Posts made by Ghost

When in doubt, shoot the five hundred pound gorilla in the room and be open about it.

@Tinuviel I think I own maybe 30-40 WoD books, 25-30 Palladium books, ALL of star wars d20/FFG/saga, 25 books across pathfinder/starfinder, the new Star Trek, maybe 12 Shadowrun books, 10 Mutants and Masterminds/DC, and a TON of assorted stuff like Dragonstar, Cthulhu Tech, Eclipse Phase, Paranoia, Dragon Age, One Ring, Dr Who, Robotech, Battlestar, Firefly/Serenity, Fate, BESM, Exalted, Scion, Carbon 2185, Street Fighter RPG, etc etc etc. A bunch of smaller books like Tiny d6...

Ive got a collection I'm very happy with, but there is a cost in sweat for sure.

My rares are definitely My hardcopies of the Street Fighter line, Dragonstar, and some others.

Cyber Smol Birb Shoots Fire Nacho Breath

@Auspice Don't wrongfun me, you monster.

You never really complain about how many RPG books you have in your collection until you need to pack and move them.

god...in...heaven...I have probably 300 pounds of RPG books.

@Tinuviel I dont think everything meaningful has to happen on screen, but I do think it should be referenced on screen, so to speak.

Example: You don't need a 3 hour scene of some angry person in charge making angry sounds. You, could, however have a brief mention of a closed door with sounds of a man shouting behind it, and then the PC poses coming out of the door, looking frustrated.

The "in charge" PC or NPC could leave a journal entry if they want to fill it in more: "...I told her that if she pulls that kind of stunt again, I'll take her wings from her. Only...there was a moment while my finger was pointed in her face that I could see in her eyes that she doesnt think I'd go through with it. She may be right. Gods damn me."

With something like that, you set aside the tiring need to do everything in some 3-5 hour long-form scene and side with creativity, and the end result is (IMO) more rewarding.

Edit:

I think logs on a games wiki should be linear to some degree. A player should be able to read the logs and follow story arcs and enjoy the writing other people do. If things are hand-waved but not referenced "on screen", these weird time lapse blackouts will occur that make little sense. One moment a Viper crew is approaching the Basestar. The next everything is on fire. The next they're chatting about some stuff that never got logged. It's somewhat epileptic on a mental television level when that happens.

@Wretched said in Consent in Gaming:

So I'm reading this thread and I'm finding my perspective might differ when I Rp than others here. Even if its a bad situation, I'm still there, playing my character, who is the protagonist of my show, as I imagine other PC's are the protagonists of theirs, reacting to stimuli and responding, in character. What is even the point of playing if to avoid any conflict you cannot dominate? Sometimes you get yelled at, or face consequences. You are still there, RPing right? How does this reflect on yout he player? I love it when bad things happen to my PC's... thats the most fun part. Conflict, and playing that character within that conflict. Right?

FYI this is my personal ethic, as well.

The point of roleplaying is that it isn't me. The damage, the horror, the tears remain inside of the story and a problem of the character. Not me. I will manage just fine, because I'm just a puppeteer with strings on the ends of my fingers.

@Thenomain @Ganymede + to you both.

I think you both hit some nails on the head. Id like to add that:

I think you can tell in a situation when the people are more important than the game. I think everyone does want the right mix of that. I've met some LARPers and TT gamers who were just there for the game and it shows. Likewise it's always obvious when someone is there for the people and the game itself is secondary. This also shows.

I like a good mix, myself. 9/10 times, though (The 10th probably being some kind of Xwing or Warhammer tournament) I would definitely choose the mix of friendly people who don't care enough about the game to fight over it, but love the game enough to be happy to share it with me.

And I think when everyone is emotionally in sync (with: friendly enough but love game enough to share), things like consent aren't treated like fun-roadblocks.

"Tim doesn't like that kinda shit. Okay, let's do a different idea that sounds fun. No biggie."

Vs.

"Tim doesnt wanna do my torture scene because he says it depresses him. Dude needs to check his priorities or get off the game."

Better to succeed at hitting an attainable target than to fail for lack of being able to meet 100% accuracy to a very specific, yet equally vague, idea.

After all, I dont know of any book series that would guide people in recreating Carnival Row. You're bound by what you know of the TV show so far. You've got 10 episodes or so that have given you glimpses but no real design bible to work off of.

No matter what, if a game came out today for Carnival Row, it would be a best effort based on what you know so far. Games that are simply "lets just sandbox this setting" usually don't go well without a tentpole plot. The show hasnt fully revealed its tentpole plot yet.

It's a moving target. So make your own target.

@Arkandel Counterpoint. Anything not specifically mimicking the TV show would just seem like an adaptation of, but may also feel like you're slaved to the show itself.

I'm not saying "dont play carnival row", but instead "play the carnival row universe, just not on carnival row itself with a storyline that binds people together."

What about setting it during a story with a linear timeline rather than a "Day in the life of" game?

Rather than "It's Carnival Row!" as the driving force, why not focus on a linear story in which the characters could bind together on and keep driving the story? Like the invasion of Tir-Na-Noc or another island similar to Tir-Na-Noc?

Sounds like a win to me. You get The Greatest Generation crowd hungry for quasi-Victorian World War 1 action, and you get the Fae Rpers hungry for a fae game.

Pretty sure someone would love to play stuff like a flying pix runner scout during trench warfare or a satyr-type fae diplomat trying to woo human lands to join them in the fight. You could leave TirNaNoc alone and run parallel to the show without being slaved to what happens on TV, but evolve the game based on the events of the show.

Edit: Oh, you could also then allow human characters in the form of sympathetic humans who emigrated to the island to help in the fight. Stuff like chaplains, soldiers, war profiteers, weapons runners, lovers, God-children to pixies, people bound to join by prophecy or promise...

@Thenomain and @bored touched on some really great points about A) Not being required to sit through a scene because it has low value but one player wants to use it to play out their opinion and B) the angle that people think it's a sign of a good player to roleplay for 6 months of being treated like an idiot because it's "in character". The latter can be exhausting and always feels like you're going through penance to help other players succeed.

I tend to use a lot of childhood references when it comes to MU behaviors; not because I think everyone is immature, but because I think we may all understand these similar concepts:

1. The bossy asshole when playing "house" who becomes a dictator, pointing out who gets to play the daddy, the mommy, what the house is like, how things are supposed to go, then getting angry when people don't follow their direction.

2. Kids playing tag. "I got you first!", "No, I got YOU first!*".

#1 happens with some players, and just like when you were kids, aside from dice there's no laser-tag speed of light and circuitry that can run who got shot first (Han shot first). When it comes to stuff like bored and Theno pointed out, then ply these 2 concepts in, it can be very very very hard to simply have a referee make a ruling.

In some ways, role-playing in MU as adults isn't far from playing "Star Wars" at the playground with broomstick spraypainted red and blue. Sometimes the only way to settle shit without it being about who argues loudest is to create good rules.

@insomniac7809 said in Should Rinel become smol birb?:

@Ominous Wasn't that a JRPG?

You know, the one where a bunch of teenagers with bad hairstyles use the power of friendship to kill God?

The monster squad?

Tackle Mature Content with Confidence!

The topic of consent in gaming is about how to approach edgier, romantic, or darker content in a game in ways that don't put unwanted OOC stress on your players. It's not really about "it's not fun for me to roleplay my character facing responsibility for their bad decision"; it's about not having to roleplay things like rape, torture, or sexual situations if you don't want to, and not being pressured into it after saying no.

IMO, the people (in MU) who dont want to write out scenes of IC repercussions because it's not fun really arent embracing the writing side of the hobby. There are many ways to write things (even condense long, negative yelling sessions into one or two flashback type mentions) without slogging through a 3 hour scene. All it takes is creativity.

I digress. My point is this: People bowing out of RP because they're not getting what they want out of it shouldn't be mistaken as a consent issue.

@dvoraen You know what's smoler than a smol birb?

A subirb.

Something to consider.

A consent policy is only as good as how you protect people from retaliation for citing it.

I have personally gone through with scenes that I was not comfortable with because I had to weigh the OOC response to be opting out against my own level of discomfort. As said earlier in this thread (sic) "opting out of a torture scene is different than opting out of getting yelled at ICly".

This hobby doesnt really have a great unifying handle on how backchannel bullying and character assassination are handled, and I've seen people get made fun of for opting out. I've been mistreated for opting out, too, hence why I had to weigh it a few times.

So how do you enable a consent policy that also goes a full 360° to protect a person from retaliation?

It's much easier to do in tabletop RPG than MU, I believe.

Should I aid in this process in saying that way back on WORA everyone agreed that if someone actually succeeded in getting a thread in the hog pit locked down for being too hot that they would receive the honorary title of smol birb?

I remember that. You remember that, right, @Auspice ?

@Rinel said in Should Rinel become smol birb?:

You're implying I'm not going to be first in line for a SKY PIRATE WIZARD MUSH.

ETA: Dibs.

+7000

I made a thread that was so spicy it got locked. IN THE HOG PIT.

+50,000

@AeriaNyx said in General Video Game Thread:

Golden Deer FOREVER

You chose correctly Go Team Deer. I went team Deer, recruited Ingrid, then waifu'd her.