Posts made by surreality

Would recommend 1 FC and 1 OC also as per suggestion elsethread; you could also offer 2 OCs and no FCs if you felt like it. Would be reasonable. ‘No more than two charbits; no more than one can be an FC’ essentially.

First off, it’s weirdly refreshing to see someone Who would rather err on the side of caution rather than just diving in to something* with none fucks given regarding whatever theme, setting, or canon is involved, @Collective. I think you’re probably being overly cautious in this case, but I want to point out what you’ve described as being worthy of whatever sort of awesome points there are for two reasons: first being the ‘you care about how your characters may impact the game reality’ thing — which not everyone does, and it can get hugely problematic — and second being the way you describe handling it: disclose, ask, discuss. In other words, acting like an actual mature adult with respect for those around them.

It’s a damnable shame anyone has to over a question of IC sexuality to me, since I have to say I’m with @ixokai on this one 100% here, but this does not diminish the level of ‘damn, it’s refreshing to see someone ask about these things because they give a damn’.

I mean this in the broadest sense, too — be it canon characters (I would include roster characters on a game with them in the same category here) or setting elements or IC history— man, I wish more people asked about stuff. Not just to avoid stepping into an expectations bear trap of some kind, either, but because whatever that element is someone is asking about when apping a character or doing something new with an existing one, it gives the folks being asked (presumably staff) the chance to hook them up with more info they might have, more options they know of that might not be readily apparent to a new player that are opened up because of the thing they want to do differently, etc. I loved giving people info like this to run with whenever I staffed; it’s admittedly less relevant with this specific example, but the general premise holds.

Essentially, there’s a lot of active support that staff can generally toss a player’s way, the more they know, to help the person hit the ground running. That this chance is often lost is more wince-worthy to me than people plowing ahead with something that for whatever reason really doesn’t work and potentially getting someone’s knickers in a knot over it. That so many staffers throw away that chance (without some circumstance like being so overworked there’s just no time) is even more bleah.

@auspice Ugh. That is a weird question, and it would have thrown me, too. If there is no goal (point in doing) a thing, it’d be hard for me to justify doing it at all on the clock on someone else’s dime. I probably would have had to ask for an example of what they meant. Granted, I have been self employed for years, but...

I think Q&A in the ad thread should be permitted, with the following caveat: once the game runner or a member of staff provides an answer to the question posed to them, answer has been given; unless the game owner is asking for input about that topic, it’s not the place to debate it. (And, really, staff or the player who contributed the content if such is allowed, should be the ones answering.)

Ideally, post #2 in the thread coul be a FAQ listing such questions with a link to the answer post.

Beachcombing. Seriously instant zen. Especially when neat things are found.

Funny when the husband wants to leave because he’s afraid it will start to rain again until I found an old C3PO happy meal toy in a tangle of seaweed, at which point he decided to give it another go.

So I guess I also my husband’s weakness for his longest held geekery. It is kinda adorkable.

‘Old ads’ for games that have closed is a good call.

I would recommend a ‘Games in Dev’ section. Currently, they seem to end up scattered somewhat; keeping them in a home of their own may help with both focus and to corral wayward threads.

Re: alts. If the game allows FC and OC chars, one of each strikes me as best practice. Keeps FC camping to a minimum and encourages broader use, and ideaaly acceptance of, OCs.

And off for about two weeks.

May check in from the phone but comments will likely be shorter than this, because I finger type for complete crap.

(Seriously, I still have a love/hate thing for the friend of mine who wise-assedly made me type out 'Massachusetts' in full while passing through it once just to watch me struggle through two minutes of trying to manage that one. Ooooh, all the fuming-while-trying-not-to-laugh for that one!)

@arkandel The self-awareness thing is why I tabled RP and any dev for the foreseeable future. I know I'm not in the headspace for it, and would rather take knocks for being a flake or 'ha ha idiot can't do it' than pursue something I give a shit about, only to see it get completely scragged due to a period of particularly bitchy depression on my part.

This is actually not as hard as it sounds. We all have our strengths, our weaknesses, and our limits. We do tend to know what they are, deep down, under whatever levels of denial or insecurity or whatever else is going on at the same time. (Ex: All the people who fret over being shitty writers who are actually brilliant; the folks who will literally type 'alts are allowed' and then 'alts are discouraged' and refuse to see why they might be confusing someone as to the game's feeling about whether alts are actually welcome, etc. I'm sure everybody's seen stuff like this and there are other plentiful examples.)

Functioning within them is important. You don't have to do it all; this does not make you a failure. You're a great storyteller and a shit administrator? Team up with a good administrator who is a shit storyteller. And so on. This ability -- to work within your strengths and with the strengths of others -- is not to be underestimated, ever.

^ That's what I think @Thenomain successfully addresses, actually; while it may be semantic, I wouldn't call it passion, exactly. Some 'toxic' people with passion are great at this and can produce a good game as a result. Some awesome people with passion suck at it and will produce a dumpster fire of a game.

You need passion, too, because it's all a lot of work. Passion is what gets you to do the work when there are no rewards to be had from it•, be that 'yet' in terms of dev, or 'during' when all the things are going sideways at once (because they will; Murphy's Law and all that).

• Even if the only reward someone wants is 'make a space for people to have fun in, ideally but not necessarily including themselves', this counts as a 'reward' that I'd dub morally neutral or best-intentioned and not in the same category as things like 'praise' or 'power' or 'new besties' or 'popularity', etc. that are oft-cited.

Thank you, @Arkandel. I'm sure there's a lot of us who appreciate the return of that function.

@arkandel I am actually liking it, indeed.

Also, for a war-focused society, the Klingons have the best art department ever, holy hot damn. Do you think it was something like Hitler a la Eddie Izzard?

And out for reals for a bit. Sticking around here is getting hard because it's making me want to try to do stuff and I'm not there yet, thus shouldn't. My temper being a giant pile of WTFery of late... well, yeah, kinda proves it. Not asking for sympathy, empathy, or forgiveness, just noting that I realize it's an issue and I'm not keen on inflicting that on y'all further.

No offense is intended to anyone here, but most of the folks I know only through here or the hobby I've had to take off skype and similar as well. Nobody's blocked or anything, but if I'm a mystery ? all of a sudden, that's why. It's not anything you did. It isn't that I dislike you in any way, or think that you've done anything screwy in even the smallest way, or anything like that. Please do not take it personally, it is sincerely not intended that way.

Hobby fu is just really unhealthy for me right now and if that's all we talk about, well, I kinda can't for the time being, no matter how well-meaning folks are. (And I know y'all are, and do appreciate that more than you might imagine.)

There's a couple folks I've known forever as friend-friends for a decade+, or that I mostly talk about knitting or random life philosophy or whatever with that are still around, but, uh, please grok that I'm not looking to talk game-fu at all. I do love you for wanting to invite and welcome, which is sincerely good of you and speaks so well of you and proves unquestionably why I think y'all are the best of the best, but as much as I you for thinking of me and wanting to include me, I'd be a drag to be around and I refuse to shit on y'all's fun, because I do sincerely want y'all to have fun. It is, after all, the real point.

Good luck to y'all starting games or restarting games or just dreaming some day of running a game or creating a world. Good luck to people brave enough to try new ideas; you are needed, your ideas are needed, and they have value. I am sorry I couldn't help more. I wanted to. I realize that counts for less than a handful of magic beans, but I wish I could have finished something more useful to contribute along the way.

No weepy tears or hand-wringing, just be well, y'all. I'mma try to do the same.

@Derp Holy hell, man. Good luck. A friend of mine was in a similar position last year; it is... I can't even imagine when it's a family member. Ears are open if they are needed.

@Thenomain I am now RL angry at @Thenomain because I might just have to get one of those shirts now. DAMMIT.

@WTFE It is a shame I probably can't get a bottle of that to you. It's surprisingly good. Semi-local small brewhouse, though, so...

If I ever win half a bil in powerball or something, everybody in the drinking game gets a case of that. Because.

Ahem. Sorry for the derail, back to the topic, y'all.

@Thenomain I have this now.

It's so good it's worth sharing just to spread the word, no joke.

...not gonna lie, to this day I find it funny that my favorite movie from childhood (because the story is amazing, and it was anime, and I was a geek) dubbed 'family programming for kids' by HBO would probably horrify the shit out of parents today.

The opening scene is of a little boy and his mother, fleeing through the snow in a desperate panic, while a wealthy cyborg hunts them for sport, and shoots the little boy's mother in front of him.

Later, seeking to avenge his mother's death, he confronts the man in a grand dining hall, in which his mother's naked torso is mounted on the wall above the head chair of the dining table as a trophy.

It didn't exactly get less likely to make most modern parents fall over in a dead faint that this was dubbed 'all ages family programming' at the time, simply because it was animated, from there.

I'm still torn as to whether that, or this, which they were airing under the same category is more likely to have fucked my generation up more.

Bambi's mother, indeed.

@Tyche You can certainly custom order one, I'm pretty sure. There are people who can and will make them. I wouldn't recommend it as safe to that extreme, but I most corsetmakers have no issue making garments for all genders.