So the current story has had highs and lows that HBO and Netflix can only dream of. This is some of the best co-op storytelling I have ever been involved in. More connections and stories have sprung up out of natural RP, for me, than any OOC conversation and planning and it's FIRE y'all. I'm having a blast while crying while laughing. Most fun for free. Get on this.
@Lisse24 I can only speak of my own hopes and wishes, because things are always changing in this hobby. RL can hit the metaplot staffer and poof! So, this is just opinion.
I feel like we have built our theme and setting from the ground up, as opposed to carrying on someone else's original vision. That freshness, I've found, can make people more excited and productive.
Also, personally, I'm hoping to get more involved in the creative side of things. I dream of this active and happy M/M+ sphere with mystery cults and NPCs and a steady flow of things(Both major and minor) to RP about and I have a handful of ideas to help that along. I want the sphere to live and breathe. Which is a lot more than I can say for any time I have staffed. I usually just crank out jobs and data entry. This is my first attempt at this kind of activity so I'm learning, but I am eager.
And I think the whole staff is eager to see their work come to life and efforts enjoyed.
EDIT: I wanted to add a confirmation that the wiki is still under construction. We're making +finger hip again.
I'm just gonna state this: When I made the ad for Echoes, I felt the need to mentally prepare myself for the critics. I'm a sensitive soul but my desire to help out outweighs my nature. Now, if you think that users need to steel themselves before posting an add, fine. If that's not a problem, make a change.
As for my opinion: Straight up, I really think that if you want to criticize the game being advertised, open up a thread in the Hog Pit and do it there. Hell, link it in the Ad thread, if you want. Leave the Ads for questions from possible players and updates on the game itself. Echoes is soft open so eventually, I will need to add more information. And I play on HorrorMU, which changes its story from month to month and has a set number of slots that need to be reported on from time to time. So locking isn't quite a solution.
And locking also blocks out positive feedback. I know I go on HorrorMU's ad thread to evangelize when there is an update and positivity is NOT a bad thing. It's an awesome thing and we all could use more of it.
Edit: I meant well, but the above is an unfair double standard. I will stand by the need for positivity and the reduction of toxicity but not this way.
I identify as queer because I don't like the word pansexual for whatever reason. And saying "I really don't care who or what you are/identify as." is a lotta words. I'm also a cis woman of color. I'm a "tomboy" of sorts, raised by a mother with two brothers and a father with...more brothers! Big dick energy everywhere. I feel feminine in that down to your bones kinda way but I don't have traditional girly/feminine ways.
And what do I play? White dudes, mostly. Usually straight-ish. I can't even think like a Kinsey 0. Even my straight guys will kiss a boy if the situation calls for it. But if I'm honest, I don't assign a sexuality to any character until it comes up in play. I like romantic RP and I'm not going to turn it down because I firmly decided that this character is straight as an arrow when conceived. And I am not here for the "Character X turned him gay" story. Nope. Pass.
My last few attempts at playing a female have failed miserably. Like I can't even connect anymore Like women are some sort of mystery creature I can't fake. It's so weird. I try not to think too hard. I did first begin to play males as a refuge from skeevy male players after one too many bad experiences. And hey! This is why I've never played a lesbian. I assume that there is a dude behind the keyboard and he's just wants to fap. Logically, I know this is untrue. The guy who brought me into MUing was a dear friend who loved played females and sometimes they were lesbians and he was mostly normal.
Still. Still.
I think I was born to be a nerd. My uncle, whom I was close to growing up, was a computer science major (Or similar) in the late 80s/early 90s. I was but a guppy who loved watching horror movies and stealing glimpses at Leisure Suit Larry.
Later, I was about 5 years old, I received an NES. I got a Game Boy when I turned eight. By the end of a decade, I was a fine young nerd. I had internet first amongst my friends. We are rural. I am the least rural, so I was first to get high speed.
I PC gamed through the 00s. Serious Sims player. I picked up console gaming again in '10s
MEANWHILE, when I was PC gaming, I picked up World of Warcraft and began role playing there. I met @Daeladras. He dragged me into nWoD and MUSHing in about 2011.
Looking back, my uncle and I, were kinda blazing a trail for nerdy black people. Like, I was a weirdo outcast so the kids can do the same today and be appreciated for it. 
I feel a little crazy at times but I am coming to realize that it's just that creative stuff flowing.
Like the reason one of my characters always calls people by their whole name, by default (Frederick as opposed to Fred, for example) is because he was bred and groomed to be utterly formal and polite by his father. The father who was grooming him to take over the family business and fortune. He grew up to be a grungy sort of ex-con but damn it, this person's name is Rebecca, not Becky.
I interview my characters in the quiet moments. They talk to me, they tell me about themselves. If something doesn't fit, it gets corrected. If something is just amazing, it gets written down.
Quirks, menials, boring bits can get tossed into RP at times. One PC has a maid that comes in once a week. So in a scene set at home, I look at the day and decide if she's come over and what state is his home in. He's mentioned the maid once to an NPC but it's just a piece of fluff that winds up rippling through roleplay.
@surreality Preach!
I realized that something special was happening when I was making coffee this morning and pleasantly wondering to myself: "What are his last words going to be?"
Like...what the hell? I've never, ever been so excited to possibly die in a game. Usually it's all fraught and upsetting (There was an incident years ago on HM with a player death. It wasn't even mine....it's like gamer's PTSD) Instead, I'm just ready to move forward.
Not to mention the half hour I spent picking out new pics for my PB because I have decided to keep the PB but change the main pic from story to story. All because the upcoming roles were posted. Supporting characters are brewing too. AND AND AND it's my first Sci-Fi setting.
And I haven't even taken my boy to The Facility yet. There's all that too. It's like a constant creativity machine.
Vaguely related to my declaration of love for research is the moment when it all comes together and the character comes alive. They are no longer just stats or development notes. They live. I say that the character talks to me because that's kinda how it sounds in my head. Suddenly it's them telling me the facts I just researched in their own words. It's a trip and I love it.
So you got the writer's block. Nothing is moving the creative pipes. You keep running into walls as you attempt to plot or create or what have you.
But then...that moment when you land on the ONE THING that will solve all your problems and all the pieces fall into place. Yeah. That's good shit.
@Sunny Living the dream.
It's Christmas and I'm feeling the warm and fuzzies so...
I've been RPing since about 2005-07 and MUing since about 2010. Today, I finally feel like I have found a community. I play on a few games and I feel like I have made friends on those games. Friendships and RP partners that stretch to other games. It's a good feeling to end what was personally an awful, awful year on a positive note.
Even though I am feeling the crispy edges of burnout and my creativity is on the downswing, I keep coming back because of the people.
They wept a river of tears too, from my knowledge. I don't know what kinda magic @Botulism has, but it's always gut shots when people die or get maimed.
But...they don't stop playing. So, it's sad but you still have your beloved baby and all is well.
Short and sweet.
I like writing vignettes or one-shots or solo pieces with or about my character.
I love games that let me share those.
Speaking as female of color, who played a white male in Horror's take on 1902: I think the progressive culture of our players and game made it a safe place to explore ideas that would get you run outta town or worse in real life. Now, this is for the same of my fun and (general) their fun.
My Dude sided-eyed a gay couple dancing. I had something vaguely bigoted in the next pose and I was like, naw, this ain't right. For one, I had already established that he was a woman beater, having slapped the shit out of one in front of another woman and I'd made allusions to him having hit his late wife, a close female friend, and his young sister in law. (I think. It wasn't a thing I made a huge deal about but it was firmly in my head canon) I didn't think that him calling a couple of perfectly happy men dancing something ugly was going to suddenly improve our historical accuracy. I'd have just been the asshole.
ICly, he had various reason to at least to keep his bigoted opinions to himself. A short list. Well known family head fucked anything with a heartbeat, making people he grew up with all colors of the rainbow. He'd lived 'Back East' as a Pinkerton for 8ish years before the story. He'd seen things and probably made peace with some more controversial things at the time. He was a disabled laudanum addict and had no place to throw stones, as far as he was concerned. Lastly, he was a closeted bisexual. Very, very closeted. All of that before you take into account Horror's archetype system and my character's archetype. The Confidant. He wants friends. He wants to help people. He wants to be supportive.
Feeling like after all this time, I might be part of an actual community. With cool, fun, interesting, creative people are roughly as crazy as I am.
I see this chat in Gray Harbor and decided it needs its own dang thread.
As I've said many times here, this kinda this is my jam. I'm not out to fetishize, I know that much. I always chose to play a disabled character when I think it'd just be an interesting addition to the overall tapestry of a roster of characters. It's a challenge to myself in one way. I always want to know if I can 'do it right'.
And I always hope that storytellers I encounter see it as a fun or interesting challenge too. I worry about that a lot. A LOT.
I don't typically play with mental illnesses anymore. If I do, I go with a lighter touch. A depressed character can be a downer. PTSD with a heavy hand can be showy and insulting. OCD is more than being a neat freak and it isn't funny, it's miserable to sufferers.
That said, I am experimenting with a character with PTSD after an extended prison stay. In his case, I don't feel right having the long prison stay not affect him in some way and my understanding of PTSD has expanded in my years roleplaying. I feel comfortable dipping my toe in.
But, like I said elsewhere, I try very hard to approach these traits with respect. I don't always ace it, I know but my heart is in the right place.
All nighters: When the RP is so good you forgo sleep until past sunup.
William Fletcher@The Reach and Wyatt Fleet@Bump In The Night
I have to thank @Sunny for helping provide the spark that lit William on fire. While discussing character connections, something just clicked. William came alive. William was a handsome and funny former high school bully who made out with the wrong woman one night and ended up a paraplegic who taught high school. He was a psychic at first. Lord forgive me for forgetting his powerset. He ended up dying of cancer and came back a Sin-Eater. He was fun and charismatic with a dash of moodiness and angst. I had a lot of fun in his brain. He ended up getting married to the wonderful Nakesha and lived on until he stopped talking to me. (The muse fled. I couldn't connect, whatever. I just sorta lost him.) He had a nice send-off with loose ends tied nicely so Nakesha could continue while I iced him. I thawed him just before TR ended with the intention of picking him back up but he was just gone. I miss him and I thought no one could match that kinda love until...
Wyatt Fleet. Wyatt was a Deaf single father who very much believed that aliens had abducted him. Three times, if my old notes are correct. His belief in aliens was so deep that he had no problem bringing it up in normal conversation. "So yeah, I was doing good until the aliens abducted me. sips coffee My hearing was fine!" (It wasn't, Wyatt. STFU.). He was dead serious about anything supernatural being alien based and would argue with you about it. He was convinced they would invade and enslave the human race and it was only a matter of time. This made him into a gun nut doomsday prepper. Taking something so ridiculous and playing it very straight was the most fun I could have for free at the time. And that's what he was. Just straight up fun. He was Gone Too Soon, as BITN closed. I will miss that crazy SOB.
When your RP partner brings out the best in you.
I mean, you know you're nailing it and only because they are so good to play off.
There is no shame in my game. I TS. I've made characters for the express use of regular TS. I can TS with you in varying degrees of graphic natures from kiss and nibbling to full thrusting. If I know the other player's got a kink that ain't mine, I'll engage. We all need to get off.
Here's where I'm a little different. There HAS to be some story to it. Some reason to be fucking, if only in my mind. I might play a broken character who equates sex with love. I might be playing an innocent, caught up in someone else's sexual prowess. I might be playing a prostitute. I might be playing someone who is simply very sexual. But there is always a little something to push a character along his or her development or else I just feel a little gross.
I don't TS for the sake of arousal. Both hands are firmly on the keyboard. I tend to only TS with those I've known for a little while, but it's not a rule. To me, TS is just another form of expression that I engage in.
Something either up with Vampire apps or something is up with mine.
Vampire opened on June 1st for apps. I'm 85% sure that not one app has been approved. And I'm sure as hell still waiting.
I LOVE Reno. I like the players and the staff and so far this is my only poor experience. I'm an understanding goldfish. (And I'll forget about this problem as soon as I can hit the grid. I'm a goldfish.) If something is going on behind the scenes, that's fine. I'm not pushy. I'm concerned at this point. Why can't the vampires play?