I have been in the hobby for a VERY long time indeed. My first ever character, back in the Dark Ages, was Dave@GarouMUSH. Silver Fang Philodox turned Child of Gaia (The Fangs kicked him out for falling for a Mage).

I was on the following MU* but damn me if I can remember who I played:

Darkweb
Double-Cross (I was Hestia the build-wiz)
Due Rewards
A2A

Alissa@MC

Bramble@TCbTT1

Adrian@Malice
Thomas@Malice

I was on SYE as a staffer (Sabbat Wiz) and played too many people, none of whom are memorable.

Recently

Ashur@TR
Judas@TR
Justice@TR
Marcus@TR
Aubrey@TR
Reynard@TR
Nigel@TR
Raymond@TR

Nathan@SHH
Marcus@SHH

Today, we adopted cats.. We went out to FACE (Indianapolis) by Open Door bus - paratransit, for my wheelchair. The trip out was so on time and easy that I should have known the trip back would be full of delays. but that is kind of trivial. We got to the shelter and were ushered into the Adoptable Cat room.

We knew we wanted Puzzle. She'd been there for 2 years, because people don't want disabled cats as much. She was rescued from an abusive situation where she was mistreated and eventually shot(!) so she was very shy and wary of people. Her injuries cost her a hind leg. She's a beautiful girl and we were determined to take her anyhow.

We'd asked for a second cat too, a three-legged black boy ingloriously named 'Leggy' but by the time we could get everything arranged and get out there he had found a home. So we had an open slot for a cat, generally meeting them and seeing who wanted to go with us. We did have a list of four cats to meet, but three had been spoken for and the fourth just refused to meet us, hiding in the really nice Catio FACE has attached to the adoptable cat room. We ended up choosing Shadow, another black kitty missing a hind leg, who was companionable with Puzzle. We figured he'd hep reassure her. Cats chosen and adopted we headed home!

We set the carriers down in the utility room, line of sight to where we were sitting in the den, and unlatched the doors so the new cats could emerge when they wanted to. (Yes, I know, you're supposed to isolate them in a separate room, but the only room here with a door turns into a oven if you close the door. Very bad.) The resident cats were curious. I had to laugh when Dusty decided that New Cats were friends, he crawled into Shadow's carrier to cuddle. Then he went and sniffed nose to nose with Puzzle. Dusty's Verdict: "Oh Hai!". Both our younger cats were super mellow, Moon-Moon just seemed to follow Dusty's lead. Mischief seemed unworried. Hektor's hissed twice, which for him is awfully good - he's a small cat with a Napoleon Complex who wants to be top cat, but is basically ignored by the others.

Puzzle is hiding under the TV stand but she's very alert and interested in what everyone (people and cats) are doing. Shadow's technically hiding under Corey's bed but he comes out if you call him to get petting and attention, so he's much more laid back then she is.

Cat acquisition successful!

I had class today (EFM - Education for the Ministry) - so I headed out at 1PM by bus down to Church, my partner in tow. We had a very nice lunch, Chinese food from the nearby Mall, I carefully re-read the assignment to be sure I wouldn't look like an idiot at class - My section is studying the history of Christianity, just reached 900-1200 and the rise of Russia as 'The Third Rome'. My mind was blown, I never knew that the Vikings had raided Russia too, and even settled there and started a successful trade route with the Byzantine empire. Read about the Tartars too, and Lithuania's Animistic leaders. (Who eventually became Catholic, mainly to stop Catholic Military Orders from raiding them constantly.)

Supper was fantastic: Ham steaks with a thick cherry glaze, scalloped potatoes and ice cream. Episcopalians understand the concept of food as fellowship pretty well.

Did the class, and was glad I'd gone over the reading again, because I got called on to discuss it. We did a theological reflection of the nature of Baptism, and that was enjoyable discussion. Finished as usual with Compline, and just as we were finished my SO burst in to tell me our bus was there to take us home.

Ahh, my week is over now. Friday I can do some tasks for my Ministry and then seriously just relax and RP and have a easy day.

Life is good.

I have something awesome as hell.

So, if you are articulate, seem a good person, and stand still at my Church, a Ministry shall fall upon thy head. I stood still, and discovered myself leading Sanctuary, our Church's LGBTQ Outreach movement. So far we've helped our congregation move towards being a 'Believe Out Loud' congregation - publicly affirming that all persons are welcome in our church without regard for sexual orientation or gender identity.

Last meeting was big. We decided that we /will/ have a table at Pride, and that we're going to march too.

And we talked, and we discerned that the persons most in need of help in the community are homeless LBGTQ persons. We're going to take several steps: we'll invite them to join us for a hot meal and fellowship at our meetings, with no pressure to express any faith at all. Just a safe space with warm food and a chance to talk openly to people who will listen. We're going to arrange to be able to hand out bags of items like soap and deodorant, snacks, bottled water, feminine hygiene supplies, definitely warm socks and gloves.

This is huge. After a very long time just...idle...there's something in my life now that gives me driving purpose. It's exhausting, and hard work, but it needs doing.

I'm also considering becoming a Deacon, although not urgently pressing to do it - I have to finish one more year of classes anyhow, before proceeding. (The last year is Theology. Ack...weighty topic.)

I may be a little rambly, I am very sleepy. But...our house is payed off totally in May.

To celebrate this, we are going to go to the FACE clinic here in Indianapolis and adopt at least 1 but possibly 2 disabled cats. (We are assuming that the kitties will like us and want us to be their humans.)

Cat 1 is Puzzle, She's 2 years old and has been badly mistreated by people, and shot. She is missing a rear leg.

http://i.imgur.com/dMCezeQ.jpg

The second cat, we know much less about. He's also around 2 years old, and he's missing a front leg. FACE asked us to consider him too, and we are.

Hang on, kitties! We're coming to the rescue!

This is an idea I came up with January 2006. The usual things happened that prevented it from actually getting built and opened: Primarily lack of Coder.

MUSH outline (Just mulling it over here; this is a framework)

System: To Be Determined

Theme: Homebrew, conflict-driven, Good vs Evil as a thematic point. PCs vs alien evil will be a thread through the theme.

The whole thing is Conflict-driven, external and internal. Humankind vs itself as humans try to cope with the strange things like shifters, vampires, mages / Conflict between the Highly Territorial vampires, conflicts over territory for the shifters / Humans and their allies vs the Outsiders, who surely haven't given up on their plans to get in

History – (Future-earth) (More needs written) In the year 2012 the Outsiders attacked the Earth dimension. Think Lovecraftian Critters, trying to break through. They failed but -barely- so...all the 'legendary and supernatural' creatures were forced out of hiding and into fighting to keep the world from turning into something that would have been quite uncomfortable. Humankind knows the shifters/vampires/ect are there, and have reached a kind of uneasy accommodation. There's always a danger that some jackass is going to take an Outsider bargain and try to open a rift for them to come thru.

‘Races’ for lack of a better term: (This is what we’ll have playable)

Human – pure humans are the only ones who can access magic, the only ones who develop psi powers. They’re also the only species that can actually hear and be tempted by the Outsiders. (Mages, Psionics will always be human and only human.)

Vampire - Vampires as they exist on this MUSH are not dead creatures animated by some force. They are living creatures linked with a symbiotic organism that seeks its own survival by enhancement of its host. Only pure-strain humans can become vampires; the symbiote cannot contend with the forces that make up a mage or the fluxes in form innate to a shifter. Animals can temporarily ‘host’ a symbiote but that can only endure as a short term situation; to reach full power and maximum development the organism needs to link itself to a human body and mind.

Shifter (Species) – A number of separate bloodlines have diverged and evolved from mainline humanity, creatures different enough to be infertile with humans. Human in appearance, they still possess strong animal instincts that will cause them to react as per their animal type in stressful situations. I’m thinking wolves, jaguars, bears…what else occurs in legends? No infection by bite, this is a bloodlines thing; no one can ‘become’ a shifter.

Shifter (Cursed or Magical) – Generally these are people who are forced into wolf form on the full moon, by a curse on their family line. Or sorcerers donning a wolfskin cape to become wolves. Unlike the subrace of shifters, there is no culture here. This group is afflicted humans and mages acting on a generally non-good impulse. (Do we want cursed wolves to have an infectious bite, with the bitten becoming weaker wolves under the control of the biter?)

Fae – They came from ‘elsewhere’; a world parallel to ours and almost touching ours. When I think ‘fae’ I think Celtic fae; the beautiful and terrible Danoine Sidhe. They’re innately magical creatures, and innately tricksy and fickle. Anyone have any thoughts?

Supernatural Creatures – Unicorns, Phoenixes, Dragons – Sure, I like the idea. Restricted to people who’ve already demonstrated RP ability and reasonable sanity tho.

I love a lot of things!

Cats and kittens.
Reading all the things: SF/Fantasy/Horror - I especially like Military SF, Urban Fantasy, Post-Apoc, Dystopias, Ecological works like David Gerrold's 'Chtorr' books and Octavia Butler's 'Xenogenisis' series and the horror works of Clive Barker.
Music - Classic Rock, Native American, New Age, Celtica.
Getting food that we normally can't have because of expense: oooh, bacon!
Generally being OK.

Okay. I'm not actually sure how long this is going to get. I suppose it depends on what I think of to say. I was Ashur on TR for quite a while. This was not my first staffing position, nor was it my first Headstaff-type bit. Since issuing apologies for questionable behavior seems to be the thing to do, here's mine.

I am a friend of Troy's, and this has remained true even after I quit my staffbit and characters on TR. I quit because I was so apocalyptically burned out that I was barely able to RP, and because I wanted to avoid Spider, and because I'd completely lost faith in TR as anyplace I wanted to be. But the reason I ended up as Ashur in the first place was that Troy asked for my help, and I could see she was distressed and at her wits end. So I saddled up, with some reservations, and set about seeing if I could help.

I did a LOT of +complaints. Now, a lot of them were poo-flinging, the online equivalent of "DADDY THE BAD MANS HURT MY FEELS!" I got used to asking if people had tried communication, I got used to saying that we couldn't police Feels, and I got used to reading pages of the most vile logs imaginable because it was 'evidence'.

I am a human being. I am flesh and blood. I have definite weak points, which I would not deny whatsoever. From the 'inside' - the ones I know about for sure:

• I want people to be happy. One of the things that motivates me to work harder to try harder, is a strong desire that people be happy and have fun. At the same time, I am completely aware that there is no way to please everyone. Even knowing that, unless I police myself hard, I still try.
• I absolutely hate having to say unkind things to others. This one's down to upbringing, where "If you don't have anything nice to say..." was oft-heard.
• I try to 'solve' issues. If I am presented with a problem, I will try to find a solution until I fall over.
• I have an 'overload' breaking point. It is fairly high, but once it trips off I switch to Final Solution mode. It isn't anything like being angry - I am a very Zen, calm person even in the most awful situations, its more like something in my head realizes that there's no more progress to be made and I need to decide, act and move on.

These things are why I no longer staff, anywhere. When I am staffing actively I can barely RP, because getting that job done is more important then recreational efforts.

General apology: If I hurt, offended, annoyed or perturbed you during my tenure as Ashur I apologize. I am mot a nasty person, I am not malice-filled and just looking for people to screw over, but I fail pretty hard at getting everything correct. I can only acknowledge that my actions were incorrect and try to learn from it and move on.

Now. @Sunny in particular: I erred grievously against you. I apologize for revealing to Spider that you were the source of the (Most recent, there were many) +complaint against her. The only way I can explain my actions (Not justify, Explain.) - She pulled the Victim tag and the Unjust Persecution tag and dance me around like a puppet, and I unwittingly let her do it. This is my fault. I knew what was in all those +complaints, and I knew her reputation, and I absolutely failed to be cautious enough.

It was painful. I valued your friendship tremendously, and I'd greatly enjoyed playing with you, and the rift thsi created between us was a pretty harsh punishment for me (I am pretty gregarious. I missed you.)

I -should- have Sitebanned Spider. Its easy to see that now, and easy to say "Yeah, that would have worked out better for a lot of people." Hindsight is always 20/20.

That's all I have to say, really.

Ken

My poor SO had to work all weekend. There was no real point to even coming home to sleep as he just would have had to go in again almost right away.

I have a horrible time sleeping alone. Bah! I have not really been to bed yet.

My stance on rape and child molestation: Put it in your background. If it nauseates the app staffer they can always turn it over to someone with a certain level of detachment.

On-game as a RP element? No. That kind of thing causes Drama every single time. It splashes over onto innocent bystanders. Staff gets dragged in and wishes that they could just @nuke both people involved. People ask staff to assign damage, to make pregnancy rolls, all kinds of disgusting crap.

There are just too many survivors of such trauma in the hobby to make this kind of RP worthwhile overall.

If it has to be in there, then let the people who want to do it get consent from every single player who is going to be affected, and leave staff out of it other to inform them that it occurred. FTB. And accept the IC consequences of the action. (Almost always the killing of the rapist with extreme prejudice)

Okay. I'm not actually sure how long this is going to get. I suppose it depends on what I think of to say. I was Ashur on TR for quite a while. This was not my first staffing position, nor was it my first Headstaff-type bit. Since issuing apologies for questionable behavior seems to be the thing to do, here's mine.

I am a friend of Troy's, and this has remained true even after I quit my staffbit and characters on TR. I quit because I was so apocalyptically burned out that I was barely able to RP, and because I wanted to avoid Spider, and because I'd completely lost faith in TR as anyplace I wanted to be. But the reason I ended up as Ashur in the first place was that Troy asked for my help, and I could see she was distressed and at her wits end. So I saddled up, with some reservations, and set about seeing if I could help.

I did a LOT of +complaints. Now, a lot of them were poo-flinging, the online equivalent of "DADDY THE BAD MANS HURT MY FEELS!" I got used to asking if people had tried communication, I got used to saying that we couldn't police Feels, and I got used to reading pages of the most vile logs imaginable because it was 'evidence'.

I am a human being. I am flesh and blood. I have definite weak points, which I would not deny whatsoever. From the 'inside' - the ones I know about for sure:

• I want people to be happy. One of the things that motivates me to work harder to try harder, is a strong desire that people be happy and have fun. At the same time, I am completely aware that there is no way to please everyone. Even knowing that, unless I police myself hard, I still try.
• I absolutely hate having to say unkind things to others. This one's down to upbringing, where "If you don't have anything nice to say..." was oft-heard.
• I try to 'solve' issues. If I am presented with a problem, I will try to find a solution until I fall over.
• I have an 'overload' breaking point. It is fairly high, but once it trips off I switch to Final Solution mode. It isn't anything like being angry - I am a very Zen, calm person even in the most awful situations, its more like something in my head realizes that there's no more progress to be made and I need to decide, act and move on.

These things are why I no longer staff, anywhere. When I am staffing actively I can barely RP, because getting that job done is more important then recreational efforts.

General apology: If I hurt, offended, annoyed or perturbed you during my tenure as Ashur I apologize. I am mot a nasty person, I am not malice-filled and just looking for people to screw over, but I fail pretty hard at getting everything correct. I can only acknowledge that my actions were incorrect and try to learn from it and move on.

Now. @Sunny in particular: I erred grievously against you. I apologize for revealing to Spider that you were the source of the (Most recent, there were many) +complaint against her. The only way I can explain my actions (Not justify, Explain.) - She pulled the Victim tag and the Unjust Persecution tag and dance me around like a puppet, and I unwittingly let her do it. This is my fault. I knew what was in all those +complaints, and I knew her reputation, and I absolutely failed to be cautious enough.

It was painful. I valued your friendship tremendously, and I'd greatly enjoyed playing with you, and the rift thsi created between us was a pretty harsh punishment for me (I am pretty gregarious. I missed you.)

I -should- have Sitebanned Spider. Its easy to see that now, and easy to say "Yeah, that would have worked out better for a lot of people." Hindsight is always 20/20.

That's all I have to say, really.

Ken

@Coin Derp DERP Derp I think I need coffeeeeee! OTOH, soon as this work is done? 4 hour hot bath!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The posters kind of won me over. More info here:

http://theonyxpath.com/category/worlds/pugmire/

Okay, when I first heard of this, I snorted to myself and dismissed it as ridiculous. However, as someone who did play Bunnies & Burrows once, I waited a while and gave it another look. And it looks promising / possibly fun.

If anyone builds a MUSH for this, I'm in.

@Bobotron said:

Define 'sheet flexibility?' Are you expecting outside of say, powers to have lots of different attributes/skills that different character types are going to have?

Because building sheets would be based off of the code being used for the dice roller, and whatever storage method. If everyone has the same attrs and skills like NWoD and GMC, the other parts (just grabbing power attributes) should be cake.

We'd need the obvious (Attributes, Derived attributes, list of possible Races for selection) but what skills are going to be used depend greatly on the setting choices. I would not all be adverse to having code that lets you insert what skills are available on the +sheet - you entering it into a database of skills manually? If Savage Worlds is the chosen system merits and flaws get replaced by Edges and Hindrances.

I know if we need code added I'm going to have to write decent specs...am I doing ok so far?

OK: here's where I am:

Deciding on System: Options

Nwod GMC, excised from its setting material completely and re-purposed. Advantaged - A lot of people know this system, including me. Code abounds for this system, thanks to the efforts of the modern coders conspiracy. Cons: The need for +sheet flexibility could be a problem - I'm not a coder myself so I'm just guessing on what the snags would be.

Savage Worlds - Pros: This system is super-flexible. It looks awesome. It puts a lot of weight on character and storytelling over book-keeping. Cons: A limited number of people know this system, it would have to be taught to the masses. No codebase. Although it may well be possible to use the Universal Game System By Gizmo. (Hi, Gizmo!) - I may need a custom di4e roller coded to handle d4. d6. d8 d10 d12 d20. Anyone up to writing that?

GURPS - Pros - I know this system so well that I could manage it in my sleep. It is quite flexible. Cons - It takes a but of teaching to catch on. Absolutely NO code-base. Not sure if I'd need to get permission from Steve Jackson Games to carry on.

The step after determining system will be to find people interested in the listed possible races, and get them together online. This will probably be easy enough.

Location for the game: An imaginary city in Canada. Builder's acquired.

This will be a slow project, as all the racial information needs to be hashed out. but hey. a work in progress is better then nothing!

My friends. My church family. All the feels, man, all the feels. I'm so damn lucky to know these people, and I know it.

If the technology were there to let people exist as a brain in a jar fed by nutrient fluid and connected to the internet existed, I would not be the only one to do it, but I'd be first in line.

I'd probably go into cybersecurity, too. Can I get into your stuff? If I can, it isn't secure.

No lie, I am teetering on the brink of poverty. One medical disaster, one serious accident, one thing going completely wrong with the house, or ever a huge set of vet bills for a cat emergency, and I'd be pretty much done.

We're $300.00 over the poverty line. If we did not make that extra $300 we'd be getting Food Stamps and Medicaid and cash assistance. If I voluntarily divorced my spouse, I could get help and benefits especially for my health issues. What the fuck kind of country introduces choices like that to the equation? I actually had a social worker tell me, with regard to health care, that if I was just sensible about this divorce thing it would all be OK. Yeeeeeah, I've been married for 36 years. I'll just toss my partner aside.

My ACA-Backed health plan costs me $165 a month. That's after the government supplement is applied. Because I could not afford a better plan, the deductible is 5K and it barely pays for anything. But hell, I'm insured! (Yay?)

I need a new computer. Really. My current one is 7 years old and I'm carefully nursing it along. I'm running Vista. I'll likely have to save as carefully as I can to manage this. Unless I just start a GoFundMe and beg helplessly, hoping to raise the money.

Go USA.

Too, too tempted to do this just so there's an alternative to NWOD. I have an Exalted idea as well, set in the West. but again - code. And I'd need to wait for Exalted 3 to come out.

The homebrew's been in my head for years. It's pretty fleshed out. If I can get code, I'll likely put a Wizard on each racial subtype and a Wizard on Build...