Important: You can't always sniff out potential offenders before anything happens, and I try to treat everyone very well, even when I have a bone to pick with that person, so this is not a guide to keep sexual harassment 100% off your life, but what works with me to keep it 100% from growing past the point of 'Okay, now I am uncomfortable.' This worked out well with me so far, and I hope it helps someone out there.

1. When it gets to The Point where you are uncomfortable and things have taken a weird turn, do not dwell on 'did I do anything to lead us here'. The important thing is that you are clear, and polite, about stopping it. Start logging and reply the following: "Hey, dude, is it okay if we didn't talk or take things in this direction? I am not really comfortable with that and I would like it to stop. We good?" Most harassers will not take the hint, but the good people who are, maybe, overly excited, will. No, not everyone who wants to bone your character is a (total) weirdo.

2. If the person insists, then you have an issue, and while still logging (cannot reiterate enough, log this shit) you reply: "Look, I asked one, and pretty nicely. Nothing like this, at all, is happening, ever. If this is not the last time we ever talk about this, I am going to staff. Please stop."

3. If you have a harasser that goes on beyond that, LOG THE CONVERSATION and contact staff and send the logs. Be nice to staff, they are probably going to read some weird shit, but demand action.

4. If staff fails to do anything, and you have followed these steps, then leave the game, Hog Pit it, bring the logs, and go at it. There is no shame in doing everything right and being harassed.

Add-ons:

i. Do not give your instant messaging information, or ANY personal information, to people you know for less than two months in a MU. That helps when the person reveals to be some psycho.

ii. If a game has a weird atmosphere you feel contributes to this sort of behavior, leave. The emotional stress is not worth playing a werewolf, your favorite hero or in some fictional universe you dig.

iii. Shed light on the subject. You are hardly going to get lambasted for trying to reason with a creep and failing. Moreover, letting the community know what is going on, with PROOF, is a good way to protect others, men or women.

iv. Do not go through steps 1 and 2, only to TS the person or have a sex-filled page talk with them. That will undermine the seriousness of your request and your case. If you made this mistake, you SHOULD still go to steps 3 and 4, but learn and do not repeat the mistake next time.

Did I say log everything?

1. Opening the game is only 10% of the work, tops, and that is if you put a LOT of work in your game to begin with.

2. No matter what you do, people will say you are this or that, that you are doing it wrong, and that you are worst than Hitler (tm). If you can't take that, do not open a game.

3. That people you thought were friends are going to go haywire on you for decisions you make you hope will benefit the whole game. If you can't take that, don't open a game.

4. Advice: Experimenting is more than fine. Don't be afraid to test stuff out just because other MUs don't.

5. You must stay on the ball at ALL times. One week drama coincides with you being under the weather can be the perfect shitstorm.

6. Making a good game doesn't equal having lots of logins. Having a lot of logins doesn't equal to having made a good game.

7. "Good Game" is the white whale of MUdom. Make a game you are proud of. That is all you can really do.

8. People get SUPER invested in games they play. Be ready to meet people halfway, and knowing when to push forward based purely on gut feeling. Be ready for 2) either way.

9. Advice: Don't do a game for anyone other than yourself, and hope others will like it.

10. DOING JOBS SUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCKS.

@auspice said in Stranger Than Fiction MUX:

Mod Voice
I have gotten report of a supposed "MSB plot" to take down this game. I don't know if there is any truth, whatsoever, to this. I don't know if it was a joke, if it was a few people trolling and when they got found out they decided to point fingers this way to try to cover their own ass, or what.

What I do know is that no one on the moderation staff here condones any sort of behavior in regards to 'taking down' games, trolling games, or otherwise misbehaving on them. And we certainly don't appreciate anyone doing so in MSB's name.

... does it REALLY need to be said, in a Mod Voice, that MSB doesn't condone with... ... plots to take down low activity games with weird policies?

People are complaining about how long it takes to get approved, but I have never been in a game where someone has not only READ my background, but sat with me and worked the kinks of it all to make me fit their setting, WHILE adding to the things I had in mind at first.

Please do keep up doing what you guys are doing. I rather wait for a week than the alternative.

@kanye-qwest I think she referred to limiting these concepts as opposed to outright prohibiting them. Fact is that in ASOIAF there are not many female warriors, and they are almost exclusively from exotic or bizarre cultures. If I make a Mormont woman, I would be kinda pissed if I was told I can't be a fighter, but a Lannister woman that fights is very bizarre. Limiting these concepts isn't bad, in theory, but... "in theory" is a one hell of an asterisk.

To say nothing of the fact that many of the female fighters are... not on par with their male counterparts. That is just not how the world works, but if you try to explain that to most players (who are not obsessed with the source material) I bet it would go poorly. "Why can't I have Strength 5!?" // "You are a woman, and unless you are some massive ho like Brienne, that ain't happening" usually doesn't end up well.

Now, how do they decide who can or cannot make an exotic concept like Oberyn, for example, or Brienne, that has me curious!

This thread is yet another cautionary tale about the toxic superficiality that permeates most interactions in this hobby. There seems to be a real lack of nuance in how this is all dealt with.

At this rate we will need an apology section in this forum.

The fun thing the Old World of Darkness is that it felt... like it was proud of what it was and that made me feel like it was worth investing my time into.

Not everyone enjoyed the Tzimisce or the Glass Walkers or Nagah, but there they were, and they were not going anywhere. It not only made Baba Yaga a thing in the setting, but also the zmei-controlling, former Mage/Disney princess who learned not-Thaumaturgy sorcery, erected a supernatural barrier that made Russia a no-go zone and ruled the Motherland, and had some ties with the Talons of the Wyrm, the Crescent Moon and the vampire politics there.

Don't like it? Don't go to Russia. Or just ignore the book on your own volition. But it was never like nWoD. "There are rumors of a powerful witch in Russia. Maybe. I don't know. Unless you don't like that? Because if you don't, she doesn't exist. Ohmigod, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Okay. We were kidding. ... Unless you like the idea?" That is how nWoD feels to me. A bunch of superficial ideas thrown into a book, in the most pretentious way possible, but it never sells you that it is awesome and that you should love it and sink your teeth into their books and setting.

It was designed as a tool kit, and oWoD was designed as a world on its last, dying breath. One of them may be fun to play and all, but the other made you involved, made you want to buy the next book to see what was up.

And if it was shit? Then you acted like a normal person and bitched about it to your friends and hated on Albrecht because fuck that guy.

And then you bought the next one. =|

I can safely say I am not passionate about -anything- on nWoD. And I am not someone who played oWoD for 15 years then transitioned. By the time I started playing, oWoD was almost done in the US. It is just not the nature of the beast. You may argue 'Oh, the Daeva are SO well-designed! So elegant!' but I find it hard to believe anyone would think they are more creative than the Kuei-jin or more interesting than the Baali or Tremere.

I just don't see it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPRmFJ_U8Ug

Very interesting video. I don't know if we can attach youtube videos on the forum, but the link is up there. Really good, coming from someone who knows a thing or two about what they are saying.

Have some easy-to-find, constantly-updated list of games.

Keep the Hogpit in the Hogpit

Keep the Advertisement Threads free of nasty bashing (although I do feel like players should be free to post in them things like "Had bad experiences with this game. Will explain in the Hogpit").

@Ghost Does it come with a list of coders willing to make a non-dumpster fire oWoD MU? Will pay double for that.

This is a beautiful wiki!

@Ganymede

Most groups only have two out of Coding Skills, Long Term Motivation and Good Teamwork, and all of them are required in sufficient amounts to see a proper game built from ground up with all that is needed in the time it takes, imo.

@Thenomain I understand that desire, but... that doesn't tell me much. There are so many tribes in MUSHing that this is basically a way of saying 'People want to play with people they like'.

There are people who cannot stand anyone who doesn't play to theme.

There are people who cannot stand anyone who talks politics on OOC Rooms (fuck people who do this btw).

There are people who cannot stand anyone who has pretty wikis, or who talks in OOC, or who picks PB X or Order Y. Desc too much? Hate. Desc too little? Hate. Purple prose? Fuck you. TS? Oh, you lowly beast! It goes on forever. This community is nitpicky af.

Who is this magical staff who will have a healthy game, but can keep out "killjoys" and trolls? It is all way too idiosyncratic in my opinion, so I go with how things have always been: keep out the people who are universally reviled (Rex and co) and have a big enough game that people who hate each other don't have to interact with each other and can still have fun.

This is basically the MU community anyway.

@silverfox said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

I am REALLY sensitive to visual violence and gore. I just can't. Husband was watching 911 and I looked up just ONCE and burst into uncontrollable sobbing and still can't stop.

This sounds really crippling. Does this condition have a name?

@Ganymede said in What Types of Games Would People Like To See?:

@RDC said in What Types of Games Would People Like To See?:

Unpopular opinion: Generic CofD 2e game where the defining feature is that staff just kind of stay out of your way and let you play the game without metaplot or too much staff-lead politics and stuff. >.>

It's a fair opinion to have, but I have not seen this work in practice for longer than a few months.

Isn't this basically Fallcoast? I don't think people want metaplot as much as they want stable, massive alt-friendly places they can just have their own thing going on and meet new people that suit their fancy. A WoD-flavored Second Life sorta thing, and I say that without any prejudice. Would.

There is no coming back from what they have already spoiled and ruined.

Cersei #1

Not a fan of the setting. Frozen New York felt more interesting, but not being North American, DC isn't as recognizable to me!

Otherwise a flawless demo so far.

Colorado was dope!

@faraday This game is WoD, but 'none of that weird theme' . Where are the WoD games? Where are the modern supernatural horror games? Nowhere. This game just found a starving player base after the fall of WoD. How hard is this to understand?