Best posts made by Wizz

Man, I don't wanna spam this thread, but I do have some odd stories after like a decade in the service industry. The last one I'll share for now is the Tale of Mistaken Identity.

Back in college, I worked at a Walgreens that had (for reasons I'm sure made sense to them) a pretty consistent population of homeless people in the parking lot. For the most part they were easy going and didn't bother anybody, so management didn't do much about them, and it was just a Thing about working there.

I had a coworker who had a really dry sense of humor that I got along with really well, and we always liked to make up ridiculous scenarios, so when he came in one day and said the police were looking for me, I thought he was joking. But nope, two officers came back and brought me outside.

Another important background detail was that my sister and I were going to the same college, which was a day's drive from our hometown, and in the winter if she was going back to visit we'd swap cars since mine was a little sturdier. Hers had lots of little pink decorations and flowers and things in it that indicated a woman owned it, I guess, and we'd swapped before that day so I had driven it to work.

Anyway, outside, the cops had custody of an old homeless woman, and at the sight of me she just flew into a screaming rage. "You filth! You philanderer! You fucking brown-eyed Huguenot!" (Being the weirdest thing I had ever been called, I looked it up afterwards, and apparently Huguenots were 16th century French Protestants. THE MORE U KNOW)

The cops asked if I knew her, which I did not. I'd never even seen her in the parking lot before. They led me over to my sister's car, where the lady had climbed up on the engine hood and, according to witnesses, used her wedding ring to carve "BITCH" into the metal in huuuuuuuge letters.

There wasn't much the cops could do other than hold the lady for a day, which I wasn't interested in. I just kind of felt bad for her, so they let her go, and I got to have a very strange phone call with my sister, who thought I was joking. (Of course.)

The funniest part of the story I guess is that my sister is like, a living and breathing saint. She's one of the sweetest people I know. But since we were both poor-ass students, she kinda just let the damage go for a while and drove around with BITCH carved into the hood of her car, to the bafflement of everyone who knew her.

A lot of people bitch about cross-sphere always "turning into the Superfriends," but I don't really understand the criticism. Personally I've always kind of wanted to run with a Being Human-esque group, I think it'd be pretty fun.

@ganymede said in RL Anger:

I would just tell your son that his friends are assholes.

I mean, they're not, though? They're just little nine and ten year olds, parroting the garbage their shitty parents tell them behind closed doors. I really won't hold that against them and I am not going to encourage my kiddo to either. Before today he was really fond of them, it's just a shame.

I'm more disappointed with the teacher, who had this glaringly obvious teachable moment and didn't react appropriately at all. I asked her about it directly after my son came home seething and near tears, and she admitted that she did not handle it the way she should have and a lot more kids got involved in the argument than my kid initially told me.

She's promised to address it with the class on Wednesday. I think it's crucial that she does, because the intervention of another authority figure can do SO much to counteract bigotry learned at home.

@too-old-for-this said in RL Anger:

Given that students rarely get to dictate what happens in class during school hours, I'm going to guess that that isn't, in fact, it. They do not get to exclude his child from any school activity as they lack the authority to do so.

They can just...not play with him, or choose him for teams, or talk to him at lunch/recess, or...on and on and on. Kids absolutely can shun each other and make each other miserable at school.

I have no idea what you're on about, preventing religious discrimination is absolutely a teacher's responsibility and claiming "separation of church and state" as an excuse to allow the discrimination would be enormously shitty and erroneous anyway as @Derp pointed out.

@Coin said:

That said, a lot of what @lordbelh, @Wizz, and @Arkandel have said is true, especially the spilling secrets part. Also take into account that werewolves, at least, are so heavily pack oriented that it could really be a problem.

One of the cool changes to Werewolf is that "pack" is going to be much, much more loosely defined in 2.0-- it won't just literally mean the actual Uratha involved, but also any Wolfbloods, and associated pure mortals in the territory, and even (implied via a few new rites) pets. It's structured kind of like a gang, with some core members and then people "in the know," and then those they protect. Who's to say other bump-in-the-nighters can't at least unofficially be part of a pack?

Edit: As described here.

Today and Sunday are the days I get to talk to my little three-year-old. Always good days.

Seriously, I'm liking the direction. It wasn't long ago I didn't feel like coming back to MU*s.
Unreal, in some ways how much time I've put into the hobby versus sticking with games.
Can it be not too soon to imagine that the new wave of games will be Reachkillers?
Knowing that people hate that term aside, haha, I'm really looking forward to starting.

I think we've got a lot to look forward to this year.
The new line-up Onyx is pushing out just keeps looking better and better.

Really though, my main question is this:
At what point did "gonzo" weirdness come into the equation at Eldritch? I'm not saying
Please no, but it seems kind of a strange fit for WoD, where the mood is always a bit dark.
That's not always how I like to play, but it's how the setting fits in my mind.
Otherwise it starts looking like some other IPs getting their own MU* revivals, y'know?
Random point, maybe, but it's been itching at me.

oh my god secret messages are so hard

I finally got custody of my kid this year, after his mother's family reached out to me and let me know he was being severely neglected. His mom was just locking him in his room all day, every day, only interacting with him at meal times...she didn't potty train him, she didn't vaccinate him, she didn't educate him or play with him, so when he came out here he was a mess. He has come so far in so many ways in the five months that I've had him but I am still so stunned I get literally ill every time I think about it. He is the most adorable little dude in the universe and I can't even believe I used to be in love with her, it makes me question whether I ever really knew her at all.

Taking him in has also changed my life in ways that I still don't understand. I had a group of friends I used to see pretty regularly, and they've basically disappeared. They make zero effort to see me or get involved, and so I have no real social life anymore.

Before I had my kid he was practically all I thought about in my free time and I was severely depressed, and I thought that would change when he came out and in a lot of ways it has, he is a little ball of sunshine and I love him to death...but now I'm just lonely and exhausted all the time. Jesus, single dad life.

@ixokai said in Star Wars: Insurgency:

Its not 'shoehorning' Luke (a staff alt)

.........

I appreciate the transparency, I really like the setting, and I actually like Fate, but FCs are strike one and staff-played FCs are strikes two and three for me. Purely personal preference and opinion but I wouldn't touch the place unless Beta saw FCs done away with altogether.

Some of my all-time favorites:

John Dies At The End by David Wong. Small-town burnouts get exposed to a substance they call "the soy sauce" that gives them sorta-omniscience, shreds the veil between the living and the dead, and makes them the target of interdimensional invaders. Hijinks ensue. Absurd, genuinely horrifying sometimes, and an Internet classic. Has a lot of nostalgia value for me since my friend and I used to print off the chapter updates every Halloween and read them together.

So You Want To Be A Wizard by Diane Duane (and really, ever subsequent book in the series). If you're really bummed about what a trash human being JK Rowling is turning out to be, this honestly has always been the superior young adult series. It came before Harry Potter anyway and it is just better, I mean it. Duane's characters grow and explore their personal tragedies in ways that are so much more raw and real than Rowling accomplishes even at her best, imho, and the way magic works is just fascinating; wizards are called to fight the force of universal entropy itself.

Silk by Caitlin R. Kiernan. I dunno how you even describe this book and the sequels/related novels. It's kinda-sorta urban fantasy/psychological horror with some cosmic horror influences (most often categorized as "weird fiction") revolving mostly around a group of friends in the South, but expands to include a sort of secret world and oh my god just go read it. Everything the author writes is amazing and will stick with you long after you put it down.

@crusader said:

In all seriousness, I honestly don't know how anyone can take you (Supremes) seriously, after writing that. You don't care for my opinion, fine. But the ambition of any game should be to lure people in before making them close a browser tab at its sheer stupidity in the first five minutes.

"This thread has been around for a month and has accrued four pages of discussion. I wonder if someone has addressed my concerns? Guess the only way to find out is to skip everything and barge in claws out like a jackass!"

Never change, internet.

@crusader said:

@Wizz Because four pages is such a lengthy and comprehensive discussion. It must not have been, if the creator still thinks that apps page is a good idea, or else it's a deliberate move to lessen interest in his game.

I'd suggest it was a deliberate move to lessen interest in this game, for players like you. Your sensibilities are not going to align with the Supreme's sensibilities, and as far as I understand that's the whole point of doing this in the first place rather than waiting for some obnoxious drama down the road. But we couldn't have solved the mystery without you, Scoob, great work.

I kinda wish Arx com channels had custom cycling titles because putting up verses from that song and then slowly changing them over time is basically the only legit use for such a system

@Coin said:

For darker, grittier urban fantasy, "John Dies at the End" is pretty great.

I'll second this pretty strongly. John Dies at the End is...is...

The man walked past me and stopped, observing the blood running down my neck.
"Your injury. Let us tend to it." He looked out through the open doorway and silently gestured to someone out there. "Our world," he said, "is far more advanced than yours. For reasons you'll understand shortly."

A thin, bony, naked woman entered the room, carrying two small, white kittens. She sat one of the fluffy cats in my lap and stuffed the other down my shirt. She turned and left.
"There," said the large man. "The kittens will make your sad go away.”

...there are no words. They should have sent a poet.

I'd also recommend War for the Oaks by Emma Bull, anything by Caitlin R. Kiernan (Daughter of Hounds is probably closest to the "urban fantasy" mold), The Magicians by Lev Grossman, and the So You Want To Be A Wizard series by Diane Duane.

@secretfire said in Potential Buffy Game:

As noted above "Right, because a universe set in Buffy isn't a Buffy game" - I guess you'll say Angel wasn't buffy because it involved adults and wasn't in a small town?

I mean...it wasn't? Angel and Buffy were two very different shows with different thematic elements, moods, and storytelling methods. They had characters and lore in common, but that's not really what I think @sunny means by that.

Buffy is a big mood.

I had a story end within ten minutes.

I picked wizard, showed up at some ruins where there was a crying little girl. I asked her what was wrong and she couldn't remember her mom, so I cast a spell to help her remember, and then asked if she wanted to become my apprentice.

This apparently meant I was leaving the mortal world and passing my powers on. She gave me a big old hug and ran off to play with friends, and then the game said THE END.

I don't think I've laughed that hard for a while, it was so unexpected.

@sunny

Just to be clear, I'm not against it being a Buffy game and I think ZG said pretty clearly earlier that that is his intention, as a GM he wants to tell Buffy-style stories. Ain't nothin' wrong with that. Personally I love both shows very dearly, even if I love them for different reasons.

I just wanted to make sure we cleared up early on, like @Apos said, what the game is about and what kind of atmosphere the game is going for. There're not a ton of things less fun than feeling like you are not coming into a gaming group with the right expectations.

I would just like to light a candle here for Major Tomslanikov, my undead psychic elder god-worshipping Russian cosmonaut who never saw the light of day.

Dasvidania, comrade.

@kireek

I've read this whole thread and I am still not 100% clear what it is exactly you're trying to get across here.

Like, if you chose to let that one segment of the game play out without interruption, you're an immoral person who is contributing to the degradation of society?

Or like...by allowing it to play out, you are unwittingly being molded to accept a reality where snuff VR actually exists, and to help bring it about? Like German soldiers were pressured to conform with the atrocities of the Holocaust?

That's...uh. That's pretty extreme.