Posts made by surreality

@aria The only thing that would have been funnier than a naughty nun's habit would have been if it was https://www.divine-interventions.com/ and they just didn't check the link before adding it. (Neither work nor brain safe!)

@aria ...you weren't the only one thinking it, so at least you'll have company?

(I will also lawl if they have naughty nun's habits in stock. I will lawl like never before.)

@aria I would feel obligated to order something on principle alone, I really would.

@yyrqun said in Blood of Dragons:

Sorry if I'm being a Debbie downer on what other people prefer for their own pretendy fun time. Just thought that there was an indication people didn't understand the limit/thought it was unfair and was trying to explain why the game has the policy it does. I apologise if I was wrong.

You're fine -- nothing to apologize for at all. It's more... you don't need to explain or justify any of it to me. I'm fine with it being how it is, I'd be fine with it various other ways, too. Other folks may not feel the same, and if they aren't fine with it, they can and should play somewhere else.

I don't play there myself (hence not having a clue about how things are done there) but it's less any issue like that and more Not Playing These Days + Not Really Into L&L Games In General + Not Being Super Into This Specific Fandom (no offense intended to anyone who is, I'm just not the level of immersed in/familiar with it I feel I'd want to be before playing on any game set in a existing world property -- same goes for Pern/Fallout/etc.).

@yyrqun I'm not personally concerned about it. I'm chill with games that go in either direction, for different reasons. Sometimes I like being the <thing> that is an exception, sometimes I like <thing> being the norm, sometimes I like something else that is the norm when <thing> isn't even if <thing> is a concept I normally enjoy. I don't have a preference personally on this specific issue until things start veering toward Gor level extremes, at which point there's frankly nothing about the place I'd find appealing, and I simply wouldn't play on that game.

For folks who do have a strong preference, I can understand how it would be an issue for them -- in either direction. I'm just not one of them on that particular subject. I understand why some people may want the reality of the books, I understand why some people may want a certain amount of historical accuracy on historical games, and I understand why some people may want something more egalitarian than those things. I don't think any of these people are wrong to want what they want, or make assumptions about their reasoning for it. It's pretendy fun time; different people have fun pretending different things, and that's perfectly OK -- they just need to find the place appropriate for the kind of fun they want to have to have it.

I was about to type, "I wouldn't go into an Italian restaurant to order sushi," to illustrate this point, but then remembered that some of the best sushi I ever had was at a favorite restaurant that is, actually, an Italian bistro + sushi bar, so here's to analogies that would normally work until 'reality is stranger than fiction' gets in the way.

There's different ways of handling that, too, that can make a difference.

I'm not familiar with the ones in use on Blood of Dragons, or what policies are in place there in general, but a 'there are not many of these things in the world, so the concepts are restricted in quantity; no more than one of your alts may be a thing on the restricted concepts list' sort of policy isn't crazytown in itself.

It'd ultimately depend somewhat on what's on that list for many folks (which I think is @Kanye-Qwest's objection re: females being barred from certain roles, if I'm reading right). On a modern game, those things may be something like 'supermodel, movie star, billionaire, royalty, rock star, child prodigy, lone wolf stripper ninja' (potentially even with caps per group if scaled reasonably for playerbase size and setting). Anybody could arguably play one of those things on that game, they just couldn't play more than one or overlap them.

I don't know if that's how it's set up or not, but a setup like that isn't inherently unfair or full of favoritism. Same with 'if you want a restricted concept it takes more app time to make sure it still actually fits the reality of the game', provided everybody has the same opportunity to app.

It's when only staff favorites get all the shinies or the chance to app for these roles that there's real cause for concern. I have no idea if that's happening or not, but that's the only case in which I'd be squinting at it by default.

Be sure to skim the whole thread, though; the process changed between when it was originally posted and now in some important ways.

I promise it isn't impossibly hard. I had never touched anything like it before, and I was able to follow that without going completely bonkers. It's definitely worth a read and is probably the most valuable thread on the whole forum.

@nymeria None of us are especially great at it, truth be told. These projects mean something to the people who've put a ton of time and effort into them; it's hard to not take it personally. There are moments when I've read this forum and thought, "That is literally the opposite of what actually happened/I just wrote/etc.!" and they are legitimately crazy-making.

The only personal stuff there is is... well, what was mentioned. Ideally, it hasn't escaped people's attention that you haven't acted here like you did years ago on WORA. (As much as people like to chow down on popcorn when somebody goes overboard, I know I'm certainly happier when people seem to get more chill and generally mellow over time, no matter who it is.)

Put it this way: your game has been around for ages now. Most don't last more than a year or two. It's still going, things are still happening, people are still there. So somebody is clearly enjoying the place and what you're doing. That's a win, and it counts.

In some respects, I don't envy the position you're in. You and Balerion are pretty much the experts on the subject, and most players aren't necessarily going to know all the details you do, which is probably frustrating. (I can empathize somewhat, being a fan of creating original worlds; I'll know more about it than I will ever think to write down.) Some stuff y'all know that may make something a 'yes' or a 'no' may be correct to the world -- but would be spoilers to the whole planet -- if explained to the level of detail most players expect when told 'no' about something, too. I know I wouldn't want that kind of pressure, that's for sure.

@warma-sheen The issue in this case actually had nothing whatsoever to do with her game or how she's behaved on it. It was purely forum behavior; primarily this involved having boards taken down at various hosts when one of her descriptions was posted on the 'bad descriptions' forum (first round), section on WORA (second round), and so on based on copyright infringement until WORA was eventually hosted somewhere in the land of None Fucks Given for a space of years.

Really, it has absolutely nothing to do with what she has or hasn't done on her game. The game sounds interesting from what I've heard of it, and Nymeria and Balerion are probably the most well-informed people out there, period, in regard to the world itself. Some people probably do want 'this is just a chance to immerse myself in that world to experience it'; that's not the issue at all.

It's just that a whole lot of people from the WORA days that remember her forum antics are still here want nothing to do with it, good or bad. To put it simply, those of us who recall seeing her go into Elsa-grade frothing rants all over the forums, claiming we were all illiterate because we're American, etc. wouldn't be interested if they were handing out winning lottery tickets in chargen because we'd rather not run the risk of encountering similar behavior in pretendy fun time spaces.

@Nymeria In all seriousness, and I say this without snark, if people don't like the choices you made for your game, they can get the hell over it and play somewhere else. (They will still gripe about it in most cases, but that does happen to everyone. It isn't just you.) Really and truly.

People here will complain about anything and everything if it's not how they personally wish it was, and take it to some galling extremes when they do it. In some spaces, that's kosher -- if stupid -- and in others, not so much. Either way, people 'wishlisting' or 'doomsaying' things gets out of hand around here a lot, so try to not take that to heart. Put it this way: if you had made the opposite choices, other people would be complaining about that, too. It's ridiculous, but... <shrug> it's just how things are at this point. You're (hopefully) enjoying the game, and the people staying on the game are (hopefully) enjoying the game, so don't stress it too much.

@nymeria said in Blood of Dragons:

@testament said in Blood of Dragons:

I admit I'm slightly surprised that people are still playing it, given what's already been said, at length, about it.

Strange, isn't it? Or could it be that some things that have been said simply aren't true? And that other things that have been said are things that some players actually like about the game?

The primary negative re: Blood of Dragons and this community has nothing to do with the game itself. Let's not be disingenuous on that point from any perspective.

The reason much of the portion of the MSB forum that carried over from WORA takes a dim view of the game has everything to do with your behavior in community spaces, and not quibbles about the game itself. Let's not pretend the forum community is running around spreading lies about the game to make you look bad; you accomplished that entirely on your own quite some time ago from the perspective of many here, and that attempt to sling shade is more than just a little shady in itself.

Like many others, you could create the most perfect game to ever exist, and plenty of people here wouldn't go within a mile of it out of distaste for you personally. Same is true of many other game runners here, same's true of me if I ever open a place, etc. You made your bed, do lay in it without the persecution complex and accusations, please.

@auspice That sounds like the amazing-as-fuck doctor that replaced the previous omg-you-are-such-a-shit doc for us a decade or so back. He's maybe 15 years older than us and is not a douche; the previous doctor was a former Navy doctor and his practice was almost exclusively elderly patients. (Since my grandparents and parents went to him, I ended up stuck with him, too, since he was who we knew and who was originally covered when I had their insurance.)

Previous doctor: "Take two tylenol 2x day, that will be $40."

Period. Always. Often enough, I would spend a week half dead taking Tylenol before I'd even go in because I knew what he'd say, and I could tell him: "Tried it, did nothing." Changed nothing. I think once he gave me antibiotics too weak to kick the flu I had and I had to go to the ER. Once, a scrip for 5 painkillers -- because I broke a rib. He refused to believe I broke a rib until he pressed down so hard on it, it popped in and out of joint under his hand and I screamed so loud it cleared his waiting room. In both cases, despite knowing I was broke as fuck, he refused to ever allow generics -- it was always the brand name. Those 5 painkillers were over $200. -.- Everything from migraines (which he refused to believe I had despite my grandmother having them and several other extended family members of mine having them) to bronchitis was 'because you're overweight'. ?!?!?!?!?!?!?! If I was a pettier soul, I'd track down his grave to pour a urine sample on it and leave a pile of monopoly money for the $650 or so his favorite lab always charged to test it in 90s $s.

Current doctor: I have no idea how these two ever knew each other for one to take over from the other, they're so night and day. Current doc, knowing we're broke, hands us samples that he keeps piles of on hand for precisely this reason -- especially for short term meds like z-packs and so on. Always prescribes generics if there is one (thankfully, there always has been, and if it's between two options, one with and one without, he always tries the one with a generic FIRST). Does not instantly go to 'all of your problems are just because you're fat'. (He will say 'losing weight will help with your back' because DUH, but even he knows that's a duh and presents it as such. )

@kay The @ on that file just makes my day. That totally needs to become a bigger thing than the thing it apparently already is.

@thatguythere Have one now. I think I upvoted a few of yours yesterday, anyway, so it might have been me as it is.

@tinuviel "I'm having an affair with a serial killer, and that idiot tracks every fluid ever imagined everywhe--I mean, uh... "

@aria That is definitely a better solution than any involving trying to absolutely convince someone you're not trying to clean up blood spatter and are totally not a serial killer.

@tinuviel Huh. I wonder if luminol would help. No, really! Though good luck explaining why you want to get hold of some, I suppose...

I think it works for all urine. It's the urea -- I think? -- it responds to. Which is in all pee.

Edit: Also have cats. Also... yeah, cats are bastards. Seriously bastards. Thankfully, the sisters are the best behaved thus far, but...

https://www.wbshop.com/collections/clearance-cp-merch/products/superman-backpack-buddy

My husband sent me this link with the words: "Gee, I wonder why this lil' gem is on clearance?!"

He won't clean the coffee off my monitor, because he's a jerk.

@thatguythere That could ultimately lead to the funniest wiki page ever, full of training montage theme songs. Dammit... more reasons to maybe do something. Fun's a thing, and silly helps, dangit. (A little silly goes a long way toward keeping pretendy fun time games perspective, building community spirit, blah blah blah, but it's true.)

@thatguythere That is pretty much the idea. Though on the sliiiiiiightly more (and less, let's be real here, I'm talking about soundtrack fodder) 'no, I'm not completely kidding' front, I kinda hate justifications (which strike me as being more like a standard montage writeup), but like the idea of a 'montage theme song'. It's a little more about mood and mindset and, well, vibe. Which is a little more what helps build a character than a laundry list of how many pounds of sand they pounded or how many wooden posts they kicked, and so on.

The justification approach I would liken to 'write a chronological background'.

The 'come up with a themesong for your wacky montage' thing I'd liken to 'write up your general character concept'.

One's more about the journalistic 'who, when, where, what, why', and the other is more about feel and personality.

I'd never stop someone from writing a traditional background or justification if they wanted to do that for their own reference and it fits the way they process things about their character better, and it'd probably get the same perk (if any) as the vibe approach, but I get a better idea of what the character went through or how they felt about it, how it changed them, etc. from something a little more evocative and abstract. It may be weird, but I'm strangely OK with that.