Posts made by Ghost

@silverfox Az

Also note I am not SURE how it works in the state and haven't had a kid in the school system for a few years now.

I do know AZ is poorly ranked nationally, has a major teacher salary problem (see Red for Ed protests), and my kid's school district once boasted having stuff like smart boards and laptops for the kids but an inability to fund classroom supplies, resource officers, janitors, etc.

So my kid was trained to be able to use technology my own company doesn't use by underpaid teachers who were asking me to buy them Kleenex and didn't have security or janitors...so...yeah.

Not sure how common that is, but pretty much K-high school involved 2 lists:

1. The supplies they'd need for class that would be their own

2. a sheet of paper begging for money for stuff like notebooks, markers, Kleenex, etc.

Smart boards, laptops to use in class, but not enough books that they could actually let a kid take a book home for homework's sake. Pretty bizarre, logically.

@silverfox Which has always seemed weird to me. As I understand it, funding for schools/teacher salaries here in my state are based on higher performance. So if the school does well in standardized testing, they get better salaries and funding.

It makes more sense to me to go the opposite way: The school that sucks the most gets more help via funding next year

@silverfox Isn't mandatory state school testing like ITBS, AIM, etc just "A Hunger Games Thunderdome where schools compete with each other for how much funding they get?"

Like... I know the school board officials give some big speech about how it's "finding out where we stand educationally blah blah blah" but now that I'm a parent and had a kid through school it seems more like school district officials going "Y'all better get a high rating because mama wants her smart board technology"

TL;DR: Is standardized testing basically a BS front for schools fighting over funding?

@fatefan Update: First glance?

I can imagine that some of this stuff can build up to be cumbersome, but it looks fun.

Example: Level-based mecha assignment alongside character stats alongside stuff like tonnage, hardpoints, etc. For mecha gaming veterans it's no sweat, but might probably cross the eyes of people who aren't used to tracking all that.

@fatefan I've heard that these guys are tied to or using a similar system as Shadow of the Demon Lord, which was crunchy in tiny ways that built up.

Downloading the core rules to see now. I'll probably back Lancer for my collection, though.

Ugh. I am surrounded by drama right now.

It's hard sometimes holding back saying "I empathize, but altogether I dont give a fuck what your problem with our mutual friend is. You should be talking to them about it; not I."

But noooOoooOooOooOoOoOoo

Facebook message the fuck out of my SO and I every day wanting to pile in at our place for a 4 hour unmoderated bitching session.

Some people don't seem to get that being friends doesn't mean it's my responsibility to shoulder the weight for all of your social-level bullshit. Stranded on the highway at 4am? Gotcha. Hospital? Gotcha. Death in the family? Gotcha. Help Balancing your finances because you're bad at not spending money and then moderating fights between you and literally every person you know and I'm a bad friend if I'm not there for you 3x/week because you're constantly in Jerry Springer mode? Nope.

@Coin There's also Temporis.

Only an amazing Ventrue would have forced a True Brujah to reveal those secrets.

I'd assume Vampire 5.

I scanned a while back and saw some v5 games on Roll20. Whether or not there are ones currently recruiting I couldn't say.

@Cupcake It's a CRIME (IMO) that Badlands is ending. It's a super slick show.

My friends and I were chatting the other day that we'd love to see a Highlander series done in a similar style.

Update: The dude who attacked Bret is from Nebraska.

He's one of my people. Fuck.

I just realized that Zack Morris from Saved By the Bell is prime Ventrue recruiting material.

"Sir, take a look at this candidate. By age 16 he was the secret power behind his school, a music producer, and sold the services of his friends to his monetary benefit."

"Intrigued...do continue."

6'8", 385lbs, 10% body fat.

No one sane wants to put themselves in a situation where that would be willing to actually hit you.

ETA: From what I understand, Strowman is still a pretty good guy, so I'd still rather fight him than Mike Tyson. I'd get wrecked, but my chances of walking away with my life are higher with Strowman.

@Ganymede said in Pro Wrasslin':

@Ghost

You have to laugh at that guy, but appreciate his balls. He got the fuck beaten out of him by Browne, and half a dozen others that had to be held back.

I deeeeeeefinitely appreciate them balls. I mean, if you're looking to get your ass kicked, but want to do it in a place that won't get you killed, a room full of pro wrestlers and MMA fighters is a lot safer than, say, throwing some kind of shit bomb into a Hell's Angels bar.

But still. Bret???? Bret and Anvil Bret? Montreal Screwjob Bret? Calgary Hitmen Bret? Beloved brother to Owen, brother in law to Jim, Uncle of Natalya? Brother in law to Davey Boy Smith BRET??? REFLECTIVE PINK SUNGLASSES GIVEN TO A KID BEFORE EVERY MATCH BRET???

We love Bret and the Harts. If you don't you're just a bad person.

Dude shoulda yelled YOLO and drop-kicked Vince McMahon instead.

I wanna keep Wrestlemania spoiler-free for a few days, but seriously...

...who the fuck hates Bret "The Hitman" Hart?

The guy is beloved and...

I can think of a dozen wrestlers that might have people in the crowd thinking FUCK THAT GUY to the point of being dumb enough to rush tackle them even with some odd 30 200+ pound wrestlers and former MMA fighters nearby, but Bret and Natalya?

Which lame-brained fan had enough of a beef with THE HART FOUNDATION enough to be willing to get their face actually punched in by Braun Strowman and Travis Browne?

@Wretched said in NPC Roster:

What are other parts of a games setting that could be open for PC's to influence

Okay so lemme think. I think in lists sooooo....

The classic LARP influences are: Bureaucracy, Church, Finance, Health, High Society, Industry, Legal, Media, Occult, Police, Politics, Street, Transportation, Underworld, and University.

Could also add something like "Pop Culture Society" that covers everything vague from the local band scene to street art to LGBTQ+ scene.

I also had another idea I didn't share with you yet. In my experience most players tend to look at that influence list and go I want ALL of those at max, which never really made sense to me. How can both your vampire and 30 other players have the police commissioner in your pocket?

So I thought, what if you simplified it as such: A sphere itself can only have say...2 of these as being their niche?

Then it might create an environment where the vamps might say "We can't fuck with the colleges without the Mages coming down on our heads or the Art Scene without pissing off the Changelings, but if we've got the cops and crime families in our pockets."

Or: "Rumor has it the vamps are keeping a close eye on the universities and both them and the Changelings are gunning to control it"

If you make the influences by sphere where the leadership (not just the prince or NPC leadership, but maybe even primogen, movers and shakers in the courts, etc) directs not only which influence is important to them, but what the sphere needs to protect, then you'll get some RP generated from that.

It could also lead to both negative and positive politics RP between spheres. The vamps who have the police could go head to head with the wolves who own the streets in an explosive arc of cops vs gang violence OR they could work together to use their police and street influence to get a dangerous, new drug out of the city.

Just an idea.

ETA: "A friend of the changeling courts got picked up on a possession charge, but the vampire Prince and the Mages who own legal both owe the Lings a favor. Since it would be in all of our best interest that weird stuff doesn't happen in jail...lets cash in that favor to see if we can fuck with his court date enough that the charges get dropped or limited to community service. We'll owe them a favor, but this is how the peace in the city is kept. With favors."

Thinking about what I think about this...

I don't think it's a bad idea, but I think you need to try to shoot holes in the idea, see where it could break, and adjust.

A few things come to mind:

1. The prerogative of most players is to succeed at anything and everything. I think this idea could break if someone used the family as a way to legitimize handing friends successes if they used the family for biased means. That make sense? Probably want some kind of accounting system to make sure some ST isnt using the family to pump up their friends/faction. I.e. "The family chose to lend their resources to help buy my friends character an arsenal of assault rifles"

2. You'll wanna probably set some constraints in place RP-wise, like set guidelines of what the family will or won't do so that at least theres a better chance of one ST using the family in a similar way that others do.

One thing I think that would be neat for Miami would be to take maybe a Gotham approach. What if you used said NPC family or elements to give players what most games haven't: Influence usage on a grand scale.

Cops, Politics, the Clergy, Crime Families, etc with an NPC element that will not only be up for grabs but pass instructions down to people affected who owns them?

Like if the Changelings get their fingers into some crime family it'll alter the landscape of the setting?

Another one: Metallica in my friend's Honda CRV

This one was weird. Eons ago my friend and I used to drive around town in his black Honda CRV blasting metal music everywhere. We'd listen to Pantera, Megadeth, Suicidal, Corrosion, Slayer, etc with no issues.

The moment he put Metallica in the CD player the car just died in the desert on a stretch of highway about 2 miles from a gas station. Luckily it was night and we were able to call someone to come help us.

He got the car fixed. Put Metallica in again? Broke down.

Got rid of the car, got a new one, put Metallica in? Engine light.

He got a hold of me a few years back and said that for over 15 years he had a NO Metallica rule in his car and things were generally okay, but he actually broke down again and it just so happened to be that Metallica was on the radio.

Fuel my ass.

@Aria said in Superstitions:

@Ghost You suck. ^_^

(Also, no. I think I caught all of three games this season. The hours at my internship were ass.)

Hey, I suffered, too. They traded Simmonds.

We had that problem with the coyotes, too. Every time I watched on TV they lost, but every game I went to, they'd win.

Yotes haven't been to the playoffs in 7 years, but the few years prior they were in the playoffs I stopped watching them play in the playoffs altogether so maybe they'd win.

@Aria said in Superstitions:

There was a season where if I watched the hockey game, my team lost

Was that this season, by any chance?

@mietze That's amazing. Like...by virtue of being prepared for it, it's kept you safe from it so far.