Posts made by Thenomain

@The-Tree-of-Woe said:

Pledges, in part. I don't like free candy, for various reasons.

Eh, it's pretty minor free candy. Changeling's system is designed for very small advantages adding up. Played right, this is a risk, though, as the people you're getting free candy from create a bond, and that bond can be exploited. Mage players can get free candy, too, unless you call "having to roll and ignoring all other thematic aspects of the system" something other than free candy. It sure is cheaper than it should be.

Mage has more than its share of unfairly gaming the system, and as a hobby we have gotten used to the phrase, "the rules don't say I can't", when only half the game is about rules. You're preaching to the choir, but until everyone stops allowing it, everyone will keep doing it.

A big part of Changeling is snorting people's emotions like magic coke

I don't see how this pisses on anything. It takes away nothing from the other person. You don't even have to manipulate a thing to get your fix, you just have to experience it.

Did you ever think of the implications of fucking with people's desires, sorrows, or anger?

Every goddamn day I logged in, but I don't think you read the same book that I did. In Changeling, there is only one thematic abuse you must agree to, and that's the one that made you into a Changeling. You don't need to manipulate anyone else, or any more that we do to each other day to day just by being social creatures.

In Mage, you agree to lie to the world, every day, without remorse, and fight over scraps of political power behind the scenes. That's hubris. That's pretty fucking barbaric.

Another part of what bugged me was how many people with emotional abuse issues completely missed the trick on this.

It's not a trick. It's spelled out in black and white. It could be they (sub-)consciously don't want to admit to it, or it could be that it's just a game and they expect people with triggers to be self-aware enough to stand up and speak out about them.

Nah, just kidding. I expect people with triggers about things to be as adult as those who like to manipulate people over the same things.

Part of it is my own tendency toward bitterness. Thinking back? Most of my bile is reserved for Liam's player. I never said I wasn't a hypocrite, or that I didn't hold grudges.

Oh, well, Liam could be an utter prick, though I got along with him far better than I did the Lokis or the Spiders. I simply didn't trust anyone entirely first go.

@Miss-Demeanor said:

Ummmmmm... didn't you play in the sphere with two Disciplines that don't just influence mental/emotional states but actually FORCE someone to think/feel a specific way? How is it okay for Vampires to completely control a person's mental/emotional state but its not okay for Changeling's to influence them?

He did say that 1) he was different then and 2) wasn't proud of himself. I think that pretty much covers that.

A lot of people don't like the Child Abuse overtone that is the Durance, but I myself like that the game can be about overcoming this, if you want to acknowledge it at all. I don't think the game of Chagneling itself pisses on anyone who doesn't want to get involved, so all harm is self-inflicted.

interesting post-script: Back when my gaming group was still playing RPGs, one member refused to play (original) Mage because it pretty much said to him that God did not exist. I think we could have made some minor changes to make that work, but that was his objection, so we didn't play it.

See, I think not only do we have a bad habit forgetting that the other players we're dealing with are human beings, but sometimes we forget that we always have the ability of reminding them that we're human beings. We agree on a certain theme and setting and rules, but we agree as players, not as characters.

Since posts were made after I started editing:

@Thenomain said:

You know, I have strayed from my original point. So, Tree o' Woe, what about Changeling ruins everything it touches? The more level-headed staffer in me does want to know.

@Miss-Demeanor said:

I miss Vera. She was one of the few female Changelings that wasn't completely goddamn useless in a fight.

As Shaft's (Mr. VASpider's) female swordbunny character was made at the far limit of minmaxing, I don't know how you could say that. Loki also had a gunbunny who was literally a bunny.

I hated HM's Changeling combat scenes, because I didn't get 3 attacks per round and it was risky to fire into the melee crowd and I had to fight tooth and nail for every advantage of Firearms over Archery that I simply gave up and got Archery with the 150 xp that I always had hanging around, and then had Leka abuse the hell out of the magic-item crafting rules to make a bow that was horribly overpowered.

It was, actually, quite fun.

@Wretched said:

I and hated Vera

Because you understood her. She started as Tank Girl and evolved into a human being.

I'll admit, there was a huge swath of the HM Changeling sphere who were painful for me to deal with, but I could at least feel relatively confident that if I had to deal with them IC, that it would be IC, that their players had a passing interest in playing Changeling, and when they got too high and mighty there were enough of us players to put some pressure on them so they would shut up.

Not so The Reach's Changeling sphere. Maybe nowadays, but that sphere was broken so many times by this whiny person or that crazy staffer that I don't know if the remaining players have enough spirit to make it work, and you need the players to buy in or there's little that can be done. A sphere needs a spirit or it's just a bunch of characters sharing the same template.

@The-Tree-of-Woe said:

I provoked you into burning down your own house.

Provoked Ernst into it. Vera was insanely pissed for months.

Also, don't ever use "make your life interesting" as a euphemism for shitting on people.

That your voice is reading to me as agitated all throughout this, I'm tempted to not correct you and let you agitate yourself further. But no, I can't do that to someone I don't know, even if my personal reading of this makes me lightly amused.

Correction: The raisins are in your pudding, not on your head. You were eating them.

It makes you look like a cockpunch.

Om nom nom nom deer raisins. Imagine eating them, rolling around in your mouth in your tapioca. Mmmmmm.

edit: After talking a bit with @Wretched, I think that Tree-Of-Woe may have played a Mage, which explains a lot. Most cross-sphere interactions on Haunted Memories were treated with the expectation that nuclear weapons were going to level an entire sphere at any given time. The Motley home was burnt down because someone dropped a high-power Death spirit in our living room, probably because people were overreacting again. You really can't judge a sphere well in that situation.

It's situations like this that have informed my not-playing-a-Mage attitude of: The best way to deal with a Mage is to avoid it at all costs. Even the HM Vampire sphere was more reasonable than the Mages, but I'll note that I'm talking about HM only and not "Vampire Players" or "Mage Players" in this case. I can't immediately recall a case where the HM Mages stopped by to say "please stop doing that" and instead, e.g., disintegrated doors or dropped in uber-powerful spirits or the like.

Not to say that the HM Vampires weren't fucked up, either, they were simply more willing to deal with problems via talking. Even that one time where it was obviously a trap, and the Vampire who set up the trap was out-smarted, and his player complained to staff about how unfair it was. Or that one time I and someone else had an RP scene lied about what it was going to be about, complained we didn't RP right, then had the entire situation retconned when we did something about it that was going to put them in deep shit.

You know, I have strayed from my original point. So, Tree o' Woe, what about Changeling ruins everything it touches? The more level-headed staffer in me does want to know.

@ThatOneDude said:

@Thenomain Mage is the best, I don't get everyone's dislike.

You don't have to get it. Everything I said was true, and I tend to make more subtle comments elsewhere about the same thing. If people get enough traction to make the sphere about <fill-in-blank>, then it will be about <fill-in-blank>.

Without staff involvement, Mage becomes a game about backstabbing academics and Changeling becomes a game about abuse victims. With staff involvement, this these are merely hurdles to be overcome in a word we have termed "drama". The good kind.

FURTHERMORE, with nWoD 2e, I'd bet everything is much more in line sphere/splat wise.

I can only hope.

@The-Tree-of-Woe said:

I think the only prominent Changeling player from there that I can remember who I still like is Zepherine

'Zephirine'. It's a kind of thornless rose. And you didn't like Vera? I'm touched. After getting talked down by Czcibor's player (), and a little by Konrad's player (same), I tried to keep the IC stuff IC, but I wasn't afraid to make an OOC scene, which did not make me friends.

edit: Also, Baron's player. And Sparky's player. Reverie had her problems, but she looked out for the sphere as a whole and I adored her for it. Surprising, isn't it, now that she's Troy.

Actually, it did. Mostly from people who were too afraid of staff to speak up.

It was awful with raisins in it.

How big were those raisins? That might've been Mr. Stag trying to keep your life interesting.

@The-Tree-of-Woe said:

I won't be sorry, Thenomain. Merely pained by how awful it will make everything it touches.

I feel the same about Mage, except it's Mage as a game that does this, while with Changeling it's the players. Clearly you've never run into Changeling players who were interested in playing Changeling. Both of these are easy fixes for everyone.

For me, it's just voting to not allow Mage on a game I'm helping to run and agreeing with my cohorts in taking a no-bullshit philosophy when it comes to What Susan Did To George's Character Via Harvey's Alt Which Is Totally A Conflict Of Interest Violation.

For you, the fix may be getting someone to implement this, or helping these people. (edit: dear god, help those people! make that happen!)

note: I will be coding Mage, or getting @Cobaltasaurus to help/do it herself, but Eldritch will not be implementing it. It's not really that I dislike Mage players (I mean, I do, but I don't let that ruin my professional view), it's that the game itself tends to lead to overwhelming all the other games (that the Mage players who think this is part of Mage are vocal is why I tend to shy away from them).

Except you, Dart. Or D...something. The cool Mysterium mage from The Reach. You were awesome and including and helped build the buffer to protect us Changelings from possible Mage Political Shenanigans. I know there are more out there.

@Wretched said:

Mine will be named Big Bird

His stereotypical outfit should be a t-shirt with the alphabet on it, but done in a Hot Topic Goth style.

Better yet, tattooed on his body in a Jared Leto's Joker style, because that's just fucking sad.

My first Changeling character will be named Arev. She will be an angry Jewish lesbian who will be the late-night DJ and shock-jock, but by day she will go around pissing off everyone she can one-on-one, because it's the personal touch that matters. Her parents will be from whatever the Israeli nationalized army is called, and have passed down their love of expensive automatic firearms. She will end up in Eldritch after escaping Arcadia because blah blah blah who cares time to shoot things.

@Coin said:

@Eerie totes pressured me into eventually adding Changeling when 2e comes out, but that's as far as I stretch.

Oh, you thought there was an option about Changeling getting added? That's cute. I like how you think you have control over this aspect.

I mean, hell, how to add Changeling was part of our Metaplot discussion, you dork.

@The-Tree-of-Woe said:

Eugh, Changeling. I dread the day.

We will bring back the Haunted Memories Changeling Power Hour, then you really will be sorry.

Ready, @Wretched?

@Orange said:

Good to know these chats aren't logged. It's just that with coders I talked to, there is a way to pull it up on God chracter, nobody ever does it except in situations of hacking/etc.

Nope. By default, TinyMUX logs just connectivity changes (logins, logouts, drops) and some administrative @commands. The game has to be set up to log pages, or you have to be specifically flagged for your own commands (and not commands targeting you) to be logged.

Penn may log more completely. I would be surprised, tho, as that's a lot of ado over a lot of nothing, just to catch one possible transgression.

Follow-up!

@BetterJudgment said:

"[Nigger] is a word used to describe our own wretchedness.".

Maybe this means that all Black American satire is Richard Pryor.

I can't say this is a bad thing.

@Cirno said:

@Thenomain

There are black citizens of those countries. Shocking, I know.

At that point I was joking. I mean, a black SwissFrenchEnglish? With the way you reacted they might as well be white, amirite?

(n.b., still making fun. So is Chris James. Watch it through to the end. click click.)

I don't know why it's important that someone spell it out for you. French, Swiss and English ... what, Jew? I mean, duh.

@Cirno said:

Politically speaking

Politics starts at home. When you're 3, becoming self-aware and asserting the very first ideas of control over your environment, and absorbing every iota of it. Your ancestral makeup may inform what diseases you might get, but it's much more likely that the biggest factor of your skin-tone is the same factor of your lot in life: Where you were born. Imagine how lucky we all are being able to discuss this and not, e.g., being trained to be a child warrior.

I think this is kind of a dumb thread. It's pretty harmless, really, but kind of dumb which is why I didn't go any further than "white", because after that it doesn't matter. Even that doesn't much matter, but hey, I'll play along. I enter into evidence what you said to @Monogram after they answered your question with a little bit of amusing tweaking of the original question.

"No, Monogram, you answered WRONG. You are supposed to be WHITE."

Of all the other white people in the thread, they get The Treatment? But yeah, like I said, dumb but a mostly harmless game.

@Cirno said:

I don't believe in the whole "we're all human" mess.

I believe it intrinsically.

I believe humans are defensive of their clan and wired to be afraid of differences. I believe that because of this they pass on the things they know as "good" and the things they do not as "bad".

Everything I see around me supports this. We are all human. This means being a mess.

I don't believe one second that "White Guilt" should be a meme that is allowed to exist for more than the three seconds to see how unjustifiable it is, but at the same time for fuck's sake Other Races, don't pretend that you're without acting shamefully just because you are <fill in culture-plus-skin-tone mix here>.

Can we please, as the Human Race, drop the 'skin tone' part of it and focus on the only part that matters: The culture that provides fuel to that bullshit? Like Chris Rock says, "The niggers have got to go.."

(n.b., I just love this bit, and this thread suddenly gave me an excuse to share it..)

@Huzuruth said:

@tragedyjones said:

If City of Heroes was returned to the world I would never talk to you ducks again.

It's on Steam.

I actually checked, you ass.

@GentlemanJack said:

Is that a bad or a good thing

That depends. If Coin wants to volunteer me for new projects, maybe he doesn't want to open next weekend after all.

is "I have no mouth and I must scream". Mu* coding is leaving me a bit panicked right now, is all.

(I will have a more coherent panic/response when I get home.)

I was once harassed by a local cop in my upper-class neighborhood. Jealousy and cops don't mix. Man, cops, right?

Excessive poking fun at my First World Problems aside, I once had someone who was of the inner-city African American affectations once invite me to call him 'nigga'. I was extremely flattered, but there was no way in hell I was going to. I would just as likely walk into a lesbian biker bar and yell to my friend, "Yo, Dykebuster!"

It's nice to see that my accident of birth doesn't mean that other people of other minority groupings aren't just as stupidly cruel, I just wish my so called peers would cut it the fuck out and lead the change. Let stupid people be seen as being stupid, instead of it being cultural.

My name is Thenomain, and I am painfully, stereotypically self-aware.

White. Painfully, stereotypically white.

I have no mouth and I must freak the hell out.