Posts made by Evilgrayson

I too have a long history of administrative roles, and finally transitioned into a career a few years ago. This is partly because the career path I should have taken wasn’t as open then as it is now.

What I learned in administration is that you never, ever, underestimate your admins. They see everything. They know everything. And anyone who can organise other people - especially people with big egos and big tempers - to get things done is not someone you want to cross.

And yet the administrative staff are so often dismissed by people who only ever see the surface of things. It’s both stupid and weird.

@hellfrog said in MU Peeves Thread:

everyone wants to take down The Man! everyone has different ideas for how to do it and wants the credit

Everyone wants to take down The Man, until they themselves are The Man, at which point everyone else has to be delighted with the idea and nothing can ever go wrong ever again…

@Pavel said in MU Peeves Thread:

@Evilgrayson said in MU Peeves Thread:

Yes, let’s tell the human-hating centuries-old elf who’s just slaughtered a whole town that they’re an idiot. That’s really going to go so well.

This is absolutely something that any number of my characters would do.

@Evilgrayson said in MU Peeves Thread:

the human-hating centuries-old elf had casually grown the mother of all trees through the mouthy one

And this is absolutely the extreme overreaction consequence I would be looking for, please and thank you.

If only more people thought like that.

I’m with you. If my character does something that stupid, they should get consequences! But ye gods, the wailing if consequences actually happen.

Yes, let’s tell the human-hating centuries-old elf who’s just slaughtered a whole town that they’re an idiot. That’s really going to go so well.

And yet if the human-hating centuries-old elf had casually grown the mother of all trees through the mouthy one, you’d have been able to hear the OOC screaming from my side of the Pond.

@dvoraen Ray - who got that revelation in the Murder of Crows while discussing Lowers secrets and specifically the things that had happened to people who said the wrong thing in the Murder of Crows - hid in his secret subterranean lair for a week.

@Rhamnious Looks like the Accords from here. Red Wardens, Prismatic Order, Triarchy, Smiling Shadows, and True Lyceum. Two ‘good’ orgs, two ‘bad’ orgs, and one ‘neutral’.

@SpaceKhomeini said in MU Peeves Thread:

I’ve found that being polite and direct (at least in my time working at HCL and Microsoft) at the first given opportunity, i.e. “how can I help you? I’m engaged in something right now but have a few minutes” tends to be an effective shortcut.

That approach turns the whole thing on its head, which is why it’s so effective. You have to be polite at all times - but if the other party only has a few minutes, it becomes more polite to get to the point so they can go do the needful.

@dvoraen said in The Arx Secrets Thread:

@Evilgrayson I seriously considered trying to do the Paladin bit for Bhandn at one point (doing it on his own, to specific god(s)), but I could never quite justify it to myself, and I second-guessed the idea constantly as to whether it was even thematic if not heretical.

But I did want to do something involving Vellichor, but the reasons why now escape me.

Was it heretical? Absolutely. But Ray didn’t care, and Death wasn’t like most of the other gods.

@MisterBoring said in Arx Stats for Nerds:

I always assume that whatever the visible staff count is, there’s an invisible staffer who just gets online to help squash bugs and update code. They may have a PC or two, but they never mention their being on staff, because the part of staffing they do doesn’t really require player interaction.

Good for most games, but Arx’s coder was Tehom. So already in the count.

Ray started from nothing, just a criminal henchman with a cliche’d backstory.

He found out over time that he was a quarter Nox’alfar. He found out that his father had been a holder of part of the Will of Baalphrigor who’d sacrificed thousands to the Abyss in a war, and who’d killed Ray’s mother.

He found a woman who could cope with him and got married, and a man who could cope with them both but couldn’t get married but was a not-quite-husband. He found a goddess who could cope with him and swore to Her service. He rose to be a Second of his crime family and one of the top-ranking members of the criminal underworld. He made friends and he made enemies, and he was the protege of the Queen of the Compact, while his wife was a successful businesswoman and a ‘successful businesswoman’ and a protege of a Voice of the Crown and his not-quite-husband was a Knight-Lieutenant of the King’s Own.

He ended up dying to save a bunch of souls in a shardhaven, and his goddess and his patron brought him back to life. He became an Aspect - and then went and performed the Paladin rite on his own and for one goddess only, and became the Paladin of Death, because that was a much safer title to use. The Wheelspinner came to him, and in the last battle he did what he could.

House Mazetti tried to ennoble him, often. House Velenosa made the offer as well. He’s accepted on behalf of Tanith and his child(ren), and House Calvaria will rise.

He started with nothing, and he ended up with so much, and I’d like to thank Herja for a truly stunning storyline and Tanith and Austen’s players for some absolutely amazing times - and the rest of Ray’s friends for putting up with the irritating murderous git and letting him be around regardless.

It’s been a whale of a time.

@Pavel Which is nice if you already know that, but I’m not a mind reader and that’s very much not how I was raised.

Cultures vary. Even in the same country, cultures vary, and my culture and the culture of most people here are very different in some surprising ways. Just opening up with what I’m after would be seven shades of rude and utterly against all the rules of human interaction I’ve spent decades learning to follow by rote because buggered if I can actually understand any of them.

I generally start a conversation with a wave, which is both a polite notice that I’d like to talk to you and a way for me to find out if I’m talking to a void before I start.

I live in a timezone that means people quite often aren’t there even if their character is. Often, by the time someone AFK comes back, I’m asleep. Better to just send a quick wave as a politer sort of ping.

@Roz I used to live near there. It’s absolutely wonderful, I wish I could go back.

@hellfrog Have you got change for ten million people?

Flashback Jambalaya

@STD In my experience, some players will roll with anything. Some players will roll with anything if they trust the people involved. Some players will roll with most stuff, but have hard lines in the sand. Some players will roll with some stuff, as long as it doesn’t make them look bad, for a ‘bad’ of their own definition. Some players will roll with some stuff if they can make it someone else’s fault. Some refuse to roll with anything that doesn’t fit with their vision of their character. And some just won’t roll.

And there are some who’ll rewrite a scene, a story, or the whole game world, to make themselves right and you wrong, whoever you happen to be or whatever you’re trying to do.

A lot of it’s tied in with the ones who have to win at all costs.

I’ve known Theno for a very long time. We don’t get along overly well, but I trust him to be professional about the important stuff.

He’s many things, but he ain’t Polk.

I’m glad the game’s back up, with everything intact. But one of the main reasons I didn’t fight the timezone problem too hard was behind it going down in the first place.

I tried, really I did, but when Polk got allowed back into running a sphere I stopped being invested.

As someone who enjoys a good bit of IC conflict (and who also gets a bit queasy at the idea of perfectly charitable, kind nobles who wouldn’t hurt a fly and yet live an idle life off the work of their peasants), I’m another one who tends to play outside the usual box.

I try to make it very obvious that my characters are generally going to upset social norms and cause pearl-clutching for one reason or another, but I also try to stay within consent and within the themes of the game I’m on. Sometimes it’s obvious, sometimes it’s less so, but I enjoy making people think and sparking reactions that aren’t ‘how lovely, more tea?’

@Aria said in MU Peeves Thread:

@Testament said in MU Peeves Thread:

Whenever anyone asks why I haven’t been RPing so much recently, I just point at Baldur’s Gate 3 and suddenly the response is “Oh, that makes sense. See you in a month.”

There’s a reason the phrase “Warcraft widow” existed back in the day.

And before the Warcraft Widow, there was the Everquest Widow.