Posts made by Sunny

@silentsophia said:

Also, woop mage.

There it is.

@GentlemanJack

I agree with you completely. I'm handling it the same way, but my place is much more informal than yours is shaping up to be. I would just want some sort of process in place from you for the site itself that says: this is, ultimately, the process you need to follow if you have a problem. Having a 'hey, GJ isn't around' red button to push would probably also help, dunno what it should do, though.

Then of course there's the 'I think this guy is a problem, major, but I'm actually the one that's a psycho' thing. So while it's mostly hands off for you having some sort of structure there in advance saves you from the headsplody of on-the-spot.

Thank you for editing out the Ratkin anal sex. Ratkin anal sex should probably always be edited out of anything. This is making me laugh far, far more than I should.

@GentlemanJack

It doesn't work for people who know how the heck to get around it, but most mushers are not that technically apt (see: you providing this service because omg shell account scary). I had to siteban someone from my tiny little friends and family site, pretty much everyone is going to have someone like this eventually.

So, instead of a siteban (if that doesn't work in your opinion), what sort of thing are you going to do to help protect people from harassment? Hooking it onto a specific bit is not an effective solution when people can just create a new bit.

I'm soooo not trying to be discouraging with this at all, or challenging, or anything else. This is a wonderful amazing idea and I encourage it 110%, this is just something I never thought about for my site until it came up. (I still don't have a graceful solution, myself.)

Dear god this is amazing. I have a site where a couple of my lovely friends that code (I am not outing you, y'all can do that) have put some stuff together to let us host a ton of different systems themselves on one site, but not like that. If you want to come poke around and take a look to see some of what they've done (I can't give anything away, but I can let you look!), you're more than welcome to. We are NOWHERE near as advanced as this, but the baby steps of different room parents / dice rollers / character sheets / etc are mostly in place.

This is an excellent idea and service for a million and one reasons that I do not quite have the time to squeal about, but you are amazing and wonderful and if I can help (I do not code well at all) please let me know.

I do have questions for consideration, though -- it's something we ran into on my site. What if I, as a staffer, feel a need to siteban someone? What if someone else does, but I like having that player in my game?

ETA: Do have makes way more sense than have do.

@Misadventure said:

But does that emotional investment mean that you are in a romantic relationship with your PCs romantic interest, or their player? Cuz that's the thing that I see as destructive.

This is such a basic question that I'm uncertain why it's even being asked. No? Of course not. Anyone with even the slightest amount of IC/OOC separation knows that's not the case. Even the crazy crazy crazy people, when asked this question, do actually know that they are not in a relationship with the player.

Psycho isn't in emotional investment / the amount or intensity or specifics of the emotions involved, whatsoever. It is in the behavior in relation to those emotions, the understanding that this isn't real.

I bawled at the ending of Big Hero 6, occasionally cry at cartoons, won't watch most horror movies because I get genuinely afraid (Signs had me spooked for weeks). I know these things aren't real. They still get an emotional reaction -- occasionally, a really intense emotional reaction. I will not read / watch GoT, even though it's generally up my alley, because it caused me emotional distress when one of my favorite characters died when I was first reading the books once upon a time. Is this normal? Probably not, I'm an incredibly sensitive and emotional person and everyone knows this. One can probably relate my current medical condition somehow to the fact that fucking Titan AE makes me cry.

Even so, I'm only a little crazy in terms of roleplayers. I'm self-aware, I know I get emotionally involved, but I don't behave in a way that makes other people uncomfortable (and I check myself and my boundaries alllll the time to ensure this is the case).

Feelings are not bad. Regardless, period. It's the behaviors associated with those feelings that some people think are OK that are the problem.

I cannot imagine playing a character without some sort of genuine emotional investment in it.

Little further discussion, things pointed out to me:

Your XP spent always would benefit you, it's just that sometimes that benefit is similar to buying a secret society merit (or whatever) that just opens up the ability to buy other things.

Some sort of IC mechanism (quest, goo, something) needs to be present to allow people to 'respec'; with the world being malleable, the characters should be to a certain extent as well.

I like to randomly talk with people about game ideas I have, and this one came across in one of our discussions and I thought I'd see what folks thought. While I'm pretty committed to Victoriana for my own game (if I can stop playing KD long enough to do anything), I wonder if it might be worth exploring. Possibly as an OTT, possibly even as a mush, or something else entirely.

The whole game would basically be based on categories that points go into.

The game would include specific pre-work from the ST; the 'timeline of events', the triggers, whatever you want to call them. At #X, y happens. You can either just maintain an entire 'world' timeline, do it by area, or you could have separate category 'timelines'. Any number of things. What's important is that as the players (as a whole, it's a game level thing) spend points, it moves the ticker along the track. This ticker/timeline is behind the GM screen, so to speak.

Beginning of game: Everyone makes completely real-world sorts of people. Whoever they want to interesting people all on their own, but standard accepted reality no magic or monsters or super tech or super heroes or gods being real or any of it.

The game is played normally. People play. Initially, supernatural things are closed. Then, the ST would run 'plot number one', and depending on the choices and outcomes of that plot, the players can spend their XP in a number of ways.

• Increase self as is
• Buy points in whichever 'weirdness' category the conclusion of the plot allowed for.

Points spent in a weirdness category would do two (more?) things. It'd open up powers for them to buy, and it would move the timeline either along the world's line, or the specific weirdness bought. Whenever all the points put in by various players hit a milestone, whatever is supposed to happen at that point does.

To get access to things that are not open, either participate in the big chapter plot where that month's Game Points are allocated, or run a plot for other people, at which point staff would review the PRP log and assign a rating for folks for whichever category is appropriate.

Okay. That's the general idea.

--

So, I want to run a game. There's some things I know -- I want politics, a lot of opportunity for social stuff, and a huge focus on character goals and development. I also want to tell a coming of age type of story, so I know I want the world itself to go through a massive upheaval while right alongside, the characters all have the same thing happen to them.

My categories are:
Super Science!
Magic
Mutation
Mythology
Time Travel
Gothic horror creatures
Psychic Ability

So I do a few things; I have a 'world' category, and any points that anybody spends on anything add to that total. Every so often -- every month or two, figure out how many points that means for my game, adapt as I go --some big event triggers, predefined. For example, at 5000 points, the specific category with the most points becomes the dominant paradigm. Characters and the world changes accordingly. Game over? Restart? Same thing? Who knows.

But the second thing I do, of course, is my specific timelines. At 300 Gothic Horror Creatures hit, anyone could choose to have their character bit by a werewolf or vampire, or other strange things like Frankenstein's Monster. At 500 Time Travel points, the whole populace understands the fluid nature of time, that's how the world is. At 2000 Mythology points, people can start making Zeus's children.

I also, for each category, make sure I have laid out what people are getting for their points. So for that kick-start plot, the two options I give people to solve the problem, they end up going for Psychic Ability. So at the end of the plot, I tell them all: you can buy 10 points of psychic ability.

Then that's open for them, and they can go look and see what that lets them buy with their XP, going forward.

End result is that the system itself actually supports making sure that everyone who is playing has at least some amount of say in what sort of game they're playing. The trick is to just make sure that all your categories, as the ST, are things you would enjoy.

My suggestion would be find someone who doesn't play on your game but is good at chess style of things (and understands context, etc, etc) -- maybe even someone who doesn't mush anymore but wants a little bit of it. Get that person to do it, or maybe you could trade some lack of evil to one of your tabletop players of something for some time spent. If you at any point ever lose that person, the time between when you find one person and the next, the Nephandi are busy doing something 'big' and taking no real actions for a turn or two, or you briefly make those decisions yourself.

@Cirno said:

Is it Wrongfun?

Not until you shove it into my face.

That...sigh. DON'T SAY IT.

Whatever you do, NOBODY SAY ME. Reynard could use it, and he's the reason I went there in the first place so it's not even untrue! It's also something you'd do, to tell staff, rather than someone asking for it. =D I don't think they'll give it out even if you joined previous. The game has kind of had a bit of a population boom as of late.

Just to add a little more, obviously this topic has me a little riled up -- I am a survivor of a ridiculous number of things. If my life were a Lifetime movie nobody would ever, ever believe it. How am I still alive? I dunno.

Of all of the various bits of trauma I have had to deal with, rape is the only topic I would ever say 'please just don't ever go there'. The blast radius is huge. Not really the case with many other things.

@HelloRaptor said:

The list of terrible things that have happened to people is long and incredibly vile, but WoD has never made any bones about the fact that it does (sorry Sunny) cover all manner of vile story elements, up to, including, and surpassing rape. Do we really need to go over depicted uses of mental domination powers, physical abuse, torture, kidnapping and sexual sadism that have appeared in WoD books over the years? Because we've had this conversation before, and the list is incredibly long and detailed.

As I said, someone who's had those bad things happen to them can certainly speak up. Personally, child abuse is something I would put on the same level of rape. Please just don't, for the health and comfort of your fellow players.

Yes, it should be treated differently. If I'm playing a game with 'violence' as a theme, that does not imply rape or childhood sexual abuse. It does, however, imply people getting shot and/or stabbed with swords and/or any number of other things. It's on the tin. If I'm allergic to eggs and something is made out of eggs, it's generally going to say so on the package. Putting 'violence' on the tin, okay, maybe I should go play Harry Potter instead of The Greatest Generation if I'm dealing heavily with war related PTSD. I don't get to do that about rape! Usually, nobody writes 'oh btw rape happens here' on the tin. Instead, it's just like SURPRISE RAPE! Oh great, fuck you for making me twitch.

I have a secondary issue that similarly will mentally fuck me up. Deadly or nearly deadly car accidents. It is a stronger trigger for me than pretty much anything ever. RP, TV, Movies, books, whatever. I'll put it down or turn it off. When it comes into RP, it's easy to extract myself or not get into the situation in the first place, without fading to black, without violating my character, without having to deal with IC CONSEQUENCES for avoiding and/or ignoring this. Not so, with rape. Fuck, if I say 'I don't want to deal with childhood sexual abuse as a plot' people are like 'oh okay no big deal', but if I recoil from rape RP 'but it's the world of DARKNESS'.

I do not give a shit if people do it in private, or in a small circle of people, or whatever. I don't want to see it / hear about it. I don't want to see Suzie Snowflake using it to get the PC she wants to hook up with to hook up with her. It hurts. Yes, I can (and would) fade to black. Too late, though. Already twitching.

I pretty much address this with the same basic two questions/the test I try to apply to pretty much all policy sorts of decisions:

What harm does it do?
What good does it do?

I can see a lot of harm, and the list of good is.... Well. I can't think of any, but I'm sure somebody else could.

What is going on in this thread? I can't even figure it out any more!

@Arkandel

Edited to remove the lunatic raving: Sorry, clearly the topic got the better of me.

--
ETA: Mutter. To add: I can deal with this stuff. I can handle it, deal with it, w/e. Having it around in RP and whatnot isn't going to send me around the bend.

I still shouldn't have to.

Rape RP, specifically, is an issue when it involves / spills over to people that directly did not consent to it. It is different because of the type of mental impact that dealing with this specific line of RP can do to people, and the stigma PCs who try to ignore the RP receive when they can't deal with it because if your character is such a good person, why are they not...?

Somebody who's been shot during a robbery or something can speak up on this from their perspective, but I'm going to talk about this from the perspective of someone who was raped to try and explain why having to interact with rape RP at all is a problem when my PC murdering someone or character death or murder or whatever other crimes don't bother me.

There are two types of players that play characters that are raped IC. Those who have been raped, and those that have not been raped. Those that have not been raped tend to make light of / poorly portray / say and do things that are really, really, really offensive and hurtful to some of those that fall into the latter category. Watching some idiot essentially MOCK me about one of the most traumatizing things that have ever happened in my life is not something that feels good. It's just not.

Violence is in the theme of these games. Rape (or on this vein, childhood sexual abuse), a type of violence, is not specifically called out in violence. There are many, many, many things that you can use to brutalize a character suitably and get a similar end result to whatever you want -- there is no reason to employ something that is so fucking hard for certain people to deal with. Harm to good ratio here is waaaaaaaaay in favor of harm.

If somebody had had somebody shot in front of them and it traumatized them and it was a trigger, well, violence is in the theme of the game, they know by looking at the LABEL that it is not for them. Rape? There are probably only a handful of games where rape is actively part of the theme. If it was, believe me, I won't be playing there.

@Bobotron Me too.

http://www.king5.com/story/news/local/2015/04/27/north-thurston-high-school-shooter/26449025

--

Everyone, including the kid with the gun, was saved by the teacher's immediate action. It is worth mentioning that while Mr. Olsen is the one that actually got there first, the principal, the security officer, and at least one other adult were sprinting in the direction of the gunshots rather than away to do the same thing. We don't know how bad it could have been. Think about that next time you're making a decision that relates to our public school teachers.

The child in question did explain to the police that he did not plan on hurting anyone and was just attempting death by cop, being suicidal. It's why he was shooting at the floor/ceiling. Which is still dangerous, but the kid didn't know that.

Please remind your children that if one of their friends starts talking about suicide, it is better to tell somebody. It's not a break of their confidence, they could be saving somebody's life.

This story totally had a happy ending (the teacher in question is definitely a hero), but it also could have been prevented if one of the girls that said that he'd been having text conversations about ending his life with them had spoken up. It was more than one girl.

And to end it on a good stuff note:

When it happened, a number of kids in the area were told to run, on the basis that people heard the gunshots. My son did exactly what he was told. He ran. Out of the area, then off of campus, then the mile and a half to get home. I was like 'I don't think they meant you to come home' and he said 'my teacher just said run'.

Second, the school is situated right by a shopping area which includes a Safeway, a Starbucks, and a Lowe's. With the hundreds of kids fleeing the school (there's about 1400 students) as they were, the businesses stepped up, found places in said businesses that were secure and safe for all of them, and kept them there until district officials/parents were able to pick them up. They assisted in head-counts and alerting the district as to which children were where, helping LOTS with ensuring parents knew where to go find their children. All without being directed to do so.

The communication system the school has is great, too. About every hour as a parent of a kid there, I got a text message keeping me appraised of the situation. While my child was safe, had he not come running (heh heh heh) home, I would have really appreciated the frequency of the updates. Where the kids were, where we could find them, what was going on.

So many things could have gone wrong today, but between the staff of the school and our local community, everybody ensured that it all worked out.

My son's school had an active shooter today; one of the teachers tackled the kid immediately. Nobody was hurt.

@Misadventure Yes!

http://www.kushielsdebut.org/index.php/Where_We_Are_Not_Going

I didn't link that one in my previous post with the linkage, but yeah, they put this together to help folks out.

@Arkandel Peak right now seems to be 25-40 players; in the absolute dead of night (my time) there tends to be 5-6 people. People are often holed up in what look like private areas, but usually they will flock if somebody goes out in public, or just asking 'hey, anyone want to play?' generally gets plenty of bites. Tons of super friendly people who want to make sure everyone is having a good time.