@runescryer said in Alternative Lords & Ladies Settings:
The only caveat would have in regards to a Blue Rose game would be around the Rhydians; intelligent animals that hace the same status and capability as people in the Kingdom. Yes, you can play a wolf, horse, or large cat (about bobcat size) that is intelligent, has telepathy, and can bond with a humanoid. It's really Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar with the serial numbers filed off. I have no issues at all with this.
Have you considered sealing him in cellar behind a brick wall Cask of Amontillado style?
@pyrephox said in Alternative Lords & Ladies Settings:
Which isn't to say such a game would fail or be a bad idea, just that it probably would need to consider its audience, because some of the immediate appeal of the genre for a lot of players would be absent. You DON'T see people lining up to play political games centered around guilds or senates or free cities, even those would be valid settings and even easier to have a wide variety of characters in a MU* setting.
I fucking would if a decent one was available somewhere! That's right in my wheelhouse.
@warma-sheen said in The Desired Experience:
Those are good board games, I'm sure. I've only played two, and not very often. But the experience of a MU* is vastly different than that of a boardgame. Boardgames discount internal politics completely, as well as cross-factional politics, which provide huge amounts of intrigue and excitement in RP.
I have yet to play a MU* with interesting politics to be frank. Most MU* players overestimate their intrigue chops. Anyone who has played a two-day game of Diplomacy has experienced more politicking and backstabbing than a MU* player does in a decade. Hell, Eve Online has more intrigue and politicking than any MU*. An assassin infiltrated a guild and worked their way up to being the best friend and second-in-command of the targeted head of the guild over the course of ten months.
Those are just some of the many vast differences that make MUs far more interesting than simple boardgames - which is why MUs last for years and board games last minutes. A three year long boardgame of any of those would get boring quickly and turn to torture shortly thereafter.
King's Dilemma and Oath. Oath never ends, as the end of the last game of it that you played sets up the next game with the victors controlling the new empire that overthrew the old empire in the last game. King's Dilemma is the only legacy board game that has gotten me to finally play a legacy board game and takes about a year to play.
What you look for in a MU* and what you look for in a board game are usually very, very different.
Not really. As I stated earlier in this very thread, I'm looking for essentially an online, text-based Mega Game with a bit more fluff and roleplay. I'm about to throw in the towel on MUSHes altogether and focus solely on RPIs, but they go the opposite end and have too much grinding with little roleplay.
What I would like to see in a MU* is a combination of all three. The main source of xp would be time based. If your character is X years and Y months old, they have Z amount of xp to spend at character creation. Every IC month after that earns a proportional amount of xp, so that every 40 year old will have the same amount of xp no matter if they hit the grid at 20 or 39. This helps alleviate the 20 year old who can out-politic Machiavelli while going toe-to-toe with Brock Lesner.
On top of that I would have a karma system which takes into account staff gifts and fellow player votes. For the player votes the +recc review system Thenomain summarized sounds good. Players would be able to trade in 20 karma for 1 xp for a character that they have on the grid. If the player had a character recently die, then they can exchange at a rate of 10 karma for 1 xp with one new character. Karma could also be used for other minor benefits. This lets a person's RP earn them benefits without moving them too far off the track of age-based xp.
@solstice said in Good Anime:
- Demon Slayer - Possibly the most popular entry on this list as of the time of this writing. Fluid fighting animation and enjoyable characters elevate this above other shows of its kind. Thrust by necessity into a life of fighting demons in order to protect his sister. Along the way he's joined by a cast of like-minded inviduals, and they... slay demons. The premise is simple as can be, but the execution is what really makes this special.
This is a great anime. Right up to episode 21, when the creator apparently went "I really like Bleach. I want to remake Bleach. Even the fact that Bleach is good up to the end of the Rukia Retrieval Arc then sucks after that. Definitely going to include that."
Humorous biting comments aside, it's a good anime that's a touch heart-warming, a touch depressing, and a touch dark with great art. However, after episode 21, if you've watched Bleach, you're going to start thinking "This is starting to feel really familiar," and, if you haven't watched Bleach, you're going to think "Ugh, I don't like the swerve this suddenly took."
Anime tend to do the opposite of American shows. Where Star Trek: The Next Generation took a couple of seasons to find it's voice then it got good, anime, such as Bleach and Demon Slayer, also can take a season or two to find it's voice then it gets bad.
- Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood - A full remake of 'Fullmetal Alchemist', this is brought into the modern day with better animation and a storyline that is more consistent and faithfully follows the source material. Edward and Alphonse Elric experience a personal tragedy, and in trying to make things right violate the established taboos of alchemy and pay a heavy price - the former losing two limbs, and the latter even more. In seeking a way to correct their mistake, they become State Alchemists, solving others' problems on the side while trying to unravel the mysteries of alchemy - and unveiling a far-reaching conspiracy in the process. A classic for a reason.
Second best anime of all time. Lots of twists and turns. The only downside is that they rush through the first few episodes as those episodes are a retread of a bunch of the episodes of the original Fullmetal Alchemist anime. My recommendation is watch the original Fullmetal Alchemist anime through episode 22, then switch to Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood starting at episode 9 and finish it out.
- My Hero Academia - Rapid genetic mutation and advancements mean that over 90% of the world has developed a unique ability called 'Quirks'. Naturally, this lends itself to heroes and villains. These manifest often around kindergarten or grade school. Midoriya Izuku is a mega-fan of the Number One Hero, 'All Might', and eagerly awaits his quirk's appearance only to discover that he lost the genetic lottery, and was born quirkless, putting an ungraceful end to his dreams of being a hero. Or does it? Can a quirkless individual be a hero? The absolute joy of this show is the wide array of powers on display, some of which are overpowered and others are so banal that they seem useless - and seeing the interplay between those two is easily half of the fun when the tables are turned on by the underpowered.
The best shonen anime currently being produced. I'm hesitant to place it in my ranking, but that should be a sign of how good it is, as it's been out for years now and I still haven't decided just how good it is. My only concern is that it is a touch Naruto-esque and Naruto definitely started to get a bit meh near the end.
- Puella Magi: Madoka Magicka - A subversion of the magical girl genre. If you've seen a single episode of Card-Captor Sakura or Sailor Moon, you'll have all the context you need to know what this show masterfully disassembles and creates dread and hopelessness in its place.
@Solstice did not do a good job appropriately explaining how much of a disassembly this show is. It is NOTHING like normal magical girl anime. If you're expecting She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, Sailor Moon, Cardcaptor Sakura, RWBY, or anything like that, you WILL be disappointed, and, if you're under the age of 12, you WILL be traumatized for life. This show is a cute teddy bear that is stuffed with living centipedes and spiders. It has the cute, colorful coating of a magical girl show but what's inside most definitely is not.
- Cowboy Bebop - Space cowboys? Check. Inspired Firefly? Check. Corgi? Check.
Best anime ever. From my understanding, even though it is loved in the US, it is barely remembered in Japan. Germans Love David Hasselhoff after all.
- Evangelion - It's so classic that the story isn't even finished yet. Or, well, it just finished. In Japan. Maybe.
Evangelion is...an experience. Watch it to be able to say you watched it.
- Trigun - Vash the Stampede is a murderer. Leveled an entire town. Huge bounty on his head. He's also a complete dipstick. Or is he? He is. Or is he?
Not the best or second best anime, but it's definitely in my top ten or twenty. It's starting to show its age a touch, having a definite "Anime from the 90s" look, but the story is good, there are some decent twists, and the ending is phenomenal with an unexpected but great Chekov's Gun scenario.
I'm not going to be as organized or as thorough as @Solstice was. I'm just going to throw a few out there that came to mind.
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex - It's a bit pretentious and the sequel lets the creator's anti-American colors seep through a bit, but the first series/season is good if you're into cyberpunk or transhumanist sci-fi and military oriented fiction. It's not afraid to show blood and guts or fanservice.
Naruto & Naruto: Shippuden - A shonen anime about chasing your dreams and punching everything that gets in your way in the face. Also magical ninjas. Naruto starts off a bit slow, then gets really good around episode 20. Once you reach episode 135, STOP, as the rest is all filler and doesn't progress the story any. (You can also skip episodes 97 and 101-106 as filler as well.) Switch to Naruto: Shippuden which was the second series and finished the story. It stays good until about episode 211, then it just sort of drags out from there unfortunately.
Dragonball Z - How can this not be listed? It's not among the best anime, and honestly I refuse to watch it anymore, as Dragonball Z Abridged remade it funnier and much better, filling in plot holes and smoothing over some of the wrinkles. Still, it hooked a lot of us on anime and is a classic.
I like this idea. It would help maintain consistency with people joining a scene if they could see how crowded a location is without needing a set. Sometimes people forget that info in their set.
@ortallus said in Mark Rober is the Hero This World Needs:
I agree about the mules to an extent, but they still know what they're doing is wrong. You could argue that the guy sitting in the call center is 'just trying to make a buck and feed his family'
The Yuppie Nuremberg Defense, "Everyone's got a mortgage to pay."
@Cobaltasaurus said in Tips on Güd TS:
I want to be a pretty princess. Flakes can't be pretty princesses.
Most pretty princess characters fall under the special snow flake category, so some flakes are pretty princess.
MU*s have had their death knell toll. Why play with other boring, creepy, annoying, etc. people by text, when you can satisfy that itch with single-player awesomeness that have this shiny new thing called graphics?
Lords & Ladies your jam? Lakeburg Legacies is a city management sim, where you also have to match the townsfolk and local nobles to get romance to bloom and make babies who will grow up and help the kingdom thrive. (On a more serious note: There's a bit of a eugenics feel here that may put some people off, as you're wanting to match people with certain traits to make babies that have even better versions of those traits so your kingdom can prosper.) As PartyElite put it in his Youtube review of strategy games at this E3, "Is this a new hybrid genre of city builder and dating sim?"
What's that? You prefer your Lords & Ladies IN SPAAAACE (because everything is better IN SPAAACE)? Well, have no fear, for someone has finally, FINALLY made the Crusader Kings IN SPAAACE that we have all been hungering for in Alliance of the Sacred Suns. You are a Space Emperor of Space and you must manage Space Houses with their Space Nobles in a Feudal Society in Space. what more needs to be said?
Maybe you're done with the L&L and you're looking more for some hard sci-fi action, a la Battlestar Galactica or the Expanse. Well, you better Starbuckle up, because Falling Frontier is a space-based RTS game with all of that delicious hard sci-fi flavor (other than the superluminal stuff). Early Access was supposed to be this month, but they've delayed it to later this year.
What? That's not hard enough sci-fi for you? You want something based around earth and set in the near-future? Meet the XCom I personally wanted - Terra Invicta. Play as one of Earth's countries as we discover aliens on the edge of the solar system. Fight the aliens or other countries or both!
Maybe you're a fan of Civilization 6, but always thought it was weird that Cleopatra of Egypt was going to war with Theodore Roosevelt of America in 200 AD. Well, someone finally fixed that with Humankind (probably the game I most excited about). Move through seven eras, picking a new culture for your faction to represent in six of them, slowly building a combination of traits and bonuses that stick with you through the ages. It's being made by the same guys that made Endless Space I & II and Endless Legend, so, if you were a fan of those, then...well, you probably already know about this game.
Wow! That's a whole lot of simulation and strategy games! Yes, that's because that's what I like to play. Did something non sim-y or strategerie oriented get shown at E3 that you want to discuss? Shout your hype here.
There has been so much activity on here since I last posted, that I can't quote and respond to every single piece. Instead, I am going to give you a broad summary of my thinking on this.
Places code is awesome, every MU* should have it, and every player should use it. Every MU* I have played for longer than six months has used this code and the playerbase has used it extensively. I am surprised to read that there are playerbases that do not use it. Frankly, I am to the point that I can't live without it. It is essential for managing those big scenes and when 8 people show up because you're in a public with 4 other people.
OOC Bob says: "Hello! Our table is full, so we won't be able to invite you over." I am OK with someone telling me that when I enter a public. I love being background noise for a scene. I suggested that NPCs be added to Firan's roster so people could grab one for an evening and play a minstrel in a bar or a demagogue screaming in the streets. Background shit is great for creating atmosphere, and having someone who is fine alting background noise in one window while doing some RP with their main in another is freaking fantastic. More people should do this.
They're being too clever for their own good. Humans love right angles. We surround ourselves with them even though they're unnatural.
Behold the bane of Dracula!
I rather like the idea that it's because crosses present a philosophy so diametrically opposed to their way of being: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2009/09/10/vampires-crosses/
@Lisse24 My suggested solutions were the 'rising tide' method (as in all boats rise with the tide) for making sure that new players have some basic @clues. After a @clue is known by X of people, it is automatically shared with everyone as general knowledge.
The second suggestion was that every time you got a clue that you would get a list of people randomly selected from the people who know related clues as well as a few red herring people who may or may not know anything related, giving a starting point for who to chat with about what you know.
@Sparks said in Coming Soon: Arx, After the Reckoning:
@Ominous said in Coming Soon: Arx, After the Reckoning:
@Thenomain
@clues are mechanical means of tracking who knows what.But they're not! I mean, the whole problem was that many of us (me included, as noted) treated them as if they were just a means of tracking who knew what. Which is why they spread so far so fast, and left poor Apos spending a non-trivial amount of time every week writing like 30 new ones.
They're supposed to be a mechanical means of tracking who has the proof of what.
It's possible to know something ICly without a @clue, after all; I could tell you something, and now you know that thing even if I don't share the @clue. It's when I give you the @clue—the proof of that thing—that you have the evidence to know it's right, or to potentially convince others.
At least, that's my understanding based on discussions of the system.
I suspect they originally were just for tracking who knows what. They didn't expect people to spread the info as quickly as they did. Again, just the feel I get. I think the expectation was that people would be a little more careful with who they shared info with, as demonstrated by the fact that Fable has basically become the Black Death with how many people are infected.
Then they realized that 'Doh!' people have diarrhea of the mouth and shit is being spread quickly. Again, just the impression I have. It's beta, though, and ironing out this stuff is what it is for.
@Apos I would argue that is a step beyond traitor mechanic and outright PvP. If players have mutually exclusive goals they are working towards that is a player-player conflict. It may not be quite 'I am going to drink your blood out of a cup made from your own skull' level of PvP, but it's PvP nonetheless.
Over the years the number of webcomics I enjoy has dwindled down due to comics wrapping up, going on hiatus, or creators suddenly poofing. Now I'm down to Order of the Stick and Kill Six Billion Demons, and nothing I look into is as good or interesting as what I've lost.
@surreality said in Which canon property/setting would be good for a MU* ?:
@Ominous ...that sounds incredibly neat. If you find out what that actually is I am tempted to look for it.
Found it. It's Empire of the East and Book of Swords series. I know of it, because I follow the D&D OSR and someone had an article about using the swords from Book of Swords.
@Seraphim73 I like Game of Throne's system for tabletop play. I think what you suggest would work very well on the right server with a more collaborative, story-telling focused environment. Unfortunately, most Mu*s I have been on, players are too antagonistic and zero-sum with one another for it to function. Maybe I'm wrong and it would work great in most circumstances. If that's true, I wish you luck and hope to see it spread everywhere.
Yep yep.
A Hobbesian would argue it's better this way, though, as the State of Nature is the same as the State of War. Those wolves outside of captivity are truly free - free to catch horrible parasites and diseases, free to get into fights with other packs of wolves, free to get frostbite or hypothermia during a sudden blizzard, free to die to farmers with rifles annoyed with them killing their livestock. We submit to government because otherwise we will murder each other, shit in creeks, and die dirty and starving.
A Lockean would say that civilization maintains something close to the State of Nature (a kind of garden of Eden-esque state where everyone is free and there is no private property and things are all sunny and happy) from the State of War that develops as the exercise of those freedoms possibly violate the rights of others. So to establish a third-party as a mediator, we collectively form a government/civilization.
Both say pretty much the same thing - government/civilization makes us get along and live in a developed society with things like electricity and clean water. The difference is that the moment civilization goes poof, Hobbes says we murderfuck everything and Locke says we kind of annoy each other and decide maybe we should have government afterall.
