Best posts made by Derp

@Devrex said in Artificially Slowing Character Growth:

"You may only raise this stat again in X days" system hardcoded right in might be the only sensible answer.

Admittedly this is my preferred option, though I tend to like playing the long game when it comes to MU rather than racing to the top. I also understand that I am in a tiny, tiny minority of people where this is true.

@Tirit said in Artificially Slowing Character Growth:

Keeping the analogy of Player A and Player B starting at the same time. Player A rush and raises Attribute X (or skill) to level 5 (arbitrary number). Level 1 to 2 takes 2 days. 2 to 3 takes 4 days, 3 to 4 takes 8 days, 4 to 5 takes 16 days. As Player B grows he can marginally catch up during these cool down days. I don't see them every fully catching up.

Yeah, that's always the downside. How do you keep players from feeling like they're being punished for being active while still keeping them from just buying up all the stuff to steamroller all over everyone? Some of the best ways I've seen to do this include having what you mentioned, cooldown timers. If that xp spend cost <X>, then you have to wait <X> * <interval> before you can raise it again, but it doesn't stop you from buying anything else in the meantime.

@Misadventure said in Artificially Slowing Character Growth:

Give players a set number of xps. Thats where they can get to.

Fate's Harvest did this, and it actually worked surprisingly well (while I was there, anyway, I don't know what became of it after or whether they even still do this.) It even had an interesting way of rewarding "extra" activity via the Tix system.

@auspice

I can't draw worth a damn. I probably could if I put some practice into it, because I used to do okay in high school. But I haven't for so long now that I don't know that I'd be able to do what I used to do.

BUT. That said, one of the things that I used to do, when I got tired of drawing off of references, was draw off of references -- but add something, or change something.

At first it was little things. Find a picture, maybe change the way their hair looked a bit. Draw some fruit, but draw a defect on it, or add a branch. A bowl. A sticker. Whatever.

Over time, you can start to draw less of the reference and more of what you see in your mind's eye. Eventually, you'll be able to just sort of draw whatever from whatever.

I know that it sounds like it could be tedious. It probably would be, honestly. But it would also be rewarding, in that you would be consistently drawing, and at least engaging your imagination a little bit.

So find a person you think looks nice, and draw them. Maybe with wings. Or a sword.

Draw a car, but give it human eyes instead of headlights. Make it look angry. Or sexy.

It's another version of 'just draw', yes. I don't think there's any getting around that. But at least it's just draw with both a -purpose- and a -plan-. Which is what is really gonna make this whole thing work for you, if it goes the same for you as it does for me.

@Arkandel said in What Would it Take to Repair the Community?:

Of course there are different points of view and philosophies. I don't think they are nearly as incompatible as you make them out to be - otherwise MSB would have imploded years ago.

I suppose that I'll firmly disagree with you on this as well, then. Because plenty of us had noticed that there was a growing incompatibility on this forum, and that one group was routinely shouted down for not agreeing with the more vocal group. Several people in this thread alone have mentioned it.

That isn't a difference of opinion. That is, as someone on the other board put it, a fundamentally incompatible philosophy about what these games are about, how they should be run, and who should have a voice in them. Debating the standards of exclusion isn't just academic. The people in these circles hold grudges for literal decades filled with harassment for slights both real and imagined, and usually on nothing more than the social currency of which-group-dislikes-who.

I don't expect you to see it, because of where you're situated in the community and the ideals that you hold to when it comes to administration, but it should be telling that every administration after yours reined in some of those policies to offset some of those volatile excesses. Until you've been on the receiving end of the results of those policies, you can't really claim enough experience with them to call them compatible. It's easy to say that "they aren't that incompatible." You're not the one constantly being attacked and browbeaten for refusing to get on board with the normalization of ostracization based on nothing more than an accusation.

@skew said in Crescent Moon Mux / New Orleans CoD Mux:

So, when we refer to "Chronicles of Darkness", it's not nWoD 2E. It's nWoD, by Onyx Path marketing lingo. We'd technically need to refer to CofD 1E vs CofD 2E to differentiate between the 2004 book and the 2015 core rulebook.

While this might be technically correct, I think the point is also kind of moot, since 1e was discontinued with the coming of the 2e and THEN it was rebranded as Chronicles of Darkness. So no new content will be released under 1e, making CHronicles an exclusively 2e enterprise.

So I think it's perfectly fair to refer to 2e as Chronicles, and not 1e, as that is the understanding of most of its players.

@arkandel said in Good TV:

Motherfuckers, have you read the Illiad?

You have no idea how many times I have said that in RL.

Patroclus and Achilles weren't hetero life mates. Come on. That's made abundantly clear.

Here's my take on it:

PC Death doesn't make the game better. If anything, you're going to end up driving off players who won't take any action because they're risk-averse. This is one of the things that I vehemently disagreed with the gamerunner on at the last place I staffed. It doesn't make it better. It just makes it so that players feel like their time and investments are going to be wasted, and "chargen is easy" is not an offset for the story and investment that you've put into that character being gone and needing to start from scratch.

Having people who have stuck around on the game be more powerful / have more xp than new people is not a bad thing, and I'll die on that hill. People should be rewarded for investment and loyalty. Period. If new players want to catch up to the older players they can either wait until the natural cycle of attrition takes them there or be more active to get more incentives.

Positions aren't tied to xp or longevity. Positions, like most political things, ebb and flow as characters lose interest in those positions and new people cycle through them, or the older people are forced out by a sheer lack of support for whatever vision they have. Catchup xp is completely and utterly unrelated to who holds what position. Having a position doesn't guarantee competence, just popularity (or lack of opposition).

TL;DR -- Insisting that PCs gotta die sometime is dumb and doesn't have any actual practical benefit. It's just a way to demoralize your players.

@Aria

To be completely honest, it's really hit or miss. It's hard to pin down when players are going to be both on and active. we have a relatively small playerbase compared to a lot of the previous WoD games, and getting people out RPing has been something of a battle since it opened.

That said, the way we have it structured, you don't have to wait on staff to run stuff to get xp for things. Staff plots aren't even necessarily better sources of xp. we have a pretty generous system of beat incentives that let people get to various places using a variety of paths.

I have an event schedule up for Mage, right now mostly consisting of introductory Order stuff and getting people some exposure to the main overarching Mysteries of Portland.

So if you've got friends, bring them. Try to coordinate. I cannot guarantee any specific time for RP. I really wish I could. I have no idea what's driving the passiveness right now, whether it's seasonal or burnout or what, but we've got new blood that are eager to get their story on, and a lot of mages with some pretty fantastic concepts. I'm hoping that we can get the sphere hopping once people get settled in.

So, I work for DCS's legal department. We have over 300 kids in our system right now, and there are two of us handling cases.

And today, I get a file. Mom and dad are in the system because... they smoke some pot on the weekends. And an anonymous tipster turns this in. And we are legally obligated to act on this information.

Fucking seriously? THIS is what you think DCS should be using its resources for? Shaming something that is quickly gaining traction on legalization?

Let me assure you, we have better things to do. Like help kids who get the crap beat out of them, or molested, or who haven't eaten this week.

Offenses to you delicate sensibilities are the next office over.

@ZombieGenesis said in The All-New Down With OPP Thread:

For what it's worth, it's on my game that some folk think he's popped up on. I managed to get DWOPP's IP from another game he's been banned on, they don't match.

Not definitive, obviously, but a strike against falling skies and impending doom.

@Lithium said in The All-New Down With OPP Thread:

But honestly, having my IP supposedly 'linked' to DWOPP? I don't care how it looks, I'm /not/ that person, and to suggest it is insulting. Especially along with all the other baseless accusations.

One of these things is not like the other.

@Cobaltasaurus

A lot of the players I have talked to found this to be helpful:

http://www.voidstate.com/rpg/mage-spell-helper/

You may or may not find use for it, but sliders and click things that spit you out info at the bottom at least give something visual to work with.

@ganymede said in Random Oddness or 'Is This Normal?':

Please go see a neurologist.

Probably the only free advice you'll ever get from an attorney. Do as the lawyerbot says.

@Ghost

Yeah, that’s kind of the vibe I’m getting too, to be honest.

I read the logs. I see nothing wrong. I see two people wanting to play an edgy romance with broken people, and two players who were clearly consenting to what was going down.

Apparently, out of the blue, Isaac feels uncomfortable — even though he continues with the RP and even suggests going further than what was previously suggested?

There’s definitely something missing here.

Pure Conjecture Follows

I will say that during my times with Cobalt, it would not at all surprise me if what went down was something closer to this:

Cobalt is interested in Isaac. Cobalt expresses that interest. Isaac reciprocates but is also doing so with various other people, which Cobalt finds out about and takes offense to. Cobalt confronts Isaac, who throws @Macha under the bus by saying how he thought it would be fine but now it’s all weird and stuff, and so Cobalt instantly goes on the offensive, declaring him an undeserved victim of harassment and removing the impediment to her amorous desires problem player. She then finds out about others, and suddenly her ‘victim of harassment’ is ‘on a ban watchlist for harem building’, because that’s the only way to save face at that point.

This dude is very clearly not a victim of anything, unless you count unusual verb tense choices. There’s definitely something more. And, as I said, the above is pure conjecture, but it tracks with historical precedent, so it would not at all surprise me.

Take it all with a huge grain of salt. I think that sufficient receipts have been provided to disprove the theory that he was the innocent victim of harassment and that Macha is some kind of monstrous boogeyman, personally, but you do you.

@Meg said in Armageddon MUD:

eta: and i'm not saying 'every bad person in the world'. but is your job as a staffer to protect your players against the staffers you hired or the players you have on your game? i think yes.

I think no. My job, as a staffer, is to ensure the rules of the game are followed and that people are given the tools to help control their own experience, to the extent that I am capable of doing so.

If someone is harassing you via MSB, then that is the problem of the MSB Admins, because it occurs in that space. You can block them. You can report them. The MSB Admins can determine what steps they wish to approach.

If that behavior bleeds over into the game, then I can take the necessary steps because I have that toolset, and it is explicitly against our game's policies.

Here is the thing: It is not my job to protect you from a player. It is my job to uphold the standards that we set for behaviors in our environment. That is the key difference. I am not here to mother hen between two people and show people acceptable life behaviors on either side, because frankly, it's none of my business and I am not qualified to do so in any event. I'm here to enforce the rules of the game.

You break the rules of the game, you're in my arena.

You want to be a fucking weirdo outside of the game, then that becomes a matter for whoever controls that space, or potentially law enforcement. I take no ownership of whatever you do in those arenas.

PROTIP: You don't want someone being fucking weird at you outside of the game, don't give them that info. If you suspect that they have received that info through illicit means, then I can try to investigate, I guess, but my ability to do so is extremely limited, so. Just don't.

@auspice said in Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff:

What'd they do this week? Decide that, despite me only being on a particular project for 4-10 hours a week, on weekends, I was going to be one of 5 'test agents' to start taking calls.
What the ever living fuck you fucking donkey lickers

Just refuse. Cite medical necessity. You've got the documentation for it. If they try and take retributive action, you've got a mile of proof that their actions were unreasonable given the circumstances.

@Cobalt said in Ruiz:

I’m really tired of this particular community using the fact that I engaged in sexual RP in the past to shame me or question my judgments.

To be clear, it's not slut shaming. I don't give a shit who you get down with, or don't. I actively encourage people to bang it out with whoever they want.

My question wasn't about sex. It's about boundaries and using positions of authority to gatekeep RP and leverage your own desires, sometimes crossing into territory that the community has a whole has considered unethical for some time.

So fly your freak flag high. Nobody is slut-shaming. But dipping your toes into a situation as an admin that your PC has a stake in? Not a good thing to do, and something that we should all be questioning more. The fact that, in my experience, you do it more with romantic situations is really entirely tangential to the point, not the focus.

As for playing on one of your games, I haven't done that since Darkwater, and don't plan to. Ever. Not only for the reasons Reimesu mentioned, but also because I respect you as a player and a coder, but think you're a garbage decision maker. I'm sure you have even less respect for me than that anymore, so it'd be foolish to pretend that we were ever going be copacetic in any scenario.

You do you. I'll do me. We'll both continue living the same as before.

@faraday said in Armageddon MUD:

While I agree with you that it's ultimately subjective, I think your example misses the mark a bit. As @L-B-Heuschkel points out, you're describing an ICly harsh environment. That says nothing about the OOC atmosphere.

Sorry, maybe I was missing what I was trying to say:

In this instance, the judgment against the players would be OOC because they are embracing one of those uncomfortable topics (slavery/abuse/loss of agency/whatever) that many people like to set up as 'you are a reprehensible person OOC if you support or engage in this behavior, even IC'. Once upon a time, we had very clear lines between the IC and the OOC, but those started to bleed ages and ages.

And thus, there's no clear line on what is or is not objectively terrible or permissible because it's all pretty damn dependent.

Like you replied later, the key is expectations -- letting people know what they're getting into, and getting their agreement.

@surreality

Pfft. You hold out for that. I will hold out for this:

No idea who that is, feels like a bot, but I don't have the time or the patience for it so banned.

@Jaunt said:

We've received both levels of criticism on this thread. The former will be responded to kindly and thoughtfully. The later will be responded to with the same level of ironic vitriol that it deserves.

No, it's not. The fact that you think this is precisely the reason I hope that the far more reasonable @Jeshin cuts you the hell off from posting here. You're making him, and his site, look absolutely terrible.

Do you not understand what the difference is, here? The difference is that you came here. If someone from this site were to go to yours and behave as you've behaved here, we would absolutely respond to them here just as we've responded to you. We didn't go to your site and demand that you change. YOU came HERE to advertise your site, then refused (all three of you) to participate in any sort of actual discussion (meaning give-and-take on ideas, not simple acknowledgement of their existence), which is precisely what this forum is for.

If you don't understand -that-, then you are even more deluded than I thought you were. I didn't have a horse in this race, at all, until you came along starting in with your bullshit. Get a clue -- this is our community, that is theirs, and if you want to advertise -here-, you need to engage the players here on what they want to see and discuss. And yes, DISCUSS. Compromise if necessary.

If you're unwilling to do that, then I have to agree with the others -- go the hell away and stop making Jeshin look bad, because right now you are here in an official capacity for your site, and you're acting like a miserable twat.

So, I didn't really know Ixokai, but I know plenty of people who did, who are currently feeling losses from this.

So I figured -- rather than use this thread to express concern or grief, maybe those of you with fond memories of Ixokai should share some of those favorite moments? It might help. It might not. I dunno. It's a though!