Posts made by Tributary

@auspice said in A Regency MU (Conceptual):

Personally I prefer when there's just one PC allowed. But my experience has been that people get very antsy and such when they can't have multiple characters. So my thinking is: 1 PC for society stuff (allowing staff to not be overwhelmed with handling stuff for tons of alts there) and commoner alts for people who have a need for alts or just want to mess around with other ideas.

Honestly? Just limit people to 1 PC. Allow them a time period to tweak it (some concepts work out better than others) and then ask them to stick to that single PC.

If people do want to mess around with other ideas, permit a certain amount of emitting of NPCs: no one important. No one who can seriously influence anything or needs stats to do things. But perhaps someone who can sort of interact in ways their PC cannot; i.e., a nobody sailor interacting with naval officers for the player of a female peer. Essentially, backdrop NPCs. If their NPC ends up being more appealing than their PC, let them drop the current PC and make the NPC as a PC.

Sometimes it's okay to just say, "No." Especially for your own sanity.

I'm not coping at all. Everything is awful.

@aria When I was teaching, I had some students approach me during office hours for help with a lab assignment from one of my colleagues. And I said, "Sure, I'll sit and talk to you about it, so long as you let me eat lunch in the process." (Because it was really lunch hour and just adjacent to office hours, but whatever.) And we sat together and I made them work it out, and they were giddy when they left. And then I stalked down the hall to talk to my colleague. He admitted he'd told them to "Go bother someone else," and they did. Hrmph.

But my syllabi always included a calendar:
Week 1: Monday -- Chapter 1.1-1.3; Wednesday -- Chapter 1.4-1.5; Homework: <list of questions>
Week 2: Monday -- Chapter 2.1-2.2; Wednesday -- Chapter 2.3-2.4; Homework: <list>
Week 3: Monday -- Chapter 2.5; Wednesday -- Review Chapter 1 & 2; Homework: <list>
Week 4: Monday -- Exam 1; Wednesday -- Chapter 3.1-3.3; Homework: <list>
...and so on. With dates. So that they could tell that they'd be tested on September 3rd, for example, so write it in your calendars now.

This turned hilarious one semester when the Organic Chemistry professor and I (teaching Introductory Physics) happened to pick more or less the exact same dates for exams. Because of the way the calendar fell and holidays and such, they made the most sense for pacing. But the students, at least half of which were enrolled in both classes, cried that we'd conspired against them. I admit that we had a good laugh together in the faculty lounge one afternoon a couple of weeks into the semester, which was the first time we'd discussed it, because the students were campaigning to both of us to move the exams, and both of us were like, "Look, you know you have both exams on the 3rd. You knew that from Day One. Just take that into account as you prepare!"

Since I was required to take attendance by the university, attendance and participation counted for 5% of final grades. I excused absences for practically anything asked (asking was key), and as I pointed out to them, with something like 30 class days to count, each class missed reduced their final average by less than 0.2%. But I did my best to treat them like adults when it came to them being sick and other such things. Class lecture notes were always posted on the class website, too.

I gave exams on Mondays, and anyone taking it in the accommodation center had until Tuesday at close-of-business to take it. They had until Thursday to make up the exam, if they missed it, unless they were in the hospital or had a flu diagnosis, and then I was more flexible. But I tried never to move deadlines, because that was always a nightmare. And I very rarely gave back points on an exam, because I expressed at the beginning that it was their responsibility to communicate to me on the exam what they meant.

I'm glad I'm not teaching this year, though. What a wreck.

@faraday The Hero and the Crown was the one I ended up reading first, and I loved it madly, and it's probably my favorite book. My mother was an English teacher then, and she ended up teaching that book to her middle schoolers, and I was a snot that she'd ruined my copy. When my ex dumped me right before our wedding, I made an interstate move listening to that book on tape.

I have read a lot of other McKinley books, but that one may forever be my favorite.

I have the Chronicles of Prydain on my Kindle, and when I am bored or maybe sad, I go read those. They never get old.

I've read the Dark is Rising series (Susan Cooper) so many times that I have the poems memorized. You know, just in case.

The Ordinary Princess (M.M. Kaye) was another one of my beloveds, as was Cricket and the Emperor's Son (Elizabeth Jane Coatsworth). My copy of The Owlstone Crown (X. J. Kennedy) is in the hands of some friends' children.

Ooh, and Madeline L'Engle's Wrinkle in Time series has largely held up. As has L. Frank Baum's Wonderful Wizard of Oz. But man, those are so much weirder than I recalled as a child.

When I took Bupropion in my 20s, I loved how effective it was and hated that it tended to sing-song into my brain, "It's time to kill yourself!"

Now, I'm in my 40s, and I can take it with NO side effects, and it's fantastic.

(I should note, as an ADD person, I do occasionally recommend that people buy themselves a planner to use as a tracker. Not for planning. For journaling things. For keeping track of adulting and health changes, so that when I do talk to my doctors, I can be like, "I had 2 migraine days and 8 depression days in the month of November. I lost 10 pounds and worked as a paid freelancer between 5 and 10 hours a week, plus some spec freelancing. I have an entry where I was unbearably sad because I ran out of apples. Oh, and I had a serious anxiety attack on the 18th, and mild fever on the 9th.")

The last time I messed with Evennia, there was essentially a "Hello World!" tutorial. That may be of interest to you, if you haven't done it yet. I suggest that you start there.

Otherwise, pull down the Arx codebase and start altering it. Figure out how to customize the stats. Figure out how to customize the recipes. Figure out how to add "<name> seems to be holding <object list>" to descriptions. Poke and fiddle and try to change things.

@Arkandel said in The ADD/ADHD Thread (cont'd from Peeves):

MSB is the new pornhub?

For cats.

Oh yeah. If you are checking out the game, the census now includes character concepts, which kind of tells you who is playing what vaguely.

Anyway, the game skews towards older characters because you get more points for being older, and in general, we think it is more interesting to have characters with a little life experience to back up why they're a world-class swimmer who has retired to a weird little town at the age of 19. Not that the points really matter, because we generally roll things when players are like, "Oooh, can I roll <insert skill here> for this plot?!" and I'm like, "Sure." Or I'm like, "Roll to swash your buckle as you swing between the two ships so that we can see how dramatically you manage to do it."

Honestly, just pick a name, come up with a concept that fits the setting, stat yourself in a manner that suggests you're aware that you're living at the ass end of nowhere, and you're done.

@Caggles said in Trelawney Cove:

I wasn't allowed to use the 'If you're looking for high octane action and plot at breakneck speed, jog on, this ain't the game for you' line. Got vetoed. Much sadness.

That's what you get for holding votes while I'm asleep. I'd have encouraged that line.

Ugh. I should take a nap.

Personally, I message @Sparks about 2 days before I have to fly somewhere and make her tell me what I should download onto my Kindle. Then I buy a ton of books all at once and read them over the following months. Then I buy the series or sequels if they exist.

Eventually I run out of books, and I flail until @Sparks answers my messages again.

It's a system. It's maybe not a great system, but it's a system.

I got to the pharmacy today, stared at the pharmacist a moment, and said, "I forgot my prescription for Adderall again." And she said, "Oh, well, I have your migraine meds ready. You can bring it next time."

Except that I can't. I'll forget it again. And I'll have a telemedicine appointment with my doctor next week, and he'll write me another one, and I won't pick up the mail for two weeks, and then I'll have THREE slips of paper prescribing me my ADD drugs that I haven't filled yet because the government requires him to make them on paper instead of just electronically sending them to the pharmacy.

And then the pharmacist will be like, "It's throwing up a flag because you haven't filled this in awhile. Why haven't you filled it in awhile?" And I'll be like, "BECAUSE IT'S ADDERALL THAT WAS PRESCRIBED FOR ADD!" And if it's one of the newer pharmacists, they'll give me an odd look, but if it's the male pharmacist, he'll just smirk knowingly because he's familiar with this routine.

@Auspice said in The ADD/ADHD Thread (cont'd from Peeves):

People make fun of those who wear their mask while driving.

But if I don't, I'm liable to forget it in the rush of 'do I have everything I need when I get out of the car and go in this place?' then suddenly I'm approaching the store and sure I have my phone wallet keys reusable bags but oh right mask.

Wearing it all the time prevents running back to my car constantly.

I end up wearing it home from the grocery mostly to remind myself not to touch my face. If I still have my mask on, I am way less likely to rub my eyes.

@Coin said in Gauging Interest in a new Erotic RP MU* (with anonymous survey):

@Waller said in Gauging Interest in a new Erotic RP MU* (with anonymous survey):

@HelloProject said in Gauging Interest in a new Erotic RP MU* (with anonymous survey):

Like damn, let me be a wizard who does sexy wizard things, but also I can do other wizard things, and Doom Guy won't suddenly walk in like "I'M GONNA FUCK YOUR SEXY WIZARD THINGS!!!"

This sounds like if someone made an Oglaf MUSH.

An Oglaf MUSH would be ridic and fun, ngl.

I would totally play an Oglaf MUSH. Totally.

My long-term MMO character on SWTOR is a pink twi'lek. I once had a guy who was trying to corner me for ERP tell me that it was bold of me to play such a beautiful ethnic character.

Dude. She's pink. She has head tails. She shoots lightning out of her fingertips. She is NOT a person of color. Unless that color is PINK.

When I played FFXIV with @pax, both of our characters had dark skin, and I was regularly complaining to her about how stupid some of the costuming and lighting looked on my character, and she had much sympathy.

In a lot of MUs, though, I try to play locals. And depending on the game, this can give me tons of options for PBs or just white people. (I should probably amend this to Europeans, as I've done several historical games, and generally one wants to pick an Italian looking PB for an alternate-history Italian noble.)

Updated with Spring Lake.

@roz said in Spirit Lake: An Original Modern Fantasy Game:

@testament I legitimately love tablet POS systems, especially when they just swing it around on the stand and you can SIGN right on the TABLET and tip if you want. It makes me happy.

I'm just here to make the cinnamon rolls that are as big as your head and other sweets. I don't... alright, I'll check out a customer while the old dude's on his smoke break.

(I'm Dawn, @saosmash's sister. We're 28, and we're not twins, she's adopted, so we're "twins".)

My first thought was that I wanted to play a baker who makes cinnamon rolls as big as your head at a family cafe. It sounds like there are others who are also into the family cafe business. Let us put something together so that we are not running sixteen competing coffee shops.

(Or maybe I will go the easy route and volunteer to play @Roz's ex and spend a lot of RP time having delightful arguments with @Roz.)

This is Osmium, a snaggle-toothed ewok. Shih-tzu, I mean. Osmium is a blackish metal, so Ozzy is the most metal of shih-tzu. Also, Osmium has an odor to it and the root word means "smells", and the dog likes smells. It's the densest of metals and the dog is a little dense. (Yes, his name is a chemistry joke.)

He's terrified of @Cobaltasaurus's cats. He understands that they are sharp and not to be trusted.