Best posts made by saosmash

I like to write roster characters for a number of reasons, but one of the things that brings me the greatest joy is when stuff I wrote grows and builds. It feels like an act of collaboration. Many eons ago, I wrote a couple of characters with a strong relationship as part of a "set". I don't always write "sets" of characters for the roster because honestly it tends to make them harder "sells" -- just because people like characters where they can define things for themselves, and having strong relationships with other roster characters places a player in a position where they're hoping for a win in the roster "lottery".

Anyway, this post is about a couple of players who picked up a couple of characters I wrote, who have played them beautifully for like IDK years, and today there was a birth announcement on Arx where one of them named her child after the other one in a slightly punny way, and I'm just really happy about it, OK.

iluguys. Thank you for breathing dynamic life into stuff I made up a million years ago and making it your own.

Yeah uh I've definitely heard assertions that I am playing some kind of gay fetish character and I found them pretty depressing considering I haven't even had any sex on the character in yeeaaars.

It definitely happens that players do this and that there are many awful fetish caricatures out there -- but it also happens that it is weaponized as a critique, particularly against players who aren't doing what you want, I guess.

Got a scene in this morning. There was a really fun moment in it that warmed the cockles of my black little heart. Just a highly relatable thing that the person I was RPing with posed and I just. UGH. IT WAS SO CUTE.

I think... I think I have remembered how to RP every day? Maybe? Possibly?

@lotherio The new "code of conduct" appears to be a result of review. It appears to be a result of review that fails to address several of the issues, continues to insist on all complaints being in private, and doubles down on the initial flawed ban (while appearing to say you can just block people you don't want to talk to -- but you still can't block Derp, which was high on the list of reasons I had concerns about the initial elevation).

It is not reasonable to demand silence while continuing to speak.

I think you need to look into the definition of your terms. For example, dictionary citations:

Bully (verb form): "seek to harm, intimidate, or coerce (someone perceived as vulnerable)."

You can't bully someone who is in authority over you.

Clique (noun): a small group of people, with shared interests or other features in common, who spend time together and do not readily allow others to join them.

The exclusivity is part of the definition.

I have been holding my tongue here because that has been the request. I have little interest in continuing to participate in a version of this community that does not course correct, but I have continued to wait and observe. What I have observed so far has not heartened me.

RL things of today I love:

Cats that love pets so much they stand up or jump to get to the hand.

Being on the same rp or character building wavelength with someone else is the greatest feeling. Esp if it's someone new or new to you.

Finally got my assessment rescheduled. For May. Apparently the person who wasn't rescheduling me no longer works there.

Meanwhile I just get to keep coping shittily til mid May. Also I had to cancel my mental health therapy appt because of a shelter care hearing and now I have to go to a GP appt after my hearings this afternoon because the rest of my body has decided to rebel in addition to my brain.

I want to go back to bed.

I mean ... why not just make a rule against squatting and then enforce it? No need to turn character retention into something to politic over. Yes, you do need competent player management staff but I think games need that anyways.

You do have to actually enforce your squatting rule but this is not an insurmountable obstacle.

Nurses leaving because they refuse to get vaccinated breaks my heart in two. I honestly struggle to even comprehend it. I'm so sorry that this situation exists and that it is weighing on you.

I've had at least one social worker quit over the state vaccine mandate here, and it's thrown some things into a bit of chaos, but we're not... you know, medical professionals. I'm not religious and rarely pray but I thanked G-d for science and human ingenuity when the vaccines came out. I thought it was the beginning of the end of this hideous mess.

Should never, ever, ever have become a politically divisive issue in the first place.

I love GMing for people who are clearly just having FUN.

I'm really genuinely confused about what this argument even is anymore.

When people can't use toys without behaving like snotty children on a playground, it's perfectly reasonable for toys to be taken away. Honestly, I'm glad condemns aren't there. I've had impulses that could have led to unfun things for someone else if I had that ready, anonymous way to be mean to someone who irritated me. It helps me be a better person that I can't do that. I consider myself a pretty empathetic person and there've been moments I could've used that anonymity to be a shithead to someone. If that's me, I'm pretty sure it's most people.

I mean, not that Aureth is particularly shy about telling people when he thinks they suck. But at least when he does that, he's open to being responded to and if he's gonna be nasty the person in question can fight back. You can't fight back against 40 people all being like "you suck" anonymously in the privacy of their own rooms where no one can react to their shit.

@tinuviel I mean if they aren't shoving their tears at me or other people, I don't mind if they want to have a cry somewhere. Just so long as it isn't being used as a weapon against others.

I had a really good scene this week, and it is a week that has been otherwise shitty in a variety of RL ways, so now I am looking back on that really good scene and feeling good about it. Thank you, RP partner, for giving me a really good scene that had surprising depth and meat.

Manic pixie dreamgirls are everywhere. They are not always played by men, either.

Like, I've literally been doing this for 20 years and have consistently been able to have sex RP with sane partners who didn't get weird OOC about it, but to pretend it is impossible for people to RP sexually themed stuff without being weird OOC is every bit as absurd as you are attempting to cast this entire argument as.

No one is pretending this doesn't happen. Literally no one. To pretend that is the argument is to create a laughable strawman you can tear down, to which I have to say only this:

The point was the issue is the shitty behavior from people behaving shittily is what should be addressed, not the theoretical position where shitty behavior could potentially arise but also potentially not arise.

While I recognize the rational position from which a blanket ban on NPC sexytimes is based, I believe this hobby as a whole has a problem with creating standards that are based on the worst behaviors we want to prevent rather than creating standards based on good behaviors we want to foster. If we, as a community, were better at recognizing and excising the leaking pustules of humanity that ooze their bodily fluids all over the barrel when they first begin to stink, rather than giving their toxicity time to spread, we would have no need for blanket bans on this kind of conduct.

@Caryatid said in Difference between an NPC and a Staff PC?:

I hate the extremes we fall into in discussions here. I hate that the distinction becomes "those who get NPC time and plot shenanigans are more fun to play with!" and "those who don't are boring and if they complain they're jealous".

Ugh. This thread. U g h.

One of the reasons I upvoted this is because like--

It really ISN'T that clear cut. Sometimes you don't get a lot of NPC time because you're too paralyzingly nervous to put yourself forward, or you're hyperconscious of how much story you've already gotten elsewhere, or you get eaten by RL and you come back to the story like 'wait, what is going on?', or because there just aren't enough hours in the day.

Or like, there are people who are perfectly fine to RP with when I have enough energy for them but when I'm worn out I'm like auuuuugh how many paragraphs do you neeeeeeed or like fuck sometimes I am a BRILLIANT RP PARTNER and HILARiOUS and VITAL and other times I barely put together three sentences and oh God how did I manage to use the word 'slight' three times in three sentences, also what even is chemistry and how do I hook again?

IDK man IDK.

You can't do anything about people who lie about you. All you can do is just keep living your best life. Block them, put them on ignore, grind your teeth a little when you're forced to deal with the fallout from the nonsense they've said about you, and just keep on keeping on.

Anyone who believes toxic bullshit about you coming from people who spread toxic bullshit is someone who wasn't actually your friend.

It sucks, but I don't think there's another solution to people being horrible this way than just...

There's an Aral Vorkosigan quote that may apply to this situation:

"Guard your honor, let your reputation fall where it will, and outlive the bastards."

No, I don't write my own kinks and you will never be able to determine what mine are or aren't based on what I have rped.