Best posts made by krmbm

That should be a placeholder dbref #.

@@ WEB OFF
@pemit %#=BBS INSTALLER> Cleaning up attributes...%r
@force me=@edit [num(bbpocket)]/*=#222,[num(bbpocket)]
@force me=@edit [num(mbboard)]/*=#222,[num(bbpocket)]

This should be changing all the #222s to the dbref # of your bbpocket after you install the code.

I've maintained radio silence for years, but I'm going to put this out there for those looking for a Pern game: this is more like Pern coming out of a time capsule than Pern breaking new ground.

The people running it seem very nice, and my interactions with them have been positive, but I feel like they need a while actually playing Pern games to understand how and why the genre has evolved over the years. They're taking positive steps - building a real website, for example, because the doors opened with a Facebook page as their web presence - but it's still a little bit of a train-wreck over there. Things they're billing as "new and inventive" are either things other games have been doing for years, or things other games STOPPED doing years ago because they just don't work.

They still don't have a full separation of IC and OOC responsibilities. Their head Weyr and Search admin is also their Weyrwoman, who is already massively idle and not RPing; when asked how they plan to cope with her not being an RP presence, the answer was essentially that the head wiz would badger her to get back online (which is exactly what you want - the most high-ranking PC in the hands of someone that doesn't actually want to roleplay), or wait 3 months and replace her (which means you have a minimum of 90 days with the head IC and OOC presence completely incommunicado).

The last time I was poking around, they had a finite number of insta-riders (who were only being offered grudgingly, it felt like), so you basically HAVE to play a teenager if you want to eventually play a dragonrider. They're running 4:1 time, which most games abandoned because most of us who actually play Pern are now grown-ups with jobs and kids and can't RP every day but don't want to miss huge swathes of our characters' lives if we take a week or two off for RL.

All that said, I do wish the game luck. If they manage to get over the initial year or so of growing pains, realize why a lot of the things above don't work and make changes, it would be nice to have another decent Pern game. Right now, the only really solid (and active) one is Harper's Tale, running on MOO, which turns off lots and lots of people just because of the code base.

(In the interests of full disclosure, I do play currently on HT. It definitely has its problems - hello, crazies~ so nice to see you hanging around Pern still~ - but it's a little more in-touch with modern M*ers than ToP has shown itself to be thus far.)

@Jennkryst said in Welcome to the Euphoria!:

Now I have to learn FS3, rabble rabble.

roll player1/ability vs player2/ability

You learned it!

@zombiegenesis said in A Game of Thrones MUX Discussion:

To re-focus this one: what things would people like to see on a GoT or L&L game that isn't being done elsewhere?

Thanks.

If this came up in the pages of copyright stuff, my bad, but what codebase? Curious if Ares crossed your mind at all, 'cause I'd love to see that "in production." Being able to CharGen on the web is OMG.

I've always thought that a GoT set at an AU point following the Blackfyre rebellion would be awesome. The Blackfyres win, the metaplot concerns them either tightening or losing their grip on the Iron Throne, and the subplots spin out from there.

@chibichibi Does it only list boards you can see / are subscribed to? Because I think that's what bbread does.

@Songtress said in Threads of Pern:

What would a Modern Pern/Alt Pern game have to look like?

These are two totally different questions. What a Pern game looks like and what an alt-Pern game looks like can be approached much differently. Just to address a "modern" Pern game, though, here's my wish-list/manifesto.

• IC/OOC separation of duties. HT does this by giving each area its own game staff, made up of volunteers. Sometimes, these volunteers are also the IC leaders, sometimes they aren't. Then the areas each have two members serving on the game staff, and the game staff answers to the wizards (who don't actually play; they just make sure the code works and the kids don't throw sand at each other). NorCon ran (runs?) similarly, with wizards there to handle code, and everything else managed by volunteers.
• Require approval. Make new characters write some kind of history (even if it's just a rough sketch), description, etc.
• Don't make a billion areas. PW still tries to run with like 500 Weyrs, and they basically just constantly have to be running Hatchings. Having one or two areas is perfectly acceptable. Personally, I prefer just a single geographic region (i.e., a Weyr and a Hold), but having two seems viable. Just be prepared, if you do more than one area, for there to be constant bickering between the two areas.
• Set it during a Pass. There are a few Interval games out there, but most current Pern gamers would prefer a Pass game. That's why HT did a reboot three years ago to start the game over during a Pass.
• Provide non-Thread conflict. HT originally had this by way of the Oldtimers vs. Nowtimers plot, but that's unraveled, and you can start to see the game devolving into typical "Pern" stuff: Impress, get a boyfriend, have some babies, rinse, repeat. Instead of trying to write Pern's conflict out (color hierarchy, gender issues, non-riders mistrusting riders, etc.), use these as fodder to help drive a story.
• Have stories/plots. There was a game a few years back that looked promising in the sense that it did most of the things above, but the game owner said in no uncertain terms that she wasn't going to be guiding plots. She wanted all plots to be player-driven. After a few months, the players wound up wandering off when it became apparent that she honestly meant that. We had some fun, but we also needed a game that was being guided by someone (or a group of people, whatever) with some kind of plan. HT is currently the most successful and active Pern game because - although there are issues - both areas on the game have active OOC leaders that try to come up with plots. Some plots are more successful than others, but it does give people something to RP about in between baby-making and vying for gold dragons.
• Make dragons easy to get. It's called the Dragonriders of Pern. People will play other walks of life, but dragonriders are going to be the go-to. Allowing easy access to insta-riders makes it so the game isn't littered with nothing but adolescents waiting for Search.
• Don't try to get rid of Hatchings. Like it or not, they still excite people, and they still get people to create new alts and branch out. Just roll with it.
• Slow down time. Pern used to be hard-core with the 4:1 aging. People gradually got comfortable at 3:1, which is what HT and NC currently use. I'd go a step farther and suggest doing 2:1, since current Pern friends of mine have expressed that 3:1 still feels too fast.

Those are some of my observations for what has and hasn't worked over the ~20 years I've been playing silly Pern games.

glhf

Going to recommend the Ares forum. @faraday is super-cool about helping.

@wildbaboons said in Wheel of Time MU(SH|X):

And this still is something I'm considering doing. I'm on the fence between rolling out an Evennia (since its Python and I want to learn that anyways for professional reasons)...

plz no

Unless you intend to be super diligent about documentation. Having to fumble through a bunch of shitty help files sucks the fun right out of a game.

If you want to put pictures in on Ares, super easy.

Upload picture medbay.jpg to folder rooms.

Edit room desc: [[image /game/uploads/rooms/medbay.jpg]]

People in the MUSH will not see a very pretty output when they look here, but people on the portal will see your image.

Edit: And then add in what @Coin suggested for people on the MUSH and dust your palms.

One of the things I do like from the SAGA system is the "weaves per hour."

Reading the books, it honestly seems like your overall power/potential is totally useless and only exists to make the awesome characters even more awesome. That is, Egwene is OMG SO MUCH MORE POWERFUL than Moiraine, but wtf does that even mean from a game mechanics perspective?
Moiraine knows more than Egwene, and - excepting things that are full-on world-breaking - being able to hold more of the Power doesn't actually matter - in an RP setting.

Really, it seems like the "power" aspect is totally pointless. What seems more relevant is how many weaves you know, how easily you can learn them, and how many you can keep going at once.

I guess you could call that "power," but it's really more like "finesse + stamina." This allows for a learning curve, too: MoirainePC knows way more than EgwenePC, but EgwenePC learns quickly and has the potential to master many more weaves in the long run. Until she levels up, though, no matter how much raw potential she has, MoirainePC is going to mop the floor with her.

I have to agree with @faraday about not using FS3. I played with WoT using FS3 just to see what I could make of it, and the answer was: Something totally hacky.

I love AresMUSH, but it would take someone that could code a whole different stat system to pull it together.

Could you please fix your wiki so the pages don't change transparency when you hover over them?

@deathbird There are config options for this in Ares. Admin decide how where looks from three options:

+============================================================================+
                                 Sandbox                                  
-----[ Open Scenes ]----------------------------------------------------------
#235  Some Room                       CharacterA, CharacterB

-----[ Other ]----------------------------------------------------------------
      Some other room                 KarmaBum
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
        3 Online                    3 IC                    4 Record         
+============================================================================+

+============================================================================+
                                 Sandbox                                  
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Location                            People
Some Room <#235 Open>              CharacterA, CharacterB
Some other room                    KarmaBum
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
        3 Online                    3 IC                    4 Record         
+============================================================================+

+============================================================================+
                                 Sandbox                                  
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Status Name                   Location                            Conn   Idle
ADM    KarmaBum               Some other room                     47s    0s
IC     CharacterA             Scene 235 - Some Room               4m     1m
IC     CharacterB             Scene 235 - Some Room               2h     11m
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
        3 Online                    3 IC                    4 Record         
+============================================================================+

Starting to feel like this is diverging from your "simple and easy" original post.

All systems and no roleplay makes Jack a sad panda.

Celeste was a healer? Or else I'm thinking of someone else...

@Three-Eyed-Crow said in Game Pitch: Three Letter Agency (modern horror setting - X-Files, Fringe, Control, SCP, etc):

Not sure why Ares' FATE plug-in isn't more widely-used, all things considered. It'd be fun to see something done up with it.

Isn't it still missing a web interface (at the very least for Chargen)? Pretty sure that's been the deal-breaker for most people.

@jonah42175 said in How to start?:

I know I should throw out a "Scene anyone?" line, but most of those seem to get frowned upon and considered needy. Am I just reading things the wrong way?

Yes? Or maybe it depends on where you're playing.

I'm only on Calaveras at the moment, and - outside of +events - every scene I've had has begun with me or someone else going IC and saying something about looking for RP on the public channel.

I guess the culture could be different where you're playing.

@thesuntsar said in Calaveras: Adult Fiction Drama MU:

I definitely get the sense that players are going to need to self-start their own stuff.

Just adding - if you're interested to join - there are player-run events basically every night the rest of the week.

The atmosphere on the game is really relaxed and collaborative. All the players I've talked to so far seem cool, so the OOC drama has been almost nil. The two staffers respond to stuff quickly but seem to be content to let players steer the RP with a few meta-breadcrumbs here and there.

It's still more fluff than substance, but - almost a month into it - things look promising.

Is this something that allows for non-persistent connections? That is, do I have to stay logged in to this portal to see poses, or - if my connection drops, I switch apps, etc. - do I lose everything?

I guess what I'm asking: Is this more like Ares or a (very pretty and well-polished!) web-client?

@redbird What kind of game are you looking for?