Posts made by Ganymede

@Warma-Sheen said in House Rules vs Rules as Written:

And does anyone really believe these people who are contributing writing to WoD books have never considered that gamers aren't going to play splats against each other? Or that there won't be players using these systems against other players?

In the past, games have tried to balance the splats against one another. This is arguably necessary for oWoD, where PvP is built into the system.

In nWoD, there is less of an emphasis to PvP, so one may argue that House Ruling for balance is unnecessary.

But, seriously, the Autumn Court's Changeling 1E boon is shit. No one disagrees with this. It tends to be House Ruled to something with some application.

I have my doubts about the writers after seeing Secrets of the Covenant. That book sucks.

@Apu said in RL Anger:

Am wishing your little girl the speediest of recoveries and that you are able to skip the illnesses as well.

Thank you, but that ship has sailed.

To add insult to injury, the hospital has shitty Internet service. My computer can't stay attached for longer than five minutes.

My boy has the adenovirus. He's getting better.

My girl has the coronavirus, rhinovirus, enterovirus, paraflu-3, and respiratory syncytial virus. She's in the hospital on oxygen. I've spent the past 2 nights with her, by her side. I'm going to be spending the third tonight.

Why on Earth did they put another little girl in the same room with another respiratory ailment? Are they trying to kill them both?

Proof that sexism exists by fate.

Thanks, Obama.

P.S.: Now I have fucking flu-like symptoms and am having trouble breathing. FML.

@Coin said in The Apology Thread:

Seiche hasn't MU*d since Denver, IIRC, which is nearing on the, what, 8-9 year mark?

I'm pretty sure that's incorrect, but there are people here with better, personal knowledge.

@Kanye-Qwest said in Dead Celebrity Thread:

I am confused by this but I love Ashley Johnson so GET HIM GIRL

Ashley Johnson was on Growing Pains with Kirk Cameron. Is that the disconnect?

@Misadventure said in Dead Celebrity Thread:

Nothing can stop the Kirk Cameron now.

Ashley Johnson can and will.

@Jennkryst said in The guy who coded Kishi Kaisei MUX [L5R]:

Suzume Clan member with Different School advantage (Choosing the Yorimoto Bushi school) and the Gaijin Name flaw (Jack). Proceed until you can become a ship captain.

Oh, ha ha.

We played a troupe of mostly Mantis Clan that went about trying to sell their brand of sake.

Now we have thrown together a troupe of sumai and other jiujutsu wrestlers, who tour Rokugan and end up solving modules between putting on house shows. My PC is the color commentator, Ikoma Heimon.

@Jennkryst said in The guy who coded Kishi Kaisei MUX [L5R]:

I made the error or reading too many things and want this MU to happen again. What with all my totally existing, non-sarcastic free time, and all.

I would help with an L5R game, but it would help even harder if the game had the blessing of the developers.

This has nothing to do with the fact that I'm currently in an L5R troupe whose last party made it into the game for being fucking hilarious.

@Hexagon said in XP Tax:

I'm unfamiliar with RfK. How did players recompose their characters?

You really didn't, after a month or so. Why would you?

Stat decay is an understandable concept, but it's not something that seems to be applicable to a MU*. which takes place, generally, in real time. Why would my stats degrade over 6 months?

As someone said before, I don't know if there's really a problem here to be solved.

@Hexagon said in XP Tax:

I'm not quite sure how it limits the ability of well-developed PCs to increase traits versus the not-well-developed PCs. Can you elaborate on that? I appreciate the analysis.

The system itself doesn't do it, but several CoD games have limited auto-gain to 1 XP or 5 beats per week. (You can still get beats for participating in plots, to encourage activity.) When a PC hits a certain level of accrued XP, the auto-gain code knocks down the gain to 4 beats per week. Hit another level, and it goes to 3 beats per week.

On RfK, you were limited to the amount of beats you could gain per week. As you spent more XP, the cost of each XP -- these are what you need to raise stats -- increased, i.e., after 50 spent XP, each XP cost 6 beats instead of 5; after 100 spent XP, each XP cost 7 beats; etc.

I wouldn't call this a "tax," but it does throttle advancement after a certain threshold of spent XP. I don't think there should be any maintenance cost for stats because you're adding a completely different mechanic to complete the same purpose (I think) as modifying the existing mechanic.

@Lisse24 said in +wantrp Command Suggestion:

To get more specific: We've created an environment in MUs where it's hard (not impossible) for people to break out of RP cliques and for new people to break in. We expect people to act in a way that is not in line with human nature and then bemoan the results. I think this command will be used because it will appeal to the people who are not on this board - the people who want RP, but who come onto games and struggle to get it, and don't know the crowd well enough to page or who feel self-conscious about it.

Unfortunately and unsurprisingly, I suppose, I find myself siding with @Thenomain. The tools are there, but no one seems to care to use them.

Take @mail. I check these every time I log in. This is how we used to let people know that we wanted to RP with them, back in the '90's.

Take wikis. I check these occasionally to see which new PCs have been made. I use them to figure out if there's someone out there I think my PC'd RP well with. And then I use @mail to check with the player if I can't page them.

Take +bboards. I actually read these too, especially the Wanted Concepts or RP Wanted boards. I @mail people to see if they want to link up, if I think my PC would bump into them.

Here's the issue I see: doing any of the above takes initiative. You can make a million tools, but they will be useless if no one takes the initiative to use them.

Take Skew's suggestion. I like it, and there's an incentive to it. I'm generally against the idea of baiting people with tangible rewards (XP) for a behavior, but this will favor active, all-day players over casual players. Still, it's an idea, but it's not one I would implement.

Take your idea -- a flag system that reminds you when someone wants to RP with you. I don't see how this will help a player not feel guilty about not RPing with a PC, and that leading to the PC's player fading away from a game. In fact, that might make it worse. Otherwise, I do not see how this is functionally different from @mail, which I look at every time I log in.

Finally, the shy player. Making new code is not going to suddenly change how that player feels about reaching out to others. It is difficult; it can be painfully difficult; and I do not mean to belittle them. That said, I do not see how new code is going to help them, especially if the target player ignores them. They might think: 'well, I sent them something that reminds them constantly that I'd like to RP with them and yet they are still ignoring me.' The unintended consequence of making a player feel even more insignificant is substantial, in my opinion.

Jumping off from Skew's idea, RfK had a system where, if you RPed with someone random, you got an extra beat. If you implement something similar via +wantrp, where you got 1 extra beat per week for completing at least one, that might be acceptable in my "I HATE POLICIES THAT FAVOR PEOPLE WITH MORE FUCKING TIME ON THEIR HANDS THAN ME" world.

@Insomnia said in Cheap or Free Games!:

It's that time of year again! Square Enix is selling a holiday mystery box of 7 PC games worth $80 for $9.99 US!

Clicky

I don't trust Square Enix. They've put out a lot of shit recently.

@Kanye-Qwest said in The Apology Thread:

(That last one was me! And I got called a cunt like seven times by the person against whom my biggest transgression was using one of the multiple disses at my character's command to illustrate a part of her personality)

Ah. So, what you mean is: don't be fucking petty with your grudges.

In which case, I agree. People are fucking petty sometimes. Very petty.

I hate it so much that I will fucking hate anyone who is fucking petty.

I don't know; I wish I had more to contribute these days.

@Auspice said in The Apology Thread:

It's easy to hold a grudge, but it's also toxic. For you. For social circles. And yes, for them. It's never going to make you feel better to poison other people towards someone. It's just a cycle of negativity.

Define "toxic."

There is no way I would knowingly let VASpider or her husband play or staff on my game(s). Their pattern of behavior is demonstrable.

There is no way I would knowingly let Seiche play or staff on my game(s). I haven't interacted with her in over a decade, but I have heard of the games she has ruined.

There is no fine line between "holding a grudge" and "remember that there are certain people who are fucking terrible for a game." There are very few people who I would ban outright from a game, even after they come in without my knowledge, but I would do so again and again not because I hold a grudge against them but because they are fucking bad for a game.

I may have forgiven any personal harm they did to me, if any, but I am not so stupid as to ignore my experience.

@Insomnia said in The Apology Thread:

You had me come and help be mortal staff on Denver. We used to talk on... I wanna say ICQ or something old like that, you were running Denver, had me come on as staff. I was... Cherry, I think, and then you went poof like 2 weeks later. (In regards to you being removed from Denver's staff).

Ah, Denver. One of my great triumphs and failures.

Yes, I was removed there because players wanted resolution to an ongoing plot for which there was no planned resolution. That was deliberate, and provided the cause for a great deal of RP. Some people wanted their shiny crowns, and weren't above going to the game owner to complain about it.

My explanation did not seem to hold water, and that's fine. Frankly, that is how and why I distanced myself from the Ham Squad / Pillowfort. It was clear that they did not care for my direction, and thought the best solution was to get rid of me.

Peverel came afterwards, and burned out fast under the constant pressure of, again, resolving a plot that had no resolution, and was never calculated to.

And why? Because politics -- true politics -- has no resolution.

@Hexagon said in XP Tax:

0. I'm not sure that I do, that's why I asked if anyone had any experience with something like this. It seems like a lot of work, but...

I appreciate the thought. It sounds like you want a system that would limit the ability of well-developed PCs to increase traits at the same pace as not-well-developed PCs.

There have been games that have addressed this issue in nWoD 2E. MU*s that reduce auto-gain for Beats based on total XP spent have done so, and I believe this to be an adequate throttle on advancement.

@Insomnia said in The Apology Thread:

@Ganymede Is that why you left right after getting me to come and be mortal staff? I never knew. I thought you just flaked out.

Um -- I need more context than this. I know not what you mean.

@Kestrel said in Borrowing ideas — at what point does it become theft?:

I know that I'd probably like to list credit where it's due with some kind of acknowledgements page, such as 'thanks to HavenRPG for inspiring idea X, Legend of the Green Dragon for inspiring idea Y, and @SkinnyThicket for the innovative mapping/exploration system', but I'm interested to hear thoughts from developers/players here about the practice of idea-borrowing in general.

If you are directly taking an idea, code, or system from another game, you should probably ask for permission. For example, if I swipe @surreality's wiki stuff, I should probably ask first. Credit should always be given where credit is due, so I appreciate it when game developers give shout-outs to inspiration; WoD books generally do this.

I don't mind people using or implementing my ideas because that's all they are -- ideas. I've got a lot of them. If I get props for it, that's fantastic. If people claim that the idea is completely novel, I'm happy to point out where I mentioned it and when, if I believe I came up with it first. The latter instance rarely comes up.

@HorrorHound said in Reality Levels and WOD Realms:

Your players need to be mature, unjaded and realize such games mean they are never alone. Specifically for things like politics. @Ganymede may have some better grip with how to implement that without coming off as weird.

I spent some time considering how to best implement a mini-game, off-screen political system for Cobalt's project. In doing so, I came to the conclusion that the most genial way to do this is by focusing the mini-game on: (1) gathering resources; (2) acquiring and completing jobs/quests/missions from NPCs; and (3) gradually building up territories.

RfK's system fell down because it tried to do too much. In addition to the above, you could wrest control of places away from factions, debilitate or destroy territories, and otherwise act in a deleterious fashion. As realistic as this might be, you are encouraging a hostile PvP environment. Managing that in addition to managing the inevitable PvP that arises in a MU* -- especially a WoD MU* -- is difficult, and runs contrary with the general theme of player collaboration in creating and maintaining a welcoming, inviting game environment.

Barring the absolute automation of every facet of a game, MU*s will not be able to compete or compare with other kinds of online role-playing games. The best way to manage politics between players and characters is to not try to do this.

@Arkandel

People need to get their heads on straight about conflicts (because there is none at the moment), but you have to be careful to keep the matters in both scenes separate from one another, so that players do not inadvertently create their own conflicts.

If the PCs in the first scene and the PCs in the second scene cross paths, then the players are creating their conflict, not you. But you need to make it clear -- if this is a possibility -- that there may be an alt-conflict down the road.