Posts made by Ganymede

@faraday said in World of Darkness -- Alternative Settings:

Lack of care is certainly a problem, no question. I get around that in my FS3 combat games by just flat-out skipping people if they don't pose by the 15-minute turn limit. They can catch-up pose next turn if they like, or just be moving positions/aiming/frozen/whatever for a turn.

I don't think you can compare FS3 and WoD Combat for many reasons. The biggest one is FS3's lack of "initiative"; everyone goes at the same time, and the combat engine takes the pre-set "preferences" indicated by each player (weapon used, target, attack-type, etc.) and finds the results lickety-split. In WoD, each person gets a turn in sequence, and, unless that person is actively engaged, they aren't always going to do this quickly; even if each player took 5 minutes to choose their action, roll for it, and pose, a 6-person combat moves at the glacial speed of 30 minutes per turn.

And no, many people don't just queue this shit up. I do, but that's because I'm awesome.

@lisse24 said in World of Darkness -- Alternative Settings:

I gotta agree with others in that one of BiTN's weeknesses (as much as I loved that game) was it's sandboxiness and reliance on plot. It might be cool to combine the underlying theme with a territory code similar to RfK's to keep play happening and things moving.

A territory/resource management system is going to be cornerstone of whatever I end up doing.

@packrat said in Um...What?:

He was crying when he described how his family and him cheered as the jews from their village were rounded up and shipped off though. It was not something he was ever proud of in retrospect, just stuck in a fucked up situation for everyone involved but he did end up going along with it.

My father was born in 1939. He grew up as the second of twelve kids in a Chinese family living in the Canton province. He remembers when he had to be a bike courier for local criminals before the Communists swept into power, which he had to do so that his family could afford to buy food. He and most of his brothers were taken in by Jesuits, and he was raised at a Jesuit school.

He doesn't talk about his time in the motherland much. What he did tell us as kids was how lucky we were. I thought this was because he had managed to grab a sliver of privilege in North America, for we were pretty well off.

My mother was chased from Hong Kong by the Communists. While most of her family were able to afford passage to North America, they couldn't take everyone. For a couple of years, she hid illegally in Singapore with relatives, until she could afford a ship to North America, where she was reunited with the family that had, essentially, left her behind.

She doesn't talk about her time in the motherland much. What she did tell us as kids was how lucky we were. I thought this was because she managed to rise up from being a Girl Friday to a well-regarded logistics manager whose fiery temper scared the living shit out of the truck drivers that worked for her.

What I do know comes from my aunt. She lives in Hong Kong. She tells stories of how and why communism took hold in China so completely, and why Westerners do not understand why the majority of Chinese still look at Chairman Mao as a hero. Her stories are sad because, as many Chinese now desire Western culture and ideals, they are antithetical to communist principles, and so there is a huge clash. She tells of how, whereas the people were starving all over before communism, they now starve because of the capitalism that was ushered in.

There is horror outside of the U.S. that many people do not understand, and this is why I am strongly considering public office.

@arkandel said in World of Darkness -- Alternative Settings:

So... I don't know if this is relevant to this thread, but it's what I have.

Your point is a good observation, but, no, it's not relevant to the thread or to the current topic.

Surreality is talking about how the Usual Suspects began to eat up all of the available spots in +events on BITN, to the point where other players couldn't get involved in any plot.

I'm talking about how people who do that, and then bitch when staff curtail them so that others can play, are entitled shitbags. Also, the people who run plots only because they get phat l00t because of it.

I get what you're saying, but it's also why staff needs to step on the necks of people who are hogging the spotlight.

Fucking share, assholes.

Persona 5 has been, so far, a fun, refreshing, interesting JRPG.

I haven't said that in a long time. Whereas FF15 wandered closer to Western sensibilities insofar as play controls and dialogue goes, Persona 5 remains unabashedly Japanese.

Gameplay is a little frustrating, but it makes sense after a while. It eschews the "open world" concept for a linear storyline, but there are a lot of mini-games and decision-making moments as you try to build your character with limited time. There are also a lot of little parts to it that make it seem more complex than it is.

Highly recommended, if you like popcorn-fun and can tolerate JRPG dialogue.

@surreality said in World of Darkness -- Alternative Settings:

They did, actually.

Good.

People did not respond well.

Tough shit.

I think at some point they also did something with enormous ST XP benefits -- we're talking XP awards for STs that were running 3-6xp+/scene in CoD XP, for STs who were often running multiple scenes per week and piling on those quantities each time -- and that getting scaled back didn't help either, because some people felt entitled to those grossly inflated amounts; once they weren't getting them, they stopped. Which also says a lot, sadly.

It does. It tells me that some WoD players are greedy, entitled fucks.

As I think I said before: we are to blame.

Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice is 25% on Steam right now.

This is the game you need.

@saosmash said in The limits of IC/OOC responsibility:

People can get very invested in their wrong ideas, which makes sense since they came up with them themselves.

We call them "textualists."

@taika said in Descent Reboot:

Alright, it's the 2nd, time to get shit moving again. Also, skype sucks, so I'm giving Discord a whirl. Username is Pestilence#7260 :3

I like communicating on game. Don't make me adapt, plz.

@surreality said in World of Darkness -- Alternative Settings:

Players being considerate of other players wanting to have a chance to become involved actually would have helped a hell of a lot more.

Or, you know, staff stepping in and telling people: stop fucking hogging everything you asses.

Finished The Punisher.

It's pretty good. The last couple of episodes dragged a little more than I'd like, but they were still pretty good.

Sinking my teeth into Stranger Things 2. So far, pretty good, but not as good as the first season.

@apu said in World of Darkness -- Alternative Settings:

... what about a disease that hits the supers, requiring them to work for a cure.

I ran with this on Reno before its first closure. I had a few scenes on this, with all three main "races." Scheduling was difficult because the players that wanted to be involved did not always have times that matched with mine. I had a story wrapped up in all of it too: the disease caused supers to slowly lose their ability to control their frenzies, and actually could cause mortals to frenzy. The Fire-touched were to blame, having discovered a spirit-plague that could infect everyone. The spirit-plague actually consisted of shards of an idigam. You can tell how that might go.

@arkandel said in World of Darkness -- Alternative Settings:

I of course forget the name right now but there was a MU* where all characters were mortals in a supernatural world, and it was fun while it lasted... but it definitely belonged in that generation of sandboxed games that didn't make a splash and died quietly after a while.

Bump In The Night is what you're probably thinking of. It had great players, a great wiki, and a great idea. The setup was a bit janky with the Conspiracies, however, and players lost interest in running plots for each other.

In response to @faraday, there is a problem when plots are not frequent or accessible enough, in that players will gravitate to where they get constant RP. If a game's direction is solely based on plots, you basically want to have those every other day, at least, to keep momentum going. If the plot-activity dwindles, I think you'll see a game that is most de-populated unless there's something happening, and that's that may discourage folks who like endless BarRP or social RP from coming by all the time.

I concur with Arkandel's conclusion that there has to be something to do outside of plots. In the Chronicles of Darkness, Vampire is good for this: you can play politics; you can debate philosophies; you can diddle with ghouls; etc. Changeling is also good for this: you can play through your creepiness; you can go on personal quests beyond the Thorns; you can play politics; etc. But Werewolf and Mage are centered upon plots, either as targets to kill or mysteries to solve, so, unsurprisingly, those two lines aren't as successful on MUSHes. Intra-racial tension is also a source of "something to do outside of plots," which is why I believe CoD/nWoD games have been somewhat less persistent than oWoD.

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

That reboots/rehashes + diversity casting = the vast majority of the film industry in 2017+1.

That Netflix reboot of The Punisher into a TV series, which had a surprising number of women as directors or writers, was fantastic!

And it totally catered to the libtard snowflake in me, what with the gratuitous gun and bloody violence!

@thenomain said in The limits of IC/OOC responsibility:

If I can change your mind on a topic, then I feel like I am not completely bad at logic.

The result does not prove causation.

@auspice said in Random links:

I didn't accuse you of liking Coldplay, but they suffer from a lot of the same issues (in my mind) that U2 does. It just feels flat, each song much the same as the last.

It's fair to say that a band's repertoire can feel repetitive. Like the Offspring, for instance.

But I think it's unfair here. U2 moved from a synth-rock band in War towards the more palatable pop-rock in The Joshua Tree. In doing so, you have louder protest songs like New Year's Day and Sunday Bloody Sunday shifting towards With or Without You and Where the Streets Have No Name. After that, there was Rattle and Hum, from which you have Desire, which is far more bluesy and their prior work.

I'm not a huge fan of Achtung Baby, and that's where I stopped being interested in U2's work. One and Mysterious Ways felt out-of-date in the grunge era. Later hits like Beautiful Day and Vertigo didn't resonate at all with me. But I wouldn't say that they were reminiscent of their older stuff at all.

So, I'm going to contest the opinion that their music sounds the same as the last. It doesn't. That doesn't mean that they are great, mind you.

But they aren't Coldplay, woman, ye Gods.

I concur that U2 isn't really relevant in music any more. And I can't argue with you if you just don't like U2; that's fine as well. But their music is far from bland and isn't exactly the same all the way down, so I'll object to that.

Still, fuck Imagine Dragons and Five Finger Buttmunch.

@bobotron

I love video game music so hard. So, here's a list of choice picks over the years from trailers and games I've liked.

1. From the Last of Us Remastered Trailer.
2. Square Enix went all in for the main theme for Final Fantasy XV.
3. The real version of Ellie's song in the first trailer for The Last of Us 2.
4. Because Lindsey Stirling completes me.
5. This will never get old for me.
6. From the Evolve teaser trailer.
7. From the Gears of War 4 trailer.
8. An orgasm in 3/4 time.
9. From the Quantum Break trailer.
10. Because nothing is better than a cover by the composer.

@auspice said in Random links:

I quite enjoy classical, tyvm.
And Journey, as well. (Though I think I stopped believing last Tuesday for a few minutes...)
So, hush.

But U2 has just never hit the points, I'm sorry. They've had a couple songs, but they've fallen short. I feel the same about Coldplay and I know a lot of people love them, too.

I think you may have missed the part where I said I wasn't a U2 fan. I'm still not.

You said you liked beats and cadences. I'm going to point back to Where the Streets Have No Name and Pride. Both of these songs hook on the sort of melismatic melodies that you can find in Muse or Dragonforce. U2's 1980s music is technically difficult and wonderfully layered in a way that you won't find with Coldplay -- or, at least, that I don't. I mean, I like throwing Where the Streets Have No Name in with Baby, I'm Going to Leave You by Led Zeppelin when I want to chill out and listen to awesome melodies.

But don't you dare accuse me of liking Coldplay. Fie on thee for that.

I love you as much as I did last night, but when I hear Where the Streets Have No Name's melody, I hear this. I'll give that a pass.

I guess I'm also a bit nostalgic. 1980s music is my jam.

@thenomain said in The limits of IC/OOC responsibility:

Staff also don't always take a moment to consider whether or not an outcome should happen.

I was not clear before, but I, more often that not, consider staff to be players.

@miss-demeanor said in Comfort Food...:

+1 to @mietze for the Pho

Me too.

Hell, Imma gonna get some in an hour. Pho gives me a feeling inside that's so close to post-coitus, it will always, always be comfort food.

So simple. So good. And I can load it with chili oil to burn out the hate from my body. Make me sweat.

Don't judge me if I enjoy my 45 minute pho-king sessions.

@auspice said in Random links:

Out of 14 studio albums, you were able to name 2 songs. Both of which came out over 30 years ago.

I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For

Raised by Wolves

Pride

Wouldn't call them bland then, but, I suppose, you young punks probably think Mozart's pretty bland too.

Frankly, what gets passed off as rock music these days blows chunks. The genre's changed a lot. What was once "alternative" or "prog" is about the only interesting rock, and what's left -- the vestiges of NuMetal and Metal -- is boring and trite. (I really hate Imagine Dragons.)

But, under your standard, the Rolling Stones are apparently also bland, even if they wrote part of the book on the genre. Journey as well. The Manic Street Preachers. And the latter, I really don't consider bland, even if their music is kind of ... well, what the hell is it?

Because I love me the hell out of Ariana Grande's "Bang Bang," aight.

You are dead to me.

@auspice said in Random links:

Pretty much. U2 is about as bland as it fucking comes.

What the fuck?

Like, seriously, girl, you kidding me? Bland as it fucking comes?

Where the Streets Have No Name is a blazing 1980s anthem that has absolutely no equal from that time. None. And I'll take the Pepsi challenge: find me something matches The Edge's arpeggio, and then have someone try to play it as crispy and cleanly.

Sunday Bloody Sunday was written before then (1983), and is one of the greatest protest songs I've heard. Its lyrics are as poignant now as then:

And it's true we are immune
When fact is fiction and TV reality
And today the millions cry
We eat and drink while tomorrow they die

I'm not really much of a U2 fan, to be honest, but I'm not going to call it "bland, processed garbage."

Shit, you kids, save that for Ariana Grande.