Best posts made by Lithium

Fallout is based on an alternate version of history. After the bombs that ended World War II for all intents and purposes, Fusion was explored in much greater detail than we have. Fusion cars. Fusion powered robots. Fusion powered wrist computers. History diverged at that point.

The reason Fallout was so similar to the 1950's is because society stagnated at that level, the tech that came out reinforced that level of existence with some modifications.

We also only see one aspect of the world, the United States. We don't know how the rest of the world evolved in Fallout.

Meanwhile, I don't mind wireless rules in ShadowRun, but, I always feel that wired is the most secure option other than someone physically cutting into your line it's hard to intercept in general, which is why they kept it around. That and there is zero noise on a wired connection.

I don't mind a wireless and wired mix, my only problem is that 5th edition was like, no more wired, at all, really.

Mostly though it's about Karma and the dice mechanics. I dislike them. Karma Pool trumps everything in the standard 3rd edition ruleset. Edge is not so powerful.

4th had the problem that you could literally create someone with practically zero possibilities of advancement beyond delta grade ware or similar, your dice could be capped from the very /start/ which meant there was no upwards mobility in a lot of ways.

5th fixes that issue, but introduced the nanovirus that is re-writing people's brains, which is a story element I absolutely hate.

My idea game would be a 2052 set game, story wise, using 5th edition rules. With no Technomancers... which opens up a whole new can of worms. Technomancers are a great idea, but in practice are weaker than deckers. The only way Technomancers stay relevant is their sprites, which catapults them straight to broken power levels if used intelligently.

Regardless, I hope you guys who have fun with third, continue having fun. I had a lot of fun on Denver when third was still relevant, but I can't go back to Karma Bloat, even with proviso's to limit it.

@collective said in How should IC discrimination be handled?:

@faraday

Let me start this by saying that I don't think 'Theme' trumps human beings. I just don't. If a hypothetical game runner does, they should post a notice saying so in policy or character gen, so I can move along and find another game.

But in those cases, it's perfectly okay for a given character to not like another character. What's not okay is to seek that character out to abuse them, if they've asked you not to. That does mean that certain people who must play their character as being assholes to a certain class of character might not get a chance to RP with many people of that class.

That's okay. Both players and characters are probably going to benefit by that distance and lack of tension.

Theme trumps all.

Without theme, then the game loses it's purpose. Without theme then people are not playing within the very /game/ that has been built. Theme violations are one of the most annoying and immersion breaking things that can happen.

If the /theme/ includes discrimination, then that is part of the theme. If it does not, then that is /also/ part of the theme. Trying to go against theme in /either/ direction is equally immersion breaking.

I would say I hate to type this, but I don't.

No game is meant for everyone.

There are plenty of games that I don't play on because I dislike the theme. That is 100% ok! It's not a good game for me.

Trying to force any game to conform to /you/ instead of the /theme/ is hubris and ego at crazy levels.

Nobody is forcing anyone to RP anything, you can always log off.

I say this as a trifecta of discrimination points, Lesbian, Native American, and a Woman. Just because I am those things does /not/ give me the right to try and change someone else's game theme, or anyone else's character. I will point out theme violations though, and hope Staff does something about that.

If I don't like the flavor of the Kool-Aid, I am not gonna drink it.

@HelloProject A MUD is a very simple system designed for basic combat. It's loosely based on turn based systems, I attack monster, monster attacks me, you occasionally have a few skills to use to shake things up and provide modifiers. The focus on most MUD codes /is/ the combat. It's based /around/ the combat. It's how one advances through the game.

A MUX is something else entirely in most cases. It's an attempt to make a table top system (most of the time) into something that can be played online. The rules are different. The experience is different. The /focus/ is different.

So the code is different.

Can you make an RP MUD? Absolutely, I started on WoT RP MUD's in the very very early 90's. There was some great RP, some great stories, and some fun kill some mobs times.

The focus was still on the combat where with many MUX/MUSH's the focus is on something else entirely and the code is built around that.

There's also modifiers, depending on the system in place. Every turn isn't just attack mob or cast fireball <target>. It's less automated because the variables are much greater. So the code is thus built to facilitate the environment it's in.

If you want an RP MUD, that's great, make one, I'd probably even help depending on the theme involved but you're trying to compare different code sets with different foci.

@tragedyjones That's cool, I'm not saying anyone shouldn't like a setting or game system or splat or whatever. Just was sharing my opinion and why I think bump is going to be a great game. Because it is human centric, and that's not something that people are used to. It shakes up the comfort zones and opens up crazy stories beyond typical supernatural politcs.

@collective No. As a minority and a 'queer' as you like to use that term, I am saying that it is impossible to please everyone and nobody should even try. It is doomed to failure.

Find a game that you enjoy and play that rather than try to enforce the same sensibilities onto every setting, every theme, and every game out there.

@faraday said in UX: It's time for The Talk:

@Lithium said in UX: It's time for The Talk:

@faraday All of the things you responded to are a problem with /documentation/ not coding. You can change the documentation, get people pointed in the right direction so they know of the + commands and then... guess what? Your whole UX 101 thing is solved.

Done.

It's all about presentation and documentation rather than what the coded command /is/.

Actually, documentation is widely regarded as the very last line of defense for UX. If your UX is so poor that you require the documentation for basic operations, you've failed.

No.

This is wrong.

There absolutely /has/ to be documentation because we must assume that there will be people connecting who are unfamiliar with the whole genre. There are those who also will need documentation for the various commands. This is a simple fact of life.

There is no such thing as a system that is completely intuitive that /everyone/ will get and be able to use instinctively. It just doesn't happen. With /any/ code base. The documentation may be in a newbie start sequence, a guide, or just room descriptions but instruction is /absolutely/ required because there is the possibility of someone completely new to the genre showing up.

Because we all must code our own stuff to fit the game we are making, there is absolutely a requirement to document those commands just so people know /how/ to play the game.

Documentation is not some evil thing. /BAD/ documentation sucks. /GOOD/ documentation is awesome.

@Thenomain said:

What does an adventuring party do when they have nothing to adventure? What defines a shadowrunner when they're not on a run?

This isn't a problem in my eyes, there is always the possibility of rounding out your character with knowledge skills and other skills that are more than 'Is this useful in a gun fight?'. That is also where RP helps. ShadowRunners spend a majority of their time not on runs. Most of the time they are trying to survive the mean streets where they don't (for the most part) have any legal identity and are relegated to the underside of society.

Maybe one shadowrunner likes to paint, write, or play a particular sport. Another might enjoy boozing and whoring. A different one might spend time with his old ganger pals to make sure that they're not dead, or to help them out. One might have family to take care of. Every Runner has a /reason/ for running the shadows and those can drive a lot of what the Runner is doing while not on a run.

There's also downtime work, repairing gear and vehicles, making contacts, buying your Fixer a drink or watching for Backlash from previous runs. ShadowRun since it is such a huge setting has a lot of different tones that can be used, and a lot of that is up to the players and the particular GM.

One of my /favorite/ SR games was when the GM said, nobody can take more than C resources, everyone is a ganger in the same gang, or an ex-ganger in that gang trying to claw their way out of the Barrens. Was a blast. Another game everyone was part of a Doc Wagon team for platinum member recovery.

There are a lot of games to be had that aren't, go do bad things for money, and the setting is vibrant enough to allow for all of this in my opinion.

I've wanted to use her forever, but... nothing seems awesome enough.

She was my hero as a little girl.

@Derp Or trying to play a mud on raw telnet before zugg built zMud. Heh.

I used TF, but I have no real good feelings about it. When I found SimpleMU I used that forever until recently switching to Potato.

These are clients though, and I agree, I have no idea how the heck they are breaking mushclient like that...

@faraday I agree completely. The best fun to be had in ShadowRun, as ShadowRunners is when you can come up with a team, or at least a group of people who can play at the same time as you so you can end up /as/ something similar to a team, at least familiar enough with each other's playstyle and capabilities that you can make a plan accordingly.

As a random solitary Runner, being thrown into runs with people I didn't know or trust? I don't think if I was being totally realistic I'd do that, but we did for the sake of story. Finding a /team/ you can at least partially count on is paramount.

That'd be a good tool to have, a piece of code that a person could put in their archetype, focus, and times available so as to help organize the players to find teams.

Teams are easier to run for as well. On ChampionsMUSH way way back in the late 90's, you couldn't even get approved without having a staffer 'sponsor' you which in general meant the staffer was willing to take you onto a team. It wasn't the best way to run things, but it also wasn't the worst way to run things either.

For me it's RP rooms.

I loved the idea, I hate the implementation.

I miss grid RP, when grids meant something, and you could run into people in public.

I miss hangouts that were actively used.

I miss bumping into someone on the grid and bam, random RP.

As for systems systems... not really a fan of Aspirations. They are never used right it seems, and those who know how to game them can get infinite xp from them.

After all this nonsense and back and forth and what rapidly turned into shit posting...

I get the feeling that some people seem to want a point and click choose your own adventure.

@Misadventure Maybe, but I have played way to many MU*'s to just not be concerned where holes for exploitation exist and aren't addressed one way or the other. People are often competitive and that means they will use every little bit of power they can in order to make themselves 'better' than the rest. I also do not play on the game, just stating what I've seen on the few times I've visited there.

It's worth a vote down by the guy running it though so.. yeah.

You're right that there does need to be more direction, especially in a super hero game, and that is something that Aberrant did rather well: This is the world, now go crazy! Some people like tighter themes though where the 'bad guys' are clearly laid out and that ain't Aberrant. Everyone there is Shades of Gray depending on how you look at it. Except for the guys who go completely cray but that's a given.

To me though M&M is a system where you need a lot of GM oversight in order to make a conducive environment for play, and mass amounts of PC's with 1 staffer who works and has RL etc is... not a good fit for it.

Just my opinion.

Though I am not gonna back down on the fact that there are PL 12 people on the grid, when most people are PL 10 by the rules of CharGen which is sketchy.

@Packrat I've been looking at pictures earlier on lately just because it seems if you don't have one, you don't exist for the current medium of supposed RP'ers. It's like people can't read descriptions and get a mental picture anymore.

So now because of the prevalence of wiki's I've started looking for a picture /very/ early on, cuz, nothing sucks in char creation like having an awesome character and then not being able to find a pb that works.

As a coder, what I would do is just add a separate health track called Shield/Barrier which was controlled either by a biotic barrier skill, or a piece of equipment. Then I would tweak the combat code to hit that /first/ before affecting health. They would have a recharge time in rounds, etc.

All of this is moot, because I do not know Ruby, but that is how I would attack Shields and Barriers.

Earth is missing the most obvious association. Farming. Fertility. Nature.

I will read a book, and if it's good, then I will buy it. I will definitely support the people who are putting out content I use and/or enjoy.

I have no qualms with not buying stuff I dislike and/or will not use however.

I am not a fan of pirating per se, but I do enjoy being able to get digital copies of books I physically own (cuz I own to damn many to manage easily).

@jennkryst said in Is there a classic/20th WoD game out there with an open Mage sphere...:

There is Let Freedom Ring, which is CoH-lite (WC and PF are there. HB used to have a staffbit, but if I remember which one it was correctly, it has been removed. It is anyone's guess about FF).

This is disengenuous at best.

This is just city of hope without the dinosaurs. All the same staff. All the same problems.

@Usekh The game is very good, but they don't allow guns even when you have really good justification for /having/ them. My character can import guns without ever having to pass through customs but I wasn't allowed to bring any guns with me, not even revolvers. Which is fine, it is their game, but it is far more restrictive than even 21st century Oxford is.

Not able to get Hunting Rifles for example which is kind of silly.

So it can conflict with some concepts, was just warning in advance not attacking.

CrackMUX was a pretty interesting take on oWoD. Government found out about supernaturals, decided to import everyone they could find into this one city, as sort of a powder keg, just to see what happened when high concentrations of supernatural enemies were all in one place, ostensibly to 'learn what they did and could do'.

So you had all the oWoD sphere's (and a few home brew one like Immortals from Highlander) crammed into this city, everyone /knew/ they were crammed into that city, that they couldn't leave, but still tried to make a go of it.

Was crazy fun, a lot of fun that people now would say was 'wrongfun' but fuck it, was fun.