Today’s peeve is:

If you have played somewhere for years and you’re not happy with it anymore, by all means, I will listen to you vent. I get it.

If you just joined a game and all you want to do is bitch about it…

maybe…

simply do not play there?

In this the year of our lord 2025, why are people still allowing bad actors in their game community? Why is there a concern with “we have to be fair” to people who are toxic to staff and other players, totally obnoxious, or otherwise a bad fit? It’s a mush, not a constitutional right, if they’re no good for the community then EVICT THEM.

Today someone AMBUSHED ME (idk if you’re on the forums but you know who you are if you read this) with a link to a website for a game I played around 2012-2018. It was run by a head wiz who became a close IRL friend and who passed away in 2019. I had no idea the site was even still up.

What a kick in the feels. All the old logs are there, and our snapshots of funny ooc moments, and our pictures and playlists. There are lots of captures of jokes and stories and fun moments of my friend who’s no longer with us, and other friends as well, some I still talk to, some I don’t.

I am so grateful and I am so sad. MUSH is such a strange medium in the way it can feel so all-encompassing at the time, and then enough time goes by and it’s just a little snapshot of how things were, and who you were then, and all the fun times you had writing stories with other people way too late into the night.

Really, really grateful and sad.

If it helps people orient themselves in the scene and approach others, IDGAF about walking in and introductions.

What I hate is when I set and then the person poses in and doesn’t interact with me. Get the fuck out with that what are you even here in this scene for, why did I set for you, stop being the worst.

The facts are what they are and they’re never going to change. It’s a Star Wars game! They’re doing stuff. Some is ok. Some is really stupid. The good guys and/or bad guys have the upper hand this week. There’s some spaceships and some guns. If you are unlucky enough to have an issue with someone, especially a harassment issue, no one will help you.

That’s the only thing to say about this place. It does not matter what the theme posts are. It never did. I think it’s ok if we don’t give them free publicity for every single bbpost.

@Cobalt here you go

If someone says “we should RP sometime” and you actually do want to RP with them, a good response is “sounds great, what day next week works for you?”

If you just answer “we should rp sometime” with “yeah, we should!” then everyone’s going to explode into a pile of brainweasels and never get the scene going. Somebody has to ask, somebody has to pick a time, effort.

I feel like the gist here is “Social rp is fine if it doesn’t suck” which… I mean yeah, that’s true of any form of rp, isn’t it?

I feel like this sums up several many MUSH interactions I’ve had with people over the years

I would not pay and I would not accept pay. I’m an unpaid martyr okay I’ve spent 28 years making this a core part of my personality

More seriously, I am just tired of paying for things.

One of the more key things for me (and mentioned by BN up there too) is

p a c i n g

And in particular, understanding that certain things take more time than other things. Asking PCs to brainstorm their own solutions, asking PCs to choose between a variety of options that may have good or poor outcomes, puzzle solving, talking to NPCs, resolving in-group disagreements as to approach, these all take way more RL time to accomplish than you’d sometimes think.

It’s important to keep it moving, it’s important not to get the players stuck on decision points or hurdles that won’t ultimately matter. Understanding for yourself how much time combat in your system generally takes (and how to keep it flowing relatively quickly) is important. And knowing which things are slow is important. It doesn’t mean you can’t do them, but if the PCs need to talk extensively with multiple NPCs and then have a fight, those may need to be separate sessions.

Back in the day I think events could be very long chunks of time and now you’re probably lucky to get 2-3 hours, because everyone including the GM is busy and has kids and has work in the morning. Pacing is key to get the most out of limited time chunks available.

@Jupiter said in Brainstorming Game Ideas:

I would like to make a game, but, I don’t want to put in hundreds of hours in development hell just to have it stall on release or have a player base of 3.

I don’t think there’s any way around this. There is no guarantee for what will be popular. Sometimes games with a dumb premise do really well for a long time, and sometimes games with a great, extremely popular premise go from boom to bust in 6 weeks.

IMO you can’t build for “what people want.” You can’t even build for what your friends might like, because even the closest of us don’t always like the same things. You can only build what you personally love, and that personal enthusiasm makes the work less “hell.”

If you like original setting vampires, do original setting vampires. People will come or they won’t, but if you’re excited about it and you/your team put genuine care and effort into it, I do think that players notice and appreciate.

What tips would you give a new (or even established) GM/ST to make MUSH events/scenes enjoyable? Perhaps from your perspective as a player, perhaps from your perspective as a GM, perhaps both.

There are some lengthy guides out there already, but let’s keep responses shorter form as posts here, rather than links.

@Yam I like anything that doesn’t make me do too much math

@bear_necessities said in Other People:

I think there is something to be said about having your own fun in order to make fun for other people.

There is, but for the purposes of this thread, we’re assuming you already checked that first box, “I am having fun to begin with.” Then the fun for other people can come in, which is the discussion I’m most interested here.

@bear_necessities said in Other People:

I’m a yes-and person. I do my best to be engaging …

Like so!

For the purposes of discussion in this specific thread I’m taking it as a given that the player is having fun, and I am interested in investigating how that player then makes sure others are also having fun as well, and shows interest in their experience.

“The player is not having fun to begin with” is kind of a different barrel of fish to shoot.

Gently steering this back on track

What do you do in your MU RP to make it fun for other people?

@Roo said in Star Wars Age of Alliances: Hadrix and Cujo:

even got to play with Hex and company, and it was great.

Aw, haha. I was a casualty of Cujo’s spree when all this went down (whole crew got banned), but if you had good experiences with us I’m very glad for that. The game is unfortunately not a good place to be, though.

@Lemon-Fox said in Star Wars Age of Alliances: Hadrix and Cujo:

I let Cujo talk me out of my convictions

@Lemon-Fox said in Star Wars Age of Alliances: Hadrix and Cujo:

not once but twice

@Lemon-Fox said in Star Wars Age of Alliances: Hadrix and Cujo:

That’s very unlike me

@Lemon-Fox said in Star Wars Age of Alliances: Hadrix and Cujo:

I can’t promise I’ll walk away yet