Posts made by Glitch

There's an @Apu here.

The popup comes if you click on the topic, but if you click on actual post, it shoots you right to it. Like @Miss-Demeanor, it works okay for me most of the time, but not always.

@EmmahSue likes things tidy and in nice rows. I liked the recent posts in the categories, but this way is fine with me too. Particularly if it keeps her happy.

I told her to make all of the descriptions the exact same character length. I'm sure she'll get right on that.

@Coin Depends on your browser width. The width I had it at had them all lined up neatly.

It might be a bit grim, but I honestly think that sounds pretty awesome. Particularly if it were a Demon only game.

@Coin How's that?

@RDC Wait, I thought Promethean was going in soon?

@crusader said:

A healthy game is one in which players are creating and driving the main dynamic for conflict, from the top down. Presumably, you want as few NPCs as possible, because realistically, you'll never be able to give them all justice as a storyteller.

That's a play-style choice, not a sure indicator of a game's health. I tend to prefer an NPC at top, partly so that 5 people can't group-join and take over leadership solely due to numbers.

Yeah, I'm not sure where the status thing is coming from. It was only ever time-based, though you were expected to be active and provide RP related to the influence you held. I got a character up to 4 without any sort of trouble from staff.

ETA: For me, this was way back in July and August.

@HelloRaptor said:

It's easier to mitigate a gigantic grid with travel and map commands than it is to mitigate a tiny grid with temprooms.

This. Forever this.

Do you have to take the name out of the quote, HR? You're killing me, man.

@HelloRaptor said:

no denying that XP for activity/participation serves to motivate people to participate more.

Is it really that? Or does it just change the type of participation that takes place? Might you instead be having a smaller, more intimate RP experience if you didn't have to go out and rally up +votes? TR is a hybrid game, but despite the recommendation mechanic, arguably the easiest way to proactively gain XP, it was never used excessively outside of a few people.

Also, do people want to advance at more than a snail's pace or do they want to play the character they envision? Or close to that vision? There will always be people that are very focused on their PC growth trajectory, but I don't know that I'd say everyone is chomping at the bit for a brisk XP pace either. I definitely admit it's probably a hard transition after spending a lot of time on TR, though.

Honestly, I'd never decide on an advancement system out of concern for abuse. I recognize it's a possibility, but would rather deal with it on a case-by-case basis or after proven, consistent abuse than as a preemptive action. I generally go with the idea of: Design for the play you want to promote. I made mistakes with my last XP system and I certainly think there's room for improving on any design, but that's usually the philosophy I end up with when I think about these sorts of things.

@Ganymede

I see the discount and time reduction as an incentive to do a more natural growth to your PC; 200 capped XP essentially netting you an additional 20xp for playing the long game. If I were to go this route, I'd remove the justification entirely, and just give that discount to those that choose to spend their XP post-CG and on the timed system. The exact discount and time requirement might need some adjustment to make sure the incentive is tempting enough to encourage a longer game. I also think 200xp is a lot in GMC.

A side thought, a reverse buy-up where you can purchase something at 110% of cost to get a significant reduction in time to completion, for those montage sequences in kung-fu. Just a thought.

How would you handle a power level shift in the game? Just raise the maximum cap people can spend to? Allow for immediate usage by those already on game who miss the opportunity to spend it in CG?

@Ganymede said:

@Misadventure said:

Since the concern is that heavily active characters will outpace less active characters in a significant way, what is a reasonable XP earning rate for someone who logs in and plays actively often, say 4-5 days a week?

In a perfect world, they would accumulate exactly the same as someone who logs in twice a week to run scenes for others and engage in some light, enjoyable RP.

A game has to decide why PCs ought to gain XP. Is it a reward to the player, or a measure of character development? If the former, what is the appropriate reward for a player, and how should it be measured? If the latter, why would a PC gain more or less XP based on how often the player logs in to direct the PC's activity?

I have favored flat-rate XP growth for the latter reason. It is reasonable to presume that a PC is doing what it is it does while the player isn't connected and directing it. If so, then everyone should progress equally, regardless of player activity. The Reach's innovation is permitting a discount to raise a stat has been RPed about (also known as "justification").

I have proposed several systems that I have felt justifiable, reasonable, and flexible. I favor a system that permits a player to "unlock a PC's potential" over time. That potential, however, is fixed. This would essentially be an XP cap that may be expanded as the game matures.

I know there was a WORA thread with this, but I think there's enough interest in this sort of conversation to beat the dead horse here too!

I tend to prefer a soft cap, flat-rate, diminishing XP system with a small CG bonus to start out as a bit more than a complete newbie. I don't like justification discounts or activity/participation bonuses, as I feel those skew the system. @Cobaltasaurus would probably place me in the XP miser category, though I don't think allowing room for a moving cap is a bad idea.

It has an inherent catch-up system in the diminishing XP gain, it allows for setting a desired power level for the game and more easily sticking to it and I think it makes XP a background consideration. You know how much you have and how much you will get over any given period of time. There's no putting in 20 recommendations a week for XP padding, or hits for the type of RP you get involved in (PrP bonus XP vs Social, etc) and finally no justifications discounts to squeak out the most efficiency from your purchase compared to people that don't wish to go through that whole process. You can still require justifications if you believe it's necessary, but just no mechanical benefits for it.

Finally, you can shift the power level of the game at your choosing, sliding the XP gain scale down the curve and move the whole game forward in that way.

Commit Strip

@mietze You're a menace to free range children everywhere!

Ctrl + Shift + M

It's the keyboard shortcut in firefox to emulate a mobile device for responsive design.

What browser are you using?

@Coin said:

5. Don't fucking play complicated social interactions with people you don't minimally know, and especially with people you don't like. Keep those simple. Don't try to seduce the PC of a player you don't like or who doesn't like you. It will never end well IC or OOC and will cause drama that will inevitably spill over onto everyone around the both of you and on behalf of all those people: fuck you, jerkface.

This invalidates a lot of the point behind social PvP. If you like and work well with a person, you don't really need a well-defined system in the first place. I realize you're offering a small out with the "keep it simple," but conflict is conflict. If you can flirt in a high profile way that either 1) seduces the PC of the player you don't like or 2) hits them with a Condition that may be socially embarrassing or cause issues within one of their societal groups, it's still more flexible than taking a bullet to the face. And arguably generates more RP (unless they're a total douche and try to avoid consequences or conditions, but those people don't exist, right? ... right?)

@Arkandel I think @Coin's first point addresses much of your concern. You don't need it for every social interaction, only those where conflict is expected and dice is the desired way to handle it. You certainly don't need to start rolling dice to buy another PC a drink at a bar and maybe make a nice impression.