Best posts made by ShelBeast

@thenomain Upvotes given for cat hats. and also for helping us with the code bits.

@bubasti The Dragons that I know are all great. But there could be more of them, for certain.

I've had the whole "Wants nothing but TS thing" happen to me a number of times, too. It... definitely causes a burn out. For sure. I've also stopped logging in to characters because of it. I've full on freezered a character about it, too.

The thing is... OOC conversations haven't worked for me. I've had the OOC conversation of "Hey, I'd like to do something other than fuck", and the other person invariably responds with "Oh, sure! We can do something else. I have some ideas. Let's scene!" ... and then those ideas never manifest. Literally it's just placating me OOCly to keep trying to draw scenes straight into sex.

I think that the IC method of having a conversation between the characters might be a better solution.

Edit: I also tried making a completely non-sexual character. That wound up causing a lot of problems ICly for its own sake, and being more trouble than it was worth. YMMV

@ganymede It was pretty in depth. There were investigation rolls that led to possibly getting leads or hints to plot stuff or something. Scavenging rolls for equipment and materials for crafting. A crafting system of some sort.

What I read of the actual combat system? I wasn't impressed, tbh. It seemed like every special ability was just "you get a reroll on X", which is nice, but boring and also would slow down combat when you miss five times, but you have twenty rerolls.

Personally, for the actual character system, I'd rather see if we can adapt the SPECIAL system more directly, or even look at the SIMPLE system for the tabletop RPG that Josh Sawyer was working on.

Yeah... that... staff decision is gross. Letting that happen to a character was a really, really bad decision, and I'm curious as to what thought process was behind that. I wonder if the Mage was a staffer pet or something to that effect. I can't imagine any scenario where even the worst staff I've seen would just let that fly at random.

It really is cool and the system is a LOT of fun.

@auspice Fair enough. I've never played on an oWoD game. Funny story... when I first "discovered" MU*s, I was first trying to join an oWoD game set in Miami. I logged on as a guest... looked over the wanted concepts board... Staff had set a few wanted concepts. So, I created a character that fulfilled all but one of those concepts, and melded them together into a seamless whole that would have actually been a really very interesting and useful character in terms of narrative function. I got denied immediately over something that was so minor and petty that I literally can't even remember what it was now. I noped right off of that place without looking back.

At the time, it was the only place I knew about/could find. I didn't have really any knowledge or resources to dig any deeper than I had just to find "Oh... these MU things exist and people RP there." So, I wound up finding the next best thing for me... An nWoD game. And thus, I started my MU life on The Reach as Dorian. All because those assholes running that Miami place were assholes.

I will say that, the way that the CSYS is set up now is fun, and does provide a lot of random and "Oh, holy crap!" kind of moments, when triggers and procs randomly fire off, and can turn an entire match on its head. There is a lot more nuance to it than just the ratio system. So, for a few examples:

I play Ryo from Art of Fighting and King of Fighters fame. So far, I've fought opponents that are slightly higher than me in ratio (Ryu, still an R4, same as Ryo, but he's a high level R4, as opposed to Ryo being low level R4), and I wound up dominating that fight. Some of it was simple luck on triggering things like Just Defended. Some of it was because of gambits taken by Ryu's player that didn't pay off like he had hoped.

I've also fought Takuma, Ryo's father, who is a whole Ratio tier higher than him. Because I randomly JD'ed not one but TWO supers in the match, Ryo completely decimated that fight.

If it the game had the rigidity that you are describing, that wouldn't have been possible.

On the other side of the token, as Guy I've struggled in fights against lower tier characters, and have swept the floor with someone of a slightly higher ratio. Guy is a high R3, for context.

Now, I've just picked up Ky Kiske. He's a fairly high R4 (the default heroic tier, I guess), and a strong build. I'm not certain I quite understand how to make the most use of that build, and so I'm prone to loosing more fights with him right now, than winning. He takes a certain level of strategy that I'm just not real savvy on with the system, yet, because I'm a newb, and also have difficulties with grokking technical aspects of things like this. So, ultimately, your mileage may vary, but the one thing I can say is that the system is fun, fast and exciting, and you never really know what the outcome might be.

@prototart You're a bad person and you should feel bad.

Let me know if Possessed become app'able. That's kind of the only sphere I have much interest in left these days.

I ran a tabletop game of VtR like this, in another sort of way. I made Humanity and Blood Potency a sliding scale with a maximum of 11 points spread between the two, with normal starting stats of 7 Humanity and 1 BP. The basic idea was to play up the conflict between being a human being, and confronting the monstrous nature of being a vampire. If you wanted to truly grow in power as a vampire, you'd have to sacrifice your Humanity. And when you'd realize that you had become this horrible thing, and try to seek redemption, your vampiric might would ebb, as you were denying and neutering your own Beast.

It was really a lot of fun, and certainly turned the game theme towards the aspect of personal horror storytelling that has always been the real draw for me about Vampire. I was never all that into the political angle.

@thenomain Yeah. I've been saying to everyone that I talk to about this that... if you were into the Underworld vibe of Revised, this isn't really the game for you. This is a game for those people who were into VtM 1st edition, and early in the lifespan of 2nd Edition. It's a game that tries to focus more on the personal horror of the slide into inhumanity and the struggles of trying to live a life when you've become a monster. It's about the dissolution of personal relationships, the intrigues of being low man on the totem pole, pushed and pulled by people who are far more inhuman than you, and how far you're willing to compromise of yourself to find a balance between power and humanity.

@Apu You're the bestest.

@fortunae The thing is that, in the metaplot, the stuff from like the Week of Nightmares and all that did happen. It's more like the EotW scenario is starting to play out, with the ancients rising somewhere in the east, calling all their minions (Elders hearing The Beckoning) and amassing their armies/food in preparation for going to war with the Sabbat (who have given chase and are taking the fight to the ancients themselves, as is their entire purpose for existing), and each other.

I'll point out that these are vampires we're talking about. Vampires that have existed since before the Great Deluge, at that. It's not like they're going to wake up and just have a week of killing and call it a war. Their "battles" could take centuries alone.

In short, nothing in this book, or the metaplot as it is in 5th Ed really undermines or negates what came before. It just adds to it.

Word. Seeing a game that was based around The Witcher would be rad. Maybe take some inspirations from elsewhere, too. Dragon's Dogma. Berserk. Just not the typical "high fantasy" stuff, like D&D or like Dragon Age. I could totally get behind that.

@Wolfs said in Empire State Heroes Mush:

So you're saying staff told you you can't name Halo because it's a reference to something in DC Comics? That makes no sense to me without further explanation of some kind.

Yes. This. THIS IS MY POINT! I was asking literally that.The entire thing is that I'm not allowed to have Halo Corporation listed by name. That's it. They demand that I change the name. And for no reason given, other than it is a direct reference to DC properties. If this is the case, that's fine and all well and good. It's a Marvel game. I don't see how "Halo Corp" being named that detracts, dilutes, or harms the Marvel theme in any way, but sure. Whatevs. I just want that to be consistent to everyone.

As for the post. I didn't present it as a personal issue with details because I didn't want to make it about being a personal issue. The complaint is straight forward and valid. The details of what actually happened are absolutely irrelevant, whether or not they happened to me or anyone else. I was giving my genuine constructive criticism in a manner that was detached and as free from bias as I could give it. I don't want a Hog Pit thread on this. As I've stated, up until now, my experience on this game has been great. But this? It's something that should be looked at, rather than callously dismissed with all but open derision when asked about.

@HorrorHound

You nailed it on the head. That is EXACTLY the kind of scenario that I'm looking to emulate. But my experience with MU*s is that I, as a staffer/storyteller/TL/whatever title you wanna put on it, can write that all day long and the vast majority of the players of the sphere will not emulate it, without some sort of framework to back it up. I think that the backbone of that would need to be a political system that includes territory, and with that, blood. Like I had stated in a previous post.... Mechanics should reflect intent. Sadly, this is one of those situations where I fear that mechanics need to be used to enforce the intent in some manner.

I do have the idea of stripping Feeding Grounds and Herd right out of the game from the standpoint of "purchased" merits. Rather, make them like Status is on some (most?) games, where you have to earn it through IC actions. It will make having that territory, or being Billy Badass who works for Duke Dollar who has said territory, all the more important.

@Ghost I'm aware. Again, I'm not here for a Hog Pit thrashing. I felt that bringing it here was a good way to keep it where it belongs. Constructive Criticism. At this point, what is the worst that is going to happen? They might nitpick my apps to death? Part of the issue is that it was already a thing. I still have three alts on the game, as is. Obviously I'm not moving forward with the application for Grifter. It just is what it is. I may attempt another app in the future, but for now, I'll just keep an eye out to see if the general attitude has changed.

Edit: My posting here also serves the purpose of inviting conversation in a medium that may be easier for some of the said staff, where they might have time to deliberate and form their thoughts in a manner that is not in the moment and needlessly aggressive and defensive.

@Coin Werewolves and Vampires can and SHOULD mesh together more than most games allow them to. This has always been my standpoint. There is no stigma between the two. That is a holdover from cWoD that the playerbase has never let go of, and perpetuates with new people coming into the games from the POV of MU*s. I want to see Pack/Coterie hybrids, and see cooperation among playerbits on all sides of the spectrum.

The hiccup is... really what can vampires offer wolves? Vampires are woefully inadequate when it comes to matters of the Shadow, and without Blood Tenebrous (not going to be a thing here, unless/until it's officially redone for CoD rules), or certain bloodlines (Also not a thing here until they're being published in official books, or more are released on the OP blog), it makes vampires of limited function. I'll end that with a disclaimer that I am very much a newb to Wolf. I'm primarily a vamp player.