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    • Following 0
    • Followers 5
    • Topics 68
    • Posts 3515
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    Best posts made by Ghost

    • RE: Eliminating social stats

      @Ganymede Hells yes you and @Meg are 100% spot on, here.

      He/She who sways the GM, sways the game

      If you're charismatic, ingratiating, fun to play with, and able to reasonably construct an OOC argument with panache, you can unlock GodMode.

      Which, personally, IMO...is a point in favor of dice.

      posted in Mildly Constructive
      Ghost
      Ghost
    • RE: What Types of Games Would People Like To See?

      @faraday said in What Types of Games Would People Like To See?:

      I think at the end of the day most players don't really want to play the apocalypse

      Perhaps my take on PC mortality is just my take on the genre itself, but on this above point I agree.

      I've often heard "The Walking Dead" referred to as misery porn, and I think it's accurate for the zombie/apocalypse genre. Shit. Is. Miserable. Bands of terminally ill WarBoys kidnap people for fresh organs while their boss collects pretty women as his concubines.

      Be it zombies or Mad Max (another good MU idea, that), my personal opinion is that the key to apocalypse settings is that survival is difficult. It's far easier to die than it is to thrive. From the genre we learn that every character (except Max) hangs on a set of scales. The question isn't IF a character will die, it's when and in the genre itself the death machine needs to be constantly satisfied to uphold that survival/apocalypse feel.

      Even in Walking Dead, major cast members (no spoilers!) are done. Gone. Zombied. The point of the series would have been lost if Negan hadn't gone through with his game of "eenie-meenie-miney-deathByBaseballBat" because the core of the genre exists in the dread of knowing that death is coming and you hope it's not your preferred Final Girl. Risk is required for survival, but risk can be often fatal.

      Respectfully, I disagree. To each their own, but I don't think that a zombie apocalypse game where the only time PCs die is if they choose to will ever feel like a zombie genre. You've got to make your players understand that life in the apocalypse is fragile, and if given the choice they'll always choose no risk.

      posted in Game Development
      Ghost
      Ghost
    • RE: Paris' Playlist

      There is only 1 ogre.

      posted in A Shout in the Dark
      Ghost
      Ghost
    • RE: Which canon property/setting would be good for a MU* ?

      Orville.

      Just sayin.

      posted in Mildly Constructive
      Ghost
      Ghost
    • RE: What Types of Games Would People Like To See?

      @Jennkryst I pictured Evee and Squirtle piloting a Jaeger.

      I giggled.

      posted in Game Development
      Ghost
      Ghost
    • RE: Kardis?

      Crisis

      posted in A Shout in the Dark
      Ghost
      Ghost
    • RE: POLL: Super Hero MU Gut Check

      I'd just like to point out that one of the benefits of playing an OC is not being harassed or bound by rampant canoneers.

      In playing an OC, you shield yourself a bit from people making demands on character relationships, romantic or not, based on existing canon. You also protect yourself a bit from people pushing their OOC fandom, romanticized or not, onto your RP.

      One of the drawbacks I see in OCs is that sometimes they don't really fit into the setting. Like any game, a player should take care when creating a character to make sure that the character us a good fit. A good example would be a pacifist OC with the mutant ability to make spaghetti out of thin air on a game that is focusing on the action and fighting of two groups of mutants who regularly shoot lasers at each other.

      Each approach has its benefits and drawbacks, but with picking characters that fit the intended feel of the game and staff who reign in overpowered concepts as being NPC only, balance is possible.

      posted in Mildly Constructive
      Ghost
      Ghost
    • RE: What Types of Games Would People Like To See?

      Strongbad Mux

      With commands like:
      +punchfaces
      +papers (instead of sheet)
      +tothelimit
      +makemansbetter (healing)
      +comeonreally? (staff complaint function)
      +populationtire (+who)

      All PBs are memes of the actor.

      Characterbit=Heygurl
      PB=Ryan Gosling "Hey Girl..." Meme.

      posted in Game Development
      Ghost
      Ghost
    • RE: MSB Peeves

      Ganymede and Alamias have posted a gif of two street pimps, one portrayed by Dave Chappelle and the other from a movie named "I'm Gonna Git U Sucka", respectively.

      Ganymede's gif has Dave Chappelle's character (from the Player Hater's Ball episode) repeating that he hates people, where Alamias' has their 70s style street pimp wearing all yellow and placing what appears to be a Blaxploitation sombrero on his head.

      (Disclaimer: I'm totally not doing this to cheekily note that anti-gif filters don't block text. I am, obviously, doing this to cater to MSB viewers with eyesight problems who need text descriptions of gifs)

      posted in Suggestions & Questions
      Ghost
      Ghost
    • RE: Which canon property/setting would be good for a MU* ?

      Also:

      Simple setup:

      Take a little bit of TGG, mix it with Battlestar, whip it up with FS3, and you've got a game where a platoon of soldiers who answer to corporate Weyland-Yutani interests are sent to fight wars, enforce martial law on labor disputes, and, you know...

      ...kind of run into xenomorphs and predators.

      posted in Mildly Constructive
      Ghost
      Ghost
    • RE: What Types of Games Would People Like To See?

      @Thenomain said in What Types of Games Would People Like To See?:

      And my response to that is: So what?

      Because it's ethical to try to coach less experienced players on what might be a fruitless Aspiration selection or may be too large in scope for the game.

      I also imagine staff wouldn't be looking to walk a player through the years of work to earn the Nobel Prize ICly, and the Aspiration being accepted by staff implies that the staff is willing to work with it. So if staff says "so what?" they knowingly imply something is acceptable with zero interest in supporting it, yet letting the player stupidly try to achieve it.

      posted in Game Development
      Ghost
      Ghost
    • RE: MSB Peeves

      @Thenomain @Auspice

      Fun facts:

      POP is an onomatopoeia, but is also what people in the American Midwestern states incorrectly call soda.

      posted in Suggestions & Questions
      Ghost
      Ghost
    • RE: MU Things I Love

      Confession: I say "Jesus Christ" as a response to things so much IRL, that it's really hard sometimes roleplaying on a game where Christianity isn't canon. I can't roleplay on a Dungeons and Dragons MU and say "Oh my jesus fuck what the fuck?!?!" as a response to something.

      As a result, I find I'm saying "Jesus Christ" less as a curse in real life. So, hey, progress maybe?

      posted in Mildly Constructive
      Ghost
      Ghost
    • RE: Artificially Slowing Character Growth

      @Derp Given the whole theme of my whole "Are MUs a tabletop game with writing or creative writing with some minor rpg elements?" thing, I think this applies to my answer.

      In tabletop RPGs, EVERYONE in the game gets XP at the same rate, same time. You play maybe 1-4 times per week maximum, so as a GM and player you give/gain xp as a group as you go. XP growth speed is a common topic in tabletop RPGs, as is the concept of gaining experience itself. XP/sheets is 100% a "tabletop RPG" element.

      However, in terms of MUs, everyone is on at different times. Some people are on ALLLLL of the fuckin time. So you could have 2 players join at the same time but "PlayerA" may have a day job and 3 nights a week availability, "PlayerB" has no day job or need for sleep and is hound-dogging XP for everything, and the next time PlayerA and PlayerB meet...they look like the Rock and Kevin Hart standing next to each other. What the "mega xp asap" players in tabletop RPGs often don't understand is that there IS something detrimental to rushing to fill out all the dots on that character sheet.

      Because of this, I 100% believe that MUs should be capping xp expenditures to a maximum weekly spend. You can't punish active players for being active, but you CAN try to ensure that "ultra-active" players don't use that as a way to eclipse the rest of the game in terms of sheet capability.

      I think FS3 (@faraday ) handled this very well. Even with the biggest difference in stats, it was still ultimately Fudge so having better stats may have gained you extra dice, but didn't ensure godlike capability over your peers.

      • Limit weekly sheet changes to a maximum cap
      • Focus on trying to ensure the game has a sort of "capability range" in plots so that newer characters aren't always being eclipsed by older characters and older characters aren't being slowed too much by newer ones
      • Understand that existing RPG systems (World of Darkness, D&D, Star Wars) are "level-based" in terms of how filled out the character sheets are, and that some players will ALWAYS rush to get xp/min max

      And most importantly

      • If you don't want your game having an XP imbalance (or if +rolls aren't that important) then either ensure your MU doesn't have an existing RPG system as a base, uses a more free-form type system, or maybe even no XP system at all
      posted in Game Development
      Ghost
      Ghost
    • RE: X-Men Game

      My suggestion:

      • Overall: Mutant only FCs based out of UTOPIA setting. Allow X men/School/Utopia/San Francisco/Brotherhood as IC faction/setting elements.
      • FCs: Only if they're mutants. It doesnt matter if they're former SHIELD agents or current, but their core of influence needs to be at Utopia. Reserve major chars and major villains for NPC use only (Sinister, Apocalypse, Cameron Hodge, etc). This means no Thor, Captain America, etc, but there's nothing wrong with people taking on NPC duty to role play as them in events. I'm sure some people would love spending an afternoon playing Thor swinging a hammer at their buddies in a TP.
      • OCs: OC mutants only with reasonable mutation spectrums. No claws and time travel and magic and technomancy. OCs must have a power theme. Iceman never developed laser beam powers, but could shoot beams of cold.
      • PrP/TPs: Give love for the genre. Mutant civil rights, mutant supremacy, punching at Iron Man for delivering bullshit civil rights mandates on sovereign soil, diplomacy with non mutants, fighting the Reavers, Purifiers, visiting the Shi'ar, etc
      • Random Cool Idea#4: Unlockable mutants. Select a group of fringe characters that can be unlocked thru TPs. If the players choose to rescue Caliban? Unlocked. Make it like a fun kickstarter stretch goal element
      • Alts: 2 characters per player total, but only 1 can be a starring cast member, such as Storm, Cyclops, etc
      • ConflictOfInterest: Since all chars are in one sphere, dial back CoI rules to assisting in benefit between characters.
      • System: This will be the big one. Some systems are too chunky and require books/knowledge that is hard to obtain. I ptefer the Margaret Weis MSHRP system (out of print), but Champions might be too chunky. Most HeroMushers are okay with the consent system, but at the least there should be some dice resolution.
      posted in Mildly Constructive
      Ghost
      Ghost
    • RE: MU* Mystery RP

      My GM approach:

      I feel that sometimes GMs get caught in the trap of writing some puzzle or riddle that feels obvious to them, but then in roleplay it's like you're in a game of 30 questions but aren't sure if the wrong answer is gonna get your PC killed:

      "Is it...a chair?"
      "No, guys, the riddle clearly says 'I wait by the eastern wing of the sky in june'..."

      My method:

      1. Decide the kind of investigation (murder, robbery, etc)
      2. Decide what really happened. (The cook killed the maid!)
      3. Get an idea of 2-3 ways it could be solved, leave some evidence, and then let the players show you how they intend to solve it.

      If they head towards one of the 2-3 ways you were prepared for? Great. If not...wing it and have fun with it.

      Edit. Other things.

      • I will let them fail, but mostly if they try to metagame (see next point) through it or ignore the investigation for other things.
      • I will require players to actually roll relevant dice to receive evidence/information no matter how much PlayerA tries to convince me how it could be researched over the internet with no experience in real life.

      I think the main point is to give the players a scenario to run through where they're doing stuff. So you have to let them do stuff to resolve it, and railroading never makes players feel like they're accomplishing anything. But, if they're successful I usually end the investigation with someone stolen from other pieces of fiction, like a car chase or a hostage situation.

      posted in Game Development
      Ghost
      Ghost
    • RE: X-Men Game

      I agree with a temporary no alt policy

      I dont think that most people would find unreasonable to be limited to 1 character for a few months to let the FC roster pan out. It would avoid a snatch and grab.

      Last thing you want is within a week of the game opening to find out that only FUCKIN BEAK is available because everyone got greedy.

      Let's be honest with ourselves. Being able to grab 2 ASAP would definitely result in people grabbing the best two ASAP that they could find so that no one else gets them first.

      But if you have 20 players, that means FORTY FCs could disappear in the blink of an eye.

      posted in Mildly Constructive
      Ghost
      Ghost
    • RE: RL Anger

      @surreality Well, he's too egotistical to understand that when his grandmother says she enjoys him reading to her, she probably means: "You could read a cookbook to me for all I care. What is important is the amount of time we spend together."

      But the last time I saw him he was going on and on about how she's from a generation of rampant racism and how proud he is that she sees the importance of these facts and that she says she loves him reading the books to her.

      Fuck, man, read her Anne of Green Gables and make her final year about time well spent, not educating her about shit she won't need next year.

      posted in Tastes Less Game'y
      Ghost
      Ghost
    • RE: Social Systems

      My suggestion:

      Any system with any sort of deception vs perception skill check works just fine, but as @Ganymede pointed out, policies surrounding the social rolls are needed.

      1. No social roll should ever be used to determine TS, ever.
      2. No social roll should ever drastically alter the allegiances of a character beyond reasonable doubt. (You can convince Princess Leia that someone is spying on the Alliance long before she would ever spy on the Alliance herself)
      3. Social combat rolls must be within the realm of reasonable doubt (The Pope will not suddenly believe you when you say that the Flying Spaghetti Monster is Peter, the Apostle, without accompanying evidence)

      ...and here is what I feel is UTTERLY IMPORTANT TO INCLUDE

      1. Social rolls often have winners and losers. If the loser of a social roll has been successfully deceived and chooses to act in stark contrast to what the winner of said roll has successfully deceived them into believing, staff intervention may take place. (Or some othet better wording)

      In short, SOMETHING needs to be codified into policy to protect the losers of social rolls from metagaming.

      We've all seen this happen:

      • Characters are talking about secret business in a tunnel
      • A new player arrives, rolls Obfuscate, successfully disappears and begins to eavesdrop
      • SUDDENLY, the characters stop talking about super secret business and start talking about who is going to the NHL playoffs.
      • ...they also randomly decide to throw their unused coffee cups at the corner where the guy is obfuscated, because oops...one might hit the invisible guy.

      Another example:

      • Character A and B are role playing.
      • B rolls a deception based skill against A's perception and wins.
      • A believes B...but...for some reason (merrrteeergermin)decides to go to every other character on grid before acting on said deception to check 4500 times whether or not they've been lied to, because although they believe it, their character is very very very thorough with this information

      Or

      • After character A has been lied to, suddenly character C ( a friend of A's, with many perception feats) shows up wanting to hear this deception, as well, and then C wins and informs A that it's a lie.

      WE HAVE ALL seen these little white metagaming incidents take place and plenty of OOC gymnastics to engineer plausible metagaming like this.

      That shit needs to be hit with a hammer, and as a community, need to get better about policing that lack of fairness.

      posted in Mildly Constructive
      Ghost
      Ghost
    • RE: RL Anger

      @Ganymede I agree. As a former practicing Catholic I'm a fan of Pope Francis and think he's a shining example of what the faith should expect in a Pope.

      I was particularly fond of his decision to turn down bullet-proof glass and the Popemobile because he wanted to walk amongst the people in the favelas of Brazil, and if it was God's expectation that he be assassinated, then that was God's will.

      That's fucking faith.

      And yes, there are members of the church, as well as stakeholders in Grand Canyon University, tied to the local Phoenix government. It's the Phoenix government who granted the eminent domain of the poor, low-income housing to provide inexpensive land for GCU to be built.

      My accusation is that this doesn't happen without GCU being well aware that low income housing (and thus, low income people) aren't being displaced to build their for-profit school.

      Private. Christian. Affordable.

      posted in Tastes Less Game'y
      Ghost
      Ghost
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