Posts made by Lisse24

I feel so guilty. I'm terrible with responding to stuff.

I'm a very present-focused person. Whatever it is that I'm doing at the moment, I'm DOING it. So I have to automate processes and add things to my to-do list to remember that I need to do something that's not in my normal routine.

So, all too often, I forget to send in RSVPs and for all us non-reservers out there, lemme tell y'all, we feel terrible. We know it's awful for y'all, and we really, really wish we could get our shit together in this aspect of our lives and I truly, humbly apologize.

So, I feel as if this is where I preach the 'We Need Better Tools' sermon again.

Yes, culture has changed, and to accommodate that changing culture we need a better way of connecting players. I'll be honest, I love Ares. I love what it is doing so much. I thought I'd be salty about the move away from grids and to scenes, but I really, really like RPing from my browser. The only struggle I have? I have NO CLUE how to find RP on that system.

The only tool provided to players to find people willing to RP is the RP Requests channel. This is a struggle for me because I generally log in for the evening slightly before every one else (about 30 minutes or so). So my typical experience on Ares is I connect and get situated, then I ask on the RP Requests channel if anyone is down for a meet. Because there's not a lot of people on yet, I don't get much of a response. I then have a dilemma. If there is a specific person I know I need/want RP with, I can page them directly. If not, I can either wait until someone else asks for RP (typically when it's too late for me to reasonably start a scene) or ask for RP every 5 minutes on channel, risking sounding like an overexcited dog.

Twenty years ago, when games were more grid oriented, I typically used +where as my find-rp tool. With a single command and quick scan of my screen I could typically tell:

1. Who was already in a scene and whether that was a scene I could join.
2. Who was not in a scene but was open to being approached by pretty much everyone, plus what that scene might be about.
3. Who was on, but was being a bit more exclusive in who they were going to RP with.
4. Who was on, but was just on for boards, paging, and chat.

+Where was a bad tool for that purpose, but over decades of building up MU culture around how to signal for RP, it worked reasonably well for a long time.

We need a tool that provides that information to characters so that people wanting to RP with each other can do so. The +wantrp command on some games starts to get there, but it doesn't convey a sense of what a scene may be about. In the past, I've proposed a simple change to the +wantrp command that would add a list of suggestions. So something like:

• +wantrp on=My character totally just got beat up and has plot info I totes wanna pass on!!!! (plus some healing RP, plz)
• +wantrp on=Looking to meet criminal-types and get my char involved in that sphere.
• +wantrp on=Setting up at the Cafe for random meets and maybe a philosophical convo on the role of God in magic.

That with +scenes could give players looking for RP a pretty good start.

You could also provide a tool where players flag themselves available for certain scenes or types of RP. The point being: Yes, finding RP is hard. Yes, it will always be hard, but right now its harder than it has to be, and we should be looking on how to remove some of that friction.

This will be unpopular, BUT I'm kinda peeved with spoiler-phobia. I'm fine with showing simple courtesy, by not posting things in your FB feed, but when people start demanding that every one else bend over backwards to accommodate your ignorance.

Examples:
I made a hobbit/stranger things joke on my FB feed about the time season 2 came out and had a friend jump down my throat.
I was listening to a podcast this past week and they gave a spoiler warning for Lost. Lost!
GoT specific podcasts and discussion groups have been prefacing posts with spoiler warnings...which is kind of the whole point?

@Rinel It would have been good if:

A. They'd shown us that sort of crazy from Dany before this episode (I'm really bummed about this, because that's where I wanted her story to go all along)
B. Bran had done something - ANYTHING to be not-useless this season.
C. They explained wtf was up with Bronn.

Watched Chernobyl so I had the taste of Good TV in my mouth before this evening's GoT episode.

First episode is a bit gruesome, but I still highly recommend.

I do this on WoD games to an extent. I rarely ever port a character over wholecloth. I usually keep the name, PB, and general feel of a character and then adjust the character to the new setting.

I do this for a few reasons, one, the themes on WoD games generally don't vary enough to make it impossible.
Two, WoD games have such a short lifespan that I generally don't get to play out a complete character arc to my satisfaction. The only way for me to get to the point where I feel like I'm done with a character is to play out their arc over several games. Generally, my starting point on what game is a few ticks advanced on from my starting point on the previous game.
Three, Because WoD games are so short-lived I sometimes don't want to waste effort on a completely new concept until I know the game's going to be active for longer than a month.
Four, Sometimes, I think a concept is going to work on a game and it just ... doesn't, so I shelve the concept and try again on a new game.

For example, with Natalie over on echoes is a recycle of Natalie on SF. SF-Natalie was raised in a ghoul-family. The killing of the family's regnant left them mostly to their own devices. So Natalie poked at the supernatural until she got noticed and ghouled. Echoes-Natalie is one tick along the story was raised in a ghoul family with the intention that she'd always take over and be ghouled. Like SF-Natalie, Echoes-Natalie dabbled with mortal groups exploring the supernatural, but while SF-Natalie did so exploring her own family secrets, Echoes-Natalie did so in preparation for service. With both, there was a period of time that they were free of vampiric influence, but with Echoes-Natalie the choice to become a ghoul was her own, made as the best possible way to increase her family's influence. She is now utterly devoted to her regnant, though with some nagging regrets. Both characters have the same, smooth, polished demeanor and likely will interact with PCs similarly, and both have a family business that they're shepherding.

With Echoes-Natalie, I was excited about having the char play a 'bridge' and be more involved in the mortal sphere than vampiric sphere, however at this point in the game, I very much doubt that is going to happen, so I'll likely shelve that idea and bring out a form of Natalie again on a future game where I think I might be able to accomplish that bridge concept again, or I may come up with a better idea for making a mortal-vampiric bridge character and run with that instead.

@Rinel said in Game of Thrones:

Modern fantasy is actually quite popular. Sabrina is getting rave reviews on Netflix, and The Magicians seems to be doing well (though boy oh boy did they shake things up at the end of the last season). People aren't too happy with American Gods, though (personally, I love it, but my taste in shows is terrible), and I can't imagine that the Lakeside arc will make people any happier.

I think the lodestar for whether epic fantasy will continue on TV in a big way is going to be Amazon's LotR project. Whatever it is. The maps show Númenórë, so it's gonna be Second Age. If it does well, then I think things will improve.

All of those popular projects are modern fantasy, though, which I think is more accessible. GoT edged itself into accessibility by being a non-fantasy fantasy. I'm really, really doubtful that the LoTR project is going to do well, but then, that's just because I'm a bit over LoTR. I'm finding it hard to reconcile my 'meh' for LoTR with my excitement for the Kingkiller chronicles so, basically, ignore everything I just said.

@Rinel said in Game of Thrones:

Like hell. They're bored and they want to move on. I don't judge them for that. What I judge them for is not giving the series over to people who still give a shit.

I do. Knowing when to pass a project off into other hands is an essential leadership skill. Okay, so they're bored/burned out/whatever. Then give the end of the season to someone who's as passionate about wrapping it up well as they were during the first season.

@GangOfDolls
And this is my problem with this season. If you have to tell me in after-episode interviews what happened, then you did a crappy job writing.

I think it might help to prevent siloing and the fracturing of the playerbase, but I'm not convinced that it will and I think there are better ways to accomplish the same purpose, so I'm not sold on the idea.

@Ghost Maybe someone should try a game that has a wiki, but not player pages. I dunno if it would be successful, but I'd like to see what effect it has.

@Auspice I think it's great that language is being expanded to include step moms & foster moms & adopted moms and all kinds of moms!

I'm not OK with messaging that has to try and find a way to squeeze motherhood on you because without it, somehow you just aren't a complete woman. You can have inclusive messaging without sending the message that it's something all women need, and really, that's all I'm asking for.

@silverfox said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

@Arkandel

It's really common for every woman to be wished Happy Mother's Day.

Here's one bullshit example: https://www.popsugar.com/family/Why-You-Should-Celebrate-All-Women-Mother-Day-44733416

We can respect women and everything we do.

It doesn't need to be on Mother's day.

I especially hate the 'we're all mothers in some way.'

You know what? I'm not going to have kids and I'm OK with that. My value and worth are not determined by how much or how little of a 'mother' I am. Regardless of my ability or choice to have children, I have worth because I am. You do not need to bend over backwards to put a label on me to provide me that worth. My value exists without it.

Yeah, I've got some thoughts.

***=Thoughts and all that***

@Steven-Universe Yeah, we know tons of alts and lots of spheres peter out quickly, I'd be interested in a game with multiple spheres and restricted alts to see how that fares.

@Arkandel said in City of Shadows:

@Lisse24 However staff in this game have expressed the desire to not change systems and introduce HRs as much as possible.

As for XP starvation that, too, has its side-effects which most of its supporting arguments don't consider. It is an important factor for players driving their activity without waiting for months for the next raise, and a carrot incentivizing character participation in plot.

In other words it's not an improvement to go from "Renown is artificially slowed to a near halt" to "everything is slowed down to a near halt". People, well, like buying toys.

I think there's a vast difference between XP starvation and slow XP. Also, if the ONLY thing characters are striving for in your game is XP, then you probably don't have enough for them to do. This is where the territory system Gany's working on comes in. Give people something to create and build and use that isn't XP.

I mean, sure, that's a new system, but I'm not sure you need to house-rule anything existing thing to make it work.

@Ganymede said in City of Shadows:

@faraday said in City of Shadows:

Well umm... some of us in some of our systems do?

WoD did. They did away with that when they shifted stat development from an exponential spending system to a linear one. I've already exhausted the conversation regarding why that was a stupid idea.

And here we are.

Yeah, but by fiddling around with the beat:xp ratio, you can create an exponential system, which may be wise for a MU.

@Ghost said in City of Shadows:

2. I need renown 5 for this one gift, and if I get that gift and apply it to my other skills and merits I can do parkour ninjustu with a claymore and ride a motorcycle in full blown Crinos form. So fuck it, let's check those renown boxes off.

#2 is why these games got in the habit of making players to through hoops for renown. Some players want the dots more than they want to earn/justify them.

#2 is avoidable with low/slow XP games. Most of the complaints that players have about WoD are fixable by putting the breaks on XP. WoD, like many RPGs, goes off the rails at a certain XP level. That's fine when in a TT setting when you have STs that can cater to that XP level, but it really isn't healthy in a MU.

I'm a personal believer in requiring story development to justify the deeper dots on a character sheet. This requires ST oversight, which is something that's very important to the system(s) <oWoD, nWoD, v5>. Unfortunately, the more distanced STs and staff get from whats going on ICly, especially given dozens of players at a time, this gets more difficult.

I'm fine with needing stories/backgrounds if those stories/backgrounds etc come into play on-grid. But when you have to write pages of text, the only purpose of which is approval of a single stat or character sheet, and then it's never touched on again, that seems a bit excessive.

Granted, I don't play werewolf, It's not my thing, so I don't know how renown usually works out on grid. I just know what usually happens with the notes/bgs/justifications that I tend to write, which is nothing.

@Taika I love everything you say there. Like really. I was skeptical of yet another multisphere WoD MU, but you seem to be thinking about how to keep momentum going. I don't know all the details, which is to be expected at this point, but the mere fact that you're thinking about it puts you several steps ahead of other games.

I'm also with you on not wanting to artificially limit a sphere just because. I think in a low-XP game, Mage won't be able to break stuff nearly as much. It's been so long since there's been a true low-XP game, that people are used to them having infinite abilities. Also, I wanna play a mage!

The only other thing I'd love to see is an extremely limited alt policy (1 major sphere + 1 mortal/m+?). That would have the benefit of limiting the number of mages running around without having to impose a cap. It would encourage cross-sphere RP, encourage investment in a single character (which will help with sustainability), and will help beef up the mortal sphere.

@Ganymede said in City of Shadows:

If you want folks to steer away from the tradition race-based groups and towards multi-race factions, then I highly recommend implementing a territory system that works irrespective of what race you might be. It will be tricky with Mages, but I think it can be done. Making the game all about protecting and modifying one's claimed territory will steer people away the "more traditional" traps that games tend to fall in.

If you create a system that players can use to create, modify, and use territory, this also gives your high-frequency players something to do that will keep them invested in the game without needing staff to go crazy creating plot for them. I have such a system written and will share if you want to use it or just use as a stepping off point. Pretty sure there's also some LARP stuff out there that does the same thing, though.

@Taika Yeah, I'm not sure how you're planning to have +plots to work, but I would have suggested some form of that command if you hadn't mentioned planning on it.

If I can make another suggestion? I think you only want your randomscene code to pull 2 or 3 PCs not 10. 10 names are too many to think about. The code will still be used, but only really by high-frequency players, who will be bent on abusing it for XP. However, 3 names or less are easy to hold in your head. So players will see their randomscene names, think, 'oh, cool,' before they check out +where or whatever to see what's going on. When they get to that next step, you want them to have those names in their memory still so that when they see one, they'll get the urge to go find that person for RP. I think it would also be helpful if randomscene commands were reciprocal (if you have someone's name on your list they also have yours, so you're searching with each other).