Posts made by lordbelh

@Groth said:

@Pyrephox said:

It's one of the MOST agency-preserving social systems you can possibly have while still having mechanics for social actions. Which, if you're making people spend XP on social skills and merits for their characters, you NEED to have some sort of social mechanical system. If, on the other hand, you're house ruling that players don't have to spend any points on social skills, merits, or abilities, then sure, people can play social cops and robbers "I shot you!" "No you didn't!" all day, and at least no one's screwed out of a character build.

In practise, social combat systems are almost never used because anyone that uses them will be OOCly shunned. It doesn't matter how powerful you are socially if noone wants to enter the same scene as you.

I don't think so. I use them regularly, and I have never felt particularly shunned. It ends up being a question of how you use your social influence, rather than whether you use it at all.

@Derp said:

Except that in this case, it's actually you that's wrong, since you have a limited number of rolls in which to try and get to your goal. You can't keep going about it indefinitely. It, like any other extended action, has a cap, a maximum number of rolls before the goal you wish to reach becomes impossible. If you're close, you can retry, though.

Another important point is that, again, the Core GMC book does not exclude the system being used on PC's, and in general, if you're at a tabletop game, it can be assumed that most of the time you are part of a team with said PC's and working toward the same, or at least similar, goals over a much shorter term than a MUSH. The only real difference between NPCs and PCs on a Mush is how often they appear on the screen, and who ends up controlling them.

No, it doesn't say you can't use it, it just says you shouldn't.

When the target amount of Doors are so low (which can in turn just be augmented by merits to be even more negligible) , I stand by my statement that it's just a matter of time and effort. If you want to succeed you will succeed.

While it is possible to do what @Coin says and just counter-play with equal aggression, in which case two opposite social actions are running forward that may or may not be mutually exclusive, the fact is that the Doors system is based around PCs working on NPCs with the ST setting the limits for what can be done. Apply it to PVP situations and the whole game is rigged in favor of the aggressor. The aggressor will always win eventually, and the only thing that's in doubt is how long it will take and how many resources you're willing to expend to get there. Which makes it rubbish both for cooperative RP and for PVP. Its basically rubbish. They even warn against using it vs PCs in the damn book.

I remember the last time we all had this discussion. @Derp was wrong then, too.

@Tempest said:

This 'rah rah our game is the best ever' shit is so tiresome. Nevermind that Shavalyoth was TSing players on her NPCs. Nevermind that her husband is a power-hungry asshole who she completely caved to and gave him everything he wanted. Didn't Tobias (the Invictus Prince) quit playing, immediately after getting killed via +job by an NPC or something? Didn't your game just close because all these ridiculous coded systems are impossible to sustain?

Her husband whose character got a hundred year sentence in torpor, ie, character loss? And whose new alt had oh, zero power what so ever?

Tobias Steele was burned out as Prince and thus got death-by-NPC.

The NPC TS I can't say anything about one way or another, except I sadly didn't get some.

@Tempest said:

RfK was not some pillar of everything a MU should be. It had some plus sides, but only if you're into a heavy PvP environment, and mostly only if you're the sort of player who needs activity shoved down your throat, or you want to be able to play a fuckbunny who pretends to be useful because she has Allies-XYZ. and Resourcess5 (like every other character ever)

Except said ghoul was useful, in ways they are not at all in most games. Resources 5 meant something; it doesn't on most games. Allies XYZ had a purpose on the game, unlike most places. I have Herd 5 on Reno only because I felt it would be cool and thematic, but it serves absolutely no purpose, anymore than my Allies or my Status or my Resources do. All those stats are pointless fluff.

You say activity shoved down your throat; I say something to RP about that wasn't personal RP or throw-away-PRPs, that gave me reasons to play with characters I normally wouldn't. Sandbox games are cliquish games, ultimately nothing you do matter beyond the personal storylines. Which can be cool themselves, but it was nice being able to play a vampire as a political creature. Because frankly? Its not a game made for PRP chasing badguys of the week, or what not.

I am also sad that when I next play vampire, politics (and there always is some politics regardless of intent) and conflict resolution will be a question of overwhelming PK force once more. I hear people say different, but I find that is worse.

Edit: Small fix

Updated: Who I was on Requiem for Kingsmouth. Sad times when games end before you want them to.

Also I'm no longer in a slump.

@Tempest said:

@Shears said:

Are there literally any other good vampire games

If by 'good' you mean has political shit, titles, feeding code, territory systems, and PvP...(The only things I can think of that RfK has and the other current GMC vamp games don't.)

No, because it's been proven time and again that stuff inevitably blows up.

Yet that wasn't what blew the game up. Frankly the political shit, feeding code, territory system and PVP are the reasons that RfK was so ballz amazing when it was running well. What RfK proved to me was that if you have the proper systems in place, where the PVP is not all about RAWRFACE, then its pretty damn awesome. Without territory systems, political shit, feeding restrictions, etc, PVP always becomes a matter of pure brute force. RfK didnt suffer that, and that was great. Time and time again those who attempted brute force found that rather than put them on the top of the food chain, that playstyle actually cost them more than it was worth. Which isnt to say rawrface didnt happen, just that it wasn't instant win, instant make you the top dawg.

Damn this is horrible. I'm on the ew I don't like wagon, too.

@Cobaltasaurus If it fixed legit problems, fair enough. It fixed 'em while making the forum look like utter shit in the process. But I can accept the idea that it might be a necessary trade, even as I despise it. I don't think its hysterics, its just my opinion. The new layout has that utterly transient feel of youtube/facebook comment sections. Where nothing said really matters, its just an accumulation of white noise. That said I'm sure I'll survive and adapt. After all, its not like we say all that much meaningful here, either.

Wow. This was absolutely horrible!

@Thisnameistaken I agree with most of what you say. I don't want to have to go into scenes to regain my blood. That will become onerous after a while; what rp time I have I want to dedicate to scenes that interest me. But just typing in a hunt roll takes 2 seconds. When you combine that with a limited supply of blood, and a limited amount of time to hunt, then it becomes meaningful but unintrusive. The last part is important.

@Arkandel said:

And if it's not there for RP but just a command (+feed <place>=<amount>) then what's the point? How is that entertaining?

I find that it influences the RP indirectly. The choices you make depend on your access to blood. You know you can't heal yourself all that easy if you go into Agg, you know you can't engage in a fight if you're low on blood, or just casually waste it on the Blush. Doing Blood Sorcery ca be a massive undertaking if you need that extra blood sacrifice to have a shot at success.

I find having to make all those adjustments entertaining. But that might just be me.

I think you should have a look at what Requiem for Kingsmouth has done. How you get your blood matters; but it's not normally an issue unless you blow through it recklessly. The racks might occasionally be dry, but mostly there's enough blood to go around.

STing means penalizing your own character. Having something to make up for that seems perfectly legit to me. You don't want your STs to be losing out becase they're dedicating time to make other people's fun.

@Thenomain Self awareness can be lax, perhaps, but faux moralism, hypocrisy and hyperbole there's a lot of. If your setting is Hogwarts, I can get behind limiting the hyper-sexualized images. If your game is WoD, I lean towards the idea that the lack of awareness is more in prominence in the people setting strict taste standards than the ones putting up a TS-invitation-by-PB. And perhaps I just can't get out of my head all those times I've heard people snark about other people's wikis and PBs, and been unable to roll my eyes at the kind of slutty kink they've been up to on the side themselves. It doesn't tend to be 'what if I got caught looking at this at work?' so much as moralizing judgement by people who aughta be more aware of what kind of game they're playing.

Anyway, it's not like I put up any kind of PBs that are even remotely unclothed myself, or feel that I lose something important with wiki rules that limit that sort of thing. I just find it all very eyeroll worthy, but I accept that I might be in a minority.

Also:

@Thenomain said:

"It hurts no one" is not a reason to not do something,

More often than not, I kind of think it is.

@Arkandel I don't know where you're from, but a surprise boob isn't a big deal around here. Where it is, I'm sure clicking the X takes care of it quick enough to spare everybody too much embarrassment. Though I was thinking less about full on nudity than cleavages and butts, I don't really have a problem with that, either. Though in that case perhaps behind an NSFW tag.

My general policy tends to be that as long as it's not actively hurting my fun I don't really feel the need to police these things. Anyone getting bothered by people's slutty PBs tend, in my humble opinion, to care way to much about other people's business. I fail to see how it hurts anyone at all. I can however understand a slutty PB being perfectly evocative of the actual character. I'll probably avoid said character, but I expect that just saves everybody a lot of wasted effort and time.

@GentlemanJack is awesome, said by someone who isn't actually playing there!

Like I said, it's been a couple of years. Perhaps the game has changed for the better. It occasionally happens if people become cognizant of their own less than noble actions and actually amend their ways. Rarely, mind, but not entirely out of the realm of possibilities. I know for a fact how it was back then, because I got numerous stories about it as it was happening, from multiple sources, but yeah. Could have changed. If so, great!

I played it a couple of years ago, for a little while. 3 months perhaps. I think it was my second ever MU. I found Skaldia super friendly to start with, but that faded in favor of his sandbox mentality. When one of his characters couldn't win the affection of a friend of mine, he just made another in a position of power over her. His NPC king was one of those NPC leaders whose good side you get on by TSing him a bunch. Of course it's a Kushiel game so you might think that's just a given. (I never even heard of the books until after I joined.) I was just looking for a historical themed setting, and I'm an adult and don't really care if it's uber sexual. But I did hope it was more than just that. My bad. I can't say I recommend it at all. I heard for a while it was really dead, but I suppose if the owner is die hard dedicated then those are just cycles.

From my experience on Reno and Kingsmouth, beats, aspirations and conditions are all around awesome. I absolutely hate votes, for all the reasons that @Coin supplied. It's marginally better than 'activity' code that measure lines and post frequency, and definitively better than those systems that rely on reccs alone (which is just one big circle jerk of we're all awesome), but still a horrible mechanic. I will say that Aspirations need to be fluid; you're going to have to allow people to change them as circumstances dictate.

@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.