Posts made by Darinelle

@Arkandel - Well, you did - but that was also a system that was theoretically "automatically applied" with fairness to all. It just - wasn't.

ETA: I don't mean this as a bitch about Firan so much as listening to all the problems we had with the system when it wasn't being circumvented by asshole staffers? I can't imagine willingly doing something like that without a very limited application - for example, activity requirements if you play a character in a position of power/responsibility. Other than that? I would be very leery of instituting anything of the sort.

@Eerie said:

@Arkandel

Define then hardcode an activity requirement.

Firan did this. It was extremely easy to get around, and in the end it was relatively meaningless too. It was, however, a good way for asshole staffers to pluck characters from people for no goddamn reason, like the one who booted my RL friend off his character two days after our last scene, with no warning @mail nor anything, for "weeks of inactivity."

Not that I think @Coin and @Eerie are asshole staffers, mind you. Maybe I'm just bitter, but I saw a lot of people camp on characters for years (no, not just staffers or staff friends) with no contribution to the game whatsoever, because hardcoded activity requirements are very easy to get around.

Fuck the first day back at work after an amazing vacation.

Constant, unrelenting darkness is almost never sustainable (except IRL). What's the point of a dismal death march? But the times in between, the occasional light and hope give people reasons to soldier on, to try to make the world better. Which in turn gives more hopes and dreams for the GMs to crush while cackling maniacally.

It's win-win, really.

The wiki, btw guys, looks awesome. And I'm excited to hear you're nearing launch! HUZZAH!

@Thenomain - it's unlikely I'll care about this extremely deeply until I'm back from vacation, but I wanted to get the question out there. In any case, I'm grateful for whatever information I can get. I hate not knowing all the things, especially surrounding this stuff.

I know there's a way to link help files to the wiki, so you can edit on the wiki and it shows up in-game. HOW DO I DO THIS? I'm looking as much for the MUX-side setup as the MediaWiki-side stuff. Please, oh please. I know I have friends who know this but I'm actually trying not to be hopelessly incompetent on my own.

@Cobaltasaurus - I love everything by Robin McKinley EXCEPT Pegasus. And that only because it's PART ONE OF TWO AND THE SECOND ONE HASN'T COME OUT AND IT HAS BEEN YEARS WTF ROBIN OMG LEAVE ME HANGING.

For those who love vampire stories - Sunshine was pretty cool.

I cleaned my house, including vacuuming my stairs. It sounds stupid but the whole house smells CLEAN and LEMONY and WONDERFUL, and the stairs? The stairs don't have the pieces of whatever the puppy has shredded strewn everywhere anymore either.

I just feel that much better.

My puppy is trying to eat my slippers.

I am currently WEARING my slippers....

Dammit. She's so cute but I have to stop her anyway.

@Glitch - You know what else I fucking LOVED was Katherine Kerr's novels of Deverry. I think the first is called Daggerspell and I just found it really a lot of fun.

@Miss-Demeanor said:

I remember the MAIN reason HM switched over to player run plots is because staff ST's wanted to be able to get xp on their player bits for running stories as staff. They felt it was unfair that they were doing work with no reward while other players got xp for running scenes. Using a player bit to run a plot back then was a way of gaming the system.

This seems like a flawed system, and the solution should be to reward STers too. If you run a plot that nets the people who play in it xp, why shouldn't you also get xp? I will say TR does that right at least - if you run a plot as staff, you can just request for XP to be awarded, equally with the people who go on said plot, to the character of your choice.

STing is too involved to not reward people who do it, and if they want xp as a reward they should get it. While some crazy people insist STing is its own reward (and to a point I agree), if people have characters but spend all their time STing, sometimes they end up enriching everyone's stories but their own, and that can detract from the enjoyment thereof. Especially if you happen across asshole players, which - and I know this will shock many of you - does unfortunately happen from time to time.

I liked the previews. But I'll drop in either way.

@Arkandel said:

@Darinelle said:

@Arkandel - and what about staffers who don't have PCs?

Those poor souls. Why?

Sometimes it's easier to just ST and have fun, and then when you say "look, I'm not taking sides in this, I just want good story" people actually believe you. Of course there's also the fun of STing when your character can't get involved and so people jump all over you ICly for not being effective in the plot that, you know, you're STing.

Not having a character neatly circumvents those things at least. I'm not saying there aren't other problems created by it, but those two things fundamentally lower my enjoyment from STing and so if that's what I'm there to do then getting rid of things that ruin my fun is not a bad idea.

@Arkandel - and what about staffers who don't have PCs?

Back on topic, I dislike the designation between SRP and PRPs. I think there should be:

Metaplot - Guided by staff for cohesion, affecting the entire game or a large portion thereof. Some portions of this may be able to be run by players and staff alike, but the overall story should be guided/told by a staffer. The potential for large game-changing consequences could be present.

Sphereplot - Approved by staff and affecting an entire group of players, this could be run by staff or by players, but should have one person overseeing the entire plot from start to finish, even if individual stories/events are run by various people. The potential for medium-to-large game-changing consequences should be allowed, provided staff is ok with this.

Characterplot - Anyone should be able to run these, that highlight and affect a smaller number of players. Mostly these will have small-to-medium consequences that could affect the game, and anything larger should be at least run by staff.

And I really, really, REALLY think that if staffers want to run Characterplots for their friends, they should be able to. And if people want to run sphere or metaplot without being staff, they should be able to. It's up to staff to ST, drive metaplot, and make sure that the stories that affect the grid/game make sense within the theme and with the goals of the game. It's important to have a coherent vision. But I also think it's important to share the fun of STing, and to let other people do things too. And to remember that at the end of the day, staffers are people too - if they want to run things for their friends, then let them.

If they ONLY run things for their friends, maybe they need to not be staff, and can just be STers. But if they run metaplot and then also want to run something for a buddy? Who the fuck cares?

Also to Theno's point I rather agree there too. If you want to just RP a story that isn't "let's meet up and just chat", you should be able to do that. Whether that's considered characterplot or just RP is up to you. If you want to have it make a larger splash, then you should be able to choose that after the fact too. Sometimes when running a plot you don't expect people to just use claymores in a city gridsquare, but that's what they come up with so fuck - why NOT run with it?

@Coin - Oh I know. Thenomain and I often agree on many things - I just do so verbosely.

@Thenomain - I love and appreciate all the coding you're doing as "base" nWOD stuff. It's really lovely. Streamlining things, automating things, reducing the need for paperwork. SUPER WONDERFUL. That being said (and meant):

My initial experience with MUSHing though was on Firan, which was so very code-heavy that moving from gridsquare to gridsquare you got LAG. Actual lag. Madness. It had a lot of really awesome bells and whistles, but I think when creating bells and whistles sometimes we lose sight of the story. So from my perspective, before I ask for custom code (or code it myself which takes forever but I'm willing to do it if I have to), my question is always - "how does this help us tell a better story?"

If the answer is "it doesn't?" Then that code doesn't need to be written. Period.

Which is not to say that all code relates to STing. Sometimes the "help" code provides STing is to automate something so that there is less paperwork/administrative overhead, leaving staffers more time to ST. But before coding those things, I do ask also - "does this administrative thing really need to be done and why, or is there a way to remove the need for it entirely?" Because a lot of times the answer is - no. No it doesn't need to be done. Yes we can do without it.

It's not that I hate coders. They are wonderful and resourceful and brilliant and helpful. But the more code-heavy a game is, the less it seems like people focus on story, entranced by all the bells and whistles. Or the more mired in paperwork. Both things are brutal.

@Sanguine = I cook. I cook A LOT. I get the Bon Appetit magazine on my eReader and pick out the recipes that look interesting, and I cook those. I bake, too - all the things. If I can find a recipe for it, I can probably cook or bake it. What I can't do is make my baked goods look like they belong in a magazine. Those little finishing touches elude me. Sometimes. SOMETIMES! And other times you could come in and take a picture of my food and BAM. Amazing. The taste though? Taste-wise I'm usually good.

There are a bunch of little things here and there I want to know though, and I want to learn things like - cutting vegetables the fast and uniform way, and how to make my loaves of bread look like actual loaves of bread. And hell, I think just going to culinary school for the hell of it would be fun. Note that I could probably get a lot of this from youtube, forums, and various books - but I also like just going to classes.

@Luna - don't get me started. Five years ago, my friend wanted to do my makeup and I handed her my entire makeup supply - A year-old bottle of Cover Girl foundation, 3 shades of brown Origins eyeshadow, and a 4 year old tube of lip gloss. She stared at me, horrified, and then we went directly to Ulta and spent something like $300. I backslide from time to time now but uh... yeah. Also the UD Naked palette is amazing. AMAZING.And I love the KVD liner, though for ease I'm often lazy and use the Urban Decay liner pencils too - Bourbon's like, my go-to shade and it goes with everything and is the perfect shade of brown. PERFECT.

Don't get me started on nail polish. Srsly.

@icanbeyourmuse - http://lmgtfy.com/?q=black+company+series+glen+cook

@ThatOneDude - If you're asking me, it's without anything HR'd.