Best posts made by Rook

As a blanket statement, any adult-rated MU* should be considered Adult-Rated (R or higher) in a fair majority of the areas, events and plots. Whether that rating is for violence, sexual content, or whatever. If the game states that you must be 21 or 18 to play or whatever, it's adult-themed!

Since the dawn of WoD, it seems, that people are routinely surprised by Evil Characters acting Evil, even when there is a lot of evidence (perhaps subtle) that they plan to do so. No, I'm not talking about surprise buttsex trauma, I'm talking about watching an IC event in a public location, with a timestop dropped (remember the days) and people reading a BBpost to get in... and someone complaining about the violence in the scene.

If you are on an Adult-Rated game and have ANYTHING that triggers you in very horrific ways, I would sincerely hope that you have some tidbit of information on you somewhere that warns potential STs, Staff or RP partners that even starting down that road has the strong possibility of killing your involvement, interest or whatnot. Even if that note is an OOC statement at the start of meeting a new partner in a scene, or whatever.

What I'm saying here is that: 1) Players should expect Evil, Twisted things on a game where Evil, Twisted lives and thrives. 2) STs and other PRP runners should not 'surprise plot twist' as @surreality says, at least OOCly. Give warning that Evil, Twisted things are not just possible, but imminent, here's your warning, please leave now kthnxbye.

This should be an ingrained part of our culture, don't you think? Doesn't this fall under Respect Your Fellow RPers? Maybe. Surprisingly, this is the EXACT reason why we need News files so explicitly and agonizingly worded.

It's the MU* equivalent of the sticker warning on your clothes washer expressly telling you that no, it is not safe for you to wash children in the machine, FFS.

Dude or Dudette, I highly recommend that you switch to a safety razor instead of any disposable.

The blades can be bought in 100-pks, which will last you almost a year at two blades a week. I have a rough, tough beard so that is about my rate. A 'case' of 10 10-blade packs will run you about, oh, $20. That is, what, two disposable razors or about two packs of 5 blade replacements?

On top of this, the shave is so much more clean and comfortable. I get almost zero razor burn with a safety razor.

Your one-time startup costs will be:

• Razor: $50-90
• blades: $20
• shaving cream: $20
• brush: $20

I know it is a large chunk to bite off to start up, but only the shaving cream and blades will need replenished over time. If you get a good razor, it will be something you can pass on to your offspring.

A great place to shop is Amazon. You will get their suggested 3-item bundle pack suggestions, and you can get the razor, a pack of blades and the brush for about $50. Since you likely already have a shaving foam or gel, you can start with that, until you can get a good cream-based lathering item. I cannot recommend Art of Shaving products highly enough. Their shave creams are very good.

Hey,

I thought I'd post here, since MU_Gateway seems to be light-weight on the WHO nowadays, and MudConnect seems to be...well, MUDs. I'm building/coding an original-theme game that I would love some prodding/inspiring conversation on. Whether people are looking to contribute ideas or actual building/thematic work, I'd love to have help.

The goal is to build a game that is using a very lightweight WoD-ish sort of system, but something that is easy to use and work with (without the heavy requirements of books). This is a project that a few people were helping me with a few years back that got some traction, but then life stole everyone away. I've restarted the project with the hope of just making it a personal project, but if others are interested, hey, give me a shout. You can check that part out at myriadRPG.org.

As for the game, I am looking to do a modern Chicago as the 'real world' of the setting. Then, there are other Realms/dimensions/planes/shards that are reachable by people with Talents/Powers/Magic/Technology of whatever levels to be able to do so. The first Realm that I am striving to build is a "shadow/dark/hellish/post-apocalyptic" version of Chicago. It is war-torn, overrun by nasties, abandoned and very dark, dangerous and deadly. You get the idea.

The goal is to allow groups of players to band together, go on adventures/excursions for whatever reasons they choose, and we game out what happens. The actions of the first characters and groups will alter the grid, the storyline, the theme, whatever needs to happen to account for what they have accomplished/discovered/created. I am looking to build a game that is expandable, both thematically and physically, as new ideas are introduced, new players carve new areas, and things happen ICly.

Yes, this sounds <whatever>. But, I still want to give it a try. Others that I've talked to over time have liked the idea, and I get that this post doesn't cover it all. I can't just post "Hey, oWoD set in Paris, no Mages" and everyone knows where I am going with it.

So, if interested, fastest/bestest way to contact me is at umbralshards.mush@gmail.com. If you want to connect as a guest and read the news files so far, hit: silvren.com 6900. I tend to be around during weekday, US days, if you wanna chat.

You are responsible for your behavior and actions at all times.

This is something I wish people would enforce and expect from each other a lot more than most seem to. If Bob goes onto another medium and talks shit about a game, that game has the right to hold him to it, given evidence. If Bob is talking shit about a player, that player equally has every right to avoid Bob for whatever OOC reason. It doesn't matter if it was Skype or a Web Forum or a Munch that Bob was caught spouting cruel things. I have the right, as a game owner/staffer, to ostracize you from my game for talking shit*. <cane_waving> A lot of the problem of people's behavior on an anonymous medium is due to the fact that they operate differently in this internet circle as opposed to that internet circle. </cane_waving> Some take that to extremes.

I feel that if someone is vitrolic outside your game, what are they doing inside your game? They certainly aren't likely to be cooperative, inclusive, positive, the way we want all of our players to be. Someone going through a momentary upset of something is one thing, but a pattern (there's that word again) is altogether evidence of someone's truer, base feelings.

As for targeting a person for stalking or abuse? Absolute ban, in my opinion, given evidence of a pattern. That should be entirely unacceptable. For fuck's sake, we're talking about a hobby in where TRIGGERS are a common and flammable subject, so why would you allow anyone to stalk and let that slide?

*Granted, a venting wouldn't warrant this reaction from me. We all vent, I get that. But those that repeatedly bitch tend to be very destructive to games, foment upset on that game, and drive players away whether you realize that they are doing it or not.

The moment when, during a company All-Hands, one person in the spotlight mentions that they played "an RPG where you played a vampire" and the chatroom chime-ins of 'Vampire the Masquerade' hit double-digits in five seconds.

Yeah, I was curious what that was about to, but wasn't about to glorify it by asking. Seemed pretty passive-aggressive.

@Meg ouch.

I don't want to liken running a dog-fighting ring with political stance. One is "forgiveable" and the other isn't. To be clear, if someone was an unforgiveable piece of shit in the real world, I wouldn't want anything to do with them? That includes RPing.

Reasons for not associating with someone on a game:

• convicted sexual offender
• runs a dog-fighting ring
• long established history of OOC undermining and destruction to "friends"
• drives a Fiat

Non-reasons:

• Political stance
• Gender/Faith/Credo/Ethnicity
• inexperience with system, MUing
• typing ability (though this would be touchy after a while)

In general, I won't preclude someone from RP or a game if it is a protected hiring status type of thing. That's a pretty universal set of things that anyone should be safe in. That's an example.

Web designers that 'forget' to map either a proper tabbing pattern into their pages, or who somehow disable/kill 'enter' from submitting the form/search.

I'm sorry. If a player cannot 'believe' a female staffer, they need to be destroyed by fire and removed from the game. That shit is so 1950s crap.

In building a game, don't accept any help from anyone that hasn't at least questioned you about your theme, vision and goals of the game. Who hasn't asked you style preference questions, grid size, and so on.

In short, it's your game. If someone doesn't come off as 'Right' for the job/position, then don't hire them, period. You can't read it here, since the old forum was the repo of Amazing Stories, but it was rife with bad staff hires by people who just wanted to get shit done.

On the standard game, you have to give builders and coders wizbits, which gives them destructive powers over your database. Be very, very mindful of that. I have seen one game hire descers to @create objects, @desc them and drop them in the rooms. Trusted staffers came along and proofread and the used that desc on the room if it was acceptable. You don't /have/ to give them power. True creators will be happy to envision in objects, and won't bitch if you don't wizbit them.

Why not start a project based on Electron, which is a cross-platform desktop application written in NodeJS, HTML and CSS (which a lot of people can then contribute to. This is the core of the Atom editor by GitHub, it powers Slack, Discord, Twitch, the new Skype, and hundreds of production applications. It combines the V8 javascript engine from Chrome, and is very easy to work with, and thus has a development ecosystem that is both very active and huge.

It could be modularly coded so that it could support plugins, and since it works natively with web technology, you can build it to interface both with old-school MUSH and new-school Ares/Evennia.

I'd be willing to help and contribute to the project, as I've always wanted to build a coder's editor that integrated directly with a MU* client.

EDIT: I'ma just going to start a project. Ping me if you wanna help/join/poke/test/contribute.

Drive the speed limit. It helps save on gas.
Use that nervous energy to clean tonight.
Tomorrow is the first day to the rest of your life.

@Tempest said, in another thread:

The vast majority of MU'ers appear to be incredibly lazy and entitled when it comes to making little effort to get involved in things and expecting everybody else to feed them story. And it has to be a specific kind of story usually, or they'll complain about how it doesn't fit their character.

Character 'power level' is a problem tied to MUers being spoiled brats. You literally do not ever need 100+ xp in 2e nWoD, yet I constantly see players talking about how they need like 150 xp to 'finish their character' or some absurd shit. Yes, at 100+ xp, any character in any splat is basically god.

Players need to be more willing to consider running their own stories and be more involved in the ones that are already available.
Plot breeds RP and staff aren't the only people who can do things. And they shouldn't have to shove story down player's throats.

----- Herein lies the intent of this thread. Begin Attention. ------------------------------------------------------------
It seems like the structure of MU*s has hit a wall. Sporadic RP coupled with heavy +jobs doing all the lifting doesn't seem to be a formula worth pursuing on any future games aspiring to come to life, in my mind. If it's failing everywhere, then the approach needs to change.

Maybe, with the maturation of the playerbase, as noted elsewhere (though I am not sure I agree that we have aged 'nicely' in all cases), there is an opportunity to restructure and approach MU RP differently.

My ideas are these:

1. Narrow the roleplay of all players on the game, giving all characters reason to interact with all others. WoD, as an example, does not seem to lend itself to this, in fact it does the exact opposite: segregate races and characters apart in order to keep thematic secrets. Make a game where the meta-plot can either be ongoing, episode-based, or

2. Get rid of the dependencies on +jobs. Enforce interaction. Let's get back to Q&A on channels. Don't +job an activity, RP it. If something that you want to do seems non-RP fodder, then maybe consider something different. This would require people to wean themselves from dependency on the staff of the game to Do Things. Staff should structure the game to be player-run, player-resolved. Everything from coded systems for CharGen to any combat needs to any crafting, economy, etc. I am not saying that the game needs to be code-heavy, just code-supported.

3. Revamp XP gain to be non-singular, non-vote dependent. My idea here was to base a global XP gain pool based on the amount of RP happening on the game. Granted, it would take some hooks into POSE and likewise, but can be done. The more RP, the more XP gets split amongst active characters. On top of that, story goals being met, game being explored and added to, all of these activities add to the XP pool. If you don't RP, you are not active. Channels, paging and OOC conversation do not count. RP in private rooms does not count. While it might further your personal character, it does not further the game, so it is no different than a table-top ST in ruling that your pretty character sheet and folder of pictures gives back nothing to the game at large, so it is not worthy for an XP bonus.

Maybe these are stupid ideas, but it seems like we as a community need to change the course of the ship.
------ End Attention ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The entire MU community feels very 'passive' lately.

Entirely agree. I understand work, life, whatever impinging on playtime. But, it seems very prolific that laziness ABOUNDS on games, nowadays. I get more interaction and enjoyment out of coding AIs for Screeps than trying to find RP on games over the last few months.

I have an eye-rolling test. If I roll my eyes at someone's posing three times in a short enough span of time, I'm out. Generally, this is for:

• Self-aggrandizement, going on and on about how sexy, cat-like, hulking, brutish or any other descriptor you are. If you have to repeat this more than one time in a scene, you are annoying.
• Drawing attention to one's self through actions. This is different, slightly, from above, in that I mean here that the character does IC actions to literally draw attention to them in the scene. Grand entrances, bursting out into Singing in the Rain, and so forth.
• You get two TLDRs with me before I write you off as a RPer. The only exceptions to this are scene-setting poses and exposition narrative about a plot, scene, or critical IC information.

Then I would surmise that they would be equally scared to ask for help if they couldn't figure out the web interface widgets.

My point in the conversation is that the medium has a small amount of impact, yes. We all agree. I just don't think that it is a barrier to entry as much as some propose. I don't think that a web interface is a bad idea, I highly encourage it. I want all of the 3 major MUSH codebases (I don't lump Evennia or Ares into MUSH, because they didn't derive from the branch) to continue integrating methods and APIs to integrate with backends for websites. Rhost and Penn are almost there, Ares and Evennia are there. All of them will require more work, more refinement, more features, etc.

But I do NOT think that moving things to the web will resolve the major barriers of entry into MUSH:

1. You have to know and read the source books for most games. You just do.
2. You have to Do Things on the game to construct your character, unless that game makes your character for you and you just log in.
3. You have to Do Things on the game to play, and that includes a lot of rather high-level typing, with grammar and proper spelling and syntax and all that crazy shit that nerds do.

UI is just UI. It doesn't impact Gameplay in MUSH as much as this thread seems to imply.

Consider the UI of such a game where you have a widget for every way to communicate on a MUSH. You would have to have a popup window (or whatever your UI solution is) for:

• Paging
• Posing (including: emote, pose, and say)
• OOC talk
• Places talk (including tt, ttooc, ttpose, et al.)
• BBoards
• IC Phones, Messengers, Missives, and whatever else your game has
• Channels

How are you, in the end, making things easier to Learn How To MUSH? Players still have to learn that there are alllllllllll those ways to communicate, learn who 'hears' what, and what reaches whom, and when. When is it appropriate to put OOC information in an IC medium? Learning IC =/= OOC is a huge hurdle for many to begin with.

I thought that the regular Way To Do Things was to throw their shit out the windows, onto the lawn. That's what TV has taught me. Apparently, people garner praise for such acts.

For me, such a pace needs to be discussed up front, and commonly... before my character is built. It becomes a character goal that I build the character around, a long-term thing that is worked towards.

Not just romantic relationships, but business partners, ye old Master/apprentice type relationships, and so on. All of them take time and focus, and with limited buckets of RP time, you have to be sure just how much time the other person really, truly wants to invest in relationship RP over any 'advancement' or 'plot' sorts of things.

I don't think that everyone that wants a relationship as a central goal to their character/RP necessarily wants to spend months building it up. I know it is very, very rare to meet anyone that does. Nowadays, it seems that "Longterm" means two weeks with most.

This exact behavior is what I abhor most. I have been introduced to a RPer on a game that literally would fill your screen with me-me-me crap posing, and somehow many people that this RPer walked on water. I gagged when said RPer tried to give me advice on how to RP and be popular and have a following.

I get what you guys are saying. I think that we're just talking at two different levels.

The reason that I say that the UI isn't the issue is not because I don't recognize the value of dropdowns in a choice list being hella faster than typing it out after looking through a help file.

I just think that, even with UI changes in a client (whether app or web), players face much larger hurdles than just the command structures. You will see a fundamental shift in how MUSH is played, period, if you (as @Arkandel proposes in his example) remove the physical movement from room to room on grids. You will start seeing people hiding/ignoring information that is, in today's MUSH standards, designed to be read, followed and dealt with in an IC way. That's just one example, and I don't think that I'm being old-dinosaur by pointing this out.

Shift every rule, check and validation into a web client, and you will have a complex web client. Why? CharGen is complex. Shift every +command into a web client, and you will get a complex web client. A window for seeing who's in the room, who's online, including filtering for "Everyone in WHO", "My friends", "Just in this Room", or "My Faction". That alone speaks to things being complex to learn, potentially lending to people missing things.

Imagine +watch now being desktop notifications (and yes, people would ask for it). Imagine the web client interface for managing that functionality. Pages and channels, too, in their own windows if you like, but do we now do Slack-like @-mention notifications? What about +beep/+alert?

Sit back and try prototyping out functionality of a MUSH into a web client. That is a good first step to having this conversation, in my opinion as an engineer. Let's start going through actual UI/UX exercises and proposals.

I get that you propose and think that it will somehow lower barriers of complexity in entering players' experience. I get it. I just don't think that it is as easily solvable as you think. And, if it is, I am not yet there with your vision, and I think that I (and others) need to see what you envision. I'm happy to help in this project, as I said before. Promise. EDIT: I'm already deep into working on it here.

But during the envisioning phase of any project, we need to all agree on goals. In this case, that is a concrete UI/UX.

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