Best posts made by ixokai

@kanye-qwest said in Staff and ethics:

@ixokai said in Staff and ethics:

I don't think she planned it.

But....they did plan it. They asked specifically to use the possession NPC. The RP does not choose you.

Its not quite so simple or black and white as that. At the time of asking to run the plot, I don't think, "oh I shall self-rape!" even entered her mind. It came up during RP that some mild sexytimes happened. I don't think it was planned that way, or that she was cognizant of her own reaction or what it would mean until the boyfriend flipped his shit out and didn't react like she thought he would-- stupidly thought, at that.

There's a lot of context here I can't fully get into.

This player's pattern of behavior wasn't one of being the regular creeper, it WAS of thoughtlessness and a lack of self-awareness.

I'm really liking rhost's execscript. It runs an arbitrary script written in any language you like and returns its results.

On character approval, it runs a script (a python3 script, specifically) that automatically creates a wiki page with their +sheets, their name, codename, birthdate, and anything else in game (except the bg, for now), all in the correct script. It automatically thats that page with the appropriate tags.

On purge, it replaces the page with a blank template and adds appropriate tags (ie, _retired or _unavailable depending on MC vs OC). This means our wiki is 100%% accurate with currently approved characters-- always. Without users having to know wiki or even signup -- they still can to add photos and more content if they like, but its optional.

Then we have another script that runs by default every night at midnight, or on-demand, which queries the wiki for new logs and adds them into a sqlite database for all participants. So we query that database for activity.

Theeeen there's another script that we run to upload and create a log, all with the right tags-- so again people can get what they 'need' to on the wiki without ever having to be good at wiki-ing.

I have another script that adds or removes tags from specific pages; so when I +faction/add person=faction, they automatically get the faction tag to their page.

All these scripts are allowing deep integration with our wiki.

Next project is to write a script to query the tzinfo database for live timezone conversions so +events and +bbposts are always displayed in your local timezone. (I already have rudimentary hacky versions of this).

And I'm just getting started: the stuff I'm gonna do with the API's....

Anyways, this is all examples of the cool stuff you can do with execscript()

Let's see, other favorite features. I couldn't live without full, deep regeditall and friends. I have some custom substitutions: %'ui' and %'std' so my code often looks like:

$+foo *=*:@attach %'std'/IS-STAFF;@attach %'std'/FIND-TARGET;@set %q<target>=blah.

Basically IS-STAFF looks like this:

&IS-STAFF %'std'=@assert isstaff(%#)={@attach %'ui'/DENIED}

So if %# is not staff, it gives a standard Permission Denied error. Then:

&FIND-TARGET=@assert  t(setr(target,pmatch(%0)))={@attach %'ui'/NOT-FOUND=%0}

The %'std' and %'ui' libs allow me to do common actions without repeating any code. And since these @asserts and @attaches (alias for @include/override), when they decide to halt command processing, it halts everything.

I like that I have some mail() functions that let me completely softcode mail reading-- this lets me, in particular, write +amail so I can read my alts mail and have it marked as read after.

printf() is crazy powerful.

I like the /inline versions of @assert, @dol, and the like-- to run stuff now without queueing. Keeps things speedy.

@surreality Two things:

1. I can not tell you how intensely I want to play Jensen as my actor for a saloon or bar or WHATEVER similar.

2. thank you

I know there's some cray that happened, but want to step away from that.

Yesterday we had an involved scene with the Big Bad which went... not at ALL according to plan, and was a bit scary and tense.

But it was also fun.

My character comes across this kid with amputated legs and based on his knowledge, damnit he knows this kid's dead decades long, but he can't just leave him as the place burns down. So he carries him through the rest of the scene (taking a penalty). Some real bad luck hit, things got very tense, but they survived the encounter.

There's mystery and investigation, questions about wth is going on, and people trying to figure stuff out. We don't have a clue as often as we have a hint of a clue, and its not a game which has people empowered to be powerful.

It really does feel sorta like playing in a horror movie and since none of us are the vampires or werewolves that's interesting and unique.

I'm liking it a lot.

TODO; Bury the kids bones that you drug out of the past and see what happens.

@surreality @Kanye-Qwest I just reject this idea there's 'modern faces'. There's modern clothes, modern sets, modern props.

Faces are... faces.

I am to a certain extent aware physical bodies have changed over time, gotten taller, but I'm not aware (outside of inconsistent tendencies in grooming) faces have.

Just not getting where this is coming from.

Also: Jensen Ackles was my first celebrity cursh a thousand years ago. I have a knife, I will cut someone.

@Admiral said in The 100: The Mush:

Impacting the game is one thing.

I was simply stating that according to my friend, every single plot-heavy scene was absolutely spearheaded by that Grey guy. He lead every expedition, organized every plan and has been the main focus of the game.

My friend's words, here. "Since they removed most of the canon characters, it's like they replaced Clarke, Bellamy, and Finn with his character."

I think this is pretty off.

Grey's simply proactive. He has no more access then anyone else and if he tends to be a little more in charge then others its because he tends to just step up and tell people to do things that aren't stupid.

Proactive players are relatively rare. When they happen on your game they tend to dominate the things that get done because that's what they spend most of their time doing.

And there's a growing IC opposition to Grey; not to mention the game's still practically brand new. Its playerbase has only exploded in this last weekish.

That's just my opinion and direct, first-person observation.

[ full disclosure: I play Cameron ]

@bobotron said in Social 'Combat': the hill I will die on (because I took 0 things for physical combat):

But there's tons of 'NON INTIMIDATABLE' or 'OH YOU ARE SO TRUTHFUL BUT I THINK YOU'RE LYING ANWAY'. None of us want Social Stat Dominate, or at least that's how the thread has read to me.

If that's what you're getting, there's a lot of wires crossed, indeed.

IMHO, most of us who do not like mandatory social combat is not that we want "NON INTIMIDATABLE", but that 'Intimidate vs Willpower' (or whatever the contesting stat is), reduces a character's nuance and depth to a fairly silly level. Lots of examples have been given.

The guy who you can't intimidate by threatening his life because he's not afraid to die-- but if you threaten his companion's life, that's different.

You can't encapsulate that kind of character nuance in most stat systems, so it makes PVP Social really silly. Either a character can be intimidated by an angry kitten, or they are nearly impossible to intimidate by anything at all in the universe. There's no importance of context, nuance, and specific character development and growth. Its all or nothing.

On any game I'm on that doesn't have a mandatory social combat rule, then that doesn't mean I will refuse to abide by someone rolling intimidate-- but it's something I'll take into account, but the context and nuances of the situation will be factors in how I write a response. A lady tries to seduce me, it won't work, but maybe I'll find it charming if she rolled well and doesn't press it after the initial gentle rejection. If I can't really die, then I'm not going to be scared by a gun to the head, but once that becomes apparent, I might be very intimidated by a random innocent getting a gun to his head in my place. Maybe my character's Subterfuge 5 is never rolled when lying to old ladies, because all old ladies remind me of my Gran, and I never successfully learned to lie to her.

Dice can be involved, but when all that informs outcomes of social interactions is dice, then you're reducing interesting characters to boring numbers and chance.

@gasket said in The 100: The Mush:

Staff needs to be very careful - stupidly careful - to avoid the accusations of favoritism.

Making an alt that wants to do all the things, instead of letting non-staff players handle it, is not the way to do this.

I don't disagree, in theory, but... meh.

If this were a WOD game or something, I could see myself caring or something, but here, I just can't. I feel fully empowered to try to do anything I can think of. (I might not SUCCEED, but I can try) And I can get involved in anything that's happening.

I couldn't ask for more. Its been a long time since I played a game this engaging and seemingly open to my actions.

EDIT to clarify: The reason I am more prone to caring on a WOD game is that WOD games tend to be, in my experience, inherently more antagonistic and I find I often have to fight to get an inch, let alone change the course of the story. That might be personal baggage I take to the WOD game, but I don't have that baggage here.

@surreality said in Social 'Combat': the hill I will die on (because I took 0 things for physical combat):

@ixokai said in Social 'Combat': the hill I will die on (because I took 0 things for physical combat):

Social is more nuanced then 'can aim and fire a gun'. Social involves a lot of particulars. I've had more then one woman or utterly incompatible character try to seduce a gay character of mine in the past: I'm not joking, not making euphemisms. I've had a lady roll seduction on my queer ass.

This is always a good example. (Not trying to single you out here.) How differently would you react if, instead of that character trying to get in your pants for info, they sent an NPC (or a PC they convince to do it) to get into your pants for info that's male?

I'd be fine with that, because they would have taken into consideration the nuances of my character-- though my character might be very picky on his 'types'. And if they RP'd seduction horribly, but rolled well, I'd be a little annoyed. But I'd probably go for it if they tried to come up with a reasonable situation that made the roll make sense.

I'm betting hard that there's a much better chance of you being willing to go along with that (which would be the same for most folks, I'd think).

That high social score should inform female seductress 'this isn't going to work due to improper equipment, I need the right tool for this job to get what I want' just like high firearms is going to inform ace sniper that a twig and the word 'bang' isn't going to blow a hole in someone; they also need the right tool for that job.

The problem is rarely purely a matter of agency, it's a matter of how much more agency is removed in the way many people handle social rolls, and have historically handled them.

I agree.

@Ominous said in The 100: The Mush:

I will say that I have found it a little difficult to get involved, as things seem to be a bit behind-closed-doors. Also things move incredibly fast. If you're away from the server for a week you'd be horribly behind. This time last week, we had only just been attacked by the Grounders. In the intervening time, we have rescued those captured in the first battle, captured our own Grounders, interrogated said Grounders, released said Grounders, and are now entering into negotiations with a Grounder chief. You could have easily dragged that out over two or even three weeks. There is no rush. The server doesn't have a bomb strapped to it that's going to blow if you drop below 55 mph.

This complaint I actually mostly agree with. The game moves incredibly fast and Andromeda has commented on it speeding up a couple times, which freaks me out.

Every IC day takes 2 OOC days on the mush. Normally, that sounds slow -- I've been on games that move 4 IC days in one OOC day that felt slower.

The difference is something real happens almost every other day, if not every day.

The reason its fast is that the entire first season of the TV show takes place over like 20 odd days, so it fits the story we're living through in this mirror universe, so I understand it... but in practice, its fast and if you don't keep up I can see you having problems getting in.

@bobotron Really, social stats are great... on PVE-focused games. Most of these RPGs were not designed with regular, heavy PVP in mind. They're mostly tabletop games where its assumed nearly everyone sitting around a table are on the same side and the social stats are for the NPCs. So they're balanced in that they are supposed to be effective against the characters without as much detail, nuance or investment.

Not saying the games are designed so that social contests between players NEVER would happen, it just was never the focus in most of them. Its a problem with adapting tabletop RPG's to MUSHes.

@Admiral said in The 100: The Mush:

Who would want to be the person the show is about?

I suspect @GirlCalledBlu was joking, because on the actual game, almost everyone seems to hate Clarke

Right, so.

The system is easy. Chargen is fast. Staff have not shown any sign of current insanity. Staff have provided fodder for both player-run plots and what the plot of the 'season' will be, which is good.

The setting is very well defined, though there's something about a NPC being The Gay Guy and his troubles that informs other possibly gay people in a way I didn't entirely understand when I heard it, and still don't really get what's up.

There's less room for older characters then younger; think of this as Buffy or every other horror flick where college kids do crazy crap and disaster happens. That's not to say older characters don't fit, but the game seems to be 'about' the high school/college folk and the crap you can do to them.

The RPG mechanics are sorta odd, but in an interesting way. None of us are super duper, super special, or just super: our thing is surviving. That's.. novel. Most of us are the kids in the horror movies: the goal? Survival.

The mechanics are not designed around the idea of you competing against the Enemy, but that's okay. That's the theme and that's what makes this interesting. Sure, down the road, I expect to try to kill a monster.

But I expect that'll happen after I run into it a time or two and figure out its weakness and then a lot of praying. The assumption isn't superhero: its not YOU WIN AGAINST THE DARKNESS. Its.... more like... OH SHIT. You survive (or not).

It's interesting.

Hey, Merit. I suggest you give more information here. There's a couple threads on original games that have attracted support and they are distinct in that the creator is really infodumping into them about the world, theme, etc.

Is anyone else familiar with Monte Cook's The Strange? Its based on the same RPG as Numenera.

Its premise is like, secret agency, infinite multiverse.

I could see that as a 'short-term-mu' I could get behind if all the PCs were agents, and maybe every month we're in a new dimension. Maybe filling a new role. Solving a completely different kind of issue.

This month we're in a Wild West universe and there's a black tar plague threatening it. I'm a prospector! In town looking for gold. Don't mind me.

Next month we're solving zombies in london. I'm a reporter for the local newspaper! What's going on?

Just adding my two cents again.

I'm not sure about the setting-- its incredibly bleak, (at least, in Changeling) more so even then the wiki and news describes. I fear that this will become a thing that kills fun as time goes on, instead of something that encourages stories. But I don't know, we'll see. I'm a little bit worried, I admit.

Its worth noting that the Supremes was very helpful throughout the application process (Even though I was applying for something technically restricted) and evaluated and approved my app for the most part in an hour after I submitted it... I didn't write my descs, and was tired from work that day so I didn't get a final approval an hour after submission, but I can't blame him for that.

After that he went out of his way to provide an 'intro' scene into the meta and goings on-- admirable, but again, the setting is incredibly bleak so like, that's kind of a wash. Changeling, as a game, isn't really about ultra-dark bleakness. Still, the attention and support from staff is nice.

I've RP'd with two people, so far good. There's a lot of complex situations going on that seem to invite me into being proactive. I haven't figured out what to do yet (I'm still figuring out the character, to be honest), yet the people around seem eager and interested in engaging.

None of this is meant to say criticisms are invalid, and I'm not a shill for the game. Sunny will vouch for me, at least that far, I think.

I'm just sharing my personal experiences playing.

sold.

I am the Avant-Garde.

@Ghost said in Star Wars: Insurgency:

If FCs are no different, even stats-wise from OCs, then why differentiate between the two? Why apply for FCs? Why do FCs typically get handed off to friends of staff and favored players?

I don't know what is 'typical', I only know what we're doing. If people want to get into a general discussion of FCs in theory, then I'd happily ignore the thread, but if people keep posting in this thread with comments that are not about us, its awfully confusing.

On SW:I, the only difference between FCs and OCs is (once I have the system in play), FCs have a certain minimal activity requirement, and that there's some people who really want to play their favorite people. That's all.

If there is no difference, stats-wise, between FCs and OCs, then what is the point?

The answer:
FCs come prepackaged with guaranteed roleplay opportunities and "main character" time in plots. FCs are automatically roped into game metaplot, whereas OCs need to find their own roleplay and means to being roped into (and more importantly, relevance in) metaplot

This is not correct. FC's are not given special access to plot: no one is going to start an event and reserve a slot for Luke. They are not positioned as 'main characters' in plots.

That said, our hooks system is specifically designed as a conduit of communication between players and Plot Staff for the express purpose of getting characters involved with plot and finding ways to connect people, so its incorrect to say that FCs are "automatically roped into game metaplot" and OCs "need to find their own roleplay and means".

Some FC's have positions of authority, but this is bought and is no different then OC's with positions of authority. We already have a few OC's with authority

In the canon SW Universe, Luke is a special snowflake who solves the metaplot. In SW:I universe, he does not have this destiny. He might play a significent role, but it is not written to be so: it will be on Luke's player to make it happen.

If anyone is curious how this goes who hasn't showed up yet (I can't imagine there are any!):

I picked The Avant-Garde, and then wrote my interpretation of what that means. A bit later, The Director gave him an occupation in this upcoming story -- Social Media Star.

Then she went and wrote out his actual story-- a couple paragraphs to give guidance.

Then I went in and chargened based on that guidance.

And then I made three Supporting Characters to go along with my guy.

And voila, character: http://horrormu.com/index.php/The_Avant-Garde (I wrote Overview, she wrote Current Story)