Well it seems like I'm back in the hobby finally. Haven't really played more than a couple of scenes since before Haunted Memories went away, until the last few weeks. Thought I'd post stuff here, maybe catch up with some old peoples with new names.

Current:
Faith - City of Shadows

Past:
Elise - The Network
The Penitent - HorrorMu
Judy - NOLA
Jehanne Mercier - Fear and Loathing
Evelyn/Zelda/Jutte/Others - Haunted Memories
Victoria Roth briefly - The Reach
Karen for like 1 scene - Fallcoast
Andriax - Dragonlance: Age of Mortals.
Lisa - Reno
Katherine - Reno
Victoria - Echoes in the Mist (reimplemented as Judy)
Rowan - Stargate MUX (Brief roster char that I took and then put back.)

@Derp said in What game system would you prefer for a big-tent nWoD project?:

@Livia said in What game system would you prefer for a big-tent nWoD project?:

@Derp said in What game system would you prefer for a big-tent nWoD project?:

@Admiral said in What game system would you prefer for a big-tent nWoD project?:

@Livia Yeah. Maybe cap them at... completing one aspiration a week? That way you can get 1/5 of an XP once a week.

We went with 'cap overall xp from any source'. Personally, I think Aspirations are good. Nobody ever bothers with Conditions anyway so it's not like that's a huge drag. But Aspirations give you something to strive, and let you drive your own story forward without having to wait on staff to run shit for you.

You take those away, and you're just making more work for yourself in the long run, as players get bored that there is nothing for them to do and not enough plot but they're too busy to run PrPs…

That's a choice you want to make very carefully.

I hate short term aspirations. Every time I've done 2e character gen coming up with 'aspirations' in the system has always been my stumbling point. And then I get people telling me I should be completing 3-4 short term asps per WEEK and I'm wondering if I ever have time for anything else.

They don't really have to be a total slog. They don't even have to be incredibly detailed. You can put in generalizations and work them out just fine.

So if I had to come up with two short-term aspirations for a werewolf, I might go with:

1. Talk to a werewolf I haven't met.
2. Do a scene in non-human form.

For a vampire, this could be:

1. Resist the urge to feed at an inopportune time.
2. Get a feel for how the local Harpy operates.

Basically, think of what you would want to do with your character anyway, and make those an RP goal to strive for. Get rewarded. Always have something to look forward to, even if it's routine stuff.

I just don't find this fun.

@Pyrephox said in What game system would you prefer for a big-tent nWoD project?:

Depends on how much RP I get. The only CoD game I'm on, getting any RP at all is pretty hard, and I've been faded myself with work stuff, so none in the last few weeks. But before that? 3-4 a week, assuming a scene a day. Fewer scenes, usually fewer Aspirations (although sometimes you get lucky!)

I get that it varies, based on activity and availability, sure. But that still feels like so much 'paperwork' to me.

@auspice said in Horror MUX:

Also, we have had our first PC death!

It is almost fitting it was The Penitent. It was very exciting. I stayed up too late. But I did not expect that KILL SCENE to hit my screen when it did.

There are a few people who have to be consulted today (due to being offline, but in range of the events) about how things might roll out for their characters, so there may be more deaths in the fallout.

Shit, meet fan.

But really, I am loving this concept. I've always wanted an episodic game where things can shift around. We have so many MU*s now that don't even make it a year because peoples' attention span doesn't last. I think this may be the perfect answer.

My most enjoyable PC death ever! Madison will be missed!

Well since this became a thing I guess I'll mention where it started, there's always a Sabine!

@Admiral I voted 1e but I'd put a thing on it that I just hate the way 2e does XP. With beats and conditions and aspirations and all those systems.

If you did 2e but just had a slow trickle of XP like most games have done without having to manage a million aspirations and conditions it'd be swell.

@Arkandel said in The Great PC Death Dilemma:

This might just be my perspective but I always believed there were just two major issues with PC death in MU* for most people.

1. Ego.
2. Identity/social loss.

#2 is the big one for me.

Having a character unexpectedly die can basically be the same as Ghost's original idea of having people retire/fade away anyway.

I find it very difficult to play a different character with the same characters as the last one sometimes, where even though my friends are fine and want to RP with me, because I'm a new character they treat me very differently, etc etc. I went through alts like crazy after losing a character once because nothing really captured what I was missing, took lots of breaks, etc. I didn't really want to stop playing, but I was just unable to enjoy playing with the same characters as before.

On the whole I'm like, okay with risk and character death in theory, but I just don't know what to do about some of the social things that come up with it.

I'm making some sort of vampire or vampire adjacent creature.

(Yay Mummy!)

@Arkandel I dunno. On AoM in the Knights of Neraka we had our leader guy who was like level 16 and the next highest was like level 8? We RPd with him all the time but he never got to come on the adventures with us, which slowly just led to less and less happening.

There are non strix birbs available. Just get some protean or somethin.

@Arkandel said in The Great PC Death Dilemma:

This might just be my perspective but I always believed there were just two major issues with PC death in MU* for most people.

1. Ego.
2. Identity/social loss.

#2 is the big one for me.

Having a character unexpectedly die can basically be the same as Ghost's original idea of having people retire/fade away anyway.

I find it very difficult to play a different character with the same characters as the last one sometimes, where even though my friends are fine and want to RP with me, because I'm a new character they treat me very differently, etc etc. I went through alts like crazy after losing a character once because nothing really captured what I was missing, took lots of breaks, etc. I didn't really want to stop playing, but I was just unable to enjoy playing with the same characters as before.

On the whole I'm like, okay with risk and character death in theory, but I just don't know what to do about some of the social things that come up with it.

Ooh, I'd probably give it a go. I'm only vaguely familiar with Promethian, but I've been curious.

Phoenix Dawn.

Card game RPG that is all about hand management and has a little bit of deckbuilder in it. It's very interesting to stare at your hand and work out what string of actions you can put together -- no RNG dice rolls, just work out the best way to play the hand you have.

I also find the setting pretty interesting.

One day, we will cross paths again!

@Auspice said in General Video Game Thread:

Hardspace: Shipbreaker is my new favorite game. All the to @Livia for gifting it to me.

It is so fun! And satisfying when you figure out how to make it all come apart efficiently ...

I guess sometimes just talking about a thing makes a thing happen. Updated!

@surreality said in Horror MUX - Discussion:

Also, it was never a large game. It hit something of a perfect storm of people becoming very busy/ill/etc. all at once last I was there (a bit before the pandemic hit). So just a few people being knocked out makes a big difference, and we had a fair amount of that.

For sure.

I just thought people would come back and such.

Not that I can really speak to that. I thought working from home would make RPing a bit more likely, but it was the opposite!

@Ominous said in Horror MUX - Discussion:

A game structured like this needs energy and I suspect any lapse of energy grinds it to a halt, since there is no BaRP to really keep things coasting on momentum between the set pieces.

I dunno, the facility RP between the stories facilitated that, and there was always room for casual RP during most stories. The game sort of halted during one of the stories. I know I personally wasn't clicking with the setting very well, but I figured it was just a me thing and the next setting would come around etc.

Though I admit I was kinda thinking my character was complete, I sort of told the story I wanted to tell through her various selves and was debating starting a new person. It may have been the character not clicking as much as the setting.

I don't think anyone has been on in some time, game kinda just stopped.

I play a lot of D&D 5e, and only once or twice have I used actual grids. Theatre of the mind stuff works fine, imho.