Posts made by Ortallus

@auspice said in Dead Celebrities 2018:

Ursula K Le Guin passed away

Very sad. She's something of a hometown hero.

@rahnevyn said in Armageddon MUD:

@ortallus said in Armageddon MUD:

Does that 40 year old hunter need to know how not to make basic social faux pas that might get him killed?

Yes. Absolutely yes. And that includes going into the wrong neighborhood where he might get mugged.

Having discussed the social faux pas thing above, I'll just mention that the "wrong neighborhood" in an Armageddon context is typically the Labyrinth, which is clearly described with multiple warnings in OOC documentation as well as the IC room descriptions themselves as being Not a Nice Place. It is also pretty hard to wander in there by mistake.

When I mentioned being in the wrong neighborhood and getting mugged as a mistake earlier (like back on page... 10?..) I meant it as a mistake in terms of a "I have heard these warnings, but don't heed them" sense rather than a "Whoops, you took a wrong turn, now you die!" sense. Just to clarify.

Right, and people that don't heed warnings, that's on them. I was just using that as a vague example, because it happened to me on another place. xD Other examples were given, though, for your own.

I'm not saying that things are as bad as some have said -now-. But others have had complaints that looked legitimate, so, whatever.

@oldfrightful said in Armageddon MUD:

@Ortallus He could tell you or just link you this helpfile, which would be the equivalent, and this map for a rough idea. These are both things a newbie could reasonably stumble upon too, it's not very hard to find on the site. It's not actually secret information. When he says 'the digs' he probably means things like lairs, secret watering holes, super exact directions, etc. And like I said in my last post, it is super easy to learn about those things ICly. Your character would not necessarily know about them for being a 40 year old hunter, because a 40 year old hunter probably doesn't know everything there is to know about the super dangerous world. They got to 40, after all!

No, and I agree, but really I think people are splitting hairs.

Does that 40 year old hunter need to know where every hunting spot is?

No.

Does that 40 year old hunter need to know how not to make basic social faux pas that might get him killed?

Yes. Absolutely yes. And that includes going into the wrong neighborhood where he might get mugged.

@jinshei said in Social Awkwardness?:

@ortallus said in Social Awkwardness?:

@jinshei said in Social Awkwardness?:

(I use spoon theory at work to illustrate to my patients why they should all delegate where they can)

My gf and I use it all the time, just to communicate and express our needs and wants:

"Hey babe, do you have spoons to cut my hair tonight?"

"I dunno maybe, I'm pretty tapped out. Work cost me a lot of spoons today. Can we do it tomorrow?"

It helps to understand that it's not personal if someone doesn't want to do something, and it's not an 'excuse'. We respect each other's spoon usage and needs.

We use it as a get out of jail thing just like you! Himself has a low social spoon level, and I don't but I get brain fogged and out of thinking (or manic and demanding Everything Happens NOW!). Its a good way to communicate the amount of energy. The only amendment I make to the original is that there are different spoon pools - I might have physical ones but not social.

Haha, we totally use that too. In fact, just the other day I said, "Baby, I am straight out of kitten spoons tonight. I mean, I can make dinner and watch a show with you tonight, but I swear if that cat pukes one more time..."

And she said, "No worries baby, I haven't seen the cats all day, I'll take care of it."

It's really quite effective once you learn the methodology.

@evilcabbage said in Armageddon MUD:

i mean you can find some of that stuff in helpfiles, but i'm not going to personally give you the digs on every single location to hunt every great beast in the entire world just because you rolled in as a 40 year old character.

Now you're just being melodramatic.

Every great beast in the world?

No.

The location of a few forests where I can get decent game?

Absolutely.

And besides that, do you not approve backgrounds to some extent? Or at least have creation guidelines?

@jinshei said in Social Awkwardness?:

(I use spoon theory at work to illustrate to my patients why they should all delegate where they can)

My gf and I use it all the time, just to communicate and express our needs and wants:

"Hey babe, do you have spoons to cut my hair tonight?"

"I dunno maybe, I'm pretty tapped out. Work cost me a lot of spoons today. Can we do it tomorrow?"

It helps to understand that it's not personal if someone doesn't want to do something, and it's not an 'excuse'. We respect each other's spoon usage and needs.

@auspice said in Recipes!:

So I have a whole chicken that's too big for my InstantPot.

...suggestions?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nxFjhcyTMQ

@evilcabbage said in Armageddon MUD:

except offering to be their in game guide would break one of the core principles of separating ic and ooc and not organizing friendships and such in an out of character manner.

as i have said dozens of times, you can come into discord, @evilcabbage me and you will get help very quickly. if not from me, from any number of people in the discord who are there to help new players.

Oh, I'm not saying you've done those things. I think you've admitted to the things. I was just making a general statement, mostly, though some was directed at Thug.

And if people can't separate IC from OOC as far as punishing someone for being in the wrong place, then they need to separate IC from OOC as far as teaching people and making friends. Otherwise, again, you're just going to lose people.

You guys have like a 3.8 rating on mudsites, I think? That's.. pretty not good.

@surreality said in Action/Super-Spy Style MU:

Something like this sounds like it could be a lot of fun.

I have two suggestions, though each has its own drawback.

1. Modern era setting -- we all know it, people can play with modern tech, etc. Drawback: it's going to be hard to prevent politics from coming up, and potentially starting the kind of OOC arguments and hostilities you probably won't want on your game.

2. Historical setting, even if it's fairly recent history. Example: Cold War 1980s. Tech level isn't so vastly different that people will not be able to understand it or wrap their brains around it, even if they were born in the 90s or later. Plenty of us lived through this, too. Drawback: History means "OOC homework", and some people are so gadget focused in their daily life that they can't live without these things as part of the casual day-to-day (rather than as their special spytech gear they can't always use openly), and these things may lose you some people in the process.

(And no, I promise, this is not just me loving the 80s! It's just the most obvious recent history example that stands out.)

Do a modern setting, but in a "West Wing" style. "Mr President" is the president, or "Jack Sparrow", and nobody talks about real world politics.

Heck, better yet, start the game on an election year, ICly, and have two candidates, and run plots about who gets elected.

@ganymede said in Armageddon MUD:

@rahnevyn said in Armageddon MUD:No IC mistakes are required in order for bad things to happen to your character. Typically though, if you wind up mugged or murdered, your "mistake" was that you trusted the wrong person or wandered into an area that your character was probably not cut out to be in.

But see, that's exactly the sort of thing that a character that lived in a city for any length of time would know, ICly, that his player, OOCly, did not know. But.. read below...

@ganymede said in Armageddon MUD:

MUSH player tend to eschew this sort of mentality, though. If I wanted to play this sort of game, I'd pick up Dark Souls, as I said before, or maybe go plug away at some PvP MMORPG or something.

It's funny, because my first MUSH/MUX experience was Shadowrun: Seattle. Within a couple of hours, I wandered into the Redmond Barrens, exploring as I would have a MUD.

Wanting to meet new people, though, I stopped when I saw a couple of people on a street corner. I'd read a bit about posing, and decided to give it a try. Striding right down the middle of the street, bold as can be. In Rusted Stilettos territory. After my pose, I OOC'd something to the effect of, "Hi guys! I'm brand new to MUSHing! Want to play?"

Suffice to say, my character got rolled. The gangers beat him up, took his paper nuyen, and left him in the gutter.

But the -players- had mercy. They posed looking at my gear and saying, "Man, this guy's got drek for gear. Not sure if we'd be doing him more of a favor getting rid of it, or teach him a lesson by letting him keep it."

In the end, they let me keep it.

All the while, during the scene, we were really having fun. I was learning the game, the setting, and the system. The people were OOCly being -extremely- helpful, all the while explaining that I was in gang turf, and where I should avoid going alone, etc.

At the end of the scene, both of the other characters gave me a +nom. This was on a time when you got 2 +noms per week, and each was worth 1 full karma, so they were pretty precious.

TL;DR: You can teach people about how gritty and dark the game is in a way that leaves them excited, or despondent. Despondent people leave, and don't come back. Excited people stick around.

Armageddon has -clearly- left people with a despondent feeling. Despite anything anyone says about "It's not like that anymore..." damage has been done. And the more you contradict yourself defending Armageddon, the less people are going to believe it. Really, ya'll are shooting yourself in the foot by defending, instead of saying, "Sorry you had that experience. If anyone wants to give it a try, contact me, and I'll make sure that experience isn't repeated, by being your guide."

@zombiegenesis said in Action/Super-Spy Style MU:

I've been in a mood to play an over the top/GI Joe style ninja character. Anyone know of any good action MU's out there? Or any GI Joe MUs specifically?

Tangent:

Anyone remember Ninjas and Superspies RPG in the Paladium set?

Less tangental:

Not sure about GI Joe, and this is a bit of a stretch, but Marvel: Inheritance Gambit has several corporations that would easily facilitate the play of a supersoldier type character. You could even make a quasi-Winter Soldier clone.

@thugheaven said in Armageddon MUD:

@ortallus so are you saying Forgotten Kingdoms and Armageddon are the same? I confused...

I said they're both RPI muds. In that way, they are the same. I'm not sure how that's difficult to understand.

@thugheaven said in Armageddon MUD:

@ortallus is Forgotten Realms an RPI? I’ve never heard of it.

Forgotten Kingdoms, rather, which is based on Forgotten Realms.

But yes.

@thugheaven said in Armageddon MUD:

@d-bone No I haven’t, so example please.

Make a character on Forgotten Edit: Kingdoms*. Will happen in the first day.

It's something that people tend to expect/associate with/be afraid of from RPI's. It's a very regular thing to be told "No ooc communication".

In fact, it's sort of a requirement for an RPI.

@packrat said in Social Awkwardness?:

Personally I am in a weird place here, I am actually fairly extroverted IRL on the surface, I can chat with strangers without feeling self conscious, I can be charming, I regularly stand up in front of rooms full of people and deliver presentations to them for hours at a time.

Frankly I am probably overly chatty at times.

But I find socialising most of the time builds a steady stress meter and I increasingly often think about how I would so, so much rather be at home where I would likely be bored out of my skull but would be nestled securely in my safe space. I cannot last more than a few hours at most before being outright miserable.

This is a common misconception about introverts. People think that being an introvert means being virtually incapable of being social.

That is not introversion, it's social anxiety disorder. An introvert can absolutely be gregarious. It tends to be less likely, but it can happen.

Introversion does mean, as you said, that being in social situations costs you. In "Spoon theory" you would say that it costs you spoons to be social. An extrovert would say they regain spoons by BEING social. (Notice, spoon theory can be applied outside of having an illness). Extroverts on the other hand would regain spoons by being social.

There's a really good book by Susan Cain called "Quiet: The Power of Introverts In A World That Can't Stop Talking". She actually talks about the scientific research done regarding introverts and extroverts on a biological level, and it's some pretty fascinating stuff.

She also has a very interesting TED talk.

If you think you're an introvert, or even just know an introvert, or are an extrovert that wants to understand the difference, I highly recommend both.

@cobaltasaurus Perhaps I'll look into it later today.

I keep seeing posts about this place, and it seems immensely popular. Might just have to look into it, eh? I haven't back-read posts well enough to get a more basic overview, and wasn't sure where to start on the website. xD Should I just log into the game and look for theme?

@cobaltasaurus said in Social Awkwardness?:

@fortydeuce I can't stand the sound of someone eating, or hawking a lugie. Basically wet mouth noises bother the fuck out of me.

Did you know there's an actual disorder? Not saying you have it, but legit....

http://mentalfloss.com/article/67614/hate-sound-people-chewing-you-might-have-misophonia

Made a character, and so far am enamored of the setting, the system, and the people. If you've been on the fence about checking the place out, now's the time. 11 approved characters on atm, and the logs from the website show how active the place has been.

www.inheritancegambit.com

Looking at local-ish hot springs to go to with my gf on our anniversary. Come across this notice.

Should include, "You have been warned" at the bottom.

**4) McCredie Hot Springs
This large pool sits on the side of Salt Creek off of highway 58 not far from Oakridge.

Clothing: Optional.
Note: Many truckers stop at these springs and you can expect nudity.**

http://thatoregonlife.com/2015/05/soak-it-up-5-amazing-hot-springs-in-oregon/