Posts made by Jaded

@Insomnia said:

I didn't watch the Superbowl, but someone linked me the commercials anyway.

Now I have PuppyMonkeyBaby stuck in my head, and the way to get rid of earworms doesn't work because it's three fucking words!

Enjoy your nightmare fuel...

@Roz said:

@Jaded said:

@Ganymede said:

@Jaded said:

I had a few guests over tonight and each time one showed up the dog would sit at the bottom of the stairs to his apartment and bark at the door. The dog would do this for about 10 minutes. Then each time one went outside onto the patio to smoke, the dog would come back. This guy had the nerve to ask me to not have people over after 8pm because he works 2am to 10am and he's trying to sleep at that time.

People ask me why I don't want to have a dog. This is why.

I like my cat because he leaves me the fuck alone most of the time.

I would have a cat but my roommate isn't fond of pets.

My cat is way better than my roommate.

Sometimes my roommate IS my pet, in a manner of speaking. He gets so wrapped up in World of Warships or his online ship-girl game or something else that I have to remind him to eat.

@HorrorHound

I can't say it is like Myst. Then again I've not played Myst since I was maybe 17 so my ability to compare is flawed. What I can tell you is that it is a first person narrative game that's got a pretty compelling story, some great voice acting, and great landscaping. I even like the sound track which fits the atmosphere quite well.

Hrm. I could compare it somewhat to Soma? Though far less horror and far more mystery. And set in the backdrop of the forests of the Rocky Mountains in Wyoming.

I'm not often big on these kinds of games but a friend got me a copy of it with the threat of play this or suffer. And I'm recommending it to people who like story-driven puzzle mysteries ala the Vanishing of Ethan Carter and other such genre games. It's a beautiful game and I've really enjoyed what I've played through so far.

@Ganymede said:

@Jaded said:

I had a few guests over tonight and each time one showed up the dog would sit at the bottom of the stairs to his apartment and bark at the door. The dog would do this for about 10 minutes. Then each time one went outside onto the patio to smoke, the dog would come back. This guy had the nerve to ask me to not have people over after 8pm because he works 2am to 10am and he's trying to sleep at that time.

People ask me why I don't want to have a dog. This is why.

I like my cat because he leaves me the fuck alone most of the time.

I would have a cat but my roommate isn't fond of pets.

@Arkandel

I had a few guests over tonight and each time one showed up the dog would sit at the bottom of the stairs to his apartment and bark at the door. The dog would do this for about 10 minutes. Then each time one went outside onto the patio to smoke, the dog would come back. This guy had the nerve to ask me to not have people over after 8pm because he works 2am to 10am and he's trying to sleep at that time.

All told, it's a NMP situation.

No Mr. Neighbor. I'm not going to change my lifestyle or times my guests come over, because your dog barks at anything that moves in and out of your apartment and keeps you awake.

@Ganymede

This is pretty cheap, better than a kennel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AF_nfazQaek

I see my TT group switching from Shadowrun to 7th Sea 2nd in the future.

@Arkandel said:

@Jaded said:

1. Outline with the players what they think they are doing, and what objectives the feel are needed to achieve that goal.

How though? Most of the time players are invited to the scene, they might not even know what it's about ('Invictus meeting!') and the person inviting them won't know in advance who's coming or not.

Ideally this scene was already organized via a job or with discussion with the major parties. Everyone has a spokesperson and if not then as a staff person it is your responsibility to nudge towards this organization. If necessary get them together early and find out what their goals and aims are. If they have only a general idea then it might be a good idea to recommend they have a pow wow, reschedule the scene, and come back to it later.

2. Determine what is necessary and what is not. Is Bob going only because he has that one ability that they need at this one point in time? Let Bob handle that off-screen or do something with him in a scene separate that runs in tandem. Use this information to break a large group down. Are Bill and Maria going because they are to disrupt communications with their jammer? Let them join Bob in a side-scene.

How do you deal with what-ifs? You know, maybe Bob has nothing to bring up that can't be handled offline or one or one, but Jim has a thing that'll make Bob explode. You can't know that in advance unless you, for all intents and purposes, run the scene OOC and just let the results be known IC afterwards. Not saying this is necessarily a bad thing, by the way, just pointing it out.

In the case of PVP you have to have it on screen. There's no off-screening that there, but in that case Bob and Jim can still be held separately from the others - but that point leave it up to the players to decide that then - in case they want an overwatch on Bob. As for the what-ifs, you're the ST - make a call on the fly and handle it the best way you think it should be handled. If you are presented with information that would drastically alter the scene in progress time stop it and figure out the next moves and how it impacts people before resuming.

3. Limit it to five people per group.

That seems arbitrary. Who do you leave out if they want to be there without making them feel excluded?

This is why breaking into sub groups is beneficial. It avoids this in most cases. Not all - in that case you leave that up to the players, let them decide the usefulness of their companion's presence.

4. If a person is non-responsive when their turn is called for posing or rolls, skip them. They are considered overwhelmed IC and unsure about what to do. If the afk was noted ahead of time, consider them delaying their action - if they are smart they told you what they wanted to do ahead of time. But always keep the flow of the scene moving.

Agreed.

5. All complaints with rules calls or other like discussions take place after the scene. Anyone doing so during the scene is removed or welcome to leave. No arguments.

Agreed with the disclaimer that it's not always clear who's 'in charge' of the scene - perhaps it should be - and that it's very complicated to do that sort of thing retroactively. I.e. Bob used mind control on Jim in a contested way, the person running it thinks it's legitimate... and afterwards staff point out the rules clearly state that was a no-no. What do you do, retcon the meeting out? A few hours of everyone's lives there just went to waste.

No retcons. The first thing is, did they bring this up after the scene? If so then something can be done to mediate immediately. If it's later and they finally say something - well they're past the window of complaint and you don't owe them anything. But for a resolution, be creative. Get Bob and Jim together. Tell them the mistake, and then find a compromise. Maybe while Bob was putting the mind voodoo to Jim, Jim was sucked into Bob's head for a little bit and he saw and discovered some interesting things. Things Jim can use to make Bob's life miserable for awhile.

6. Lastly focus on fun and story over dice.

Agreed, but that's not everyone's cup of tea. Some people want dice, it's not fair to tell them they can't ever have it if they're to have a large scene (especially if those scenes decide on important things).

Don't exclude dice. But don't let them overwhelm the scene. Sure it might be nice to have your mighty Uratha NPC beat a PC to death because hey its the World of Darkness, but frankly that's not fun. Instead get creative, and snake punch that PC's eye out and have your bad guy yell, "Gotcher eye!" or "Eye scream, you scream!" or something. Maiming, crippling, delimbing, and other things are always great and viable substitutions.

GM with the thought - what does not kill them, should bring you laughter. Cackling joyous laughter.

I'm deranged.

This might largely depend upon Genre but the way I handled it was by simple tasks:

1. Outline with the players what they think they are doing, and what objectives the feel are needed to achieve that goal.

2. Determine what is necessary and what is not. Is Bob going only because he has that one ability that they need at this one point in time? Let Bob handle that off-screen or do something with him in a scene separate that runs in tandem. Use this information to break a large group down. Are Bill and Maria going because they are to disrupt communications with their jammer? Let them join Bob in a side-scene.

3. Limit it to five people per group.

4. If a person is non-responsive when their turn is called for posing or rolls, skip them. They are considered overwhelmed IC and unsure about what to do. If the afk was noted ahead of time, consider them delaying their action - if they are smart they told you what they wanted to do ahead of time. But always keep the flow of the scene moving.

5. All complaints with rules calls or other like discussions take place after the scene. Anyone doing so during the scene is removed or welcome to leave. No arguments.

6. Lastly focus on fun and story over dice.

That would explain why my scary monster vampire's bloodshake brings all the girls to the graveyard...

I had a roommate introduce me to a mostly W:tA game on MIRC back in 99. I played there for a few years when another player invited me over to an open server mush that was free form and with no character sheets. Then someone there introduced me to my first WoD Mu. And here I am 17 years later.

A witty bantering sword duel between Immortals ala Inigo and Wesley. Except at the end one loses their head. This could have happened on Shadowed Isles but the other Immortal players were cowards or used mages to get out of their Immortality or have death-avoiding teleportation amulets.

@Misadventure said:

I had the best luck with that recently with Cessaly the Giant Squid Feral. Thank you to Chains, Alex, and Kay for making that pay off.

Admittedly Cessaly was some of the best RP I had. You're welcome and thank you.

@Miss-Demeanor

I would watch this just to watch all of them get killed...

@Ganymede

When I was in the game shop buying Shadowrun books I saw the Earthdawn stuff, so I bought the core book and the Ruins of Parlainth boxed set thinking my players would love to get into it.

Some of them did. My more hardcore lovers of 1st and 2nd ed AD&D didn't.

@Ganymede

Holy crap Gany! In my experience finding people who play Earthdawn, much less know about the game is a rare treasure of a find.

@Ganymede

Man I loved that show.

@Arkandel

So what would you rename the show to? Well that's an interesting question for anyone. If you were to rename your favorite show or shows, what would you rename them to?