Best posts made by Derp

I mean, some of this is stuff that used to exist once upon a time ago, and was abandoned for specific and various reasons.

Like the 'specialized staff' concepts. Once upon a time, games used to have app staff, plot staff, theme staff, player relations staff, etc. I don't remember what the arguments were against it, but I remember it was widespread, and then it suddenly wasn't. Like, seemingly overnight that setup was abandoned in favor of more generalists.

The rest of this has various high and low points.

First, the 'community' isn't actually a community, it's several, with (obviously) conflicting standards and beliefs across multiple genres, so treating it as a one-and-done seems like a bad idea. We can't even agree on basic things on MSB, which is the closest that currently exists to this. The terminology is kind of weird, and this seems like it has a LOT of levels and moving parts, which just means that it's easier to completely break and harder for people to grok upon starting.

Second, even within like-minded groups, you have in-groups and out-groups, and the in-groups can very easily make life hell for just about anyone, as has been witnessed across multiple games and genres, so 'community reputation' really only goes about as far as 'what the loudest and most vocal people say about you', or how many of your friends you can get to have your back no matter how you are behaving. 'Community reputation' is another word for 'popularity', and that never ends well.

I like some of the concepts. But I think that this approach, specifically related to the parts mentioned above, isn't necessary a great idea.

@Selira

The receipts weren't bad. You just didn't like who they were talking about. Given that some of the people past-and-present on this board have gone into full-on fury-mode about exactly that kind of womanizing behavior invited or not, I still feel justified in calling it hypocrisy.

You're just going to have to accept that. -- Selira, MSB, 2022.

Is this IC or OOC things?

If it's IC, then my playgroup already has done some silly things, just for the lolz. On a game I'm currently playing, we send the local NPC gossip reporter 'Care Packages' full of random sundries ranging from candy to sex toys, depending on the mood and what she's been writing about. She was writing about cows and pirate strip clubs lately, and has a healthy interest in everyone's love life, so we sent her a whole leather-and-lace BDSM pirate stripper outfit with fun post-it notes explaining the contents in tongue-in-cheek ways.

@tek

I know one of those!

And just the one of those!

So this came up in another thread:

What do people think about the concept of the OOC room on a game?

I'm a bit torn on it. On the one hand, I think that it encourages people to just kind of idle about and not play, which is pretty detrimental to games.

On the other hand -- I kind of think that it's nice to have a place to escape to that isn't the quiet room. But the quiet room plus channels tends to have the same effect, yeah?

What does everyone else think? Would you play on a game without an OOC room?

And as part of a larger discussion, what other things do you think that we've become attached to that we could probably abandon / should probably keep?

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

So, in the future, I won't mention any possibilities of who the person in question might be, but just a more general 'creeper' alert, advising players and Staff to be aware that there's potential creeper activity noticed on a game and that Staff of the game is investigating. No names, no details until they're okayed by Staff to be released upon completion of an investigation. No speculation of which bad actor might be returning...

Nah. Fuck that. Do exactly what you did here, because it's actually useful rather than whatever kind of weird-ass vaguebooking they're mad about. The behaviors were creepy and problematic and should have been called out.

@Miss-Demeanor said:

And some people just aren't confident in their ST'ing abilities, yet inevitably end up falling behind xpwise simply because they can't or won't ST since there's really not any other way to make up the xp lost by not ST'ing. Just because its an option, doesn't make it one that works for everyone.

Well, in a Storytelling game... that's the whole point? I mean, I suck at FPS games. My friends play Call of Duty and Halo and shit all the time. I absolutely know that I suck at those games, suck at the style, etc, etc. I know that I'm worse than them at it, and that in terms of leetness, I will never be as good.

There is no shame in this thing. It's just the type of game that it is. But the people who can shouldn't feel handicapped because of the people who can't. If you aren't comfortable with it, then learn. If you're unwilling to learn, then perhaps this is not the genre of game for you.

Again, 'you' here in the general sense, not you specifically. But I think that this argument is a weak one, all around. It's a storytelling game. It requires telling stories within a specific ruleset. That's how it works.

@surreality

Clearly you were never a teenage boy with dialup. You can willpower your way through a lot.

I mean, you know... so I hear.

@krmbm said in To OOC Room or Not to OOC Room (and Other Artifacts):

@Derp If you leave the channel, you can't talk in the OOC room.

Right, that's what I was getting it. It then doubles as a quiet room.

You should change the sharing permissions so that anyone with the link can read them, rather than requesting access. Better form and all.

@arkandel said in The trappings of posing:

General spelling and basic grammar

This one is kind of big for me, but like... not directly? So, good spelling and grammar tend to also be hallmarks of general literacy and education, which also tend to be pretty good predictors of a lot of other things I find important, like creativity and outside-the-box thinking. So I could deal with typos and misspellings if the other stuff is there, but... it so rarely is.

Pose length and detail

Honestly, I tend to like shorter things as long as there is something there to keep the conversation going. "Oh yeah? I can't imagine that went well." Perfectly acceptable. And easier. For both. Just don't let it stagnate.

Tempo - posing regularly at whatever time interval you prefer

Eh. I can go either way. We are all busy people, and I have a million other things I can be doing in between screen flashes. It's not like I'm sitting there pining while I stare at the blackness of the screen. Substance and timing go hand in hand. If it is one line with little new substance? Seriously, that takes less than a minute. If you make me wait 15 minutes for "I can't imagine that went well," I will choke you. 15 minutes when important questions are asked, or alternatives considered? Cool.

Personal peeves (wiki codes, %t tabs, whatever they might be)

Tabs. They look great on screen. And they fuck up wiki logs. They have to be stripped out. Don't make me do more work than necessary, man. Just leave them out. Double carriage returns for the win. Wiki loves them, and they still keep things clean.

Pose ordering such as not using (or using) three-pose rule over round-robin, etc

There are times when I wish it flowed more like a book. Two or three characters exchange short ideas in sequence.

Suzie: Where have you been?
Jim: We met the queen.
Joe: It didn't go well.
Jim: I wouldn't say that. She only tried to kill us twice.
Joe: She ate the horses. Saddles and all. I got hit with a hoof.
Suzie: Shit, dude. Okay, Plan B.

Give everyone a chance to react. Don't be a dick. But don't be afraid to throw in quick reacts as appropriate, and don't be married to the idea that everyone is just going to keep talking in the same order.

Catfish

@Coin said in CoD Ancient Rome game...:

Man, honestly, I really wish you would do custom courts for the game. The new edition is a lot more versatile and kind of built for that sort of customization; seems like a wasted opportunity.

So this game is dead but I just read this.

You can probably keep the traditional courts in a CoD game, but give them a new flavor and a new focus. So you could do stuff like:

Winter - Court of Persephone
Spring - Court of Demeter
Summer - Court of Athena
Fall - Court of Hekate

You know. In case anyone wanted ideas for future stuff.

@Cobalt

I said that it was conjecture. But that conjecture is based on past experience, wherein you did this to me, personally, twice. (Or three times. I suppose it depends on whether you count 'twice at the same time across different games' as one incident or two.)

I didn't say that's what you did here. Maybe you've changed. It was a long time ago. I said that it would not surprise me if the actual events were more like what I described in the, again, statement of conjecture.

That said, you have done it. Repeatedly. Pretty shamelessly, I might add. It's a pattern that I've personally witnessed, and in fact been on the receiving end of. So I'm perfectly allowed to wonder, and even hypothesize, that maybe you had a personal stake in this incredibly hasty and rash action that, from all evidence so far, was based on exactly the kind of weaponized accusation that I repeatedly warn against.

Perhaps, in the future, consider digging a little deeper before doing something hasty. This one seems to have come back to bite you a bit.

So, in reading this thread... I think folks are missing an important point.

Generally speaking, you make skill checks when there is a substantial risk of failure, at least in WoD, and you don't otherwise. Those are in the actual rules.

So the question about shooting someone I don't think is entirely apt, because what you are checking for is to see whether you miss. If there is no chance of missing, you generally just follow coup de grace rules and have a weapon inflict straight damage.

Same deal with drive... you don't need drive to drive a stick, you need drive to drive a stick effectively in hot pursuit, since manually shifting while trying to get the fuck away is more complicated.

If we're going to use examples, at least use examples that would actually require rolls. Yeah?

I love that this thread has taken on a life of its own.

Also, Kardis, if you're out there -- sorry buddy. You're never gonna live some of these down.

@Gnome said in Altered Carbon Style MUSH - Eclipse Phase 2e:

A bit more progress..

I know absolutely nothing about this system, but this setup looks pretty nice!

@TNP

Hey dude?

We.

Can.

Read.

Who are you trying to fool?

I like Cobalt's better. If I'm using +finger, I want it to display information relevant to me figuring out what the character is about, not just some random foo I could get through other things. Yes, it's sometimes nice to have things like approval status, last connected, etc, in a short little blip, but that's not what I use +finger for.

That should be something else. Like +status.

@ganymede

That's a bad analogy. Law enforcement can be held accountable and voted out. The administration is not beholden to the members here in any way except by cult of personality, and the occasional thread like this. Which makes them essentially royalty. Which doesn't work as an analogue for 'entrusted with power by the people'.

Even in our society of laws, a few people with power have had to take some unpopular actions in order to protect the minority. Almost every civil rights case has been actively against the tide of public opinion. But those actions were taken anyway, because those people needed protection despite their very existence being against the will of the majority. This may be an analogue for 'a land of laws', but it has to function in the same way.

It's only a difficult decision if you wibble about it. Sure, you risk losing popularity among some of the crowds, and that can be a concern. But it shouldn't even really be that much of a factor. You aren't elected. You don't get re-elected. The biggest revolution you can face is that you lose face in some of the catty circles, and frankly, that should be the price to play if you have admin powers. Not that I think losing face in those circles is cause enougj to give anyone pause. Ever.

You've been given power. Use it. Monarchies are the most efficient form of governance for a reason.