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MU Peeves Thread
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@mietze
@Coin has some excellent practical tips above.no matter how hard one tries to be “fair” though there are always going to be people saying it’s not good enough.
This is true. It’s also okay.
Probably part one of the trick is to accept that not everybody will like everything you do as a game runner. In fact. probably every person will find something you’ve done that they dislike. Sometimes people will mention it. That’s okay. Sometimes people will lose their tempers about it and yell at you rudely. That’s not really okay, but it is a sure thing that it’ll happen, so you must try to be okay with it.
Another part is that RPGs are never moment-by-moment ‘fair’. It’s just not how they work. Sometimes you may end up in situations where you ought to say, “I’m sorry, player, I know that my call on this has left you with the short and sticky end of the stick. Thank you for takin’ one for the team, I will try to make it up to you.” Yes, this is tantamount to admitting you made an unfair decision. But it’s also a whole lot kinder and more human – “I’m doing my best as an imperfect person in an inperfect world,” is a lot easier to take than, “Your feelings are invalid, there’s no reason you should think this end is short and sticky.”
Yet another part is to accept that you, yes you, are going to make mistakes. That’s okay too. Don’t lie about them. Don’t hinge your ego on being perfect. Don’t try to hide your mistakes in the belief that players won’t trust you if they know you make them. Honesty counts for a lot. So does honest self-examination – if you can’t accept that you might have screwed up, then you can’t really accurately judge your choices. A lot of games that seem otherwise awesome turn out to be utter crap because of "I am a fair person, so my calls are fair’ type thinking obscuring facts and leading to “player said my call was unfair, so they’re insulting me by calling me an unfair person” interpersonal weirdness.
I tried very hard to discourage people from thinking of me as an authority figure. I am not the greatest, or even a great, GM. I am not a leading egg-spurt on the theme or even the mechanics. I am a middle-aged geek just like everybody else here and I’m not the gamerunner because of any merit other than my willingness to do it.
@Coin said in MU Peeves Thread:
I mean, how important an aspect of running a game and its success is, is subjective.
Well, yeah. By what metrics may we judge a MU successful is another thread. I think GoB was successful because it had as many players as I wanted, or three times as many, but a much lower player-to-incident-of-OOC-drama ratio than most, and because it had two time-blocks in which there were always, every day, scenes going on, and people reported that they were having fun. And because when ‘House of the Dragon’ premiered, like five years later, former GoB players (some of whom I barely remember, I’m embarassed to say) popped emails of GoB nostalgia to me.
But definitely an invididual thing, too – GoB’s popularity was firmly linked to that of Game of Thrones and most other MUs don’t see a burst of new apps every season premier and finale of a television show, or have people lose enthusiasm when the show’s quality falls.
'You ride the mechanical bull, you do not fight it.'
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@Gashlycrumb said in MU Peeves Thread:
But definitely an invididual thing, too – GoB’s popularity was firmly linked to that of Game of Thrones and most other MUs don’t see a burst of new apps every season premier and finale of a television show, or have people lose enthusiasm when the show’s quality falls.
This is a side note, and I do have thoughts about the main topic, but I wanted to point out that this was a fairly common occurrence in the past. In fact, I’ve been surprised that there hasn’t been a resurgence of Dune or Cyberpunk 2020/77 games in the last few years. At the turn of the 21st century, for instance, DuneMUSH got a big surge of players due to the sci-fi channel miniseries that had come out around that time. Final Fantasy MUSH always saw player surges when new games were released, and so on.
Game creation is far more accessible these days with regards to genre emulation thanks to Ares and Evennia (i.e., without specialized systems like the modiphius engine for Dune or CyberpunkRED but able to provide the aesthetic and setting with theme/story customization), so just a bit surprised they haven’t popped up. Like, no D&D-style fantasy adventure games after BG3? That would have seen a huge surge, I would guess.
Musing complete. Please return to the normal thread. @Coin makes some very good points and I appreciate your perspective here @Gashlycrumb.
they/them
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@somasatori said in MU Peeves Thread:
At the turn of the 21st century
How dare you phrase it this way and make me feel old?
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@somasatori
People periodically talk about making a Dune or Cyberpunk or another attempt at a Wheel of Time game, they just don’t materialize. Maybe one day! I’m not sure there’s so much an aversion to IP as just…some stuff comes to be, some stuff doesn’t. -
@somasatori Now you’ve got me thinking about how to do Dune with FS3…
Formerly known as Seraphim73 (he/him)
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I never played a Dune or Final Fantasy game. I don’t doubt you a bit. I found it very striking that the Game of Thrones IP’s performance had such a profound effect, while Battlestar Galactica and Buffy and Firefly games seemed to maintain interest decades after the end of the show. But, well, GoT’s fall was striking in itself; people in grocery store lines were talking about it to random strangers, two seasons later it was crickets. BSG, on the other hand, was consistently great 'til the last twenty minutes.
What IPs command lasting interest as MU-settings would probably be a good topic to explore. I want to do a The Magicians MU, but wonder if anybody cares now.
And I’m a but puzzled and kinda sad that the creation of The Sandman teevee show has not led to a new The Sandman game, I liked the one that was up, eh, whenever the heck that was.
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As far as Dune goes, there was recently one of those one of those Modiphius rpg-settings-in-a-box for the tabletop set that was pretty good, even if it acknowledged a lot of the hated Brian Herbert canon in-setting. But whatever, that stuff worked fine for fluff (I bought the bundle).
Dune is absolutely made for Lords and Ladies in SPAEC if someone is into it. Hell, I am into it, I’m just well aware that
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I am completely unable to create and launch a game by myself
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I am a seething asshole who hates people and probably couldn’t work with anyone these days.
As far as Cyberpunk goes, who knows? I really never see cyberpunk unless it has orcs and dwarves and…meh. Shadowrun (despite the HBS crpgs being excellent) never really appealed to me.
Speaking of Modiphius, they also cranked out a fucking Homeworld RPG that I’m dying to get my eyes on.
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don’t
take OOC into IC -
He/Him. Opinions and views are solely my own unless specifically stated otherwise.
BE AN ADULT -
@Pavel said in MU Peeves Thread:
@Roz said in MU Peeves Thread:
don’t
take OOC into IC then
stopplayingFrenchmeni
will not -
@Roz said in MU Peeves Thread:
@Pavel said in MU Peeves Thread:
@Roz said in MU Peeves Thread:
don’t
take OOC into IC then
stopplayingFrenchmeni
will not hon
hon hon He/Him. Opinions and views are solely my own unless specifically stated otherwise.
BE AN ADULT -
@Pavel said in MU Peeves Thread:
@Roz said in MU Peeves Thread:
@Pavel said in MU Peeves Thread:
@Roz said in MU Peeves Thread:
don’t
take OOC into IC then
stopplayingFrenchmeni
will not hon
hon hon i will say that this was annoyingly funny and you made what has otherwise been a kind of tense and unpleasant situation a bit lighter
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Having a cool/fun character concept but not knowing what to do with it once it’s approved.
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@catzilla Teleport her into some rich dude’s living room while he’s eating. That tends to work out well.
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@Pavel Oh that one I have plenty of ideas for!
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This may be something that only annoys me, but if you’re seeking RP… come up with some fucking ideas. “Hey is anyone free to have a scene at X?” is so much better than whatever ‘cute’ thing you want to say instead. Don’t put the onus on others.
He/Him. Opinions and views are solely my own unless specifically stated otherwise.
BE AN ADULT -
@Pavel said in MU Peeves Thread:
This may be something that only annoys me,
nope! Seeing messages on channels about how there’s nothing to do is like the non-constructive feedback version of saying you want to RP, in my opinion. “I’m at blah blah area for whoever wants to join,” then hanging out there is way more constructive and could even result in something. Even if no one does and you grumble to yourself about nothing to do, you’re still being proactive. Besides, you might meet someone you didn’t know before.
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@Pavel I literally cannot remember the last time someone who was seeking RP had any idea for a thing they wanted to do, so their request for RP was their way of saying, “I want someone who will do all the work of entertaining me.” I came to really resent it.
