Posts made by Seraphim73

@faraday Have you ever tried to make a Rigger with a custom vehicle? Or a Decker with a custom deck? Those two areas in the game get very, very, very crunchy. Cyberware/bioware is a little fiddly, foci/initiation is a tiny bit fiddly, all the modifiers (SR3) are a little fiddly, but in general, Shadowrun is a pretty light-crunch game... until you bring in Riggers and Deckers.

@GangOfDolls We absolutely expect people to group up with other players of like style/play time/etc. So long as these groups are inclusive rather than exclusive (play groups rather than cliques, as Blu laid it out earlier in the thread), we don't have a problem with that at all. If the requirements of providing and resolving RP hooks for these various groups begin to overwhelm our capabilities as Staffers, we'll look to bring on additional Storytellers.

Our current plan (subject to change based on the actions of the PCs, of course) is that we will open up Ark Adults for PCs as soon as they come down and are in the same physical location as the Delinquents and Grounders. Whether we add Floukru (Boat People), Azgeda (Ice Nation), or Mountain Men into the game as PC-able factions will depend on whether or not it makes sense for them to be interacting with the Skaikru frequently. Our intention is, and always has been, for the Skaikru to be the focus of the game. We even require Grounder PCs to come through with an explicit reason to interact with the Skaikru (whether it's honest interest, suspicion, an urge for tech knowledge, or whatever).

We don't have any current plans to restrict the number of apps into any given faction (besides the fact that there can never be more than 100 Delinquents, including dead ones), but with any outside groups we open up to application being required to have the tie-in to the Skaikru like we do with Grounders, it's our hope that we can keep tugging along on a coherent storyline involving the place of the Skaikru and those who have connected themselves with the Skaikru in the "new" world. We have a couple of story tricks up our sleeve to continue to tie in the themes of survival, exploration, and unity that we've been using to drive RP thus far, but if those storylines end up splintering the playerbase rather than forging it together, we'll just have to do our best to roll with it.

I don't know if that exactly answered your question, but hopefully it got somewhere in the neighborhood.

@Miss-Demeanor I... don't get where I say you're wrong. I said that the problems that you encountered very early in the game have, so far as I can tell, lessened. As for the post that Blu mentioned, just because we think that the problem has lessened doesn't necessarily mean it has. We readily recognize that. So we want to know if our current players are having a problem that we aren't seeing.

To me, Shadowrun is and always will be Third Edition, particularly the art of Tim Bradstreet. It's gutter-punk as much as it's cyberpunk. People living on the fringes of society, fighting against The Man by getting hired by The Man to try to scrape together enough cash to get the next cool toy (cyberware, focus, whatever) to hold off the gang down the block. It's crazy stuff happening and no one important noticing... until the wrong person does notice and comes down hard.

It's the Steve Venters cover of Sprawl Sites (plus cyberware). It's gritty, it's grimy, it's dirty, and it's fun.

@Miss-Demeanor said in The 100: The Mush:

I'm not saying nobody can be an asshole or a bitch, but its a pervasive enough attitude that its driving multiple players away. ... More than a few people are stepping forward to say their experience on The 100 was that other characters were being overly or needlessly antagonistic and asshole behavior in the majority of their scenes. ... When it was just me, I just quietly left the game. I figured it was just me. But its not just me. There's enough people having similar problems that its become a multi-page discussion on this thread.

So, I'm seeing that running into antagonism caused three people to leave the game. That's not good. However, the latest the two of those players I can identify played was IC Day 5. It's now IC Day 18 (at 1 IC day to 2 RL days, so almost a month ago). I definitely think that things have cooled down some since then. I also don't think it's fair to call this thread entirely about antagonistic RP/attitudes on the game, since we've also had quite a few compliments, some complaints about spotlighting a Staff PC (which has been and is being addressed), and several shots from players of our previous game that have nothing to do with this game at all.

@surreality We've definitely seen people who are on vastly different sides of the key IC divide in the game come together to get things done, and those have been great scenes. Some of those have led to huge Camp-wide swells of support, some of them have led to the characters taking matters into their own hands and being castigated (to one degree or another) by other people in Camp. The way things are done definitely matters for public, IC perception, which is cool.

@Lithium If you're talking about the character I think you are, the character who was OOCly and ICly talking about killing other characters in their sleep was given two warnings about OOC antagonism, and after the second one, left the game (the third strike would have been a siteban). As for the person who was giving you a hard time OOCly about being ICly against bullying, we would have loved to have heard about this problem from you so we could address it. As it happens, the other player in this situation did bring it to our attention, asking if he had gone too far. We told him he probably had, and he has certainly addressed the issue in his actions since then. Sorry you had to go through that.

Sidenote, I think that Faolan is pretty much as far from an OOC or IC jerk to people as can be imagined... except when he's in combat (then step back).

@Ghost said in The 100: The Mush:

1. There are two factions. Are there any non-staff PCs in leadership positions who have the freedom to direct their faction as they see fit, or for both factions, are the factions run by staff NPCs/staff PCs, and these faction heads give direction to the PCs?

Grey is a leader in the Delinquent camp, but after consequences for some of his IC actions, there are several other PCs who are equally--if not more--leader-y in camp. Yes, those PCs are free to do as they like. There is not, however, any 'official' leadership on that side. On the Grounder side, there is indeed an NPC leader directing things, but he is only used for plot points or disseminating information to PCs, who are free to take those points or not as they will. He is not a GMPC, and Andromeda's Grounder PC is about as far from a leadership position as is possible without being an actual outcast.

2. Have any non-staff PCs been granted the freedom/responsibility to be the inter-faction liaison to perform diplomacy as the player sees fit?

Yes. Three non-Staff PCs were in charge of Delinquent negotiations with the Grounders. There have also been other PCs (Staff and non-Staff alike) who have attempted less formal negotiations to varying results (including Grey losing a good deal of influence in camp even while his co-conspirators lost very little).

3. For players who feel they are outside of the clique (and perhaps some who are), what is the response like to +jobs or ideas that direct plot, ot tiny plot, in a direction that the non-staff player sees fit?

Staff attempts to discuss/approve/shepherd forward jobs quickly and efficiently. Sometimes, a request doesn't fit theme, but in that case, we try to suggest a themely alternative that still gets the same desired result.

I think ultimately, the question is, is this a game where the non-staff PCs decide the direction of the game, or is this game a conconcted story idea by staff that will require close monitoring and staff-PC plot control to avoid derivation?

It is certainly our desire to see all PCs (Staff and non-Staff alike) able to act as they want within theme, while still receiving guidance from Staff to ensure that the spotlight is shared between PCs appropriately, everyone gets a chance for character development, and the camp doesn't splinter off a dozen different groups of 1-4 Delinquents trying to go it alone (because that's not sustainable as a game or in theme).

Is there a Grounder-Delinquent romance going between two Staff PCs? Yup. And we've made no attempt to hide it, and we fully expect both of them to get negative consequences for it pretty dang soon. There is also at least one other Grounder-Delinquent romance currently ongoing that doesn't involve Staff at all (maybe two, depending on how soon in a process you define "romance").

@Lithium Sorry to see you go. I was actually wondering what happened to Samson, because I enjoyed the one scene I ended up having with him as Grey.

@Miss-Demeanor If you played Mikaela (as is my assumption based on your posts), I would say that the antagonism that you were concerned about early on has lessened. It's not gone, but we never want the friction between characters to be gone, because if there's no friction, there's no story. Now, clearly some other former players agreed with your concerns, and we are continuing to course-correct as needed. For instance, we closed down apps for outright rebels against the Council/Chancellor for a while, because they're rather thick on the ground right now.

I actually do anticipate us polling players more formally at various points in the game to get their take on things, but we also chat OOCly with players (new and "long-time" -- I put quotes around that because the game is still only a month or so old) quite frequently to get their impressions of the game.

In line with Ixokai's comment, Andromeda and I (Orion) are happy to talk to any player who has questions, concerns, or just wants to check in.

@Lithium said in The 100: The Mush:

This is exactly why I left. I tried to play a decent person and all I got were death threats, and one person saying I was attacking them oocly for oocly explaining my character didn't like bullies. Go figure.

I've been trying to stay out of the way of this thread, but I know for a fact that Staff would very much like to know about anyone who is OOCly attacking other players for stating the preferences of their characters.

@gasket and @Miss-Demeanor While there are certainly still some characters snapping at each other (or at random other characters if they've had a particularly stressful day), I like to think that in general, some of the immediate grumping from characters has calmed down. That being said, my character obviously isn't in every scene, and sometimes, the stress gets to characters, so it does happen sometimes. Sorry it happened to you.

Now we do currently have a few too many "rebel" types for my preference, but I suppose that was just going to happen when the characters are all Delinquents to start... everyone gets a chance to rage against the man.

@Admiral and @Lithium , Ixokai has previously stated on this thread that he is the player of Cameron. In case it wasn't clear, I'm the player of Grey and the Staffer Orion.

@ThatGuyThere Oh yes, you absolutely have to tailor your system to your theme. That's actually why D20 works so well for D&D: it's heroic fantasy and characters start out really quite bad at what they do, so wild swings of luck are appropriate (obviously, some D&D campaigns aren't this way, I'm generalizing). Something based on a radio serial series (or, in the same vein, Indiana Jones), would also do well with a single-die system.

Non-action-movie modern systems, gritty investigation, or systems where you come out of chargen quite capable... I'm much more in favor of a bell curve for.

@Lithium Two ways to fix your second system. Either go for 'equal or over' and have everyone -start- with Dodge 1 (the simplest solution) and buy it up from there, or go with 'over' and allow the dice to explode. If you roll a 6, you add on an additional d6-1, giving you a result from 7-11.

My problem with 1d100 is that it's much more random than anything involving multiple dice. It's such a wide array of possible results, with none of them being more likely than any other. This makes a single die roll very susceptible to swingyness, as someone with a really high skill can roll a 99 just as easily as they can a 01 and still whiff. With a bell curve from multiple dice, these outlier events are less likely and you get more consistent results.

I know I've banged the 1d100=random=bad drum before, and it's a personal pet peeve of mine, so I'll leave it at that.

@Packrat That's all very cool theme (I mean that), but when balance depends on PCs not giving things to other PCs, it may not last long. Just something to watch out for.

I'd say that 4 "actual" factions with a couple of sub-factions should be just fine.

I would, however, caution you against expecting PCs to act toward one another in a particular way. You can say 'House A hates House B' all you want in theme, but the PCs are still (generally) going to be polite to one another, and be friends with one another, and sleep with one another. "The PC effect" -- where other PCs want to do whatever they can to help someone because they're a PC -- is real, no matter if the theme says 'competing over influence' or 'deeply suspicious of one another.'

In general, I want a couple of things out of a system:

1. Representation of my hard work. This can be simply benefits from the hard work put into building skills through RP/XP/etc, but by preference, there should be some benefit for any good planning/preparation done ahead of the conflict.

2. Choices. I don't want to just drop X of my dice against Y of their dice. I want to be able to flank the enemy, investigate their weaknesses and take advantage of them, get to the higher ground, attack all-out, or whatever.

3. More than just a single die roll. Dice are really, really random. I generally like to see a couple of successive dice rolls made, none generally more important than others, but all building up on top of each other, so that probability can assert itself.

@Kestrel said in Does size matter? What about duration?:

I have a personal preference which I think makes me pretty weird, and is the opposite of how most MU*ers think: I dislike emotes containing too much dialogue. Spare me your character waxing poetics and serving up all their philosophical and political views on a platter; rants and rambles feel inorganic and unrealistic to me. I would so much rather read a paragraph detailing your character's body-language, the way they move, the way they meet my character's eyes, the tone of their voice, and for this to breathe life into their one-sentence, even one word verbal retort. I wish more people loved writing body-language and actions as much as I do, as it's so much more immersive than reading a screenplay. C'est la vie.

For a wordy-as-hell person, I agree completely. I would rather see a character screw their eyes shut, clench their fists and jaws, and then snarl "No" than scream for three paragraphs about how angry they are and how they won't take the evil high lord up on their evil offer.

@SkinnyThicket said in Does size matter? What about duration?:

What happens if they bump into each other? What about global communication?

You talk it out OOCly, asking "So, when/what time is this scene set?" And then one person will say, "Oh, we just did a scene that lasted until like midnight," and the other person will say, "Huh, we just finished up 3 PM. How about going for a 3AM snack at Taco Bell, or meeting up for last call?

I don't care so much about length as long as it gives me something to latch onto and to respond to. So, "how you use it" rather than "how big it is."

As for time between poses? Unfortunately, I'm easily distracted, especially now that there's a little one int he house, so I sometimes take longer than I'd like. For that reason, I like to also give people who pose slow a little grace. But more than 15-20 minutes is really getting kind of long (this is why scenes larger than one-on-one are great, because you can start your response to one pose while the other 1-2 people are posing, then just finish up after the last pose).

@peasoupling said in Core Memories Instead of BG?:

But a person with a past can be a fun character type. You might not want to play the 18 year old hero's journey, you might want to play the grizzled veteran hero in retirement who gets involved to help the kids, or the lunch lady who used to be a princess of an unnamed generic Eastern European principality.

Sorry, I should have been more specific. I -love- characters with a past. I love to play 30-something mercenaries who roll their eyes at all the young pups wandering around like they own the place because someone gave them a +1 longsword.

But even when I play these grizzled veterans, the meat of their story has to be ahead of them, in my opinion. They shouldn't have single-handedly defeated a platoon of enemy soldiers, married a princess, become king, given up the crown, and created their own form of kung-fu. But having played minor parts in two or three dozen battles/skirmishes? Sure! Great! Just means you have something to compare your on-grid accomplishments to. But I think that on-grid accomplishments should always be the highlight of your character... or else why are you playing them now? Shouldn't you be playing them back when they were awesome?

@Kestrel said in Cultural differences between MUDs and MUSHes:

So, to clarify this, the kind of secrets I was referring to aren't of the 'pull lever, discover trapdoor' variety. I was referring more to, 'Everyone thinks my character's family died in a tragic accident, but in actuality, she murdered them all in cold blood.'
...
So I find it kind of sad, and I feel very cheated, if someone messages me OOCly to tell me all about their character's hidden motives. And if they ask for mine, my instinct is to just reply, 'fuck off'. @Lotherio claims that on MUSHes he plays, secrets are very much a part of the culture, but they aren't on the MUSH I'm playing on. And I think that, no matter the MUSH, when you allow for so much OOC communication, it's inevitable that people are going to want to be demanding and expect you to be more open. On most MUDs I've played, where simulationism and IC are king, 'find out IC' is a refrain held to a much higher regard than 'communication is key'. And thus, IC mysteries are much better preserved, and are more fun to unlock.

Actually, I'd say that Staff, at least, on The 100 MUSH is totally cool with players keeping secrets OOCly as well as ICly. While our +sheets may be viewable to everyone, backgrounds are not. We even have a mention in our New Player Guide suggesting that if you want to keep something secret, you include it in your background rather than as a Quirk on your +sheet.

I love ICly finding out new things about characters that I didn't know previously--it's one of the shames of being Staff, that you have most of these spoiled by reading backgrounds. It's simply that we don't enforce "OOC Masq" (as @ThatGuyThere was talking about) like some games do. If someone wants to tell you their character's big secret, ICly or OOCly, we don't punish them for doing so. If someone pushes you to share a secret about your character OOCly, tell them you're not going to--if they keep pushing, tell Staff, as that's a form of harassment.

(just to give a specific response to a semi-general/semi-specific comment)

@Arkandel said in Core Memories Instead of BG?:

I agree. One of the mistakes people make is generate characters who've already done all the cool things in their lives before they ever step foot on the grid

Yes, yes, a thousand times yes. If I see another BG filled to the brim with awesome events of awesomeness that the player just wants to brag about... I'm going to scream (I'm going to be screaming a lot). Get your accomplishments ON SCREEN, so that others know about them, you get to actually experience them, and others are involved in them, so -they- have reasons to bring them up.

On a more pertinent note, I love the idea of using Core Memories, and wish I had thought of it in time to use it on The 100 MUSH. But yes, I use BGs for the same purposes that @Sunny does: demonstrate an understanding of theme, match the story to the stats... and for one more: To prevent the AwesomeBGers from slipping onto the grid.

I'm not going to contest that my PC, Grey, has been central to many, or even most, of the plots on the game so far. Wouldn't be any point, he has been. He's a big, loud guy. I hope people haven't been giving him extra leeway in following his lead because I'm Staff. But, it's something we're working on, with a couple of plots in the works that don't involve him at all. I try to ensure that he is never the sole star of anything, and I never want him to take a role that cannot also be filled by a non-Staff PC or hasn't already previously be held by a non-Staff PC. If I'm failing in that, all I can do is try to do better in the future.

As for the Fifth World, since @Ghost has brought it up twice now, NONE of the characters @GirlCalledBlu or myself played were central to the plot in any way. One of my characters led two military missions, both were small and minor. Other characters led more and larger. Plot was funneled through other characters... including his.