RPG Soapbox

I was looking back to see what specifically was deemed offensive. We lost Indignation blasting us all and my /wrists Motivational. Aww. =(

Too bad for that. I generally prefer having a reference point for STs who blatently troll forums and blast players in an official capacity.

Damn it, I kinda wanted my post number on the Soapbox to be and always remain "13". Oh well. I'm writing a review of some IV venues. Here goes:

DEMON

Aw, man! I love you motherfuckers. Seriously. While the plot hasn't wrapped up yet (I'm looking at YOU, Ceoris!), the last storyline I've been involved with in this venue is seriously fun. Yes, seriously fun. Is that kind of an oxymoron? No? YOU'RE a moron!

Okay. But anyway, this last stint in the Demon game has seen "PvP" style plot where... well, at this point in the story, it's pretty much everybody else against my (and one other) PC. AND NOBODY IS BITCHING. It's great. And while that seems like it's a little one-sided, let me say that the PC I'm playing has some seriously deadly force, resulting in the death (and subsequent Demonic possession, in those flavorful few seconds before the lights go dark for the last time) of one PC, and the near death of a more established Demon PC.

I wish the activity would pick back up, but I've got some plans as to what I can do personally with the character I'm playing to get things moving.

SABBAT

Totally rad, I think. Unvereinbar is moving with a plot that, while I might prefer a less "city under siege" plot and more of an "Sabbat invasion" plot (right now...), is shaping up to be pretty awesome. The true ENEMY of the Sabbat - - not the Camarilla, stupid. No, not Anarchs. NO, The Giovanni missed this one... no, it's some kind of elder monster or something. Something ancient and cannibalistic and pissed off. It's like Gehenna over there! Woo!

Also, the recent flare up between Argus Bones and Franklin Reemes made me tingle. But DAMN it Larry, you backed out of the Monomacy! Oh well, should be interesting to see how each of you gather forces for some kind of political shadow war or somethin'. Good stuff.

ANARCH

I miss you guys. : (

RURAL

Whatever happened to Seraph, HB, Cherub and whoever else doesn't really concern me much. I'm not going to argue that point any more, but it's my opinion that a set of unfortunate circumstances came about through some miscommunication, misunderstanding and a mindset of immediate suspicion or paranoia.

Too bad, because I'm still having a blast with it. The players I get involved with in Rural are fun, the rivalries and the personal politics / power struggles are beginning to blossom and, despite the love I have for some of the characters lost in the last storyline (<3 FERDINAND), it's giving the newer PCs room to maneuver and feel like they can start taking some responsibility, which is awesome.

PS. If somebody doesn't do it soon, CRNOBOG is challenging for Talesinger. Fuckers!

URBAN

Maaaaaan, I can't wait for my character to be sanctioned so I can try again. This'll be number three for me. Hopefully it turns out better than before. I've been... disappointed with this game in the past, though it remains one of the largest and most active on IV. I found that I just couldn't click with the players there. Or, when I did (my second try) the core group of players I got together with (we started off with all new characters in a pack before hitting the setting) fell away, and so did my interest. : (

This time it'll be better though! I swear baby, I've changed!

MAGE

Well, sucks that everyone seems to be scared off of blues for this venue. It's been my fave for a while now. With the current change-up, however, and Radix jumping ship in... a month? It's down to newbie Ipsey and Kev the Vet. I don't seem to be around much when Kev is, but Ipsey and I get along famously. She's considerate, intelligent, enterprising and seems full of good ideas. She even saved the last SL I was running before I owned up to the fact that I make a terrible ST.

The PLAYERS, though... woo boy. Most of you I'm in love with. Like, really. Do you know how hard it is to be in love with that many people at once? It's hard. Real hard. Swear.

Never have I played in a venue where I felt like my character was actually /developing/ more than IV's Mage game. Every scene seems to bring me joy, in greater or lesser measures. Every scene either highlights a need for development or else progresses something that started earlier. I feel a deep connection with my PC and with the PCs involved with him.

CHANGELING

This is where my "joke" concepts go to die. It's fun for a while, and then the joke dies. Hopefully you make some folks laugh while you're in there, but in the end it was just a joke anyway.

--

Cyber Review Update forthcoming.

I actually screenshotted my '666' post. *snicker*



That hurts my feelings on so many levels. One, CtD shouldn't be the joke Venue... ever. Two, each one of your 'joke' characters was better than 90% of the Venue's 'regular' characters. Three, there's just no valid reason for CtD to have declined as much as it has in the last year or so.

It honestly feels like the majority of players just sorta threw their hands up and stopped working towards their characters goals and shit.

Changeling:

I've been having a decent time in Changeling, but I found a small group of players that seem fairly cool. Trevor, Platypus and Enchanted have been on the ball about getting things rolling for my character and have been receptive to my ideas. I haven't experienced the 'cutesy' Changeling yet on IV (beyond a few characters that have been easy enough to avoid), and I haven't been blocked from pursuing my goals. That being said, my goals haven't been huge and don't have the capacity to shake things up with the current power structure. Maybe I'd be more frustrated if that were the case? I can't say for sure because I haven't been there.

Enchanted and I may not always agree on what's 'fun', but I haven't been railroaded into playing a character that craps sunshine, either. She and Trevor have been helpful enough on the forums and with tossing out ideas to help things get moving for my character, and Platypus doesn't seem afraid to explore the darker aspects of Changeling (a venue I'm still learning, give me time!).

Mortal:

I don't know what's going on there, but I also haven't been requesting any scenes. Dev seems like a nice enough guy on the chat, but has also appeared fairly preoccupied lately. Hopefully it's not burnout. Not much else to say about the venue really, but Dev seems open to concepts that aren't Disney-friendly and is good with getting to requests on time.

Mage:

I miss Doc. I really do. But I'm willing to give this new team a chance, and I'm sure once the dust settles, we'll probably see more. Ipsey has been active and working hard to get things taken care of for the mages, and Kev has seemed like a fair and nice enough guy so far. There's a strong player base and several cores of active mages that are good at keeping themselves entertained regardless of the ST comings and goings. It's been a fun ride so far, and even if people are skeptical about the change-over, I'd say come play for the pure fun of interacting with the players (including Anth).

Camarilla:

FS has been receptive and friendly, and again, I've found a small core of players that are fun to play with regardless of ST activity. From what I've experienced, FS has been willing to work with me in regards to ideas, and while I haven't requested scenes yet (my character is new to the venue), I've seen him actively doing scenes for players that have asked for them, sometimes managing 3-4 scenes a day. Busy guy, but seems laid back and approachable, and the Cam venue has some decent players.

Urban:

Awesome. Though it can be frustrating to not see many kinfolk hanging out in public rooms away from the Sept (I play a kinfolk), the ST's (including Aldrich) have been awesome with allowing my character to progress and come up with personal projects to keep me busy. I was sad to see Canary and RG go, but there's a core of really interesting, entertaining players that keep IC fun, and from what I've experienced, most of the staff has been receptive to working with me if I want/need scenes.

Honestly, most people don't give a fuck when the list of people being screwed doesn't include their names and it's always easier to preach miscommunication when you're still playing in the game.

The latest flare up of fun is something that I hope, no -pray- that we'll be able to keep going. While there's plenty of ancient evils going on in Carthage (the place is apparently situated right above the prolapsed anus of Satan hisself) I'm really enjoying the interaction going on between the Anarchs that have started showing up in Magid and the Camarilla that are uncertain about what to do. The twitchy nature of Anarchs and the dangerous freedom that they represent clashes nicely with the stuffy actions and oppresive safety of the Tower.

The problem, of course, is what on earth to do with this energy. Combining the two venues is one possibility but, well, I -like- Carthage. There's just something about this little town that is basically the personification of insanity in comparison to Magid's corruption and PR's violence. We'll see what happens there...

The problem, of course, is that if I'm given my 'druthers between my Anarch and my Camarilla, I'm going to go with the Anarch. And I -like- my Camarilla. But my Ventrue's not about to get in to a game of LA Roulette with Ty Jackson on a whim.

Speaking of which. Sean's challenge to clan Brujah still stands.

The Anarch game was always PC driven, I'm not sure why the sudden note of lacking ST activity has only just recently become an issue. Rude hasn't been an ST in the sense of running forever now (and not just since becoming HST, there wasn't anything going on long before then too). The last time I remember a scene even being mentioned was November, where Rude apologized for not running it in like... September or October. He never actually got around to running that one either. So, I'm guessing the venue has been STless for at least six or seven months?

Good. Bring it under the zenith of the Camarilla, I'll put my Ventrue on ice, and Sean'll continue his one man attempt to get banned from every Elysium in sight by sexually harassing each and every Keeper. EVERYBODY WINS!

URBAN:

I was gonna wait longer to review it, but I've got some time to kill this morning. Woo, post 15. (Lame.)

So far, this game has offered a roller coaster of successes and failures for my PC, but nothing but fun for me! I approached the game with a concept that most people hadn't seemed to consider for the Urban game and was received very well by the staff. All of their suggestions during sanctioning were sound and reasoned and they seemed very thorough; not just making sure I wasn't trying to minmax or powergame or whatever, but honestly considering my character's concept and how the stats on the character sheet reflected and impacted it. Much props to Stealth here -- she was all over it, and made some really good points that had I not been made to consider would have made me feel like I was missing out on something that the character could represent.

So, first day. I'm super excited. Aaaaaand... BLAMMO. Instant conflict, instant drama, instant blood and dominance and power games. Not OOCly, which would be baaaaad, but IC. It kinda made me hot, not gonna lie. The combat and social mechanics were sound and fair and everybody came out with a level of enjoyment from the scene, I think. No butthurt from players, no snide remarks, just dice rolling and roleplay and fun fun fun.

From that day and on has been rrrrrreally enjoyable for me, to the point where I've laid off my other PCs for a while just to focus on this one. (Sidenote: like many of you, I'm addicted to this terrible drug that is online roleplay. Daily user, nightly abuser.) Now, I wanna take a minute to get sidetracked (yes, again) from this review to maybe explain something about why or how I enjoy collaborative fiction.

Do you know why people complain about "Coffee Shop RP" ? Because for the most part, it's boring. Yeah, it is, shut up. Y'know when it ISN'T boring? What makes any scene that you're in more fun, more engaging and moves the development of your characters and their story forward? It's spelled C-O-N-F-L-I-C-T. Conflict. A battle of some kind. Some spark that causes people to draw lines, pick sides and get /into/ it. That's what I've found myself doing with my characters lately, and it's worked to make the game (any game) much better for me.

It seems like a lot of times players are loathe to engage in or /start/ conflict with their oh-so-special and wonderful PCs. They're afraid of losing their hard work when some guy who's just out for PvP (...in a storyteller system, the very idea of that just strikes me as hilarious. There isn't even any graphics involved!) or killing characters for a laugh storms their polite, innocent "social RP". Well, I guess I can understand that, but... wouuldn't you rather lose an awesome character who's growing stagnant and doing /nothing/ in a flash of interesting hardship than let it all go to waste and burn yourself out on inane party scenes complete with silly clowns and face painting? I mean, come ON. Where's the story?

Well, I guess to bring this full circle and add some kind of coherency, I'll say that the Urban WtA venue is positively /brimming/ with conflict. You can choose to take it as you will, but remember that conflict is the driving force behind any story. If you can use it for fuel, you're golden. Just don't let it burn you down as a player. Remember that we're having fun here and if you aren't, well... try to look at things in a different way and disconnect yourself from this imaginary character you're playing. Nobody is out to get you, nobody is the mean kid with a magnifying glass trying to burn you up before you get a chance to play. Those people do exist, but we all know who they are. Just avoid them (or do what I do -- engage them without end!).

/review

Conflict and drama are the spice of good RP. But honestly, how can you dramatize that venue? Ruin the coffee filters?

BUH-ZING!

Step 1. Initiate a facedown challenge with anyone who assumes you know their rank and wants to be a prick.

Step 2. Get into a fight with two cocksure Ahroun who want to pick on the new guy.

Step 3. Frenzy, get your first battle scar.

Step 4. Get into a fist fight with the Wyrmfoe when he frustrates you and orders you to lick up your own spit.

Step 5. Get a belittling deedname and lock eyes with anyone who calls you by it.

Step 6. ???

Step 7. PROFIT!

I will admit Anth has a point... even at it's most frustrating with one of my PCs... I kept playing her because other PCs had fun with her because of the conflict, really, even I had fun with it as long as people weren't dragging it out ooc.

I am laughing on a 24/7 basis when it comes to Changeling. The venue is a permanent Joke that never gets old.