MU Peeves Thread

[Kestrel]

My peeve is me. I want to get back into MU*ing, and have not one, but two games lined up that I want to check out. (Maybe even three if for whatever reason the first two don’t work out!) Both are run by friends whom I respect and admire; whose creative projects I want to support; and whose ability to run good, healthy games that I’d enjoy I have complete faith in.

It’s just been so long since I’ve fully invested in a MU* that I feel like I’ve practically forgotten how to. I’ve been in creative lulls like this before, and I know that if I just get my foot in the door, roll up a character and get myself into a scene, it’ll all come back in an instant, like I never left the hobby at all. I’m just finding that initial step weirdly harder to surmount than it should be.

To the multiple friends who might be reading this, and to whom I’ve made empty promises about rolling up to hang out with on a MU* in recent months, I’m sorry. It’s really not you, it’s me. (A phrase I know always feels like bullshit on the receiving end, yet is legit, in this case, true.)

---

Marginally related peeve that I’m sure other alumni of this game can relate to: I hate the extent to which PHSD (Post-HavenRPG Stress Disorder) lives rent-free in my mind. Experiences on that game have made me intensely skittish at the very first sign of red flags on any other game I’ve checked out since, and permanently damaged my ability to put faith in game staff on the whole. It’s not the main reason I’ve been flakey about checking out the two aforementioned MU* run by friends of mine, but it has made me bail a lot quicker than others deem reasonable, on other projects, recently.

When there are so many good gamerunners out there whose proven track record makes me feel safe to put my complete trust in, it just no longer feels worth it sticking around after the first sign of trouble anywhere else, hoping/expecting things might get better or continuing to make excuses for staffers displaying strong red flags. I did that for years longer than I should’ve on HavenRPG, and I’m not prepared to do that for a day longer anywhere else.

It also makes me feel much stronger appreciation and gratitude to those gamerunners out there who’ve proven their commitment to their players’ safety time and time again. And to these boards as well, which promote healthy communities & staff practices, and which hold the hobby to a higher standard than I’m regrettably used to seeing.

There are a number of posters here on these boards who don’t know me at all, whom I’ve never spoken to one on one, whose positive contributions to this community have meant a lot more to me than they could possibly realise.

[sao]

I WANT TO PLAY BUT I DON’T WANT TO START OVER IN A NEW PLACE WHERE I DON’T KNOW ANYTHING

[Pan]

My current peeve, all the games I play seem to be a text version of The Sims.

[BloodAngel]

@Pan How so?

[Wizz]

@Pan

brb, planning a game where PCs are only allowed to communicate in Simlish

[DrQuinn]

All my PCs do end up dying in a pool with no ladder.

[Pan]

@BloodAngel said in MU Peeves Thread:

@Pan How so?

The games just seem to become life simulation games with nothing but social events.

[Polk]

@Pan There is a sizable chunk of the MUSH world that likes that. They like building things up. Building a character, building a social network, and playing in it. It’s why Lords and Ladies games get so enormous.

And it’s why in games that have more than that, you get a number of players who just avoid the dangerous plot and stick to the building and socializing.

I say this with no judgement. We play what we like. And it takes all kinds to make the hobby turn around.

[mietze]

I don’t feel that tells the whole story. Sometimes being included in plot/action stuff very very much depends on who you know, and especially if you are not maximum available, how much people are willing to hold space for you.

I wish people didn’t always turn this into “if you’re not in action/plot its because you just prefer social things” that is honest far from the truth a lot of the time.

Especially on a big game, I really do not feel like it is fair to imply that.

[Third Eye]

@mietze said in MU Peeves Thread:

I wish people didn’t always turn this into “if you’re not in action/plot its because you just prefer social things” that is honest far from the truth a lot of the time.

I was once told - by someone in control of plot stuff - that because I was a ‘social RPer’ and in a decent number of scenes (many of which I asked for) that I didn’t need plot involvement. It was a hell of a thing and like five years later I’m still mad about it.

[Polk]

@mietze All I know is my own experiences, which have included trying to loop a number of people into the hot and heavy plot, and then being turned down because it was dangerous!

[Ashkuri]

@Pan run the kind of content you want to see.

[mietze]

@Third-Eye i have lost count of how many times I have been told that if I jumped through all the hoops I would get more action. One time famously by a staffer who had left my job unanswered for over 18 months (with a ping from me every 2 months). I think by the time I gave up, I had like 6 open jobs (I’d long given up on that particular one). It kind of trained me to not do jobs/mail/requests because usually there is events you can sign up for but for me the snubs in private while the person is telling people they just should get up off the butts just really feels bad. Once I have something go unanswered with absolutely no communication for 6+ months i assume that my participation is not wanted or wouldn’t be important anyway.

There are lots of reasons people fall through the cracks. We are all human and I dont really begrudge staff either but for Pete’s sake don’t tell people they’re just lazy and dumb when they’ve got stuff in your queue.

[mietze]

@Polk why not put out a query more public, maybe you might have met some new people that would have loved to participate.

[Polk]

@mietze I do that, too! I post events, I mass @mail people.

But I know people are different. Likewise I’m weird about my own things in games. I hate big party scenes. My WoD scenes are almost never at night.

We all do our own thing, and the big social hobnobbing just is more visible than secret plotty shenanigans, sometimes.

This isn’t to say there aren’t games where the plot is clique-locked. That’s true. But I try not to play on those.

[sao]

@Third-Eye WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK

[Gashlycrumb]

@sao said in MU Peeves Thread:

@Third-Eye WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK

I am not shocked, having had this exchange:

Enraged GM: “I ought to ban you! You told Player that I said I don’t have time for you!”

Me: “You did say that.”

EGM: “Yeah, but when you say it it sounds like I said you’re not important!”

[SpaceKhomeini]

@Gashlycrumb that sounds like an…

Escplosion.

[Cobalt]

@SpaceKhomeini no

Do not speak the forbidden words.

[Polk]

@SpaceKhomeini said in MU Peeves Thread:

@Gashlycrumb that sounds like an…

Escplosion.

In hindsight I’m so lucky I didn’t play Mage under that clown. I met some nice people there, but he and I would have butted heads very, very quickly.

I’m active. I ask questions. I try to do things and to understand the reasoning behind rulings. The first time he tried to bite my head off for asking the wrong question I’d have launched a rhetorical nuke and left.

And then I’d not have met the nice people I met there, before the culture of STing he fostered on that game eventually led me to do that anyway.