I agree with @Raistlin’s definition of metaplot as an overarching story that impacts every character on the game.

My example from The Savage Skies would be “The Global Fight Against Fascism.” So metaplot involved trying to protect an area of northern Spain during the Spanish Civil War, softening the landing of Czechoslovakia into the Drachenordenung orbit, collecting magic spheres to raise Atlantis, and preventing the Hollow Earth from becoming a fascist garden were all chapters in the metaplot.

On the other side, exploring ruins for magical artifacts, meeting with dragons, random skirmishes with fascists, and the like weren’t necessarily part of the metaplot, but sat within it, defined by it.

On The Fifth World, the metaplot was “The War Against the Hostiles.” All the noble political maneuvering and concert series and Senate elections and the like were smaller plots that were placed in context by the metaplot.

At the simplest level, I would say that Metaplot is the stuff that NEEDS to have a post on the game boards, simply so that everyone knows what’s going on with it.

To @Pavel’s point, I agree that the problem is perception, but I also think that perception is important. I also know that my own experiences of legitimately having my character in the spotlight and having players call me on it have colored my perceptions.

Perhaps I shouldn’t have said that staff PCs should never be out in front of a story – I don’t think of myself as a Sith, so less with the absolutes. I wonder if a better description of my position is that staff should be incredibly careful about the dangers of spotlighting or appearing to spotlight. Because as noted, players will notice if you or another staff member runs plots that are well suited to your characters.

If players want to, that’s fantastic, but to @Faraday’s post, that tends to be rare (very special and appreciated, but rare). I think that it’s absolutely reasonable to run a scene to develop your character’s story, as long as you’re up front about it. I also think that it’s entirely reasonable to be one of the Big Darn Heroes, but I don’t ever intend to be THE Big Darn Hero on a game where I’m staffing.

I agree with @Pavel and others that staff should play on their game. I also agree that staff’s alts should be disclosed for transparency purposes – if someone is telling me something wild about the theme (ICly or OOCly), I’d like to know if I’m dealing with a random player or a staffer.

I also think that a staffer’s PC should never be “out in front” of a story. They can be right alongside the PCs of multiple non-staffers, but shouldn’t be out in front unless they’re serving as a glorified plot-giver – and even then the balance is very tight, and should always tip in the direction of non-staff PCs.

The game design behind their wargame is shockingly bad. Depending on 1-3 large dice is going to be shockingly random. There’s nothing in place for excellent tactics, it’s all just throwing a couple of big dice and hoping you roll better than your opponent.

I agree with @Roz that you’ll never get a consensus, and that preferences for some (myself included) will vary by game.

I actually like the idea of roster-only (or all-FCs-are-rosters-but-OCs-are-allowed) for a comic book game. I think this is a good way to ensure that every sheet/BG fits staff’s interpretation of the character (which I think is more important than fitting every player’s interpretation).

I wouldn’t have a problem with a Lords & Ladies game where all the house heads and heirs were roster characters, but everyone else was an OC. I think that would be a good way of ensuring that the most emblematic characters for each house fit what staff wanted from them and reinforced thematic connections between houses.

But in general, I agree with the concern of “echelons” of characters where some get more staff attention. I don’t know, maybe a better way to say what you’re looking for is that some characters would have larger levers to effect game events? Because that’s certainly true of house heads and heirs in most L&L games, even if they don’t actually get any more of staff’s attention.

@dvoraen Housecat life is the best life. That is all.

I did a pretty extensive workup for the Wheel of Time for standard FS3 on Ares a while back for a game that never made it to open. It’s never going to be perfect, because FS3 isn’t designed for magic systems, and channelers were -definitely- more powerful than non-channelers (as it should be in canon), but it was absolutely workable with players willing to accept a few compromises and pretty fun in my testing. I would be happy to share it with interested parties for tweaking to their satisfaction.

@Coin I wasn’t going to go that far, but since you went there, I will say that I think if the game is designed around it and everyone is onboard, and it’s specifically designed to avoid “I roll to get in your pants,” then I think social skills have a great place in a MU* (I would have a hell of a fun time with an FS3 Regency MU* with a social combat system instead of a physical combat system, for instance).

But if the game isn’t designed with all that in mind, I think it’s best to keep it to rolling vs NPCs only.

If there’s a system with actual merits/benefits/stats for physical appearance, I think that it is totally legitimate to include it in an RP Hook, description, and even short-desc, as well as to pose it in scenes. Because otherwise, it feels like folks rarely acknowledge the points put into those merits/benefits/stats (because so many played-bys are so very pretty to start with).

But in a system without points being spent on physical attractiveness, I agree with the side-eye directed at those who use it as an RP Hook. If you’re not spending points on it, then it’s just like folks on games without social systems always being perfect liars or the Biggest or the Smallest – don’t make a big deal about it, because it’s basically just a player fantasy.

@Gashlycrumb said in MU Peeves Thread:

And anybody can look up a geographical location associated with an IP but I might be creeped out if a gamerunner or forum admin or whatever was to tell me where I live.

The fact that someone could find this information wouldn’t be the upsetting part of this to me, it would be the fact that someone put the effort in (even if it’s minimal) to find this information out.

Most long-time MU*ers know that we have the illusion of privacy, but that doesn’t make it any more polite when someone rips down the veil of that illusion. Someone taking the time and (even minimal) effort to connect someone’s IP to where they live and then tell them is definitely unnecessary and creep-adjacent at least (maybe unless it’s part of an ongoing investigation into their online identity and past actions? maybe?).

I started doing Historical European Martial Arts two weeks ago (finally), with a local group that just formed. I’ve been doing it most days since then, and I ache, but it’s a really good ache. I have more energy than I have in years, and I feel great. Plus I get to swing a sword around.

@mietze said in MU Peeves Thread:

It’s good to touch base to make sure its something that works for both which can be hard for randos so you may have to ask would you prefer the vampire alt or the werelobster?

When I’m of this mind, I like to go, “Want to go line-dancing or something with my vampire alt or get into a brawl with werecrabs with my werelobster alt? Or any ideas you might have for either.”

Because then I’m not setting off the instinctive “Ugh, they don’t know what they want besides me to entertain them” reaction that I totally get and often have, but I’m also offering some flexibility.

@somasatori Now you’ve got me thinking about how to do Dune with FS3…

@sao This isn’t a direct reply to you, but you were the last one on the thread talking about this subject. For me, it’s the difference between “I don’t distrust you” and “I don’t trust you.” I’ll play on a game with Staff that I don’t distrust. I may not fully trust them, but I’m willing to offer them the chance to earn that trust. I will not play on a game where I don’t trust Staff. That is for the people who have already burned me or someone who I do trust.

And I agree that life is too short for the stress of “do I trust this person I’ve put in a position of power over my fun or not,” and this has only gotten more true as my life has gotten more full.

@MisterBoring Whether or not that’s better, I don’t know if it’s practicable. And there are folks that really like that down time between episodes (I like some, just I would prefer that it be a couple of weeks compared to a month or three, again, I know people who prefer the downtime to the episodes, so YMMV).

I think that the only way you could possible get anywhere near even just a couple of weeks between episodes is to have two Storyteller Staffs, because there’s going to be some cooldown time and some administrative ramp-up time on either end of an episode. Even then, I think it would entirely depend on the setting/theme of the game whether the shortest possible downtime is the best option, a medium length, or a long downtime. I think that if you have intense episodes without much time for the players or characters to catch their breath, you’re going to want a medium-long amount of downtime; if you have episodes that meander and have time to catch your breath in the midst, then I think you would want shorter amounts of downtime.

I could see, say, a WWII game that has people at the front (or on alert at the airbase or whatever), needing a month or so between campaigns, to let the characters (and players) breathe and find their new status quo. But I could see a murder mystery game needing much less time between cases (because you’re probably going to get a little bit of investigation time and some breathing room in there, and it isn’t likely to be as life or death all the time as a combat game.

@bear_necessities This is an issue for me too – after the first 2 or so Hiatuses, I wasn’t much interested in most of the “cruise ship” RP in between Seasons on the Network. I know that others really loved those times, even more than the Seasons. Miniseries helped quite a lot during Hiatuses in order to get in even more short stories.

It could be interesting to have a second Storyteller team (or just one more Storyteller) whose duty was to run story during the downtimes. On a game like The Network or HorrorMU*, this could be someone who runs the conspiracy that’s behind the program (so that there actually could be a mystery for players to unravel). On another game it could be someone or a group of someones who runs a shortened Season – or just have two Storyteller teams (led by a couple of Administrators) who alternate seasons and then you don’t need downtime at all.

I agree with @Roz that a game probably does need some downtime if you’re having episodic stories, since they tend to be a little more intense and go-go-go than your “standard” storydriven game.

@Tez said in MU Peeves Thread:

Side peeve: why do games insist that they are in beta for years?

Agreed. I wish that MU*s used the alpha/beta/gold terminology like most video games do. It would make it much clearer what stage of development the game is in and what sort of experience to expect.

Alpha: Hammering on theme and systems, making sure there aren’t any obvious bugs.

Beta: Testing with a wider audience, looking for anything that a smaller alpha group didn’t find.

Gold: Ready for full release to the public – changes can still come when necessary (patches!).

@Nynrose Congrats on finishing chemo. Best wishes for your recovery.

@Rinel As someone who is white as a sheep in a snowstorm and somewhat frequently plays minority characters, and as someone who has looked at how someone was playing a minority character and felt very sketchy about it, I echo @mietze’s advice. It’s entirely possible that someone else has shared their concerns about the portrayal with Staff, and hearing it from two, three, or even four folks can let them know that it’s not just one person’s feeling, that there really is something wrong with the portrayal.

At that point, hopefully Staff can be diplomatic enough to find out if it’s an honest mistake, or the minstrel show that @SpaceKhomeini mentioned.

@Roz I think its the same reason that so many great stage and screen characters smoke, and the same reason @Pavel mentioned – it’s a great thing to do with your hands. You can alter how it’s done to indicate emotion, distraction, pain, or something else, and it’s something to //do//.

I remember hearing somewhere that people on stakeouts or casing a joint often smoke, because no one questions (questioned?) a smoker standing outside in front of a building, but if you’re lingering around doing nothing, it’s suspicious.