Posts made by Runescryer

Animaniacs, Season 2! Now on Hulu.

It's glorious....

Haven't gotten to the return of Dr. Scratchunsniff yet

Alright. Third and final tale of being on the Retail Front Lines...

At one point, I was an assistant manager at a pet food and supply store in the Piedmont District of Oakland.

Now, first off, for folks not from the Bay Area...whatever you might think of Oakland, it's more than likely wrong. Hey, I was guilty of a lot of misconceptions as well when I first moved there. Anyways, The Piedmont is in the Oakland Hills, and is home to lots of local celebrities, as well as TV and Movie actors. Not going to go into the list, but we did serve several clients you probably would have heard of. Bottom line: it's a very rich area.

Anyways, Thanksgiving week rolled around. We did a healthy business. Normally, we did a weekly cash drop on Thursdays, keeping the week's profits in the office safe. But, banks are closed on Thanksgiving, which is Thursday. So, the plan was to drop the cash on Friday instead. I was in charge of the short shift we had on Thanksgiving Day, it was a half-day for us, did the sroe closing, locked the money in the safe, locked the office, set the alarm, locked up the store, and headed home for Turkey Day dinner. As you do.

I wasn't scheduled for Friday, so I was kind of surprised to be getting a phone call from work, before the store was open. It was the store manager, and she was in a panic. "I need you down here, fast. We had break in last night!"

I get myself to the store. Talk with the manager. Assure her that I set the alarm last night. Then, I get walked through the scene while we were waiting for Oakland PD to arrive...

The store was in a strip mall, with mostly display windows for walls. To one side of the main structure were the double doors leading to our storage/recieving area. What the thieves had done was break one of the display windows near the bottom. Then, they had to push out of the way about 400 lbs of dry cat food bags that were on the rack in front of the window. Okay... They're in. They went through the double swing doors leading to the storage area, and have the Office directly on their left. It's locked. But, the door had a security window in it. They look around for a hammer or something to knock out the window. They settle on using a 40 oz can of dog food as an improvised hammer. Access to the office gained. There's the safe in the corner. The several hundred pound, iron safe with the combination they don't know. But! That doesn't deter them. No, they bring one of our freight dollys into the office, load the safe on the dolly, wheel it out through the loading doors, and drive off with the safe. All told, I think there was @$14,000 in cash from the week, plus things like gift certificates (we hadn't switched to swipe cards yet).

Now, here's were things take a turn into WTF-land...

OPD finally shows up. They call in an investigation unit, take statement, all the basics. It's confirmed with the alarm company that I did, in fact, set the alarm last night. Which is strange, because the stirp mall has an on-site security patrol presence at night. Now. OPD also has another break-in at the strip mall to investigate from last night; the upscale bistro there was broken in and the register was taken with about $3000 in cash. The intruders also helped themselves to the Bistro's wine selection drinking and smashing more in damages than the cash loss. The security guards, who were about 50 yards down the hill in their car in a depressed parking area, so they had no direct LOS to the mall, claimed they never got an alert or observed anything happening. AFIAK, they were never charged in connection with the robbery, so they were just sleeping on the job.

Our company's security chief arrives with what security recordings from the store floor they had of the intruders (company was a local chain with headquarters in the Bay Area; everything was extremely localized). I talk with him and the OPD detectives assigned to the incident. We get a clearer picture of how the thieves gained access. This goes on for a couple hours. At one point, the detectives get a call. California Highway Patrol had found the safe.

On one of the nearby freeways. At the bottom of an overpass. Busted open and emptied.

Camera footage from the overpass was pulled. They got an image of the truck and license plate. The footage also showed the truck stopping on the overpass, and the thieves pushing the safe out to send it crashing to the road below. Truck leaves. Returns a few minutes later to the same spot. Thieves get out, push the safe that they had retrieved because it hadn't broken open with that fall, back over the overpass again. Second time's the charm for them.

I am still in awe of the sheer determination showed by these morons in regards to that robbery. In addition to the absolute metric farkton of luck they had in puling it off and not getting caught in the act.

But we're not done yet, boys and girls...

Remember I had mentioned that there were gift certificates in the safe? Well, the gift certificate were actually write-in voucher receipts, where the manager would write in the name and amount on the top copy, and there would be a yellow carbon copy underneath. These receipts all had 'serial numbers' at the bottom edge. So, we knew that a range of gift certificates had been taken; 10001-10100, for example.

A few months after the robbery, someone came into the store with a gift certificate with a number in the range that was stolen.

Yeah. People be that brazen.

I was on duty, called it into our Security officer. Nothing could be done besides refuse the GC as 'invalid'. There was some protest, but I remained firm and they gae up rather quickly when they realized the jig was up for them.

And, I'm spent with my Retail Hell stories.

Story Number two, in escalating retail dumbfarkery...

Used to work for a local Sears in their hardware department. Now, for those that don't know, Sears had the Craftsman tool line, with the hand tools (non-powered) having a lifetime guarantee. Craftsman hand tool breaks, bring it into a Sears store and exchange it for a new one. That's the way it was for 100 years, seriously.

Anyways, because people always try to game a system, there were 'recyclers', who would go around job sites, find broken tools that has been lost or discarded, bring them in to get replacements under the warranty, then sell the new tools at flea markets.

At first, this wasn't really a huge problem. The company just put it down as a cost of doing business. But, when I started at Sears, we had this local guy that would come in every few months with a pair of 5 gallon buckets filled with broken tools for exchange. Mostly sockets and ratchets. Whoever had to deal with him was stuck for at least an hour, sorting through the tools, sifting out was wasn't under warranty due to rust or obvious abuse, then getting the replacements and ringing the whole exchange up.

Well, about a year or so into my tenure, corporate had decided they'd had their fill of guys like this. So, there was a wording change in the warranty: we no longer had to give a new tool in exchange, but instead gave out refurbished tools. Now, this didn't cause as much outrage among the customer base as you might expect. Because we were now refurbishing ratchets from the 1950's with new mechanical part, which the collectors were very excited about. What it did do is piss off the recyclers. And boy, was our local guy mad when we told him.

Dude threw an absolute fit in the store, yelling and swearing at us. Not acting aggressive enough for security to get involved, but he was really close to the line. So. He dumped his bucket of tools on the counter. Went through them with me one by one, slamming each one down and snearing 'How about this one? Do I get a new tool?'

That was just an hour of pure retail schadenfreude.

Okay, first story. Short and sweet. Well, not exactly sweet...

I worked at a Borders bookstore in the local mall, back in the mid-90's. The store had a Kid's Section, mostly the pre-Kindergarten and Dr. Seuss sort of books. One day, the manager on duty asks me to go clean up the Kid's Section. Nothing unusual about that since the area was frequented by soccer moms bringing in their toddlers for a break from mall cruising.

I get there and start re-shelving books. And then, I see it. A white plastic fabric package, neatly folded, lying on the floor...

Someone had changed their baby's diaper, in the Kid's Section, and just left it on the floor.

Nothing for me to do about it besides break out the cleaning gloves and trash bag from the employee restroom in the store and dispose of it. Also, closed off the Children's section and used about half a bottle of disinfectant on the carpet there.

More retail stories, coming...

@derp said in Dune:

@greenflashlight said in Dune:

I plan to find to a copy to see if I actually hate it as much as I remember hating it back when I was a kid. Take that for all it's worth.

I think, after having read it again not that long ago, that if I had read it as a kid? I would hate it too.

It takes a minimum amount of very specific life experiences to appreciate some of the themes in that book. Feeling trapped in relationships with people you don't love, the sheer legwork it takes to seed those kinds of mythos over centuries, over planets, the very real feeling of doing something that you don't want to do, that scares the bejeesus out of you, for the sake of your family because a power greater than you wills it for no particular reason...

The cultural clashes of the fremen, the love-hate of Atreides and Harkonnen with Jessica and Leto / others later.

Like -- as a teen/child there is simply no way that you have the necessary life experience to appreciate just where the adults in that book are coming from, or where this teenager is going.

Yeah, that's pretty much my experience as well. I was 12 when the Lynch film came out and read the book. I kind of got the gist of the book, but the big discrepancies between the movie and the book, especially with the Weirding Way, sort of muddled thing up. It was the first 'heavy' sci-fi I'd managed to get through, or fantasy for that matter. ADHD/Hyperactive/borderline Ausistic, so I really couldn't focus on the 'deep' stuff for long before switching to something new. I didn't get through Lord of the Rings until college.

I keep coming back to Asimov's quote about anti-intellectualism and 'the false notion that Democracy means my ignorance is just as valid as your knowledge'. And Sagan's 'Death of Expertise'.

Information is now so freely available and accessible like never before. And the biggest problem, IMO, with the algorithm nature of searching for that information is that it generally leads towards sources that are biased to a particular point of view, based on your search history. Society has information, but no general training in how to analyze or contextualize it.

Example: Science.

The general public isn't trained in the process of the Scientific Method, much less the actual science. There's no aware ness of the final steps in 'science': publish results in a peer reviewed format and peer replication of the results. If no-one else can reproduce your results following the same procedures you outlined, it's not an actual 'fact' yet; just a result that invites further investigation. Example: all the attempts at cold fusion over the decades that have been non-replicatable. Further, there are 'science journals' that are deliberately biased towards certain conclusions. Like 'medical' journals funded by anti-abortioinists that publish all the BS like 'fetal heartbeat at 6 weeks' propaganda.

We have more information freely available to humanity than ever before. But it's just as important that we know how to understand the information presented to us. How to separate out the facts from the opinions that are presented as 'facts'.

@misadventure

So let me start this off by stating that I am aware that this post/point could be, and probably is, coming from a position of Privilege.

With that said...As much as we want to avoid it IRL, Conflict creates Drama, and Drama is what drives the swashbuckling genre. Now, let's set aside the Crescent Empire and Cathay for the moment and solely focus on Thea...

IMO, 7h Sea did a decent job of stripping away the negative conflict between the Nations (i.e. racism/tribalism) and focused purely on the actual political and religious sources of conflict. Castillians don't hate Montaigne just because they're 'French'; they hate Montaigne because they invaded Castille, are lead by a king that openly mocks and oppresses their religion, and other (valid) reasons that have nothing to do with pure tribal rivalry. Similarly, the Vesten loathe their Vendel cousins because the Vendel are committing sacrilege and harming their ancestors with all this renaming of places. Conversely, the Vendel first broke away because the Vesten Jarls were utter d*cks to the farmers that became the middle class, so had minimal investment in a society centered around raiding by a noble class.

The main area of Conflict in 7th Sea that I think is the most problematic is the Vodacce suppression of the Fate Witches. Even then, there is a certain 'maintaining the status quo' logic that makes sense in the setting. I emphasized that because I think this is the key point: separating conduct and 'standards' in the setting from the same in Real Life. The Conflicts in the game are not simply arbitrary.

Again, just my opinion and more than likely coming from a place of Privilege, but I think that something gets lost when only the problematic is focused on. This isn't to say that problematic things shouldn't be identified and called out, or even 'it's only a game...'; the bigger conversation that I don't see often enough is about the potential to change the game world. I'm not talking about a GM altering the canon setting to fit their tableplay and everyone's comfort (which I do endorse). I mean the GM enabling the Players to be agents of positive change in the world.

7th Sea, in particular, is just exploding with the possibility for change. Yeah, the extreme classism of the Montaigne nobility is highly problematic; have the PC's join the Rilasciare and work to overthrow the Nobility and hopefully prevent the Terror that followed the historical events in France. Yes, the Vodacce suppression of women with sorcery is disgusting and wrong; sign up with Sophia's Daughters and start smuggling those women and girls to safety. The setting and the system are set up to let the PC's be the world-changing Big Damn Heroes, if that's what everyone wants. So let them be the BDH's of Thea.

Make the 'ism's work to give the Players things to fight against. Just from my experience, it's far more interesting, satisfying, and cathartic than just steamrolling though another mob of CE Humanoids or stock evil cutouts from central casting.

@faraday said in Games:

and this thread is already probably veering too far off topic.

/It's okay, Ray. The table broke the fall...

So, like I've mentioned before, Birthright was the final campaign setting released for 2nd Edition, AD&D. So, it's ready to go right out of the box with 2e.

There was a semi-official attempt at a conversion to 3e, so it also exists there. Personally, I like the greater depth on character development that 3.X has over 2e, and that transfers over to Pathfinder 1e. Pathfinder has the edge for the fix to the Skill system. And all the base clases would fit the setting, nothing beyond the core book.

Given the opposition, 5e won't be a considered option.

I'll probably start working on a 'Game Bible' this weekend.

@faraday So, I am a huge fan of Ares; the web integration and focus on scene/narrative in the code is amazing. I've been MUing long enough to remember when everyone was flipping out over how revolutionary +multidesc code was. And Ares is a quantum leap for the hobby. My only issue, and this is just my opinion, is that while FS3 is perfect for a rules light narrative setting, it breaks down in settings where there's a great deal of emphasis on special abilities (supers, high fantasy).

@misadventure Never found a straight up 5e or d20 supers system that works for me. They're far too limiting in terms of character creation/development for the genre.

Alternatively...how do people feel about 3.5 or Pathfinder 1e? There are conversion rules for 3e, to lessen the workload.

@misadventure There's something sort of like that in Birthright. They're called Awnsheghlien and Erhsheglien; 'Blood of Darkness' and 'Blood of Light'

Yeah, can you tell that the setting is heavily influenced by Celtic/Welsh mythology yet?

Anyways, these are mostly NPC's. Awnsheghlien are the Big Bads of the setting, Humanoids or beasts so corrupted by the blood of the dark God Azrai that they have monstrous forms. You don't fight a gorgon; you fight The Gorgon. Each one has their own Domains, so it's sort of like the Dark Lords in Ravenloft, only toned down somewhat.

Conversely, Erhsheghlien are animals or humanoids with strong bloodlines of the various Gods of Light; usually the blood of Anduiras (God of Justice) or Reynir (God of Nature). They tend to be the Gandalf or Fizzban of the setting; wanderers that can lend an adventuring party a hand or be the DM's deus ex machina from time to time.

Technically, these Bloodlines can be/are passed on, or can be absorbed like any other Bloodline.

The more this thread goes on, the more I'm tempted to try and get a MU started. Just need to find a coder that knows how to code 5e into a MUSHCode like Penn or (hopefully) Ares...

@pacha said in Alternative Lords & Ladies Settings:

@misadventure

Yeah, I mean, in the historical example I gave that is what happened. It was very common in ancient Rome. I just find it odd that we can accept dragons and magic and sentient animals but adoption is the thing that breaks immersion.

Passing a title on to a successor does sometime occur in the Birthright setting. It's most common for inheritance of a Province/Domain to be passed down to a blood heir, but there are times where the inheritance is passed, willingly or unwillingly, to someone not relatedby blood. One example is the Domain of Illen, basically no more than a city on an islet rule by a wizard that passes the rulership down to their apprentice. That's the simple explanation, without going into the additional mechanics of the setting. But you can also do things like conquer a Domain, capturing the ruler and their family and threaten the ruler to kill their family unless they agree to undergo the ritual to transfer the rulership to you.

@jennkryst said in Alternative Lords & Ladies Settings:

You could always go FULL BATTLETECH CLANNER about babies, but that might be a little too... eugenics-y.

A 'little'?

@misadventure said in Alternative Lords & Ladies Settings:

@pacha Too far for me. At that point, you may as well just make the next generation by nomination, or merit, unless the parents are supposed to play a major role in training so as to pass on their expertise (as opposed to just raising someone in privilege and hoping they have the personality to become good at whatever is used to determine merit for leadership).

Thats just me.

If you take out the family aspects to any major degree you may as well switch to Guilds or Corporations as your model.

New idea: Cyberpunk L&L

@ganymede True, but a bit of further planning can eliminate that.

@ganymede Or, Dark Sun Character Tree route...

You can have up to X number of characters, but only 1 can be active (earning XP/Prestige/GP/Resources) at any one time at 'normal' rate; your other alts earn at a fraction of what your active alt earns.

Anyways, back to the topic at hand L&L settings. Apologies for starting us on that tangent....

Again, I'm going to put forth the AD&D 2e Birthright setting. PC's are/can be Blooded Scions, inheritors of a Divine Bloodline that gives them special abilities as well as connect them to the land. It's not the standard AD&D murderhobo campaign. It's focused around politics, intrigue, empire building, strategic combat maneuvering, a bit of traditional dungeon delving...

And a pinch of hunting down other Blooded Scions, killing them, and sucking out their divine power to increase your own, Highlander style.

Several 5e homebrew conversion rules are available. Minor tweeks needed to overcome the communication/travel distances between the central 'Imperial City' and the scattered home provinces the PC's are in charge of. Other than that, this has a fantastic amount of potential.I've always thought tht Birthright was a concept ahead of it's time, just missing out by 10 years on the social media revolution that would have really made this setting shine.

@il-volpe In general...yes. absolutely. perfect. Everyone mind their own fracking business.

In practice, though....

Again, this is just me voicing my experience in MUSHdom for 20+ years, whatever that may be worth. YMMV.

It's the same problem that happens in any game where TS can happen, even if it's supposed to be 'on the sly'. It's not so much the norms minding their own business that's the issue. It's the TSers who need to brag about their latest exploits and flaunt it who are the issue. Granted, sometimes it's a Monty Python 'Nudge, Nudge, Say No More, eh?' kind of flaunting. But there are times that players can't just keep things that should be private, private. And that sets collapses in motion. At this time, I'd like to enter into evidence Defense Exhibit #1: Hero's Dreaming.

Four words: Open Teen Superhuman Pedophilia

I mean, other than that, it was a great mixed universe supers game. Hell, it wouldn't have even mattered if the PLAYERS AND STAFF HADN'T BEEN SO EFFING OPEN ABOUT IT.

I rest my case.

To mirror what @Songtress posted, yeah, I'd be down for a Blue Rose AGE. It hs a lot of advantages over the standard L&L game.

-Structured purpose for the characters: Everyone is working for the benefit and protection of the Kingdom

-Egalitarian Nobility: Nobles are ennobled because of their convictions and commitments to the betterment of the Kingdom, rather than strictly through blood. You have reasonable upwards mobility.

-Diversity of orientations. Blue Rose is made for a diversity of character genders & orientations. Everyone is accepted based on their actions, instead of their sex or how they express themselves. AGE also added in the possibility for trans characters. Dark secrets about the 'real' you can be fun, but they also can become a burden in some games. that becomes overbearing t deal with.

The only caveat would have in regards to a Blue Rose game would be around the Rhydians; intelligent animals that hace the same status and capability as people in the Kingdom. Yes, you can play a wolf, horse, or large cat (about bobcat size) that is intelligent, has telepathy, and can bond with a humanoid. It's really Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar with the serial numbers filed off. I have no issues at all with this.

The problem is...this is MUSH-dom. You're going to get players that want to 'explore' the bonding between a humanoid and a Rhydian, not to be crude about it. All I'm saying is that the staff policing needed to keep the game from becoming ZoophiliaMUSH, might be more hassle than the setting is worth.