@the-sands said in Repurposing a Tabletop RPG for MU* Play:

Even speshul Disciplines aren't really the issue, however. The area you get into big trouble is when, as happens with WoD, you have one system by which the Vampires build their magical items, a second system by which the Werewolves build their magical items, and a third system by which Mages build their magical items. I'm not really referring to the specific rolls or conditions that have to be met to create the items but simply the mechanism that determines 'this is a 1 point magic item' and 'this is a 2 point magic item'.

None of this has to do with code. It will affect who can code it and how much time it will take but, here, think of it this way:

Code is nothing more than automating business/system rules.

This is also a truism. Code, like any machine, is there to automate a process. It's a tool, and like any tool its purpose is to serve the goal, not visa-versa.

You do want the right tool for the right job—TinyMu* coding larf larf—but at the very worst is the question: Is there a tool for this job, or will I have to create one?

Let's take some WoD game's (RfK's?) action point system. It did not need one single line of code to be a good system. It was a good system because it was a good system, and it someone stopped and said, "Is this going to be hard?", then it would not have been tried, and that would've been a sad thing.

I recently mildly chastised someone for not using my existing and complete, powerful, and almost easy to use Chronicles of Darkness system for their game. I said, "If this isn't the right tool for them, then let them discover their own needs on their own, that's fine." In fact, that's great. It's not like we absolutely need turn-around time of days or weeks. Months or years is fine, because this is something we do because we want to enjoy it.

So you want to do things that are best for the game first. Period. For some people that's going to be what code tools are available, for others they're going to start at "OTT" and go from there.

This is an extremely important topic for me because we need more games. If we're going to allow someone to look at a system they think is right for the game and say, "I don't have a coder, so nevermind," then they have unrealistic expectations on what it needs to get a game running.

1. Wiki
2. Roll code
3. Sheet code
4. Profit!

@Ghost

Yeah, because more paperwork is what we need in this hobby.

@bobotron said in A Game of Thrones MUX Discussion:

@auspice

So, only the one GoT place will ever have the 'real rights' to use the game then?

I am not trying to derail the important game-design part of this thread, but all you need to do is ask. It would help if you do it with politeness and conviction, and keeping Nym entirely out of the loop.

@arkandel

You are asking us to potentially ignore someone and miss out on posts like that. Let me ask you: How can you ask us to choose between our fragile egos and Superman in a sombrero?!

I think the answer is simple: You’ve just convinced us to not ignore anyone, ever.

@derp said in What Is Missing For You?:

@thenomain said in What Is Missing For You?:

Nobody mentioned Pugmire.
Why did nobody mention Pugmire?

I'm just waiting for Monarchies of Mau.

Well obviously. We cat people need something more than dorky dog-faces.

Well, adorkable.

@auspice

Sometimes I will publicly praise my friends but privately admonish them. Others I will praise and admonish publicly. For me the distinction depends upon our relationship.

For instance one of the things I love about the marraige of @emmahsue and @helloraptor is how they are comfortable enough in their lives that they will say the other has messed up, or is wrong, and it’s never in anger. When they praise each other it’s never looking cliquish or suckuppery. They say these things because they believe it, and think it needs said. Thoughtful and respectful. Who doesn’t want this kind of relationship?

But not everyone is this way, and not all mistakes or wrongdoing is created equal. Not all rightdoing is created equal either, but if there is no harm in the praise then we could use more of it.

@bobgoblin said in The best I've ever...:

The Best: Policy

Brus' Five Pillars of Good Staffing.

Nearly every upvote I've seen from a staffer saying they do things "x" way has been reflected here.

The Best: Game System

Too wide of a topic. The best game system I've never seen implemented is without a doubt Apocalypse World.

The best game system I've seen implemented is any I enjoyed playing, because if I enjoy it then it's the best.

The Best: Setting

I still have love for the original Haunted Memories setting, because it was designed by someone with an understanding of and love for Vienna. It was not a generic city that was homogenized by the players.

(Paris:FdM also felt like a real location, but I think HM did it better.)

The Best: Code

@Chime

@Chime

For the Great Holy Octopod's sake, @Chime.

With a deep CS degree and experience, she thought about doing things with Mux that I didn't think were possible. I learned more from breaking her code than I had in years. @Chime is part of unending evidence that you don't need to know programming languages to code, you need to know how to code.

If anyone has used @whence or has run a WoD game with 10,000 traits (looking at you, The Reach), it's because of @Chime.

I've just made some complex softcode, and taught @Cobaltasaurus enough to make the game-changing Events system. I'm just Myrddin level.

--

A massive runner-up to @faraday and @Griatch for pushing us into the twenty-first century with new servers, and @Sparks for Atlantis which has aged so well that it still runs on High Sierra. Sorry you three, I have a bit of eight-armed love in my heart for working with The Mechanipus.

@thatguythere said in Hello MSBites! Grade your administrators.:

@faraday
I would argue that public apologies are not really constructive either, not commenting on this one since I don't know the principles but the vast majority of them are propaganda not motivated by actual contrition.

I think there’s a difference between “not constructive” and “hostile”, which is why the forum is mostly constructive. It has a better ring to it than “non-hostile”, though the latter is more technically accurate about the purpose.

Vault Girl was not hostile. Hell, she’s one of the least hostile people in that thread. I’m 100% with @saosmash: You can dissent without being a dick about it, and this is what should be done on those forums. If they can’t handle that, it’s they, not the original poster, who should be censured.

If you (general you) can’t manage that, start a Hog Pit thread: Vault Girl is a dirty whore and here’s why. Mind you, we all get to laugh at you (fictional straw man you) when your evidence turns out to be brazen false-faced lies.

Incidentally, I do not believe anyone on this forum is a dirty whore. I’m sure any whores on Soapbox are clean and respectable.

(Call me.)

@kanye-qwest

Eh, I find special snowflakes everywhere, regardless. And I find staff making what I think are foolish decisions everywhere. In the context of single- or multi-sphere WoD games, I'll agree you get less of it on single-sphere games, but I think people act irrationally about it on multi-sphere games because of the history of the WoD games in this hobby. Which is admittedly pretty terrible especially as long as staff react poorly to it.

e.g., My first character on Haunted Memories was rejected by a spazztastic staffer because the character's history involved a minor. How easy it would have been to say: As long as this minor does not come into play that's fine. Just: App rejected.

I think the lack of trust in this hobby, and the abuse of trust in this hobby, keeps too much fun from happening.

@somasatori

nginx, the web service, is notoriously touchy. It's incredibly powerful when it works and it doesn't fall over out of spite, but when it panics it gives up entirely and needs to be spoon-fed Haagen-Daas (vanilla, of course) and given a shoulder-rub and encouraging words for it to work again. It's like many geeks that way.

@coin

I’d rather charger be as simple as possible so that the decision on how to play the character was with the player, and not the player’s fear of having to engage with the system.

Kamikaze players don’t sound like fun people to deal with, but it’s a risk I would take for a smoother experience for others.

@Coin

This, Jen ... is The Internet.

@coin said in Now for something different:

Why are you sharing pictures of your mom?

Because that's how you left her last night: Sad and unfulfilled.

@meg said in Meg's Playlist:

Man, so. I forgot to check MSB for a few days and then logged in and caught up on drama. Then promptly realized-- I just don't care any more.

You realize that this could be because you're logging into Soapbox.

I just this moment, within a minute of me reading you saying this, told @EmmahSue: It's always better to run toward than to run away.

If you don't feel like you're running toward RP, then yeah, it's healthy to stop. This is a hobby. It's meant to be fun, or if not fun then at least enjoyable.

Puppies are enjoyable. Until they pee on everything and chew on everything, but hey, that's the payment we get for puppies and their widdle puppy faces aww da widdle boo boo puppy woo woo!

So there.

@ganymede said in Social Stats in the World of Darkness:

This is a subject that has roiled back and forth for years. Years, you say? Yes, because I have no less than three different write-ups on how I'd manage the expectations of "social combat" and "mental combat" on a MUSH

One of the things I've been wrestling with about FATE/Fate Core, is that social and mental combat are nearly the same thing. Outsmart, outwit, outmaneuver, outshine.

--

But the problem is that players usually don't separate IC and OOC knowledge.

Let me restate this for everyone:

There is no such thing as Pure IC.

Sorry about yelling, but this is important. The work to separate the two is fun for some, but is work for others. Without making the social interaction more codified, you're asking for consistency where none should be expected.

And those people who do separate the two? They don't really; they just decide what to let cross from OOC to IC. There is no such thing as an IC/OOC divide. All characters live from our players' desires for them.

Most of the current social/mental conflict systems rely on a consistency that lies within the GM, or within the social contract of the table. Well, bad news, "the table" in a Mu* includes people with different gaming goals than you do.

Anyhow, that's all. I wanted to get that out there. The lack of central agreement social systems is the main problem of using tabletop RPGs on a Mu* setting.

Way too many to remember. Will edit as ancient history comes back.

Under the player name "Zoë Kincaid"

• Tilia @ TwoMoons
• Someone @ Shadowed Isles
• Zoe Kincaid @ LarryGhost's Game
• Vera @ Haunted Memories
• June (Medusa Changeling) @ The Reach

Under the "Thenomain" banner

• Thenomain/Th'main @ PernMUSH (Norcon)
• Can't Remember @ Masquerade MUSH
• Sywin Billard @ Some old and wonderful end of the world game many years ago.
• Rad @ DarkMetal

Staff & Coding

• Masquerade MUSH (WoD, from the beginning)
• Amaranth MUSH (WoD; New Hope, Maine)
• Aether MUX (original fantasy)
• DarkMetal (WoD; gutter-game)
• DarkWater (nWoD;, Somewhere, Washington)
• The Reach (nWoD; Aleswich Maine)
• Coding help for four nWoD games that have not yet been announced

Play to find out what happens.

If people were more willing to fail,
and if people were more willing to let others fail interestingly,
this would be a much easier discussion.

I have invented a daring new drinking game.

Browse Kicstarter. Sip when the extended entry claims that the item is "the world's first" something.

Take a second sip if you're sure that it's not.

@sunnyj said in Apology to Darinelle:

At this rate we will need an apology section in this forum.

I’m sorry you feel that way.

Work is making us all take training in something called “The R Effect”, which is mostly personality management (dangerously close to double talk, honestly, but has some solid ideas so I’ll at least try).

At occasional points the video has an interactive bit where it asks “what do you think”, and I feel it’s trying to get you to respond in a certain way out of shame, to help the conditioning.

(Note, I don’t think all work-mandated conditioning is bad. Most of it, yes, but not all. Acceptance conditioning I can go with.)

Well at one point the talking suit says, “Do you promise to do <x>, to make it part of your life, to do your very best.” Of course I answered no, because I’m not going to promise to anything.

And I swear, the guy pulled a tangent out to say why I was wrong.

Well fuck you, inventor of this behavioral life method, for asking me personal questions then chiding me for them. Fuck. You.

Ironically, the promise was to take “blame, complain, deny” out of my life, and the thing he said was bad and “you can look up the studies for yourself” was about venting. I didn’t say I wouldn’t try to not vent, venting was never even brought up! I said I wouldn’t promise to excise your negative meme bullshit from my soul, but you can bet I’m venting now you feckless no-chinned MBA twat.