Posts made by Ghost

Post-apocalyptic setting (more wild west than Mad Max) where vampires and other monsters cause all sorts of horrible shit to go down. Bounty Hunters are a huge part of the setting, and D is a rare half-vampire who works as a bounty hunter.

@Tempest said:

The important question is, can you be force sensitive and have a lightsaber.

Gonna assume not, since 9/10 Star Wars MUs seem to outright ban that or save it for staff-pals. Which is why the genre has died, IMO. I don't wanna play some goddamn Han Solo knock-off. I want a lightsaber.

Ding!

I used to play Star Wars MU* and on every one I worked hard and hoped for a force sensitive slot. Every time one opened I was passed on in favor of a staff buddy, someone a staff character TS's with, or yet another character that (despite a policy requiring regular rp and involvement) would disappear from the grid and never be seen again...and the force slot would never be taken from that person.

Fuck that bridesmaid waiting game.

EDIT/UPDATE: News Force on the game states there are no force sensitive applications being accepted at this time, but (sic) if you're a really good time player you'll be considered for a slot when it opens.

Nope. NOPEnopeNopeNopenopeNOPE.

@Entropy said:

You know, speaking of X-Men, that actually brings up something I want to look at with this game. The theme of X-Men is this big civil rights issue, with Professor X acting as MLK, and Magneto being a stand in for Malcolm X. But... in a world where you have Thunder Gods beating up on rock aliens and guys who can create magical power armor and manipulate the threads of reality itself... why on earth does anyone have this big major prejudice against this one particular subset of people who have powers? Functionally, to the standard person on the street, what would really be the difference between Cyclops and the Hulk? They're both people with unnatural abilities that could wreck your day... and your city, within a matter of seconds.

Does anyone else ever feel like the theme of the X-Men stretches the suspension of disbelief too much? It'd be perfect if they existed in a world by themselves, like the movies, but in the context of the marvel universe at large, or in the case of most comic based MUs, an integrated universe, how does one really reconcile that?

I always did find it strange that, in the X-Men, normal humans lost their shit about mutants SO MUCH that terrorism broke out, but when it came to She Hulk and Thor, the American public seemed to be totally cool with it.

"A Norse God who can call down lightning? Cool."
"A super strong green skinned defense attorney? Alright."
"An orange guy made of rock who does science? Cool."
"A 16 year old who walks through walls that has the X-Gene? Waaaait a second, there..."

@ThugHeaven said:

Damn, I was thinking about trying No Return. The concept sounded great!

Well, the game does have a freakishly high number of virologists, brain surgeons, and pastry chefs for a setting that hasn't had universities, society, or regular access to electricity for nineteen years, so you're absolutely more than welcome to make a 22 year old brain surgeon and roll with it.

Having a shitload of Tiramisu and NO ONE to share it with.

EDIT TO AVOID DOUBLE POSTING: When people you know who struggled with losing weight for 20+ years finally lose weight and then tell everyone how simple it is.

"NOOOOOOOOooooooooooooOooOOooooOooooooo"

@tragedyjones said:

I feel bad because I did have a Star TREK character who was a big fan of 20th century terran rhythm poetry and would occasionally freestyle.

He was an Andorian.

YES, but Ice Cube is canon for Star Trek. It is totally within theme for an Andorian to go into a HoloDeck, don an LA Raiders cap, and blast "Str8 outta Compton, a crazy mothafukka named Ice Cube".

EDIT: In fact, I would welcome this and die laughing if a half-Vulcan did it, citing a working thesis on twentieth century Earthen ethnic minority music styles during late twentieth century sociopolitical crises

Whereas in Star Wars, Earth is far, far away, sometime in the distant future

@tragedyjones said:

Sabine isn't that bad. She wears Mandalorian armor with a custom paint job and has dyed hair. She's just a teenage dirtbag, baby.

So long as she doesn't play with LEGOs, make Ronda Rousey references, or sing Kanye West songs, I think she's alright.

@Cirno God damn you.

To note, though, this was maybe 10 years before Star Wars Rebels, and IIRC she was also a space stripper/expert pilot/space pirate/Mandalorian/SithFucker who made a lot of Earth pop culture references.

Fuck, now I'm wondering if that player now works for LucasArts.

@Ganymede said:

It is practically impossible to do this. This would require staff to imagine the range and breadth of goofy shit they will have to encounter. It is more reasonable to simply inform players that staff may have to call you into a meeting if they feel you are RPing outside of the game's theme and/or setting, and may remove you if you refuse to abide by the directions and/or recommendations they provide.

Or that, but if you don't agree as staff and make it somewhat clear what the theme should be, you're inevitably going to find some player complaining about your game on some online gaming site about how shitty your game is for not letting them play a sun-immune vampire who is a daytime stripper.

Not that we have online gaming forums where these things happen. Constantly.

:neckbeard:

I once played a Star Wars game where a Mandalorian Bounty Hunter walked around in designer blue jeans, a tee shirt that read something like Mandos Do It Best, and had a vast assortment of lip gloss colors.

Thus, it is important that all of the staff agree in the range of what is or is not important to the theme, make a synopsis of that available for incoming players to read, and then require players agree to roleplay within theme.

The gotcha really is interpretation of theme.

Let's use WoD as an example. Vampires are dead. Even the books state (IIRC) that the rush from blood is better than sex and to make certain things happen that make sex possible (like BONERS and WETNESS) a vampire needs to spend blood. Logically, I would interpret this in theme to mean that not every vampire would use sex as a hunting mechanism, or the idea of spending precious blood to obtain precious blood might seem beneath certain vampire mentalities.

I think most WoD players are aware of this concept. However, a lot of WoD players want their smutty scenes, too. IMO the better players will constantly keep these blood expenditures in mind, as well as that for the vampire, the blood might be more the goal than the hookup. Does this mean vampire PCs should never have sex? Naw. But I think when it comes to playing a vampire, the psychology, or practice of blood spends, behind this should be recognized.

But if someone just wants to RP "sexy vampire vixen/maven number 2453" and gives zero fucks about overcoming their undead state, even if to not appear like a walking corpse in "Coffee House Scene #4376", are they breaking theme?

This is where the staff/player slapboxing starts every time.

@Apos said:

How sandboxy is the game, really? The more it is, the less thematic purity matters. A lot of WoD games I feel like most of the characters have absolutely no impact on any of my characters whatsoever and vice versa. That's fine, it's not a criticism, just a design choice. But in those games even a character that's drastically out of step with the theme of the game might not be very noticeable to the player base at large.

On a game that's not sandboxy at all, you just can't allow it and would have to immediately remove it, since their existence would disrupt all existing rp.

Right. If the game is purely sandboxxy, then fuck it.

But if the game has a theme, then agreeing to uphold the theme to the best of your knowledge (and being willing to take some artistic direction on how to uphold the theme) should be a part of your +I Agree

On one BSG-themed game, a player made a special snowflake character whose skills (aside from being the best fighter pilot ever) included Zorbing (Australian/New Zealand human ball bouncing) and LEGOing.

A player tried to explain to her (SPOILERS) that Battlestar Galactica took place hundreds of thousands of years before Earth culture discovered/invented LEGO and/or ZORB. She promptly reported this person to staff for harassing her.

Fact is this: if one out of ten players ignores theme, then the fourth wall gets broken and the thematic feel of the game gets spoiled. Theme really is important for making people feel like they're RPing in the chosen universe. Be it Pirates of the Carribean "Arr" space pirates in Serenity or people drinking Coca-Cola in ancient Rome, theme helps hold the players to the game's fabric.

And to take it a step further, if a player joins a game with a theme with no interest in upholding the theme, then is the game really important to them at all, or is it just providing them an outlet for their play space?

Agreed. Staff should ask first and then if the person fails to acknowledge theme, the theme will acknowledge them.

This is going to sound bitter (it's really not), but I don't like it when a mu* becomes a sandbox playspace for two OOC players who use it as some kind of thematic TS arena and never add value to a game.

In a World of Darkness, for example, no one is immune to horror.

That's an awesome idea. I'd give that a spin in a heartbeat.

Rolls up character: You are Nikki, also known as Starr, a 38 year old day shift stripper who both failed to be a good mother and failed to save her 17 year old son from getting torn apart by zombies! You have very few survival skills and must choose a PB of a non-model 42+ year old woman due to unnecessary aging caused by a meth habit in her twenties.

I've always wanted a zombie-themed mush with high mortality, an ensemble cast, and a game with a constantly changing grid based on human migration. Like TGG with people having their intestines being eaten.

I was on No Return for a while, but it was pretty much people playing house, having movie nights, and doing yoga. It was like The Walking Dead: Woodbury (but a GOOD Woodbury where nothing bad ever happens and you can be a cute veterinarian who teaches yoga) Edition

I'm sure the game is great for those types who want to play house with minimal drama and never have their characters at risk, but that place was totally not for me.

On THAT, I agree. If you're so busy being a grumpy, bitter bastard you will miss twenty things that -- had you been paying attention to something other than your disappointment -- would have made any given day an excellent one.

I have a friend who was just diagnosed with cancer, and my feed has this person's posts, which are heartbreaking, next to this other person's "I DRINK HEALTH SHAKES AND MY HAPPY OUTLOOK CHANGES THE KNOWN FABRIC OF REALITY LIKE IVE GOT AN INFINITY GAUNTLET" posts.

I clicked "X" on this girl a little while ago, but man...the degree of post weight loss self righteousness has been high.

@Entropy don't let these grizzled bastards discourage you. As we learned in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, the internet is a 20th century tool for people to make dick and fart jokes and critique everything.

I think it's cool you're trying to do something positive that is an escape from the slightly abusive trend of selfish staffers we've become so accustomed to.

SO. Now that I've said that, what are your thoughts for system and staff guidelines for this? I'd be curious to hear. My MAIN bit of advice is to do as much as you can to draw in staff whose interest is in PROVIDING roleplay to others. All too often games are started by staff who have a primary interest of entertaining themselves, and very quickly it becomes obvious that the game never really was intended for other players, but other players were needed so that the four people who wanted the game for themselves weren't playing alone.

Make sure it is a game for your players first, and not a game where people are applying to have a character to act as supporting cast for staffbits.