Best posts made by mietze

I do a once through before I play. I tend to rely more on the game's wiki for understanding theme and atmosphere. But I like to have an understanding of the mechanics if I can. Not that a lot of games don't have a lot of alterations though.

Also--there are isolated/chronically ill/downtrodden people who are not innocents but really horrible people. I know a few RL. Some of the most infamous run far away omfg abandon ship if they get on staff/run a game--they also are chronically ill (physical or mental) or socially isolated. People are people. Well off, socially and physically and every other measure successful people can be dicks, surprise surprise!

What is ruining the hobby? More good people not getting up off their busy buns and wading in to running one! Not the fact there are bad actors out there--there always have been and always will be. Seeing people spew weird hatred in a public forum might put off more than a few (though admittedly if they can't take it they wouldn't last long anyway.)

@misadventure elections are in the hands of of the states. For good or ill. RIght now that's probably marginally a good thing, at least for my state.

I will at admit that the more complicated the system the more likely I personally am to experience brain freeze in a STed situation.

Then there is the factor of me being so overexcited that I get to participate in a scene where SOMEONE ELSE has prepared stuff that I don't know what at all will happen and OMG SQUEEE THIS IS SO AWESOME AND ALL THESE OTHER PEOPLE ARE AWESOME AND WE ARE GOING TO BE DOING THINGS!!! that I blow my wad in sheer happiness and eagerness and forget about all the incredibly expedient and useful complicated merits and shit I have in favor of annoying the ST with my SQUIRREL!ness and oohing and ahhing over other folks stuff and trying to be clever.

Unless I have a very task oriented PC or we are on a very task oriented mission. But you can be sure I am screaming with delight inside as well as wanting to gush over all the Cool Things the other folks are doing!

When I made a staffing decision someone disagreed with, I got screamed at for hours on skype chat and in game by this (popular at the time) person and their friends, about how the game was all they had, they were ill, my decision upset her to the point of taking to her bed, how dare I deny someone with her issues just this little something that wouldn't have harmed anyone (except for it clearly would have caused a few massive problems).

There are many mushers, myself included, that struggle with a number of illnesses. Most people are respectful enough of themselves and others to not do that sort of thing. The ones that do though--are pretty abusive. Staff or player. I think there is a spectrum of abuse; and I've seen plenty of it perpetrated on games and by ill (or using their illness as an excuse) people online and in the flesh. Just because you can technically walk away does not negate the ick.

Hope you're feeling better soon! The people I know who've gotten the upper respiratory stuff even this early on have tended to have it morph into sinus infection or pneumonia. so keep an eye on things!

Hell, people don't even PK people's PCs who by all rights SHOULD be PKed because of the headaches it causes. A lot of time especially within vampire, lethal means of dealing with a problem are used rather than a HUGE amount of non-lethal stuff just to prevent the headaches caused by lesser actions (I'm sure it's the case with other spheres too, it's just I'm most familiar with vampire). i have seen people genuinely act like another PC torporing them /and returning them to their buddies/ or extracting a boon/favor for someone was the same as killing them outright, then proceeded to dial up the ic aggression to the point that the original player who wanted to avoid PK eventually had to do it. With the person screaming and spitting OOC the whole way, escalating at every turn.

So it's not like physical skills are not reacted to the same way in PvP.

I don't care about power curve per se. After a few months there's always going to be a differential in an xp system. If your game is ready enough to give out xp though (that's not part of a tiered cg) I don't know that I agree it's really "soft rp" or in testing stage. But the fact that many places do allow people to gain territory/influence/xp in "beta" and "soft open" and there is a not entirely incorrect assumption that you'd better get in on it or else never have a chance to advance to top tier or be influential or get a territory or whatever...I think that's a reason that sometimes there's an overwhelming surge before a game is even ready in "beta" which has cause ld significant number of problems for quite a few new games (up to and including total burn out even before they reach hard open). And I think invite only (or vouch only) but accumulation of assets beta games once they open should label themselves more accurately as "sandbox game now letting the public in". As I've said before, no problems with sandboxes or changing status at all--but it doesn't do anyone any services to not call it what it is.

You couldn't hit a bull in the butt with a bass fiddle.

Well butter my butt and call me a biscuit!

You are the lesser son of greater sires.

I'm jealous of all the people who haven't met you.

If you had an idea it would die of loneliness.

You could throw yourself on the ground and miss.

When you were a child, did your mama rock your cradle too close to the wall?

I think this wine has been drunk before.

@ganymede I am not arguing with that. I am a big fan of thoughtful use of social dice (or combat dice), and the negging of it bothers me (though since it's a constant on WoD places it is something I'm used to).

But I agree with Apos that if a system is in place people will use it. I think that they might only seek to use it when it can get them something they want, while looking down on it otherwise, but the same can be said for any "conflict" system, including combat. I think the assertion that "nobody" or few people would use a social combat system is not true nor should it be a deterrent from building one.

I would say the majority of players on a majority of games are not overly familiar with the combat system either. Yet it is important to have rules around that and a system if you are going to allow violence on the game. (Most of the time combat dice are used against NPCs. I have played on many intense social games and the same can be said for social dice.)

It is possible to have a game where social dice are never cast at another PC per se, but against their assets. (You could do the same thing with violence). Youd still have people complaining about how it ruined things (combat or social) for them, but it totally preserved agency for the individual character. They were not influenced how to feel about one of their warehouses firebombed or their informant in the police rooted out and paid off/turned against them.

If I'm reading The Supremes right, it's done out of a motivation to correct the wrongs done by the racist/sexist/Ect original source material. S/he has gone on to say that you may indeed perhaps get to play anyone but a gypsy but potentially offensive content must pass their muster and all things like poor black person raised in a single parent home probably will get more scrutiny. At least that's what I get out of it. Not necessarily a ban. So maybe a little of both?

While I respect the sentiment as well meaning, there's a lot in it I find paternalistic and unintentionally mildly offensive (and as I mentioned before, even a wee bit racist in and of itself). I am maybe a bit sensitive to shit like that.

Still, this was an interesting conversation!

I love bad TS scenes. Like love love love. Gimme spelling, punctuation, and pretty good grammar and you can crank my pepper mill all you want!

Unfortunately I don't often have the 3+ hours required any more.

TS is such innocent and often unintentional (and very often perfectly intentional) over the top fun. Never quite understood why so many people dog on it. But yeah, reading that stuff brought back a lot of super fun memories.

Also, to clarify, I don't mean to imply that PCs shouldn't be able to radically alter the state of the /town/ or whatever that the PCs are centered around. There have always been towns and settlements that flouted social conventions and the like for better or worse. Just that I feel like if you allow people to, say, change the entire course of a country's history, you have moved away from strict historical into fantasy, and thus you're opening up more problems to deal with in the long run if in your head you want a historical game.

Rationally or irrationally I think most people have at least one or two people that are insta-NOPE people where they no longer feel ooc comfortable if they're there.

She is not one of mine. But as someone who has immediately vacated once I was aware that someone on my list was on a game, I can't really judge the folks that need to remove themselves either.

This is why when I was an active player I would rarely track people's alts (also I am crap for remembering alts in the first place). And if it was let slip or I became aware of their tells I would quietly exit. There are some people oocly that just kill my desire oocly to be part of the game. I am sure I'm on a list or two myself. It is what it is.

I do not like when people scream at staff and saying "it's them or me!" I think the person screaming that should be given the boot. You own your choice to stay or go, staff owns their choices about who is and isn't allowed to play.

Also:

Someone Knows Something

Kitchen Table Cult (I believe I've mentioned that I spent a lot of my childhood/very early adulthood in cult like fundamentalist religious setting. These two young folks are walkways from the same community)

If you are interested in series, I recommend:

Heaven's Gate (Glenn washington narrating)
Dr Death

For lighter fare:
99% Invisible
Things you missed in history class
Ask a manager
Let's talk about myths, baby

This is why i do NOT favor hard historical games. I think they're too much work for the staff, tbh. A lot of work upfront, to set scope/strategy for dealing with drift alongside all the other usual shit. A lot of work in delivery, as there's yet another category of stuff that needs monitoring--not just in CG but forever afterwards. (CG is not a good filter for screening garbage players or problematic play).

I would totally support in spirit anyone who'd want to take it on, and I'm sure somewhere there's been a success (TGG?).

But I find the fantasy- flexible- sorta-based-on- "history" /themes/ over actual historical stuff, personally. That's not the thought exercise you laid out though, ark.

Tempting.

My issue mostly is time and stupidity (when it comes time learning new game systems).

And it has been really super nice not having to deal with ooc meanness or drama for the last year.

I have hyper mobile joints, but that has gotten progressively worse with each pregnancy. Now I will randomly dislocate metatarsal bones in my feet by walking esp while weight bearing. My hands and wrist bones will dislocate too but it for whatever reason is not as painful as my feet, which depending on which metatarsal and what end they dislocate is blinding near fainting pain for a flash (then just normal pain until I can take off my shoes and manipulate things back into place. I partially dislocated a hip joint using improper body mechanics in massage school, and always have my pubis synthesis joint go out of alignment several times during pregnancy.

I can do cool stuff with my body and nice parlor tricks, but as I get older the more painful the accidental/incidental/just walking around dislocations are. The pubis and feet are the worst though. At least for me. I have never had a knee go out, though.

That's what I mean by paying very close attention to scope of the game.

I'm not sure anyone is talking about a large or immensely popular game? I thought most of us had agreed this is a niche that's unlikely to draw a huge crowd.

Is she unable to log in? While you do need to give an email, tbh I dont remember getting an email confirmation. It has been a good long while though. I am also moving this to questions/board stuff.