Contingent on a background check I have no reason to fear, I have the job! The recruiter called with an offer about an hour after the interview. Goodbye, goddess. It's been real.

My MSB peeve is the need to be a professional arguer in order to voice an opinion here. Some of us just think things and state the things we think imperfectly without meaning anything that may be incorrectly implied by choice of wording, omission, or any other element.

The defense rests.

The best PRP is the one that exists, and is happening because someone has the energy and enthusiasm to run it. All activity is good activity. Even if there are elements that spur conflict, that sparks RP.

That being said, it's important to be very clear about what kind of content your PRP will include up front. You'll find that a broad spectrum of catalysts exists, where anyone who finds themselves traumatized to any extent by content they weren't expecting can and will air legitimate grievance.

You can't always avoid them all; you have no way of knowing if RPing about marshmallows (randomly) might cause me psychological trauma because of my past experiences with marshmallows. It would be unreasonable for me to expect you to realize puffed sugar is my trigger, in this weird example, but if my thing is extreme violence, or animals or children being harmed -- I would have really expected some advance warning of that, as those are pretty common catalysts for many people.

If your PRP exists and you're happy to run it and put energy into it, it's a good one. Just be sure to carefully analyze both your plan and potential ways the PCs might depart from your plan, and do your best to identify and disclose extreme content that some participants might not find healthy for them to engage.

@Auspice

I don't care if you call it a MUD, a MUCK, a MOO, a MUX, or a Fred. If I can engage with the story of a game and feel like my character is part of it, that's what I'm looking for. I don't code at all and I won't be interacting with the codebase. Do I like the story? Cool. Is there a character available that sparks joy, or can I make one? Awesome. Is the climate of your game healthy to be on? Perfect.

I strongly doubt we're living or dying on specificity of terminology here.

Big progress today on the reemployment front! Around lunchtime I got an email with the assessment I'd been promised. I gleefully grabbed a conference room and completed it, and almost as soon as I hit 'done' I got another email from the recruiter to set up a phone interview.

Since I was so "eager to throw open my schedule to make way for this exciting opportunity", we had the phone interview immediately. It went great, and I'm confirmed for an in-person on Thursday! Probably my favorite memory with the current company will be taking a phone interview on speaker phone for another company in one of their conference rooms.

Some small bit of the balance redressed in my favor. Petty, but satisfying.

This is big for me because this change has been my back of mind private exit strategy for a few months. It's gratifying that as I'm becoming completely convinced of the need of it, it's proving to actually be viable. I do believe I'll get this job.

Finally, the light at the end of the tunnel. And with that, officially, good luck @Auspice -- you're welcome to share yourself some of mine.

I'll spill some tea to try to necro the thread in a more useful direction.

I have a terrible, awful habit that I think you all deserve to know about. Quite often when TSing, I sit there at the keyboard and I....

Well. This is very uncomfortable to confess, but I'll soldier on. First I get very comfortable. Some music to set the mood helps -- something sexy. Loose, comfortable clothing is a plus here too. Once I'm all settled in and in the zone, it's time to get. it. on.

I loosen my belt, ease the tension of my waistband...

...and fucking binge on snacks. Loud snacks, messy snacks... whatever! I don't even give a fuck. Savage with it.

So just try to get that image out of your head.

Effective anxiety medication for the first time ever be like:

Now that I've shed my name and become an archetype again following the death of my character (Jonas) and my SCs, I am so excited for metaplot in the Facility and gearing up for the next story.

The current story has been imperfect, certainly, but it would be hard to deny how unique and entertaining playing on this MU is. After all, this was only our first one; the test bed, if you will. Now we as players know what to expect and how to prepare for it, and likewise the staff has learned lessons that will enhance the experience going forward.

The defining moment for me was rolling an ungodly critical success on the attempt to hack us up a way to reach the outside world. The result was unintended by TD but she rolled with the punches and readily steered the story in a new direction.

That says a lot to me about the collaborative nature of the storytelling environment we find ourselves in here, and I like what I'm hearing.

Now in my mind, there's validity to the view that some roles didn't translate well into heavy participation in this story. If you didn't have an official 'job' on the island on the Wellson payroll and were just an attendee of the festival, there was an uphill battle to become involved and important. My particular role was destined to a moment in the spotlight simply by virtue of that role's narrow and rare skillset, but this wasn't the case for all. TD acknowledges this and I'm excited to see how she addresses it in the next story. With what I've seen so far, I have every confidence in the outcome.

I'm just blown away by how amazing it is to be really pretty excited to have died. Like what? Can we just talk about that for a second? Reading logs at work like YES I DIED, can't wait to log on!

Just to close the loop on my doomy-gloomy post from about a week ago, we all woke up the next day feeling fine so the whole thing was a moot point.

Sort of? What if we weren't fine, and I brought the 'rona into the group? It still bugs me, because the logic obviously follows that other people who've been exposed might be directed to come to work and expose me.

@TNP I was able to purchase two locally made cloth masks. It's not perfect, but better than nothing.

Today was day 3 of training for the new job. Things are weird; we're financial sector and therefore essential employees. Almost everyone that can work from home has been sent to do so, leaving about 50 total people in the building, including our 10 person class.

At around 8:45 this morning, I got a message from my wife saying she wasn't feeling well and she reported 2/3 of the Big Three: Coughing and Shortness of Breath, lacking only Fever. She goes through the CDC website, gets in contact with a nurse, who advises that she should go to the facility packed with people who suspect they have the virus to get evaluated.

I raise this concern to the trainer at this time, forwarding my wife's email with my thoughts: I need to go supervise my kid, and if we suspect she has the virus, then I'm sitting here exposing your 10 new hires, any trainers, and everyone else in the building.

Okay, I'll check that out on break, she says. This will be the last we'll discuss the matter. It's possibly relevant to understand that the trainer is on WebEx, training from home.

Around 11, I get another message from the wife. She talked to her actual doctor who advises that she not go to a facility with a near-certainty of infection waiting just yet, but rather to take 24 hours to observe and audit her condition, watching for worsening condition and/or the onset of the final member of the trifecta.

I still have heard nothing from the trainer by the time the class goes to lunch at 12, and at this point I'm just sitting there thinking about how I'm exposing every single person in the building. I finally speak to the proctor in the classroom, who with evident anxious concern (stepped back far away from me and) agreed that wisdom suggested my immediate departure.

Since then, I've been calling around to all these people at the company's HR department. So far the prevailing wisdom is that they would like me to return to the office tomorrow.

I can't confirm that I don't have the virus in my household, suspect that I might, in fact. It seems negligently stupid to want me to come in -- but then this advice was dispensed by people who live and work in North Carolina, not here in the Maine office with me. I suspect the people here might feel differently about me walking into the facility.

@lawyerbots, any words of wisdom applicable to this situation? I think it's pretty stupid to go to work tomorrow honestly, unless we wake up and she's just clearly in perfect health. I do not want to be responsible for anything that would lay down that path.

I'm not cash-rich, but my situation is stable. If there's anyone in Maine not feeling that stability and I can do something to help, please reach out. I will gladly do what I can.

I took a very brief stab at Iron Man, but it was hard to fit him into the setting. I think in my case it was really my fault; somewhere in my concept I could and should have filled in some kind of magic-related fuckery to make the suit work as everyone expects it to. I had an idea about having Edwin Jarvis' spirit somehow get trapped in the suit and planned to play that out on grid, but it would've been better as a trait in play at the time of creation. I couldn't wrap my head around how to Iron Man with a suit that doesn't keep up.

It's worth noting that I've also never played a supers game, so it was a little bit of a long reach for me in the first place.

Thanks for the helpful resources. We're struggling to figure out how to not let this affect our kiddo's development. This helps a lot.

I don't think we need to lament these conversations at all. Creeps are a thing; they're out there. Here, we put them on blast, shine the light, and expose them.

I can visualize with focus, but I can really only 'see' what small bit I'm directly focused on, and it's a lift. It won't hold or persist. My thinking is much more notional and nebulous.

To @Rinel 's question: I'm not much on Minecraft specifically, but if I try to play Fallout 4 it'll end with me spending 72 straight hours building settlements to a level of detail that does absolutely nothing in actual game mechanics. Behold my ridiculous fortress pyramid, unassailable, where I am Pharoah.