@Wretched said in Difference between an NPC and a Staff PC?:
@Sunny So you don't think that having a sexual relationship with a person in power over the community that you are invested in is a detriment to the rest of the community? That it doesn't undermine trust as an impartial staffer?
Is the interaction being taken IC or OOC?
How many people would any of us trust to take "RPing out sex" to be wholly IC?
Which I think was the point you were getting at.
@Sunny said in Difference between an NPC and a Staff PC?:
I am actually really skeeved that TSing someone is being equated out to having an actual sexual relationship with them.
How long have you been on the internet?
I'm not saying I'm one (anymore), but your surprise confuses me with its naivety.
@surreality said in Difference between an NPC and a Staff PC?:
That's not a character interaction any more, y'all.
A "relationship" can mean anything from us talking to (or at) each other on a forum, to an emotional connection. If I have a one-night stand, that's still a sexual relationship. If I have the same one-night stand via fiction?
I think you're taking it waaaaaayyy too nitpicky, @Sunny. Or perhaps you're projecting? Or maybe you're just getting emotional and are not able to say:
"What squicks me is that people are projecting through their character." (This is my interpretation of your meaning only.)
Instead all you're saying is:
"No, you're wrong."
I like reading you as to saying the former because that's something we can sink our teeth into, something to discuss. The latter is just...what do you want from people out of that? Handjobs and puppies?
@Arkandel said in Not even sure what to title this, but here goes..:
No, I'm Lilith.
No, I'm Jenny.
...
Well there goes 30 years of careful cultivation.
Great, now I want to play Le Game.
But this system is no-questions-asked.
Then the system needs altered out of its original purpose for a new medium.
It's a thing we do because not doing anything leads to problems.
We're used to house-rules, so I'm not sure why we wouldn't apply that philosophy here.
I was just in the middle of editing that this only works if everyone is acting in good faith to one another.
Which is the position we should start from, not be argued into.
Also, the "smoking" flag probably doesn't carry the same weight as the "self-mutilation" flag and certainly doesn't carry the same weight as the "doing horrible things to my character" flag.
They should be treated seriously, of course, but someone with understanding would probably get why not talking about how to FTB some of these things is why they raised the flag to begin with, good faith or otherwise.
Like I said: Nuance.
Vampire 5th Edition, Page 423-5: Appendix III: Advice for Considerate Play: Calibration Techniques
These authors know and knew they were pushing lines hard (c.f., the entire rest of the Appendix) and that even when—or especially when—you're pushing propriety you need to accommodate.
Yes, I know the irony considering that Paradox Entertainment fired them, but there it is, "The X Card", right there.
Sure it's not at the start like in some RPG books, but it's there. It's also in Changeling.
I see your premise as taking an all-or-nothing approach. That is, if you're okay with Vagina Dentata then you must also be okay with Breeding Rules.
People should be aware of the game they're about to play, but everyone has limits.
@surreality said in From my heart.:
also re Skydive, pretty sure that's not a sock.
I think @Skydive was talking about @Rucket being the hater.
A huge congratulations to @Scorn for beating the C and hope they continue to get better emotionally. Loss is a horrible thing, depression sucks, and as always, fuck cancer.
How about a link to a HowTo, then? A lot of game runners don’t know where to start and mucking around in iptables could be dangerous.
@Rinel said in Alternate Universes, OR, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Fanfic:
Have any of you ever thought about what your characters or MU* settings would be like in an alternate universe?
You know what? I don't think I really ever have.
Maybe I don't have imagination for such things, but probably because I'm a no-fun killjoy when it comes to world building, which is evidence that I need to go out and get drunk more often.
I am, however, excited with a concept relayed to me by @Coin wherein it's a superhero game but the world is attached to every possible alternative dimension so nobody would bat an eye if there were fifteen Batmans and six Spider-Mans. Mens. Peoples. This makes me giddy, which is strange for someone who is at best lukewarm about superhero comics.
Me. I'm talking about me.
I did once want to reimagine Dark Metal MUSH in a turn-of-the-century steampunk setting called "The Darkness of our Mettle" because a) puns, b) why not take something infamous and play around with it, and c) puns.
I've loved other things with the conceit of throwing ideas into another setting, such as Clone High or Brad Neely's Washington (video nsfw: swears and foot-dicks) and RPG's Famous John Wick came up with a game conceit on how to do this cheeky and wonderful "how the future looked back in the past" game called Yesterday's Tomorrow that's worth checking out.
So yes, I guess I have thought about it, just not with my own characters. My characters live in a specific world. If you take them out of that world, they're not the same character. Rad would not be Rad if he wasn't a Silent Strider in the middle of a once-irradiated nuclear power-plant. Vera wouldn't be Vera if her mother hadn't sold her out to the faeries. I could start in the same place from these people, but I hope they would end up as very different people.
... I seemed to have waxed philosophical.
Again.
A reminder that reactions to stuff in the Advertising thread are supposed to be not in the Advertising thread.
Original thread: https://musoapbox.net/topic/2843/section-14-teaser
I have never shared a scene in my life.
Well, one, because everyone seemed excited for it to be shared.
I know that I’m probably in the minority by a lot, and it doesn’t bug me when people do, but from my context the “are you suuuuuuure you don’t want to share this scene?” is there to encourage me to participate in the social system, “your unshared log is about to die!” doubly so. This isn’t a Word document to me; it’s just some RP, I enjoyed it, I’m going to move on.
Word encourages me to save the document because it’s expected behavior when I’m writing a text document. Ares encourages me to save a scene because it’s expected behavior when RPing on Ares. It’s wrong in my case, but that’s what I get for not being the usual Musher these days.
@krmbm said in OOC Knowledge Levels Question:
Okay, so this still isn't Ares encouraging you to share it, which seems to be the crux of the issue?
There is no issue. This was a misunderstanding being drawn out into a discussion.
Even before the misunderstanding was understood, it was not an issue. It was a statement.
The reminder on Ares to start a scene pops up one time, tells you that you won't have full functionality if you don't open a scene, and then you never hear from it again.
So you're telling me that Ares says that functionality is being withheld unless you engage with a system? Because this does not sound like a neutral informative.
Again, this is not an issue, but a statement reinforcing what @Ominous just said:
Software can inform culture and culture can inform software.
I go even further on this one: The design of a door encourages or discourages certain behavior, even if that encouragement or discouragement is not intended. For example, the door with the self-locking bar on it is incorrectly used about a third of the time. (Can cite, but it would take a while.) But if something like a rubberized wrap or rectangular push-plate is put on one side of the bar, the incorrect usage drops to almost zero. Why? Design informs use, and use informs design.
This is not an issue, it's just a statement of fact.
I have less to say about this but to add some comments, and shorten it. My additions in bold.
@Corruption said:
Pick Setting, Theme (Write the Newsfiles)
Decide what Spheres will be allowed. (1a. Pick which WoD.)
Find staffers for the appropriate Spheres.
This one is vaguely contentious. Find experts. Find people who want to buy into this game. Sphere staff have a horrible tendency to form their own Kingdoms. Do not let them. Tell them they can quit if they don't want to share their position.
Do not hesitate to fire a staffer who is not going along with the game's theme or culture. To leave this person in power is to tacitly approve their actions and authority.
- Hire Coder. Give coder all needed "We need this common code, we need this customized code."
Be careful about asking a coder if it's okay that their code gets shared. Tell them that the code is for the game, regardless what happens later, even if you won't share it. Staffers are contractors; build and code staff doubly so.
- Get everyone to write a substantial amount of News and help files. Make sure everyone understands the Theme and Setting. Get people planning initial plots. Make sure everyone's down with the staff structure and the basic rules of operation that will be used. Buildwizard(s) Can begin writing grid and planning layout.
Builders are just as important to your RP staffers as setting is important to your theme. Some of us coders don't get along with the theme, but a coder with buy-in is a dedicated coder.
- Aquire site. Three people need the PW for this: Coder, Sitewiz, Owner. No one else ever will need access.
The lead coder does not, at any time, need access to the shell. Only give access to the shell to people who need to set up things that can only be set up at that level, and whom you trust implicitly. Do not give anyone else access to your shell.
If you trust your lead coder that much then sure, but do not lump them in this list. Only one person needs access: You. (Your site host already has access.)
- Open game. Finalize code, finalize wiki.
Nothing else needs said here. Do not give wizbits to anyone who doesn't need them. Not because of paranoia, but because of what can be broken.
Don't trust just anyone to do shortcuts available to wizbits.
- Once the +news. +help, Grid, code, Wiki and all that jazz is assembled, test the fuck out of everything.
This should be before 6.
- Ads go up. You are open. Wait a week or two before introducing heavy plots. Otherwise, go, go, go!
Hope that helps.
@Ganymede said in Sensitive cultural/political/religious aspects of game themes.:
@Thenomain said in Sensitive cultural/political/religious aspects of game themes.:
Thank god we've changed.
We have?
Sure. Now it's sometimes your husband.
@Ganymede said in MU Things I Love:
I haven't seen coding like this in over a decade, and it's fucking awesome.
):<
I find @HelloRaptor tends to hyperbolize, then step his statements backwards into something better for even-keeled discussion, if pressed.
Then again, I find Ganymede as someone you have to make defend her thesis before she will find the words to compromise.
And me? Both of them have criticized (in a constructive manner) my conversational style, so I don't mind saying so.
I mean, seriously HR, "it's happened" is not the sole reason to accept anyone doing it, just as "it's a fantasy world" is not the reason to deviate from that world's internal consistency.
I don't personally care as long as the person playing the character is engaging. I'll bend all sorts of rules on theme if they know what that rule is to begin with.
To get away with breaking any rule, you first have to understand it.
@Ganymede said:
@lordbelh said:
@Ganymede I think what you meant was the wish fulfillment crowd.
That's probably a better way to describe them, yes.
While I agree, what kind of game is okay for wish-fulfillment, because there's nothing inherently wrong with it.
My words are sincere, else I wouldn't have bothered to use them. The world is messed up enough without intending to make it worse.