Actaeon

You lost it in a poker game several years ago. It eventually made its way into my hands, and I sold it to the fluffy turtles at a loss.

This seems like a good time to necro this thread. Now, instead of asking, I can contribute to the list of how YOU TOO can be involved in the extended Spidweb community. Since CalRef and Facebook have been heavily pitched, here are a few other places with Spidweb/Refuge subgroups: Kingdom of Loathing last.fm NationStates BOINC Steam We also run chess tournaments, games of Diplomacy, and of course AIMhack. Anything I'm missing? Anything you think we should add?

I think I added you, Randomizer, but just as a generic mod. I didn't intend to force you into participating, though I'm glad you have.

Hasn't done anything? It turned me into a newt! (... I got better.)

The bus is in the middle of an RP, which the occupants are unwittingly producing from leftover RP energy. It might still be standing right next to the forum, but it's impossible to tell and impossible to leave as long as the energy remains, even with a psychic monster. Yes. The blue dot is a RP energy made manifest by the bus's community spirit drive, and is interacting with the bus in unpredictable ways.

Oh! Cool! Then yes, that's most of what I was going for. The key element would be getting a group together that were specifically interested in campaigns that didn't require an extended time commitment. You would create a character, and take them out on whichever mini-adventures fit your schedule and inclination (ditto for DMing). They could be spur of the moment or planned well in advance. Any overarching themes or subplots would emerge due to the collective consciousness You could certainly use Mote, or create a new setting for the purpose.

Mote? I hadn't heard of that. How many people do you have involved?

Let's retcon in the translator. And, in future, let's avoid any transformations that fundamentally alter the plot. The fact that they're taking place is a plot point, but the specifics should not be.

I move we (by which I guess I mean you) disable Comic Sans.

Because I like serifs, and I don't really have any other way of standing out. I thought I had a gimmick once, but you beat me to the copywrite.

Everyone would make their own, as part of a sort of ensemble cast. There might be a dozen characters drawn up for the setting, of which only a third to half would appear in any given campaign. The point is more that you'd get to recycle them in different settings and with different DMs. Think of a ship full of adventurers, only some of which go ashore at a given port (or, you know, Star Trek). Alternatively, think of an inn full of rugged souls where people come to round up a posse. Well, based on the brief conversation I had, you'd express your ability with something as "good" "fair" "exemplary", what have you. The DM would take them into consideration when deciding the outcome of a roll. It would leave a great deal of judgement to the DM- something I'm a little loathe to do. In fact, one of the upsides I considered for the automatic option was that players could keep total track of their own stats without ever involving the DM. I had originally only planned to award abilities based on success- with a built in exponential decay for the law of diminishing returns. Neb was quick to observe that you learn as much from failure as success. Nalyd reminded me how imbalanced things could become if your progress was based on luck. On the other hand, I had been counting on higher DCs to keep a cap on progress with more difficult maneuvers. I'd like to find a way to make this work, as it seems a simple and intuitive way of putting mechanics in the passenger seat, but it is definitely fraught with difficulty. I'll have to look into Burning Wheel.

Where are the pun police when you need them?

At least you know what you're doing, Lillith. The sort of ideas I've been fielding lately have mostly elicited eye rolls from the CalRef crew: • Same setting, same characters, rotating DMs and players. Draw from a pool of potential players/ DMs in a sandbox setting or episodic plotline. Think Westmarches, or most TV shows. • Levelless First, I tried to accomplish this by having XP buy abilities directly- letting you level up a little each session, or even in the middle of combat. • Automatic ability improvement I played with the idea of having actions convert directly to bonuses, but Nalyd, Neb, and Slarty taught me the error my ways. • Under the table mechanics I thought about having the DM take care of all the stats and rolling, and making the experience feel more like an RP. • Qualitative stats Slarty's idea, actually, and probably more innovative than all of mine combined. I'm not sure all this has actually made me more unpopular at CalRef, but it hasn't stirred up much enthusiasm, either. In general, I'd like to find a way of de-emphasizing mechanics while encouraging input, as well as engaging a large and varied community despite major scheduling issues. There are wonderful aspects of both RPs and RPGs, and it would be lovely to find a way of combining their best elements into one system.

May and September are clearly the perfect match. That's not based off a pun- it's just my opinion.

It's an annual thing, though it's usually October.

Because November is often a bleak and melancholy month. This year was an exception to that rule, though, at least around here.

Spiderweb. Where the thread you make to avoid the derailing of an intellectual discussion gets derailed... into an intellectual discussion.

Harehunter accidentally cloned himself, ADoS. He's the one person that actually CAN be in two places at once. We can either accept that the RP energy that's surging around is creating all sorts of strangeness and paradoxes and continue as a unit, or call it quits. I would not like to see Spiderbus turn into something that makes people less likely to join Iffy's new RP in December.

Well, that rules you out, Pip.

I would prefer if the blue box was NOT used. I'm not opposed to the campaign taking a random direction, but one thing at a time might be an order. Edit: Just saw ADoS's cleanup post. Gotta look at the implications and get back to y'all.

I'm afraid I have to agree with ADoS on this. The Dr. Who element has me complete flummoxed.

After firing several shots through the window of the bus, Actaeon stows his bow, pulls out a cutlass, and prepares to enter the fray. As he descends the steps, however, he encounters the floating blue speck going the other way. As it touches him, he finds himself transformed into a large, reddish stag. Actaeon: « Damn. Well, I suppose this was inevitable. » He plunges ahead, head lowered and prepared to gore the next raptor to come his way. He finds, however, that the raptors are already in full retreat. The sole remaining dinosaur approaches cautiously, and appears to be miming something. Actaeon: « What in the world? » The raptor continues forward and, with Actaeon too flummoxed to respond, embraces the stag. Actaeon: « Jewels? »

So be it.

It is, perhaps, possible to wipe the existing votes and start it over without deleting the thread and making it from scratch? (Apparently, post-apocalyptic modern fantasy is where it's at, though.)

I can't help but feel nervous at some of these questions. I understand the intent, but it's the tech equivalent of: "Do you lock your doors at night?" "Where do you sleep?" "Do you keep a weapon by your bedside?"