Posts made by Lotherio

@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.

@faraday said in Too Much:

It’s not that it’s infeasible per se, but when I explored it the cons outweighed the pros. For instance GMs wouldn’t be able to utilize places in their scenes because they couldn’t see what was going on.

What if it was set up in such a way someone set as GM could?

So, similar to the green, yellow, red code @Ganymede referenced. That sounds like the trend to echo everything in certain rooms to outside viewing areas for folks to watch other scenes.

This is just in the traditional sense I suppose. What if I had a room set up as a parent to some child rooms. Feast Hall is set up as the parent of Alcove (room), Side Gallery (room), and Near the Fire (room). Each room is set up to listen and echo everything into the feast hall; but instead it only emits to certain players. If the player is set as staff or has some GM flag/attribute on them, they get everything from each child room while their in the parent room (In the alcove, John's emit. Near the Fire, Janes emit.) Players in the room can have a couple extra commands. Emit/m so they can mutter something that is possible overheard in the parent room while in a child room - like mutter for tt/places. Then they can emit/l for loud emit, emit/l John starts yelling at Jane. There would be some fluidity, every child gets emits from the parent, so folks in a child room would get things from other places. Could add glancing like folks used to look at the next room. While sitting in the Alcove, one could glance/on near the fire to try and see what's going on there and such.

It get's a little clunky maybe, maybe too much commands for some folks to use, but opens up some . But building into the design and trying to make it part of the culture?

That's only from my understanding in traditional soft codes for Mu. I've no idea how it might translate into newer codebases like Ares or Evennia, but I imagine it could translate with some similar code or quick addons?

@juniper said in Too Much:

It came down to game design and culture.

I think you're right, this is what it comes down too.

Know, I like smaller scenes. I'm Dyslexic, when there are 10 people going I can get lost in the scene. I have done the thing where you force a client to highlight when your name shows up on screen and even then, I still feel lost. I understand some folks can't easily engage in a large scene.

That said, I completely concur, the necessity to respond to every prior pose in a strict pose order does slow things down. As you suggest, its part of the culture and learning that one doesn't need to respond to all prior 10 people that poses is essential to getting into the flow of 3pr and such.

The design part sounds good, but can it be forced? We can have things like places so that the trio of three friends don't keep posing with each other each time someone else poses to help them have their personal conversation amidst the large scene without making it too difficult for slower people, but can it be forced. Is there a better design to help filter the groups conversing/interacting between their friends to do so in a less distracting manner? I can think of ways to do it old school in a client for me running a large scene like a battle but splitting up the fighter group from the help the civilians escape group by sending certain peoples poses to other windows on my client if I need too. Is there some way to do it code wise by having an area emit and a local emit - at the celebratory feast, I can pose as Sir Brastias telling a story to the table he's at during the feast but he can stand up for the boisterous punchline in an area emit to everyone at the feast.

Just thoughts on helping build culture/design, I could be completely wrong or in left field by myself. Just thoughts that come to mind.

@misadventure That is a very good idea for a year one setting based on something like Wild Cards. The setting and area measured in social and health traits of sorts. It would give a feel of the general population in response to supers and play towards the gritty. It could incorporate the Wild Cards and the gritty sorts that followed like Watchmen, Jupiter's Legacy, the Boys, that TV comic fans are familiar with. Making me wish I had to time to work on a place. @Runescryer is right, would be smaller player base than the larger open world sorts of places that get better draws.

@runescryer said in Wild Cards:

I think it's the singular origin that sort of turns potential players away, in addition to the whole 'OC only' nature.

I had time to chew on this a little. I think you're right with the singular origin part. The OC less so. It may be less singular origin versus the 'complexity' of understanding the theme. A few years back I threw together Coral Springs as just an OC version of Sky High. Literally it was nearly the same, except of in the sky, it was in the water. Added in a couple of 'Houses' for players to be in while at school. It seemed to do pretty well and folks seemed to have fun doing new spins on given tropes/paragons in a new way. It fail short for some cause it was High School and folks were a little burned out on that around the time Coral Springs launched.

I think there is room for an OC game, but like you pointed out, the singular origin may turn folks away.

@macha said in Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff:

So yeah. can this day go away now?

Sounds like this day didn't want to let up at all, hopefully you do get some reprieve.

What? Fred Ward then Ray Liotta, this is a crazy year.

@runescryer The past Marvel one was 'off brand'? Like Epic? I could be mis-speaking; like Scion is Toyota. This Wild Cards will come directly from Marvel. I am glad its not official Marvel Universe, more hopeful that some new comics sell well enough to do more than an adaptation of the first book. Along with the series. But like I said, I don't want to see original Wild Cards chars in like mixed universe games.

I think you're right on the original year zero game, a lot of folks see it as OC only, which it would be in a manner.

@reimesu I have hopes for the new comic and the show. The show is in who knows where land. Hulu to Peacock. I think they're uncertain how this will play out and how marketable things will be after any success in the comic and the new show. But it gets complicated (which is me saying I don't know how it plays out), between Disney and Universal (NBC Universal parent over Universal, peacock now is doing the series instead Hulu). A big thing is bigger theme area of parks, Disney has Marvel but Universal has Hulk rights and the Marvel area in their theme park. That's long term looking at it, but seems a way to divvy out comic areas. Similar to Percy Jackson being done on Sidney know, can be a 'modern' magic area compared to Hogwarts area at Universal.

Long story short, I think it could be a good series and comic for folks unfamiliar with the books and could become something 'new' in some ways. Quietly hopeful - for both to do well and maybe a new comics Mu* similar in concept to Wild Cards to come out at some point.

So, next month Wild Cards is like official Marvel now? I don't know how to take this news. I like the stories, would be good to see some in graphic format. It'll probably mostly be stories the readers of the series are already familiar with, to start at least.

For me thoguh, I am wondering how this play's into the Mu's now. I've always wanted to see a Wild Cards Mu*, or something based on the idea - an alternative sort of year 0/ year1 telling of comics from some trigger event that turns folks into powered people (I tried it but failed at it).

Does this mean in themes that focus on marvel or marvel/dc crossover areas, we'll get some of the Wild Cards showing up now as PCs; Jetboy or the Great and Powerful Turtle. New takes on old paragon ideas that did will in the literary medium? The Jokers could be new interesting twists, no powers and a curse and folks playing off that somehow. I'm not sure how I feel about it but I've never been into the places that include any canon source from DC/Marval and images to other comics and manga brands.

On the side, I am upset cause now George RR is spending more time away from finishing Winds of Winter; one more thing to keep his attention from doing his writing assignment!

@marsgrad said in Too Much:

Not really a take on how much is Too Much, but man was it impressive to watch.

I think it completely plays into the consideration of 'it depends'. If someone, like @tangent, can run a few small scenes to break up the groups, then that helps with making the players feel more impactful in what they're doing in their scene over hoping they don't get missed in a large scene.

@Misadventure mentioned breaking off thread for something to show like typing, but part of it goes back to management. I wonder if more folks who play via the web portal on Ares can speak on whether it helps or hinders managing multiple scenes. The notification box from Ares vs the flashing in older Mu*s.

Its a lot of work on older clients, but I remember being able to fork conversations/poses to different windows on the client side through events. It was clunky, but I could see that being similar. ONe event window as "Scene 1, Robot Fight" and another as 'Scene 2, Destroying the Shield Generator" and such. Real tanget, using multiple windows in one client in the 90s was useful for in depth simulators like battletech mux with a map window, a hex window, a heat/armor window, a coms window, etc.

@ganymede said in Too Much:

Some day, when I have more time and energy, I want to convince you to help me set up an original space fantasy game.

Ain't gonna lie! This gets my hopes up! How do we help you get more time and energy, is this were we send you copious amounts of liquid courage of the expensive variety so you can sequester ala Hemmingway and come out with a masterpiece like the one about an old man and a big fish?

@faraday This caught me, I don't think I've ever seen you throw in a gif. I laughed, good thing its my planning period and no students where in the room (in which case I wouldn't be on-line but still).

Lately for me, when I have time to staff a scene, I set limits. Like 10 mins between a pose or get skipped and such. I feel like when I do that I'm riding folks to hurry up and pose.

I like some of the ideas about utilizing player helpers and/or separating out the scene a bit. I would like to try to focus more on players in particular these days, make it their story. I've shied away from having one plot for a Mu where there is a finite end. It can fade away as interest fades, that's fine, but I don't like to have what seems like a railroad. That comes from my days of preferring open Campaign TTG when I run, let the players decide. I feel like I'm there in Mu*ing too, see what players want to do and how I can help them.

Rambling again, but players helping, or other staff helping to divide up large groups sounds like a good idea for the players too, they get a little more time to shine instead of lost in a large group.

I'm known to use wikidot, still do for some things.

As has been pointed out to me - if anyone is worried about anything too personal and they have an account not tied to a burner email, now might be a time to consider changing to one. Whether the hack was just some attack at Poland to stop the spread of what Russia sees as 'disinformation' about them in Ukraine (most likely) or not, it has shown others, who might be more malicious to individuals, that there have been insecurities found in wikidot.

@tooters said in Liberation MUSH: One Month Review:

But that's the problem with 20-30 person scenes: not just here, but I have been MUSHing for 20+ years and NEVER have seen it done where everyone has fun. So it's not just this particular situation. A smarter decision would have been to break it up, even if you have to do it on multiple days.

I had to steal this out of another thread. I almost put it in the RL friendly thread as it seems good advice, but then I figured why not put it here. This is sound advice. Big scenes don't work. I know some folks like larger scenes, but I think there's a critical mass for any plot type scene.

It sort of goes hand in hand with pondering the RL friendly question but how to support numbers of players within plot architecture. Currently I do like the trend in seeing lots more smaller games that can focus on smaller groups of players to do more plot. Its in the range of step up from TTG. My ideal TTG is 5 players if I'm being honest, so I can give everyone attention at my table. If I get more players at a table, I've a longtime GM friend that will co-GM with me, we've been at it long enough players probably think we read each others minds.

Just rambling, but what is a good critical mass for major plot like scene/event? Aside from as many as the runner can handle, is there some ratio of player to staff that works/doesn't work?

@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.

I didn't see it until I saw it.

An active social media type place on-line where folks could discuss things with civility. The Ares discord folks are pretty civil and they have an impressive group of folks there. Its, as one would guess, focused on running Ares games mostly. However in the early years of its existence I remember Theno quietly leaving from here but continuing over there in discourse related to ideas such as game running. I'm sure at times @faraday felt like it was a bit of disagreement. But the two could express their opinions without it devolving as it has done here in the past. While disagreeing, it felt healthy. I like to believe its possible.

@devrex said in Review of Recent Bans:

Raw, cruel nastiness. Which. Cool. They have a spot for that now but equating “let’s stop the cyber bullying over here now” with what’s being said and has been said is an egregious false equivalency. And this whole group of folks once told me with straight faces they would gladly accept a ban from a game just so they could abuse Derp some more

I agree but I want to point out some of the conflicting thoughts on this. The 'whole group' does not equate with all those banned. From what I've seen @RightMeow is friends with (only from what I've seen, not saying they are or not) some of those banned that aren't in with the group in question. All the banned are not part of the same groups of friends so there is some confusion. That said, a lot of the virtue signaling that doubled as dog whistling, which came off as sometimes bullying to me, was joined in by a lot of various groups and other independent parties.

I agree though, if folks want the freedom of speech as a pretext to slander, start dumpster fires, and munch popcorn while seeing how funny (mean) someone can be, there is a forum for it. Its no longer here. There are multiple forums for it actually, prior bad actors here have started similar places for similar free speech.

ETA: The funny thing is while I've been openly attacked plenty in the history of this place, I've never had a personal (DM/PM) attack until I made the comment about what it looked like from a third party, which was pretty much an insult intended to say I'm not a third party.

I vote for a mix of sync/async play. Ares is great for this from what I've seen. Loggers on older Mu*s can be set up to to allow folks to play asynchronous.

I'd like to springboard off @Ghost. A lot of it feels like if you miss the right time, you miss out. The staff only doing big things at a certain time. I've been there, I've always been daytime and to date, I've yet to ever have staff run a plot an another Mu* that I've been able to partake of. I think more things during the day would help for sync plots. Scheduling times is good.

There is another issue I've noticed of late, on a busy place, not everyone signs up for player plots. If the event was set up by someone not staff, the turnout isn't always so good.

Something to solve both issues would be good. I like synchronous play but async is a solution. Having it in the culture of the game (directly in Ares, loggers for others) is a bonus. I think I need to embrace it more, async play. It tends to feel like forum RP to me and it was always slow but I agree it allows more of the folks with more RL obligations to participate. Async and empowering of players to run things that count just as much.

I think less focus on one 'plot' would help too, that way if someone misses the event its not like they missed the world changing thing - or more avenues for players to affect/change the world too.