Having seen the first bit of this show, I can safely say it'd work well on a MUSH.

"Hey guys, let's go do all this constructive stuff and make sure that we're safe and have shelter, and collect food and supp-"

"NO LET'S ALL FIGHT AND FUUUUUUCK~"

Not sure if he's been mentioned, but Hbomberguy, especially his videos on climate denial and HP Lovecraft (the latter making me feel a little inspired to come out as bi to some friends, which is silly to say, but it is what it is).

@Coin said in I will design you a MUX:

Your mom's a serious inquiry.

I figure since everyone else is doing it, I might as well jump on the bandwagon.

Here are the names I remember:
Roanoke (Former Headstaff)/Reagan/Bret/Connor@The Reach
Saturnine (Former Headstaff)/Jakob@Metro 2
Pink (Former General ST)/Charlie/Corgan@Darkwater
Will/Samantha@Haunted Memories
Samantha/Jared@Depraved Creations
Corgan@Ashes To Ashes

I was also on Santo Domini, Dark Wine & Roses, Masquerade, Star Wars KotOR, the original Star Wars MUSH, SerenityMUSH, Gorram, and a few other places, but I can't remember who the hell I played. The above would be the longest-lasting folks.

It also depends on what kind of crime you're using. Traditional street crime is done off-the-cuff, and usually by people that aren't professional criminals (which is generally a rarity). The people who are professional criminals (using the term extremely loosely) are doing what they do to get by, and a lot of it is pretty petty. While dealing drugs and theft doesn't seem petty to the people doing it and the people it's done to, these are typically low-end criminal activities that don't really earn much attention. They can ruin your life, certainly, since if you steal over a certain amount or are caught dealing/carrying over a certain amount it counts as a felony which fucks up your life in ways most people don't realize (even then, when I was a DoJ agent, we had a list of businesses that would still hire felons to ensure that there was a light at the end of the tunnel financially, plus advocacy programs).

Your organized crime like the 1%ers, various mobs and cartels and the whole smorgasbord of ethnic and local groups that make a business out of horrible fucking shit we do to one another on a day-to-day, operate differently. A good example is "The Wire," with the Barksdale organization. Crime, unfortunately, does pay pretty well. You'll notice that most of the low-end street characters fit the description above - and it's true, a lot of people end up in over their heads with groups like that. You see it with teens and the like that end up getting addicted to drugs or out on the street or escape an abusive situation or any number of things that leave them high and dry, so they have to resort to moving product (drugs, stolen merchandise, working cons) or selling themselves (though this is generally not something someone goes into on their lonesome, usually there's a handler or a partner involved). While there is a way back from that, it's genuinely unpleasant and usually involves institutionalization. A lot of the street dealers are expendable, which is also the point.

To bring this back into focus regarding the hobby -- also keep in mind that this is very US-focused -- if you're playing a low-level street dealer, hooker, thief or even muscle, you shouldn't expect to have much status among the community. Most people would rarely have heard of you, and usually if anyone knows who you are, it's limited to a neighborhood unless you hit the headlines with your name or do time. Something that should probably be taken into consideration would be a reputation system, which would work outside of any sort of status system. Where status is like rank, your reputation is your social currency. People might know you're the dude to get horse from and what you sell is relatively clean, but it doesn't necessarily mean you're automatically in with the cartel that's supplying it. It just means that you'll have more scrutiny from the police (because confidential informants will probably tell them, if they don't find out when one of your customers gets busted), and more scrutiny from other people who would prefer that you give your business to them.

If you're playing a character that's higher tier in their organization, you also should realize that you're pretty expendable as well. Most high profit criminal merchandise (drugs, cheap knockoff shit that breaks patent law, stolen goods and vehicles, people) is trafficked into the United States (or from one state to another), it rarely originates here. The things that are produced in the United States are usually trafficked out to other countries unless someone is running a solo business. To get from point A to point B, you need someone on either end. As a for instance, my state has a problem with drug trafficking organizations that originate from Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia (the last count was around 35 international groups, if I recall), and production cycles of methamphetamine occur out of the state and are usually brought in. So, you've got the dude that's running the operation elsewhere (either out of the country or out of the state) and the guy that's facilitating the transfer of material into the area. That second guy, while useful, isn't the only person that could do this. If compromised, production and distribution won't cease. It may slow down for a good few months, but it'll kick right back up like nothing happened.

So, in playing a criminal character, the idea that you're really not all that special and someone else could do your job just as easily as you could should be reinforced. In running a Crime sphere, you should also focus on things like ensuring that the PCs have communication lines within their DTOs or rings. Ideally, you would have a core group of storytellers that would focus on interpersonal stories since you kind of have to look at a criminal PC as you would any other PC with a job. You will rarely RP out a scene where your character is doing data entry at his office; as such, you will just as rarely RP out your drug dealer PC selling cocaine, heroin, prescription drugs, meth, etc. It's background noise. So, the focus should be on criminals working together. Yes, it's understood that your character is a drug dealer/hitman/car thief/whatever, but how does s/he get along with her/his superiors? That should be the focus of the sphere, with the occasional scene done where you have a specific thing you need to do, such as run muscle during a production cycle (which is a fancy term for when someone brings something into the area) or if you need to grab a specific car or kidnap someone or whatever. Most of it should be attempting to jockey for favor with your boss, like in a regular job.

My final thought on this is that thematically, crime is very similar to how WoD Vampire functions. People are possessive over what scraps they manage to pull together. While there are quite a few people who will work together for the good of the organization, there are just as many people who would kill you or sell you out for a piece of your pie, either due to jealousy or simple greed. Anyhow, that's all. And also extremely long. Sorry for that.

Hey there @SilentHills, I'm not sure if we've ever talked to one another before (I'm not really great with screen names), but I wanted to say that your feelings are completely valid and if you do need someone to talk to and don't mind waiting for a small amount of time between responses, you can DM me here. If not, that's also cool - after all, you don't know me, but sometimes it's useful to bounce things off a stranger, even if you just want to yell at someone about some issue in private.

I'd also encourage you to get back into talk therapy, but with the state of the world that can be difficult. My university gave us some resources to give to folks who can't attend in-person sessions or are having issues affording them. I'll post the link below. I think it's fantastic that you're addressing that your feelings will hopefully not be forever. I also deal with some pretty horrendous chronic depression, and keeping a mindful attitude toward the idea that I won't always feel like I've been hit by a train is extremely difficult.

Have you ever heard of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy? I really like it, probably in part due to how it can gamify therapy. The principal function of ACT is that it focuses on providing behavioral adjustments that can address cognitive issues. So, rather than CBT's "just change how you think about a thing" approach, an ACT approach will provide suggestions on how you should address certain behavioral functions on how you think about things. The most effective way I've seen this done is a deck of these very specific cards that suggest different behavioral and cognitive methodologies for addressing problems. I am trying to find a free PDF of them but am coming up short. If you're interested I can take some pictures of my physical copy and throw them your way. One example statement on the ACT deck is "Who is the wisest person you know?" Then, the follow up would be "why do you think this, and how could you emulate that wisdom?"

Anyway, just a thought. I hope you are doing all right today.

Resources from my uni: https://theshrinkspace.com/ - I used this for a therapist and it was pretty great. All telehealth, will work with some insurances, and most have a sliding scale.

My niece just hit six months in recovery and finally feels like she doesn't need methadone. Having gone through it myself (five years last December), she's definitely shown that she understands she doesn't need it anymore. Plus, she's got a new girlfriend and is going to school, so her priorities have shifted entirely. It's great and I'm so proud of her.

@SG said in Kinds of Mu*s Wanted:

I've been reading through the rules for Straight To VHS and think this would make for a really fun mu.

All the players could play actors in films (Tiny Plots), only the films are REAL! Or something. I like the idea of Character A playing a cop in one plot, and a burgler in another, getting meta-miffed because they don't have a particular skill that would come in handy in a situation.

"A werewolf stalks the mean streets of Miami... but not for much longer. Not if a nun (and former prostitute) named Gloria Vendetta has anything to say about it. Gloria’s cybernetically enhanced buddy in the precinct suspects the werewolf is being protected by Yakuza, but why? If only the retired heavyweight champion Tucker Smash could regain his memories. He was the only one who knew the antidote to lycanism, and now the plague is spreading."

You had me at "werewolf is being protected by Yakuza."

PLOT TWIST: I did. Which was weird, because I'm straight and don't know him.

Sweet. I've been looking for ways to make my hobby feel more like the tech support jobs I've worked!

(this does sound kind of cool and useful, though.)

I'm sad to hear this. Catriona was always very kind and was an excellent storyteller and writer. She had good advice for larger scope projects like the establishment of the Dragon's Knell freehold and was great at invigorating the Dunlin family's larger RP. Very sorry for the loss.

I've blathered about this to Theno on Discord, but figured I'd catalog here.

Soma — Today at 9:16 AM
Okay, so! The LAMP route didn't matter and I was able to get my non-root user to work with it. After digging through some stack exchange posts, it looks like SQL no longer uses the my_bool function, it's just bool. I adjusted the reconnect function to just connect and it processed through which is interesting because usually connect can't be declared in scope. So, it processed through with warnings but didn't error out. However, it didn't create the game folder. I'm wondering if this has something to do with the size issue. I'm not sure if you're still in contact with Chime, but this might be some feedback for her about the directions in her distro -- at least some feedback on the directions for getting ChimeMUX working on a LAMP stack in Digital Ocean.

Soma — Today at 10:03 AM
All right, found mux-start but it says it can't open the script.conf file, which is pretty weird. Permissions are fine. For some reason the mux server got installed in the root directory, so I wonder if that has something to do with it. Maybe the mux-start command doesn't have root access.

Edit: It got figured out. For posterity's sake, you have to run the command from ~/game:

cd
cd game
bin/mux-start

Thenomain explained that the reason for this was because Chime intended for there to be the option to run multiple instances of TMux from the same server.

resurrecting this thread!

I'm getting some errors, not sure if this is something to do with the LAMP stack I've got on digital ocean.

root@chimemux:/tinymux/mux# make -j2
make  all-am
make[1]: Entering directory '/tinymux/mux'
  CXX      game.o
  CXX      levels.o
game.cpp: In function ‘void init_sql()’:
game.cpp:2423:6: error: ‘my_bool’ was not declared in this scope
 2423 |      my_bool reconnect = 1;
      |      ^~~~~~~
game.cpp:2424:71: error: ‘reconnect’ was not declared in this scope; did you mean ‘connect’?
 2424 |      mysql_options(mush_database, MYSQL_OPT_RECONNECT, (const char *)&reconnect);
      |                                                                       ^~~~~~~~~
      |                                                                       connect
game.cpp: In function ‘void do_shutdown(dbref, dbref, dbref, int, int, UTF8*, const UTF8**, int)’:
game.cpp:1278:18: warning: ignoring return value of ‘ssize_t write(int, const void*, size_t)’, declared with attribute warn_unused_result [-Wunused-result]
 1278 |  (void) mux_write(fd, message, static_cast<unsigned int>(strlen((char *)message)));
game.cpp:1279:18: warning: ignoring return value of ‘ssize_t write(int, const void*, size_t)’, declared with attribute warn_unused_result [-Wunused-result]
 1279 |  (void) mux_write(fd, ENDLINE, sizeof(ENDLINE)-1);
make[1]: *** [Makefile:1567: game.o] Error 1
make[1]: *** Waiting for unfinished jobs....
make[1]: Leaving directory '/tinymux/mux'
make: *** [Makefile:1023: all] Error 2

and ...

root@chimemux:/tinymux/mux# make install
make  install-am
make[1]: Entering directory '/tinymux/mux'
  CXX      game.o
game.cpp: In function ‘void init_sql()’:
game.cpp:2423:6: error: ‘my_bool’ was not declared in this scope
 2423 |      my_bool reconnect = 1;
      |      ^~~~~~~
game.cpp:2424:71: error: ‘reconnect’ was not declared in this scope; did you mean ‘connect’?
 2424 |      mysql_options(mush_database, MYSQL_OPT_RECONNECT, (const char *)&reconnect);
      |                                                                       ^~~~~~~~~
      |                                                                       connect
game.cpp: In function ‘void do_shutdown(dbref, dbref, dbref, int, int, UTF8*, const UTF8**, int)’:
game.cpp:1278:18: warning: ignoring return value of ‘ssize_t write(int, const void*, size_t)’, declared with attribute warn_unused_result [-Wunused-result]
 1278 |  (void) mux_write(fd, message, static_cast<unsigned int>(strlen((char *)message)));
game.cpp:1279:18: warning: ignoring return value of ‘ssize_t write(int, const void*, size_t)’, declared with attribute warn_unused_result [-Wunused-result]
 1279 |  (void) mux_write(fd, ENDLINE, sizeof(ENDLINE)-1);
make[1]: *** [Makefile:1567: game.o] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory '/tinymux/mux'
make: *** [Makefile:2144: install] Error 2```

Any suggestions? The ./configure --prefix=$home/game worked just fine.

Edit: I was able to get past this by changing the my_bool line to just bool and reconnect to connect. However, it still hasn't created the /game folder.

It's very much an early access game, but if people are into "working class" space stories about people trying to get by in a dystopian late capitalist space hell, I highly suggest checking out Ostranauts. It's set in the same universe as NEO Scavenger, and is in a pretty good state. The character creation is based around adventures prior to the start of the game (reminds me of Traveler a little bit) and your primary goal is to keep up the mortgage on your ship by doing odd jobs and scrapping ships around Ganymede, where you start out. It's sort a tech-noir space futurism thing.

The devs just put out a new update that includes a way to sell ships that you've found and rebuilt. All ship designs are skeletal frameworks and you can build whatever you want on top of them!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1022980/Ostranauts/

I was wondering just this morning why there weren't any 5e games popping up. The big ones are 20th anniversary from what I've seen and 5e's been out for a while. Anyway, sounds interesting!

(Still more excited for your Cyberpunk RED idea though!)

@Macha said in Random As...:

I guess for me, I miss writing with someone else that can throw something in to work around, and I don't get that when it's just me.

This is the reason I'm trying to get back into the hobby a little bit. I absolutely have no time to MU* in a substantial way, but I have very few creative outlets that like... creative writing. The writing I do now is very dry and technical, so the MU* scene is attractive for that purpose. I've been sort of playing Silent Heaven when I can, and I made a character on Liberation (though I haven't had a scene yet), and it's started to scratch that itch, but I feel like I'm leaning too heavily into my nostalgia for the 2000s and 2010s.

@Kumakun I would be down to do beta testing! My schedule is a little weird, but I can be on nights. I love love love Cyberpunk RED and was a big fan of 2020.

I agree with @Ganymede about rules lite. Neon City is good, The Sprawl is good (though trying to adapt a powered by the apocalypse game to MU* sounds a bit painful, plus it's an old PBTA game, and it's definitely showing its age).

Newer players who aren't familiar with the source material may only be familiar with the more streamlined attribute/skill system in the video game, so that could be a benefit when doing systems work. You could even go Ares with it, modifying stats to fit the core Cyberpunk ones, then just use the proprietary system with AresMUSH.

Another option would be CY_BORG, which is a cyberpunk version of MORK BORG.

I don't think I would suggest Sprawlrunners or CBR+PNK, as those are a bit too light on the rules - and the latter is designed more for the "one last run and then I retire" kind of character.

Really excited for more cyberpunk stuff! I need reasons to procrastinate on dissertation!

Hey everyone - some very old buddies of mine are building a D&D 5th edition campaign setting. They described the game setting as a mix of all the greatest elements of 80s & 90s fantasy, from Secret of NIMH to Wizards to the Hobbit/Lord of the Rings cartoons alongside old folklore and the like.

As per the Kickstarter:

Aeres is a young world. It's a world filled with wonder and enchantment; a world of mists and mystery. A world whose normalities are the myths and legends of our folklore. In Aeres, your next door neighbor could be a talking fox, while a unicorn remains your closest comrade. Dragons the size of mountains spawn eternal legends in their wake; cities skyrocket upward in magnificent marble and silver spires; magical forests shelter trees and animals who can talk, and enchanted springs bubble forth with the very secrets of life. And yet, Aeres is a realm thrust into the clutches of darkness one time too many. Its fairytale splendor has been shattered over the centuries by ruthless and wicked sorcerers, tyrannical emperors, and unfathomable intruders from beyond the veil of shadow.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/aeres/the-chronicles-of-aeres-a-classical-fantasy-setting-for-5e

Thanks for your interest!

@Rucket said in Visit Fallcoast, sponsored by the Fallcoast Chamber of Commerce:

So what's the word on The Reach 3: The Reach Around? Curious because I was listening to some 80s tunes earlier.

I found a way to travel back in time solely to announce that The Reach 3 would be opening soon as of 2011.

@Kestrel said in Vietnam War MUSH:

@somasatori said in Vietnam War MUSH:

As an aside, I'm an anarcho-communist

Wanna break Bread?

A Kropotkin reference on this, our MSB?! I should have talked politics many years ago, it seems.

Also a brief shout-out: the Mau Mau Movement was right and just and all imperialism is a crime against humanity by its very nature.

I have no idea how I ended up with this extremely obscure book in my possession, but if you can get your hands on it, Mau Mau's Daughter has some really great insights into British colonialism & cultural genocide from an intersectional feminist perspective. And yeah, they were badass.

I haven't heard of this, but did a search on it and it sounds fascinating (and extremely expensive). I'm going to see if I can't find it somewhere online. Thanks for the tip! In return, I highly suggest Colonial Metropolis by Jennifer Anne Boittin. She's fairly liberal, but she does seem to have some sympathies for the left. It's largely a dissection of anti-imperialist feminism during the interwar years in Europe, but using several historical case studies.