Best posts made by lordbelh

I was planning on writing something more than my initial (and somewhat unhelpful) comment, but @mietze and @Ganymede summed up my views pretty well.

@SunnyJ said:

By the way, how awesome it is that McGregor doesn't pull out of fights when he gets in these spots? I find it so interesting (and I think it really captures the imagination of fans, too) that he has this rock-solid confidence in himself and his team, while acting like a professional (goes to press conferences, does world tours, sells his fights, trains like a beast, etc).

I agree. Sure he's an obnoxious asshole half the time, but you can't knock a guy who never turns down a fight.

Contrast that to Aldo who usually only fought 1 time a year, and has since his loss to McGregor complained over and over again how he got robbed a rematch, and how he'd fight McGregor anytime, any day. Except, you know, when he got the call to replace RDA. Then he was out of shape and turned it down. I understand him, of course, and don't blame him for it, but showcases a different mentality.

Funny fact: Half of all of Connor's opponents fall out 6/12. So if you really, really, want that fight with him, you've got about even chance of getting it if you just stay in shape, even if you weren't originally scheduled to fight him. I'm wondering if he just gets so hard into people's heads that they overtrain to beat him, and thus injure themselves.

@Tempest said:

Animalism is pretty crappy. It's "better" than 1e Animalism, but it is still the worst discipline (would anyone like to argue this? Maybe I am wrong!). Lord of the Land is kind of cool, but....it's the dot5 power, it better be kind of cool.

I think you're wrong. I don't really think there is a worst discipline, though any of them is useless if you don't apply them correctly and if the game is rigged against them. You can break a game with Animalism if Staff will let you. There's its biggest weakness: it requires playing along with Staff/Sts to make the most out of its first 3 levels. How many Bear/Large Cat/Wolf familiars will they let you hang onto? By the book there's no limit at all. Perhaps they force you to buy 'em as retainers, in which case they've made them pretty pointless.

On the other hand if there are no great secrets to discover, what's the point of Auspex (it doesn't let you break Obfuscate unless you have cause to be looking)? If everybody will Lash Out against you the moment you use Majesty, good luck getting much out of it vs Players.

@Tempest said:

Core Ventrue has nothing but Dominate going for it. Ventrue + 1 other discipline is not on par with Any Other Clan + Dominate.

I am baffled by this argument. (Question: What is a Gangrel without Protean? Same as a Ventrue without Dominate, only with a worse bane.)

@Tempest said:

Resilience alone is pretty lackluster unless the person/people you're fighting have NO physical discipline.

• Vigor gives you per level: 1 attack dice (and each is between .3 and .4 of a success) and 1 dmg if you spend blood. (Edit: Yes, it lets you jump real high and swing small cars around, but meh)

• Resilience gives you per level: 1 health level (equaling 1, 2 (or 3) damage depending on what's being dealt), A to L downgrade per level. Additionally if you spend blood the first level does 2 damage reduction, further adds 1 (or just 1 all over if its vs banes).

What does this mean?

It means that for the first 3 rounds Resilience's first passive is better, after which extra dice of Vigor gradually becomes better. However if you're coming in contact with A damage (which is rare but happens, say against an angry Gangrel), that A to L downgrade is massively important. And of course the Resilience active is just plain better in the dmg vs soaking game, massively depending on what sort of damage is being dealt.

Situationally Vigor can better (for ambush first strike to win, or in a Grapple, or if its the difference between hitting at all or not), but in straight up fighting there's no debating Resilience vs Vigor.

• Celerity gives you 1 Defense (including vs Firearms), and its actives are great in that i lets you Speed multiply, Act First and of course Interrupt.

It's easy to see why you would say it is best; situationally it can certainly be employed to max effect. Hit and run with enough speed multiplier that the opponent can't actually catch up and hit you back can't be denied. Never underestimate hitting first, either. If your movement is limited or complicated, its less useful. If you find yourself in a grapple, Celerity is completely useless.

Edit summary: I find Resilience better because it is universally dependable, rather than situationally great (though it is that as well.) But it's all a matter of taste and playstyle. And how often do people get into fights, anyway? Not very often at all. Let's face it, for RP generating purposes, physical disciplines are the worst.

I do agree with you criticizing @tragedyjones ' Mekhet combat ranking. Obfuscate is a combat ability. Anything that allows you to dictate when and where you want to fight will massively help you win. Obfuscate + Celerity lets you do that.

@sthanheykel I find the prospect intriguing! If you can get it up and running, I'll certainly try it out at some point. Don't have the time to Staff, though.

@Gingerlily I watched the first episode, and I liked it. I've just not had time to watch anymore. See, you're wrong. SOMEONE DOES LIKE AT LEAST ONE SHOW YOU DO!

Btw, I checked out the Expanse. Actually liked.

• On Reno with two supernatural Spheres, the ratio of mortal to supernatural is more or less 50-50.
• On Kingsmouth, which is a single sphere (vampire) game, it's 50-50. Additionally, on Kingsmouth most players only have one character, due to the strict alt rules, yet still half the characters are mortal.
• On The Reach it's more like 1/3 character is a mortal.

This was just me quickly pulling up census on those three games, the ones I'm online on ATM.

Edit: By mortal I mean plain mortal, mortal +, or mortal sub splats to the big scaries.

@GangOfDolls I'd say RfK proved all of that wrong.

It had boons and it had status and they both worked exceptionally well together.

The problem on most MUs is that they are sandboxes. Boons, status, leadership positions and politics in general are pretty pointless in a sandbox.

Same. Both the main card fights were pretty awesome. I thought McGregor had it after the first round, having bloodied Diaz up completely. But then those jabs, man. McGregor said it himself, he went into a bit of panic mode when all those heavy shots just kept failing to knock Diaz out, and as a result he chased it and got tagged too much. That take down in the end? That was total panic, and I knew the moment he did it that he was fucked. Diaz has mad BJJ, and his chokes are among the best in the world.

Credit to McGregor for daring to think big, though. I don't think this is the end; defend the belt at featherweight a couple of times, then try moving up again.

Also how about Misha coming back in the end. That's true spirit. I was really happy for her, and now that division is just so full of possibilities. Ronda vs Misha, and if Misha wins that's an easy rematch with Holm, and if Ronda wins that's.. also an easy rematch with Holm. I do think Holm shows she's good enough to be Champion again.

@Ganymede said:

Me: 863/1233 = 0.70

@lordbelh: 222/280 = .78

Ha.

Also: Jesus, @Surreality, how do you DO it?!

On a more serious note, I think if you're gonna have upvotes you might as well have downvotes. I'd love if you could see who did the downvotes, though. Not so much because I need to know who hates me, but so the people I downvote can know I was the one who did it.

@surreality Say: 'Please do not page me while I'm dark.' Some will think you're a total bitch for it, but eh. You're not.

Black Sails nailed the season finale. I feel this is a show that's just gotten better and better. First season had some slow moments and uneven storytelling, but second really picked it up. Now third season's done and it's been brilliant. Long John Silver and Captain Flint are so damn awesome.

We didn't have a computer in the house until I was 16, and I was a sports/outdoors kid who didn't really see the point anyway.Then when I was 17 I got sick, and chained to my room for a good year, unable to get much out of bed at all, and my mum got me a laptop. Anyway, I was checking my hotmail when I saw the chat section link on the MSN homepage.I was bored and craved some sort of interaction with people after the initial onslaught of friends visiting turned into a trickle and then just about nobody, so I clicked. It didn't take me long to discover roleplay there, first in the teen section, then interests/entertainment sections. I met @coin there. They were fun times. Then MSN shut down its Chat service, and I migrated to IRC rp, before a friend of mine suggested a mush about.. oh, 4 or 5 years ago now. I've been doing that since.

ETA: I still miss one thing about MSNchat, and that's the constant influx of new people. By being direct linked to one of the biggest online portals at the time, there were never any shortage of recruits to join our crazy ranks.

@Auspice Mind, @GirlCalledBlu ran some of the most fun big plot scenes I've been in. Often they can be a complete and frustrating drag, but she managed to make them fun on the 100. At least while I was playing there. So if she was doing that kind of thing, I'd probably consider it an advantage for the game. But that's me!

@Arkandel Pirates. C'MON ITS PIRATES!!!

But more seriously I love the characters and how they've developed form the first season to the third (especially Flint and Silver, but lesser characters too). The action is great, with some truly impressive moments of age of sails naval warfare, and there's some serious study of the dark side of the British Empire back then.

And hey, PIRATES!

@GirlCalledBlu Cool stuff.

Where this discussion has gone reminds me of when Tyler the Creator was banned from entering the UK because of the material of some of his rap lyrics. No doubt the content of said lyrics are downright disturbing, but that was the point. He was doing the whole thing from alter-ego perspectives. Still, the argument ran that the lyrics fostered hatred and glorified violence.

Anyway, to quote his response:

What about the people who will make music in the next five years? Are they gonna get banned? Why don’t they ban authors? Writers who write these mystery books about people getting raped and sabotaged and murdered and brainwashed – why don’t they ban them? There are rallies of neo-Nazis in parts of England. And then you’re telling me I can’t come there because of some bullshit song, but you got motherfuckers with swastikas rallying down the street actually promoting hate?

(note: bolded by me, and also a notable irony is that the rules that allowed the ban were meant to stop terrorists.)

Anyway. I will RP out the most twisted and vile things imaginable, but I do so in the understanding that this is fiction, and I hold myself no more morally accountable for it than I would the creators of Se7en (incidentally one of my favorite movies).

GoT: I knew that was how it'd go when it happened in the books. I WAS RIGHT. But they did manage to make me doubt myself for a long ass time.

@faraday said:

Likewise, several games seemed to be okay with the idea of restricting levels 1-3 (because they felt it sucked too much) and 9-12 (because they thought it was too overpowering). So instead of a 1-12 rating system, you ended up with a 4-8 rating system... not really what was intended.

This always annoyed me, though I suspect the same mindset will be there in 1-5 as well.

@Arkandel said in Good TV:

@lordbelh I haven't watched it. I was up late watching the Raptors game so I didn't have it in me to stay up more. So I avoided the internet for the entire morning, I was super paranoid about being spoiled.

Then my freakin' niece from across the freakin' ocean PMs me on Facebook and spoils it.

Arrrrghhhhhhh.

Ha. I feel for you, man. For what it's worth, I thought it was a really good episode full of forward momentum. So you've got something to look forward to.

@BobGoblin said:

Is it reasonable to treat the PCs of a couple as alts? Not in the you can't RP together sense but in the can't cause direct benefit to the couple's character sense?

No, its not reasonable.