Best posts made by Pyrephox

@tinuviel Is it inaccurate? Or do you feel that it misrepresents the general resolution mechanics of the game such that it has no utility to illustrate that system to someone who has not previously read it? Is there an actual objection to the content or its accuracy, or is this just being pedantic for the sake of it?

One of the complicating factors is that pretty much none of the schools which went virtual or hybrid did so with any real understanding of the support that virtual learning requires for teachers. Which isn't unusual: even a lot of purpose-made virtual schools aren't aware of best practices in virtual instruction and don't provide their staff with the training and support necessary to really succeed at virtual learning. It's not as simple as chucking a teacher without specific training in front of a Zoom and having 30+ students log on, give the teacher no additional assistants or support, and expect that to go well. It's not.

I think it ended up burning out a lot of teachers and students, and convincing districts and many parents that virtual learning was a non-viable option, and now everyone is exhausted and stressed and at the end of their mental ropes. Everyone, from the kids all the way up.

@Arkandel said:

@Pyrephox : And that's fine! The only thing is, most players are looking for something they're at least vaguely familiar with either in terms of mechanics (i.e. an established RPG implementation) or theme (borrowed from books, video games, etc).

Now, in some ways that even makes sense as you know what to expect from the setting, its quality is high on average since these are properties written by professional writers instead of hobbyists and of course we as players are also fans of certain ones. But that's not something you should be concerned about since obviously you can want other things.

What is a concern is that since 'most players' go elsewhere that leaves other unique games be both small, niche and relatively not advertised through word of mouth. MSB or TMC can help but it's quite likely there are gems out there, well ran and coded little games we've just never heard of which eventually die down because their creators give up on them at some point if there are only a handful of players on at any given time.

Luckily, I was talking about what I want, and not what a Statistically Significant Majority of Potential MU* Players want.

"Modeling a healthy relationship" is not the point of dramatic, romantic, or comedic fiction, anymore than people ride roller coasters to learn how to drive. Healthy relationships are pretty boring unless you're inside of one, and they don't generally make good, gripping stories that give people emotional catharsis.

It's fine to not like certain dynamics in your fiction (I definitely have big problems with the ever-popular "manchild and mommywife" sitcom dynamic, which is why I don't watch sitcoms), but it's really not the job of fiction to meet any sort of moral or instructional standards, and particularly not the job of iddy fiction like most romances and rom-coms, most of which are based on the idea of "what if these two incredibly different/unsuitable people actually end up being suited for one another after all", something that rarely ever happens in real life and is appealing PRECISELY because it rarely ever happens in real life.

I am not on that list, but I would be interested.

@Arkandel said:

@Pyrephox Of course, and I mentioned that. But read the last paragraph - what those players want affects you.

Only if I have any expectation of getting what I want. Which I don't. Because I also want a Valdemar MU*, and that ain't eeeeever going to happen.

Sometimes it IS possible to share preferences without having a Structured Action Plan in the making!

@misadventure I mean, that depends entirely on the method they choose, although I'd say it always involves an exciting and pivotal scene that puts the PCs at the center of the action. If they, for example, decided to raise public awareness, then there'd be a rally scene, where the Bad Guys would be trying to break up the rally or discredit it in the eyes of the media and the PCs have to inspire/persuade the crowd.If they want to go the legal route, then I'd /absolutely/ rip off the Leverage episode where they're trying to "steal a bill" - which has nothing to do with the meat of the legislative process, and a lot with placating and satisfying the demands of the legislators involved (Councilperson A wants Councilperson D to agree with her pork proposal, Councilperson D will do that, but only if he gets Councilperson B's endorsement for an upcoming award, Councilperson B wants Councilperson A to cosponsor a growth bill, and it's all done by the PCs if it's done at all.) The underworld path is going to need to break into the records office to place the forged papers, or intimidate someone for their signature, or to hack into a database, or...or...

Basically, always focus on the actions, and on making it a) PC-centered where the action is concerned, b) within the PCs' potential capabilities (it doesn't have to be EASY, but if you don't want them to do something, then just tell them, don't have them waste several hours of play time doing something they have no chance succeeding at), and c) /fun/ to play for the players. Chat with the players OOC about what they think would be a fun way to go about X - players are going to differ. I like PC-centered scenes that are driven by 'what does everyone want'. I know other people who really enjoy NPC-centered scenes about 'how does the world work'. I'm sure there's even people out there who'd genuinely enjoy researching property law, and drafting a proposed replacement.

I have a question! Regarding the drive: Do we/should we put up what kind of feedback we're looking for or are willing to give? Maybe collect that somewhere, so that people know if someone is just looking for grammatical work, or if they want to know if the characters are engaging, or if the plot holds together? Or, alternatively, what kind of feedback we're most comfortable giving?

@Glitch said:

It seems like a majority of the feedback in this thread as far as personal choice has gone was Hunter or M+. If you're not ready to go after that, then it seems like you or your collaborators aren't really up for that sort of game. So yeah, I'd also say just build the game you want to play.

Agreed. The important thing, I think, is that the creators are passionate and invested in the game. Whether it's niche or built for the largest common denominator, I think the thing in my experience that is MOST likely to lead to a game dying is staff losing interest. Not just in the overt "we're not doing this anymore" sort of way, but in not interacting with players or working to put things out there to do. Or getting distracted by the nearest shiny. As long as there are things to do, people will continue to do them. Maybe a single-sphere game that isn't Vampire will never get 50+ logins a night, but small and healthy is a valid design goal!

@kanye-qwest I think it's valuable in a way, to show that both methods work JUST FINE (when it comes to being competitively viable for a character regardless of which route you take), but probably is not helpful for people who just have to optimize to every fraction of a percent.

I admit, when I think about systems, I more try to think about play experience and the choices players have the option to make for their characters, rather than fine number optimization - although there's a place for that.

When I try to critique Arx's systems, though, it's always with a caveat that there are at least two huge systems which currently don't exist, but which are likely to change everything else around, in terms of character resources and actions: Dominion and Magic. And I can't even say that I know enough of what those are going to look like to speculate on their effects. I know what I would LIKE Dominion to look like, but that's a whole different thing.

@surreality said in Do you believe in paranormal things?:

@Coin Which is why I'm mentioning cryptozoology at all. It's something we have a 'hard science reference' for already.

It's why making generalizations about why it's inherently bad for people to be open to believing in the possibility of something, when people lump so much together under this general topic heading that have minimal relationships to one another (ex: religious practices), is faulty reasoning.

Inherently bad? No. USUALLY bad? Yes. Why? Because people who want you to "believe in" things without being willing to offer any proof or evidence for the efficacy of them usually are trying to screw you. By and large, they want your money. Sometimes they want your money even when it means encouraging you to turn away from things that work, and that can save your life, or your loved one's life, in order to get your money. Faith healers, psychics who claim to put you in touch with your dead grandmother, reiki and chiropractic practitioners who claim they can cure cancer or autism, fucking homeopaths and their water memories, etc. and so on, and so forth.

It would be a lot easier to "believe in the possibilities" if so many people urging you to do so weren't predatory frauds who do, in fact, hurt people.

@tragedyjones said:

@Admiral said:

How exciting and fresh for a setting! Small-town game set in the Northeast? Instant classic.

Other than including over a dozen towns and being in the south, you mean.

Which is a really great idea - the dozen towns, I mean. Especially for a mortals, horror-oriented game. You don't have to fight against the "why is every horrible thing in the world happening in this ONE PLACE" thing, and it lets you really sell the corrupted nature of the WoD as a widespread thing. And, hopefully, put a rein on the players who think their characters should/could know/control everything happening in a city.

EDIT: Maryland isn't the South, though. Yankee.

Has anyone started looking at this? Planning to Kickstart it? Maybe for a CoD MU*?

I haven't put money down on it, yet, but I love the idea, and the Sworn/False factions look like they'd work great for a MU* where multiple spheres would like a reason to interact without being forced to be super-friends-forever.

Also, weird fucking reality warping and the God-Machine are my jams.

@Jaded said in No Man's Sky Thread:

Has anyone tried being a trader or pirate yet? Right now the survival explorer aspect of the game does not seem all that appealing to me after a couple of days doing it.

I remember reading that it should be almost entirely possible to play the game without doing planetfall.

I have done some trading! Mostly when I had a specific goal (like, I just need 3Mil to be able to buy a better ship, etc.), but doing it full time is very possible, especially if you stake out a system or two with lucrative goods. You have two major vectors for trade: space stations and planetary trading posts. Both of these have Galactic Market kiosks that have a certain selection of goods. However, both of these also have ship travel, which is where trading is better - each NPC in their ship has certain random goods that they will buy and sell, at different prices. Prices that are starred are especially good deals when they're in your favor (and exceptionally bad deals when they're not). Given patience and a good memory for prices, it's possible to earn a tidy bit. You will earn MORE if you're supplementing that with goods you collect on your own, though.

I have not done pirating, although I have fought off pirates more than once (and died more than once). There is a bounty system, too, if you want to space fight but don't want to do so on "innocent" targets. much like everything else, though, bounties are random, so it's not possible to set out after a bounty, you just have to take them as they come.

@tragedyjones said:

@Bobotron Digging is just a pain in the ass to most folks, myself included.

Yeah. It's not that it's hard - even someone who is the complete opposite of a coder like myself can do it. It's just tedious as all hell.

@Apos In that case? It was kind of both, oh yes.

Good god. I'm so glad she's not seriously hurt; that car is a horrible unhappiness. Threw some money at it, and will keep my fingers crossed.

@Arkandel said:

One of the things I'd like to see for BITN (and any Hunter game out there) is to have the monsters be on the winning side. It should never be that Hunters are actually pushing them out, where they are a factor to be reckoned with - the city should never be clean other than for the occasional, quickly dispatched horror who manages to get in only to become slaughtered.

Agree completely with this. It's hard to be a horror game when you can own the mayor, when your posse of unstoppable bros patrol the streets, etc. Horror typically comes from a feeling of helplessness, of isolation, of having to violate your deeply held principles for survival, or from something vastly important to you being at stake. Your life can be one of those things, but there's more variety than that.

Much better for a horror setting for the mayor to be owned by horrible things that demand blood sacrifice and protection in exchange for his continued political success, for example.

Which isn't to say characters should be all-powerless all-the-time. That's no fun. But the focus should be on, you know, "You can't save the world, but you might be able to save the neighborhood TONIGHT. Tomorrow is another day."

I can't do it. It's very hard for me to adapt a character built for one specific setting/theme and then transplant them to a new place/theme. I would, in my heart of hearts, prefer other people not do it, either, especially if it's not a reboot built to take the new setting/theme into account, but rather a transplant where the character is the exact same character, just dropped in a new place.

Everybody's gotta chase their joy, and I definitely feel the sadness of creating a character you love only for the game not to click or to fall through too soon, but I just find it really difficult to do.

@Ganymede said in Full spoilers: Iron Fist:

@Pyrephox said in Full spoilers: Iron Fist:

I liked it pretty well, but I think that it suffered from the fact that the supporting cast all had stronger and more interesting conflicts than the main character.

The best hero movies present the supporting cast and villains in a more favorable way than the protagonist. That's because the protagonist is not calculated to change in these stories.

Possibly, but that hasn't been the case of any of the MCU products thus far, and they've been pretty decent hero stories, IMO.