Best posts made by Ganymede

I am returning to say that "Prepare Carefully" is exactly what I needed to enjoy this game more. Now I have a nice little team, and have started brainwashing poor fools who attempt to invade my fortress of doom.

Thanks, @Admiral.

@surreality said in Games In Games:

On Shang, someone I played with for ages wanted to run an IC WoD game.

My PC is now running, at this very moment, a Universe of Darkness game on BSG:U using the Lasers and Feelings system.

@admiral said in Good or New Movies Review:

That is something that bothers me. There are so many phenomenal actresses out there.

There are so many great stories they could tell with them...

Like this one?

Or this one?

This one?

This?

Sure, if you keep an eye on the blockbusters it will look like women are not getting plum roles in excellent films, but if you keep your eye on excellent films I think you'll find that fine actresses are getting great roles. Laurie Metcalf and Allison Janney were spectacular last year.

@thugheaven said in Armageddon MUD:

I’d argue that a message board with a new player question forum and a discord with a channel IS plenty.

I'd argue that a game which would rather beat, murder, or mug a new player to adhere to IC realism rather than offer OOC compromise is a pretty inhospitable place.

Count me out.

@Cassite said in General Video Game Thread:

Then the gameplay. And the cruddy female representation. Euugh.

Yeah, you're right there.

But dudes with car was still pretty fun.

And the game was beautiful to look at.

@faraday said in Indicating Discomfort in a Scene (online):

We're supposed to be adults here, let's try communicating like adults. What in the world am I supposed to do with a vague yellow stoplight indication? Change the entire scene based on some vague guess as to what might be bothering you?

I'm with Fara on this, to no one's surprise.

But, at the same time, there are many, many of us who aren't good at communicating our discomfort. And there's no guarantee people will refer to or use RP prefs in their RP.

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

For example I don't care about hockey.

@ortallus said in Armageddon MUD:

You can teach people about how gritty and dark the game is in a way that leaves them excited, or despondent. Despondent people leave, and don't come back. Excited people stick around.

This is the best take-away here.

I have no grief with games that are thick on IC consequences or that eschew OOC communications on the game. And being up front about that is just fine with me as well.

But this was not the message initially conveyed, in my opinion.

Anyhow, good luck to anyone who plays on this game in the future.

@Derp said in General Video Game Thread:

FF15 is good too. I enjoyed it immensely. Some of the story felt a little contrived at parts, but I don't even care. The visuals and combat system were totally worth it.

The visuals? Definitely. The combat system? Needs work.

The story is terrible, but I expected no less from a JRPG. I just wish that Square ENIX would put out something for Western consumption that doesn't feel like a subordinate dumpster fire.

@Arkandel said in How to Change MUing:

What is the line between what you would consider acceptable for a roleplaying game and the environment becoming a MUD?

Why can't you consider a MUD a role-playing game? Can't it be both?

I'd like some more automation. I'd like some more stuff to do with my downtime, whether it be communicating IC through a letter system or hitting code for little resource rewards (appropriately capped).

Carrots encourage people to come around. Better chance to get RP that way.

I find it delightfully appropriate that the above conversation is in the topic "RL things I love."

@surreality said in The Eighth Sea - Here There Be Monsters:

They did a beautiful job with this place, and way more people should try it. People are friendly, chill, and it was never hard to get involved in things. It's pretty easy to set up a character, and I'm impressed with how things are set up. People were massively helpful when it came to getting set up, too; I'd not tried any games using any of faraday's systems before and it was easy to pick up for a new-systems-averse person.

I definitely second this. The folks are reasonable, and by that I mean they are helpful to newbies and quick to address problem players with prejudice.

@Misadventure

I have no idea what this game is about, but it sounds pretty cool.

@bored said in Indicating Discomfort in a Scene (online):

The only thing you can do to make people complain more is take it seriously.

Bingo.

@tyche said in RL Anger:

You ought to be angry at being so gosh darn gullible.

... says the token from the party that put forward such stellar candidates as Harriet Miers (withdrawn), Robert Bork (rejected), Harrold Carswell (rejected), and Clement Haynsworth (rejected) in the past 50 years.

Summary:

Miers: Horridly unqualified. Had the good grace to bow out.
Bork: Opposed by the ACLU (like Kavanaugh). Alleged extremist.
Carswell: Alleged racist. Considered "mediocre."
Haynsworth: Allegedly had financial interests in cases he presided over. "Too moderate."

The Republican Party has the worst recruitment team when it comes to finding qualified candidates.

@tempest said in San Francisco: Paris of the West:

I just meant to say, Johnny Depp as mayor is pretty tame in that frame of reference, even if he is a little scummy.

Taking a hard stance against electing a man accused of domestic abuse in the United States gives me a conceited, ironic chuckle.

Depp's definitely scum, but he's the sort of scum that gets away with that shit in San Francisco.

@MrWigggles said in MU Pacing:

I hate meeting characters. I hate the intial meeting of characters. Just that cold turkey, "Oh hello. I'm blah." And it so boring, because I've done it to death, and its always akward, as you the player may not have a repour with the other player and your character and theirs dont have a repour with each other either. With mu*ing, being improv, you need to know how to give and take between each other.

1. It's "awkward."
2. It's "rapport."
3. Skilled improv performers can act with others they have not met before, provided the other person is similarly skilled. In fact, this is one of the first, basic skills improv performers practice.

@mietze said in RL Anger:

But honestly I think my trust has been irrevocably broken at this point with this school. And that teacher. They can give me nothing positive to say about my child.

This summer, at the end of preschool, my daughter's teacher concluded that she was on the autistic spectrum, and recommended that she go to see a developmental pediatrician. This was supported by the preschool's psychologist. I live in a fairly affluent suburb.

We got a referral to a development pediatrician who found that, while my daughter has a speech delay, she was far ahead of other markers in things like growth and cognition. We took her to a speech therapist who concurred that my daughter needed some assistance with understanding social cues, but that she was bright, lively, intelligent, and a very quick learner.

I have never sat down with my daughter to write or draw. One day, three months after preschool ended and at a family dinner at a local restaurant, she draws a rose and then writes, in perfect block letters: "THE ROSE IS RED AND GREEN." And that little girl won't shut the hell up sometimes, I swear, but she can quite capably read things she's never seen before, like the subtitles in the movie "Alpha."

Fuck preschool teachers sometimes.

From all indicators -- granted, I have but a B.A. in psychology -- she appears to have hyperlexia. She remains in the 90th percentile for height and weight. She makes friends with all of the "special" children in her preschool class now (we decided to keep her in preschool for an extra year because we could, and it's probably better for her). And my parents, who care for her often, can confirm with certainty that she's a lot smarter, nicer, sweeter, and more talented than I was when I was her age.

Fuck you too, Mom and Dad.

Anyhow, my point is this: don't be discouraged by bad teachers. Your boy is having fun? I say, let him have fun. He'll learn as he will, when he will. Teachers, unfortunately, can only evaluate based on the tests they do on the day they do them, so if your kid is smart enough to have his own mind, he'll probably test poorly and you'll get an earful.

Far be it for me to point out that shitty teachers often get shitty results from great kids.

@Corruption said:

I'm going to go sulk in my corner since @Sunny turned me down. Friendzoned! MUSHzoned? Something!

Do you have a sense of self-awareness?

I thought that Safe Haven was set up as a response to the growing, obvious corruption on The Reach. And then I learned it was set up as a sandbox, with the people involved treating it like one. I'm okay with that.

Now that it is re-opening itself for new blood -- limited new blood -- when players express their opinion on the perceived and enforced exclusivity of the sandbox, we are presented with the same message as before, which is "come play with us." It's the same message as before, just cloaked in a way that can be construed as insulting to intelligence.

The difference in my mind between Fallcoast and Safe Haven is that Safe Haven is filled with dinosaurs. They still strike me as sandbox games that I'd rather not be involved with.

@Ghost said in Eliminating social stats:

The military doesn't lend super well to social skills since the game is task based, which leaves a lot of the social interaction to either team-based efforts or interpersonal relationships and if those get out of hand...in comes military regulations.

Politically, no, but a military game could include espionage against enemies, which might require social rolls against NPCs. We could talk about how genius BSG:U is until the cows come home, but it is what it is: very well-crafted to a particular kind of game.

I'll go ahead and say it: socially-savvy RPers get by very well in any game, but even better in ones where there are no social rolls or social combat. They will figuratively and literally get their way because they are good at what they do. You can always check them by requiring a roll where a system exists, which will at least make them honest in how they construct their PCs.