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MisterBoring

The longest app I can think of was for a Palladium system game (may have been RIFTs, might have been Palladium Fantasy, can’t completely remember) that wanted all manner of hoops jumped through. This may not be 100% accurate to the reality of the game, but if anyone remembers it from this process, chime in:

The application text required the following:

Full Name
Age at the time you entered play (had to be at least 19)
Full & Short Descriptions
Full Typed Out Character Sheet (IN THE PALLADIUM SYSTEM) including full inventory and the stats for any vehicles / power armor / giant robots you owned.
Full prose background, with one paragraph dedicated to each of the following:
- Your character’s life from birth to 18.
- Each year after 18.
- Your characters history within the realm of any faction they may have been a member of.
- Reason your character came to the region described by the grid.
- Relationship history of your PC and any PCs you knew prior to coming to the grid area.
Rough ideas on what your character’s IC goals might be.

Then after typing out all of that mess, you got to sit with the staffer assigned your application and chat about anything they found peculiar for at least an hour as I recall, more if you were trying to be something on the far side of balance. (So for RIFTs, something like an Auto-G or Mega Juicer).

After that, you went into the approval queue. In an effort to have some sort of arbitrary control over the population of the game, the staff would take any approved characters and put them into a queue, and then at certain points each month, they’d let a few people finally go IC.

RightMeow

I tend to be (I hope) rather nice, understanding and malleable as a player. I tend to yes and for the most part. Which is how one of my chars got married in a pub on a quasi-maybe-date. It leads to some great RP. I also try to go towards the funny and just see what happens.

That said.

I have also played a very arrogant full of himself asshole. He was a great character to play, but he also had money and power behind him so it made him more than a little insufferable. I would OOC disclaimer that as the pilot of my char, I could come up with a reason for him to be there. I can’t guarantee it’s going to be enjoyable for a few different reasons. I was also willing to tone down or full send the jerkfaceness depending on the OOC person and I did check in a lot, BUT the char was designed a certain way. If you weren’t part of his chosen few, you weren’t worthy of air in his eyes. I still had amazing RP and one of his IC best friends started as one of his nemesis at the beginning. It means I can see the ‘my guy’ as also writing for the the story line and where/how your char fits into the story.

RightMeow

I have done all the types of applications. I tend to think Garou MUSH back in the day was pretty intense. Also, I’m old and losing my sanity, so I could be completely wrong about this.

I prefer short and to the game play for me. Partly, because if I have to keep re-writing or altering, I start to lose my enjoyment because the ‘getting there’ already feels like a lot of work. If I have to wait for approval, my desire to play starts to decrease as well. That’s probably my ADHD.

I hate stats because math. Also, I’m never sure how the game leans in direction and most are vague if I ask. I do like writing backstories because I just tend to prattle on (like now).

In conclusion - the way that gets me to start writing interactive stories with other the quickest. I also have a love for roster as it’s ready made especially if I’m coming onto a game as a new person without connections.

bear_necessities

I don’t know if “yes and” is the default of most MUSH players but it certainly is the default in my own play style and the play style of those I actively enjoy playing with. There are many people who will just respond to the prompt and offer nothing in return. When I play, I choose to play with people I can riff off of and will riff back, and I enjoy the whacky shenanigans we get into by expanding on one another’s poses.

More on topic, I find people who are willing to ‘yes and’ are less likely to be a My Guy, because they aren’t really trying to be the main character all the time but truly enjoy having fun with other people and just want to play.

MisterBoring

@Faraday said in "My Guy Syndrome":

This “yes and” thing has probably tangented too far to be useful, but the reason I was brought it up originally is because I really don’t think this is the default MU behavior.

I agree it’s not the default, but I’m not sure default MU behavior is what I want out of a MU at this point in my time with the hobby (especially given all of the interesting new RP I’ve done outside of MUing and the few times I’ve done improv on stage).

somasatori

@MisterBoring said in Long or Short? Application Process!:

@Babs said in Long or Short? Application Process!:

Chances are no one will notice.

This is the exact phrase that lead my best friend to copy pasta a chili recipe into his US History final essay and still somehow get a B on the assignment.

To be fair: the inverse - copying and pasting a us history essay into a chili recipe - would match most online chili recipes.

Jennkryst

@somasatori said in Numetal/Retromux:

To be fair, Jenn, I feel like the act of asking about unplayable/disallowed character types is kind of your version of MUSHing.

In the Otaku-specific instance, at the time I entered chargen they were legal. There was some fuckery that occurred that I went over elsewhere and can go over again, sure why not. But later.

Edit: Nagah are very much the unplayable thing I ask about, because sexy sneks. Mummies are more a meme at this point.

Roz

@Faraday said in "My Guy Syndrome":

@Roz said in "My Guy Syndrome":

we’re not talking about TTRPGs, though; we’re talking about MU*s. they may take systems from TTRPGs, stats and dice and such, but the social structure of how players have to persistently interact is entirely different from a tabletop experience.

Yes, I realize MUs are not TTRPGS (obviously). I said it was because of the TTRPG influence, which I believe came over along with the “stats and dice and such”.

plenty of MU*s have been entirely divorced from TTRPGs. like – plenty of them haven’t had stats or sheets at all. that was the majority of the games i played growing up

Seriously - have you seen “yes-and/no-but” as a commonplace principle in your MUSHing experience? Because I haven’t, even on games with a cooperative focus.

i would absolutely say it’s commonplace in nearly all of the games i’ve played. despite arguing about MU*s =/= TTRPGs just a second ago, i would in fact say that this philosophy has also extended to most of the TTRPG games i’ve played at, too.

maybe we’re just understanding the philosophy differently? to me, this is just a description of the basic philosophy of cooperative storytelling and trying – where appropriate, yes – to build upon what your fellow players are giving you. we even have a common phrase that gets trotted out for when people play against this philosophy in a particular way: no-selling. no-selling is frustrating and obnoxious for players because it tends to be a refusal of story rather than building on story.

“no, but” is a hugely common piece of advice given to GMs, both in tabletop and on MU*s – the idea that you be able to give characters something to keep moving forward, even if it’s a more difficult or more dangerous path, in cases where they fail.

Tez

@Faraday said in "My Guy Syndrome":

@Roz said in "My Guy Syndrome":

we’re not talking about TTRPGs, though; we’re talking about MU*s. they may take systems from TTRPGs, stats and dice and such, but the social structure of how players have to persistently interact is entirely different from a tabletop experience.

Yes, I realize MUs are not TTRPGS (obviously). I said it was because of the TTRPG influence, which I believe came over along with the “stats and dice and such”.

Seriously - have you seen “yes-and/no-but” as a commonplace principle in your MUSHing experience? Because I haven’t, even on games with a cooperative focus.

Yes, absolutely, to such a degree your question baffles me so I ask:

What do you think this looks like in practice?

Roadspike

@bear_necessities said in "My Guy Syndrome":

I’m going to push back a little here. … I also do my very best to know my place and try and decide if my presence in that scene is going to add to it. So if in your example the RP is happening in the biker bar, and the RP is happening because a gang of bikers is having a scene for their faction, and you are not in the faction, does your character add value to the scene?

@Faraday said in "My Guy Syndrome":

I still think there’s nothing wrong with politely bowing out of a scene where your character just doesn’t fit.

Fully agreed on both points. “Yes and”-ing yourself into a scene is great… if you fit yourself into the scene and respect the other players and characters to do it (and if they’re okay with it in the first place/the scene is open). People who come into a scene and take it over are at least as bad as My Guys.

T	Tez
P	Pavel
L	Lain Iwakura
R	ririsaru
M	MisterBoring
J	Jenn
C	catzilla
C	Cobalt
C	chilling
S	somasatori
S	sonata
L	Laurel
K	KQ
U	untitled
B	bored
B	Belle
M	mudcirclejerk
M	Mercutio
N	Narrator
R	Rucket

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