Best posts made by Derp

@Jennkryst said in Personal Agency for Personal Boundaries:

This thread has a few more instances of 'we should not help group A who are often overlooked/in need of help, because it might also help group B who might manipulate the system/benefit when they shouldn't!' than it probably should, and is drifting closer to Politics territory than anyone wants me to bring up.

ahem

The ideas behind a lot of these are good. I'm not a monster, but I play one online, so while I will do chin-strokingly evil things, I try to get the boundaries set in advance, check in periodically through the scene, and all that jazz.

And even with all the advance prep there, I STILL somehow manage to feel like a piece of shit when I accidentally go somewhere that wasn't said was off-limits, but I also didn't do the regular check-in about.

THAT'S RIGHT, I'M MAKING THIS ABOUT MEEEEEEEEE!

Or maybe not, and I'm just like. Posting a warning.

Like @BlondeBot says, all the code and policy and systems in the world won't stop every problem that can happen. Ignoring all of the bad-actors, this sort of thing can happen to people even when all parties are acting in good faith.

But more/new systems can allow for additional ways to prevent this sort of thing from happening, and can also provide other ways of resolving the issues that come out of it.

Part of it for me, frankly, is pretty direct -- I think that the lines that some people try to set are patently ridiculous.

But more importantly, I won't do this for specific reasons. Primarily, that I think it's too easy to be abused, and that there are other tools that accomplish the same thing.

Secondarily, because letting people set freeform limits like this interferes with the story that I want to tell and the world that I want to build.

I'm not building a game to make everyone comfortable. I am building a world and telling a story, and inviting people to come be a part of that game and that story. They can choose for themselves whether or not to participate.

The limits of what is or is not allowed are clearly stated in several places, including in the Terms of Service that you have to agree to before even continuing into the actual game area.

Do I respect that people have boundaries? Of course. I encourage them to make them firm, in many areas, including the requirement that there be OOC communication. I also require that actions taken be in some way in frutherment of the game as a whole, and not merely used as a means of self-aggrandizement.

But beyond that? The boundaries for what can happen IC are set in the world's rules, not by the individual, and everyone is playing according to the same terms, and I don't have to deal with a confusing mishmash of individual preferences and trying to lace things together into a coherent narrative, thus detracting from the one I actually want to tell.

You have choices. You can read what is offered and decide whether you're in, or not. I fully well know that the game I run isn't for everyone. I don't hold any grudges against people for opting out. There are some uncomfortable themes presented. We make that very clear, right up front. I'm open to suggestions and try to be flexible, but I'm not that damn flexible. I'm here to run the game that I want to see run, and offer it to the players that are interested in the game as it is presented.

@tragedyjones

Dude, werewolf has a gift that lets you switch sexes at will, and it's 1xp.

Seriously, don't be ruling out the werewolf dudes just because they're dudes. They can fix that!

@auspice

Kill them. With fire.

This thread is going off into two different parts:

The first one, where @Buttercup posted some actions and made some suggestions about safety,

And the second, where some of the things that @Buttercup suggested feel really problematic for some of us, based on various education and experiences.

You can condemn one problematic behavior without condemning the motive, just as you can realize that a condemnation of a specific action does not mean a condemnation of the entire person.

@Carex is picking one thing out of the list and saying 'this is not cool', though I think that he's misunderstanding what's meant by that.

Carex's point is -- vocal, and not entirely relevant to the OP's situation, but the underlying concern is at least legitimate in a general fashion.

Maybe he's a troll, and maybe he'll be gone. Just another day at MSB. But other people have likewise chimed in about that level of spying feeling really over the line, and counterproductive.

Ultimately it probably won't change anything. But there are two distinct lines of thought in this particular thread, and that's probably at least worth discussing.

So this is like -- what -- Dark Sun with the serial numbers filed off?

Also, I'm not sure how anyone proves that they are anything over the internet, but this certainly seems like kind of a clusterfuck.

Also, they don't run stories about suicides after the CDC found that running stories about suicides caused teens to try and copycat the dead one so that they could be dead and famous too.

@Ghost said in The Dark Side of online Role-Playing:

@Derp said in The Dark Side of online Role-Playing:

@Ghost said in The Dark Side of online Role-Playing:

@Derp said in The Dark Side of online Role-Playing:

Ultimately it probably won't change anything. But there are two distinct lines of thought in this particular thread, and that's probably at least worth discussing.

Or a spin-off thread about snooping on your kids.

This one really was supposed to be about online dangers to minors and not about the politics of monitoring your child's online behavior in a way that is healthy for them.

Well, yes, we could do that...
...but the entire tangent started because the OP posted a list of things and some of us went 'wait, what?' This is one of those things on that list. So ...

But is it really right to do that when their original point what that they basically reaching out to warn people about the danger to children?

HOW the data was gathered wasn't the OPs point. Let's let them have their thread (and let it keep as a future thread to gather info on) risks to children coming near the hobby.

I guess I'm saying that it's really easy to grab a few words out of a post and spiral it into something that wasn't their point, and that I'm sure the "parenting" side of the topic would be a great discussion; just not at the expense of piling onto the OP this who posted it as a result of a horrible RL experience.

It's a chance to support someone after a risk to their kid.

I'm not against it. Ask one of the admins to spin it off.

Responded to the wrong damn thread. FFS. It's too early.

Spotify. I would die without spotify at this point. I am addicted.

@Livia said in What game system would you prefer for a big-tent nWoD project?:

@Derp said in What game system would you prefer for a big-tent nWoD project?:

@Admiral said in What game system would you prefer for a big-tent nWoD project?:

@Livia Yeah. Maybe cap them at... completing one aspiration a week? That way you can get 1/5 of an XP once a week.

We went with 'cap overall xp from any source'. Personally, I think Aspirations are good. Nobody ever bothers with Conditions anyway so it's not like that's a huge drag. But Aspirations give you something to strive, and let you drive your own story forward without having to wait on staff to run shit for you.

You take those away, and you're just making more work for yourself in the long run, as players get bored that there is nothing for them to do and not enough plot but they're too busy to run PrPs…

That's a choice you want to make very carefully.

I hate short term aspirations. Every time I've done 2e character gen coming up with 'aspirations' in the system has always been my stumbling point. And then I get people telling me I should be completing 3-4 short term asps per WEEK and I'm wondering if I ever have time for anything else.

They don't really have to be a total slog. They don't even have to be incredibly detailed. You can put in generalizations and work them out just fine.

So if I had to come up with two short-term aspirations for a werewolf, I might go with:

1. Talk to a werewolf I haven't met.
2. Do a scene in non-human form.

For a vampire, this could be:

1. Resist the urge to feed at an inopportune time.
2. Get a feel for how the local Harpy operates.

Basically, think of what you would want to do with your character anyway, and make those an RP goal to strive for. Get rewarded. Always have something to look forward to, even if it's routine stuff.

So, I did go and take a look at these articles, some of the more recent ones anyway.

You know what really screams being open to discussion and wanting to engage in a lively and active debate on things? Going to the 'Staff Ethics' article, having it read like a commandment, rather than pensive back and forth, and then seeing at the bottom that comments are turned off.

That is the anti-discussion format. That is 'this is how it is, and there will be no discussion, we have even put our code in such a format as to disallow it'. That, to me, does not do what you say it does.

Your replies here are also less than convincing that discusion is what you're wanting to engage in, as you deliberately skirt around pertinent ideas and piecemeal your replies. A debate-sparking article feels philosophical in nature, and asks questions that it doesn't necessarily answer. Your stuff just provides answers without leaving room for or entertaining questions or alternative viewpoints.

Kind of like your forum posts.

@auspice

You do the shrooms with the MDMA. Hippy flipping. It is wonderful.

@Ganymede said in Personal Agency for Personal Boundaries:

What's the default level of play?

This is why I make the default level of play gamewide, and players have to opt-in before playing.

Which is why I normally, repeatedly, say 'it is right there on the tin'.

I do not have the time or the resources (or really the desire) to adjudicate the levels of every player and come to an individualized assessment. I put the things that you should be likely to expect right up front.

Beyond that, short of some kind of extreme situation, you (at least should have) read the rules, and you definitely signed the paper acknowledging that you read the rules. Everyone should be on the same page.

@HelloProject said:

@Groth said:

I think the main reason there's not more prompts at least in PennMUSH is because PennMUSH does as far as I'm aware not have any real support for prompts. Having back-end support for prompts would help a lot in that regard.

Yeah but I never said anything about doing this in PennMUSH, or MUX, or anything along those lines.

@Derp said:

See, what you're talking about here is something more properly covered under something like @program, wherein you type a thing and a series of prompts comes up asking you for input. That's more than just a single command, though, it's a series of things executed in order that then compiles a final result.

As far as a single command goes for digging, @dig is about as simple as it gets for what it does.

I just explained how it can be exactly way more simpler than that, by doing it exactly the way I described.

Right, but what you described is a program, not a command. Yes, a digging program could make digging simpler by using an interface like that, assuming it's set up in such a way to allow for all the things that the single-line command can do, but it's still a program that just takes what you feed into it and puts it back into the single line command above.

I get what you're saying, it's just that it's not actually accurate.

Think of it like this:

@dig Kitchen=Kitchen;K,Out;O

Under your version:

dig

$ Name of the room you're digging?

Kitchen

$ Return Exits?

Yes

$ Number of Exits?

1

$ Name of Exit?

Out

$ Alias(es)?

O

And then it just takes and plugs all of that information back into the thing from the start. The reason that we don't do this (IMO) it because it's not as fast to do it that way, and tends to lead to some confusion on things like ... where these exits go, unless you already know how the first command words and what you're feeding into it, or an extraordinarily detailed help file was written describing basically all the things that help @dig already does.

This is what I mean when I say things like 'coding for the LCD is not necessarily the best option'. There is a certain level of investment that you have to expect from the end user in these things, or else you end up with nightmarish systems and books full of information on how to use them.

Edit: Forum formatting grrr.

@ganymede said in RL Anger:

vote

VOTE GODDAMIT.

@surreality said in Personal Agency for Personal Boundaries:

Come on already with this nonsense.

Which is exactly how I feel about this entire topic.

But cool. You're right. Discuss amongst yourselves. I will absolutely not be implementing this, and I advise others to do the same. I don't have much more to add here.

@derp said in Buying Shit:

I have skullcandy, these specifically:

https://www.amazon.com/Skullcandy-Bluetooth-Headphones-Microphone-Rechargeable/dp/B00NCSIN4W/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1540657737&sr=8-1&keywords=hesh+2+wireless&dpID=419Ej-cXv1L&preST=SY300_QL70&dpSrc=srch

They are awesome and comfortable and the best money I have ever spent on headphones short of my Epic Airs.

Also, since I forgot to mention this: the battery life on this is ridiculously long. I have literally been Netflix binging on and off for two days now and haven't had to charge them, at a decent volume. I watched all of Elite (season 1), the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (entire season 1), and got halfway through Helix Season 1 before I recharged them, and it probably still had a bit to go tbh. I just did it pre-emptively.

I love these things and am never getting rid of them. These are my laptop-headphones, and I use my Epic Air earbuds for the phone. Only two things I've ever needed and I plan on using them forever.

@Arkandel said in What game system would you prefer for a big-tent nWoD project?:

The thing is many players don't like filing for things on a near constant basis. That gives an advantage to those who do.

I mean, I agree with the 'get xp from various sources but make sure it is capped' part.

The quoted part, though, I'm not so sure about. That's like saying 'players don't like being in scenes, and shouldn't get advantages over those that do'.

There is a certain point where you just kind of have to say 'well, this is the system and the way advancement works, so if you opt out, you lose out'.

@23quarius

Lookit. The gods of Make A Western Game have heard your prayers!