Best posts made by mietze

Nah, it's not the only one. I've seen some whoppers told, which takes brass ones since they're told in the presence of those who know differently.

I think probably 10-15 years ago a hair pulling eye scratching fight might have broken out; but as I said the vast majority of people mushing these days have lives, jobs, families, etc. Even the crazy and/or habitually princessing ones.

Also that's just stupid. Everyone knows that everything you say in skype and all always gets back to people eventually. Always has been the case for off-mush communications in my 20 years of mushing.

It has nothing to do with unwelcome in the hobby.

However. If someone refuses to disclose to me large glaring or uncommon as triggers but not uncommon in theme no go areas, or does not possess the personal strength or will to communicate with me during a scene if something unexpected happens then yeah, I player don't feel especially safe inviting them into my scenes/play when there are certain boundaries that they feel they can trample on.

I treat everyone on a place like a real life human with feelings and things going on that I may or may not know about. I /expect/ that /they/ will behave in the same manner towards me. If they cannot or will not communicate in a way that gives evidence they also are thinking of me in that way, then I don't really want to give them my time, energy, or attention beyond the cordial inclusion in social scenes/public ooc that I try my darnedness to hold myself to.

If that makes me "entitled" so be it, but I have enough dealing with mentally ill/selfish or narcissistic/emotional vampires in my RL extended family and volunteering organizations at present that I could not tolerate it in my recreational activities. When I did, or attempted to, the outcome was not well received by the other person ever and certainly didn't improve my experience in the hobby.

@WTFE said in FS3:

FS3 is now, confusingly, on its third major version (and were there minor versions in between?). This is the third version made by the same person who seems to have the same specific goals in mind (very narrow subset of genres, an insistence on low numbers of rolls while at the same time relying on purely stochastic processes, etc.).

This seems kind of a petty bitch to make, like you have an axe to grind with this specific person. Did you not mean to bitch about zOMG 3 MAJOR VERSIONS in the last 10 years? Because that's where I'm getting those feels from.

I get that for whatever reason you hate this system. More power to you. It just seems a little weird. Especially the hate towards something that's available for free, as a dice system, for game runners to use or not at their discretion.

Honestly, the people who shit talk others in mu*dom expecting it will never get back to them are idiots. Even if you shittalk only to someone you think doesn't even know who you're talking about or that other person, it always gets back.

Double idiocy if you share logs showing how "wrong" they are and end up showing your own ass instead. LOL.

Mushers are insatiable gossips and there's a very small degree of separation even between genres. How is it that people still don't know this?

I consider 3 hours the max, but schedule myself for 4. I consider it very important to respect players' time. If it looks like we will run over (I will usually know 1-2 hours before the end), I apologize and ask if they'd be okay with an extension and negotiate that time (or schedule the next). If that's not possible I do my best to tighten things up on my end.

Letting a group oocly meander aimlessly for hours so time runs out before getting to the meat of things isn't player-centric to me, its disrespectful of their time. Waiting around for 45 minutes for a straggler to show up is also highly disrespectful to the people bothering to be where they are supposed to. Not offering to move the scene along to make up for lost time if the other players consent to waiting for late comers is also disrespectful IMO.

I find the players will very much respond to scenerunner leadership. If you run a tight ship, they'll pay better attention (or the people who are extremely slow/inattentive won't sign up for your stuff anymore). If it's clear people are confused and not getting what you're trying to get across, they're often relieved if you ask that, and will often either get on track or surprise you in really fun ways if you make an effort to understand/respond to their interpretations rather than wait for them to grope around and take a long time to stumble into what you've planned for.

It's a partnership. When I run things for a group of people, strangers or friends, I want them to: a) feel that I respect and appreciate the time they're giving me, b) I am attentive to what they are trying to accomplish, c) I'm acting like a partner, not making them play "guess what the ST is thinking, d) they feel like I actually give a shit about their character/rp.

For me, I find that exceedingly hard to accomplish if I am not minding the time/able to revise plans on the fly to respect that/if I am overly attached to how I originally visualized things going so I am not responsive/am too frustrated to provide guidance to what they are doing.

Did I have much of the latter to begin with? Hmm. But thanks everyone!

Please for the love of god do NOT post to the boards for infractions by a specific player. The assholes/clueless never think it's about them, and the good people often end up thinking they did something wrong. It also clutters up your board and makes people start to skim.

If over a short period of time there are numerous people violating the same rules so that there is an obvious community problem, then that is when you use that option.

Using the bulletin boards for a problem with an individual rarely works and adds to the noise and clutter and why a lot of people glaze over reading them, or log in new to see bb1 with 250 posts about stuff that is already in the news.

BBoard is an outreach to the community as a whole. Unless it's getting to be a community problem, I don't think it's the place to do "this is targeted to an unnamed person couched in a reminder to all, but vague so that people all have to wonder who did what" posts. Or even worse when it is obvious that it's targeted at someone specific, but then it's the 'not to name names, but' variety.

I kind of want to read transformers TS.

I love open stats on non PvP games.

I love the sheet system on FS3 (yay faraday!), because it's fun for me as a player to see background skills, and get a little sense of the PC beyond the (usually) almost the same #s everyone else has.

Would I want that on a pvp game? Maybe if it was so small as to be almost tabletop, and I knew that the majority of folks were good peeps. I could see that working very well for storytelling between players or for more experienced players giving tips on how to build to less experienced ones.

Would I want it on a huge impersonal ten alts for every player pvp disconnected/uninvolved staff game, no.

I will say that I think games where there's a culture of open stats seem to (in my observance) have a more consistently high quality of rp/player on them; but I think that's largely due to self selection. The players who want to win against other players at any cost and cant help themselves are going to self select out.

By no means do open stat games mean no asshole players, as like almost any Battlestar player can attest. it does kind of lead to no more pub channel/ooc room weird bragging about stats and how the player bragging could kill anyone who looked at him sideways but chooses not to. Which is very very nice.

The last one I know about was started during the age of WORA, like 10-15 years ago. I would be interested to see if it would last longer now.

I will be honest in saying that I think one of the reasons why MSB is a lot less tolerant of things like doxing, posting people's rl photos to be laughed at, ect is not because of moderation or anything else here other than the fact that the people gleefully cheering that on and/or participating are now 10=15 years older than they were and maybe have a little more perspective on life.

Because rules of "don't do this" really don't prevent people from doing a thing, but I do think more and more people in the community would not even consider starting a post about their hated staffer/game runner while also chortling about their "ugly" developmentally disabled baby and how they deserved to have a kid like that because of how awful they were on a game. It is less acceptable to post RL pictures of people to mock their weight, attractiveness, ect. and that happened multiple times before.

So I think were one started, who knows, maybe there are more people who can take or leave the dirt--or at least be happy to participate in a constructive place and leave the dirt to discord or dirty sites. But again, keeping a forum or FB group "civil" is by no means an easy task.

@cobaltasaurus i wouldn't hold your breath!

I think a staffer's power ends at their game. I don't think that there's a universal fits all policy when it comes to incorporating off site information/behavior into a decision on the game.

I would not expect as staff on a game to control what people play about in gdocs. They can transgressive fanfic RP it up to their heart's content.

To be honest, a third party tattling under most circumstances would have me eyeing that third party. The main exception I could think of is if a player had been sending unwelcome links or harassing them via other methods when blocked from doing so on game. I hope this isn't common but for awhile on a game I played I did have that happen to me when another player got my email from a group organizational site (not even a RP one) and then started sending me links to stories they'd written where their PC assaulted mine. When I tried to get help for this from staff I was told since this was off site they wouldn't do anything about it. So I would remove a player from my game if they had already been told to leave someone alone on the game, and might have abided it there but started harassing elsewhere. Is that fair, I suppose not, but just in my own preference since that's very abnormal behavior, I have no issues removing people like that.

But that is harassing ooc behavior. When it comes to just storytelling between consenting adults? I might decide that I do not want that RPed about in a public sense on my games or not to support it at all with staff attention or the like, but I don't really care what people do outside of it. Unless they MAKE it my problem via indiscretion or boundary pushing.

As the person who said they noticed an increase in quality players in an open sheet system, I am talking about the perception that someone could fact check you significantly cutting down on the following behaviors:

*weird ooc lying about stats, whether that's the guy in the ooc room telling everyone hes a badass, to people who RP and brag oocly about their PC having the social and diplomatic skills of Madame de Pompadour but are actually more on the level of Elliot Rodger when it comes to how they've invested in their PC.

*People constantly convinced (with the whining and/or overcompensating that follows) about how they are The Most Underpowered PC On The Game So They Cant Do Anything With Anyone But Mope. Yes, there will always be people who freak the fuck out when they cant throw 4 million dice at something like they're use to on their last high powered WoD game; but when people can see that oh wow everyone's in the same boat, and see for themselves (or know that they could if they wanted to) what the spread of differing "levels" of old and new PC are...they seem to relax more quickly. Also, honestly? As someone who is real mechanics challenged, it's been kind of nice in the past to have gotten asked after a scene "hey, I noticed you were frustrated about not getting x to work, would you like some mechanics advice? I see some ways that would be an easy way to improve that."

*ST for a PrP being surprised with a shitload of power inappropriate to the scene they're running and having to deal with that after the action has started. Of course this requires that they care/are attentive in the first place, open sheets dont magically fix that.

*the perpetual problem of people getting offended you dont know public stuff about them, but they havent updated their +finger/info or wiki since chargen.

I find that transparency tends to set up a more collaborative environment. You can have that with secret sheets and no wiki/finger info in a hard PvP environment, though, I've seen it happen.

And I dont think sheet transparency is a great thing in non-consent games where staff is inattentive/unavailable, and where there is no sense of community.

Maybe that is why on the whole I have found a better caliber of ooc player behaviors on games with open sheets, they have all tended to be smaller with a better sense of ooc community.

I am a grumpy ass old lady now, quite literally. If I log on to a game, I like it to be a polite, collegial ooc environment, and there to be a minimum of impediments to being able to get playing with others and getting my ic risk taking on. Things that spread the ST load/ability to people beyond the (usually understaffed/overworked/stressed out) staffers on a game seem to help it stay afloat longer.

As someone who had 2 false starts before really being able to find traction on a PC in Arx here's what I'd advise:

Look for a roster that is part of an active group. Skim the concepts wanted board and the events page/logs. Is there a group that you like the style of their RP?

I think it is easier to get integrated into the game as a noble. I would advise against an unattached commoner (not part of an active commoner family or an org) unless you are willing to really be dynamic yourself and expect to have to push pretty hard once the 2 week newbie period is up and people no longer seek you out as much for RP. It isn't personal that they don't, usually, your name just doesn't shine as bright on the rs list. There are commoner families that are really dynamic, and noble families often have commoners attached to them.

The key i think esp if you are a new player is finding a group that is supportive and welcoming. Having a good "home base" can give you the breathing space to navigate a pretty complex game code wise and RP wise, and having or not having that can be quite literally a game changer.

I think on some games that do not require much staff/player interaction that maybe it is less of an issue. But when it comes to situations where dealing with a particular person is extremely time consuming and wearying whether they are a dick in general, constantly needing hand holding, emotionally fraught/fragile, constantly stirring up ooc drama, sad sacking, constant need for monitoring due to game issues like theme not not cheating per se...sometimes that takes more time and energy than staff wants to invest in an individual. That's probably going to vary depending on the staff involved.

But I do not see the harm and see more advantage than disadvantage in just cutting someone loose who is taking up more resources than you want to give as a team. I support player/sphere/alt caps for the same reason. Different teams will have different tolerances, I'd rather people make decisions that allow them to be able to use their energy/time in a way that keeps their enthusiasm and enjoyment and ability to maintain the game they want up.

It is tough to gauge what the number of people or PC is that will sustain a mush feel/activity (which for me means enough people around for a mix of pick up RP and building their own relationships with each other, vs a more tabletop group meetup that is scheduled) while still remaining small enough for intimate staff/outside the group storytelling.

I have a pretty good idea arc of a metaplot story that I want to explore in a mush format instead of a tabletop, because I also like seeing what people come up for truly personal story arcs too and the ability to tie them into world developments is super exciting to me.

I am not real sure that I could handle more than 20ish PCs though, and I do not know if that would be enough to sustain a mush environment, realistically.

@derp There are plenty of people who would totally freak out and refuse to darken the door of a WoD game with rosters. Or any number of things. I think that making a roster WoD game would probably have different problems than the usual, because it would be a very different group of people than is per the usual Shittington By Night game in the old school/usual vein

I don't think WoD players are unique in this at all. After all, most of the "I want to make a X game, here's my idea, would anyone be interested" tend to have lots of people jump in to criticize that idea and how they would never play there or why can't you do something the polar opposite instead.

It is almost endearing.

However, honestly I think that there's no harm in trying something new, if the person who's going to run it wants to. Hopefully the people who Would Never Play This would stay away (but as we all know there are also many exhausting people who also will log in on guest or pre-CG bits to loudly complain that a game doesn't have their desired features/sphere/mechanics/theme/allowances/ect and need to flail about it for awhile too.

I see a conversation where people have pretty different takes on what the purpose and structure of a 'roster character' is. Anything from if they are fully fleshed out or not, whether or not they are a one player or serial player type of thing, whether or not they should be given powerful or special unique only this PC can have this roles, ect. I've seen more and more games have a hybrid of roster and non-roster PCs (usually rosters in the minority) and even those handful of games seem to be using rosters/interpreting them pretty differently from each other.

I have been on both the observer side of this and the person who had mild to moderate creepy stuff directed at them IC or OOC in a scene with others.

Honestly, these days, if something is really setting off alarm bells I will either check in with the target if they seem to be trying to ignore or minimally respond to the other person's advances/antics with a "hey, would you like <my pc> to come over there and provide a distraction?" or just do so (sometimes the response to that ICly can provide clues--if they glom on to the conversation then that's a good indication that they were seeking escape. If I don't feel that I can do that, or the behavior has crossed a line into making me personally very uncomfortable, NOT just annoyed or a bit skeeved, (this usually ONLY happens with ooc commentary/inappropriate or pushing comments) then I will just ping staff, logging and sending that interaction, with a brief explanation of why it made ME feel uncomfortable, expect no response, but that I just thought it was worth noting in case the other person needed a check in or does at some point.

I try to sit on that for a little while (at least to the end of the scene either because it ends or because I leave), to make sure it's not an emotional reaction to something else going on that has nothing to do with mushing. And I try to keep an open mind that I could just be reading things very wrong--it happens.

It has been many many many years since I felt vulnerable enough online that I didn't feel empowered and able to be very direct with someone making unwelcome creepy comments, or felt just fine totally ignoring their inappropriate behavior and not rewarding it with attention. But I am very grateful that when I have found myself in that situation where someone was crossing the line (usually in ooc chatter or behavior directed at me in a group of people) and I felt less able to do that, almost always at least one person asked "are you okay?" Or I got contacted by staff because someone had talked to them about it. Almost always I did really need the support that I wasn't nuts, and that the person's behavior was actually inappropriate, not something I deserved or brought on myself.

I understand people not wanting to get involved, and I don't think that is a bad choice to not really worry about what the other person MIGHT be feeling (Because you could definitely be wrong) and to assume that they are more than capable to take care of it themselves. If something is really concerning you though, I do think it's also not wrong to check in with the target or staff. It's just kind of a weird situation because a lot of times these things are very grey. And it's always a risk to reach out and ask if someone is okay, and I don't think anyone is ever obligated to do that.

I might suggest a much shorter timespan for "live", which implies players actively engaging in the scene at that moment. While there's a lot of wiggle room (5 minutes to like an hour, based on what I've seen in on-grid scenes over the years), I think terming a "live" scene live if people can go 23 hours between poses is like...I dunno make the people who are looking for "people dedicated to posing in this scene continuously right at this moment" go a little bonkers and get extremely frustrated.

The later it gets the bigger it gets.

I actually do not have a strict size or stamina preference, other than I lean towards longer than a sentence. I prefer shorter poses when the scene is large. Also I prefer there to be actual content that can be responded to. I'd rather deal with single word :smiles in rapid fire and misspelled/unpunctuated than people who pose for 4 paragraphs about how the fucking wind blows their hair in a dramatic fashion at just the right time or a shitload of stuff that cannot be responded to at all but is meant to beat everyone over the head with the pc's internal monologue. God. It makes me want to chew my own leg off to escape the fucking trap. I wish those folks would just go write a novel, since they aren't really actually interested in anyone else. Oh, except for those folks also tend to suck, which is why they need their captive audience I guess.