Posts made by Ghost

@Arkandel said in RL things I love:

Okay, what the fuck? It turns out the guy has read almost every book I like, plays D&D (wtf?) and watches the same shows. We've been working together for two years and I had no clue - and he did know, so argh, why not say something so we can bond over nerdy shit? Come oooon man! He didn't even avoid the issue, it just didn't occur to him to say anything unless directly approached about it.

That's a great blossoming nerd bromance story.

Sounds like I'm joking, but I'm not. I think it's always great when 2 people nerdy for the same stuff have that moment of connection for the first time. It always feels pretty good.

@Ganymede said in Good or New Movies Review:

@Sparks said in Good or New Movies Review:

My desire is, in fact, actually in the negatives; I'm increasingly uncertain I could be paid to watch it.

Of the movies that could use a reboot, the best ones are the movies that did poorly on their own or as a musical.

Beauty and the Beast didn't need one. The Lion King doesn't need one. Aladdin certainly doesn't need one.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame? Could use one. Especially the musical version: Menken and Schwartz at their best.

I wanna see Don Bluth stuff get a reboot/resurgence.

A Rats of NIMH reboot? Live action Anastasia?

Who's with me on this?

@juke I don't think you're wrong about that at all. It's not just you. I don't think the Hog Pit is an accurate depiction of the whole, either. I do, however, think that it can be hard to sometimes feel like the 3-6 (or whatever) people who are really negative aren't kind of setting that tone in the back of people's heads about the stuff that might get said off the records on skype, discord, or pages.

Negativity often reads 10 times stronger than positivity (that whole addage about how if you please 1 customer they'll tell one person, but if you anger one they'll tell 10). It can be hard to gauge mentality and I don't think anyone wants to ever be one of the people being made fun of for a desc, etc.

But I absolutely agree with you. Get someone out of their pack and on their own and you'll find a lot of people can be fairly genuine and good people. There are some bad habits in play, but the majority of people I've known and played with want little to do with the Hog Pit. Some of my favorite mushers that I still talk to don't even have accounts here.

MSB is the closest thing to an unfiltered environment that can't really be touched by any given game's admin, so what goes on, is said here, or habits formed here can travel, though.

@saosmash said in Incentives for RP:

I love running stuff FOR people but I find it kind of intimidating also because tailoring something to someone, you either have to know them really well, or be magic?

^this is important to the topic. Very.

I know I mentioned pages back, but people can be judgmental. A good number of people are happy to have plot run for them, but there's those vocal ones who will sit through an entire session, rules lawyer the fuck out of a scene, and then say things that sound like a 1-star Yelp! review from the perspective of someone who actually paid for a product.

"Yeah, it would have better if you'd have let me use my parkour skill more. I don't get why you didn't want to go full combat..."

We've seen some "meh" on Hog Pit about people not THANKING people for running scenes, complaints about railroaded scenes, etc. Players have really good ideas (and many opinions) as to what they like and don't like.

(Hey, wanna circle back to inclusiveness? Sure)

This is probably because people get used to running plots and scenes with their go-to players and GMs. You get so used to a style that different styles or approaches might seem neat to one person, but rather "GOD DAMNIT, CAROL, YOU KNOW I DON'T LIKE KETCHUP ON MY HOT DOGS WTF" with others.

It can be very intimidating, which makes it all the more fucking important to be gentle and caring for the people taking their time to run a free night of entertainment for players in a scene that doesn't really further their own characters.

@faraday You may be right. I'm just spitting out ideas.

Ideally people run plot for others because they enjoy telling stories. However if it feels too much like putting on a performance, maybe another approach would be to try putting together writing groups and instead of an "event" it's 5 people, each a GM and a writer, rotating GM-work and throwing each other plot twists mid-scene.

@Wretched AAAAAAAAAAAAH I like that. Kind of like a ticket booth at Dave & Busters. I get it now.

I like that. I mean it's merit based, which makes it not about favoritism, and it's openly posted so it isn't some perk only certain players can partake in.

I diggit.

I think the trick to encouraging STs is to provide some kind of benefit that isn't monetary (IC money, XP, equipment) but also doesnt excessively make them a VIP (your own private Star Destroyer, 5th generation Brujah, OP feature characters like Luke Skywalker or Optimus Prime).

But I can think of a few cool perks, like:

• Why did Phasma have cool shiny armor? No clue, but for one reason or another the Empire let your stormtrooper have an identifying style to your armor. It stops blaster bolts no better than FN-7667's plain white-ass armor and you will still be as shitty a shot with a blaster, but it's intriguing.
• It means nothing and won't come up in game in any means of major consequence, but your character is the 2nd cousin of that one guy in ARMAGEDDON FORCE 12.
• Again Star Wars. Why the hell is Poe's X-Wing orange and black and everyone else's is some kind of uniformly identifiable color? WHO KNOWS, but for one reason or another Ackbar approved your cool black and gold A-wing and there's a neat story there, but the Empire/Order might wanna kill you first.
• Maybe something like: 1x every 60 days you can sign up early for an event, limited to one GM player per event

Just ideas. The point is that rewards dont necessarily have to help you be above other players, but also don't need to put you into some higher caste.

@Wretched What's Arcade, pressshus?

@Ganymede haha good stuff.

Gotta hang on to that part of you that can turn a broomstick into a Jedi lightsaber that is the one tool of defense standing between the Rebel Alliance and the Empire, led by Darth Vader, who is your little brother, Steve.

Broomsticks are boring, but with some fun...

@Sparks said in Incentives for RP:

Do you punish them if they don't?

Realistically, this is a catch-22 situation.

In tabletop or LARP (more TT than LARP) you can easier penalize people for rude/antisocial behavior because there's more oversight. Also, these often tend to be in-person affairs where things like body language, face to face meeting, and rude behavior are more obvious and harder to explain away.

Why this is a Catch-22 is because mushing is absolutely intended to be a hobby that involves a large group of people writing together. In the spirit of things? Absolutely people should be reprimanded for ignoring other players or pushing exclusivity. If the spirit of the hobby is collaborative writing, then ignoring people and only writing with a small clique is contradictory.

In theory, you should be annoyed with players who behave elitist, avoiding players because of petty differences, and create a negative social atmosphere of exclusivity.

The other side of the sword...

There are some cases where it's warranted. Creepers, people with rape fantasy, stalkers, etc. In a perfect world these people are outright banned and the environment is sanitized of their filth. In many cases, they are, but technology allows for these wolves to sneak back in and cause issues. This is also absolutely why some people with personal/petty issues go straight for words like sociopathic, because that will presumably ensure a ban. False reporting has resulted in it becoming harder to convince staff to ban, and for decent reason.

So...you can't really demand that players write with people that they don't want to, but at the same time, not enforcing people being inclusive and positive is the exact behavior that results in primadonna/exclusive/overly judgy behavior that not only goes allowed, but in some cases is the norm.

My gut tells me that the players who refuse to be inclusive aren't any better for a game's atmosphere than the creepers who deserve to be banned. On a philosophical level I think the players who refuse to be inclusive despite reassurances that all logged bannable offenses will result in a ban are a problem, and some games might be better off with neither.

Get the player mentality you want on the server, and weed out the people with bad attitudes. You might see an improvement in atmosphere, give or take some bad habits.

@Arkandel said in Incentives for RP:

@Thenomain said in Incentives for RP:

I log into an RP game to RP.

It's a complex problem. For example in MMORPGs there are many people who want the gear raiding provides but don't like to raid. However unless they raid the gear isn't useful.

So why do they want it?

Because the horse ultimately wants the carrot, and not the stick.

On second thought, this idea could also become WORKING A NORMAL ASS JOB IN A NORMAL ASS OFFICE MUX

@SG LOLOLOL BRING YOUR CHILD TO WORK DAY

"Meet my son, boss! His name is Joseph."

And another Joseph.
Another Joseph.
Another Joseph.
A GIRL NAMED JOSEPH

EDIT: Corrected Josef to Joseph. Mentioned Mengele earlier.

I love the idea of a WoD bar event that is speed dating with mortals, changelings, werewolves, and vampires.

• Changeling is looking for a widow to siphon sadness juice out of
• Werewolf is seeking Kinfolk who don't know that they're kinfolk because Father Wolf demands the seed is spread
• Vampire is seriously looking for a 20-something AB Negative with insecurity issues because that's all she can drink and the last one died in a firebombing.
• Mortal is looking for a mature, fun-loving single adult who wants a monogamous relationship. Fan of hockey, pickleball, bocce ball, and HBO TV series a serious plus.

Aaaaaaaaand let the cameras roll.

The skill list in my head is amazing. Super important skills like:

• Delegation
• Bus Throwing
• Report Writing
• Knowledge (Stalin's Dietary Allergies)
• Apologizing Without Accepting Fault
• Agreeing with the Boss
• Satisfying Execution Technique

@Thenomain It's all good, Theno. You're good people. You won't go down in history as the Mengele of mushing for that.

In terms of bad people..
1: Hitler
2: Another Nazi...
.
.
.
45: Still more Nazis
.
.
.
2250: Anti-Vaccers
.
.
.
4500: Stephen Seagal
.
.
.
12443223097754: Thenomain's +vote system

You can do a lot with bar/coffee RP if you think about it.

Darts can be a wonderful and terrible thing.

Gonna note that I think my standard theory that there are 2 kinds of mushers applies here.

Mushers are either:

• People who want to creatively collaborate on writing, and use RPG systems as a backend game engine for conflict resolution
• RPG gamers who want to play RPGs, with their systems (xp, dice, tables) as the driving engine, but want collaborative writing to supplement.

You give different incentives for creative writers than you do xp-driven murder hobo TT gamers.

ETA: Some people are like "How much XP did I get for this scene? I'm saving for my SUPER MECHA ARMOR that gives me +10 missiles, and I really wanna write about how he gets it." and others are "Meh, XP is nice, but I want my follow-up scene and my creative ideas in +jobs to be looked at."

@faraday I dig your positive chi approach.

Problem? Roll out the cupcakes, beer, karaoke, and fun. Everyone likes fun.

Don't move back. Move forward. Word.

@faraday said in Incentives for RP:

I must confess though that I've always found it weird that you need to incentivize RP at all. Like... RP is literally the point of the game. Why do I need a carrot on a stick to get people to tell stories, on a game that's about telling stories?

It's pretty baffling to me, honestly.

talking bird agrees

YES.

I'm with you here. If you're at the point where you have to try to incentivize people to be inclusive, there's kind of a bigger issue. This may be the wrong question/wrong approach to the issue/complaint.

Either way, the whole point of the hobby is to write and be creative. Most games barely use character sheets at all or the dice don't decide everything. MOST scenes don't involve dice at all. XP is fun and feels like progress is being made in a numbers way, but if it's all about the story and the writing, then XP matters not. The incentive is the creative headspace.