Best posts made by Ganymede

@faraday said in The 100: The Mush:

How is being polite and respectful a dangerous mentality to adhere to?

That's not what I was objecting to. What you described was a situation where staff adopted a dangerous mentality: "I will devote my free time only to those players who share my vision of this game."

It makes sense superficially, but it's dangerous in practice. If those players manipulate the vision of the game, then staff are no longer serving that vision; rather, staff are serving those players. This is how the Ham Clique worked; this is how Spider gets into positions of power.

When people complain, they ought to be listened to. Reasonable, mature people can discern the difference between a legitimate concern and griping. Presuming that, the cacophony about the pervasive IC antagonism as a cause to drive players out should draw some attention. Maybe the IC antagonism is what the staff want, and that's fine, but what if the players who "follow the vision" change their preferences? Will the staff agree and shift away from IC antagonism?

Then you get a game where staff are catering to the "loyal." You get concerns about upsetting the "pillars" of the game. Then the game no longer belongs to staff; it belongs to the players. And that's not as good a thing as it sounds.

Edited to improve conclusion and clarify:

Staff should devote their free time and money to maintaining their vision of the game. Players will come and go. Serve the game.

@Ghost

I get that, but you're still shifting the goal-posts.

We started with a very specific example, for which you have an opinion I disagree with. There are many non-legal reasons for my disagreement.

The easiest and clearest one is taking your position a little further. If we cannot hold others responsible for our emotional states, then there cannot logically be consequences or repercussions for others' actions that do not cause physical harm, even if those actions are calculated, deliberate, and malicious. If I am solely responsible for my reaction were you to call me a fat, ugly dyke, then I am not justified in any action taken to retaliate against you for that slight.

If we can agree that people can be held responsible for calculated, deliberate, or malicious actions, then we should also agree that the bad actor should be responsible for the resulting harm. If so, then one should recognize the existence of emotional harm because it is just to hold a person accountable for harm they knowingly cause.

The severity of the harm is irrelevant.

@spinitch

I am sad to hear of this, but thank you for letting us know.

Basically every situation on MUSHes adapted from tabletop games brought to beautiful glory by gifted writers.

Seriously watch this, it's fucking hilarious.

Also, watch this, because it precedes the part above.

Fun fact: the episode was written by this guy:

@Echx

I find it very hard to believe you are truly as dense as you're seeming here.

Let's pull out some undisputed facts: 2-year plot; limited seats "at the table"; game-wide effect. I hope you can see why other long-term players might be miffed at being excluded.

There was a million ways to address this maturely. Apparently, no one has decided to take it. Staff should never, ever hide behind "I didn't know there was a problem."

We've known each other for a while. @Sunny's not the issue here.

@Derp said in What to do when your mush is attacked:

Yeah, no. That's way too on the nose.

I'm in the crowd of people who had no idea those names actually referred to a specific person, and therefore did not act.

@Bellecourt

Thank you.

The write-ups actually come from another game I worked with @Taika on. I've been meaning to ask her if she wanted me to re-write the descriptions so as to better fit what City of Shadows is like, but it's been a few years, and I don't think it matters a whole lot.

If you're looking for a dynastic feel, though, you might want to check out the Myrmex. They were based on the Melissidae, but have more of a evangelistic cult-ish feel to them.

@misadventure said in RL Anger:

And then there are places that allow people to donate their unused sick time to other employees who may need it to deal with things.

Let me just say the following to vent. It's not a personal thing.

The above policy is not a substitute for ADA compliance, and is a bullshit way for a company to shove the responsibility of making reasonable accommodations onto its employees.

If Sally has Crohn's disease that must be monitored every two months by a doctor and requires her to take half-a-day off, the ADA mandates that such accommodation be given to Sally upon request without penalty. An employer should not be forcing Sally to take sick, vacation, or FMLA leave to do something related to a documented disability. That is literally taking money from Sally's pockets as a penalty for her disability, relative to other people who do not have the same disability. The employer could ask Sally to spend half-a-day's worth of time after work on other days to make up for the appointment, but that's a reasonable accommodation because she would be working the same hours as everyone else.

To me, employers that try to guilt their workers into donating their sick or vacation leave to another employee with a documented disability for which a reasonable accommodation can and should be made are actually defrauding the employees. And they shouldn't stand for it.

@Ghost said in The 100: The Mush:

You know what the fifth stage of grief is?!?!?

Uncle ClownSex's Magical Leather Basement

FUCK YOU.

How dare you impugn my basement?

(I laughed so hard I scared the roomkeeper; I'm at a conference in a hotel room, dying.)

@Auspice said in MU*, Youth, and LGBT+ Identity:

I have absolutely seen (on here, even!) complaints about non-<minority> players trying to write said minority's experience.

But was the complaint, for example, "this non-queer player is portraying a queer PC" or is it "this player is making a caricature of a minority PC"? I think these are two different complaints.

@arkandel

@Thenomain said in Dragon Age: Dread Wolf's Rise:

I don't think DA2 is gritty because its attempts to be gritty fail.

I think you fail.

Forget about your sibling: your mother dies in a horrible, random way. There's no rhyme or reason to it; it just happens because your mother tried to find a bit of happiness in the world.

The little, adorable elf-girl? She gets to murder her entire clan in a pointless pursuit.

Emo-elf? He murders his sister because she wanted a better life for herself. And if you decide to side with the oppressed mages? You may have to kill the fuck out of him. (Granted, this isn't as gritty as it is enjoyable because fuck Fenris, the worst character ever.)

The Magistrate's son? A pedophile.

The bouncy, sex-pot? Betrays the fuck out of you, and is the cause for half the city going up in flames at the hands of a pissed-off Arishok who just wants his fucking book so he can leave the shit-hole he's forced to stay in.

The rebel with a cause? An abomination that succumbs to madness and sets off the genocide of mages.

The ne'er-do-well dwarf rogue? Nearly gets you killed, and then has to kill his brother.

Dude, I know you weren't a huge fan of DA2, but there's no way in Andraste's twat that you could find it less gritty than the flim-flam pansy human noble storyline in DA:O. About the only reason I gave a shit about Morrigan's self-centered whining is because I wanted to eat her out, and, when that wasn't possible, I went with the loose-and-easy bard.

@Tinuviel said in MU*, Youth, and LGBT+ Identity:

To be fair that's how I imagine @Ganymede. Not just any suits, but the suits of men she's beaten.

Great. So you either think of me as fat or as fashionable as a Trump.

Fack. You.

For the record, I wear either their skins or ride their wives.

@paris

The pain of soy protein allergy is alarming and understood.

I can't eat processed or frozen meats; most, if not all, use isolated soy protein as a texture-filler. I have to avoid all-but-whey protein supplements, and I avoid the whey protein supplements because they are packed with sugar.

I get joy from making meatballs.

My partner's aunt had a meat grinder. Like, one of those hand-cranking ones. It's my favorite cooking tool. And it's not just for making loose meat from cheap cuts, or mixing your favorite spices into your meatballs and sausages; I also use it to make killer perogies and dumplings. It takes me back to a simpler time, when my family used to congregate around the kitchen table to make cheap meatballs when we couldn't afford the grocery store price.

These little things make me happy.

My dad is going to be 80 this year. I still want to make meatballs with him just one more time.

@surreality said in Shadows over Reno:

Goddammit, that sounds like the best character ever.

Okay. His version of STP's Plush is just a little off.

@Misadventure said in Shadows over Reno:

How do we know that's not a Nosferatu in Gangrel clothing?

I'm sorry, but I'm cooking up a sexpot Gangrel because if I don't, someone else will and do it poorly.

@faraday said in First Through the Gate Syndrome:

In a GM-directed plot, a large chunk of your next action is going to be based solely on whatever the GM's last emit was, not necessarily as much to the other players' actions.

While true, that doesn't mean pose-queuing cannot be done. I say this as someone who has regularly participated in your GM-run scenes, as well as others.

In such circumstances, it is true that you cannot react to the GM's last pose until after it comes out. That said, you can still react to everyone else's prior poses. Ready that up, and you only have one pose to worry about thereafter.

I know I am simplifying the process, and this is because I have been doing this for so damn long as a habit. But when people ask why I can churn out a 2+ paragraph pose in under 3 minutes, this is how.

@Aria

Congratulations on your choice to get married. Be advised that your wedding day will be the subject of the complaints of the ignorant and the jealous. I can say that, without equivocation, no one who attended my wedding who complained remain in my life, so I look at the event as a tremendously successful weeding-out test.

The struggle will be deep and real between the two of you, but the adage will hold true: as long as you have each other, there will be no end to strife. But those trials and tribulations will ultimately make you both stronger, fitter, and more appreciative of one another.

I have many complaints of my partner, but none of them come close to the threshold of my patience. I hope you will find the same with one another. In my mind, that is what will distinguish the anecdotes from wisdom, and your love from false narratives.

@Auspice said in Star Wars: Insurgency:

But with Star Wars, you have a fairly small pool of FCs unless you go into people apping random Cantina patrons and the like.

With the number of Star Wars games and novels in existence, I can say with reasonable certainty that the number of potential FCs can easily rival Marvel FCs.

@Joyeuse said in Getting Young Blood Into MU*'ing:

I decided recently, not even a month ago, really, to give it another shot. FC looks all but dead now, though, and it's hard finding something that really seems that enthralling for someone like me who's got pretty narrow interests setting-wise, but I'm giving City of Hope and this one Star Wars MU a shot to try and see if I stick with it this time around.

Without malice, I'm going to recommend that you not spend much time at City of Hope. If you're interested in World of Darkness games, you're best served asking folks around here the highs and lows of available games.

There aren't many any more, despite what you may want to hear.

@Auspice

I don't feel responsible for the diagnosis.

Feeling helpless is not a feeling I relish. I do recognize there are things I can do little about, and that this is one of them. Underneath the robot, I am actually very much an alpha wolf, so the concept of not being able to do anything does not sit well with LawyerCatBot.

And, unfortunately, my cat must remain in the ER. He may need a transfusion, and they are performing the ultrasound tomorrow. I am going to make arrangements for my parents to watch the monsters while my partner and I journey to the clinic to say our farewells, and we will hold him gingerly until the end of his watch.

I will eventually learn to convert my sadness into blinding anger. I just haven't had enough bourbon yet.