Posts made by HelloRaptor

@Thenomain said:

I'm awaiting the hot debate whether or not "human" is a minor template.

If you mean template as in the general design/outline used to format something in a specific way, then technically every race would be a template.

In terms of RPGs a template generally refers to taking a base set of stats and then adding to/altering it based on a template, in which case 'human' is the base other templates are applied to.

Unless you're making some kind of existentialist joke, in which case .

@Glitch said:

It is true. @HelloRaptor has an incredibly low threshold for art quality when it comes to the anime he's willing to watch. If SM looks bad to him, there's zero chance I'd watch it,

The legs four times as long as their torsos drive me crazy.

not that I'm a huge magical girl fan anyway.

I mostly just prefer it when they throw down like a goddamn boss.

@Coin said:

@HelloRaptor said:

@Coin

When people wanted me to watch Lost, I didn't.

Count yourself lucky. I stopped watching after two seasons, and even though I feel like I dodged a bullet, I wish I hadn't given in even that much. Fuck Lost.

Lucky my ass. WISE, my friend. I was WISE.

You don't get wise credit for just being an obstinate dick, which is clearly the case if you resisted reading Harry Potter. ;D

@Coin

When people wanted me to watch Lost, I didn't.

Count yourself lucky. I stopped watching after two seasons, and even though I feel like I dodged a bullet, I wish I hadn't given in even that much. Fuck Lost.

@icanbeyourmuse

I mainly like it for the artwork. It's pretty.

If it were possible to grit my teeth hard enough for them to shatter, it might convey one tiny fragment of how terrible I find the art for Sailor Moon.

That's not really a reflection of my awesome artistic taste. I like plenty of stuff with pretty terrible art, and have no basic problem with magical girl stuff, but for some reason the SM art just causes a level of revulsion to the point I can't get past a couple of minutes with it.

Pretty sure that's a feature, not a bug. It adds to the WTF factor of what's going on.

You're both monsters, it's okay.

@Bobotron

Am I the ONLY person who hated Madoka?

Yes.

In regards to stuff kids can watch;

Wakfu (Flash but SO AWESOME WHAT)

Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha (the first and second movies are basically the first two seasons but with better animation and slight edits for more cohesive stories)

Gundam Build Fighters and Gundam Build Fighters Try

The first is just awesome all around, the second is basically DBZ for the magical girl crowd (and minus Madoka's rending of heart strings), and while the Build Fighters stuff is an amazingly shameless attempt to sell you toys even for the Gundam franchise, it's also a kid friendly anime that features kids as the main characters (with a female co-lead in the Try sequal). Wakfu and Madok also feature kids in that general age bracket.

Speaking of DBZ, if you ever watched it and are in the mood for some hilarity, go check out Team Four Star's 'Dragonball Z Abridged, on youtube. It's basically a redub of much of the show in hilarious fashion. They did it by episode, but the first two or three seasons have been compiled into single videos such as: this for season 1.

I'm in the A++ train for the new fighting styles and such, as well as retreads of old ones. Denying people access to stuff not because it's overpowered or otherwise broken, but just because you don't think anybody needs more options, just smacks of laziness.

@Luna

It doesn't make me better than you, no.

You could always write apple and ask them to undo years of marketing that shoves PEOPLE WHO USE APPLE PRODUCTS ARE BETTER THAN YOU IN EVERY WAY down everyone else's throat. That might be the only way.

@Biggles

A friend played a sleepwalker, she was OOC'ly talking with a Vampire in a room on grid, they both logged off an hour later. Jeurg saw them in a room with +who/where then invited the sleepwalked over for RP and melted her mind to the point of unplayability because he had seen the player in a room with a vampire. This eventually was retconned and was the tipping point that had Jeurg thrown from the mush, but that should at least give you an idea as to how he was.

I... what? Didn't I already say I was aware of how completely horrible Juerg was, and that he was not someone to use as an example of how actual people behaved? What is this? I don't even...

That being said, there were numerous Changelings and Mages on the same mush that were equally idiots, don't assume that vampire is the only sphere that idiots flock to.

Yeah, but none of the other spheres have a habit of whining about how everybody just picks on them because they're the least powerful sphere, or just because they're X, when really they're getting picked on because they're being idiots.

As long as I don't have to write reports, I'm usually pretty relaxed on roleplay requirements for the rest. I'm willing to assume that the majority of folks who want to play as part of a regimented force are going to be okay with or actively want to play into some of the details that are part and parcel of that. If you're in the military, as in actively in service and routinely dealing with other members of the same service, you're probably going to be expected to learn what the various ranks are relative to one another. So things like learning how badge numbers work, enh, I'd be fine with it.

That said, it absolutely goes too far, and people who play characters (or worse are staff for spheres that involve shit they do RL) tend to get way too fucking detail oriented about that shit and getting on peoples cases when they Aren't Doing Things Right.

I work with computers, I'm pretty intimately familiar with how they and their associated hardware, networking, etc functions. I give exactly no fucks if people playing 'hackers' do not. As @Pyrephox said, if I could see it happening in a movie I'm having fun watching, I don't care. If someone is allowed to break into an air gapped network, that's on the staffer running the scene for letting it happen, and I just assume that offscreen actions were taken to facilitate the remote entry.

But on the subject of having to learn some shit to facilitate playing what you're playing (badge numbers, ranks, etc as a cop), to a point I don't see it as much different than how you'd better have learned the various details of rank, auspice, tribe, forms, etc when you decided to play a Werewolf. It can go too far, but some is fine if it'll help.

@The-Tree-of-Woe said:

Juerg axed non-vampire PCs just for being around one.

Think for a moment of any of the qualities you and Juerg share, whether it be race, gender, liking a particular food, really anything at all. Now think about whether you would like anyone at all, anywhere, under any circumstances, to use Juerg as an example of behaviors common to people who share that quality.

Juerg is an amazingly huge asshat whose actions at large range from questionable to downright disgusting. It's like treating a serial child rapist who happens to be a clown as an example of why clowns are terrible and shouldn't be allowed around children.

Leka liked to sit around in the lounge and talk about killing vampires. When she wasn't RPing masturbating with plastic shopping bags and being told it was 'brilliant'.

How many vampires did she actually PK? Ten? Twenty? I know very little of Leka, but my impression was always that her rambling about offing vampires had nothing to do with picking on the little guy and everything to do with so many vampire players being such incredible tools that she liked rubbing their noses in it. It's also pretty meaningless if she wasn't actually going out following through on it, if she wasn't. I honestly have no idea.

Neither of these people ever attacked my toons. My beef, and my case, comes from watching their conduct with other people.

You're the one who said "I do not like being singled out by people like Leka, Ernst, and Juerg because I'm there." It's not terribly important whether or not they were the ones who pissed in your cornflakes in particular, but I don't feel like it was an unreasonable assumption to make.

Generally, when I caught shit for things I did, I deserved it -- though I didn't think so at the time, and some of those players can still, on a wholly personal level, eat all the dicks.

Right, which was... exactly what I said? I mean, that's pretty much exactly what I used those three quotes to emphasize, that despite claims to the contrary the vast majority of times people have been 'picking on vampires' it's because of shit those vampires did that deserved it. Not just because they were vampires, or because vampires are easy marks. While those may be motivations for some individuals, they are very, very few and far between.

I take it you had a personal association with either Juerg or Leka/Ernst, since those were the players I mentioned that provoked you sniping at me? I'm not about to condemn you for that, because lots of people did.

I sniped at you because you echoed a stupid premise that gets bandied about, which was that people just liked to pick on vampires because they were vampires, and because they were 'relatively easy to fight', neither of which usually has anything to do with shit people actually do to vampire PCs.

I don't think I really know any of those people outside of having read IC/OOC logs of Juerg, enough to be disgusted, and talking with Ernst here from time to time. I played on HM only for a couple of months at most, and never played with anyone outside of the Changeling sphere.

@Arkandel

The effects of something like Presence or the eroding long-term effects of Blood Bonds can be difficult to detect unless on top of being able you also have reason to do so.

The inexcusably stupid part is more prevalent than you'd think, and also less necessary. Uses of Presence frequently tend towards the ridiculous, for instance, and the descriptions of how the blood bond effects people is only really subtle to people who don't have any reason to find their behavior suspect.

When other supernaturals are involved, vampires have those strikes against them because mental influence is what they're known for. I've seen vampires get harassed even when there were no powers or bonds involved, just because others thought someone's behavior had changed enough in regards to the vampire in question that it was a reasonable suspicion.

Given that it's MU*, odds are reasonably good that at any given point the use of Presence on another PC is to get them to act in a way they would not otherwise be inclined to act, and when people are acting in a way they would not otherwise act and there are vampires involved, saying that those who are aware of vampires and know there's one involved don't have reason to be suspicious is pushing the bounds of credulity.

If their behavior hasn't actually changed in any significant way, then sure, somebody needs a ruler to the back of the hand. But I've very rarely seen that actually be the case where Presence, or especially blood bonds, are concerned.

@The-Tree-of-Woe

Make them the villains of their personal morality tale, etc. All various things that translated to "pick on them because they're a relatively easy fight."

Er...

I do not like being singled out by people like Leka, Ernst, and Juerg because I'm there.

Errrr....

I like playing vampire. If I do something unapologetically evil, for whatever reason, it stands.

So, it sounds like it's not because you're there, or that you might be easy to fight, but because your character is doing shit that's unapologetically evil and people are taking exception to it.

I hate to tel you this, because I realize it's not going to fit within your pat little view where vampires only get picked on because they're weak, but the sort of folks who are going to go after someone for doing "unapologetically evil' shit are going to go after them regardless of what they're playing. Shit, I played an evil mage who was one of the most powerful characters on a game and people still routinely tried to kill him, even people who stood very little chance of succeeding.

Vampires don't get picked on because they're easy to fight, they get picked on because 1) they have a pretty terrible reputation for being mind raping* sadists, and 2) because more often than not the people playing them seem incapable of treating any non-vampires like anything but shit, despite evidence of just how poor an idea that is.

• There are few things players hate more than losing control of their ability to make choices about their characters actions. While it's true that Mages have the Mind Arcanum, and it can do exactly the same sorts of things, it's more nebulous than Dominate, Presence (or is that called something else now?), or the blood bond Vampires can create. It's not really fair to vampire players, but the very existence of these tools tends to mark a negative on your grade sheet before things even begin. If you actually try to use them against another PC, murder is probably nigh.

But really, this idea that vampires get picked on because they're easy to fight is just really, really dumb. Werewolves have been weaksauce since nwod came out, WAY easier to take down than Vampires. Hell, Changelings are by and large pretty squishy, but there's not a lot of bullying of them that gets done. Vampires don't get singled out because they're weak, they get singled out because they start from a bad position (mind raping, blood stealing, elitest assholes) and then they do 'unapologetically evil' shit on top of it.

All of which is added to by the philosophy of MU* Assholes everywhere that if you're not doing something to a PC, why bother doing it? So the 'unapologetically evil' shit you're doing is probably to another PC, and that PC inevitably has friends, family, and loved ones who are yet other PCs, and suddenly it's got less to do with someone's personal morality play and more that you're a monster preying on the people in their circle of people to be protected. Or sometimes they're only vaguely related to those folks, or just hear about it, and want to indulge their hero complex. And since they're also MU* Assholes and if they're not doing something to a PC it's not worth doing, they target the PC doing the 'unapologetically evil' shit.

I've got very little sympathy for either set of assholes, really.

@Bobotron

aiming a lightning bolt they're throwing at you is Dexterity + Firearms, for instance

I hate this. Haaaaaate it. Have always hated it.

• One: Firearms is about more than just your ability to gauge distance and positioning, otherwise it'd be used for throwing, archery, etc. It's not. My knowledge of how to shoot a gun has very little, if anything, to do with my ability to point at someone and zap them with a lightning bolt. A bullet and its physics have nothing to do with a lightning bolt. Stop it. Stoooop iiiiit.
• Two: I dunno about in 2E, but right now it's pretty trivially easy to buff your ability to use a skill. Between dice bonuses, roll type modifiers (the dreaded 8-again plus rote action firearms roll), etc, it's just bad. I'm assuming that the damage from such a spell is it's Potency damage rating (Arcanum, I gather) plus the successes on the Firearms roll? If so, double stop it.
• Three: It creates weird rules interactions with other shit that modifies the Firearms skill and not explicitly the use of actual firearms, such as merits or the like.

There's probably more, but these are off the top of my head. Haaaate. If you need an aiming type roll for casting a lightning bolt at someone or whatever, and it shouldn't require a grandmaster sniper to be adept at doing so, make it Dex+Wits or Wits+Composure, whichever's appropriate to the spell. Just don't call the latter a 'Perception' roll or it'll bump into those rules interactions again.

It's generally more difficult to tweak attribute based rolls than attr+skill ones.

@Arkandel

Even if in 2.0 Mages receive no buffs whatsoever, they're still so far on top of the food chain it's not funny.

It's a little bit funny. ^_^

@The-Tree-of-Woe

Are we risking Power Creep again?

Given that werewolves kind of got neutered in nwod and weren't ever the powerhouses they were supposed to be, I dunno that it qualifies as power creep. They didn't even meet the baseline before, outside of very specific examples, so it's more like power adjustment.

I'd have liked to see some of their innate abilities tied in scale to their proximity to pack, but I'm not sure how you'd do that in a way that wouldn't be a mess to deal with. I sort of like the idea that on a scale of one to ten with an adult human as a 3, an individual vampire is a 7 or 8, and an individual werewolf is a 5 or 6, but in a pack each individual werewolf is a 9 or 10 and thus a pack of them is off the chart. i.e. not just the threat of multiple assailants, but each individual assailant being boosted by the presence of the others.

That'd also serve to sort of preserve the Vampires Are Badass, as a lone wolf probably wouldn't want to tangle with a lone vampire, but even a group of vampires wouldn't want to tangle with a pack of werewolves, even if their numbers were even or slightly better.

Bonus points if it's something that could apply to non-werewolf pack members. Hell, even if it was just that you get a bonus to contested rolls or effective resistance traits when in proximity to or working directly with your pack mates. That'd also give mages more reason to be wary of antagonizing werewolf packs, if their pack bond made them more resistant to magical interference/influence/etc.

From Werewolf 2nd Edition

PACK BEATS
Werewolves are pack hunters, and the actions of one hunter frequently benefit her packmates more than her. If the whole group agrees, consider using pack Beats. Under this system, all of the Beats earned during a given chapter go into a pot (you may want to use poker chips or spare dice to represent them). At the end of the chapter, split the Beats evenly among all of the players.

Hah! Neat. >_>

That's just a whole pile of reasons why I'm glad I never got involve with twitter. Dray's a crazy bitch, but fuck those people.

Clearly the answer is for your M+ psychics to make us of Aeon psion powers.