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    2. Ominous
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    Posts made by Ominous

    • RE: Depression Meals
      1. Open a can of chicken breast, dump into a bowl, toss two to three heaping spoonfuls of Duke's mayonnaise in there, a squirt of mustard, a few dashes of some sort of hot sauce, and take a fork to it to mix and shred the chicken. Apply chicken salad to two slices of bread and pair with a glass of milk.

      2. Heat up frying pan; add butter to pan; crack open an egg and drop contents into frying pan, making sure to bust the yolk, fry the egg, place between two slices of toast that have been smeared with mayonnaise.

      Those tend to be my go-tos.

      @Kanye-Qwest said in Depression Meals:

      Who is doing this when they are too depressed to eat??

      I enjoy cooking, so it actually helps brighten my day a bit.

      posted in Tastes Less Game'y
      Ominous
      Ominous
    • RE: Invisible Sun

      @Ghost said in Invisible Sun:

      However, given how Monte Cook and Co set up so many gates to control how the inward flow of cash, I imagine an IS MU could be cease and desist fodder.

      Take one part Mage: the Awakening, and add one part Mystic Empyrean and one part Planescape. Shake vigorously and pour into an overpriced glorified tabletop RPG box set. Add dashes of Kill Six Billion Demons to taste.

      While very surreal and imaginative, you could convert it to numerous systems to avoid the C&D.

      posted in Other Games
      Ominous
      Ominous
    • RE: Cheap or Free Games!

      @Auspice

      alt text

      posted in Other Games
      Ominous
      Ominous
    • RE: Cheap or Free Games!

      Starsector - I just discovered it a couple of days ago, and I am hooked. Do you think Star Control II is a masterpiece? Did you develop a drinking habit centered on rum after playing too much Sid Meier's Pirates? Have you successfully explored the entire galaxy in Elite: Dangerous? If yes to any or all of these questions, then you too might enjoy this fantastic game that is sold for $15.

      posted in Other Games
      Ominous
      Ominous
    • RE: The Haul

      Aviation Gin
      Knob Creek 120 Proof
      Glenlivet Founder's Reserve
      Angostura Bitters
      Insider by Oink Games
      Fake Artist Goes to New York also by Oink Games
      Treasure Island board game
      Two nylon handcuff straps for my gun belt
      A pair of gloves that you can use with a firearm

      Kitchenaid mixers are what God would have made on the first day if he was a chef. I love my mother's, which is the one I shamelessly steal when I need one.

      posted in Tastes Less Game'y
      Ominous
      Ominous
    • RE: Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.

      @JinShei

      Your dog is warning you about the Unseen from Pugmire.

      posted in Tastes Less Game'y
      Ominous
      Ominous
    • RE: What is the 'ideal' power range?

      @Grayson

      So it's sort of a one-scene unplanned thing? It's not like "I am plotting again Lord Targetonback so I need to send him an OOC warning."

      posted in Mildly Constructive
      Ominous
      Ominous
    • RE: What is the 'ideal' power range?

      @Ghost

      I am not sure I ever encountered +warn. How did that work?

      As to the central topic, I think high level play can work, but the server has to be designed for it.

      posted in Mildly Constructive
      Ominous
      Ominous
    • RE: What is the 'ideal' power range?

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

      I don't remember which game it was that put a brake on all PCs lower than 25 earning X or Y level of title. Suddenly we had 30somethings getting played.

      One or two of the Kushiel games. I think both Kushiel's Debut and Marsilikos had it.

      posted in Mildly Constructive
      Ominous
      Ominous
    • RE: What is the 'ideal' power range?

      @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.

      posted in Mildly Constructive
      Ominous
      Ominous
    • RE: What is the 'ideal' power range?

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

      Also, can I giggle a bit at 40 being considered old and grizzled? 4 months before I turned 40, I gave birth to child #4, and had run 5k every other day through the first trimester of pregnancy, and worked as a massage therapist (on my feet, doing deep tissue bodywork) until 2 weeks before I had my C-section. Hell, all the marathon runners and iron man qualifiers I personally know didn't even start that shit until their late thirties (though again, these people I know ARE pretty badass and would probably qualify as PCs.

      I'm working off the basis of a fantasy setting, where 40 is pretty old. Adjust ages upwards as necessary for a modern setting, or downwards for an anime setting where people are expected to retire and enjoy their golden years at age 25.

      As for 40 being grizzled that's not that odd at all even for today. Grizzled means "streaked with gray hair." Myself and all of my friends who are all in their early to mid thirties have a few grays or spots of gray hair or already have streaks. By 40, I suspect all of us will have streaks of gray hair qualifying us for 'grizzled' status.

      But if you're not going to "stupid, inexperienced kid" handicap PCs, I really think you shouldn't turn mid-life PCs into elderly people. But I do agree that I am kind of meh at the idea of huge reward to older PCs UNLESS you have a compelling story reason to want a lot of older people in the game (which honestly I can't think of many, but I'm sure someone more creative can). People RPing like their 35 year old PC is elderly AND people who want a Doogie PC with 2 PhDs and who is a star athlete at 18 kind of annoy me about the same amount.

      Mainly because there are so few characters that are older than 30 on MUs. Anything to encourage a fuller age range on a MU* is a good thing to me.

      And that still doesn't solve the differential problem either, it just gives some people a little bit of a head start to reach their max potential.

      Huh? Every character that is age X would have the same xp as every other character that is age X. The only differential would be between ages. If you want to match someone's skills, just roll a character that is the same age as theirs and the differential goes poof.

      posted in Mildly Constructive
      Ominous
      Ominous
    • RE: What is the 'ideal' power range?

      alt text

      posted in Mildly Constructive
      Ominous
      Ominous
    • RE: What is the 'ideal' power range?

      Now I feel ashamed that I didn't post those gifs.

      posted in Mildly Constructive
      Ominous
      Ominous
    • RE: To OOC Room or Not to OOC Room (and Other Artifacts)

      As I said in the other thread, I support an OOC Room on a server that does not have a private room for each PC. That way there is always a place a PC can go and not have someone run across them and try to start a scene.

      The only other circumstance where an OOC Room would be welcome is a server going the RPI route and not having channels. This ensures there is a place people can gather to chat OOC and make plans for meeting up on the grid.

      I do support Private RP Rooms, though. They allow people to have backscenes off of the grid so people not part of the backscene aren't accidentally walking into the scene.

      posted in Game Development
      Ominous
      Ominous
    • RE: Model Policies?

      @Tinuviel

      Lowtax is the founder of Something Awful (Goon4Lyfe), and Deadpool is...well...Deadpool. However, how those are related or anything is beyond me.

      posted in Mildly Constructive
      Ominous
      Ominous
    • RE: What is the 'ideal' power range?

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

      That's one possibility, sure. My point was that being old does not necessarily equate to being a "grizzled veteran with loads of experience". You could be old and crappy at your job too.

      And if you want to play a character like that, dump your experience points into the Couch Potato skill or the Alcoholic skill instead of the 9-5 skill. This system does not stop someone from making an old fogey who can't do their job well. Obviously they focused their life experiences into something other than their job.

      What it does stop is someone having a 10/10 rating in Couch Potato, Alcoholic, 9-5, Seduction, Swording, Axing, Politics, Leadership, and I Win Everything skills at the tender age of 19.

      Sure, there are a lot of systems that work that way. But there are also a lot of systems that don't, because the line between attribute and skill is often very blurry.

      Where's the line between Strength and Weightlifting? Clearly there is skill involved in learning to lift weights, but isn't it also building muscle mass in a way that could probably aid you in other strength-related activities?

      Does special forces training give you a skill in "Torture Resistance" or does it hone your underlying Willpower in a way that also helps you slog through all-night hikes, push past injuries, etc.?

      You can make arguments either way. There is no perfect skill system, just as there's no perfect power range. Everything is a balancing act of pros and cons, and it comes down to what system fits your goals for your game. If you want to reward people for making older characters, go for it. I'm just not a fan personally.

      I didn't say that my system was the end-all be-all. I simply said it was the one I supported. I feel it addresses the problems in xp systems the cleanest and simplest.

      posted in Mildly Constructive
      Ominous
      Ominous
    • RE: What is the 'ideal' power range?

      @faraday

      I would have attributes be locked. Strength, Constitution, etc. are set and can never be raised, but, like in Firan and D&D, after a certain age they start to decrease. So, yes, the grizzled veteran is going to be more skilled, but his/her dexterity isn't what it used to be. Fortunately they have enough skill to still keep up with the whippersnappers. They might not swing their sword as fast, but they have the experience to put themselves in the right positioning that when they do finally swing their sword, it's the winning blow.

      Attributes are nature; skills are nurture. Attirbutes are the natural talent; skills are the acquired wisdom of life experience. As such, attributes are what they are and there is little to no changing them (except for the ravages of time decreasing them), skills are what you dump experience points into, because they reflect experience.

      Addendum: If you have child characters, attributes could go up until the character reaches a certain age (15, 18, 21, 25, whatever) and then they can't go up anymore. I would use Firan's system and have the attributes go up on birthdays.

      posted in Mildly Constructive
      Ominous
      Ominous
    • RE: What is the 'ideal' power range?

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

      However throw high level characters at this and it's all different. Why does it take two Archwizards and the Lord Captain of the Paladins to down an owlbear? I'd have to turn it into a dragon instead, but then what about the two squires and the fledgling bard who joined as well, what is their role in the party? I'm either going to challenge the highbies by things that would decimate the lowbies, or I'm going to bore the former with the trivial threats I throw at them. Either way that won't be fun for half the participants.

      Actually it depends on the edition of D&D. Earlier editions (and 5e somewhat with its "bounded accuracy") were much more lethal than later editions. A group of kobolds or goblins could still down a high-level (level 8-11) character. Mixing lower level characters with high level characters was more the norm, because you need cannon fodder. Let's be honest, that is essentially what Hirelings/Followers in OD&D and OSR games are. Occasionally one of those Hirelings/Followers happens to be a PC, maybe one of the secondary characters of one of the players who couldn't bring their main character on the trip.

      Ars Magica also addressed this with having players create a Magus, a Consortes, and a bunch of Grogs. When a group plays, only a few of the players bring their Magi, because the others have to stay back and run the convenant, perform research, keep an eye on the covenfolk, etc. The other players bring their consortes who, while formidable, are not comparable to a Magus. The grogs that come along get played by everyone.

      Power disparity can work, as long as the mechanics are thought-out to handle it effectively and contribute to everyone's fun.

      posted in Mildly Constructive
      Ominous
      Ominous
    • RE: What is the 'ideal' power range?

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

      Yes, that, and also where that relative power level ought to be.

      Do you prefer high end games where characters have access to the most incredible feats available in the system? Do you prefer them being beginners with access limited to the first few powers? Somewhere in the middle?

      So you are asking what the ideal absolute power level is and not just the range between characters?

      I don't think it matters. The critical part is the difference in power between the PCs not the average around which they are all playing. If they're playing dung beetles, as long as the game is fun, they're all dung beetles in power. If they're playing gods, as long as the game is fun, they're all gods. The issue is when the game is gods vs. dung beetles.

      The problem with your example of D&D is that it isn't designed for play above level 10. The original white Box D&D topped out at around level 11, I think. The next edition of Basic D&D - B/X - had a max level of 14. I'm not sure what first edition of Advanced D&D had as a max level, but BECMI Basic D&D introduced a max level of 36 and Immortals - characters who had transcended levels.

      The thing is, even in the original White Box, after about level 5, you weren't doing as much dungeon crawling. Instead you were building fortifications, claiming lands, etc. The game changed as you got more powerful. It wasn't until AD&D, particularly Third Edition, that that entire aspect of the game was jettisoned and the expectation was that 20th level characters are doing the same stuff as 1st level characters only their dungeons are the outer planes. Unfortunately the game mechanics aren't designed for that and it just falls apart. The game is built for dung beetles, but you're trying to cram gods into it and expecting the gods to keep doing dung beetle things. It would be like running Call of Cthulhu with PCs consisting of Superman, Goku, Haruhi Suzumiya, Dr. Who, and Q. The game mechanics couldn't handle it and the game would fall apart.

      Then, equally as importantly, do you think all characters should be in the same range of mechanical power as the rest? How much should they be able to deviate if not? And how do some PCs then get to that point - is it a function of how long they've been active? Do they earn it through some risky means? Do their players just choose or apply ("I'll play a veteran", "I'll play Superman") for those outliers?

      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.

      posted in Mildly Constructive
      Ominous
      Ominous
    • RE: Model Policies?

      The only place I can think of an OOC Room being needed is a server where characters don't have their own personal rooms. If the grid is all only public spaces, then an OOC Room to retreat to when you're idling or not actively wanting to RP this very second is necessary.

      posted in Mildly Constructive
      Ominous
      Ominous
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