Posts made by Pyrephox

@Lithium Most MU* play, like Fifty Shades of Grey, is a fantasy. One of the appeals of fantasy is that it doesn't have to be realistic - a story about a healthy, ordinary BDSM relationship never would have sold as many copies as Fifty Shades, because it was all about the convergence of several different common fantasy scenarios with a bit of spanking and leather sprinkled on top. Calling it abuse, as if actual people were harmed or adult female readers are incapable of distinguishing fantasy from reality, has always bugged me.

Same with the various sexy parings or groupings running around MU*s. Very few of them are "healthy", but they're not meant to be, any more than D&D is meant to be a thoughtful and respectful portrayal of exploration and colonization.

@Cobaltasaurus said:

@Pyrephox said:

@Saulot said:

Very much distinguished. I enjoyed Solomon on Darkwater.

Yay! I hardly ever reuse characters, but I wish I could play him again, just because of the short amount of time I had to play him.

Quiet. Quiet. Quiet. Quiet.

O.O

Hee. That one doesn't lay at your feet. I got Real Lifed before the game closed!

And thank you, @Lisse24 - who were you?

Honestly, I feel like there are more reactive players than proactive ones in general, and "dominant" personalities often are expected to be the proactive one, so that makes sense.

@Saulot said:

Very much distinguished. I enjoyed Solomon on Darkwater.

Yay! I hardly ever reuse characters, but I wish I could play him again, just because of the short amount of time I had to play him.

@skew said:

@Pyrephox said:

(I actually have a whole plot worked up for this one that I've never gotten to run.)

We are going to make a big effort to enable non-staff story tellers. That's one of the reasons why we're gathering this list, so we have ideas we can have people pull from and run. I've found there's a fair number of people willing to run things, just not having an idea ready when they're inspired.

@tragedyjones is also working on a storyteller role, which will give some of the meager "tools" we have available to those that are interested in storytelling regularly (but are not staffers). I won't say more on it, cause I don't know any more!

And for everyone else, thank you! This is great stuff, keep it coming.

Yaaaaaaay! I love storytelling, when I'm in the mood for it.

I believe I first ran into on AOL. The terrible, terrible chat room RP. And then I found a MUD. One of those that was aggressively PvP - it wasn't a matter of if you'd die, just how long you managed to survive this time. Then there were message boards in college, but I just don't like freeform gaming. I didn't hit MUSHes until I picked up In Nomine at a gaming con, and really, REALLY wanted somewhere to play it. There was an In Nomine MUSH, and I found that I very much enjoyed the 'drop in anytime, get RP' aspect and the ability to play both character-development/social scenes AND plotty/action scenes.

Oneriophages eating people's hopes and dreams, piece by piece.

Supernatural parasites that feed off of rage. They lay eggs in someone, and then the larvae hatch, crawl their way under the skin to the base of the victim's brain, and start stimulating his or her angers. Once sated with rage, they burst out of the body in a swarm, scatter, and infest new hosts.

An unearthed book that contains traces of a language no one's ever seen before. A living language, that worms its way into the reader's mind, creating obsession and madness as it tries to reclaim its previous vocabulary and infect others.

Munchhausen's by Proxy by means of psychokinesis. (I actually have a whole plot worked up for this one that I've never gotten to run.)

The Midnight Song. Heard by some people at midnight on a station that's normally dead air. The listener commits suicide or homicide soon after, but doesn't understand why, only that they must.

@Ghost said:

Scenes I wanna have, pt2:

• Accidentally stumbling into Mafia/Vampire/badguy activities and having to deal/run/talk/fight for your life

Man, I love these types of scenes. They are so much fun.

@Coin Yessss. That kind of 'it all comes to a head' stuff is wonderful. Especially if everyone involved plays it to the hilt.

@Coin said:

@Pyrephox said:

@Coin said:

@Pyrephox said:

@Coin said:

@Pyrephox said:

@Coin said:

@Pyrephox said:

@Coin said:

@Pyrephox said:

@Coin said:

@Pyrephox said:

@Arkandel That would be an awesome relationship. Especially for vampires, who literally CAN nurse grudges into eternity.

I always wanted a Professor X/Magneto relationship - where two people who were very close personally had been split by ideology, and were each passionately committed to destroying the works of the other...all the time hoping that "winning" would make the other person realize that they were Right All Along and they could be besties again.

Dibs on the Ordo Dracul vs. your ... honestly, the Order can be an ideological enemy to just about any other Covenant. >.>

But they're all vampires. And vampires are terrible.

So picky.

I'm a picky bitch, it's true! I just never got into the appeal of playing Vampire. At least, as it seems to be played on MU*s. I can see the appeal of the scrappy, newly-dead trying to maintain sanity in the face of an eternity spent playing meaningless political games with corpses that literally have nothing better to do with their lives.

I have never been able to understand the appeal of playing the corpses that literally have nothing better to do with their lives than meaningless political games, and...that's the game.

All right. Mage then? [ducks]

Only if I get to throw some goddamned fireballs.

Changeling, then. I woudln't want Paradox to outshine me as your nemesis.

Hell yeah. Changeling crazy is the best crazy, and I get to throw goddamned fireballs.

You probably would have liked my first changeling on The Reach.

Probably! I stayed faaaaar away from that sphere during my brief time on the Reach, though. Seemed like too many people were going into it with the intent to reenact OOC grudges from previous games.

Yeah. That was a thing. I was ... sort of removed from it, but in the middle. Because reasons. >.>

There are always reasons. REASONS.

Ahem. Back to the more general topic. Another type of scene I'd love to see more often is referred to, in TV Tropes parlance, as the "wham episode". Something that significantly shakes up the status quo or the assumptions, and then everyone has to move forward from there. I love plot twists. I want more plot twists, and Grand Reveals.

@Coin said:

@Pyrephox said:

@Coin said:

@Pyrephox said:

@Coin said:

@Pyrephox said:

@Coin said:

@Pyrephox said:

@Coin said:

@Pyrephox said:

@Arkandel That would be an awesome relationship. Especially for vampires, who literally CAN nurse grudges into eternity.

I always wanted a Professor X/Magneto relationship - where two people who were very close personally had been split by ideology, and were each passionately committed to destroying the works of the other...all the time hoping that "winning" would make the other person realize that they were Right All Along and they could be besties again.

Dibs on the Ordo Dracul vs. your ... honestly, the Order can be an ideological enemy to just about any other Covenant. >.>

But they're all vampires. And vampires are terrible.

So picky.

I'm a picky bitch, it's true! I just never got into the appeal of playing Vampire. At least, as it seems to be played on MU*s. I can see the appeal of the scrappy, newly-dead trying to maintain sanity in the face of an eternity spent playing meaningless political games with corpses that literally have nothing better to do with their lives.

I have never been able to understand the appeal of playing the corpses that literally have nothing better to do with their lives than meaningless political games, and...that's the game.

All right. Mage then? [ducks]

Only if I get to throw some goddamned fireballs.

Changeling, then. I woudln't want Paradox to outshine me as your nemesis.

Hell yeah. Changeling crazy is the best crazy, and I get to throw goddamned fireballs.

You probably would have liked my first changeling on The Reach.

Probably! I stayed faaaaar away from that sphere during my brief time on the Reach, though. Seemed like too many people were going into it with the intent to reenact OOC grudges from previous games.

@Coin said:

@Pyrephox said:

@Coin said:

@Pyrephox said:

@Coin said:

@Pyrephox said:

@Coin said:

@Pyrephox said:

@Arkandel That would be an awesome relationship. Especially for vampires, who literally CAN nurse grudges into eternity.

I always wanted a Professor X/Magneto relationship - where two people who were very close personally had been split by ideology, and were each passionately committed to destroying the works of the other...all the time hoping that "winning" would make the other person realize that they were Right All Along and they could be besties again.

Dibs on the Ordo Dracul vs. your ... honestly, the Order can be an ideological enemy to just about any other Covenant. >.>

But they're all vampires. And vampires are terrible.

So picky.

I'm a picky bitch, it's true! I just never got into the appeal of playing Vampire. At least, as it seems to be played on MU*s. I can see the appeal of the scrappy, newly-dead trying to maintain sanity in the face of an eternity spent playing meaningless political games with corpses that literally have nothing better to do with their lives.

I have never been able to understand the appeal of playing the corpses that literally have nothing better to do with their lives than meaningless political games, and...that's the game.

All right. Mage then? [ducks]

Only if I get to throw some goddamned fireballs.

Changeling, then. I woudln't want Paradox to outshine me as your nemesis.

Hell yeah. Changeling crazy is the best crazy, and I get to throw goddamned fireballs.

@Coin said:

@Pyrephox said:

@Coin said:

@Pyrephox said:

@Coin said:

@Pyrephox said:

@Arkandel That would be an awesome relationship. Especially for vampires, who literally CAN nurse grudges into eternity.

I always wanted a Professor X/Magneto relationship - where two people who were very close personally had been split by ideology, and were each passionately committed to destroying the works of the other...all the time hoping that "winning" would make the other person realize that they were Right All Along and they could be besties again.

Dibs on the Ordo Dracul vs. your ... honestly, the Order can be an ideological enemy to just about any other Covenant. >.>

But they're all vampires. And vampires are terrible.

So picky.

I'm a picky bitch, it's true! I just never got into the appeal of playing Vampire. At least, as it seems to be played on MU*s. I can see the appeal of the scrappy, newly-dead trying to maintain sanity in the face of an eternity spent playing meaningless political games with corpses that literally have nothing better to do with their lives.

I have never been able to understand the appeal of playing the corpses that literally have nothing better to do with their lives than meaningless political games, and...that's the game.

All right. Mage then? [ducks]

Only if I get to throw some goddamned fireballs.

@Coin said:

@Pyrephox said:

@Coin said:

@Pyrephox said:

@Arkandel That would be an awesome relationship. Especially for vampires, who literally CAN nurse grudges into eternity.

I always wanted a Professor X/Magneto relationship - where two people who were very close personally had been split by ideology, and were each passionately committed to destroying the works of the other...all the time hoping that "winning" would make the other person realize that they were Right All Along and they could be besties again.

Dibs on the Ordo Dracul vs. your ... honestly, the Order can be an ideological enemy to just about any other Covenant. >.>

But they're all vampires. And vampires are terrible.

So picky.

I'm a picky bitch, it's true! I just never got into the appeal of playing Vampire. At least, as it seems to be played on MU*s. I can see the appeal of the scrappy, newly-dead trying to maintain sanity in the face of an eternity spent playing meaningless political games with corpses that literally have nothing better to do with their lives.

I have never been able to understand the appeal of playing the corpses that literally have nothing better to do with their lives than meaningless political games, and...that's the game.

@Coin said:

@Pyrephox said:

@Arkandel That would be an awesome relationship. Especially for vampires, who literally CAN nurse grudges into eternity.

I always wanted a Professor X/Magneto relationship - where two people who were very close personally had been split by ideology, and were each passionately committed to destroying the works of the other...all the time hoping that "winning" would make the other person realize that they were Right All Along and they could be besties again.

Dibs on the Ordo Dracul vs. your ... honestly, the Order can be an ideological enemy to just about any other Covenant. >.>

But they're all vampires. And vampires are terrible.

@Arkandel That would be an awesome relationship. Especially for vampires, who literally CAN nurse grudges into eternity.

I always wanted a Professor X/Magneto relationship - where two people who were very close personally had been split by ideology, and were each passionately committed to destroying the works of the other...all the time hoping that "winning" would make the other person realize that they were Right All Along and they could be besties again.

@Coin said:

@Ghost said:

I think it's also easier if you and the other player go into it knowing who will win, lose, or if the point is for it to be a bitter stalemate. You don't have to decide on how the win/lose will eventually happen (save this for RP!), but you'll likely avoid any feelings of butthurt if the two players walk into it knowing that eventually playerB will take the bad guy role and eventually lose to playerA

Or just put clear, OOC limitations regarding what's acceptable, and make sure neither player will be a sore loser.

OOC communication is key, yeah, I think. And a game culture that accepts and encourages non-fatal conflicts. So, having ways to throw roadblocks and obstacles at people that aren't all about combat, or taking things away permanently from people.

I forget several of my characters, so I'll just stick up the ones that I remember, but I don't remember all of their NAMES:

Former:

Harriet at Brass and Steel
Thomas at Darkwater (Ver. 1)
Solomon at Darkwater (Ver. 2)
James at TexMux (Ver. 1)
Layabout Rich Murder-Shaman Guy at TexMux (Ver. 2)
Psychologist Shaman with Vampire Living in her Barn at The Reach (For...like three or four weeks.)
Paige at Requiem for Kingsmouth
Solace and Meihui at Tenebrae
Orazio at Arx
Xavier at Calaveras
Hadrian at Angel's Legacy

Current:
Perronne at Arx
Alexander at Gray Harbor

EDIT: Good lord, this hasn't been updated in forever. So, now it is.

@Arkandel said:

@SG At a certain level we need to establish what 'conflict' means in the context of the game you're playing.

If all it means is "the characters hate and will attach each other on sight" then yes, obviously that's counter-productive to playing in the long term since the opportunities to actually roleplay are slim.

If they are political rivals but have a healthy respect for each other - for example - or fight their wars mostly through proxies (think Moriarty versus Holmes) it's a different story.

The issue tends to come in when, as some people have been fairly open about believing on WORA in the past, that if your character feels that someone might potentially be a threat to them, then OF COURSE you're going to use every IC means in your disposal to remove them from the equation entirely, because leaving them alive to oppose you further would be stupid. It's not OOCly malicious, but it does make it much harder to have a hate-ship or rivals relationship, because MU* conflict tends to escalate crazy-fast into "unfun".

I like IC conflict, but I don't like the rate of escalation and OOC drama that tends to happen, so I've become really wary of initiating any significant conflict.

Also, you never know who's playing an antagonistic character because they're awesome people who will relish some IC conflict...and who's playing an antagonistic character because they have absolutely no IC/OOC separation and will take even the mildest hint of dislike or aggression as a sign to harass you OOC about your meanness, and/or initiate combat.