Best posts made by Misadventure

This is from Penny-Arcade.

"Cory Barlog, the Director on the new God of War, posted a video of himself checking the Metacritic for the game. It’s like an unboxing video, but for the potential of the human spirit.

I had a sense what the video would actually be about before I started it, and ultimately time would prove it correct: it’s not personal in any way. it’s the relief of having lead people through a very hard place and, with the number in front of him, having independently verifiable proof that their trust had not been misplaced. He did not lead them astray. Until he saw that, he didn’t know himself."

Think about that as a game designer. He has dozens of talented people, researchers, scores of support, and a powerful gaming platform or two to work with. And still, in the end, he can't know if it will be good in the publics eyes

Now think about trying that with a MU*, with this audience.

You have to be somewhat mono-visionary about it when you work to create something with direction, and then it has to find an audience.

I am not sure I am a fatalist, though simulationist of genre I might be.

However, to be very clear, i actually don't care for saving the world plots. I had a tabletop game that in a year of playing we had saved the city, a continent and a plane of reality, and then existence itself. I've had enough of it.

The stakes I most care about are anything as you say, that connects the character to the situation. Anything where the specifics of one characters past and present and being versus another matters.

I think that in the rush to get things done, or to include everyone, you end up with no one and no thing actually being a driver to anything at all. It happens because the ST(s) say it does, not because what someone did was of particular worth.

I also lay a lot of that at the general players feet. They no longer seem to want personalized content, not even from themselves.

Just participation.

I blame video games and television shows for making us passive consumers of event sequences and charged moments, but unable or unwilling to create them at all.

I think what I am saying is I appreciate the visions, and the efforts of those who create these games, whether or not I am in the audience who finds the final product.

@Apos
@faraday
@Lotherio
@Cobaltasaurus

That list is ultra short, as I have no memory, or in many cases, no knowledge of who it was that drove a game into creation. Or I don't know their name here.

Please tell me more names of folks who have a vision of their game, and they drive it, make sure it comes into being and drive the stories and set examples of what they see for others to emulate. You can tell who they are not in the beginning necessarily, but in the end, when they leave their creation.

I also appreciate those who support and help nurture these projects. The coders, the player story tellers, the grid descers and playtesters.

It wasn't your turn to post.

From the Kickstarter (I was a Backer):

"A note from April:

At Gen Con this past weekend, Thirsty Sword Lesbians won “Best Game” and “Product of the Year”, taking home two Gold ENnies. The ENnies are a people’s choice award for RPGs and over 28,000 people voted on this year’s entries. Taking home double gold is a spectacular follow-up to winning the Nebula Award for Game Writing. TSL is the first-ever tabletop roleplaying game to win a Nebula, the most prestigious award for science fiction and fantasy writing in the English language.

We couldn’t have done this without all of your support, and I’m overjoyed that the game is continuing to build momentum over a year past release. I love hearing about how you’ve made new friends through the game and seeing all the amazing characters you come up with, and I love the fantastic new playbooks and adventures that people are making with the Powered by Lesbians license. I maintain a collection of them on itch that is well-worth checking out!

I truly did not expect the wins at the ENnies. Although judges decide which games are eligible to win, the awards are given out based on a popular vote, which gives the advantage to games connected to an already-popular franchise like D&D or tie-in products for well-known books, movies, and other games.

I never set out to make an RPG that would have the broadest possible appeal and we never toned down the message of Thirsty Sword Lesbians to make it more palatable to cis or straight people. Plus, the game outright tells bigots to go away.

On reflection, though, maybe one of the lessons of Thirsty Sword Lesbians’ success is that the way to make a broadly appealing game isn’t to placate an imagined ‘typical’ gamer who happens to be cis, straight, white, male, and sensitive about all of these identities. You can instead make a game that celebrates a wide range of people who are left out of mainstream stories and repels the kind of player who would gatekeep the hobby.

I love hearing about people whose first RPG (or first non-D&D RPG) is Thirsty Sword Lesbians, especially when it prompts them to explore other indie RPGs, too. We all win when we grow the hobby and show that RPGs really are for everyone who wants to play!"

I let the player succeed.

I let the rest of the game continue in the space where the character didn't succeed.

The player is welcome to create their own MU* where they did succeed.

At a certain very large level, staff created and supports a certain framework. They did not say they would support any framework that came along.

Alternately, we end the game suddenly, and ask the player how amazing the RP is now.

If "witch hunt" is too sex based for ones taste, House Un-American Activites Committee may work.

Not sure if it's a stand out exemplar for people from the US, let alone anyone else.

People like Anthony Bourdain are heroes to me for making the world bigger but closer. "What makes you happy, what do you enjoy" are great topics.

I am a teeny bit sad every time I see the shortened title, and expect some disorienting dives into a zero-gee spaceship to do tasks.

I vote to replace the two days with one day dedicated to family given, made and chosen, and the other dedicated to those who have supported and helped you and others. Important to both is your potential to be both of those things at their best.

A side note on manipulation, social inputs, and player agency. I've had a lot of experience with Players whose characters have a hair trigger temper, yet you couldn't do anything to trigger it against the Players will, even purposefully creating the same situations that set them off.

I do not want to accommodate this sort of thing.

"Let's eat ... grandma!"

@greenflashlight that seemed coherent and reasonable to me.

@apos I can confirm there are several people, myself included, who no longer find it productive to even mention criticisms about games you and Hellfrog are involved in. Those players either attempt to avoid your attention or opt not to play games you have significant say in.

Is that something you should consider?

I think so, despite that I acknowledge that creators are best at creating, and you can't please everyone, and that the drive to work and create can also power a kind of certainty that is easily seen as, and can be, arrogance and ego service.

But whatever.

@too-old-for-this said in RL Sads:

You are a whole person and you are valid.

Just gonna quote that.
It definitely takes a whole complicated real person to carry trauma, and its just one part of your life and self. To me, you're as complete as everyone else here. Pretty sure everyone else will agree.

Maybe consider using the setting for maps and flavor etc, but eliminate the published canon of super activities and make a custom one.

Its true, wee can make add homonym attacks until there affects drive ewe strait two Hel.

Thee rein of tear has begun.

As for the people who will dislike you, be unwilling to communicate why, yet tell everyone and try to get them to go along:

fuck those guys.

That's short for leave them to their shitiness, make an attempt to nudge those who have been swayed by them once, and find folks who groove on what you offer.

Or as I have been known to say "There is no pair of tits worth putting up with this shit."

@il-volpe
Mice Utilized Shared Habitat.

You are now staff. They have xp spends in the +jobs queue.