Best posts made by Lotherio

@Kay said in What Types of Games Would People Like To See?:

I'd kill for an all original concepts superhero game. All OCs, no DC universe or Marvel or anything.

I had one up, all originals, a couple months back. It got all of two people that showed up, one completed CG even.

It was an Andromeda strain meets Wild Cards meets WoD feed the beast mentality.

A bio terrorist attack hit Detroit, over 50% casualty rate. 75% of the remaining in a certain vicinity were just mutants (blue skin, or three arms, or grotesque, just some visible mutation). Two years after (present) some others showed signs they had powers. (PC's mostly, and villains). They had powers but if they didn't use their abilities, they grew melancholy (gained apathy), too much of that and they gained a rage (uncontrollable desire to use it), and too much rage they became primal/raw power (I was watching gun sword a lot, it was fitting).

Lots of meta to deal with, but basically 10 years back there was an incident in a town called Ten Ravine (Wyoming, actual town is like Ten Sleep). Andromeda strain, it pretty much killed everyone. So there's bits of this stuff out there, 2 years ago some Nutter fired it on Detroit (Wild Card when the alien agent was first released). Players begin as basically victims that have to feed the beast and use their abilities as they are awakening.

I don't like mega power can't be hurt (my ability is phasing, no one can touch me, or force field, no one can tough me, or zero energy super power no one can touch me), everyone was good in some aspects and vulnerable in others. It used FS3, I coded in a switch that checked the five choices and gave bonuses as appropriate in opposed resolution.

OC super game sounds fun, but I think it need not be made in silo, the silo ones aren't making it. OC supers needs a team of developers, theme and otherwise.

Phyllis!

@arkandel said in Great TV:

So for instance the new Star Wars series drew the original cast back but... they didn't do jack. In fact they were portrayed, largely, as failures. I didn't appreciate that. Game of Thrones tried to 'subvert expectations' and decimated the story it was building for years. The Wheel of Time... ugh don't get me started.

This makes me curious. For me and my perspective. I have enjoyed a lot of the Star Wars live action that most fans seem to dislike or despise. I enjoyed Solo, I enjoyed Book of Boba Fett. One could look at Solo and think, that's not his character, his time as an Imperial Fleet was more than that, its where he learned flight patterns enough to fake out the shuttle approach while going to teddy bear moon.

I tend to look at it in the classical since. Its tales from a very long time ago. All the works aren't going to agree and down the line, we'll pick and choose the parts we like and disregard the ones we don't. Any old mythology is all one has to look at. Greek mythology wasn't written by one author, nor was Arthurian legend. In fact, there is still works being created about them today. A lot of folks enjoy Percy Jackson, no one is saying, that is not Perseus how could they do that character injustice. Some of the recent Arthurian movies have taken the revisionist western point of view, it was a gritty time and he was a far more gritty bastard than the French writers painted him out to be (noble, chivalrous).

The curious part is how is it that in recent years/decades/etc if a derivative work comes out it has to be true to one source? Do we go back to like Cervantes being possessive of Don Quixote such that when other authors borrowed the character, he had to write book two for the express purpose of killing the character off to end any further adventures of Don Quixote? Is it just me being old and enjoying these other takes? In comics, a new telling of Peter Parker getting his powers and morals in new and interesting ways is what comic fans like. How is it most of us deviate from this if a TV show or movie goes 'off the rails' and doesn't stay true to the source?

Not to argue it, just curious what makes it 'true' to the characters vs off the rails and why live action seems to be the line in the sand of things being too far off the mark.

@thenomain said in FCs on Comic MUs:

So here is a good way to tie up superhero comic fans for hours, if not days:

"If you had any one super power, what would it be?"

Eventually the conversation would come around to: "What is 'one power'?"

The Flash has super-speed, but does he have a second power that increases his response time, and if so then does it also keep him from experiencing the world over 100x faster than anyone else?

What is it in super-strength that also keeps your bones from being crushed from the equal force pushing back against your body when you punch through a wall?

You get the idea.

I support this exercise. For a couple of reasons.

OCs are not bad, but do believe some folks feel they are a catch all with some players aiming them to be better than FCs and a way to showoff, or they are some attempt to be super versatile in an ingenious way so as to be nearly unbeatable somehow.

Some folks choose FCs that are indeed 'one power' only but have developed a crazy bag of tricks from that one power so as to be better than others and are used as a way to showoff , or they are some attempt to be super versatile ...

You get the idea. I like FCs and OCs (comic or other genre). With an FC, they can have one power and be super versatile though through years of developing tricks that spin off that one power, with an OC individuals try to be just as creative. It gets right back to limit powers on OCs to make FCs better or how to make everyone feel on par, etc. etc. And its comics, really, take turns in the spotlight, take falls from time to time.

And to get at a lot of the topics that have come up, who likes FC, who likes new spins on FCs, who doesn't, who likes to see FCs in new story arcs, who likes to replay old story arcs with twists, whatever ... I'm would rather see more original theme OC places than multi-comic inclusive places that try to merge timelines. I tried a few throughout the years, never my cup of tea. Yet, inversely, more preference is to FCs with spins, twists, new takes, new stories.

Would be nice to see an OC game.

A couple of thoughts. I think if the system is meaty, potential new folks lose some interest in a supers game (if an OC Champions game opened, I'd have no interest). Inversely, I think while stateless works/hadsworked, there are quite a few folks that want some dice, but more action (fast combat) oriented not loaded down in powers/feats/abilities. KISS - a system folks can grab easily without needing 3+ books to understand the mechanics is good. Simpler the better, which makes it hard with powers I know.

As for Sky High/Academy, this is what we did three'ish years ago with Coral Springs. But to be different it was in the water, not floating in the sky. It had a good run. That said, I think the city idea would be good. It could have some meta/mutie/Sky high but not be limited.

While you have a lot of lore ready to go, I'd ponder lessening it to simply the essential stuff. Let players build into the lore. You don't need a Legion of Doom (Villain group), but what's wrong with a player apping into the Academy side trying to do good despite Legion of Evil Parents being at their back. I'm thinking, and could be me, but in an OC game, players like to contribute that sort of stuff, its their char BG/development, but contributes to a growing OC world. Secondary to that, its good you have a solid basis of world but check for potential collaborators too, a few other sounding voices at least could help contribute to a theme more inclusive.

From Coral Springs, I can say there are plenty of imaginative players ready to play OCs, given the right tools to create what they want, just be ready to stick to guns on the weird/banned concepts (like if you don't want time manipulation or completely invulnerable).

Professor Emeritus

@auspice said in Hello MSBites! Grade your administrators.:

Lotherio ruined it for me.

I ruin everything, You're welcome.

I figured with testing, maybe there was a back end parameter or something that could make it anonymous so offered it out to help.

@kanye-qwest said in FCs on Comic MUs:

@arkandel But there IS a reason, and the reason is: I have things I would rather do with my time than 1. define that and 2. defend my definition endlessly

I mean obviously I'm being fippant, if you are down to spend your time that way, excellent. I would never, ever staff on a comic game where people could play published characters.

I have to second this. Still feel more potential for less wrong fun drama in an OC environment. Crossover with what I want for a new setting. Wild Cards, Year 0, No FCs. Jetboy died trying to stop the alien virus, all wild cards are OC.

Or better, something else 'happened', people now have powers, all OCs.

As noted, by @Kanye-Qwest, Just defining that cutoff choice and what's allowable FC wise is a nightmare and a lot of places that have done that start from knowledgeable staff base when the average player base is more casual fan I believe. It takes defending to say, no X can't be here yet, they're post cutoff, or Y can't be here, they only crossed into the dimension in Z and returned to their world, its canon, we're not allowing them back in (but why?, no, but why?).

In any canon with cutoff, as comics have been around like, a century+ and such, there is a crazy level of history to any pre-cutoff that has been explored in canon with timetravel and back story that defining can't be just selecting a cutoff point and assuming everyone knows what is meant even.

@Ghost said in What Types of Games Would People Like To See?:

@Lotherio said in What Types of Games Would People Like To See?:

@Ghost said in What Types of Games Would People Like To See?:

New idea:

A game set in the "WARRIORS" universe where groups of themed street gangs set in a dystopian NYC where gangs have assumed rule of law, thus cutting the boroughs off from the mainland.

CAN U DIG IT MUX

Mix in Manhattan Penal Colony (Escape from New York) and some other classics.

Who runs everything east of 53rd n 3rd?

SHONUFF!

I seriously think this idea has legs, especially if you add some modern concepts in like Roller Derby Girls, The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, and EXTREME VAMPIRE LARPERZ

This is also a good time to plug a game made by a guy I met. It's called "Wild in the Streets" and is a Mordheim-styled small squad minis game about street gangs duking it out.

Wild in the Streets

They have gangs such as: Roller Derby Girls, skinhead punks, black metal corpsepaint guys, Goths, etc...

I once pondered if a Thundarr style game could be fun, and I like Zard Oz (even with Sean Connery whistling his s's). Much of the theme behind Thundarr is roughly the same, crazy gangs of humans/mutants in some post-apocalyptic setting.

I'm more the story telling type over wanting game/dice/system. I think the concept, or some variation, could have traction both ways. Politics between the gangs, reasons for conflict for turf and resources. I think it could have some traction.

Exterminate! (us)

@surreality said in Hello MSBites! Grade your administrators.:

Dude, we just have the one flying car so far, but...

Don't worry, Uber is developing the autopilot on it.

@prototart said in FCs on Comic MUs:

@arkandel said in FCs on Comic MUs:

@kanye-qwest But there's no reason the time period can't be defined either for the entire game or the character in question.

"This is Rebirth Superman".

(In fact, to me, there's no other way that makes sense but there are so many hybrid MU* out there I guess I must be a minority)

Right? Like... pretty much every comic game I played on until I took an, idk, 6-ish year break had a theme that was just "it's (Marvel/DC), this is when it's set."

And those places always had plenty of players so I really, genuinely dunno what changed that made everybody decide you just couldn't do a comic place that anybody'd play on unless it was potpourri

Decline in players at those places, the single canon joints started closing down due to lack of interest. They all started going towards the 'year-0' to have less definition of chars to be more open, others started to open up to potpourri resets of themselves even. The trend just kept on going, resets, potpourri's, how to be more open versus 'limiting' cutoffs.

The 6 year break is interesting, back then I was more into comic places, especially the one flavor sort (Its Marvel here is our cutoff, its DC here is our cutoff). Now I have an overall disinterest in comic places but I keep trying (as a daytime player, I'm not privy to metaplots on virtually most places, comic places have traditional been the most open to freeform PrP style play to me).

Self reply instead of edit cause its a weighty addition:

ETA Redux: Just for recent information. We did Pendragon in what, 2015'ish? All I had was a character sheet, no political code, it had 100+ unique IPs and was averaging 60 players a day for a bit there. The politics were all non-code with the way the houses were set up, if OOC over site was more in place for estate running that would have helped with some of the drama. It could have been tested and better ready but wasn't counting on popularity. Not to say its a good venture but shows want for RP driven story and content is still there. Fifth Kingdom reached 50+ unique log-ins in its second month before that dwindled. There is want for it, I believe it needs enough staff to help, outlining politics and how to get positions of power is one of several other things that would help. I think one thing possibly effecting this is most people who can set up a place are running in silos/small groups instead of combining for one place and that's probably a want for various themes instead of just a place to tell stories together?

If anyone has interest in original sci-fi/fantasy, is on during the days on Friday and wants in on a regular campaign I'm going to try to run a weekly campaign. Reglar RP welcome any other day/between adventures, PRP/Sandbox style play welcome otherwise as well. It is OpenD6 for those curious.

Theme: http://therise.wikidot.com
Connect: 71.171.93.80:1510

@rightmeow said in Review of Recent Bans:

I don't know. I don't have a dog in this fight or that fight or most fights. I'm just a person who posts from time to time, I don't have impact, influence or such. I'm also okay with this. I'm just really to the sad sort of shrug area of my life now in regards to all of this.

You do have impact and you are valuable. Whether someone agrees/disagrees with your opinion, it is impactful. I'm pretty sure I've upvoted comments you've made along the way. You have enough buy-in to what his community is/was/may become.

You've shown that one can disagree through civil discourse. That speaks highly of everything you've said.

@prototart said in FCs on Comic MUs:

@lotherio said in FCs on Comic MUs:

In any canon with cutoff, as comics have been around like, a century+ and such, there is a crazy level of history to any pre-cutoff that has been explored in canon with timetravel and back story that defining can't be just selecting a cutoff point and assuming everyone knows what is meant even.

Sure but isn't that what theme files are for? Giving an actionable sense of where stuff is at and the feel and the theme you're going for?

I don't think you need to've read every single comic a character was in to know enough to play them in a way they're recognizably them, there are a ton of wiki places now that aren't crap and I mean tbh you can get literally every comic ever made online without spending a dime anymore if you want to

I think maybe the issue isn't how "limiting" canon places are but just how insanely pedantic a ton of the old ones were with detail? Like, I remember places that expected you to do a bg that mentioned literally every single thing that's ever happened to that char and were just, "of a skill isn't written up you don't have it even if it's a completely basic life skill almost everyone picks up"

I've clearly been out of this forever, I've been on like two games in 4 years, but I really think a canon place would do totally fine as long as you made it clear a bg by Tolstoy and power entries that talk about how your powers work based in physics aren't remotely needed to get a char

This is what @Kanye-Qwest meant I believe in the difficulty of staffing an place with FCs. Staff has to spend time defining what is or isn't allowable, then deal with players reasoning other concepts that were not included in the defining but players with some knowledge could rationalize. Like, lets say we take a recent cutoff in Marvel history. Someone want's Kurt. Is it AoA Kurt Darkholme, returned Monk Kurt, what if someone wants pre Monk Kurt and more traditional Kurt, or two Kurts allowed? What about Nocturne, someone always wants Nocturne? What is Mystiques one and true history going to be, it affects what affects Kurt? It is all pedantic, and it falls on staff to define cutoff with enough detail to avoid confusion and then defend it against pedantics.

Which is my lean towards OC being a thing. I wish there was just more original theme in general I suppose vs relying on canon because most places fall into the same curiosities it seems. If I play another canon comic place, my preference is one flavor (only marvel, only DC, hard cutoff), but I'd never staff on such a place if ever asked again.

@Ghost Aside from the beginning 30 mins or so of Han Solo, David Copperfield (Dickens) and the write/smudge/write/smudge to fuzzy up the Han Solo origin on paper to rewrite up to just before robbing the train, I really enjoyed it. Warwick Davis showing up as a marauder was pretty cool element in the movie too, it was a nice touch.

@thugheaven said in Armageddon MUD:

and made a whole thing about Muds vs. Mushes

This isn't something one person started here, its decades old and predates the early incarnations of what lead through various entities and into MSB today.

Edit: This thread is like a flashback to the 90s for me, when I was in some of those conversations back in the day.

My daughter got me going on the Lunar Chronicles (sci-fi reimagining of traditional fairy tales). Its pretty good even if intended for a younger audience. Similar to a place we tried to run a few years back that never caught on (fairy tales in space).

@prototart said in FCs on Comic MUs:

@ganymede said in FCs on Comic MUs:

I can see how people may believe there to be a massive discussion about timelines on other games. I mean, it seems that there's an awful lot of discussion of this nature for a game like UH, for example, but I'd like to hear it from those players.

The problems I've had and the arguments I've seen figuring out wtf is going on/has happened/exists/how anything reconciles together/whatever have really all been on potpourri games but from what everybody's said I don't think my experience is a standard one

The more open discussions (or debates on those topics) are related to potpourri games. As staff on single canon places with cutoffs, as @Kanye-Qwest west indicated, its defining the cutoff or start (even as Year One sometimes) and then having to defend the cutoff, as staff. Even if knowing what timelines or dimensions or alternative universes there may be, there's always going to be someone who wants certain aspects in a favorite FC that doesn't always fit with that theme. It does take defense of it, at the expense of saying no and the player accepting it or wanting to argue their case more. It just is what it is really. But its one thing that can lead to burnout or just headache in general. Most players are pretty good about accepting, some are not. The more popular the place, the more staff defend their cutoff/timeline/theme or cave and open the flood gates a little more.

I'm over potpourri, I would prefer to see more original theme/takes on comics (including ideas like Marvel1963 vs just 'year one'). Picking a set story-arc/time/cutoff even in single canon, I'm reluctant of because it would take understanding of how it all fits together and canno-verse comic books are overwhelming complex.