The grim/noble dark/bright alignment system might be helpful: https://www.reddit.com/r/worldbuilding/s/bB0gvqrwjL

I am firmly on the Noble side of settings. I am down for anything on the Bright-Dark setting with slight leaning towards Bright, but I don’t have Grim in me anymore. As @DrQuinn said, if I want Grim I’ll look at the damned window, and I’ve been in that state for about a decade now.

EDIT: After thinking about it more, I’m going to take it back. I’m down for anything but Grimdark. I’ll take Grimbright. Arx felt Grimbright to me.

@KarmaBum Eh. I know how it is. You can run an event every hour, 24 hours a day, and some people will still only do BarP for all their interactions while complaining that there is nothing to do.

@catzilla That’s clever and a good use of AI for MU* purposes.

Honestly, I am coming more and more around to the idea that all PBs should be custom created art and/or AI generated images. The use of images of real people who didn’t agree to be used for such purposes has been making me more and more uncomfortable over the years.

I have hesitated to post anything in this thread, because I very much do not appreciate being drafted into the role of OP for this particular topic. Anyways…

@ProperPenguin said in AI PBs:

Hi, tech writer here.

I am job hunting (as I left a toxic work environment right before the AI obsession began in corporations). I have been job hunting.

The work disappeared for a good while. And reports from people who weren’t laid off basically came down to them being piled on so high with work they couldn’t manage. One person even reported that her coworkers had nicknamed her AI. ‘Send it to AI.’
Which was hugely demoralizing (understandably) to her.

I know a developer who runs a team: he was made to lay off his tech writer and told ‘just use AI.’ Except he’s in the financial sector. They cannot use it (for security, accuracy, etc.) and when he pointed it out, was told ‘it’s just writing, do it yourself.’

And this is the core issue, the lack of appreciation and respect to a profession from other professionals and industries. “Anyone can write. Anyone can draw. Anyone can take a photograph. Anyone can shoot film. Anyone can work an assembly line.” No, anyone can’t, and no a robot cannot give you as good a quality, yet. If you need specialized, expert, professional work done, you need to pay for a specialist, expert, and professional.

I like AI for hobbyists, people who don’t have the cash or the level of personal investment into whatever hobby it is to pay for a professional. “I want a PB that isn’t a photograph of a real person, I don’t have any artistic talent at all, and I don’t want to pay $150 for an image I am going to slap on a wiki and never really think about again.” “I need a desc, but I hate writing them. I’ll just have an AI write one over and over until I get one I like.”

And I am now going to exit the thread again. Have fun, y’all.

@catzilla Who gave you permission to access my MU* TS logs?

Belated reply. Put me in the “prefer the grid” group. I very much dislike off-grid RP rooms. Why even log into a server? You might as well just be RPing on Discord or by email at that point. I am fine with small or large grids, but I prefer location based.

I think that there are a lot of MU* players out there that have very specific unmet interests. Most MU* players have been playing the game for a while now and know exactly what they want. A new game comes along that sounds close grabs their interest, they give it a shot, it doesn’t check all their boxes, and they move on.

@MisterBoring I have also been wondering about this recently. This thread and my partner watching a lot of reality TV series like the Bachelor(ette), the Mole, Million Dollar Secret, and also a bit of Bridgerton have combined with me recently playing Fire Emblem and Unicorn Overlord with their harem anime elements and my constant desire to run a lord and ladies game, resulting in the crazy idea of doing a parody lord and ladies MU*.

At first I was going to call it Pretty Princess Simulator, but maybe The Courtship of the Crown Prince might be better. Basically every season will start with that generation’s crown prince having his debut and all the eligible noblewomen of the land coming to try to woo him into marriage, using their wits, wiles, political connections, etc. to do so. At the end of the season, the best noblewoman (or nobleman, maybe we will have a gay crown prince or a crown princess every so many seasons to mix things up) will win. All of the kingdom’s politics, wars, natural disasters, regime changes, economic swings, etc. will take place in the background during the intervening years. Every season will have a crown prince with a different personality, tastes, hobbies, etc and the noblewomen will need to figure them out and try to use them to their advantage to snag the future queenship. Hopefully the time skips between seasons changing the world would be enough of a change to bring the bubble players back to try again with a new season.

@KarmaBum said in The 3-Month Players:

@Ominous this idea sounds neat but what will people RP?

Blatantly ripping off @Roadspike 's template:

Woo the crown prince of the kingdom with wits, wiles, or wyrdings in this fantasy setting. Characters will be trying to find out what they can about the prince, use that to their advantage, and try to thwart the efforts of others in getting closer to the prince. They will attend balls, gossip amongst themselves, participate in duels, attend events to showcase their brilliance to the royal family, and plot against one another.

Pretty Princess Simulator is a game of romantic intrigue and politicking in a fantasy renaissance setting. Players might be eligible noblewomen trying to win the future queenship, the family members of those noblewomen working to help them, servants of those noblewomen or of the royal palace, or a small cadre of the prince’s friends, tutors, and personal staff who hold the secrets to the prince’s heart.

All characters will belong to one of the many noble families of the kingdom or their servants. You will be endeavoring to get your one of the eligible noblewomen in your house selected as the bride to the crown prince or you will be one of the prince’s inner circle working to achieve a personal secret agenda. The first month will be the arrival of the eligible noblewomen to the royal palace leading up to the crown prince’s debut. The next few months will be filled with varying events to attend and make oneself known, leading up to the crown prince’s final selection and marriage.

But yeah probably a lot of BarP. Unless the royal family goes full reality show and has the eligible noblewomen participating in ridiculous contests. And, since this idea started as a parody of L&L, that might actually be the route to go in.

@RedRocket This speaks to my OSR D&D gaming heart.

@Tapewyrm You’ve got to have some crunch somewhere for the social RP fluff to be based on. How can we bemoan the ongoing war with the orcs, if there is no battles in the background? How can we gossip about the King divorcing the past Queen and marrying some nobody from a backwater house if that doesn’t happen? Meringue topped with marshmallow fluff topped with whipped cream is sweet but not very filling. You can’t make a good dessert with just that. You’ve got to have some substance under it all.

@tsar said in Anime recs?:

Multiple recs for Mob Psycho, so I’ll put that on my list too! After Apothecary Diaries and I guess my kid isn’t watching Demon Slayer with me and will instead re-watch Solo Leveling multiple times, lol.

Solo Leveling? Do we have someone else who is deviant enough to enjoy Isekai? Well, if you are, I have some recommendations that I will work on and post later.

As for Apothecary Diaries one of the questionable things in the show and I forgot to include it in the “cons” is that Jinshi (the eunuch) invades Maomao’s personal space and teases her in ways that require consent without getting said consent. While it is thematic for the setting for him to not need consent from a servant, I take slight issue with the fact that he wears her down and it leads to romance (the good ol’ just keep flirting and teasing her until she relents and falls in love with you trope) rather than him dying by poisoning from Maomao. I try to interpret it as Maomao subconsciously liking him but consciously not realizing it, as it is established that she has trouble understanding her own emotions, so his actions are somewhat welcome.

@ProperPenguin said in Anime recs?:

I tried to get into Frieren a few times but somehow it just didn’t click for me.

My take on Frieren is ‘cute, but so predictable I’m getting bored’
I do not fault people for liking it! I don’t necessarily DISLIKE it, but I can also only watch a couple episodes at a time.

(Tho most of the time if I feel like watching Frieren I end up watching Delicious in Dungeon instead.)

Yeah, it’s a cozy anime. It’s slice of life, a touch of romance, and a little bit of shonen action. And the shonen action is of the OP MC Isekai power fantasy variety, because Frieren was a member of the party that slayed the demon king, so of course she is going to crush almost anything like a steamroller does an ant. But it’s fun to watch the crushination.

@Solstice I will second Mob Psycho 100, and I will do it having never seen it. I have had friends and coworkers rave about it, and it occasionally gets suggested as the Greatest Shonen of All Time by reviewers.

I have hesitated to post anything in this thread, because I very much do not appreciate being drafted into the role of OP for this particular topic. Anyways…

@ProperPenguin said in AI PBs:

Hi, tech writer here.

I am job hunting (as I left a toxic work environment right before the AI obsession began in corporations). I have been job hunting.

The work disappeared for a good while. And reports from people who weren’t laid off basically came down to them being piled on so high with work they couldn’t manage. One person even reported that her coworkers had nicknamed her AI. ‘Send it to AI.’
Which was hugely demoralizing (understandably) to her.

I know a developer who runs a team: he was made to lay off his tech writer and told ‘just use AI.’ Except he’s in the financial sector. They cannot use it (for security, accuracy, etc.) and when he pointed it out, was told ‘it’s just writing, do it yourself.’

And this is the core issue, the lack of appreciation and respect to a profession from other professionals and industries. “Anyone can write. Anyone can draw. Anyone can take a photograph. Anyone can shoot film. Anyone can work an assembly line.” No, anyone can’t, and no a robot cannot give you as good a quality, yet. If you need specialized, expert, professional work done, you need to pay for a specialist, expert, and professional.

I like AI for hobbyists, people who don’t have the cash or the level of personal investment into whatever hobby it is to pay for a professional. “I want a PB that isn’t a photograph of a real person, I don’t have any artistic talent at all, and I don’t want to pay $150 for an image I am going to slap on a wiki and never really think about again.” “I need a desc, but I hate writing them. I’ll just have an AI write one over and over until I get one I like.”

And I am now going to exit the thread again. Have fun, y’all.

I will second @Pavel’s recommendation of Cells At Work. It’s educational and fun!

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End

Review: https://youtu.be/FJ8-7LXa-8A?si=UXumBlMrWU1TNZOE

Rundown: My significant other hates anime (a combination of a dislike of the art style and certain aspects of Japanese culture) and she watches this one. She likes the theme of friendship combined with the Fellowship of the Ring vibe. It’s a cozy fantasy with slice of life and occasional shonen elements (fighting demons, a sort-of “chuunin exam” arc, etc.) that becomes more frequent as the series progress, but it still keeps the cozy episodes.

Frieren is a Tolkein-esque (extremely long-lived, only dies to disease and trauma) elf mage who was one of the four members of the hero’s party that slayed the demon king and brought peace to demi/human-kind. The show starts with said party returning to the capital city they originally set off from to celebrate their victory and have a few episodes set 50 years after that. Then we skip ahead 80 years after the defeat of the demon king which is where the meat of the show is, which is how this elf woman comes to terms with losing her friends, missing out on romance because she failed to realize the hero had romantic feelings for her, making new friends, helping the next generation of adventurers come into their own, and dealing with keeping up with a world that keeps changing.

Pros: There is slice of life, heartwarming moments, heart wrenching moments, shonen action, and some really good humor (Mimics have Frieren’s number. She will die by Mimic, and it will be deserved.) This is an anime that can hit different between age groups. It might be a little slow to start for those under 30, but, if you sit with it, you get to the shonen action. For those of us who qualify as “olds” and have experienced some life and loss, it resonates on an emotional level, and you get some funny bits and shonen action to break it up. Also Frieren tends to be interpreted as being somewhat autistic and people like the inclusion of neurodiversity.

Cons: Loss, grief, the memories of those who we have lost, and dealing with the world changing around us is a central theme of this. If you’re currently in the midst of similar emotions, it could be cathartic for you, or it could be very much not. Also, you said you are coming off of Jujutsu Kaizen and are currently watching Chainsaw Man, so this show may be lacking the action you are wanting from anime.

Apothecary Diaries

Rundown: Do you like Sherlock Holmes? Do you like House M.D? Do you like Game of Thrones, Shogun, or Chinese palace dramas full of intrigue? Then this is the show for you! This is a historical fantasy intrigue/drama, mystery solver, shoujo romance show.

The protagonist, Maomao, is a medicine woman that works in the red light district of the capital of similar to but legally distinct from (seriously every episode has a “this is a work of fiction and any similarities are pure coincidence” line at the beginning) Tang and Quing dynasty not-China, when she gets kidnapped and sold to the imperial palace as a maid (“families” who send their “daughters” to the imperial palace get 20% of the money they earn). She proceeds to figure out why the concubines in the rear palace (the 2,000 woman and 1,000 eunuch strong, walled off area of the palace where the Emperor’s concubines are kept) are getting sick and the recently born crown prince just died. Recognizing her awesomeness, she becomes the unofficial medicine woman/detective for the rear palace, solving medical mysteries, murder mysteries, and thwarting sinister political intrigue, while also having a slow burn romance with that eunuch who runs everything and is so beautiful that even some lesbian women and straight men would be willing to let him do whatever he wanted with them, if he, you know, wasn’t a eunuch. Unfortunately for him, because he is intrigued by her, Maomao is one of the few that is immune to his charms.

Pros: This show has another strong female protagonist who also tends to get interpreted as being slightly autistic. This one sucked me in, even if my girlfriend hates it for reasons in the cons. The mysteries are solvable by the audience, meaning there are no ass pulls or ridiculous deductions or inferences that no one but Sherlock Holmes would make and only after snorting his entire supply. Only a couple of the mysteries kept me guessing, which is great, because if I solved all of them I would probably get bored. The romance is nice too. It doesn’t dominate the show, as the maga author isn’t trying to write a romance manga but her family members who read her work keep pushing for more romance, and it’s a slow burn. The palace intrigue is really good, too. They leave clues for plots in motion in early episodes, tying in previous mysteries to overarching plots. It’s well paced, intelligent, and the art is fantastic. The setting and the intrigue is influencing a lot of my ideas on the silly MU* server I suggested a few months ago. It also deals with gender roles, sexual exploitation, and other such themes in a mature manner rather than handling it like a bull in a china shop like a lot of other anime and American shows do.

Cons: Did you read that last sentence? Yeah, all sorts of trigger warnings on this one. This is pseudo Tang/Quing dynasty China. A progressive, egalitarian setting it is not. If women and the lower classes being exploited sexually and economically doesn’t squick you out of this anime, maybe the fact that suicide is discussed, threatened, and occurs will. Oh, and the previous Emperor was a pedophile. That’s not me calling him one; that is what the characters in the show refer to him as with disgust. The mother of the current Emperor was 10 when she became pregnant. Yeah. These things aren’t the focus of the show (well, the gender roles and sexual exploitation are because it’s set in a harem), but they are a part of the setting and so come up occasionally. Also, there is no shonen in this one, if that’s what you’re after.

Review: https://youtu.be/ZtTYc14IUm8?t=1092

I recommend Mother’s Basement and Gigguk for covering the anime released in a season:

https://m.youtube.com/@mothersbasement

https://m.youtube.com/channel/UC7dF9qfBMXrSlaaFFDvV_Yg

@somasatori said in General Video Game Thread:

It’s so funny and very well written.

…Did…did the demons also tell you to write that review? Blink twice if you need holy water.

@MisterBoring I don’t play WoD servers, but I would play that.

@somasatori Yeah, I hate abstract economic systems as well. Fluff needs crunch to support it. Without the crunch, it’s all just “I shot you with my laser. Nuh-uh, because I had my laser deflector field up!”. The only abstract money I have been somewhat OK with was based on cascading dice, where items had a cost and you had to roll over the cost with the die your current money die. If you failed, you still bought it, but you dropped a die size. If it was impossible to roll over the cost (so costs equal to or higher than your current die size), you simply couldn’t buy it. It made you somewhat take into consideration the economics of things. “Hmmm, I have a d10 money die. Do I want to risk buying that cost 8 item?”

@catzilla Who gave you permission to access my MU* TS logs?

Belated reply. Put me in the “prefer the grid” group. I very much dislike off-grid RP rooms. Why even log into a server? You might as well just be RPing on Discord or by email at that point. I am fine with small or large grids, but I prefer location based.

@Cygnus said in Numetal/Retromux:

Will we ever get a WOD game that isn’t run by weirdos?

That’s like asking if we can get a WOD game that isn’t run by humans. This is a weird hobby. All of us are weirdos. You’re only ever going to get weirdos running a MU*.