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Velvet

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We all do it, and some of us more than most. There's a catty remark here, a tongue bitten there, and sometimes an outright blow-up that gets everyone involved. Unfortunately, there's really no way to bitch "nicely" and it's inevitable that feelings are going to get hurt, either because something is said that offends, or someone ruptures an internal organ holding in the urge to say it.

So.

I'm making this thread, and whether or not it's used is up to you guys. It's not for any particular subject or character, though it might be best to at least restrict your gripes to N!Prime. Typical forum rules apply, etc, etc. Want to bitch about a character? Go ahead, but they can do the same. Want to complain about a crappy storyline? Be my guest.

Don't want to be offended? Don't post here, and don't read it. This is an open call for anybody to rant, gripe, grouse, whine, or grumble about anything, as players and writers. If nothing else, maybe it'll at least free up the other threads and forums for their intended uses.

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I'm sick of Solstice, Gabe, Revenant, Contessa, etc. committing suicide every time Dave has a personal gripe with members of this forum. Can we do something about that? I like you, Dave, and I like your characters. But your childish pedantry can stay the fuck home. It's one thing if you've got a problem with someone else's character, concept, or actions, but you don't even bother to veil your complains behind civility. You make a choice to come out with guns drawn and demanding to be taken seriously, which is going to produce pretty much the opposite effect. When you attack someone's character, it makes me feel compelled to attack you just for being a jerk.

Hey, maybe this thread will help solve this problem. But threatening to kill off all your characters whenever someone disagrees with you is the height of fucking childishness. That's not taking your ball and going home, it's stabbing the fucking ball with a knitting needle and fucking off to the bar. It's a shitty thing to do.

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A woman goes into a bar and asks the bartender for a "double entendre".

So he gave her one.

Not a rant, I know, so...

I can empathize with a lot of what Rev's feeling right now, and not only because he's sitting next to me, watching what I type. (Kidding.) I've vacated the premises on a few occasions, pissed and frustrated, and came back to find that nothing had changed. What some people find to be perfectly valid characters, motives, or events really, really grate on my nerves because it's a shared universe. I understand we're all different, we all have our own styles of play, but it bothers the shit out of me that so few of those styles even begin to approach the logical. It's sad that people have made completely farcical characters, and not everyone realizes it's supposed to be a joke.

...There's more, but I'll break off here to save on bandwidth.

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Okay, I'm gonna do it. Don't read if you think you might be hurt. And feel free to fire back.

Rev- I love your characters. But for someone as completely aggro as you are the minute you see something you like you pull the martyr bit way too fucking quick. If you're gonna dish it out fucking well learn to take it.

Rev and Vi- For god's sake people, I'm fucking sorry that you feel people have stepped on your toes story or character concept wise but you both need to chill out. You don't have the patent on ideas. And when you've gotten upset I've only been able to see very basic similarities between characters. And for stories? Please, there are only what, twenty or thirty stories in existence? Everything is a variation on a theme.

Endeavor- You're slavish devotion to anime is a massive distraction for all your characters. Heck, your last one wasn't even your character. It was a duplicate of an anime character. And no, Endeavor hasn't changed a single bit in the entire time she's been here. Except for very short lived moments of growth she's been the same character forever.

Silvertalon- Silvertalon isn't a character. It's some weird furry-fantasy that is really creepy. You don't roleplay an intelligent being, you roleplay someone's cat. It's weird.

Seph-Ego. Dude, sometimes it's hard to tell when its your characters ego or its your own reflecting through.

Vixen- Don't be so fucking sensitive when people are a little harsh. This isn't t-ball, it's life. Sometimes folks hit hard.

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Originally Posted By: Lemmy Chillmeister
Rev and Vi- For god's sake people, I'm fucking sorry that you feel people have stepped on your toes story or character concept wise but you both need to chill out. You don't have the patent on ideas. And when you've gotten upset I've only been able to see very basic similarities between characters. And for stories? Please, there are only what, twenty or thirty stories in existence? Everything is a variation on a theme.


I'm not going to apologize for being pissed. These are things I can't stand, and telling me to chill out doesn't accomplish much. I bitch, but I also freely acknowledge that people are welcome to bitch back. I also freely acknowledge that my style of roleplay isn't everyone else's, and no matter how idiotic I think a character or concept is, I won't tell them they're not allowed to do it. I still feel cranky about the character and story in question, but I have yet to ask the player to change or retcon either. It's not my call. All I can say about the things that bother me is, "Wow. I would never do that, and I would sure as hell not allow it in my games. Frankly, I think it's idiotic, and I'm probably just going to pretend he/she/it doesn't exist/didn't happen."
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New bitch: Part II from the above to start later.

Would you all stop fucking chatting as every other id under the sun while OOC ?

I've been trying very hard not to know who people are behind new characters but when you hop into chat as Alt#4 and act like everyone should know who you are it's hard to not find out.

I'd like to treat each character as a seperate entity and I admit, I'm not good at doing that if I know I hate the motherfucker behind the new name.

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I would like to think that you folks are kind, considerate, strong in thought and deed, and generally pleasant people to be around.

So when I open up the forum and get a big ol' dosage of "this sucks and that licks goats and fuck your ass," I want to do this to myself:

presentedwithoutcomment.jpg

This is a place where we make up stories, and one of the things about stories is this: there is no objective, scientific method for telling whether or not a story has any merit. There's no formula I can use to compute the relative worth of "Catwoman" and "Citizen Kane."

You can point to genre and the three-act structure and all the tools that writers use but ultimately it's all personal taste. Critics can't tell you what movies you will like. Your friends can't tell you which books you will love. And the other players on N!Prime can't say, with absolute clarity, whether or not a story sucks. So you'll get a few people from camp A who are saying "Wow, I'm on board with this one," and a few from camp B who will think it sucks donkey dong. And while they both think they have valid reasons, neither really do. It's all personal taste.

How I see N!Prime as, is not a shared universe, but a collection of semi-permeable bubble universes each with one central character as its nucleus. The universes can touch, and often do, but they don't necessarily touch all the time. If I want to write a lighthearted story about Knockout versus an escalating series of comic absurdities, it doesn't have to conflict with the massive fight occurring two fictions over where one guy is hitting another guy with the remains of a schoolbus. It wouldn't conflict to my eyes, at the least. It might conflict to yours, but then we're back to personal tastes again.

The fiction section of N!Prime, thanks to the 'you decide whether or not it's canon' rule, follows this bubble-universe theory, and it is the driving force behind posting nowadays. I find that it's better for that. It'd be more coherent for any prospective reader if we had an editor smack us in the nose, but we're all writers as well, and would be unwilling to trade our idea for what a good story is for someone else's. We already have to do that by staying within the lines set out by the setting, where we can't, say, have the Coalition invade Earth no matter how shockedlaughgrin it would be.

N!Prime is a community, and communities are strange things, because on the one hand you want other people to give you reinforcement of your own beliefs, choices, and tastes, and on the other hand, the only way you're going to avoid anyone who says that your beliefs, choices and tastes suck is to avoid other people, period. Which leads to arguments and bruised egos and the occasional hissy fit, and thankfully, on N!Prime, that's pretty much all we'll ever really have.

Wallace S. Sayre famously said, "Academic politics is the most vicious and bitter form of politics, because the stakes are so low." Wally would change his tune if he could see us posting on the Internet. And yes, I know, amazing, a pseudo-anonymous, consequence-free environment can bring out the worst in people. My boots just shot off my feet and hit the wall, 'cause that is so shocking.

But the stakes are low when it comes to one writer doing something with a character and you happened not to like it. That's why I earnestly try not to be part of the problem, even if I'm not sure there is a solution. Some problems can't be solved - only managed.

Someone in chat told me I was one of the calmest people they'd met, who'd never raised their voice in anger. I do raise my voice in anger - I just save it for the things that are worth getting angry about, such as a transit strike in my city that, if it goes forward, will make it rather difficult for me to work. That's worth getting upset about. The fact that I've been trying to get a job in the computer repair business for a year and havent' even gotten an interview yet, that's worth getting upset about. N!Prime isn't. if you really are getting upset about what happens in a place where imaginary people do impossible things, then yes, I think you should take a break. That's what I did.

Ultimately, it is just a game. It might not be the type of game you win but it is the type of game you're supposed to have fun with, because if it's not fun, then it's work you don't get rewarded for, and who wants more of that?

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What a nice, long, eloquent post. It's perfectly rational, utterly reasonable.

It's also crap. I'm sorry, but that's how I feel.

...At least, in my opinion. For some of us, even those who do work all the time, who don't get pretty houses in the suburbs or "urban chic" apartments, our games and our enjoyment of them are the only tether to sanity we maintain. I think we have every right to get pissed, to get upset, when the few outlets we have (whether because of time constraints, monetary issues, or what have you) are threatened. Just because it's the internet doesn't make the bonds forged here, or the real emotions of the players behind the text, any less real or valid.

Oh, and no trying to kill my thread with your moderate views. :P

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Seph: I love you like an incestuous brother, but not when you play Devil's advocate for no other reason than the sake of the argument. Stand by what you believe to be true, but nothing else. I don't enjoy the act of debate. I enjoy the act of resolution. We all know that you're an iconoclast. There's no real need for you to step up and be the voice of dissent in every single debate anymore. You've established your cred already.

Rev and Vi: Not every opinion has merit. In fact, very few of them do. If a few people are flinging poop at you, let it go and keep doing what makes you happy. Endeavor puts me on ignore every time I come into chat. Am I offended? No. It's Endeavor for Crissakes; he's the second-biggest joke on the entire forum.

Dreamer: Actually, you get off easy this time. I haven't seen you around in a few days, and it's been sheer bliss. Keep it up!

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Originally Posted By: Velvet
What a nice, long, eloquent post. It's perfectly rational, utterly reasonable.

It's also crap. I'm sorry, but that's how I feel.

...At least, in my opinion. For some of us, even those who do work all the time, who don't get pretty houses in the suburbs or "urban chic" apartments, our games and our enjoyment of them are the only tether to sanity we maintain. I think we have every right to get pissed, to get upset, when the few outlets we have (whether because of time constraints, monetary issues, or what have you) are threatened. Just because it's the internet doesn't make the bonds forged here, or the real emotions of the players behind the text, any less real or valid.

Oh, and no trying to kill my thread with your moderate views. :P


Isn't the moderate view what's needed here? This rant thread is turning into a pissing contest and that's not what the forums need is yet another black eye.

Waki's gone, we got the Dreamer compact, God is in his heaven and all is right with the world. Why do we need yet another bitching thread in a forum that has too many of it's ilk already?

Lemmy: I've begun to realize that myself that Endeavor is cast more in concrete than silly putty. At least silly putty is easy to mold. I'll accept your criticism as something that I've had problems changing. If in can improve her, great. But let's move on.

I only created Origami as a concept of a character with paper powers. Origami isn't a bibliophile, she isn't a british agent. The only simularity is the power. In the canon world, I'll prove Origami isn't made with a cookie cutter. Only in ZZZZ does Origami follow script. In fact, in ZZZZ I lampoon everyone's POV that Origami = Yomiko Readman. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it.

SuperCav is an experiment in just going with a flow of a character not a gimmick. Let's see how that goes before you call SC yet another Anime fanboy wank.

Overclock is Endeavor with less weird and no sailor suit. For M&M.... I think we can seperate that from N!.

DigiGeist... he's back. I'm just putting myself more into him. At least personality wise. I just can't abandon my favorite elvish nova.
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Originally Posted By: Endeavor

Isn't the moderate view what's needed here? This rant thread is turning into a pissing contest and that's not what the forums need is yet another black eye.

Waki's gone, we got the Dreamer compact, God is in his heaven and all is right with the world. Why do we need yet another bitching thread in a forum that has too many of it's ilk already?


Because that's the point of the thread. It's supposed to a pissing contest. It's supposed to be a place for people to vent. It's supposed to be a thread where people can get whatever unpleasantness is on their mind out in the open. Why? Because there are so many of them. The fact that they keep popping up all over says that like normal humans, things piss us off and we want to either do or say something about it. Better that people post those things here, in a thread designed for it, than in other threads meant for civil discourse, roleplay, or discussion of ideas.

This is my effort toward minimizing the spread of the bitch-fests and trying to keep them restricted here, so that you know going into the thread what you're going to see... Not clicking on something titled, "Hi, guys!" followed by ten pages of "Fuck you!"
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So I assume Cyn has a Quantum score of 3. That would give her a quantum pool of 26.

It costs 1 Quantum point to attune a person, and the only way to fit someone in a wall is by attuning them. So, not including the power costs for maintaining a level 2 power for the amount of time it would take to capture, drag, and set 70 people in the walls, floor, and ceiling where did she get the quantum points for that?

And something else... if you use DI 5 and attune someone (making yourself solid to grasp them I assume) when they gain the benefit of DI 5... why don't they just pull away from you? They're completey intangible (you start off 'incorporeal' and have to concentrate to make yourself solid), a person could (and most likely would) just pull themselves free from your grasp and there is nothing on the part player that could prevent it. They would lose the benefit of attunement the second they did so, causing you to spend another QP to attune them, grasp them, and they'd pull away again.

Holding a knife and slashing up a person while playing ghost is one thing, it's completely understandable by the use of the power. But attuning people with DI5 makes them ghosts too, ghosts quite capable of just walking right away from the assaulting nova until the attunement is broken.

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Originally Posted By: Flicker
Oh, hey, I forgot to ask earlier: Is the feral pack thing for 2009 still on, or what? I was really looking forward to that. It looks like insane fun.


Fell free to use Primal as an NPC. The accepted members of The Pack were:

The White Widow
Rockfish
The Jackal
Coyote
Razorclaw

If you're on the list, have fun.
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Primal: Oy, gov, ya got me!

Seriously, the answer to your question is: I came up with the idea of having her seal up a nightclub and kill everyone in it first, then attached an explanation of how. Could I probably spin up some sugar-coated reasoning for it? Sure. But that'd be all it was: sugar coating. The reason I put it in the fiction was to convey the idea that (insofar as is possible for someone who's a complete psychopath), she's severely lost it and more than doubled the number of people she's killed already in an evening.

Anyway, not to be dreadfully Terat, but they're anonymous baselines and I felt reasonably comfortable bending the usual rules and offing a bulk number of them to make a point.

If you want a lengthy discourse on my ideas about density decrease and grappling, ask me in chat some time. But really, that's just using a rules argument to serve a dramatic convenience. I don't have Cyn merging people with the walls or floor or putting her hand inside someone's chest because it's a quick or easy way to do damage; I do it because it's unnerving and creepy, and that's the point of Cyn as a dramatic element.

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Murdering five or ten people is just as scary as seventy when it's done in such a horrifying manner. Personally, I'd love to see the number of dead bodies in the fiction adjusted downward.

Primal: Not without you, I'm not. I plan to make White Widow so that I can play in your group, not so that I can use one of your ideas as an NPC. The whole point was that I enjoy collaborating with you. No you, no White Widow. Sorry.

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Originally Posted By: Pew Pew Pew


Primal: Not without you, I'm not. I plan to make White Widow so that I can play in your group, not so that I can use one of your ideas as an NPC. The whole point was that I enjoy collaborating with you. No you, no White Widow. Sorry.


Ditto with Stonefish.
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I agree. There's little need for the Pack without a leader, and I would hazard a guess that despite the best intentions of the players involved, without that sense of structure it would become something very close to the WCK. If Primal's player is indeed serious about killing said character, then I'll simply reconsider my plan for the Jackal. If, however, only a hiatus is planned, perhaps we should all simply table the idea and keep the characters in reserve until such time as they're needed.

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I'm really sorry to waste everyone's time like that, I really am. I certainly didn't plan on takin' off like this it just happened. I just gotta get away from this place for a bit. Casual posts are cool but actually 'playing' right now just isn't something I can do, I can honestly say that I'm just not having any fun with it anymore.

What's done is done and cannot be undone.

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"What's done is done and cannot be undone"? Dude. Even I can hear the fucking hyperbole police coming to take you away, and I live in fucking New York.

You're burned out? Fine. Pigeonhole the project. Writing four or five simultaneous hiatuses isn't that hard. I maintain that this is a grudge move. Fine, maybe I'm wrong. You're making the choice to end anything you end, though. Don't get all broody like this is something you had to do that can never be taken back. You didn't, it isn't.

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And thank you, Captain Obvious. smirk

I have an idea.

Instead of bombarding him with posts reiterating needlessly that it's his choice, he doesn't have to leave, he's being a dick, he's letting everyone down, etc... Why don't we all leave it the fuck alone and let him do what he's going to do? Pointing out the obvious, when I'm sure he's already considered it, isn't going to do anything but piss him off and further convince him that it's not worth being here. If he wants to take a break and come back later, he will. If he wants to tell everyone to fuck off, I imagine he'll do that, too.

Seph, I love you to bits, but we don't need your permission or approval to do anything.

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Point taken, and I know I'm not telling Dave anything he doesn't know.

In my own maladjusted way, this is just how I say "Dude, I don't want you to leave, and I don't want you to quit. I hope you come back. Please don't close all the doors on your way out."

Just trying to show I care.

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