Channels (Channel 'Public' (Public discussion))

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25-09-24 12:03:13: Ada: Hello!
25-10-14 13:36:17: Ada: Oh hey guest! We're opening on the 31st. Most game information is on the site, though I intend to make it available on the game proper before opening.
25-10-20 01:21:41: Ada: Hello!
25-10-20 01:26:27: Guest1: Hello!  Sorry, telnet takes me a lot to get used to again.
25-10-20 01:27:04: Ada: Hi! :D More used to Ares?
25-10-20 01:27:16: Guest1: Mudlet.
25-10-20 01:29:07: Ada: Oh! Should work here just fine. I see that somewhat absurdly I forgot to put in the address to connect on the webpage - it's the same as the site, i.e. empiremush.org, port 4000.
25-10-20 01:29:47: Guest1: Hah!  That will make things easier.  The input box wants to go wonky on me.
25-10-20 01:31:00: Ada: Yeah. I haven't really looked at the webclient beyond just enabling it.
25-10-21 00:27:50: Ada: Channel colour changed to: |r[Public]|n
25-10-21 00:27:53: Ada: Test
25-10-22 01:29:45: Ada: Hey, guest!
25-10-22 01:44:42: Ada: Hey, guest!
25-10-22 01:44:50: Guest1: Hello!
25-10-22 01:45:35: Ada: I'm on for a little bit if you have any questions. :) I've seen a few people pop on and it occurs that they're expecting information via the game rather than the site.
25-10-22 01:45:40: Guest1: I am poking around, reading files. Seems like an interesting setting!
25-10-22 01:45:43: Ada: Thanks!
25-10-22 01:45:56: Guest1: Some habits are hard for mushers to break.
25-10-22 01:46:11: Ada: Hee. It's fine. Hopefully the 'wiki' command is usable enough.
25-10-22 01:46:38: Guest1: The website is pretty navigable!
25-10-22 01:47:01: Ada: Fab. :)
25-10-22 01:47:44: Guest1: I just want to say I appreciate the breadth of characters on roster, and the ages! A couple have caught my eye.
25-10-22 01:49:28: Ada: Which stand out? (if they don't have descriptions, er, those are pending!)
25-10-22 01:52:39: Guest1: Albrecht is cool! A large guy who's also smart and socially canny! Personally, House Gabel's whole situation is interesting to me, and I'm tentatively interested in Emil Gabel. But there are characters like Alethea who are glamorous entertainers and also in their 40s instead of the usual early 20s and I think that's neat.
25-10-22 01:54:25: Guest1: I am a weirdo who finds political trouble around a large building project to be terribly interesting. :D
25-10-22 01:54:41: Ada: Albrecht is the brains behind the imperial bureaucracy. And, hah. Yeah. Gabel has /multiple/ building project woes, in fact.
25-10-22 01:55:03: Ada: I'm not sure how much you've read, but the border fort remark was not throwaway.
25-10-22 01:57:16: Guest1: Oh dear! By which I mean, ooooh.
25-10-22 01:59:15: Ada: House Aetos has a partially collapsed castle somewhere, but that's just because of plain neglect. :D
25-10-22 02:01:49: Guest1: Look. The upkeep costs on those things are outrageous.
25-10-22 02:05:59: Ada: They almost certainly are. I'm not aiming for simulation with the game - that way lies madness - but there is just enough of a system in place to make things like "Can I pay for this fort?" a reasonable thing to RP about.
25-10-22 02:06:39: Guest1: Excellent! Is there a mechanical system for intrigue, like spycraft, or is that simply using regular rolls?
25-10-22 02:07:56: Ada: Regular rolls, though using the Espionage skill, and people with the spy vocation (I have one or two in as spy chief, and a few people with covers like 'Socialite') have a few opening SFX to help out
25-10-22 02:08:09: Guest1: Fun!
25-10-22 02:09:07: Ada: SFX are ways to bend or break the rules. My pre-opening to-do list includes people writing their own SFX, but here are the generic spy ones:
25-10-22 02:09:18: Ada: Intelligence Network: At the start of any scene, you may automatically have a d6 Intelligence asset from your network of informants and contacts.|/Tradecraft: Reroll 1s on Espionage.|/Maintain Cover: Once per scene, spend 1 PP to negate a complication related to your cover or your network being compromised.
25-10-22 02:09:43: Guest1: Oh, very interesting.
25-10-22 02:12:27: Ada: Cortex is a fun system. I waffled around a bit about what to do for a game system, but ultimately settled on this. It provides avenues to really distinguish characters while being pretty straightforward.
25-10-22 02:14:12: Guest1: Question: I may be missing it, but where does it say how to apply for a character? I've read the rules, information page, and the characters page.
25-10-22 02:14:57: Guest1: Or should that wait for the 31?
25-10-22 02:15:44: Ada: You can apply for one now. It's in the introduction page. Where was the first place to look for it that came to mind for you?
25-10-22 02:16:28: Ada: ... actually, I'll pop a note on the characters page. Can't be missed there.
25-10-22 02:16:55: Guest1: Ah! I see it. Hmm. I hopped from "before applying for a character, read the rules" so I suppose I read the rules expecting a "if you're still interested, here's where to apply".
25-10-22 02:17:52: Guest1: I've mostly played Ares games with rosters, and they usually have a 'claim roster' button on specific character pages, but I know Evennia is a different beast. :D
25-10-22 02:18:26: Ada: Makes sense! I might add a claim roster button. I was a little wary because before I got Caddy in, I had bots prodding at every possible GET or POST endpoint on my site, but, you know
25-10-22 02:18:49: Guest1: Oh man, yeah. Don't do it if it's going to be a spam nightmare for you!
25-10-22 02:18:51: Ada: It obviously works for Ares, so I'm sure I can fit it in.
25-10-22 02:19:08: Ada: Hah, no, it's all good. It just made debugging /interesting/ at points. :D
25-10-22 02:19:16: Guest1: I bet!
25-10-22 02:19:52: Ada: I was trying to figure out a DB hiccup (turned out it was just autoupdates causing it to disconnect) and it was through days of server logs filled with bots trying every possible access point.
25-10-22 02:20:07: Guest1: That sounds like a horror movie.
25-10-22 02:20:28: Ada: I have "wordpress admin.php" etched in my retinas.
25-10-22 02:20:33: Ada: Or whatever it was. I forget.
25-10-22 02:20:50: Ada: Anyway, I am not a web person or sysadmin and I now feel for those who are.
25-10-22 02:23:29: Guest1: Should it just be 'Emil' for character name? I tried the full 'Lord Emil Gabel' and it bounced. XD
25-10-22 02:23:50: Ada: Yes! Hang on; I'll clarify it.
25-10-22 02:24:07: Ada: I appreciate your unexpected UX testing. :D
25-10-22 02:24:34: Guest1: When you need someone to be dumb and blunder blindly through your systems, I am that person.
25-10-22 02:26:00: Ada: It's very helpful!
25-10-22 02:26:08: Guest1: Huzzah!
25-10-22 10:51:00: Ada: Hey, guest!
25-10-22 10:51:19: Guest1: :waves!
25-10-22 10:52:21: Ada: If you have any questions, ask away. I'm on mobile and very slow though.
25-10-22 10:53:09: Guest1: No worries, I'm about to head off to work, but my application has been sent!
25-10-22 10:53:57: Ada: Got it! Have a good one!
25-10-22 10:54:40: Guest1: You too! <3
25-10-22 13:21:11: Emil: Hello!
25-10-22 13:22:18: Emil: New characters aren't auto-subbed to Public. Also, I don't think I have permission to enter the grid.
25-10-22 13:46:33: Ada: Oh! I'll get that fixed up
25-10-22 13:48:09: Ada: And hello. The grid exit is deliberately locked, though if you want to take a spin around, I can move you on to it.
25-10-22 13:49:01: Emil: No worries if it's intentional! I can be patient. I GUESS. :D
25-10-22 13:49:10: Ada: It's substantially in place, though short a few intended gathering spots.
25-10-22 13:49:59: Emil: Huzzah!
25-10-22 13:51:04: Emil: Will there be a map command, or list of hangouts, jump/meetme or anything like that?
25-10-22 13:51:46: Ada: Check out directions
25-10-22 13:52:53: Emil: Awesome!
25-10-22 13:52:55: Ada: I am deliberately avoiding teleport commands - I feel they take away from the organic flow of moving about and the sense of place
25-10-22 13:53:16: Emil: Oh, directions are nice and clear.
25-10-22 13:56:04: Emil: The embassy of Westelth has never had an occupant. Intriguing!
25-10-22 13:57:19: Emil: Port District - Haven Way has an exit  that shows up in Directions but does not show up in the room desc.
25-10-22 13:57:34: Emil: East. It ate my brackets. :D
25-10-22 13:58:26: Ada: I wonder - I remember triangular brackets elsewhere being eaten too
25-10-22 13:59:11: Ada: It was a client-side issue, but no less vexing for that.
25-10-22 13:59:36: Emil: Port District - Port also has a north exit that isn't in the exits list in the desc.
25-10-22 13:59:57: Emil: Wait, no.
25-10-22 14:00:02: Emil: I misred.
25-10-22 14:00:08: Emil: Misread. Bah.
25-10-22 14:00:30: Emil: It's Havengate Square that has the missing North exit.
25-10-22 14:02:01: Ada: Ah! This may be because I set directions to prioritise cardinal directions while exit aliases prefer the initials of the name
25-10-22 14:02:06: Emil: Ohhh, I think I see what's happening. Directions get--yeah!
25-10-22 14:02:32: Ada: That is as intended. :D
25-10-22 14:03:06: Emil: Understood!
25-10-22 14:08:32: Emil: Mmm, horses.
25-10-22 14:10:50: Ada: Just don't eat them. I'll be digging out PC rooms as people get them and will pop in yours when I am home later
25-10-22 14:12:24: Emil: Gasp! These are finely bred animals, not finely breaded!
25-10-22 14:16:24: Ada: Bernd could solve all the financial woes by opening a McGabel's.
25-10-22 14:17:19: Emil: And sully our hands with commerce and burger fat? Perish the thought.
25-10-22 14:52:10: Koline: Greetings~!
25-10-22 14:52:27: Emil: Hello!
25-10-22 14:52:56: Ada: Hi!
25-10-22 14:53:13: Koline: :is just peeking in while at work, but will be around in full flourish this afternoon. :)
25-10-22 14:58:18: Ada: Hey, guest!
25-10-22 15:05:39: Guest1: Hello!
25-10-22 15:05:47: Emil: :salutes!
25-10-22 15:05:58: Guest1: How's scams?
25-10-22 15:06:19: Emil: Not bad!
25-10-22 15:06:32: Guest1: I Applied for a Character!
25-10-22 15:07:13: Ada: Fabulous. :D Delighted to see interest in Albrecht.
25-10-22 15:07:25: Guest1: Frothing interest, if I may be frank.
25-10-22 15:07:27: Emil: Huzzah! And ooh, Albrecht! I'm delighted!
25-10-22 15:08:04: Guest1: I think he could be juuuust a touch sort of vile, but not in a 'gross' way.
25-10-22 15:09:06: Guest1: Like I don't go in for the smexy stuff generally.
25-10-22 15:09:22: Guest1: So not vile in that way
25-10-22 15:11:34: Ada: I should probably write a note in the rules on that - but non-sexy unpleasant is totally okay
25-10-22 15:12:29: Guest1: Yeah no, I wouldn't be into that kind of behavior at all. For me or anyone else.
25-10-22 15:13:40: Ada: Obviously with suitable regard to other players. Hopefully the roster means that people understand it to mean that a character just is that way, rather than it being player projection!
25-10-22 15:14:18: Ada: Ones like Jurand Fletza could be a fabulous friend, too
25-10-22 15:15:36: Guest1: Absolutely!
25-10-22 15:18:25: Ada: I am a smidgen slow and scatterbrained with work just now, but are you game for a quick chat in a few hours? Be good to go eyes wide open into playing Albrecht.
25-10-22 15:18:41: Guest1: Yeah absolutely.
25-10-22 15:18:49: Guest1: Is my guy a schemer?
25-10-22 15:19:02: Guest1: I sort of hoped there might be a... shall we say, layered agenda.
25-10-22 15:20:29: Ada: More that he has clout to steer things on a level with Koline or one of the monarchs (well, not Victor so much)
25-10-22 15:22:04: Ada: Hey, guest!
25-10-22 15:22:23: Emil: More guests!
25-10-22 15:22:28: Guest1: Yeah that absolutely makes sense. And I'm 100% a team player in that regard.
25-10-22 15:22:55: Guest2: hallo hallo
25-10-22 15:23:10: Guest1: I think he doesn't necessarily want the spotlight, as I also do not.
25-10-22 15:25:00: Guest1: Anywhomst'd've, I have to step away for about half an hour myself.
25-10-22 15:57:43: Ada: Welcome Andreas. :)
25-10-22 15:57:57: Emil: Hallo, Andreas!
25-10-22 16:59:15: Guest1: Good afternoon, all.
25-10-22 16:59:24: Emil: Hello!
25-10-22 17:02:18: Guest1: Ooh the Empress got a player?
25-10-22 17:02:34: Emil: Looks like!
25-10-22 17:02:41: Guest1: I'm so fully stoked to get into this game at the beginning.
25-10-22 17:03:05: Emil: It looks fun. I'm excited.
25-10-22 17:03:21: Guest1: Me too! Comin' out of retirement for this one.
25-10-22 17:03:47: Guest1: I haven't had a MU* bit since Darren on Arx, years ago.
25-10-22 17:03:59: Guest1: Nothing has looked interesting until now.
25-10-22 17:04:25: Guest1: There are Ares games with interesting concepts I guess, but I very strongly favor Evennia.
25-10-22 17:05:48: Ada: Hey, guest!
25-10-22 17:06:35: Ada: Or hey again, even. :D
25-10-22 17:13:31: Ada: Evennia requires some code work up front. The code for Empire is public but it would take some tweaking and the filing off of the Empire serial numbers to be useful
25-10-22 17:14:28: Guest1: I have Ideas for my own game on Evennia base someday. But it's a distant someday and after I find a coder to work with.
25-10-22 17:15:30: Guest1: I have heard though that Evennia takes a lot of wrestling to get it to do what you want.
25-10-22 17:16:06: Ada: I have found it straightforward, but YMMV.
25-10-22 17:16:11: Emil: I'm reading more of the theme files and I'm liking Adanan culture. It sort of gives the impression of Horse People who accidentally conquered an empire and are now like, "We've got to have CASTLES? And INFRASTRUCTURE? WTF, man, can't we just keep hitting things with cavalry?"
25-10-22 17:19:54: Ada: c.f. Medieval Europeans. I'm not sure if I explicitly used the word chevauchee, but it's what might happen if there's no prospect of getting into a castle.
25-10-22 17:21:03: Emil: Looting and burning: not subtle, but does eventually get the job done.
25-10-22 17:24:40: Ada: Hey, guest!
25-10-22 17:24:44: Guest2: hello!
25-10-22 17:24:47: Guest2: last
25-10-22 17:24:52: Guest2: lmao
25-10-22 17:24:56: Emil: Hello!
25-10-22 17:25:24: Ada: channel/history may be what you want!
25-10-22 17:25:54: Guest1: Also reading all the theme stuff. Feels like if I play Albrecht I'm going to want to know all the things.
25-10-22 17:26:18: Ada: I'll probably make it parse channel last if that keeps up though.
25-10-22 17:26:31: Guest1: I like that he's a heavy man, after my own laboring heart.
25-10-22 17:27:21: Guest1: I don't know that I've ever seen a fat character on a roster before, and I love it.
25-10-22 17:27:33: Guest1: I feel represented!
25-10-22 17:27:58: Emil: Yes! I almost grabbed Albrecht myself because I loved that.
25-10-22 17:28:11: Ada: Descriptions all courtesy of a friend, because I take forever to write them.
25-10-22 17:28:19: Emil: But political trouble caused by ambitious engineering projects won my heart.
25-10-22 17:28:29: Guest1: There's so much you can write to with that as well. And it's pretty unique in the hobby space for anyone to do it.
25-10-22 17:29:50: Ada: Zimrad is on the larger side too, off the top of my head.
25-10-22 17:30:16: Guest1: It's just his whole vibe for me. This fat, not particularly social guy who'd rather focus on his work or else a good feast somewhere quiet.
25-10-22 17:30:42: Guest1: But diligent and probably fussy.
25-10-22 17:31:06: Ada: Zimrad is definitely not a few of those things. :D
25-10-22 17:31:13: Guest1: :laughs.
25-10-22 17:31:55: Ada: Hey, guest!
25-10-22 17:32:02: Guest3: Hello
25-10-22 17:32:17: Emil: :salutes Guest.
25-10-22 17:32:50: Guest1: Basically, he just is awesome.
25-10-22 18:18:54: Guest1: Ada, I've got about 30 minutes right now if you want or can squeeze that chat in. At that time I'll be out of pocket for a while, not sure how long. I have to help my old dad update his computer to Windows 11.
25-10-22 18:19:21: Guest1: More accurately I have to do it while he unhelpfully tries to help.
25-10-22 18:24:01: Guest1: I can always get back on this evening or tomorrow, of course.
25-10-22 18:25:50: Ada: I will have a sec shortly
25-10-22 18:26:33: Guest1: Awesome! I'll be right here.
25-10-22 18:47:16: Albrecht: Hello hello!
25-10-22 18:47:25: Emil: An Albrecht!
25-10-22 18:47:32: Albrecht: An Emil!
25-10-22 18:48:18: Emil: ::D
25-10-22 18:48:54: Albrecht: Time for me to run some errands, but I'll be back in a bit!
25-10-22 19:26:53: Ada: Hey, guest!
25-10-22 19:27:10: Guest1: Hello
25-10-22 19:27:25: Ada: Feel free to ask if you have any questions.
25-10-22 19:35:56: Guest1: Hmm.. is the roster/apply command not working? Or am I missing something simple. It says a character doesn't exist but lists them as available and they show up when I just roster name
25-10-22 19:42:58: Ada: It has been working so far today! Which character is it?
25-10-22 19:54:08: Guest1: Sir Baer
25-10-22 19:54:48: Ada: When applying, are you using just 'Walther'?
25-10-22 19:55:51: Guest1: tried walther, baer, and sir walther bear
25-10-22 19:56:27: Ada: How odd. Mind paging me the exact command and feedback, please? I'll get you set up with the character either way. :)
25-10-22 20:26:40: Ada: Hey, guest!
25-10-22 20:27:13: Guest2: Hey there!
25-10-22 20:51:43: Koline: Good afternoon, everyone~!
25-10-22 20:51:53: Emil: Good afternoon!
25-10-22 20:52:28: Koline: Ah, Emil, the... (hurriedly checks profile) scrupulous spymaster! Hello! :D
25-10-22 20:52:53: Emil: Nonsense. I'm just a man who likes to ask questions and listen to the answers. *halo*
25-10-22 20:53:15: Koline: My mistake! ;)
25-10-22 20:53:38: Emil: Forgiven, Your Majesty! Orrrr whatever one calls an Empress. :D
25-10-22 20:53:50: Ada: ... I should write that somewhere.
25-10-22 20:54:00: Koline: That... is a good question, but also one I won't worry too much about unless Ada says I should worry about it. ;)
25-10-22 20:54:12: Emil: :laughs. "Yes to all."
25-10-22 20:58:07: Koline: :has been peeking at the website throughout my workday. It's been very cool to see the Active Characters tab grow longer every time I look. <3
25-10-22 20:58:15: Ada: Karla's the scary Gabel. Or Bernd.
25-10-22 20:58:27: Emil: :is very friendly!
25-10-22 20:58:46: Emil: And yeah, it's fun to see people showing interest in characters. I am excite.
25-10-22 20:59:28: Ada: I am a little surprised at the range of characters in which there has been an interest.
25-10-22 20:59:54: Koline: :sets herself to finding a suitable picture for her profile page. ~.~
25-10-22 20:59:56: Emil: It's a strong roster, I think. There were several I was interested in before settling on Emil.
25-10-22 21:02:33: Ada: I'm glad people are into it. I had a number in my head that the game probably hits critical mass at 25 or so players - enough that someone can find on and find RP - and that certainly seems likely now.
25-10-22 21:03:28: Ada: Log on rather. Anyway. That opening step feels a bit more fraught for a traditional MU than Ares.
25-10-22 21:07:27: Ada: Welcome, Walther!
25-10-22 21:07:41: Koline: Welcome! :D
25-10-22 21:07:43: Ada: 'Himbo' is a wonderful summation of that character.
25-10-22 21:10:28: Walther: hello! and yes lol
25-10-22 21:10:43: Ada: Whoops. I just assumed it was an Evennia default. Welcome!
25-10-22 21:12:41: Emil: :heehee.
25-10-22 21:15:26: Ada: Okay, fixed!
25-10-22 21:16:03: Ada: Welcome, Reinhold!
25-10-22 21:16:08: Reinhold: Thank you!
25-10-22 21:16:14: Koline: Welcome! :D
25-10-22 21:17:24: Emil: Cousin!
25-10-22 21:17:40: Andreas: :waves
25-10-22 21:18:43: Reinhold: :salute.
25-10-22 21:19:46: Ada: You just need a Bernd now.
25-10-22 21:19:55: Koline: Don't we all.
25-10-22 21:20:34: Emil: Just dump a bunch of bills and complaints on his desk.
25-10-22 21:22:05: Guest2: Hello
25-10-22 21:22:11: Ada: The poor guy. :D Hey guest!
25-10-22 21:22:17: Reinhold: I'm certainly not going to be paying any bills. Someone has to.
25-10-22 21:22:45: Emil: :waves to Guest!
25-10-22 21:25:01: Guest2: I'm somewhat intrigued to give this a try, but at the same time I am having eye surgery like, a week after the game opens and will suddenly vanish to recovery, so I'm conflicted.
25-10-22 21:25:45: Koline: :looks to see if we have a Vanishing Viscount character concept. :|a
25-10-22 21:25:55: Ada: Feel free to drop in anyway. If the recovery is going to take some weeks, just drop me a request to remind me not to roster your character.
25-10-22 21:27:33: Guest2: I'm actually mostly intrigued by Udo.
25-10-22 21:30:40: Ada: Awesome. :) Do ask if you have any questions, though he's a character who does exactly what he says on the tin - and is best read in conjunction with the societal structure page on the wiki.
25-10-22 21:54:42: Ada: Rejoice, for you can now use ; for an emit. Open to suggestions about shorthand for pemit (i.e. an emit at places).
25-10-22 21:56:12: Emil: Woo!
25-10-22 21:56:38: Guest2: I notice that while Udo is part of House Lindner, he doesn't seem to really 'family' that often. Is that a pretty astute observation?
25-10-22 21:59:20: Ada: It is, though he could of course be as involved as the player wants him to be.
25-10-22 22:00:14: Ada: As written though, he might occupy himself with speaking with any number of nobles, and the Lindners tend to have their stuff together as far as a devotee of Valon would be concerned, so might need the least counsel.
25-10-22 22:03:40: Guest2: Well, I've put in an application.
25-10-22 22:04:43: Ada: You're all set. :)
25-10-22 22:05:12: Emil: Huzzah!
25-10-22 22:07:48: Udo: Yay!
25-10-22 22:11:04: Udo: So I'm aware the game doesn't start until the end of the month, but is it safe to stroll around the grid and peek at things?
25-10-22 22:11:51: Ada: I can teleport you onto it if you like, sure, then I'll pop you back to the Welcome Area later.
25-10-22 22:12:46: Ada: It's compact enough, but you can use 'directions' to check where places are. I still need to add a chapel in the Tower of Valon.
25-10-22 22:14:01: Udo: You can just drop me back in the Welcome Area for now, I'll maybe ask to stroll the grid a bit more when I actually have more time for that.
25-10-22 22:14:32: Ada: Sure thing.
25-10-22 22:14:34: Udo: Now to find a decent picture for this character.
25-10-22 22:20:07: Udo: Does the Cult of Valon have a color scheme?
25-10-22 22:22:06: Ada: Ah! Good question. No, but they might wear a piece of jewelry with an axe.
25-10-22 22:22:38: Ada: Same way someone might wear a cross pendant, but choppier.
25-10-22 22:25:57: Ada: I am a teensy bit tempted to add a note in Sabine's background about her discovering the main problem of bearing Valon's axe is not the weight of duty but the jewelers pestering her to see it.
25-10-22 22:26:55: Emil: Ha!
25-10-22 22:39:46: Ada: See someone was asking about AI use, to which the answer is it was used for a list of names, about six images, and as a programming aid. No writing at all.
25-10-22 22:44:23: Albrecht: Evening everyone!
25-10-22 22:44:39: Emil: Evening!
25-10-22 22:44:44: Ada: Hey, Albrecht!
25-10-22 22:45:09: Albrecht: So excited to be Albrecht, indeed.
25-10-22 22:47:43: Albrecht: I've never seen skills and stats done this way. It's very interesting.
25-10-22 22:48:35: Ada: It's Cortex Prime, which is the most recent in a line of lightweight setting-agnostic TTRPG systems.
25-10-22 22:49:16: Udo: It's been a minute since I've played a Cortex game, but I'm somewhat knowledgeable with the system.
25-10-22 22:49:28: Albrecht: That was definitely my takeaway -- not a lot of extra mechanical crap in the way.
25-10-22 22:50:22: Ada: The 'extra' is mostly from SFX. I'm avoiding health and stress trackers and going with the simplest level: gaining a complication which passes a d12 rating results in being taken out.
25-10-22 22:51:15: Ada: Ah! And also, going with static difficulties as a standard.
25-10-22 22:52:11: Ada: It means fewer opportunities for hitches, plot points, etc, but I was sceptical that escalating until someone backed down would flow well in a MUSH scene.
25-10-22 23:07:11: Ada: Although it was Cortex Plus, I want to say, the Firefly TTRPG was a lot of fun.
25-10-22 23:13:51: Albrecht: Well the more you code out for combat, the more people will want to use it on each other eventually. So it probably helps foster a non-PVP environment to keep the system light.
25-10-22 23:14:40: Albrecht: There isn't much specified in my desc beyond my guy's rotundity. Am I then free to sort of fill in the blanks myself? And also, are people still doing celebs for PBs?
25-10-22 23:17:10: Ada: Hey, guest!
25-10-22 23:17:17: Guest1: :waves
25-10-22 23:19:04: Ada: Albrecht, I have no strong feelings on pictures once they're SFW. And most of the Otreses have dark hair.
25-10-22 23:19:11: Emil: :salute Guest!
25-10-22 23:19:34: Koline: Hey, Guest. :)
25-10-22 23:19:42: Ada: Speaking of pictures, I have to mention this excellent site for heraldry: https://azgaar.github.io/Armoria/
25-10-22 23:20:36: Albrecht: Am I crazy? I kind of think if I could find a good pic of Jack Black where he looks more distinguished...
25-10-22 23:20:48: Ada: Ahaha. I wouldn't knock it.
25-10-22 23:21:09: Emil: Go for it!
25-10-22 23:21:22: Koline: :still isn't going to call you 'Tenacious A.'
25-10-22 23:21:34: Albrecht: I feel like it fits the vibe pretty well, that imagining the way Jack moves would help one get to Albrecht
25-10-22 23:21:44: Albrecht: Hey Koline!
25-10-22 23:21:50: Koline: Hello~!
25-10-22 23:21:54: Albrecht: I'm really looking forward to working with you!
25-10-22 23:22:03: Koline: Likewise! :D
25-10-22 23:23:13: Albrecht: The way he looks lately, with the full beard, and the age is about right.
25-10-22 23:23:21: Udo: I will ashamedly admit that I turned to perchance for a character picture.
25-10-22 23:23:54: Emil: Sometimes art's the way to go!
25-10-22 23:24:12: Koline: I might have to, since the combination of features in my desc isn't producing a lot of stock model photos.
25-10-22 23:24:39: Ada: The game needs more conventionally attractive people.
25-10-22 23:25:03: Ada: (it doesn't really; though I'm not going to claim credit for a friend's descriptions, the range is superb)
25-10-22 23:25:06: Emil: Yeah. I had to go someone who was vaguely right, because forty-something guys with blond hair and gray eyes are not actually common.
25-10-22 23:25:09: Albrecht: Yeah I think I'm gonna read Al as heavy but not necessarily fugly.
25-10-22 23:25:16: Emil: And I did that to myself. :D
25-10-22 23:26:31: Ada: I like it. :D Oh! Temporary descriptions. Right.
25-10-22 23:27:20: Albrecht: I'm gonna put a pin in Jack too. It's not bad, but I want to explore other options too.
25-10-22 23:34:58: Koline: :nods. My desc specifically shouted out Koline's turquoise eyes, Emil, which made it tough. ;)
25-10-22 23:37:51: Albrecht: I've got fat and gray eyes
25-10-22 23:38:00: Albrecht: And jowls.
25-10-22 23:38:01: Ada: You need to get a Roland one to match.
25-10-22 23:39:38: Ada: Speaking of, while most characters have fairly arbitrary names, Roland's name is on-the-nose deliberate. So is Umberto's.
25-10-22 23:41:26: Emil: My brain immediately insists that Roland knows how to use guns and is looking for a Tower.
25-10-22 23:41:46: Albrecht: He's missing some fingers but it's ok.
25-10-22 23:41:48: Koline: Mine insists that he's a drum machine.
25-10-22 23:42:04: Ada: Oh no. :D Which other Rolands do I /not/ know about?
25-10-22 23:42:20: Emil: Dad-a-chik. Dud-a-chum.
25-10-22 23:42:35: Albrecht: Roland
25-10-22 23:43:36: Koline: :https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roland_TR-808
25-10-22 23:43:51: Emil: Hello, Antigone!
25-10-22 23:44:09: Koline: Welcome~!
25-10-22 23:44:10: Ada: Ah-hah! I mean that's honestly probably better known than a semi-legendary Frankish warrior.
25-10-22 23:44:22: Antigone: Heya :)
25-10-22 23:44:24: Ada: Who in turn is absolutely better known than that drum machine. :D
25-10-22 23:44:34: Ada: Welcome, Antigone!
25-10-22 23:44:49: Antigone: Thank you!
25-10-22 23:44:51: Albrecht: Hey Antigone!
25-10-22 23:45:03: Albrecht: Our A names have the same number of letters!
25-10-22 23:45:31: Albrecht: I bet we get each other's pages and mails sometimes.
25-10-22 23:46:03: Albrecht: :laughs, "Danny DeVito."
25-10-22 23:46:29: Ada: Richard Kind.
25-10-22 23:47:01: Koline: The uncle from Harry Potter whose name eludes me.
25-10-22 23:47:26: Albrecht: Ooh I'd be instantly hated.
25-10-22 23:48:47: Albrecht: Maybe the Robert Baeratheon guy
25-10-22 23:51:26: Ada: I wonder if we'll see a Charles Dance.
25-10-22 23:51:53: Albrecht: Hmm. John Goodman is kind of a good fit maybe.
25-10-22 23:55:16: Ada: Hey, guest!
25-10-22 23:55:30: Ada: And, yep, John Goodman works!
25-10-22 23:58:41: Ada: If anyone knows someone with a real hankering to play a head of house, I'd love to see Gerald Salfeld (and Salfelds generally) in play early on.
25-10-22 23:59:29: Albrecht: I've lost track of most of my MU* friends these days. Ready to make new ones here!
25-10-23 00:12:09: Ada: Okay, there is a tempdesc command.
25-10-23 00:12:25: Albrecht: Woot woot!
25-10-23 00:12:29: Albrecht: And I went with Jack.
25-10-23 00:12:47: Albrecht: First instinct is usually best.
25-10-23 00:13:07: Koline: :went with a very quick AI-generated image that I will feel compelled to replace with something I like more, down the line.
25-10-23 00:14:16: Ada: Yeah, Jack Black works. What a beard!
25-10-23 00:21:17: Emil: Hello, Guest!
25-10-23 00:21:21: Ada: Hey, guest!
25-10-23 00:24:10: Koline: :waves hello~
25-10-23 00:27:33: Albrecht: Man this is gonna be so much fun.
25-10-23 00:28:53: Koline: :vibrates.
25-10-23 00:29:08: Albrecht: :syncopates.
25-10-23 00:29:23: Emil: :takes note. Resonating royalty.
25-10-23 00:29:35: Albrecht: What are we going to do today, Boss?
25-10-23 00:29:55: Koline: Well, I was going to say 'try to take over the Empire,' but... well.
25-10-23 00:30:04: Albrecht: Check.
25-10-23 00:30:12: Emil: Holiday!
25-10-23 00:30:52: Guest2: hello
25-10-23 00:31:08: Emil: Hello, Guest!
25-10-23 00:32:24: Albrecht: Welcome, Guest! We've just taken over the Empire and we're now planning our imminent holiday. You're welcome to tag along if you'd like!
25-10-23 00:32:50: Albrecht: Aww. I guess they didn't want to go on holiday.
25-10-23 00:32:55: Albrecht: ::(
25-10-23 00:33:00: Emil: Not everyone's ready for that level of committment.
25-10-23 00:33:02: Antigone: I'll take their place
25-10-23 00:33:10: Albrecht: Sold!
25-10-23 00:33:11: Antigone: And bring snacks
25-10-23 00:33:33: Albrecht: Ooh la la! You had me at snacks, darling.
25-10-23 00:33:56: Albrecht: Don't pack light.
25-10-23 00:34:03: Ada: It occurs that I probably need to make MudInfo admin-only and make a watch command.
25-10-23 00:34:16: Guest2: I keep getting dropped
25-10-23 00:34:19: Ada: I thought I had all the basics in, but not quite!
25-10-23 00:34:24: Ada: Hm. How are you connecting?
25-10-23 00:34:36: Albrecht: :gets the stapler out.
25-10-23 00:34:47: Guest2: Web atm.
25-10-23 00:35:08: Albrecht: I'm a web client diehard myself. It's been working fine for me.
25-10-23 00:35:34: Ada: Some people in the Evennia community have done some fabulous webclient customisation.
25-10-23 00:35:39: Guest2: I am on my phone, though.
25-10-23 00:36:13: Ada: Ah. It's probably a mobile network thing.
25-10-23 00:36:30: Albrecht: It's always worked fine for me, and when you're running orgs and tracking all the plots and meetings and stuff, an extra program to mess with isn't helping.
25-10-23 00:37:08: Albrecht: I don't log either though. I know that's a factor for some people in their choice of client.
25-10-23 00:37:47: Guest2: I am new to Evennia, too. I will probably be playing via client on my laptop mostly, though. However, it's handy to not have to use one those crappy apps on the phone if needed. Lol
25-10-23 00:37:58: Emil: I am gonna miss log commands and a place to post logs, not gonna lie. Gotta make a new folder and get back on my cut and paste game.
25-10-23 00:38:00: Ada: I have some WIP stuff for scene logging that I think I'll be confident in by release.
25-10-23 00:38:08: Emil: Ooh!
25-10-23 00:38:35: Guest2: Are you not open yet?
25-10-23 00:38:47: Ada: Open for apps, but opening to actually play the game on the 31st.
25-10-23 00:38:48: Albrecht: That's awesome!
25-10-23 00:39:23: Albrecht: Lots of cool positions are still out there. House leaders who're basically kings and queens, and other types.
25-10-23 00:39:44: Ada: I'm also happy to do web-game integration for, well, pretty much anything if people want it. I did the obvious ones of the roster and the info pages.
25-10-23 00:39:49: Guest2: Yay! I got excited when I saw the ad then the wiki.
25-10-23 00:40:43: Albrecht: I did too Guest2! It's always incredible to get in on the ground floor, as it were, on a MUSH that really takes off. I think this one will.
25-10-23 00:40:46: Emil: Also! If anyone wants to poke me about potential pre-game links or relationships of any kind, lemme know.
25-10-23 00:41:12: Ada: So that scene logger will obviously post to the web, because trying to read a scene log in-game would be rough. It will all be private though, except events (which are part and parcel of said scene-logger)
25-10-23 00:41:27: Emil: Ooooh, I like.
25-10-23 00:41:27: Albrecht: I did too Guest2! It's always incredible to get in on the ground floor, as it were, on a MUSH that really takes off. I think this one will.
25-10-23 00:41:53: Albrecht: That sounds awesome Ada. Sort of like borrowing the best parts of Ares.
25-10-23 00:42:08: Guest2: I figured it out. It boots me if I change tabs.
25-10-23 00:42:39: Ada: Huh. Does it do that for anyone else?
25-10-23 00:43:02: Ada: Just wondering if it's something I should dig at or it's maybe a browser quirk.
25-10-23 00:43:13: Koline: It did that for me on my phone, but I wasn't sure if that was just a phone thing or not.
25-10-23 00:43:30: Emil: Yeah, I think I remember having the same issue on phone on another Evennia game.
25-10-23 00:43:31: Guest2: I went over Discord to message my friend about the game and it disconnected.
25-10-23 00:44:14: Albrecht: I'm not on mobile, but I can test it sometime.
25-10-23 00:44:18: Ada: Okay. I'll check if there's something I can tweak.
25-10-23 00:46:24: Albrecht: I don't remember any of the commands. They're probably different even if I did.
25-10-23 00:46:52: Antigone: fwiw I did not have the issue on iOS, Chrome
25-10-23 00:47:22: Guest2: I have to go but will try to come back on my laptop later. If not, tomorrow. I have apped, though.
25-10-23 00:47:34: Albrecht: Yay!
25-10-23 00:47:34: Ada: I got the app. :)
25-10-23 00:47:38: Albrecht: Good luck!
25-10-23 00:50:16: Ada: When you got disconnected, did you have to log in again?
25-10-23 00:50:56: Ada: I'm rummaging in the settings here. The webclient is entirely just what's there out of the box, as is.
25-10-23 00:52:41: Albrecht: I don't see what else it needs to do, personally. Simple, clean and elegant.
25-10-23 00:54:36: Ada: A couple of people have neat interactive MUD interfaces, which would be rather over the top for this.
25-10-23 00:55:23: Albrecht: Interesting.
25-10-23 00:55:29: Albrecht: I've never seen anything like that.
25-10-23 00:55:40: Albrecht: I'm old and old-fashioned I guess.
25-10-23 00:56:45: Albrecht: Is d4 the default floor for all skills, or is that some proficiency?
25-10-23 00:57:18: Ada: It's the floor. It's 'the average person', for purposes of this game.
25-10-23 00:58:01: Albrecht: I figured. My d4s seem like reasonable lows for him.
25-10-23 00:58:29: Ada: I changed thinking on this a few months ago but you may find older documentation that contradicts it. d4 is what the average person knows or can do. d6s are competence to a decent level. d8s are exceptional ability. d10 is really peak performance.
25-10-23 00:58:39: Ada: d12 is the stuff of legend.
25-10-23 00:58:51: Ada: Attributes are a little different - d6 is the regular person in that case.
25-10-23 00:59:51: Ada: Then distinctions are a comfortable d8, but you can 'hinder' them - step them down to a d4 - and gain a plot point in a scene. Maybe Albrecht is caught in a bar brawl somehow, and you figure that this really isn't his element, so you drop that to a d4.
25-10-23 01:00:48: Albrecht: Oh interesting.
25-10-23 01:01:54: Albrecht: Or lower my prudent prime minister to make an imprudent decision
25-10-23 01:02:20: Ada: Yeah. It's basically a call on your part to suck in a situation. :D
25-10-23 01:02:38: Ada: oh my goodness I haven't looked at the roll helpfile since May and I hate it
25-10-23 01:02:44: Albrecht: But then there's that special effect that eats plot points.
25-10-23 01:02:53: Albrecht: That special effect... that sounds nice and handy
25-10-23 01:11:18: Albrecht: Halloween is going to be even more amazing this year.
25-10-23 01:31:30: Ada: Woo!
25-10-23 01:32:11: Emil: The FUNdraiser is in the house.
25-10-23 01:32:19: Ada: I'm responsible for writing all the woo!, Eliza. :D
25-10-23 01:32:45: Ada: And the criminal pun.
25-10-23 01:33:23: Eliza: Wooooo!
25-10-23 01:33:32: Eliza: I love it!
25-10-23 01:35:41: Albrecht: Would it be possible to have a little more information about who people are in the finger and/or WHO?
25-10-23 01:35:56: Ada: Sure. What would you like? Or would you prefer it be customisable?
25-10-23 01:37:00: Albrecht: Families and ranks or something to that effect would be awesome. Maybe whether they're a head of house or some other key figure, if that's possible.
25-10-23 01:37:04: Ada: You can use info/set for arbitrary text fields on info, though I agree that the default looks slightly sparse.
25-10-23 01:37:35: Ada: Oh. Organisations and positions is a good shout.
25-10-23 01:41:45: Albrecht: I think especially for leader players, it helps a lot to be able to gist not only who's on but Who they are.
25-10-23 01:43:05: Albrecht: And then finger is where I'd go to try to learn as much as possible before an interaction. Maybe the desc, sometimes a personality brief. RP preferences fit well here, so people can set expectations and help keep themselves from getting surprised by triggers.
25-10-23 01:43:48: Albrecht: Sometimes a quote, either from the character or not, that sells the 'essence' in a line or two.
25-10-23 01:44:43: Albrecht: Ideally I could write a messenger to someone I've never met or contacted before from looking at their finger.
25-10-23 01:45:45: Albrecht: A link to the character sheet even
25-10-23 01:46:29: Ada: Hey, guest!
25-10-23 01:46:55: Ada: There should be a link as is, or else something is wonky.
25-10-23 01:47:16: Eliza: There's definitely a link in mine.
25-10-23 01:47:21: Albrecht: Me too
25-10-23 01:47:36: Ada: Oh lol. That'll teach me.
25-10-23 01:47:45: Albrecht: :giggles.
25-10-23 01:47:57: Emil: Game says no.
25-10-23 01:48:23: Albrecht: Break shit Ada! We believe you can do mayhem!
25-10-23 01:48:46: Emil: More, we support and cheer mayhem.
25-10-23 01:49:05: Albrecht: Yes. I'm golf-clapping quite enthusiastically.
25-10-23 01:50:29: Albrecht: Welcome, guests!
25-10-23 01:50:42: Albrecht: We may or may not be but definitely are breaking stuff!
25-10-23 01:51:12: Emil: Hello guests!
25-10-23 01:51:41: Albrecht: Man. I'm gonna start stapling 'em down.
25-10-23 01:51:58: Ada: lol hang on, I'm checking out the working commit.
25-10-23 01:52:00: Albrecht: :gives Guest4 the side-eye.
25-10-23 01:52:06: Emil: No, no, no. Stapling people is not kind and welcoming!
25-10-23 01:52:19: Emil: Use glue, instead. It only hurts if they try to leave.
25-10-23 01:52:49: Albrecht: Very wise.
25-10-23 01:53:19: Ada: Okay don't do the thing that I did.
25-10-23 01:53:59: Ada: Namely whimsically put something live after forgetting to look at it on the literally-right there local instance.
25-10-23 01:54:16: Albrecht: Fortunately, I cannot.
25-10-23 01:54:28: Emil: Do all your work on prod! Nothing ever goes wrong.
25-10-23 01:54:51: Antigone: I make that mistake all the time
25-10-23 01:55:28: Emil: Oh! Ada - it's not a high priority, but it'd be really interesting to see a theme file on if there's anything we need to know about customs around sexuality, gender, etc? LGBT characters, and the like.
25-10-23 01:56:50: Emil: Hello, Ithobaal!
25-10-23 01:56:56: Ithobaal: Hello
25-10-23 01:57:07: Ada: I got a question about same-sex marriage and I'm probably going to insert Roman-style adult noble adoption for couples or indeed individuals otherwise without children. It's not a big enough deal in intended stories for me to worry about the narrative implications thereof.
25-10-23 01:57:07: Eliza: Hi!
25-10-23 01:57:20: Albrecht: Heya Ithobaal!
25-10-23 01:57:28: Emil: Awesome! That sounds like a cool bit of culture. :D
25-10-23 01:58:10: Albrecht: Very interesting! So someone like myself could potentially adopt and raise a child without a wife.
25-10-23 01:58:27: Ada: I was thinking more adult adoptions.
25-10-23 01:58:38: Albrecht: Yeah and you did say that outright even.
25-10-23 01:58:40: Albrecht: I derped.
25-10-23 01:59:22: Ada: Within noble houses, the family would very much expect that it be a near-enough relative if they are to inherit.
25-10-23 01:59:45: Albrecht: But it would still allow for an unmarried leader to choose a successor.
25-10-23 02:00:01: Eliza: I've only got a second cousin that's already in charge and I wouldn't mind being a princess just putting that out there.
25-10-23 02:00:16: Ada: Yeah. I need to do a pass over the succession file tomorrow and will write in a note on marriage while I'm at it.
25-10-23 02:00:20: Albrecht: :grins.
25-10-23 02:00:55: Emil: Thank you! Emil isn't too worried about anything - his bro's GOT two kids who have not, thus far, died, but it's always nice to know.
25-10-23 02:00:58: Albrecht: I would love personally to be able to understand just exactly where Albrecht and his line fit in, but that's selfish and personal.
25-10-23 02:01:14: Ada: The main change is Hadash; I realised earlier I've referred to marriage, but it's not... quite that. There aren't enough nobles in Hadash to support marriage without all being Habsburg chinned to death, so they will need common partners.
25-10-23 02:01:38: Eliza: That would be very realistic tho
25-10-23 02:01:45: Eliza: Also still gross.
25-10-23 02:02:03: Albrecht: Love the smell of inbreeding in the morning.
25-10-23 02:02:54: Ada: lol. Yeah, no. It needs a modest rewrite.
25-10-23 02:03:30: Eliza: I might've on purpose picked the character that does not want anything to do with administration because it takes me FOREVER to get through theme files.
25-10-23 02:03:51: Albrecht: :giggles
25-10-23 02:04:11: Ada: If it's any comfort, the theme is only about 40,000 words total.
25-10-23 02:04:13: Albrecht: Yeah me too. Administrative tasks and lore reading are hard no for me.
25-10-23 02:04:33: Koline: I love tasks and I love lore and I love laws of succession.
25-10-23 02:04:37: Albrecht: I defer those tasks to my young protege the Empress.
25-10-23 02:04:57: Antigone: Koline will usurp us all and I'm okay with that
25-10-23 02:04:57: Emil: :toe ground. Love lore reading.
25-10-23 02:05:06: Albrecht: (Just kidding I love all those things.)
25-10-23 02:05:09: Eliza: I did go through and read about Albalaski and the Commonwealth and will delight in telling people wrong information about the Icespire.
25-10-23 02:05:45: Albrecht: We should compare notes and tell everyone different wrong information
25-10-23 02:06:52: Ada: The Icespire and Wayguard are places I could happily write a whole /thing/ on, because I have a really clear idea of what they are.
25-10-23 02:07:35: Eliza: My ancestors carved it from ice because they wanted to take in every sunrise and also did not understand the concept of 'privacy'
25-10-23 02:08:09: Eliza: Forget ice baths for sore muscles, try an ice bed!
25-10-23 02:08:19: Albrecht: Some day I want to create a MUSH where you have the full and normal L&L MUSH that plays as expected, but you can also go out and MUD to your heart's content and grind mobs and level up and stuff, and somehow it's balanced. I've puzzled over how to do it for decades. So just like, toss that in if you want.
25-10-23 02:08:26: Ada: By extension, this is also presumably the primary subject of Lonin artwork.
25-10-23 02:08:57: Ada: I'd love it, Albrecht, but I have not the first inkling how to marry the two concepts.
25-10-23 02:09:18: Albrecht: I know! Doesn't that sound awesome though?!
25-10-23 02:10:33: Albrecht: I think you have a set of normal, social attributes and skills that you advance with xp from votes like a MUSH. Then a separate set of skills, attributes, gear, etc. to go grind mobs
25-10-23 02:11:02: Ada: Even just automated adventures would be neat.
25-10-23 02:11:22: Emil: I briefly played on a game that had a mechanized 'dungeon in a box' thing where you could claim a plot, and get an actual box object that you could activate, and it would generate so many rooms for you and a group to go through, each one with a puzzle/trap or fight. There were different difficulty levels, etc.
25-10-23 02:11:23: Albrecht: Yes. Paste it onto a setting that's right on the frontier of danger, and let it go.
25-10-23 02:12:10: Eliza: I'll just be over here leveling up my social dice so that when hobgoblins invade I can shame them into leaving with one disappointed look.
25-10-23 02:12:12: Albrecht: Something like Dungeon Meshi or uh, whatever the sort of disturbing one was with the young kids where they climb down the Dungeon pit
25-10-23 02:12:16: Ada: That's pretty neat, Emil.
25-10-23 02:12:26: Emil: Made in Abyss.
25-10-23 02:12:32: Albrecht: Yeah dat one
25-10-23 02:13:00: Albrecht: Killer anime, but not super easy to watch sometimes.
25-10-23 02:13:15: Emil: Ada, it really was! But the system was also very different, being a card-based system. Which was, admittedly, pretty cool.
25-10-23 02:14:08: Emil: Hello, Theon!
25-10-23 02:14:12: Albrecht: Heya Theon!
25-10-23 02:14:22: Theon: Hello, public!
25-10-23 02:14:24: Koline: :waves~
25-10-23 02:16:07: Ada: Welcome, Theon! I need to do a quick pass of your sheet because uh
25-10-23 02:16:21: Ada: It was a little out of whack with the general norm :D
25-10-23 02:18:38: Theon: I know, I know. Too much economics, too little laser eyes.
25-10-23 02:18:48: Albrecht: So... what are your plans for the game, generally speaking, Ada? What can we sort of look forward to as the game opens and we get out there and shake things up?
25-10-23 02:19:17: Ada: I keep stalling out on the vision thing, so I'll say it in a not-very-well-formulated-for-a-document form here instead.
25-10-23 02:19:17: Antigone: Need bigger laser eyes
25-10-23 02:19:29: Albrecht: Always bigger laser eyes.
25-10-23 02:20:04: Emil: Can you have too large of laser eyes?
25-10-23 02:20:22: Antigone: I guess if you get top-heavy
25-10-23 02:20:32: Ada: I like characters being able to impact the world in tangible, visible ways. I am not good at writing stuff like, say, Arx's clue system and all that, and while there is (it's not exactly hidden!) a metaphysical layer, it is not necessarily the core struggle.
25-10-23 02:20:33: Eliza: Now everyone knows you're the secret robot, Theon way to go.
25-10-23 02:20:41: Eliza: Surprise this is really a sci-fi mush.
25-10-23 02:20:44: Theon: ./~ she has my Lily’s laser eyes ./~
25-10-23 02:20:57: Antigone: :rolls
25-10-23 02:21:21: Ada: The Dominion of Rin is set up as the early game 'crisis'. It's not the only one. It is not one to be easily solved by just walking up and hitting it.
25-10-23 02:21:29: Emil: Until ash creatures burn our fields down!
25-10-23 02:22:50: Ada: There will be loss. I think I need to say it up-front. It won't really be character loss - I'm not a fan of that in stories unless the player is going at it really really aware of what they're getting into - but it will be loss of things, of (non-player) people, of places.
25-10-23 02:22:51: Albrecht: I'm actually pretty relieved to hear that. For me the clue system rapidly turned into Classified Pokemon, and as a leader it meant countless meetings just to be able to share clues.
25-10-23 02:24:14: Ada: There will be, insofar as I can manage it, intrigue. A number of characters, some without it being publicly noted, are set up for it.
25-10-23 02:24:22: Emil: Yeah. I enjoy intrigue and politicking and problems which can only partially be solved by charging at them on a large horse. Arx's clue system was a fun sort of innovation, but it was definitely a first draft of an idea.
25-10-23 02:24:26: Theon: I prefer Classified Digimon myself.
25-10-23 02:24:56: Albrecht: One thing I really enjoyed was being able to work on the stats of my org and then be able to wield them to generate resources, troops, whatever appropriate stuff. Will there be that sort of thing?
25-10-23 02:25:58: Eliza: you are all so industrious. I'm over here like what is my house called and where am I
25-10-23 02:26:02: Albrecht: Also sort of how wealth works in general, as a question.
25-10-23 02:26:09: Antigone: Me too Eliza
25-10-23 02:26:36: Ada: Somewhat. The resource allocations represent surpluses. Permanent increases will be really hard to get, and a result of silly investments like the Reuss-Ineth Canal. You'll be able to generate more short-term surpluses though, before that is assumed to merge into the general turnover and upkeep of the org.
25-10-23 02:27:08: Eliza: :hugs low administration dice, "Shh, shh, we will be useless and we will like it."
25-10-23 02:27:11: Albrecht: And do big ol' projects for bigger or more permanent changes?
25-10-23 02:27:11: Emil: SILLY? Well, I NEVER?
25-10-23 02:27:21: Albrecht: People love a big ol' project.
25-10-23 02:27:25: Emil: (No, it's a fair cop. We are hurting. Plz give money.)
25-10-23 02:27:27: Ada: So you could tell me in an action that you've dredged the river by Firstbridge or whatever, and I go "Cool, river traffic is eased for a while" and bump up a wealth die for that chapter.
25-10-23 02:27:56: Ada: And, yeah. The return on investment is questionable. And, Eliza!
25-10-23 02:28:04: Ada: Political Capital is the other expendable resource.
25-10-23 02:28:04: Albrecht: Perfect, that answers a lot of my questions as far as how to go about affecting changes and projects and stuff.
25-10-23 02:28:08: Theon: “I dredged the river.” “You do a bad job. The river is on fire
25-10-23 02:28:15: Emil: Maybe we need an economist. *eyes Theon.*
25-10-23 02:28:17: Ada: Haha.
25-10-23 02:28:26: Antigone: If I had a nickel for every time someone set the river on fire
25-10-23 02:28:44: Albrecht: You'd probably have two nickels, but it's still weird that it happened twice.
25-10-23 02:28:45: Koline: As Empress, I condemn setting our valuable rivers on fire.
25-10-23 02:29:11: Ada: I'll get it out of draft on my computer and in some intelligible form before opening, but this is where the Cortex effect die kicks in. If you're trying to generate wealth/political capital off an action, the size of what you get will derive from the effect die.
25-10-23 02:29:16: Emil: Just think of it as a public fish feast?
25-10-23 02:29:18: Eliza: Woo! It's time for WaterFire parties!
25-10-23 02:29:50: Theon: The river in Cleveland has caught on fire 13 times. So now you’re rich!
25-10-23 02:29:58: Ada: I have a big red button that distributes org (and a few individual PC) resources per chapter, too.
25-10-23 02:30:15: Emil: Ooooh.
25-10-23 02:30:22: Ada: Other actions might purely be narrative, then.
25-10-23 02:30:40: Albrecht: So what about individual wealth as appropriate? Does that already exist in some form?
25-10-23 02:31:34: Ada: PCs' day-to-day is assumed to be covered by their org. They could get a wealth die from the org for the big picture things. Not many people are individually wealthy enough (without an org) to get their very own wealth die.
25-10-23 02:32:26: Albrecht: Ok, that makes sense. So someone like me is dependent on my org for my 'wealth'.
25-10-23 02:32:43: Albrecht: It's not 'mine', I'm just using it.
25-10-23 02:32:53: Ada: Yup. The only character currently pulling down a purely independent income in fact is Penelope.
25-10-23 02:33:21: Ada: I will do a pass of this next week (I am off work the whole week :D) so it will be tidier then.
25-10-23 02:33:43: Emil: Oh, yeah, that makes sense. I was reading her earlier and thinking 'ah, there's our bigtime merchant'.
25-10-23 02:33:44: Albrecht: So say somebody like a certain imperial prime minister did want to make some investments, set himself up as independently wealthy... how to get that seed?
25-10-23 02:33:51: Theon: :will start a side hustle selling erotic ledgers.
25-10-23 02:34:07: Ada: Albrecht, you extort it from Thasen houses.
25-10-23 02:34:12: Ada: Unironically.
25-10-23 02:34:18: Albrecht: :takes notes.
25-10-23 02:34:52: Albrecht: Alright. So I needn't think I'm above getting my hands a little dirty in all this.
25-10-23 02:34:54: Ada: I may need to write it in bigger letters, but Thasen exists at the sufferance of the Imperial Crown, and the Thalund naval garrison is a threat as much as a guarantee.
25-10-23 02:35:35: Ada: I almost just made Thasen characters all NPCs. They are in a rough place.
25-10-23 02:35:50: Albrecht: So one could raid and extort them at will, ad nauseum, farming them like a WoW boss.
25-10-23 02:36:45: Ada: They remit money from maritime trade to the Crown in exchange for getting to keep some themselves and keeping Adanan nobility away from the grubby business of commerce.
25-10-23 02:37:44: Albrecht: That makes sense too. Because it would be beneath nobility, certainly way beneath royalty, to dabble in banal commerce.
25-10-23 02:38:02: Emil: Mind you, it feels like adding to their social instability could explode in some _entertaining_ but bloody ways.
25-10-23 02:39:52: Albrecht: So what are some ways a royal might earn money in the Empire without it being gauche?
25-10-23 02:40:15: Theon: Sell ten thousand bushels of wheat!
25-10-23 02:40:27: Ada: Tax collecting. Solicitation of gifts to cover political expenses. Be Dyrian or Hadashi.
25-10-23 02:40:46: Albrecht: lol
25-10-23 02:40:58: Albrecht: Albrecht gots to pad his nest baby
25-10-23 02:40:58: Emil: Arrange for a merchant to have preferential treatment in your markets for a kickback in the form of taxes that come to the House coffers and persuade your head of house you deserve the lion's share?
25-10-23 02:41:18: Ada: Theon can sell wheat. :D But, yeah, stuff like Emil said.
25-10-23 02:41:48: Theon: Gamble. Over how much wheat I have.
25-10-23 02:42:10: Albrecht: Easy. It's all the wheat.
25-10-23 02:43:35: Ada: Oh, also Theon, I can get a description in for you soon, though if you want to write one yourself, have at it.
25-10-23 02:44:02: Theon: I can write something!
25-10-23 02:44:37: Emil: In some times and cultures, nobility would fund merchant expeditions to foreign lands - merchants do all the dirty commerce work, and then, IF the expedition comes back laden with exotic, rare goods to sell, the nobles get a discreet return. IF. Sometimes ships sink. Or the merchants just quietly skim off the top. :D
25-10-23 02:44:51: Ada: Efthymia might be a good reference point then!
25-10-23 02:45:22: Theon: Theon looks like this >:^| He is wearing: boring shoes, belt, no hat.
25-10-23 02:46:26: Eliza: oh where are people getting their character pictures? I have zero ideas for those.
25-10-23 02:46:30: Albrecht: Well folks, I need to head to bed for tonight. It was great to meet you all and I can't wait to tell all the awesome stories together. See you tomorrow!
25-10-23 02:46:36: Emil: Take care!
25-10-23 02:47:14: Emil: Eliza, I actually used this, for this time: https://thefcdproject.tumblr.com/
25-10-23 02:47:49: Emil: Found someone who looked 'about right', then Googled them specifically for more options of photos.
25-10-23 02:48:44: Emil: Sometimes I have a strong picture, but this time was really "a less terrifying version of his older brother, and no mustache".
25-10-23 02:48:52: Ada: That's a handy site.
25-10-23 02:49:43: Emil: Just googling the age-gender-race-hair-eye used to work well, but with AI nonsense, it's become less and less useful.
25-10-23 02:50:07: Ada: I gather from another message that a rule on AI is the done thing, so this is it for this game: I'd really prefer to see people's own words than those of an LLM. Please, even if you aren't a confident writer, write in your own words. This rule isn't particularly enforceable unless it's flagrantly obvious that it's an LLM. Just please use your own words.
25-10-23 02:50:43: Theon: Squint at anyone using em dashes.
25-10-23 02:50:59: Emil: YOU CAN PRY THEM FROM MY COLD DEAD HANDS.
25-10-23 02:51:10: Emil: I had them first! They're mine!
25-10-23 02:51:30: Ada: I write stuff professionally (not creatively, mind you) and have never in my life used an em dash.
25-10-23 02:51:53: Emil: I write stuff creatively and professionally (research) and use them all the time. :D
25-10-23 02:53:11: Ada: Honestly, more than the em dash, it's the LLM going off the rails on purple prose and missing the point of what's happening that's a tell.
25-10-23 02:53:26: Ada: Except we're all also quite capable of that from time to time.
25-10-23 02:56:25: Theon: last 10
25-10-23 02:56:33: Theon: Well, that didn't work.
25-10-23 02:56:39: Emil: channel/history :D
25-10-23 02:56:47: Ada: I need to do an alias for that, don't I?
25-10-23 02:57:02: Emil: Heehee. I think it would help.
25-10-23 02:58:24: Ada: Okay. There's a slightly tweaked who and info command. I don't exactly love who, but I am also going to bed.
25-10-23 02:59:06: Ada: Would appreciate requests if any bugs pop up. Good night!
25-10-23 02:59:41: Emil: G'night!
25-10-23 03:02:24: Eliza: Is Albalaski a noble family without titles? I know my second cousin is the Grand Duchess, but do the rest of us slum it as 'just the first name is fine'
25-10-23 03:03:01: Eliza: "Please, no need for formalities, call me Eliza." "You don't have a title." "I SAID MY FIRST NAME IS FINE!"
25-10-23 03:08:02: Emil: It looooks like if you're not head of house then you're a member of parliament, and therefore might not have an 'individual' title?
25-10-23 03:08:57: Emil: Sounds like they like to maintain the illusion that aside from head of house and the monarch, 'all nobles are equal'.
25-10-23 03:10:03: Emil: Ah-ha, yes. Looks like individual titles aside from Grand Duchess and monarch are position designators granted by parliament.
25-10-23 03:10:51: Theon: Eliza Albalaski is an anagram of Kill Azalea Bias, which I think is something we could all work on.
25-10-23 03:11:12: Emil: I imagine most nobles from most other realms would call Eliza 'Lady' as a matter of course unless she indicated she didn't like it.
25-10-23 12:43:55: Albrecht: Morning!
25-10-23 12:45:51: Andreas: morning!
25-10-23 12:47:53: Albrecht: How's Andreas?
25-10-23 12:51:00: Ada: Hey hey. Albrecht, is the info tweak more helpful?
25-10-23 12:52:14: Albrecht: That's much better!
25-10-23 12:52:20: Albrecht: Thanks!
25-10-23 12:52:40: Ada: Cool. Specific hooks can go in with info/set
25-10-23 12:54:29: Andreas: Andreas is slowly getting over a cold/possibly minor covid or whatever. How's Albrecht?
25-10-23 12:54:59: Albrecht: I could complain, but I won't.
25-10-23 12:55:24: Albrecht: My wife's recovering from a full hysterectomy so I've been a busy busy boy.
25-10-23 12:55:31: Andreas: aaaah yes
25-10-23 13:02:12: Albrecht: Got to run her to an appointment. I'll be lurking, and back later.
25-10-23 13:02:35: Albrecht: Ooh an afk or idle command where we can set the message would be awesome.
25-10-23 13:02:45: Ada: Oh. Sure.
25-10-23 13:03:03: Albrecht: I like you. ;)
25-10-23 15:42:26: Ada: I added an AFK command to glitz up your bouts of idleness.
25-10-23 15:43:21: Udo: Yay! New commands!
25-10-23 15:43:43: Orestes: :salutes
25-10-23 15:43:44: Ada: Speaking of, I'll probably take out the exact idle time from who. I'm of two minds about it.
25-10-23 15:44:49: Udo: In the time between now and the start of game, are you looking for us to test the commands and find bugs?
25-10-23 15:45:18: Ada: Sure, if you're game to. I'd love if you can give feedback on the UX.
25-10-23 15:45:55: Udo: Well, I've already found one. The org command does nothing if you just type it solo. help org indicates that it should list the organizations your character is a part of.
25-10-23 15:46:14: Ada: I'll check it out.
25-10-23 15:46:28: Orestes: On the UX side, the Public channel on the website has black text over a grey background for me which makes it hard to read.
25-10-23 15:46:50: Udo: It does that for me as well.
25-10-23 15:52:15: Ada: How's that?
25-10-23 15:52:57: Ada: You may need to hard refresh your browser.
25-10-23 15:53:12: Orestes: Much better! Thanks
25-10-23 15:53:34: Ada: The org command is fixed too, not that it's particularly exciting.
25-10-23 15:56:39: Udo: Yep, looks good to me too.
25-10-23 15:56:46: Orestes: Also, a bit of a nit but I think Otrese is accidentally misspelled as Oreste in House Kournis' wiki page.
25-10-23 15:58:47: Ada: Whoops. Fixed.
25-10-23 15:59:46: Ada: I am not a fan of the Kournis heraldry but I might ask someone with better visual chops than me to enliven them all a little.
25-10-23 15:59:56: Orestes: Nbd I just had a funny thought that if House Oreste existed and Orestes somehow married into it then he'd have an absolutely fantastic name.
25-10-23 16:00:43: Ada: I've had a couple of hiccups. In my first drafts, the continent was Elsoth, then I flipped that around slightly, but a few instances of Elsoth made it all the way from January to September.
25-10-23 16:02:22: Orestes: I'm amazed at how detailed the wiki is. I can only imagine how much time and work you put into it.
25-10-23 16:03:52: Orestes: I might not look great saying this, but when I saw how much content there was my initial assumption was that much of it was written by artificial idiots and I sort of accepted that as the cost of doing business these days in MUSHes.
25-10-23 16:04:29: Orestes: Which is a big reason I haven't played in a while. Couldn't be happier to be wrong about that in this case.
25-10-23 16:04:43: Ada: Nah. I generated a big list of names (instead of grabbing from Wikipedia :D) but that was the limit of it in writing.
25-10-23 16:05:08: Ada: The amount of time spent clicking through the list of German names on there.
25-10-23 16:25:34: Albrecht: I'm just so excited to be here at the beginning that I can't even communicate it. You come along later when these characters have been played and for me at least, I always feel like I'm borrowing the bit, like I don't own it and I have to follow precedent as carefully as possible. Here I feel like I can decide who Albrecht is, settle into his skin, and really own the role. the entirely process up massively.
25-10-23 16:09:56: Ada: I wouldn't use it for a more complex project, granted. I have a friend who decided to see how to break AI by making an emulator for an old MechWarrior game and it was fascinating how it went wrong. It looked /great/. Just that one specific game was missing two specific API hooks (not sure they were called that at the time) common to its generation, but the model didn't know that.
25-10-23 16:15:58: Orestes: :has to drop for work and won't be back for a while, so likely to miss you all until the weekend rolls along
25-10-23 16:16:41: Orestes: Have a good one :)
25-10-23 16:20:01: Albrecht: Is it the 31st yet?
25-10-23 16:20:04: Albrecht: :grins.
25-10-23 16:20:53: Ada: It is not and that's for the best, because I want to get everything tidied up pre-opening.
25-10-23 16:21:20: Albrecht: Can't rush perfection! I'm happy to let ya cook.
25-10-23 16:21:45: Ada: lol. Look what my CSS change did to the characters page.
25-10-23 16:22:58: Albrecht: It looks ok to me?
25-10-23 16:24:02: Ada: The light blue box has a big chunky grey and orange one over it for me.
25-10-23 16:24:13: Ada: The channel CSS accidentally encroached on anything in a code tag.
25-10-23 16:24:45: Ada: And it's fixed :)
25-10-23 16:25:00: Albrecht: Yay!
25-10-23 16:26:57: Ada: I have a perhaps questionable theory that the way to dodge this is, when a previously-played character is picked up, for them to be dropped essentially immediately into actions and events.
25-10-23 16:27:30: Ada: Once the character has /done/ something, it's easier to feel ownership than to keep referring back to what the previous player did and be like "oh yeah I did that".
25-10-23 16:27:39: Albrecht: Nope I think that makes a ton of sense. Immediately take on something where you have to fill that leader's shoes and make decisions before you can feel the inertia.
25-10-23 16:31:27: Ada: Fingers crossed. :D
25-10-23 17:42:23: Ada: Hey, guest!
25-10-23 17:42:52: Guest1: hey
25-10-23 17:43:37: Ada: Feel free to ask if you have any questions.
25-10-23 17:45:09: Koline: :peeks in for a few minutes while on break.
25-10-23 17:45:34: Ada: Hi Koline!
25-10-23 18:41:02: Ada: I'm waffling through that page on general vision again. :D Honestly, the elevator pitch is on some level "What if Warhammer and Dragon age, but lords and ladies?"
25-10-23 18:51:58: Albrecht: Metal.
25-10-23 18:53:03: Albrecht: Can we build Koline into a giant throne?
25-10-23 18:53:17: Albrecht: Ooh we want space marines!
25-10-23 18:56:52: Ada: lol. Warhammer Fantasy. :D
25-10-23 18:57:26: Ada: Still has Chaos, though. The inception of the Greytides was some mix of Blights and Chaos Waste incursions. It moved on from there, granted.
25-10-23 20:17:03: Emil: Hello hello
25-10-23 20:17:10: Ada: Hey!
25-10-23 20:18:11: Emil: How is?
25-10-23 20:19:20: Ada: Good! I'm almost finished that darn vision page.
25-10-23 20:19:50: Emil: Oh, hey, yay! Looking forward to reading it!
25-10-23 20:20:18: Ada: People have (validly enough) wondered at the points of tension in the game, so I'm using the Rin example.
25-10-23 20:20:55: Emil: Ahhhh. Yeah. Also, a lot of people don't...read theme files very closely, I'm afraid.
25-10-23 20:21:46: Ada: I'm a big fan of HarnWorld, if you're familiar, and to a certain extent the structure of world files here follows the Harn style.
25-10-23 20:22:11: Emil: I am not! I think I've heard the name before, but not familiar with the setting/system.
25-10-23 20:22:39: Ada: It's a "realistic" medieval fantasy setting. Basically every word they have about a place or current affairs is a hook.
25-10-23 20:24:14: Ada: From the affairs of the great and mighty down to even the most hilariously low-level things like a miller putting sawdust in flour or cook in a keep's kitchen having a dalliance with a man-at-arms. It's material for players to pick up on, but not a story in itself.
25-10-23 20:24:33: Ada: But if a player goes with it, it - ideally - holds together well enough to make parts of a story.
25-10-23 20:24:52: Ada: Obviously, I am one person, not a company spending 40 years writing a setting. :D
25-10-23 20:31:58: Emil: Obviously! And I like that. Figure out where players' interest is caught and build from there based on what they do about it.
25-10-23 20:45:00: Albrecht: If there is an Enemy from the outside to focus on, that gives a lot of stuff to do. Investigating them, campaigning against them, all the homeland work that goes into foreign wars.
25-10-23 20:45:46: Albrecht: Back on Firan it was off to war against the Shamibelians every IC summer, and it was the highlight of the year for all the soldiery combat types.
25-10-23 20:48:33: Ada: The Terror is always, always there. The Red Waste and the Plains Kingdoms too, though with distinct flavours. Though only one of these is somewhere people might want to conquer sometime.
25-10-23 20:49:13: Ada: Or, well, the Labyrinth, but I left House Phavah off the initial rosters, and it's closest.
25-10-23 20:49:42: Emil: Jungle sounds fun! Not for Emil. He would die. But, y'know, fun for others!
25-10-23 20:50:07: Albrecht: Will there be org skills and different resource types, like how Arx did it? It was fun to be able to build up your org in unique ways that made them better at this or that than another house might be, through the projects they put in.
25-10-23 20:50:52: Albrecht: Which also gave people stuff to do, running those projects.
25-10-23 20:51:11: Ada: Only if I think of a sound way to balance and integrate it into the Cortex system.
25-10-23 20:51:37: Ada: That will manifest in resource availability though, to some extent.
25-10-23 20:52:06: Ada: A few of the Commonwealth houses will have beefy military assets, a measure of political capital, and zero wealth.
25-10-23 20:52:10: Emil: Makes sense! It sounds like, from what you've said before, that a successful outcome on a project might let people add a temp asset for a season or whatever to reflect "yes, you chopped up bandits preying on your people, here's more taxes" or whatever.
25-10-23 20:52:18: Albrecht: I guess my bottom line on that one is that the ability to run project actions to improve facets of an org's performance or generation or whatever would be fun.
25-10-23 20:52:52: Albrecht: And is a way that orgs can create their own fun with minimal feedback from a GM.
25-10-23 20:53:25: Ada: I agree in principle; I just don't have a great way to implement it in practice. I'll have the action system up Very Soon (TM) and people can do a mock run or two to see how that will go.
25-10-23 20:53:56: Ada: (it's not hard code; I'm just caught on a design decision)
25-10-23 20:54:07: Emil: :is excited to see how this game plays out in its own way!
25-10-23 20:54:37: Albrecht: Me too. I don't want to try to influence it to be more like one thing or another.
25-10-23 20:54:52: Albrecht: Unique ideas are going to be more fun.
25-10-23 20:56:42: Albrecht: It also served as part of the route a House could take to grow, if that's intended to be possible in this society.
25-10-23 20:56:49: Emil: Hello, Koline!
25-10-23 20:56:52: Koline: Hello~
25-10-23 20:56:56: Albrecht: Evening Koline!
25-10-23 20:57:07: Emil: How heavy weighs the crown this day?
25-10-23 20:57:10: Albrecht: Here she is, Miss Empress!
25-10-23 20:57:18: Koline: My neck remains strong!
25-10-23 20:57:27: Emil: :cheer!
25-10-23 20:57:50: Albrecht: I'll brace her neck personally all day long if that's what it takes to keep the Empire safe and sound.
25-10-23 21:06:22: Ada: I'm not going to claim this is the most cohesive bit of writing, but https://empiremush.org/information/ideas-behind-the-game/
25-10-23 21:08:50: Emil: CALLING US OUT.
25-10-23 21:09:31: Emil: No, seriously, I think that's fun. It's great to see some of historical inspiration.
25-10-23 21:09:51: Ada: I almost called out Lindner for being the one group that does things /because/.
25-10-23 21:13:36: Ada: Hey, guest!
25-10-23 21:28:04: Albrecht: Welcome!
25-10-23 21:36:44: Ada: Okay. Here's my design decision hang-up for actions.
25-10-23 21:38:20: Ada: My preferred option is this: someone says they want to do an action, I tell them what's required, and what the obstacles are. Each of these would very likely require other characters to overcome, and in any event, people will have limited action rolls per chapter. Each action would probably have two rounds of rolls at a minimum, to really take advantage of the system, the complications, plot points, and, honestly, to hopefully add narrative engagement.
25-10-23 21:39:08: Emil: Makes sense.
25-10-23 21:39:40: Ada: However, I'm not quite convinced that that isn't going to look a bit like work compared with everyone just saying what they want to do and me rolling some dice for them, which is a well-trodden way of doing it.
25-10-23 21:43:21: Emil: Hmm. As a player, I sort of prefer being told the obstacles, and then figuring out how I want to overcome them, Maybe with something like 4E's skill challenge idea of 'here are some preferred stats/skills, and here's a couple that absolutely won't work for this phase' to keep people from leaning on their one good pool all the time.
25-10-23 21:47:26: Ada: Okay, that's helpful. I do need to calibrate it to work for people doing things where they can't very well pop back to Sanctuary to plan Step Two, though.
25-10-23 21:49:02: Emil: Hm. Maybe flag obstacles as 'commitment' or something that would flag 'if you're taking on this task, you will be 'on your own' for X phases, unable to tag someone else in'?
25-10-23 21:50:25: Ada: That's a good shout. It would require a little suspension of disbelief on players' parts, since their characters might simultaneously be hanging out in Park Hall while also being in an action to explore the Red Waste.
25-10-23 21:50:58: Emil: Handwave, handwave. we're pretty good at that. :D
25-10-23 21:52:47: Albrecht: I would go with whatever is simplest in execution on your end. I know that by the end of Arx, Apos and his crew were drowning in actions.
25-10-23 21:53:07: Albrecht: They all required a lot of writing and GMing and work.
25-10-23 21:53:12: Ada: Tbh that's the first option. All-in-one actions require all-in-one customised responses.
25-10-23 21:53:57: Ada: Telling players what the obstacles are, letting them roll, and letting them narrate what their characters get up to removes that issue, I suspect.
25-10-23 21:54:07: Emil: Very true. Actions took a LOT of writing work to resolve. Honestly, I would recommend an upper limit on how many people can be involved, because writing stuff out for thirty people all trying to do the same thing was...a thing.
25-10-23 21:54:48: Albrecht: Yes, I would put the action system as one of Arx's critical failures, and I did love the game.
25-10-23 21:54:52: Ada: It was a very, very big game.
25-10-23 21:55:50: Albrecht: Yeah it got popular and it got big, and then all those well-done customized action responses became impractical at best.
25-10-23 21:57:40: Ada: I won't pre-suppose that as a problem, anyway. :D I'd like to be able to turn things around to people quickly though.
25-10-23 22:07:32: Albrecht: Well they weren't always used for huge defensive campaigns with 500 characters. Sometimes it was stuff as little as trying to investigate your character's little special magic or their personal secret, stuff like that.
25-10-23 22:12:15: Ada: That's true!
25-10-23 22:13:21: Albrecht: I know there was a discussion at one point that maybe something different than actions should be used for that sort of stuff, the large-scale stuff. A different system altogether basically, with actions then being more personal or org specific, rather than for reacting as a Compact to the next Big Bad.
25-10-23 22:13:51: Koline: I think a big time-saver for you, Ada, would also be to be very clear where the 'invisible walls' of actions are.
25-10-23 22:14:14: Albrecht: It doesn't split up or rejoin itself well without a ton of digging and archiving and hand-holding.
25-10-23 22:16:43: Ada: I'll have to see how scaleable it is. It's a fair thing to watch out for.
25-10-23 22:17:14: Koline: Don't be afraid to say 'I am just one storyteller and while I appreciate the enthusiasm, your action to go find a new continent full of rare earths and magic birds does would split off a bit too far from the storytelling of this season...' or whatever.
25-10-23 22:17:32: Ada: See: Cham and Anath. :D
25-10-23 22:17:35: Koline: Does would. I'm tired.
25-10-23 22:17:52: Zaria: Exploring is bad, just ask my husband.
25-10-23 22:18:07: Ada: He explored a place called the Terror.
25-10-23 22:18:17: Koline: Sounds like a nice place.
25-10-23 22:18:51: Koline: :goes to eat dinner in the hopes that it will restore some brain function, back in a bit.
25-10-23 22:21:01: Albrecht: I have faith that you'll be able to figure out an awesome way that you want to do it, and I'm way more interested in playing your unique game than some clone of games that died for a reason. You have good ideas, and I think this place will be a hit, so while I respect setting reasonable expectations, I do urge you to spare a thought for what happens if you get the wave of unhomed Arx players plus some others to settle here. It's not that outlandish a possibility, at all.
25-10-23 22:22:05: Albrecht: That crew was like 600-odd players at one point.
25-10-23 22:22:07: Zaria: Waves of neeeeeeeed.
25-10-23 22:22:31: Ada: It hits a hard limit with the number of rosters, I guess - though I'm not convinced that those players are still in the hobby!
25-10-23 22:22:53: Ada: But, well, between claimed quarters and expressed interest, a quarter of the roster is gone.
25-10-23 22:23:04: Ada: Er, claimed characters, of course.
25-10-23 22:23:05: Albrecht: There's no Evennia roster L&L games out there, except this one. Like others, this is what I want to play; if there is one, I'll be there. Word's gonna get out.
25-10-23 22:23:44: Emil: With any game about half of the opening rush will idle out quick for various reasons.
25-10-23 22:23:58: Ada: Waves of need is about right. And, yeah. That too Emil.
25-10-23 22:24:50: Koline: There will be trial and error, but I have faith you'll find the sweet spot for what entertains players, stays fun for you, and doesn't become 24/7 unpaid creative labor.
25-10-23 22:25:09: Koline: And once that sweet spot is found, well. People can ask for their $0 back if they don't like it. ;)
25-10-23 22:25:12: Ada: I've done the hard part. I think.
25-10-23 22:25:17: Albrecht: I second all of that.
25-10-23 22:26:13: Emil: Yes.
25-10-23 22:27:03: Albrecht: I really think the ideas and theme are sound, it has the spark that it needs to take off.
25-10-23 22:27:38: Ada: Also a couple of bells and whistles pending. All going well, I might put the scene logger live soon. :)
25-10-23 22:27:53: Albrecht: :cheers!
25-10-23 22:28:12: Emil: Yay!
25-10-23 22:30:43: Zaria: The whispers of gaming nerds will be heard, I promise you.
25-10-23 22:31:17: Guest3: girl i am so excited for ur game i have been craving smth to scratch the arx itch 5ever
25-10-23 22:32:01: Albrecht: I know, right?!
25-10-23 22:32:24: Albrecht: I think Arx 2 got lost somewhere.
25-10-23 22:32:36: Ada: It has some really really sophisticated code going on!
25-10-23 22:32:44: Guest3: lol i wasnt counting on it
25-10-23 22:32:54: Ada: https://github.com/Arx-Game/arxii
25-10-23 22:32:57: Koline: My assumption with Arx 2 is that Apos learned his lesson about 'opening the game before all the code he wanted to incorporate was finished.'
25-10-23 22:33:10: Albrecht: Good to see it's still alive, honestly.
25-10-23 22:33:24: Ada: I haven't dug much but it looks like Tehom was beavering away through August.
25-10-23 22:33:40: Albrecht: Excellent.
25-10-23 22:33:47: Ada: Having the game mechanics be data-driven rather than code-driven is a great design choice for enabling non-coders.
25-10-23 22:34:12: Albrecht: I keep telling myself next time I'm just going to play a normal, heroic type, somebody to go on quests and stuff. And then I go and find an Albrecht I can't refuse.
25-10-23 22:34:32: Koline: Diplomatic quests are still quests!
25-10-23 22:34:47: Albrecht: True!
25-10-23 22:34:48: Ada: Oh! I had a description idea for Walther. :D
25-10-23 22:34:58: Zaria: I can poke Apossy and see where the game is at.  I know he was working on it a lot.
25-10-23 22:35:32: Albrecht: I don't wish to be nosy about it. Like I said, I'm just kind of relieved to hear it's still  happening, at whatever pace.
25-10-23 22:36:52: Albrecht: Darren was one of my favorite characters I've ever played, chiefly because Apos' setting and plots made it so challenging to plan against.
25-10-23 22:37:22: Koline: Apos is very good about making things up on the spot and making you think that it was all a grand plan unfolding. ;)
25-10-23 22:37:36: Albrecht: :grins.
25-10-23 22:37:37: Koline: Which was the blessing and the curse of Arx theme in general.
25-10-23 22:37:54: Koline: And why there were 5k clues.
25-10-23 22:38:02: Albrecht: Oh the clues.
25-10-23 22:38:11: Ada: Whew. There's something I'm not and won't be doing. :D
25-10-23 22:38:46: Albrecht: "I have to get through all 20 of these meetings so I can send everyone all these clues and get people on the same page for this action," lol
25-10-23 22:38:48: Emil: To be fair, even Apos hated clues. Not the idea but the mechanics/execution.
25-10-23 22:38:54: Zaria: The secrets, too.
25-10-23 22:38:58: Koline: If there's any one lesson to learn from Arx and other similarly massive-metaplot games, it's to only bend over backwards as much as your spine feels comfortable, Ada. ;)
25-10-23 22:39:17: Zaria: :went from a Whisper to a lost Princess.  Le sad.
25-10-23 22:40:04: Albrecht: I really need to start memorizing who people are.
25-10-23 22:40:16: Koline: :is your cousin, the Empress.
25-10-23 22:40:50: Albrecht: :squints. "Have we met, young lady? You look like someone. My niece? No, that's not it..."
25-10-23 22:41:09: Koline: His eyes are going. :(
25-10-23 22:41:40: Albrecht: I've just had a lot of whatever the marijuana is called in this game.
25-10-23 22:41:58: Zaria: :is the Head of House Albalski.  Say that three times after drinking.
25-10-23 22:41:58: Koline: That's supposed to FIX glaucoma, not make things blurrier!
25-10-23 22:42:59: Albrecht: My fat ass is the Imperial Prime Minister. Of that Empire thing.
25-10-23 22:43:38: Antigone: Damn it, Jim, I'm a doctor!
25-10-23 22:44:28: Ada: Hadn't thought of drugs at all but I figure opium is pretty widespread.
25-10-23 22:45:00: Albrecht: I do think my man would enjoy some tasteful vices.
25-10-23 22:45:26: Albrecht: I mean, what's a little opium between friends.
25-10-23 22:49:18: Ada: Not much, unless it starts becoming a societal problem.
25-10-23 22:50:34: Ada: On the level PCs are at, they might also fight a war or two to force foreign governments to let people buy their drugs.
25-10-23 22:51:09: Zaria: :pat pats.  "We love our soldiers."
25-10-23 22:52:16: Ada: To be clear, while that did actually happen, I'm not sure fictional Opium Wars are /quite/ what I'm aiming for.
25-10-23 22:52:42: Albrecht: :grins.
25-10-23 22:52:51: Koline: :is going to /attempt/ to be slightly less evil than real life history.
25-10-23 22:52:56: Albrecht: :puts his Asian Studies degree away.
25-10-23 22:54:49: Ada: Playing characters on a game anything like real history would make the game horrifying quickly.
25-10-23 22:55:34: Emil: Indeed.
25-10-23 22:57:39: Zaria: :hides her pear of anguish.  "What?  Awww man."
25-10-23 23:51:18: Zaria: What do we think of my picture?
25-10-23 23:52:41: Emil: Ooh, nice!
25-10-23 23:54:28: Zaria: Very boss, but approachable, I hope.
25-10-23 23:56:46: Ada: It's good!
25-10-23 23:58:47: Ada: Hey, guest!
25-10-23 23:58:57: Guest1: :wave, just browsing for now.
25-10-24 00:18:54: Zaria: Oh no.  Anti has gone.
25-10-24 00:24:47: Ada: Okay. That is - fingers crossed - scenes working.
25-10-24 00:30:04: Emil: Oooh!
25-10-24 00:30:08: Emil: SCENES
25-10-24 00:30:29: Zaria: :walk walk walk walk, and scene!
25-10-24 00:31:41: Ada: They - rather specifically - don't do what they do on Ares. Feel free to test it if you want. I can delete it later.
25-10-24 00:33:08: Albrecht: So it is or is not intended for asynchronous play?
25-10-24 00:33:28: Emil: I think the help logs are a little skewed.
25-10-24 00:33:39: Emil: Help files, even.
25-10-24 00:34:09: Ada: Hm. Hang on. It's a docstring in the code. Wonder what's up.
25-10-24 00:34:48: Ada: It is not for async though. It's just a logging tool. Private scenes are just that - private (and staff, so, you know, mind my sanity) - while org logs are for organisation things, and event logs are public by default.
25-10-24 00:35:03: Ada: I don't want to encourage async because I don't want to GM for it, honestly.
25-10-24 00:36:13: Zaria: :will love you forever for not spying on private scenes.  "We've all had the insane imm experience."
25-10-24 00:37:47: Albrecht: Yeah I dislike async personally.
25-10-24 00:38:05: Albrecht: It's not compatible with my ADHD. By the time they pose again, I no longer care.
25-10-24 00:39:24: Ada: There are not enough hours in the day (also it's not like the MU stops working if people /don't/ log stuff), never mind that I am really not interested in doing so!
25-10-24 00:40:22: Zaria: Pose.  SQUIRREL.  Pose.  Shiny thing.
25-10-24 00:41:33: Emil: I'm just happy when I don't have to cut and paste logs into files and clean them myself. :D
25-10-24 00:42:35: Orestes: I might be the odd one out here but I've always found it satisfying to copy and paste, even on games equipped with loggers.
25-10-24 00:44:42: Orestes: I know it's pretty weird haha, I've yet to meet anyone else who felt the same way.
25-10-24 00:44:57: Emil: Hey, if it brings you joy!
25-10-24 00:45:17: Ada: Okay, help scene is now actually helpful.
25-10-24 00:45:38: Orestes: Ooh nice!
25-10-24 00:45:42: Emil: Oooh, veery cool.
25-10-24 00:46:20: Ada: It only tracks it for when a person's actually in a room, so if they zoom through, they only see the bit they were in it for.
25-10-24 00:47:14: Emil: Oh, that's weird and fun!
25-10-24 00:47:36: Ada: I wanted the "traditional" log experience: you see what you are there for.
25-10-24 00:47:49: Ada: Organisation and event logs are still fully visible.
25-10-24 00:47:49: Emil: I can dig it.
25-10-24 00:47:55: Emil: Koline! Scenes!
25-10-24 00:48:51: Koline: Ahh! Where!
25-10-24 00:49:22: Emil: 'help scene'
25-10-24 00:49:33: Emil: I should clarify: scene logging mechanics, not actual scenes happening.
25-10-24 00:50:33: Zaria: WOO!
25-10-24 00:50:33: Orestes: Speaking of actual scenes, are we allowed or encouraged to do flashback scenes for developing character backgrounds and relationships?
25-10-24 00:51:11: Orestes: After the opening of course, in case that wasn't clear.
25-10-24 00:52:42: Ada: Not my cup of tea, but you do you. I'd (obviously enough I guess) prefer that things be in the here and now, but I appreciate some people like to get a shape of a character's past.
25-10-24 00:53:31: Orestes: Fair enough :D
25-10-24 00:53:46: Zaria: :dabs her eyes with a kerchief for her missing baby daddy.
25-10-24 00:54:43: Ada: I'm no more going to come along with the RP Police hat for that than I am if someone writes about sandwiches in a scene.
25-10-24 00:55:14: Ada: Zaria, I feel a bit bad that most references to the expedition mention the Sikorins and Lindners and not a word about the one Albalaski. :D
25-10-24 00:55:42: Ada: (if memory serves, a game once banned sandwiches)
25-10-24 00:55:59: Emil: Is there an Earl of Sandwich? NO? Then NO SAMMICHES.
25-10-24 00:56:21: Zaria: Expect that to be a point of contention for the Grand Duch.
25-10-24 00:58:10: Ada: Hah. End of the day, we're using modern language. It would be like excising infantry or cavalry from any discussion of military things because the world's French analogue is Westelth and they don't get out much.
25-10-24 01:08:09: Ada: Well, I hope Walther's player can tolerate that description. :D
25-10-24 01:09:25: Albrecht: Walther's hawt
25-10-24 01:09:31: Albrecht: And I don't even swing that way.
25-10-24 01:10:47: Zaria: Very Gaston.
25-10-24 01:11:07: Ada: Hee.
25-10-24 01:15:20: Ada: I am quite tempted to write a Gaston now, but I really should stay focused.
25-10-24 01:20:35: Zaria: I mean.. he's a fun guy.  Just ask his mirror.
25-10-24 01:21:53: Ada: The mirror is quite correct.
25-10-24 01:22:17: Albrecht: I dunno. We already have me, and we can only handle so much beef cake
25-10-24 01:22:23: Ada: lol
25-10-24 01:23:19: Zaria: Heavy on the cake.
25-10-24 01:23:47: Albrecht: I gotta knock off to bed early tonight and try to get some real sleep. I keep trying to catch up on Critical Role campaign 4 instead.
25-10-24 01:24:11: Albrecht: With the result that I think I've slept about 4 hours total across the last 72.
25-10-24 01:24:17: Ada: Oh no. Get some good sleep!
25-10-24 01:24:39: Albrecht: I gotta finish episode 2 first. ;)
25-10-24 01:24:52: Orestes: Have a good night Albrecht :)
25-10-24 01:25:01: Albrecht: Night all!
25-10-24 01:25:14: Ada: Good night!
25-10-24 01:25:17: Orestes: I gotta go soon as well, catch you all next time!
25-10-24 01:25:23: Ada: Cheerio!
25-10-24 01:34:48: Zaria: Gotta take a screen break, see ya'll tomorrow.
25-10-24 01:34:57: Emil: G'night!
25-10-24 01:51:45: Ada: ... watch. I need a watch command.
25-10-24 01:52:12: Emil: Call it 'stare'.
25-10-24 01:52:26: Ada: I often felt like that when adding someone to watch.
25-10-24 01:52:38: Emil: Yes!
25-10-24 01:53:06: Emil: Also, Walther's desc has me humming songs and that's your fault.
25-10-24 01:53:42: Ada: This is the very best version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nx-x_1lIXh4
25-10-24 01:55:25: Ada: Also, hey Antigone and Tamar.
25-10-24 01:55:44: Emil: :salutes!
25-10-24 01:55:51: Emil: Also, this IS a great version.
25-10-24 01:56:10: Tamar: Hello.
25-10-24 01:58:51: Ada: That's one I could just listen to on loop - Tamar, it's I Need a Hero, but more medieval https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nx-x_1lIXh4
25-10-24 02:01:48: Emil: Hey, Ada. I wanna test the scene commands. May I do that from the OOC room, or do I need to be on grid?
25-10-24 02:02:13: Ada: The OOC room technically works, but it would grab everyone else too, so I'll move you.
25-10-24 02:02:14: Tamar: I love that!
25-10-24 02:14:59: Ada: Hey, guest!
25-10-24 02:15:13: Guest1: Hello
25-10-24 02:16:28: Ada: Feel free to ask if you have any questions!
25-10-24 02:17:37: Guest1: Any House Lavini characters on the roster?
25-10-24 02:18:11: Guest1: I don't see any, but I just want to make sure I am not missing something. :)
25-10-24 02:18:26: Ada: They're pending! Thasen houses are all going to be quite small. Did you see the disclaimer on Thasen?
25-10-24 02:18:43: Guest1: Yes!
25-10-24 02:18:54: Guest1: Their issues are what draw me to them.
25-10-24 02:19:21: Ada: Fair! I just want anyone playing there to do so eyes wide open.
25-10-24 02:19:37: Guest1: Politics and drama!  Potential revolution!  Also I get a Ferengi vibe from them.
25-10-24 02:20:13: Guest1: Maybe my character can scribe the Thasen Rules of Acquisition
25-10-24 02:20:48: Ada: People don't usually play the characters on the receiving end of potential revolution. :D
25-10-24 02:21:19: Ada: Okay. What broad archetype are you interested in? I'll whip something up tomorrow.
25-10-24 02:22:38: Ada: I'll grant the Lavinis actually have scope for having a decent person among their number.
25-10-24 02:25:42: Guest1: I was eyeing philosophical visionary sort, seeing the need for a change and trying to engineer that change to get the best result for their house first, maintaining as much of the current order second, and improving Thasen's position in the Empire and world third.
25-10-24 02:26:17: Guest1: Even if I don't play here or get the character, I am sure /someone/ will want to grab them and run with them.
25-10-24 02:27:08: Ada: Hopefully! It's a good pitch.
25-10-24 02:27:48: Guest1: A bit of charisma would not go amiss either.  Charismatic, philosophical visionary.  Either they'll improve everything or you're about to get convinced to join a cult by them, one or the other.
25-10-24 02:28:33: Ada: That's certainly a sort of reform.
25-10-24 02:32:08: Guest1: Lavini has the most potential for interesting characters.  You can have the "Change begins at home" sort, hoping to improve things by fixing the House itself first.  There's the "Use the situation to benefit" type who probably wants a monarchy and their House as the monarch.  The there's the "burn it all down and rise like a Phoenix from the ashes" who tries to convince everyone everything is fine while plotting and setting things up so that they benefit once things collapse.
25-10-24 02:32:49: Guest1: Anyways, thank you for entertaining my ramblings and answering my question.  Good night when it gets that time for you.
25-10-24 02:41:39: Ada: Clicky links on the scene page now. :)
25-10-24 02:41:51: Emil: YAY
25-10-24 02:42:29: Ada: I suppose I'll link back and forth between story stuff once I make that visible on the web.
25-10-24 02:42:39: Ada: The current "story" output is singularly unexciting.
25-10-24 02:43:00: Emil: Coronation!
25-10-24 02:44:14: Ada: It's a good reason for a get-together and more interesting than "Prologue".
25-10-24 02:44:34: Emil: Heehehe. And who doesn't love a crowning?
25-10-24 13:59:23: Emil: Hello, Guest!
25-10-24 13:59:39: Guest1: hey
25-10-24 14:01:49: Ada: Hey, guest!
25-10-24 16:20:37: Ada: Forgetting to write an actual public document on the foundational event for the empire (the Third Greytide) is certainly a thing. :D
25-10-24 16:21:02: Emil: Heeheee. I wasn't sure how well we knew anything about it! 600 years is a lot of time to forget details.
25-10-24 16:21:55: Ada: A few imperial fortresses survived it. Wayguard and the Icespire both survived the Second Greytide too. Still a lot of time to lose things though, absolutely.
25-10-24 16:22:37: Ada: Salthos went largely unscathed each time.
25-10-24 16:24:31: Emil: Lucky bastards.
25-10-24 16:25:50: Ada: Never mind gross exaggerations. I was reading about Gaugamela lately, and Arrian put the Persian army at 1 million, which would be literally one percent of the entire world population showing up. :D
25-10-24 16:27:45: Emil: Oh yeah. Pre-modern history was...as much entertainment as accuracy.
25-10-24 16:33:38: Ada: Hm. Is the map findable?
25-10-24 16:34:42: Ada: I didn't want to make it too prominent because it's just not that exciting and I don't want it to be taken as gospel, because Hadash is absurdly tiny (I started at the bottom right and wasn't sure about available space) and Elthos a bit bare, but it is probably helpful.
25-10-24 16:38:26: Emil: I found it!
25-10-24 19:27:10: Ada: Hey! Welcome, Sigitas.
25-10-24 20:26:56: Emil: Hello, Guest!
25-10-24 21:47:34: Sigitas: :waves
25-10-24 22:04:44: Koline: Hello, all~!
25-10-24 22:12:56: Sigitas: hi
25-10-25 01:54:17: Emil: Hello hello.
25-10-25 01:56:38: Ada: Hey. I'm almost finished with the public Greytide write-up.
25-10-25 01:56:47: Emil: Oh, awesome!
25-10-25 02:33:40: Emil: Question - will there be boards?
25-10-25 02:35:28: Ada: Oh, yeah. I just need to make them.
25-10-25 02:35:35: Ada: Channels too obviously.
25-10-25 02:36:10: Emil: Oh, cool!
25-10-25 02:36:32: Ada: That's a case of a few minutes and running a command to subscribe all the right characters to them (people can unsubscribe after if they want).
25-10-25 02:37:26: Ada: The helpfile's there in help board, anyway. Hopefully it does all the things one might want of a board.
25-10-25 02:37:49: Ada: I'll very likely hook them and notes into the web.
25-10-25 02:39:47: Emil: Oh, that's nice. I do like being able to read stuff on the web.
25-10-25 02:49:01: Emil: :waves to Udo.
25-10-25 02:49:10: Emil: Alas!
25-10-25 02:57:24: Emil: :waves to Orestes!
25-10-25 02:59:22: Orestes: Hey Emil!
25-10-25 02:59:34: Emil: How is?
25-10-25 02:59:53: Orestes: Not bad, feels good to be home after a long day.
25-10-25 03:00:07: Orestes: How about yourself?
25-10-25 03:00:21: Emil: It's the weekend and that's the best thing.
25-10-25 03:00:37: Emil: I am, however, procrastinating wildly on the writing I need to do.
25-10-25 03:00:56: Orestes: Is it for this game? :D
25-10-25 03:01:53: Emil: Nope! I write a cultivation webnovel. And I'm supposed to GM for my group on Sunday.
25-10-25 03:02:20: Orestes: Ooh, nice.
25-10-25 03:03:24: Emil: Yus! Horror adventure for the season. :D
25-10-25 03:04:28: Orestes: I can't believe it's already that time of year again. Feels like holiday season is right around the corner.
25-10-25 03:04:56: Emil: It is! It approaches with dreadful speed.
25-10-25 03:05:15: Ada: Time for too much sweet food.
25-10-25 03:05:20: Ada: Okay, here we go: https://empiremush.org/information/the-greytides/
25-10-25 03:05:58: Orestes: Yay! More lore to pore over :P
25-10-25 03:06:42: Ada: I had rather awkwardly omitted a public-facing history of a core, foundational event.
25-10-25 03:09:08: Emil: :eyes those time intervals between Greytides with some concern.
25-10-25 03:09:59: Ada: The thought occurs to me there's an impulse to write stories about people who are far lesser in some ways that what came before. I mentioned the War of Wrath, and the Silmarillion is a story of superheroes compared with the Lord of the Rings' regular people.
25-10-25 03:10:21: Emil: I'm sure it's fine. Valon did whatever he did and surely banished the Greytides forever. *nodnods* Nothing to worry about.
25-10-25 03:11:22: Emil: Fantasy in particular sort of loves the 'this world is but an echo of a more mystic and glorious past' trope. Makes it easier to have ruins, ancient knowledge, artifacts of wonder, etc.
25-10-25 03:15:06: Ada: For sure. It was one I grappled with a little here, since the continents are obviously both populated, with numerous different polities at that, but it gets wilder around the edges.
25-10-25 03:16:12: Emil: I find myself fascinated with Westelth, weird little isolationists that they are.
25-10-25 03:16:28: Emil: (Not actually little, I realize.)
25-10-25 03:19:34: Ada: They really are. I need to think about the implications of it and the Scorchlands for mariners. Traversing western Elthos is rough.
25-10-25 03:21:01: Ada: And since I wrote a whole house of people who like boats and live in Hana, well, it might be a thing.
25-10-25 03:21:40: Emil: :grins.
25-10-25 03:23:50: Ada: My favourite is the Divine Assembly. Diplomacy with them is going to be so dumb.
25-10-25 03:24:20: Emil: They seem _delightful_. Very reasonable and understanding of nuance.
25-10-25 03:29:34: Orestes: :rubs his hands in anticipation.
25-10-25 03:31:02: Ada: How diplomatic.
25-10-25 03:32:24: Orestes: Yeah, I have to admit my character would probably feel the same :D
25-10-25 03:32:35: Emil: :grins.
25-10-25 03:33:36: Ada: I want to see Paul's version of this.
25-10-25 03:35:13: Orestes: Oh wow, he'd be such a great scene partner for Orestes haha.
25-10-25 03:37:56: Ada: Good cop, bad cop diplomacy, except Paul doesn't even leave anything for Orestes to say.
25-10-25 03:39:33: Ada: The only subtle Lindner is Udo, probably.
25-10-25 03:40:28: Emil: :heehee.
25-10-25 03:44:54: Orestes: It's nice seeing so many different houses represented already.
25-10-25 03:46:14: Orestes: Every time I look at the list of active players it feels longer than the last time I saw it :D
25-10-25 03:46:22: Ada: It is! I'm really pleased with that. I'd really love to see a Salfeld or two, especially Gerald, though the spread is good otherwise.
25-10-25 03:48:25: Orestes: Makes sense given that it's strongly hinted, at least to me, that the first major plot of the game heavily involves both Rin and Intis.
25-10-25 03:49:18: Emil: Yup. It would be nice to have some Salfelds!
25-10-25 03:51:10: Orestes: I think someone in the Discord server wrote that they were looking at a Salfeld.
25-10-25 03:55:11: Ada: It's more 'beaten over the head'. Other places have internal issues, but nothing like the scale of external ones.
25-10-25 03:56:36: Emil: Off to bed go I. G'night!
25-10-25 16:31:43: Ada: Hey, guest!
25-10-25 16:31:50: Guest1: Hello!
25-10-25 16:32:05: Ada: If you have any questions, ask away.
25-10-25 16:32:32: Guest1: Thank you. I've been reading the website as well. Such cool character to choose from!
25-10-25 16:33:29: Ada: Glad to hear it. I've been glossarising some terms on the site today, since the info-dump was a lot, but it's still a WIP.
25-10-25 16:35:03: Guest1: :noticed that! It seems like an incredibly rich game with all of the detail.
25-10-25 16:37:33: Ada: Thanks. :D Any particular characters catch your eye?
25-10-25 16:44:01: Guest1: Natalia, Elene, Melissa, and Verena all seem in the wheelhouse I like to play!
25-10-25 16:48:23: Sigitas: Hey Guest
25-10-25 16:49:11: Guest1: Hello :)
25-10-25 17:41:36: Ada: Hey, guest!
25-10-25 17:44:22: Guest1: Hello hello!
25-10-25 17:45:32: Ada: Do feel free to ask if you have any questions.
25-10-25 17:46:37: Guest1: Will do! Presently perusing the wiki. It looks interesting, though ngl, I do love writing my own characters :P
25-10-25 17:50:06: Ada: That's fair, though keeping it roster-only is a delibate choice. I'll probably open the door to roster submissions at some point, though they would still be 'roster' characters.
25-10-25 17:50:14: Ada: Deliberate. I can spell!
25-10-25 17:51:57: Guest1: That's fair too! And I'm thaknfully fulent in typonese~
25-10-25 17:54:00: Ada: Hee. Anyway, hopefully a character catches your eye all the same!
25-10-25 17:55:26: Guest1: A few possibilities! From just a brief skimming, I like Sonia Vanzek or Calliope Aetos.
25-10-25 17:58:35: Guest1: random thought: Thasen screams pirate territory to me >:)
25-10-25 17:59:04: Ada: I'd be curious to see how Sonia deals with her own hopes and, well, reality. Calliope meanwhile might be inadvertent chaos in motion.
25-10-25 17:59:37: Guest1: Right? Both fish out of water, trying to survive.
25-10-25 18:00:19: Ada: Thasen is set up to fail - it's possible people might turn it around. The Imperial Crown maintains a substantial fleet at Thasund though (the map makes this make way more sense).
25-10-25 18:00:47: Emil: :spins. It's the weekend!
25-10-25 18:01:20: Ada: Hooray!
25-10-25 18:01:23: Guest1: Happy weekend!
25-10-25 18:01:59: Sigitas: yay weekend
25-10-25 18:02:32: Emil: And, even better, it's FALL. It's COLDER. It's hot cocoa season!
25-10-25 18:07:35: Sigitas: yup perfect weather here to get into the tundra home mood.
25-10-25 18:07:44: Emil: Yessss.
25-10-25 18:08:50: Ada: The Sikorins are nuts.
25-10-25 18:08:57: Ada: There is no other way to describe them.
25-10-25 18:09:13: Ada: I mean, okay, dutiful, brave, committed, all that.
25-10-25 18:09:16: Ada: But also nuts.
25-10-25 18:09:39: Emil: :eyes Sigitas.
25-10-25 18:11:36: Emil: I think that to continue living next to a horrible wasteland that barfs out monsters periodically, you have to cultivate a certain level of insanity.
25-10-25 18:14:34: Sigitas: you mean riding naked in a snow storm is not normal?
25-10-25 18:15:16: Guest1: Depends! Could be a war tactic to confuse the enemy!
25-10-25 18:16:50: Orestes: Guest, I know you're interested in other characters, but know that you'd also be a fantastic Sikorin :D
25-10-25 18:17:30: Sigitas: yeah most Sikorins are available
25-10-25 18:17:44: Guest1: From the sounds of things, I'd love to play a Sikorin!...
25-10-25 18:18:04: Guest1: :whines. That said, roster is so hard for me :/ I keep thinking about concepts while reading lore XD
25-10-25 18:18:46: Orestes: :laughs, lore files are great.
25-10-25 18:20:01: Emil: I love the new updates to the House files that highlight lore bits with definitions.
25-10-25 18:21:46: Sigitas: and yeah Sikorins are crazy I mean the last HoH lead the expedition into the fringes of the Terror
25-10-25 18:26:26: Ada: I'm about halfway through glossarising it. :D
25-10-25 18:26:42: Ada: The glossary code also covers characters!
25-10-25 18:28:16: Sigitas: I noticed the update on House Sikorin looks nice :)
25-10-25 18:28:50: Guest1: :ahems, pitches random idea with hope Ada will want it in the game: A young and stubborn House Aetos Companion of the First King, betrothed to House Sikorin!
25-10-25 18:30:14: Ada: Hee. The Companion part works, sure. I need to write a couple more Companions past Sabine, same with... well, several things actually, but they're not the most urgent to fill.
25-10-25 18:31:37: Ada: A few more Sanctuary-based commoners. The only two in at present are Penelope and Alethea.
25-10-25 18:31:48: Guest1: :steeples fingers >:) If you insist, I could offer a writeup pitch for a Companion a certain guest might immediately steal from the roster~
25-10-25 18:32:01: Emil: A burgher or two would be cool!
25-10-25 18:33:19: Ada: Burghers would be fabulous. The convener of the Haven Club for sure.
25-10-25 18:33:30: Ada: I'm happy to hear a pitch for a Companion!
25-10-25 18:37:59: Ada: They'd likely be a very fresh entrant. House Aetos wouldn't have been in the Companions' good graces for a long time and had a whole generation of ineffectual members. (Basil is one of a kind)
25-10-25 19:35:06: Emil: :salutes Antigone.
25-10-25 19:55:32: Emil: Hm, do we have a selfboot command? My connection hiccuped and now I have a twin.
25-10-25 20:27:08: Albrecht: Evening all!
25-10-25 20:28:43: Emil: Hallo.
25-10-25 20:36:40: Albrecht: How's scams?
25-10-25 20:37:07: Emil: It's the weekend and I am happy.
25-10-25 20:37:39: Albrecht: Hooray!
25-10-25 20:38:47: Albrecht: Even better when it's  next weekend and we can be playing our characters!
25-10-25 20:39:28: Emil: Yes! Although, sadly, I'm on a work conference that week so I'll have to fit things in.
25-10-25 20:39:32: Albrecht: Welcome, guest!
25-10-25 20:39:33: Emil: Hello, Guest!
25-10-25 20:39:48: Sigitas: Hello guest
25-10-25 20:43:22: Albrecht: Well alright then!
25-10-25 20:43:26: Albrecht: :grins.
25-10-25 20:49:17: Koline: Hello, all~
25-10-25 20:49:30: Emil: Hello and good day!
25-10-25 20:54:06: Albrecht: Hail Empress!
25-10-25 20:54:21: Orestes: :waves to all!
25-10-25 20:54:45: Orestes: How are you all enjoying your Saturdays?
25-10-25 20:54:53: Koline: :just got home and is getting cozy. :)
25-10-25 20:55:40: Albrecht: Nice!
25-10-25 20:55:48: Albrecht: I slept literally all day yesterday lol
25-10-25 20:57:30: Ada: Hey, all, and guest!
25-10-25 20:57:49: Orestes: Always good to have a full day to rest and recharge.
25-10-25 20:58:29: Orestes: :woke up this morning and decided not to get out of bed for another 2 hours :P
25-10-25 21:02:02: Ada: Ahhhh what happened to guest2.
25-10-25 21:02:30: Albrecht: They keep poofing
25-10-25 21:03:23: Emil: Devoured by the Terror.
25-10-25 21:03:40: Ada: It's more that it skipped from 1 to 3. :D I had to finagle the basic guest code a little because of foibles with disabling automatic character creation on log-in (I'm not even sure why I have this now when I also have account registration disabled, but I did it early in the project) and it has had hiccups.
25-10-25 21:04:27: Albrecht: Bad hiccups
25-10-25 21:05:23: Ada: I think I might have had an early thought to let people register accounts and then transfer characters between accounts, before deciding that a 1:1 match of Evennia's "account":character was better, and do my own tracker for players just by matching characters claimed to an email.
25-10-25 21:06:32: Ada: Anyway. There's a whole lot to like about Evennia, but it's not quite a MUSH in a box. I'd probably change some of my own architecture if I went to square 1.
25-10-25 21:08:06: Ada: I've been particularly inconsistent about separation of concerns between command and utility files, and I might refactor that in the new year.
25-10-25 21:13:53: Albrecht: I've thought a lot about opening games, but I can't do the tiniest bit of code. My brain just doesn't tick that way.
25-10-25 21:14:14: Albrecht: I've got nothing but respect and admiration for those that can do it.
25-10-25 21:17:32: Ada: I'd like to make the code of this available when I'm happy with it. Or more exactly, it /is/ available, but it will probably need ongoing maintenance and tweaks for a time. Once it's in a stable state though? Sure. Though it would probably still make a professional weep.
25-10-25 21:34:44: Emil: :eyes Misic warily.
25-10-25 21:35:30: Ada: He is here to test out the lock perms for the announcements board. :D
25-10-25 21:35:51: Ada: I /could/ make a test character but it's funnier to just log Misic in.
25-10-25 21:35:57: Koline: :can imagine no monarch finer for the task~
25-10-25 21:36:00: Emil: :grins.
25-10-25 21:46:00: Ada: Hum. Boards should probably accept truncated versions of their name when trying to read them.
25-10-25 21:46:37: Emil: Or numbers, for maximum laziness. :D
25-10-25 21:48:38: Ada: Oh, yeah. Numbers.
25-10-25 22:39:55: Albrecht: Numbers for the bb categories would be great to have
25-10-25 22:46:57: Albrecht: Brava!
25-10-25 22:47:41: Ada: Also takes an abbreviation of the name.
25-10-25 22:49:28: Emil: Oh awesome.
25-10-25 22:53:39: Albrecht: Noice
25-10-25 23:15:30: Albrecht: Eventually it'd be good to have a Guest or Newbie channel, so that onboarding work isn't drowned out by Public chatter.
25-10-25 23:16:33: Albrecht: Also channels per house and major orgs
25-10-25 23:17:15: Albrecht: Not everyone believes in them, but I am a firm believer. It's a great place to farm unity.
25-10-25 23:18:22: Emil: So long as staff are monitoring them to make sure they're not becoming toxic or just inventing canon out of whole cloth.
25-10-25 23:19:34: Albrecht: Yes indeed. Org leaders have some responsibility there too.
25-10-25 23:19:54: Albrecht: Not necessarily to police it, but to discourage it at the least and report up if it's getting out of hand.
25-10-25 23:20:22: Ada: I did set up a questions channel! I will do org channels and boards before launch. Only takes a moment; I am really just still undecided on "realm" boards.
25-10-25 23:20:36: Emil: Yeah, it's not a big priority!
25-10-25 23:20:46: Albrecht: Super last minute thing indeed.
25-10-25 23:20:59: Albrecht: They can even go up as needs present.
25-10-25 23:21:22: Ada: Much like PC rooms. :D
25-10-25 23:21:26: Emil: Should Questions be visible in board/all?
25-10-25 23:21:29: Albrecht: Yeah it's just a place to hide.
25-10-25 23:21:38: Ada: There's a questions channel rather than board.
25-10-25 23:21:40: Albrecht: Or uh, have a private scene, I guess.
25-10-25 23:21:46: Emil: Oh! Duh, I'm sorry.
25-10-25 23:21:59: Albrecht: Will there be crafting and items?
25-10-25 23:22:06: Ada: Yeah but only for flavour.
25-10-25 23:22:15: Albrecht: Yeah people love their swag
25-10-25 23:22:18: Ada: No plans to integrate crafted items into game mechanics.
25-10-25 23:22:22: Albrecht: Right.
25-10-25 23:22:33: Ada: So you can run 'craft' (and wear and remove) now if you want.
25-10-25 23:22:39: Ada: It's limited to five items per day.
25-10-25 23:22:47: Albrecht: Oh so anyone can do it?
25-10-25 23:22:51: Ada: Pretty sure you can already put an item in another item if you want to make a box or whatever.
25-10-25 23:22:55: Ada: Yup!
25-10-25 23:23:00: Albrecht: That's awesome.
25-10-25 23:23:22: Albrecht: But it still leaves room for the people who like to make elaborate stuff and play crafters to do so.
25-10-25 23:23:41: Ada: I may make a tailor or similar for the roster, but they wouldn't be so much a crafter as a high-end, in-demand outfitter, with some ability to distribute temporary assets each chapter.
25-10-25 23:23:56: Albrecht: That's really cool.
25-10-25 23:24:07: Albrecht: Are you doing the whole pets and retainers deal?
25-10-25 23:24:28: Ada: Sooooort of. Maybe. I am being very careful with making dice pools too big.
25-10-25 23:24:38: Ada: Oh! Wait. You mean hangers-on actually walking around with you?
25-10-25 23:24:47: Albrecht: Yes.
25-10-25 23:24:56: Albrecht: Sometimes you can use one as your messenger even.
25-10-25 23:24:58: Ada: Hadn't really thought of it. I could as a flavour thing, sure.
25-10-25 23:25:01: Emil: Plz no objects. So aggravating having someone trailed by 20 NPCs they won't shut off.
25-10-25 23:25:05: Ada: lol
25-10-25 23:25:09: Albrecht: It can get out of hand, yes.
25-10-25 23:25:15: Albrecht: People sure do love 'em though.
25-10-25 23:25:16: Ada: Okay, I take the point.
25-10-25 23:25:30: Ada: Could just put a toggle in to mute them from view.
25-10-25 23:25:37: Emil: Not to mention people bringing their 'adorable' pets to inappropriate events and then throwing tantrums when they're not allowed.
25-10-25 23:25:51: Albrecht: It'd be neat if say I as the player could mute everyone else's parade of followers.
25-10-25 23:26:01: Koline: I stand by my tantrum for you not being allowed in, Emil.
25-10-25 23:26:34: Emil: I'm very well-trained. Obviously, I should be an exception.
25-10-25 23:26:44: Albrecht: It is a very divisive issue. The people that love the pets love them a lot. The people that hate 'em, reallly hate em.
25-10-25 23:26:45: Ada: I think the closest I have to retainers is one person with an SFX allowing them to spend a PP to have a d8 Handpicked Riders asset at the start of a scene, and Erika Otrese has: Ardent Protector: provided Erika is commanding her troops of the Imperial Guard, she may spend a plot point to automatically negate a physical complication sustained by someone else in a scene, if the Guard can reasonably intervene.
25-10-25 23:27:16: Ada: It's not really "retainers". It's just encouraging people to play up their whole schtick.
25-10-25 23:27:22: Albrecht: Right
25-10-25 23:27:24: Emil: Ooh, see, I like that! A clear mechanic used under specific circumstances.
25-10-25 23:27:39: Andreas: I'm definitely in the no-random-parade-of-followers camp
25-10-25 23:28:00: Koline: I err towards not turning the whole schtick into objects, partly because having quantifiable objects encourages subtle competition, and partly just to look different from Arx.
25-10-25 23:28:07: Albrecht: If you could toggle 'em all of though, for yourself, it'd be better.
25-10-25 23:28:19: Ada: I mean, if it looks like Arx, I'm not fussed. Arx was cool.
25-10-25 23:28:38: Ada: But yeah, I don't really want to see someone walking their pet badger through the Tower of Valon.
25-10-25 23:29:09: Albrecht: That's true. Setting up something to prevent them from doing so is just extra work.
25-10-25 23:29:38: Albrecht: And I'm not necessarily advocating for them, except in the sense of playing devil's advocate to see the other side of the issue out.
25-10-25 23:29:53: Albrecht: They were a beloved element of the game to many
25-10-25 23:30:01: Ada: Give craft a whirl though if you want. I think it currently just flings objects onto the floor of the room, which I could tweak in a second, but otherwise works.
25-10-25 23:30:06: Albrecht: Even hailing all the way back to Firan, which heavily influenced Arx.
25-10-25 23:30:09: Ada: Likewise the 'place' code.
25-10-25 23:30:30: Emil: I like the picture of just flinging a made object to the floor after making it. That's often how I feel after a creative endeavor.
25-10-25 23:30:59: Ada: Yeah. I don't mind people having fun stuff, but the retainers /can/ affect the tone.
25-10-25 23:31:11: Albrecht: That they can.
25-10-25 23:31:32: Albrecht: People give them silly names, and behind your back try to get away with inappropriate animals.
25-10-25 23:31:52: Albrecht: When I first took Darren off the roster he had a bear. A damn bear.
25-10-25 23:32:57: Ada: Hah. I should write a bestiary, but it's just going to be a laundry list of well-trodden mythical creatures.
25-10-25 23:33:17: Emil: Craft works!
25-10-25 23:33:30: Emil: I saw mention of CENTAURS, which is fun.
25-10-25 23:33:33: Ada: Hooray
25-10-25 23:33:52: Ada: Ahhh. I thought I'd managed to sneak that out before it got picked up. :D
25-10-25 23:34:10: Ada: Look there's a region called the Endless Steppe. People would speculate eventually.
25-10-25 23:35:04: Albrecht: I'm very interested by the magic of it all.
25-10-25 23:35:18: Emil: :scuffs toe, reads everything. It's a sickness.
25-10-25 23:36:23: Albrecht: :would love to learn to be a magical boi.
25-10-25 23:37:14: Orestes: :also tries to read all the lore files but has a bad habit of forgetting everything 5 minutes later, haha
25-10-25 23:37:35: Albrecht: I feel that. I have to read and re-read. I want to really know all of it.
25-10-25 23:37:57: Ada: I appreciate I have left a 'Powers' section exposed on the in-game sheet, but I wouldn't say it's going to see use for most.
25-10-25 23:38:23: Albrecht: Can I be secretly god-touched though?
25-10-25 23:38:39: Ada: No. :D I /might/ make a couple of godtouched characters eventually, but I was very wary of putting them out in the wild and skewing the tone of the game.
25-10-25 23:38:42: Albrecht: :shows you on the doll where they touched him.
25-10-25 23:40:07: Orestes: Speaking of magic, do we know what happened to mages after they lost their magical powers?
25-10-25 23:40:22: Ada: It's like the Creation of Adam all over.
25-10-25 23:40:39: Ada: Oh, yeah. Good question. They just lived like people.
25-10-25 23:40:57: Orestes: Cool, that makes sense.
25-10-25 23:44:12: Ada: The Third Greytide is to modern Elthosians what the Trojan War was to Romans, somewhat.
25-10-25 23:45:19: Emil: In the sense of very mythic without a lot of real records?
25-10-25 23:45:41: Koline: I sing of spells and the man~
25-10-25 23:46:05: Ada: Yeah, so they write their own story about a prince who wanders around, shacks up with a foreign queen so they can retroactively have an excuse to dislike her people, then founds their city.
25-10-25 23:46:47: Emil: Heehehee.
25-10-25 23:47:23: Ada: Or more to the point: no real records, because the substantive part relating to anything magical is destroyed if it ever even existed, and it's been over half a millennium besides.
25-10-25 23:48:29: Emil: Right. Just look at how well we know 1420 CE!
25-10-25 23:48:56: Albrecht: What's the overall tech level in terms of clothing, armor, weapons, transpo, that sort of thing?
25-10-25 23:49:12: Albrecht: Pretty analogous to the RL time period?
25-10-25 23:49:28: Ada: Late 14th century Europe, but clothes can be whatever if it's cool and in keeping with general fantasy vibes.
25-10-25 23:49:35: Ada: Also musical instruments can be early modern.
25-10-25 23:50:29: Ada: And artistic techniques (though I've seen a few bits of really cool pre-Renaissance art)
25-10-25 23:51:02: Albrecht: Now, late 14th century could potentially include rudimentary firearms and cannons...
25-10-25 23:51:12: Ada: It could, but this doesn't. :D
25-10-25 23:51:16: Albrecht: Whew.
25-10-25 23:51:29: Albrecht: :don't want no guns.
25-10-25 23:51:51: Albrecht: Way too easy for a militant uprising to happen. ;)
25-10-25 23:52:14: Ada: Speaking of, I mentioned a bit about stakes and PCs dying, but combat will not, in the round, be that dangerous. See, I think that if combat is made dangerous to PCs, players themselves put way more weight on the combat scenes.
25-10-25 23:52:39: Albrecht: They do, and also in making decisions that aren't risky.
25-10-25 23:52:54: Ada: I want to see the people written as great warriors /do great warrior things/.
25-10-25 23:53:00: Albrecht: Wars never start because my PC might die or I might kill your PC and then we're all having a bad time.
25-10-25 23:53:48: Emil: I think what's described in the mechanics, being 'taken out' of a scene is a fine failure state. Doesn't have to be death - and that's broadly applicable to a lot of different situations.
25-10-25 23:54:07: Albrecht: If I know I might lose my ass a little bit, but will likely survive, I'm more likely to take the field.
25-10-25 23:54:44: Albrecht: I mean not me personally, I'm a Prince for Pete's sake. But some peasant in my employ.
25-10-25 23:55:00: Ada: Yeah. I have the full test/contest logic on my dev machine to add as an alternative to static difficulties, and for people going in for contests - higher-stakes opposed rolls - if the player opts to back down, they actually get to choose the failure state.
25-10-25 23:55:29: Albrecht: Sounds like a really cool, unique way of doing it.
25-10-25 23:55:36: Ada: So it's kind of "Do I keep pressing and risk worse and worse complications or do I back down and pick what happens myself?"
25-10-25 23:56:11: Albrecht: I like how you're balancing enough of the old and familiar to draw people in with solid innovations to make Empire something different and unique. An iteration on the formula.
25-10-25 23:56:25: Ada: But, yeah. Basically spot on! The system is well-trodden ground - this is just Cortex. :D
25-10-25 23:57:01: Emil: I've heard good things about Cortex!
25-10-25 23:57:05: Ada: I think the opposed rolls are in a state where they will flow rapidly enough not to slow scenes, which was why I initially went with static rolls.
25-10-25 23:57:19: Albrecht: That's how Arx felt to Firan players; new enough and improved enough to solve a lot of the problems, but familiar and comfortable enough to hit the nostalgia button.
25-10-25 23:57:37: Ada: They automatically dispense complications as they go, which I (or some notional GM) can rename later, but the player knows it happened without me manually intervening.
25-10-25 23:58:04: Emil: Ooh, nice.
25-10-25 23:59:07: Ada: I'm not sure I'm aiming to solve problems here as much as do a thing that's more about the world than the individual.
25-10-25 23:59:15: Ada: Hm. That's awkwardly put.
25-10-25 23:59:39: Albrecht: I think I smell what you're stepping in though. It's a different way to go about the thing. I'm here for it.
25-10-26 00:00:26: Ada: I'll reframe it: I like stories about what the player characters do with the world. Sure, the characters are interesting, but I'm less likely to offer character-specific stories, and more world stories for the characters to interface with.
25-10-26 00:00:51: Emil: Makes sense to me.
25-10-26 00:01:41: Albrecht: Yeah... I think that approach is going to really bring the world to life and make it more interesting to play in, and against.
25-10-26 00:02:19: Albrecht: My favorite times on Arx was when there was some specific thing coming from the world itself that we had to deal with one way or another. Everyone gets all energized and into it.
25-10-26 00:02:51: Albrecht: Individual stories are fine but they only do anything for that one individual.
25-10-26 00:03:33: Ada: I always looked forward to that block of green text. :D
25-10-26 00:04:09: Albrecht: Hell. Yes.
25-10-26 00:04:23: Albrecht: Green text days rocked.
25-10-26 00:04:57: Ada: I don't remember what colour it is here. I'll have to test it locally pre-opening. :D
25-10-26 00:05:41: Ada: Think it's just white. Oh! And the scene logger ties into the plots data for those who care to use it.
25-10-26 00:06:11: Emil: Oh, that's fun.
25-10-26 00:07:22: Ada: Yeah, so if I'd made a plot called "ice meteors" for your single test scene, you could do "scene/plot 1=whatever" for it.
25-10-26 00:07:27: Ada: Then search by plot.
25-10-26 00:07:57: Ada: It's basically just a scaled-back version of an Ares feature but people there seem to like it.
25-10-26 00:08:21: Emil: Oh yeah, it's lovely to be able to organize logs quickly.
25-10-26 00:13:02: Ada: Also on sheet and mechanical stuff, still only at one single character with a signature asset. They are not forgotten. This is by design. This probably says something on some meta level.
25-10-26 00:32:37: Albrecht: Would eyeglasses be canonically acceptable?
25-10-26 00:33:20: Albrecht: Although scholars debate the specific time and location in which spectacles were invented, most agree that some people wore eyeglasses during the late 13th to early 14th centuries. In around 1287 paintings first began to depict people wearing or holding glasses, and because Italy was responsible for many of these paintings, many scholars contend that Italians invented eyeglasses. Around 1300 regulations were established regarding glass lenses in Venice, and around 1352 eyeglasses were commonly worn by well-educated and rich noblemen and Italian clergymen. The glasses were constructed from crystals with curved surfaces that served as a magnifying glass.
25-10-26 00:33:24: Ada: In line with the "if it fits into what you might see in some fantasy film or game, do it" thing, then yeah.
25-10-26 00:33:43: Albrecht: Yeah they wouldn't be perfected.
25-10-26 00:33:59: Ada: A lot of medieval clothing is just boring. :D
25-10-26 00:34:22: Albrecht: Like you're not going to go to the optometrist and get your lense prescription
25-10-26 00:34:40: Ada: Right. :D
25-10-26 00:36:23: Albrecht: Ooh buttons for clothing appear to be historically accurate
25-10-26 00:36:54: Albrecht: Mechanical clocks.
25-10-26 00:37:40: Ada: If it's high-quality glassware or mechanical, a dwarf probably made it.
25-10-26 00:42:06: Orestes: :is burning to find out what the dwarven expeditions are all about :D
25-10-26 00:45:38: Orestes: :waves!
25-10-26 00:45:44: Emil: :salutes!
25-10-26 00:46:04: Ada: Figure a couple of people are. Got two Karalises (what is the plural for a Greek surname) there as is. :D
25-10-26 00:47:06: Irreth: :also waves!
25-10-26 00:47:40: Ada: No more Misic; the room was going to get too fraught with Irreth. Anyway.
25-10-26 00:47:53: Emil: :laughs!
25-10-26 00:48:01: Orestes: :sips
25-10-26 00:48:06: Irreth: :is a lot, it's true. And I have beef with him. >.>
25-10-26 00:49:02: Albrecht: Beef?
25-10-26 00:49:07: Albrecht: :looks around hungrily.
25-10-26 00:49:18: Irreth: The OTHER kind of beef.
25-10-26 00:49:29: Albrecht: My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined.
25-10-26 00:50:21: Irreth: I get that a lot, too. Don't worry, it'll ruin my day as well.
25-10-26 00:50:30: Albrecht: :laughs.
25-10-26 00:54:52: Albrecht: I'm excited to see so many leaders getting players.
25-10-26 00:56:46: Orestes: Yeah, I know Ada is still looking for one leader PC in particular but the current trend makes me feel optimistic for that to happen.
25-10-26 00:57:57: Ada: I might craft a drum in the welcome area to bang about it.
25-10-26 00:58:39: Emil: Oh, that would help! Maybe also on the character page? A lot of people go there first, these days.
25-10-26 01:02:13: Ada: Putting it on the site is a good idea, yeah.
25-10-26 01:11:35: Irreth: Ohhh. Character pages now have active links to related topics. I love this.
25-10-26 01:13:21: Ada: Yup! I need to put a few religious things into the glossary, then it should be mostly done, but I'll take suggestions.
25-10-26 01:17:18: Ada: Another UX question: how do people prefer characters to be shown in rooms? I lean a little towards the curt lists, but I might be quite out of touch with what broader preferences are and can, besides, make it a toggle if there's another popular way.
25-10-26 01:17:35: Ada: (I'll write the remaining Thasen characters soon, really)
25-10-26 01:17:48: Emil: I like curt lists, myself. Can always look at someone if I want details.
25-10-26 01:20:43: Albrecht: I like a curt list with a command that will give me ranks with names if I want it
25-10-26 01:20:52: Albrecht: Like 'here'
25-10-26 01:21:39: Ada: Oh! Here! Yes.
25-10-26 01:22:22: Ada: Pretty much just a re-run of the information you'd see on the roster page, but truncated to fit on one line?
25-10-26 01:22:40: Irreth: I would also like ranks, makes it easy to address people properly without looking up everyone, ideally.
25-10-26 01:23:12: Albrecht: Yeah just like a truncated bio. Full name, gender, age, any rank. So you know who you're dealing with and how to react appropriatelyl
25-10-26 01:23:12: Emil: Do we have many rank-based addresses, or does Lord/Lady and Majesty cover most of it?
25-10-26 01:24:49: Irreth: It various by area, I've noticed. For example, Irreth's title is Exalted Sufet. Not sure if there is a generic preference/equivalent for each.
25-10-26 01:25:01: Ada: Cool. Easy enough. And, no, no we do not. I'll make a note, but people might use lord/lady as a courtesy, and venturing beyond that is going into perilous waters. Do they call a sufet "your grace"? What about a titleless Albalaski?
25-10-26 01:25:23: Albrecht: You could do like 'social rank' that's a number between say, 1-5. That's how Arx did it.
25-10-26 01:25:34: Ada: It's deliberately more nebulous. :D
25-10-26 01:25:57: Albrecht: So it calls out what tier of society a person is
25-10-26 01:26:45: Emil: Simplicity is good!
25-10-26 01:29:02: Ada: I guess the easy one to point to is Sonia Vanzek.
25-10-26 01:31:36: Ada: I'm not totally happy with lord/lady, but it mostly just works.
25-10-26 01:32:44: Ada: I guess I could put up a list of more elaborate modes of address for those who care to use them.
25-10-26 01:32:47: Emil: Could even note that it's a compromise because each realm's specific levels of authority and cultural titles aren't easily compared? One of the compromises of empire.
25-10-26 01:33:10: Ada: Good idea.
25-10-26 01:35:05: Ada: I'd like to encourage people to use potentially overwrought monikers, too.
25-10-26 01:38:23: Albrecht: Oh man, I can already stack up some monikers.
25-10-26 01:39:35: Albrecht: And would princes and princess get 'your highness' ?
25-10-26 01:39:52: Albrecht: That was some of my best typing work just then.
25-10-26 01:43:40: Orestes: I fully support keeping it simple but to add to Albrecht's question, are we really to refer to our empress as 'Lady Koline'?
25-10-26 01:43:52: Ada: Imperial majesty there, I suppose. :D
25-10-26 01:44:04: Ada: There are for Reasons very few prince/sses.
25-10-26 01:44:16: Koline: I.M. for short!
25-10-26 01:44:34: Orestes: :laughs, I'm good with that.
25-10-26 01:44:37: Albrecht: But there are some!
25-10-26 01:44:55: Emil: All hail the Imperial Majesty! I have ideas for coronation gifts.
25-10-26 01:44:55: Albrecht: We're Special.
25-10-26 01:44:55: Ada: Namely that only the Imperial Territories and Dyria have them, and Dyria had a coup, and only children and grandchildren of a monarch get the princely title here.
25-10-26 01:45:34: Orestes: :prefers the term 'peaceful transfer of power'
25-10-26 01:45:47: Ada: It was arranged by her own family. :D
25-10-26 01:46:46: Orestes: Weelllll you're not wrong there. :D
25-10-26 01:47:37: Albrecht: Alright, bedtime for this fat prime minister's fat player.
25-10-26 01:47:43: Ada: Night!
25-10-26 01:47:46: Albrecht: Nini!
25-10-26 01:47:52: Koline: GN!
25-10-26 01:47:53: Orestes: Have a good one Albrecht!
25-10-26 01:47:56: Emil: G'night!
25-10-26 01:48:09: Albrecht: Have a good one y'all!
25-10-26 01:48:39: Ada: Basil was just about the first character I wrote.
25-10-26 01:49:05: Ada: And Areti's not even that old, hanging out in Wend.
25-10-26 01:52:08: Orestes: Were there any houses which took her side during the coup?
25-10-26 01:55:50: Ada: Nobody who said as much. It is a good way to call into question royal legitimacy later on all the same.
25-10-26 01:56:42: Ada: I'll think on it, because certainly any Dyrian devotee of Valon would have some serious second thoughts.
25-10-26 01:58:07: Emil: Undermining the foundation of royalty is a serious thing to do. *eyes Misic*
25-10-26 01:58:35: Irreth: :also eyes Misic.
25-10-26 01:58:52: Emil: Look, keeping at least one eye on the guy at all times is probably a good idea.
25-10-26 01:59:47: Ada: If your entire societal foundation is divine right and you keep ejecting the divinely appointed guy, the foundation gets wobbly.
25-10-26 01:59:54: Emil: Truth!
25-10-26 02:00:21: Ada: Certainly European states kept some absolute maniacs as rulers.
25-10-26 02:01:20: Emil: Civil wars are hard and messy and leave a lot of bad blood. And just a lot of blood in general.
25-10-26 02:01:35: Ada: Charles VI of France: "In 1392, while leading a military expedition against the Duchy of Brittany, the king had his first attack of delirium, during which he attacked his own men in the forest of Le Mans."
25-10-26 02:03:59: Ada: But, yes. I won't pre-judge what happens, though I did add the disclaimer for people picking Rannal characters!
25-10-26 02:40:38: Emil: :salutes Zaria.
25-10-26 02:40:55: Zaria: :salutations back.
25-10-26 02:55:11: Koline: :slips away to imperial bed. Good night, everyone!
25-10-26 02:55:18: Emil: G'night!
25-10-26 02:55:30: Emil: :also wobbles that way. G'night all.
25-10-26 03:08:14: Arista: I exist!...at least insomuch as a person can pre-opening.
25-10-26 03:14:16: Ada: A slightly drab 'here' command is now in.
25-10-26 03:16:54: Orestes: Nice!
25-10-26 03:17:23: Orestes: Also, welcome Arista :)
25-10-26 03:20:15: Arista: thanks ^.^ glad to be here, Your Highness-ness.
25-10-26 03:37:26: Zaria: Wasn't me I didn't break it!
25-10-26 03:38:03: Ada: Nothing broke. :D
25-10-26 03:38:19: Arista: Don't worry Orestes, I'll get the truth out of her yet.
25-10-26 03:43:35: Orestes: :nods quickly, pretending like he understands what's happening even though he hasn't got the faintest clue :D
25-10-26 04:04:50: Ada: Back to rosters tomorrow! If anyone has any glossary suggestions, do let me know, and hopefully it makes the site easier to digest.
25-10-26 04:10:00: Orestes: It definitely does!
25-10-26 15:16:49: Koline: Morning~!
25-10-26 15:19:34: Ada: Hi hi. Just a sec while I maybe break things.
25-10-26 15:20:30: Ada: I didn't. Hooray. There are now clicky links whenever a character's name appears on the site.
25-10-26 15:21:06: Koline: Yay!
25-10-26 15:21:27: Ada: Including their own character pages. :D Not quite as useful, but it's harmless.
25-10-26 15:39:14: Koline: Morning, Emil~
25-10-26 15:39:34: Emil: Good morning! How is?
25-10-26 15:39:48: Koline: I'm doing well, enjoying a day off! Yourself?
25-10-26 15:40:09: Emil: Chores and baking, but well enough!
25-10-26 15:44:31: Ada: I'm going to jump into doing a few more roster PCs here. Any more general QOL requests?
25-10-26 15:46:46: Koline: It's a silly one, but is there a way for the who listing to list idle time by hours? '211m idle' looks weird, as opposed to '3h 31m idle'. :)
25-10-26 15:47:30: Ada: Oh, yeah. Sure. I have been of two minds about this - in 'info', I just make it 'idle' or 'very idle'.
25-10-26 15:48:04: Ada: Honestly though this is a bit of a reaction to observed behaviour where people get weird with watch or when people un-idle, and, you know what?
25-10-26 15:48:11: Ada: I can just boot people who get weird.
25-10-26 15:48:17: Koline: You can, and should!
25-10-26 15:48:34: Ada: So the hour/minute format is just fine.
25-10-26 15:48:50: Emil: I think as a preference, I wouldn't mind knowing the time for under an hour, since that might tell me if someone is still around just idle, but after that I usually assume they're not around so don't anticipate. :D
25-10-26 15:49:15: Ada: So minutes to that point, then just "Idle" thereafter?
25-10-26 15:50:02: Emil: Works for me! I'm easy going either way, though.
25-10-26 15:50:15: Koline: I like Emil's idea.
25-10-26 15:50:44: Koline: I think on Arx it was 'Idle-' for 20 minutes or less, 'Idle' for 20 minutes to an hour or two, and then 'Idle+' for beyond that.
25-10-26 15:51:01: Ada: It works. I might do some auto-tidying of people who are, say, 30 minutes idle in a public room, and whisk them away home.
25-10-26 15:51:58: Ada: The idle- thing works too. Hm hm
25-10-26 15:51:58: Koline: :would personally put that at 60. Sometimes it's easy to be 30 minutes idle in, say, a big scene where you're waiting on your turn to pose.
25-10-26 15:52:46: Ada: Oh, oh. It's a tomorrow thing, because I was doing the dev work at home, but the completed roll system is going to come with a round tracker.
25-10-26 15:53:24: Ada: So a player declares their intent for their character, rolls, and it all goes in the tracker.
25-10-26 15:53:44: Ada: And hopefully that should speed up scenes.
25-10-26 15:55:37: Ada: So they'll go like "intent Sneak past the dozy sentry", "roll spy finesse dexterity vs dozy sentry", and have that go into a list with everyone else's stuff, and track the rounds without doing batch rolls, since people could roll anytime in the window where that round is open.
25-10-26 15:56:09: Koline: Will there be any kind of init order factoring into that?
25-10-26 15:59:59: Ada: NPCs will be, though not passive actors, not the ones to instigate the rolls. As for how players organise, probably just going to hope a freeform approach works.
25-10-26 16:00:39: Emil: Oh that's good. That's one thing I liked Ares' combat system for. Everyone sets their action, all the actions go off at the same time, people pose.
25-10-26 16:00:54: Emil: It DID make things flow faster.
25-10-26 16:03:37: Ada: Hopefully it pans out then! Speaking of combat, people will probably want to be responsive to what's going on with other PCs. In particular, if someone has been commanding an NPC military unit (and having it in their dice pool), they will probably want to avoid racking up too many complications without someone else helping.
25-10-26 16:07:41: Emil: So mass combat will be possible just using the units as assets? That's cool.
25-10-26 16:08:44: Ada: Yup yup. The units will have dice pools, and by and large I'm going to require actual military units to oppose NPC military units - a few PCs without military units might manage to scout or shoot some bows.
25-10-26 16:09:40: Ada: Well, dice pools - a die. PCs with the commander vocation get some chunky boons for NPC military units, and the general vocation mostly actually for other PCs.
25-10-26 16:10:57: Emil: Very nice.
25-10-26 16:11:59: Ada: So if a PC commanding, say, "Gabel Cavalry (d8)" has somehow accrued the "Being Overrun by Ogres (d10)" complication, people will probably want to jump in to deal with that.
25-10-26 16:12:11: Emil: Are you familiar with the Five Rings mass combat system at all? Overall, it's not great, mechanically, but there's a thing I liked where the 'spotlight' would alternate between the mass combat, and then Meaningful Duels between NPCs warriors/commanders and PCs.
25-10-26 16:12:28: Ada: I am not, but I like the principle!
25-10-26 16:12:54: Emil: It might be useful as a way of 'helping' resolve those complications, maybe?
25-10-26 16:12:58: Emil: :waves to Orestes.
25-10-26 16:13:10: Orestes: :waves back!
25-10-26 16:13:21: Emil: (Or making them worse if the PC gets defeated in a duel by the orc commander, etc.)
25-10-26 16:15:42: Ada: It surely would. Many likely adversaries - oh, yes. PCs attempting to remove others' complications /can/ worsen it. e.g., the scenario in the book for someone trying to splint an arm: "If you fail to beat the difficulty and roll a hitch, the complication is stepped up by one step for every hitch rolled, which turns a Broken Arm 10 into a Broken Arm 12."
25-10-26 16:16:02: Ada: (in the instance given, they roll one 1)
25-10-26 16:16:13: Emil: "Just let me pull this tight..." *scream* "...oops."
25-10-26 16:16:21: Ada: Whereas, say: If you beat the difficulty and your effect die is greater than the complication, the complication is eliminated.
25-10-26 16:16:51: Emil: If you beat the difficulty and the effect die is less than the complication, does it step the complication down or do nothing?
25-10-26 16:17:11: Ada: Steps it down by one.
25-10-26 16:17:36: Emil: Excellent.
25-10-26 16:17:40: Ada: Meanwhile if you beat the difficulty but roll a hitch, a new but related complication may be introduced.
25-10-26 16:17:48: Emil: :cackles.
25-10-26 16:18:02: Ada: So driving off those ogres might work, but the commander might be left with a complication of "Shaken Soldiers (d6)"
25-10-26 16:18:18: Emil: Makes sense!
25-10-26 16:19:02: Ada: It should flow quickly though! I think. It may take an event or two to find any hiccups.
25-10-26 16:19:28: Emil: Is there a limit? Like, especially if you have the kind of numbers that a MU* event scene tends to draw, there's a possibility for a plethora of complications to pop up and keep...complicating as people try to resolve them.
25-10-26 16:19:58: Ada: Honestly, I just hand out fewer complications (and PP).
25-10-26 16:20:18: Emil: That makes sense!
25-10-26 16:20:20: Sigitas: orcs where?
25-10-26 16:20:26: Sigitas: :draws sword.
25-10-26 16:20:33: Ada: That's the spirit!
25-10-26 16:21:02: Ada: With lots of people, I figure it gravitates back to the standard big event style. It would be a good problem to have.
25-10-26 16:21:11: Emil: I appreciate that Adanan military doctrine is mostly 'charge'.
25-10-26 16:22:34: Ada: Not one of them has read about Courtrai.
25-10-26 16:23:22: Emil: We've got horses, we've got a lot of flat plains. I don't know what else you want from us!
25-10-26 16:24:18: Ada: Do you know the sort of societal reforms it takes to get rich guys with shiny armour and horses to relinquish their rich guy with shiny armour status? :D
25-10-26 16:25:01: Emil: Heehehee, indeed. And giving commoners pikes and teaching them how to skewer the rich guys with shiny armor and horses only gives them the wrong ideas.
25-10-26 16:25:31: Koline: :would never ask the Empire's rich guys to give up their shiny armor and horses!
25-10-26 16:25:41: Emil: :cheers the Empress!
25-10-26 16:27:26: Ada: How magnanimous!
25-10-26 16:29:35: Sigitas: I'm sure Lonin got horses too... somewhere
25-10-26 16:29:56: Ada: It does!
25-10-26 16:31:20: Ada: The Whitewater Plain supports decent numbers of horses and the Lonin approach to warfare - or whatever fighting roaming monsters is called - is to have people on horses monitor and harry them until they can get a big enough force in place to act decisively.
25-10-26 16:32:08: Ada: In the event that horses don't cope well with tundra, well, Elthos breeds them differently.
25-10-26 16:35:28: Sigitas: well there are tundra horses so it is reasonable
25-10-26 16:37:03: Ada: Excellent. I know chunks of European history, much questionably useful trivia, and nothing whatsoever about horses.
25-10-26 16:38:16: Sigitas: well had to look it up myself
25-10-26 16:38:58: Ada: Now we know and that's the mane thing.
25-10-26 16:41:41: Sigitas: heh
25-10-26 16:45:46: Emil: Thing with tundra horses is that they're usually compact. Not warhorses! Shaggy and adorable, though.
25-10-26 16:47:28: Sigitas: time to tame some polar wolves then
25-10-26 16:47:43: Ada: They aren't as adorable.
25-10-26 16:48:13: Ada: Good horses really aren't in high supply.
25-10-26 16:48:43: Sigitas: monsters from the Terror don't care about adorable
25-10-26 16:50:35: Ada: No, not really. They're ardent proponents of a high-octane, high-energy lifestyle.
25-10-26 16:54:38: Emil: First batch of chai cookies out of the oven!
25-10-26 16:55:01: Ada: Awesome. :D
25-10-26 16:55:16: Ada: Oh I just saw Andreas' picture. What a superb choice.
25-10-26 18:51:17: Koline: :greets everyone after returning from RL~
25-10-26 18:54:34: Ada: Hey hey.
25-10-26 18:59:46: Orestes: :waves belatedly.
25-10-26 20:21:53: Albrecht: :waves in
25-10-26 20:24:58: Albrecht: How's everyone this early evening? Or afternoon, or whatever you've got going on.
25-10-26 20:31:55: Sigitas: :waves in.
25-10-26 20:36:28: Albrecht: Heya!
25-10-26 20:36:36: Albrecht: Really AFK now
25-10-26 21:03:10: Ada: Pretty good! I tidied up a little more code today, and there's now a watch command for when I switch MudInfo off.
25-10-26 21:06:27: Albrecht: Oh awesome!
25-10-26 21:10:49: Albrecht: Is it possible to get the org command to take shortcuts? Say, perhaps, simply 'otrese' or 'crown'
25-10-26 21:17:45: Ada: Sure. I dropped some resources on it so you can see what the main purpose of the view likely is, because, well, it's not that exciting. :D I might change the wealth, wealth_1 etc thing, but anyway, the resource commands will tag it with just 'wealth' anyway.
25-10-26 21:18:05: Albrecht: Would armies eventually show up there?
25-10-26 21:18:25: Ada: They do :D
25-10-26 21:18:32: Ada: Look at the first resource.
25-10-26 21:18:42: Albrecht: Ooh interesting
25-10-26 21:19:50: Ada: Or a couple more there. Only wealth and political capital can be transferred automatically by PCs.
25-10-26 21:20:27: Albrecht: It'll be interesting to see how it all works in play.
25-10-26 21:20:46: Albrecht: I love a new system with new ideas and new things to learn.
25-10-26 21:20:48: Sigitas: :mutters. :D
25-10-26 21:21:59: Ada: It's an abstraction, to be sure, but it integrates directly into the existing dice system, and much as I like simulation, I'm not convinced that simulation is workable or indeed generally wanted.
25-10-26 21:24:10: Sigitas: guess we gotta eat the horses
25-10-26 21:32:03: Albrecht: I like it. It makes it easy to see how you'd do projects to improve or add dice.
25-10-26 21:32:13: Albrecht: Pretty cut and dry on your end too.
25-10-26 21:32:17: Albrecht: Less nebulous.
25-10-26 21:34:28: Ada: In theory, yep. Will see soon enough how it pans out!
25-10-26 21:39:03: Albrecht: Will skills and/or attributes be increasable with votes?
25-10-26 21:39:45: Ada: Nope. A request per chapter to add or alter an SFX, or increase a skill or attribute.
25-10-26 21:40:31: Ada: Backed by stuff the character has done (other than moving a skill from d4 to d6, I guess).
25-10-26 21:42:28: Albrecht: Awesome. That keeps power drift down.
25-10-26 21:46:15: Ada: It won't be for everyone. I'll likely encourage potent but specific SFX over skill bumps, too.
25-10-26 21:46:56: Albrecht: Sure. Something that really reflects what you've done and the impact you've had.
25-10-26 21:51:42: Ada: Hopefully! :D
25-10-26 21:52:17: Ada: Looking forward to Friday, anyway, and we can see how it all pans out in practice.
25-10-26 21:53:53: Orestes: I'm looking forward to it as well :D
25-10-26 21:54:37: Orestes: Is the coronation event is taking place on Friday or TBD?
25-10-26 21:56:24: Ada: TBD. No giant weekend plans, because frankly I'm not sure how many people to expect, much less when they would want to do things.
25-10-26 21:58:15: Orestes: Yeah, that makes sense. My schedule will probably be pretty tight on weekdays in the foreseeable future.
25-10-26 21:59:08: Orestes: I just realized I should probably make a note of that in my info haha.
25-10-26 22:01:12: Albrecht: I'm pretty widely available and fairly chronically online.
25-10-26 22:01:28: Albrecht: I'm not placing a high priority on being connected now, while we're not open, but when we are, I will.
25-10-26 22:02:14: Ada: I'll be happy if Friday hits and then - and over the weekend - the people online have enough others to do stuff with.
25-10-26 22:03:24: Albrecht: I have 30 days on long, unnecessary meetings planned.
25-10-26 22:03:58: Ada: I rarely encounter people who have necessary meetings.
25-10-26 22:06:53: Albrecht: Gotta go run an errand, will be back.
25-10-26 22:21:09: Emil: :whews. GMed my traditional horror one-shot for my gaming group today.
25-10-26 22:21:34: Orestes: :offers hot cocoa
25-10-26 22:22:01: Emil: ooooooh. You are my favorite person right now. It's a bit chilly, and I love cocoa.
25-10-26 22:22:23: Ada: I've never run a one-shot. I'd probably want to tack bits on after. :D
25-10-26 22:23:02: Emil: It's HARD. This is the first one-shot that hasn't actually been a two-or-three-shot. But I was using Monster of the Week which runs very fast.
25-10-26 22:24:42: Ada: Weirdly enough, I've never played a PbtA game. Anyway, I hope everyone grokked it quickly!
25-10-26 22:25:27: Emil: Yes! It's super easy. It's a little rigid is my only complaint. But it's incredibly fast to get everyone with a character and moving.
25-10-26 22:26:05: Emil: I've played Starforged and MotW, now, and I think that's my big issue with PbtA games, so far.
25-10-26 22:29:10: Ada: Rigid in that "This is what your character does, and that's it" or?
25-10-26 22:30:08: Emil: In that 'what your character does' is meant to fit inside pre-defined Moves, and sometimes a character's actions don't fit neatly into that. Personally, I just ignore it and say, "Fine, that sounds like something you'd roll Sharp for," or whatever, but it does create a hiccup.
25-10-26 22:31:04: Ada: As long as people enjoyed it!
25-10-26 22:31:14: Emil: The Moves, I find, can be good prompts for when you have a player who doesn't know what their character might be able to do, but it can be a bit stifling for more nuanced actions. And yeah! It was fun. :D
25-10-26 22:33:44: Ada: I once played in a Pathfinder group where one player decided his character was a barrister (actual class bard), but rarely deviated from the barrister schtick. That's a tightly-defined system and our GM was at a loss at times. :D
25-10-26 22:34:33: Ada: That was usually a group of five, so the GM just ran things as if there were four.
25-10-26 22:34:59: Ada: He once got into a 20-minute-long debate with a dinosaur.
25-10-26 22:35:21: Emil: Oof, that can be real tough. After a few experiences like that when I was younger, I have a table rule that characters must fit the campaign.
25-10-26 22:36:00: Emil: (And the player is responsible for all heavy lifting if they create a character who is a difficult fit.)
25-10-26 22:36:28: Ada: Hah, yeah. One of the group had invited her nephew to join in. Honestly, it was still fun, but it was a group of 30 to 50-somethings plus a 20-year-old. :D
25-10-26 22:37:01: Emil: Oooh yeah.
25-10-26 22:37:32: Ada: But yeah. I've gently curated games I've run.
25-10-26 22:39:10: Ada: I should say, that campaign got zany anyway. I played a dwarf wizard specialising in transmutation, and she was pulling shenanigans like putting a siege catapult in her pocket, and we walked up to the top of a hill, made it big again, and threw rockets at a tower full of hellknights.
25-10-26 22:39:12: Emil: After a certain point in time, I do not have the energy to deal with problem players. They can find a table where perhaps they will be a better fit.
25-10-26 22:40:24: Emil: Ahahaha! Zany is good! I love when players come up with weird solutions. In this one-shot, our Mad Scientist made a lightning trap to hold a demon long enough to banish it.
25-10-26 22:41:20: Ada: Love it. I have a soft spot for systems that enable creativity without the GM having to discard rules entirely.
25-10-26 22:41:25: Emil: It drained both occult and electrical energy from a good portion of London, but it worked!
25-10-26 22:42:08: Ada: If the twenty American sweet shops on Oxford Street run out of power, it's a small price to pay.
25-10-26 22:43:13: Emil: :laughs!
25-10-26 22:44:44: Ada: (for those unaware, I'm not even joking)
25-10-26 22:47:21: Ada: I'm glad it went smoothly! I'm not sure how I'd approach a one-shot with my group, who like some crunch while at the very same time taking a while to get up to speed on crunchy systems.
25-10-26 22:47:49: Emil: Yeah. Normally we play Champions, so I try to choose crunch lite for my one-shots.
25-10-26 22:47:55: Albrecht: :swoops back in.
25-10-26 22:49:18: Albrecht: You know, it's funny, I looked at Gerald and it was between him and Albrecht. Obviously I went with Albrecht, but that was my debate.
25-10-26 22:50:39: Ada: ; reads about Champions.
25-10-26 22:50:42: Albrecht: I just keep saying the 'app Gerald' sign, that's what made me think about it.
25-10-26 22:50:53: Albrecht: Seeing. Goodness, my brain is off tonight.
25-10-26 22:50:54: Ada: lol. It's a bit on the nose.
25-10-26 22:51:01: Emil: Superhero system, _incredibly_ crunchy.
25-10-26 22:51:21: Ada: I always associate superheroes with low crunch!
25-10-26 22:52:28: Emil: Oh man, not Champions. It wants to be able to reproduce any superpower you can think of in mechanical form. If you're not well-versed in the system, it takes forever to make a character, and twice as long to make a _point-efficient_ character.
25-10-26 22:57:07: Ada: Neat. The group I play with is very very fantasy-oriented, but superheroes with crunch is a fun idea.
25-10-26 22:58:54: Emil: It's got a steep learning curve, but it can create just about any type of character you can think of. I've played a lich/mad scientist from the Regency era, and now a ice manipulator who's a bit simpler with several types of ice manipulation attacks.
25-10-26 23:01:20: Koline: :sets about creating Koline in RIFTS.
25-10-26 23:01:31: Emil: Oh gosh. :D
25-10-26 23:01:55: Ada: Equally steep learning curve?
25-10-26 23:02:04: Emil: RIFTS is just...insane.
25-10-26 23:02:26: Koline: Yeah, RIFTS is like, the singular vision of a crazy person obsessed with dice math tables.
25-10-26 23:03:49: Ada: Momentary impulse to write a game-designing player character.
25-10-26 23:04:08: Emil: The idea for the game is cool: Earth gets invaded by a bunch of different universes with their own rules, so you can have wizards, mecha suits, and 80s glitter rockers all kicking interdimensional ass. But the system is painful and weird.
25-10-26 23:06:46: Albrecht: :wants to invent billiards.
25-10-26 23:07:18: Ada: There's something almost Shadowrun about that list of things.
25-10-26 23:08:38: Ada: Now you mention it, I almost want to just make that a thing. I've felt now and then that since we're not really familiar with what medieval people might have done when hanging out, we wind up portraying a bunch of idle day-drinkers.
25-10-26 23:10:22: Emil: It's not medieval, but I enjoyed reading Palaces of Pleasure, which focused on public entertainment, rum palaces, and dance halls in Victorian and Edwardian Britain. It was fascinating.
25-10-26 23:11:26: Albrecht: Billiards would be fun. Card games too.
25-10-26 23:11:34: Albrecht: There used to be coded poker
25-10-26 23:12:31: Ada: Neat. There's a public dance hall in Park Hall here, but no rum palace. :D
25-10-26 23:13:33: Andreas: i'm sure coded poker still exists somewhere in the world
25-10-26 23:13:58: Ada: Get some RP in on a gambling site.
25-10-26 23:16:14: Ada: Huh. The first known indoor billiards table was in the late 15th century, so only a century off my envisaged timeframe.
25-10-26 23:16:27: Emil: Innnteresting.
25-10-26 23:17:44: Ada: I look forward to Albrecht's billiards sessions. :D
25-10-26 23:19:18: Ada: Hey, guest!
25-10-26 23:19:35: Guest1: I see there is an ad for Gerald Salfeld but are there any other "wanted" niches to fill?  and hi!
25-10-26 23:20:05: Arista: A Sabine would be neat, imo!
25-10-26 23:21:15: Ada: I have a few specific ones I'd like to see filled if people do want guidance, sure. Any gender preference or concepts or things you don't like (e.g. leaders)?
25-10-26 23:21:54: Guest1: I generally go for male characters.  I'm fairly open about roles though.
25-10-26 23:23:50: Emil: :waves the flag for House Gabel, for all your architectural boondoggle and too-close-to-aggressive-expansionism needs. :D
25-10-26 23:24:02: Ada: Cool. To rattle through a few leaders, first: Gerald then is the obvious one. Bernd Gabel. Kothar Heshbeh is another I'd love to see played. Adon Rannal, with caveats that House Rannal is going to be tough.
25-10-26 23:24:51: Albrecht: :would totally have a billiards table in his office somewhere, if allowed.
25-10-26 23:25:01: Albrecht: Some library/study/game room.
25-10-26 23:25:36: Ada: Yeah, sure, Albrecht. Not sure if the post on the announcements BB got notified to people (if not, I must look at it), but if you want to take a spin through the Tower of Valon and write up Albrecht's quarters, let me know.
25-10-26 23:25:58: Albrecht: Even if it's not coded, would be an interesting RP contrivance, something to do during meetings and whatnot.
25-10-26 23:26:05: Albrecht: Ooh I'd love that.
25-10-26 23:26:22: Ada: For non-leaders, guest, I think I'd point to the houses people have already picked PCs from, buuut now I look, that's a lot of them. :D
25-10-26 23:27:05: Guest1: Poor Adon looks like he may keel over being 70 and under such stress D:
25-10-26 23:28:40: Ada: Hee. The poor guy. :D
25-10-26 23:29:02: Albrecht: He's been Around.
25-10-26 23:36:18: Ada: I'm mulling over whether I have any other 'strongly wished for' characters. I mean, I guess mostly ones with ties to existing PCs to complement them and give more presence - Bernd Gabel's an obvious shout. An Anadun, or particularly the mercenary in their service, Umberto of Gela. Marek Sikorin to bounce off Sigitas. Any Albalaski really. Basil of Malthi - I have a soft spot for that character, being that he was the first I wrote.
25-10-26 23:38:29: Ada: Koline might want a brother, in which case, Roland (whose name is as on-the-nose as can be).
25-10-26 23:38:45: Albrecht: Yeah we'd love lots of Imperial Crown peoples.
25-10-26 23:39:09: Albrecht: I've been pondering a personal assistant/protege, but I can develop that organically.
25-10-26 23:39:17: Ada: I don't think Roland even /has/ a Crown role. I mean, he could, but. :D
25-10-26 23:39:23: Guest1: I only see 1 Imperial Crown character on the available roster or do you mean something else
25-10-26 23:39:33: Ada: House Otrese.
25-10-26 23:39:48: Albrecht: House Otrese, although it would be cool to see some actual Crown peepos.
25-10-26 23:39:52: Ada: It so happens that the only Crown PCs written are Otreses, but it's meant to be a little broader in practice, yeah.
25-10-26 23:40:14: Albrecht: In theory we'd have a whole staff, right?
25-10-26 23:40:34: Albrecht: A military commander maybe, specific ministers for specific, narrow areas perhaps.
25-10-26 23:40:50: Emil: Hello, Guest!
25-10-26 23:40:53: Guest3: :waves.
25-10-26 23:40:56: Ada: Pretty much, yeah. I should move Erika in there as Protector of the Tower.
25-10-26 23:41:04: Ada: Hey, guest!
25-10-26 23:41:46: Ada: And a naval commander. The Crown maintains a fleet at Thalund (/very kindly/ funded by the Grand Republic).
25-10-26 23:43:17: Guest1: Oh Basil does seem kinda interesting in a "can get into all sorts of good trouble" kind of way
25-10-26 23:43:37: Arista: That's my Uncle!
25-10-26 23:43:45: Emil: He's traveled the world! Seems like a guy you'd want to invite to all the parties.
25-10-26 23:43:51: Ada: Great-uncle, right? :D
25-10-26 23:44:23: Arista: Meh, specifics, specifics!
25-10-26 23:44:26: Guest1: I have been looking at Manfred and Manos as well
25-10-26 23:44:56: Arista: Manos is also a great choice. Need more Aetos~
25-10-26 23:46:37: Ada: Manos has a special effect written just about being so chill. :D
25-10-26 23:48:16: Albrecht: My sfx feels like a superpower
25-10-26 23:48:25: Albrecht: Given the role
25-10-26 23:48:49: Guest1: So I guess it's a matter of "Chill architect who can help build stuff", a monster masher, or the daring rogue adventurer :D
25-10-26 23:48:52: Ada: Older PCs mostly get beefier SFX.
25-10-26 23:49:23: Albrecht: Team Old Dudes ftw
25-10-26 23:49:49: Ada: I'll probably have to review them at the end of the first chapter once I see them in practice, but that's the general trend for sure.
25-10-26 23:50:34: Ada: They are all entirely valid. :D Manos comes with existing PCs in the house, and Basil and Manfred with a very good excuse to show up to all sorts of places. Basil especially.
25-10-26 23:51:14: Arista: Also, lol at Jack Black being PB. Looking forward to meeting the PM.
25-10-26 23:51:47: Albrecht: I thought he was a pretty good fit actually.
25-10-26 23:52:14: Albrecht: Fatty with the right combination of approachable and gravitas
25-10-27 00:06:16: Ada: Pay no mind to the mad king. Just tweaking something. :D
25-10-27 00:06:54: Emil: He's gonna kill us all. Run! Run!
25-10-27 00:07:51: Koline: :o.o
25-10-27 00:10:41: Ada: Koline is happily sane.
25-10-27 00:11:05: Emil: May it long continue!
25-10-27 00:22:24: Orestes: It's neat that we don't get kicked out of the game every time the server restarts.
25-10-27 00:22:42: Ada: Nice feature of Evennia.
25-10-27 00:22:54: Emil: Hello, a Basil! YAY!
25-10-27 00:22:59: Orestes: Welcome Basil!
25-10-27 00:23:06: Basil: Hello!
25-10-27 00:25:02: Arista: Great-Uncle!
25-10-27 00:26:15: Basil: All of my nieces and nephews are GREAT. :D
25-10-27 00:27:03: Ada: ; adds the relationship links to character pages.
25-10-27 00:29:35: Basil: Now I gotta find a PB
25-10-27 00:56:30: Basil: I noticed while snooping around the help files and site that there is a slot for "Secret Information", so all sorts of fun stuff is ahead eh? :D
25-10-27 00:57:45: Ada: That's more "this character also happens to do this on the side" or "this bit of the backstory happened more like this", than anything else.
25-10-27 00:57:50: Ada: Hey, guest!
25-10-27 00:57:58: Guest1: Heya.
25-10-27 00:58:06: Basil: Ooooh gotcha
25-10-27 01:00:31: Ada: If you have any questions, ask away.
25-10-27 01:01:11: Ada: Also on the secret information section, it's good to have a slot to note anything that really should be pointed out to a potential later player which may not be obvious from, er, "notes" (see help note).
25-10-27 01:02:11: Guest1: What is the time/responsibility difference on expectations of a higher ranked noble role vs. a less 'important' and more social based character?
25-10-27 01:04:21: Ada: Depends on the leader, which is not remotely helpful, but there are a few who I'd really love to see able to do a few scenes a week, while a couple of others could be much more chill. As for other characters, well, I doubt I'm going to fret if someone only gets on once in a while.
25-10-27 01:05:14: Albrecht: A few scenes a week seems like a very reasonable ask.
25-10-27 01:05:27: Basil: Do the deities have any symbols associated with them?  I guess in particular Iatrikos and Yatric.
25-10-27 01:05:55: Albrecht: And is Tower of Valon a Wheel of Time reference/easter egg?
25-10-27 01:06:26: Ada: They don't and they really should, but the glorious thing with those two is that they have umpteen minor temples, no centralised dogma, no pontiffs, nothing.
25-10-27 01:07:12: Albrecht: I'll definitely plan on more than a few scenes a week, personally.
25-10-27 01:07:22: Ada: It is not. :D Came originally from the Tower of David, the citadel in Jerusalem.
25-10-27 01:07:35: Albrecht: Oic!
25-10-27 01:07:51: Albrecht: That's probably where Jordan cribbed it from himself.
25-10-27 01:07:58: Basil: Albrecht's weekly billiards game?
25-10-27 01:08:28: Albrecht: Weekly or monthly tournaments even
25-10-27 01:08:54: Albrecht: Could I ask for some kind of coded support, so we can have fair contests? Eventuallyish
25-10-27 01:09:33: Albrecht: Just something that even rolls a d2 to sink a ball or miss a shot
25-10-27 01:09:37: Guest1: Do you have capacity to page about time expectations between two different ones being looked at, Ada?
25-10-27 01:09:43: Albrecht: Needn't be crazy complicated.
25-10-27 01:09:45: Ada: Sure thing.
25-10-27 01:10:23: Albrecht: I wish I knew how to code, I'd try to put something together for it myself.
25-10-27 01:10:31: Ada: Re pages. As for billiards, yeah, knocking something together would be pretty trivial. Could tie it to finesse/dexterity with some random chance.
25-10-27 01:10:56: Albrecht: I would love you forever, and also genuinely use it to run frequent events.
25-10-27 01:11:39: Albrecht: If you have any questions about how some games of pool work, I do know a lot -- I actually have played pool for decades.
25-10-27 01:12:51: Albrecht: There's one called straight pool that might actually be the easiest. All balls are simply worth a point. A shooter goes until he misses, then his turn ends. The points are kept track of, and each time there's one final ball on the table, all but that ball and the queue ball are re-racked. Play continues until someone reaches 50 points.
25-10-27 01:13:20: Albrecht: 15 balls in play.
25-10-27 01:13:47: Albrecht: With 8 ball you'd have to distinguish between two 'types' of ball and each player having ownership of one or the other.
25-10-27 01:14:11: Albrecht: Plus that game feels more modern. Straight or continuous feels like it would have been one of the earlier games.
25-10-27 01:15:01: Albrecht: There's also the possibility to scratch in a pocket, which deducts a point, but maybe it doesn't need to be that complicated. I'd be thrilled with any level of utility.
25-10-27 01:15:51: Ada: I think it would be more like "So-and so pots a ball!" echoes and a little score counter.
25-10-27 01:16:07: Albrecht: That would be great!
25-10-27 01:16:25: Albrecht: The rest can come down to RP.
25-10-27 01:16:33: Albrecht: That is what we're all here to do, after all.
25-10-27 01:17:37: Albrecht: Would it be possible to have critical failure, where you scratch the queue ball and lose a point, and critical success where you make 2 balls at once?
25-10-27 01:18:38: Ada: Yeah, I'd just run it off hitches or heroic successes in the existing dice system probably.
25-10-27 01:18:57: Albrecht: Or maybe it rolls a random number for how many get made on a crit success. I'm not sure what's possible and I'm not trying to ask for like, something elaborate or time-consuming.
25-10-27 01:19:26: Albrecht: I'll love whatever I get dearly, and with a heart full of gratitude.
25-10-27 01:19:35: Ada: I'll peek at it when I'm home and am finishing up the test/contest system tomorrow and Tuesday. :D
25-10-27 01:20:05: Emil: Ooooh, contest.
25-10-27 01:20:15: Ada: If I mess with the dice system now my computer is going to shout at me about merge conflicts tomorrow.
25-10-27 01:20:53: Albrecht: Thank you! I promise I'll use this power for evi... uh, I mean good!
25-10-27 01:23:05: Basil: If I flip the table does that count as standing up to his tyranny?
25-10-27 01:24:36: Ada: No but you can ask for a new SFX of "Billiards Champion" to just get to add a die to your pool for billiards I guess. :D
25-10-27 01:25:25: Ada: Besides, Basil would hardly be in harm's way until after he flipped the table!
25-10-27 01:25:32: Basil: That's true!
25-10-27 01:27:03: Ada: ; dusts off the announcements board.
25-10-27 01:27:38: Guest1: Is there any specific info y'all want to have included in a roster application for a character?
25-10-27 01:27:44: Ada: I didn't realise offline notifications weren't firing quite as intended, but anyway, for those who want, I can let you go snoop round your characters' estates and write a home desc, then it's back to the welcome area till Friday.
25-10-27 01:28:03: Ada: Only a basic indication that you read the character sheet, honestly, guest.
25-10-27 01:28:05: Guest3: Discord says you flipt ables like this: (╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻
25-10-27 01:28:13: Albrecht: :probably won't be very good at the game, actually.
25-10-27 01:28:55: Basil: Oooh, I wouldn't mind working on a desc
25-10-27 01:29:15: Ada: Oh! I'll let you roam. I don't know where Basil's house would be.
25-10-27 01:29:43: Albrecht: Alright folks, I'm off for the night to spend some time with the wifey.
25-10-27 01:29:52: Albrecht: Seeya tomorrow!
25-10-27 01:29:55: Orestes: Have a good night Albrecht!
25-10-27 01:30:01: Albrecht: You too!
25-10-27 01:30:04: Ada: Port District or maybe Dyrian District. I mean to add a residential quarter to the Plaza District too.
25-10-27 01:31:10: Basil: :nodsnods, I'll check those out!
25-10-27 01:31:47: Ada: 'directions' is maybe your friend, but it's a compact grid.
25-10-27 01:33:05: Orestes: I personally wouldn't mind waiting until after the official launch, just to get a better feel for the theme of grid and setting.
25-10-27 01:34:12: Orestes: Although I appreciate the opportunity to get a head start on putting together descs and all :P
25-10-27 01:34:53: Ada: Totally reasonable. Descriptions are a weak point for me, so if people look at family estates and have suggestions, I'm all for reading them.
25-10-27 01:35:12: Emil: I desced my rooms, but very generically. I figure I'll have more ideas once I kick Emil's tires.
25-10-27 01:35:18: Ada: At some point I was trying not to recycle "This is a room with nice furniture" too much.
25-10-27 01:36:01: Emil: (Of course, one of the nice things about hereditary wealth is that you can pretty much go 'everything in this room has been in this room for 100 years, and barring a fire, will probably be in here for 100 more.'
25-10-27 01:37:20: Ada: Hah. Yeah. The houses that don't really have wealth still have enough for comfy rooms.
25-10-27 01:37:38: Emil: Built to last!
25-10-27 01:38:12: Basil: Think I found where I wanna set up shop
25-10-27 01:38:24: Ada: I am very reluctant to get into hard numbers because it's a quick way to make a setting nonsensical, but outside of the Commonwealth, every currently playable house has at least tens of thousands of subjects.
25-10-27 01:39:08: Irreth: I don't love doing descriptions, but it can be very helpful for aesthetics and to have things not look generic to do them. So I'm willing to gave a go!
25-10-27 01:39:25: Emil: Makes sense! There is such a thing as too crunchy, for sure. Especially when you try to square population numbers; people often really don't have a handle on pre-modern population densities.
25-10-27 01:39:38: Ada: The Anadun one has a very appropriate main building. :D
25-10-27 01:39:54: Irreth: Ooh, now I'm very curious. Is it easy to find?
25-10-27 01:40:29: Ada: You found it!
25-10-27 01:40:31: Irreth: Thanks Ada! <3
25-10-27 01:56:17: Basil: When doing a desc and you get "Your client sent an incorrect UTF-8 sequence." what should I do?
25-10-27 01:56:39: Irreth: It's probably going to be a smart quote or something. Paste it into notepad first.
25-10-27 01:56:50: Ada: ^^
25-10-27 01:57:55: Basil: Guess I'll just have to rewrite it in Notepad, weird
25-10-27 02:03:17: Ada: When making quick changes to a command parser, don't do that. :D
25-10-27 02:03:23: Ada: Sorry about that!
25-10-27 02:03:48: Basil: Okay retyping it worked, yay
25-10-27 02:05:29: Ada: Okay, actual functioning code this time.
25-10-27 02:05:46: Ada: Could you do me a favour Basil and see if you still get the encoding error with the original text?
25-10-27 02:07:23: Basil: Yeah I still got the error
25-10-27 02:08:09: Basil: I used a gdoc to type the original and notepad++ to type the new, new one worked.
25-10-27 02:08:33: Ada: Oh well. Worth a shot! I got the command parser to replace a few common UTF-8 characters with ASCII but it's possible Evennia is going 'no' before it hits the parser.
25-10-27 02:09:16: Ada: Glad it's working, anyway. :)
25-10-27 02:09:31: Basil: Yeah, glad to get the house and desc out of the way :D
25-10-27 02:09:46: Ada: If you're all set, I'll whisk you away to limbo again for now.
25-10-27 02:09:54: Basil: Feel free to whisk me away!
25-10-27 02:11:02: Ada: A group of middle-aged guys hanging out in a converted office space playing pool feels like I have made this too real.
25-10-27 02:11:17: Emil: Game hasn't started yet and we're already planeswalkers getting whisked from realm to realm.
25-10-27 02:12:05: Ada: Hee. Genuinely fascinating that billiards came into being so early. I figured it was some 19th century thing.
25-10-27 02:12:38: Irreth: You can whisk me, too, Ada. (I couldn't figure out how to get back.)
25-10-27 02:12:49: Emil: I imagine 'stick hit ball' is a game that had myriad variations through history.
25-10-27 02:13:04: Ada: Whisking has happened!
25-10-27 02:13:22: Ada: And yeah, you're probably right.
25-10-27 02:13:23: Emil: They've found Roman dice that look like D&D dice. PROBABLY not for the same purpose, but still amusing.
25-10-27 02:13:26: Irreth: Whee! I felt nothing.
25-10-27 02:15:09: Emil: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/253530
25-10-27 02:15:36: Emil: Random Oracle Tables. :D
25-10-27 02:15:52: Ada: It's like a Magic 8 Ball!
25-10-27 02:16:12: Emil: :heehee!
25-10-27 02:19:13: Ada: I'm taking off. I mean. I'm sleeping, then flying tomorrow, but the finalised roll code will be in very soon and with it the round code, and actions shortly thereafter.
25-10-27 02:19:25: Basil: Night!!
25-10-27 02:19:33: Ada: Night!
25-10-27 02:19:35: Emil: Sleep well, fly safe! I fly on Saturday.
25-10-27 02:21:24: Ada: The worst bit about flying is the airport! Anyway, cheerio! :D
25-10-27 02:22:59: Irreth: Travel safe!
25-10-27 03:10:01: Orestes: :waves to Guest
25-10-27 03:10:13: Guest1: :waves. Hello
25-10-27 03:30:41: Orestes: Two guests o.O
25-10-27 03:30:43: Orestes: Welcome!
25-10-27 12:15:06: Ada: Hey, guest!
25-10-27 12:15:12: Guest1: Hey.
25-10-27 12:15:38: Ada: Feel free to ask if you have any questions. :)
25-10-27 12:17:42: Guest1: Thanks. Saw the post on MSB and decided to check the game out.
25-10-27 12:17:58: Guest1: I think I have my eye on a character.
25-10-27 12:18:06: Guest3: :submitted for one already.
25-10-27 12:20:53: Guest1: I'm having trouble figuring out how to apply for this fella, though, I keep getting the message that the character isn't found.
25-10-27 12:21:15: Ada: What syntax are you using?
25-10-27 12:21:40: Guest1: roster/apply Kothar/email=text
25-10-27 12:23:22: Ada: Seems like it worked there!
25-10-27 12:23:28: Guest1: nvm, I got it this time. I think I misspelled it the first time.
25-10-27 12:26:35: Ada: Awesome. There are a few apps in, which I'll look at soon. I'm doing a little bugsquashing first.
25-10-27 12:28:41: Guest1: Thanks for the welcome, I'm off to work.
25-10-27 13:53:19: Ada: I think I've seen three or four apps now from people saying they haven't MU*ed in a long time, which is curious.
25-10-27 13:53:44: Ada: I mean, not doubting it for a second, I just wonder why.
25-10-27 13:53:51: Emil: A lot of games are Ares, now, those that still exist, and some folk never vibed with Ares.
25-10-27 13:54:36: Ada: I didn't. Respect what it does, love that it's really accessible for game makers, but it doesn't click. So I suppose it may be as simple as that.
25-10-27 13:56:52: Ada: As the current Guest3 here and I have been chatting about, Evennia has a few quirks to hammer out. I had like six screens of server logs about guest sessions and cookies. Faraday has Ares polished to a point that I just don't think that happens.
25-10-27 13:57:45: Emil: Yeah. Evennia is very much more 'here's a set of tools, do what you will' while Ares is 'here's a whole framework, tweak a little'. On the downside, Ares has a very particular vibe that it's hard to push out of, mechanically, while Evennia is way more flexible.
25-10-27 14:00:08: Ada: It is. I've also breezed through web stuff, mostly because LLMs work well for it, so having useful game-web integration has been quite straightforward.
25-10-27 14:00:27: Ada: That might bridge one gap between traditional clients and Ares' very sleek web interface.
25-10-27 14:01:11: Sigitas: hello
25-10-27 14:01:27: Emil: Hey!
25-10-27 14:01:29: Ada: Hey, Sigitas!
25-10-27 14:06:24: Ada: There was a /queue/ of applications. I mean. Four, but still. That's 24 claimed characters, which is fabulous.
25-10-27 14:06:48: Emil: Huzzah!
25-10-27 14:07:10: Ada: Including two Salfelds. :D
25-10-27 14:07:41: Emil: Delightful!
25-10-27 14:09:53: Sigitas: :hopes for more Commonwealth characters :P
25-10-27 14:10:16: Sigitas: but yeah nice
25-10-27 14:11:03: Ada: I'm sure they will come. For all the peril the Commonwealth has to face, there is a straightforward solution and straightforward characters.
25-10-27 14:11:55: Ada: In the sense that "hit bad guy" is what a number of them do.
25-10-27 14:12:43: Sigitas: well if you get swarmed by evil guys it's the easiest solution
25-10-27 14:17:32: Ada: This was a bit of whimsy, but this came to mind from some world writing: "Hadashi officers can only theorise about what might happen if their armies were to be deployed abroad, or if indeed they encountered an army very distinctly different to their own lightly equipped foot soldiers. One observer of the Greenwood War came back and said that, faced with Adanan heavy cavalry in an open plain, the very best approach would be to go home and not have a battle."
25-10-27 14:18:10: Ada: Not a great option in Lonin.
25-10-27 14:22:53: Sigitas: very true indeed
25-10-27 14:24:55: Emil: Ooof, yes. Lightly armored foot soldiers vs. heavy cavalry isn't even fair.
25-10-27 14:49:30: Ada: Got the deleted account mail bug. :D
25-10-27 14:50:18: Emil: Woo!
25-10-27 14:50:32: Ada: That's one from the mail contrib itself. It doesn't gracefully handle deleted accounts - in this instance, a mail from a guest account.
25-10-27 14:55:45: Ada: Hey, guest!
25-10-27 14:55:49: Guest1: Hello!
25-10-27 14:56:39: Ada: Feel free to ask if you have any questions.
25-10-27 14:57:53: Guest1: Much appreciated. What sorts of things might you want to see in an application?
25-10-27 14:58:31: Ada: Only a sentence or two to indicate you read the character sheet, really.
25-10-27 14:59:46: Ada: Just in the off-chance someone missed something vital or has applied for the wrong character. In the case of a few characters (mostly Gerald, Sophia, Victor, Adon), I'd like to chat with the prospective player in advance, and I should drop something in to indicate as much!
25-10-27 15:00:16: Guest1: Ah, I was looking at Franziska!
25-10-27 15:01:05: Ada: Fabulous. :D Would love to see her in play.
25-10-27 15:01:27: Sigitas: Victor smells... he stripped me of my title :D
25-10-27 15:02:23: Ada: Both Franziska's children have players, too!
25-10-27 15:03:19: Guest1: Yes, one of my friends suggested her sister, and another was like, "She's not available; she's me." So I am somewhat motivated there, too.
25-10-27 15:05:29: Guest1: What is up with her husband Xander? Is he a character? NPC? TBD?
25-10-27 15:06:40: Ada: Oh! NPC. I keep saying I'll put up a post on marriage and keep forgetting. Married characters are all married to NPCs, but if two people do come along asking to play a married PC and their NPC spouse, I will make the spouse a PC.
25-10-27 15:07:06: Guest1: Good to know!
25-10-27 15:21:53: Ada: This policy file felt slightly weird to write. The overwhelming majority of the time, people can play their characters as they will. Marriage is just problematic. Would be glad of a tone check. https://empiremush.org/information/marriage/
25-10-27 15:23:46: Emil: It might need something added about infidelity, particularly if a PC married to an NPC wants to pursue romance with another PC. My default assumption is that most marriages are political and infidelity is sort of expected as long as it's not disrespecting the spouse, but clarification can be good.
25-10-27 15:24:44: Ada: Yeah, that's worth me doing a setting note on too.
25-10-27 15:24:57: Guest1: There is a certain expectation in L&L games that marriage is a character goal. So it might be good to also include a note that people being unmarried is cool.
25-10-27 15:25:50: Ada: Totally fair. I'll write a bit of setting information and link from the policy page.
25-10-27 15:28:37: Guest1: I'm not sure if I put that well, but generally, explicitly stating that it's cool to be an unmarried woman over the age of 25 might be helpful. Because it's a very modern idea, even if there have always been happily unmarried women (and other people) over the age of 25. "It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife."
25-10-27 15:32:16: Ada: For sure. It's a bit of the game where I'll gladly depart from any sort of historical norms.
25-10-27 15:34:21: Franziska: last
25-10-27 15:34:26: Franziska: :grumbles.
25-10-27 15:35:03: Ada: I'll make that an alias eventually. :D
25-10-27 15:35:10: Ada: It's channel/history.
25-10-27 15:35:53: Franziska: Right, yes. (Former Guest1, continuing.) It's good to have something written as canon so that when people inevitably bring it up, it can be pointed out as such.
25-10-27 15:37:22: Sigitas: yay no wife needed I'm fine with that
25-10-27 15:37:47: Sigitas: guess no woman would voluntarily want to live in the tundra anyway
25-10-27 15:39:48: Emil: I might even say that it's worth mentioning where you, as the game runner, see the focus being. From my reading, it feels like the politics of the world are more of a focus than interpersonal drama/politicking that is common to what people consider "Lords and Ladies" games. It might be worth highlighting that in a file, if so, so people don't become disappointed when they're expecting marriage/gossip/intra-house politicking to be the focus. (As a side note, with a wide variety of non-Imperial cultures that it MIGHT be useful to have some influence in, could a marriage to a non-Imperial NPC for political purposes be a valid course of action?)
25-10-27 15:42:33: Ada: Yes, yes it could. I might actually write this file from that angle, because ultimately in the game world, marriage is a secular institution organised as noble houses (the creators of secular law) see fit, so sometimes it's just to make sure there are more noble kids, sometimes political, sometimes because they really like someone.
25-10-27 15:45:00: Ada: I'm not sure that lords and ladies is the most helpful genre label, but "Game where you portray influential noble characters who happen to spend a good deal of time gathered in one city but it's really about how they interact with the wider world" is a bad name.
25-10-27 15:45:29: Emil: :laughs. "Yeah. It's really a too broad genre label."
25-10-27 15:46:11: Emil: :would probably go somewhere with "fantasy political game", but then people just go "but what does that mean???" so. :D
25-10-27 15:46:17: Franziska: C-suite execs without cellphones?
25-10-27 15:46:45: Ada: lol pretty much. And Gerald must be getting his ear chewed off in boardroom meetings.
25-10-27 15:48:50: Antigone: Another meeting that could have been a courier.
25-10-27 15:51:13: Sigitas: board meeting in armor and silk
25-10-27 15:52:08: Emil: TBF, that would make meetings more exciting right there. Shiny armor.
25-10-27 15:54:41: Sigitas: :could totally imagine having a different set of armor for every occasion.
25-10-27 15:54:45: Franziska: Running noble fiefs is much like running a company. You want to maximize profits without making the serfs too cranky.
25-10-27 15:59:59: Sigitas: especially in an elective monarchy like the Commonwealth, which lead to its downfall historically :p
25-10-27 16:00:48: Ada: The Commonwealth felt at moments like the weirdest place to write despite holding closest in many respects to its historical analogue.
25-10-27 16:01:20: Ada: You guys elect your king? And one in seven of you can vote? And they don't even have to be from here?
25-10-27 16:01:44: Emil: I love it. Political history is so much weirder than strong feudalism that we tend to default too!
25-10-27 16:02:07: Ada: Fletza and Albalaski would represent two of the big magnate families.
25-10-27 16:03:21: Emil: Although I know it would have an audience of 1 (me), I've always wanted to do something inspired by a psuedo-Confucian exam-based bureaucratic imperial structure.
25-10-27 16:07:39: Ada: I'd give it a go. I wrote a Europe-styled game because I'm European and know European history and stories, I guess.
25-10-27 16:08:31: Ada: If I tried to write something Chinese, it would be purely informed by videogame adaptations of Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
25-10-27 16:09:17: Emil: :laughs! "That's what most of the prospective audience would be using, too!"
25-10-27 16:09:54: Sigitas: but yeah I like the 'Grey Warden' base here in the Expanse so maybe another reason why I chose a Sikorin
25-10-27 16:10:13: Emil: It's very cool!
25-10-27 16:12:37: Ada: I'll have to run an Expanse-based event early on, not least because it's one everyone can understand.
25-10-27 16:13:43: Ada: Speaking of, I am stricken with indecision on one action/event adjacent thing. How does one balance the fact that there are limitations in action involvement with the fact that it would be a bit nuts to discourage live events with the same?
25-10-27 16:14:56: Ada: I don't have a great answer, I guess. Though the stakes go down if people aren't investing resources in the action/event - wealth/political capital are one-use only, and military resources could be reused in a chapter, but only in the same geographic region.
25-10-27 16:16:10: Ada: Perfunctory, but here we go: https://empiremush.org/information/marriages-and-romance/
25-10-27 16:17:40: Emil: Seems clear!
25-10-27 16:18:57: Emil: :ponders the event/action thing. "I might let it play out a bit, see where people invest their energy - event attendance might depend, for example, on time zone and availability. You can tweak it once you have a baseline?"
25-10-27 16:20:12: Ada: Yup, makes sense. Also put this in the policy note, "If your character is married to another player character, please do check they are okay before initiating any romantic engagement with a third party. There is no in-setting societal stigma, but it might still be uncomfortable for the other player."
25-10-27 16:20:33: Emil: Oh, good call.
25-10-27 16:21:43: Ada: Okay, time to go catch a flight. :D
25-10-27 16:21:52: Emil: :salute!
25-10-27 16:26:15: Emil: :waves to Kothar.
25-10-27 16:27:57: Kothar: Hello. :)
25-10-27 16:52:29: Emil: :waves to Arista.
25-10-27 16:52:42: Arista: :greets good morning. How is?
25-10-27 16:52:54: Emil: So much rain!
25-10-27 16:53:13: Arista: :offers umbrella!
25-10-27 16:53:34: Emil: :dances with umbrella.
25-10-27 16:53:51: Arista: :claps a tune.
25-10-27 16:54:16: Emil: Huzzah! How are you?
25-10-27 16:54:59: Arista: Doing well! Getting back into that Monday grind, but thought to peek in and add to the population.
25-10-27 16:56:49: Emil: Awesome! Closing in on opening.
25-10-27 16:58:03: Arista: Very excited! Might be here, but if not, will be around all the next day.
25-10-27 16:58:34: Emil: I'm mildly bummed that I have a work event from the 1st through the 5th so might not be around as much as I'd like.
25-10-27 17:02:21: Sigitas: depending on my schedule I might work or not and so find time to RP then
25-10-27 17:02:33: Arista: Well, maybe-hopefully that'll just build the anticipation for you, and make things extra fun when you arrive ^.^
25-10-27 17:15:45: Emil: Yes!
25-10-27 17:16:48: Sigitas: of course
25-10-27 18:19:39: Emil: Hello, Guest!
25-10-27 18:19:45: Guest1: Hello!
25-10-27 18:23:07: Emil: Ada is traveling, but I'm sure she'd address questions here or in the questions channel when she returns!
25-10-27 18:36:47: Antigone: Is Sanctuary closed until the game opens officially?
25-10-27 18:37:29: Emil: Yes, but Ada's poofed people out to the grid to take a look around, find their living spaces, etc.
25-10-27 18:37:52: Antigone: That's okay, I am content to remain :D
25-10-27 18:38:03: Emil: :grins. "Soon, soon!"
25-10-27 18:38:15: Antigone: :waits until no one's looking, shakes bars and howls
25-10-27 18:39:26: Emil: :laughs!
25-10-27 18:39:31: Ada: I can drop people on grid to look at room spaces but yeah, city is closed till Friday.
25-10-27 18:41:09: Antigone: I'm good, I just wanted to make sure it wasn't a me issue
25-10-27 18:42:19: Ada: Nah, it's just me carelessly leaving a misleading line in a room description suggesting you can get through
25-10-27 18:53:19: Sigitas: descing has never been my thing sadly
25-10-27 18:53:39: Ada: Welcome, Roland!
25-10-27 18:53:51: Roland: Thank you! Happy to be here.
25-10-27 21:16:44: Emil: Hello, Guest!
25-10-27 21:17:02: Guest1: Hello other guest
25-10-27 21:20:32: Guest5: Hello other other guest and Emil!
25-10-27 21:32:48: Albrecht: Yeah to add to the previous conversation, I was moved to my room to desc it, and am going about it extremely slowly. You know how long it's been since I wrote a room desc? Arx, anyway.
25-10-27 21:59:30: Ada: Got Gerald apps when I was out. :D Going to snaffle the object for now.
25-10-27 21:59:37: Emil: Woo!
25-10-27 22:01:03: Albrecht: Woot!
25-10-27 22:14:20: Koline: Hello, all~!
25-10-27 22:14:27: Albrecht: Hail, Empress!
25-10-27 22:15:16: Emil: :salute!
25-10-27 22:17:52: Koline: How is everyone tonight? :)
25-10-27 22:18:24: Emil: Not bad! I'm watching Critical Role.
25-10-27 22:18:28: Crescentia: :waves. Evening, everyone!
25-10-27 22:18:35: Koline: Hello!
25-10-27 22:18:56: Guest1: good evening