere in this thread where somebody said the latter, but it sure as hell seems like the former is being responded to as if it were the latter. Nor is anybody making the point saying anything about the people who like to RP this stuff, let alone that they're bad people.
I feel like this can't be quoted enough.
I honestly don't get why there is such resistance to the idea that it is okay to have your character opt out of dealing with racism/sexism/homophobia, etc that may hit you on a personal level.
Your character in a game might be sexually abused, but we don't make players RP that out.
Your character in a game might be eaten, but we don't make you play out vore. (For god's sake don't Google that, if you don't know. I sincerely wish I didn't.)
I'm not sure why just saying 'I'd prefer not to deal with slurs' is suddenly a giant attack on every gamer's sovereignty and fun. I don't assume that a person who has a fondness for bigoted characters is a bigot (I do assume that if they make a habit of making those characters that they are a troll, but not a bigot) but I do assume that a player who can't play a character without those traits, ever, is at the very least lacking in imagination.
It's not even unrealistic. Bigots have to go stealth all the time, even in the era of Trump, to keep their social status and employment secure.
It's almost like gamers (be they tabletop, MMO, MUSHer or whatever) have a more readily identifiable minority of people with crippling social issues in their communities.
Almost.
Which isn't to say those people don't exist everywhere. Hell, my roomie's stories of the crazy casual racism on her favorite knitting forum are enough to make you swear off sweaters. Just that a hobby all about social interactions tends to put the bad stuff more on display than one that doesn't.
Please don't use me as your straw man. You don't need to interpret my words to fit your point. They are already written in plain English.
And my point, all along, has not been 'nobody should be allowed to do this'. It has been to ask, 'why is doing this more important than other people's comfort levels?' and 'why is it unreasonable to opt out of that kind of RP'?
If you can point at me asking for a ban of anything, please do so. If you can't, then don't twist my words to fit your biases and assumptions, please.
Thank you.
If you meant that in good faith, then sure, I apologize.
That having been said, you were quoting me to illustrate a point I was not making and I do not believe could be reasonably inferred from the text. That's not kosher. Not even a little.
@pyrephox said in How should IC discrimination be handled?:
Okay, so here is where people are getting confused about whether you're advocating for all -isms to never be brought up in games:
@collective said in How should IC discrimination be handled?:
Here's the thing: Why is it hurtful to suggest that it's hurtful to use that kind of language and bring those situations into play? Why is calling a gay player's gay character a fag okay, but saying 'I have to wonder why you want the right to call somebody a fag' not okay?
Because right there? It looks an /awful/ lot like you're doing just that, and suggesting that the players themselves are hurting other players by wanting to play a fictional character who may express certain real world bigotries.
Also, I think it's time that we consider the other side of it, as well, in that every player is (probably) an adult who is presumably capable of making their own decisions, and not being forced to log into any particular game. Which means, really, that if you as a person are deeply wounded by a fictional character using a slur, then there's some responsibility to curate your own experiences, and either making it clear OOC that you're not interested in that sort of play experience, or choosing to not join, or to leave, games with settings that allow that.
Which sounds an awful like you're saying 'people like you don't belong on games I like'.
See? Everybody can read stuff into other people's words that they aren't saying with just enough doubt, if you squint, to make it work.
There is a difference, to me at least, between being a bigot and never having considered the possibility that maybe your 'ironic' or 'just RP' uses of loaded expressions or situations might come off as bigoted to somebody who doesn't know you and isn't inclined to give a total stranger a second chance.
I ask the questions because despite what some people are saying in the thread, there are people, lots and lots and lots of good, decent, friendly people, who just haven't examined behaviors that are hurtful to others, sometimes. Not because they are tiki torch carrying Nazi fucktards, but because they don't have the experience or the framework to see how somebody else could be hurt by something they see as playful or innocent.
It is not unexpected for anger to be some people's first reaction to being asked those questions. Or even to be hurt that anybody could possibly think they might be a bad person. Which is why, again and again and again and AGAIN, I've said I don't think that.
But I do think that talking this starts with admitting that there are contexts where those behaviors can be harmful and that it is not unreasonable to say and feel that.
Wait, give me a couple of minutes and I can figure out a way to interpret that as you saying that senior citizens should be tossed into a wood chipper.
Let me start this by saying that I don't think 'Theme' trumps human beings. I just don't. If a hypothetical game runner does, they should post a notice saying so in policy or character gen, so I can move along and find another game.
But in those cases, it's perfectly okay for a given character to not like another character. What's not okay is to seek that character out to abuse them, if they've asked you not to. That does mean that certain people who must play their character as being assholes to a certain class of character might not get a chance to RP with many people of that class.
That's okay. Both players and characters are probably going to benefit by that distance and lack of tension.