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    Obie

    @Obie

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    Best posts made by Obie

    • Star Wars Republic d20 SAGA - (Prequel Era)

      Hello everyone! I'm currently working on tweaking a Star Wars MUSH set just as the Clone War begins, but it can use some beta testing to see if certain house rule ideas will work or not and add enjoyment for players who wants more options. Beyond that, all of the basic things are in place, like ships, planets, factions, +nom systems, and such. If it goes well, the rest of the work is just incrementing expanding the universe as per players' needs.

      Please feel free to drop by, since it's a beta test right now I'm not sure if the testers want to give it a go during a time frame set just after Episode I, or hop straight into Episode II where the Clone Wars is beginning.

      Star Wars Republic can be accessed via: Silvren.com Port: 6006

      Looking forward to see other members of the community!

      posted in Adver-tis-ments
      O
      Obie
    • RE: Star Wars Republic d20 SAGA - (Prequel Era)

      @GreenFlashlight Absolutely. You'll be able to access it via +help or +sinfo.

      @TiredEwok Yeah, time has allowed me to appreciate the Prequels a lot more, and the work that George Lucas and Dave Filoni put into The Clone Wars series really rounded things up and put a lot of things into new perspective. I was surprised there was no active communities set in this time period when I came back to the MUSH community. I hope to find more likeminded people too!

      posted in Adver-tis-ments
      O
      Obie
    • RE: Star Wars Republic d20 SAGA - (Prequel Era)

      @Seraphim73 & @secretfire My intention is to give players with the opportunities to make small divergences, but I've been in one community in the past where a player killed off a major FC and thus deprived me and many others the chance to have the thrill of interacting with said FC, and Order 66 happened so fast that I never even had a chance to try out the environment.

      So I'd like to offer people a chance to make their own mark in the game's history, but ideally the changes would be neutral or in the benefit of the overall community. Have Order 66 happen later? Having a different person take over Mandalore? Different outcomes in battle? Have more Jedi survive Order 66? Those seems cool and it rewards the players' efforts. Have one person kill off Palpatine, General Grevious, or Count Dooku? No, from my own personal experience that was bad, so that sort of large divergence won't happen.

      @WildBaboons There'll definitely be FCs from all sides showing up once in a blue moon to drive narrative purposes, but the intent is for the focus to be on the OCs.

      posted in Adver-tis-ments
      O
      Obie
    • RE: Star Wars Republic d20 SAGA - (Prequel Era)

      I think there's a lot of wisdom I can learn from folks who have built their communities before me. I really like the idea of OCs standing and being heroes on their own merit, with just the FCs showing up as cameos in varying levels of participation just to reinforce the fact that yes this is still Star Wars, we're still in the same universe but you're living your journey and they are living theirs, with the occasional crossing of paths on rare occasions. 🙂

      posted in Adver-tis-ments
      O
      Obie
    • RE: Star Wars Republic d20 SAGA - (Prequel Era)

      Hey there, Obie here. So first off, there's things being misinterpreted here.

      "Please keep in mind that Star Wars Republic is currently in beta, there's new ideas put in here to try to allow more range of builds that remains viable even at max level. As we understand what works and what doesn't, we'll make tweaks and changes here and there. The work that players put in during beta will carry on over after beta is over in some manner, depending on how we go about it."

      When I wrote that post, I kept it ambiguous because I haven't quite figured out what is appropriate so I'm gave myself room to avoid setting expectations.

      The community culture that I'm trying to set is one of OOC collaboration so more fun experiences can be had. Scenes are being run to make sure the players who are participating in the beta is having fun and also becoming involved in the collaborative process. That didn't end up happening last night despite having spoken to the person in question for a lengthy period of time before this event and setting up expectations, so that player is going to be dealt with permanently because this is toxic to the community.

      From these events, I've been learning from seeing how people are using the new houseruled feats and powers. It helped to have a mix of different levels.

      As a result of last night's actions, past experiences, and also from observing player behaviour in chargen, I've decided to nix the random generated ability rolls that came with the system and stick with 32 point buy. It won't eliminate all the problematic behaviours, but it will make quite a few more manageable. So everyone is going through chargen come reset.

      The reason why I haven't talked about what will carry over earlier is because I haven't figured everything out yet. I know I want the XPs people got from nomming each other during the beta to carry over, that was what my first post to others was about. When I've figured it out, there will a post made on it. If you're not sure what my thought processes is on the matter, just ask. We might find new perspectives unexpectedly.

      Anyways, I'm sure there's more I need to learn to make enjoyable for as many people as possible. I don't aim to make it perfect for everyone, but the intention is to have a community with great vibes, works with each other well to come up with fun stories through collaborative efforts and give and take. The more lessons learned during beta, the smoother launch will be.

      posted in Adver-tis-ments
      O
      Obie
    • RE: Star Wars Republic d20 SAGA - (Prequel Era)

      Nah, old character won't be kept. I think that misunderstanding only happened because people just assumed and didn't think to ask.

      We still have the Alt XP system on SWR. One of the ideas I originally had was old players will have to remake (now with the 32 PB, /everyone/ will have to remake to conform with the lower power curve) but say it takes 10,000XP to be level 8, and they had 12,000 XP, then if they start over again at level 8 the 2,000 XP they had in excess will be locked away only accessible only by Alt XP. Alt XP is also gated by levels too. So they'd have to go through the journeys of leveling up.

      However, that's all in flux. After what I saw last night, I'm reconsidering quite a few things. This is why some policy hasn't been written up yet. In between thinking about this, I've been adding utility talent trees for Dark Siders, adding NPCs onto a NPC list for the community to use, running scenes so people don't get bored and wonder why the heck they're on a beta, and such. These are just all things I'm learning to juggle,but I knew what I was signing up for when I gave this project a go. Don't be surprised if I drop the ball a few times here and there, but the intentions is never intended to be malicious.

      posted in Adver-tis-ments
      O
      Obie
    • RE: Star Wars Republic d20 SAGA - (Prequel Era)

      @Lemon-Fox said in Star Wars Republic d20 SAGA - (Prequel Era):

      @Obie said in Star Wars Republic d20 SAGA - (Prequel Era):

      However, that's all in flux. After what I saw last night, I'm reconsidering quite a few things. This is why some policy hasn't been written up yet. In between thinking about this, I've been adding utility talent trees for Dark Siders, adding NPCs onto a NPC list for the community to use, running scenes so people don't get bored and wonder why the heck they're on a beta, and such. These are just all things I'm learning to juggle,but I knew what I was signing up for when I gave this project a go. Don't be surprised if I drop the ball a few times here and there, but the intentions is never intended to be malicious.

      That's good to hear, at least! Might I suggest not adhering to a bell-curve? Lower power levels sound great at first, but as the game gets older, it only hurts new players. I'd recommend getting people to 7-8 quickly and then making it a slog to 9-11, then making it extremely difficult to get to 12+. But that's just my hot take on it.

      Hrm, hey Lemon Fox. It's great that you got thoughts and suggestions on this. The good thing is what you suggested is already in place, it's been like that through several incarnation of the community because of the system we inherited from Dahan. Players have the choice of starting at level 1, 5, or 8. Getting XP has always been about how frequently you're RPing and with how many different people, so for some it's a slog, for others it's a journey, but by no means short. The game caps at level 12 for most players. Just like the past communities, people who are story drivers and a positive presence for the community, has the chance to ICly earn levels up to 14.

      Some of the things you hear here within the last 24 hours has some distortion in there, and that's understandable and human. I welcome you to log on and take a peek at the system, and ask questions.

      posted in Adver-tis-ments
      O
      Obie

    Latest posts made by Obie

    • RE: Star Wars Republic d20 SAGA - (Prequel Era)

      @Alamias said in Star Wars Republic d20 SAGA - (Prequel Era):

      @Ganymede said in Star Wars Republic d20 SAGA - (Prequel Era):

      @Obie said in Star Wars Republic d20 SAGA - (Prequel Era):

      I've actually never heard of Arx, but what you've said about what they accomplished is very compelling! I want to confirm, is Arx this? ---> https://play.arxgame.org/

      I'll admit, ARX intimidates me. I've looked at playing it, and looked at the roster and even picked a few characters that look like they could be fun to play, but after that point I just look at all the lore and other things and nope out.

      I'm personally amazed by how in-depth, and just how much they've created! Some people in my community told me that it's not always drama-free over on Arx, but which place really is, right? It's amazing what that community has achieved!

      Are any of you guys there when it first started? How'd they gain traction, get all the people needed to get the wheels moving?

      posted in Adver-tis-ments
      O
      Obie
    • RE: Star Wars Republic d20 SAGA - (Prequel Era)

      @Ganymede said in Star Wars Republic d20 SAGA - (Prequel Era):

      Have you looked at Arx?

      Take a look, and you will see how building a game from the ground up with systems to keep players from ripping each other apart physically can create a semi-cooperative world-building game that a large number of people seem to enjoy.

      So, like, don't just start with "what era should we start in?" or "should we use WEG or Saga or FFG?" All of that is irrelevant if you don't have code to build the game you want to see.

      And if you want to see people not go after each other with their pew-pew stats, I'd suggest providing them other mini-games to e-peen with.

      I've actually never heard of Arx, but what you've said about what they accomplished is very compelling! I want to confirm, is Arx this? ---> https://play.arxgame.org/

      And yes, you're right. I didn't understand what were the key questions are at the start, and asked the wrong ones unfortunately. I'm hoping to find some inspirations from Arx as you've mentioned. Thank you for letting know about this nugget of wisdom! 🙂

      posted in Adver-tis-ments
      O
      Obie
    • RE: Star Wars Republic d20 SAGA - (Prequel Era)

      @KDraygo said in Star Wars Republic d20 SAGA - (Prequel Era):

      I think the recent exchange of posts paints a very bright warning sign on Star War games in general. It is too easy to turn a cooperative RP game into one where people chase stats and try to buff their characters to insane levels so they can stomp on other players. Cooperation goes out the window, it becomes a cold war of stat and gear building until that eventually turns into a nuke launch by all sides with the losers royally pissed.

      Now, twenty years ago, that might have sounded like fun to me because when you get that 7D, you're like ahmg this feels greeeeeeeat! Get an 8D? Holy shit, I just cast Lvl. 8 Cock of the Infinite on myself, fucking awesome. 9D??? I steal yo soul and cast Lightning Lvl. 1,000,000 Your body explodes into a fine bloody mist, because you are only a Lvl. 2 Druid. It certainly made the player feel good like you're stomping on a bunch of lemmings without consequence or it took crazy amount of coordination to counter you. There is no cooperative RP there, no building of bonds between players to enrich the story of the setting and each character, even if it is between a good character and an evil character.

      Star Wars is probably one of the hardest genre to create a MUSH on, especially if you open it to the entire galaxy, allow cross faction and PvP, allow Force powers since that multiplies their character strength. It's been over a decade since I've played on one of the old, really large Star Wars games like Minos Clusters or SW1 but those were the glaring issues at the time.

      I absolutely agree with you. It's been a journey filled with tons of learning experiences for me. This theme has the ability to attract a lot of amazing people, but along with it, a lot of very competitive people too. Figuring out how to get all these different kinds of people to work together cooperatively OOCly is a real challenge, you can spend over a week explaining the vision of cooperation, give and take, and mutual fun, get the impression that people have bought into it, and only to find out in the span of four hours that it was all lip service acknowledgement.

      There is a thriving Star Wars MUSH community with multiple factions though, so it can be done, and I'm sure their community members are happy with each other in general, otherwise how would it have gotten so big? I just got to keep the toxic tendencies of the MUSH community, and I know you guys got a generational jump on me at this but if we've done this for a few years I'm sure the list of toxic tendencies that we've seen are more or less the same, away from the community or minimize the impact of it to the broader player base. Which I am doing, and will continue to be doing. Mistakes will be made along the way, I'm sure, but will learn from each of them.

      I like a place where the staff does their best to provide story to everyone, and not just only to their favourite faction and friends, and work with the players to get them used to trying to run plots of their own.

      I like a place that is striving for a community culture that's OOCly about working together to make fun happy times, even though ICly they're competing against each other.

      I like a place that aims to be character and narrative driven, and curbing the proliferation of hyper-optimized combat sheets with min/max stat builds of 20s and -1s, and strange character backstories that requires you to make mental gymnastics to accept but make most people question if they're still in a Star Wars setting after seeing it.

      I like a place where the admin doesn't play favourites and acts decisively instead of pretending the community is a AAA gaming company, when it's really like a virtual home everyone gathers together to RP and people are expected to act like well-adjusted adults in a social setting rather than a Karen whenever things don't go their way. The admin knows this is just fun pretending time, the value of being a friendly host, and the necessity of well-behaved guests.

      I like a place where players can speak to the admin with suggestions or concerns, and knows that while the admin may not necessarily agree or implement everything heard, an honest thought will be made on the matter.

      I'd like to believe that there's more people here on the MUSH community that jives with that same train of thought as I do, because that's the kind of community I envision establishing and gathering together people who share that vision and values. If it turns out I'm in the minority when it comes to these style of thinking, and I can't reconcile it, that's fine there won't be enough people to keep the community going and it'll go as all things naturally should go. However, I'd like to believe that there's enough of us out there who has went through enough years of the list of toxicity in the MUSHing community, that we want to try something new without those same toxic elements following us, or at least not all of them.

      posted in Adver-tis-ments
      O
      Obie
    • RE: Star Wars Republic d20 SAGA - (Prequel Era)

      @Warma-Sheen said in Star Wars Republic d20 SAGA - (Prequel Era):

      @Obie said in Star Wars Republic d20 SAGA - (Prequel Era):

      Myself, I feel that if I can't pull off a community with that kind of culture I listed above, then I'm OK with it dying off because I dunno about you guys but I find it plenty tiring to be constantly butting heads with other people, backstabbing, and all that just to "win" in a make believe game. It's emotionally exhausting for me, and not worth keeping afloat if this is the reality of things.

      Yeah, a lot of us are. But its because we keep running into that kind of person in games. It would be great to have a game where everyone is on board with the vision you have for your game.

      Maybe at the beginning where you have to +proceed and all that other stuff, have a step where people agree to that (yes, I know not a lot of people read that stuff) and then again at the end of chargen just before you go IC repeat it just for good measure. It might make people think about it and know that you take it seriously and everyone else is expected to as well.

      If nothing else, people can't use the excuse that they didn't know with very much weight.

      That's a good idea, Warma. I think I'll that'll serve as a great reminder. If you've been through the chargen area, you'll notice that there's several areas that's been highlighted and underlined in coloured texts because I have run into people who just ignored everything.

      Haha, but it's just small pains, it's a very human thing. I'll start learning to replicate the +proceed agreement trigger. Thanks for that! 🙂

      posted in Adver-tis-ments
      O
      Obie
    • RE: Star Wars Republic d20 SAGA - (Prequel Era)

      @Warma-Sheen said in Star Wars Republic d20 SAGA - (Prequel Era):

      @Obie said in Star Wars Republic d20 SAGA - (Prequel Era):

      Anyways, I'm sure there's more I need to learn to make enjoyable for as many people as possible. I don't aim to make it perfect for everyone, but the intention is to have a community with great vibes, works with each other well to come up with fun stories through collaborative efforts and give and take.

      This is great and I fully support it. But the pessimist in me says that's an uphill battle. Especially when you have an era with PCs on opposing sides. Great vibes, possibly, but working well together... that is tougher. I'd like to think that people are more mature now that 5 years ago, but the story told above says 'not everyone' and sometimes all it takes is one to ruin the bunch.

      One of the downsides to allowing dark side PCs, as someone mentioned on another board recently, is that dark side PCs have no built in motivation not to kill everything everywhere at all times. I feel for the players that had to deal with Tolssk in that scene, even moreso because of the xp imbalance. I've been there. But ICly he didn't do anything but follow his character. Tolssk kills as many as he can as often as he can. That's his thing. Even if it is other PCs. He's got no reason to do otherwise.

      You'd have to find some way to come to an ooc understanding with dark side players that the game is not a free for all to kill everything that moves. And I'm not sure how you do that, honestly. You really just have to count on the integrity of the player to be cool. And I wish that was easy. It should be easy. But experience, even up to what was described yesterday, says that it is not.

      However, I hope everyone finds a way to make it a possibility and not let a few bad apples spoil the whole bunch.

      I plan to be vigilant about people who doesn't align with the vision of the community collaboration and remove them accordingly if they are a toxic element. I should learn a bit more from other SW communities though, and see how they handle inter-faction interaction, like SW:AoA.

      Myself. I wanted a community where people are working together, to experience fun stuff. Compete ICly but friends OOCly. Options for everyone, combat doesn't have to be everything, good decision making and skill checks should just be as meaningful. A place for people to live their SW CW vibes.

      That's the bet I'm putting on. I might fail, I mean you guys have more experience with SW communities than I do so I'm sure you've seen successes and failures. Myself, I feel that if I can't pull off a community with that kind of culture I listed above, then I'm OK with it dying off because I dunno about you guys but I find it plenty tiring to be constantly butting heads with other people, backstabbing, and all that just to "win" in a make believe game. It's emotionally exhausting for me, and not worth keeping afloat if this is the reality of things.

      Until then though, I'm going to keep on doing my best to set the community culture based on OOC collaboration and friendship for great SW fun times.

      posted in Adver-tis-ments
      O
      Obie
    • RE: Star Wars Republic d20 SAGA - (Prequel Era)

      @Lemon-Fox said in Star Wars Republic d20 SAGA - (Prequel Era):

      @Obie said in Star Wars Republic d20 SAGA - (Prequel Era):

      However, that's all in flux. After what I saw last night, I'm reconsidering quite a few things. This is why some policy hasn't been written up yet. In between thinking about this, I've been adding utility talent trees for Dark Siders, adding NPCs onto a NPC list for the community to use, running scenes so people don't get bored and wonder why the heck they're on a beta, and such. These are just all things I'm learning to juggle,but I knew what I was signing up for when I gave this project a go. Don't be surprised if I drop the ball a few times here and there, but the intentions is never intended to be malicious.

      That's good to hear, at least! Might I suggest not adhering to a bell-curve? Lower power levels sound great at first, but as the game gets older, it only hurts new players. I'd recommend getting people to 7-8 quickly and then making it a slog to 9-11, then making it extremely difficult to get to 12+. But that's just my hot take on it.

      Hrm, hey Lemon Fox. It's great that you got thoughts and suggestions on this. The good thing is what you suggested is already in place, it's been like that through several incarnation of the community because of the system we inherited from Dahan. Players have the choice of starting at level 1, 5, or 8. Getting XP has always been about how frequently you're RPing and with how many different people, so for some it's a slog, for others it's a journey, but by no means short. The game caps at level 12 for most players. Just like the past communities, people who are story drivers and a positive presence for the community, has the chance to ICly earn levels up to 14.

      Some of the things you hear here within the last 24 hours has some distortion in there, and that's understandable and human. I welcome you to log on and take a peek at the system, and ask questions.

      posted in Adver-tis-ments
      O
      Obie
    • RE: Star Wars Republic d20 SAGA - (Prequel Era)

      Nah, old character won't be kept. I think that misunderstanding only happened because people just assumed and didn't think to ask.

      We still have the Alt XP system on SWR. One of the ideas I originally had was old players will have to remake (now with the 32 PB, /everyone/ will have to remake to conform with the lower power curve) but say it takes 10,000XP to be level 8, and they had 12,000 XP, then if they start over again at level 8 the 2,000 XP they had in excess will be locked away only accessible only by Alt XP. Alt XP is also gated by levels too. So they'd have to go through the journeys of leveling up.

      However, that's all in flux. After what I saw last night, I'm reconsidering quite a few things. This is why some policy hasn't been written up yet. In between thinking about this, I've been adding utility talent trees for Dark Siders, adding NPCs onto a NPC list for the community to use, running scenes so people don't get bored and wonder why the heck they're on a beta, and such. These are just all things I'm learning to juggle,but I knew what I was signing up for when I gave this project a go. Don't be surprised if I drop the ball a few times here and there, but the intentions is never intended to be malicious.

      posted in Adver-tis-ments
      O
      Obie
    • RE: Star Wars Republic d20 SAGA - (Prequel Era)

      Hey there, Obie here. So first off, there's things being misinterpreted here.

      "Please keep in mind that Star Wars Republic is currently in beta, there's new ideas put in here to try to allow more range of builds that remains viable even at max level. As we understand what works and what doesn't, we'll make tweaks and changes here and there. The work that players put in during beta will carry on over after beta is over in some manner, depending on how we go about it."

      When I wrote that post, I kept it ambiguous because I haven't quite figured out what is appropriate so I'm gave myself room to avoid setting expectations.

      The community culture that I'm trying to set is one of OOC collaboration so more fun experiences can be had. Scenes are being run to make sure the players who are participating in the beta is having fun and also becoming involved in the collaborative process. That didn't end up happening last night despite having spoken to the person in question for a lengthy period of time before this event and setting up expectations, so that player is going to be dealt with permanently because this is toxic to the community.

      From these events, I've been learning from seeing how people are using the new houseruled feats and powers. It helped to have a mix of different levels.

      As a result of last night's actions, past experiences, and also from observing player behaviour in chargen, I've decided to nix the random generated ability rolls that came with the system and stick with 32 point buy. It won't eliminate all the problematic behaviours, but it will make quite a few more manageable. So everyone is going through chargen come reset.

      The reason why I haven't talked about what will carry over earlier is because I haven't figured everything out yet. I know I want the XPs people got from nomming each other during the beta to carry over, that was what my first post to others was about. When I've figured it out, there will a post made on it. If you're not sure what my thought processes is on the matter, just ask. We might find new perspectives unexpectedly.

      Anyways, I'm sure there's more I need to learn to make enjoyable for as many people as possible. I don't aim to make it perfect for everyone, but the intention is to have a community with great vibes, works with each other well to come up with fun stories through collaborative efforts and give and take. The more lessons learned during beta, the smoother launch will be.

      posted in Adver-tis-ments
      O
      Obie
    • RE: Star Wars Republic d20 SAGA - (Prequel Era)

      I think there's a lot of wisdom I can learn from folks who have built their communities before me. I really like the idea of OCs standing and being heroes on their own merit, with just the FCs showing up as cameos in varying levels of participation just to reinforce the fact that yes this is still Star Wars, we're still in the same universe but you're living your journey and they are living theirs, with the occasional crossing of paths on rare occasions. 🙂

      posted in Adver-tis-ments
      O
      Obie
    • RE: Star Wars Republic d20 SAGA - (Prequel Era)

      @Seraphim73 & @secretfire My intention is to give players with the opportunities to make small divergences, but I've been in one community in the past where a player killed off a major FC and thus deprived me and many others the chance to have the thrill of interacting with said FC, and Order 66 happened so fast that I never even had a chance to try out the environment.

      So I'd like to offer people a chance to make their own mark in the game's history, but ideally the changes would be neutral or in the benefit of the overall community. Have Order 66 happen later? Having a different person take over Mandalore? Different outcomes in battle? Have more Jedi survive Order 66? Those seems cool and it rewards the players' efforts. Have one person kill off Palpatine, General Grevious, or Count Dooku? No, from my own personal experience that was bad, so that sort of large divergence won't happen.

      @WildBaboons There'll definitely be FCs from all sides showing up once in a blue moon to drive narrative purposes, but the intent is for the focus to be on the OCs.

      posted in Adver-tis-ments
      O
      Obie