@Testament Oh, of course not. Though sometimes the actions of player characters make it inevitable - depending on the kind of game you’re running.

In D&D, for instance, death is on the table at my table. It’s not creative per see, but it gives the world a verisimilitude that adds to the satisfactory nature of a story. In the view of my players and me, of course.

Yeah, gonna +1 here on what folks are saying about incorporating player backstories. Most people I know would love to have their PC history come up, it’s a great bit of collaboration and an excuse to get some great melodrama in.

There are only two big things I’d caution about, which amount to either retconning or resolving the PC backstory, which can seem like good ideas but can wind up upsetting players if they’re not handled carefully. (I’ve seen these more often in TT than online, but I think it still holds.)

Retconning is when you drop a big reveal that the PC only thought they knew what happened in their history and there’s some (usually dark) secret going on there. Ranging from your classic “Obi-Wan never told you what happened to your father” to full-on, like, “your history was actually a Total Recall implant by the bad guy and your life is a lie.” This can actually be really fun! But it’s a big change to the character going forward, and one that people might not appreciate implementing in RP. It’s not something I’d recommend doing without explicit permission from the player; even if it diminishes the impact of the big reveal, it’s just a huge risk unless you know how they’ll take it.

Resolution, meanwhile, can seem like it’s an unambiguously good thing but can actually wind up making a character unusable. The A-Team was sentenced by a military court for a crime they didn’t commit, so if someone offered them a pardon for a job they’d presumably be over the moon… and then if they got it they wouldn’t be the A-Team anymore, they’d just be Some Guys. If my character wants something they don’t have as a fundamental part of their character concept, getting it can be a great plot point that changes the character in an entertaining way that’s great to work through, but if it feels like it happens too fast or too easy it just winds up a letdown at best and makes the PC unplayable at worst. (“Oh, the banishment that forced my PC to leave their old lives behind and fall in with the game’s setting has been rescinded, and they’re free to leave the game and return to their comfortable happy life? I guess they… do… that, then.”)

Link related

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2023/08/ai-powered-grocery-bot-suggests-recipe-for-toxic-gas-poison-bread-sandwich/

@Raistlin Totally does. Very cool. If I have free time (which is a luxury these days) I’ll be sure and check it out when it opens.

@Jennkryst Yeah – those games were all before Nemesis was released, and chose to ignore it and part ways with the canon timeline.

There was one good thing about the time-travelling murder hobos, which is that everyone OOCly knew their secret, since logs of their actions were shared on the game wiki. Contrary to the arguments of OOC masq proponents about how impossible this is, the players kept it OOC knowledge. Some managed to figure it out IC in purely IC ways. Many players thought it was pretty shite game-writing to restrict knowledge of and action regarding a universal threat to a small group of PCs, and had no desire to support or cooperate with that element of the plot, but still I have no recollection of cheating being a problem.

One of the things I love about our last series of scopes is that we’ve been all: Ok we think it’ll be this good, which is awesome and then the telescope is all…

Hold my drink.

@WhiteRaven said in Ancient History help for your games or characters:

@Narson said in Ancient History help for your games or characters:

Oh! Congrats/good luck. Yell if you need anything.

Thank you! I’ll more than likely hit you up for advice at some point and to beg you to scan book chapters for me. Doing a research thesis in Japan is hard with no English libraries near me but I managed, and I’ll manage again!

You know I’m always happy to help!

@watno said in Pose Sizes:

@Rinel You didn’t thwack him with a cane or threaten to, so…not normal for you.

She had just talked to Orazio and was extremely tired, and it was a very rare thing for her to threaten violence in a temple. Even Tehom’s. I think she only did it once, and it was over an exceptionally big deal.

@jujube said in oWoD 20th MU* being setup:

I’m not anti-apprentice/anti-newblet. I’m anti-idiot.

I’m anti-people that won’t read their damned sourcebook.

Not every book in the set. But I don’t think it’s unreasonable for people to at least know where to find the information they need to play.

Obviously, this is an extremely complex issue. Animation studios have been using computer aided art for quite some time, but the technology is now becoming accessible to the everyday person. If you want an excellent example of ‘AI’ assisted art being used as a tool by artists, take a look at the interviews with the creative team that produced Klaus.

This technology is currently putting people out of work and it won’t be getting better as developers continue to refine these programs. Concept artists are the most endangered by this as the companies that utilize their services have already begun trimming departments down. A couple of artists with a few machines can turn out as many (if not more) works than an entire team could.

There is a bit of solace to be found. Even if you ignore the legal precariousness, these programs are far from perfect. It takes time and effort to prompt the computer to get exactly what you want. Even after the ‘art’ is generated, it still requires a degree of touching up. Not everyone has the skill set to do this, but… the gap between semi-professional artists and everyone with a computer is beginning to close.

The threat of automation is here and it isn’t going away. Professions that people assumed were safe are not. We’ve needed to have a serious conversation about this for years, but we won’t see anything actionable until it’s far too late. Much like a number of the other extremely predictable assumptions that academics have been warning us about for decades.

If you want to do something against it, make certain not to buy into companies that are trying to run a profit on these programs. Not only will you be slowing the progression of digital art automation, but you’ll also be saving yourself cash. The majority of those paid ‘programs’ are really just a branch of Stable Diffusion…which is a program you can download to your machine for free.

@Mauja Still waiting on your list of the three characters you remember, NONE OF WHICH ARE SUNNY BECAUSE IVE MISREMEMBERED THAT FOR A DECADE NBD

And I’m so glad we’re still friends ❤

@Solstice As someone who has pulled 6 foot monsters outta drains in my house, this is advice people need to take…

Band names discovered in undergraduate papers:

Botched Butt Implant Removal

In case anyone needs the download link, it is at: https://riverdark.net/atlantis/downloads/

@icanbeyourmuse Sin Eaters win because they all trigger off social/willpower win/lose effects, because nobody ever uses social/mental damage tracks.

@sao said in D&D alternatives:

maybe i’ll go to pathfinder 2.0, i’ve heard it’s more slick, but mostly I’m probably just going to whine and cry a lot.

2e is wildly different to 1e, for what it’s worth, and essentially every change is an improvement. It’s still customizable and fun, but the three-action economy is such a huge leap forward in streamlined play that it makes it basically impossible for me to go back to pf1e or 5e.

Plus, archetypes. Being able to suplex a dragon (if your rolls are good enough) is supremely cool.

Jumping in to add a vote for BeipMU onto the pile.

I used to use SimpleMU, then Mushclient, then Mudlet, then Potato, and now BeipMU.

BeipMU (not counting being currently supported) outclasses all of the other clients I have used.

@baron8550 Message Testament for an invite to the Discord. I would invite but not sure non-staff can invite.