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    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Game Gab
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    • MisterBoringM
      MisterBoring @kalakh
      last edited by

      @kalakh said in Staff Capacity:

      There’s also the problem where WoD spheres, at least oWoD (I’ve no personal experience with nWoD) are just so fucking everywhere with power levels.

      It’s this thought that has me now believing that WoD games (and it does apply to nWoD in both versions) should be single (or possibly 2-3) sphere games. Full WoD crossover is just a nightmare mechanically.

      Proud Member of the Pro-Mummy Alliance

      P 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 3
      • P
        Pyrephox Administrators @MisterBoring
        last edited by

        @MisterBoring said in Staff Capacity:

        @kalakh said in Staff Capacity:

        There’s also the problem where WoD spheres, at least oWoD (I’ve no personal experience with nWoD) are just so fucking everywhere with power levels.

        It’s this thought that has me now believing that WoD games (and it does apply to nWoD in both versions) should be single (or possibly 2-3) sphere games. Full WoD crossover is just a nightmare mechanically.

        It could work, if games took the time to thoughtfully integrate the spheres in a way that made sense. But IME a lot of WoD/CoD games became willfully Balkanized, with both the players and the staff isolating themselves from other spheres, and basically just being separate games with a shared grid space. Which sort of worked, right until someone TSes the wrong person, or has a brawl in the wrong bar, and suddenly a whole fucking sphere boils out to do battle. Or something goes up on a board in public, but Wolf Staff doesn’t want to touch icky Vampires so if you’re a vamp don’t think about asking questions about this, it’s a sphere plot.

        I would love to see more single-sphere games because it seems to be what a lot of players really want. But a lot of players also still have the idea that ‘well, if there’s not at least thirty people on, it’s a dead game’.

        PavelP 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 6
        • PavelP
          Pavel @Pyrephox
          last edited by

          @Pyrephox said in Staff Capacity:

          I would love to see more single-sphere games because it seems to be what a lot of players really want.

          Amen. My favourite WoD game remains Requiem for Kingsmouth. It wasn’t perfect, not by a long shot, but it was a single-sphere Vampire the Requiem game - with mortals and, I think, psychics and shit too, but Vampire was the main driving force. The single-sphere approach allowed the whole game to be designed around mechanics vampires use: Territory, hunting, influence, etc.

          He/Him. Opinions and views are solely my own unless specifically stated otherwise.
          BE AN ADULT

          P 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
          • SpaceKhomeiniS
            SpaceKhomeini @kalakh
            last edited by

            @kalakh

            Also OOC masquerades are often laughably dimwitted and flimsy.

            Yeah, I see you, obvious Nosferatu. You wrote up that character at 3 am on a fucking Dennys napkin and me pretending to not know what this is makes us all a little dumber.

            I woke up feeling so good, I think I’d better call in sick/ I need a personal trainer to help me hold my drink
            I plan to be spontaneous next time we meet/I’m putting off procrastinating until next week
            I’ll get onto it when I give a shit

            PolkP kalakhK 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 1
            • PolkP
              Polk @SpaceKhomeini
              last edited by

              @SpaceKhomeini I still feel like OOC Masquerade derives from the old RPI MUD mindset, where literally any communication OOC about anything about IC events constitutes cheating and can be a ban worthy offense.

              Whereas in MUSHes, particularly post-Everquest, the people left generally have more of a collaborative, tabletop mindset. Around the tabletop you know who the other players and the storyteller are, and you’re working together to make something fun.

              In an RPI MUD, if I reach out to a player to choreograph the starting of a rivalry, I’m gonna get banned. In a Tabletoppy MUSH, I’m going to have a great time.

              I still want to see a game with open character sheets.

              hellfrogH 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • hellfrogH
                hellfrog @Polk
                last edited by

                @Polk this is amazing

                tell us more about your thoughts on staffing WoD games

                fr fr
                (she/her)

                PolkP 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 10
                • PolkP
                  Polk @hellfrog
                  last edited by

                  @hellfrog said in Staff Capacity:

                  @Polk this is amazing

                  tell us more about your thoughts on staffing WoD games

                  I mean, if you want to be constructive, I’m happy to. But we both know this post wasn’t made with a constructive intent.

                  MegM 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                  • MegM
                    Meg @Polk
                    last edited by

                    @Polk There’s no rule that every single post in the Game Gab forum has to be constructive. The description is: ‘Conversations and questions about current, upcoming, and advertised games and the hobby as a whole.’

                    We just aren’t in the Rough and Rowdy section, so we can’t be rough or rowdy, but that in no way means that we all have to collectively forget what you just did to a game that you were staffing on, as we talk about Staff Capacity.

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 12
                    • PavelP
                      Pavel
                      last edited by

                      Give it a decade, and some folks might let you talk about it.

                      He/Him. Opinions and views are solely my own unless specifically stated otherwise.
                      BE AN ADULT

                      PolkP 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                      • PolkP
                        Polk @Pavel
                        last edited by

                        @Pavel I don’t intend to start asking for permission.

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • P
                          Pyrephox Administrators @Pavel
                          last edited by

                          @Pavel said in Staff Capacity:

                          @Pyrephox said in Staff Capacity:

                          I would love to see more single-sphere games because it seems to be what a lot of players really want.

                          Amen. My favourite WoD game remains Requiem for Kingsmouth. It wasn’t perfect, not by a long shot, but it was a single-sphere Vampire the Requiem game - with mortals and, I think, psychics and shit too, but Vampire was the main driving force. The single-sphere approach allowed the whole game to be designed around mechanics vampires use: Territory, hunting, influence, etc.

                          Requiem was great in its focus, although it absolutely ran into staff capacity issues despite being single-sphere. Which goes back to, I suspect, needing to be aware of how many PCs you can comfortably support per staffer, and being willing to close the game until your staff capacity increases.

                          PavelP TezT 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • PavelP
                            Pavel @Pyrephox
                            last edited by

                            @Pyrephox said in Staff Capacity:

                            @Pavel said in Staff Capacity:

                            @Pyrephox said in Staff Capacity:

                            I would love to see more single-sphere games because it seems to be what a lot of players really want.

                            Amen. My favourite WoD game remains Requiem for Kingsmouth. It wasn’t perfect, not by a long shot, but it was a single-sphere Vampire the Requiem game - with mortals and, I think, psychics and shit too, but Vampire was the main driving force. The single-sphere approach allowed the whole game to be designed around mechanics vampires use: Territory, hunting, influence, etc.

                            Requiem was great in its focus, although it absolutely ran into staff capacity issues despite being single-sphere. Which goes back to, I suspect, needing to be aware of how many PCs you can comfortably support per staffer, and being willing to close the game until your staff capacity increases.

                            From what I know of the behind-the-scenes stuff it was absolutely about staff capacity but from a different angle. Specifically, it was about one person and their vision, and their recalcitrance when it came to accepting help because it would “spoil their vision.”

                            Some games can absolutely be run by one person, RfK was not one of those games.

                            He/Him. Opinions and views are solely my own unless specifically stated otherwise.
                            BE AN ADULT

                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • TezT
                              Tez Administrators @Pyrephox
                              last edited by

                              @Pyrephox said in Staff Capacity:

                              Requiem was great in its focus, although it absolutely ran into staff capacity issues despite being single-sphere. Which goes back to, I suspect, needing to be aware of how many PCs you can comfortably support per staffer, and being willing to close the game until your staff capacity increases.

                              The ratio of PCs per staffer is also going to vary based on how much administrative overhead there is. Obvious statement, maybe, but with something like Keys you can get by with a lot fewer staff than something like Arx.

                              she/they

                              L. B. HeuschkelL 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • hellfrogH
                                hellfrog
                                last edited by

                                i feel like the answer is just player limits. simple and disappointing, as answers often are.

                                fr fr
                                (she/her)

                                PavelP 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 7
                                • PavelP
                                  Pavel @hellfrog
                                  last edited by

                                  @hellfrog Player limits and knowing your own limits. It’s super important that a game runner has the ability to take a break without having to worry about their game burning down while they’re gone.

                                  He/Him. Opinions and views are solely my own unless specifically stated otherwise.
                                  BE AN ADULT

                                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                  • L. B. HeuschkelL
                                    L. B. Heuschkel @Tez
                                    last edited by L. B. Heuschkel

                                    @Tez said in Staff Capacity:

                                    The ratio of PCs per staffer is also going to vary based on how much administrative overhead there is. Obvious statement, maybe, but with something like Keys you can get by with a lot fewer staff than something like Arx.

                                    Very much so. The more complex keeping track of plot and faction becomes, the more people you need to do it – and the more people to keep track of that.

                                    @Pavel said in Staff Capacity:

                                    @hellfrog Player limits and knowing your own limits. It’s super important that a game runner has the ability to take a break without having to worry about their game burning down while they’re gone.

                                    Not going to lie, I was worried when I was offline for three weeks this summer due to illness and hospitalisation. But there are three of us and the most dramatic that came out of it all was the care package some of the sweet, sweet players sent me.

                                    Any pronouns. Come to Chincoteague. We have ponies. http://keys.aresmush.com

                                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                    • FaradayF
                                      Faraday @kalakh
                                      last edited by Faraday

                                      @kalakh said in Staff Capacity:

                                      They’re not designed to have a bunch of PCs playing them at the same time with each other, and while that’d be a delicate balance with tabletop, it’s got to be a nightmare on a MUSH.

                                      With my one-and-only experience playing oWoD being a “all spheres” TTRPG campaign, I am confident in saying it’s just as impossible to balance in TT. (But among friends, imbalance can be less of an issue.)

                                      I think the larger issue is that TT games, by their nature, are adapted for, well, tabletop. Small groups, small GM-to-player ratio, etc. Not just the dice, but the rules, the setting, just… everything. Trying to adapt that to MUs has just never worked all that great IMHO.

                                      What works well on a highly-simulated computer RPG is going to be different from what works on a human-centric MU is going to be different than what works on tabletop with a central GM.

                                      TaikaT 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 7
                                      • TaikaT
                                        Taika @Faraday
                                        last edited by

                                        RfK’s backend was clunky and unwieldy, coupled with systems that were incredibly hands on and very intensive in needing one on one scenes. Not just +jobs and questions answered or resources earmarked for X amount of time. I remember Becca having to spend 1-2 DAYS just doing the spreading sheeting and record keeping for 1 week’s aspirations and getting the xp out for them manually. RfK was great, but some things were just done the hard way.

                                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                        • P
                                          Pi
                                          last edited by

                                          I’ve personally found smaller staff work on games where the culture is to tend to crowdsource plot/story trajectory to players to run without a lot of staff oversight and management.

                                          Definitely pros and cons to both methods. Games that want to centralize and keep a tighter leash on plot get to set the pace and keep story to what they imagined, but then it adds a gate wherein everyone has to cross to move story around, and it becomes a wait-and-stare game for staff to drop the next pieces. I’ve played on both types of games myself and experienced upsides and downsides to either style.

                                          Letting players run more freely with things releases its own beasts but can free up staffers, and they can concentrate on more egregious things like responding to system mechanics, more major theme plot missteps, or creepy people creepin’.

                                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                                          • kalakhK
                                            kalakh @SpaceKhomeini
                                            last edited by

                                            @SpaceKhomeini said in Staff Capacity:

                                            @kalakh

                                            Also OOC masquerades are often laughably dimwitted and flimsy.

                                            Yeah, I see you, obvious Nosferatu. You wrote up that character at 3 am on a fucking Dennys napkin and me pretending to not know what this is makes us all a little dumber.

                                            The curse of the infinite bar scene.

                                            RozR 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
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