MU Soapbox

Wretched

alt text

Wretched

@Rucket @Tinuviel Ahh, it's a show thats always been on my list, but other things always came before. Mebbe i'll give it a look soon and familiarize. Tho he looks too well dressed to be a Miami urquhart.

Wretched

In relation to this: What are other parts of a games setting that could be open for PC's to influence without much staff oversight? I am notoriously a Thematic Despot, but as long as people stay more or less within the lines of the rules/sphere themes we set out... I don't really care much what they do. Even for the non NPC families, I expect players to have a lot of influence into the respective families they join.

One thing I am poking around with is neighborhoods, and having some sort of influence/investment system there. Ifv yer from Little haiti, and live there, and spend your time there, owning a business there etc. What could we do with that? Social Bonuses? Territorial bonuses (akin to certain woof merits?) The ability to affect and change the vibe?

I really want to allow people to get invested in the grid and setting, and I think/hope it's large enough to do that.

@Tinuviel I feel like you think i should know who that is?

Wretched

@Tinuviel In my head they are separate from the main plot arcs that we will be running. They are more a 'staple of the setting' with all the other families, just with moar influence. A persistent foil that exists whatever overarching metaplot is happening. Tho they are the type to get involved with things that men should not.

BROAD STROKES: The Price and the Lynch families may squabble for years over who did what to whom, while the Urquharts and Holmes may fight tooth and nail... but everyone hates the Blackwells.

Mayor Blackwell was just seated into power, while his sister is the Police Commissioner. They own businesses, hotels, property, they outright own a couple gangs, included the dread biker gang known as 'The Dead Flamingos'. They Blackwells hunger for power, in all it's forms. Children vanish at the hands of the Gentry as if it were a boarding school, going away for a few years of pre-arranged servitude, to come back home with power, and in the mean time, the Fetches are useful and do as Fetches do. Generations ago they interbred with werewolves and to this day that branch of the family bites every child on their 16th birthday. They seek embrace, vampyric power, and any who have attempted to blood bind a blackwell has met an abrupt end. Power before everything else., except the success of the Family.

@Coin The Infighting can at least be thematic, not everyone in the Family gets along, and they do get in the way of each other from time to time, but this is definitely something that's in the forefront of my mind.

Perhaps each PRP being run by them has certain goals/limits and success/fail consequences can then be worked out with staff? Written in the documentation page of thier wiki, etc? Use some sort of Influence system?

Wretched

@Tinuviel Thats part of what I am debating internally right now. Just how much control to give. I really like the idea of writing up a solid history, influences, motivations etc, make an outline, and just give it to the players, but having a few control points might be a good idea ass well.

@Ghost They will be an Antagonist faction so they are unlikely to just give people things, but if they do, there is definitely a high cost.

But you are right, a lot of folks wanna run PRP's where they always win, and this Family is intended to both lose and win, back and forth. Because a Villian that is used as a constant punching bag is boring. The hope is to set them up in a way that is interesting enough that people might get invested in the villains too. Want to see them win, just for the chance to bring them back down again.

Perhaps invest certain members with 'Plot armor'.

Cops and Clergy and most other organizations in the game are corrupt, it is WoD After all. You mentioned Gotham, and that's about how secure our prisons are... >_>

@Coin I admit I am not great at those 'point systems' like you describe them, coupld you elaborate a bit more? In my head, the Plots, the laws that they might pass, the factions they might seek to undermine and control...

Like I am thinking at the beginning, one of these guys is the Mayor.

Wretched

So last night I expanded on this a bit, and so far a few people have mentioned positive things, and i am looking for more feedback.

So there will be Families on Miami, no surprise, and we were also building an NPC family, intended to be deeply imbedded in local politics with hooks all over the place in most spheres.

The Idea is this: What if we handed that entire family, to Player ST's. Like take a huge set piece, that can affect the game, spheres and institutions of the game, that are all connected to a larger thing, and just hand it to the player base to run plots with. Differing and even clashing ideas from ST's can be family infighting. With a little structure built into it, but minimal staff interfearance.

It'd be a bit of a trust exercise back and forth, but one of the bigger things I hear about on games in the past is feeling like you cant affect anything in the game. This could ne just one way to do it, Sucess from the 'Evil Family' would grow thier influence, failure means they are driven back a bit.

I feel like I'm finding the shape of a cool idea... I just need to make sure it's not just old food in my teeth.

Wretched

I literally have not finished watching the movie Powder... Every attempt has failed. I would always get to one part, and then something would come up. Back in hish school I think my parets came to pick me up, and then the second time guests came over, there was always some inconvenience.

The last time i tried to watch it with some friends, we got past the part I always ended near and got further into the movie than I ever did before...

And Lightening struck in the back yard, tore down a power line, that fell into my friends above ground pool. Edit: To be clear, this was less than 20 feet from where we all sat.

The gods have spoken.

Wretched

@Ghost said in Pro Wrasslin':

@Wretched Yeah I got the videos, too. They're a great workout. FUN FACT: The videos do not help you lose weight if you only do the intro part that walks through all the poses once a year. I was not aware of that.

Hahahahah, for real.

But seriously, for anyone reading this, if you are interested in yoga-esque workouts that are good for your joints (especially if you are heavier like me), but cant do all the super flexy yoga shit, DDP is pretty good. I'm not saying I have all the videos on my google drive or anything, but... where was I going with this?

Also Heathcare for all, blah blah.

Wretched

Umbrella Academy Season 2 is official, woo.

Wretched

@Ghost Yeah I have the DDP Yoga videos, they are pretty good. I need more floor space, but even the beginner stuff is amazing if yer out of shape. Easy on the joints, got my fat ass sweating and out of breath 5 mins in, but I felt great after.

There was also a movie a bunch years back with, fuck hold on...

Mickey Rourke. Called The Wrestler, which is a hard name to remember, shut up. B ut that really illustrated some of the lifestyle, and shit it does to you. I think a lot of people forget that even if wrestling is 'fake' it's still a lot of really big dudes performing a lot of athletic feats, getting beat up hard. Where in the movies, people get asses kicked and then like an hour later are like basically fine (I love you Frank Castle but c'mon) and you never really see the long term damage that gets done. I mean that doesnt always make a great action movie so i get it, but like, I used the Leg press wrong in highschool and I am still paying for it.

Wretched

@Ghost Damnit I was gonna link that here. As somone who grew up with Andre and Undertaker, and Hulk and Macho Man, and Honkey Tonk Man, and and and... yeah. That was a good watch.

I remember waiting for the icecream man in the late 80's early 90's for those ice cream sammich bars that had the wrestlers printed on the bars and they came with trading cards. They cost like a whole 1.50 when everything else was like 50 cents.

Wretched

Mummy, is very, incredibly unlikely to happen.

We are looking into adding other splats after launch, if we can allocate the resources for them, namely Promethean is a possibility, as well as Skinchangers and maybe others.

As for Mummy itself, I have yet to read or hear anything that makes me think they would mix well on a MU. This could be my ignorance and maybe down the line someone will convince me, but they will 100% not be there at launch.

We will have Mage and Geist if people are feeling OP.

Wretched

@Dreampipe You make me feel old. I don't like it. I got married in 2006, I was 26....
Edit: (also welcome to the community)

Wretched

Ive started putting cash in a 'tip box' at my house, for when i order food or weed.

Most food apps at least have a tipping option (Uber eats gives it to you after your food is delivered, which I like, less pressure)

My weed delivery service (eaze.com) has no built in tipping thing, and delivery people hussle in thier own way, either mention ing venmo, or 'tips welcome' in their 'your delivery in on the way' messages. I feel awkward if I dont have cash. One time i handed them like 7 bucks in Dollar Coins i got from change at a lightrail ticket thing, because i had no other money. The order was 130 bucks, I had 7 dollars in coins. They were cool about it but man, I wanna give more. Because Delivery drivers barely get shit, and are dicked around by who they work for a lot.

Wretched

@Testament Yeah i think seeing the Mineral Oil one sparked my geekyness in wanting to, one day, when I can afford it, to build something amazing and silly.