Posts made by Ghost

Constructively, when it comes to culture building in a setting (RPG or not), one thing to keep in mind is that the culture that you're building should definitely fit within the setting you're building it for. All too often I see people try to shoehorn make-believe cultures based on the author's wants, based on their cultural perceptions of our world, and it just always comes across as heavy handed as fuck.

Secondly, especially in an RP setting that you intend to be open to others, I always suggest a certain disconnect of self from the culture. If it turns too much into "playing house", the author is going to find out that others aren't "doing it right" or other players attempting to leave their mark on the culture might be met with negativity.

Fifth World had some great cultures. When people made a culture, many of them seemed to be based on the cultural result of the surrounding geography, so you ended up with a seafaring culture in a sci-fi age, and some cool ones built around how living in the shadows of ash and volcanic surroundings would affect the mentality of the people. What's important to them? RAIN? Cleanliness? Neat stuff like the way Fremen reacted to water.

Concepts regarding gender equality are subjective and prone to political argument, but as a whole I don't see many players having issues with matriarchy. So, after reading your initial idea, my critique is this: If you're going to write a feminist idea into a setting, you need to constantly ask yourself "why?"

• Why would a goddess favor women over men?
• Why are women better at things than men?
• What is an honest, male-viewpoint in this culture's reaction to this? Wouldn't some feel neglected? Ambitious? That they have a glass ceiling? Do they worship other gods? If the culture is female-centric right down to religion, trade, etc, then what do male children study?
  (Realistically, or logically, there would be impact)

If you find yourself having to ignore answering these questions, then you're not really creating a culture, but could be instead creating a sandbox roleplay idea tailored to your own personal preferences.

(Satire. Please take Admiral seriously)

I felt confident enough to post my application here, @Admiral

Mid-30s white male roommate application for Ghost!

Name: You will know me as Ghost
Sex: Male
Job History: I have been working in IT Operations for the last 5 years. I have some certificates, such as ITIL, but am branching out to SSCP and CEH to focus on Information Security
Hobbies: Tabletop Gaming, Hockey, Sci Fi/Fantasy TV shows, Board Games, Coffee house outings, interspecies cybernetic romance, slap boxing, and NTN trivia at popular sports bars
Needs as roommate: A room! Hahaha just kidding. I enjoy jokes. I'm pretty low maintenance outside of these few simple needs

• Never look me in the eyes; it comes across as challenging my power
• I WILL need a door for my room, because often there are things you wouldn't understand taking place. For starters, I don't let people see my record collection. My list of bands that no one has ever heard will only remain so if no one ever has access to view the labels on the records. That and I sometimes have people over to roleplay as transformers who have sex in animal form.
• IGNORE MY MOTHER AND THE PHONE CALLS FROM KRISTI
• I will require my own gender specific bathroom. FYI, my gender is CyberWolfGiantWizardLeprechaunDemiFemaleRepublican
• If you hear me crying in the night, whatever you do, do not enter my room unless you're wearing a Ninja Turtles tee shirt and yell out "WHO WANTS PIZZA!?!"
• I don't do floors, dishes, bathrooms, carpets, walls, ceilings, or hardtop surfaces. I am very good at turning on the garbage disposal, but am triggered by it since watching the 80s remake of The Blob.
• Playing Tay Zonday's "Chocolate Rain" on an infinite loop is my right for any purchased living space.
• Please accept the fact that I am a sexual creature in nature, and that psychic vampirism is not intrusive. It's a burden. It's who I am.
• I will need the house once a month for "LARP", which is code word for an elaborate NERF-weapon fighting game with roleplay elements that 9/10 time results in everyone placing their car keys into a bowl and having sex on surfaces that I do not clean. Afterwards, we rate each other's performance and assign XP accordingly.
• I tend to pay my bills in Bitcoin.

I may show up and app a Bothan just before the Rebel Alliance starts asking for volunteers to steal the plans for the second Death Star.

Show up. Play. Go out like a bawss. A hero, even.

Post Script: I hope that players of Star Wars: Insurgency will think of this moment fondly the first time their airspeeders user harpoons and tow cables.

Note: You're "not harping on it" when you tie a rope to your point, stab it into something, and then drag it off to die.

That would be harpooning it.

I'll accept people complaining that admin took the downvote button away with dignity

One thing I think this game has going for it is the FATE system. You're right, @ixokai , in FATE these things need to be BOUGHT, which presents an interesting concept that doesn't exist in some other systems. To have that kind of authority, or riches, or benefit, it needs to be bought, which balances out the character sheets in a way most systems aren't used to.

The major question, though, is are the character sheets of FCs such as Darth Vader going to have additional purchases so that the character FITS the FC version?

During FATE character creation, there's a # of skills that can be selected via character generation. There's also alternate ways to make veteran characters, etc.

So using Darth Vader in mind:

• Sith Lord
• Former Jedi
• Master Force User
• Commands the Super Star Destroyer
• Pilot
• Parent to 2 major FCs. Ahsoka?
• Has his own legion of Stormtroopers
• Fought in the Clone Wars (Skills, Aspects)
• Fame. Rank. Infamy. Fear?
• Throneworld: Vjun. He has his own throneworld.

I think the challenge that your game may face is in asking themselves "How do we make this FC what the FC really is without writing prepackaged player benefits into the character sheet? Do these FCs get extra benefits that OCs don't in an effort to make them truly the FCs they are?"

EDIT: There's plenty of skills and aspects that would be needed to make Vader. So as a constructive suggestion, this will be where your decision to use FCs may break, and where your players will be watching.

FCs are awesome quest givers. That's kind of the golden "badass" standard on MMORPGs. Once you're getting your quests from FCs, you know you're important. Always been a fan of FC quest givers/NPC plot devices/etc.

I'm a strong believer that when running an RPG, it's always more fun for players to RESCUE Han Solo than it is for them to ASSIST Han Solo.

@Arkandel said in Star Wars: Insurgency:

@Ghost said in Star Wars: Insurgency:

I was just explaining (with a few rhetorical questions) why --outside of Super Hero games where playing FCs is the focus of the game-- FCs are historically a sign of a bad game and disliked by the 80% of the gaming populace

Citation needed.

I was just explaining (with a few rhetorical questions) why --outside of Super Hero games where playing FCs is the focus of the game-- FCs are historically a sign of a bad game and disliked by the 80% of the gaming populace -- (Ghost, 2017, http://musoapbox.net/topic/1411/star-wars-insurgency/66 )

@TNP You handled that with class, brother. Bravo.

Edit: I don't know if you're male or female, so "Sister" applies, too.

@TNP said in Star Wars: Insurgency:

Now, you can believe that or not. We're going to do our best to make sure that's the case. If you don't believe that, I'm not going to argue. Don't come play. Please, don't come play. But don't call us liars either. Go make a thread in the Hog Pit to do that but at least wait till you have evidence. Don't be Trump.

Don't be Trump. LOL. Chill. I was just explaining (with a few rhetorical questions) why --outside of Super Hero games where playing FCs is the focus of the game-- FCs are historically a sign of a bad game and disliked by the 80% of the gaming populace who have had negative staff-ethical experience involving them. There's a certain amount of pre-determined responsibility, baggage, and fame that comes along with those FCs in terms of leadership to the Rebellion.

I'm not going to be playing, but that's not because of FCs or staff or any of the typical MU drama. I'm not playing anywhere. I just saw a place to insert a point about why FCs are a problem, and why people do not like them. If this game becomes the exception to the rule? More power to Star Wars: Insurgency.

Just be advised that this will be Star Wars Game #72 with FCs that is claiming that they won't be favoring FCs, and if this game makes good on their promise, they will be approximately 1 for 72.

If FCs are no different, even stats-wise from OCs, then why differentiate between the two? Why apply for FCs? Why do FCs typically get handed off to friends of staff and favored players?

If there is no difference, stats-wise, between FCs and OCs, then what is the point?

The answer:
FCs come prepackaged with guaranteed roleplay opportunities and "main character" time in plots. FCs are automatically roped into game metaplot, whereas OCs need to find their own roleplay and means to being roped into (and more importantly, relevance in) metaplot

This is why people hate FCs. Their character sheets are irrelevant to the guarantee of importance, activity, and plot effectiveness, and many MUers feel as if they need to struggle to be important to metaplot on most games.

I wrote and backspaced a response 2-3 times because I wanted to make very clear what I am saying in this response. So please, read clearly and try not to nitpick or over-analyze what you're reading right now.

1. I opened this thread, specifically in the "Shout in the Dark" section, to provide what I thought would be a positive platform for people to air out those occasional regrets about how they handled something. My intention was a rather hippy-type "It never hurts to come clean, and you never know who might appreciate it"

2. Any statements I made concerning regrets or apologies were never intended for community approval. These apologies were not for you. I find it very selfish and ugly that some people couldn't resist the urge to sour something meant to be sincere.

3. In my post that people are going back and forth on about whether or not I was being sincere? I worded it, perhaps ineloquently, but I was careful with my wording because giving specifics on the triggering involved would have made it seem like I was parading whatever damage or hurt was displayed my way, and I felt that wouldn't be proper. I was apologizing, and not that I was inconvenienced in any way, but because when I look back, I feel as if my shutting off of my empathy, from a certain point of view, was cruelty. When one person hurts, for whatever reason or however valid or invalid, and the person they are reaching or displaying their hurt to cuts off their empathy and says "fuck it", a sort of cruelty happens. I regret that. Someone hurt because of my involvement, and that sucks.

4. There was a thread a while back on the hog pit about what is and isn't an apology. It seems the people that had a few days of enjoyment mudslinging have resumed their arguments on what constitutes as a proper apology to this thread. I very much so wish you could have gotten over yourselves and appreciated the attempt myself and some others made to do something positive without the need for venom and trolling.

5. I have nothing more to say about how anyone feels about my "shout in the dark" apologies and unloading of old ShouldaWouldaCoulda before exiting the community. I don't care what any of you think about them, even my good friends like @Auspice and @surreality. This isn't for them. This isn't for props or to be the most charming or charitable person in the room for five minutes. This was, and was genuinely, about setting out a few regrets and hoping that perhaps just one or two of those people would skim the topic, nod their heads, smile, and have a better day tomorrow than they did back then.

Knock off the witch hunt and let something be nice for a change, please.

I will not be responding to this thread any more unless it is another "shout in the dark" type apology.

I apologize to a few players back in the day, whom I won't name specifically for their anonymity. I believed it's just a game and what is IC stays IC, so I muscled through a few things, putting IC first. After all was said and done, I realize due to OOC issues, angry pages, etc, that it wasn't JUST a game for you. Regardless of my feelings that IC should always stay IC, looking back, I can't help but feel like you were another soul on the other end of the keyboard, going through whatever kinds of shit that led you to get triggered.

I was playing a game and doubled down on what I thought was proper for the game and for my character, and I can't help but wonder sometimes just how real the hurt was on your side. For whatever reason the hurt existed, or why, I hope things are going better on your end, wherever you are.

In the end for me, it was just a game, but it doesn't matter how justified the hurt on your end was. I know better now than I did years ago how personally invested some people get, and I regret that my character choosing X or Y set another living human being into that kind of headspace.

I know at least four or five times, I went "fuck their moody shit" and turned off the empathy because I wasn't willing to dig through OOC weeds with strangers.

Earlier this year, I reunited and made amends with someone I hurt from 5W, and in retiring from the hobby, it might be one of the most soul-rewarding experiences I'm taking away from it.

Perhaps I had a moment of Zen tonight, but I realized that the end of my MU hobby is drawing to a close. Looking back, I realized that there were points of drama or issues that came and went, or were left unresolved, and I never felt truly right about how they were resolved...if they were resolved at all. I have a gut feeling that I'm not alone in this, and that there are good people out there who lost their way, shit went sideways, and in looking back there were moments where communication broke down or friendships got blurry. The end result was something happened...and it sucked. It sucked and you might remember it in the corner of your brain in one of those 'if I could go back I would have done things differently' ways.

So I thought a thread where, should someone want to reach out and make amends or tell stories about how they wish things had gone differently, you never know who it might mean something to.

Better world means being better than you were ten seconds ago and coming to terms with it, right?

I'll go first:

@Seraphim73 and @GirlCalledBlu . I was too harsh and I was rude. I apologize for being a troll and the venom I threw your way was unnecessary. At the end of the day, some shit truly doesn't matter, and I apologize if I made it harder to find something that made you feel happy, entertained, and creative in a world that already makes it hard enough to feel free.

To the people who may have felt put out by my decision to leave the hobby (up to and including this time, which I think is my 5th and last): I apologize if my decision to walk away left you hanging, or storylines unfinished. I wanted to make a clean cut rather than disappear and leave you wondering where I went to. All too often people disappear because explaining why you're leaving can be awkward, and I wanted to make sure that I didn't do that to you. I felt it was better to announce my leaving than leave you hanging and not knowing where you stood.

Cheers. I didn't want to walk away without making a few things right. People deserve closure and to know they're not the assholes we made them out to be when we were heated.

Harambe was alive in 2005, which makes 2005 better than 2016

@ThugHeaven I'd post a PB pic but I don't know if my Photoshop skills could properly meld Kari Byron with a Japanese pornstar, a Final Fantasy character, a Budweiser bikini model, and sexy bugs bunny...

...with a Tommy gun and a katana.

@tragedyjones said in Tragedyjones' Harem-a-thon 2016: Reno Edition:

@Ghost I doub I have 20 logged scenes on 3+ games anymore that aren't me STing.

That's cool. I came up with a concept for you to approve:

Vaguely 24 y/o Asian girl with an Irish name. Former special forces but now holds down small jobs as an auto mechanic, librarian, waffle house employee, stripper, and assassin that specializes in corporate wetwork. Wears mostly short skirts, string bikini tops, and ironic slogan tee shirts that say things like: Got No Time for Tragedy, Dr. Jones.

Drives a Mini-Cooper. No gag reflex.

Resources 5, so your character won't have to worry about paying for beer.

THE PITCH: Mid-30s male with a personality that fluctuates between hippy sage and moronic sarcasm is willing to play a really hot female character with none of the RL player's personality traits. Will wiki-stalk @tragedyjones across multiple games and put together a style and PB based off of no less than 20 logged scenes across 3+ games in what will be the worst, most monstrous trophy wife, the likes of which hasn't been seen since Weird Science.

• Will promise to page/@mail @tragedyjones once or twice a while while on the shelf and being ignored so that tragedy can have that realistic neglectful experience
• Will constantly ask for descriptions of IC penis like it matters.
• No less than 20 clothing descs keyed into multidescer, but to save @tragedyjones from having to type 'l <charname>' I will just page them whenever I change them
• Will lie and say oocly that I'm a female so it isn't weird like that
• Totally is cool with whatever and has no triggers
• Not played by VASpider

Edit: typos galore because between doing 230am on-call IT work and my phone's autocorrect...WTFuuuuck