Single-splat games have a lot of benefits. They’re easier to run, especially because they tend to be smaller. Smaller size and tighter focus can make for more personal storytelling and more individual attention for the player base. (Not that they always do, but they can.) And you can have a bit more freedom in terms of how you construct your game world – if you want your Werewolf game to have vampire bad guys who aren’t really like the Camarilla and also aren’t really like the Sabbat, it’s an awful lot easier to do that when you don’t have to totally rearchitect a PC Vampire sphere in order to do that.

Kitchen-sink games are harder to build and run. But they do have an advantage in that all-important “engagement” factor: because they tend to be larger, it’s usually easier to find someone to RP with when you feel like playing. Even if it’s someone from a different, possibly hostile sphere who you can’t talk shop with, there’s a lot to be said for making it easier to get to the “roleplaying” part. And while yes you could have a single-sphere game that has that level of engagement, I think it’s easier with kitchen-sink games just because you’re maximizing the number of people who your elevator pitch will grab onto.

While I might say I prefer the former, and I’ve had a good time on some single-sphere games, according to my revealed preferences I value being able to find RP easily more than I value the potentially more personalized and more individualized experience of a single-splat game.

@Pacha said in MU Peeves Thread:

I think it is nice that games are a lot more chill these days, but I think it probably speaks volumes about the general state of WoD games that my most comfortable state is to be completely under the staff’s radar because staff on a WoD game paying close attention to what you’re doing is almost universally bad.

This is more or less how I feel, also; I can’t think of more than one or two times in mumble years when being noticed by staff on a WoD game has led to something positive. Usually it’s at best going back to status quo ante.

So … suggestions for how could staff members behave that wouldn’t lead people to dread getting noticed by them? Other than “interact with players for reasons that aren’t taking things they enjoy away from them”?

@Roz said in IC Consequences and OOC Acceptance:

I actually think it’s hugely common that players do not have an entirely accurate read on how chill they are with consequences.

Most of us are really bad about putting ourselves in other people’s shoes, and what someone else thinks is a reasonable consequence may not even show up on our radar as a possible reaction.

@Cobalt #teamShadowheart

1. When running a game, please pick a game system that you actually want to run and are more or less happy with as written. Why aggravate yourself and your players by trying to houserule Dungeons and Dragons into feeling like Everway? Wouldn’t everyone be happier if you just used Everway to start with?

2. Because it’s basically inevitable that there’ll be some aspects of your chosen game system you’re unhappy with, try to identify them and houserule them away before you open the floodgates to the world.

3. If there’s something you missed in steps one and two and you don’t notice it until the game’s been open for a while, consider just leaving it alone, even if it irks you. If it hasn’t come to your attention by now, it might not actually be as much of a problem as you think.

4. If you are absolutely certain that the thing you missed for several years is a problem worth houseruling away, at least try to set out all your new houserules at once and ideally include some things that will make players happy along with them.

I get it. Some game systems are kind of broken. Some things don’t start to become problematic until a game’s been going for a while. It happens, and I support fixing problems that really need to be fixed. I just don’t want to play Calvinball, you know?

@Cobalt “People trying to get me fired/kicked off of a game” is definitely a peeve, though.

@Pyrephox said in MU* Wishlists:

I’d really love to see more single-sphere (or Mortal) focused games with staff who were really passionate about running those stories. More often what I see is “here are the most popular spheres or the spheres that people have loudly demanded, anyway, but the game staff actually only feels comfortable doing anything with X and Y sphere, so Z sphere, while technically extant, is basically stuck with whoever decides to take one for the team until they burn out”.

I suspect there’s also a lot of “Well, when the game started, we had someone who was super passionate about running Highlander: The Quickening, but they eventually got overwhelmed with <thing> and had to step down, so now one of the other staff members who isn’t really enthused about it and doesn’t care much for a lot of what Original Highlander Staffer did and honestly doesn’t have the time because of the sphere they’re really interested in running, but we didn’t want to just shut down the sphere and leave all the players who are invested in it in the lurch.”