Best posts made by Runescryer

@derp Luhhan wasn't just Perrin's mentor;he was also his adoptive father. The Luhhans took Perrin in when his parents dies. So you're saying that killing his adoptive father isn't traumatic enough?

Second...this is the literal definition of fridging. The term came from the first few issues of Kyle Rayner as Green Lantern , where his girlfriend was killed nd stuffed in their refrigerator to provide Kyle with motivation to go after the bad guy. Laila is not a character from the books. She was created expressly to be killed off in a gruesome way to give Perrin a kick in the ass to answer the call to adventure, How is this not fridging?

And at least Perrin getting tortured by Whitecloaks is a part of the books; they just decided to 'expand' on it.

And that's really what this series is about. In a single word: 'extra'. It goes out of it's way to go beyond what it needs to show and do to service the story. They took the 'drama' knob, cranked it up to 11 (Jordan already had it at a 10.5), then ripped the knob off. Because they have to keep the 'blood and t!its' fans of GoT that crossed over, happy and interested. Mostly by providing the gritty, bloody drama. Although we are apparently getting to the t!ts.

@Bad-at-Lurking The new 'Quickstart' system for M&M 3e is...

1. Choose a base archetype: 20 choices like Paragon, Powerhouse, Mystic, Speedster, Energy controller, etc....

2. Make 4 or 5 choices to refine your character idea.

Example: The first choice for the Battlesuit Archetype is defining how you got the suit, which in turn define some of your basic Abilities. The choices are:

-Genius: (Tony Stark) You invented the battlesuit you wear. Your physical Abilities are pretty average, but your Intellect is near superhuman
-Military: (War Machine) You are the pilot of an experimental military battlesuit. Physical Abilities are a little bit above average, average mental Abilities
-Accident: (X-O Man O War, Armadillo) You found the battlesuit by chance/accident. All Abilities are average to slightly above average.

Based on your choice, your initial Abilities block is chosen.

Next, you choose 2 Advantages packages. The choices are:

-Combatant: You're trained in fighting using the battlesuit. You get the Accurate Attack, All-Out Attack, Improved Initiative, Interpose, and Move-By Advantages.
-Inventor: You have a gift for making technological innovations. You get the Eidetic Memory, Improvised Tools, Inventor, Ultimate Effort (Technology), and Well Informed Advantages.
-Lucky: You're well intentioned, but a good part of your success boils down to sheer luck. You get the Beginner's Luck, Luck (2), Redirect, and Teamwork Advantages.
-Scientist: You're a highly trained scientist with your own research lab. You get the Equipment (3; Headquarters), Skill Mastery (Expertise: Science) and Skill Mastery (Expertise: Technology) Advantages. Your Headquarters comes pre-defined.
-Wealthy: You're rich. You get the Attractive and Benefit 4 (Multi-Millionaire) Advantages.

And so on for Skills and Powers. All the choices have pre-set values as well as assigned Random Numbers so you can completely roll your way through CGen if you want.

You then add in a pre-set Defenses stat block, choose your Complications, and you're done.

Just with those few examples, it's easy to see that there are a multitude of possibilities, styles, and character themes that can be created with the Quickstart system. You can create a classic Tony Stark Battlesuit character, or a rich CEO with no technical experience themselves that has his company's R&D team create a battlesuit for him, or a mechanic in the US Army or Air Force that becomes the test pilot of an experimental battlesuit, or dozens of other concepts.

Hey all,

So, I already informed the rest of Staff about this, but I just wanted to make it formal. I am taking a break from both MUSHing and being a part of the Admin team here.

Why? Lots of things that have built up ovr time. Mostly my own physical and mental health issues. I am completely burned out, to be honest. I'm not getting any relief or even enjoyment out of MUSHing at the moment, or any other activity that I do to relax. TV, Movies, Anime, Video Games, TTRPG...none of it are bringing any relief or joy to me, ATM.

So, I'm taking a long break to try and get back some measure of relaxation back. How long? I don't know. Maybe once spring arrives, I'll be feeling better. Maybe a year or so. In the mean time, I will be popping by here to see how things are going and keep up to date.

Will I be an Admin when I return? That all depends on what the opinion of Staff is. I am perfectly fine with having to re-apply or be reviewed for a Staff position here. And i anyone does pick up an Admin hat here in the mean time, I have no ill will towards them and wish them the best. In fact, I wish MUSoapbox and the whole MU community the best while I'm gone.

Like I said, this is my decision without any prompting or urging from anyone. I know that I've made bad moves and bad decisions that have caused real hurt to members of the community. And I apologize to those that I've hurt. I apologize for accelerating or causing drama here or on any game I've been on. It was never my intention to cause pain or drama, but as Neil Gaiman wrote, 'Intention and outcome rarely coincide'.

So. This is less a 'good-bye' and more of a 'til we meet again'. To the members, Staff and community, I thank you all for placing your trust in me, even if I didn't always live up to that trust or expectations. Regardless, stay healthy in body and mind, folks. Take care of yourselves.

Catch you all on the flip side.

@Wretched said in Avatar / Korra game considerations:

@Cadi I like post Korra (the show not her death tho mebbe that too?), because it seems like the power levels of bending were less limited to the few 'specials'. Lots of Metal benders, at least 2 lava benders. spirit benders, blood benders etc. The tech level is nice but there's still room for nature, more spirit wilds popping up around 'custom town' iss totally possible (or later plot thing dun dun!). Gives a lot of room for character options. Also PRO BENDING.

The Boulder is very upset at your lack of recognition that (airquotes) 'Pro Bending' began in the Earth Kingdom with the EARTH RUMBLE, the greatest spectacle in bending EVER!

We will soon be upgrading MSB to the Node 2.0 codebase. It's been out for a while now and hopefully, there won't be any issues with our older plug-ins and the new code.

The reasons for the upgrade:

-One of our plug-ins, the Poll function, is itself now upgraded to Node 2.0 and no longer functions.

-We will be able to access a Temp Ban plug-in, to provide Staff with a disciplinary action other than a full ban or a thread lock.

Many Users have expressed interest in a 'middle' solution not as extreme as a full ban, so we're working to provide that here. Originally a poll was going to be set up for the Users to vote on the upgrade, but that's how we discovered that the Poll plug-in was no longer compatible. Whoops...

Hopefully, no-one will be seriously upset at this development, but feel free to comment here in the thread, yay or nay.

Thank you.

@Hella Can't wait for A Game Of You next season...

Barbie was great and Martin Tenbones looked and sounded amazing.

@misadventure I highly recommend 'The Chronicles of Prydain, by Lloyd Alexander. Wonderful series that taps into Welsh mythology. About the same length as the Chronicles of Narnia, book-wise.

The first two books were (poorly) spliced together for Disney's 'The Black Cauldron' animated film.

@hobos said in Good TV:

For 1989 it was edgy, but for today, that kind of perspective feels super overdone. I was actually born in 1989 so maybe it's difficult for me to appreciate what was legitimately edgy back then.

Also yeah, I don't appreciate how free people can be with the 'edgelord' label. But it does actually apply in some cases. (Maybe not this one, I admit, but without all the context and history, it could definitely come off that way to an uneducated observer such as myself).

It's the same problem that the 'John Carter' film faced: the original stories were foundational for almost every aspect of science-fiction, but seem trite and cliche to newer audiences that are unaware of the significance.

Sandman, Watchmen, The Dark Knight Returns were all groundbreaking at the time and set foundations for modern (post-90's) comics storytelling. And part of this is also being imitated by writers/artist without the same level of storytelling ability. 'Edginess' became an all-encompassing, character-defining attribute, rather than a thematic element.

For me, the big difference between, 'being edgey' and 'edgelord' is a certain amount of intellectual development in the former that is absent from the later. For example, the character of Gilbert in Sandman is based on English author G.K. Chesterton; not exactly an obvious or well-known reference. Chesterton's works mainly concerned Christian apologetics; defending the ideals of Christianity via debate instead of 'it's in the Bible, so it must be true'. That's a level of awareness that you don't find in edgelords, who are mostly concerned with 'shock for the sake of shock', without any debate or reasoning or reflection upon their actions.

Yeah. Morpheus is a depressing, over-serious, self-important prick. And the overall narrative of Sandman is showing how this immortal being that believes himself unchangeable and above 'petty mortals' does, in fact, change; becoming more human in the process. The whole series is Morpheus making those human connections, within and without, and shedding his bad habits of the past several eons.

@Macha said in MUers in the news?:

Could it just have been that Martin grew up on fantasy settings, etc, that were portrayed by...well, white people? A huge amount of fantasy stories I recall, have a huge amount of white people.

Because the writers were usually white, so a lot of what was written back in the day in fantasy seems white. (I am not saying I am a huge expert. I am not. I read a ton of fantasy in my younger days, older stuff from my much older cousins/etc that got left around my gran's/aunt's house. But I don't remember a lot of people being not described as white)

This is a key point. I can't think of any fiction genre that isn't currently dealing with some sort of backlash over lack of diversity because the majority of published fiction has traditionally been written by white authors. My biggest area of experience in this is comics publishing. Until the late 60's/early 70's, there were few, if any, Black or other PoC of note in mainstream comics, with the exception of mentors like the Ancient One or stock villians like the Mandarin. It was when Blacksploitation came along that Marvel and DC started focusing on non-white heroes. And modern icons like Black Panther and Luke Cage were created and written by white/Jewish creators to start out. But those starting steps into diversity lead to PoC artists and writers entering the industry. Which lead to greater diversity of characters and creators. It's not an instant fix sort of deal by any means; it takes time for the cycle to advance. Fantasy just happens to be one of the more hide-bound genres and the most resistant to change, IMO. You can name dozens of White fantasy authors dealing in faux-Europe settings, while the few Black fantasy writers there are tend to be more Afro-centric in their settings, which isn't the default that fantasy readers are used to. But, that's slowly changing, and that's good. More diversity in creators leads to more diversity in stories.

@derp Another suggestion from me...

Make the Politics sub-board opt-in as well.

I agree that it shouldn't go away, but for some of us, we need a refuge from Real Life. I don't want to silence anyone speaking out about the very real suffering and injustices happening, but I'm already engaged in other aspects of social media and RL in trying to combat things. I would like to have one corner of my life that doesn't act as an echo chamber of things I'm already aware of and doing my best to fight. I don't activate Politics channels in any game I play on for this reason; not because I want to pretend the bad things aren't happening or stick my head in the sand and ignore them, but to avoid sheer message fatigue.

@Arkandel said in New Superhero Game Looking for Staff/Feedback:

@Runescryer I guess what I was saying was that the usual problem with PvP is that it seems to default to 'we fight to the death', and that upsets people because they stand to lose their PC.

If that's taken out of the equation it's easier. Sure, Robin just beat the crap out of me but hey... Blackgate can't hold me! So whatever, I got beaten up by a kid in shorts.

Fair point. I pretty much avoid PK games, so I'm not as well versed in the psychology of PvP.

Just for my two cents, outside of Hero vs. Villain fights or the occasional heel turn, for most of the Supers games I've played on, sparring is less about PvP and more about 'So, what are we going to scene today?' Danger Room scenes are more about socializing in a venue that's different than the usual.

That's one of the reasons why I'm wanting to create a stable of simple, stock villains that can be dropped into scenes and emitted without Staff approval; to add a new variable instead of players asking each other 'So, what are we going to do today? Stop another bank robbery or sit around the common room of the HQ and chat?' There's now the option of 'Hey, want to scene? Cool. Let me grab 'Wrecking Ball' and we can team up to stop his latest rampage. Sound good?'

Everyone get ready.....

Revan is coming

https://heroichollywood.com/star-wars-knights-of-the-old-republic/

@derp It's not exactly a 'secret' part of the board. Keep it as a pinned Announcement: 'We have some sections of this Board that are Opt-In. Here are those sections and their focus; here is how to opt-in to them...'

@SquirrelTalk said in Suicide Squad: Nation Under Fire:

I don't think it's so much 'anti antifa sentiment' as it is 'explicitly playing our favorite colorful comic characters as a metaphor for current social movements instead of just their natural conflicts is a little on the nose'. People want to play characters and stories, not allegories; as far as I know. Plus it's awkward. 'Intergang are the Republicans'. It's like... no, they're Intergang. You can pretend ANYONE you punch is a Republican, but that doesn't make it so.

Plus I think this might be the guy who came onto a game recently and wanted to app repurpose an obscure character as a government agent whose job is to hunt down and murder members of the Irish center-left party, so, y'know.

If you want to make a 'beat up your political enemies' game, maybe don't use superhero characters for it. Just make an OC setting.

Very much this. I'm completely pro-AntiFa, and this pitch just looked needlessly divisive for the sake of 'realism'. For the record, I don't think this needed the 'extra layer' put on it. 'All the heroes are dead or missing, only Task Force X is left to save the day' is more than enough of a pitch to have gotten my interest.

For me, adding in the RL politics is just asking for trouble from trolls and disruptive players. It's setting up unneeded extra drama to the storyline that will absolutely spill over into OOC and doom the game itself.

New Anime....

BOFURI (aka 'I Don't Want To Get Hurt So I'll Put All My Points Into Defense')

Just started up January of this year; simulcast with Subtitles on Funimation's streaming site.

Maple is trying out her first VRMMO, New World Online. Her friend, Sally, isn't there to help her at the start due to having to study. Left to her own devices, Maple decides...'I Don't Want To Get Hurt So I'll Put All my points Into Defense'. And begins unintentionally breaking the game. She can't move fast with an Agility of 0, but she's an unstoppable tank that surives everything thrown at her. And she keeps getting skills and equipment drops that keep multiplying her unbreakable defense.

The game devs keep trying to nerf her...only for her to find some other combination of skills that cause a whole new set of problems for the devs. Quickly, Maple develops a fan base among the players who adore this sweet, unstoppable monster as the guild Maple and Sally form with other misfits starts rising through the ranks.

Sword Art Online with more moe and less 'why the Hell haven't they shut this game down already?"

Greetings, fellow Citizens.

The following info-vid is mandatory viewing for all Citizens. Failure to view and like the info-vid will lead to accusations of you being a Commie Mutant Traitor. And we wouldn't want that, would we?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5zdft7m_fM

@greenflashlight Yeah. Voyager was very much a show with lots of big ideas, but no long-term consequences. My prime example: in (IIRC) the first season, there was an episode where hey encounter a planet with technology that can cut the trip back home in half. The planet refuses to share the tech in a reversal of the 'Prime Directive' story hook. So, Tuvok steals the tech, for the benefit of the ship. Janeway gets upset and confronts Tuvok, saying 'I can never trust you again,' Next episode, it's like nothing happened. Tuvok has suffered no repercussions, no tension between him and Janeway, incident is never brought up again.

Also, "Year in Hell' was hyped as a major event with big repercussions; Everything back to normal at the end of the arc, nothing lasting.

Just announced at PlayStation Showcase...

Cinematic Trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aw9RaACjZmM&ab_channel=IGN

Getting back on topic...

Leverage: Redemption.

Almost the entire band is back together, and it's a thing of beauty. Then cast chemistry still sings, even with 2 new additions. The writing, pacing, humor, banter, and twists are all spot on.

8 episodes released so far, and it's great.

@Macha Pretty much. Either strictly Marvel, strictly DC, or strictly Original.

The other issue with going Marvel or DC is character history/interpretations. You're confined in what you can do with the character; if you go in a different direction, you can make the character less desirable to app for future players, or they have to ret-con your playing tenure, or lots of other dicey propositions.

With an OC, it's your character so do what you want.