Posts made by EmmahSue

Enjoy, @il-volpe.No skin off my nose. The more who push it, the better.

ES

But we still ran with it, TJ!

A good staff will run with whatever happens. Hell, giving a scene the Dallas-treatment is better than retconn or outright denial, and even 'it was all a dream' can be spun from there into a larger plot so people don't treat it as a one-off.

ES

Why the fear, though? What could staff do, really? Sure, they might go 'nu-uh' or 'stop that random RP you guys' but then at least you'd know they're assholes. Sitting there afraid is... I won't say silly. That'd be rude. But I'm kinda thinking it really hard, unfortunately. Terrible person, you may all hate me now instead!

ES

Every player is a ST. If I could beat that into the heads of the entire community, I would. That means if you show up for bar-play and things get boring, someone (anyone. everyone.) should pose a jittery mf'er coming in to steal the cash out of the register. If you don't want to go dangerous, then a bunch of con-artists come in, two of them pretend to get engaged, and the third guy is stealing wallets while everyone watches the lovey-dovey duo. Something!

We are all STs, not just players, every single time we're playing. The world is full of things going on. Describe them in your pose and when someone reacts, keep it going.

ES

I don't have any opinion other than that I want mage NOW.

ES

@Ganymede, I can't tell if you're being mean to me or not! Please clarify the intent of your pointed statement.

ES

I've been at this for a little while now, Derp. I'm not leaving the other half of whatever the RP is to come up with set or reason, no. Shared effort!

ES

I have trouble finding RP. I ask on various channels and in the OOC Room and get silence more often than offer. I'm not sure if it's because I'm playing a Lance Vamp, so folks don't want to get all up ins? Or maybe I've just lost my touch.

ES

New process implementation should NOT make my managers think I'm planning to take their puppies out into the street to shoot them, ffs. The whole world isn't ending because I said I was going to go in and clean up the electronic files from a year ago that you never looked at again and don't plan to ever use!

Stop packrat'ing it up, y'all. Just stop.

ES

I'll help get it started, but I have no interest in actively staffing on any game but my own, at this point. I'm an adhoc helper-outter and scene/NPC-runner in general for Reno when whatshisname asks, and same for Eldritch.

Hell, that offer is for any of you out there making games. I'm glad to help set-up in minor non-intensive ways as asked.

ES

There are mods for Artemis out there somewhere; my Dad has one that makes the whole thing look/sound/feel like Star Trek. You ain't really been smashed flat until you've run into a borg cube and realized there's no getting away.

ES

MOD VOICE:

Heya folks! If you want to discuss the television show, please find or start up a thread for that purpose. This one is an advert for the Game of Bones MU*, so it's not really a good fit for the convo.

ES

Less conversion guide, more GMC rules, @Wizz.

ES

Have you seen the trailers for Minority Report (Fox) and The Frankenstein Code (Fox), @Arkandel? It's almost like Fox is once again greenlighting things we're going to love and then yank out from under us when we're ripe for the trolling.

ES

Do you have the cookies-thing turned on? I had to allow something or other with the little button HR puts in that blocks things (can you tell how computer-savvy I am at this point?). When I hit the 'replied about X time ago' it takes me to the last-read.

ES

Try clicking on the 'replied about an hour ago' portion of the recent messages page?

ES

I kept trying to find a subject-line that wouldn't, @Cobaltasaurus! Eventually I had to give up. There is no subject line that contains "7th Sea" that wouldn't make hearts go pitter-patter.

ES

I'm helping a friend run a one-shot 7th Sea game tabletop. He asked me to come up with as many rumors as possible, and I figure there's enough people here who love the game that you might have some ideas. His request is!

Can you create about 20 little 'rumors/tidbits' that sailors and other ne'er do wells might have heard? These should be 3-4 sentences and if you don't know a proper name of a city, place, country, or thing, put it in <> and I'll fill those in. Something along the lines of "You've heard rumors of..." or "In your travels, you've heard mention of..." or "You recall seeing something about..."

Here's an example:

In your travels through Castille, you have heard the common people talking about El Vago. He's supposed to be a daring man, fighting against the Montaigne and other oppressors and giving money and aid to the poor. Apparently he dresses in all purple and uses a whip. The strangest thing is multiple people have claimed to see him in different parts of the country.

Any rumor-type help will bring great entertainment to the 12-15 people playing.

ES

From continued reading at lunch comes this concept:

Winning is better than losing. But an anticipated loss (that is, one you saw coming because you understood the patterns) is better than loss-by-accident. And sometimes an anticipated loss is better than winning-by-fluke.

There's meta-success to be found in seeing the blow coming, so to speak. Even if you lost on the active-level, your ability to forecast on an anticipation-level is still a win. I'd very much like a way to encourage that concept within MU and our community: Loss-for-your-PC isn't terrible if you understand why and saw it coming as-a-Player.

Inre: my own plans, does this mean that when I'm running a Seeking, I ought to discuss the end-goal with the Player ahead of time? "As your ST, this is what I feel your Avatar would want you to aim towards." At that point, they can aim for it or not as they feel their character fits. Does the removal of the 'mystery' lessen the fun? Or is that something I ought to ask each Player individually, to find out if they want to know-or-not?

ES

I'm reading The Aesthetic of Play, by Brian Upton. I like it quite a bit so far (I'm only at chapter 4, so there's far more to go). It has prompted thoughts (dun-dun-duuuun) about how to apply some of these concepts to a MU* to improve the experience.

At one point, he lists the following characteristics as parts of a fun-game (note, this is not the be-all end-all, just what's easily enlisted for current discussion):

Definitions: Horizons of Action (the possible actions arrayed before the player) and Horizons of Intent (what the Player believes is possible / appropriate based on previous experience, and understanding of ruleset).

• Choice: Horizons offer a range of possible actions.
• Variety: Horizons aren't repeated.
• Consequence: Actions have outcomes.
• Predictability: Outcomes can be anticipated.
• Uncertainty: Outcomes aren't predetermined.
• Satisfaction: Desireable outcomes are attainable.

Choice: Too little choice makes a game boring. Too much choice makes a game confusing. With too much, a Player will often perform a personal narrowing of options, based on internal criteria, in order to lessen the confusion. On MU: "What my character would do," narrows a too-wide sandbox.

Variety: Doing the same thing over and over again is boring. It can be done if the Player feels the goal/result is worth the repetitiveness, but is rarely fun in its own right. It's possible to use set-pieces in different ways to solve the cost:benefit analysis. On MU: Sabbat Always Attack Head-On is boring. Using the Sabbat as a regular foe when they take different actions, not so boring.

Consequences: Turning the wheel of a car should turn the car. If it doesn't, what's the point? It's no longer a game at that point, it's a movie. On MU: EOTW failed in part because there were no real or lasting consequences for the actions taken.

Predictability: If you turn the wheel of a car to the right, and the car goes in some random direction, what's the point? We can't play if there's no sense of cause-effect. On MU: The ruleset helps with this in micro. In macro, there should be internal story logic driving what happens when a Player takes action. They don't have to know exactly what that logic is, but they have to trust it exists and can be puzzled out.

Uncertainty: A Player needs an external element (whether dice, or other players) to provide some wiggle room. If she knows exactly what's going to happen, again: not a game. On MU: Fellow Players help provide some of this. A ST adjudicating helps provide it too. Random dice results when it's appropriate. In having so many players, we accomplish this much.

Satisfaction: If it's impossible to achieve, what's the point of trying? Being hard to achieve is fine! Impossible is not. On MU: This is easy enough to apply to a story. Where it gets harder is application to the concept of RP. Our goal is to play, right? It's shouldn't ever be impossible to play, even when our specific character has an impossible goal in-game. Yet somehow, satisfaction is still a problem.

Questions to the community at large (as composed of people who know and care that this forum exists) in no particular order other than as they occur, and numbered for ease of discussion:

1. How do we emphasize the characteristics above in order to keep our games fun and entertaining?
2. What is our goal, really? Are we here to play? Are we here to tell a story? Are we here to explore a gritty urban-fantasy-scifi world? All of the above?
3. Are there any other characteristics worth adding to the list? Or any of the above that really don't apply to MU after all?

ES