I had to explain the reason for the lock down to someone who wants to compare the Covid-19 predictions to the flu numbers over the past few years.
I concluded with;
To say 'the flu hit us worse two years ago so we don't need to be locked down' is like saying that since you survived being shot with a bulletproof vest bullets aren't that dangerous and you didn't need to wear one in the first place.
So something I've been working on for the past couple of weeks is a project that I've named Chronicles of Darkness - Evennia Support. There's a couple of reasons for this. For one, Thenomain's nWoDCG, while excellent, doesn't support CoD and would require a pretty decent piece of work to update it. For another, even when it does get updated it is not exactly the easiest thing in the world for the addition of information as new expansion books come out. Finally, after diving into Evennia a bit I think it's got a lot of promise since nearly all the commands accessed by players are overwriteable which means even 'core' commands such as 'look' and 'say' can be overhauled to support things such as obfuscate, the hedge, changeling masks, etc.
I've current got a sort of proof of concept copy up and running on AWS and what I could really use are people familiar with Chronicles of Darkness to log in and sort of kick the tires so I can see what falls off (as well as letting me verify that people doing things isn't going to suddenly raise CPU access or memory requirements to crazy amounts).
At present I'm only concentrating on the 'character' aspects. My hope is to make the project available to anyone who wants to use it rather than creating a game myself so I'm not overly focused on things such as Inventory as there are other existing contributions for that. Likewise I don't have any actual commands for changing forms, obfuscating, entering the hedge, etc.
What I do have up and running is character generation for mortals, changelings, and vampires along with what I feel are the critical player commands (+sheet, +prove, +pool, +roll, etc.). There is also a system for spending XP (completed characters are issued 75 XP so that the +xp system can be tested as well.
Any help testing the systems would be greatly appreciated, both to let me know where any code may be breaking as well as making sure I haven't messed up aspects of the system that I'm not quite as knowledgeable about (things such as the Ordo Dracul scales).
Access can be reached at 13.52.78.93 port 9999 or through the webclient at http://13.52.78.93/
@Gnome It is an amazingly versatile setting. Earth is an apocalyptic horror wasteland, most of the inner systems are a cyberpunk Corporatocracy with ruling oligarchs. Outer systems are more like what Runescryer was talking about and then you have the alien systems aspect provided by the Pandora Gates.
In all honesty it is probably too vast a system to tackle all at once and anyone setting up a game should look at restricting the setting a bit more, at least initially, sort of like how the grid for most games tend to be a city rather than 'North America' or 'Earth'.
@Gnome said in Altered Carbon Style MUSH - Eclipse Phase 2e:
I'm also interested in possibly going down a System Exploration/Planet Colonization/Base Building path, one main player grid a megalopolis planet, very gritty, extremely high tech.. and one (or a few) fairly non-colonized planet(s) that still has lots of unexplored areas, lower-tech.. lots of natural threats, etc.. I wouldn't want to open two grids like that at once, but eventually at least.
Eclipse Phase has these things called Pandora Gates which are sort of like Stargates (passageways built by long gone aliens that move you across vast distances). There are colonies at some destinations but most are unexplored.
Runescryer's statement that only inbred space gypsies use spaceships is certainly not supported by a lot of material. There is an entire faction of people who live out in space who are the people he's probably thinking about, but there's still clearly plenty of ships travelling around as well.
For one thing a lot of people aren't comfortable with the fact that their brain patterns are going to be going through machinery other people control. There's very valid concerns that people can make a copy of the data and then extract information from the copy (either by spooling it up on a computer and then virtually torturing it or else by literally prying the data apart. There's an entire field of people who edit mental data for a variety of reasons).
And of course if it is a relatively short distance (only a few hours) some people don't want all the time and energy that has to be expended getting use to the new body. Likewise, if someone is going to a location for a protracted period of time they may not want to remain in a rental body. They may prefer to physically move the body they are currently comfortable with.
I think the closest modern analogy I came up with was that bodies were sort of like cars. If you've got a meeting 3,000 miles away you're probably going to fly and then just rent a car when you get there. Depending on how close the location is, however, you might just drive. On the other hand if you are moving then some people will sell their old car and buy a new one at their new place of residence, but most people won't.
@Runescryer said in Altered Carbon Style MUSH - Eclipse Phase 2e:
@Jennkryst Well....I mean....technically, spaceships exist...but the only group that uses them are inbred space gypsy clans. Or the fascist-evangelical-space Nazis that consider cortical stacks to be shat straight from Satan's bunghole. 3D manufacturing is so cheap and prevalent, every habitat can make everything they need, so there's no real need for in-system commerce. Likewise, bio-printing new bodies is insanely cheap, so it's faster and more efficient to call ahead to a habitat, have them thaw out or print a sleeve, and then quantum-cast your consciousness into that body in a matter of minutes, rather than take a system ship that can take months or longer to get to where you want to go.
Not entirely true. 3D printing may be cheap but materials still need to get moved around. Players are about as likely to be involved with them as players in a modern game are likely to be involved with cargo ships, however. It's just not a very exciting area.
Also, bio-printing bodies is not only not cheap, it's not even possible. They have to be grown. Growth is accelerated but it is still something like 18 months. That's why when you ego-cast somewhere you have to take whatever body is available rather than just having whatever you want printed out. (It's also why so many people live as disembodied egos working inside computers. There just aren't enough bodies to go around)
@Runescryer said in Altered Carbon Style MUSH - Eclipse Phase 2e:
For those not familiar with Eclipse Phase. You can be....
-An Infomorph (sentient program)
-An Uplifted animal like a dog, dolphin, ape, raven, or octopus
-An 'Infogee'; a stored personality that evacuated from the fall of Earth and has been in digital storage ever since. And you can finally afford a sleeve to come out of storage
-Other type of humanYour sleeves can be biological, mechanical, or a synthesis of both. Besides basic humanoid forms, there's:
-'Space Whales' that use magnetic shielding to hang out and chill in the sun's coronasphere
-Gliders that soar through the clouds of Venus
-'Swarmbots' made of clouds of interconnected micro-robots
-Gigantic cyborg coconut crab tanks
I once summed up Eclipse Phase with the statement 'My artificially intelligent starship is psychic. Your argument is invalid.'
And yes, in 1e that is a valid character build (albeit one with a rather strange backstory)
"Mr. Simpson, this is the most blatant case of false advertising since my suit against the film 'The Neverending Story'."
@Coin To be more accurate, I think; the characters appear to you to be mangled versions of the Archie characters.
For some reason during the past 5-10 years Archie comics has been fairly successful with a line of comics deconstructing the Archie characters and putting them into much more serious situations, including things like Archie getting married, getting divorced, and dying. I don't really get it because I haven't read them (I'm simply not that interested in a 6 issue limited series of Archie trying to do his Federal taxes). I just know that they're out there. I think the characters from the Riverdale show probably owe more to those more recent lines than to the historical comedic line.
The Sabrina series on Netflix is much the same, drawing from a line of horror comics that Archie Comics produces that features Sabrina, rather than being based on the older style Sabrina comics.
They also still print lines of comics done in the older humorous style (as a side note, I don't read those, either. I just know about the existence of the 'parallel lines' from keeping up on my geek news).
@Lotherio said in Staff scrutiny during CGen:
If a player makes some concept that infringes on others fun, and the others stop playing with them, and then they do not have fun ... then staff failed to ensure the player has a good time.
This makes a couple of assumptions that I don't think are safe;
Firstly, a player could make a concept that ruins the fun of a group of players but which leave enough people unaffected that the person going through CG continues to be able to have fun. As an example, some WoD super-mage who is constructed around the driving goal of casting a spell that will wipe out all the vampires in the city. They'll still have the other mages, werewolves, sorcerers, strippers, etc. to play with but the concept of a character being made to kill off a substantial portion of the game should have gotten nipped-in-the-bud during CG.
Second, it ignores that the player could just be a troll. People want to stop playing with me? That's just too damn bad. I'll figure out how to pretzel the rules so they can't escape from me. What? I'm going to feel bad that I'm chasing them out of scenes? That's the whole idea for a troll.
@Brunocerous said in Carnival Row:
@Runescryer I just started watching the show a few days ago. I'm only three episodes in.
That said, I think it's a fantastic setting. I would recommend that you continue to think along the lines of what you are already considering with factions, and doing something along the lines of what @skew did with Chontio and establishing some orgs that PCs can join from the get-go. Some examples/ideas:
- A fae group that investigates crimes that the police won't
- An org that helps Fae refugees escape to the Burgue
- A lobbying org that works behind the scenes to curry political favor with humans
- A team that seeks to rescue artifacts and lore from Tir-Na-Noc before the Pact can discover or destroy them
- An org that helps arriving Fae refugees get settled in the Burgue
Also, if you are still looking for a game system, you might take a peek at Victoriana. The setting is very close and it might be adaptable.
I think one of the things I like about the setting is that it looks like it offers a lot of possibilities. Yes, I know that there is a very real danger of a lot of it degenerating to activities in and around the brothel but the possibilities for more still exist.
I know that a lot of people are of the opinion that when you step into a new game there should be stuff to clearly aim new characters toward a goal, but for me what I want are possibilities. If I want a story where someone decides the path the characters are going to go down then I'll read a book. The whole reason I'm on a MU* is so I can create and explore, not do what someone else tells me to.
@Auspice Sorry. I'm not trying to nitpick. I'm genuinely asking the question because it seem to me like the things you were earlier defining as 'theme' do not match up with @Ganymede's definition of 'theme' (so we can't use that) and all @faraday gave was that my interpretation of what you seemed to be using wasn't correct (but he didn't offer an alternative).
Without clarity if I say 'Theme' it is unclear to anyone else as to whether I mean something that incorporates the setting as well as some other not clearly defined element (defining that element lets people know when to refer to 'Theme' as opposed to 'Setting') or what appears to me to be possibly 'Mood' (which seems to be what @Ganymede's definition is).
(edit: And saying 'look it up' actually doesn't help the situation because if I look up the definition in one place it will not necessarily be identical to the definition someone else gets if they check a different location.)
@faraday The could you provide a better definition for 'Theme'? It at least seems like @Auspice's definition of Theme incorporates aspects of setting and so @Ganymede's definition doesn't quite line up with that.
@Sunny I think I just misunderstood what @Runescryer was saying. I see later on that they do talk about allowing slurs to be used ICly (I'm not sure I completely agree with all the restrictions imposed, but that's more to do with nailing down specifics than the general concept).
@Auspice Can you provide a good alternative term then for 'Theme without common goal'?