Posts made by ThatGuyThere

@Miss-Demeanor said:

Random Stranger #362 has entered the <insert place here>. Current Leader rolls his eyes and asides to his new Love Interest, "Man, if we keep getting new people in, we're going to need a bigger island!" Cue laugh track, cut to commercial.

Though it is a matter of taste the quoted section annoys the hell out of me on a TV show where I have professional grade entertainment around it. On a mush a pose like, not the exact content but the wink wink nudge nudge thing would get me to log out never to return pretty quick.

About asking in public scenes to me it is a matter of politeness. I always ask when entering.
I don't think I have ever told someone no when they have enters d a public place. but I know if they ask I will have my character include them even id is folds and twists and mutilates my IC circumstances because hey we are all in the game together. If they do not act I don't, I simply react ICly sometimes they get involved because my character is outgoing or in a social mood sometimes if my char is down or just my nature more introverted they don't get talked to.
To me it is a matter of politeness more so then policy I think a rule forcing people to ask would be the height of unnecessary micro-management, but I see entering without asking as a minor rudeness, It can be over looked or over came with more interaction but its starting off on the wrong foot.

I don;t see why any of those wouldn't be possible. The wonderful thing about fate in my opinion is just make species an aspect and you can roll with just about anything. At least that is what I did for the table top Star Wars I used using fate. I also make the being force sensitivity/use an aspect thing and it worked fairly well.

Honestly this sounds like a game I would at least look at. Not a huge Star trek person though. I mean I have watched and liked most of the various series but not to the point of being a "Trekkie", so not sure how much I count as the target market for something like this.

For it it happens one or two ways, either when I think of the concept I immediately know who I want as a PB and use that person.
Failing that I tend to pick soap actors the tend to be not picked by others and not super well known.

@Arkandel
then you have the choice to either shift the game with the wishes of the majority or shut it down. I have seen games both ways. Me personally it would depend on how drastic the shift was on which way I go. But I don't begrudge staff of any game for taking either option it is one of those judgement calls they get to make.

@Thenomain
I officially dub it theme drift.
Part of it in inevitable. In any game that is remotely successful staff will be outnumbered by players by a wide margin. PC tend towards being exceptional individuals that is why we play them but it is a very common theme to be the guy that pushes the envelope as a character. Look at Dirty Harry. He is a maverick cop. Lets say there is a game that focuses on realistic crime drama. Harry Callahan is a perfectly in theme character but near the edges, well the next char that want to play the common maverick trope goes one step father since who wants to be the lesser maverick . This continues until said Dirty Harry is the closest thing to exemplary police work and procedure on the game. players are going to play what they find fun, if that is hedging theme then it will be an uphill battle for staff to keep theme in place.

I will be honest even if i was bored unless i had previously played with the GM enough that i knew he would keep things running briskly I would duck out of a five person plot scene as well. Social scenes I can handle being big because they are almost always 3pr but anything plot-y that big tends to bog down pretty quick.

As a player I try to be open to RPing with new people but those new to the game and those that are just new to me.
I think a bit part of the issue is lack of tone available in text. We can't tell from the typed words, I can't rp right now., weather that person is exhausted and means it or if we are getting a brush off. We can't always tell in person but at least then we are given over double the information and a lot of that extra info we read subconsciously.
for me feeling included usually comes from forming IC bonds between my characters and others. There are many ways of doing this but I completely thumbs up the suggestion to run encounters, and not just combatty stuff I have started IC friendships over things like lost keys, cars breaking down all sorts of things, throw a problem into the scene just about any problem can work and that gives the characters a reason to forge a relationship.

@Warma-Sheen
The good news for Eagles fans is with your new coach you are going back to he glory days of the Andy Reid era.

Actually I think Don't be a Dick is a horrible game policy. No two people have the same idea of what being a dick constitutes. Therefore if you have more then one staffer it will by unevenly applied.
For reference see the Reach with it's policy of Be Excellent to Each Other. In theory this a a great way to be. However with out a guideline on what that means in practice with in the first six months on the game it had faded into being a meaningless buzz phrase. And on channels was used in multiple cases to end discussions by uninvolved third parties.
I think Don't be a Dick and Be Excellent To Each Other are great philosphies and hte starting point for policies but not really policies themselves.

@Arkandel
Cool that is actually how I would handle it as well.
While I don't think such a post in needed every time, it is good to have the plan in place for when it is needed.

Alzie mentioned a Fading Suns game that they run a couple of pages back. As far as I know that is the only one in existence.

@Bobotron
That is my point though people are not inherently reasonable at least not all of them You should have a plan if action ready for the situation to show to your players that you are the reasonable one.
the thought of the plan being well I am the reasonable one so people will trust me just makes me LOL.
Note I think Arkandel is perfectly reasonable and likely to be in the right on most issues regarding theme, but most players will not know who is is from Adam.

We have irreconcilable views on humanity so leaving that aside. How would you deal with this hypothetical.
You refuse Player A's request for something that needed to be refused. You have the stated yes first policy. So Player A then starts a campaign of Staff is unfair. Said player points out how staff said yes to Thing B C D who were all near the line you have but not quite over it. Up until this point Player A has not shown to be a problem.
Note this is less hypothetical and more a generic look at something that I have seen many times.
You are not the first to champion yes first in fact there have been many in the past DM was and I played there in 1994 and it didn't even have BGs required or more of a bar then to get IC then code checking the math. The Reach certainly started out that way, and I made a PC there the first day it was officially open.
I make these posts not to discourage a yes first mentality but to show where the pitfalls are and hopefully let you plan a way to deal with them. Assuming they will not happen is not the answer.

Yes because in hippy land everything is wonderful.
the more you post on this topic the more I wonder if you actually deal with humanity. Once there is a pint of conflict people will take sides if staff does not at least put out the information it wants out there folks will side with the only voice talking.
Yes staff should be concerned with winning, not the game really but the continued trust of the player base.

@faraday said:

• Having "yes first" as a staff mantra to encourage staff to be open-minded and allow players to steer the game is not so bad. Advertising a game a "yes first" opens yourself up to all kinds of bizarro player expectations and entitlement issues, as others have already said.

This exactly. Yes as Ark stated people will find things to complain about if they want to but it still makes zero sense to give them extra ammunition and while some people will complain the trick is to minimize that number if you have 5 percent of your player base unhappy that is a workable condition for the most part up that number to 25 and the game is in trouble. In both places people are bitching but the degree is the important thing.