Members who have known me through here for a while know that I am oft a stickler for process. Call it an occupational habit.

I have read more Reddit threads in the past week than I have in my life. I have looked through an old thread on DownWithOPP and I have read the recent thread about Azazello, Cullen, Talwyn, and other alts he has played. I have looked at my old chats with members here, all of whom were concerned that DWOPP was never banned and may be keeping tabs on the players he has victimized.

I said long ago that I wanted MSB to become more of a safe place than its previous iterations. I meant that. It is purely coincidental that Arkandel passed the torch to me to manage this place as his successor on the same day that we Americans watched an aged man serving his country, who then took the extraordinary step of taking action to, in his opinion, make his home a better place. And while I have never been comfortable judging people preemptively or prejudicially, I have also never been comfortable where others have felt uneasy and in fear of the people around them.

I do not know for certain whether DownWithOPP is the same player as Enervation, but I have read enough about both to decide that I don't want them around. I have decided to ban DownWithOPP, as well as SabotKick72, DropBear, and Enervation. I am not going to wait, as we did with Tyche, until something egregious happens. I see no point on letting him continue to lurk here. And while I am all-but-certain he will simply make another account under another false e-mail address, making the announcement that we will take action to keep him off this place -- we keep our regular troll friends off the place too -- is something that I hope will make some of our members feel a little more secure.

If anyone suspects there are other accounts accessed by the person behind any of the above accounts, please let the admins know and we'll have a looksee.

Don't break the number one rule: spouting hateful shit based on race, gender, identity, or disability.

Like, seriously people, don't do that shit. Especially when I'm at work. Especially when I have to prepare pleadings and motions for bankruptcy court. Don't fucking do this.

I have a daughter on the spectrum. I have a nephew on the spectrum. Some folks here are on the spectrum. Spouting shit like 'hurr hurr u sound autistic' is going to entertain swift action.

Autism is neither funny nor inherently negative. Using it as an insult or a pejorative will not be tolerated.

That's right, motherfuckers. We movin'.

As of Friday afternoon, EST, we'll be 'porting over to a new place. That means that if you post at around that time such post may disappear. So if you can all stop cat-fighting for, like, 24 hours, that would be good. Or swell. Or something.

This new place is brought to you by Digital Ocean and our committee on fixing our problems here with disappearing posts. Please thank Faraday, Derp, Roz, and Arkandel when you can. And, like, not on Friday afternoon, 'mkay?

Chet has been banned for posting the following in Game Development as a thread:

@chet said in River City Ransom MUSH:

A MUSH for special education students.

Combat system features four stats, standard for your character, and a secondary set for bonuses for your gang, if buffed, with an EQ set custom name to strip the buff, if you fit the special character class - listed below.

River City Ransom. You get a character, you get a gang, and a room, for a section of town, that gives you experience, for fighting in. You win a fight, in someone else's section, you steal their girlfriend, you get extra bonus points, in your section, for your gang, to pad your combat points, for attacks, that you lose, once you lose the fight. Female characters, are lesbians, they get an EQ bonus, from the shop, in the center city, the social area, that they have to RP in, with a grid token, to prove, they roleplayed with "Slick", the boss, whomever has the girlfriend, one maximum Slick, for all the women at a time, for the EQ, which gives them a special attack, in another person's quadrant, until they lose the fight, special attack lets them knock off the combat bonus for a round, twice a fight.

If I need to breakdown why, I am going to be very disappointed. I'll say it summarily:

• Don't use "special education students" in a mocking or derogatory way; some of us were "special education students," or had them in our circle of friends or family.

• We will not condone forcing any character of any gender into a particular sexuality or permit a game to advertise on this forum which does so.

If anyone wants further explanation, you're welcome to message me directly. I cannot guarantee that I will be patient with you if challenged on this decision.

My kitty has been found and is safe. Thank you to everyone who spiritually helped her find her way.

Y’all may now be relieved I will not destroy you all.

The past 40 days.

First, I found a house that my partner loved, and signed a contract to build it.

Then, I was elevated in the firm to partner.

Then, I had the privilege of picking up a new company car for myself on lease -- LEXUS.

And then, tonight, I just put our current house under contract.

@admiral said in MU Things I Love:

It's easy to roll with the punches and mature as a character when you know that staff will protect you from real consequences and feed you all the best plots/RP that others don't get.

On games where I have staff authority, I tend to hand players who can roll with the punches and act maturely important matters. This is because they have demonstrated that they can roll with the punches and act maturely rather than point fingers.

You can call that favoritism if you want, but there's a reason why I don't trust my cat to file important things with the clerk of courts. For one thing, the dog takes far less time.

I'm going to take the unpopular opinion here.

Whatever happened to scale or scope? What about a person's reaction? What about what's been alleged precisely?

C'mon. Let's just take a moment to distinguish and not lump everyone together.

Let's start with Al Franken. First, he admitted it happened. Second, he requested an ethics investigation. Finally, and most importantly, he acknowledged that what he did was wrong. To-wit: (1) forcefully making out with a woman against her will during a rehearsal; and (2) taking an awful, awful picture.

Let's go in the other direction for a moment to Bill Cosby. First, he admitted nothing, even though he testified to doing so in a deposition. Second, he continues to deny wrong-doing to this day. Finally, and damningly, he is alleged to have drugged women and have sex with them while they were knocked out over a period of decades.

I want to be clear: I don't condone either person's behavior. But I think it is also clear: these are not the same levels of wrongdoing.

This is a hot topic for me because a lot of my political friends are lumping everyone together, while some of us "moderates" are saying what Jules said in Pulp Fiction. What Franken did, relative to Cosby, ain't the same sport.

@aerianyx

1. Be aware that your boundaries are your boundaries. They may not be another person's boundaries, but that's irrelevant; the question is what makes you uncomfortable.

2. People who tell you you're overly sensitive are assholes. The proper response to "this RP is making me feel uncomfortable" is "I'm sorry I'll stop." Anything less than that is unacceptable, and a sign of an asshole.

3. Quid pro quo is disgusting and should be reported. I really don't (edited) care if it is totally in-character; it's disgusting and is one of the sorts of behaviors that should not exist in our hobby.

4. Stand firm, and get backup. When you set your foot down, it helps to talk to someone else about what happened. You don't need to identify who did it, but it's always helpful to know people have your back. And, by the way, if that "backup" tells you that you are being overly sensitive, remember Point 2 above.

5. It is always okay to suddenly disconnect. You never, ever, ever have an obligation to stick around. Ever. You may have to deal with the consequences later, but you never, ever, ever have to stick around.

Hopefully, this helps. I don't have much personal experience with this because I have very distant boundaries, but I've been told I'm a good listener. Also, I fuck up a lot but have enough presence of mind and awareness of self to not hold what I felt against the person I wronged.

My cousin passed away this morning.

His side of the family enjoyed considerable success. He grew up with my wildly successful aunt, who quite literally cut a bloody path of heads in the Chinese financial world until she made her way to a place near the top of a major multinational bank. He was a successful amateur tennis player and competitive swimmer in his youth, and went to and graduated from Upper Canada College. He later attended school in the UK, and ended up getting a pretty good job in Hong Kong in the financial world.

We were never close, but his mother and I were pretty friendly. We were both the sort of cool-under-the-collar kinds of people with ambitions and odd sensibilities, He got married a couple of years ago into Swedish nobility, but I didn't get to attend his marriage in Tuscany because my kids were just coming of age. I wasn't there when his son was born. The last time I saw him was at an event two years ago, where he came in like a tornado on a red-eye. The term "jet-set playboy" fit him to a T.

This weekend is the Moon Festival. He was vacationing at a resort in Hong Kong -- you can't really leave -- with his wife and child to celebrate it. Early yesterday morning, he was walking with his wife and child-in-stroller when he slipped, lost his balance, and fell off a precipice. He suffered a brain injury and severe internal injuries. The doctors tried to staunch the bleeding, but he succumbed a couple of hours ago.

Success is never a guarantee of immortality, or even a long life. My cousin had a lot of things going for him and his life was heading in a trajectory that many of us admired. But for COVID, I'd be getting a plane ticket and flying out to see my aunt and her family. The most I can do at this time is send an e-mail. My cousin is my father's god-son, and to hear my father brokenly crying on the phone -- he told me he had never felt so weak and helpless in his 80+ years -- was incredibly trying.

Hug your loved ones tight tonight, please.

@Misadventure said in Nightlife RPG vs CoD:

It is also possible to hijack a system like CoD to catch the different feel off another setting. I dont mean lets play The Originals as if they existed in the WoD, rather use the CoD stats and resolution mechanisms, and use Merits or Powers to track the abilities from the desired setting.

I believe that CoD was made to do this, but I also find it hard to remove CoD from the material it was meant to handle. Morality checks, for example, don't really come into play in a Mass Effect setting.

I like FS3 and Faraday's code because it can crunch through combat quickly. If I had my beans together, I'd finally learn to set up a game through Ares, write up my files, and start that Mass Effect game I've always wanted to.

Unfortunately, I'm old. Life interferes. And as much as I want to immerse myself in a world that is constant and ever-changing, I just don't have the time. I'm not happy with it, but, for the moment, I am content.

@Ghost said in WoD Competence Dice?:

Having said that, the game as a while suggests that there shouldn't be a dice roll required for anything 'rote', such as opening doors, making coffee, figuring out how to use a vending machine, and even safely driving a car from one point to the next.

This.

A GM shouldn't require a roll of someone unless a task is complex, the knowledge is not commonly available, or the character is under stress.

@ZombieGenesis said in In-Game Systems vs Web Sheets:

So I'm just curious, how important are in-game systems to you as a player? Would you be turned off from a game with a theme that interests you because it uses a web-hosted PDF sheet? Why is that?

I like it when I can access all the information I need from a single window. If I have to use something available elsewhere, it is just a tiny jarring for me. This isn't to say I won't do it, but it's just a preference: us old farts are used to fully-integrated games.

@Devrex said in RL Sads:

... he's doing really well, already eating, drinking, and pooping.

Yep, he's a cat.

I started and finished The Owl House.

Loved it.

@Macha

I still play.

RPing is easy to do when you're a desk jockey. I'm more of a desk jockey than ever these days, and folks are much more tolerant of work interruptions too. So, I tend to RP, when I RP, during the work day.

In the evenings? I maybe RP one or two nights a week, and even then I restrict myself to between 2100 and 2359. I watch sports highlights and TV while I'm doing it.

I actually spend far more time on landscaping projects, watching movies with my kids, and karaoking.

@Kumakun

I think Cyberpunk will get interest based on its name, but I think that a rules-lite game would be easier to operate.

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

I can always check, I know i dont have Aflac but there might be a safety net I've missed. Thank you for the advice!

No problem. I'm guessing based on your comments that you live in Washington, and so you get 12 weeks of PFML. Since that's a state benefit, you also may have FMLA leave, which is another 12 weeks. So, I'm guessing you've taken 24 weeks off, which would put you around the 6-month mark for leave.

STD benefits usually last for up to 6 months. After that, you may qualify for LTD. If you have a life insurance policy, a lot of such insurers offer STD and LTD benefits for you and, if you're an employer, the business.

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

Which will clearly have to be my first work email of the morning. Because it's not okay to just ignore a medical accommodation like that. It's not.

What exactly is the medical accommodation you are seeking? Their response time could be contingent on that.

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

I needed this time to recover. I needed the rest. But it's too costly amd now I need to look at canceling my remaining specialist appointments..

Any chance that you have short-term disability that may kick in? Some employers have that coverage to make sure your absence doesn't hurt it financially, but the policy may extend to cover a portion of your lost income briefly.

@Macha

I won't be, but I know people I know are going to drag me into it.