I only ever played a clear cut bad guy once. It one day fell to her, as Tremere Deputy, boil a sleeping Ghoul in his own juices for banging a werewolf who was using his freaky kinks to gain info on the city’s Kindred. It was gorily rendered with staff at hand, and I felt kinda bad about it for a while. Eventually the player reached out to me and said there were no hard feelings, their character deserved it. I still think about it when I think of the Tremere or Vampiric law and order, and it was close to 20 years ago.

That poor couch.

@Yam Well, there you have it, folks; this website’s least controversial post!

@RightMeow It’s a big step to take, but the most important part is making a choice to steward yourself, whatever shape that takes. And no shame if you dip back in later, just enjoy the power of the moment you’re in, whenever that moment is happening.

@DapperPenguin Christ, that’s grim.

@hellfrog Someone’s gonna read that as an irresistible challenge.

@MisterBoring
“I know it’s crooked but it’s the only game in town.”

Some folks are legit institutionalized. Speaking of my personal journey, internalizing the reality that I don’t have to MUSH or RP changed my life for the better. I don’t have to pick the least painful version of always-painful options, I can just do other things for a while, maybe for good; things that bring joy without compromise.

@MisterBoring I was thinking the same thing, because all this rotten shit from AoA reminds me so much of what Lib truly is, but far more disturbingly, I’m reminded of the ways players gaslight themselves into staying there and trying to learn how to tolerate abuse and neglect, thus enabling more of both. One by one folks I warned and even gave a roadmap to how they’ll be eaten up if they stayed on Lib, would months or now years later come to me and say, “You were right.”

But it’s not that I’m right, it’s that successful abusers have a process and patterns. Once you learn to identify that, you can more confidently stand up for yourself and stop enabling the abuse, which usually includes the step of severing yourself from the place(s) where they abuse you.

Sometimes people choose to create their community and self-identify in abuse because it’s familiar and they feel in their element, to the point of becoming abusers themselves in the absence of outside abuse. Peace and love to those stuck in the cycle, but I truly hope they can summon the grit to face terror they feel towards having to change who they are, because who they let themselves remain until that happens is truly heartbreaking (and also possibly dangerous).

@Tez So you call yourself a role player? [smirk.jpg] Name all poses.

@Pyrephox The joyous despot…would make a good pub name.

Play Cozy Keep! Play Mycopunk with friends! Enjoy your life! ️

@Pavel Great note, and I’ll add www.areweanticheatyet.com has a running database of which anti cheat options have been made compatible with Linux while requiring no login. Cheers!

I am free from Windows completely. Gawd, has Linux come a long way since I used it over a decade ago. Everything worked out of the box, no custom script creation, didn’t even need terminal once, and my games work the same thanks to Proton. I’m still gobsmacked by how easy it was!

Now I actually did read up and that included changelogs, and I researched which distro rather painstakingly (Bazzite, Cachy and Drauger were on my short list). I also voluntarily used terminal a few times to save some steps. That said, Nobara (Fedora 42 rolling + KDE Plasma) has been totally painless on my all AMD rigs and my Intel laptop, preloaded with basically everything I use daily.

No more Microsoft spying, no more required sign in, no more forced changes to my settings, no more pay to play licenses, no more Cloud, no more need to wait with a claw hammer to alter every service update, no more nearly mandatory AI. Why spend time disabling and bypassing such artificial problems only to have to do it all over again each update? And as a bonus, so much free handy software on Linux! I even found great overclocking and resource monitoring software!

If you were thinking about changing, there’s never been a better time to make the switch!🥲️

@bear_necessities My memory is v bad, but my first games were some mix of Ashes to Ashes, Masquerade and Cajun Nights reboot for a bit. If you remember Eyrkah the Mortal or Arienette the Tremere (whom I also played a couple other places), hit me up.

@Redbird I’m out of touch, but please tell me this stands for Human: the Victim.

@Gashlycrumb Keli loved that skull!

@Rucket
A Buddhist was selling hot dogs for three bucks. A customer asked him “Make me one with everything,” and gave him a five dollar bill. He got his hot dog but asked, “Where’s my change?” The vendor replied, “True change comes from within.”

Your statement reminded me of the joke. Congrats on looking inside. ️

There was this one very sad sack on a game I used to hang who would join group scenes then post themselves doing stuff solo, not involving or inviting anyone. Even to ignoring invitation. They’d get real miserable and start adding editorial in their own posts like “because she is not needed.” They had very bad traits in addition to that, but I’ll never forget how performatively alone they loved to be.

@somasatori They’re institutionalized. I remember being shocked that Sun introduced back into Lib three prior problem players, telling us on public channels to “give them a chance,” and being more shocked how it was just accepted (and dissent coldly shut down). All three players raised hell after a couple weeks of playing nice. At some point it becomes engineered failure.

There are some people who only feel at home in conflict and feel alienated in places of sense and order, so they manufacture conflict in order to feel in their element. Players and staff can succumb to it, but when it’s a lifestyle, not an accident, there’s little to be done but find greener pastures or a new means to enjoy the hobby.

@MisterBoring That dog don’t hunt.

First, I made clear that a person’s capacity to speed-post or be syntax-perfect and typo free isn’t a qualifying factor in whom I choose to give my time. In fact I’d argue that one of the repulsive aspects of LLM in any type of RP is that the idea of wanting other writers to be like me is narcissistic and small-minded. The qualifier I care about is to be chosen as the one someone shares their time with, and hopefully have unique experiences come out of the pairing/grouping.

Second, I cannot believe anyone is “forced” to use ChatGPT (or other LLMs) for RP, only that they may opt to and if they are open about it I might suggest alternatives. So that stance in this hypothetical situation doesn’t hold up for me, either. It may be the tool they choose, and I may or may not be able to tell a LLM is being used, but I won’t tell anyone to get bent unless they are abusive to me or my dear ones.

This idea that our writing in MUSHing is competitive and constantly being qualified or disqualified is for the birds. Such petty, snarky, judgmental behavior is one of the many reasons I don’t bother with MUSH anymore. I RP to have fun with creative people, not pretend I’m King God English Professor Shakespeare or that my writing has more value than someone else’s. This is a hobby. It’s about fun. Anything else is set dressing at best and distraction at worst.

@MisterBoring The integration of “AI” into every single piece of software is personally abhorrent and will be looked back on with regret, mark my words. Further, if the service is free, you are the product. PAYING to be the product stretches that into the absurd.

I think my last point to make here is the simplest; I have NEVER turned down someone for RP when they said something like, “Forgive my English, it’s not my native language,” or “My poses are slow, is that okay?” I show them humanity and care, I feel special they chose me to spend time with. I will never feel compelled morally or socially to treat software with humanity. Especially when it’s so environmentally and socially repugnant.