Best posts made by Ominous

Remember, internet trolls are like Palpatine. Engaging them just brings you closer to the dark side.

I was feeling bad about leaving my job of almost three years (half a month shy of my start date at the academy and three months shy of my graduation date). However, after yesterday I feel good and am ready to move on.

It was originally supposed to be my last day (and might now have been my last day after what happened, but I'm hoping to ride out another week for a little more money before I start my new job) and it was the friday of my workweek, so I expected a somewhat easy post assignment to cruise through until the end of shift. No, instead they assigned me to 5 East, which three months ago before we had a jail riot was an easy post because it was the old man wing, but had since been turned into a disciplinary wing to house the rioters and then, after they came off disciplinary, house any other displinary inmates. So I was going to be doing jumpsuit exchange and late night meal for 22 men who are very unhappy to be locked in their cells for 23 hours a day with no television or distraction other than their one hour out in a dayroom that has their shower and the telephone. Also, the wing has a very low ceiling, terrible lighting so you can't see if you're about to get assaulted, and most officers and inmates swear that it, along with 6 East above it, is haunted. It's certainly creepy enough to be haunted; though, I don't believe in the paranormal.

The second layer of the shit cake was that I was the only third-shifter assigned to that entire floor for the night. Out of 6 officers, I was the only one who wasn't going to be exhausted after having already worked a full shift during second shift. Also none of them knew it was jumpsuit exchange night on that floor, so they were unprepared and unhappy that they had to do that and I was going to have lead them through that.

The third layer of the shit cake was that second shift had apparently not done much, so almost all of the inmates were agitated. The North 1 walk of the wing had flooded the walk on first shift until first shift cut off their water. Second shift gave them back their water, and they flooded the walk again, so second shift cut off their water. They were already demanding we turn the water back on and I wasn't about to give it to them after demonstrating they can't behave themselves twice in one day, pissing them off more. The South 1 walk was pissed they didn't receive hot water (scaldingly hot water we heat up in hot pots so they can cook noodles or make instant coffee; it's a privilege not a right, and it's at officer's discretion whether to give it) so were donkey kicking their doors for attention. As I did my rounds for beginning of shift count, two different inmates kindly informed me that when I opened their doors to serve them food they were jumping me.

The fourth layer of the shit cake was that my partner decided to leave the floor after having been there maybe 10 minutes for a "bathroom break" that proceeded to take 40 minutes (or longer, they hadn't returned by the end of the story), and after I had been there an hour, my Sergeant still hadn't arrived on the floor for me to address the issues with the wing with them. So I was a bit miffed at having to deal with these issues by myself.

The steaming turd topping on the shit cake was when I did rounds for the final time, South 1 had decided to flood their walk too, so I had to cut off their water at which point I was threatened two more times with assault (well, one was a threat of murder but let's not get technical).

I called my lieutenant, told her I wasn't eating that shit cake, and she could force feed it to whatever poor bastard hadn't already given their two weeks notice. I turned in the wing's keyset; exited the security perimeter; collected my firearm, extra magazines, baton, and cell phone; and clocked out.

If that story sounds right up your alley, they're hiring.

@reimesu

George Lucas showed how effectively the IP holder can mess with a devout fanbase.

She just needs to add the Harry Potter version of Jar Jar Binks and make Voldemort a whiney 10 year old in a prequel series.

@mietze said in What is the 'ideal' power range?:

@Ominous why do you want to encourage a greater age range of PCs?Are there special story incentives to be had?

Verisimilitude. A server where everyone is in their 20s starts to make me feel like the server's big secret is we're actually playing in the Logan's Run universe.

Let's take your example of a 40 year old in your game being considered nearing the end of their useful life.

Where did I say that 40 years old is the end of a character's useful life? I threw 40-something out there because it is an age where a person could reasonably be expected to have lived through several kinds of serious shit and thus have the necessary experience to survive said shit. 40-somethings correspond to a Sergeant Major for enlisted or a Lt.Colonel to Colonel for officers in the Army - people who have seen multiple deployments and could reasonably have fought in two separate wars, which was what my example was about in order to contrast against the 19 year old private whose toughest fight has probably been some stupid high school throw down.

Why do you want to incentivize playing a PC that the society at large will consider a has been or being good for little else than being a plot dispenser. Do they have special built in roles/powers/niches? That to me seems like a better way to encourage more age diversity than extra XP, as well as making those PCs valuable and so theres reason to include them while all the 18-late 20s pcs are getting hitched and pumping out offspring on a L&L game.

Why would people be considering them has-beens when they're the ones who will be landing some of the deciding blows on the dragon that 's attacking the town with their high sword skill? They're the ones with the positions of authority and stats to back that up to make the NPCs listen to them when they roll their Leadership check.

I think age diversity for age diversity's sake and offering people a handful of extra XP just doesn't work very well, because again, absent some kind of built in recognition many people just don't want to create a pc that has had most of their fun adventuring and development behind them before they even hit the grid, and numbers on a sheet seldom means you are included more in play or otherwise.

Why is their adventuring behind them? Hell, in Ars Magica you adventure and research all the way up until the Wizard's Twilight consumes you in your 90s to 100s.

It does not really help to close the gap on play power differentials between PCs either (if that's desirable). But building in non xp incentives might. Maybe people can't manifest major magical abilities until they're 30. Or older pcs have more social influence (based on mechanics) that majorly kicks ass if they are called in to assist on a task, ect.

I don't see how it doesn't, but OK.

Honestly, the whole idea comes from this - I hate xp voting. It's a popularity contest or a test to determine who has less of a life/attention-required job and can RP 24/7 to farm votes. My solution is for xp to be a set amount every in-game month. This creates two problems - Dinosaurs and Age/Ability Discrepancy. New players will never be able to catch up to old players in this system - the dinosaur problem. The Age/Ability Discrepancy is 'why does my recently created 30 year old character know less than a 20 year old character simply because the 20 year old has been played since they were 18 and my character was just recently created?'

The solution? When you roll a character it calculates the amount of xp the character would have earned had it been played from the minimum starting age to the age you are rolling it at and gives it to you.

No more dinosaurs. No more superhuman 19 yo prince(ss)es that can solve all the problems in a PRP by themselves. No popularity contests or "who can RP 24/7 to farm votes?" determining xp. And no power discrepancy except for that which a player is willing to accept. You want to start out with lots of maxed out skills? Can do! The only limiting factor is they're going to be an older character.

@mietze said in What is the 'ideal' power range?:

@Ominous when you start with a bigger chunk of XP in CG it can give a short term boost (depending on how rapidly XP in game is earned and how), but yeah, it doesn't last forever and is not much of a incentive, and you're still going to be smoked by the 18 year old that's been on the grid playing for a year. So it really doesnt help bridge the power differential that builds up in a game over time. And absent other incentives I think that is probably why people tend to gravitate towards younger PCs, because it doesn't feel like their older PC gets any benefit from not being 20, because they do not perceive that part of the PC to be particularly valued.

That is literally impossible in my system. A character that starts playing at 18 will never, ever catch up to a character that starts out at 19 let alone a character that starts out at 40. They earn xp at exactly the same rate. I think you missed the key component of my proposal:

@Ominous said in What is the 'ideal' power range?:

The latter option for me; though, I would have it tied to age. I have for a few years now supported the idea that xp should be awarded as an equal amount to everyone every in-game month. When you roll up a character and decide on an age that determines the starting xp you have to invest in your starting skills. If you want to play a character who has top of the line skills, he/she can't be a smooth-faced youth who just left the farm yesterday to seek adventure. He/she is going to be the grizzled badass, 40-something veteran of two wars, a coup attempt by the royal vizier, the attempted ending of the world by a chaos cult, and that one time a dragon attacked his/her unit, killing all but 10 soldiers.

In Kentucky that is technically Menacing. You might have a hard time making it stick, though.

@Jennkryst @Auspice

I am still batting around the idea of an archipelago world filled with Monarchies of Mau-ish elves (or maybe humans) sailing on the high seas! It'll probably never see the light of day, but it's rattling around in my brain case.

But if Auspice gets a Space Truckin' game going, I'll poke my head in, play around a bit, and steal ideas.

@Derp

I liked that one server that had a coded internet/matrix/cyberspace mechanic and corporations that actually designed and built products. I forget it's name and it wasn't around long sadly, but I liked some of its ideas.

@Wizz

I am pretty sure all 7 things women wish men would do in bed is actually "Communicate and make sure your partner is enjoying things too."

@Ganymede

Conservatism vs. Progressivism can be argued to be a subset of the Romanticism vs. Enlightenment conflict.

Chocobos vs. Mad Max is a much more compelling dialectic, though, I must agree.

Brahms makes literal the statement that one should beware staring into the abyss for it will stare into you.

Thank you for the well wishes, everyone. I am in Santa Barbara working for the County of Santa Barbara in code enforcement. If you're ever in town, say "hi."

@Ganymede said in RL things I love:

Let us know how it goes, yeah? Also, avoid fires.

I am on the coast, and no fires here so far. The fires have a couple of mountains ranges to get over first, which is possible but helps a bit.

I reiterate.

@Ganymede

I find it hilarious actually in a twisted dark humor manner. People are dying of COVID, police brutality, and a myriad of other problems that financial infusions could help, and you have these rich knobs throwing gobs of money at ways to harass their neighbors.

@Groth said in Spirit Lake - Discussion:

What do you mean now want to fight about? I don't know what thread you've been reading but in the thread I've been reading AB has only talked about the actual ban in one post and everything else has been them attempting to explain themselves with little success.

I think @Derp was referring to that one post, because it came across as a bit 'I want to fight about this.'

From a strategical perspective, complaining about your ban after it happens is never going to help you, regardless if you agree or not they presumably banned you for a reason and that reason will be fresh on their minds. If you want to play on that particular game your best bet is to wait a few months and ask for a second chance.

I would make clear that @A-B is in no way entitled to an appeal or a reconsideration, and, if they do reach back out to Spirit Lake's staff in a few months, they should expect a 'No' reply and, if they are unable to accept a 'No' reply, they should not reach out.

On the topic of easy pasta dishes, I find carbonara pretty easy to make. The only tricky bits are you got to cut up the bacon and fry it and separate one egg yolk from its white.