Topics created by Hella

I had just done a college essay on Michael Faraday, and he was a pretty cool scientist/engineer. Seemed fitting for my first staff coder bit.

For PCs, I tend to just use names that I like, since I'm going to have to constantly be typing and seeing them. Occasionally I'll come up with a unique one special to a setting/etc. (on The 100, for instance, they used variants of local place names/signs), but mostly I just rotate ones from my 'stable' of names.

@Hella I'm so glad you had fun!

Dominos coupon code 5162:

Large five topping for basically half price. Comes out to like 12 bucks here. Might be more where you are but give it a shot.

I've just heard word from Melkir's wife that his ashes will be on board the Enterprise flight, alongside luminaries like Nichelle Nichols, James Doohan and DeForest Kelley. He would have loved nothing more.

https://www.celestis.com/launch-schedule/enterprise-flight/#mission-act-now

I think one of the biggest mental benefits of Ares is being able to do multiple scenes at once, and async, because then I never feel like I am holding someone up. And people can feel freer to RP when they know they can set it and come back.

It seems like the MUSHing community has, by and large, stayed a similar community, and whereas a lot of us started our MU* career when were single without responsibilities, as we get older we start finding that we don't have six hours to spend roaming a grid and finding great pickup RP.

I always felt bad RPing with someone if I could not give them my full attention because I was working and prone to boss calls, or trying to accomplish something. Because I was keeping them from RPing with someone else.

With Ares, they can RP with that someone else and respond to me. And the same goes vice versa.

I think the other thing that is great about being able to easily do async is that there are amazing RPers that live half a world away that I would not be able to consistently interact with absent that.

Finally, I think the sheer versatility of the portal allows for you to do some really interesting things. Like have a game where you have a core character, but different versions of that character exist. You can use the same stats (or not stats if you aren't a stats game) and then just expand out from there with your variations.

Also, since it hasn't been mentioned yet, if you are a game with alts, being able to have ONE login in ONE place and connect all of your alts (if you want to, optionally) for the purposes of pages, channels, and RPing? Huge plus if you want to keep track of things.

Honestly, it's going to be a struggle to convince me to go to any non-Ares game at this point because I have simply gotten too used to the conveniences.

As Into The Garden Elizabeth Ran
by A. E. Housman

As into the garden Elizabeth ran,
Pursued by the just indignation of Ann,
she trod on an object that lay in her road,
She trod on an object that looked like a toad.

It looked like a toad, and it looked so because
A toad was the actual object it was;
And after supporting Elizabeth's tread
It looked like a toad that was visibly dead.

Elizabeth, leaving her footprint behind,
Continued her flight on the wings of the wind,
And Ann in her anger was heard to arrive
At the toad that was not any longer alive.

She was heard to arrive, for the firmament rang
With the sound of a scream and the noise of a bang,
As her breath on the breezes she broadly bestowed
And fainted away on Elizabeth's toad.

Elizabeth, saved by the soul of her boot,
Escaped her insensible sister's pursuit;
And if ever hereafter she irritates Ann,
She will tread on a toad if she possibly can.

I inadvertantly mischanned/mavved/xchanned (all the same deal) about contrived/meaningless death and about how it would probably kill my future muse to carry on. More so, though, it is the emotional connection through that specific character that I would miss (even though I would be really upset about having lost a dear part of my own self, too).

I have not lost many of my own PCs (a rare few who were mostly jokes and had not yet made meaningful connections), but what I have lost are those amazing people like my own muses like Famous Outlaw (about whom @hobos recently wrote).

Way back in the ye olden days (MUD/RPI times), I used to generally cop a badass/hardcore attitude and totally deny my personal feelings -- and sometimes do whenever I am covering up and just being 'too macho' -- about these things, but deep down and when being more self aware: it all really hurts.

Right now, I am -- after more than a season's time -- still grieving the unexpected disappearance of a PC's SO after 8 years of being RP pardners. Cannot go a full week without a sudden cry at least every other day or so.

We were building up to eventually tackle background/family matters, but one day, they were suddenly gone. Right after their PC's birthday.

Although I still play my own PC, it is emotionally difficult for me because their other half is currently missing in an OOC sense (but still together in an IC one because I do not really move on very quickly, and it is highly unlikely that this one ever will due to the sheer longevity of that IC pardnership).

Anyway, the main point is that it is seriously painful to lose characters (worse than reading Old Yeller or Where The Red Fern Grows) after the strong bonding to both your own character as well as Famous Outlaw(s).

@hella Oooh, thanks for these. I'm super burnt out on writing fiction (other than MUing) right now but I didn't know about any of these and will want them when my heart and brain and mind stop shying away from such things.

@meg That did clarify, thank you.

When you're talking about WoD it's not magic vs no-magic, it's freeform magic (Mage) vs spell-based magic (everybody else.)

Freeform magic systems are not inherently more powerful than spell-based ones. There are a couple things going on:

1: They require more creative effort from players, so they're harder.

2: They are more vague. So they're more open to GM interpretation. It's quite possible to love Mage in general but hate it on FooMU because, goddamnit, every fucking time you try to do magic, FooMU staff tells you it doesn't work that way. Getting the strong impression that your staffer 'trusts' Abelard to cast 'correctly' and hand-waves it while carefully examining your attempts for flaws (and of course, finding them) is a common occurrence.

The oft-mentioned overpoweredness of Mage probably has to do with point 2, not the game system itself.

PLUS, when you're talking about a MU, "balance" and "overpowered" mean something different than a tabletop game, and/or what the game designers anticipated.

Unless you don't let characters advance, or you give everybody an XP when anybody earns one, a MU can't be balanced like a table-top game (such as the system was designed for). The way to achieve balance on a MU is not to have all PCs equally capable. It's to provide plotlines/adventures/events that cater to Camille's strengths and interests, and to contrive ways to keep Abelard out of them if he happens to share Camille's strengths +2.

Helix has graciously fixed the code issue that wasn't allowing folks to finalize their sheets/buy new gifts. Everything is up and running smoothly and there's RP to be had in Lyonesse, specifically around the Chromatic Order.

I and my characters often wear round sunglasses and lately are both pretty pasty, but that's about it.

Inability to keep IC drama IC is a big one. I recent had to cut down/stop RPing with someone over it. I didn't want to deal with it and it wasn't healthy for them.

The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity. The fears are paper tigers. You can do anything you decide to do. You can act to change and control your life; and the procedure, the process is its own reward.

@VulgarKitten A woman I used to work with has won three times now. She also was on Wheel of Fortune and cleaned up. She is .. very clever.

@ganymede

Frank Doyle: Who cares what evil lurks in the hearts of men?
Sadie Doyle: Unless Evil's carrying the martini tray, darling!
*ting!*

@mietze said in Names:

I have not played on Shang but I love the descriptions over the years. How can you not like Baskin Robbins? Compared to everything else that gets shared here, I dunno, I thought it was really cute and almost sweet!

I think my favourite was the woman I stumbled over once who had glass shards (or were they metal? I forget) growing out of her flesh. The description was both tasteful and extremely detailed. The player was interesting to talk to as well.

@Insomnia I'd definitely be okay with it if I could figure out how to make it work. I made an account, logged in, clicked the link for season one, episode one, but it just sits there as a little grey screen with dots on it and won't load. Any idea what I'm doing wrong? The ads in the separate space on the screen all play...

Binary is still code and still in use every day 🙂

@Ashen-Shugar OMG, I remember my cousin getting one of these for Xmas! His was one of the giant ones I think, though. I got a 'Big Barbie' (not the creepy human child size ones they make now, just 20 inches or something) that year and we both knew we were getting those things, and kept trying to guess whose giant box was which. 😄 That still stands out somehow as Best Xmas Ever, even all these zillion old fart years later.