Best posts made by Ganymede

@zombiegenesis

I think players find them very important.

I played on New Orleans, and tried to attract people to it. The lack of bloodlines was a huge hindrance to that.

There are some bloodlines available online, notably the Khaibit and the Kerberos. I like both of them, but I believe the way the Khaibit are created makes more sense.

I suggest making bloodlines on your own. I did this for The Descent, and the folks there seemed to like my suggestions and writings. If you want some help on this end, let me know and I'd be happy to sit down and talk about my experiences with writing up 2E translations of bloodlines or "original" ones.

@TNP said in What Would it Take to Repair the Community?:

But that would be bullying, according to some posters that seem to have the approbation of admin.

In the past, most people have reported creeps and stalkers like Cullen / Azazello / Surtr / whomever through DMs to me. When reports of this kind of activity have popped up, my practice was to ask the reporter to DM me to discuss whether there were any concerns that the alleged creeper / stalker was on this board and, if so, what would substantiate their belief. In some cases, there was substantiation (to my satisfaction); in others, not so much.

Cheating on games, exploiting code, blurring OOC and IC lines: these are things I didn't care about as an admin here. Creepers, stalkers, and doxxers? That's shit I took very seriously. But as creepers, stalkers, and doxxers often do very personal things and, in many cases, cause their victims to do embarrassing things, I preferred to take it to DMs because no one needs that laundry aired. Also, the point of my inquiry was ultimately to try and prevent further harm to the victim.

I guess what I'm getting it as if you suspect there is a creeper / stalker here I think you should inform staff so they can take action to make this place safer for you and probably others. As always, though, if you don't, that's fine too because no one should force anyone to go through trauma again.

@faraday said in What Would it Take to Repair the Community?:

Which honestly makes me sad, because I don't think the MUSH community is big enough to sustain two separate discussion forums

What do you mean by "sustain"?

To be honest, if people stop using boards like this then it is more probable that it is because other systems, like Discord and reddit, are sort of pushing independent boards like ours into the obsolete bin when it comes to finding new players, in my opinion. Also, the interest in our particular hobby, which was never strong to begin with, is no doubt dwindling further now that people can reliably play TT games over video. To boot, we also have had few innovations in the past five years, and it seems to me that our constructive discussions revolve around the same issues we've had since I began playing these games over 25 years ago.

If we're talking about this community, then I would agree that the split may kill us both, but as been stated by numerous people -- and I believe it -- our community is but a fraction of the total hobby population. If posting here is going down, it is possible, if not probable, that this is because many of our past active posters were more interested in posting without filters and enjoying being part of the regular spectacle.

What I can say is that I have no plans to shut this place down, as its maintenance is not particularly expensive. So long as people want to us it to advertise, discuss game design, or post up kitten pictures, it'll be around.

@mietze

@faraday said in Social Systems:

Sounds like RfK was just putting some carrot incentives around it so everybody comes away with something (either what they wanted, or a 'beat'). Nothing wrong with that, but did it really help? Was the beat-carrot enough incentive for someone to take a social dive when they otherwise wouldn't?

I think so. And it was kind of fun because socializers don't always win those rolls. There's always a chance of failure. The system rewarded people who engaged in it, one way or another, so I think that it encouraged rolls. It was brilliantly simple, and gave power to social-oriented folks that wouldn't have otherwise had it.

@arkandel said in How can we incentivize IC failure?:

One of the issues plaguing this hobby since its inception has to do with perceived unfairness - usually by staff. Someone succeeds because of favoritism. another is defeated because one person cheated to get ahead.

This is a little different than incentivizing IC failure. In this situation, success is determined not only in a manner outside of a player's control but also as a result of someone else's influence. The only way to incentivize anything is to give a player agency over their character's fate.

Even though these types of allegations will likely never go away, it strikes me that one of their underlying causes is that IC failure is often perceived as OOC failure, too. And I wanted to see if - and how - we can do better systemically to better distinguish between the two and ultimately incentivize conflict more than its resolution.

The Chronicles of Darkness, aka New World of Darkness 2.0, does this very well by providing a character with extra experience if they suffer a set back or choose to surrender. In other games, I have incentivized failure by providing some sort of reward if the player chooses failure; for instance, in a stressful situation in a Werewolf game, I let my players choose to voluntarily fail a frenzy roll in exchange for an XP reward (if I feel it isn't too disruptive to the game or if I think the outcome would be very funny to me).

In a way, FFG does the same with its intriguing dice system, which seems similar to Blood Bowl to me. In that case, the stats determine what you roll and who gets to choose the result form the roll, where each face gives you a certain outcome. Sometimes, choosing "Success, but with a drawback" is not as appealing as "Failure, but with a boon," or however it goes. But either way, the focus should be on giving the affected player a choice. And if given the choice, if there's a reward for failure, it may be taken strategically.

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

We won.

To be honest, 2girls1cup never freaked me out. Nor did countless links friends sent to me of purportedly "disturbing, sick hentai."

This is when I knew that my journey to the Dark Side was complete.

I became a lawyer.

@thenomain said in Social Systems:

This is my point and has been my point. If the game is about a thing, you play about the thing. Imagine how dull a Shadow Run game would be if you weren’t engaging the conceit there in the title of the game!

Imagine how fun it would be if vampires were to play their requiem rather than their players' erotic fantasies birthed from teenage fiction.

My eyes did glaze over Arkandel's example of a process. If one of the fun parts about MUSHing is being able to engage in social play, then I don't see the need to codify it so. And I know, that sounds funny from someone who is pro-code-lots.

But part of the fun of vampire political play is when people don't use the dice. Then it is a match of wits and writing. Or maybe someone tosses in a power to make it all come apart, only to have another person toss in, and, boom, the dynamic changes, and --

Anyhow, I still would never use a power to compel someone to act in a way they did not mind. That's some bullshit right there.

@ghost said in How can we incentivize IC failure?:

"Is it a GAME or a Cooperative Writing Hobby?"

My consistently-presented third option: "Or is it an improv acting activity?".

@derp

Don't worry. Zombie. Zombie. Zombie-e-e.

@griatch said in Charging for MU* Code?:

I can tell this is not unusual outside of software projects either; I've had more complex art/design commissions go down similar routes. With art you usually specify how many 'revisions' your contract allows, just for this reason. Without that, the client would nitpick details forever.

And this is why I charge by the hour, a fact that I remind my oft-calling clients when they want to chat for an hour about why they don't like life.

It's nice to look back and see a whole lot of homebrew bloodlines that I threw together a few years ago. And I'm glad to see that it is doing well.

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

Half the board hated me for 'crushing her dreams of home ownership' (see Spider thread).

Half the board were neurotic, entitled douchebags.

I feel fine crushing people's dreams of owning houses. I've done it. A lot. And, frankly, if you're living at someone else's place for free, you can't fucking complain when they want you out after two or three days, and cry about "crushing your dreams."

Like, bitch, get a better paying job.

(Note, this criticism is aimed at Spider alone, really. Homeownership is a precious thing that is hard to lose.)

@surreality

I love you very much, but this is me laughing so hard at your misfortunate with dogs that I fell out of my chair and am preparing a workers' comp claim.

@misadventure

It sounds like someone was goofing around with sheets.

Frankly, if I discovered this, I would have a very similar response.

Because, man, doing XP audits really, really, really sucks.

And, yes, I have done them before.

Thankfully, this is NWoD v.2, where everything is raised based on a linear progression, as opposed to the exponential-rise in value in NWoD and OWoD.

@wretched said in Good TV:

The reason being is that, while I love my wife, i want to enjoy the show and get hella enganged in it without having to pause while she asks me questions like 'Who is that' and 'Where are they' to which I inevitably have to answer 'My Love, we both just started watching this, i have the exact same amount of information, just watch the show!' But you know, with more specialized language because of our many many years together.

Act I

Gany Bae: Who's that?
Ganymede: I don't know.
Gany Bae: I thought you knew everything about comic books.
Ganymede: I thought you didn't like me talking about comics.
Gany Bae: Why are you so mean to me?
Ganymede: Why do you trap me into situations where there is no right answer?
Gany Bae: So, you want me to start cooking for you now?
Ganymede: Why do you trap me into situations where there is no right answer?
Gany Bae: I hate you.
Ganymede: Of course you do. You like Edward Albee too.

FIN.

@Bennie

Traditionally, minmaxers have been dicks. Tremendous ones. I hold no ire to folks who, mistakenly or not, judge minmaxers harshly.

To reduce the chance of frustration after a rule change, staff should permit players to re-spec their +sheets in light of a rule change.

@Derp

If changing was easy, anyone could do it without an ounce of good faith. But it isn’t.

My overarching, overall point is that those who genuinely want to change can and will. The point being, of course, the will. It is the same will used to do what is right, instead of popular.

But I accede that it is difficult, and people who don’t want to do it won’t. And that’s why I am okay with permanent bans, instead of temporary ones, shutting people out of life, and generally carrying on in the wake.

I ain’t got no time for that bulljive.

@miss-demeanor said in Social Awkwardness?:

But anyways. Is this a thing? Am I alone in this?

You're not alone. I'm the same way.

A lot of people suck at telling stories. My partner is one of them. I love her very much, but she has no idea how to filter out the shit that isn't funny, isn't important, or isn't relevant to what she may be trying to convey with the story.

Some of the partners at work are like this. They like to regale me with war stories, while I clearly have 32,000+ pages of documents to review in four hours. And the war stories have little or nothing to do with what they came to talk to me about, which is usually some one-or-two-line answer about mechanic's liens or some other arcane area of real property law.

I guess I just dislike being talked at. Because I don't like to talk at people. If I don't have something to say, I won't say anything; I'll just ask a question to keep the conversation moving.

@jennkryst said in Dark Ages Vampire -- Terra Mariana:

Can Social Combat be compulsory? Because that would be amazing.

Like any system, parties that can agree on an outcome can agree on an outcome. That's the lawyer in me talking.

Suppose you decide to engage in it; the other person has to engage as well. At the start of extended combat, the parties declare an outcome that they would like to have happen. That's what you're "fighting" for. There are two forms of extended social combat: (1) scene-length (Danse Macabre's social combat); and (2) protracted (CoD's social maneuvering).

In either case, if the defender elects not to accept the outcome, the aggressor gains Beats (equal to his remaining Nerve or the Doors he took down); if the defender surrenders prior to the outcome, then the defender gets Beats (equal to her remaining Nerve or Doors).

The system isn't perfect, but it provides the option to opt out and a reward to the aggressor when this occurs. Be advised, that this is mundane social combat; the use of disciplines to coerce others is another issue entirely.

@Bobotron

See above, with the added comment that staff is going to presume the parties involved will police the outcome themselves to an extent. Where there is conflict, I do not mind dealing with it personally.

@TNP said in What Would it Take to Repair the Community?:

Honest question, can you blame them? Our board - and by our I mean all of the community - had their board basically hijacked out from under us.

What do you mean by "hijacked"?

When Arkandel firmly pulled himself away, administration of this board was left to mietze and I. Between the two of us, we moderated in the manner to which we were accustomed. Neither of us were particularly tech-inclined, but Arkandel still kept us up to date with what was going on. The condition of MSB languished until the infrequent crashes became frequent, and the shutdown periods lasted for days instead of hours.

It was not until the board was literally crashing down that we came up with a solution. Faraday, Roz, and Derp joined me, mietze, Testament, and Arkandel in porting the database over to my Digital Ocean account. Arkandel passed the domain name over at that time as well. These are the facts; I have stated them before; and to my knowledge no one has disputed them.

So, there was no "hijacking," in my opinion, but yours may vary.

It was decided pretty much unilaterally that MSB would be something it never had been in any of its past incarnations. I've been here for all of them going back tot he original WORA before Nymeria got Tasteless Descs shut down.

As you know, I've been here that long as well.

If by "unilaterally," you mean "without consulting the rest of the community," then that would be an accurate conclusion. From my perspective in the room where the decision was made, it was not "unilateral" in the sense of unanimity. Arguments were presented, and a decision was made.

But I would wager that is not why many people left.

@mietze said in What Would it Take to Repair the Community?:

yes, people are seeking closure that is simply never going to happen. I count myself in that, because I'm stupid. And yet, also human. However, I have seen this play out many times in RL, and also know it's part of the process.

Divorces are messy affairs, and I have seen many of them play out. Sometimes, there is peace; sometimes, there is war; but in every case, time plays a vital role in getting to a situation where hostilities are ceased, even if enmities remain.

I made the conscious decision not to be a member at BMD because I believe in the process and respect BMD's staff. If they want or need to talk to me, they know where to find me, and likewise.