Best posts made by dontpanda

My wife and I had been saving up for an anniversary meal at a pretty expensive place, and tonight we went. It's in this old mansion, so we were in a room by ourselves for a few minutes. A couple of guys get seated at the table beside us, and it's obvious they were from the US South (Arkansas, as it happens); I say obvious because that accent is not often heard up here in Manitoba... Sticks out something fierce.

Anyway, I struck up a conversation with them, asking them about their trip (they were coming for the fishing, etc), and joked that I wasn't sure how friendly we could be, since I'm a Florida Gators fan, and our teams are in the same football conference. That got some talk about football happening, some stuff about parenting (they asked if it was a special occasion for us, and wished us a happy anniversary), and some politics. They were friendly and polite, and I got on immediately with them.

The food was amazing. The bill came, and when I opened it, there was a note saying, "The gentlemen beside you have paid the cheque in full. Happy anniversary!"

Blown. Away.

The joke around my friends and family is that I'm cold and dead inside because I'm not outwardly emotional, but I almost choked up. These guys had no way of knowing we'd been saving up for this, and just how much the almost $200 means. I shook their hands, and my wife hugged them, and we thanked them profusely. I made sure I left the waiter his gratuity, since I couldn't be sure it had been covered by the two fellows, and we left... deliriously happy.

I am doubly blessed. A woman who has loved me all these years, and a meal paid for by two strangers.

@darinelle said in What is your turning point?:

How to instantly engage me:

• Be consistent with your character and setting even if it upsets people. I love people who stick to their character.
• Be cool with consequences, and willing to roll with the unexpected.
• Collaborate. Don't make me always set, or do the bulk of the reaching out, or the bulk of the story-driving.
• Change. Static characters make me /crazy/. Why bother RPing with them? Nothing is going to matter. When you show your character can change, and that things happening have an effect on them? I am instantly more engaged myself.

I tried hard to do this with Nierzen. He was sheeted as a misanthrope, but I couldn't be a total ass or no one would play with me. Still, he was no one's best friend.

Then came the consequences... getting eaten. I was cool with it - sad because I love the char, but cool with the consequences.

It can be hard to take a misanthrope and have him change in any way. So... I had him trust 3 people with his secret. That led to some cool developments, as they wanted to help him figure it out.

Unfortunately, I don't know if I drove story for anyone. Being erased from memory means people can't really build off what was left of him.

This is a good thread. It's helpful to be reminded of what makes people want to play. Thanks for starting it

Updated to note the end of Nierzen's story. An ending, by the way, which was awesome, with thanks to @Apos and whatever other staff were involved.

When someone tells me they can fold a fitted sheet:

@arkandel I played a bigoted character in the past and mostly did what you describe in the first example - looked uncomfortable and refused to acknowledge contributions by the people he was bigoted against. He did at times use IC insults, but I tried to keep those really rare, specifically because I didn't want to have people think I was OOCly just looking for the chance to be racist.

I also tried to combat the OOC hard feelings by being proactive with disclaimers and following up with concern for the people in the scene. I found a simple, "I just wanted to check on whether you're okay with that" went a long way to helping people separate the IC from the OOC.

I had someone who didn't take the IC stuff well. I asked someone we both knew to be my advocate, and we just decided that we could be OOCly good with each other, but he probably wouldn't be in a scene with me. It seemed like a good compromise.

I've been lurking here for a bit, decided I'd make a username and this seems like as good as any a means by which to introduce myself.

Been playing sporadically since olden times. My memory is poor, but I'll see what I can recall...
Past Characters
DSMuse (Star Trek thing) - K'lemtoq (my first experience with MU*ing)
Cuendillar - Reese, Morcath, Thad, probably others.
Tales of Ta'veren - Honestly don't recall
PernMUSH (Norcon) - A'dar
PernMUSH (Soucon) - Alaner
Firan - Nydus (the second one), Teodor (the last one), and Macklan (the last one)
Serenity - Reno
Arx - Marius, Nierzen
SFMUX - Reno
Marsilikos - Colombe
Valourous Dominion - Carel

Current Characters
Arx - Turo, Vayne
City of Hope - Bert
Under the Stars - Reno
Ithir - Nassar
Portland - Jean-Guy, Reno

I think that's about all.

So I've been playing for less than a week now, after not really being in a game since the end of Firan. For what it's worth, here are some opinions:

1. I like the theme. It's interesting and I think staff has done a good job of making it difficult to create or take a character that is going to be widely despised with no reason to RP with anyone else;
2. I like the players I've met. Almost implausibly friendly and engaging, who have never once been unwilling to answer any and all inane questions I might have;
3. The character I took (Marius, for those who care) lacked any relationship information. This has led to me feeling uncertain when trying to figure out how I should interact with someone for the first time. There were no notes about how he felt about his family members, either. That was disappointing, but at least as it relates to the family, some OOC conversation has helped straighten that out;
4. Difficult to get caught up on lore stuff. The website lacks a lot of important information and so I've had to rely on what other players can tell me. This is also a challenge since I don't know what Marius would ICly know, and I don't want to be one of those people who assumes his character knows everything all the other characters in his sphere knows;
5. I love a few of the features like directions and +tasks and @randomscene. Those are smart and, so far, really easy ways for me to get around and get involved. Because I'm new, people are given XP for RPing with me, which has led to 2 or 3 strangers paging me and asking for a scene. That's a warm welcome.

So, overall, I'm excited to play the game. I think it's been done very well thus far, and even my complaints are simply rectified, if the staff has in mind to do so.

@Arkandel

"because of identifiable patterns of ooc influence on people (particularly new players) that could be viewed as very manipulative."

From the bboard

@arkandel said in Celebrities that are Dead To Us:

@ganymede said in Celebrities that are Dead To Us:

Unless you are Fred Rogers. That guy was the goddamn epitome of human morality.

True story. I love Fred Rogers and I try to watch/read biographies about him. From every account I can find, the man lived as selfless a life as humanly possible. Ever hear the story about when his Impala was stolen from the street in front of his apartment in Pittsburgh? It made the news, right, and the next day it was returned with a note saying effectively, "If we'd known this was Mr Rogers' car, we wouldn't have stolen it." Not even the Pope would get that consideration.

And here's the kicker: That's not even the end of the list of stories that couldn't possibly be true except it's Mr Rogers and they totally all are.

If Mr Rogers and Tim Tebow could have gotten together and started a foundation for the betterment of all mankind, the world would be unicorns and rainbows by now.

@darinelle said in Coming Soon: Arx, After the Reckoning:

@Lithium - The social system we're trying to implement is in part because there are so many social characters who get ignored when doing diplomatic or social things. And it's to take away some of the doubt - so that there are some hard guidelines that indicate social power, the way there are hard guidelines that indicate combat power.

I'm a big fan of having some way to use the social skills. I tend to play those sorts of characters (whether by chance or subconsciously choosing them), and it can be a challenge to feel as though these stats have any meaning.

@Arkandel had an interesting topic about social stats some time ago, so I'm glad to see that Arx is trying to make them have some sort of usefulness. Even if I don't like fashion stuff, I like overall depth in a game, and that adds another layer.

Sure, I'll bite:

• I am possibly the most politically/philosophically conservative I've encountered in this hobby. I've also found little tolerance for those differences of opinion from others, so I tend to not bother engaging that stuff.
• I am Canadian and can only barely skate, and have no love for hockey. Please don't tell my government or they'll take away my passport.
• None of the characters I've ever played are very much like me.
• I'm a better than reasonable cook. I am not handy at all, and very much wish I were. I would be willing to trade almost any of my talents to be good at fixing things.
• I rarely read anymore, though I used to read hundreds of pages a day. For fiction, I'm all about my kindle. For reference books, I need the physical thing so I can write notes in margins.
• I strongly dislike social activities and relationships at work, and have gotten a few concerned "talkings-to" about my lack of engagement, and what it communicates to the people I lead.
• The last 3.5 seasons of DS9 are the best in sci-fi, and I'll fite you with teeth and fists.

@wildbaboons Adeptness? Capability? Finesse?

I love the zoo. Seriously. I go with my kids and wife and it's an awesome way to spend the morning. The animals are active, the lions are roaring, the polar bears are swimming.

A well-run zoo that operates with the health of the animals and education of the masses in mind is one of the finest things a person gets to experience.

I played a really evil villain in a faction of villains - he stood out, you know? - and had a blast. We'd plot bad things to do and then go do them. We didn't even try to PK every time, knowing sometimes the best victory is one where you leave your opponent alive with the knowledge you took everything else from him.

In the end, there was a chance for my PC to go out with a bang at the climax of an internal power struggle. It was one of the best arcs I've ever been a part of.

Being the antagonist, in my opinion, is way more fun, especially if you can work with the protagonists to create something truly remarkable.

Know what I hate? - people who post all these "scientific" conclusions on social media (usually medical in nature) that urge us all to "get the facts" but then don't include a link or reference to the peer-reviewed journal in which these ground-breaking studies were published.

I want to smack those people. If I tried to pull that crap in a paper even in high school, I'd get a failing mark, and deservedly so. Assertion without evidence... smdh

Marius is sheeted as a diplomat (that he lacked skills when I took him notwithstanding), and I'd be completely in favour of a social combat system. Otherwise, why bother having those types?

If it's up to the other player whether their character is affected in a real way by my character's skills, then there's no reason for me to ever use them - the other person can just pose not being affected and I've wasted my time and xp

@ThatGuyThere I'm a firm believer that I don't care what a person believes about anything, just about how they behave. If they want to believe bigoted things, I don't care one whit as long as they're not running around acting on those beliefs.

I have lots of beliefs that someone could say are <insert made-up negative adjective here>, and others have ones to which I object. But I can be civil, polite, even kind to people who are doing things I find morally objectionable because I'm not an animal running on instinct.

(Child molesters, however, can be drowned over the course of 3 weeks for all I care)

I behave this way towards others, and expect other people to behave this way towards me. Disagree with me, think me a bigot if you want, but treat me civilly and we'll be just fine.

I keep considering playing here, but I then wonder if I'll have time. I barely feel as though I'm keeping up with just arx.

@arkandel If you're going to have it in your game, but only directed at NPCs, then don't bother having it at all, I think. I don't play a game to interact with NPCs, so if a key flaw of my character is his hatred of people with blonde hair, it should come up with PCs for it to actually make an impact.

But, I DO think it's important to try to find ways to not close doors on other PCs. So, maybe all the blondes who want to join the crew have to "prove themselves" in way more ways than the brunettes, and even then might be eyed with suspicion or something.

I wonder if that's just something too many players forget; they're so busy making the game fun for themselves that they don't look for ways to engage other PCs, especially when it requires a modicum of thought and creativity.

I terminated someone with cause today. That sucks, even if I've done it a dozen times before.

I hated doing it, but it had to be done.