Best posts made by Runescryer

@Selira said in The All-New Down With OPP Thread:

@Tirit How, exactly, do you think accusations of someone's bad behavior should be handled, as a community, then? Literally every community has some version of this -- grievances are redressed, the cause and scope of the grievances reviewed, and bad actors punished. Usually, it's public for very good reason.

So. Your option is that the title should have been '@Cinder Is A Creeper'? Just with no regard to if they're actually innocent or not? How is that any better than what I did? I'm accepting @ZombieGenesis'sdecision that the IP doesn't match up to his records, but there are things like free VPNs to hide your real IP, you know. Again, I accept and abide by the results of ZG's investigation.

Was my headline over-dramatic? Again, I'll accept the jury verdict on that. Was I trying to protect the identity of the accused and the game while the investigation takes it's course? Absolutely, although I understand why some see it as 'more secret sh!t...'

I tried to reach out in a spirit of community. There's obviously many in the community that aren't going to accept anything but 'MSB Admins Are The Enemy'. Fine; I'm sure there's many here that feel the same about BMD. I'm not one of those, though. If anything, I'm ambivalent about the split, now. Please tell the admins to delete my account there, since community unity seems to be off the table there and anything coming from any of us admins here is going to be disregarded or misinterpreted to further the divide.

@Thenomain said in Good or New Movies Review:

Edit: I just learned that Friday was International Women Day. I cannot for a moment believe the movie release date was a coincidence.

Nope. Just like Black Panther was deliberately released in February last year.

Not complaining or shaming, just recognizing that if you have specific events relating to a demographic that is tied to a movie you made, it makes sense to release the movie on or around that event.

@Thenomain said in High Fantasy:

@Runescryer

The most badass things the characters in LotR did were sacrifice and gathering help. The sacrifices were all notable, but they were notable to character development above other effects.

Very true.

The issue here is can you get people to play character focused challenges. There is a place for it that I’d like to play, for sure.

I think that there are players who can do that. They're in the minority of players, but they do exist. There's also games/settings like 'Blue Rose' where inter-character relationships are more of the focus than 'kill monster, loot, repeat'.

One of the old RPG System mechanics that I would love to bring back is the old DC Heroes 'Subplot' concept. When you created a character, you also wrote down a number of subplots for that character, including a sort of sketch outline of how each subplot can be resolved eventually. Every time your subplot gets advanced as part of the gaming session, in addition to fighting the threat, you got an extra XP reward. When your subplot was resolved, you wrote up a new subplot to take its place. I thought it was a great way to encourage character development and challenges unique to each character.

@Ghost said in Tyche Banned:

Tyche didnt really seem to have interest in interfacing with anyone constructively on the forum. He mostly just haunted political threads to ruffle feathers using superskeeeery alt-rightisms to watch people's reactions. Not surprised to see this, but ultimately I question why he wasted his time to begin with.

For the only reason that matters to people like that: personal lulz.

@Tirit Agreed.

But there's also something to be said about the damaging effect of 'Everything is Fine; Keep Smiling...'

LitRPG before there was LitRPG....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Record_of_Lodoss_War

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_Cards

@Arkandel said in High Fantasy:

@Runescryer said in High Fantasy:

@Ominous The big advantage to WoT is the same advantage of LotR: a wonderfully detailed and awesome world to play in.

The big downside to WoT is the same downside to LotR: All that detailed world-building was done to cater to a small group of characters who pretty much do every awesome thing possible, so there's nothing really for the players to do that could recapture that epic tale feeling you had when reading the series.

The only real option is to create an alt-universe, IMO

There are ways - and there have been games which took advantage of them - to get around the issue. The easy way is to set it in a different era; go back fifty years and go at it. Unless you want Tarmon Gaidon to happen within the MU*'s timeline you don't even have to worry about the prophecies, since they will eventually come true anyway, or you can have them be about something else.

On A Moment in Tyme we did something similar at some point - we thought plot was getting a bit stale so we created a What If? alternate timeline where Lews Therin Telamon wrestled control and took over Rand's mind at an early point, which basically meant we tossed the events in the books out and just did our own thing. @Seraphim73 might be better able to tell if that was successful or not since my perspective was from driving this, but I recall people having fun.

IMHO any game based on original material needs to unshackle itself from the exact events and characters as soon as possible. The focus needs to be on the PCs, not what the canonical protagonists are going to do; they can still be used for the cool factor now and then ("OMG I'M IN A ROOM WITH LUKE SKYWALKER OMG") but if it's overdone then that, too, becomes trite and loses its coolness factor.

As for WoT, it has a great magic system where both male and female characters have super amazing yet different things they can do, a complex and detailed magic system, built-in politics and a bunch of interesting NPC enemies you can have to spice things up with some paranoia as well as brute force.

For the most part, I agree with you on all that. However, in my experience, there's a good chunk of players, possibly even a majority of players, in RPG's who want to be the stars of the show, and if there's a more powerful/famous/better NPC, there will be complains as to why they can't be as powerful as or do the same things as Luke Skywalker/Superman/Rand al'Thor/whoever, even if it's an alternate timeline/universe game. And that's where the 'no' line has to start being used and some players start to toss complaints about Staff being a bunch of tyrannical Nazis engaging in favoritism, probably because they're TSing with a character who is tangentially related to the issue at hand.

To summarize the summary: people are a problem

So, this came across my Facebook feed today...

https://www.white-wolf.com/newsblog/a-message-from-white-wolf

Two big points...

One: We may have taken the whole 'monsters we must be lest monsters we become' thing a bit too far...

Two: The new WW won't be directly publishing or developing anything, anymore. It's all licensing and third party development/publishing.

@Selira said in The All-New Down With OPP Thread:

@Derp I'm not doing this again, there already are multiple threads, you've said what you're going to say on the subject and I've said what I'm going to say. I think you're complicit, you think you've done no wrong, that's not changing.

Which is the facade I mentioned. I don't believe that you came here in any sort of good faith discussion in mind. You're presenting 'I'm just concerned...' while stirring up sh!t.

Maybe you are here out of community concern, who knows. Like I said, the split was severe and there hasn't been time for healing. Maybe in the future, there's going to be a better effort at a detante, but now doesn't seem to be the time.

I pointed out my reasoning, you rejected that reasoning. Fine. You've said your peace and it's all been taken under advisement. I had the courtesy of disengaging from BMD when I saw this was becoming a battle over ideological principals. You guys are tired of all the secrecy, I get that. I was trying to accomidate the needs of the community as a whole against a person's right to privacy. Neither side is trusting of the other's motives at this point in time. I honestly hope that changes in time. My POV of you posting in a destructive capacity is every bit as founded and valid as your view that I enjoy 'Tee-Hee, I know a secret...', to use your phrasing. And, like pretty much everything in life, we're probably both a little wrong and a little right, here.

That's the difference I'm seeing, here. I'm willing to admit I'm wrong and can do better; and I can only show that I'm trying to do better through actions, which takes time. I haven't seen any admission from the others that they might have jumped to the wrong conclusions/taken the wrong actions. We can't read each others minds, so nobody truly knows the motivations of others; I'm open to admit that I could be in the wrong. Will you say that?

@Ghost said in The litRPG thread:

@Auspice said in The litRPG thread:

@Ghost said in The litRPG thread:

@Auspice said in The litRPG thread:

I actually have never watched/read Sword Art Online. >.>

It's all on Nertflerx. It's pretty good anime. Thousands of people stuck in an online VR game where death in-game means death for real...and they can't disconnect.

Sooooo.... Reskinned .hack?

Kinda, but I think SAO is better by far. I also like that they change games between seasons.

I love SAO, but the biggest disconnect for me is that each season, the dangers of the interface tech are exposed and explored, and PEOPLE STILL USE IT.......smdh

Also, if you didn't know, Excell Saga is sort of the sequel to SAO. Or SAO is the prequel to Excell Saga.

@tnp Dark Sun would require conversion of the Psionic rules, which I haven't seen yet. It would be fun to see, though.

To put in whatever my 2 cp is worth...

Dragonlance & Forgotten Realms: Popular, lots of lore already known by the playerbase, but needs to be rolled back to before everything went to poop (pre-Second Cataclysm for DL; pre 1372 for FR as mentioned above)

Ravenloft: Possible, with the recent rise of non-WoD horror games. Probably would have to have 1 Staff member dedicated to playing a Lord and running Events in their realm.

Greyhawk: Doable and not as already over-exposed as Dragonlance & Forgotten Realms

Mystara: The old Basic D&D setting; well documented with lots of published lore/splat.

Planescape: Widely popular and adaptable, centralized 'city' to use as a main gathering point for PC's

Spelljammer: Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes......Set up the Rock of Braal as a centerpoint of the game similar to Sigil/Waterdeep/Greyhawk. Plus ship combat and boarding actions. And abandoned Dwarven Fortresses. And, and, and....

Birthright: This would be awesome. The setting has a built in Political/Trade/Intrigue mechanism, a nice Mass Combat mini-game system, and combines a solid Lords & Ladies RP setting with classic D&D Adventuring. Also adds a bit more epicness (Bloodlines, Realm Magic) to D&D.

Original Setting: I don't think players would be too opposed, but learning the lore of a new setting can be a bit time consuming, IMO.

Just finished the main quest for PS4 Spider-Man.

This pretty much sums everything up.

@Selira said in The All-New Down With OPP Thread:

@Runescryer I came in here to respond to a specific post and then you went off on me. I responded to that, but I stirred no shit on this board initially.

I'm not a big fan of "both sides are a little right and a little wrong" dialogue. If I see proof that I'm wrong, I try hard to change on a dime, though. I will say I'm comfortable in a fire, but I sure wasn't trying to light one here.

I'm also not taking sides, this one was never about the boards to me, it really, really, really wasn't. It's clear two parts of this conversation are happening across both, and that's fine by me.

I also don't expect to be believed, and I'm not sure I'd believe me. So, you know, whatever.

See, I try to change too, as quickly as possible. But the fact remains that even if I change, even if you change, it's going to take time to establish that you're not following the same patterns again. There hasn't been time for that, yet.

As a question, this thread has gone far off the tracks in terms of the subject; should we close it and move the analysis and continuing convo to a new thread?

Done with The Witcher. Over, it was good. The time jumps made it hard to absorb the lore, for someone that's never played the game before. But, looks like that's not going to be an issue for Season 2. Jaskeir is now my Bardic ideal...

On to Season 2 of Lost In Space

Just a few ideas, fwtw.....

TORG: The relaunch by Ulisses Speil has been fantastic. Lots of condensing and streamlining the rules without loosing the original game's feel and unique dice/card action system. Lots of data-crunching, though, for the effects of the 100 or so cards in the game (3 different decks, 1 of which determines initiative in combat rounds and other effects; the other 2 decks are action boosts and a deck of cards with narrative effects specific to the Reality the adventure is taking place). Also, the invading Realities have had nice makeovers, fixing some issues and adding in new effects. The Living Land now also includes the possibility of 'Lost Worlds' popping up at random inside the realm. Nippon Tech has been renamed Pan-Pacifica and adds a 'Resident Evil' type virus to the high-tech corporate setting.

7th Sea: 1st Edition; the 2nd Edition has some problems with action and difficulty scaling and scales down Magic. Set it in Vodacce, in the capital of Numa, and you can hit all the main themes: Intrigue, Archaeology, Piracy.

Earthdawn: Solid game system and an interesting setting. Plus, the characters have a purpose beyond basically being murder hobos looking for Help Wanted ads in the local taverns.

Original Superhero Setting: This one is more cultural than a system issue. With Superhero games, almost everyone wants to play the Big Names, so I can understand why OC games like ChampionsMUSH and the old Four Color Comics (to name two) never really caught on, aside from any issues people may have had with staff (if those problems existed, I'm unaware of them)

@Thenomain said in Modiphius Games:

@Runescryer said in Modiphius Games:

@GamerNGeek Player running the scene acts as the GM for spending the negative points to preserve the mechanical flow.

Though this doesn't work for scenes that aren't "run".

Scenes that aren't 'run' would pretty much just be social scenes; no real rolls needed for coffee shop/kitchen table/Ten Forward talk. And if you do need to make an opposing roll (price haggling, bluffing, and such), the player opposing the roll acts as the GM to spend the negative points. If it's a scene where there's an investigation-type roll needed to further a TP, the player/Staff in charge of the TP does the GM work.

@Selira said in The All-New Down With OPP Thread:

@Runescryer I say this with as little bitchiness as I can: I'm not sure much more needs to be said about conflict between us, and there's still room in this thread for info and discussion about this situation, so I'm cool just leaving it here.

That's fine. I was just putting it out there for consideration by everyone.

Also, I should have indicated 'we' rather than 'you'; I didn't mean to imply that I was singling you out there in the 'it takes time to show you're not following the same patterns' comment.

Kraft Mac & Cheese (with hot dogs cut up)
Top Ramen
Instant Oatmeal
Chicken Noodle Soup
Chef Boyardee Ravioli
Hormel Chili
Hot Pockets

@apos Tabletop systems are designed for smaller groups, true. And this does need to be kept in mind for designing MU*s based off TT's. But, it can be done. What's required, IMO, is a dedicated staff, regular events, and a player base encouraged to participate or even run events. Looking at MUDStats, 2 of the top 20 MUDs by population/connections are WoD MUDs: City of Hope and Fallcoast. So, TT system games can be successful from a population standpoint, you just need a reason for players to log in.

Also, there is something to be said about game popularity or stability being measured by player satisfaction/enjoyment, rather than pure population numbers.

@fatefan That or possibly Rogue Trooper, since that's Duncan Jones' next film project.