OOC 49: Titles 49% Off

[Haruspex_Pariah]

Are you not a stranger in a strange land OOCly, as well?

Ha, yes, now that I think about it. It's fair to say that I have a lot of exposure to tabletop RPG culture (I'd look up the different rulesets just to see how their mechanics came together), and a lot of hands-on with CRPGs, but effectively zero experience roleplaying.

And now I'm a goatman in a monster bar talking to a blue-haired woman with magic tattoos.

[KerfuffleMach2]

So far I'm trying to establish Riv as a stranger in a strange land. I'm trying to really post in character, and not respond to things in the way I personally would in real life(?), but that level of separation is kind of hard for me. In an MMORPG, I don't need that level of separation; what I say is what I am saying. I've never actually roleplayed for its own sake before. Making up backstory as I go along is exciting, in its own way.

When I started here, I found it easiest to use a character that had pretty much the same attitude as me. Sure, he had a big honking sword and could toss lightning around like he was in major league baseball, but as far as how he acted around others? To others? He was me.

Then, once I got comfortable playing him, I started creating new characters. One with different attitudes. And I'd build up backstories and abilities around those attitudes. This led to a pretty wide variety of characters. Including, at one point, an Autobot.

So, yeah. For now, stick with what you know. Once you're comfortable playing that, try something else. You'll be surprised which characters you find fun to play as.

[Cyber Punk]

I believe everyone has (or has had) a character that's most like them. Mine would be Ezra for this site. When I started RPing in TVTropes, I first created Hotaru and Raven (Nisha), and they were both basically me.

Ah, good times.

That's what makes RPing so fun, making chars that are not like you and then making them do stuff. The stories you can tell...

I hope you have fun here, Haruspex.

[Haruspex_Pariah]

Sorry I'm a bit unclear of what's happening. Is Car'l-2 (or Car'l-4) the cute vampire girl asking the question to Riv and Randii?

[Cyber Punk]

Yeah, she is. Waitress, an all.

They're all clones of the same person, who can clone herself. A good reason to have the same person serve multiple people.

[Haruspex_Pariah]

If you can't find a quest-giver, ask any random vampire waitress.

I'm not expecting much to be honest, but it kind of makes sense for someone in his current situation to make inquiries.

[cavalieredraghi]

K Mach your inbox is full.

[KerfuffleMach2]

Space has been made.

[Solidarity]

@ Solidarity
Will your char at MERC talk to Fade soon?

Yes, sorry to you and Morty. For whatever reason, people are very adversed to prescribing Betapace so life has been hectic. I'll be sure to post later this evening after getting some sleep. (2 a.m.)

[ThirdEmperor]

Eclipse? Sorry to delay things, but, uh, the tendrils going for Electra can't cut anything. Getting hit would simply leave her tethered to the ground. Depending on whether that hits skin or clothing, it may be more or less lasting.

[Nova_Eclipse]

Are the tendrils breakable, or how does that work? I thought they were more or less solid, like the rest of the creature. The hit to her armor is more or less a hit to the skin, I would think, just because of how form-fitting it is, even with the undersuit.

[ThirdEmperor]

Breakable? Yes. Solid? Noooot really.

[Nova_Eclipse]

Would it anchor her just by where it hits, or be over her entire body? And how strong is the stuff?

[cavalieredraghi]

Poke Raziere in Planeside

[ThirdEmperor]

Would it anchor her just by where it hits, or be over her entire body? And how strong is the stuff?

Ack, fell asleep before I could answer this. It would just be a strand from where it hit, her leg, to the street. It's strong enough that basically any normal armor (or flesh) is gonna be torn up trying to break it by brute strength, but as Nick has demonstrated, ballistics will suffice.

[Nova_Eclipse]

Hmm, ok, let me edit my post on the Inside thread, then.

Edit: Edit made; I hope that works better.

[Cyber Punk]

Well I have now, angie. ^^

[Solidarity]

Okidoke. Sorry 'bout that.

As an update for threads I'm in at the moment:

[Lost in the Underbrush] - I think we're up to Kris's turn for the moment.

[Dipsnig's Office] - Posted. Apologies for delaying.

[Outside the Temple Gate] - I think it's Rec's turn. Also, regarding the time junk, SC, Eternus thought it was too risky to completely stop time in that area, so he just sped himself up. I've been assuming all the things he's been doing coincided with everything else that was happening as to not give you a headache, but simply post with him doing more things in one "turn" than normal.

[Shadowcaller]

[Outside the Temple Gate]

In practice there is really no difference between "speeding himself up" to flash speeds and "stopping time". From a person moving at normal speed it's still the same even if the rest of the world might not react the same.

But let me explain just what the issue is with him joining the rest of the scene:

If Etherus moves so fast that the demons are like slow-moving statues to him, then so must every PC and other NPC from his perspective. So unless Etherus killed the two demons at the gate, ran in and then just stood there for a while doing nothing, the others shouldn't even have been able to move much at all. Least of all taking all those rounds.

[Solidarity]

I think if that's the case, the speed at which he's been moving has been vastly overestimated. Remember that when Hei mottled the ground, it was still visibly moving for the mage, albeit slowly. I wouldn't say flash-like speeds, no, just pretty darn quick. Didn't mean to give off the impression that it was as fast as it seems to have felt to you. He was also fighting the Demons for 4 "turns", doing a lot more in any single post than I normally allow for one of my characters' fight scenes, all the while during the time it took for Rec to have one turret destroyed in a little under 3 "turns".

[ThirdEmperor]

Too quick, dude.

Regardless of whether he's comparable to the Flash he might as well be from the perspective of everything SC controls. It's just too much. Please tone it down.

[Solidarity]

Guys...calm down. I've said it before, but I can restate it. SC has been overestimating the speed at which the character's moving by a large margin. If he was shot at by say, a turret, there's a good chance he's affected if not legitimately hit square on. That's why he was so close to the demons in the first place. If joining in on the scene in the same way I had been before now--it didn't seem to be a problem when I'd consistently referenced Eternus seeing things that took place on turns before mine--will throw a wrench into the mix to the point of messing things up, you can PM me. We'll figure it out.

On a different note, and I really don't hope to sound mean, ThirdEmperor, why does the scene matter to you? Are you planning on joining in on it too? Because that could be fun. I guess I just don't understand the interjection, is all. If I have him "tone it down" from what I've said the speeds have been and not how it was taken, he'd be fighting slower then Wenomir. I've read plenty of scenes between that character and the demons where such speeds are generally not the biggest issue.

If you need an easy reference, sorry to pin this on something like a video game, the first word of the time shout in Skyrim closely matches how I intended the character to be moving. Does this make a bit more sense?

[ThirdEmperor]

Eh, SC asked for help with the wording of his last post and I just kinda figured I'd help explain. I'm not trying to make you feel attacked, and so far you might note only one person is talking a time, to give you the fair and full chance to respond. But a friend is frustrated by all this and I want to help if I can.

My preferred help is well-sourced quotes.

"It's only when he notices the magical pit lord's hand begin to move up that the chronomancer bolts over until directly behind said fiend as its hand completes the motion."

In the time it takes a Pit Lord to raise his hand, your character can dart behind him, and then proceeds to stab him in the butt. This is after and in the same turn as,

'made several thrusts wherever he could find areas uncovered by the daemons' magical armor--joints, neck folds, attachment points, eye holes, anywhere his blade could find daemon flesh to rend'

No. Wenomir is nowhere near that fast. To add to this, I'm gonna take your descriptions of the enemies moving.
'though in reality it's as if everyone's moving through jello, or like they're caught in some terrible, overly dramatic slo-mo scene'
and
'He glimpsed the arrival of the sorcerous, lighly armored daemon as it approached, in his eyes, barely moving.'

So. Other people in the scene are 'barely moving' and in the time it takes to raise a hand, your character can move fully around the enemy and hit them in the back. That's too much dude. How do you expect. SC to respond to that when his enemies get a twitch of their hand to your character performing the entire contents of a turn?
I can understand the desire to say it's not that bad. But you're in someone else's plot. That's like being in someone else's house. Be polite. If they say it's a problem, let that stand and work with them. Don't say why it's not.

[Solidarity]

I think I understand a bit more now. If what I'd posted in each turn doesn't seem like enough activity in order to sync up correctly with everyone else's turns, I could find way to fix that. You understand where I might've wanted to take a couple steps back in how much I'd been posting, especially noting the referenced quotes with how much happened during said turns. It seemed like too much in one turn, each turn, to supply enough action to satisfy the discrepancy in things happening in the timeline. As it is, SC had PM'd me about it and I had thought, at least, we came to a solution in another time manipulating opponent. During that, we spoke about how mercurial things were in that without the magic, the character was a regular, flimsy and very breakable human with human limits. It's established he can't use precognition where he is so maybe something he can't dodge could be used to slow him down, like a miasma or something. For the most part, the character sticks to RP scenes because of this, taking from the guidelines of this scale from back when I first started playing here.

Again, my inbox is totally open if you or SC'd prefer to talk more about fixing all this. I'm sure there's a way to stay true to what the character would do in attempts to guarantee survival and simultaneously not ruin the plot or make it less fun.

[ThirdEmperor]

' If what I'd posted in each turn doesn't seem like enough activity in order to sync up correctly with everyone else's turns, I could find way to fix that. '

Posting more each turn would not fix the difficulty of responding to your character. Posting less would, and giving the enemy's more of an even ratio to your character's timeline. Simply put, slow your dude down. I'm very sorry to hear that he's a frail little pile of blood and bones going up against the might of a demonic army but such is life in glorious VIGIL.

You say 'throw a miasma or something' but...
Well your character walked completely around an enemy in the space it takes them to raise their hand. Hiked across the entire battlefield to go buff a comrade in the space in a single post. I don't think, frankly, SC has anything that could catch your character in its radius to slow him down, with the way he moves.

So we're asking you too. Make the quiet, OoC adjustment that he is simply slower - doing less each round and less in ratio to each action the demons take.

(Apologies, I have zilch space in my PM box.)

[Solidarity]

I'm more than happy to brainstorm with SC about what could be done to slow the time mage down, via PM and not making a public show of a private issue. I'm not retconning something that occurred the entire fight, or simply adjusting the capabilities of the character. I'm positive SC and I can come up with another solution that results in our favorite time bending pain in the ass to slow down. That said I'll be waiting for him to shoot me a PM so we could get to it. All this isn't fair to Rec or Eagle. I'd like to fix it as soon as we can.

[Cyber Punk]

Planeside poke, everyone. Though, if you wanted to call it quits, I wouldn't mind at all. Lord knows I'd redo things from scratch given the chance.

...

I want to RP a death scene. It's not the first time I've had such an idea, but I want to RP one of my characters dying. In other news, exams are over, so I can go back home soon and be free to indulge my vices.

[Shadowcaller]

Okay, I've been busy most of the day and right now I don't really have the energy to add much to this discussion. But that said, I'm not sure there is a solution to this problem Solidarity.
If it had just been Etherus this scene would have been simple but with everyone else involved it's difficult.
So if you have a suggestion Solidarity you can feel free to PM me, but I have no ideas how to solve this. So I have no suggestions to PM you.

[Cyber Punk]

If I may interject?

First, I do admit I'm finding it hard to follow the scene, but when I got in, I didn't expect such a scene, or I'd have reconsidered (esp given how busy I've been lately).

Now, according to Solidarity, the goal is to make it easier for SC to manage, while still staying true to the character, to keep everyone happy, correct?‎ Well, the nature of such powers is such that to everyone else, you're moving in a Flash, while to you, everyone is moving slowly. I propose a mechanic to more clearly define these powers, then: have the ability last for x turns, with maybe x/2 turns for cooldown, and the ability itself allowing a certain number of actions to be carried out per turn.‎

I'll agree with TE (a statement I never thought I'd say) on needing to slow it down, not for the OP factor, but for the ease at which other players can follow his actions. That means hard-limiting the number of actions he can carry out per turn, maybe even adding some sort of weakness (he can act or he can move, never both, for example).‎
‎
Another thing to keep in mind is that at that speed, he won't be able to witness the effects of his actions immediately (which probably goes without saying), so yeah.‎

[Shadowcaller]

I'll agree with TE (a statement I never thought I'd say) on needing to slow it down, not for the OP factor, but for the ease at which other players can follow his actions. ‎

Yes, just to clarify so there aren't any misunderstandings in this argument. The issue with super-speed is that he has trouble interacting with the slower PC's, not that he's too powerful or anything.