Best posts made by Ghost

For the record, just in case anyone wants to cross into OOC with me, my safe word phrase is:

"Girl, your area smell like taco meat"

It ensures that the sexy stuff will stop, though it may cause further beating.

...my love for JCVD runs deep. DEEP.

...deeeeeeeeep

There's so much weird....vague blocking in this thread.

Like(sic):

Statement: "I think staff sometimes plays favorites based on who TSes them."

Vague Blocking Response: "Everyone has a right to enjoy whatever kind of RP they want. Fuck yourself."

This thread has been pretty revealing and fascinating, IMO, but also veryfuckingweird.

@bobotron said in New Vampire Release:

@ghost
Also, honestly, from a MU* standpoint? I can see Hunger being a good mechanic for MU* to use. It's easier to manage from a staff standpoint. I think we talked about this when Hunger was first previewed in another thread.

Agreed.

IMO a major problem with WoD is that powers are too useful. Be it blood/essence/etc economy, one of the bad habits that comes from a lot of WoD is relying so much on powers that most skill dot selections are done only to maximize the dice pool for a power scheme.

Inserting something like hunger will make players ask: "Do I want to use a power and risk becoming hungrier, or use skills to solve the problem?"

In the end, from what I experienced when I played the v5 playtest, it makes the character feel more like a monster battling against their inhumanity than a normal person with superpowers who just happens to be a vampire.

V5 makes it a lot harder for players to cheese power use, humanity rolls, and behaving like vampires by linking power use to self control.

Its okay if people think its nannehnanneh boo boo or nanabooboo. That important thing is that people are enjoying it and that it ends in booboo. Not to be mistaken as "boob ooo". There are lots of different kinds of people out there from all different walks of life, and like I learned from being a parent it's probably best not to reserve judgment and just let people say what they want while understanding that it's all pretty much saying the same thing.

Also: Staff totally monetize their time through TS partners. From 1995-2008 it was the most reliable way to get a Force User slot.

Hah. Slot. eyooooo

@Aria Preeeeeetty much.

It's somewhat fascinating to see the little differences between these people, because they seem to have central themes that are the same, but with little differences so that each are unique, kind of like BSG MU characters.

BSG

• I'm a Raptor pilot, but I'm a chef
• I'm a Raptor pilot, but I'm a painter
• I'm a Raptor pilot, but I'm a pyramid nut

MUFON

• I'm a remote viewer who is also a cop
• I'm a remote viewer who was in the Air Force
• I've seen aliens and they stole my dog
• I've seen aliens and was later asked for a cigarette by a guy in a tie and I just know it was a Man in Black intimidating me
• I've seen aliens and am EMT certified and have insight into their biology.
• I've seen aliens and they stole my dog (GOD DAMN IT STEVE, WE'VE ALREADY GOT ONE OF THOSE) cat.

@Ganymede Well, there a few schools of thought on most MU.

1. IC Authority figures should be either staff PCs or played by staff-approved players to control how plot is driven, but then these PCs always have a crazy amount of plot armor.
2. IC authority figures can be played within each faction, but only factions who support staff-driven plot direction get the most attention.
3. No one's in charge ICly, but staff plot will likely still determine pass/fail on plot-centric actions

In all cases it's still pretty smart to follow along with staff wishes, because there are very few MUs where staff don't have some "plot vision" in mind and will let the chimps determine what happens to the zoo.

It's also very smart in any case to stay on staff's good side via what information is seen by staff. I rarely have seen someone who staff reviled still getting equal unbiased results compared to people who cheerlead staff.

@Cupcake Yeaaaah. Dudes are weird. For some it's always either flirtation, pissing on territory, or both.

The problem I'm dealing with involves a married guy telling one of my female friends with ridiculously low self esteem that he'd sleep with her if she was desperate, but he's not because he doesn't find her attractive...but would totally throw her a bone.

I wish that in certain cases beating someone up wasn't so illegal.

ETA: Oh, and then the guy proceeded to tell her how fascinating she is and comment on how x and y parts of her body are really cute.

So. Predatory.

One of the issues MU has in terms of "rules" is that the goal posts constantly move, and there's a lot of subjective interpretation in play.

Example:

• Player well within their right to drop/re-cgen charbit as they see fit (generally considered okay)
• Player drops charbit for whatever reason (but not to cheat or break the rules) but it inconveniences a player (still well within the rules, but can result in ooc negativity on either the player's or inconvenienced player's part)
• Player regularly drops charbits to regen new charbits (still within the rules)

Now...

• TECHNICALLY a player who drops charbits when they get bored with an IC relationship, kills the character, then regens with a charbit that is specifically designed to woo a target charbit for an IC relationship is still TECHNICALLY well within their right to do so, but arguably disruptive to the game because it makes other players angry

So, in theory, a player who did stuff like this would suffer RP loss for shenanigans like that, and if they tried to push the issue via pages or ooc pressuring would definitely be in the wrong due to harassment policies, but dropping/rebuilding whatever character they please is well within the rules, so...handwobble. Technically if the player didn't harass and just kept dropping/rebuilding, it might not be popular, but it's not against the rules. The players should handle how they deal with this by simply...not RPing with the annoying player.

I think a lot of "justice seeking" happens for gray area stuff than actual rules/punishment can allow, so staff tend to get a lot of pressure from players to cockpunch other players for stuff that isn't in the rules at all, and if said pressure is not acted on in the way the jilted player feels results in backchannel retaliation against badPlayer and staff.

Could you imagine asking your spouse after hooking up:

Hey, since we are finished I thought I'd give you a survey and you could rate my performance. I need to meet my KPIs.

Does <Dude> fulfill your sexual needs(check one)

• Most of the time
• Some of the time
• No Opinion/Ambivalent
• Fails to meet expectations
• Greatly Fails to meet expectations

And if you don't get a 3.5 average monthly review you're placed on probation.

@Coin said in Punishments in MU*:

@Ghost said in Punishments in MU*:

@Tinuviel said in Punishments in MU*:

@Arkandel said in Punishments in MU*:

@Tinuviel said in Punishments in MU*:

No, your punishment is that you're still here all these years later, talking about the same things with the same people and getting the same answers.

I wish I at least played so I had some kind of excuse for it, too.

@Ghost, someone's taking your line.

Close, but it wasn't arrogantly worded enough

Ark and I will fight to the death about it later. $20 a seat.

You wish people would pay money to see you two slapfight.

Hell yeah I do. Ps5 is coming. Papa gots to keep current.

@Auspice Motherfucker.

You ironically post that right as I'm texted and asked to pick up cat litter on my way home.

@faraday While I generally agree, I think that's a bit of a game of chicken.

If you're going to vote with your feet you have to accept that this means you may not end up with a MU to play on. Voting with your feet in MU can literally mean limiting your play options to having multiple nights with no roleplay at all. Is voring with your feet enough to risk not participating in the hobby to stand your ground on your ethics?

I was able to answer that question, for myself, of course.

Which is why I think people threaten to vote with their feet, but ultimately end up letting it go and just dealing with the problem or trying to find some new place.

@Auspice It's a Harley...

...compatible. #mysterymen

@Auspice said in Empire State Heroes Mush:

LOOK WE ALL WANT TO DO BEDROOM STUFF TO MARISA TOMEI AUNT MAY

Whoa whoa. Watch that use of all. I kinda prefer My Cousin Vinnie or The Wrestler Marisa Tomei.

The ones that get me are the ones who write a $0 tip receipt with a note that their tip will be donated to Jesus.

"Sucks you're minimum wage, brah, Osteen needs a speedboat."

@Pandora said in How to Approach (nor not) a Suspected Creep:

I was pointing out that while you may be trying to help, plenty of people reach out in that same way trying to be instigators or gossip-gatherers & it's hard in a moment of high-pique to tell the difference.

Agreed.

PLENTY of people have reached out to me after public drama incidents under the false flag of being a sorority sister, but really they just wanted the gossip or to be a man-in-the-middle social engineering agent to get inside information on the bad things I might be saying about the 3rd party.

I'm mostly a person who obsesses over their own internal compass. If I'm not already reaching out to you for advice or to vent at, then you're probably not someone I want that from or don't need that service.

Would I call that harassment? No. But definitely an eh, fuckoff.

@Wretched Yeah I got the videos, too. They're a great workout. FUN FACT: The videos do not help you lose weight if you only do the intro part that walks through all the poses once a year. I was not aware of that.

We gotta clean out a spare room to make room for it, too. That's the shitty part about spare rooms. You use it for STORAGE...but then have to move stuff out of it to use it for yoga.

Anyway, YES, the Wrestler was fucking great and I understand it's pretty accurate. Stuff like dead cartilage in the knees, getting paid $50 bucks and leaving with a concussion that would cost you hundreds to thousands if you actually got it looked at by a doctor, etc.

I enjoy wrestling, but I'd enjoy it more if I knew the talent was better taken care of. There's a lot of buzz right now that per John Oliver the fans might actually chant or have signs for Wrestlemania this weekend for the better treatment of the talent.

@Pandora said in Personal Agency for Personal Boundaries:

I am open to all opinions here, whether in favor or wildly against. I'm not trying to tell anyone what to do, I'm asking what can we do & offering my 2 cents toward a potential solution to a problem that is not going to go away by doing absolutely nothing different and continuing to say 'People, just be better.'

Took some time to think about this. Spoilers, I'm gonna dig a little here.

So, (rhetorical) why do people try to force others into scenes they're not comfortable with via IC justification? We RARELY hear of a player calling "FTB" or a hard stop in, say, a coffee scene. It's usually involving sex, relationship, torture, rape, or potential PK. No one asks to FTB a house painting scene...unless it turns to one of those topics.

So, my first thought is that this topic is about entitlement. Players feel entitled to certain scenes or the right to roleplay specific concepts, and the worst players feel that other players shouldn't "pussy out" of that stuff. However, there are so many players who falsely throw these flags like harassment, consent, etc around in non-emergency situations (or to get revenge) that players oddly rush to err on the side of caution to implement something to protect players.

"We want people to not be harassed, forced into sexual situations, or to be preyed upon but there's nothing we can do about it because people will misuse the reporting system for their loopy bullshit."

And maybe a bit of...

"I dont want to be made to feel uncomfortable and want the ability to opt out of anything I don't want, but I dont want anyone to opt out of things I want."

Fairness? The people who are cool, and truly cool, are always very okay with FTB on any front and don't blacklist a player for asking for it. In theory any system that supports this and has a "omg staff help" alarm button SHOULD be no issue whatsoever to the people who aren't assholes. Everyone knows that some(most?) players come to this hobby to fulfill fantasies related to sex, relationship, rape, power, being wanted, etc. Theres simply more at play here than "it's just a scene" due to the hardcore focus on OOC personas, "bad actors", etc but there's very little assumption of trust that so many people are constantly at DEFCON 2.

So, in short? I support an XCard/RedYellowGreen system and think if people you want it? FUCKING IMPLEMENT IT. It will likely protect more than it harms, and if players abuse it because they're unethical, then they can get bounced from games just like the players who try to coerce other players into partaking in their power scene. People are always going on about how X player is horrible and Y player "blows up on them OOCly for not doing what they want" that maybe the right answer is to not choose what the paranoid/drama-filled corner of the community thinks about it (because this has been the state of the hobby for over 20 years and it'll just be argued for 20 more; nothing changes until someone takes a step), and just follow your heart, your good intention, and make a commitment to being fair as staff when it's used.

Just do it. A tool to protect people from unethical behavior is better than most places have in place.