@MisterBoring said in Numetal/Retromux:

@Gashlycrumb said in Numetal/Retromux:

Having to force my character to act against his own interests in order to participate was the problem.

This is a very interesting statement, because for some people, asking their characters to act against their own interests is good RP.

There’s a big difference between characters acting against their own interests to tell a good story, and a player being forced to play a character acting against their own interests to get any participation at all. One is storytelling, the other is denying player agency.

@Artemis said in Scenes within Scenes:

I think it can get annoying if people are using them in bad faith

I think this right here underpins a great many negative experiences with coded systems designed with the intent to enhance the experience, or compensate for limitations of the time. They’re not inherently bad; they’re just often poorly used, or of an era where they aren’t required any longer but are kept around for the sake of nostalgic completeness’ sake.

@Roz One could hypothetically have all the tabletalk ‘scenes’ logged and filed as sub-scenes under/linked to the main scene. Though I imagine it’d be a bit of a bugger figuring out what the tabletalk scenes are reacting to… but I’ll leave that to the people who read logs for fun.

@Gashlycrumb said in Numetal/Retromux:

You’re not supposed to be able to maintain power by making everyone refuse to cooperate with you.

Ah, the <insert political party> gambit.

@MisterBoring said in Numetal/Retromux:

@Gashlycrumb said in Numetal/Retromux:

taking risks for and licking the ass of a “leader” who insulted them, openly informed them that he’d fuck them over at the slightest chance, and never rewarded them

Isn’t this just on-theme for… Vampire?

I guess it’d depend on whether they’re doing that to the characters or to the players. Given it’s PC leadership in WoD, it could be either or both.

@Gashlycrumb said in Numetal/Retromux:

taking risks for and licking the ass of a “leader” who insulted them, openly informed them that he’d fuck them over at the slightest chance, and never rewarded them

Common Camarilla L.

@Roz I fear any time we speak of generalities in MUing we’re going to have to have “Except on Arx” as a meme—like Crash Course World History’s near-infamous Except The Mongols crash-cut (as they are the exception to so many of history’s expectations).

@RightMeow said in When is the last time you played?:

@Pavel You were once young? (sorry)

@Faraday said in Scenes within Scenes:

@Pavel said in Scenes within Scenes:

Because one can interact with people outside of their little group, should they choose.

Theoretically I guess, but in my experience this almost never happens. (see the comments above regarding interruptions, being yelled at for spam, etc.)

The only poses I ever saw going to the main room were the static announcements or the “oops I forgot to use tt command” nonsense.

But to each their own.

Irritatingly true, but I feel that might be a misapplication of the idea. If one is being loud and rambunctious at their table then it should be part of the main scene as well.

But I have no llama in this race, I don’t have the attention span for a 90-minute movie without checking my phone, much less a 90-minute “look how great I am” romp with fifty other half-dressed participants.

Aaarr Peee?

I vaguely recall this as a concept. A thought. A theory. Something I did once, in my youth…

@Faraday said in Scenes within Scenes:

But if you’re not interacting with anyone outside of your little group, and you don’t want to spam other people or be spammed in return, why does the room actually matter? What is the tangible advantage of keeping everyone jammed together rather than in separate rooms / separate scenes?

Because one can interact with people outside of their little group, should they choose. They can ask the salient question, smuggle weapons, throw fruit-but-vegetables. There are more options.

@catzilla said in Numetal/Retromux:

IT Crowd for Werewolf or Vampire

@KarmaBum said in Scenes within Scenes:

The idea that the whole scene is impervious to characters feels like lazy storytelling.

Well, it’s less that the scene is impervious to interaction and more that people find it really annoying when people interrupt. At least in my experience. Sure, it could still involve lazy storytelling, but it’s typically an OOC cultural thing rather than strictly a matter of scene design.

In my experience, it’s not even the case that the code is used to avoid people interrupting; it’s to avoid people having to keep track of fifty people’s poses to find the people their PC is closest to. If there are twenty or so people in a scene, it’s legitimately difficult for some of us to keep track of what’s going on, with places the ‘main’ scene turns into a bit of a pantomime, and the places scene is where we actually do the bulk of the RP—occasionally stopping to shout ‘he’s behind you’ to the main stage.

It’s a surprisingly elegant solution to that problem.

@somasatori said in Scenes within Scenes:

Massive factional meetings are a bbpost given life.

Using one very, very, very broad definition of life.

@Trashcan It’s not hard to address with code given we have the code already. And the current/traditional/typical code implementation allows for interruptions, as they are sometimes required or desired.

Though honestly, I’m more on board with the suggestions that involve “just fucking don’t” for scenes that require it. I don’t need massive meetings, huge parties, all that shit. If you like those, I think you’re weird but whatever, if you like those and don’t see utility in places code, I think you’re weirder.

@Roadspike said in Scenes within Scenes:

Have them in their own side-scene, either happening at the same time as the “important shit” scene that they can watch freely

That is practically the same thing as using places code, when it’s used correctly. Additionally, not every system allows you to just watch other scenes freely.

@MisterBoring said in RP Safari - Pacing Styles:

@Prototart said in RP Safari - Pacing Styles:

and it’s before my time but I know there were people doing play-by-post on forums and even over email and fucking Usenet in the 90s.

I remember that stuff when I was in college, and totally remember ignoring invites to join that stuff because I was running a different tabletop group almost every night (or playing video and computer games).

Hey, get a load of Mr. “I had friends growing up” over here.

@Faraday said in RP Safari - Pacing Styles:

Making the default “Unknown” will give better fidelity when it IS set, but then most scenes will just be Unknown. So that’s not super helpful either.

Could you make it blank or unknown, if you will, and require the field to be set before it can proceed? I don’t know if that’s implementable, nor how easy it would be, nor whether it would be worthwhile.

@Prototart said in RP Safari - Pacing Styles:

@Pavel said in RP Safari - Pacing Styles:

@Prototart said in RP Safari - Pacing Styles:

I got it and I’m not even that smart.

I spent yesterday genuinely upset because of something someone on a sex game said about me, it is what it is.

If you wouldn’t go to them for advice, you needn’t accept their criticism.