Posts made by Ganymede

General, open question:

How interested would you be in a World of Darkness game that eliminated the use of social stats on other PCs entirely?

This is a serious question. Here is a brief summary of my thoughts and proposed rules.

1. A PC cannot use social stats to influence or change the feelings or thoughts of another PC.

2. A PC can use social stats to influence or change the feelings or thoughts of an NPC, and vice versa.

3. A PC can use social stats to affect the merits of another PC, such as Status or Allies, through staff adjudication.

I'm interested because I am seriously considering eliminating them for the 2E-based fantasy game I'm putting together.

Please discuss openly.

@faraday said in Paragraphs, large scenes and visibility:

BSGU would’ve been pretty lame if every combat was resolved with some rolls and a summary pose from everyone

Yeah, but your entire set-up is so far ahead of the curve that I am borderline-aroused when I get to use it.

It's just soooooo goooooooood.

My comment is aimed towards us World of Darkness troglodytes.

@tinuviel said in Paragraphs, large scenes and visibility:

To a point I would agree, however in some systems (for good or ill) what a person actually does in a scene determines the way dice are rolled.

It is system-dependent, yes. My experience with WoD games tells me that its combat scenes could go much faster if folks just rolled the dice, figured out the outcome, and then pose after. I've done this countless times, and folks are generally happier with the outcome.

@arkandel

To ride on that, I vastly prefer it when combat scenes are handled with just dice, if that's applicable, and no poses. Poses can be done later. Focus on the mechanics; worry about the RP later.

There's nothing wrong with your reasons.

But if you're in a combat scene, I can see why others would want you to hurry along a bit.

Yeah, adapting.

Doesn't mean you're a bad person.

@goldfish said in Paragraphs, large scenes and visibility:

Recently someone pulled me aside in a scene and said something that contained the phrase "...since you are a slow poser..." I was shocked. Then I was like, yeah...word.

That someone is an asshole, unless you've stated a reason for posing slow, e.g., I'm at work and prone to idling for it.

This reading is part. The other is pretyping poses. Some characters are gonna do X or Y in this situation regardless, so I get started replying as soon as I can so I can spit out something with substance. Or I just throw up my hands and short pose and hate myself later.

I'm with Arkandel. Don't do something you hate; do something you like, or else you'll stop enjoying the entire activity.

@surreality said in Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff:

It is still a pretty awesome thing -- even if it's a pain in the butt … .

Pain in the butt, you say?

@sunny said in Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff:

All of my lazy clothes want to fall off.

Greg Stafford.

A friend of mine reminded me of how I GMed his first RPG when we were in Grade 7. We played RuneQuest, for which Mr. Stafford was a designer and writer. All of us who played felt like nerdy outcasts, but we all enjoyed coming together to tell and write stories, battle enemies, and live out the fantasy of a farmer-turned-hero.

I can't wait to play RPGs with my kids, and I sigh with happy sentiments and resignation.

@aerianyx said in Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff:

Any tips for not clenching one's jaw?

If this occurs in your sleep, you may need to get a mouth guard. That will prevent you from doing damage to your teeth, at least.

It could be some sort of hormone or electrolyte imbalance. Have you had problems with your thyroid?

@kanye-qwest said in NOLA 2: Back in the Vieux:

But let me reiterate: just because something is one way doesn't mean people should accept that and never try to improve upon it. This is how we got smartphones.

We all know how we got smartphones.

@magee101 said in NOLA 2: Back in the Vieux:

I never tried to wrongfun? Anyone?

Yes, you did. You did it when you said the following:

Wod is not a relationship simulator, Monster Hearts, or anything like that. Is a dark gritty environ filled with Bad Things and bad people and bad shit is supposed to happen to and around your character

If this is what you want out of the World of Darkness, that's fine. That's your expectation. This may differ from others' expectations, including my own. And that's also fine.

Wrongfunning is, at its most basic, stating: (1) what a certain game, theme, or system is and is not; and (2) using that statement-by-fiat to announce what RP is appropriate or inappropriate.

I find absolutely nothing wrong with playing at relationships in the World of Darkness. Or playing Monster Hearts, or whatever.

I also liked The Last Jedi.

The whole "THIS IS WOD" spiel played itself out a decade and a half ago.

@magee101 said in NOLA 2: Back in the Vieux:

Because that is comic... relief? Disposition? It is at odds with the overall intent of theme and makes memorial moments, but if it was just always absurd would it be as memoriable?

I don't want to get into a divergent argument regarding the intent of the game's themes and settings.

Simply, I try not to wrongfun others when possible.

@magee101 said in NOLA 2: Back in the Vieux:

Wod is not a relationship simulator, Monster Hearts, or anything like that. Is a dark gritty environ filled with Bad Things and bad people and bad shit is supposed to happen to and around your character

I long ago stopped worrying about what others wanted from their RP, and focused on what I wanted from mine. I see no cogent or reasonable explanation why a World of Darkness game must be something dark and gritty. To the contrary, the best and brightest moments of RP in this world have occurred where things were not at all dark or gritty, but, rather, horrifyingly absurd.

@magee101 said in NOLA 2: Back in the Vieux:

Emit, dice rolls, character sheet, grid rooms. Thats all I need, and that should really be all anyone needs to fulfil a tabletop system that is cinematic like FS3 or WoD

For a World of Darkness game, that's fine if you want to run a tabletop-like experience, but my experience tells me that World of Darkness players want more than that and this desire has played out more times than I can count.

@zombiegenesis said in Star Wars Stand Alone - Staff Sought:

Ruby is much easier to learn than coding for MU(X/SH). That's not to say the platform is perfect(ultimately I did abandon it) but even with my limited exposure, I don't see why someone couldn't code up, well, anything for Ares.

BECAUSE I'M STUPID OKAY? Yeesh.

@faraday said in Star Wars Stand Alone - Staff Sought:

I'm just helping them get Ares set up (at least on a trial basis to see if they want to go that way) and hammering out any issues with my FFG system.

Fair enough. You're still involved, though, and Ares is boss as shit.

So, let's see here.

Faraday's involved? Check.

Star Wars? Check.

No features from the movies? Check.

Yeah, I'll be there.

@macha

Might want to look for a local employment lawyer.

@auspice said in RL Anger:

Because I doubt it.

The most frustrating thing about these sorts of issues is that the employer asks itself the wrong question.

It's not "do I have to do this to comply with the ADA?"

It should be "would it be the right thing to do to give my worker some extra time to deal with their documented disability?"

And the clients I have that operate and grow successfully always ask about the first before coming to realize the second gets you to the right answer a lot faster.

@sunny said in RL Anger:

My job is being amazing about my whole thing, AND allows for other employees to donate sick leave. No guilt or anything; as soon as I came back to work, people started approaching me in the halls asking if they could help, because most folks have so much stored up they'd like to use it to help.

I misspoke. What I meant to say was that if the policy were to ask people to donate time rather than accommodate a person with disability, then that's a shitty substitute.

@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.