Posts made by Runescryer

@The-Sands Fair point. It's been a year or so since I last looked at the setting material. My mistake.

@Jennkryst Well....I mean....technically, spaceships exist...but the only group that uses them are inbred space gypsy clans. Or the fascist-evangelical-space Nazis that consider cortical stacks to be shat straight from Satan's bunghole. 3D manufacturing is so cheap and prevalent, every habitat can make everything they need, so there's no real need for in-system commerce. Likewise, bio-printing new bodies is insanely cheap, so it's faster and more efficient to call ahead to a habitat, have them thaw out or print a sleeve, and then quantum-cast your consciousness into that body in a matter of minutes, rather than take a system ship that can take months or longer to get to where you want to go.

@Gnome said in Altered Carbon Style MUSH - Eclipse Phase 2e:

Uplifted Species might be put on the 'illegal' list for the most part

Totally understand. You probably also want to put neotenic sleeves on the 'banned' list as well. I mean, I agree with the in-game reason they exist (less resource consumption), but there's way too much ick potential there when you open the game to a bunch of internet randos.

For those not familiar with Eclipse Phase. You can be....

-An Infomorph (sentient program)
-An Uplifted animal like a dog, dolphin, ape, raven, or octopus
-An 'Infogee'; a stored personality that evacuated from the fall of Earth and has been in digital storage ever since. And you can finally afford a sleeve to come out of storage
-Other type of human

Your sleeves can be biological, mechanical, or a synthesis of both. Besides basic humanoid forms, there's:
-'Space Whales' that use magnetic shielding to hang out and chill in the sun's coronasphere
-Gliders that soar through the clouds of Venus
-'Swarmbots' made of clouds of interconnected micro-robots
-Gigantic cyborg coconut crab tanks

I'd be very much down for this game, and I have all of Eclipse Phase on PDF, aside from 2nd edition.

@Seamus I also like that most everyone, even in the opposing guilds is pretty chill. Sure, Payne (and most of Holy Sword, for that matter) may be an arrogant prick, but he gives respect and honor when it's due to Maple and her crew. The only character that I consider to be a greifer/a**hole would be Shin (Flame Emperors, does the split sword thing); and even then, he's really mild.

There's reasonable complaints from opponents that Maple is just way too OP, but no-one is taking to the Pub Channel (for instance) and having a total b**chfest about it, like what would happen in pretty much any online game. No-ones publicly calling for Maple to be banned for cheating or hacking, even the random scrubs that she's powered her way through in the events.

@Seamus And the thing is...

She's not even trying to break the game. She's a non-gamer that hasn't had exposure to how these games work before. She's the embodiment of the Gordian Knot solution; such a simple and obvious answer, you wonder why nobody's never tried it before.

Weapon dissolved? I EAT THE POISON DRAGON
I got a skill from doing this? I wonder if I do the same thing to another monster, I get a different skill?
I can't run, but I have a ranged intercept move I can use

It's not her fault that the game devs put in all this outrageous, stackable skills and abilities contingent on a player doing something no veteran game player would ever think of doing.

@Ominous Well, yes. For SAO. Then (almost) everyone got freed. Then came the second game; Aelfheim Online. By the same effing company. And then the third game, Gun Gale Online, and 'oh, we've fixed the system; no-one's going to die here....' And that's when the murders began.

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?"

@Rinel Fair enough. I was mistaken in that I thought Mardi Gras was in March. Not February.

Rest of my point still stands.

Okay. frustrated rant time.....you have been warned.

Nothing will change. At least, nothing in the United States will change. For maybe a few years, people will mimic behavior and pretend that a lesson from all this was learned. But then, just like every historical crisis the US has faced, it will all be forgotten and things will return back to the status quo. There will be no substantive changes in US politics, economics, or general behavior. Because we are the United States. We are the Chosen Ones. We are the Greatest Nation on Earth. We are, we are, we are....

And that is why we keep getting slapped around by stuff like this; that presumptuous arrogance that America Endures. That without America, humanity falls into chaos. That Our Way is the Only Way. The We are the Country of Destiny. And we don't think anyone or anything can touch us because we're so powerful. You can trace most of the great tragedies of the past century to either people or nature exploiting the blind spot that such general arrogance creates. Don't believe this? We're in the middle of a effing pandemic, and yet the two biggest parties in America, Mardi Gras and Spring Break, went on as planned. No quarantine, no Shelter In Place, no 'hey, maybe this isn't such a good idea, packing bodies together like that'.

Moreover, and this isn't a slam on all Christians or all Conservatives, people are outright ignoring the effing experts that spent almost a decade getting a degree in studying things like this, and have been watching and working against this kind of thing for multiple decades. 'It's a Deep State hoax'. 'God will save us'. 'It's not as bad as the actual flu'.

Time and again, we prove Isaac Asimov correct when he said: “Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'”

And more and more, Americans are putting not just the ignorant, but the proudly ignorant in charge. Because there's a considerable chunk of the US population that is proudly ignorant themselves.

Oh, people will talk once we get past the major infection and death curves. There will be movements towards 'change', but ultimately, it's all going to be in the past. 'It was a fluke'. 'It's never going to happen like that again'. 'It was a million to one happenstance and we'll be ready for it next time'.

And all the while, Fate will be keeping the pimp hand strong and ready to slap us again in a vain attempt to wake us up and realize the cold facts of reality.

@GamerNGeek , @Ganymede

Durrr....Sorry about that...

https://heroesassemble.mushhaven.com/index.php?title=Main_Page

heroesassemble.mushhaven.com port: 3000

Not on staff, but happily a player at the revived Heroes Assembled.

Re-opened the last weekend of February and we're at @800 logged scenes already. Also, the most number of active players for a supers game; 76 @ 10:30 PST tonight compared to UH with 27, according to MudStats.

Great place for comic book RP and a very welcoming home for people searching for a new place after the UH incident.

Motherland-Fort Salem

Hey, let's take an interesting AU premise (magic is real and the Salem Witches fought back and won...) and turn the interesting premise into Christian Fundamental Theocracy with Sprinkles (Magic)!

I noped out of there in 5 minutes once they tried passing off Christian Faith Healing as Witchcraft.

Just to follow up...

I think that having a 'Theme' entry on the game's wiki would be helpful (I didn't see one when I checked). But, Make up a list of things that you consider to be 'in theme' or capture's the theme of the game, that players can read or view to manage their expectations of what to find.

Just some examples...

-Several of the Fleischer Studios Superman cartoons are on YouTube
-Ditto for The Shadow radio shows
-Graphic Novels and limited series like JLA: Age of Wonder and Spider-Man: Noir
-Films like The Shadow, The Phantom, Dick Tracy
-Even 'modern' series like Batman: The Animated Series or Defenders of the Earth.

Describe some thematic tropes, like
"The Weed Of Crime Bears Bitter Fruit"-Criminals tend to get what's coming to them, whether it's jail or death
"If Only You Used That Intellect For Good"-Many of the villains the heroes faced were disgruntled or disillusioned scientists
Black & White; no Grey Areas: Good is good, evil is evil. And Good Stopping evil with a firearm isn't as 'grey' as modern times.

And, make sure you emphasize that Heroes in the 30's were very different than their modern interpretations. Batman not only used a gun, he had no qualms about killing criminals to prevent more innocent deaths or the criminal escaping justice. Noir Spider-Man is not the wise-cracking Peter Parker we're familiar with, but a cynical investigative reporter that's dealt with betrayal at almost every turn; also, instead of 'With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility' Uncle Ben taught Noir Peter 'If there is too much power, then it is the responsibility of the people to take it away.', a message very on point for the era.

@Mr-Johnson You and I have talked about the theme elsewhere, and I still say you should stick with it. For others following the thread, here's some of my points I've made to Mr. J...

-Niche appeal. And this isn't a bad thing; it's just a reality. I'd love to see a Victorian-age Supers MU, or a Wild West Supers MU molded off limited series like DC's Justice Riders or Marvel's 1885. The fact is, alternate time periods are just not going to have the same appeal as modern settings.

-Difficulty in translation. The 1930's may have been the start of the Golden Age of comics, but relatively few characters have survived up to this point, much less remembered. Most characters that people are familiar with don't have any ties to that time period that can be referenced. And this goes beyond toning down some characters to fit a Golden Age setting; look at the change in costumes for female characters like Wonder Woman, from when she first appeared in 1941 to the most well-known modern incarnations of her costume. The 'public' of the setting would scandalized if female characters wore what passes for a modern costume.

Like I said, it's worthwhile, and I encourage @Mr-Johnson to keep at it. However, I also agree that there might be a need for more 'refinement' or 'details' to the setting. Just in example, in the 1930's, popular characters that would be deemed appropriate for 4T's setting would include Superman, Batman, The Green Hornet, Dick Tracy, The Lone Ranger, The Shadow, The Phantom, Mandrake The Magician, Doc Savage, and Captain Marvel/Shazam. That's a huge range of themes, types, and 'flavors' of characters, some of which are conflicting. Sometimes, things will mesh well, Dick Tracy's rogue's gallery would fit in with Gotham's colorful criminals style wise, but other conflicts will appear; the grim avenger of the night Batman killing criminals with the gun that killed his parents vs. Dick Tracy's two-fisted, square-jawed, four-color punch-outs.

Also, remember that there wasn't even a connected 'DC Universe' at that time. Batman and Superman were both published separately, without any interaction, even though both Action Comics and Detective Comics were printed by National Comics (the forerunner to DC). They were seen as incompatible; a gritty crime drama with dramatic elements versus an adventure fantasy. In fact, Two-Face's original name was Harvey 'Apollo' Kent, a subtle dig by Bob Kane and Bill Finger at the seeming 'perfectness' of Superman. So, most creations of that time period are not designed to interact with a 'larger' world.

Like I said: keep at it, keep refining the concept, and don't give up. But just realize the difficulty that this particular historical setting provides for a lot of aspects of character creation and RP.

@Apollonius They did, but they've been slammed with TORG, in terms of employee focus. They just finished delivery last month of the third of the 7 Cosms for the game, making 4 out of a possible 8 Kickstarters complete over 2-3 years for them. From what I understand, TORG is the 'golden child' for the owner of Ulisses; as the original WEG game was winding down production, he talked to the game's creator, Greg Gorden, about the future for TORG, and said that once he gets rich, he was going to buy the license and put the game back in production. Guy went on to become a muti-millionaire in the German telecommunications industry, bought Ulisses-Spiel, then bought the TORG license.

So, yeah, Fading Suns is developing slowly, but I'm pretty sure the quality is going to be fantastic when it comes out. They kept the basic mechanics of TORG while eliminating almost all of the problematic mechanics and creating a fantastic, flixible character generation system that works will all the various Cosms. Don't be surprised if the new Fading Suns will feel familiar, but be a lot better playing.

New edition of the game coming soon from Ulisses Spiel, German RPG company that published 'The Dark Eye' (Germany's version of D&D, since TSR never acquired German rights), whose North American branch has the rights to the 40K license and is responsible for the TORG revival.

Kickstarter begins March 24th.

https://www.ulisses-us.com/i-spy-with-my-imperial-eye/

So, I'm not a part of the staff and this isn't an official advertisement or anything. I played on FCC for a while a bit before the closure (power armor character named Centurion), and I just discovered that the game is getting sort of revived/rebooted as a Living Campaign on Roll20 & Discord. So, just a call out to the other players and something to let them know about the new version.

http://fourcolorcomix.wikidot.com/start

@Ganymede I think of it as Pessimism vs. Optimism.

Cyberpunk is pessimistic by nature. Humans are greedy and amoral as a rule. You have to 'do it to the other guy before they do it to you'. Corporations are the ultimate expression of the amoral and greedy nature of humanity.

Transhumanism is optimistic by nature. Humans are just humans, with good and bad, although most people are basically cooperative and semi-altruistic. Corporations are profit-motivated, but not to the extreme amorality of Cyberpunk corps; and those that are tend to be the bad guys.

Which brings me to another defining feature of Cyberpunk vs. Transhumanism: who exploits your tech for whom's benefit? In transhumanism, you exploit the tech you use for your benefit and personal advancement. In cyberpunk, those in power exploit your tech for their own benefit. Using cybereyes as an example. In a transhumanist setting, cybereyes just give you corrected or enhanced vision; nothing more. In cyberpunk, cybereyes also give you enhanced vision, but also act as a doorway for corporations via constant news & advertising feeds in the bottom of your field of vision, not to mention turning you into a roving surveillance camera that the manufacturer has backdoor access to.