Posts made by Runescryer

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.

@Scissors I've run MUSHClient off a work computer using a thumb drive. No instalation at work needed.

Jules Bass. Director of claymation holiday specials and The Hobbit.

https://deadline.com/2022/10/jules-bass-dead-rudolph-the-red-nosed-reindeer-rankin-bass-1235154588/

@faraday said in MUers in the news?:

@Derp said in MUers in the news?:

Racism. Is. Wrong. This is not an argument, this is a statement of principle.

100% agree.

But... some settings may have systemic prejudice. It's hard to skirt around in historical settings. Sexist gender roles in LoTR are pretty key to Eowyn's storyline. Shadowrun has its own form of racism (actual races, elves/dwarves/etc. not skin tone). Even a setting like BSG has oblique references to real-world ethnic discrimination.

All of these things are Wrong with a capital W, but that doesn't mean there should be a blanket prohibition against all Wrong things in storytelling.

I think it matters how it's handled. And I think there's a core difference between a world where you're injecting unnecessary prejudice based on your own assumptions/biases, and ones where the prejudice is more explicit in the setting.

I agree that how it's handled is a key part of the problem. Racism as a setting obstacle for players to overcome can be interesting. But, it has to be done right.

The problem I have with @Nymeria's approach is that it's forcing players that want to play non-white characters to justify that character's existence. To a degree that white characters don't have to meet. All characters need to fit into the setting, I also agree on that; you can't just spontaneously start playing a previously unknown heir to the Throne, for example. But it seems that the bar for entry is lower for white characters than non-white. At least when it comes to characters that have impact and influence.

Again, this is an issue that fantasy seems to have more than science fiction. But I remember the absolute sh!tfest that happened when Voyager premiered and people were loosing their minds over a black Vulcan. Now, Tuvok wouldn't get a raised eyebrow.

When you go back and examine 'classic' fantasy, it is extremely mono-cultural, based on historic ideas that we now know are incorrect. Just one historical example are the Norse/Vikings. They were more than just a geographically isolated ethnic group of Northern Europeans. The Norse had established trade with multiple Mediterranean cultures, including Arabic. Viking barrows have been found containing goods originating in the Arabian peninsula as well as bodies with Arabic DNA.

And adapting the source material to be more conscious of the biases of the era/author isn't some new 'millennial/SJW' thing. Robert E. Howard's original Conan stories were chock full of racism and misogyny that got cleaned out in the 1984 movie. Conan's Amazonian love interest Valeria was much different in the movie than in the stories, for example. In the stories, Valeria could kindly be described as 'spunky'; she wasn't the most effective fighter and had to be rescued by Conan multiple times to save her from her own plan. Similarly, all of the evil characters were non-white or savage 'primitives'' like the Picts. Even one of Conan's staunchest friends, Artus, who is Black, was treated with a certain amount of 'You're A Real Credit To Your Race' condescension. Those characters were modernized for the Schwarzenegger (Valeria) and Momoa (Artus) Conan films.

In closing, basing fantasy on any sort of 'historical' era invites in all the negative views and prejudices regarding that era, unless the author is open to adaptation. Example: There was a rather large outcry at The Gentleman Bastard Sequence over the introduction of a woman being the greatest pirate in that world, with readers calling it unrealistic and 'a woman can't be a pirate'. Then, author Scott Lynch unloaded on those complaints with the fact that the largest pirate fleet ever assembled on Earth (400 ships, 40,000-60,000 men) was under the command of Zheng Yi Sao, a woman.

So. Things 'are how they are' until we find evidence that no, they in fact were sometimes different than what we originally believed or assumed. With all that said. I believe @Nymeria has the right to run the game how they want to run it, even if I disagree with the premise. In reality, the idea of 'pure' canon never works out well and creates divisions, like we're seeing, about what is and isn't 'in canon'.

@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.

@Wretched said in MUers in the news?:

@Derp It /is/ the NYPOST after all.

MCU Headcannon tangent...

The Daily Bugle is the NYPOST using the NY Times' font & masthead

The Daily Bulletin is the NY Times using the NYPOST's font & masthead

We now return you to your regular thread discussion...

SPOLIER
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She-Hulk, Episode 8...
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LAST CHANCE TO BACK OUT...
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Matt's arrived. And it's been worth the wait.

Fantastic interaction between Matt & Jen. Both in and out of the courtroom. They are now my new shipping obsession.

Plus, the walk of shame Matt does after leaving Jen's apartment was hilarious.

Only criticism...

WTF wasn't the fact that Leapfrog used the wrong kind of fuel in his boot jets not discovered by Jen in her initial interview with him? I mean...that's just a basic question to ask before taking a product liability case, right? "Did You Follow The Operating Instructions?'...

Also, the 3rd Degree Burns exaggeration. My dude...you would not be out of the hospital, walking around, if you had suffered 3rd Degree Burns on your leg a few days/weeks ago... 2nd Degree is enough; 3rd Degree is charred flesh down to the bone.

@faraday said in 7th Sea with Ares?:

@Runescryer said in 7th Sea with Ares?:

Also, now that I think about it...It could just be a straight FS3 port, since the new edition is based on 'raises' of 10 instead of the Roll & Keep system. Change the names of attributes and skills to match the game, directly translate FS3 successes to Raises one-for-one...

The problem is that the "feel" of the game won't be the same because raises and successes aren't statistically comparable. Certain abilities might become overpowered, while others wouldn't work effectively.

You could certainly do swashbuckling in the 7th sea world with FS3 rules. That's similar to what The 8th Sea MUSH did, though they had the advantage of not trying to mimic 7th Sea's specific magic system. But trying to hybrid 7th Sea's rules using FS3 dice just isn't a recipe for success.

The 2e game mechanics are dramatically different from the 1e Roll & Keep. The new system is roll Attribute + Skill, but then arrange the dice in groups that add up to 10 or more. Each group is a 'Raise'. So, if you roll 7 dice and get (8,6,6,2,2,8,4). that would be 3 Raises (8+2, 8+2, 6+4; 6 left over). You then spend Raises to complete objective or avoid hazards in a round.

Stock Example: Your character is in a dining room, with a large table in the middle, overhung by a chandelier held up by a rope tied to a hook nearby. The rugs and hanging tapestries are engulfed in flame. There is a small desk near the door in the back, with several papers on it that are beginning to smolder. You need a raise to get across the room, two raises to avoid any damage from the flames (2 wounds total, 1 per raise), and one raise if you want to grab the papers on the way out the door. With the example roll of 3 Raises, you could either escape all damage but loose the papers, or escape with the papers but take 1 damage.

Basically, you're going to average 1 Raise for every 2 dice in the pool. I believe that FS3 averages out to 1 Hit/Success for every 2 points, as well? Or am I completely off on the mechanics?

Also, now that I think about it...It could just be a straight FS3 port, since the new edition is based on 'raises' of 10 instead of the Roll & Keep system. Change the names of attributes and skills to match the game, directly translate FS3 successes to Raises one-for-one...

...opinion and coding support on a game idea.

Okay. One of the versatilities of Ares that I just realized is the ability to simulate large amounts of area away from a centralized 'hub'. As in, it facilitates a game where you can have groups separated on quests/adventures far away from each other and the central 'hub' area. You don't have to include rooms for every town, territory, island, or ocean location.

So, with this in mind...by brain is pitching the idea of using Ares for a 7th Sea game.

Ideally, the game would keep the newer 2nd Edition dice system, rather than the 1e Roll + Keep.

Eventually...

In addition to a core Admin Staff, there would be Storytellers to run events, and a Staffer for each Nation and Society to coordinate the Metaplot & Events involving each.

In addition to being solo, players would be free to create their own groups & crews, taking part in story arcs like the Castillian Reconquista, The Montagne Rebellion, and the Avalon/Sidhe split.

No need for a massive grid.

Want to hunt Montaigne shipping? Go for it.

Want to start up a Vendel trading company? Cool.

Want to do Syrenth dungeon delving all over Thea? Perfect.

Any interest or opinions?

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

I do think that racism, sexism, and other levels of -isms, phobias, and general bigotry can be valuable to play about. Stories thrive on conflict, and flaws can drive character development, and all that writing and exploring tends to be why we play these games.

The problem is when these sorts of flaws are not actually accepted or portrayed as flaws by the player of the flawed character, and there is no path towards redemption, just a lot of giggling bigotry under the guise of intellectual exposition and/or pretendy funtimes.

In other words, what happened with WoD in general as time went on...

@Ganymede I'm still unsure on how the intraction of HBO, HBO Max, and WB/Discovery is working. The new CEO of WB/D seems to be taking a chainsaw to movie and streaming projects, but some people are saying this isn't going to affect HBO, just the streaming content on HBO Max...

@Derp Yeah. Netflix has fallen into the age-old trap of complacency after going from industry disruptor to industry status-quo.

So...

Neil Gaiman tweeted today that Netflix wasn't impressed by the streaming numbers for Sandman. Not because the viewership wasn't there, but because people were spreading out watching Season 1 rather than binging all at once.

There's no formal announcement yet, but I find Netflix's approach to be rather short-sighted. Streaming disrupted traditional TV viewing habits at first with the option for binging entire seasons in a single setting. But more recently, Disney+ and Hulu changed the viewing paradigm back to weekly installments, and streaming viewers have adjusted to that, once more. Netflix needs to adjust their expectations to the new reality of streaming TV...

@Ghost Regardless, I do understand the complaint of how I approached this. I still feel the need for secrecy and to respect the privacy of those involved. So, in the future, I won't mention any possibilities of who the person in question might be, but just a more general 'creeper' alert, advising players and Staff to be aware that there's potential creeper activity noticed on a game and that Staff of the game is investigating. No names, no details until they're okayed by Staff to be released upon completion of an investigation. No speculation of which bad actor might be returning...

Hopefully, this is an approach that is more acceptable to the community at large.

@ZombieGenesis Again, I apologize for my part in adding to the miscommunications and stress. Like i said, I'll be doing things differently in the future.

@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.

@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?

@reimesu And my point has always been that investigations need to happen unhindered, and @ZombieGenesis did that. But investigations also take time, which gives a bad actor time to entrench their position more. Like I was talking with @Thenomain the other day on MU Haven, there have been cases of financial fraud committed by bad actors in such positions, in addition to the emotional abuse.

NOTE: THIS IS NOT AN ACCUSATION OR INSINUATION OF WRONGDOING BY ANYONE, JUST A STATEMENT ABOUT WHAT HAS OCCURRED IN THE HOBBY'S PAST.

Again, it's part of the fundamental split that happened. A group got tired of what they saw as the secrecy here and split off. It's going to take time to regain common trust between the two groups that the other POV is the 'wrong' side.

@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?