Best posts made by Ganymede

@derp

When people want sandalwood, they want weed.

Leather? Steak.

Amber? Wealth.

So come up with a ritzy steakhouse you can smoke reefer at.

I would be there.

@Arkandel said in Spars and fights:

Is 'knowing how to fight iRL' - having some kind of background in martial arts, or even just watching MMA stuff on TV - an advantage to roleplaying such scenes?

Honestly, that’s like asking if knowing how to practice law makes roleplaying courtroom scenes easier.

Maybe, but that doesn’t make the subject matter any less boring.

Fuck, I’m also pretty good at going down on a girl, but I’m not sure if I’m any better at hot lesbian action than someone else.

So, maybe? But I really don’t fight and I like my fight scenes.

@groth said in Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff:

If you are going to spread a scent around, one of the nicest ones is probably fresh bread.

That's not bread.

@Arkandel said in Staff scrutiny during CGen:

What do you want staff's role to be in that process?

I want staff to have a look at what I've presented, consider it against their current player base, and let me know if my PC fits their expectations or not.

What kind of CGen are you in fond of or what do you dread seeing?

I like Faraday's FS3 CGen, as well as Thenomain's "set it your damn self" WoD CGen. I dread vagueness in the directions on how to prepare a background, if one is necessary.

What, if anything, does it tell you about how a MU* you're just starting on is being ran?

On the issue of vagueness, it shows me that they have not put much thought into their game, or that they are unsure of what they would like to see. Both are not good signs.

How much staff oversight or scrutiny do you want to be there right as new PCs are being rolled and what should the limits to that be - if any?

Oversight is a better word, and review is even better. I think the point of staff in the process is to ensure the player has a good time.

I have said this many times before, but when I review applications I use the background to figure out the "who" in the character before I check out the "what" in the proposed stats. If the "who" and the "what" don't match up, I'll provide guidance as to make the two things match. Finally, I like to converse with the player a little, if I don't already know them, to see how familiar they are with the system (not the setting); if they are new, I'll make some suggestions on how to optimize their character so that they are better able to accomplish the tasks that they see their character being good at.

@macha said in Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff:

So, I did something today I might get mocked for.

I may have mocked you for it a decade ago, but I've grown the fuck up since then.

Faith and hope are in short supply these days, so wherever and however it comes embrace it.

@Arkandel said in PC vs Player Assumptions:

It's why generally speaking I advise against non-physical stats. You can't really really screw up playing someone who's 'strong' or 'fast' or 'a good archer'. You can fuck up playing a master detective who fails to pick up cues time after time even after the GM is hand-feeding them over.

On the other hand, without non-physical stats a player has little system recourse if they may have difficulty comprehending language or expressing themselves, e.g., ESL, dyslexia, etc. Being allowed to check those stats, which a character by concept may be proficient at, would allow the player to ask for clarification as to what's going on, and gauge the accuracy of such clarification.

@misadventure

Getting a lawyer raises your chances of success, but will not speed the process up. If your friend is a veteran, they can seek assistance from their local veterans service commission.

Two armies squared off in the Near Dreaming. The local militia outnumbered 3 to 1. The invading army demands a parley. The PCs are the local nobility.

One pulls out a gun and fires a shot in response.

Which goes through the opposing commander’s head.

This ended the invasion and about six months of my planning.

I'm tired.

I'm fucking tired.

I swear, it's like no one in the goddamn city can handle their own shit today and when I do it for them it's suddenly fucking unfair that I charge them for my time.

Like, wizzleshit, if you could've done it on your own, you would, but you fucking can't, so shut the fuck up about fairness.

Client: This isn't fair.
Me: What isn't fair?
Client: This bill. You told me it would cost less.
Me: That was before the defendants lawyered up.
Client: Well, I don't think I should be held responsible for that.
Me: You aren't, but I still have to deal with them.
Client: But why do I have to pay for it?
Me: Because the defendants made it your problem, and because you hired me to fix it.
Client: But it's their fault.
Me: I know.
Client: Why should I have to pay to fix a problem they caused?
Me: Because if you don't then the problem will never get fixed.
Client: This isn't fair.

Thank the fucking Lord that I have a fucking game plan in place and soon I won't have to deal with this bugger shit but fuck everyone they are the reason why I go fucking nuts about work all the goddamned time.

@Packrat said in Serious Question About Making A MU:

Another factor seems to be a strong tendency to make all types of equipment 'equivalent' and merely a case of what flavour of fighting you are going to solely specialise in.

Again, this is FS3 out of the box, which was meant to cater to ranged combat using guns and explosives. On that battlefield, whether one uses an SMG or a rifle is largely unimportant. You can, however, alter the stats of all armor and weapons to suit however one sees combat playing out.

For example, if you wanted a game where you could hurl fireballs that take time to prepare, you could modify a gun to be a single-shot ranged weapon and call it "Fireball." After using the "weapon" once, you would have to take a reload action to use it again -- that would be the preparation time. And if you wanted to allow mages to switch form one spell to another, switching out weapons could take an action too to swap out "Fireball," which may do a lot of damage with little armor penetration, to "Frostbolt," which may do less damage but have better armor penetration.

I guess what I'm getting at is that FS3 is a highly-customizable system that takes some tweaking to fit into whatever theme and setting you have for your game. I'm sure Faraday'd agree. It was built for a futuristic war setting (BSG) but it can be adjusted as needed. Plus, Faraday and the Ares community's pretty friendly about brainstorming ideas to do just that.

@cupcake

This sounds a weird new version of the Powerpuff Girls.

@Tinuviel said in TS - Danger zone:

I'm already in my room, of course. That's where all my stuff is.

The problem is not that he is in his room; it's what he's doing in his room that's the problem.

@greenflashlight said in Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff:

Like, there's novelties, and there's indulgences, and then there's public vomitoriums, you know?

You've described the endless news cycle in America so well in this one sentence.

@Ghost said in TS - Danger zone:

Are there any more games left that prohibit TS? Sounds like a bad investment idea on the part of the people who took the time to stand the game up.

I think there are some games with child PCs that have an interest in implementing the policy and enforcing it.

@arkandel said in Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff:

The way the real estate crisis is hitting different households is astounding.

From the supply side, builders are being hit by "the Amazon effect." Amazon is apparently buying every single building material you can think of for the purpose of constructing distribution centers world-wide. In North America, where building materials must meet relatively-strict requirements, Amazon is buying the shit out of materials. This is causing materials prices to spike, in the words of a local developer, around 180%.

Whereas during the pandemic there were rising costs due to lack of labor, there is now rising costs due to shortage of materials. Add them together and new home prices are rising meteorically.

@Ghost said in TS - Danger zone:

It sucks to have to get all staffy, but unfortunately there are ooc pressures and some pretty extreme behaviors that happen surrounding TS that it's important for staff to enforce those sorts of things as policy.

For everyone that would rather not have to get staffy on others, I open my availability. I will gladly and insistently enforce the rules of a game.

It is not unreasonable to expect other people to do the same when asked.

@roz said in Dead Celebrities 2021 Edition:

For those in the industry, or those who love theatre, Sondheim was bar none the most important composer of the second half of the 20th Century.

When I was dating my partner, I often remarked with friends how she liked Andrew Lloyd Webber and KISS, whereas I liked Sondheim and Led Zeppelin. I was reminded of this because, over the years, we have grown to love the differences and each other.

Sondheim was brilliant and beautiful, and the thing I love most about his music is that it is complex and wonderfully atonal.

@Tinuviel said in TS - Danger zone:

The idea that a person being abused isn't worth the energy protecting makes you look utterly reprehensible. Who cares that they broke the rules? If you're going to ignore them, or punish them for reporting it to you, you're tacitly silencing people that need help.

Herein lies the crux of the problem.

Setting up a rule in the first place is to set a boundary of behavior. Violating that rule is a violation, regardless that the consequences of the transgression leaves a player vulnerable to harassment and possibly blackmail. Having a rule that is ignored circumstantially leads to infinite exceptions that eventually erase any efficacy the rule was intended to create.

In the absence of that rule, there is no transgression and therefore no risk of this situation. This weighs in favor of addressing particular behaviors as they arise in a manner that befits the situation. While some may decry the absence of any violation, it simultaneously recognizes the power of staff to address particular problems and the seeming-arbitrariness of decisions arising therefrom.

That said, harassment and abuse is a separate problem that can and should be addressed, regardless.

@too-old-for-this said in RL things I love:

And that while they grew up with games that could be paused and saved or the ability to avoid characters that are annoying... mom grew up with games that HAD to be won in a single run, and that damned dog snickering every 90 seconds.

I can't wait for the day they try to challenge me in fencing or archery, then.

@surreality said in TS - Danger zone:

"Of course I'm typing one-handed. I am a clove-smoking artist cliche. Where else am I supposed to put the damn cigarette?"

In the eye of your lover.

God, you've played on Shang, jeez, you should know this, n00b.