Posts made by deadculture

@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.

• minor edit

@Sunny They can always go around the character and investigate.

On the other hand, persuasion, manipulation and other little pearls don't necessarily involve lying to get your point across. If you need to lie about something to convince someone, you're pretty much already done there. There's more to persuasion than falsehoods. Perhaps the person is telling the truth, but they want you on their side, instead of someone else's. Perhaps it's their version of the truth, which is also subjective, as you mentioned, but then, the social game IS subjective. If you really need to be coercive about it, then sure, roll away.

Slight edit on a word, blame my OCD

@Sunny I don't feel even slightly bad for saying it. Turnabout is fair game, and I roll with social dice when they're thrown at me AND I prefer the softer approach of not having to throw d10s at you to convince you of something.

@Gingerlily said in Eliminating social stats:

@deadculture said in Eliminating social stats:

@Gingerlily Having stats does not automatically make you good at using them. The way I see it, stats are a potential. You can either waste your potential or use it well.

Of course, people playing socially able characters with sheets that don't represent it at all kind of annoy folks.

I feel like it kind of does. Having combat stats that are high makes you good at combat, you don't need a particular ooc skill to engage in that, unless a game has super strategic combat. So having social stats may not mean people are amazing at writing out super compelling things to go with their dice roles, but it should still matter. I think people are super hung up on it because their pride gets involved. If Bob is not a great poser and his manipulation/persuasion is described kind of meh, it's cool to roll with it anyway. Let Bob have his moment of triumph, it doesn't hurt you, it doesn't hurt your PC because there are plenty of times social 'combat' will go another way.

Bob can have his moment of triumph the moment he can use his character as described by his sheet for maximum effect. Otherwise, always replacing social acuity for the roll of a die means that not only are you unable to play the social character you've envisioned, you need to reconsider how you work your interactions with other people as a whole.

Last second edit to add: It also defeats the purpose of playing a social game to begin with. If you can't put in a pretty turn of phrase, what the fuck are you doing?

@Gingerlily Having stats does not automatically make you good at using them. The way I see it, stats are a potential. You can either waste your potential or use it well.

Of course, people playing socially able characters with sheets that don't represent it at all kind of annoy folks.

@Packrat said in Wheel of Time MU(SH|X):

@deadculture said in Wheel of Time MU(SH|X):

You should get the Star Crusade codebase and make your Fading Suns game

I looked at doing so, I know Paulus has a copy of the database, I even have a server, but I also have chronic depression thanks to some RL stuff (yes I am getting it treated).

I would burn out within weeks. Also Star Crusade's codebase was basically just a die roller and +sheet. No character generation, no equipment, no way to track money, etc

I can help with the difficult-to-handle things if you get the codebase and the other shit. Even if it's barebones. I can also look into getting a coder to implement a proper chargen.

@Packrat said in Wheel of Time MU(SH|X):

Well keep in mind that I am bitter and cynical and burnt on games in general along with not really having played anywhere since I quit Arx almost six months ago, whilst having barely played anywhere for a few years before that, so I am probably not the best perspective.

You should get the Star Crusade codebase and make your Fading Suns game

@Apos said in MU Things I Love:

@Faceless Was pretty much my sole reason for having coded objects, 100%. In theory, it shouldn't matter. And yet. AND YET.

Items that are coded, take time to customize, etc, become very significant. Someone else, or even you, spend time creating that item. If you got it from a quest, you'll forever remember it as that special time you got something nice.

And if you lose it, you fucking mourn its loss, too.

I played a gunsmith on a cyberpunk MOO, it made me very pleased when people liked my guns.

@Thenomain said in High Fantasy:

@deadculture said in High Fantasy:

@Thenomain said in High Fantasy:

Which 7th Sea? The one with the bizarre game system but sensible rolling mechanic, or the one with the hippy game system but bizarre rolling mechanic?

First edition. So, the former?

Play Arx and squint really, really hard? (Mind you, I find some of their stat design decisions baffling enough that I'd much rather play 7th Sea with every splat tacked on. Stealth as a combat stat? Really? Everybody's a critic, amirite.)

--

@Runescryer said in High Fantasy:

@Thenomain said in High Fantasy:

@Runescryer

I guess being in the minority, I want to build or play a game I would enjoy, not one with the widest appeal. If they are the same thing, then cool. If not, so what?

I agree 100% with that. We (mostly) don't do this hobby of Role Playing (in all of it's forms) for money or prestige; we do it because it's fun for us. If there's no fun, why bother? Now, there's as many definitions of fun as there are people, granted, but if you find others who are having fun alongside you, that makes it all the better.

Well, let's be honest; a game without other people enjoying it with us is not very fun. I have been involved in enough of those projects that I would, myself, rather a game that appeals to more people even if it means compromising some of my own wants, because I know the pay-off can be absolutely worth it.

Arx is not my cup of long island iced tea.

7S just needs some changes to the auxiliary systems like Patron, etc.

@Thenomain said in High Fantasy:

@deadculture said in High Fantasy:

@Thenomain said in High Fantasy:

@Runescryer

I guess being in the minority, I want to build or play a game I would enjoy, not one with the widest appeal. If they are the same thing, then cool. If not, so what?

I wish you'd make a streamlined readymade MUX chargen, sheet, roller system for 7th Sea

I mean, one that isn't for OTT or 8 years old

Which 7th Sea? The one with the bizarre game system but sensible rolling mechanic, or the one with the hippy game system but bizarre rolling mechanic?

First edition. So, the former?

@Thenomain said in High Fantasy:

@Runescryer

I guess being in the minority, I want to build or play a game I would enjoy, not one with the widest appeal. If they are the same thing, then cool. If not, so what?

I wish you'd make a streamlined readymade MUX chargen, sheet, roller system for 7th Sea

I mean, one that isn't for OTT or 8 years old

@Ghost Always two types of supporters: the assholes and the nice people. The nice people get lumped in with the assholes because the assholes are louder and more violent.

@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.

The people who were nitpicky probably did not include Sir Kay. Players mostly wanted to enforce this or that, and yes, we had to put our foot down in regards to the marvelous castle some people wanted their manors to have, which was fucking ridiculous.

I mean, look at The Last Kingdom, for instance. Uhtred is given a manor in disrepair and a lot of debt by Alfred. Does it look like a castle to you? He owned a castle, sure, Bebbanburg -- but it was taken from him by his uncle in a most despicable manner after the Vikings attacked.

Of course, he was a kid, yadda yadda... Hell, not even the wealthiest Eaoldorman had a castle or keep. He had a fucking manor.

Nevertheless, it's water under the bridge. I'm just wondering if you're ever going to be interested in sharing the Pendragon codebase, @TimmyZ. For all its faults in applying to a MUSH, I did love that system. It's a change from what usually goes in lords and ladies.

Eh, that discussion was fairly minor compared to the other shit i.e. neopaganism vs researched pagan rituals, which was a nightmare in and of itself, the fact staff was demanded a structure that was not well detailed in the books that much.
As positive factors RA had the political roles that got added later on, the Moon Knight/Fae Knight plotlines, the wars. The battle in Wales reminded me of The Last Kingdom a year later, when all the Arthurian knights in Salisbury went there to fight a mercenary's war for the King. That was fun, also deadly, but fun.
Realms Adventurous was, at its core, extremely high stakes. Your story could end abruptly. This caused some upset in players who thought that 'limited consent' meant their participation in the plots also meant the consequence for the characters could be mitigated.
All in all, the general backbiting was not as widespread or cancerous as other games. but the fairy debacle and the pagan debacle (which had some overlapping people in common) was definitely most toxic to staff.

@utahsaint If you look at the CK2 interface for Tribal cultures, that's I guess how Pendragon was in that time stretch, right?

Well I have a few things to say.

After-the-fact, I figured out some of the names the aforementioned player were regarding Fairy classes from Changeling the Dreaming. Once I figured that out I realized they were kind of guerilla inserting fairiness into their gameplay.

Second, and going back to 'low stakes': I'd say low stakes RP should always be interspersed with high stakes plots. Nothing is more exhillarating than the all-or-nothing, now-or-never adrenaline rush you get from knowing your character might not make it out alive. Realms had a lot of that, certainly, and it made for some interesting outcomes in war.

But Star Crusade also did, although it was 10000x more frustrating, it kept the game moving along, all the while people would plot against eachother in small and petty ways, which can be considered low stakes, with an aim for the highest stake.

I think most of the problem with "low stakes" is that a preference for it has a root in people being risk averse the more invested they are in their characters' storylines. It is particularly why some games fizzle out; put people's asses on the line too much or too arbitrarily and you'll see people flee.

It is true that Realms changed hands because of frustrations regarding player bickering, I was there, can attest to that. There was, in fact, a several weeks long discussion over who should get deflowered in the pagan rite of Winter or however the fuck you want to call it. The sheer insanity of that should have burned a sane person out in days. It didn't.

And no, I am not fucking kidding. It literally was about who would be central to that role.

The only system between 7S1 and 7S2 worth keeping is the former, even though it is bogged down with several little details, yes. Not that these details render it entirely unable to code but they make automation very challenging. Combat should be simple enough to automate if you add swordsmanship techniques as modifiers instead of what they actually do, but do you really want to sift through 40-odd combat styles? Core game has about 5 or 6, then every supplement has 2-3 or 4-5, with the exception of Swordsman's Guild, which has more styles than you can count, some of which are recaps, of course.

I do love sorcery in the game and despite accusations it's OP, they actually open the way for creative uses by just making the stats on those represent your capacity to wield the power itself. El Fuego Adentro can wreck ships from the inside out, you can take all the treasure from a ship by using Porte, Avalon could let you evade Reis' murderboat crew, etc. Only Pyeryem, I think, is more or less useless. Even the supposedly extinct Eisen magical art is more useful.

One can never go wrong with salt.

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.