@eddie I was going to go off on a bunch of your earlier points, but several others already got there with very similar things to what I was going to say. Plus… Woah… I just got to this post:

@eddie said in Star Wars Age of Alliances: Hadrix and Cujo:

Truth of the matter is…

And I’m pretty sure that your own story tells us everything we need to know about you. You “invested” time, effort, and in-game currency into something and didn’t get the attention of a player you were interested in, the attention that you felt was your due.

You realize that putting in time, effort, and money into another person without a business deal involved is called “being a friend,” right? And that you aren’t owed anything for it? Particularly not anything of a sexual nature? There is no ROI on being a friend to someone, you do what you do because they’re your friend, not because you’re going to get something out of it.

@Apos Agreed. Any time that someone asks me to define a term that should be common knowledge, I assume that they are just looking for clearly delineated rules that they can push the envelope on and then claim that they’re not breaking the actual rules.

Everyone should know what “creepy” means, and if they can’t avoid it, then they can’t play on any game I run.

Like a few of the previous posters, I couldn’t finish reading the log. It was disgusting. The use of the Luck point to gaslight a character “because it’s funny” was particularly heinous.

Apart from and beyond the horrific content, I also found the future-imperfect tense (or whatever ‘will’ and ‘would’ and the like are) posing grating.

Sorry, @Cobalt, that you had to deal with that, but also thank you for dealing with it so that it didn’t continue (even if it led to you closing your game down).

When you’ve got your brain-weasels going full-bore, and then someone reaches out about RP, and those nasty scratchy bitey things quiet down for a little bit.

@Pavel I get that you’re trying to take the most generous interpretation, and I was too – until I got to the talk about ROI. I completely understand being disappointed that a storyline didn’t work out how I wanted it to, how I planned for it to. I get that, it’s happened to me, and it’s sucked.

But, unless there was some specific agreement, no one should be talking about return on investment in interpersonal relations unless it’s some version of Prue Leith’s “It’s not worth the calories” where you’re deciding that the other person isn’t worth your time and so you’re disengaging yourself.

To expect a particular return on your investment from the other person, particularly where romantic RP/TS is involved… that’s way too close to “I bought her dinner and drinks, I deserve sex” for my comfort.

As for the other situation that @eddie mentioned – I really feel for them about that one. That sounds like an uncomfortable situation, and a boundary that they set properly and which was then crossed by another player. That’s not cool at all.

@Pyrephox said in On the utility of Logs, Receipts, and Proof:

There are patterns of abuse that can really on be seen AS A PATTERN, because each individual incident is small and easily dismissed.

This is why reporting even just “a creepy feeling” is so important. More than once, I have gotten reports from multiple players (and noticed myself) that a player was giving off a creepy vibe, testing those boundaries with people. When confronted, the creep revealed themselves via their responses and were removed – after they were removed, several additional people came forward to say that they had been targeted.

If you are being victimized by someone, chances are that you are not alone in this. If I (as Staff) get one report of someone being generally creepy, I’ll watch them more closely, but if I get four reports from people in three different playgroups? Yeah, that person’s probably gone, even if each of the reports is just “felt like they were pushing boundaries.” Unless it’s obvious, I’ll talk with the prospective creep, but it’s definitely going to be easier a) to be direct with them about the problem, and b) to obfuscate those reporting the problem, if I have multiple reports.

I was Seraphim73 over on MSB, but I decided to just go with my usual Internet persona over here.

Past Characters:
The Weave:
<character names not remembered>

A Moment in Tyme (over 15 years, so yeah, there are a lot of characters there):
Angron Kirthak, Child of the Light
Njal, Queen’s Guardman/Magistrate
Arbaal, noble’s guard
Harkan Kirthak, Child of the Light, later Queen’s Guard
Creon, Child of the Light
Agammon, Child of the Light
Mason, Warder Trainee
Daiyen, Aiel Spear
Keldane, Child of the Light
Termiane Koronel, Seanchan infiltrator
Gerrit Ajara, weapons trainer
Volkare Previn, Asha’man
Brienne, Aes Sedai
Liahm, Asha’man
Parol, Weaponmastery and War Staffer

Dragon’s Fang
Harkan Kirthak, Child of the Light
Termiane Koronel, Seanchan-turned-Rebel Warder

Cuendillar
Termiane Koronel, Mercenary Blademaster
Sang, Warder Trainee
Raizo, Darkfriend Warder

Knights of the Old Republic
Volkare Previn, Sith Trooper
Rha Dun, Jedi Knight
Kieran “Key” Fel, Republic pilot
Salm, Feeorin mercenary
Shivas Anin, Jedi Knight
Kharss, Chistori mercenary
Bantha, Sith and War Staffer

Vampire Masquerade
Andrei, Russian Brujah

One of the Battlestar Games (Cerberus?)
Justinian, Tactical Officer

Dark Times
Victor Slade, Stormtrooper officer
Brodie Jaimes, Wroonian Mercenary
Sigil(?), Staffer

Chicago MUSH
Franklin, beat cop

Steel and Stone
Kamron Mallister, knight
Sterling, common knight
Darek Boldt, squire
Tyroan Nayland, steward

Game of Kings
Darrin Taniford (before the insanity)
Theme/Combat Staffer before opening

The Fifth World
Nikomachos Sauveur of Cindravale, jouster and knight
Drake Danger, rocker
Victor Khournas, foot knight
Mars, HeadWiz

Generations of Darkness
CT-1231 “Dog”, Stormtrooper
Brodie Jaimes, Human Mercenary/Rebel
Victor Slade, Republic Senator turned Rebel
Shivas Anin, Jedi Knight

Star Wars: Omens
Kajj’ik Previn, Dark Acolyte
Alpha-69 “Smoke,” Alpha-class clone
Victor Slade, Republic Senator
Rockabilly, Combat Staffer

Realms Adventurous
Kamron de Dinton, worthy knight
Morlois de Willcot, unworthy knight

The 100 MUSH
Orion, Staffer
Grey, angry ex-Guard Cadet
Luther, veteran warrior

Arx
Gabriel Bisland, loyal duke (briefly)

BSU
Van, by-the-book Viper pilot
Gustavo, gentle giant Marine

Fires of Hope
Erskine Hylle, ex-CIS rebel
Devlin Cinn, Imperial deserter

The Eighth Sea
Leviathan, Staffer
Sebastien Achille, swashbuckler
Ebo, pirate revolutionary

CoMUX
Simon Green, OC SHIELD Agent
Frank Castle, The Punisher

Common Descent
Simon Green, OC SHIELD Agent
Frank Castle, The Punisher
Roy Harper, Arsenal
Barry Allen, The Flash

Spirit Lake
Diego Reyes, newly-hired Deputy
Etta Tuscano, sword-wielding glassblower

Gray Harbor
Kevin Walters, geeky journalist/conspiracy theorist
Marius Andersson, would-be Viking architecture student

Dove Cove
Simon, War College Professor

Keys
Diego Reyes, police officer

The Last Road
Finder, outrider and scout

Stargate:
Blake, Marine Staff Sergeant

The Savage Skies
Rome, Staff
Thomas “Flash” Bradshaw, American show-off pilot
Yao Sang, Chinese Shanghai Municipal Policeman
Jimmy Walker, American Marine
Stephane Idrissi, former French Foreign Legionnaire, “archaeologist”

The Network
Zack, Bruiser with a Heart of Gold

Crystal Springs
Oliver Webb, overachieving performer-geek
Marius Anderssen, geeky handyman

Currently Playing:
The Network
Roadspike, combat staffer
Oscar, True Believer

Excelsior
Peter Parker, your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man
Steve Rogers, America’s Ass.

@RedShoes said in Star Wars Age of Alliances: Hadrix and Cujo:

Being on Staff is not a promotion

Everyone knows how much bullshit this is. I mean, the whole post from Cujo is bullshit based on what’s been shared on this thread, but this part in particular.

Is being Staff a lot of work? Absolutely. Is it a promotion? I mean, I guess that depends on your definition of a promotion, but it certainly increases your social capital on the game. Claiming that being added to Staff isn’t a promotion is mealy-mouthed gaslighting bullshit.

I’m nearly done with this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VfxEeSevfE

about a bit character in Stranger Things Season 4 (caution, spoilers) and how to create – and then kill – a character that viewers engage with and want to know more about.

And I had to pause it because I was thinking, “Wow, this has a lot to do with how we create short- to medium-term NPCs, I should share it.” So here I am.

What are some of the other ways that you create NPCs who hook players/characters in?

@spiriferida said in On the utility of Logs, Receipts, and Proof:

Talk openly about the atmosphere you want to create
When people are acting shitty casually, don’t let it slide in the moment - call it out. “We don’t do that here” is a good phrase.
Don’t wait for people to report things to remove someone> demonstrate your own patterns of behavior to your players.

I cannot give better advice on creating an atmosphere of trust than these points. I also like “that’s not acceptable here” when calling out shitty behavior.

Also, and perhaps most importantly, if someone does report something to you, follow up on it and get back to them afterwards. Even if it’s just to say, “I’ve heard you, I understand that you have concerns, I’m going to be watching this person extra closely, please use the report function if they contact you at all for any reasons, I’ve told them not to.” Letting people know that they’ve been heard and that you appreciate their report and have taken it seriously will be spread to their friends, and their friends will feel more comfortable coming forward too.

Also also, if you remove someone from the game for bad behavior, be public about it. You don’t have to (and shouldn’t) include all of the gory details, but a general description of the unacceptable behavior and the fact that the person has been removed, posted to a public place, will make it clear what is not allowed.

@Roz Thankfully, Patch 5 has provided another way to recruit her.

@sao said in IC Consequences and OOC Acceptance:

I prefer PvP that is character versus character, not player versus player. I don’t want to be combative with other players. It is not my jam.

I remember a push a while back for PvP to be renamed to CvC to emphasize exactly this point. I think it’s a great point that needs to be made and feeds into @Pyrephox’s point above: if you’re actually playing player-versus-player you might as well be playing Team Fortress Classic, because the only acceptable move is to obliterate the other person as soon as you can, so they don’t do it to you.

If you’re playing character-versus-character, there’s room for infinite intermediate steps that can build a relationship between the characters, even if it’s one based on hatred and mistrust. It leads to ongoing stories, not an orgy (or a whimper for said job-based kills) of destruction that then ends the storyline of at least one character.

@KDraygo Very much this. I think 8-12 players per active, storytelling Staffer is probably right around what I would be comfortable with.

@Polk said in IC Consequences and OOC Acceptance:

The way I think of it is, some people just want to hole up and tell their own story arcs. They don’t want to mess with you and they don’t want you messing with them.

But there are also players (fewer, but they exist in substantial numbers) who feel empty if they can’t “influence the grid” in some way. They want consequences to exist.

I feel like you’re describing one extreme and then somewhere in the middle of a spectrum and trying to set them up as diametrically opposed when I’m not sure that they are. It feels to me like the majority of players want to have significant control over their own character’s story arc, but still influence the game world as a whole.

Or maybe that’s just me and I’m projecting. I certainly don’t see the latter group as being PvP-advocates (they certainly could be, but they don’t have to be). I also don’t know why a MUSH would particularly want players who are just going to hole up in their rooms and tell their own stories, except for the illusion of activity. But if you step off the extreme on that point of the spectrum and get to the players who mostly want to tell their own stories within a greater world – I think that those players work very well with the players who want to influence the grid, and I don’t think there’s much threading of the needle to be done.

@Alveraxus said in IC Consequences and OOC Acceptance:

Let’s say the player of Helen wants to have a fun little plot where she gets kidnapped by the character of Paris.

I don’t think that theoretical Helen-player is the hide-in-their-room type, and has to know that running off with the wife of a proud king is going to have major impact on the grid.

@Alveraxus said in IC Consequences and OOC Acceptance:

Actual violent acts between characters should be few and far between because there will be law (strict law) that governs things.

In my experience, PvP-eager players tend to be very bad at determining the “right” level of response to a threat. I know that I’m generalizing very broadly, but from what I’ve seen, even in social situations, the tendency seems to be to go from 0 to 100 immediately, because if you don’t go scorched earth, they’ll just come back and attack you. Never mind that a back-and-forth antagonism makes for great RP as long as both players are onboard for winning some and losing some.

I would suggest being very, very explicit in what is allowed/encouraged and what is not, and perhaps even putting in very clear bumpers like “This society is highly-policed and security-conscious, if your character attacks or murders someone, they will be caught and removed from the grid as they are held for trial, put on trial, and sentenced to imprisonment.” That’s probably too strong, not knowing the theme you’re looking at, but it would probably be good to have something in policy that makes it very clear that you’re looking for social violence, not physical violence, and that those going over the top into physical violence will not be tolerated. – Oh look, @Pyrephox got there before me!

@Jennkryst On any game that uses FS3 that I’m Staff on (just one at the moment, but there have been several), I always offer to plot-runners that I’m happy to run the combat if that’s a burden to them. They can do all the plot-running and NPC-poses, and I’ll make the NPCs do what they want in the combat, handle any questions, etc. Anything Staffers can do to lower the barrier to entry for prospective GMs, because like @Faraday says, they’re the exception, and they should be given as much grace and help as possible.

@mietze I think a lot of what you said speaks to some of the anxiety I’ve been having myself. I don’t know if it’s exactly the same, but there’s definitely a mental barrier to entry that shouldn’t be there (because like @Tributary said, you don’t have to share the scene) but is. I think it’s the tiniest barrier, like a slightly-raised floor at a doorway, but with everything else going on in real life, I just don’t have the spoons. I don’t know if this is something that can or should be designed around because there are plenty of workarounds (you can always start a scene from the client in a room without all of that info just with the scene/start command, for instance).

I think it may be part and parcel of the fact that in the last year or two, most everything feels harder, and I have fewer spoons.

I’m a big fan of a right-sizing the staff to the players, or the players to the staff. If you can keep getting staffers that you trust and who can work together, keep gathering in players; but if you can’t keep finding staff that you trust, limit your playerbase.

I’m also a big fan of “Current Adventure” pages like we used on The Savage Skies: a page that details the current metaplot, with links to subplots or concurrently-running plots, descriptions of common allies and enemies, a map if appropriate, some plot hooks to start scenes or plots, etc. It keeps players and staff on the same page, lets players run their own scenes, and gives one place for everyone to look for information about what’s going on at the time.

The Network also can suit very well for this. I definitely fit into the “can log in for a few hours a week if they have time, and engage, and have fun” descriptor and I feel like I can keep busy and engaged. Sure, I have some FOMO about things going on when I can’t attend, but that’s more me than the game.

@Gashlycrumb The internet is a wonderful, amazing thing for helping you find Your People – but it’s also a horrifying, disgusting thing for helping horrible, disgusting people find Their People, which convinces them that there are a ton of them and “everyone” will support them when they act on their horrible impulses because everyone in their echo chamber supports them when they talk about it.

Having two neo-Nazis in a small rural town was bad enough, but they could just be the town’s missing stair that everyone knew about and avoided, but when those two chuckleheads can go online, find Their People, and get hundreds or thousands of positive responses for their bullshittery, it emboldens them to take their bullshittery offline.

Here’s where we noticed it first:

https://jamesmendezhodes.com/blog/2018/11/10/best-practices-for-historical-gaming

I really love the idea, and love that it’s catching on. I think it’s great for keeping players from being blindsided either by something happening in a scene that they weren’t expecting, or from having their characters chewed out ICly for something that’s just part of the game world.