Best posts made by SparklesTheClown

If anyone in the MUing world on my massive and very old email contact list got a thing asking you to join a dating site, it's because I accidentally pressed a button that invited my entire contact list to the site >__>.

Which parts of being in IC relationships, be they romantic and/or sexual or even otherwise, bind the players as well as the characters? For example...

• If your PC is going to cheat IC on another character do you feel obligated to let your partner's player know?

I would let them know because I myself have had some incredibly bad experiences with this. And some people have had to deal with toxic players in the past who build expectations and then break them because it's "IC". It can make a lot of people have a lot of sensitive feelings regarding this, so I see it as a common courtesy to communicate. But RP should involve plenty of communication even beyond this anyway.

• Do you think you are responsible for a character whose roleplay is related to yours if your paths are to separate? In other words do you feel guilty someone else's PC might become quote/unquote unplayable because of your IC choices?

Obviously, because I'm not a dick and RP is about multiple people having fun, not just me.

• Very closely related to the above, what if the choice that takes a PC mostly off the table is OOC? For instance if you stop being active on my PC's spouse to play an alt with Theno's PC. Do I have the moral high ground to get pissed off?

That is kind of a line. If I get tired of playing a particular character, I'll communicate that and try my best to work something out to try to alleviate things as possible. But obviously I expect a level of maturity from people I play with. But, additionally, I don't usually enter into relationships with characters played by people I don't feel comfortable playing with, or have good communication with. Meaning, I don't do relationship RP with complete strangers who I haven't had time to feel out.

• When it comes to TS what's the correct way to suggest it? Do you let the RP become more explicit until the big words come out or you get told no? Do you page the other player first and explicitly ask if they want to do it? Something else?

I don't really suggest TS. If a scene is headed in that direction, I page and say "Hey, if you need to fade or anything that's cool, though I'm fine either way". Though if I know someone and we're on the same page on this stuff, and we have a comfortable OOC rapport, I'm perfectly fine being like "Hey let me slam them yams".

• Assuming OOC consent between adult players is there anything in an IC relationship, including TS, that you consider unethical? No, I'm not going to give examples since I'm keeping this classy! But you can.

I mean don't fuck kids I guess. Kind of lowkey weird. I know this will make some of you mad but I said what I said.

@Jaunt Atonement actually sounds amazing. It's -veeeery- similar to String Theory, a dystopian future Heroes MUX (Based on the TV show Heroes). We had "seasons", though it was both player and staff driven, it was extremely successful.

It had a planned ending and got to the final season of things, though the nature of the theme meant that it wasn't an entirely loose-end tying climax. To celebrate the anniversary, one of the main plot runners wrote up a pretty interesting thing about the nature of the ending, which was fun.

That's really cool though, even though sad (I like happy endings because I'm a sappy bastard). I could definitely see playing something like Atonement.

@surreality I didn't mean fame the stat. Fame as a stat honestly doesn't make sense to me. It's like saying "I'm famous because I have a certain number in this stat". I prefer organic fame, where you're legitimately known and a big deal because you actually did shit in the game and the world ICly has a reason to care. This is obviously only possible in a game with an actually coherent world, though.

The -only- way that I think fame as a stat should be gained is by actually doing shit, and getting rewarded fame by staff as a result. If you're going to be a celebrity, then work for it. If you're going to be some famous hero or whatever, then do shit. But fame as a stat in a game with no coherency or consistency is completely and utterly pointless.

But personally, if I was running a WoD game, I would completely abolish fame as a system, period. It would simply not exist. It's stupid. I'd keep influence for organizations, but that's all. If you want to be famous, do shit. If people don't know who you are and don't care about you, you're not famous.

My DNA is getting sent to a genetic testing lab, and I'm getting blood work done, to see what psych meds might work best for me.

The initial impression is that I might have a severe undiagnosed form of depression, ditto on the anxiety, ADHD, and PTSD.

@L-B-Heuschkel When I was 13 I got catfished by a 10 year old pretending to be 12.

I broke things off and she started sending very long messages about how much she loves and misses me and all of this stuff >__<.

These were the AOL days. I still know her and am not allowed to ever bring it up to her lol.

@surreality said:

That was the original plan. There was... really quite a lot of screaming.

Honestly, that's one of the pitfalls of the WoD community, I feel like. People devolve to screaming and mob rule because it -works-. On some level staff needs to be willing to say fuck off when it comes to decisions that could possibly be good for the game, and not get held back by people who piss their pants at the idea of trying something new.

What the fuck is this thread I just randomly remembered it exists.

@Groth said in Diversity Representation in MU*ing:

Wouldn't all the techniques involved in writing a good POC-centric setting also apply to writing any other fantasy or science fiction setting?

After all a well-written setting should portray unique and interesting cultures in a way that teaches the reader how to portray it and tell their stories in it. This is something I think a lot of setting books do a rather poor job of, often they're written as little more then an atlas giving geographic and demographic information while giving you almost no advice on how to properly portray someone who is from there.

I certainly don't disagree. To be perfectly honest, I find a good chunk of the way fantasy races have been historically written to be a bit shallow. Much of how I write any cultures or races in my tabletop work is more or less to address the lack of depth that I've seen in fantasy race writing in the past. I never really considered the way I did the POC type stuff to be related, but you're right in that it's ultimately the same thing.

I do genuinely find a lot of settings I read to be very dry and lacking in actually informing about the people who live there. A lot of things just exist because they're supposed to exist and that is the trope or established setting thing. So yeah, I fully agree with you, I think this is how any race, fantasy or otherwise, should be done.

@Thenomain said:

All the time people complain that there is not enough ice cream that's not been done before, and you take them to a place that does burnt sugar and salted caramel and gelato made with real lilac, and they order vanilla.

Repeating an old idea does not mean it's not still very good. WoD By Night remains popular because of its popularity, as well as people's laziness. I don't think this is the hobby to count laziness as a cardinal sin, but we can still accept it for what it is.

But discouraging new ideas by saying "The old ways work just fine" is pretty much just encouraging stagnation rather than growth.

I have been self-isolating for years. AMA

Before I became a sex weirdo I was super freaked out about people being the opposite gender, but also I was like 18 lmao.

Also @Rinel is basically one of my top favorite RPers and we've barely RPed. I really need to get back into the swing of Arx things.

@Jaunt A training wheels approach is certainly interesting. Though perhaps the problem might be with the dig command in of itself. There are probably more intuitive and time saving ways to do building period, that don't involve digging room after room. We'll see.

I'm gonna remove myself from the discussion for the moment, mostly to collect my thoughts on it and write out an actually fleshed out idea for this baby's-first-MU package. I'll poke at the Evennia people as suggested earlier.

Very belatedly, as I haven't posted outside of Hog Pit in a while.

I forgot I was posting about my grandmother here. She's basically fully recovered, though she has diabetes now thanks to my parents never fucking listening to me, so I'm trying to get this house better than it was before so that she can return.

Also trying to kick my roommate out because I'm basically sick of dealing with bullshit like having to listen to a 15 minute excuse for why he can't flush the toilet, and then he acts like I'm the bad guy.

I will have a new roommate soon. A MUSHing friend who I actually want to live with, rather than a shitty emergency situation like I'm in now.

I'm selling my expensive synth to buy two other synths because basically I've realized that I can get more from these other two and they function more practically. My current synth is great, but I ran up against its limitations in that to get the sounds I want requires so much programming to the point that I basically never use it.

If you're curious what I'm gonna use the money to buy in its place: https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/Wavestate--korg-wavestate-wave-sequencing-synthesizer

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/OPSIX--korg-opsix-altered-fm-synthesizer

If you aren't familiar with synthesizers, they might look basically the same. But they are veeeeeeeeeery different beasts that make veeeeeeeery different sounds. One is a primarily sample based synth that is kind of a more advanced version of the Wavestation from 30 years ago (just listen to the Donkey Kong Country soundtracks and imagine the technology advancing 30 years).

The Opsix is an FM synthesizer... just listen to any Sega Genesis game soundtrack and imagine the technology advancing 30 years (but Streets of Rage is the best example, because Yuzo Koshiro is a genius FM programmer).

I've lost about 30 pounds in the last two months, due to suddenly shifting to a permanently better way of eating, and also working out a lot and lifting weights. But I'm also stressed out for reasons I can't quite put my finger on. Feels like it's lots of small reasons. But either way, hopefully I'll be done with those things too. I feel like everything is going well, aside from needing to kick my roommate out. So I don't know, I'm sure I'll figure it all out soon. I even got my roof patched up. I can't afford a full replacement, but for now it's patched up enough to keep rain and stuff out.

@Ominous said in Diversity Representation in MU*ing:

@HelloProject

Ominous glomps you.

This evil must be destroyed.

The point isn't to make things more advanced, it's to use advancements in technology to make them -simpler-.

There's something I've often said, for years, not really to do with code or anything, but with, like, I guess nerds? We have this disconnect when it comes to what we know how to do and find simple and easy, and what other people know how to do and find simple and easy.

We're used to certain things, we think, "Well, this is easy to me, so obviously it couldn't possibly be any simpler". I've met people who had trouble figuring out how typing urls into a browser worked. And guess what? It could be easier.

That disconnect from everyone else, where we think, "Why can't they just -do- it, it's so simple!" is reflected in the fact that our hobby has barely evolved from a period where computers were considered almost totally inaccessible to people who weren't hardcore nerds.

It's not a flaw to be so good at things that one finds those things simple, because those things have become a part of your everyday skills. But when thinking of what's simple and what isn't, I think of this on two levels. What's simple for me, and what's simple for someone who has absolutely zero knowledge of the thing I know how to do. I feel like it's a great way to think in order to think of how things can be innovated and simplified.

I'm still working on a proposal for the Evennia people in between writing work that I'm actually getting paid for, so I think I should be able to illustrate what I mean soon.

You all need the power of positivity, so as your local magic negro (I'm not even sure if I'm allowed to say that, and I'm a black guy), I will give you a reprieve from the hellish torments of the hobby this week.

Taiwan is the first Asian country to rule in favor of same sex marriage.

Look at these adorable 100 year old twins!

A lady went from homelessness to Harvard graduate!

Nicki Minaj literally does more humanitarian work than a saint.

Nintendo is a champion to the blind!

@bored I mean if by weasel clause you mean literally what I said. If you refuse to actually read what I said then I can't help you.

And right now the discourse mostly seems to be that you're pissed off and pretty much wholeheartedly ignoring any actual arguments that people are making and just kind of popping off.

Like what am I supposed to do with that?

You're saying all of this in direct response to me pointing out that maybe this other dude should stop making strawman arguments. And Cirno has pretty much always been a psychotic asshole, pretty much every racial argument he's ever made about a game, everyone has immediately pointed out as bullshit if they were on the same game as him.

Like, I really don't get what you want here. What you're saying isn't even making any sense. If I say something and you go "well what you said in this case actually didn't count because ???" or whatever you're doing with that, then i can only presume that anything else I'll say will also be "I'm only going to focus on this very specific part of what you're saying that has already been addressed or is already clear by the literal context of the same post".

You're pretty much taking what I'm saying, putting it in a different context, and pretty much wholeheartedly ignoring the entire discussion happening, and then arguing with that. That and the fact that you're clearly pissed off for what I can only presume is literally no reason, so like, I'm just kind of not going to respond until you chill?

So like, I know a lot of you guys are more WoD types, but I thought I'd take a break from being an internet person to say that I've been freelancing on a project. I can't talk about it in detail, but Aethera is basically a third party sci-fi Pathfinder game that we're working on. There are a lot of previously published professionals on our team, and the project lead has done all sorts of stuff. Me personally, I'm one of the newbies, but it's been an interesting learning experience.

I thought I'd share links to what's currently available. I'm not in charge of releasing any of the information, so I can't tell anyone anything that isn't in those links, unfortunately!

http://www.aetherarpg.com/

https://twitter.com/AetheraRPG

https://www.facebook.com/AetheraRPG

This shit is hilarious and we all need to enjoy it for posterity. If it doesn't make you laugh I don't know what will.

Banned from LoL

Incidentally, trans women are indeed women.

And also.