Best posts made by Thenomain

@faraday said in X-Cards:

Maybe tools can help communication, but I'm leery of trying to use code to solve social problems.

It is such a relief to see this mentioned. And this:

@Pyrephox said in X-Cards:

It's important to remember - the 'X-Card' nor any of the other affiliated ideas is not a 'rule' by which anyone must abide.

And this:

@bored said in X-Cards:

The X-Card thing feels too thin to even be called a system

And this:

@Ganymede said in X-Cards:

The X-Card is a message from a player to a storyteller regarding the content of the story being told.

A social rule is not the same as a business rule. The social space is the space all this comes from and returns to. The rules we play with are rules we agree on, not rules we are forced to engage with.

I am enjoying thinking about the idea of FTBing certain elements of a scene, not just the scene itself. I like "instead of drugged your character gets conked on the head" level of meta-scening.

—

But part of what I think Sparks is saying (and Faraday pulling out) is that people often don't know they have options.

I don't think it matters which of the many systems people have come up with to make things as comfortable as possible as long as people are comfortable enough to say anything.

(no john cusack in the rain; it's not that kind of "say anything")

I think a lot of us in this hobby (and other close-knit social hobbies; we act most similar to local theatre) are still used to just accepting whatever it is that's put in front of us that we're myopic to the first-look, the fresh view of a newbie who is trying to learn the rules from Step Zero.

@Pyrephox said in X-Cards:

I think that's waaaaay overthinking the whole concept.

I think a lot of us are.

Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.

The best way to know you know something is to teach it to a child.

@Scissors said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

Yes. If something like this happens at my work place, I will personally do the firing.

It's probably a good thing I never wanted to staff on a MU*.

Are you kidding? You're exactly the kind of person many Mu*s need.

@Ganymede said in Echoes in the Mists - Discussion:

@Livia said in Echoes in the Mists - CoD 2e MU:

She was so close!

Then come visit and play! We have all sorts of fun 2E bloodlines to work with.

Echoes Staff: "Are you playing now?"
Thenomain: "Eh, no."
Echoes Staff: "How about now."
Thenomain: "Eh, no."
Ganymede: "I'm there."
Thenomain: "...Goddamnit."

Building things is fun. Full stop.

@Admiral

@Thenomain However, beating cancer doesn't make shitty behavior any less shitty.

How does what you said add to or even have to do with the things I actually said?

Go home; you’re drunk.

From the 7th Sea Kickstarter list, and probably a bunch of other places:

As of April 2, Chaosium, publishers of the award-winning tabletop roleplaying games Call of Cthulhu, RuneQuest, and King Arthur Pendragon, has acquired the rights to 7th Sea. I'm joining Chaosium as line editor and will continue to have creative oversight of the game, and will remain a principal author of 7th Sea material going forward. Beyond that, I'll also be writing for other Chaosium game lines.

This is fantastic. I will trust Chaosium with caring for 7th Sea as it exists, and am super-glad that John Wick has a steady gig again.

And maybe Chaosium is willing to front a lot of the cost for the 7th Sea Board Game, or make it cheaper to produce for their next attempt. Or maybe it's time to let it go. It's up to them.

Best of luck, John.

@Coin said in Alternate Universes, OR, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Fanfic:

@insomniac7809 said in Alternate Universes, OR, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Fanfic:

@Sparks said in Alternate Universes, OR, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Fanfic:

@insomniac7809 said in Alternate Universes, OR, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Fanfic:

If we're really getting into classical crossover fanfic, though, we have to talk about Jason and the Argonauts.

"Every culture hero from the Greek city-states team up and have an adventure."

Now I just imagine the classical version of AO3, but instead of leaving comments people cluster around the Jason fanfic author to shout that the author is clearly getting this characterization wrong, because Hercules is totally not with Hylas and wouldn't leave the quest for him, because Hercules/Iolaus OTP, no Hercules/Megara OTP, are you kidding that relationship was so unhealthy, etc. And then one person starts screaming "UPDATE PLS!"

"Which poleis get to have their culture heroes on the boat" was a serious political statement for a while.

And if we're going into classical shipper territory, "was Achilles or Patroclus the top" was something 5th- and 4th-century BCE playwrights and philosophers liked to argue.

(Seriously, it shows up in the Symposium.)

Clearly it was patroclus, that's why his name means "Daddy Glory". <.<

This was posted by @Tat on the Ares Discord, and I think it's a strong, good, nuanced outsider non-spoiler breakdown of this season of Game of Thrones.

https://twitter.com/dsilvermint/status/1125856091261136896?s=21

Or: D&D plots, GRRM pants.

@Auspice said in Cyberrun:

I also don't think 'because I want to explore the psychology' is as valid when it comes to roleplay. Because you aren't exploring it on your own: you're dragging other people (sometimes unwillingly) along for the ride.

But this is true for all roleplay. Almost all of my characters are "I want to explore the psychology". I've RPd with people's exploration and I wasn't too keen on it, and I made decisions whether or not I wanted to RP with them again.

I've had the same done to me and people whose RP I was fine with.

This is a thing we do and it's not something that should be considered wrong to do. This is our hobby time. We agree to play the game placed in front of us, but nobody should micromanage what that means. It means I play with who I want to when I want to.

I have one strong rule, however: Don't force me into your kink. An underaged character? Fine, though I expect it to go off the rails in any given moment because adults play kids like a hippo plays doctor. An underaged character going public with their recent rape scene? I'm out.

I want to think that people are socially aware about this, but in this hobby we've dealt with enough people who aren't socially aware that the knee-jerk reaction is "underaged characters on an adult-themed game will always be pedo-bait". This is true enough that a rule about it is not unexpected. The "no rape" rule is already fairly universal.

But there are people who can do it right. And there are people who can handle it well. And as long as it isn't pedo-bait, I don't see why people can't explore the growth of a character.

I also don't see why people can't say "not on my game". Run the game you want people to play. Play the game you want to play.

Peace out.

I'm angry every time I misplace my "don't beat myself up" medication. Mostly at myself.

... Wait.

@Ghost

But if I'm playing a Private who thumbs their nose at the Commanding Officer, it's damaging to the brand of the game to let that go. I mean, why are we playing Space Soldiers?

In a tabletop, we can say that we're playing Dirty Dozen Space Edition.

In a Mu*, it's a harder proposition, and if someone doesn't want to deal with someone stepping off-brand then I don't blame them.

All of this goes both ways, which means everyone must try for the sake of the game.

Me: "Hey, so, you guys changed information on our website and now I'm getting a lot of people asking about the differences between these two very similar things. Can we get that changed back."

Response: "Thank you for your suggestion. Senior management did a lot of research on it and this is how they wanted it."

Me (to self): "Maybe senior management wants to deal with the uptick in time it takes explaining this very easy to solve problem."

Code Monkey not say it out loud.
Code Monkey not crazy, just proud.

@thesuntsar

What, people sometimes play games to portray special snowflakes? Gasp! It's like people see cool things in media and want to enact those!

I'm not making fun of you, by the bye. I'm making fun of this entire hobby for missing out on some wildly key concepts and at once encourage and complain about them.

For decades.

I love our broken hobby.

Peeve: When you don't recognize the worst parts of yourself.

It's very hard for me not to beat myself up over things I do, rather than putting that energy towards just not doing them. This gives me reason to beat myself up over not recognizing this. Which gives me reason to....

Sometimes I understand why some people drink.

@faraday said in Consent in Gaming:

The problem with that is that by glossing over the trial entirely, you're basically depriving the judge PC of the opportunity to do That Judge Thing.

This is the Spotlight Problem. Everyone wants to play their character. And while I agree it's being a good sport to let everyone do their thing—and I think you addressed this in anecdotally—it's still a question if the player should be penalized, literally or socially, for not wanting to help someone else do their thing.

To punish someone for not RPing out a scene is untenable.

To punish someone for not RPing out the consequences of a scene is fine. (edit: Within the scope of the scene and consequence.)

"Good sport" is a matter of opinion and has been used in the past as a weapon to punish players who did nothing more but try to avoid a situation that made them uncomfortable. Avoiding situations has likewise punished innocent players from being able to realize their character concept.

But whose job is it to help a player realize their character concept? Is it other players'? Is it staff's? Because around here the most common answer is "not mine".

I cannot tell you how many tabs I have open for Dragon Age Pintrest posts, but I can show you my favorite.

Also, I have at least 30 other images open right now.

@Ghost

And I really really really really really want people to be good sports to one another. I want people to enjoy failing. I want people to give up the spotlight, to try something new, to get out of their damn holes and start interacting instead of waiting for someone else. I've been ranting about this for decades.

I can't upvote @Warma-Sheen enough for the comment:

Jaded people got paranoid of being burned.

I've been trying to explain the history of (at least WoD) mushes for a long time, and this summarizes it well. Even people who are in good places now carry around the memories and scars of abusive staffers hiding behind sweet voices and enabling bad actors, of players politicking to make you look bad so you can't defend yourself, of good people letting bad players continue because they're trying to be good people.

(edit) And this is still happening.

Who you decide to help and spend your time with is up to you. This is ultimately a selfish hobby, and nothing, nothing can make you play well with others if you don't think they deserve it.

The solution is to be deserving of it, of being self-aware. Of being understanding and patient because nobody is perfect at either of those. If someone says, "Hey, this doesn't seem like fun," don't think less of them. Think, okay what can we do that's fun? Have a conversation.

Treat your comrades like a fellow player, not a character who has to do things because otherwise your character won't get their spotlight time. Appease to their better nature or let them go.

This is a game, people. This is a hobby. It would be awesome if we all got what we want out of it, but we can't. We have to negotiate, because we're not in it alone.

Pax.

@Sockmonkey said in Good TV:

@The-Sands said in Good TV:

I will give one 'quibble' to Carnival Row, they introduce a sort of steampunk aesthetic early on and it runs through the series in the background but then never really seems to do anything beyond being window dressing.

I know this is really old but ...

It's that exactly what steampunk is? All appearance, no function.

(Could not find the first comic without the second.)

@The-Sands

I try to focus on what's "good for the game" rather than "good for the player". It does leave a lot of vague and abusable nonsense, but it also puts the focus on maximizing the fun of the game which is often phrased as:

The job of staff is to facilitate fun.

Not guarantee, not provide, but facilitate. Make sure all the conditions are in place so that fun can be had. If fun isn't being had, it's up to them to decide what to do next.

It also insulates staff against the idea that if an individual isn't having fun it's up to staff to fix this. If it's an indication of bigger problems staff should probably pay attention, if it's a response to a plot staff is running then they should also probably pay some attention, but one-on-one it's not a critical duty of staff.

It's my personal philosophy that if everyone does what they can for the nebulous being I call The Game, then chances for fun is broadened on more shoulders and more people are there and willing to, wait for it:

@Ghost said in Staff scrutiny during CGen:

Make sure everyone is playing the same game.

Two non-baity threads about Podasts:

https://musoapbox.net/topic/1482/podcasts

https://musoapbox.net/topic/2132/podcasts-podcasts

Enjoy!