Best posts made by Kanye Qwest

I do this thing, whenever I schedule something I am obligated to run for people. I fret, I worry, I think it won't be fun for them, or for me, and I generally dread it right up until it is almost over.

But sometimes, you manage to make the mechanics work out, and they aren't so much that they are stressful, and players seem to be in to your emits and how you set the scene, and they are buying in, and striving, and being POIGNANT and HILARIOUS and AMAZING and you realize you are having a blast. GMing a large combat scene.

That never happens to me! But it did tonight and it was great.

It's the age old problem. People get mad when other people get things, because it seems like that's a thing they will not get, now. Those same people then get a thing and point out how unfair and awful it is that anyone is mad at them, because there was that one time they didn't get the thing but someone else did. Other people get sad because things don't always make sense. Sometimes people have cold sores.

My main thoughts:
it is important to remember that the PCs are NOT THE MAJORITY OF THE PEERAGE. There will never, ever, be a point where all the noble houses are duchies.

People want to attain things and feel like they have made an impact in the game world. This elevation thing is just one of the shapes that takes.

The only way to actually fix this, imo, is to get the systems in and tested and then do a hard reboot/time skip/wipe. Beta!

When something happens you don't agree on, and everything is muddled and kind of sucky, but it leads to a really healthy discussion and agreement about a better way to handle things as staff, moving forward.

I like reaching understandings.

@tinuviel Yeah, I agree.

I was telling apos last night that I, like many American people of my generation, used to use the word 'gay' to indicate something was lame, or whack. If you'd asked me if I had a problem with homosexuals, I would have been appalled. I didn't. I never, ever have, I think they should have all the rights and consideration anyone else does. I didn't think homosexuality was lame, or bad, or gross. I just used gay, with different context.

Then I grew up a little. I realized that intention is not the same thing as effect, and that even though I wasn't intending it as a condemnation of any person, they could certainly take it that way. And, since 'calling things gay instead of a dozen other words' is not an INTRINSIC FUCKING PART of my identity, I made the effort to stop.

It's really hard to admit when you've been an asshole, but doing so makes both you (the general you) and the world slightly better.

ETA: TLDR it's best to only cry 'my freedom of expression is being impugned upon" when what you are being asked/told to stop is an integral part of your identity, or is important to you.

These are not my dogs (ALAS) but

Braum as a puppy!

Braum now (STILL A PUPPY)

Who has time?! I mean rationally I know lots of people have time. I have done TS maybe 2-3 times in the last....6 years. Arbitrary number of years. Granted, I'm not RPing full time.

The rules are:
*it has to be part of a story or character development
*no weird ooc comments on it please, thanks
*no 2nd person posing
*no 'we just met and we are super in love now we are going to have four babies and do happy homestead rp"

Handsome fella

i'd be ok with anonymous messengers if you could use retainers or the criminal/social system to try and figure out who sent it. Using them to be a dick to people should carry the risk of being found out and taken to task publicly for being a coward, as that would not reflect well on you in Arx's culture.

edit: sorry @bananerz if this makes you take back your upvote, but the problem was that it wasn't fringe. It wasn't one or two people using condemn to be super horrible, it was a LOT of people - way more than we'd ever want to ban or even talk to - using it in a way that was fine IC, on the surface, but added up to a really unfun time for the target.

No one in the heat of the moment thinks "i'm sure several other characters to whom this issue is way more relevant are already giving X person shit for it". They think instead "OH! My character wouldn't like that!" Which may be true, and is fine, but when 40 randos a week are like 'fuck you and the horse you rode in on' it becomes a problem in aggregate.

YOU GOT IT

Oh hi, I am a woman working on a tech engineering team. I am the only woman on our vertical, though on the entire team we have two. Out of about 40 employees.

The most important thing to have in this position is a support system. Management or supervisors for this team must be receptive to feedback. Not only must they be receptive, they SHOULD be willing to be point person on it. Let me example.

Most of the people on my broad team are pretty great. I mean, we are busy, we are stressed, we are not by and large people with extensive backgrounds in customer interfacing or social skills (except me!). There is some bro-ery, absolutely. It comes with a certain level of relaxed expectations as far as 'strictly professional' behavior goes. People on our support engineering staff blow off steam. They throw nerf darts at each other, we meme in team chat, we faff around on the internet when we aren't engaged and busy. This is mostly fine. Sometimes, it crosses a line that makes me unhappy or uncomfortable. I have been very lucky that my management staff has always seen it and stopped it before I even have to say anything, and that is what makes me feel comfortable here.

I wryly observe I am the only woman in meetings of 20+. My teammates might joke that they have to be nice to the resident woman, but there's good rapport and well-set expectations so it's all in good fun. They are also mostly terrified of me, that probably helps.

But really. Proactive and aware management is the key, imo. Don't focus on what might 'offend' a delicate lady. Focus on what is or is not appropriate in a work environment, and enforce it.

i keep reading this title as "how to escape the OOC room' and honestly I think that discussion would be more useful to a larger number of people

If you 'encourage players to report' but make them provide elaborate 'proof' or first tell people personally to leave them alone or use a multiple strike system, they will not report. They will just leave.

I know this because staffing probably the biggest not-sex-focused MU showed me this. So many people who came to us with concerns specifically said "I would not have brought this up but I saw that you guys actually deal with problems." / "I would not have reported but so and so told me to because they know you won't ignore it."

For me it's the implicit presupposition that all the (probably largely white) men hired into these jobs were "the best candidate". That none of them were hired BECAUSE of bias, or politics.

Malice aforethought or no, that's a serious problem, and it takes some examination. Jumping in with "hire the BEST candidate, not based on politics" is about equivalent to "ALL lives matter" in that it is only brought up when the status quo is being questioned. No one is going after companies with huge gender imbalances and asking them to justify every man they've hired.

It's 2019, and this is canceled. Thanks for listening to my Ted talk.

First, I think about what I wanna do in the game. How I want to spend my time. Do I want to be a snarky barfly, or do I want to try and get into politics, or do I want to play with X code system.

Then I get distracted by a random inspiration for a name, and build a character around that for awhile. Maybe work up a theme song, do some google image search for a played by so I can think of a desc.

Then I tell myself to stop dicking around and be more reasonable and I go back to thinking about what type of personality I want to play.

Then I get an idea related to the name again and start merging all these influences into a skeleton of a character.

Then I decide to just rework a character I've played before, because it'll be easier. Commence waffling.

Then I stall out on desc for about an hour, browsing old descs and realizing I'm not great at writing interesting ones.

Then I just throw some shit together, whatever, they've got eyes and they are tall (probably).

Then I get into CG and flail at the code (and maybe give up).

@shelbeast well you want a game with a big enough population that you'll have people to play with overnight...but you also don't want any drama. So I think you'll probably have to take up Sudoku

@apos ehhh i played a mildly acerbic - mildly - person and had people treat me like a heinous bitch IRL because of it. I didn't talk to people OOC much, because I don't get like to get down like that. Experiences will vary, and if you are playing a terrible male character I think you get away with a lot more than if you are playing a 'terrible' female character.