Posts made by Mr.Johnson

I honestly and truly think that most the problems people attribute to themes and settings are not problems with the setting. They're just problems with headwiz's that have no idea what the hell they're doing. Or in many cases know exactly what they're doing but what they're doing is running a bad game.

Now personally if I was running it I'd take the approach of treating it like the actual navy where everyone is doing something to help, the command staff are all NPC's and we focus on the enlisted personnel and maybe the low ranking officers of the ship. Sure they're doing their own thing up the chain but events would be catered to the rank and file crew members first and foremost with what the command is doing being more a background thing.

@faraday Could not have said it better myself faraday. You hit the nail right on the head.

@rnmissionrun I mean let's be honest part of the reason they're all dead is because every time they get active they split their damn playerbase onto different ships in order to let people ascend the rank. You make a single ship that stays a single ship where the entire game focuses on that single ship you'll probably have a good time. Just don't listen to people when they demand more ships just so that THEY can play captain and you'll get plenty of players.

Seriously I swear they shoot themselves in the fragin knee the second they start to get any headway just because they decide the game HAS to cater to klingon players and romulan players and needs more ships because everyone HAS to be able to be captain of their own ship. If I wasn't already committed to launching two mushes I'd do it myself.

Stick to a single ship in a time period people actually like and you're golden. Treat that one ship like a city rather, and have your events be away missions or visits to some new planet maybe something going wrong on the ship the entire playerbase can get involved in. Just bring the scope down and you'll get players.

@wildbaboons said in Star Trek?:

@faraday said in Star Trek?:

@bobgoblin I think some places took Reports to an extreme and expected it to be written up in an IC, professional and detailed manner. That’s just annoying. A pithy OOC summary can convey important plot details to players and staff who weren’t there, but hardly anybody wants to read (let alone write) a realistic AAR. They’re long and dull.

This. The place I had seen it the report requirement was the equivalent of "Office Space: The RPG" and if you didn't have the cover letter on your TPS report you got crapped on.

I now need an Office space Mush in my life. I know it would be really boring but it couldn't possibly be worse then all the school life roleplay mush's out there. Imagine all the wacky hijinx you could get into!

On a more on topic note I've tried most the current Star Trek Mushes out there for a reasonable amount of time. That Star Trek ToS game is nice but it's a bit... light... on actually letting you have a character background and the like feels more like a code light mud then a mush. Which is a problem I find with a lot of Star Trek Mushes, they just come off as Code light Muds, or sometimes even code heavy muds. It's kind of sad to be honest.

Update time again! We have backgrounds, and +finger finished. All that's needed is to set up the locks, the job system and we are golden for alpha launch. Hope you boys and girls are ready for a nice bit of Noir superhero fun! Already got a plot-line planned out for our initial alpha launch if people are interested. Once we get the finishing touches done for the alpha launch I'll be posting up the IP on here. Might post an Advert thread for it as well.

@auspice Sarcastic statement: The solution is obvious. We all start talking like hk-47.

I mean I know I'm different in the hog pit then the rest of the forum for the most part and different in Mush then the rest of the time and different still in real life just because you know different expectations.

Aint because I'm the worst thing since sliced hitler. Just you know it's easier to fool around on the hogpit where nothing really matters. I tend to rein it in a bit more for the general MSB, and I rein it in even further for actual mushing. By the same token I'll be open about some things I wouldn't be in real life on the forums, same for the mush side same for the hogpit side. However I'll be much more closed off about other real life things as a counter point.

I mean it's much less "Oh hey no consequences time to be my true asshole self!" And more "Well here's the confines I'm expected to work in time to make em work"

Eh don't think that makes sense but it might to someone.

@bad-at-lurking Don't go for it. Just set up the pieces to one. Put everything together so it has the opportunity to BE one without enforcing that it has to be one and the players will take it where it goes. Build it as the best damn horror game you can throw it in and make the world utterly bleak and horrifying. Then let the players handle it. If it stops being horror so what the important thing is that people are having FUN. Even the later alien movies and Alien Vs Predator stopped being horror after a while. I mean sure the world was basically the same but they shifted into a bit more action. Build it the way you want, then let the playerbase take it where they want. There's your sustainability. Be adaptable.

So as of today it's been exactly 8 years since my grandfather passed, and rather then you know starting a whole new thread I thought I'd just toss my thoughts up here since I loved him more then almost any other person in my life, and he was a great role-model for me.

He was a soldier in Korea, and spent some minor time during the later days of the second world war. By the time I knew him he was a fairly high ranking Employee of the ford motor company.

He never gave anyone in the family almost anything. You had to work for and earn anything no mater how close you were to him. Only things I ever got handed by him without having to work for it were a pocket watch handed down the family from one generation to the next, and an old maglight I still use today.

He meant the world to me and I loved him with all my heart. I still remember back when I was young any time we went to a restaurant he would bring along a set of three manila envelops. Didn't matter how little he was ordering.

He'd always put 1 dollar in the first, 10 dollars in the second, and usually a 100 dollar bill in the third (Sometimes he'd put in bigger bank notes just for the shock value, or stock certificates just to see the reaction on their faces.) He'd always tell them they could pick one and it had their tip inside.

Back then a dollar would have been worth about 6 bucks today give or take to give you an idea on how much he was handing out.

I remember one guy about feinted when he opened up the envelope and saw that funky looking bill inside. Asked a good four times if it was even real, and brought over other staff to check it out. He was real happy.

And I remember another time back on Christmas of 85 he was driving us over to his place in his car, and we see a guy on the side of the road. It was snowing really bad and he was just sat on the hood of his import car in the ditch with an axel broke clean off.

He turned right around in the middle of the street and drove us to the nearest Ford dealership, and bought a new car on the spot. Had pops drive the car back while he drove the new car then hand delivered the deed and the keys to that man standing on the side of the road because "No man in America should go without a dependable American made Ford." Still remember the look on the guys face when Grandpa told him that he'd better buy Fords in the future so it didn't happen again.

I miss that man so damn much, and I know you guys probably don't much care, but I figured I'd share either way because it means a lot to me.

@faraday I would use it as opposed to an original universe outright not as a selling point but so people have an idea of what is available in the universe from the word go. No need to put it in the name but if I know "This is in the Aliens Universe" I instantly know exactly what to expect from the technology, and the setting at large. It makes it a lot easier to get into because you don't need to comb the wiki beginning to end in order to understand what you're getting into. And even if you just use the Alien verse as a jump off point there's still that anchor of what people can expect from the world you can work with. There are recognizable faces and elements that still remain. Just you know DON'T call it "Aliens: whatever" Don't put that stuff in the title since you're missing the xenomorphs.

I mean you can always use everything in the aliens verse except the xenomorphs. I mean as long as you dedicate it to the tech and the world I wouldn't personally mind it being in the same verse just not having first contact with the Xenomorphs yet. Could even have Wayland corp be a nice fun antagonist.

Edit: Basically what I'd suggest is instead of annihilating the xenomorphs entirely from the canon just having it so they exist, they just aren't where your game is set yet. This could give the potential for encounters down the line if you so decide or not. I mean the Aliens verse is a great big one with plenty of universe. It doesn't NEED xenomorphs to be the aliens universe so long as everything ELSE is accurate as possible. Long as you do that? No issue with it being a prequel or even just being a different sector of space disconnected from the Xenomorph threat. Maybe even have an event or two where the Predators show up. Who knows could be fun.

@auspice Ah Brain Weasels, the cause and solution to so many of lifes problems. (Warning: may not actually solve any problems.)

@haven Game is coming along slow and steady still got people trying to hunt down a clean DB, but for the time being I'm just trucking along on getting what I can done while I can. I'm every bit of work I'm doing right now is stuff I can transfer over if they come through with the clean DB just as easily as leaving it with the one we got if they don't.

@misadventure You know as someone who regularly plays Cyborg I should really think of Boom Tubes before I think Star-Trek transporters. Boom Tubes solve the "I can't get there" excuse for not being able to rp. And if you make every heroic pc a part of the Justice League or a similar organization you make it so everyone has an excuse to rp with everyone else. So the only people without an excuse to rp will be the people going out of their way to avoid rp who you probably don't want to cater that much to anyway.

@admiral It's like these people don't understand the point of a damn security office. Seriously guys it's not that hard to make a room that's at least mostly secure. All you have to do is TRY.