@Pavel said in Staff Bits Linking Handles:

they leave MUing and go on to write books or something.

Both. Both is good. (MUing is where I write all the stuff that doesn’t fit into my book-in-progress at the time).

I’m ambivalent on this.

On one side, I like to know whose house I’m visiting. On the other, people have plenty valid reasons for not leaving a trail of crumbs for stalkers and abusers to follow.

On Keys, we have no policy on the subject. It’s never been an issue that I’m aware of. But then, my handle is registered for anyone to see. Maybe it’s more the game runner than the rest of staff that needs to be recognisable. They are, after all, the person with the power to pull the plug.

@Cobalt A fair number of our players favour the 1-3 times a week playstyle for what it’s worth.

@RightMeow said in Does Anyone Even Care?:

@L-B-Heuschkel although not the original four. I’m still to this day touched to be invited. Even to be invited annually when I sigh that I miss RP.

Then let me hurry to invite you once again.

@Ashkuri said in Does Anyone Even Care?:

At this point I just plan that the ending of the next game will be me and like 7 people and that’s alright.

I’ve found that planning for a game of me and 4 turned out to be me and a hell of a lot more people – but if we someday end back at me and a handful of others, that’s fine, too. Bigger isn’t better.

Resolved now. Posting somewhere about it always solves a problem before anyone has a chance to find out what’s really wrong.

The ADHD me wants to flit from one new thing to another. The autistic in me stays until the ship sinks.

I counter-act this largely by trying to build not only a game, but also a community around that game. That way, I find it easier to stay focused and interested because I’m not only playing the game, I’m also spending time with my friends and my tribe.

We don’t have a thread here (great! no scandals!) but right now I need one so…

We’re currently experiencing technical difficulties, most likely related to some internet downage somewhere. I’m investigating. Hang tight and check back in a few hours.

@Trashcan said in RP Safari - Pacing Styles:

@bear_necessities said in RP Safari - Pacing Styles:

There are very few public games on Ares, and none of them appear to have a “live scene” culture.

Empty Night and Aegis Company both have a heavy majority of ‘traditional’ pacing scenes listed in their 10+ active scenes. There are probably others.

We have plenty people doing live scenes on Keys. It’s just not the scenes you’ll see when scanning the scene list – that space is firmly claimed by the asyncs that linger for a while.

On Keys, at least, the trick is to find the people who share your preferred style.

My preferred pace is live. It almost never happens.

I’m in Europe, which places me in an awkward timezone for a lot of people. I suffer various health issues, chronic fatigue among them.

Because of that, most of my scenes are async. I prefer agreeing with others at the start what that actually means. Are we doing this scene over a day or two, expecting at least a few pose rounds a day? A pose round a day? Or are we going glacial, where people post whenever they’re able and a scene can take several weeks?

I am capable of them all. I just want to know in advance.

@Pyrephox said in Bad Stuff Happening IC:

I don’t necessarily trust when a player says this, either to me-as-player or me-as-GM because often they do not mean it, so I am absolutely reluctant to actually pull the trigger on negative consequences because it is exhausting to deal with a lot of people after you do, and perhaps even more so the people who are very vocal about “Oh yeah, destroy my life, I can take it!”

Unfortunately, this is true. In my experience as a GM, some players love bad things and consequences, and others just want to be heroes. As a GM, it’s not my place to judge – it’s to provide the frame for the story they want to tell, and mesh it in with the one I am telling.

So what I often do is offer choice. As an example, I just finished a quite epic scene in which the characters all died at the end. In death, they were returned to their own timeline and bodies, so no lasting damage.

Or at least, the choice of no lasting damage. Because how do you cope with experiencing a cold, wet, traumatic death on a sinking ship in the Atlantic? With knowing you just spent 24 hours trying to save that ship, and it’s still bloody sinking?

There’s a choice there, to opt out and be like, hey, that’s any day ending in y. And there’s the choice all the players made – traumatic death poses, lots of grief and misery to explore in follow-up scenes, and utter devastation all around. They hurt their own characters far more than I ever would have dared.

Which is just the way I want it. If somebody felt it was all too much, they could just ignore the trauma part and wake up with fewer memories or not too affected. Or they could go all overboard and require all kinds of drinking binges, psychotherapy and comfort cuddles for weeks after. All up to them. And nowhere in that did I have to sit down and try to judge how far I could and should go.

I find that most players are afraid of losing control. They’re afraid of being subjected to a story that isn’t fun to them. They’re not afraid of bad things happening to characters – they’re afraid to be ground into the dirt for no reason other than the GM or other player getting their jollies. And that, in my view, is a quite valid fear.

Have to throw my two cents in with the people who already advised against sharing such a list, too. Which is not to say that you shouldn’t know who you’re banning on sight. Just don’t take somebody else’s word for it.

Instead of a list of names, decide what behaviour you have zero tolerance with. Ban anyone who engages in it.

Only banned once or twice. That said, always had a very clear policy following Wheaton’s Law (“Don’t be a dick”). People know when they’re being assholes. If they’re being assholes, they need to be somewhere else. This is a private party and if you piss on the carpet, you will be escorted off the premises. The clearer that is, the fewer people seem to feel a need to test limits.

There are a few people whom I’d ban on sight. Those are the known predators who have a history of causing game meltdowns or driving away vulnerable players. I wouldn’t invite a known predator into my house in real life, either.

On the other hand, a few people who have been problematic elsewhere, have turned new leaves on Keys and never caused trouble. Sometimes, people do learn from their mistakes and just need a fresh start.

The most arguments I’ve watched around banning and behaviour were on games where game policy was three pages long and waffling. The shorter and more concise it is, the less attempts to rules lawyer out of trouble. Because people do indeed know when they’re being assholes.

It’s also a hobby that’s friendlier to neurospicy folks than many others. The percentage of players who have autism or ADHD or any combination thereof is surprisingly high.

As I said elsewhere – if I had a single spoon to spare from Keys, I’d be over here, rolling up an arrogant Alphatian nobleman. Prince Haldemar, move over, there’d be a new explorer in town.

That. FS3 would not have been my first choice – I have a literal complete game system of my own design sitting right next to me – but FS3 has one thing that Imagines doesn’t: It’s coded and integrated with Ares.

Isn’t that the issue for a lot of us? We may have a little code savvy but not quite that much. Custom code is a buttpain to maintain a lot of the time, too.

@crawfish said in Your first game?:

@L-B-Heuschkel Heeey this was my first MU, around the same time too.

Haha, who were you? I was Kae/Tancred/Marcel et all!

LegendMUD back in about 1996 – it had a pretty decent RP aspect back then. No idea whether it does today, I haven’t visited in 20 years.

Long time no see, Jules! Hope everything is well!

Ye gods, DiscworldMUD. So many coded minigames, from crafting to shop running, to actual, literal games – poker? Board games? It was all there.