I think the seasonal association is akin to the reasons why networks don't generally re-run holiday episodes of TV series out of season. You won't see the Christmas episode of Grey's Anatomy airing in the middle of the summer. Some would enjoy it (Christmas in July!), others might not care at all, but some find it downright jarring. It's all just personal preference.
@bear_necessities said in Preference for IC Time On A Modern(ish) Game:
Are people really celebrating holidays EVERY SINGLE YEAR in-game though? Birthdays? Like, I guess if it's only happening once a RL year, cool, but on games that are 1:2 time or whatever - why? Why would you do that to yourself or be worried about missing an IC holiday or... why?
Judging by the number of times I've had folks request a coded alert of some kind when it's somebody's IC birthday, I'd say yes, folks care about it 
I suppose if it's an important milestone type birthday (somebody turning 18 or 30 or whatever) it might actually be relevant to the storyline, but generally I'm in the 'couldn't care less' camp.
I've had mixed experiences trying to do some kind of IC holiday thing at the same time as RL holidays. Sometimes it's an interesting thing to break up the everyday RP grind (an IC secret santa or harvest dance or costume ball or whatever).
@surreality said in Preference for IC Time On A Modern(ish) Game:
this isn't a major events going down sort of period IC, so this week represents all of August 1902, pick and choose your timey-wimey focus for that period and figure it out'
See, I don't mind that occasionally for fast-forward type stuff, but when I have to deal with that "figure it out" every single RP session, it gets draining.
I know there are plenty of folks who don't get bothered by continuity glitches, so admittedly that's just a "me" thing.
@Roz said in Preference for IC Time On A Modern(ish) Game:
I think slower would be a real slog.
I've been on a couple games with slower time ratios. It was indeed a real slog. Things take forever to develop.
The other issue (for some of us) is continuity. For those who play frequently, you can't just say: "That scene yesterday (ooc) happened yesterday (ic)." Because it's still the same day ICly. Sure you can play fast and loose with the time, but if not everybody is on the same page, it can cause some weird continuity glitches.
It seems that the prevailing sentiment is that you shouldn't ever try to contact the game admins AT ALL if you were banned, and I don't agree with that.
"I'm sorry - I screwed up and I hope you'll give me another chance" or "I think there's been a big misunderstanding and I'd like to clear the air" seem like perfectly constructive and reasonable ways to reach out.
The key is to accept no (or silence) as an answer. Badgering someone after they've made it clear they don't want to talk to you is annoying at best, harassment at worst. Extend the olive branch and leave it at that.
@Ganymede said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:
We don't call the 1918 Spanish Flu "the American flu" because the first reported case was from Kansas.
The 1918 Spanish Flu is a perfect example of why NOT to label viruses based on nationality, because Spanish people were unfairly discriminated against / blamed as a result back in 1918. It didn't come from Spain; it had nothing to do with Spain, really. They just bore the brunt of the ill will because they were the first country to be honest about something being wrong.
So yeah, please stop. It has an actual name.
@Tinuviel said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:
"Hmm, it looks like something went wrong..." is not just useless, it's fucking annoying.
Sometimes there's nothing more to say. Not all software errors have 'here's what you can do...' solutions.
I doubt it would be any less annoying to have a message like: "You shouldn't be seeing this message. If you are, then somebody screwed up something somewhere in the code and we're going to have to go on a scavenger hunt to figure out who and what. Until then maybe try again? Good luck." Because most of the time, that's the honest truth.
@Ganymede said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:
Presuming you have no issues personally, despite being diabetic,
Being diabetic is also considered a "high-risk" category for covid in and of itself.
@Sunny said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:
My point is that it's not a 'rumor', it's been a warning from emergency management sources that has not been retracted yet.
Not judging you for following your workplace guidance at all. All we can each do is follow the best advice available at the time, and that advice is changing daily (or even hourly) as new information becomes available.
In this particular case, the alarm seems to have been sounded by one health minister's opinion, without any scientifically-backed evidence. It then became a viral sensation, despite being challenged by the general medical community. While you could debate whether that's a 'rumour', it certainly meets my criteria for information that shouldn't be touted as fact-based advice.
Current guidance from WHO and other trusted sources say there's no particular reason to avoid ibuprofen when treating covid-19 (beyond the normal side effects and contraindications).
@RightMeow Having to make those kinds of decisions sucks, and you have my sympathy. I wish that we had more of a nationwide mandate to close things down and a support system for everyone right now. Individuals shouldn't have to decide between public/personal safety and putting food on the table.
But given what you said - FWIW, it sounds like you are in a high-risk category. The risk is not "wait to get said virus and get two weeks off paid" it's more like "wait to get the virus and then hope you don't have to spend the next month on a ventilator in the ICU -- that is providing there are any more ventilators available at the time."
Also, even though you might feel fine now, latest evidence shows that people can be infectious without symptoms for days - possibly up to 2 weeks. That's what makes this virus so insidious. There are tens of thousands of people out there right now spreading it around without even knowing it. That's why social distancing is so important. #Don'tBeASpreader
@Tinuviel said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:
Is this higher than 'typical' coronavirus (as in the category of virus) cases for that age group?
The "typical" coronavirus is just a common cold which doesn't kill anybody.
For the flu - CDC numbers show about a 0.8% mortality for age 65+ compared to .1% across all ages.
With COVID-19, estimates vary, but in the ballpark of 1-2% across all ages and 10-20% for the elderly.
So in both cases, the elderly are 8-10 times more likely to have more serious outcomes, but COVID itself is 10x as serious. So that's a hefty difference.
The real issue here is not the percentages, it's the quantity based on the speed and scope of the outbreak. We get ~500,000 hospitalizations in the US annually from the flu over the span of several months, and that is a moderate but predictable strain on our healthcare system. Add in another few hundred thousand cases on top of that in a few weeks and the system quickly starts to break down, as it has in Italy.
It will be a tremendous inconvenience for me to have my kids off school for the next 2-4 weeks, but I accept that this is necessary to protect the community and slow the spread of this thing.
@Dillinger said in Dungeons and Dragons 5e Combat in a Mush:
I wonder if a 5e MU* that allowed for either theater of the mind combat or used Roll20 for combat would be viable.
I think there are a number of options depending on your goals and the tolerances of your playerbase.
WoD games have been doing "theater of the mind" combat for decades. I think that with all the powers and stuff, it's at least vaguely comparable to 5e in terms of complexity.
Roll20 might be a hard sell for RPers, but you never know. You could also do a more lightweight bridge like using Google Draw for a quick battle map coupled with some GM-driven rolls.
@Wizz said in Interest in Cyberpunk MU*?:
BUT, more seriously, my biggest issue is that in that system, there's no distinction between like, someone in a horrible accident who needed to replace all their limbs/organs and someone who elected to. In fact, reason doesn't enter into it at all, it doesn't matter if you're trying to become the perfect killer, or a supercop, or adapt to new environments, or explore identity, or you just wish to be able to return to something like normalcy, just the act of getting cybered up makes you crazy. That is weird, nonsensical and upsetting to me.
I understand. In Shadowrun, at least, you do not have any ill effects until you get ridiculously cybered. You could replace all your limbs and a bunch of organs and still have essence to spare. So it's really not "just the act of getting cybered up makes you crazy." The mechanic is just a cap against chromed-to-the-gills super-soldiers running wild in a world where megacorps absolutely would want that and have essentially unlimited means to get it (meaning laws, money, etc. are no object).
@Wizz said in Interest in Cyberpunk MU*?:
The authors behind the concept of cyberpsychosis don't understand why the use of extensive prosthetics leading to mental illness is a gross concept. It's a perspective we've outgrown culturally. Prosthetics are not dehumanizing, they're empowering.
I get where you're coming from. I agree that would be a gross concept.
I never really got that from the CP fiction/games though, personally. The theme was never about prosthetics. These characters (generally) aren't getting cyberlimbs because they lost their legs in an accident, or cybereyes because they were blinded. They're able-bodied people going to a cyberdoc and saying: "Please chop my arm off and replace it with an augmented version so I can lift cars and have wolverine claws and be a more effective killing machine". That, to me, does not cry "empowerment". YMMV obviously.
ETA, back on topic: I like the cyberpunk genre in general, but I'm not convinced it makes for a good MUSH setting. So no, I probably wouldn't play on one.
@Runescryer said in Interest in Cyberpunk MU*?:
Cybernetics are already inherently expensive, A starting character can't afford very much in Cyberpunk, as opposed to Shadowrun.
Yeah in Shadowrun cyber is also expensive and/or restricted, depending on the gear. The main difference is that SR allows you to start out with a bunch of it (GM permitting), on the assumption that you have some kind of backstory to match - ex-corp/military samurai or the like.
@Wizz said in Interest in Cyberpunk MU*?:
It is a mechanic that makes sense in Shadowrun, it just doesn't anywhere else.
Someone with All The Things (tm) in any system is probably going to be overpowered. Most games have some limit to keep you from learning all the spells, or getting all the gear, or having all the skills. All we're talking about here is an in-universe explanation as to why (you lose your humanity and go insane and are no longer playable) rather than just imposing an arbitrary point cutoff.
And part of it stems from a world-building desire not to have terminators running around. It wasn't in line with the vision of the setting, even though it could have been a natural consequence of the technology. That may or may not fit in any other cyberpunk setting depending on what you were going for.
@Wizz said in Interest in Cyberpunk MU*?:
If you can otherwise turn yourself into an unstoppable cyborg with the options the game provides, a balancing mechanic that punishes the player for picking what's available feels weird to me. Why not just make cyborgs more stoppable instead?
I don't really get the argument. It's like saying: "Why punish players by not letting them take every skill and attribute at max level". It's just a game balance limit with a bit of in-universe fiction to justify/explain it.
@Wizz said in Interest in Cyberpunk MU*?:
It's also an ableist relic, imo.
Perhaps in part. It was also an important game balance mechanic though in Shadowrun, to keep people from just chroming themselves with everything under the sun and becoming an unstoppable cyborg. (Or worse, an unstoppable magician cyborg.) At least for awhile until they started breaking their own rules with cyberzombies and otaku and other silliness.
TGG has a grid system tied into its coded combat. It did things like:
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
~ @ + + + + + + +
~ @ = = >=< _ # # #
~ # _ _ _ _ # # #
~ @ # _ _ _ # # #
~ ~ # _ # _ # # #
@ ~ @ # # # # # #
Your coordinates are : 6 12
<<Ground Combat>> You hear the sound of Machine Guns from Beach (7 12)!
<<Ground Combat>> Woods fires his Reising SMG at Yoshi but misses!
<<Ground Combat>> Jenkins fires his Garand at Aoi and hits!
Aoi suffers 8 wound damage to his right leg.
When in combat, you couldn't just move freely through rooms, your movement was tied to combat actions and done in a grid fashion move 12, 1 or something like that. There was no magic, it being WWI/WWII, but there were plenty of advanced mechanics for range, artillery, planes, flares, covering fire, melee, trenches, obstacles, and more.
So yes, it can be done. It's clunky, but it works. A web UI might help some, but the system would need to still be capable of interfacing with players on a traditional MU client. That limits how fancy you can get.
Also, building a real-time interface between web and game for FS3 combat was a ton of work, and D&D combat is orders of magnitude more complex. I have to question the value of the endeavor versus just using something more geared to it like Roll20.
I'm glad to see the community banding together against this guy.
<PM> (to Faraday) Guest-1 says, "<My RL Name> multiple games? It was one game I bypassed the ban on. And even with your fix, I can still access all three games that decided to remove me over nothing that actually violated their stated policies. I hadn't bothered trying to access them but got curious given your statement so figured I would check. <My RL Job> really needs better programmers and software architects if you miss such small things like the /glitch/ that allowed me to message you on the forums."
<PM> (to Faraday) Guest-1 says, "I have no qualms with you, Just figured I would point out that the /bug/ is still there. as you put it."
<PM> (to Faraday) Guest-1 says, "Hope those storms up there aren't too rough on you. Enjoy your evening."
I mean, it's not like the guy is a detective genius - you can find out the info with 5 minutes searching on my GitHub profile. Dropping the info is just a sad attempt at being creepy.