Best posts made by Darinelle

Oh. Right. I remember why I answer so many actions.

Because it's FUN.

@thesuntsar said in MU Things I Love:

Tonight was the culmination of a bunch of @investigations and @actions and RP that spanned I dunno how long. A year maybe? A hundred percent worth it and definitely an amazing experience to share with @Darinelle @Snackness @Sparks @Pyrephox

ILUUUUUUUUUU. It was a good event. I had a really great time, and y'all make it fun to GM. So glad you enjoyed it.

I totally jumped to the wrong conclusion about what this thread is about and I immediately came here to post:

If someone rejects me, even if it's my best effort, I view it as a sign that I should definitely not spend my time with that person and sigh in relief because I don't need to add people to my schedule.

But after reading.... the same response is mostly applicable. If I apply as a character that I want to play and it just doesn't fit theme, or it's too over the top, or the staffers don't know me well enough to know that I'm not going to go FULL SPECIAL SNOWFLAKE on them then that's a sign to me that what I want to do isn't going to be right for the game and I appreciate that in advance.

As a staffer? It's harder, because I swear some people make trolly applications just to troll.

Scheduling A Thing that has a bunch of really fun players on it, and only afterwards realizing that I've scheduled their highly risky thing for 31 October.

Guess this thing just got even weirder.

MWUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHA.

On any plot I run, be it GM or PRP, I don't really want to run for more than 3 hours. What this means is that if I give people choices (which I always try to do), then they get to choose ONE.

Not ONE, and THEN THE OTHER TWO.

Just one.

Any more than one and I add 1-2 hours per choice, depending on what is there and how the players react to it and interact with it. Adding manual combat in doubles whatever that number is.

I PREFER 3 hours. Or 3 hours, then break, then 3 hours. This is not to say I even remotely abide by any of these guidelines myself on any sort of regular basis, but that's my personal preference.

Sup, yo. I know you! (Puffin on Firan and on Arx too)

@auspice said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

But then I'd have had their shit in my apartment.

I really just wanted that stuff gone. And the free lunch.

...I'll do a lot for a free meal ok

Orrrr... craigslist what they won't take, and use the money to take yourself out for a meal. It's the same as them giving you money for the meal, but with 100% less abuse.

(Alternately, tell them that's the plan and watch how fast they get their asses over there)

@Taika said in How much plot do people want?:

Thinking on it, I like when people pitch ideas.

'Hey wouldn't it be cool if...?'
'Couldn't we do something about that thing there?'

I enjoy ST'ing all sorts of stories, but sometimes, coming up with them can be rough on a tired brain. I also think sitting down and telling staff or st's 'hey, I'm interested in Y and Z types of plot, but X is kind of meh for me' is really helpful, too.

I also run into not knowing how characters respond unless I play with them often is a hinderance, too. I'll usually run a quick-n-dirty or two to feel out how someone thinks and reacts before trying to throw out more'complex' or less combatty-more-thinky plots.

tl'dr - tell staff and st's what turns you on, or toss ideas around with them.

One thing I really love about Arx as a GM is the +storyrequest feature. Sometimes it results in a STing scene, sometimes in a GM saying "hey, you've interacted with this NPC that you don't normally have access to, and here's what you learned. It's good for multiple reasons:

1 - It lets players tell GMs what they are interested in doing with their characters
2 - It lets GMs pick things to ST, and gives us ideas.
3 - It lets players who need to know things from a specific NPC ask the questions without having to sit through Q&A sessions, which is also a boon for GMs
4 - It lets players advance their characters in thematic, direct ways without having to share their secrets with all and sundry looking for a STer.

There's a similar +prprequest feature I think which I ALSO love, because players who want to run plot can say - "hey, I want to do this thing, is it thematic?" And then the GMs can be aware of PRPs, and weave them into the story/metaplot if they want, and give out plot hooks and secrets to the PRP-runner to include in the course of their story.

Togethery, they give players agency and give GMs knowledge to include in the overarching story, which turns things into a more cohesive world. It's not a perfect system, but I'm a big fan of things that let players interact with the world in a meaningful way and also have parts in the story and build stories for each other. Not everything has to be a major GM-driven plot. Sometimes what players come up with is cooler.

I love when people tell me how they're ninjas. I love it. I once had a guy try to impress me by telling me he was training to be a ninja. In a park in South Florida. And you know, they weren't like - doing any of the climbing or jumping or shit, just the straight up fighting and sparring like REAL ninjas.

dot.

dot.

dot.

@aria "These things don't count as work, they're fun! And you can totally put some of them aside to do this other thing that you say you want to do that will eventually replace the work you do for a living!"

Okay, everything you just listed ALL COUNTS AS WORK.

@ghost Admittedly I love when there are swear words that happen from organic RP and then travel through the game and become a thing. Though I don't know that it makes me swear less IRL. >.>

@thesuntsar It happens still, I just don't TELL you about it. I forget, a lot, who people play. Unless I have undying enmity. (Always enjoying GMing for you is no proof that I'll remember that it's the same player, it just sometimes means that two chars played by the same person are on my good list.)

"Specific Learning Disability" - this is why I never ever ever got tested for anything. I'm a phenomenal test taker (whether I know the subject or not) and I can learn anything I have an interest in - and my interests are wide and varied.

Try talking to me about history though and I've suddenly tuned the fuck out forever.

FOREVER.

Learning things I hate always mimics my brother's pattern of learning (he WAS diagnosed with ADHD) - but I was always interested in science, math, english, creative writing, sociology, psychology, art, language - these things fascinate me. Give me a history book though and I've suddenly read a page 16x and have no idea what it said. So the older I get the more I think that he and I probably struggled with the same thing but I lucked out by having much broader interests in knowledge that correlated to things taught in school.

And where he would tap a pencil or make noise to get rid of his twitchiness? I did silent things that couldn't be tracked. (Like squeezing my toes in patterns which is impossible to see with shoes on.)

@royal said in Characters You Enjoyed Playing:

Dawson Bryce. The Reach.

Made a broken soldier sort. Meant to be a Ghoul. Next thing I know, he's not crippled and now he's a Wizard. Brother to a horrible Vampire. Best friends with a Monkey God and a disgruntled, ultra burned out cop. So much drama ensued but it was all fun right up to the end. Then it went down hill. Fast. Great ride though and made me fall in love with Mage.

I've had a lot of characters but those two are the only ones I've tmteally put that much time into.

Man. Dawson and the Bryce family as a whole got me started on The Reach and I couldn't have lucked into better people. I was late to the party by then, but playing Alice was memorable, to say the least. She's another character I've just loved from start to finish.

@Pondscum Hola! Nice to see you again. Are you Arx-ing?

As a sidenote - there were a lot of staff who cared about the players and were consistently hamstrung by insanity and bullshit. That's more or less how we lost the bulk of good staff over the years. But I did care about the players, it's true! I just was not alone in my caring, I promise.

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

RIP Rutger Hauer. Thank you for Ladyhawke, one of the few 80's movies that actually stands the test of time (minus the soundtrack, KQ, I KNOW).

@arkandel - The way we handle it in Arx is Voices/2nds in command, who act with the voice of the faction leader. Spread the love and share the burdens, because it shouldn't and can't always be THAT ONE GUY who stands AT THE NEXUS OF ALL DECISIONS. It's not feasible IRL, and it's certainly not feasible in a game.

I think the responsibility if you have someone dependent directly upon you for their arc is a scene once a week. I also think you should never be in a position where more than 3-4 people are directly dependent upon you for their entire arc, esp. when they're different arcs. At that point, then more people need to be involved organizationally.

@ganymede said in MUSH Marriages (IC):

@darinelle said in MUSH Marriages (IC):

"We are not OOCly married or together. Do not treat me as though we are."

Yeah, this isn't a great response, because I wouldn't tolerate that shit from my partner either. Plus, it throws just so much shade.

I'm not sure what shit you're talking about. I expect my partner RL to talk to me about concerns, and I am willing to work on our relationship and make compromises and do things I might not otherwise do for the sake of my RL relationship. To a certain extent I am willing to do that ICly for an IC relationship, but I am not willing to discuss OOCly how our relationship is making you OOC feel. We aren't married and we aren't together, don't expect me to deal with your emotional baggage.

@stabeest said in MU Things I Love:

Played out the conclusion of a storyline that has taken over half a year to reach. The ending was so much better than I expected. Utterly tragic and with consequences that have irrevocably changed all the characters involved.

Thank you, @Darinelle. Who would have thought that a small request to look into a tiny piece of backstory would have turned into this?

You're very welcome. It should be mentioned that @Apos and @Kanye-Qwest helped me brainstorm who he was and his backstory right at the beginning, and that willingness to add to the narrative turned into this. In the end though, it's y'all who made it what it was. I just set the scene and well. Hrm. Wrote some truly creepy shit.

@Cari

Also, if people are threatening OOC consequences for IC choices feel free to let us know. Apos told me there isn't a global cool down on bannings.