Best posts made by Ganymede

@faraday said in How To Treat Your Players Right:

• "Please don't do anything; I just wanted you to know." OMG this one drives me nuts. Why tell me if you're just going to tie my hands? Now you've put me in a position where either I let a potential creeper continue creeping, or I violate your confidence by taking action against your wishes. IT SUCKS. Please stop doing this, people.

I think it might be a good policy to put up front that staff will act upon information given for the good of the game. Under the circumstances, I don't really care what the informant's or complainant's desires might be.

Consider staff -- good staff -- to be like mandated reporters, people. If you ring the bell, they will act.

I hurt for my city today.

They instituted a curfew.

I have not missed the irony that, just weeks ago, the people that were complaining about "the government nanny state" trying to stop the spread of a deadly disease are now applauding "the government nanny state" imposing a limited form of martial law.

This will not stop the pain.

It will not start the healing.

@Alamias said in Sexuality: IC and OOC:

Hey, it was one sexy sofa. All soft Corinthian leather with overstuffed cushions.

@Auspice said in RL things I love:

Cause, I dunno. I just don't believe in the old 'they lashed out because they are gay and didn't know how to handle it' thing. It took me a long time to come to terms with being bi and I never once thought 'yknow what I'm gonna treat LGBT people like shit' and sure people are different but bullying is never okay

I get.

But this motherfucker was up in arms against Trump for the longest time until something happened, and there's no doubt now that the "best kept secret" in D.C. got out to Anus Tangerinus.

I don't like outing anyone against their will, but when the object of the blackmail is a part of your identity that you should not be ashamed of but you keep secret because you want to keep power, then it's time for the people against whom you have abused that power to remove it from you, one way or another.

I don't care that Sen. Graham is gay or uses male escorts; I care that he is a shithead who deserves to burn for continuously backing someone who's perfectly happy to watch the country catch flame so long as he gets his.

@Sunny said in How to Escape the OOC Game:

ETA: It's a lot like 'never in the history of calming down has telling someone to calm down actually helped them to calm down'.

Lessons you learn with children.

@buttercup

There are many ways to celebrate the March, including, but not limited to, marching in local demonstrations and participating in local activities.

This might keep your children safe while still politically active. Further, local work has a greater local impact. Also, less travel.

@Ghost said in X-Cards:

If the above statement is true, is it acceptable/hypocritical to promote the xcard, which effectively works like a "critical hit" social roll on the other players?

I don't think that's how the X-Card works.

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

Singular possessive always gets 's, regardless of the letter it ends with. Plural possessive may or may not get the s after the apostrophe, depending on the letter it ends with and a few other weird exceptions.

The sorceress's staff belongs to Maleficent.
The sorceresses are named Maleficent and Gothel.
The sorceresses' staffs belong to Maleficent and Gothel.

Correct apostrophe use is critical to understanding homonyms.

@Ghost said in GMs: Typical Player/GM Bad Habits:

WHAT THIS THREAD IS is a thread designed to discuss bad habits of players and GMs, and to constructively discuss great ways to correct/work with said habits to make GMs better GMs, and players better players.

Be fucking flexible, people.

GMs: Let players just play. The rolls are not meant to be an impediment. Bar the ludicrous and make silly methods more difficult; but don't be so narrow-minded as to allow require a singular event or roll determine the success of an evening. Think "open world game."

Players: Just go with it. Don't quibble about the modifiers. Don't argue about the mechanics. Don't lawyer the words. Just do what the GM asks you to do, unless you can clearly -- CLEARLY -- articulate and point out that something is expressly contrary to the rules. Even then, if the GM believes otherwise? Go with it.

Everyone: Engage. Put away the other games. Keep focused on your character, if you're a player, or all of the characters, if you're the GM. Take the time. Make it short: a couple of hours at most, and engage.

That's how you can avoid bad habits.

@AeriaNyx said in RL Sads:

I just found out my cat, Cricket, has cancer.

I know this sounds awful, but this isn't bad news.

I say this because I didn't know what was wrong with my kitty before we had to make the decision to put him down. He had two massive tumors in his stomach that made it painful, if not impossible, to eat. For months we watched him vomit up food he desperately wanted because he couldn't keep it in. We watched him wither away in sheer ignorance. When we found out why he was so sick, I felt so guilty and hurt that I cried in front of my kids.

I keep a photo of my cat on my phone. When people ask me why I don't have my kids' photos, I usually tell them, to their horror, how it reminds me to listen to my kids when they say they are hurt or not feeling well. I know that if my cat could have talked, he would have told me how it hurt to eat. Instead, that damn lovebug kept struggling to get up on the bed and nuzzle with us, and we were too damned stupid to realize what he was trying to say.

At least you know, and can help your loved one live the best life possible; I feel like I condemned my cat to months of torture.

You have my condolences and the bestest of wishes.

@Ghost said in Empire State Heroes Mush:

In a lot of cases it works fine, but when it breaks and staff waffle about confronting players, ooooo it's rough.

Here's the thing I'm fixated on, I guess.

Let's take the example of Arsenal and Iron Man. Arsenal's player poses something about Arsenal correcting Iron Man on some point on advanced technology. Among Iron Man's player's choices are rolling with that, and moving on. Why not do this? As I mentioned, Iron Man can be wrong about things. What's the importance of being "right" on this one?

If you follow improv rules, then Iron Man's player should go along with what Arsenal's player does. On a MUSH, we strive for consistency, so Iron Man's player has a legitimate reason to question whether Iron Man would have made a misstatement or Arsenal is actually smarter than Iron Man. But underlying both sets of interest is the question: what's the point of arguing this?

And that is what I don't understand here.

This is why I personally like prefer dice-based superhero mush systems. At the end of the day, people can stop arguing about who has the bigger dick and simply break out the measuring tape. Some people just don't understand characters have flaws and they just parade power power power, and wireless resolution can mean for some players only not-winning when they choose to or are forced to.

I like these too, but they are not always available. Besides, I don't always fall back on the systems to resolve issues, and I often like to take the route that leads to more interesting role-play.

That said, when you have a player that refuses to take a loss and keeps on pressing victory obnoxiously, you simply deprive them of what they seek most: validation. There is no rule that one must RP with someone, and if there was one I would go to staff to point this behavior out.

@Auspice said in The ADD/ADHD Thread (cont'd from Peeves):

Apparently my spoken vocabulary is fairly extensive; moreso than I often realize. I got accused way too often by my ex-husband (and some of our mutual friends, even one who also considered themselves a writer) that I 'purposefully' used words they didn't know.

They say: "You purposefully use words I don't know."

I hear: "I'm too stupid to understand the language I purport to speak."

@faraday said in What MU/RPG opinions have you changed or maintained?:

MUSH games are not very good about setting expectations of what kind of game they are, and players are not very good about respecting those boundaries even when they are established.

I concur, but write to add that most players are simply unwilling to learn the rules of a novel game, and would prefer to twist it to suit their attitudes rather than adapt.

@reimesu said in RL Sads:

You're not weak OR stupid, you're compassionate and kind.

This.

Empathy is not a weakness.

Sure, I don't get emotional about things, but there's a word for people like me: sociopath.

@Wizz said in RL Sads:

I still care about her as a person and I feel really bad about what she's gone through but I really think she has an unhealthy fixation on us and I wish she'd just move on.

Setting boundaries is an important part of self-definition.

You can still care for someone as a person and cut them completely out of your life.

@Arkandel said in How important is it to be 'needed'?:

In my personal opinion the concept selection is essentially unimportant in a vacuum.

You and I don't agree on everything, but this is a point that I disagree with vehemently.

If I'm playing a character, the concept is of central importance. In my opinion, there is no character without its concept, and I therefore am not, and cannot, play a character without its concept.. At best, I am playing myself, something which I do every painful, heart-wrenching, pride-swallowing minute of every hour of every day.

I have seen great players hobbled by their concept. Maybe they did not click with it; maybe they could not get their mind into it. It does not matter. A concept that does not fit into a theme or setting will produce an unpalatable character in the long run. This is one of the reasons why an adjustment to a theme or setting can make a character unplayable.

That said, I see people connect to games without a concept for their character, and they never, ever seem to fit in. Or they have a concept that staff isn't really looking for, but staff bend their vision and later regret it. For me, the best way to avoid both situations is to ask the question. Figure out what concepts fit in, and what's needed from a staff perspective. I may not select that concept, but it gives me of an idea of what will work with my playstyle.

If you have a vacuum, the only reason why a concept is unimportant is because you have neither a theme nor a setting. If you don't have those two things, you're screwed for other reasons. But if there is a theme and a setting, having a solid concept is my primary concern as a player, and having a good group of desired concepts is my primary concern as staff.

@Caggles

It’s a good thing that, when the alcohol is over, my lovers come to realize I’m lukewarm, bland, flat, and cheesy.

@Sunny said in Consent in Gaming:

Characters should have to deal with the fallout of their actions, absolutely. I don't think that this means that players have to be punished with on-screen roleplay that isn't fun.

This is where I fall. If you don’t want to play out the CO demoting you, that’s fine. But if you want to dodge the demotion, that’s not going to happen.

A caveat is where you have a PC CO. Again, if another player does not want to play the demotion scene, that’s fine; however, I would be peeved if said player claimed that my PC was a screeching bitch during whatever the scene was, if we agreed there was a scene that happened behind-the-scenes.

That said, I will admit that I would be disappointed in such player. If you make the IC drama, play through it. Or don’t get into it.

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

I'm not pleased the kid got hurt; but I was pleased that my co-worker's bad parenting cost her a lot of money.

Reconnecting with a game with delightful players in the same timezone.

Re-watched Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Wow. It's still good. It was always good, but it is really good. You never quite appreciate how good it is, I think, when you're a young adult. Now that I'm an older adult, I see the layering of story and how they draw everything together nicely.

It's clear that this is an American version of a classic Anime tale. And this is a good thing: it is fresh and different, and entirely its own. The flavor of everything is just right, including the animation.

It ranks at No. 3 on my list of Ganymede's Best Animated Series ever, but to be fair I've watched an awful lot of animated shows and No. 3 is still pretty damn high.