@bear_necessities said in Does Anyone Even Care?:

What’s stopping you from being a stay to the end person? Or, alternatively, what makes/made you a stay to the end person?

I have a hard time verbalizing what I look for in a MU, but most of the time it boils down to atmosphere. Even over plot. I’m making this character to be in this world, in this genre, with this atmosphere/vibe to it.

Stay-to-the-end: The genre/atmosphere is one I like, I can find a variety of RP, and we all buy in to the theme. If we’re in some gothic-themed MUSH, I will bar-RP all day if the bar is a whistling shack on the moors and everyone who walks in has a dark secret, air of melancholy, a peculiar fervency, etc etc. It might be shallow, but bonus points for great writers behind the characters.

Quick exits/3-monthing it:

• I’ll misread a game’s vibe. I go in expecting a whistling shack on the moors and everyone’s in black leather and there’s a rave in the ruins.
• The vibe is too inconsistent. There is a shack on the moor in a Gothic-themed MU, but it’s been painted bright blue with sparkling mica dust for the weekend dance party, and someone let a flying squirrel loose inside a week ago. (no slander to flying squirrels, it’s about the incongruity)
• The game is too much mechanics/too competitive. I actually prefer sheets, dice, and stats, but if there’s some sort of weekly roll to put players on some List of Awesome, that could be discouraging for me. (This is obviously a personal preference, as is most of this).
• The RP style doesn’t suit me. I’m not going to well with MUD-style RP or somewhere short-form (1-2 sentence poses) are the norm.

Left before closing (in order of how common):

• Last few years, long medical leaves. Coming back and feeling lost and disconnected from the plot, with no idea how to rejoin and limited energy to catch up.
• A lack of RP. Either the game’s population trickles to 4 people idling, or it’s a personal problem of mine, with my preference for live/distracted but an inconvenient availability.
• Game closes/goes on hiatus and never returns.
• The plot reveals or transitions the atmosphere to something less interesting to me. This can take a few weeks to a few months. I try to stick it out (since I usually love my characters and probably have plot threads) but more often than not, I end up ghosting the game. Example: Game is about mysterious lights in the sky. Plot happens over months, players are now on a spaceship chasing down intergalactic pirates. It’s probably a result of the players’ successes and that’s gorgeous… but that’s the point I’ll start leaving, because I joined for the atmosphere of mystery and discovery, not action-packed space adventure.

@Cobalt said in Coming Soon: The Pack an Ares Game:

Or human beings associated with the pack.

As someone who generally loves playing in-over-their-heads human, is there anything to note about the place of humans in shifter society? Not really the views, since I figure everybody’s going to have their own opinion, but like…

Are the humans ever considered Pack, or is it always ‘associated with’? Are humans sort of kept away from certain things?

In my head I’m imagining it’s sort of like being a military spouse with its own weird dynamics, but I figured it couldn’t hurt to ask in case it’s much more integrated!

I am usually a lurker, but a lot of stuff here made me wanna blather, so.

TL;DR: I like when STs communicate clearly, when I have an idea of stakes, I prefer all large obstacles be accompanied by smaller obstacles which have their own conesquences, and when the story’s obstacles are relationships the PCs have, that can change and is nuanced - and I like multiple relationships.

@Testament said in What makes for satisfying story obstacles?:

sometimes the obstacle doesn’t have to mean a conflict that needs to be overcame.

That idea is the lynchpin for a lot of plots I’ve felt comfortable in. In fact, one of the best lessons an ST ever revealed to me was that a satisfying story obstacle could be as simple as ‘trying to get your NPC barkeep friend to open up to YOU for once.’ or ‘Get the long sofa up through the apartment staircases’ - and ‘simple’ isn’t always easy. That barkeep’s been keeping a lot in. I know the discussion is probably about antagonists, but obstacles and challenges can be positive, too, for those sunshine-and-happy-fun people.

But generally, I’ve felt the most satisfied in plots where opposition isn’t always as clear-cut and simple as WIN OR LOSE, but about how much progress you make or how the relationships shift.

This means what I hate for big stories is just, ONE BIG OBSTACLE THAT MUST BE OVERCOME AGAINST ALL ODDS AND IS ALL THAT MATTERS. We do not want our entire city to unequivocally be wiped out if we don’t stop McMonsterbutt by 8:15 on Friday, even if we do love a monster of the week. (Which- sometimes you want an obvious enemy mook along with any big bads). I prefer a lot of challenging small obstacles setting up or feeding into a higher-stakes one. A lot of STs do this naturally:

We couldn’t (A) kill McMonsterbutt before it got to the city and destroyed downtown, but we (B) got a lot of people down to the subways so we still saved a lot of lives, and we (D) kept it away from the orphanage even if it took out the (E) hospital - three small challenges (BDE), one big challenge (A); two gains (BD) and two losses (AE).

Knowing an ST takes into account and communicates good and bad consequences and tells them to you (when relevant) is satisfying - even when the relationship persists as the obstacle is now finding out where McMonsterbutt came from or what to do with that carcass downtown.

The following is probably more player-side explanation of feelings, not sure if it’s helpful or not, but. Regarding communication:

I am dumb. Not in like, a low self-esteem way. But while I am probably not the exact person Roz had in mind, the volume was particularly heightened when they popped up with

@Roz said in What makes for satisfying story obstacles?:

This also comes out re: nervousness about how to engage in plot/story, which is often from players not feeling confident about their options and worrying that they’ll make the wrong choice due to OOC ignorance, and that will then reflect on their character IC. Players IME feel much more secure about making choices when they understand the full context and implications on an OOC level.

Because I am:

1. Often incredibly confused about my options and worried about disappointing/holding other players back (yes I know irrational, doesn’t mean it isn’t there) if STAKES are suddenly involved,
2. Someone who can easily miss the obvious. The ST could be like, ‘There’s a body on the floor, with circle-shaped wounds’ I absolutely could trip over a smoking gun, pick up the smoking gun, remark, “Wow, this gun is warm, weird.” and STILL be like, “Circular holes? How sharp is the fire poker??!!” because obvious implications are still implied.
3. Someoen who knows all this about myself, still hates feeling stupid.

An ST who is like, ‘Well the wounds are CIRCLE SHAPED and beyond that, it’s YOUR CHOICE you just DO WHATEVER and I’ll lay out the consequences’ doesn’t really help my satisfaction levels: it just makes me feel dumber, doesn’t make the obvious thing I already missed any more obvious, and makes me more worried about getting things wrong, so now back to point 1, and by now I’m overwhelmed. Overwhelmed is not ‘challenged’, it’s feeling overwhelmed, and now I’m more worried about ruining everyone else’s fun to be satisfied or have fun myself.

Sometimes it’s as easy as expectations up front, furthering communication, and saying ‘bullet wounds’ or at least putting forensics up to a roll of the dice.

One thing I definitely do is what I call A/N metaposing or just metaposing (I know other people use the term, not sure in the same way??) Something like, “Sue jumped down. Sure, she could’ve just taken the stairs, but apparently risking broken ankles is in this week.”

I also am a chatterbox. Sometimes my chars are too. But I definitely am.

and speaking of, my characters are often either some flavor of:

• Bitter/jaded/apathetic and competent in some very specific field
• Nervous (and troubled) young adult
• Enthusiastic (sometimes frivolous) social bulldozers.

And I do a lot of ‘A (action fragment)’ midpose. A nod. A tilt of her head. A hand rises. A quick grin.

idk these may just be things I am self-conscious about.

@Sammich I am right there with you with the anxiety. I fully understand! F&L was a ride, and I’m also glad so many people I knew are still kicking around!

@L-B-Heuschkel Raaavn! I hope all is well with you and ginormous horse Thank you for always being willing to have Gina randomly show up and be cryptic at you

@Livia Heeey! I hope you’ve been awesome since F&L! I still miss the crazy of that place, and my poor little baby vamp

@imstillhere Holy heck, a wild Joel!

I remember yoooou. That was ages ago I hope you have been out there, doing awesome, because you were (are??) absolutely awesome.

@Third-Eye Awwww Manny! Spoiling baby mountains everywhere! Like an uncle to those junior rocks.

And I am still kicking around! For some level of ‘kicking’ - atm mostly poking around for a place that really captures interest… when work allows.

Apparently I don’t check in for a couple of months on one one site and there’s drama bombs and all the fun people are here now? Migrating this over, I guess, as I saw it existed!

Edits: updated when I remember~ I’m such a lurker.

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