Best posts made by Derp

@Chime said:

@Derp That's likely a function of which games are correctly configured to autostart. Yell at @thenomain, maybe...

He'll probably ask me to fix it tho.

Internet cookies to whoever fixes it first.

I have a pretty narrow section of themes I like to read, but I would be down.

So one of the big problems of mage is that people often forget that the Practices take years to learn, and for every arcanum they are different. More time needs to be devoted on-screen to experimentation with them, and learning to master them, and less time spent on just buying up arcana. Rotes are a great way to represent mastery of a spell, but a Practice is mastery of a -concept-. Instead of buying arcana, consider charging per Practice, with the low-dot versions all needing to be mastered before the high dot versions, and having a requisite number of rotes-per-Practice/Arcanum combo before you can Level Up to the next arcanum dot.

Ooh. I would be down for either of those. Dark Sun / Ravenloft, make it happen!

@il-volpe

Are you using mux? You could do an @dol and edit the children() of the thing.

So something like:

@dol children(<DBRef of Parent>) = @edit ##/<wild-attr> = <search>,<replace>

@Auspice said in The Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo:

@lordbelh said in The Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo:

@Auspice said in The Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo:

I've been swapping between it and the second Expanse novel and I've all but forgotten about the Expanse book for the moment.

I'm the opposite. I started reading Ninth House, while also reading a bit of the Expanse, and I ended up dropping Ninth House for the time being. Not that it was bad, it's just that I got totally engrossed with the Expanse. I'm almost done with the series, tho, so I'll soon be returning to Ninth House.

I'm only on book 2 of Expanse and I feel like I need to just sit down and devote a few hours to it vs my fits and bursts of bus reading.

I haven't read those, I just saw the first season of the show, but I want to read them so bad. I need to get through The Dark Defiles first though.

So to take this back to the actual topic of the thread, sexual themes in RP, I admit to not really understanding how and why some things are allowed, some things are banned, some things are stigmatized more than others, etc. Just to get it out of the way first, so that I can go into other points and hopefully people won't focus on this one specific aspect -- re: rape RP? Eh. I can take it or leave it. It's not personally my bag, but I can see ways in which it can be used to further someone's storyline in a way that they find enjoyable, especially in regards to being pressed into a situation worthy of 'adapt or suffer'. It could make an excellent Awakening to Pandaemonium, if that's what the player wanted, or a fantastic trauma for the First Change to occur. If this is what you wanna get out of RP, then this is what you wanna get out of RP. If you have someone willing to help you with that story, more power to you. But it should probably be at least moderately consent-based if it's just a random physical act with no character development options agreed upon by the character. And that is the extent of my opinion on that particular line of thinking. Ergo, moving on to the things I find more interesting!

NOW, for the more interesting stuff, which I will likely break up into a couple of different posts for reasons of length:

There are plenty of other things that sexual content can be used for in RP, and not all of them are just writing porn on screen. Now, before we go further, let's assume the standard MU line that:

All players agree that they are eighteen years of age or older and understand that Mature themes and content are going to follow from this game:

With that out of the way, let's talk about some of the ways that sexuality could be used in a game.

As a character development tool - Believe it or not, this can be done. This can be done to fantastic effect. I've taught entire arcane philosophies (the philosophy of the Adamantine Arrow lends itself particularly well to this) through the use of sex, tension, and the exchanges of energy, with or without the accompanying magic and drugs. It's completely do-able. Hell, it's more enjoyable, more personal, and more spiritual in that sort of setting, IMO, because it stresses the fact that there are facets to the occult that stray outside of the readily obvious, connections that can be made between Thing A and Thing B in ways that can inspire both pleasure and pain, passion and fear. So, to respond to @Thenomain's thing earlier, you absolutely can do this and still be mindful of the Abyss. You can even use it as a way to teach about the Abyss. And you can do it in ways that don't even remotely border on the Abyss. It all depends on what you want to inspire.

As a means to an end - Sex can be used, in story, in a wide variety of settings. Perhaps your character is not above using sex to blackmail another person with the videotape that you made of it. Perhaps your character likes you pull the honey trap maneuvers and use it to leverage your own goals into place. Perhaps your character really needs some sort of escape, or you have some sort of hedonistic vice that lets you benefit from this while exploring your character's psyche.

Whatever the case, you can surely benefit from this type of RP, and given how geared the WoD has been toward sexual themes, even strange and deviant sexual themes like the girl that basically dry humps her brother while feeding off of him (true story. Vampire 2.0, I'm looking at you), so incorporating any of these into your own RP should not be stigmatized. It's just as valid a part of the game as any other, and seems to even be actively encouraged because of the mood that they can evoke. At the end of the day we're all adults. We are at least old enough to be able to find Pornhub. The fact that someone gets a blowjob on screen, or poses a supernaturally sensual encounter, is not beyond the realm of reason.

@Silver said:

Doxxing is exposing the real life identifying information of people in order to intimidate or harass them, such as has been done to some of the victims of the GamerGate fools. Nobody should ever do that, but it's not the same as saying X person has been kicked off the game for harassing other players.

Ah. My bad. I had never come across this term. I thought it was the same as the bboard posts above. Good to know! And yes, that's shitty.

Is this for every exit? If so, you can do:

@dol search(type = exit) = @edit ##/attribute = search,replace

@Auspice said in Books...Books...Books....:

@Alamias said in Books...Books...Books....:

Lets just hope it isn't another six years before the next book drops.

It probably won't be. It was so long this time because Butcher was going through Some Shit. He had a lot to deal with in his personal life.

A former MUSH-er had to take an extended hiatus from fantasy stuff to deal with their RL and it took a hell of a long time?

I have never heard of such a thing! I am shocked. SHOCKED.

<.< >.>

Part 2 of this -- how players tend to react to these things. That continues to baffle me. I can understand the take it or leave it sorts. That is a completely understandable thing. If it does not appeal to you, it does not appeal to you. Even reacting badly IC to IC actions is fine. It's some of the OOC that I dont'get.

Player A (male) ICly flirst with Player B (also male).

Player B gets nervous and dodgy IC, giving signs that this is not for him.

Perhaps player B even is cool enough to go 'OOC - No judgments here, man, but that's really not my bag! I can't get interested in it, it has no appeal for me, I'm bad at it, I have a bad history with it. Nothing against you, but it's just not a thing that can happen. We cool?"

Player A OOC - Oh, yeah man! I apologize for that. I didn't mean to squick you. How about we just assume that my player can figure out without weird empathy rolls that this isn't gonna fly and switches gears/

Player B OOC - Excellent, bro! I can live with that OR Demons are really good liars, so it wouldn't show, but we could maybe have this other thing happen to the same effect?

Player A - Dude, that rocks. So easy!

Courtesy, respect, communication. It goes a long way!

Now, I personally am OK with RPing out alternate things, and figuring out the -why- of it later. Magic does exist. It can affect a character in life-altering ways. Maybe Player B was never attracted to men before, but he feels strangely compelled. So it happens, and he wakes up, and he never feels that way about anyone again, even for that one person. But there was one awesome/strange/magical/nightmarish time... how? Why? Why not?

It's a roleplaying game. Exploration of different character concepts is, for me, what makes it fun. For some people, that's not where their fun lies. No shame on either sides, but there could be more civility in the matter.

@il-volpe

I am firmly of the mind that in games where communication through text is the only form of medium one can use to transmit information, there are other things that have to come into play that wouldn't normally come into play at the regular gaming table, some of which I find to be highly lacking among staffers.

Being able to clearly articulate your decision is an important skill, for one. Please know the exact scope of the problem that you're attempting to address, and craft a rule based on that scope. Please, please do not just arbitrarily throw up a rule with vague wording and a broad scope and consider it done, because you may have created even more problems than what you just solved, especially if you're playing World of Darkness games. There are so many places when where you could break something by being overly broad, or overly vague. Be specific, and tailor the rule to the exact specifications to address the problem. Expand it later if necessary.

In the same vein, and in my opinion more importantly, include the reasoning that went into the creation of the rule in the first place. If you are using a wiki, this is the perfect use for the discussion tab of your house rules page. You can keep the rule there, as is, but put the thought process in the discussion page so that not only the players but also your future staffers know why the rule was created, what circumstances it was intended to solve, etc. I've seen dozens of examples of people saying 'oh, well, this rule might not make sense to you, but it made sense to us at the time' and nobody can explain what whimsical flight of imaginative fancy generated it in the first place. Staffers feel constrained to keep it in place because they don't know the history, players get upset if it's removed without some reference as to what's replacing the rule, because those who were around for its inception remember that there was a problem (but rarely can they remember what it was, or tell you how this fixed it beyond "It totally threw a wrench in the gears of the mechanic that did it!"). In short, decisions without adequate documentation that is available to those who are affected by it is poor form.

I've heard complaints by staffers to the effect of "Well, we don't feel like making everything public." This is also poor form. It's a public game, in most instances. You don't have to divulge every dirty secret that happens behind the ST screen (for instance, player names can be changed to protect the innocent or not-so-innocent), but the methodologies employed should absolutely be visible. Staffers also like to sometimes use the idea that players will reject the reasoning of the rule, and so not make those details public. I find this equally silly. Players are intelligent, and they are as invested and well-versed in the game as the staff is. Sometimes even moreso. . Those processes should be open to player review if for no other reason than it is perfectly likely that one of your players could craft a better alternative than the one that the staffers did. This is not something to be feared. This is something to be encouraged. This means that your players are active, participatory, and feel like they have the power to make real contributions to the gaming environment. That is an excellent way to encourage player participation.

All of these things will contribute to a better gaming environment by keeping both players and staff, present and future, in the loop as to what information is necessary in order to gauge the environment they're playing in, which in turn should lead to much less confusion about what is or is not above the board, both in reality and appearance.

@Bobotron

I'm just gonna defer to Bobo here, because I keep forgetting you're using Penn.

@misadventure said in Books...Books...Books....:

Same issue, but more about mental energy.

Dracula sits at 65%. I started to re-read it along with my spouse so we could talk about it, and compare it to the various Dracula and vampire movies we've been watching because October was approach, October is now.

Dracula is in a format that almost nobody uses anymore, and you kind of have to have an appteciation for that sort of evidentiary storytelling style.

And Part 3 - The weird diversity of what's considered acceptable content on things like wikis.

I mean, I get it, in part. People want fairly clean standards to make it all pretty. But some people have no guidelines on it at all past 'no kiddie porn or bestiality' which makes figuring out what is and is not kosher mostly a matter of riding the waves of opinion.

Some allow files to be marked as NSFW or put into galleries/pages clearly marked NSFW. I like this option the best. I wish everyone used it.

Some even have rather conservative requirements, almost to the point where they coul dbe hindersome to specific concepts, such as 'exposed buttocks cannot be shown'. I mean, I sort of get it, but that's a pretty widely accepted form of nudity now. You can even see i on the WB. So it seems strange to disallow it outright, rather than make clear guidelines for inclusion/display.

In-game files are often much less help, as it seems devs are super duper not wanting to touch that kind of a news file generally with anything really helpful or middle ground.

So... that's my opening thoughts. Anyone got anything related to those??

@tat said in What's out there now and what has been attempted? A codebase discussion.:

There's no modern client on PCs that handles spawns nicely, to my knowledge (and good lord if there is one, please point me to it).

I guess this depends on what you mean by 'nicely'. Potato handles spawns just fine.

On the flip side of this, it's possible to create rooms with locks. If you wanna do something so very private that no one else can know about it ever (and good luck with that on a MU anyway), then go to a room locked to you and only invite people in that you plan on doing secret things with. OR, do them in a temproom, which would theoretically make recalling the poses there impossible once its destroyed.

Just because people can pull up poses in a room doesn't necessarily make it The Devil. Players have some actions they can take to be accountable for themselves as well, and make it difficult to get things that they deem should be private without elevated permissions. And if those are the people you're worried about, then it's my understanding that ways of doing this already exist without a softcoded system in place.

YMMV, but damn, sometimes the paranoia is kind of laughable.

@three-eyed-crow

Yeah, agreed. Children is fine, and God-Emperor is weird, but whatever. But that's always where I stop.

See, I think that the standard model of metaplot kind of works in the wrong direction.

Metaplot - If we're talking about some sort of themely undercurrent to the city that causes the city to have a specific mood and flavor, this is great, but people usually call that theme. If you're talking about a grid-wide plot that everyone and their uncle's goat can get in on, this is where you start to run into problems with management and credulity. Often, there are so many people involved here that trying to get everyone feeling like they're part of the Endgame either makes it laughably dangerous to the point nobody wants to risk it, or makes it mind-numbingly complex for the people running it. But plot seems to be built from this top-down structure, and I don't think that should work like that. Have that mystical undercurrent, or whatever, sure, but don't make it -approachable-. Make it the framework of everything in the game, and use the smaller plots that come from that efficiently.

Character plots should be the focus of anyone's RP. Things that characters/groups of dedicated RP circles (Pack, Coterie, Ring, etc) can get in on. Have these plots mostly run by the players themselves. The responsibility of an ST would be to find and oversee a group of reasonably connected Groups and help them tie their stories together in interesting ways from time to time, and run bigger things that these groups could get involved with from time to time. Don't make it grid-wide, make it 2 or 3 different Groups, each with an ST responsible for them. Or make ST's responsible for certain game areas.

In turn, the St would report to whoever is controlling the overarching mood of the game, and that mood could change appropriately over time. Mystical flows get disrupted and cause weird changes, which could spark all new stories. You don't want to do this too often, because you want players to feel like they can build stability, but you also want to give them something fresh to sink their teeth into.

I feel that building it up from the bottom and just having that interact in ways with the overall atmosphere of the game would A) help with the burnout that people feel when they feel that the fun of an entire sphere/game is their burden and theirs alone, and b) make plots far more reasonable, and give people reasons to interact without having to artificially stretch the stories to include every single person in the funsies. If there are Groupless PCs, maybe assign a couple of them per ST too, especially ones that seem like they could work well with/within other groups.

That would also be the danger of not being a member of a Group. This encourages players to work together as well, instead of soloing it for all eternity.

So... largely, I feel that the current -framework- around which we define plots could be changed, and I do agree with @thenomain. Those times when you and a friend are out doing things, making rolls, and forming a mutual story is just as much creation of a story as what is normally called plot, and should be rewarded for creativity just the same.

TL;DR - +1 @thenomain -- why are we stuck with this model/

@mietze said:

I tend to avoid STing with my PC involved unless it's for a small group that is like a playgroup ( (pack/coterie/motley) and there's only me or maybe one other person who's comfortable STing so there's no real chance of round-robining and there's no game- or sphere-wide implications.

I generally agree with you, save for one difference. Even if there is a chance of round-robining it, leaving out people all the time and having to figure out reasons for that is especially taxing, and there will always be those characters who are like 'you aren't pulling your weight' when the STing inevitably leans heavier on one person than another. Packs and groups of things like that, your character should absolutely be there, and you guys can even co-ST stuff. One of the most fun things I've ever done in a MU with another person was just two people, RPing basically at randing, playing off of each other's poses to create a story involving two characters. It turned out to be an intensely eerie scene. It was great. We just judged stuff for each other, and cooperated. There is nothing saying in the rules that you absolutely have to be killing each other all the time. It's about the fun.

@Ganymede said:

All I'm suggesting is that we stop calmly red-lining initiatives to give staff a little more faith as a matter of course. We've been kidding ourselves that we can curb abuses through policies or code.

Frankly, the code has come far enough that unless you have access to God and the server itself, cheating is next to impossible. With everything backed up through SQL and such, not stored on the game itself, it's next to literally impossible to cheat with things like xp. Staffers could do their own xp jobs just with other staffers occasionally peeking at their xp/log. I'm not advocating this on any current games, mind you. The policies are there and still in place, even if they're not written. It's just considered good etiquette. But it could be done with very little overhead or worry, unless your game-head is the one with their fingers in the pies, and then let's face it, you're kinda screwed anyway.

Staff can generally be trusted to administrate fairly. It's the split-second judgment calls that sometimes need to be reviewed. They're all players on the same game, after all, and all have an investment in making sure the playing field starts level and stays that way.