Posts made by Misadventure

Short version:
Players like to have prompts for RP.
Mysteries are a thing to RP around/through.

Two extreme opposite approaches can be described:

• There is a specific set of clues and information to reveal a specific "solution"
• Player brainstorming is used to formulate the "solution" behind the scenes

Does one approach appeal more when you are a player vs a staffer/ST?

Other thoughts:
Should players be allowed to fail in finding the "solution"? (this could happen for both extremes)

Does player mental engagement matter have value vs creating dramatic/engaging/amusing scenes ? Meaning what's the worth of actually thinking things through vs posing whatever is enjoyable? No, no one needs to present real world expertise for verisimilitude.

Does some level of verisimilitude matter, or is entertainment enough? What if entertaining is expected to result in optimal outcomes without significant relationship to those results?

This could apply to anything that has a resolution end state.

Some will value one or the other, this is asking what you, the individual, think.

@Devrex However folks want to handle it.

My focus there was affecting a non player controlled element of the setting, and I doubt players would want to have their PC swayed by +jobs. I could see them calling out some tasks as sort of requirements to meet, or advance socially or what have you, but since interaction with another live player is the best part of involving human players, I could easily see people skipping it.

@ZombieGenesis Could I ask how the players interact with NPCs? Like is it like scene based rolls, +jobs, working on NPC agendas, getting quests/jobs, swaying the NPCs approach or thinking on topics of contention, dealing with personal or societal politics etc?

EG the simplest model from games is give them items they want, and do a few threshold quests to initiate big changes in the relationship and or resolve an issue they have. Typically there is no negative responses, its all progress but with flavor from PC choices.

An L&L example might be an elder off a family who opposes a marriage, so the PCs can do various actions, scenes, challanges to change the elders mind more one way or another. Frequent NPC portrayal isnt the goal, the NPC embodies setting attitudes, culture, etc. Like negotiatinng with part of a voting block. Do it well enough and you remove or reduce the opposition.

I find myself curious about NPC relationships. My first thought was of course it would be all about PCs, but the games often make NPC relationships important sources of plots and tasks.

Would be be able to work with building friendships, allyships, romances, etc with NPCs and if so what would be the best forms for this?

In the last few years there have been several tabletop RPGs created in the cozy genre. If you havent run across that term, it usually features small town settings, a slower pace of life, and the importance and consequences of relationships in such a small area. Usually there is little to no violence. Think Stardew Valley, or look at the extension from Urban Fantasy to Cozy Magical Mystery in fiction.

It reminded me of the basic formulae for a Lords & Ladies type game, towards the more peaceful end.

I wondered if a Cozy Cottagecore game could work as a MU*

There are what you might call L&L RPGs out, where the more popular tropes and activities have focus. Something like the Jane Austen MMO, or Houses of the Blooded, perhaps merged with a more rural and or less socially desperate setup.

Since MU* players tend to not care about actual rules, the question really is about the setting and vibe. Would it be viable?

Gratuitous ETA: example current Kickstarter mixing cottagecore and monster hunting, using spoons: Cottages and Cerberus
Free preview: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1USypiA_-mfOd6MvVizrbRp9_1OvSDcQ7/view

@Derp I would have thought the "the one who got closest to but not over 100" thing would have gotten to here.

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.

Love that the physical book is cheaper than the epub.

What no Paul Reubans or Angus Cloud?

@De-Villefort If you just want to add 2 dice to every roll, go ahead.

Or drop the success threshold to 7, 6, 4 whatever.

Or add the dice and divide by some number like 8, 7, 6, 4 whatever.

Make every even die a guaranteed success.

You could also go off range and make the scale 1-7, so the avg person has say 3 dice in an attribute, and even a smidge of experience is worth 1 in a skill.

Or reduce the lower pool to 1 die, and subtract the same dice from the higher pool. Now roll to compare successes. Or assume all dots get 1 success except the last 1 and it gets to roll.

As for the heroic feel, the 1-5 scale is the mortal range. Depending on which version you are playing, you can stack in gear, circumstances.

Ultimately either you will push the range ov everyone up to always having successes, or you'll be comparing bigger success totals in contests.

Me, personally? Yes, I far prefer the "feel" that my pro got 3-5 successes that were countered by anothers 3-5 successes over I just didnt get any successes.

@De-Villefort Typically your base pool from the attribute accounts for this basic capacity.

Likewise, it isn't that you have a list of hundreds of mundane everyday skills, is that the system doesnt think they merit requiring even 1 success. They fall under things we just arent going to roll for, typically because neither success nor failure is interesting in an of itself. And the differences in characters wouldnt be interesting either.

Most systems have a guideline of don't roll unless it is important.

So zero success results can be interpreted as successful efforts that were actively countered by whatever the challenge element is - eg you throw a punch but they were already moving in a way that you didn't connect, you connected but with a glancing blow, you drew a little blood but it's not enough to take a health level, etc. Similar ideas are applied to everything, you didn't do enough to affect the situation. You tried hacking a system, and that vulnerability wasnt present, try again.

Ultimately this is an issue with the chunkiness of successes rolling 8+ of a d10. You'll get 0 successes from low pools even before you consider needing multiple successes.

As the 8+ method average comes out to .33 successes per die, you can always just add the dice together and divide by 8 (about 3.5 avg with 10-again, chance of no successes on 2 dice drops from .49 to .21 and to .035 at 3 dice) and you'll see more successes, but the various versions of the game aren't balanced to deal with that unless its always a die pool vs die pool check.

Most people just dont care, for most the rules aren't there to be explored, they are a clunky mechanism to measure incremental but assured gains, resolve player conflicts.

I'd like to think that people get together on MU* or forums to share a few stories and celebrate the memories they have of someone who has passed.

I didnt play there, but I am curious what it was, and what was memorable about it.

NOT replying to anyone specific:

I wanted to remind people that Hospice care is paid for by the government in the United States , and is free to all.

You do not need to have an immediately terminal illness to qualify, you just need to have a conndition that will end life. Hospice will help with other health issues as long as that one issue is not being treated to be cured. They offer training and grief counseling, and often can arrange for things like recognition of military service, innteractions with a church or community, etc. They have translation services for many languages.

People in other countries probably have similar services.

Many modern cultures do not teach us how to deal with dying, and Hospice can help people through the process. If its available and you have need, reach out for it.

Consider this:

Feed a chatAI the RP and pages of a given predator.
Now interact with the chatAI as it writes and argues like that predator.
Word choice, common errors, phrasing. A textual fingerprint if you will.

Now you can spot a predator or more likely realize that someone you are dealing with is one.

And they can find you.

NB: I worked on a natural language processing service when they were asked to create a profile to recognize child predators online. That service could scrape all of Facebook, and thousands of forums, etc a day.

Our CEO said it was too dangerous.

NB2 current public chatAI are locked against sexually explicit or threatening language. They can be jailbroken though.

NB3 - feed it your own staffing sets and emits. Now you can generate things in your style quickly, and edit to better fit the situation. Try it for descs of locations and people.

@Ghost Shall I call it "Are you Mad Libs?

Might want to break this off. One offhand comment is fine, but this isnt a thread to derail with my waggery.

@Devrex I definitely want something that is at least partly abstract and automatic to keep the workload more around handling actions that dont have a good coded analogue.

Also, I found myself wanting to React to each post on the screen, which tells me I have been using Microsoft Teams too much.

@hobos I should look into Arx. It is the first oplace using the kind of action economy I am imaggining that I ever saw. I know at least one of the coders ther has been pretty generous and helpful before.

I havent chosen a code base, because I didnt want to limit my options.

We shall see!

Some day I shall create a wiki that has statements, counter statements, and thread logs, and game logs.

It will have a section for active predators, and for people who routinely damage without a plan or intent.

It will have MU* player posting tropes.

Ideally, people will be able to annnotate conversations with trope names much like games of chess are recorded, or logical fallacies. Or enticement scripts.