Sorry everyone, been a busy week getting ready to switch jobs.
Happy birthday Xizoh!
No worries Alaina, very glad to have you here. Best of luck with your new wizarding role.
Birthdays are bad! Especially when you have to be an adult. All aboard the Nope Train
Happy birthday! Now you get to vote!
Dang, that is a really fast Nope Train.
I will not ask about how college applications are going then (although I am curious). Times of really big change are scary and stressful, but also exciting. Batman thinks you've got this.
So fun bit of trivia for this new year.
Fireball + Strawberry Ice Cream + 7up = Bubble Gum flavored drink.
Isn't that weird?
I am strangely pleased to know this.
Dulae's reaction: "Huh."
Mikkel's reaction: I'm going to get Dulae to drink this...
Happy New Year all!
Math/dad joke alert: There was a lot of division in 2016, but 2017 is going to be prime.
I did not in fact drink it, but we passed the recipe along to our alcoholic drinking enthusiast friends. Their first reaction: "Wtf?" Second reaction: "... I'd try it."
Sorry for the delay all - I ended up spending today with my mother in law, who came with me to see Rogue One. I really liked it! The planet renderings were particularly beautiful.
Dulae has described it as: in which the Empire and the Alliance have really bad IT departments.
==== GM travel reminder ====
I’m traveling from Boston to LA tomorrow (Wednesday). I should be able to post in the evening, at least.
A little early even for the east coast, but here’s:
Building bridges with the racially unaware is important work that’s got to happen. Much respect to those that do it and those who feel it’s their duty (I’m looking at you, white people). If you hear that’s what Tomi Lahren’s interview on the Daily Show was, two things:
This was a portrayal of black people as dangerous on national television. The ‘bridge building’ aftermath was a normalization and legitimization of misconceptions that get black men and boys killed. (If you’ve ever seen someone cross the street or lock their car door after seeing a black person, that’s the same misguided fear at work.)
These are not just ‘opposing views’. Black people are not genetically pre-disposed to be dangerous criminals or any other negative stereotypes. That’s not an opinion. To not call out anyone who says or implies otherwise is at best grossly irresponsible.
Also, Hidden Figures comes out this week. Wooo!
Yeah, sorry everyone, the new job is a little more restrictive on web access. Which was to be expected. So my posting is going to be a little limited. Again sorry, but it's so much better for me, bot mentally and spiritually.
Hey there Alaina, sounds like it's going really well so far. That's awesome. No worries - let me know if/when you'd like a bot and otherwise best wishes to you and I'm very glad you found something way better.
(I'm running a little behind on posting today myself - today was a good day for science.)
It's all good, I'm glad to see life is improving for you Alaina.
(Today was a slow day here as well-a freak snowstorm has left us plenty to do and about a mile of deep snow to be pushed before reconnecting with civilization.)
That's great news on the feeling better with the new job! It makes a big difference when you believe in what you are doing, that it's not just something to pay the bills.
Hidden Figures is really excellent (and I’m not just saying that because it’s about social justice and space science). Highly recommend!
I’ve been thinking on this. Stuff 13 was mostly cogent and self-consistent, which indicates to me low-filter honesty. I’m very glad for that - some of your prior posts were a bit like radio static at times; there seemed to be a message in there somewhere but it was lost in contradictions and tangents. (This probably also stems some from my prior assumption that we are wired the same way, which I will keep working on.)
I can't keep track of every lie I've told or figure out who might remember what I've said to them in the past. Eventually, someone will catch that I've said something I didn't mean.
I was wondering about this. Sometimes it came across like you had said some pleasantry you felt was expected, then when answering a related direct question you’d outright forget what you said earlier. I’m glad you’ll be giving going low/no filter a try or indicating when the filter is there in this kind of discussion. That’ll be very helpful to me; intaking statements you don’t mean confuses my interpretation analysis.
I don't know if it's safest for me to not use some kind of filter over the internet?
That’s fair enough. We probably don’t want to alarm the good people of Paizo (who seem to do a good job of moderating the forums). A filter indicator would still be helpful.
Perhaps now it makes more sense why it infuriates me when people take up more than their allotted space? In my head I'm screaming, "YOU'RE F++$ING DOING IT WRONG!!!! THIS IS INEFFICIENT!!!" If I were to act on it I'd wind up in jail.
Well, yes and no. This is consistent with what I’d originally thought your response was, but for some reason one or more of your filters got triggered and you backed off, saying you were just exaggerating. I see now that you weren’t - why lie? Here I don’t follow how your social rules are defined - presumably there was some benefit.
You would meet me on the news as one of those crazy people saying, "Yeah, I did it! And I'd do it again!" S~## like that happens too often in this city, so I had to sell my car so I wouldn't act on it.
Welp, that’s somewhat unsettling. I’m not sure how to teach social justice when we’re not on the same page with things like what it means to be human and the value of each individual’s life, but I will try. If you’re going to design an elaborate system of rules and assumed social contracts, you might as well do it right and engineer them to maximize the potential of the humans around you.
usually statements I make like that don't come from a place of care (How rude!) but more of a feeling of responsibility to to encourage health and wellbeing so someone can live up to their maximum potential.
I certainly don’t mind being treated like a fellow robot. (Hell, I think of myself as a robot in many ways.) When I first was thinking about this I’d thought that I’d have no problem explaining BLM in terms of robots too, but then I tried it and it was really dehumanizing. It does matter that these are people with feelings and families and lives. I am still thinking on how to explain this.
It's not thoughtlessness that creates the posts in game or this discussion. It's not for lack of trying to be better at it.
This is very good to know. Based on Stuff 9, I have corrected my Cel interpreter to default to assuming that you have in fact read things multiple times very carefully, and any apparent misunderstanding requires further clarification/correction. (I’ve been trying to do this already; hopefully it is useful for you to get more out of the game.)
Since Stuff 12 I’ve realized it isn’t straightforward to predict when it’s appropriate/useful to give you a breakdown of NPC behavior signals. Right now I’m leaning toward spelling out NPC cues for Cel when it’s either on the subtle side or plot critical, but then we run the risk of me forgetting I plan to do this despite my best intentions. (Explaining emotions/behavior is kind of like trying to explain in detail how to make a sandwich to an alien - explicitly saying ‘take the turkey out of the plastic’ is something I usually expect we all understand and doesn’t need to be said. I don’t yet have an automated internal trigger that reminds me, ‘hey, explain the feels for Cel’s sense motive’.)
Thankfully, I see you’re also making a solid effort to seek clarification in gameplay when you’re not sure you’ve understood, so I am fairly confident we’ll be able to meet in the middle where we’re communicating much better than we were.
A good case study is probably running into Oranis again. Looking back, Cel may have been hinting for instruction, but god etiquette is not something he would've known (plus for reasons I shall not reveal his behavior then wasn't as plot critical as it has been in a certain captain's office) so I did not. But feel free to ask ooc if instruction would be helpful or you're not sure.
Because these kinds of games are video games that are choose your own adventure. The sneaky rogue in a video game can stab their target or sneak around. In this game I can decide to throw a vial of oil at him, leap on his back, and ride him down the hallway if I wanted.
You seek opportunities for creativity, silly chaos amuses you, and you think of characters more like Westworld robots than people (including, I suspect, your own PCs).
Except for creativity, you and I are in direct conflict in terms of what we value in gameplay. It’s good to know this - being aware should help keep us from clashing.
I was wondering about this. Sometimes it came across like you had said some pleasantry you felt was expected, then when answering a related direct question you’d outright forget what you said earlier. I’m glad you’ll be giving going low/no filter a try or indicating when the filter is there in this kind of discussion. That’ll be very helpful to me; intaking statements you don’t mean confuses my interpretation analysis.
...
Well, yes and no. This is consistent with what I’d originally thought your response was, but for some reason one or more of your filters got triggered and you backed off, saying you were just exaggerating. I see now that you weren’t - why lie? Here I don’t follow how your social rules are defined - presumably there was some benefit.
I'll do my best to specifically state what I'm thinking. The confusing stuff was probably the flitting back and foreth between socially appropriate filter and what is running through my head. They very rarely sync up. In relation to the exageration, I was certainly exagerating in how I respond to people who trip my F+$* YOU!!!! mechanism, but it wasn't an exageration about what I'm thinking. Maybe that helps a little bit?
Welp, that’s somewhat unsettling. I’m not sure how to teach social justice when we’re not on the same page with things like what it means to be human and the value of each individual’s life, but I will try. If you’re going to design an elaborate system of rules and assumed social contracts, you might as well do it right and engineer them to maximize the potential of the humans around you.
It's a struggle for sure! The list of people who's lives I value is very small, but it's also why I try and listen and learn to behave as if I do value other's lives. It seems the best route for everyone involved.
This is very good to know. Based on Stuff 9, I have corrected my Cel interpreter to default to assuming that you have in fact read things multiple times very carefully...etc
I won't mind if you forget, it'll probably be a reminder if I don't pick up on the subtle things as well. And explaining the sense motive is probably the best way for me to not miss things. The example of Oranis is probably about 50/50 looking for instruction versus how I see Cel interacting with something outside of his tiny world of experience. It makes it easy to inject a little of myself in him with the, "Uh...what am I supposed to do here?" but not specifically seeking instruction on what to actually do. More just a representation of his (and in turn) my quirks.
I haven't seen Westworld, but I've heard plenty, and based on what I've heard I would say your thought is probably pretty spot on. And, I will continue to try to not clash!
Its uplifting to hear that you like your new job so much, Alaina! (I'm a little late to this party, I know.)
I'm feeling rather worn about my own work. I went in on saturday to get work done with no one else around; I was only there about an hour before two of my three coworkers showed up, shortly followed by my boss. So instead of being able to relax, take my time, and use equipment efficiently, I had to deal with sharing equipment and dealing with my boss, who is an incredible productivity killer. I'm seriously considering shifting my sleep schedule by like 5 hours just so I can have some undisturbed working time.
[/rant]
Sorry about that. Just... guh.
I'm sorry Dulae, that sounds frustrating.
I was going to try to cheer you up by sharing a PhD comic for the New Year, but this kind of normalizes the ridiculous, unreasonable work hours (particularly for so little money).
If you shift your hours, I would get into the lab super early (like 2-3am) and leave for the day around noon. That way you always start fresh and save your least coherent brain time for meetings/TAing. (Bonus: you'd be awake during daylight.)
Step 1. Don’t rape or assault anybody.
Step 2. If you’re not 210% sure what consent means, google it. Asking is sexy, use your words.
Step 3. See step 1.
Otherwise, have fun. Be safe, use protection, stretch first. Wait for marriage if that’s what you’re into (consent still matters - every time, all the time).
Women (and all genders) should be able to wear whatever they damn well please and drink to excess just like their peers without fear of rape. (The only thing they bring on themselves with that poor life choice is vomiting and a hangover. Same as everyone else.)
Rather than ‘protect’ women and police rape victims, we should teach men (well, everyone) what consent is and push back against rape culture and the glorification of sexual assault.
Happy Tuesday all.
It’s pretty late into the game, but:
Introducing GM Mikkel 2.0
Effective immediately, PbP upgrades include:
- GM-maintained browser-searchable roster of NPCs (kept under campaign info).
- Getting away from complex long-term mysteries and fine/specific details players need to remember for many months (this might've been cool for a 5 session in-person campaign, but it definitely doesn't work for PbP).
- More puzzles PCs can resolve in a single scene.
- PCs won’t be asked for long, detailed information dumps. (Ever.)
- Less interaction with the military or otherwise authoritative NPC groups, meaning less socially-enforced restriction on PC actions.
- More opportunity for PC agency and self-direction.
If you can think of anything else that would improve gameplay, I’m all ears.
Thanks all for hanging in there and sticking with this game.
It really is amazing the amount of work you've put into this, thank you for that! That list is really helpful, but I'm sure it took a lot of your time to put together.
That roster is going to help a lot. Might I recommend you add it to the links at the top.
@Cel - no worries. I've had the NPC list in my notes for a long time to help me keep track of things, but it only occurred to me recently it might be useful to clean it up a bit and share.
@Alaina - sure thing, good idea. (Done.)
Btw, I've noticed that some PbP GMs I admire use different aliases for important NPCs as a way to help keep track of what the party knows about them (and presumably the alias image is a good cue to help remember past encounters). Is that something you'd find useful?
The list works well enough for me, but if others would prefer the NPC profiles that is good too. Just don't want to add to your work load!
NYC profiles certainly help. Just my opinion.
-Posted with Wayfinder
I find it's helpful, but don't worry too much about it. Also, all the above sound nice.
Good to know, thanks. (Very likely not something that would happen for this arc, but useful feedback for the future.)
Some of my colleagues and I are getting ready for the Women’s March in LA on Saturday. (I’m thinking about good sign slogans.)
There are hundreds of satellite marches to the Women’s March on Washington. If you’re considering going to one, you should! The first step to being a good ally is showing up.
Long day at work. Too fried. No post tonight.
-Posted with Wayfinder
Roger that Alaina; autobot coming up.
I hope that means fried in a 'I find my work challenging/fulfilling' kind of way. How goes the new job?
Oh it's going great! It was just so busy yesterday I'm amazed my brain wasn't mush.
Awesome, I'm delighted to hear it. Out of curiosity, what about this job do you like most relative to the last job?
Basically the same thing. Just a much better environment.
-Posted with Wayfinder
I notice that we're hitting the 50% PC combat-round participation autobot limit a lot recently, and Alaina in particular has been able to post once in gameplay since last Thursday.
Should we consider going to a 48-hour combat-round schedule, otherwise reducing the number of PC posts per week, or going on hiatus?
I'm still good on this schedule, last night was just super busy, but I'm good to increase the length for bot time.
Yeah, sorry for that. I'm not sure if my new job is just more mentally taxing, or if I'm still trying to adjust to a regular human schedule.
Didn't mean to pressure you to post on-the-go Xizoh, or otherwise attempt to crack the 'Thou shalt post now' whip.
I do want to diagnose why we haven't been on schedule (for example, if there's a lack of interest/engagement, that's on me) and if I can, help.
If our collective schedules have evolved such that 48-hour PC combat rounds work better, I'm all for it. (I've been spending a lot of my forum time volunteering for social justice recently, so it wouldn't break my heart.)
Hang in there Alaina - if changing schedules is anything like jet lag I'm usually a zombie for a decent number of days if I shift by more than 6 hours. Plus learning new systems in a new environment usually is pretty taxing. That being said, would extra RL time for PCs to act during combat rounds be helpful, or is it something more general?
I think for the time being we can switch to a 48 hour schedule.
Hang in there Alaina! I totally sympathize with you on schedule changes... There have definitely been whole weeks at a time for me where I can't think. (And I probs have one of those coming in like a week... blech.)
I'm good with a 48 hour posting! I'll still probably do my daily morning post, but there are certainly days where time crunch does kick in and having a grace day would be beneficial.
Good luck on the march Mikkel!
Okay, sounds like we have at least a 4/5 consensus. As of now we are on a 48-hour PC combat schedule - I updated this in the combat rules (last slide of the combat map).
Thanks Xizoh!! Looks like it's going to be a huge turnout in LA tomorrow. I have friends in the UK, Australia, Canada, and Iraq that will be at sister marches to the DC women's march too.
I'm ready: I've spray painted a Nasty Woman shirt (in glitter, naturally), I have one of these fine hat specimens in bright pink, and a bunch of fellow physicists and I are making signs tonight.
Something like:
In our America
Black Lives Matter
Water is Life
Women have agency over their own bodies
Science is real
Love is Love
We shut out hate, not refugees
March safe anyone else who is marching.
The march yesterday was awesome! 750,000 in L.A., and I was very pleased to see the crowd there was really diverse in age, gender, and race. I saw dozens of marchers in wheelchairs, which was really cool. And I saw thousands and thousands of cis presumably-straight (statistically speaking) white men. Way to be there allies.
The solidarity around the world was awesome too. I particularly applaud the scientists in Antarctica who had a sister march to make it all seven continents. It looks like even the low-end estimate is well over 3 million worldwide. I'm galvanized into fighting the good fight - I've got my national and state reps' numbers saved on my phone and a bunch of colleagues and I are going to make calls or write postcards together once a week during lunch.
I've also seen some backlash trying to minimize the movement. Jokes like 'Why were a million women marching? Because they don't know how to drive!'
This is exactly the kind of situation when male allies are most powerful. If a woman says something it gets dismissed with something like 'Uh ohhh I'm in trouble!' *wink*
(read: I'm not going to listen to her of course, and isn't it funny I made her mad?)
If a man says something, you might see pushback like 'Hey man chill, I was just kidding'. But it is heard. And that person is less likely to say sexist sh!t knowing it won't be met with pure high fives from the men around him (or her).
(Hearing a comment like that and saying nothing is effectively agreeing with it; it's tacit approval.)
If you feel like in principle you'd like to speak up but you wouldn't know what to say, I thought this was a good summary of some of the many reasons women marched yesterday. (Written from the perspective of an economic bubble close-ish to my own, to be fair.)
Tying things back to the protests over the weekend - apparently there were no arrests all day on Saturday. That is wonderful, but at the same time it’s important to recognize that this is at least in part because of a difference in policing related to the age and genetic makeup of the protestors.
True there was some violence on Inauguration Day, but in general arrests do not mean the protesters were violent. Congratulating ourselves that there were no arrests, particularly when the protestors were primarily white, takes away the legitimacy of peaceful protests by people of color and others who are arrested. (Martin Luther King and John Lewis are notable historical examples, but there are plenty of peaceful protestors arrested nowadays.)
We should also recognize that women of color may have a different perspective on the women’s march. (Fair enough, really. Certainly made me think twice about my fluffy pink hat. (Sorry women of color and trans women.))
===============================================
On to Black Lives Matter. Here is my best shot.
Obviously, black people have an equal range and breadth of skills and talents as people of other races and ethnicities. People in positions of authority, who more often white than you’d expect from the population distribution, generally acknowledge that people of all races have equal capacity to love and contribute to society (at least prior to Trump’s campaign). The common wisdom is ‘all lives matter equally’, and ideally they should.
But some people have a tendency to interpret the actions of black people as scary or threatening, even in the same context that people of other races perform them, like protesting or even walking down the street. (Same for other people of color and Muslims in similar ways.) It doesn’t matter why in order to understand BLM. What matters is that we see it in the disproportionately high rate of black people in jail, harsher prison sentences for the same crimes, higher chance of getting disciplined in school, discriminatory policing practices like racial profiling and Stop and Frisk, and much greater risk of death and injury from interactions with police.
The reality is that all lives don’t matter equally right now in the US. Some lives matter less than other lives, in this case based on race. That is the truth. It’s harder for white people to see this because it doesn’t affect them directly (particularly if they have their own very real problems). But white people don’t fear being rejected for a bank loan, apartment, or job because of their skin color. They don’t worry about their children getting shot by the police if they’re playing outside with plastic dart guns. In some cases they don’t even realize this is happening all around them.
‘Black Lives Matter’ is saying ‘black lives matter too’, not ‘black lives matter more’. It is reporting that black people are literally dying due to bias and discrimination. ‘Black Lives Matter’ is insisting to be treated the same, and you’re right it’s not phrased gently. The BLM movement is intended to disrupt the narrative that everything is fine and there is no longer racism in the US. People may find this uncomfortable. (Good.)
Saying ‘all lives matter’ in response is dismissive and silencing; it takes the focus off of the uncomfortable way things are and brings it to the comfortable way things should be. It's a refusal to acknowledge the BLM message: that we don’t currently treat all lives equally, black lives in particular. It’s a rejection of the experiences of people of color. ‘All lives matter’ in this context says ‘I don’t see racism’, ‘I don’t see color’, and ‘I think we live in a "post-racial" society’. ‘All lives matter’ advocates maintaining the status quo, which is staggering racial inequality.
On behalf of Southeastern Idaho and Northeastern Utah, I kindly ask everyone keep their snowstorms to themselves. Mid thigh snow is plenty, thank you very much :D
Come on down to SoCal, we make precipitation fun! (That's a neighborhood across LA from me just this past Sunday. Same series of storms maybe? I haven't paid much attention to the weather. (That was maybe a mistake when it hailed here yesterday.))
And I concur - eastern Washington has been getting a fair share too since the 9th or so, and snow plows make it really, really hard to observe dead stars billions of light years away. (True fact.)
======= GM travel advisory =======
Tomorrow I fly to Washington DC for a conference that runs from Saturday-Wednesday and I'll be back in LA next Thursday. I expect to be able to post at least once a day, probably evening Eastern time.
(I also plan to steal away from science for a bit and talk with at least as many Congressional staffers as new shock-white hairs I have gained since Jan 20th.)
Blergh.
I'm sorry, guys. Me leaving without saying anything was... bad and rude. You are all super awesome and I've missed you over the past few crappy months.
A lot has happened to me recently, basically my whole life crashed down on me from a bad breakup, my job having a rough expiration date, finding a place in Portland I could afford, and all sorts of other fun things. It's not an excuse to just vanish - I should have warned y'all. I hope you can forgive me for that. But I missed this rp and I was hoping to rejoin at some point, now that my life is very crappily being duct taped back together. If you'd all have me. I'd like to rejoin it at some point if possible - I don't want to break story/game flow or anything haha. But for now, I figured I'd at least announce my intentions and my triumphantly sad return.
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I am exceedingly glad to hear from you, Henri. I'm sorry that life got sh!tty and very happy you're doing better. Enthusiastic yes from me - I think with this crowd I could field 6 PCs. I'll be thinking more on it during the long flight tomorrow.