Best posts made by Ganymede

@Arkandel said:

It even has a diluting effect on other kinds of rewards - if I can get a Beat for 30 seconds' worth of typing an one-line justification and you have to run a multi-hour PrP with several players in it it's the same incentive being applied, but one action helps the game a great deal more than the other.

I know this. There is no perfect system. Sorry. There just isn't, and there never will be. That does not mean we should not install some sort of system, consequences known and damned. I will note that the reward for running a scene can be greater than what you'd get by fulfilling an aspiration or resolving a condition. And people won't engage in a behavior if the reward is too low.

Presuming that aspirations create RP, though, you are still engaging correctly in positive reinforcement. Giving people more for STing or participating in PRPs is a good idea. Cap your gain or make XPs cost more beats as one gets more XP, and that's about the best you can do to achieve balance.

@testament said in Good TV:

Speaking of the War for Cybertron trilogy, I think Siege was far better than Earthrise, but only the premise that not a lot happened in Earthrise.

We differ here.

Earthrise was more nuanced and interesting to me. The interaction between Prime and Megatron in the station was great, even if it was so poorly voice-acted that I cringed. The fact that there's something about Elita-One that isn't voiced that links Prime and Megatron is also interesting to me, if only because she clearly served as Prime's sounding board in Siege. But they apparently elected to do nothing with the nuance, and ejected it all because, fuck it, children don't appreciate a slow burn.

I mean, you almost understand why Megatron hates Prime so much, and see how it actually has very little to do with the Autobots. Meanwhile, I appreciate how they made Starscream's racism overt and oh-so-amusingly synecdoche for modern Republicanism.

@silentsophia said:

Plus, Admiral Fluffnstuff was a very popular cat.

This is literally going to be my first Beast character concept and BG.

@arkandel said in Good TV:

Every episode is wholesome as fuck. It reeks with good will, especially for being as dirty mouthed as its dialogue often gets.

@deadculture said:

@Packrat Well, he's a lawyer. They tend to write well.

Sounds like someone who does not have to deal with them on a daily basis.

@derp said in Good TV:

I believe that she is referring to Entrapta from She-Ra.

As with most characters from the show, she's very well-written. It's the little things about her that reminds me of my daughter's quirks.

@hedgehog said in World (Chronicles?) of Darkness Concepts You Would Enjoy RPing with:

Sure. But the nockers especially peeved me, because it was like 'hey - these guys are actually Welsh (maybe even Cornish) in origin, but we already saturated the splats with fae from the UK and Ireland. How do we rectify it?' 'I know! YIDDISH!'

Yeah, I never really understood that much.

Sluagh? Irish. Pooka? Celtic. Boggans, Nockers, Redcap, Sidhe? All very Brit-Isles.

Kind of why I lost interest in the game, I think.

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

Several people from my WoW guild have already quit over it. With Final Fantasy XIV already being as popular as it is, it's not like players don't have other options either.

Honestly, I hope that your friends find another place to go. In my opinion, World of Warcraft has been garbage for the past, what, decade or so?

@fatefan said in What would a superhero game need to be/do to bring in a new player base?:

First, you need a system. Don't use some vague bullshit-system, all right? I'd recommend FS3, but Scion/Aberrant works fine. You could also tailor the Chronicles of Darkness system reasonably to achieve similar results. Keeping the above in mind, I have the following comments.

Specifically, I'm thinking of a game that uses feature characters (characters from published comics, like Spider-Man, Batman, Hellboy, etc.).

If you're going to use FCs, use lower-end ones with minimal, well-defined superpowers. For example, Jessica Jones, as portrayed in Marvel/Netflix's series, has super-human strength and stamina, but she can, and has, been defeated by mundane means. More fantastic heroes ought not be playable, e.g., Spider-Man, Superman, etc.

Is a more broadly inclusive theme important, where players don't have to know tons of canon details? (Related: what about giving players the opportunity to change the game world status quo with high-impact TPs?)

Yes, and no. What players should do, if they want to be an FC, is to describe their version of the FC in detail. This is where Wikis come in.

Is a more concise application process important, so that players don't have to draft entire manuscripts of details?

When it comes to FCs with existing canon storylines, I believe that more detail is better. This will eliminate the discussion of what version of the FC one is playing from; e.g., is it homosexual or heterosexual Bobby Drake.

You should also allow OCs. Since you have a system, you don't need to worry about details as to the powers, so their process ought not be as rigorous.

Is a mechanical system (like Mutants and Masterminds or even Venture City Stories) important to help adjudicate conflicts a bit/lot more impartially than relying on consent?

Yes, among other things.

@derp

Fuck you, Indy-boy.

@Rick-Sanchez said in The State of the Chronicles of Darkness:

Well, like I said, the bar for scrutiny is spending more than a minute with someone. So yes. I would scrutinize my date, probably before the making out part.

I prefer to deny the past rather than accept the present.

@ominous

I also worked in food service as waitstaff and as a cook. I have worked as a Walmart associate. I have worked in a movie theater. I have worked as a camp counselor and director. I have worked as a lifeguard. I have worked as a bar-back, bartender, and a DJ. I have worked as a teacher. I have worked as a professor. And I have worked as a lawyer.

I have worked, and worked, and worked. And nothing feels better to me than taking an hour to cook and clean and do things right in my house.

It sucks on the one hand; it feels great on the other.

@Derp said in Alternate CoD/WoD Character Growth / XP Systems:

In an effort to keep the Mage thread actually, you know, on the point of Mage, I vote that we move the discussion about XP systems and whatnot over here.

Thanks, @Derp.

@ThatDamnGuy

I'm not a fan of throttling spending by imposing timed limitations. I figure that if you have gained the XP, you have already gone through the time necessary to justify an instant raise. It's not our fault that 2e nWoD eliminated scaled spending; I argued strongly against flat-spending.

But I go back to other video games. For many games, there's some point where you simply cannot advance further. We all know and accept this. So, why is it so hard to accept XP caps?

As long as there's something for capped PCs to do, the game should be just fine, barring other problems. So, like you, I'd focus on the game experience. In my opinion, a cap will provide a different experience than a game with unlimited gain and spending, and that experience would be better.

@greenflashlight

***Spoilers for the new Spider-Man movie coming out this Christmas.***

@Thenomain said in Alternate CoD/WoD Character Growth / XP Systems:

I ... don't have anything to say about it, unfortunately. Just, ah, here we are again. Back in the car. (See: The funniest scene in Jurrasic Park.)

Well, at least you're out of the tree.

@eye8urcake

When you’re ready, you know where we are.

Your request is effective immediately.

@ThatGuyThere said in Alternate CoD/WoD Character Growth / XP Systems:

For me it boils down to I have no desire to play a character that is mechanically stagnant. RP is great and the focus of an RPG but the Game part is just as important to me.

I find this disingenuous, but not by design or intent.

As you pointed out, not every game allows one to branch out and advance in all directions. For WoD games, this is a feature, not a bug. Yet WoD goes to great lengths to hammer home the point that characters are going to have weaknesses -- profound weaknesses -- but these can be overcome now merely by spending XP.

Games are contests where the participants compete against one another for a goal. In an RPG, what the goal is can be anything. But people with weaknesses can still compete and win, based on intangibles and chance. And the most sporting of contests is one where everyone is equal in skill and talent; more compelling, those contests where the winner is the underdog.

When we talk about XP, we're talking of advancement and improvement. We're not really talking about the game. And my beef is that, in the World of Darkness, you can overcome just about any weakness, save for scant system-based or thematic ones, with the right amount of XP. If XP and its spending is free-flowing, the problem in the system becomes more obvious.

So, yeah, I'm not sure if I really believe that you enjoy the RP part of RPing. Or even the gaming, for the status quo of games currently makes any "games" unsporting.

Yes, this is full of hyperbole. Hopefully, the point is clear.

@silverfox

I would stop helping him period.

Especially after I kick his wheelchair over.

@Arkandel

So, you're basically saying that if you wanted to be a combat-oriented PC, you had to take advantage of merits that augmented your combat abilities. If this is the case, I thought it a truism.

But the game didn't force you to be combat-oriented, yes? Or socially-oriented? Mentally or magically? That's what I'm getting at; putting XP caps in place do not force you to take a certain build or concept, and, if so, that was likely due to the nature of the game in question.

@greenflashlight said in Good or New Movies Review:

Are you familiar with Tony Leung's work?

Some. More vividly, I recall seeing Lust/Caution and Infernal Affairs. When I was younger, I recall seeing him in Happy Together and Heaven Can't Wait, but that was a long time ago for me.