Just yesterday I said I was impressed that Liberation was going strong after its rough start.
The recent alarm seems like the general slowness that happens this time of year. To compare, I only ran about 3 events during the entire holiday season on Silent Heaven, when I usually do at least 2 per week. I suspect things will gradually pick up as the solstice grows further behind us.
The moment where you realize, “oh, you’re not playing a character; this is actually you.”
@ten said in MU Peeves Thread:
Ares games feel like those magic slate drawing pads.
You shake them too hard and your creative work disappears?
Let’s all get together for an escape room and come up with hilarious ways to roleplay our way out.
I used to check BMD daily because there were so many problems in the hobby that there would inevitably be new fireworks going off each week. I’ve always seen this place as a valuable resource to warn and discuss.
But for most of 2024, there have barely been any red flags anywhere.
Did we do it? Is it truly a brand mu day?
It feels nice.
@Buttercup if you’re comfortable RPing with a phone, the built-in speech to text is pretty reliable there!
@Jennkryst said in Star Wars Age of Alliances: Hadrix and Cujo:
@Zephyr NOT ONLY THAT, but there used to be a secret vendor with crazy mark-up prices… so that you could buy, say… 10 personal scanners for 2,000 each, then sell them for 25,000 each. Or some similar crazy markup.
Who needs to abuse the trading system, when you can abuse the vendor code, instead?
That seems like a lot of effort just to set money = 9999999.
A ChatGPT app can’t even come close to the appreciation I have for the person who apped into a modern-day horror game with a character whose dark backstory is that he killed the dinosaurs.
@somasatori said in Installing Arxcode?:
If I recall @Jumpscare did something with Evennia that has a good crafting system. I didn’t roll a crafter on Silent Heaven when I did (Simon was a disgraced med student), but it looked super cool. Maybe that might be compatible?
I could pull out my crafting code and allow you all to shred it to bits.
I’m mired in to-dos, but remind me in about a week and I’ll look into it.
I found the stats here:
https://iberia.jdai.pt/mudstats/
I’m proud of all of you for not even attempting to log in.
There was one person who joined Silent Heaven to play a Korean vtuber who spoke in broken English. And not the kind of English one would pick up naturally, but the stereotypically offensive caricature of broken English.
I messaged her player, letting them know that being immersed in English for months should show an improvement in her language, and that she needs to have a better, less stereotypical grasp on English now, with improvements over the coming weeks. They agreed to that.
They stopped logging in shortly after the talk.
@Redbird On the Discord server, yes, I ask that you don’t reveal your character name there, or spoil current events. You’re allowed to do it anywhere else, including on BMD, and you can even create your own private or public groups of people you enjoy talking to – and that’s the main point. It’s so you only talk to the people you want to talk to. I want players to be absolutely comfortable with someone new they’re playing with before they decide whether they want to give permission to share OOC contact information.
The reason privacy is mandatory is to prevent the feeling of peer pressure from multiple players revealing their characters. Even if you personally don’t feel that pressure, I’ve heard enough stories from players who have.
It’s also to encourage RP. One gripe I’ve seen repeated in the MU Peeves Threads is how people share IC goings-on over OOC channels to the point that it saps away RP opportunities. Subtle references and memes are completely fine, and the community is really good about realizing when they’re dipping too far into spoiler territory. You’re more than welcome to say you had a blast at a recent event, or that you were confused by a certain something happening, as long as it’s kept relatively vague. For example, “I didn’t understand how characters got plot items in the last event.” or “The event last night was amazing. You’re all so talented!” Things like that are perfectly fine.
Overall, yes, while these rules stifle handfuls of discussions, I feel that it’s an overall improvement to safety and privacy, as well as providing a significant increase to the amount of RP that happens in-game. Players almost always find RP when they want to RP, and they chill on the server when they want to chat OOC. I wouldn’t say this setup works for all games. But for a game like Silent Heaven with lots of secrets and mysteries, it keeps the game world bustling with activity, and it provides a clear separation between what’s IC and what’s OOC.
@watno said in On PvP and permanent injuries:
It can be fairly and easily assumed that all IC conflict is IC and consequence are kept IC and aside from OOC “you cool?” check ins (which are rarely needed because we have consent sheets). That said, you never know in SH what is happening on the other side of the line. So you might be fine, but the other player still might be OOC mad. But if they are, there’s really no avenue to turn it OOC toxic for the whole group.
I’d like to partially contest this statement, haha.
Players on Silent Heaven do check in OOC with each other fairly often, and I encourage it. If someone is having a problem with a conflict, be it physical or social or [redacted], I absolutely encourage players to say something like this:
OOC Hey, this isn’t working for me. Can we resolve this now? Or FtB?
And it should be honored. Nobody should feel like they need to RP something they don’t want to RP. Silent Heaven is all about putting our characters into spooky and dangerous situations because we want to have fun doing it.
If you’re not having fun, talk to the players, and they’ll help find a resolution. There’s also no shame in moving to a lower conflict faction that better suits a less involved playstyle.
The Faithful, Guides, and Misfits are moderate-to-high conflict, Pallia and the Quills are low-to-moderate conflict, and the Hopefuls and Moonlighters are little-to-no conflict. There are also optional [redacted] with their own intermingling levels of conflict, on a different level of play.
@DrQuinn I feel like that’s a totally reasonable review of Silent Heaven!
-I’ve noticed a number of people say that they don’t like how there’s no OOC. I believe everyone means a global in-game OOC channel, because local OOC is available and highly encouraged, and global OOC is on the Discord server. I made the decision to have it hosted on the Discord server (and requiring being a current player) as an extra layer of safety for the community, and to allow players privacy of their in-game identity if they so wish. If it were in-game, someone could ban evade and worm their way back in to OOC chatter. But requiring a Discord account means they’ll have to take an additional step of creating a new account. Discord shows the age of an account, which helps me be aware of fresh faces. Although I find this creates a safer OOC environment, I can still understand some folks’ aversion to Discord.
-Regarding weaknesses, we offer a complete reroll on XP up to 200 XP earned, so if something’s not working out early on, you can completely shift your character around if desired.
-I believe I know which weird drama situation you’re referring to, if it involved a “manifesto.” The person at the center of it is no longer a player. But I should have been more clear to those involved at the time, especially since it stuck with you. I’m sorry that happened. Another violation of relationship policy happened recently, which I was able to resolve much easier and clearer now that I’ve had more experience as a game-runner.
-An area of the website that has game updates is a great idea! I’m admittedly terrible at making the website able to do anything, but I’ll add it to the to-do list.
-Regarding the fear of not being paid, I’d like to make it clear that no in-game occupation will withhold pay if your character isn’t contributing to their group. While there are 3 raises available for characters who do contribute, your character can just as well do nothing and still get paid. Being a Quill is a position where you can write the history of the town however you wish it to be remembered, and thus have other factions who at times will pay your character to spin the narrative to make them look better. Personally, I feel that makes it one of the most powerful groups in the game. Combat is temporary, but history is forever. Still, I can understand how the Quills can begin to be more work than fun, and how it can feel like there’s pressure to write.
Overall, I completely agree with your sentiments that a busy RL makes RPing on Silent Heaven difficult. And you’re right in how Ares games are great for distracted and async scenes. I haven’t played on Harvest Moons, but it looks like an Ares game that might tap into the spookiness at an async speed!
@Clarion Thanks a ton for the feedback!
#2 is already on my to-do list, and your solution for #1 is such a smart idea that I’m going to add it as well!
I really appreciate new faces trying out everything. Sometimes there’s an easy improvement that we haven’t thought about yet, and then someone new comes along and suggests a great quality of life improvement. Thanks again!
@Apos said in The Arx Secrets Thread:
@Jumpscare said in The Arx Secrets Thread:
Playing Lilia and Ansel was basically like being Bea and Luci from Disenchantment.
Kinda delighted someone got that vibe from the secret. I don’t think most of the other Lilia’s cared for it tbh, which I found a bummer since of the couple dozen Secret Buddy secrets I wrote, this was one I particularly liked.
I particularly loved it! It was like I had lucked into the perfect roster for me, haha.
Silent Heaven usually gets 1 new account created per day.
The day after Arx ended, Silent Heaven started getting 5 new accounts created per day. It has not stopped.
Around the same time, Andruid also posted an article about Silent Heaven! You can read it here: https://writing-games.com/silent-heaven-supernatural-horror-game/
I’m sure the player numbers will even out over time, haha. For now, though, I’m thankful that the core SH playerbase has been so supportive and accommodating to the new players. We’re doing our best behind the scenes to improve the game as well!
So I have to give my thanks to everyone who’s given Silent Heaven a try in the past week. Even if it didn’t hook you, I’m still appreciative that you gave it a try. And if you had a problem, my DMs are always open.
I think I was the third player of Lady Lilia Grimhall.
As best I can recall, she and her uncle had discovered something magical that would most likely have them killed if she told the wrong people. I could be misremembering, because it never came up during my time playing her.
Also, this little pupper, named Good Ansel:
Good Ansel was a demon that was bound to Lilia and spent his days telling Lilia things only she could hear.
Playing Lilia and Ansel was basically like being Bea and Luci from Disenchantment.
Kassien is, in fact, looking for build work and ST work, not code work. He was understanding when I pointed this out.
I volunteered to do code review, as I said above. Kassien reached out to me and showed me around. I was requested to do data entry for things like copying skill info from the sourcebook and possibly writing NPC scripts. I thanked him, but declined, as that wasn’t what I volunteered for. Perhaps someone else has the energy to do that?
He said he’d reach out if there ever was code review that needed to be done, and I’m fine with that.