@thenomain Agent of Chaos is that trope that's like Evil Dickhead. Its SUPER hard to find a player that can do the trope justice. More often it just comes off as some half-assed juvenile bullshit. Which is sad, because when played well, MAN do I loves those tropes.
@Thenomain Let me clarify again, I wasn't trying to attack you or your decision directly. I just personally don't feel that removing the Dark flag will resolve anything in the long run. If anything, I wonder if it won't make players more resentful when they can clearly see a staffer online and being useless than when they simply can't see the staffer at all. I might grumble about a particular staffer always being dark, but I will personally be more upset and angry at a staffer just blatantly sitting on their staffbit and doing fuckall every time I log in. Its that whole 'out of sight, out of mind' thing, I suppose.
@arkandel So will there at any point be a more punitive action taken against anyone that sees fit to drag Hog Pit nonsense into the rest of the forum? I mean, obviously I opted into the Hog Pit so I don't mind it nearly as much as those that called for it to be made opt-in only. But it seems rather silly to have had that huge discussion about it, complete with its own shit-flinging and arguments, and gone to all the bother of making it so... if people are just going to drag it right back out into the rest of the forum. I admit, I expect a certain amount of snide cattiness even outside of the Hog Pit, but its certainly starting to leak out more and more. This particular instance that is still going on didn't even start mildly constructive, it went straight to targeted assault against another person. And was quickly chimed in on. Very little of it has been even mildly constructive, and what has been has quickly been drowned out in increasingly scathing back and forth arguments about who is or is not doing/saying the right thing.
@shelbeast I can agree with you... to an extent. If I am calling in and my initial response is 'hello, my name is Jelly Bean, my account #/ssn is xxx-xx-xxxx, my address is 2222 Neverland Way, Bumfuck, Egypt 55555, and I am calling you from ###-###-####. This is my issue and these are the precise steps I have taken, in order, of the attempts I have already made to resolve this issue on my own with no positive result'... then maybe don't ask me to repeat all the steps I just detailed out for you as having attempted before calling in? It does tend to aggravate someone with at least basic know-how to be told to repeat the exact same steps we just did again, knowing that we're wasting additional time on top of what we've spent already attempting them and the wait time just to speak with an actual IT tech and not some screen-reading service rep that can't suggest anything that isn't scripted out... especially if you've already had to repeat those steps with said screen-reading service rep or they wouldn't forward you to actual IT. I try to be patient, and understanding, but my patience limit ends somewhere around the 60-90 minute mark of going through the same 3-5 steps over and over with each new person I speak to.
@Olsson And that gratification HAS to come in the form of xp? Your character, which has zero to do with the plots that you are running, should be allowed to become more powerful simply because you as a player have the ability to tell a good story?
@Derp Those NPC's are part of a specific plot being run and will go away once the plot is completed, not the ST's personal character that has zero to do with the plots you're ST'ing and will remain long after the plot is finished.
@shelbeast I can appreciate that, and I wish more IT folk that I've dealt with took such a path. And I get that users lie. I do. I've worked customer service for a company that provided tv/phone/internet service. They do. They lie all the time. It sadly doesn't make it any less aggravating to be treated the same as the lowest common denominator. We ask staff not to do that in our MU*s, to punish everyone because somebody fucked it up before us. I ask for the same courtesy in my real life. I've actually started requesting that notations be added to my account stating that I performed the requested steps with no positive result, so that I can finally reach a point where, hopefully, someone can look at my call history and go 'okay, this person actually does this stuff, we should probably move her through'. Hopefully.
@lithium I waited to see a tidal wave of them after DP came out and was almost almost disappointed when it didn't happen.
I found the movie to be flawless. I honestly wouldn't have changed a thing. Everything happened exactly how and when it needed to to generate the largest impact and forward the plot. It tied in seamlessly to the overarching buildup towards Infinity Wars. The actors' and actresses' were utterly amazing. Visually and artistically it was stunning, and the story hit every single point it needed to without being ham-handed or overblown about it.
@faraday I will absolutely agree about the Firefly bit. It relies almost entirely on ships and crews to go anywhere/do anything. I think Starfinder has a little more accessibility if only because it is really just D&D in space. So yes, you can have a crew and be on a ship OR you can be a merchant that travels around from planet to planet OR you can be a mercenary gun for hire OR you could be an Envoy of your species, trying to make contact and form alliances with others, etc. You don't HAVE to constantly be on a ship and there are smaller shuttlecraft and the like that you can use if you are part of a crew and they aren't online and you want to do a thing. So you aren't as tied in place.
That said, yes, in general I would agree that they are definitely better for and more aimed at tabletop where you have a single group. Also, I have to admit that I'm biased. I got the Starfinder book recently and its just baller. I'm loving the setting, the races, the classes... but I'm also one of those people that likes a little Shadowrun in my Firefly, and Starfinder gives me that.
@faraday Agreed, which is why I think Starfinder is the better choice, really. Its not Firefly, but it can give you that same feel of adventure and grouping up with friends to go do a thing. It also allows for things to be done between doing The Things. You can stop on a station or world, talk to folks, have some drinks, resupply. There's a D&D MU that's been running for a few years now that's done pretty well for itself despite D&D being largely considered 'only for tabletop'. I'd hazard its because its a game where the expectation is there will be Things (ie. plots) to do, but also the option for smaller things to do between The Things. Unlike with Firefly, where you are completely split up into only crews and their ships, and its thematic that you don't really do anything outside of them... Starfinder offers you the chance to go do a solo thing too. But, as mentioned previously, I'm biased towards it. So YMMV.
@auspice You could play Stitch in Starfinder. The race exists (sorta). Its pretty baller. Also... warp travel comes with the possibility of accidentally summoning otherplanar creatures onto your ship for bending the very fabric of space and time so harshly. You could inadvertently summon a dragon onto your ship. Or a demon. Or Jabba the Hutt. Whatever.
@ganymede said in Dead Celebrities 2018:
@downwithopp said in Dead Celebrities 2018:
David Ogden Stiers, best known as Major Charles Emerson Winchester of MASH, the voice of Cogsworth in 'Beauty and the Beast' and Jamba in 'Lilo & Stitch', bladder cancer - 75.
And the Archdeacon in The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Governor Ratcliffe in Pocahontas, and Mr. Maellard on Regular Show.
Also Nicky Flippers in Hoodwinked! 1 & 2, Oberoth on SG:A, Doc Stanton in The Majestic, the Mayor in Doc Hollywood, a voice in nearly every Myst game there is, three different characters in Murder She Wrote, and Mr. McCarthy from Oh God!
Shut up, I have weird tastes in everything. v_v
A brand new water heater after your tax return allows you to finally, FINALLY replace the 20-year old broken down one you'd been dealing with. No more racing the clock with morning showers!!
I'm hesitant to enforce 'you have to be pretty' or 'you have to look like a Frankenstein' on any Seeming based on a first draft of a few Kiths. The Seeming write-ups that I've seen so far say your pattern is wrong. Fairest don't have to be pretty or elegant, just leaders (whether by choice, fate, or whatever). Beasts don't have to be wild, twigs-in-their-hair, mud-splattered people.. they just have to identify with an animal in some way. I would love to see the writeup for Wizened, but I'm going to bet that you don't have to be some lurching, terrifying amalgam of jury-rigged parts. For that one, even the Kiths aren't necessarily calling them 'patchwork', they're noting particular attributes as having mechanical components but a smoothly running machine is every bit as capable of being lovely and elegant as a Fairest. Ogres don't have to be hard-edged, rough-hewn brutes... but they -seem- much bigger than they are. That whole thing of someone swaggering around with an air of being ten feet tall and bulletproof comes to mind. They're noted as being tough more than rough, and capable of great violence (albeit not necessarily physically violent). They aren't delicate by any means, but I could see an Ogre being anything from a somewhat reptilian, scaled being with an acerbic tongue to leather-skinned cowboy sort (Jack Palance comes to mind), to a marble-hard, not-a-hair-out-of-place, stone cold bitch. Actually... thinking of it... Vera would have been amazing as a 2E Ogre (and I'm fairly certain that's something that's been remarked upon earlier).
TLDR; There seems to be a disconnect between the brief suggestions of appearances in Kiths and the more thorough suggestions in Seemings. I would hesitate to apply generalizations and stereotypes (especially ones that hearken back to 1E) to any of the Seemings in 2E.
