Best posts made by Ganymede

@HelloRaptor

Unsurprisingly, I concur with both you and @Apollonius. Unfortunately, ME3 was the designated end to the series. The designers sought finality, and produced it, however unsatisfying it might have been.

I guess my point is that a "final reveal" is exactly that. Revealing the definition of something -- or even setting one -- is useful to show people where you are going with a story, but inappropriate, pointless, and misleading if you want people to determine where the story goes.

If I could have written the MR trilogy's ending, it would have been easier to decide: (1) suicide; or (2) obliterating the Citadel's control mechanism. If you pick the former, everyone dies; if you pick the latter, the Reapers power down and just sit there like ominous reminders that some fucked up idiot (Cerberus or otherwise) may find a way to reactivate them again.

Or, maybe, like the Geth, they just wake up some day.

Or, maybe, the Leviathans decide, fuck it, let's eliminate everyone.

To me, the best part about sex is engaging in it. When it's all over, I may be happy and satisfied, but I'm just going to want it again.

@Jaunt said:

"You cannot play PCs" is pretty straight-forward. It might be a bit of a blunt solution, but it definitely works.

It is a blunt solution, and, as demonstrated, it has the unintended consequence of making it extremely difficult to find willing, knowledgeable staff for a game.

If you hire well, however, you won't need such guidelines because you won't need to worry about staff making bad calls.

@BigDaddyAmin said:

In spite of the fact that I am a fairly right-of-center Libertarian, one thing I do believe we need in this country is a national health system. I say this as the husband of a type I juvenile diabetic.

There are times when it is justifiable for the public to deliver a good or service. Health care is one of them, and has always been one of them.

@auspice said in Potential Game / Temperature Read:

...would anyone enjoy a game of randomized PCs? It'd be meant entirely to be tongue-in-cheek, satire, and a TVTropes playground.

I'd play it, for a long time.

If you could, use the old Castle Falkenstein system. Here's a primer/teaser from Wikipedia.

It gets really fun when you have shit cards.

@krmbm

Try Jesus.

I'm not going to lie, but the trailer for Glass is interesting.

I know a lot of people hated Unbreakable, but mixing the characters with James McAvoy's villain in Split was a bright idea.

@lotherio said in Potential Game / Temperature Read:

... or paramilitaristic mobile home living pink flamingo on the lawn gangs led by Tim Thomerson.

Or Divine.

@arkandel said in Dare I ask...:

The first is that they cannot be universal unless it's a single-sphere game, and that creates an additional barrier to character progression - one that's based on the player, not their PC.

How so?

Derp employs a very strict requirement on what a justification ought to look like, and yet I have never had one rejected for content. I have overlooked raise limitations, but that's a procedural thing.

Frankly, there are only two reasons it is ever a barrier: (1) because a player feels it so; and (2) a pretext for playing favorites by staff. Neither is a good reason not to have them.

The second is the very purpose of having justification requirements in the first place isn't consistent in general. If it's to promote IC plausibility then no character on the grid should ever raise their Medicine over 3 unless they start high.

This is a bad thing? I would love it if staff actually enforced this.

@arkandel

Both.

@lotherio

@three-eyed-crow said in Who are you?:

I gather he is not a unique case.

I gather he's an idiot.

You don't engage in an endeavor that is going to cost you around $75,000 without some goal in mind. Mine was to become a lawyer. It's what I wanted to be; it's what I set out to be; it's what I ended up being; it's what I've become good at being.

My partner wanted to become the same, and burned out. After paying off her student debt, she went back to school to become a PA. After five years of retraining and education, she is now a practicing PA, and loving every moment of it. She has a lot of student debt again, but it's worth it to be doing something she enjoys.

Don't go into a professional school "as something to do." That's stupid. Go into school with a clear vision and goal. And realize what it is: a three-year quest.

The job market is not as saturated as people would tell you. It's also not as bountiful as people might tell you. It is what you make of it: it's not reserved for the best or brightest, and the most industrious tend to come out on top.

@thenomain said in Alternate Game Systems:

What the game didn't do was help people figure out how to play. My gaming group, who loved original Changeling for instance, absolutely hated the CF card system. They attempted things specifically to fail them so they could dump cards from their hand and force a re-draw. So.

You could always limit the CF card system to where it matters, like in a plot.

The thing I like about it is that it is different. And it is brutally random at times. Sure, you can go ahead and fail a whole bunch of shit to game the system, but that makes you a system-gamer and, as far as I'm concerned, you can eat a bowl of dick for that.

The point of this thread, I think, is to present alternatives that could be fun. I think this could be fun. I could very well be very wrong.

@tragedyjones said:

No. If I was asking for setting suggestions I would have said as much! :neckbeard:

I don't give you what you want. I give you what you need.

@Shebakoby said:

The point i was making about the taxes is it's probably every bit as "gouging" as the companies' prices.

I somehow missed this. You're not even close.

Taxes aren't great, especially in Canada. Those ad valorem taxes really slam the lower and middle classes. However, those people can still get quality care with little problem.

When I say "price-gouging," consider the following:

Let Service be a given procedure.

1. Health care providers that accept Public insureds (on Medicare or Medicaid) are paid $A by the government for Service.

2. Health care providers that accept Insurer J's insureds are paid $B for Service.

3. Health care providers that accept Insurer K's insureds are paid $C for Service.

4. Health care providers that provide Service to uninsured charge $D.

5. Insurer K is bigger than Insurer J, and can leverage a better price for Service. Therefore, $C < $B.

6. The government tamps down prices artificially. Therefore, $A < $C.

So, what's the price for Service? Presuming that there is an equal number of all insureds and the uninsured, then it's reasonable to presume that P = (A + B + C + D) / 4. And, since A < C < B < D, the uninsured will always pay above the "actual" price of service.

This is different than your tax scenario; this shows that the health care providers are forced to price-gouge the uninsured. Which inures to the benefit of the health insurance companies.

@thenomain said in Alternate Game Systems:

Really I think my point was more that games need to teach you how to play it.

So your objection to Falkenstein, if there was an objection, is that no one taught you and your troupe how to play it?

I mean, I presume you had the core book. I recall it pretty plainly showing me and my troupe how to play it.

Oh well. Not important.

Sure, you have got a good point. I mean, Changeling: the Lost seems pretty clearly a game about trauma, but people keep trying to play pretty princess with it.

@hedgehog said:

But, but...Bob Jones University and Liberty University are both kind of colleges, sort of. If you're delusional.

You say this as if attending any university means you are educated.

@paris said in Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff:

Having to stand up to cook is super hellish. I love my instant pot because it cuts down time, but food prep is still my nemesis.

I don't mean to be meanly critical, but have you considered chopping your food while sitting? I can assure you that this can be done safely.

@thenomain said in X-Men Utopia MUX:

It is insanely difficult to make something like that work. @surreality worked on it for a while and I think she came close?

Maybe. M1963 uses descriptions for powers, skills, etc. You could easily put that into a wiki. Injecting that information onto the game is not necessary as long as you have access to the wiki. Sort of redundant, really.

But, as I said, just a thought.

@tragedyjones said:

So anyone working on anything?

Plugging away on my Mass Effect system, actually. It kind of sucks when you're the only author, but I wanted substantial control over how it would go down. Then again, when it is your ambition to describe all of the bloody powers and statuses, it can be time-consuming.

I'll need people to play-test the shit out of it, though. I got a sneaky suspicion that Turians and Krogan are going to be the overwhelming favorites.