Posts made by Ghost

@Three-Eyed-Crow said:

A lot of the examples of MU* campaigns mentioned here touch on something I think is important. I think it's a LOT easier to do a satisfying, game-wide story on a game that's focused on PvE, rather than PvP. This is one of the reasons I prefer those types of games, though far from the only reason.

Agreed.

That is precisely why I think @faraday BSG games worked so well. In a hobby where so many thin-skinned people are worrying OOCly about who gets this or that snowflake privilege, a game that pretty much said: "You're all fucked and now live in a shitty bunkhouse with people who fart in their sleep. Now get out there any fight on the same team before we all get GENOCIDED" worked so well.

EDIT: Also, as a side note, since all of the characters (unless you turned out to be a Cylon, which I never was, goddamnit) weren't defined by some kind of supernatural phenotype, people had to shape personalities, quirks, and hobbies to flesh out their characters. I genuinely believe this led to more meaningful roleplay.

If that game were still open, I'd totally make a SpaceDouche(tm) who makes internet videos about how bad SpaceMuslims are and then (with the aid of 20-some other SpaceDouchebags) takes over a meaningless building in the middle of nowhere because he thinks he's a SpacePatriot (Spatriot? Y/N?).

@Cirno I'm still keeping my eye on Fifth World. Long after the game closed down it was brought to my attention that the people who were running the game were writing a novel in that setting and had the characters, houses, etc written up in the novel. There was no disclaimer or sign-over of usage of contents in the game as material for their book. They have since removed everyone's access to the wiki. The wiki is still there, but you can't edit, add, or alter any of the content because all of the users were removed.

I have my logs and character's embellishments, wiki, etc saved. It would have been FUCKING NICE to know that there was a chance anything I did was going to be taken as their novel fodder. It really, really would have been nice.

@Cirno that kind of drove me crazy on Fifth World. Becoming a knight takes YEARS of training and dedication, right? I can absolutely understand being a knight that likes to get laid, because all that requires is hormones, but a ditzy knight that acts like being a knight is secondary to some sexy bikini photo-shoot roleplay doesn't make a lot of sense to me. There was a bunch of that on 5W, too.

"I've spent my whole life training to be a knight....but somewhere in there I also became a world-class actor/movie star/dancer/baristas/pastry chef!"

I will say this: I think it might not be very possible to have a wide-sweeping, successful campaign on WoD games with a large number of spheres. Those games really are cattle calls, and using Haunted Memories' Changeling Sphere as example, you can have successful campaigns within the spheres, but the game as a whole may simply be too large and too uncoordinated (even as a genre) to run a successful campaign.

Using BSG as an example, a SINGLE sphere with the player characters either supporting each other or ONE "badguy" sphere (a la Rebels vs Imperials) creates your biggest chance for a successful story. When you craft the game, you should have a loose outline of the campaign. Run the game, tell the story, then dismount. Tell the story and then close the books. Reset the game with a new story/new chars if people wanna play more, but it really does require staff/storytellers to craft a beginning, middle, and end. The hard part is creating a campaign where you have an idea where it's going, but allows for players to feel as if they're affecting outcomes.

Here's a good example:

A long while ago, I played on that future Lords and Ladies game, The Fifth World. The staff definitely seemed to have an idea of where the game was going, but they hamstrung players plot-wise. You either did the thing that made their direction of the plot happen or you didn't. It ended up rather frustrating, especially seeing as how their staff-alt characters were the only ones really furthering metaplot along. At one point, the PCs captured one of the mysterious, cybernetic bad guys. Players fucking threw themselves at this npc, trying like all hell to reveal parts of the plot, get useful Intel, try to generate drama and rp through this NPC, but the scenes ultimately went nowhere because the staff had other plans for the npc.

So be careful of that. There's no point if the players are just waiting for you to tell the story. They want to help tell the story. Always.

@Three-Eyed-Crow said:

@Ghost said:

I played plenty of the Battlestar games, like Cerberus, which had endings that were pretty much months/years before the intended close time due to loss of player interest or staff disappearance. Those games dropped one of those "let's all write our closing endgame points, but the game is closing on X date" things.

BS Pacifica managed a proper closer (I actually came back for the finale after taking a hiatus, and it was a great experience), but @faraday puts us all to shame, in a zillion ways.

I got ROBBED. I decided to check out Pacifica just as it was closing. I thought to check the place out, logged in, was told campaign was done and cgen was closed.

Missed that boat by a month or so.

You know, now that I think about it, I don't think in 15+ years of MUing I've ever seen a campaign open and close on any sort of sentimental "our story is done" line.

I played plenty of the Battlestar games, like Cerberus, which had endings that were pretty much months/years before the intended close time due to loss of player interest or staff disappearance. Those games dropped one of those "let's all write our closing endgame points, but the game is closing on X date" things.

Shit. Yeah. I've never seen a story come to an end.

HOWEVER, the BSG themed games did it the best. The linear plotlines and attempts at cohesive teamwork were some of the best I'd seen before egos got in the way of cohesiveness.

Shit. This Bowie one is actually impacting me.

When I was a kid, I once took a picture of Bowie to a hairstylist because I wanted to have Bowie's haircut. I loved his music.

I haven't picked up Blackstar yet, but I wonder if it will be like Johnny Cash: American IV, because it was clearly obvious Cash knew that would going to be his final album when he made it.

@Miss-Demeanor Demon Knight was amazing. Billy Zane was so good, and that SOUNDTRACK.

I miss the days when the movie's soundtrack was a great album to buy, like the Crow soundtrack or Queen of the Damned. The Awesome Mix Vol. 1 seems like the first movie in a long, long time to do that.

@tragedyjones @Arkandel and hopefully longer than two paragraphs.

I'm 90-95% sure that if I ever become single again, I will probably end up with someone I met over a mush, and have to endure the anxiety of one of those I hope the real sex is as good as the TS hookups.

@Arkandel Yeah, I don't get how some couples end up where OMGFantasyFootball is okay, but Fantasy Novel Collection(tm) is verboten. Shit, everyone is a nerd for something: fantasy football, cooking, dogs, watching Dr. Oz. People should be more tolerant about other people's interests. They're just things to do...

...unless it's Warhammer 40k.

Holy Fuck the time/space/monetary commitment to that game...

@Arkandel That's a shame. I bet your roommate ended up with someone who didn't have the same interests. I didn't hide my interests in horror, gaming, and metal music. It helped me find a girl who liked similar things. Now we game together, watch horror movies, go to metal concerts, and have the sex.

I know someone who is into metaphysical stuff, like tarot and mysticism, but hid it from his girlfriend, who was into being Baptist or something, and then they married...and now he's afraid she'll find out and he is unable to follow his interest in it without risking issues.

@Warma-Sheen said:

Interesting topic this has fallen to on this particular board.

I'm black. I got into RP through reading comic books when I was young and being enticed to try D&D from the ads in the comic books, usually at the back I think.

And while I hesitate to share many of my opinions on the topic, I will say that I don't have any other black friends who know I MU* or RP who don't also do it themselves. Any black RPers I know I met through showing up to RPing events - conventions, tabletops, etc. And not one of them would I put into a social situation with other black people. They would be completely out of place.

This just isn't a popular hobby. Quite the opposite. It will quickly make you unpopular. So I hide it. Like a deep dark secret. You wouldn't look at me and guess I RP. Probably one of the last things you'd guess. But I don't tell a soul about it.

But I love it and just because I won't tell anyone about it doesn't mean I don't love doing it. So I do. As far as characters go, I almost always play black characters. But it seems to me, and this is just wild presumption, that I see a great percentage of black characters than there are black players on a game.

There's no point to any of this except to give purely speculative observations from a black RPer.

Dude, I empathize. Being a white guy, I can tell anyone that I play D&D and unless they were some kind of hellfire and brimstone Evangelical, they wouldn't think anything of it. I had a few black friends back in the day who hid their RPG habit, too, and I get it. I love being able to fly my nerd flag high, so whenever I come into contact with someone who loves it but has to hide it, I try to be supportive.

Thanks for sharing.

@Cirno WORD. AOL RP CHATS. Remember names like Vv_HellVAMP_vV ?

Good times.

So, it has been announced that Tales From the Crypt will be returning, though it will be made by M. Night Shyamalan and won't have the Cryptkeeper. SO, since we are about to have a shitty new Tales From the Crypt coming our way...

...what was your favorite Tales From the Crypt episode?

Mine was "Terror Television", about the hokey journalist who does a publicity stunt to spend a night in a haunted house, only to find out that the house is actually haunted. Him and his camera man end up being chainsawed and hung out of a window.

Yeah, the outpouring of joy and support? I hope you're feeling it. This is great news. CAAAAAAN YOU FEEL THE LOOOOVE TONIGHT...

I would also donate my time to run scenes. Part of the reason I've been chomping at the bit to play a Jedi is because I really like to run Jedi training scenes. If you're interested, hit me up and I'll share my ideas/process with you.

I quit mushing and said the only thing that might get me to end my hiatus is a FFG STAR WARS Mu.

...you wonderful son of a bitch.

EDIT: My availability is maybe 2 nights a week and scattered weekends. I'm not an "all day, all night, all week" MUer, but I have the Age of Rebellion, Force and Destiny, and some module books, as well as a strong working knowledge of the system and setting. Send me a PM if you're looking for helpers, people to data entry help/news files, and whatnot.

P.S. Apu is awesome. You will like her assistance.

@Jennkryst I would totally come back to MU for a FFG Star Wars game. I love the narrative dice and the plethora of character options. It is a storytelling system, which I love.

@Thenomain Bill Cosby voices: Theoooooo Roooodeeeee VanESSSuhh