Best posts made by ZombieGenesis

Tiny Lister

Well, I certainly appreciate all the ideas. I know alt-hogs can be a real issue, for sure, especially on comic games. Right now my plan is to open with a 1 alt limit for a month so word of the game and get out and people won't get shafted for not being one of the first to get there and then I'll take it from there. If things are going well I might extend the 1 alt period for another month. If I feel comfortable I might open up a 2nd slot for people but there will be limits put on that alt (the tier list, no related alts, etc).

That's the plan right now, anyway, and it may change by the time the game opens.

Code is taking priority right now over theme so I don't have that locked down yet. The planets will be original creations and they'll be a Nightsister-like group of force users.

As someone who spent a good deal of their late teens and early 20's working as a stockman for Walmart, I have first-hand experience with this. While I had an assortment of duties, my primary duty was to make sure the cart corral was full. It was not to make sure the parking lot was clear of carts, I only had to collect carts from the parking lot in two instances; 1) when we were out of carts in the corrals and 2) at the end of the night to prepare the corrals for the morning.

That said, collecting carts from the parking lot was a regular thing. Now this was a while ago, but I can't imagine things have changed much, but most carts were not returned to the cart return areas scattered around the lot. They were left in empty spots or pushed up onto the median areas.

Most of the people who left them do it for one of a few reasons:

1. They did not care. They loaded their shit into the car and just walked away from the cart. This was honestly not the most common though.
2. They were a frantic mess getting their kids in the backseat, loading their stuff in the back of the car/SUV/ whatever, and then grabbed the cart, looked at the return stall, thought about it, and just decided they couldn't do it. More common than #1 but not as common as #3...
3. They were just going with the flow. Once one cart is left somewhere, it becomes the new cart return area. Most people stack carts on top of each other where ever they happen to be, a return stall or some random spot.

So, in my experience, most people who do not return carts to the store or the return stalls aren't doing it because they're assholes, most of them are doing it because there's a more convenient option presented to them in an unofficial manner. Some do it because they're jerks, sure, and some do it because a cart is just one more spinning plate they don't want to deal with, or it's raining/snowing and they don't want to deal with it, or whatever. But most, in my experience, are just going with the flow of what others have done before them.

This is just a brainstorming/discussion thread. It is in no way an indication that a The Strange MUX is in the works. I've just become enamored with the idea and had some free time at work so I thought I'd post some thoughts/questions/discussion points.

FIrst, I really like the idea of The Strange. I think it's a really neat setting and has tons of possibilities. However, I still just can't get on board with the Cypher system. It's not that it's a terrible system it's just that, for a game that allegedly encompasses any and all genres, I don't think the Cypher system does that very well at all. Namely superheroic worlds. I don't think you could model most superhero types using this system with any sort of ease whatsoever. Even something as simple as flight requires multiple levels of a focus.

I think for a game like The Strange it would need to be easy to transition from one world/universe/whatever to another. No one wants to app an entirely new character for every world. So my primary question is this, what system would best emulate that?

My kneejerk reaction is Fate Accelerated. When a world/universe/shard is created the creator would set up the "physics" of the world so that players would know how to scale their traits. So if Clark Kent went from his home shard of DC to the Buffy-verse the scale would list the upper levels of strength as "tipping cars on their side" so that he would know how to scale his "Last Son of Krypton" aspect suitably.

Other games could do it too(GURPS, Savage Worlds, Hero, Mutants & Masterminds) but I think they would be much more work than would be necessary for this to be effective.

As for Cypher, I'm certainly no expert so if I'm missing something please let me know. I think the idea is fantastic(so does my wife and we're hoping to explore the game in some way in our TT group) I'm just trying to think of the best way to keep it universal while maintaining reasonable scaling from one world to another.

The support system for Ares is amazing. There are a ton of helpful people on both the Forum and the Discord.

I loved Voyager. Actually started rewatching it last week to introduce my wife to it.

I won't say I'm "successful" in the fiction industry but I make enough writing short stories and novels to pay a few bills a month and I'll say this; I treat RP entirely different than I treat fiction writing. Just because you are good at one does not mean you'll be good at the other. MU'ing is cooperative storytelling, creating a shared narrative that is created and enjoyed by multiple people. You have to be fluid and enjoy a give and take with the narrative. When I write fiction I'm 100% in control and if I took that mentality into MUing it'd be a disaster.

I think a game like this sounds really fun. Here's my suggestion, don't get hung up on code. You could set up server with Ares, create a custom tab to display a PDF file, and just use PDF character sheets. If people want to use the system for RP Ares does have a dice system that can be used in-game or through the web portal.

@macha @derp My little guy is getting up there in years and I have literal panic attacks when I think about it. It's not healthy, I know, but I can't help it so I feel your pain.

I'll just put this here. Anyone want to make this happen?

@theznar I think it depends on how deep you want to go. I'm using WEG D6 for a private Old Republic game right now and it works fine. C-gen is done on the MUSH, a sheet can be accessed through the game or through the web portal, and they use a basic dice command for rolls. Granted this is a small group, but it works well for us so far.

If you're looking for 100% web portal integration with coded dice commands and web portal c-gen, I'm still not sure how it'd be more complicated than most other systems out there. Just my 2 cents though.

Two decent-looking games "went live" today. One via Kickstarter and one straight up for pre-order.

Silver Age Sentinels 2nd Edition is live via Kickstarter. Looks like it uses the BESM 4E engine.

And The Dark Souls RPG is available for pre-order(with a Collector's Edition going live for pre-order next week). This one is built on the 5E engine with some tweaks to make it more Souls-like. I'm quite excited for this one.

I love the StoryPath System. I may not be a fan for how certain things are implemented(I think character generation is needlessly complicated) but it's very easily fixed. As a side thing I've been tinkering with a version of the Aberrant line for Ares. The players who have toyed around with have have mostly loved it.

My only real issue with Trinity: Continuum or Aberrant is the character generation process. To a lesser extent, equipment as well. It seems a little needlessly complicated to create an Iron Man type. Thankfully the system is robust and hardy enough that it can easily withstand a few house rules to bring things in order.

@lotherio The good thing about Ares is that when you create a scene you can set a scene note letting people know that it's meant for PL 8 teen heroes, or for human-level vigilantes who frequent the harbor, or whatever. I think whatever grid we use will have areas that are geared more towards one type of character or another but each and every scene can be dialed into a specific theme, character type, or whatever.

I loved 10 Cloverfield Lane. I wouldn't call it a horror movie though. More like a drama with thriller and sci-fi elements. Some great scenes. And, yeah, best part was clearly John Goodman.

I found deciding on something to achieve and then just working to achieve that thing. Like I wanted to be able to have 9 stats and be able to view and set those stats. So that's what I worked on first.

In addition to Ruby tutorials I would highly recommend digging into some existing plugins to see how an established coder does things. I learned a lot by deconstructing the Cortex and FFG plugins when working on my own.

@lotherio said in Potential M&M 3E OC Game:

@zombiegenesis Its all your call, but new age of heroes would be good for OC, players can help define in their stories.

That's what I'm leaning towards. Something happens that sparks superhuman activity. I'm also exploring other potential systems such as Prowlers and Paragons.

Congrats on any steps in the right direction!

Last year my wife and I made similar pledges. She's done better than I. She's done quite amazing actually.

For myself I just started DDP Yoga and it's going well. So far.

As for the other stuff, I just got my first paycheck from my YouTube channel and I'll be receiving a royalties payment from Amazon for my self published stuff soon so...going in the right direction there too!

Don't be confrontational at the first sign of criticism. I'm not saying you have to agree with them but understand the difference between having a discussion and starting a fight. If you don't agree with whatever the situation is, take a breath. Try to see it from the other side. Even if you don't agree with it, try to see how they might see it that way. And then, calmly, discuss the situation with them.

Raging at a staffer and saying "F YOU! You're ruining my character concept!" because they deny something in your application is not going to get you closer to either getting that thing or getting approved in general. In fact, not only are you further from getting that thing but you're one step closer to being removed from the game entirely.

In short, just be excellent to each other.