Best posts made by Thenomain

@Sovereign said:

The problem comes when the clique is influential enough to be a detriment to your play experience.

All people have influence on your play experience; this is kind of the point. If you don't want anyone to influence your play experience, you'll have to find ways to push them out while getting what you want, thereby becoming part of the problem. Or at best, becoming that group of people who hangs out in their rooms while everyone else goes about their role-play lives.

I prefer to join play-groups, people who are interested in play without being exclusionary. As much as people demanded that The Menagerie, a Changeling motley on Haunted Memories, was a clique, we never excluded anyone based on anything but perhaps their in-character actions. At least, not that I knew. That's the kind of protective group that I think is healthy, people you trust and enjoy their company.

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edit: While thank for the upvote, Ghost, I realize I have one more thing to add: I have played on games where a clique has control of the game itself, or the sphere for that game which is close enough. I have seen @Eerie escape this by playing with a different sphere, but I am not that good with social maneuvering and my options usually end up being "take it" or "leave the game". If this is what @Sovereign is talking about, I get it. This situation is a failing of staff, and I've watched it on games where the clique was staff, or staff refused to address the issue that players were dominating the game in a non-helpful manner. There's almost nothing to do in this situation but, yeah, get out or make your own fortress.

@Catsmeow

One answer is to be closely observed. By your friends, by your family, by your doctor, and by yourself. The medication is supposed to take a short while to build up and kick in, and in the meantime it's supposed to change how you feel. That's the whole point.

In rare occasions (rare enough that I've heard about it twice), starting on anti-depressant/anti-anxiety medication triggers thoughts of suicide. I myself thought this was bizarre until I asked someone who unbeknownst to me experienced it, and this is what he said:

The warning is because you're feeling better and you don't want to go back to the way things were.

That is, the medication is working and people are terrified about going back to not feeling well. Depression and anxiety is a kind of pain that we're not good at talking about nor understanding, though this thread is a beautiful example of people doing both.

I want people to at least try. Failure is horrifying, but not trying is also horrifying. "The devil you know" is an alluring asshole, and I'm well in the camp who stays with that bastard far too often.

Holy shit, those are a lot of guidelines. Can we summarize down to:

• Play in context of the game, theme, character, and scene, in that order.
• Play for those around you.

Thanks.

(edit: Added 'and character ... in that order' to playing in context. Being true to the character and telling their story is a lot of why people log in at all and should never be pushed to the side, by you or anyone else. The same is true, though, for the rest of it.)

Hey, @VulgarKitten.

In case you didn't know.

Now everyone else does too.

So there.

@Halicron

I'm trying to keep it under 15,000 characters because most of the games I've seen have that as a post limit.

You're planning on posting this to an on-game bboard? If so, plan for a 4k byte limit, which includes characters, spaces, and usually expanded tabs. (I believe Myrddyn's system expands before it saves.) ANSI coloration and international characters also take up extra bytes.

I don't think this is the kind of thing that should get posted to a bboard. It should be posted to a web forum, a wiki, a live tutorial session, a news file even, but not a bboard.

A new computer replacing a 6 year old one that is, to be honest, doing well.
It was almost $500 off.
Considering that it's a rMBP, this is a rBFD.
My eyes thank me.
My credit cards don't.

@Ide

It comes down to how I play the character. I wasn't thinking too much about it, but what @Duntada said about an 18th level mage nuking a street game made my entire history of posting on Wora (both of them) and Swofa and here swim into a particular focus: Tabletop games put the character in the role of the most important thing, while a Mush cannot easily be played this way.

On a tabletop, throwing a fireball at a street gang may put your character in jeopardy with the local law, it's not going to end your character. The storyteller and your fellows at the table are going to roll with it and keep things interesting.

On a Mush, it's likely that most people don't have that level of interest of you as a player. They're not going to cater to your play style.

A possible way to solve this in the RPG systems we use is to keep the power level low, or if not low then relatively even, and if not relatively even then with the understanding that the game world is to be dealt with as a real thing and therefore have the understanding that some part of it will come down on your Level 18 Mage like a ton of bricks.

A similar issue in the World of Darkness crowd used to be the Mage antagonists, the Technocracy. We've had Technocracy players and this shed light on a single problem: They had nothing to do but pick on the other Mages, and as they had a huge advantage of organization and backing, things quickly got into the realm of suck for the Mages.

The lesson I learn from this is to not put a Level 18 Mage in a situation where fireballing some rabble street toughs is likely to happen. A Level 18 Mage shouldn't even be concerned about that. There should be dimensions and demons and nation-building and Level 18 Adventures to be had. In that, I agree with Duntada, but I also enjoy games where that kind of power disparity never happens or is hand-waved entirely.

@Auspice said in RL Anger:

@Thenomain

I have a buddy who has been with the same job for years and has been fiddling with his deductions the whole time.

All so he could get to this year.
Where he's owed $0.01.
And is having the IRS mail him the check.

I had to shed a tear at the glory of it all.

Brilliant! And it reminds me of this:

http://www.bash.org/?127039

Enjoy.

@Warma-Sheen said in What do RPGs *never* handle in mu*'s? What *should* they handle?:

@Thenomain said in What do RPGs *never* handle in mu*'s? What *should* they handle?:

A similar issue in the World of Darkness crowd used to be the Mage antagonists, the Technocracy. We've had Technocracy players and this shed light on a single problem: They had nothing to do but pick on the other Mages, and as they had a huge advantage of organization and backing, things quickly got into the realm of suck for the Mages.

To be perfectly honest, that doesn't sound like a problem. That sounds like the way things were supposed to work. Except that players whine and cry because they want to use their powerz for frivolous stuff out in the open without penalty. Players have to respect the setting in order for the game to work, otherwise it doesn't.

Except it isn't how the Technocracy is supposed to work. It may be years since I've read the Guide to the Technocracy, but I know that Technos have a lot on their plates that has nothing to do with Tradition mages, that even in the first edition Mage book that the Technocracy has essentially won and is quite busy going about ruling their increasingly complex and overwhelming empire.

So if you have all the power and none of the responsibility, of course you're going to disrespect the setting. My personal experience of this had the Technos install Active Manar pretty much everywhere in the city. Why? To catch PCs. Why? So they would have something to do. Doing something because you can is not strictly wrong, and can be strictly within allowances, but the day that I accept "it's not strictly wrong" as a stand-alone answer is because I'm dead and can't smack you in the back of the head.

Which is what I did each and every time a Techno or Mage player said it to someone with less power or resources than them. Or Vampire player. Or Werewolf player. Or any player.

Because a tabletop game has translation issues when applied to a Mu*, which is what this thread is about.

Also, stop disrespecting players who disagree with you by calling them "whiners". It makes you look like a tool.

@Ghost said in State of Things:

Are we discussing from a global perspective or an American perspective?

I am discussing from my perspective, which is American. Unlike many Americans, I am willing to change my perspective if it means I have a more complete understanding. But I suspect any aspect of this discussion is regional.

I could see the USA breaking down a la the EU, but not reasonably outside science fiction.

@Wizz said in World (Chronicles?) of Darkness Concepts You Would Enjoy RPing with:

A vampire and werewolf cop duo.
CoD or oWoD, depending on how goofy you wanted to get with it. (Correct answer: way goofy.)

Cooper and Blitz. Flip a coin on who gets to be whom. Hell, flip @Coin.

@A.-Meowley

I prefer this pain scale:
http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/02/boyfriend-doesnt-have-ebola-probably.html

Edit: Of course XKCD has touched on this.

Feel better soon, Sweet Cuppin Cakes.

Ah, the "Dino" problem.

I ... don't have anything to say about it, unfortunately. Just, ah, here we are again. Back in the car. (See: The funniest scene in Jurrasic Park.)

@Monogram

I absolutely blame the repealing of the Fairness Doctrine.

@ixokai said:

And on games that do pervasive logging, places is a nuisance.

This is because the logger isn't scanning places. This is an easy fix. A stupidly easy fix. Get someone to fix it.

The problem with not using places is that it allows a location (a setting) can then be used for multiple scenes. On games big enough where two groups of people want to be in the same location, this allows them to not "own" that location and still have separate scenes.

On games with this level of activity, places is a critical tool for sharing the setting.

Really, web store, I'm there to shop. Popping up a request for me to sign up for your newsletter and then getting cutesy but snarky about the "no" option is not going to endear me to you. I am thinking about spending money with you; why are you trying to get in my way?

@ixokai said in Better Places Code:

But you guys who want to, go ahead. All power to you

So ... thanks?

I just... don't want to.

Then ... don't. I honestly don't know why you're posting.

I think rooms are the nice, ideal, perfect granularity of defining a scene, in my opinion.

The reason table systems were more widely implemented in the first place was because people on the balcony were spamming their scene to those in the ballroom or people who were trying to have a nice, quiet conversation on the elegant seats closest to the closed room that they know a murder is currently taking place and they are the lookout.

Not all of us want to shove these into one location, and I for one don't want to make the balcony a separate room, nor do I think it's appropriate for it to be a temproom. Making exits opaque or asking everyone to remember that there is such a thing as a transparent exit adds to the complexity of role-play, not simplifies nor enhances it.

edit:

@Lotherio said in Better Places Code:

How come that wasn't continued.

Because after the late 90s/early 00s, we pulled back from the idea that everything needed coded. We no longer have language code, either. Then the number of coders whom existed went down to a small handful, so the less that needed coded the more a game can accomplish.

@Auspice

1. D'aaawwwwww. It has all the adorable.
2. Obvious "pussy + boobs" joke. Which is why it's not first.
3. Just thought of this one: Booby trap! (Alternatively: Booby trapped pussy!)

@ThatOneDude said in How does a Mu* become successful?:

I love PK! No one else really enjoys it for the fun it can be though

One of the people I work with plays Rust for the challenge and the back-and-forth PK. And if people you know also love it? Great! If not? Well? Why is it their problem?

I've laughed my ass off about situations where I've lost, or adored the story told, but this is my angle, and my angle doesn't work for you. Visa-versa. Note in that video (you did watch the video, right?), neither Bartle nor the Extra Credits crew said who was responsible for the fun. In fact, they say what we've always known: Those who aren't having fun leave.

In fact, that's what I get out of every time someone puts the words "mush" and "successful" together: How do we stop people from leaving?

If you're secretly trying to deconstruct BitN, I can't help you. I listen to staff chat (because coder) and I hear more "hee hee that was awesome" more than "goddamn it, insert-player-name-here", so I have to believe that staff are enjoying the game. I also have to assume that anyone playing there is enjoying themselves enough to play there, or I have to wonder about their sanity. Sounds like a winner to me.

THAT SAID, I have continued playing on games I didn't enjoy, but I enjoyed the people I was with. People are looking for the key to upward positive feedback and game growth. This is it. One person, @ThatGuyThere, has it right on. Everything past that is a deconstruction about what you enjoy about a game.

There is a certain tipping point where the game can be complete and utter shit with shit staffers and shit situations and still have a high population. I put this critical mass around 20 players. In the video (you watched the video, right?), this is the social circle. Maybe all that happens is TS and IC Drama, but hey, it's popular, right? I have to believe the people there are enjoying themselves, because anything else is just sad.

Please Note: Fun is not the same as Enjoyment. I usually assume people mean the latter when they say the former, but we can all enjoy ourselves without having 'fun'.

So yeah, +1 to @ThatGuyThere for the truest answer, and +1 to everyone else for figuring out how to make that happen.

I am lucky to have friends who are willing to tell me when I'm being an asshole, without being assholes about it.

In return for their kindness, I try to make up for it. Not just to them, but to everyone involved, even if it's at a level they'll not be aware of. Sometimes an apology isn't enough. Sometimes an apology is the wrong thing to do, because too many people stop there when they need to fix the damn problem.

Some day I will learn, somewhere deep down, how to simply not be an asshole, but I suspect this will require some help that I can't yet afford.