No FCs will be allowed. We are going to be an OC only game.

Here's my "hot take" for what it's worth. This is just based on my experiences and certainly may not represent the experiences of others. But...

I don't think the schisms in the MU community can be healed for the most part. It comes down to conflicting personalities, and those bridges will never be mended.

That said, here is a list of stuff I'd love to see be more common in the MU community. Some of these are more peeves than anything else but they are my thoughts on how the community, as a whole, might be a better place.

1. Realize these are just fun-time text-based games. They should be stress relievers, not stress causes.

2. Stop with the "red flags" attacks on new games. I can't count the number of times a new game was added to the advertisement section, and suddenly someone saw something they didn't like or didn't care to RP with, and posts about "red flags" started popping up.

3. Realize that new players are still coming into the community and may not be as good a text-based storyteller as you. That doesn't give you the right to shame them. Several players I know have been chased off games because instead of being given constructive criticism, they were talked down to and made fun of because of how they RPed.

4. Remember that there are actual people on the other end of these usernames. We often take the fact that we can see the actual human for granted and say things to or about them that we would never do in person. I know that's true of the internet, but I think it's especially relevant to here.

5. Just stop being judgy. Period. One of my biggest peeves is when someone does not like something, and they take on the mentality that it shouldn't exist. If you don't like something, ignore it. Don't attack it. Don't try and scare other people away from it.

Obviously, the things we say to friends in private is one thing, but we often take those private thoughts and make them very public, often in the most unkind ways. What I think needs to change most of all is the "If it isn't for me, it isn't for anybody" mentality that some players seem to have in this hobby.

Why is it so hard to be nice and encouraging to each other?

@groth This is just my opinion and how I see things and I could be very wrong BUT, this is how I feel about things...This place stopped being a community a long time ago. It became a gathering place for a certain clique to share their thoughts and ideas and belittle anyone who disagreed with them. It's why my interaction with this forum dropped off to almost nothing years ago and I know it's why several other people have left. You agreed with and were in CliqueX or you were an outsider for the most part.

I do feel this forum needed a change and I think the direction people want to take it is a good one. Was it a rough start? But that's how some journeys start.

Will this lead to something good? Who knows but I don't think what has happened has destroyed the board. I think it destroyed the board for a certain sect of people and, in the end, that may not be a bad thing.

I love the blue eyes!

Here are two of my brood enjoying the snow we got today.

Since I've moved on from the poll I figured I'd post this to let people know the status of the game.

Status: In Progress
Codebaes: Ares
System: Savage Worlds

We'll be set in the Old Republic just after the Mandalorian Wars. We'll be looking to evoke the style and feel of both Jedi the Fallen Order and The Mandalorian with remnants of The Clone Wars. We'll have a core setting(a pair of planets in the outer rim) but we'll have systems in place for players to RP anywhere in the Star Wars universe.

I have no real ETA for when I intend to open but I don't think it'll be too long. I've have the core Savage Worlds system coded up for Ares I just need to customize it for Star Wars and flesh it out with secondary systems(+roll and equipment). I'm hoping the end of January but we'll see.

Anyway, I'll update this thread with how things are going from time to time.

My wife tried creating a character on a game, her first game that wasn't private/run by me. She made a lesbian and was chased off the first night by people eye-rolling and mocking her OOCly as "clearly another man creating a lesbian sex beast". It was truly repulsive to watch and pushed her away from playing on any other public games. People cry about being inclusive but, in the end, I think most people in this hobby are happier just to sit back, mock, and feel generally superior to those around them.

A pic of the character modeled off of my cat that died a few years ago as he appears in the upcoming Monarchies of Mau RPG .

Hmmmm...

***=NSFW content***

I'm not sure why but for some reason I feel the need to jump in and hopefully clarify some points.

1. It's been brought up that I suggested Tony contact Warren OOCly. I did. I even provided some suggest verbiage to try and keep things mellow, essentially just making sure everyone was OOCly on the same page. Tony took a much more aggressive approach to the OOC communication than I had hoped. In the end, I probably should not have made that suggestion. I should have acted as a middle man and first asked everyone to sit on things for 24 hours to let emotions cool.

2. A lot has been made of RS coming and calling sounding the DWOPP alarm. Everyone has their opinion on that, here is mine; I wish he had waited till I had done my investigation before saying anything at all. Once I had verified that Warren was not DWOPP, the entire post would not have been necessary, IMO.

3. A lot has also been made over the Jean/Warren log. I just want to state that Warren was not banned over that log. The log was brought to my attention, I spoke with Jean at length about it, and she made it very clear that she had no problem with Warren or the scene and that I should not hold that scene against him. So I did not.

4. I've hard call for receipts for the bans with some folk saying they need or deserve them. I won't lie, I've only recently read stuff from BMD so some(or most or all) may have come from there but it's a sentiment that's been put out into the universe at any rate. I disagree. People came to me with thoughts and concerns, I did my own investigation, I made my own decisions. Sharing anything that went on behind the scenes helps nothing. It's not going to change anyone's opinions and it is just going to potentially make some people uncomfortable. Sharing these things feeds the drama but I have almost never seen it actually help the situation.

5. I've read some "we know why X or Y was banned". I want to assure you that you do not. No one was banned for any single reason and none of those reasons have been shared openly. Two of those people were banned blindly because I had just had enough and wanted them done and gone. I briefly shared the reason with the third because of our history together and I felt I at least owed them that.

Could some of the things that went down been handled better? Sure. It's also easy to say that now and it's easy to say that if you weren't involved. I had been dealing with some of these issues for weeks. In the final week leading up to the 3 bannings it was a daily thing. It got to the point where I didn't want to log onto my own game because I knew I was going to have several messages about Player X or Player Y.

Do I regret the bannings? I do not. It sucks to say because two of the people involved I think are actually decent people and I know I'll miss their friendship. Unfortunately, these were steps I felt I needed to take. In the end I think the game is stronger for it.

I think, often, it's not bad players that ruin things it's bad people. Over the last year and a half or so I've been RPing almost exclusively with people who are new to the hobby. Their RP was, by any standard on this board I'm sure, bad. That doesn't mean the experience was bad and, over time, they got better. Too many times I've seen new players on games chased off because they were "bad RPers".

I find most new players are very open to constructive criticism. That is generally not what they encounter. They get ostracized, mocked, and ridiculed right off of games. This can be particularly true of someone trying to stretch their RP wings by trying to play something against what they are in real life.

Maybe that dude playing a gay man is a bit over the top. Sure. Maybe it's because he's playing the character as he's seen it portrayed on various TV shows or movies. Or maybe he's just inexperienced. Maybe he's just an asshole trying to portray a caricature. I think the real problem is most people on MUs jump right to the last option and lash out at the player.

So when we ask "why don't we see more diversity on games?" or "why don't we see more new people entering the hobby" I think it boils down to this right here. There are people who will come to this hobby to explore RP. I've seen it. I've seen people new to RPGs in general excited to be able to RP online. I've seen people come from MMO RP servers excited to be able to stretch their wings textually in ways they can't in the MMO. I've also seen these players chased right off of games because they did something that set off someone's "radar" and made them suspect that the new player was "this" or "that" or "whatever the hell else".

TL;DR Version: Fewer new people try new things because they get burned for it by jaded RPers who assume the worst from every experience they have.

@Ghost I'm about 8 hours in and I'm loving it. This is generally not my type of game either(I'm generally more of a combat sports or Dark Souls person). I'm also not a huge Harry Potter fan. I enjoyed the movies and books well enough but only to read/watch them once each. This game, however, has sucked me right in and I can't seem to stop playing.

Mills Lane

@Macha Wow. Not a good day for my inner teenager. These are rough.

Kevin Controy

@Ghost I enjoyed the new Hellraiser. Maybe not as much as the first one but on par with the second one. I don't think it was perfect but what is? I'll definitely watch it again and I'm eagerly awaiting the announcement of a sequel.

It's been a while since I've read the 7th 2nd Edition rules, and I've never really immersed myself in FS3. I've poked at it before, mostly to see how well it would work for a Game of Thrones game, but that's about it. So what I'm about to say may not be 100% accurate.

I think there are 3 potential ways you could make a 7th Sea game work with Ares. Each comes with some advantages and drawbacks.

1. The first way assumes you can separate FS3 Action from FS3 Combat. I'm assuming you can since they're two separate plugins but I've never tried it. Assuming you can, you could use FS3 Action to simulate a makeshift version of 7th Sea.

• This would allow you to use a makeshift version of the 7th Sea action economy.
• This would give you complete web integration for character generation.
• Some players might find it weird to use FS3 Action and not Combat.
• This will not be anything close to a perfect conversion. You would need to count actions by successes(which may give you a lot of actions) or success levels, which would limit you to potentially 4(Success, Good, Great, Amazing). Since this is now narrative, you might be able to build on that with advantages.
• Players would need to manage combats independently, using the dice as a guide for their RP.

2. Using FS3 Action and Combat to create a 7th Sea inspired game.

• Full web integration for c-gen and combat.
• Players are familiar with this combo.
• You'd have to abandon any pretense of simulating the 7th Sea action economy. FS3 Combat just doesn't work that way.
• You might be able to simulate low-level magic so long as it is limited to narrative aspects and simulating weapons and armor in combat. Meaning nothing that FS3 can't already do. No deflection spells or anything like that.

3. Not use any version of FS3 and use the 7th Sea system as it is.

• You can play 7th Sea as it was meant to be played.
• Minimal web integration(a sheet on a character profile and basic dice).
• Players would have to manage everything independently combat-wise.

I guess option 2 would be the best way to go for my money. If only because it'd be the easiest to set up and support. You'd lose the action economy, but you might have difficulty selling that to players anyway. I know I've encountered push back on it when I've tried to get it up and running in my tabletop games.

Just my thoughts on the matter.

F'n Coolio.

I would very much dig a 7th Sea game. I code up basic systems in Ares for fun and this has always been on my list. By basic I mean in-game c-gen with a sheet that can be viewed on the web. No significant web portal a integration.

I also think an FS3 port could work well too. Someone coded up a plugin using the Pendragon morality system. I've been tempted to explore how that could work in a Game of Thrones style setting using FS3. I bet it could work/enhance a 7th Sea setting as well. But that's just my opinion.

@Ganymede said in The All-New Down With OPP Thread:

No offense, bud, but where did the fuck did you used to play? Because I created and played a fuckbunny and still struggled to consistently drum up fuckfriends.

Seriously, I must give off some goddamned dread aura of unfuckability, but even praying mantises get more action than I do.

I'm going to be unable to post on the forum any more because I'm dead. This fucking killed me. OMG.

I'm not sure why but for some reason I feel the need to jump in and hopefully clarify some points.

1. It's been brought up that I suggested Tony contact Warren OOCly. I did. I even provided some suggest verbiage to try and keep things mellow, essentially just making sure everyone was OOCly on the same page. Tony took a much more aggressive approach to the OOC communication than I had hoped. In the end, I probably should not have made that suggestion. I should have acted as a middle man and first asked everyone to sit on things for 24 hours to let emotions cool.

2. A lot has been made of RS coming and calling sounding the DWOPP alarm. Everyone has their opinion on that, here is mine; I wish he had waited till I had done my investigation before saying anything at all. Once I had verified that Warren was not DWOPP, the entire post would not have been necessary, IMO.

3. A lot has also been made over the Jean/Warren log. I just want to state that Warren was not banned over that log. The log was brought to my attention, I spoke with Jean at length about it, and she made it very clear that she had no problem with Warren or the scene and that I should not hold that scene against him. So I did not.

4. I've hard call for receipts for the bans with some folk saying they need or deserve them. I won't lie, I've only recently read stuff from BMD so some(or most or all) may have come from there but it's a sentiment that's been put out into the universe at any rate. I disagree. People came to me with thoughts and concerns, I did my own investigation, I made my own decisions. Sharing anything that went on behind the scenes helps nothing. It's not going to change anyone's opinions and it is just going to potentially make some people uncomfortable. Sharing these things feeds the drama but I have almost never seen it actually help the situation.

5. I've read some "we know why X or Y was banned". I want to assure you that you do not. No one was banned for any single reason and none of those reasons have been shared openly. Two of those people were banned blindly because I had just had enough and wanted them done and gone. I briefly shared the reason with the third because of our history together and I felt I at least owed them that.

Could some of the things that went down been handled better? Sure. It's also easy to say that now and it's easy to say that if you weren't involved. I had been dealing with some of these issues for weeks. In the final week leading up to the 3 bannings it was a daily thing. It got to the point where I didn't want to log onto my own game because I knew I was going to have several messages about Player X or Player Y.

Do I regret the bannings? I do not. It sucks to say because two of the people involved I think are actually decent people and I know I'll miss their friendship. Unfortunately, these were steps I felt I needed to take. In the end I think the game is stronger for it.