Posts made by Misadventure

@shelbeast Sorry, i am slow to reply.

If it is with NPCs on a MU* then any RP is to an empty room most of the time. I could see saying that a vampire cultivates a type of relationship with a given target, and you could pair the feeding value of that investment in time to greater security risks, as that target is something that has a stronger link to the vampire in terms of time spent together, and if deprived your blod throughput definitely takes a hit.

That could track the style of feeding of a vampire, but it doesn't provide the story. It would take a neighborhood/town/city generator to track the importance and risk associated with a given individual, and no one builds any simulator that complex for RP.

Shouldn't both the opportunity to double check many things, as well as their relevance fade over time?

Simulate it, or replicate it?

Simulate is easy, you just say it happens. You can even let some rolls happen. Its vaguely similar to a feeding technique from my Chronicle called Ardentia.

However, I think its really too close to passive consumption, which tends to fill players ideas of what they imagine RP is like: being fed cool moments and cool visuals. Players burn through that stuff really fast on MU*s, precisely because it isn't a lingering experience with continuity and time to invest in any of it. This consumption approach is the biggest problem in creating an otherwise collaborative product.

When you say you've designed an economy, what do you mean? How varied, how in depth, how much player activity required, etc?

@thenomain Just saying that others had the same impression at The Reach. Maybe we're just overly sensitive snowflakes, or maybe people have learned to use zealous correctness as a coercive weapon.

And hey, y'all got rid of VAS and OW so you couldn't have been all bad all the time. Broken clock at the minimum.

@faraday

@thatguythere said in Earning stuff:

Best example i can think of is from the Reach which had a policy of "Be Excellent to Each Other." Nothing wrong with that on the face but it was definitely used (by players more so than staff) as a club to silence any who said something negative be cause "That is not being excellent to each other."

Definitely saw this at The Reach. However, the Reach was so big, and around more than long enough to give character players and staff players plenty of chances to show off their less than stellar behavior. it basically led to players not communicating on channels and finding other ways to complain, having already lost the chance to shape how play went.

A lot like MSB really. A lazy police state.

What are the most productive and/or enjoyable group scenes related to plots?

Perhaps suggesting those would give staff an endpoint to get groups or singles and pairs to head towards.

As example, I do like plots where many skills can contribute, however, I have little use for a scene where everyone poses reading research results. It takes up time, and can be safely left to players who WANT to RP around that framework, without staff attention.

Staffs primary value (in this topic) is validating efforts (both reporting success, and making sure that successes are tracked as they affect stories) and adding in new information for players to mull over and make preparations based on etc, to link up unconnected PC efforts if they should, and whatever management risks and costs (from lost contacts, to combat) need.

I'd love to see a similar flow chart showing every possible effect on combat resolution in D&D. It would help people to see that its a ton of possible factors, but not all exist every time. The chart doesn't change the complexity. Mage is one of the few games out there where you design something routinely in play. Most designing games like Super Hero of Mecha games, you design once, or maybe never, then perhaps when you improve something.

That said, I don't think it is more complex than Masterbooks FX system, Ars Magica, and it is less so than Champions or Mutants and Masterminds.

<facetious humor>
You could code a game to use a Traveller-like Universal Spell Profile where the first digits are what rank of Spheres, then you have codes for range, number of targets, what level of sympathy, and so on.

So it would be something like the Instant or Extended, nine Speres, Rote traits (with attributes and skills referred to by helpful numbers and letters cuz thats Traveller), area, range, duration, and so on.

So you could easily type in cast E-001000000-R7K-05 would be an extended cast rote forces sensing spell, using a designated stat+ability).

Easy peasy.

/<facetious humor>

Not a peeve at all.

Super proud of my friend. One of his Eagle Scout projects was to clean out or repair all the flag post holes leading to Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery so they could be used again for Memorial Day Not sure how they fell out of repair but it was a big task.

PS Yes I did grow up on a peninsula that had more folks buried in it than living on it.

@bad-at-lurking said in Gamifying Plots:

@misadventure

I'm more of a fan of presenting things as an option and letting people do what they want to do, within reason. Encouraging behavior is a less intrusive tool than demanding it.

It's not always the case, but typically players will focus entirely around whatever they can gain, regardless of how rewarding it is, or in theme.

Staff plots are assumed to have better chances of relevancy to the setting, and better rewards. Players will aim for them as if little else matters.

I was thinking more the difference between people who form varied groups by need, vs an established scooby gang. How you reward things will shape what players do. At the point here you want everyone to be in a gang, just say so, and move on with the premise that they will be in a gang.

No comment on your actual question, but I will say that unless you make sure that staff do not spend more than 50% of their time on purchased plots then you will defacto be saying that you need to be in a group to get staff run plots. It won't be on purpose, just folks being busy. Just something to be aware of.

I had been hoping this was a question on what is it that players are actually trying to do, and whether its a game in any sense of the term.

I would think that if anything it would make a mockery of American culture because in this case it will be a mockery of American culture trying to represent another culture. Or I would say that if mocking cultures isn't the sense of humor someone has, they wouldn't want Fallouts humor in the first place?

Or maybe people get serious. I know this pretty much shat on any interest I had in the idea. I'll leave it to the pros.

I actually think you could do a great deal with the weird Fallout cultures take on what they think Canadian culture is like. Plenty of chances for stereotyping, Canadian slang, food, and so on. Hockey might be important. Likewise, you could have outsiders who survived with Canadian courtesy and survival skills.

@Tyche Yes, "it" is. By which I mean that culture as an entity. The cultures we have? Well, that's another story. We can still hope for cultural level adaptation that mitigates what we consider the negative aspects of our evolution and biology. An example is we are terrible at probability, our brains are wired to route that through emotional nudges, which lack long term ability to affect our decision making. However, math and science and political organization can make up for that innate shortcoming.

Can.

The good news is that culture is outside of direct evolution, and we can communicate across time and distance about more effective approaches to goals. It's like meta epigentics.

@tyche What is the value of the Spectre book for Wraith at this point? Or the Changeling Tarot deck? The book was $120 at one point. I doubt it is $30 now. And given that the contents of the book are otherwise available, its only market is those who want the cover. So much smaller group, but sometimes willing to pay the ridiculous prices.

ETA: Hey, well I found Dark Reflections: Spectres at one place for $131 I am in the money.

I'm not sure they see two disciplines in opposition where one can inflict its rating in fixed damage, and the other can stop 1 point of that damage as broken.

Strange they are repeating the unbalanced approach to Potence vs Fortitude.

I had long commutes, so I carried my listening material with me.