Best posts made by Roz

I too find it wildly frustrating if ICA =/= ICC on a game. But I strongly object to the idea that the only way to establish stakes on a game is to kill people's characters without warning. If the game inflicts no consequences on a character for doing stupid things, that's a big issue, yeah. But that doesn't actually mean that the only right way to tell the story is to have non-consensual character death. That said, if you're on a consent game and a player does something wildly stupid and there's no real other option, I think there's room for the GM to be like "okay you are totally going to die if you do that there's not really any other option" and if the player does it anyways that's pretty much consenting to character death even if they insist they shouldn't die.

It's definitely true that there are much bigger benchmarks for gay relationships -- similar to a lot of diversity issues in this context -- wherein people want to have REASONS for them to exist/be included, because "Idk gay people exist in the world so sometimes people in stories are gay?" is not good enough.

I think that some issue people have taken with the Dumbledore/Grindelwald relationship not being explicit enough (not in terms of SEX, just in terms of it being made clearer text instead of subtext) is the desire to not have some people try to insist that the romance elements aren't there because, basically, that plausible deniability will always exist in subtext, and audiences often seem to require a lot more PROOF to accept that a queer relationship is canon vs a straight relationship. Subtext is accepted way more implicitly as fact for straight relationships in media in general. I understand the desire for audiences who really appreciate seeing queer romances included, even in backstory, to want to not have to see others refute their existence because ~subtext isn't text~ or whatever. (And again, this is nothing to do with actual sex scenes.)

I didn't like the explanation the movie came up with for Dumbledore's lack of involvement, but only because it felt like kind of a cheap magical reasoning where I was a lot more intrigued by the idea of him being unable to face his former love for purely human reasons of emotion. I just found that idea more interesting from a story and character perspective, not so much that I needed the romance to be core to the plot.

I'm using Dreamweaver right now! To build eblasts for work, but. It's definitely still in common use in various industries. I wouldn't know how to use it for real beginners, though.

I will say Dreamweaver's a fucking memory hog. Every time I have to open it it's like, okay maybe I'll go get a drink across the street and it'll be ready by the time I get back.

@mietze That'd be @faraday's system!

No baking recipes require a standing mixer. They just make life a whole lot easier.

@Arkandel said:

Speaking as a Storyteller, not as a player.

I always wanted PCs who are overwhelmed or afraid for their lives. IC speaking there are many brave people around, many stupid people around and many weird people around but few who actually let the plot get to them; who will take a long wide-eyed look at the insanity of a situation and allow it to make them go 'nope, nope, shit, I'm outta here' instead of ... well, instead of treating it like a TV show where it doesn't really matter what happens because everything will turn out okay in the end.

It's rare to see it as a Storyteller. I bring in NPCs the characters have every reason to fear but they don't show it. They'll give lip, stand defiant, try to negotiate... but they won't ever lose their composure, back down or be intimidated. Sometimes I'd like that as well, to see the hopelessness sink in. Everyone conquers their fears, it seems.

Oooooooh, this all over. This is actually super frustrating as a GM. Also when characters seem to laugh at how dumb your NPCs are being when they're not being dumb???

Victorian ivory dildo BELONGS in a MUSEUM!!!

If you are a shitdick anywhere you are a shitdick in real life. Online is not a magical other world.

@gryphter Unfortunately, you'll likely have to move onto a new company to get a higher pay and position.

@Alzie I mean, the system lets you roll stuff you don't have statted on your sheet, which is valuable just because sometimes we don't think to stat certain skills that our characters might have because maybe we just didn't think of it or whatever. But what GM is going to let you roll Spaceship Operations without any skill or reason to have skill in it?

@Alamias Upvoting for support. Debt is terrible and terrifying and I'm so sorry.

@Pyrephox said:

@Arkandel said:

@Pyrephox I think a good way to look at rolls as a Storyteller is to consider them hooks tying the players to your story.

Everyone wants to be useful in a plot; to come in and have an impact. Some players are proactive enough to do so no matter their stats but not everyone is, so giving them an entry point into the story ("roll wits+composure please") so you can hand-feed them some information perhaps unique to them achieves at least that much - they are now relevant.

Rolls are also an opportunity to highlight character aspects which are not often useful to them. A combat PC is never going to be out of fashion but how often does a locksmith, med student or car mechanic get to do their thing? Perhaps less often, so give them that nice fat exceptional success to go with the rest of the scene. I've specifically add elements to the story before to let the spotlight be shared.

Especially in systems like GMC where failure is actually rewarded it's even neater.

Yes, absolutely. Of course, the flipside of that is the frustration that can come of just having a run of bad luck, and your character not being able to do things that they really /should/ be competent at because the dice just hate you one night. A certain amount of failure can be fun (especially with a GM that lets failure add complications, rather than just shut down an action), but if it starts to feel like you can never succeed at a roll just because your dice have forgotten that high numbers exist, that stops being fun.

It's a balance.

As @saosmash noted, I played a crack shot sniper type on our old Mass Effect game -- like doing trick shots while upside-down while drunk -- but I tended to have terrible luck with dice. I'm a player who is happy to to put my character through the wringer with failure, but you're right that it's totally frustrating to repeatedly not be able to shoot baddies when that's like the main combat focus of your character.

@Ganymede said:

@Roz said:

I love bacon as much as the next person, but I don't want it in my fucking cookies.

I concur. If you want some extra crunch in there, go use cricket flour, and don't skimp on the crickets.

For me, being proactive on a MU* means seeking out RP, either through general means (asking on a RP channel if it exists, joining folks on the grid, etc.) or specific ones (having a particular idea and seeking out a specific person for it). It means picking up hooks and following up on them. For example: you RP with someone and they mention something about another character in a scene. It's interesting or as some potential for more stuff, so you seek out the other person and go, "Hey, you came up in this scene and I think it'd be fun to play."

Like 95% of the time, when players have complained to me about not getting RP, they're not even doing the basic steps of seeking it out through the means available to them on the game. So yeah, I tell those people to be more proactive.

I have also not had anyone attempt to pass on details of anyone's sex life. FWIW. Would tell them to GTFO if they did.

@Lithium said:

If Sam is avoiding the RP, then they are avoiding the character, and the character is free to react to that. Maybe they just get frustrated that they are being dodged, or just angry with the world at going against them in this fashion.

Oh my God that is 100% not true. You can't just say that someone who is OOCly unavailable -- even if you think they're avoiding you/don't really want to play with you -- is also avoiding your character ICly. If I have a busy couple of days and don't have time to RP and I come back to the game and see a character insisting that mine is avoiding them and/or absent from their responsibilities or something like that, I'd be pissed.

All of my closest friends at this point are people I originally met on MU*s. Including my roommate!