Posts made by Sunny

If you guys figure out a system that works for Amber, keep me in the loop with the modifications made with it to make it work. I have an Amber OTT I have on hold currently because lots and lots of reasons, but one of the major problems I have with picking it back up is finding a system that isn't ridiculously awful that my players won't stab me for. Amber Diceless seems awesome as long as everyone is on the same page, but at a certain point things break down.Partial powers does NOT help. I hate conjuration and sorcery with a passion, because as ST I have to regularly say no, with a reasoning of 'because it'll cause a problem' and then there's that whole fight and I end up wanting to stab people in the face and....yeah.

Keep me updated.

Medication that makes me Dory-brained. I can completely function, speak coherently, function in the moment until a- I get distracted, or b- the next moment when I have now forgotten what I just said five seconds ago.

@Silver said:

@Sunny My opinion of you because of this story kind of went up a lot.

Well, I have a leadership role in a business area that does incoming calls for the rest of the agency -- I can't say it's call center work because there are so many differences -- and I know how it can be. This girl was spot on. Textbook best business practices. We're talking checking back in with me while I was on hold, and not sounding at all resentful about it. Calling me back, because we got disconnected. Asking my permission to put me on hold. Listened to me vent my issue, then asked questions. Tone and word choice, she owned my problem and she was going to get it fixed.

If one of my employees managed a call as perfect as that, I would want to know. That's stuff you ought to get put in your file.

ETA: She paraphrased my problem back to me, too. I knew there was one more thing.

@Arkandel said:

Fridays.

Fuck yes.

Another thing I love: Getting to call a customer support agent's supervisor to be able to genuinely say that the agent went so above and beyond in being helpful that I felt the need to call back after the call and make sure her supervisor knew what a good job she did. She said it was going to be documented and put in the young woman's file as a best practices thing, and I was assured that she would be appropriately recognized for her outstanding customer service.

It was hilariously funny though, because none of the people I spoke to in trying to get said young woman's supervisor initially believed they were hearing what I was saying correctly. I guess people don't call in to say 'good job' enough, given how startled they all were.

@SG said:

I think you've found out how to do it right. Have a bit of humour going on. Basically, make a scene FUN rather than a stressfest that nobody else enjoys.

Yeah, it's all in intention, I think. I do it to entertain myself and the people I play with (he's so fun to pick on), rather than to be an actual ass. You basically made my point much more succinctly. If you play an ass with the goal of entertaining not just yourself, but other people as well...it's not generally going to be awful. If you're doing it just for yourself, or you're playing an Entirely Serious Character from an OOC perspective, probably going to have an issue.

@Three-Eyed-Crow

I used to get SUPER defensive whenever the topic of metaposing came up, because I almost always do a fair bit of my-own-PC-mocking in my poses amongst other things. Eventually, I really did realize that when people said 'no, no, not how you do it, that's fine' that it was actually the case.

I am playing the biggest asshole ever on KD right now, and it's hilarious. He is the most sexist, condescending jerk I have ever played by far and away. We are talking plates of food dumped in his lap first scene to making people make composure checks when he opens his mouth and the views come out. He's usually alright, if he is pretty sure the audience won't be receptive, but occasionally it spills out.

He is one of the EASIEST characters I have ever had to find RP with. I take him out and people are always OH GOD WHAT IS HE GOING TO DO NEXT? and then there are people. Even better than that, the character tends to grow on people despite everything. I tend to call it him dimpling his way out of trouble (dimple smiles fix everything).

There's a few keys to it, I've found:

In nearly every single pose that I make with people who don't know me, and my PC is being an asshole, I include at least one meta sentence acknowledging he's a jerk, usually mocking him for it.

Make people laugh, be over the top a little, get that 'oh my god I can't believe he just SAID THAT' thing going on.

I try to preload people, as well. FYI, this character is a jerk, I know it, feel free to abuse him.

Then again, the character is definitely there to be a punching bag, so that's probably different than most people who play assholes, too. I went into it with full intention of laughing hysterically whenever he reaps what he...uhm. Sow is a pig. Sew is thread. Uuuuuh. Reaps what he planted. Fucking Dory brain.

@Cobaltasaurus

While I'm certainly sympathetic to your point, if the kid was kicking somebody in the head, that's a massive parenting problem regardless of the conditions involved. I would advocate for keeping that particular child home, if they genuinely cannot help but kick people in the head. Maybe that makes me a bad person, but there has got to be a point where tolerance stops. Generally I would think that would be a bit before the point where someone is getting kicked in the head.

@JaySherman said:

So far the deadline situation is just sort of hanging in neutral. Player A has been asked to make some changes to their character by X date. If said player does anything that has even a whiff of manipulative behavior, they'll go out the door for that immediately. They're on their last warning.

I've seen a game die out from under me for the fact that I stuck with my ethics, but in the end, when I made another game, the fact that I had not been a spineless wimp and stuck to my guns earned me a reputation that made the second last longer. I had one queen bee on the dead game that wanted me to start firing people she didn't personally like and threatened that she'd walk and take her friends with her if I didn't. The accused player had done absolutely nothing wrong, and I wasn't about to let Queenie turn me into her personal hatchet man just because she threatened to leave and take her activity with her. I told her she'd just have to walk, and not to let the door hit her on the way out. She did indeed leave and activity died out, but I figured that if no one was biting on the theme, I'd just close it and make another. I'd rather close and game and start over than get pushed around by scumbag players for months or years.

Yeah, and in that case, I'd absolute advocate sticking to your guns. It all comes down to protecting the people that you should be, really.

@JaySherman

Honestly, guy? Yes, you said you were going to wait / there was an agreement. However, your decision has been made and you are prolonging a damaging situation. One should always strive towards keeping your word and consistency, but there does become a time where you're letting it trap you. The policies of your game are there to help you, not make things more difficult for you. I have been by the-letter-of-the-rules watched my own game die before.

Something to think about.

For fantasy, I always recommend Michelle West's books (The Sunsword series, the Huntbrother two, the House War books - they're all in the same universe around the same time, and it's pretty epic in scale).

Also, Glen Cook's Black Company stuff. I usually don't like my fantasy dark or very gritty, but it was such a novel premise (the main characters are the bad guys is what I can say without spoiling) and so well written I couldn't put any of it down, really. All of his stuff is good, but the Black Company is worlds above the rest of it.

I probably said all this before. Enh.

I am really of the opinion that dirty laundry doesn't need to be aired in public; I also agree with Sponge that detailed negative posts about why a player is gone make people not involved uncomfortable. It really should just be as simple as:

'X has been banned from the game for a violation of our harassment policies. Please contact staff if you have any questions/need any resolution to stories.'

If someone's done something to deserve being banned, putting it up like that isn't going to do any harm.

Also, @JaySherman: Kill both player A and B with fire. Get rid of them: they are BOTH major problem sorts. They are not going to be any good for your game. Even a little bit. If it's a "friendship" that's being held hostage in any fashion, it's not actually a friendship and you're being used/manipulated.

@JaySherman said:

especially since it's one player who has fixated on me personally like the Obsessive Girlfriend meme. When you get emails with things like "you are not allowed to change the story between our characters because that is a symbol of our friendship" .... Yeah. Just yeah.

I am amazed nobody already said this. KILL IT WITH FIRE. RUN. GET RID OF IT. This is not at all the person you want anywhere near you, your game, or your players. If you're not comfortable with lighting it on fire for your own sanity, light it on fire for the sake of the next person that might have to deal with them. You are not the only one that is going to be subject to the behavior that is being displayed in your direction. This is crazy-person one oh one.

I know zombie is overdone and such right now, but iZombie is actually a cute little show. I'm enjoying it, at least.

Be a machine about it like me.

I've been doing a lot of these big things lately as the game I'm playing on really lends to it, and I'm trying to provide an easy-in for folks to meet other folks, but it can be pretty much a nightmare. Most folks have already mentioned what I would suggest for coping, but here's my thing:

1: Highlight names, your own characters' and anyone else's you need to be paying attention to.

2: Take breaks. If you have to do it more than an hour or two, have your PC step off to look at something else / get something to eat / use the powder room. Even 10-15 minutes where you have no requirement to read the rapidly scrolling text will help. Remove yourself from the situation, though. Don't just step afk and then have to catch up when you get back.

3: Caffeine.

4: If there are multiple rooms being used, use them. Places, same deal. If your host has not installed places in the room the event is being hosted in, beat them. (I'm fully aware, yes)

Other stuff, but those are the tips I have. Running them is something else entirely.

Oh, here's one: feel free to smack me on the head if you want me to make the attempt at breaking scenes up into smaller ones. The big things don't bother me for some insane reason.

If you want to use a couple of pages on one of mine to sketch stuff out, just let me know. The format is less important than the content -- what commands you need, what you hope that they will do, what your goal is with the command.

You don't have to be able to code, but you should be able to present your request in a format that conveys to someone with code ability what it is you actually need. I have found that doing that has always made it far easier to find someone to help me.

@Rook said:

@Sunny Are wikis the New Thing for MU*s? I thought that was just a passing fad. But, no seriously, are games expected to have wikis now?

I can't precisely answer that; I expect a wiki, or at least a webpage with all of the important information on it. Others? Maybe, maybe not. I want to be able to easily access everything I'll have to read, in a decent format. Could I play on a game without one? Surely. It would be a really hard sell to get me there initially, though.

It would be really helpful for you if you were to put up a wiki page, something like this:

http://fort.chrysalis.me/wiki/Code_List

Sketch out those systems that you know what you want them to do, listing it out. Then you can come to the community a little more specific with 'does anyone have code that can do these things' and so on. People are more likely to help if they know precisely what it is you need.

Pretty sure that my dad's side of the family, well. My grandfather is German, first generation, came to the US with quite a bit of wealth just after world war two. Grandmother is British. On the other side of things is a mix, predominately Irish, Welsh, and Dutch; according to our ancestry trail of things, we started English, went to Ireland and went native, then came over and were dirty Irish for a good long while until we came out west (at which point the Dutch got involved).

I'm white. I don't think we have owned slaves, but I am pretty sure my grandfather's wealth was earned in very awful ways.

I will also throw out as a point of note relative to this discussion is that up where I live, the nasty racist crap you hear on a consistent basis is far more against Hispanics than anyone else.

I think we need your wiki before anybody's going to volunteer; personally I need to see the policies of the place and the way you're handling all the things before I could really say, though I know of a couple of people that might very well be interested. But. Wiki. Puh-lease.