Best posts made by Derp

@Wretched

I still thankfully have a go-to for this:

"Pass the bar and work on gaining practical legal experience in the hopes of making a greater difference in my community."

Is it canned? Yes. Is it exactly the kind of bullshit they want? Yes.

I am firmly convinced this question only exists to determine whether you can think on your feet and engage in the sort of bullshitting that comes with office diplomacy.

Turnover is a real thing that people put into their models, you will never convince me this is truly a question about longevity.

@Ghost said in How to Escape the OOC Game:

I believe that there is very little actual real damage that happens in this hobby and that cases of cruel behavior, stalking, and cheating at games are the actual offenses.

You know, I'm just gonna put this out here:

I agree with Ghost on this. And I want to take it one step further.

Yes, there are some bad actors out there, but ultimately, in almost every instance, they cannot actually hurt you. It's words, on a screen, on a game. You always have the option to walk away. There are some very rare exceptions to this, such as @Sunny's thing with her ex, I suppose, but the vast majority of the time? The only power these people have over you are the power that you give them.

And so, with that, I think that some of you are invested way too deeply in this shit. Like, to an unhealthy level. Sure, there are bad actors out there that do questionable things, but if you're letting them have so much power over you that they can cause you long-term anxiety issues, this level of paranoia, and anger that lasts for literal years, you maybe need to reevaluate how deep into this particular rabbit hole you've gone.

Someone else said that they think emotional distance is one of the problems with the hobby. I concur with the thought, but not the conclusion. You need emotional distance. You need to not be so invested in this stuff that a setback or a loss is an emotional devastation. If you have anxiety so badly that you are constantly on the lookout for X or Y person, and the very thought of maybe, just maybe running across them causes you actual distress?

You need to step away.

Go make an RL friend. Find an alternate hobby. Take up video games. Something. But for the love of god, realize that this level of investment in and of itself is also a problematic behavior, and a sign of instability.

Just -- detach, people. For everyone's good.

...a non-violent burning down of a federal building...

I think @bored has it right on this.

But what's more, this could easily be misused by people just interested in controlling the scene to more easily meet their whims.

I'd be pretty firm against something like this, personally. If others wanna give it a shot, then by all means, but I already feel like there are too many people constantly bringing their RL into the gaming environment in manipulative ways.

@silverfox said in The Work Thread:

@Derp

It literally isn't safe. There is no precaution i could take with seven year olds to make it safe. I have 25 kids in the smallest classroom in my building.

It is security theater and nothing more.

I mean, here is wisdom from my mother:

Mom: "I have twenty five four year olds in my class. Any day I can keep them from licking each other? That is a good day."

@Ghost said in Sexuality: IC and OOC:

but they're probably looking at your penis because they could have said that from the urinal on the far side.

Since this is a sexuality thread, and we are having a pretty open discussion...

Like... I think I may be the only man I know that just doesn't mind people looking at my dick. I mean, I'm not anything special, really. Never really had a complex about it. I've caught people staring, and they're all 'sorry' and do that 'look away in shame' thing.

Guys check each other's junk out all the time. All the time. I don't care what your sexuality is, it's reflex. Junk comes out, eyes go there.

But we have somehow not yet normalized this behavior, and an entire culture of shame exists around it.

What the fuck?

@Auspice , this one is for you:

Pikachu and Bulbasaur Xenomorph

@Ghost said in Sexuality: IC and OOC:

@Derp I hear ya. It's weird. There's definitely a culture of shame surrounding glancing and comparing. It's a thing and everyone knows that it happens, but like a lot of things it has this weird spooky shame factor. At the urinal it's kind of weird though because it's an awkward state of things.

I've been having a lot of conversations with my SO lately about things like that. Generally speaking, she likes to point out how a lot of girls are more comfortable touching each other than men are (braiding hair, sleep overs, sharing beds, etc), and so many men are weird about even SITTING next to each other.

I think there's a whole metric ton of psychology and philosophy piled into why that is, and I have my own take on it that is probably far better discussed over coffee than on MSB.

I would legit meet you for coffee to discuss, lol. If you're ever in my part of the country drop me a line.

@Aria said in Random funny:

This made me choke on my Coke Zero at work and my boss though I was dying. I hate you.

@Arkandel said in What MU/RPG opinions have you changed or maintained?:

Another example is games which simply copy house rules or policies from other MU*, a tactic that can result in perpetuated systemic issues, mixed signals and conflicting goals if other aspects of those games don't match them.

Tangential peeve to this one: when people have been playing under weird house rules for so long that they insist that they're the actual base rules.

For instance one sphere can be ran very liberally ("spend your XPs, y'all!") while another in a draconian fashion ("to buy Renown 3 you need to cut yourself and show me the wound") or treat PrPs as an afterthought or even a net negative - and all of that results in isolationism, not being able to create any kind of sustainable culture not to mention - quite often - a revolting door of staff who come in and go right back out.

Here's where I disagree with you, though.

In a multisphere game, you're actually running overlapping games. Because those things aren't created equal, and we've seen that time and time again.

A vampiric discipline, for example, is a discreet thing. It has a set, fixed purpose to it. The same with a devotion.

Renown, on the other hand, touches on so many aspects of werewolf and gives so many benefits (increased rank, increased 'status', free gifts, larger dice pools, the list goes on and on -- Renown touches on literally every part of werewolf) that you're not talking about buying even remotely the same kind of thing. In that case, 1xp does not equal 1xp, and treating them like they're the same thing, or should be the same thing, is a ludicrous way to unbalance your game very fast.

Not all things are equal, and therefore you shouldn't try to treat them like they are. Some things have a hell of a lot more bang for their buck, and those things should be gated appropriately.

@Apos said in Getting Young Blood Into MU*'ing:

But most people honestly don't.

Bull.. Shit.

Most people see this kind of behavior all the time. They've just never worked in the environments you mentioned before, which teach you to actively recognize and respond to it. They're happy to go on ignoring it like they never noticed, but I don't believe for a second that they've never seen it, or that those maladaptive behaviors are not the norm.

Pick up pretty much any kind of psychology book and you'll see why this statement doesn't hold an ounce of water.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

@mietze said in MU*, Youth, and LGBT+ Identity:

More broadly, we do have this discussion pop up frequently around racism/homophobia in particular and "historic era" or "history era inspired" mushes too. That's an often uncomfortable one to negotiate too, but again eventually the staff or gamerunner are going to pick the parameters and they may be realistic in some ways but not in others, and the players are just going to have to deal with it or not play there.

I mean, this crops up in fantasy too. Dark Sun, for example. It's one of my favorite DnD campaign settings. Very low magic, very harsh conditions, very survival oriented Mad Max style.

Also, it has a shitload of slavery and genocide and persecution in general.

People tend to get their hackles up about that one. But you take those out and you're no longer playing Dark Sun, because those things are as integral to the setting as interpersonal conflict is to Mad Max.

Sometimes, you can't win 'em all.

@Cassite @silverfox

Here. Have a pupper in a drawer.

@Runescryer said in Carnival Row:

Also, there's always the option of a player establishing their own, rival business.

This sounds all well and good until every single PC wants to run their own.

Learn from WoD games. Don't let them all have nightclub brothel apartments.

@HelloProject said in Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff:

I've lost about 30 pounds in the last two months, due to suddenly shifting to a permanently better way of eating, and also working out a lot and lifting weights.

I mean, not to bring up potentially awkward things from other threads, but:

Buff + Clown = Cirque du Soleil, and dude. That would be badass.

Also remember that systems are an abstraction. Two people rarely stand face to face and swing swords at each other in succession, and 'attacks per round' is really more 'maximum hits per round'. Make it entertaining. Have them swing and parry, or make some flourishes.

Avoid mortal wounds unless you take them down to dying health. Most HP damage can be expressed as smaller cuts and bruises, burns, whatev.

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

@derp I'm still pissed that they discontinued/made impossible to find Diet Dr Pepper Cherry. That stuff was bomb.

Man, I miss Cherry Vanilla stuff.

@Lotherio said in Staff scrutiny during CGen:

If a player makes some concept that infringes on others fun, and the others stop playing with them, and then they do not have fun ... then staff failed to ensure the player has a good time.

Double post for ... what? There is only so much that staff can glean from a sheet and a background. I've seen brilliant sheets with players that turned out to be total morons who couldn't read a room and find the flow if their life depended on it, not that they actually tried. Brilliant sheets tend to come from people very focused on their own character, to the exclusion of all else.

Staff can only take so much of a hand in things. If you get a character through CG that follows the rules but then you play them in a way that infringes on the fun of others, staff hasn't failed to ensure you have fun. You're just an asshole.