@Pavel I’m presuming that there’s not a whole bunch of people that the staffer dislikes, and that the staffer isn’t feeling over-stretched. A few people that a staffer has a dislike for is probably, all by itself, not a good reason to add another staffer. If I ever make another game and more than one or two people wants to GM it, I do have this scheme to allow players and GMs more freedom about who they play with and an easy hopefully painless and not terribly feather-ruffling way to pass players off to another GM.

christ dude But the answer to the question for me is Yes, with a Big Caveat, and that’s that you simply will never be able to reproduce the same experience as a regular PC. Even if you somehow stay anonymous, the other elements of the game – how the systems work, what the mysteries are, the relationships between other players and the jobs they submit up to you, these will all be floating in your head all the time and will inevitably color your experience. There is also, of course, the gulf between what you want a game to be and what it actually is to play. If you are open about it being a staff NPC, people will expect you to have knowledge and lore and stories. If you aren’t, they’ll be bitter when they find out. But it’s crucial anyway, whichever route you go. It’s far more important the more immersive your game is, too. An RPI needs it far more desperately than a game done mostly in async on Ares, but it’s still important wherever.

@dvoraen said: I still feel like I can’t manage something “professional” level in this regard to save my life. Reminder that technically the only difference between an amateur and a professional is you pay a professional for their work; it does not by any means need to be GOOD.

@Dreampipe I read this today and just the ‘end of an era’ aspect of it is a huge bummer, and I feel for all the people who lost their jobs, of course. Part of me is a little relieved at Mass Effect 5’s cancellation, though, I’ve gotta admit. I didn’t really want to see whatever the Saudi Wealth Fund Approved version of ME was going to be. The legacy of ME and DA (and BioWare’s other games) is still mostly intact for me on an emotional level, and maybe that’s the best we were gonna get at this point.

I am not exactly excited with the new project I am on at work, but for once they aren’t violating ADAAA laws under the guise of “training is more important (than your health)”, and I’m getting a small raise next week putting me back to what I was making a couple of years ago (e.g. making up for pay cuts I got when being shuffled around).

Steam recently began complying with Australian legislop and requiring age verification to view adult materials. Their ID of choice? A credit card. Not a debit card, not an ID card, but a credit card. The Reserve Bank of Australia reports that only 18% of adults under 30 in Australia own a credit card (Livermore et al., 2023, p. 21). @Faraday said: and they’re so easy to circumvent that they do virtually nothing to keep kids out of spaces they shouldn’t be in. Especially with Firefox and other browsers just straight-up having a VPN button to push, for free (with limits, but c’mon), right there. Even the least technologically interested child will learn that pushing that button gives you access to The Good Stuff. Livermore, T., Mulqueeney, J., Nguyen, T., & Watson, B. (2023). The evolution of consumer payments in Australia: Results from the 2022 Consumer Payments Survey (Research Discussion Paper No. 2023-08). Reserve Bank of Australia. https://doi.org/10.47688/rdp2023-08

@Deviant JK Rowling has claimed that she came up with the whole ‘wizard school’ idea independently of Yolen (in 1991), Pratchett (1983), Murphy (1974) and LeGuin (1968). LeGuin said that her own Roke Island wizard’s school was inspired by T.H. White having mentioned the folkloric wizard school Domdaniel in The Sword In the Stone (1938). Domdaniel is known to English speakers from One Thousand and One Arabian Nights. But Rowling says it’s coincidence, and the other authors have, wisely, not bothered to argue. [image: gotta-love-pete-v0-kct6x1ip5mfe1.jpeg?width=1080&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=3edd398fbc7ddd0d5df9c4779674afe7dc431980]

@Pavel He’ll always be Captain Dallas to me.

@MisterBoring A lot of D&D tt gamers agree, or maybe 'cause I’m straight up that at least part (though not all) of the reason I have that collection is that he’s family. His son and I do mean it, though. Hah, I should just run those old modules… Anyway, these’ll be fun,

Bring it back [image: 1791816571723-doit.jpg] (please, I was excited seeing the ad go up before realizing its gone)

@Roz Ok but which of these six bears would you vote for if they were the candidates? This is very important to the theme of this thread.

A lot of AI sucks, I can’t stand AI writing, and I hate what it does to artists, but I think there will be much more people in our hobby in five years than there is right now.

Could you give a bit more on the tone and themes of the game, and a rough outline of the world? L&L is a pretty large genre. Dune, Bridgerton, Game of Thrones, Kushiel’s Dart, and a Court of Thorns and Roses are very different from one another.

My own little $0,02 and tidbit of experience with this subject (as both a player and a staffer cleaning up the mess so to speak). In personal RP, with a trusted writing partner, it can work. I’ve been in private scenes that involved this material in ways that supported a dramatic arc, and just like dark RP in general, when done well, with someone you trust, and for a purpose (and I’m not a prude, that purpose can be, to some degree, situationally prurient on top of story-affecting…) it can be memorable. The two places it is a HUGE gamble: Written in spontaneous RP with someone you don’t know, or with someone who advertises it as THEIR kink. One of the two characters becomes more an object than a participant. There are games for that, sure, but this can be a severe problem on a game that doesn’t rhyme with Shmang or Shpen. And group RP, where the content is less controlled by nature.

@Nerdvana I remember Dani! I can’t remember how much we played together but I had a Fae-Touched with a little rat companion. I remember she won a big summer competition by letting everyone else fight while she just raced to the finish line or something.

VPN of choice; be sure to check out any before you use them, some are connected to Palantir or the Israeli govt. Organic Maps to track my running without feeding me to a data miner or worse. Foobar2000 for music. VLC for non-music media. Foxit for reading and filling in .pdfs. First Aid and Pet First Aid from The American Red Cross. One time payment for DroidcamX so I can use my phone in lieu of a webcam, resulting in much better quality than any retail webcam.

Three months in and we have a robust cast of characters! Along with multiple current events and plots on-going, Mounts are being introduced to the system and a new planet will open up on the grid with a shorter sub-plot as an introduction. But players aren’t just limited to what planets are listed in ‘Locations’. It is a living grid that is effected by the playerbase. Things like the Cron Drift Asteroid Belt has been added due to the actions of the Partisans, for example. The galaxy is your playground. Here are just some of the current events and still many more to come! Changing of the Guard - Tavren Pashe, the founder and leader of the Coalition, has been confirmed MIA presumed KIA. With his last act as a freedom fighter taking place on Beldarone, the Coalition and their allies are facing a mystery of what happened to him, why, and if they can fix what is broken. But with the Beldaroni being naturally isolationist, progress has been slow and stymied. Rising Tensions - After numerous counter-attacks against Imperial movement on Daiyu, the Partisans have successfully moved the needle when it comes to sabotage and aggression. Several missions have put a dent in the Empire’s grip on Daiyu, but have also brought on unwanted attention and scrutiny. They are currently assembling a hidden asteroid base in the Cron Drift, preparing to further escalate the battlefronts with stolen and salvaged starfighters in order to take their efforts to the skies and beyond Daiyu itself. The Houses Always Win - On Beldarone, the ruling Houses each have a stake in the level of Imperial occupation. For House Draugvist, it has proven to be lucrative so long as the Empire doesn’t go digging too deeply. An impending audit risks digging up an illegal smuggling ring of ionite, and Talon Karrde has seized on the opportunity for unknown reasons. He has hired on a group of agents tasked with heading the audit off at the pass and steering blame away from House Draugvist. The reward for such promises to be worth it’s weight in illegal goods. Daiyu Politics - Nils Creville has been the Imperial-installed governor of Daiyu since the planet’s seizure soon after the formation of the Empire. However, with the recent uptick of resentment and violent ‘protests’ (read: attacks) from the populace, Moff Pilter has installed a Deputy Governor to rein it all in. This man is an unknown player in Daiyu’s political theater, and his appearance spells trouble for those who oppose the Empire… and for Nils’s job security. Imperial Outpost - In further response to the increase of civilian unrest and seditious behaviors, Moff Pilter (overseer of the Hocatar Sector) has petitioned for a bolstering of Imperial forces at the garrison in Nevaris. Further, the construction of an outpost outside of Kessivar has been ordered to be built. This outpost, if allowed to be constructed, will tighten the Empire’s grip on the planet. But to attack the construction or to sabotage its progress is likely to make waves, as well.

As mentioned here: I have.a number of cousins Dave. https://www.peacetigers.com/