Best posts made by Faceless

@ganymede said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

@auspice

It's so angry!

My name is T-Dog, bitch!!!

Gordon. Gordon. I don't miss playing Gordon. I do miss delving into the head of Gordon. Gordon was my first step into Mage the Awakening. He was a paranoid dude. He grew up in a family of mages, with some supposed prophecy that he was going to Awaken someday and be this great mage - he went into his teens, twenties, and late into his 30s without that happening. He felt like a failure. He did ultimately Awaken, but that didn't eliminate his feeling of being inadequate or just altogether unworthy.

That didn't mean he wasn't a valuable asset to the Awakened, he was still a Proximus. He was raised knowing that if things went south with a mage... it couldn't get to that point. He had to strike first and hard. As a result colored his views on how to handle people, situations, and more; don't play defense, play offense and play hard.

He had a B.F.F. sort in the form of another character who was essentially a millionaire playboy who was chronically irresponsible and kind of a terrible person who made terrible choices(in the eyes of Gordon, at least). Playboy made Gordon go with him to some Alice In Wonderland-themed party once. The playboy dressed up as some character. Gordon? Gordon was the caterpillar. Complete with hookah. Which he just sort of dragged around behind him without enthusiasm, as he waddled around in this massive caterpillar outfit - fun fact, he had a shotgun stuffed away in the aft section of the costume, dragging around behind himself. He was not happy to be there because El Gordo was just not an overly happy person.

Playboy's cousin came to work with Gordon once. She could light shit on fire with her mind. When Gordon first met him he basically told her, straight out the gates: "Don't worry. I have no interest in fucking you". I'm fairly sure she gave him the 'good, you wouldn't have had the chance anyway' sort of response, while also being mildly offended. Gordon dgaf. She later caught a chair in his office on fire, during a separate incident. He advised her if she did that again, he'd turn her into a pile of ashes. Despite how confrontational that relationship seemed, the player and I got along famously. 10/10 will always roleplay with again.

At the end of The Reach, Gordon had something like...1,050 XP? And he was a Mage. I, as a player, knew that I could very, very, very, very, very, very easily make things not-fun for other players. Knowing that, I pushed him to Gnosis 7 eventually. I did this because at that point... the plain ol' mortal world just isn't as interesting. There aren't mysteries to be discovered or uncovered there, at least not on the surface. I did this because as shown in one scene among a mixed-bag of other splats, I didn't want to show them up. So while everyone was trying to deduce some family secret, trying to uncover this centuries old tale with their powers and stuff... Gordon wasn't. He was too busy thinking about manipulating time, stopping it, and tying that to when he unholstered his sidearm. And, at one point, discovering a baseball glove that he hadn't seen for two decades - he was SO excited by that. It was only when everyone else's rolls failed, they couldn't make progress, and a challenge presented itself did Gordon(like the eye of Sauron) turn around like 'Ooooh, a mystery...'. I was happy that I, in my opinion, had the maturity to let other people try to drive the Cool Thing forward and only stepped in to throw my own sheet at it, when others failed.

He had a lot under the hood that was never explored or probed by others; I've honestly forgotten so much about him because he had so much about him in terms of backstory. He took things very seriously, usually. One of the moments that always stands out the most to me with that character is when I wrote a little short story on The Reach, featuring Gordon. Gordon seemed so confident and competent, in most cases. The introduction of that little feature on TR was an opportunity for me to show that Gordon wasn't as put-together as he so often seemed. I wrote it out and it was just Gordon, sitting in Lay-Z Boy, a bottle of whiskey next to him(and not good whiskey, I'm talking 'in a plastic bottle', whiskey), watching Fox News(because of course Gordon did, even if I curl my lip at it), a gun(because the dude was always armed), and a big cupcake on a tv tray in front of himself. He grabbed his gun, stared at it for a moment, and had his own little Lethal Weapon-Martin Riggs moment where he thought about eating a bullet - it'd make things a lot easier on him or at least that was his thinking. Ultimately, of course, he put the gun down. Sighed a bit. Picked up his cupcake, started unpeeling it, and then wished himself happy birthday. I posted that up and got a couple pages about it almost immediately, one of them really stood out to me: Person pages, "I really wish I could give Gordon a hug". That, to me, felt like I had written that segment well. I was proud of that writing.

Gordon was a complex character to me and I often credit that fact to just how much I had put into his story that I knew, or suspected, no one would ever see or even attempt to delve into. Even today, a few short years later, I can't properly put my finger on what I really got out of the character or what I'd hoped to get out of him. I can just say that I put a lot into him and that in the end, I did feel satisfied with him. Even if I wouldn't play him again, because overall I think his character was complete, despite his never really having a proper ending.

@Cupcake said in Faceless' Playlist:

That Rymarr dude, man:

A jackass in a can!

Right? That dude is the worst.

I heard through the grapevine that @lordbelh's rendition of Victus referred to Rybread as an "arrogant little shit". It made me so happy because he was most definitely being an arrogant little shit and someone recognized that. Which tells me that I was playing it well!

But yeah, that Rymarr, what a jackass.

@auspice tell your mom I said what's up.

@sparks said in Characters You Enjoyed Playing:

If we're talking just past characters...

Orianne, my young idealistic mutant over on X-Factor NYC. She started out so naively idealistic about the world, and her entire arc was basically an ongoing struggle between that idealism and the realism the world tried to grind into her. With every plot twist and character development, something chipped away a little more at her belief that people could get along. And yet she kept trying so hard to maintain her cheery demeanor.

I love reading about those sort of characters. Not only those who try to persevere against a changing world, but also those who are shaped in unexpected ways by the world around him. I have a current character that I'm playing that has been going through that sort of change of late. His has been, I think a more positive growth, but it's still a change from what he began as. He's letting go of old prejudices or, in some cases, expanding them as he comes to realize that the justly deserved(from his point of view, anyway) prejudices include others who had otherwise obfuscated their involvement.

So yes, seeing the game's world shape the character? Whether that's the world itself, new information being revealed as part of plots, or other characters within it sort of nudging your own character a degree or two from the line you expect? So often it makes the process feel all the more rewarding.

We've already mentioned the encounter on Fallcoast and the trebuchet idea.

You were also The Price(Grayson) which was within the same Law circle as my own Mr. Bowman(Cover: Jack Smith). I distinctly recall two encounters with the character. He was there when Jack Smith lost his lunch over a particularly gruesome scene that @Auspice reminded me of sometime ago. All the while The Price(Grayson) was super stoic and unflinching. The other encounter was when my character's other Cover, Ryan Jones who was a journalist, was getting too close to a crime scene and Grayson firmly but politely asked him to step back - and of course the Cover had to do what any good journalist would do. Blow it out of proportion. It was suddenly "power-hungry cop intimidates curious bystander", etc.

Good times. Keep up the good work.

@kanye-qwest said in Critters!:

@packrat This one?

Damn it all, I want a dog again. I've missed the play-growling.

@scar said in Characters You Enjoyed Playing:

Wasn’t going to post about her but I’d be remiss if I didn’t give Lark credit where it’s due.

Best Lark. I miss her. Probably one of the few that could make my character put on his own brave face, all the while mentally screaming: "Why won't she stop staring at me?! What did I do?!?"

ETA: And I still tell people about the scene on the Sovereign's Bridge, because that scene was legit. It really made me and my character look at Lark in a new light, afterward. I miss that cloak though.

Finished the first season of The Man in the High Castle. It's been an interesting ride so far. Felt a bit slow a few times, but those last two episodes of the season had me rubbing my face and WTF'ing at the screen a few times.

I'm going to wrap up season two, then move on to The Americans.

@darinelle said in Characters You Enjoyed Playing:

Alice was memorable

I'll say! It's been years and I still think back to a few scenes with her that stand out as so much good variety of tension.

These gave me a smile today. The sloth image though? Gave me a laugh.

@darinelle said in Characters You Enjoyed Playing:

Don't worry. She still doesn't want to fuck Gordon, wherever she is now.

Good, because as he assured: he had no interest in her either and she didn't have to worry about any of that. Duh.

It's not that he was afraid of Dawson Bryce. It was only that he didn't want to have to deal with Dawson coming up with some mildly insane revenge scheme that'd involve a donkey, Tijuana, and liquid crack. And Disneyland or something.

@deadculture said in The Music Tastes Thread!!!:

@faceless That episode, man.

I know, right?

@olsson said in Characters You Enjoyed Playing:

Warwick on The Reach.
Gabriel on Arx

I remember a few interactions with Warwick, but what I remember most? Running the same meeting(s), twice in a day, to account for non-U.S. time zones. We bumped into one another from time to time, but ultimately we ran in different circles.

Gabriel though? I'll always remember you as Gabriel. So much was said between Gabriel and his pseudo pupil, without the need to speak. They were just fun to throw together and see them staring at one another, stoic and stern, but holding varying levels of respect for one another.

It was the night that Alaric woke up and Gabriel came marching into King Turnip's room, my character intercepted him in order to prevent him from getting too close given the nature of the situation - suddenly assassins, of any variety and stripe(or face), became a much more real threat to him that night. That's a scene that I remember very fondly and will be cemented in my head as a great Gabriel-Rybread scene, on top of all the other planning, advising, and most importantly instructing scenes. There was no 'OMG EYE R TEH REGENT!' or OOC nonsense, it was all kept IC and we rolled with it. Two unyielding figures facing one another down. There was an unspoken understanding there and their respective reasons.

Rybread will proudly tell people that he learned a great deal about command, strategy, and the like from Gabriel.

I really miss Gabriel with you at the helm.

@rook said in PBs You Haven't Had a Chance to Use:

If you're that triggered by sex and nakedness, who knows what else triggers you. Talking about Jesus/Muhammed/Buddha? Talking about drinking beer while RPing? Mention of your favorite celebrity/author/TV show? Chevy vs Ford vs Toyota? Coke vs Pepsi?

Dancing?!?

@royal said in World of Darkness -- Alternative Settings:

Fuck it. True World of Darkness.

Humanity has fallen. Only the monsters remain. Mortals are cattle, pets and short lived revolutionaries. Vampires rule the ashes of a half scorched earth. Werewolves reclaimed the wild places. Mages flit in and out of reality. Some on purpose.

You know, Detroit By Night.

Edit: Also Taco Bell won the Franchise Wars.

Don't forget the Facebook-Twitter War of 2073.

I do want to comment on what appears to be a perception that the 'dinosaurs' will have a distinct advantage, at least from what I've gathered from the very loosely detailed pending system. My only commentary is on the perception that this somehow inhibits new character's involvement in a social aspect of the game.

Dinosaurs will be a thing, always. It's a fact of MUs that track stats, use dice, feature progression from a character standpoint, etc. Does it or can it suck? Sure. No one likes to be the unappreciated low person on the totem pole. Commonly one of the complaints regarding dinos is that they'll reach that high point, then just stop. Maintaining that position, while not making use of it. A World of Darkness game? Yes, it's often a very serious problem. The faction leader that never leaves their phome or whatever. Arx though isn't a World of Darkness game and does feature a bit more automation that your average WoD game.

Prestige has been discussed as a fairly key feature of the theorized social system. Staff has indicated two things(maybe more that I've just forgotten or aren't critical to my comments): first they intend to do a Prestige reset, which will theoretically level the playing field. Or at least set it to a base line, with slight variations based on the stats possessed by a character. Second, which comments on the 'slight variations' of the base: they intend for social stats to play a factor into Prestige(if I'm remembering some reading incorrectly, feel free to correct me).

Social stats figuring into your Prestige, immediately grants a character statted for social play an advantage over a character who is not. Right out the gates. Sure, they aren't the Best of the Best, but they still (likely) possess more baseline ability than someone who hasn't social stats in the slightest. Just like my non-combat character shouldn't expect to wander into a training pit and absolutely destroy, or in some cases even stand a chance, against the veterans of numerous wars, sieges, and skirmishes. Those same combat characters can offset their drawbacks, even if only in a minor way, by dressing appropriately.

Back to the issues of dinosaurs: Arx features something that some folks don't notice(I know I didn't when it first happened to me) and that is that Prestige does begin to deteriorate after reaching a certain point. So if you get to be the biggest, shiniest Prestige-bearer and then decide to just sit back, relax, and think you'll be the Kingliest or Queenliest of All Kings and Queens? Well, that's going to slowly erode away the longer you're not working to offset that deterioration. You want to offset it? You have to do things, probably involving others, generally create/generate RP, and ultimately participate in the game.

No system is ever perfect, but by all accounts it looks like some considerations are being paid to some of the bigger problems that plague MU social systems and the people scrambling to be the prettiest, smartest, and strongest.