MU Peeves Thread

[ten]

AI, is being pretty a plot hook?

Spoiler

While physical appearance can play a role in storytelling, it’s essential to delve deeper into character development. A compelling plot often arises from a character’s motivations, conflicts, and growth. So, let’s explore those intriguing layers beyond mere aesthetics!

wow. thanks AI!

[Pavel]

@ten AI is using emoji now? All the more reason to burn it all down.

[catzilla]

@ten I will always side eye characters/players who use “I’m pretty/handsome!” as a RP hook. It makes me feel like the player wants me to fawn over their character and describe how cute/pretty/etc. my character thinks they are in every pose.

[Pavel]

@catzilla What about “I’m pretty and I have money”?

[Snackness]

@Pavel Money can be a hook, I have definitely used someone else’s money in a scene.

[catzilla]

@Snackness This!

Your character being rich is the hook. They just also happen to be pretty! ;D

[mietze]

Sometimes I think its a fine line. When I invest in a merit that is appearance based i will reference it in play when I feel its appropriate and it is kind of fun when other people do too. I’m sure that may annoy people too but its valid I feel and I try to be careful about not using directives but more like “aesthetically pleasing to many standards” or specific features ect.

I dont know i would put that in an RP hook but mostly because I tend to feel that it seems like an unwitting inviitation for certain types of pests to target (not saying it is an actual invitation or it would be their fault but just all those years of experience and observation make me have a flexible bump of worry especially if its also combined with certain other factors).

But I’m also coming from the perspective of seeing RP hooks as a way to either build a background contact/previous off screen experience to have a reason for play or suggestions on what kind of scenes would be easy to spin up with that PC. And looks are tricky because positive or negative if thats supposed to be a draw for interaction then it fizzles if the other pc is used to seeing monsters/other things even more fantastical or isn’t attracted to in the sense of hmmm id like to try and know this person their other features.

I tend to always be willing to give people a chance for at least a scene or two. Some people just aren’t good at coming up with rp hooks but they’re fine in RP! Other people are actually great at rp hooks but then you feel like they are rping AT you and not even bothering to read what you wrote. Which to me personally is far far more annoying. So I’ve found it a not great indicator of qualify. And they’re outdated very very quickly esp for new pcs.

[catzilla]

@mietze There’s a huge difference between playing an attractive character and having it as a hook for your character. Just as there is a difference between including in your poses that your character turns heads to making every pose about super hot your character is.

I do the same side eye at characters who have a RP hook (or constantly pose about) how rawr big their character is.

If these are things you want to have included in your RP, there’s more interesting ways to go about it.

Example, instead of ‘my character is pretty, RP with me!’ you could put ‘my character enjoys taking care of themselves, let’s do a spa day’. Or instead of ‘my character is rawr big’ you could put ‘my character frequently does strength training, let’s go to the gym’.

[mietze]

@catzilla i understand. It’s just that when I see those mistakes I think wow they’re not very good at writing rp hooks before they have a chance to rp the character/maybe they don’t have a sense of them yet. So maybe I’m just willing to give them more benefit of the doubt than some. I’ve seen a lot of looks great on wiki pcs that were very difficult to RP with in practice because either they were rigid about their vision and unable to really RP with anyone or they were selfish in scenes or were only willing to sit back and let others come up with things for them to react to, ect.

People who suck at writing interesting rp hooks can be all those things too. But I just don’t really think rp hooks have much of an impact especially in the beginning stages. Esp as required by CG. I’ve even played on mostly all roster games where rp hooks were rather tepid or limited to profession/very basic and not very interesting stuff. So really you had to just kind of give people a chance. Maybe it’s that experience and figuring why the hell just not give someone a chance, they’re likely not going to be worse than a control freak/rping mostly with themselves sort of player, my views have softened over the years.

[Roadspike]

If there’s a system with actual merits/benefits/stats for physical appearance, I think that it is totally legitimate to include it in an RP Hook, description, and even short-desc, as well as to pose it in scenes. Because otherwise, it feels like folks rarely acknowledge the points put into those merits/benefits/stats (because so many played-bys are so very pretty to start with).

But in a system without points being spent on physical attractiveness, I agree with the side-eye directed at those who use it as an RP Hook. If you’re not spending points on it, then it’s just like folks on games without social systems always being perfect liars or the Biggest or the Smallest – don’t make a big deal about it, because it’s basically just a player fantasy.

[Pacha]

Agreed! While I get that sometimes someone constantly posing how hot their character is (especially if it is in a very shallow and uninteresting way) can be annoying, it is also very annoying to constantly have an aspect of your character’s backstory or a trait/merit/advantage you spent XP or points or the equivalent on get ‘no sold’ by every PC you run into.

[Coin]

ohhhhh, here it comes.

i can feel it.

rearing its ugly hydra-like head.

that would-be mythical but all-too real mu-forum discussion topic…

… the dreaded …

are social stats worth having and if so is it okay to use them on other PCs?

i thought we left that one over on MSB but hell.

[Jennkryst]

@Coin Wow, that was a clearly thought out, and well-worded response. Please +roll your social skill to see if it worked.

[no successes]

Ooooh, I’m sorry, better luck next time.

Hey @Wuff let’s make out?

[Wuff]

@Jennkryst said in MU Peeves Thread:

@Coin Wow, that was a clearly thought out, and well-worded response. Please +roll your social skill to see if it worked.

[no successes]

Ooooh, I’m sorry, better luck next time.

Hey @Wuff let’s make out?

Roll 'em. Hope you got 8-again on your dice.

[Jennkryst]

@Wuff said in MU Peeves Thread:

@Jennkryst said in MU Peeves Thread:

@Coin Wow, that was a clearly thought out, and well-worded response. Please +roll your social skill to see if it worked.

[no successes]

Ooooh, I’m sorry, better luck next time.

Hey @Wuff let’s make out?

Roll 'em. Hope you got 8-again on your dice.

Alright, LET’S GOOOOO!

I… um. What?

[Wuff]

@Jennkryst said in MU Peeves Thread:

@Wuff said in MU Peeves Thread:

@Jennkryst said in MU Peeves Thread:

@Coin Wow, that was a clearly thought out, and well-worded response. Please +roll your social skill to see if it worked.

[no successes]

Ooooh, I’m sorry, better luck next time.

Hey @Wuff let’s make out?

Roll 'em. Hope you got 8-again on your dice.

Alright, LET’S GOOOOO!

I… um. What?

[catzilla]

@Coin Yes and yes (in most cases). Social characters are great and have just as an important part in games as characters that can punch things really well.

It’s fine if people use social stats on my characters as long as it’s something like “hey you should consider supporting this cause” instead of something like “hey your character should kiss mine”.

There’s a whole system for social “combat” in CofD.

There’s nothing bad/wrong/etc. about playing a pretty/social character. My eye roll/side eye was at people using it (and only it, not as part of one) as a RP hook.

[Roadspike]

@Coin I wasn’t going to go that far, but since you went there, I will say that I think if the game is designed around it and everyone is onboard, and it’s specifically designed to avoid “I roll to get in your pants,” then I think social skills have a great place in a MU* (I would have a hell of a fun time with an FS3 Regency MU* with a social combat system instead of a physical combat system, for instance).

But if the game isn’t designed with all that in mind, I think it’s best to keep it to rolling vs NPCs only.

[Snackness]

@Coin We could always just link.

[Pavel]