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    Phase Face

    @Phase Face

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    Best posts made by Phase Face

    • Phase Face's Playlist

      Since at some point I moved from lurking forever to posting sporadically, I figured I might as well do one of these things:
      (Not exhaustive, b/c the list is kind of long as-is and I don't remember every alt at this point).

      PREVIOUS
      Super Robot Taisen MUSH: Banjo Haran, Anavel Gato, Renais Shishioh, Ayato Kamina
      JLU MUX: Sinestro, Gilotina, Grace Choi, Lady Pendragon
      Match of the Millennium MUCK: May Lee, Cammy, Vice(pre-boot); Sagat, Zero(post-boot)
      Heroes' Dreams Rebirth: Emma Frost, Elsa Bloodstone
      Unlimited Universe: Emma Frost, Batwoman
      4 Color Comix: River, Wyrd Girl
      FFMUSH: Cecil
      HeroMUX: Spoiler, Wolverine, Xavin, Doctor Doom, Doctor Strange, Captain America, Ravager, June Moone
      CoMUX/6th Age: Superboy, Winter Soldier, Kingpin, Storm, Luke Cage, Thing, Wolverine, Loki
      Brave New World: Sinestro
      Mythara MUX/Before The Dawn: Cordelia Chase
      Marvel: 1963(+): Black Widow, Cable
      United Heroes: Jean Grey
      Arx: Quenia

      CURRENT
      Megaman MUSH: Zero
      Mutant Genesis: Psylocke

      posted in A Shout in the Dark
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      Phase Face
    • RE: Good TV

      The Magicians (5 Seasons; Netflix) has ruined me for the forseeable future by making me crave emotionally resonant Mage RP. It's a little rough in places - and certainly isn't a faithful adaptation of Lev Grossman's series of the same name - but overall, I found it a deeply enjoyable experience. Like any good fantasy media, it uses its supernatural settings (a graduate school for people born with the gift of magic; an Earth that's full of magic and magical beings just beneath the surface; Narnia, but extremely fucked up) to facilitate stories about relatable human ideas (about relationships, depression, surviving trauma, growing up, sexuality...), and while its characters start off as pretty clear, trope-filled archetypes, they develop in ways that lend them all a significant degree of depth and interest.

      Would definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoys urban fantasy content, with the significant caveat that the first couple season in particular do include references to/instances of sexual assault which are fairly major plot points; that element of the show was perhaps my least favorite by far, but it's something that diminishes as time goes on.

      posted in Tastes Less Game'y
      Phase Face
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    • RE: Mutant Genesis (X-Men)

      I can't help but be excited for this concept. I can't put my finger on why, exactly, but I'm into it.

      No idea who the hell to look at playing, but I'm into it.

      posted in Adver-tis-ments
      Phase Face
      Phase Face
    • RE: The All-New Down With OPP Thread

      THIS iteration of the generic ZombieGenesis game is going just swimmingly, clearly.

      posted in Reviews and Debates
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    • RE: RL things I love

      I started taking improv classes in April and graduated a couple of weeks ago. With any luck, most of my graduating class and I will be starting up a troupe of our own.

      It's been an amazing experience, unlike anything else I've done; my class is laid back, supportive, and hilarious. I'm hoping we're able to stay together for a long while to come.

      posted in Tastes Less Game'y
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      Phase Face
    • RE: Pro Wrasslin'

      okada_ibushi_g1.jpg

      This year was my first time watching NJPW's G1 Climax (or, really, getting into NJPW period), and it was incredible.

      Twenty (okay, like nineteen, if we're being totally honest; Bad Luck Fale is firmly, solidly 'fine') top-flight wrestlers; a round robin format; and an opportunity for talented individuals to showcase ther talents in singles match-ups, which - thanks to the company's tag-heavy undercards, are not overly common - made for a summer of entertaining watching that, along with some forays into AEW and GCW (Game Changer Wrestling-- think 'ECW, ver. 2019'), made the desperate, gasping flailing that the WWE has been engaging in lately look even sillier than it otherwise might have.

      Jon Moxley (fka Dean Ambrose) in particular had an amazing run through the tournament, in which he demonstrated a ton of stylistic flexibility without forgetting the high-energy brawling that that made him who he is to begin with. He's been absolutely killing it since leaving the WWE, and here in particular he seemed rejuvenated, as if he was having the time of his life-- even when one of his matches immediately descended into goofy shenanigans involving DVD sales and turnbuckle fights.

      I'm excited for what comes next with New Japan, especially since it's 'a junior heavyweight tournament featuring, among others, the(/a?) former Sin Cara/Mistico, who can, in fact, work if he's not mired in the WWE system'.

      posted in Tastes Less Game'y
      Phase Face
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    • RE: A (Mildly Complete) List of Current Games

      @bad-at-lurking said in A (Mildly Complete) List of Current Games:

      (Maybe with a bathroom for the TS.)

      humpty dance

      posted in Mildly Constructive
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    • RE: Mutant Genesis (X-Men)

      @enoch Awesome. I think I'm gonna look at apping-- someone, I dunno who, into the Brotherhood, then!

      posted in Adver-tis-ments
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    • RE: Pro Wrasslin'

      I've been slowly digging into NJPW after watching a bunch of Botchamanias and All In reignited my interest in chasing non-WWE content. The free matches on NJPW World have been great so far, and Jericho/Omega was, shocker, fantastic! Still need to get into the Omega/Okada series, but that's kind of a hefty committment.

      john zandig

      Also very much on the Kofitrain, WWE-wise, but I have been hurt by WWE enough times by now that I'm only expecting so much to come of his push. NXT is still great, at least, though I'm wondering where it'll go if the current set of call-ups are going to be phased out soon; they've got a lot of strong women, but the men's side seems kind of rough beyond TUE and Dream right now.

      posted in Tastes Less Game'y
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    • RE: X-Men Game

      Setting: Anything, ANYTHING but Westchester/School. Anything at all. I don't care if it's Utopia; I don't care if it's Genosha; I don't care if they're living on Asteroid X and fending off Skrulls all day; the private school in upstate New York is just so, so played out as a setting for X-Sphere MU* play. I'm not even totally against the idea of /a/ school, of there being a component of education and/or training to whatever setting is used, but on the occasions that I've played in the traditional setting, I've found it to be stifling and dragged down somewhat by an overemphasis on the minutiae of school life.

      Maybe that's just me, though, I dunno; it's certainly popular enough.

      Personally, I would be into using Utopia, or even brainstorming some mystery alternative, if that really doesn't suit.

      Canon: I'm super ambivalent about the idea of a canon-cutoff game. It's a useful shortcut towards sidestepping some of the common problem of superhero MU* settings these days by providing the game with an already-fleshed out setting, providing players with a good sense of what important events have or haven't already occurred, and preloading some easy character connections for FCs. I do, however, think that it would be entirely possible - especially in a game with a more limited focus - to construct a suitable setting/overall game framework that both lets people enjoy some of the freedom of adaptation that tends to come with playing on comic games and still maintains a sense of internal consistency if the staff was willing to take care in coming up with a solid foundation and work with the playerbase to ensure that its overall integrity is maintained.

      It's not hugely important - to me, at least - whether the precise events of the Phoenix Saga, or Inferno, or X-Cutioner's Song have occurred, or whether the first X-Men were Archangel, Maggott, Cecilia Reyes, Colossus, and Storm; what matters more to me is that whatever setting is run with is consistent and coherent on its own terms.

      Scope: The X-Men have quite a few unique(or, at least, recurrent) setting elements, enough that - in combination with what the wider Marvel Universe provides - there's plenty of diverse territory to cover. I personally have found myself drifting towards a preference for combined themes, so that's of course where I would fall, given a choice-- but, given the aforementioned diversity, and the commonality of broadly combined theme games, I think my actual feelings run towards trying to find some middle ground between that preference and a more limited scope by taking some inspiration from M1963+, as well as M3, and any number of other fandom-based games with mixed themes:

      Open with 'mutants and associated allies/adversaries only', or even 'X-Men/Brotherhood/whatever else feels appropriate' as the scope, and gradually - via plot, at a deliberately measured pace - expand that scope over time, allowing new FC options to trickle into the pool in a way that - at least, theoretically - allows for some of the variety that seems popular in the circuit these days without running as great of a risk of theme-dilution. Maybe after shutting down a moon-based Master Mold, the X-Men discover the Blue Area, opening the door to tentative negotiations - and/or conflict - with the reclusive nobility hidden within it; maybe Fisk Industries opens a San Francisco subsidiary, drawing a number of costumed mercenaries to the area as the Kingpin sets about trying to tame the underworld of a city actively protected by mutants; maybe ~teenagers from the future begin appearing around town with dire warnings of Kang and/or his adoptive children, whose brutal, timeline-spanning regime began with exploiting San Fran's dormant Celestial. The important thing, ultimately, would be taking care to mold anything from outside of the X-verse to fit the setting, rather than the opposite-- which goes back to the importance of a well-defined and carefully maintained theme.

      Alts: The number of possible FCs for an X-Men only game still runs well into the triple digits. They aren't /all/ A-listers, but there's still a healthy enough variety that I'm not convinced of the importance of restricting everyone to a single FC-- though defining a set of 'important' characters that no one person should be playing more than one of would certainly be useful. If it's a matter of forcing focus by limiting the number of alts on a game, well-- people are going to be as focused or unfocused as they're naturally gonna be, no matter what rules this one game has in place to encourage or curb them. There are other MU*s; there's World of Warcraft; there's Netflix; there are a million things that could reduce the amount of overall attention paid to this one game which its admin would have no control over.

      That said, of course: I don't think that there needs to be a crazy number of 'em allowed, either. 2, maybe 3 FCs; a laxer number of OCs, though likely not 'unlimited'. I don't have any strong feelings, there. If there were some gradual process of adding to the available character roster, then it could be that - a ways down the line - allowing for more FC slots could be warranted, but absent that, I'm not so sure.

      I probably have more thoughts on this specific subject - I definitely have more on the broader subject of concocting a cape game, though I can't really vouch for their coherency ATM - but they aren't coming to me, right now.

      posted in Mildly Constructive
      Phase Face
      Phase Face

    Latest posts made by Phase Face

    • RE: The All-New Down With OPP Thread

      THIS iteration of the generic ZombieGenesis game is going just swimmingly, clearly.

      posted in Reviews and Debates
      Phase Face
      Phase Face
    • RE: MUs That We Would Love To Make (But Won't)

      @gremlinsarevil It is (and HorrorMU), too; I'm just really specifically into reality TV, so 'kinda like that, but about THIS' is the result.

      posted in Mildly Constructive
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    • RE: MUs That We Would Love To Make (But Won't)

      A seasonal game in which the characters are reality TV show contestants. Each 'season' of the game would be a new show with new competitors, gimmicks, et cetera: one might involve roughing it on an island like Survivor, while another might be a competition between professional food stylists, and another still might focus on interpersonal dynamics the way that Big Brother and the Circle do; there'd even be room for something like a televised death game a la Squid Game. Characters would probably be archetypes that are fashioned into contestants for each season, similar to HorrorMU, since breaking people down into their base archetypes and editing them into whatever role suits the story is a key part of the genre.

      I think there's probably room to incorporate a metasetting/plot for players to engage with as a way to develop their characters on a more permanent basis, but it's not something I've put a ton of thought into beyond poking why on Earth people might be consigned to the distinctly uncomfortable fate of having to live through being a series of contestants in a series of reality TV shows. If not FS3, a barebones system oriented towards narrative play would be the way to go, I think; either way, cheating would absolutely be a mechanically supported tactic.

      posted in Mildly Constructive
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    • RE: Dead Celebrities 2021 Edition

      @prototart said in Dead Celebrities 2021 Edition:

      @wretched said in Dead Celebrities 2021 Edition:

      Paul Mooney

      there’s a reason he vanished the last couple of years and it’s not dementia

      https://rollingout.com/2019/08/28/richard-pryors-widow-backs-claims-that-paul-mooney-raped-richard-pryor-jr/

      damn, and here i thought he was a complicated like because of the race stuff and borderline conspiracy theory peddling.

      posted in Tastes Less Game'y
      Phase Face
      Phase Face
    • RE: Good TV

      The Magicians (5 Seasons; Netflix) has ruined me for the forseeable future by making me crave emotionally resonant Mage RP. It's a little rough in places - and certainly isn't a faithful adaptation of Lev Grossman's series of the same name - but overall, I found it a deeply enjoyable experience. Like any good fantasy media, it uses its supernatural settings (a graduate school for people born with the gift of magic; an Earth that's full of magic and magical beings just beneath the surface; Narnia, but extremely fucked up) to facilitate stories about relatable human ideas (about relationships, depression, surviving trauma, growing up, sexuality...), and while its characters start off as pretty clear, trope-filled archetypes, they develop in ways that lend them all a significant degree of depth and interest.

      Would definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoys urban fantasy content, with the significant caveat that the first couple season in particular do include references to/instances of sexual assault which are fairly major plot points; that element of the show was perhaps my least favorite by far, but it's something that diminishes as time goes on.

      posted in Tastes Less Game'y
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    • Seeking DIY Advice

      Hello!

      Periodically, I'm struck by a desire to try making my own MU*, figuring that the only way to be sure I've got a shot at seeing some of the kinds of things I'd like to see in games is to do it myself. I'm in another of those periods, and - like a fool - I'd really like to give it a shot this time, if only to try and exorcise myself of it.

      There's a small problem (besides a lack of server space, coding knowledge, and admin team), however: while I've played enough MU*s to have an idea of what goes into constructing one, it's tough for me to break those elements down into some sort of coherent plan of attack due to just how many there are, which makes it tough to do anything at all, as - absent a plan - I'm liable to just kind of flit wherever my attention takes me.

      So I want to beseech the MUS community for advice with a question: What are the things one needs to think about, conceive, construct, and so forth to get a solidly functional game off the ground? I don't mean things like 'a server', or 'a codebase', the truly technical details; I more mean 'what kinds of policies do I need to think about?' 'What considerations should I be making WRT to grid design?' That kind of thing.

      For reference, what I'm thinking of would involve existing properties with feature characters. I don't think I'm looking to include coded combat or significant coded secondary systems, though that's admittedly in no small part because I've not had any solid inspiration for any. Right now, at least, I would probably just use AresMUSH for the convenient web portal and relatively accessible entry barrier.

      Thank you in advance! And, I suppose, apologies, as well, if this is entirely too vague/broad of a question to be useful.

      posted in Mildly Constructive
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    • RE: Pro Wrasslin'

      i'm just REALLY hoping that they bring mercedes martinez in for real-real, because they are kind of lacking in veterans who aren't halfway out the door due to hollywood/being super banged up. they're also a little soft on credible heels without that same caveat, though that won't be a big deal in the short term if nyla wins (i really, really hope nyla wins).

      my wish list is, like, mercedes, nicole savoy, and big swole from the battle royale; any of rosemary, tessa blanchard, and jordynne grace from impact; rescuing io shirai/kairi sane/asuka/shayna baszler/piper niven from wwe.

      posted in Tastes Less Game'y
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    • RE: Pro Wrasslin'

      okada_ibushi_g1.jpg

      This year was my first time watching NJPW's G1 Climax (or, really, getting into NJPW period), and it was incredible.

      Twenty (okay, like nineteen, if we're being totally honest; Bad Luck Fale is firmly, solidly 'fine') top-flight wrestlers; a round robin format; and an opportunity for talented individuals to showcase ther talents in singles match-ups, which - thanks to the company's tag-heavy undercards, are not overly common - made for a summer of entertaining watching that, along with some forays into AEW and GCW (Game Changer Wrestling-- think 'ECW, ver. 2019'), made the desperate, gasping flailing that the WWE has been engaging in lately look even sillier than it otherwise might have.

      Jon Moxley (fka Dean Ambrose) in particular had an amazing run through the tournament, in which he demonstrated a ton of stylistic flexibility without forgetting the high-energy brawling that that made him who he is to begin with. He's been absolutely killing it since leaving the WWE, and here in particular he seemed rejuvenated, as if he was having the time of his life-- even when one of his matches immediately descended into goofy shenanigans involving DVD sales and turnbuckle fights.

      I'm excited for what comes next with New Japan, especially since it's 'a junior heavyweight tournament featuring, among others, the(/a?) former Sin Cara/Mistico, who can, in fact, work if he's not mired in the WWE system'.

      posted in Tastes Less Game'y
      Phase Face
      Phase Face
    • RE: Empire State Heroes Mush

      @ZombieGenesis My experience has been that having a staff that's willing to say 'no' to things that are clearly out of bounds for what's reasonable for a given character is enough to prevent cases like what you're describing. Harley 'has' taken a punch from Superman and not died, but Harley is pretty obviously not actually a brick on the level of a Kryptonian, and any charstaff would be well within their rights to just say 'no' and let the player process that as they will.

      There's nothing wrong with using a system of some kind - whether it's loose and informal, like the numerical benchmarks HeroMUX used, or an actual game system like M&M or FASERIP - but I would disagree that it's the only way to manage players wanting to push characters in these ways. There are definitely players who will make problems of themselves when faced with those kinds of limits, but - like you point out - this can and will happen with numbers, too-- and numbers introduce a risk of 'power creep' over time, if the staff isn't careful about maintaining consistent standards.

      This can get trickier when trying to compare characters who genuinely are in a similar niche and at a similar level of power, of course. Thor, in the last ~decade or so, has pretty regularly been written at a level of power that'd be at home with a Kryptonian character; should he be as strong/invulnerable/etc as Superman on a MUSH? Should he be slightly weaker because he's a powerful weather manipulator on top of the strength? Do you account for the fact that there's no real Kryptonite equivalent for him? That kind of thing.

      (For the record: I would probably lean towards 'yeah, whatever; he has other flaws, and at the end of the day, there can always be something that disadvantages, distracts, or otherwise prevents him from being some kind of nuisance in the course of play, even if it's just a really fuckin' big robot. Also, if he's a dick about it, nobody will play with him, same as any other character.)

      There will always be some people who try to push the envelope, codified system or no. I feel like you would have to take the extra step of having a system and also taking away players' ability to set the numbers in that system to have a real shot at curbing it (though, even then, they'll probably ask). That said, though, most players I have dealt with - and my experience is definitely not deep or expansive, but it's what I've got to run on - will just take a 'no' and revise accordingly. I did dozens of apps on HeroMUX and can count the number of players who really dug in and gave me shit about being asked to tune their stuff to be more reasonable on a hand.

      @Auspice @Alamias

      During my last stint of charstaffing, I had a 20-something Damian Wayne cross my desk who insisted on having pretty broad sorcery abilities, enhanced physical capabilities, and either full or partial control of the League of Assassins following a dip in the Lazarus Pit.

      posted in Mildly Constructive
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    • RE: Empire State Heroes Mush

      @Ganymede said in Empire State Heroes Mush:

      I’m still lost as to why any of the above matters, regarding power levels.

      On a game which seems to be based on traits and consent, how are power levels material in everyday RP?

      confused shrug

      I did apps on cape games for a few years, total, and I found less and less of a reason to sweat this stuff overmuch as time went on. There's definite value to characters having limits, and weaknesses, and (in the case of OCs) capabilities that aren't too wildly expansive relative to what else is in the world, but past that...?

      It's all consent. It's all driven by collaboration; it's a bit baffling to me.

      posted in Mildly Constructive
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