Posts made by faraday

@Thenomain Well I think it was a (misguided) attempt to get people to actually pay attention to it because mostly folks were ignoring it. But instead it only resulted in people ignoring it entirely... all of which colors my perception of it greatly.

@Thenomain said in [Poll in OP] Population Code:

it's been a long, long time since I knew anyone pressured to RP the weather description in the room, mostly because it's been a long time since I've seen the weather description in the room.

I think we're having another culture clash moment, because on the games I've played it's almost always been incorporated into the room descs.

@ThatOneDude said in Population Code:

What if you just +weather/set or +time/set for the room...?

Why bother though? Someone always scene sets, and setting time/weather is a part of that. Adding code to it is just an extra, unnecessary step.

@Thenomain - Not suggesting the code is evil or anything, just explaining why I don't like it and generally ignore it. If I were doing it as a writer's prompt I would make it an on-demand "suggest something to me" sort of thing, ala a Plot Generator, not something that gets chucked into every room desc like it's a part of the established world. But that's just me.

@Thenomain said in Population Code:

This term has entered my RP vocabulary: "Are we RPing time/weather?" Almost every game I've RP'd on since the banishment of the dreaded "Nightzone" flag has had people either RPing game time or clarifying the conditions in their initial pose.

Whereas that term isn't in my vocabulary because I can count on one hand the number of times people were heeding the IC time/weather in their scenes. And I can't really blame them.

Bob and I want to RP, and our chars have little in common ICly other than they both like Pyramid (BSG basketball-ish sport). Ooops, can't play Pyramid because +weather says it's raining outside. So much for that idea.

Another day, we want to meet up, except +time says it's Monday at 2pm and we'd both be ICly working at our separate jobs that have no reason to intersect. Oh well. Guess I'll just watch TV instead.

I understand the converse argument is that these are fun obstacles to challenge your creativity or whatever, but here's the thing... I have enough challenges in my life. I really don't need code throwing obstacles in my way. It's annoying, so I ignore it.

Like weather code, it seems like something that would easily be forgotten and/or ignored, and just cause people RPing inconsistently.

+jobs are like tech support. Some places have great customer service, and you get a sensible answer right away. With other places you sit on hold for 6 hours and send 17 emails and still don't have your dang problem fixed. +jobs are just a tool, and ignored jobs are just a symptom of lazy/uncaring staffers.

@ThatGuyThere It depends on what you look for in terms of justification. Improving a skill at "hobby" levels was basically automatic when I did it, unless they were trying to do something weird like pick up Fighter Pilot when they're a doctor At higher levels, it's more about time and training, so no amount of goofy justification would help if they didn't have the IC experiences to back it up.

@Lithium said in Finding roleplay:

One of the things I have considered is just dropping plots on IC gatherings. Like, if I (or other staff) see a group RP'ing in public then boom, I drop a 1 shot on them and depending on what happens it could lead to more plot.

I do that, but these days I ask first. Some people appreciate having something more interesting than Bar RP to do; others get irritated if you disrupt what they're already in the middle of.

@ThatGuyThere said in XP systems:

There is not one XP system that should be used all over.

I agree. XP systems are not intrinsically "better" or "worse" than each other; they each have different pros/cons, and motivations. The one that works best is the one that has pros you like and cons you can live with.

As systems go, I favor a very slow automatic XP gain (as anyone who's played FS3 knows). Slow because chargen reflects all your collective experience over a lifetime prior to the game starting. Compared to that, the amount you'll change over your 1-2 year IC timespan is miniscule. Automatic because I personally detest the idea of tying popularity to IC ability.

However, my personal favorite XP system is "justified increase". You're RPing about taking some dance classes? Great, I'll toss you a dot in Dancing. Tell me you're going to practice at the firing range every day for three weeks? Sure, I'll increase your Shooting skill from 1 to 2 next month. But that tends to be way too arbitrary for most folks, and nobody wants to hear the answer of "No, I won't raise your piloting from 10 to 11 because that takes years and you've only been on the game 6 months."

The former. I usually have a particular character concept / story arc in mind. That's one of the big reasons I'm against involuntary PC death.

@Arkandel said in Finding roleplay:

See, what you view as perfectly reasonable and benevolent approval process ("just talk to me, we'll figure it out") is very often seen as an obstacle, a reason for staff to look down at a creative task that's often fuzzy in the early stages. Having someone trying to poke holes into a plot before it even gets off the ground isn't fun, after all, and few people can take rejection or even constructive criticism well.

FWIW, that has been my experience over many years. No matter how well-meant and encouraging and helpful the policy was, the fact that there were any hoops to jump through just deterred people from doing anything. Especially given the general level of distrust on many games from people who have been burned one too many times by psycho staff. So ultimately this sort of policy made way more work for staff (who now have to run more because the players aren't doing it themselves) than cleaning up the mess in the unusual situations where something went awry.

@Lotherio said in Finding roleplay:

I was with the definition, my gripe was more about not liking scheduling, approval, and getting staff involved (to approve or to reward) but now I think I'm with @Thenomain and those the days before 'PrP's ...

But that's the thing... even back in 1996 we had TPs run by players. On some games (Maddock) it was free-for-all where you could run whatever you wanted, and on other games (B5) there was a +tpview system where everything had to be submitted and approved and it tied into a events notification system if there was a scheduled date... did I miss the "good old days" somehow?

@Coin Well if someone comes into with the assertion that PrPs are horrible, then I think it's important to be on the same page as to what it is we're talking about.

@Lotherio said in Finding roleplay:

Once managed/restricted/scheduled its no longer player run, if it needs approval its out of the hands of the players.

We will have to agree to disagree on that point. I understand your position, but if a player came up with the idea and a player is scheduling it and a player is running it, then in my book it's a player-run plot.

Tangential note: I understand why sometimes staff wants to require approvals on PrPs - I used to be that way myself. Trust is hard when you're worried about players doing crazy things. But in time I've realized that strict PrP policies will discourage even the most enthusiastic players from running anything. Or they'll just ignore them and run it anyway. These days my policy is just "run what you want, just don't wreck the theme."

@Thenomain @Coin OK, I get it. I think we just have different terminology, possibly because of different MU sub-cultures or something. Dunno. To me, a player-run plot is just that - a plot (i.e. something more than bar/social RP) done by a non-staff player. The degree to which PrPs are managed/restricted/scheduled varies wildly from game to game, though. And I agree - it's really annoying when you have to file forms in triplicate and schedule things 2 weeks out just to fight some Cylons. Spontaneous shenanigans are fun. If you don't want the potential for interruption, grab a TP room.

@Thenomain said in Finding roleplay:

@ThatOneDude said in Finding roleplay:

But if you don't go to events, what do you do in RP?

Rescue damsels, fight monsters, spend my loot on ale and whores. The same kinds of things that you do during events, only without the pressure that we're on a time crunch and that the Plot Must Be Resolved.

Ummm.... how is that different from a PrP? Seems to fit the textbook definition to me? Not nitpicking, just genuinely curious since you seem to be so anti-PrP.

@The_Supremes said in Finding roleplay:

The above. A lot of TLC went into the grid on my game, and it's almost never used. The concept of the 'anywhere room' is far too versatile for a built grid to keep up.

Really? I haven't seen Anywhere Rooms being used for much other than private scenes or backscenes. People tend to RP on grid unless there isn't somewhere on the grid to represent where they want to be.

Having said that, private scenes seem to be becoming the rule rather than the exception. I think that has more to do with the use of Anywhere Rooms than any versatility (or lack thereof).

@Thenomain said in RL Anger:

It does answer my specific question, tho, about the conditions that Not All Men is a problem, so I won't complain. Well, not about that. I appreciate the candor.

To be clear... I wasn't taking issue with anything in particular you said, but just trying to answer your question about why it can be a problem.

And in response to some of the other sundry comments from the gallery, I will just add...

If someone says "All X do Y" and the response is "No, not all X do Y, stop making sweeping generalizations" then I think that's a totally appropriate way to re-frame the conversation.

But if someone says "There's a prevalent problem with X's doing Y" and the first thought is "But not all X do Y" or "But I'm an X and I don't do Y" then it's just missing the point, and it can make the other person feel even more marginalized than they already do.

@Lithium said in RL Anger:

When I hear the comment "Women Can't Drive" I don't automatically assume that applies to me, some women can't drive, in fact I know a few who have given up their licenses, willingly, because they were /that/ bad at it. Do I roll my eyes at the generalization? Sure I do, but it doesn't evoke a real emotional response out of me.

If /you/ (Random Male Gamer) don't do those things, then why would you feel defensive about comments that are not directed /at/ you, but at a larger problem as a whole?

Quite a lot of women would be offended by a comment "Women Can't Drive" (justifiably, IMHO). So I can understand a male gamer would be offended by someone saying "Men Gamers Treat Women Badly."

But umm... I didn't see anybody making a broad-sweeping generalization like that? Maybe I missed it. Saying that the industry/hobby has a widespread problem isn't the same as saying everyone does it.

@Thenomain - It's pretty easy to take the "I haven't seen it/It's not me" argument as implicit dismissal. Using an analogy again to the Black Lives Matter movement... if you're listening to someone complaining about prejudice they've experienced, and your response is "Well, I'm not a racist. Not all white people are racists. I haven't seen discrimination." All of those things may be true, but that's kind of a unsympathetic, dismissive and hurtful thing to say, don't you think?

@thebird I don't need to be spoon fed, but I do need some idea of the setting and the immediate vicinity. How else would you keep people from RPing wildly different things? As for the grid... one could argue that about any MUSH but players kind of expect at least some kind of grid.