Posts made by krmbm

@TNP said in Gray Harbor Discussion:

Case in point: this gay Jewish cross-dressing assassin.

Also, GH isn't set during WW2. Just to keep anyone from having to dig through to figure that out.

+1 for Ares on Digital Ocean.

If you don't want to use FS3, you can take it out and replace it. This may not be easy, but it is doable. Or you can just turn it off if you're going stat-free.

(If you don't want to use the Scenes plugin, you're insane.)

Wheel of Time.

@Admiral said in Where to play?:

Gray Harbor doesn't like it is up my alley as I checked out the theme and it wasn't for me, so I would be interested if there were any other options.

This doesn't actually answer your question, but I just wanted to toss in: I respect players that are able to make these decisions instead of trying to round-peg their way into Square Hole by Night just because it's the current hotness. If I could up-vote your post more than once, I would.

I truly hope you find somewhere that is your flavor.

@Cupcake @Tomorrow It should be reachable again.

@faraday saves the day!

Uh, here too, actually. Checking with @faraday on this one, since it was working fine yesterday. <.<

@Auspice said in Difference between an NPC and a Staff PC?:

@krmbm

but why can't we RP toothbrushing together all the time?!

KarmaBum reaches for the toothpaste, but Auspice is already using it. A fight breaks out. The world burns. A handful of gritty survivors survey the wreckage amid the ashes, scarred and battered by centuries of war. A child among them mumbles, "This is why we can't have nice things."

@Sunny said in Difference between an NPC and a Staff PC?:

Then why do people object to an ethical staffer using the element?

Maybe I should rephrase: That's not why I object. So I can't say why people object to that. I, personally, don't care if the RP in question is sex, mini-golf, burrito-making, booger-picking, tooth-brushing, etc.

I object to staffers using NPCs - special characters with access to shit regular players can't get (whether that's abilities, connections, information, whatever) - as their personal PCs, and justifying it by saying "it's just an NPC."

Edit: Hah, apparently a bunch of people already said this while I was typing up my response. Anyway.

@Sunny said in Difference between an NPC and a Staff PC?:

If someone objects to an ethical staffer including a sexual element in their plot because it is a sexual element...

Do you think that's why people object? Because that's not why.

@Auspice said in Difference between an NPC and a Staff PC?:

Poor weyrlinghood experiences are, I swear, why a great many people idle out before they graduate.

Almost like watching the Weyrlingmaster spend 12 weeks TSing with the newest goldie instead of running story for weyrlings isn't fun! <.<

@Thenomain said in Difference between an NPC and a Staff PC?:

There is so much packed in that statement that I'm just going to leave it there and walk slowly away, around the corner, and break into a flat-out run.

Well, now you have to fail weyrlinghood and do the entire 12 weeks over again.

@Sunny said in Difference between an NPC and a Staff PC?:

The? No. It shows that it is A way to get story.

That's your opinion as a person that thinks inter-personal RP via staff NPCs is fine.

Mine (as someone who does not think it's fine) is that I just saw Sue get a cool new weapon because she went 18-holes with StafferBob, and I did not get anything because I don't enjoy that particular flavor of RP and didn't jump on StafferBob's putter.

I may be completely wrong and pettily jealous, but now I'm completely wrong and jealous over here, on a game where I'm more comfortable with how staff uses their NPCs.

@Sparks said in Difference between an NPC and a Staff PC?:

Either way, this is a situation where the PC seeking romance/sex with the NPC serves the story; the PC can gain something which advances their storyline. If they were trying to get that information for a plot involving multiple people, it advances storyline for multiple PC's!

And now we're back around to the optics: You, as a staffer, just made it appear that a relationship with a staff-run NPC is the way to get story.

If that is the tone you are going for on the game, then great! If it's not... well, you might want to reconsider sex/relationships mini-golf with staff NPCs as the gateway to plot. Like it or not (and this thread kind of illustrates it), your average player sees that, sighs, and bitches to their friends that another staff-favorite just got plot by hitting a hole in one.

@scar said in Difference between an NPC and a Staff PC?:

Does the mini-golf scene help set up a foundation of security and friendship for PCs where the NPC is concerned, from which to jump off of? This seems like it's just a matter of taste. Sure, NPCs can be very rewarding while still lacking in those dimensions. It depends on the story you're telling.

Yes, but so does a scene that's actually about the story I'm telling.

By using a staff-run NPC to play mini-golf, this staffer is suggesting that mini-golf is important. As a player, I'm left thinking, "Oh, I better make sure my PC gets a mini-golf game in with StaffNPC, since apparently that's the 'in' for plot right now!"

See why the optics are important? Why - if mini-golf is your bag and you're not on Mini-Golf By Night - you might be better served playing a regular old PC than trotting out your staff NPC in this instance?

So let's divorce the issue from sex, so we don't have to worry about pearl-clutching.

Should staff NPCs be wandering around, roleplaying random mini-golf games that don't do anything for the story? Setting? Pretty much anything but their own desire to have a mini-golf scene?

IMO, no. If you want to RP mini-golf on a game that's not about mini-golf, do it with a PC, not a staff-run NPC. Otherwise, you're implying that mini-golf is important on some level that it's really not.

@faraday said in Difference between an NPC and a Staff PC?:

I think the main concern isn't really the nomenclature, but the troubling behaviors that result. Like when a staffer is clearly playing a character like a PC, but is doing so in some shady manner under the guise of "but it's just a staff NPC". Whatever you call it, shady is shady.

Bingo.

If I decide that my character has a tommy-gun after telling the entire game that PCs can't have tommy-guns, I just broke my own rules.

If I decide to play the NPC that has a tommy-gun after telling the entire game that PCs can't have tommy-guns because I'm furthering a story about how and why tommy-guns are super dangerous, I'm still within my own rules.

If I'm now playing that tommy-gun wielder in random scenes just 'cause I think it's fun and he's my new favorite character and his tommy-gun gets me all the TS, I'm a cheater hiding behind the "he's just an NPC" lie so I can get my rocks off.

@Wretched said in Difference between an NPC and a Staff PC?:

Addendum: ALSO PLEASE STOP TSING PEOPLE WITH YOUR NPC'S AUGH

This.

THIS.

A thousand times, THIS.

@Thenomain said in Difference between an NPC and a Staff PC?:

So, a staffer playing an NPC versus a staffer playing a PC.
Is there really a difference?

Yes. I play NPCs all the time. I also play PCs all the time. There's definitely a big difference. NPCs typically have access to abilities or information that PCs don't, may have a network of NPCs that support them, and thus have an unfair advantage over PCs.

They're written for a specific niche (e.g., mafia boss, important Lord, librarian with info to disseminate). Almost all the ones I've ever played have had multiple drivers, with different staff members inhabiting them in order to keep story moving along. Even the ones where I solely play them still aren't mine. They belong to the game.

Can an NPC without extensive documentation exist?

I don't quite get this question. NPCs exist all over. They people our pretend worlds. Clarify?

When does an NPC become a Staff PC?

When that character is being used for ends other than plot.

Personally, I feel incredibly uncomfortable with staffers playing important NPCs that have non-plot RP with PCs. I get that sometimes an NPC may have a relationship with a PC, but there's a line: it's one thing for your NPC King to have a scene with his PC brother about the future of the crown; it's another thing entirely for that NPC King to be out trolling for sex from chamber maids.

All that said, if staff wants to create PCs that are openly played as PCs, I'm all for this. I just feel like the argument "oh, Bob has Badassery-10 even though PCs are capped at 8 because he's an NPC" loses its credibility when Bob is on-camera every day, dropped into non-plot scenes, RPing nothing to do with Badassery.

@Auspice said in If you work hard, son, maybe someday you'll RP:

But this sort of dovetails into the post I just made in the peeves thread: we can't assume 'just because X person did it years ago' (or even a few people over the years have done it!) 'every single person I ever encounter will do it'.

No, but it's definitely still a thing people do on games currently. Like, the-day-before-yesterday.