@Gashlycrumb said in Paid Role-Playing:

a pay-to-TS-people MOO

Like one of those sexy time chat lines that were so popular in the 90s, advertised on late-night TV?

@Evilgrayson

I certainly wouldn’t pay for the privilege of playing. I would, however, not object to making a regular donation to support the game’s financial running costs. If I liked the game enough to care whether it stays up or not.

But most game runners I know are wary of accepting such kindness as it can often come with the perceived problems, as regaled above, about pay to win or other kinds of bias.

ETA: Which is, I think, basically exactly the same as what mietze said above.

@Yam I can only aspire to be a chore. Someone eventually does a chore.

@Pacha A thousand times this.

Volunteer just means a person who has a job, of their own volition, that is unpaid. It’s still a job, and comes with expectations and requirements. Requiring someone to meet those expectations and requirements isn’t unreasonable.

ETA: Some place unreasonably burdensome expectations on their volunteers, but that’s a somewhat different idea to objecting to expectations period.

@Faraday said in Paid Role-Playing:

I shudder to imagine “pay to win” applied to storytelling.

That’s just James Patterson’s later career, isn’t it?

@Roadspike Oh I like that latter idea. Particularly if it’s the kind of player plan that makes you sit back and say “oh that’s much better than my idea…”

You get to smile magnanimously, nod sagely, and confirm that that was your plan all along.

I offer this humble morsel from my own forever-GM:

“Your players are idiots. They could be the most brilliant people on the face of the planet with a collective library’s worth of degrees and professional accreditations. In your game, they will be idiots. Do not be discouraged when your players cannot solve your puzzle, or understand your clues. Adjust. They want to win as much as you want them to, they’re not doing it on purpose.”

Well, fine, I guess I’m finally going to have to build my VtR in Victorian London game I keep threatening to do.

@helvetica said in MU Peeves Thread:

Not to discount everything you just said because it sounds quite specific, but game admin are allowed to rp, they aren’t obligated to defend that time, and anyone who thinks otherwise can go fuck themselves.

I would echo this simply to amplify the intent: Game admin should be required to give themselves time to RP. If nothing else but to remind themselves of the joy of the thing they’re working so hard to put forth, but it also allows them to see where things clunk, and where changes need to be made.

@Wuff said in Real Life Struggles/Support/Vent:

@junipersky said in Real Life Struggles/Support/Vent:

One of my student’s parents called me racist multiple times last night in the conference.

It wasn’t even one of the crazy parents. It was a perfectly nice one. So it came out of left field.

We’re meeting tomorrow with the principal as interpreter, not a district one, or worse with apps because the translator didn’t show up, and I’m hoping we can figure things out, but I also just have this pit of dread in my stomach.

Hopefully it’s put down as a learning moment for you as a teacher. Finding out you’ve been messing up something after the fact can be stressful as all hell. But if others knew and didn’t help correct mistakes, They’re the assholes.

As a former secondary school teacher (we don’t do middle school out here), though in a different country, I can also see such accusations being entirely baseless or based on misunderstanding/misreporting. Especially if you’re teaching something to do with history, or even English grammar.

@bear_necessities Doors are, historically, the greatest enemy of any RPG character.

@mietze said in Web-based CharGen or in-game CharGen:

Player ooc behavior during the application process will catch more people. How do they handle being told no? How do they handle a mild wait time? How many arguments/how much showboating do they do on channels in the wait time?

The reverse is also true, and oft-overlooked I think. It’s an excellent time for one to judge staff, beyond job progress time. What’s their communication style and does it mesh with yours? Are they sticklers for things you don’t care for? What’s the atmosphere of OOC chatter like? Etc.

Most people, in my experience and this does include myself, are more preoccupied with getting their application done over assessing whether the game, and those running it, are suitable for our needs.

@hellfrog said in Web-based CharGen or in-game CharGen:

yeah applications are to tell you about the player more than the character, I think. "Name a non-fictional woman that is smarter than you’ would be a perfect application prompt.

Faraday and Cobalt. Next question.

@MisterBoring And then you must provide evidence of RP skill with three logs from other MUs that you have, naturally, put on your lifejournal.

@helvetica said in Web-based CharGen or in-game CharGen:

A maximum word count limit for written backgrounds is the way to go.

By the same token, tell me what you want out of a background, so I know what to focus my limited time on writing. Or, better yet, give me a questionnaire to fill in.

I want the machine to do the mathening. I do the storying, the machine does the mathening. That’s why we have the machine.

@Third-Eye said in MU Peeves Thread:

I go in and out of it, like most hobbies.

@Nilli said in MU Peeves Thread:

I’m nostalgic for marathon RP and constant activity.

In my case I’m not sure if I’m nostalgic for that per se or if I’m nostalgic for the person I was and the life I had when those things were the norm.