Posts made by Devrex

I hate asking for help but...I'm going to post this here anyway. Thanks for reading.

https://gofund.me/5fce922c

@Macha Hahaha. I knew you were. But I didn't see a need to!

@Macha That's less a dead celeb and more like a dead supervillain.

@Ghost I wouldn't say I have nothing to show for it. Quite the contrary.

I have fantastic friends who I went on to meet IRL and who became an important part of the fabric of my life and who I wouldn't give up for anything. People who have had my back, enriched my world, and made life better for me just for being there.

There were times in my life when I was in such a black hole of misery that being able to jump on and talk nerd shit with MUSHers, or be involved in some story where I needed to know what happened next or where I was aware my character's absence would be detrimental to other people's...I mean...sometimes that gave me a reason to hold on and thus I am still here. Not saying that's universal for everyone but. No. I wouldn't say, at all, that it's brought nothing to my life.

And that's why, right alongside seeing the benefits of not doing it, I miss it, and am aware of what it's costing me to not do it.

Ambivalence for the win I guess.

@Macha It's not discipline; it's mostly the creation of systems. And it is spoon-dependent. If you're struggling to clean when you've got all that going on, that's pretty normal and natural. I've struggled to keep a house clean all my life and it's only recently that I've hit on even a partial solution.

@hobos Yeah I get that. I won't say it's all been work and such. I'm still wasting massive amounts of time on video games and YouTube. And I've said the same thing about the virtues. It isn't any more virtuous to watch Netflix than to MUSH. I'm not sure for me it's a "time" thing at all. It may be more of an energy thing. When MUSH is good the creative high is unbeatable and my imagination is soaring and the people are incredible and there's all this synergy.

When it's bad, it's a lot of being yelled at online, mostly (for me, cause I do a lot of STing/Staffing) while trying to help people, many of them perfect strangers, have fun. My tolerance for the downsides has plummeted. My energy for delivering that level of creative labor to strangers is at rock bottom.

And admittedly, right now going back to games is just not much of a temptation. My threshold for what makes me reject a game is much higher. In addition, I've felt out of sync for a while. I feel like when I used to play, there were a lot more people who were out for the kinds of experiences I was out for. Lots of other people wanted to chase cars, leap out of planes, board starships, diffuse bombs, and do other adventure-type things while also enjoying deep character development. Finding like-minded people and cooking up a scene that would be fun for both parties was easy.

I feel like the people who like what I like are in the minority now, and those who are in the majority want the experience of drinking wine, being filthy rich, messing with each other socially, being popular, and being adored. And there's nothing wrong with playing that way, lest anyone think that's what I'm saying. It's just not my cup of tea, and if that's what everyone wants to do there's not really a place for me at that table.

@Ganymede That one was fun! My kiddo sat me down and made me watch it and we enjoyed it.

@Ganymede Definitely no shade intended on anyone who still does, or who can manage their time better than I can manage my time when I'm involved. There are definitely times I miss it or wonder if I could find the balance.

@Runescryer Their whole everything is just so wholesome and I love it.

@Macha, I've found the same.

While there are times I really miss the art form, I nevertheless am finding I spend more time on RL friendships, cleaning my house, building my business, and writing my fiction. And, of course, there's more peace and less stress in my life. I've even rediscovered my love for tabletop games.

I won't say I'd never play or launch a MUSH again, but I'd think long and hard about what that would cost me before I take that step.

@Kumakun Looking forward to seeing it!

@Macha I'd have said 72 hours is more than long enough. You can be a polite, professional squeaky wheel. They'll be happy to ignore you just as long as they can, but you're well within your rights to demand that they get on the stick.

This one is from TTRPG; now that I've read the whole acronym and caught up with the rest of the class, you know.

Content warning: Drug Use.

***The Story***

This one was from years, years, and YEARS ago, but it pops to mind. It was on a MUSH, though I believe it was an invite-only space.

We're in a fantasy world. And I'd spent, oh, six months building up this villain. She was unstoppable, very powerful, etc., etc., etc.

Well, one of the players had done some subplot work to earn himself an airship. The flagship, in fact, of an airship fleet. So when he poses into the scene where the villain is now up against the players in person, he poses that he brings basically every player who signed up in on his flagship except maybe the one or two who had already posed being toe-to-toe with her.

And declares: "We shoot her with the flagship."

I had to pause momentarily, tilt my head to the side, and admit: "Well, there's no save vs. flagship."

I didn't let the flagship steal the whole show; I let it significantly weaken her to the point so that the ground crew could contribute as well, but shooting her with a flagship certainly made the fight easier on everyone involved.

I am friends with many of those players RL still, and "No save vs. flagship" has remained a fun tagline in-joke that you can sometimes hear one of us saying decades later.

@Misadventure I'm not sure what code base you'd be using, but my first thought was that jobs code(s) already seem pretty well suited for this. If they need to be separate (perhaps so jobs don't stay open forever and a day) it might not be hard to modify it to make its own, separate thing with a different name.

Also worth noting that @Derp said, multiple times, that the history between he and Cobalt that he referred to was ancient.

I, personally, couldn't access any logs for any game stuff that happened for me any earlier than 2016. I took a pretty long hiatus from MU*ing between I think 2012 and 2016, and wasn't doing cloud-based log captures back in 2012. I don't remember that being an option at that point, in fact.

When the history is super ancient, I don't know that anybody's going to have the receipts to bring.

But he said that. Several times. "This is old history. She might have changed. I have seen this specific action in the past. It wouldn't surprise me if I were seeing that again."

Pretty mild stuff.

Comparing it to literal name calling, which @reimesu mildly called out with a "Hey, cut that out," or pretending that those two actions are the same actions at all, makes no sense to me.

@Macha Read the first one, skimmed the second. In both, all I saw was two characters making questionable choices, which characters are allowed to do.

We don't expect characters to interact with story like they would react to situations RL, thus why I don't run up and down the streets with a gun rescuing various kidnap victims or whatever.

I see nothing that wouldn't be bog standard drama generation on half-a-dozen PG-14 television shows. I'm not getting SA off this. Do I think it's ethical or wise to cuddle with someone in bed IRL when one of them is drunk or high? I mean...no, even if it's a good friend who (probably) won't mind. Do I think it makes sense to tar and feather you for writing fiction about someone who did? Also no.

I am getting a lot of two characters who need rehab and some counseling. And it seemed like, based on the logs alone, both players were having a blast with this content. They are certainly two very long scenes. I'm not inclined to judge you for them.

I don't know that the Ares crowd is nicer per se; I agree with @Derp when he points out the codebase doesn't make for an experience that's all rainbows and butterflies or necessarily even always changes the people being dealt with.

I think it does make launching a game more accessible to new potential game runners who would not have been able to do it before, opening up additional options and opportunities.

I also think the format makes everything much more transparent, which in turn cuts down on the amount of tomfoolery that goes down. Which could feel like a big breath of fresh air like the one @Artemis describes if you're used to places with fewer safeguards.

@golgoth This art is badass!

I'd also note that "players will automatically play stupid unless they know death is always on the table no matter what" isn't necessarily the case. Bad players will. Good players separate what their players know (my character probably won't die unless I'm so over-the-top stupid that there's no way to preserve the fiction without allowing it to happen) from what their characters know. And all their character, creeping through the parking garage with a gun in hand, knows, is that there are five gunmen out there and if he's not careful and quiet and canny he's not going to make it out alive.

I find this "is it a game or is it a story" divide to be false: MUSH was never Warhammer, and I find that arbitrary character death is just as stupid on a tabletop D&D too. Taken to its extreme it just means that you no longer really care about the fiction that's unfolding; life is too cheap and you know not to bother to get too attached to anything your character is building or accomplishing. It's just as damaging to the fiction as "nothing can happen to your character ever."

I have killed my own tabletop characters and MUSH characters...when it mattered...when it offered a dramatic, meaningful sacrifice...when the time was right. When it served the fiction.

Without the story, the fiction, the dice are meaningless and boring; without the dice (I really favor dice games over diceless) there are few surprises. I want both the fiction and the surprises.

What I don't want is to have to start from Square One because some GM decided he wanted to have a TPK night, or because someone inexperienced decided to run a scene and shot the challenge level up to 11, or because some staffer doesn't like me and is gunning for me.

Square One means:

• As @faraday mentioned, having to go through the work/stress of generating a concept that is fun, fits in theme, and will be accessible to RP...
• Yes, having to flesh out and build their relationships with other PCs, which often means, ye gods, another 3 months of mostly small-talk and getting-to-know-you scenes, which are often the least fun kind of RP to do (IMO)...
• ...Dealing with the fact that some players liked your old character but kind of aren't inspired by your new one, so yes, losing a fair amount of your RP group...
• Losing your hooks and ability to get into anything substantial, often for about two to three months...

Compound all that with: MUSH is not like a tabletop where you know you're going to have the same amount of attention from your GM no matter who you're playing.

It takes time to build momentum on a game, and that momentum is often where the fun really starts. Trivializing it as "just grow up and roll a new sheet, bro," just doesn't work for me.

In my opinion death is just the most boring possible thing you can do to a PC or to their story.

You can create consequences without character death being the consequence.

Maybe the NPC they love is going to die.
Maybe they are going to end up caught up in a deal they don't ICly want to be caught up in.
Maybe they'll get blackmailed.
Maybe they wake up at the bottom of a well with a rainstorm coming in.

I prefer PC complications over PC death.

The PCs are supposed to be the heroes of the book, movie, or TV show. We know the MCs just aren't going to randomly die for no reason because of some random dice roll on all our favorite shows. We know that Spock's probably getting out of today's dilemma alive. The fun is in watching how he gets out alive, and what he has to give up, and whether he actually saves the day, and whether or not he ends up in trouble with Starfleet after he does. That's the story rhythm.

XP dinosaurs are their own sort of problem, sure, but why would you penalize an active, long-term, loyal player for being an active, long-term, loyal player? If they're being obnoxious to the point that new players feel squeezed out, what you do is talk to them quietly and ask them if they can start sending newb PCs to do the footwork. Sure, Detective 500 XP, you know that the next step is talking to the Johnsons. Sure, you could schedule that scene, but maybe what you do is send Officer Newb to do that scene and report back to you. You're still doing the thing, but you're sharing the love. And you as an ST can always say "This event is for characters with less than 100 total XP/Level 1 to 5 characters/whatever." You can control whether or not XP is a determinant of where story goes.

Consent vs. Consequences is a whole other are of conversation that has nothing to do with PC death, actually...because death isn't the only consequence that can come about.