Best posts made by Misadventure

Possibilities (these aren't necessarily linked):

Earn XP as desired by designer. Limit XP spending by RL time.

Only be significantly concerned with higher level abilities, in Wod/CoD terms, dots 4-5 (expert) for sure, perhaps 3 (professional). Either give people more XP to buy lower level skills etc to be who they want to be at start, or let them earn and spend on these as much as they like.

Expert and above require approval.

Limit expert dots.

Give players a set number of xps. Thats where they can get to.

Remove all subjective skills, especially ones players have a hard time limiting themselves with.

Only have character change at the end of X, a year, a television/streaming season, campaign arc.
Exceptions: maybe allow some level 1 ability adds, or just limit a change of more than 1, or require any mid-season change to have a strongly (I define this strong as impactful to the character, and involving either players not in the character's immediate circle, staffer moderation, a permanantly lost cost, etc) presented scene or three.

Players lay out desired/potential character arcs, and gain changes only by that means. These arcs can change via PC or ST events, but it should happen where the story can be consumed publicly.

While many RPGs and western fiction pay a lot of attention to the fast growth phase, that phase doesn't have to extend forever. Fiction is often about change of character, not massive fast changes in skill sets. This could be done via some sort of ranking of personality traits that can change (see Pendragon virtues, Spiritual Attributes in The Riddle of Steel, all your traits in Masks, Humanity/Empathy in cyberpunk, Madness Meters in Unknown Armies, etc) but MU* players are like most RPG players and don't want to be held to a standard of IC presentation (see social skills vs writing).

What are the aspects of the Viet Nam war or the World Wars that would be presented?

Under supported troops?
Conscripts?
A major power in a proxy war?
Unpopular war at home?
Atrocities?
Supporting a civil war?
War amidst a different people?
Heightened media reporting of warfare?
Asymmetrical warfare?
War as a crucible for social issues?

The sci-fi comic Alien Legion sort of covered some these situations.

@Ghost said in The Pack Discussion:

As for the accusation and what's going on at that other place? Don't sweat it @Macha . Thems just a bunch of confirmation bias sharks reveling at the scent of blood in the water so they can claim moral high-ground with eachother after bullying the shit out of someone. Apparently abusing people for a "good reason" excuses people from being abusers so long as their peers/fellow abusers give them high fives for it!

Yep.

It is also possible to hijack a system like CoD to catch the different feel off another setting. I dont mean lets play The Originals as if they existed in the WoD, rather use the CoD stats and resolution mechanisms, and use Merits or Powers to track the abilities from the desired setting.

Its not for every game creator, but its different enough for the players to notice, and most arent that invested in the particulars of any rules sytems enough to object to the hybrid.

@Ghost said in MUSH conflict... sad face?:

There also seems to be a number of people out there who can be fairly vocal about how great they and theirs are, how they don't believe there to be bullies, cliques, etc, and I've always found that somewhat telling.

+1

These is a brief list of goals I have as a ST:

Help the characters be

• Resourceful
• Determined
• Competent
• Smart

Keep scenes

• Narrative-first
• Open-Ended

Be on the lookout for a chance for things to be:

• Cool
• Interesting
• Dramatic

Perhaps a little nuance between the idea of antagonistic to range from total death/absorption(genocide/borg), complete conquest and rulership (roman empire/colonization), violent flare ups (organized crime, class and culture conflicts), strong rivalries (partisan political parties, zero sum situations) and competition for shares (business or social rivals) could help.

@Ghost said in The 100: The Mush:

FINE. JESUS. YOU WIN, OKAY?

I expect tribute to arrive in the full of each moon, consisting of cattle, three casks mead, and each end of summer two youths to foster, and fine gifts celebrating our mutual regard.

Anyone ever considered role rosters, meaning you list the skills and relationships needed (or already established) but the rest of the character is up to the player to create?

Not useful where you want specific family members probably, but a good way to both demonstrate thematic skill sets and tell players where there is a need.

Data suggests removing an easy to use commonly available means of suicide may reduce rates by 10%. That is what the UK experienced when they removed gas stoves.

eta: I realized this is an unclear number. Of the percent that were killing themselves with gas ovens, there was a 10% reduction. Suggesting that ease of acquiring or using a means is critical for about 10% of all folks. Maybe.

Any scene where someone asks "Why are you doing this?" and has the patience (if needed IC/OOC) to figure it out. Some of my characters are very verbal and/or self aware. Some aren't. I put a lot of effort into having reasons and an IC way of thinking that can be observed or deduced. I do purposefully decide to do the wrong thing, and expect to be called on it IC.

However, a lot of the time, it seems like players assume that there is nothing to negotiate or learn, and that any IC difficulty presented represents OOC difficulty they cannot or would rather not try to change.

Makes me very grateful for the players who took the time and effort to learn the characters. It's very rewarding when they learned things I wasn't really aware I was projecting but are true.

I had the best luck with that recently with Cessaly the Giant Squid Feral. Thank you to Chains, Alex, and Kay for making that pay off.

And yes, I know it may come across as wanting people to pay all the attentions to me, and dig into me as an attention thing. I come by the habit as the long standing GM type for my groups over the last 30 years. NPCs are explorable, and not all will tell you everything. Sometimes they show, sometimes you need to dig with or without their help/knowledge. it might still be an attention thing, but I can honestly say I am focused on their efforts to understand and learn.

Tell them to pray for themselves until they figure out they aren't empowered to judge.

This is vague, but long standing.

This character is volatile, trouble. Bad temper, Rage, what have you. They are dangerous. So far, I've seen this.

This person is known to have a bad temper. They have plenty of folks already avoiding them, or afraid to be near them, the authorities have had run ins with them. They aren't getting away with this for free.

They have a reputation for drawing attention and making trouble.

They have to pay their way out with unsavory favors, cash, and still have others looking for payback, or refusing to be near them.

I ask this often: what do you want the players to focus on? Cover and round counts? Outguessing their foes? Describing the awesome? The detailed way that a given weapon or martial arts style affects the flow of combat?

None of those are the same, nor mutually exclusive. You have to think about how you want your players spending their time, and what sort of decisions are they making.

Are there published games that are close to what you want? The two you named tell me nothing. Systems can be light and yet focus on shot by shot to what location, or wild action, or whatever.

Do you want the players to be daring, or biting their nails wondering if they will survive?
Do you want beliefs and relationships to have mechanical advantages?

Also note that two players, who talk a lot about game situations, may sync up in thinking and attitudes and how they express them in terms of phrasing. So they will naturally end up with similar or the same reactions to IC events unless they have a specific IC reason to not react that way. We do after all, rely on our own ability to perceive, and make judgments, and analyze real world topics that we then bring IC.

One of my friends had a hostile fellow move in downstairs, with the same story. Literally, they complained their refrigerator was too loud. Now, on one hand, they had brought in their own quiet one. On the other, its a goddamn apartment complex, if you need silence, don't live where you share a wall or a ceiling. My friend made attempts to be accommodating, the guy became threatening, the landlords invited the guy to move out.

Likewise, that old chestnut has proven to not be so true. Inflicting stress is a primate tactic. It isn't seen just a rating on a 1 to 10 scale of how that individual rates your current behavior. It's seen as a threat to belonging, to being part of the social group, aka the survival group. Primates know this, and use it often.

Saying you can just decide to ignore it is like claiming that you can just decide not to react in the least to a baby screech.

She's not cackling, that's cavitation caused by her shadowless Mantis Shrimp punches.

There should be a service that tries to match up people who need to partner up with other people for child care, house maintenance, pet care, housing needs.

I have to admit, it seems like almost all RP settings become something like set dressing on yet another a wealthy twenty something dating sim.

Hard to tell stories when the referred to complications of the setting aren't actually important in any way.

I knew the last of the true Aryans would reclaim their symbol one day.