I'm going to assume it's more than just me, @surreality and a third person who've played Cybersphere. As far as cyberpunk games go, that and a Shadowrun MUD that was kinda cool were the only ones I've played with serious RP. I'm curious to know if people still play, or have thought about going back, etc. Also horror stories but since that's more of a Pit Crew thing we can skip on that one.
Most of Cybersphere's still extant problems are not the theme (which is good), the game culture (which are good, I like the corp writeups and stuff) nor the timeline (which is also good). The staffers are also very helpful as of recently. It's the negative, griefing element. I'm guilty of doing some shitty things ICly, too, but it seems that the game punishes new people for being newbies and rewards the oldbies. For instance, the cancer-character I was talking about. He's obsessed ICly about some girl's character, so any dude that interacts with her is going to be under scrutiny, and because of that, he's going to try and kill them. I'm not even joking. That guy's behavior is rewarded because when he ices someone out in the street, he's taking their loot and cyberware. No consequence whatsoever.
They can say it's cyberpsychosis and shit, but to be honest, it's just a guy from PK/griefer culture deciding to find a flimsy reason to kill someone else without trying other methods. Like threatening, blackmailing, sandmanning them and telling them what's going to happen to them if they don't stop. Plenty of ways to be a threatening villain without having a murderboner.
Oh yeah, and to top it off, he gets unoriginal points for naming himself after a famous rapper's second nickname.
The Hog Pit is to fling shit. If you do not think that it suits your views of the board, then do not peruse it. Mildly constructive is for when you actually want to build something (whether that's a game idea, knowledge or merely advice) out of nothing. I prefer Mildly Constructive over the Hog Pit, myself. However, you joined the Pitcrew, so evidently you like the shitflinging.
I for one am having a much more satisfactory experience of MU Soapbox without it.
@Pandora Well, no, it doesn't. And I do agree with that point of yours; it was a point of contention in another thread -- that the consensus is highly sought after here and agreement tends to be more rewarding than disagreement (even when more politely worded).
Since someone prodded me so I do a charity work here, this is your community alert:
Custodius plays at Arx.
Here's his char.
http://play.arxmush.org/character/sheet/1983/
Caveat emptor.
You're welcome.
@surreality Better get on that.
Name it the Rantwing channel and start going off about things while you make itty bitty hats and shoes and coats.
Isn't Max the one we know as Custodius? Well then, your two screens long post could have been avoided by reading the warnings posted.
If I ever have time to play a MU again, and it happens to be FS, I'd play a Li Halan dude just for the unexplored Portuguese angle.
One can never go wrong with salt.
@Wavert Very doubtful. Just remember those barely populated games have baggage attached to them. And in some rare cases, like Firan, the baggage doesn't outweigh the potential fun until way later, at which point people start calling it quits en masse.
Whenever a game hits less than 10 unique users, it starts a slow death spiral, to be quite honest. Some games are seasonal: people are coming to play for a couple of months and then leave. But most games are persistent, so when they dip beneath 5 it means the staffers' attentions drift elsewhere as well, since they might end up being the only ones playing.
@ShelBeast Sure, so Bob has a disagreement with his Starbucks coffee and he throws his 16 dice in Intimidate at a barista for not giving him a soy latte. Everyone else thinks Bob is an asshole, whereas Bob just wanted to use his social dice. Bob then goes to a bar, uses another 16 dice on someone to make friends, because he can't find common ground with someone otherwise.
Rolls aren't a panacea. Rolls shouldn't replace actual role playing, which is what the purpose of this entire hobby is for. The moment the outcome of any and all interactions have to be decided by a roll, then we're better off just playing Neverwinter Nights (excellent game by the way) or something.
You can play whatever you want, just don't use your rolls in such a way you're essentially replacing your story for statistical success.
@Wolfs said in Wheel of Time MU(SH|X):
@Seraphim73 The problem with BoD is neither of the people who run the game are all that good at coding stuff like that, and they have far too much going on to really focus on game improvements. There are numerous things that have never been put in place over the years for those reasons.
It's less that and more of the fact their entire RPing culture is descended from Elendor, and they want the RP to be consent anyway so the combat code doesn't matter. On the other hand, giving people stats when you don't care about giving stuff to do with them is, I think, somewhat sad.
@Tempest said in Eliminating social stats:
@Gingerlily said in Eliminating social stats:
I feel like even if Bob is a shitty writer, its cool to let your character be convinced by his shitty writing to buy the Avon he's selling at double the price you should, because it does not hurt you and it is fun for Bob.
The problem is, social dice and stats never come up for this level of stuff.
If it did, sure, that's harmless and not painful to let happen.
In my experience (YMMV), people only start wanting to flex their social dice for stuff like "i convince you to support me to be King of the World!" or "I persuade you to betray the Emperor with me!" or "I convince you to tell me all the horrible life-threatening secrets you know about Jane!" and of course the standard "I seduce you!"
Social stats for things like selling/buying shit is one thing. That's a "okay this is done now" sort of thing. When people are trying to use social stats to influence decisions that affect the entirety of my character's future (and thus, potentially force me to RP in a particular way that isn't fun), we're not really in the same ballpark or even universe any longer.
And I don't mean 'fun' as in 'oh no I lost, no fun'. I mean it as in 'wow, now based off that social roll my character would theoretically be a lot more involved in stuff with Bob, and I as a player do not really enjoy playing with him'.
This stuff makes it important to remember we are not just playing a game.
The only person who has actually judiciously used dice in any social situation including my characters that I didn't think was pure douchebaggery in a social setting was @Pondscum, and she executed it pretty flawlessly, in my opinion. I roleplayed that setback, honoring especially the fact it was 8 motherfucking successes.
@Tempest said in Which canon property/setting would be good for a MU* ?:
@deadculture said in Which canon property/setting would be good for a MU* ?:
@Aria said in Which canon property/setting would be good for a MU* ?:
My issue with Vampire isn't that I hate Vampire. I love Vampire and all of its themes as written.
My problem with Vampire is that I think it brings out the very worst in players, both IC and OOC, as most of its themes lend themselves to PVP. And because gamers are gamers, in many cases, PVP pretty much turns into the IC equivalent of the Hog Pit.
So... fuck that noise. I'mma peace out.
Changeling is way worse.
I have to say I am surprised to hear this. Admittedly, I'm no expert on Changeling. What's the problem in changeling, fighting over who gets to be Pretty Princess of each Court?
I really like the "idea" of changeling. But it kind of makes me overthink things. Sometimes I think the making a character gets me stuck. "I was turned into a FUCKING SNOWFLAKE FOR FIFTY YEARS!" Seems like it'd probably fuck you up in ways most of us can't really fathom or play out properly, so I get weird about my durance and shit. Also get stuck on 'okay how do you escape if your Keeper turned you into a thing and then basically forgets you exist? Aren't I stuck as one of a thousand snowflakes? Do I randomly will myself back into humanoid form to escape?'
The Hedge also fucks me up. Really like the idea of it. But I've never really gotten a chance to "understand" how it works.
Imagine everyone wanted to be the Most Special Snowflake. That is Changeling. Now imagine people who like being the snowflake banding together for that purpose.
@Ominous said in Which canon property/setting would be good for a MU* ?:
I could do Elder Scrolls. The issue with Elder Scrolls is the issue of doing, say, Legend of Zelda. It's a franchise built on expansive settings, which MUs have a bit of trouble with, since you want to concentrate players in small areas so RP happens, rather than let them spread out. You would have to decide where to focus the grid. The Imperial City? Morrowind? Skyrim? One of the Daedric Princes' realms in Oblivion? Shivering Isles might be fun.
SKYRIM
FUS ROH DAH
@surreality I actually agree with this. High enough you can shape your character a certain way, and then a slow progression.
Ryan Gosling is a real human bean and a real hero.
Cate Blanchett is just the human equivalent of Guile Theme Goes With Everything.
@bored said in How should IC discrimination be handled?:
@sunny I think claiming that this is 100% limited to Arx is a bit misleading. It's just a visible example because it's large (and because it's a successor, in spirit, playerbase and staff, to a game that was racist and sexist turned up to 11).
For instance, we had/have (I dunno if the reboot is still running) the two Arthurian games that both made a pretty strong point of removing any kind of gender imbalance. This is despite the fact that these games were rooted in eras and genres of literature dripping with sexism and that it was even part of the game mechanics/rules (at least for the first game, using Pendragon). Not shockingly, it actually caused some non-trivial problems (for instance, landed women were thematically extremely rare, so they were mechanically worth more points to marry - but that gets turned on its head a bit when anyone can CG one). That game also had someone screaming about racism too, although granted it was 90% Cirno so who cares.
100% Cirno
@bored said in How should IC discrimination be handled?:
I went back and found the thread. Hilariously, the first post it went to was me downvoted to -2 for calling Cirno a troll and @Arkandel upvoted to 5 telling me 'just because he's a troll, doesn't mean he's wrong.'
So yeah, SJW MSB was in general largely supportive of Cirno's unfounded banshee wailing about nonexistent racism.
I think it's silly for people not want to tackle racism, sexism, any other kind of prejudice in a historical or semi-historical setting. I think a detective who would only use politically correct terms when they're a noir-themed asshole loose cannon would just be sad and something would feel amiss.
Can you imagine Scarface without the slurs? Can you imagine The Godfather without the hard language? I can't. That's why I don't play in games that are sanitized in this manner, but am glad they exist for people who think it's a necessity.
I just hope it doesn't become the absolute norm.
@lithium said in Pitches for plots and characters:
I don't tend to write 'plots' out, I don't trust myself to be able to think up /everything/ that people might do to plan for it ahead of time.
So I start with an idea, I give the players one start point and then I cut them loose and fly by the seat of my pants.
Most of my plot characters are developed as characters, so they respond to the actions of the characters and do their thing while the PC's do their thing.
It hardly ever goes the direction I thought it might go to begin with, but it's a lot of fun for me and my players.
I just write a theme, the conflict, the possible common interest the participants have and maybe rewards. I like to do rewards if the person has consistently been put through the grinder in a plot.
I plan basic structure, but then there's episodes where @Livia's character turns on a devotion and walks through a firebomb trap and comes out unscathed; I knew she had the devotion and that it was a possibility, and even so it was a moment of sheer awesome. I think everyone had fun that scene, despite something that happened on the OOC/administrative side of things that weighed against it -- and made me eject the plotline before it was actually supposed to end.
@Auspice's character nearly got torpored twice in a series I ran. She got a nice relic sword out of it.