Posts made by Ganymede

@Ghost said in Consent in Gaming:

In some ways, role-playing in MU as adults isn't far from playing "Star Wars" at the playground with broomstick spraypainted red and blue. Sometimes the only way to settle shit without it being about who argues loudest is to create good rules.

And sometimes people enjoy being spanked.

I try not to judge. I have the motto of "play through." I don't expect people to do the same, but it'd be nice if we try it until we get to a point that's boring or of low value. Then, just tell me, and I don't mind moving on.

@Arkandel

Chopping an arm off or torporing a neonate for mouthing off is actually quite typical.

@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.

@Apos said in Consent in Gaming:

I think it's a terrible idea to put someone in the position of having to feel like the wet blanket and the unfun person of saying, 'I don't want to play this out'.

How should another player know when to initiate the default FTB?

Alternately, if I suggest an FTB, what if the other player doesn’t want to stop the action, but feels compelled to do so because I suggested doing it?

This is the paradox of courtesy.

I think it is healthier to expect players to set their own limits and be comfortable in doing so. To do that, pointing out that someone is not a wet
blanket for setting limits and encouraging players to do so is a better policy than expecting players to somehow know where a limit is.

@Trix

Oh, I didn't mean to single you out, actually. You just happened to say what I believe now, and point out that, long ago when some people were probably in high school, there was a very vigorous debate as to whether non-consent games were "better" than consent games.

@Trix said in Consent in Gaming:

I want to say that consent in gaming is important, but I feel like it would be almost trite or taken as a duh.

For me, it's a duh.

Every game I have ever played has some measure of consent involved. If you play Monopoly, you are consenting to its rules; you are also consenting to following those rules in good faith. If you played a World of Darkness game, you consent to the system it uses. If you play World of Warcraft, you consent to certain codes of conduct, a breach of which may lead to your account's suspension. And so on.

When I was younger, I used to differentiate consent from non-consent games. Now I see that there's really no difference because, no matter which game you are playing, you are consenting to a set of rules and code of behavior. If you consent to a World of Darkness game, then you also consent to having situations resolved by dice where warranted or desired. That's just a part of the rule-set.

Keep it clean, thanks.

@Ghost said in Whatever Happened To Star Wars MU*s?:

If anything, I think MU could do well with dice systems that aid in RP decisions over hard dice systems that are black and white to target number pass/fail. Trinary systems are great.

The thing is that, insofar as scenes without a storyteller may be concerned, FFG presents a problem. For example:

"You pass, but something happens in the scene that complicates the scene."

Well, what is that complication? It's not clear from the rules. A storyteller is in a position to tell players what that might be, but what about when it is player-and-player, as one often finds in social situations? I can see players hitting this result and feeling uncertain or uncomfortable in making the call when all participates are essentially at the same level.

I like FFG a lot, but I can see what it would turn off a good number of us.

@faraday said in Whatever Happened To Star Wars MU*s?:

I think it does suffer from some of the same things Fate has in terms of requiring a bit more negotiation in player-to-player interactions about how certain perks / die roll impacts take effect. It may not be for everyone (no system is) but it's hardly a deal-breaker.

I think the distaste for the system may be similar or connected to the preference for familiarity, which includes the gear-heavy SAGA games of yore.

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

And I think the reason why this topic has gone into subtangents about MUCKMOOMUDMUX and into talking about Ruby/Perl etc is because the people in this conversation know that trying to get people to knock it off with obsessive/ego behavior isnt a task, it's a war that will be more difficult and trying than it's worth; it would likely result in the community at each other's throats.

I think this reason is trite and judgmental, and, as I've said, there's nothing at all novel about what you have proposed.

Grousing is pointless. Nagging will get us nowhere. Acting in accordance with precepts that we have been pounding into our screens for a decade is the only thing that will get young blood into the hobby. And I think we know, or should know, this.

"In many ways, the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little, yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgment. We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and to read. But the bitter truth we critics must face, is that in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is probably more meaningful than our criticism designating it so. But there are times when a critic truly risks something, and that is in the discovery and defense of the new."

This is why I will defend the doers rather than the critics. This is why I discount or ignore discussion of the ad nauseam et infinitum recitations of what is known in favor of discussing where the hobby is going, if it is going anywhere. Whereas you may neither understand nor appreciate why members are engaging in sub-tangents, I appreciate absorbing the discussion so as to see, or perhaps foresee, where things may be going in the future.

But right now, absolutely nothing of what you previously posted will get the hobby any closer to attracting new blood. Braying and screeching about common problems isn't going to make anyone want to connect to the games that some of our community have pumped a lot of time and effort into. This, of all threads, is not a place to criticize.

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

But every so often, a delivery driver shows up at my door: 'Those were some of the best instructions I've ever had.' And I usually praise them for actually reading/following them.

Bitch, I sent you crackers and socks, and you didn't get shit.

Don't tell me them fools be good.

@Ghost

Yeah, I don't think we'll be doing that.

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

I don't say that to nitpick, but seriously I don't see a lot of common elements in the culture across different styles of MUs. Comic games seem very different from WoD games which are very different from BSG games which are very different from historical games, which are very different from Arx, etc. etc. etc.

While the systems and some of the mores are different, I see a great deal of similarities. For example, everyone understands what "3PR" means or the concept of "ICA=ICC." And when talking about things like "pose-queuing" or "pose-prepping," when we communicate we seem to find the common ground or that we are talking about the same thing, but with different terms.

I think we focus on distinctions more than we ought. I think we should be talking about how we are similar, how other games have succeeded and failed, and how we can take the lessons learned and apply them broadly.

@mietze said in Carnival Row:

But I dont think that brothel setting play will have trouble attracting players who will make PCs for it, and most of the time (despite the side eye) there is a lot more things going on than sex scenes.

I love brothels.

Err, online.

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

There is no single "MU Culture". There are individual games with individual cultures based on the person running them and the people playing there.

I concur in part and dissent in part. Yes, there are individual games with individual cultures based on the person running them, but there is still an overarching "MU Culture" that exists. That culture includes people who get some sense of satisfaction and enjoyment with interaction with other people online, mostly without direct visual contact, to play a game either collaboratively or within a defined set of rules and commands. Among those people (according to my experience here) consist of stay-at-home parents, people who work at home, people who have social anxiety issues, or people that simply like playing free-form role-playing games.

MU Culture can be distinguished, I believe, from other kinds of online games, like MMORPGs and online FPS games like Fortnite. So I think it has its own culture, however nebulous or myriad it may seem.

Doomsaying about how awful "MU Culture" is doesn't help anybody.

I concur in full..

@Iphigenie

I wonder if I can just unfreeze my PC or something.

@Seraphim73 said in How important is it to be 'needed'?:

That's why I always say, "Play what you find interesting," and then follow it up by some data about what there are lots of and what there aren't many of.

If you happen to be getting onto an Ares game with FS3, you can also use "census" to figure out what tropes aren't being played.

It really is the sweetest command.

@The-Sands said in Star vs Ensemble Cast - Why Theme is Vital:

Without clarity if I say 'Theme' it is unclear to anyone else as to whether I mean something that incorporates the setting as well as some other not clearly defined element (defining that element lets people know when to refer to 'Theme' as opposed to 'Setting') or what appears to me to be possibly 'Mood' (which seems to be what @Ganymede's definition is).

I don't think you are nitpicking. I do think that there is some confusion, and there is bound to be some.

What matters, in my opinion, are the OP's original two questions regarding theme:

How do we defeat these cylons?
What was life like as a student during the rise of Voldemort?

Let's take the first question. This is a BSG question, so I know the story: BSG Universe. genre is probably best described as "science-fiction," and I would wager that the system is probably FS3. I am not sure what the setting is because you could be on a colony or on a ship. As for the theme, I would presume it to be "war" from the question.

Let's get to the second question. I'm going to guess that the story is the Harry Potter Universe, and the genre is "urban fantasy." The question suggests the setting as Hogwart's, and that the theme will be "survival." Not entirely sure of the system.

So these are powerful questions. If I saw them in relation to a game, I would have a pretty good idea of what my character would be doing, where they would be located, and what sort of plots would be thrown out.

Now, to final important question: is this setting suitable for an ensemble cast?

In retrospect, this is a confusing question in light of the assertion that "theme is vital." But I presume that Auspice was "typing out loud," and probably meant, within my realm of definitions: does the theme call for ensemble play or individual achievement?

On that question, yes, I would say so. I think that a good "war" game implies that everyone is necessary. I think that a "political" game implies that characters are going to work against one another, which means that individual achievement is going to take center stage. Between those two themes (only, because there are an infinite number of potential themes), FS3 is better suited for "war" games and I prefer the Chronicles of Darkness for "political" games. In my opinion, systems which minimize statistics are better for ensemble play, and those which are "more crunchy" favor individual games; however, systems with discrete roles are better for ensemble play than those which allow characters branch out and become "one-man/woman/kitten" armies.

I think it all wraps together. I think people pulling games together need to spend more time developing their game's story, theme, and setting, and understand the limitations of their system. I'm in favor of lowering the bar to opening and developing games, but believe that more meaningful work needs to be done on the back-end before games open.

So that's why I think theme is vital, and why it, along with story and setting, should be what guides other decisions.

@Snackness said in Carnival Row:

My cynical suspicion is wall to wall fairy sex.

But no one plays Changeling: the Dreaming any more, seriously.

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

I'll write 'fuck' less in them for you.

This is a bug, not a feature.