Best posts made by Ghost

Also, constructively, this all gets harder when StaffPCs are in the majority of power positions on a game, make the IC decisions, write then implement plot. In a way, staff having StaffPCs in charge of everything becomes a CoI fucking nightmare.

Plot: Battlefield combat to capture an alien bad guy.

Staffer A: Writes the plot, plays the leader of the good guy assault, plays the UberLeader who will make decisions on what to do with the captive, and will run the scene/combat where said alien has been predetermined to be captured, though the players do not know this.

Staffer B: Plays warband leader, roleplays as the bad enemy force, has a PC in the goodguy effort to capture the alien, likely involved with GoodLeaderGuyStaffPC, plays captive Alien StaffNPC, etc

Players: Show up. Rolls dice. Watches it happen?

The more staffbits are in control positions, the NPCs, various PC positions, IC leadership, the bad guys, etc, it's far more likely that when you pass that ball, you're passing to yourselves.

In the end, staff needs to decide if they are telling a story and want to unveil that story without much deviation from their vision, or if they are opening a storytelling game where their players are allowed to let their decisions, or dice, affect the outcome.

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

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

I want pho.

That is all.

Not enough upvotes. Pho is so good. now I want it too.

Even tho it's only in the 50s/60s here, this crisp fall-like weather is perfect for pho.

Kinda feel like I need pho right now

@Miss-Demeanor said in Leadership, Spotlight, and PCs of Staffers:

I have something that niggles at me about running a scene for your own character and I'm trying to find a way to put it that doesn't sound accusatory, because I don't think anyone here is actively doing this.

If you are a sphere lead, or headstaff, someone that's a leader even among staff... there's an inherent perception issue with running one's own plots for your character. Namely... if you put in a job to gain approval for a scene that you are running for your character... who is going to tell you no if there's something in that pitched prp that's 'too much'? At that point, you're the one in charge. Who's going to risk angering 'the boss' by telling them they're going too far? Its definitely a bit more sticky of a situation than when 'just a player' is asking for a prp.

(Using the empirical you in this case, again, I don't think anyone here is doing this, but I've found it's a relatively common perception when someone in charge is asking for something for their own character.)

I couldn't agree more with this. I'll refrain from using the term passing the ball to yourself too much more, but I think it applies.

I think that running scenes for yourself for character development purposes always seems a little strange to me, but really it all depends on the WHY/PURPOSE behind the scene that details the level of appropriateness.

• Some game systems/MUs have PrP requirements on sheet changes (I.e. to get membership into X special order in WoD you need a tiny plot to join it) I think is reasonable.
• Running a self-taught scene because you suddenly feel like inserting a character arc that they lose an eye in combat because for some reason you like the idea of your character being that one-eyed villain rogue type? I think is reasonable
• Running a scene for yourself that will ICly place your character into a RP position to have authority or opportunities that other players wouldnt have access to...less reasonable.
• Staff running a scene for themselves that places their character in a role of leadership over their players that will, in the end, require players to go their their character to get things done...the problems start to show.

Development is one thing, but seeing the next few steps down the road and the why behind so-called development is tricky. Sometimes, is it really for character development purposes, or is it playing into the politics of the game and calling it development?

Thin line, that.

Edit:

OOCly, we know the game, the players, the system, can predict where the game is going, what players may respond to X action with Y response, but when determining to want a scene for ourselves for development purposes, when playing fair, we have to question if that requested development matches what the character knows/wants, or if it's us using the guise of character development to OOCly influence a game and pre-seed it with IC justification.

Also, some new stuff I'm watching...

Expanse is good as it normally is. So good. Watchmen was amazing. I'm enjoying V-Wars on Netflix.

Me being constructive again.

I was talking a lot off chan with @Auspice about this:

I don't think there's a always whole lot of malevolence to this. I think a lot of this staff putting their chars in the drivers seat and railroading everything chalks up to a difference in viewpoint in GM styles:

1. GM runs games like games. Lets the dice decide, will let characters die, will let characters decide their own fate. Is okay with this. Enjoys rping all of the NPCs and is comfortable letting the game be its own monster.

2. GM has a story they wrote, with beginning, middle, and end written up. They're running the game to tell a story and don't logically associate the players as people who want to make their own decisions, but as players that want to play the GMs story. So, naturally, GM's NPCs running the show, all of the combats and scenes are on a railroad, etc doesn't lightbulb as being annoying to the player because OMG THE STORY I WROTE and I CANT LET THE PLAYERS AFFECT THE STORY OTHERWISE MY BEGINNING, MIDDLE, AND END WONT BE ACHIEVED!!!. The PCs will, potentially, make choices that will derail this grand story idea, but in the end, the players may be left feeling as if they were just there to watch it all happen, whether they were involved or not.

I do believe there have been many mushes that fit GM2's model, and I do believe that some of those railroading GMs aren't malevolent, but they do tend to put their characters front and center because that is what's fun for them, and that they're somewhat blind to the concept that any other given player may want to feel important because... omg i wrote this whole story and...

I have played in plenty of TT games where the GM is like GM2 and cant figure out how to write up a game setting without writing up the beginning, middle, and end, and shoehorning the game and chars to fit that vision.

Trying to browse the internet at work because you're bored but also trying to avoid Star Wars spoilers be like:

I've noticed this, too.

I've seen some villains poking around some old SH games, but it appeared like they were all alts kept around until necessary.

If I had to guess, I would say that the ONLY HEROES comes from a long history of OOCANGSTFUCKERY that pollutes this hobby. I can see potential past issues of players of villains crossing IC ethical content lines, players of heroes feeling like the player of a villain was trying to ruin their fun, potential harassment, or just good, old-fashioned competitive assholes getting bent out of shape.

Or...The staff just want to hang onto the villains as NPCs so that they can use them as plot devices, but never get around to it because their Tony Stark charbit is too busy TSing to disseminate plot.

@mietze You're not wrong. I know a few people like that (100% believed they were wrong but were 100% the instigator/antagonist). What I keep coming back to mentally, though, is that the end result is still the same: accusations, drama, that constant feeling of wondering it will be your turn.

I have a lot of wiggle room when it comes to mental/emotional trauma and the behaviors that may come from it. However, the existence thereof does not require people to be subject to those negative behaviors. Then why you try to pull away, you become the bad person; there really is no winning.

What grinds my goat (gets my goat, grinds my gears combo) is when I know that the person doing the accusing is well aware that they've done something undeniably wrong that they simply aren't disclosing while publicly trying to damage other people's reputations with speculative accusations. Like a murderer very loudly and very adamantly pushing for someone suffer for shoplifting. It often feels like an orchestration to maintain control of where the audience is looking to ensure that the audience doesn't look at them.

I hate being in that position of having to decide whether or not the moral thing to do is speak out in defense of the person being attacked or to let the situation play out.

Double post.

Epilogue: I ended up leaving the game because I couldn't find roleplay. Nova's old romantic flames kept showing up IC and making passes at Nova, and I got the feeling the reason I couldn't seem to find much RP (or much response on the game via channels, etc) was due to a sort of mild neglect. I got the gut feeling that there was some shunning involved out of the assumption that GAY NOVA was back, so the female players wouldn't bother, and once the gay rpers found out I wasn't playing GAY NOVA, why bother with a dead end?

I quietly drifted off.

Edit: I didn't mention straight male RPers because the amount of rp I get with other male players/characters that didnt involve passes for TS is pretty remarkable. I assumed straight males were like HOLY FUCK GAY COOTIES or DOESNT HAVE VAGINA/DONT CARE.

FML.

I'm discussing the different between LIE and WRONG on an internet forum, in bed, at 530am.

@Misadventure said in Superhero Games: Quest For Villain PCs:

OMG its (American) super heroes! Character growth and themes are explored by punching things.

In the bathing suit region.
With a penis.

Honestly, I think the @saosmash @Roz @Meg @Tez crew might actually run the best superhero games. There's a lot of depth of character and it isn't nearly the mostly vacant, private room bangfests that I'm used to seeing.

@Sockmonkey said in Good or New Movies Review:

Everyone who doesn't put The Last Jedi at the top/near top of their ranking lists is wrong.

You can't fight universal truth so don't bother trying.

The second half of that movie is some of the best Star Wars on screen to date.

My order (Best to Last):
Rogue One
Empire
New Hope
RISE OF SKYWALKER
ReturnJedi
Solo
Force Awakens
The Last Jedi
Sith
AttackClones
Phantom

New Hope bumped over Rise before posting because the music and imagery are burned into my heart. I always feel great when I hear that throne room finale number.

Edited because I thought you said Rise near the top. I think TLJ was decent, but failed to recognize what made the original trilogy cast work. I liked that it set up the Rey/Ben stuff, but largely TLJ broke the family up into 3-4 separate side stories rather than keep the family together. In fact (not a spoiler) but I didn't really feel like the new family (Poe, finn, Rey, etc) felt like much of a family until this most recent movie.

One thing that I LOATHE about the faction/Hero-vs-Villain format in MU form is the amount of planning that seems to take place on an OOC level. Over the years I've seen a lot of sudden, incredulous coordination that always gives me a raised eyebrow.

• All of the sudden, mid-combat, without any vocal or IC communication, six players unleash a devastating combo attack and they're all ready for it.
• On Lords/Ladies games I've seen elaborate teamwork responses to other PC political actions without any logs or evidence that any of it was planned ICly.

Even when I run tabletop games, I don't allow the players to huddle and discuss OOCly what to do. As a GM, I don't really care what the players know. I don't care if I've got a cop, a pharmacist, a politician, and a computer expert playing the game. This information being used when it isn't on the character sheets(and the ability to network OOCly to coordinate some kind of awesome IC plan) is, in my opinion, metagaming.

So, naturally in the holistic PVP sense, my gamer-brain goes on this sort-of alert status. I think, with this format and all of the paging, skyping, emailing, or other communiques that can be passed under the table, it's simply way too likely that people will coordinate OOCly to win ICly.

WoD games tend to be fucking horrible about this, right on down to PLAYERS browsing the books to put together nigh-indestructible merit/power combinations that the CHARACTER may not have even had the baseline knowledge as to how to achieve. A dropped batch of hot XP in a skill the character has never presented any inclination towards should not turn "pacifist flower girl" into "armored human tank" overnight.

This happens because of OOC planning/knowledge driving the IC.

EDIT: Think "PC HIVE MIND", where what one character knows, all of them know, and although Player A only succeeded in the perception roll, somehow Player B moves their character to be in a good position for when the fight starts. The PLAYER knows a fight is starting, and wants their character to be in a sweet spot.

@Macha said in RL things I love:

@Ghost Actually, you didn't. Whamaggedon stops at 12am of Christmas. They're already safe until next year. Sorry, it's in the rules.
Rules

....damn it.

Next year I'm gonna be ruthless.

@Misadventure said in Roleplaying writing styles:

Gilmore Girls, is there nothing it can't ruin?

I hate Rory so goddamned much.

@Ganymede Let's talk.

In this instance I was cycling a lot but hadn't played the game in a few years. It was nhl18. Here's why I lost.

1. He had Lundquist on AI goalie. Fuckin Lundquist.
2. I made a lot of bad pass choices, but also it was kind of weird how the players weren't picking up passes. Was either passing too hard or trying to move before the pass connected.
3. He was spamming poke check and I wasn't utilizing "protect the puck"
4. He played smart but cheesy D. Every time I'd set up the point and cycle hed stop playing positional hockey and just double up a human wall in front of the net like he was Sean Avery. Then when I tried to go for rebounds off the clappers he'd have an extra guy there.

Really, the best scoring opportunities I had were in breakaways, but fuckin AI Lundquist grabbed some 4 would be goals out of thin air like he was some demanded Nordic Green Lantern.

Shame it was 2018 Lundquist.

The last game set in a Roman Empire era/setting had a shitload of rape, forced character pregnancies, and when you mention that game's name on this forum, people flee, close doors, lock windows, and speak in bad English things like "yooo musss go now. Yooo go back home. You stay away. Isss Vam-peeeer."

I put it at a 65-75% chance that if another Roman Empire setting game opens, plenty of people who enjoyed Firan will show up to roleplay some of the same, theme-enforced misogyny.

@Ganymede said in Good or New Movies Review:

@Lemon-Fox said in Good or New Movies Review:

A+. See me after class.

Omg. Rachel McAdams is the best.

@SG I think it's a workable premise.

One thing I do when I run TT (or if I ever had the time/nerve to run a MU) is I never let the characters get too comfortable. Comfort equals players falling back on fulfillment through 1-on-1 TS/relationship roleplay, simulating relationships as a primary form of RP, and IC relationship drama that spills out into OOC drama because there isn't much to do. Worst of all, that kind of boredom comfort RP isn't largely something the Playerbase can share with each other, and god knows how so many of us hate BAR SCENE #43444223

So, whatever you do, think ahead of time about defined roles for characters. What would their responsibilities be? What kind of plots would involve these roles, and what range of PrP or daily life stuff within these roles be pertinent enough to keep the players from focusing solely on who they're sleeping with.

The Battlestar games had a good heading on this. There was, at times, plenty of training, flight simulators, mechanical, planning, brig, etc RP. Best yet? There were no private quarters or eating spaces, so plenty of bunkhouse and cafeteria roleplay, hell even communal shower time roleplay, was shared.

Roles. Responsibilities. Stuff to do. Go in with a plan for this stuff.

@Pandora said in RL things I love:

@Ghost 1. You're a terrible person.

2. I'm literally watching this with my bestie right this second.

Yeah we're about 9 episodes in. It's not bad, although I wish it were more grim dark. I think Somerhalder might be underrated.