<![CDATA[Comic Games Are Fun!]]>From HA (for the record, I’ve played four characters in four years, for four different people who wanted me to play there. One never finished their app, two quit outright, one is so burned out on the game she let that character idle out.)

From: Job Tracker <JOB> (#35, owner: CodeWiz)
Date: Mon Jun 20 04:21:56 2022 Folder: 0 Message: 1
Status: Read
Subject: Job 6398: Miss Sinister Review

Submitted by Claudine Renko.

(To reply to the job if still open: +myjob/reply 6398=text)

(Added: +request/apps Miss Sinister Review=This is Claudine Renko, AKA, Miss Sinister, an X-Men villain somebody clearly planned a bunch of stuff for that never happened. She’s a sort-of clone of Sinister, his memories and powers manifesting in someone who was ‘infected’ with him and whose personality has been altered but not overwritten by him%r%rShe was featured in maybe 5 arcs, and - like a LOT villains who aren’t prime, ongoing antagonists - presented with wildly different abilities in every one of them. I’ve borrowed from Marjorie Liu’s writing the idea (hinted at by Carey) that Claudine existed as a person before she became Miss Sinister, but I’ve leaned more on X-Men Blue’s presentation of her as someone on Sinister’s level as a scientist, planner, and manipulator. Her powers are so inconsistent that, frankly, I just went with her being able to do the same things Essex can but with the caveat that she doesn’t have the same instinctive, autonomic mastery of those powers that he does. She can DO these things, but isn’t used to being ABLE to do them, so sometimes it’s totally possible to just straight up stab her because she still thinks of being stabbed as a bad thing whereas Sinister sometimes didn’t even mind his head exploding. To put it another way - she knows the password to Mister Sinister’s email account, but, sometimes, she still has to think about it, her hands don’t just automatically start typing it without her thinking.%r%rI’ve left things in her timeline incredibly vague, the assumption being that this is simply one of Sinister’s endless backup plans that, after decades sitting there, ‘went off’ on its own rather than being something that happened upon one of his deaths, since I’m sure people will want to keep using him as a villain in plots and since, even if it were an option, I’d feel it unethical abruptly declaring a popular character dead off-screen. I didn’t include Sinister’s personality being a stow-away in her head for the same reason - I assume he’s still out there, and that was never mentioned again after Liu’s story anyway.%r%rShe’s powerful, but she’s nothing exceptional for a game with gods, demigods, and Phoenix running around, especially with combat stuff being very rare outside of plot scenes - and Claudine isn’t exactly going to be picking fights and robbing banks, anyway. (I do, however, have every intent of setting up a Hellions team for the HFC where everyone has to be goth, which is arguably just as bad.)%r%rI spoke with Shaw and got his okay to include him finding Claudine and recruiting her for the Hellfire Club.)

From: Job Tracker <JOB> (#35, owner: CodeWiz)
Date: Mon Jun 20 04:27:13 2022 Folder: 0 Message: 2
Status: Read
Subject: Job 6398: Miss Sinister Review

Has been marked Approved by Chaucer
Consider my interest piqued. I think this would be a cool villain concept for people and it sounds like it has a lot of mobility that isn’t dependent on established canon or other events.

(To reply to the job if still open: +myjob/reply 6398=text)

From: Job Tracker <JOB> (#35, owner: CodeWiz)
Date: Mon Jun 20 14:51:19 2022 Folder: 0 Message: 3
Status: Read
Subject: Job 6398: Miss Sinister Review

Has been marked Revived by Chaucer
Approved Prematurely

(To reply to the job if still open: +myjob/reply 6398=text)

From: Job Tracker <JOB> (#35, owner: CodeWiz)
Date: Mon Jun 20 14:54:23 2022 Folder: 0 Message: 4
Status: Read
Subject: Job 6398: Miss Sinister Review

Chaucer sent a reply.
Give me a day or two on this one? Sinister himself is a major villain in the plot here and as written, Claudine’s +Sheet is extremely formidable. We are going to need a plot pitch with a TPC-level villain, an arc or a story you’re telling with this character. If you want to make her a more full-time RP option, something you can use for regular RP, we may need to bring the poewr levels down a bit for game balance. The DC and Marvel wikis are pretty useless IMO, the power crawl for most characters in comics is insane.

(To reply to the job if still open: +myjob/reply 6398=text)

From: Job Tracker <JOB> (#35, owner: CodeWiz)
Date: Mon Jun 20 15:36:38 2022 Folder: 0 Message: 5
Status: Read
Subject: Job 6398: Miss Sinister Review

Claudine Renko sent a reply.

As regards to Sinister, I’ve been careful to avoid anything that would interfere with anyone else using him for literally anything. Something he did triggered, very possibly without him even realizing it because he’s been setting up contingencies for 150 years.
In terms of power – Selene is a full-time RP character. Merlin is a full-time RP character. Lucifer was originally one, not a TP character. Jean Grey, with the full Phoenix Force - including mention of the White Phoenix, which is universe-scale wholesale reality rewriting - is a full-time RP character. Dr. Strange, Superman, Power Girl, Loki, Hellstrom, Blue Marvel. Doom! Even if approved with no changes whatsoever, Claudine wouldn’t be in even the top ten of powerful characters. Especially given that I’ve written this with some actual guidelines and limitations where there are approved, god-level characters whose abilities are written so broadly, so vaguely, and so passingly that they’re able to do literally anything whatsoever. (And as an aside, even that still isn’t actually unbalancing, because power is ultimately a meaningless thing on a game that has no systems and is entirely consent-based. Approve someone as the Judeo-Christian God, all-being and all-knowing, and the reaction of anyone to “I’m unwriting your entire existence from the timeline” is going to be “Uh, no, you aren’t.”)%

(To reply to the job if still open: +myjob/reply 6398=text)

From: Job Tracker <JOB> (#35, owner: CodeWiz)
Date: Mon Jun 20 18:25:28 2022 Folder: 0 Message: 6
Status: Read
Subject: Job 6398: Miss Sinister Review

Has been marked Denied by Chaucer
Claudine’s not gonna be a good fit for us. We have been making a concerted effort to keep the game balanced whether or not you agree with the necessity of it. Frankly a sociopathic monster of her stripe as a primary FC would be a hard sell under any circumstance. There is no social play that’s a good fit for her.
Your activity level is a factor here as well. You played for just about a week in 2020, came back briefly, then dipped for most of two years. You’ve had one scene with Mary in three months. This is a pattern of a player not interested in sustaining the game through RP and Claudine’s too much of an investment of time and energy on our part. Thank you for your submission.

(To reply to the job if still open: +myjob/reply 6398=text)

]]>https://brandmu.day/topic/114/comic-games-are-funRSS for NodeSat, 04 Apr 2026 14:47:26 GMTMon, 20 Jun 2022 22:55:35 GMT60<![CDATA[Reply to Comic Games Are Fun! on Sat, 29 Apr 2023 22:59:32 GMT]]>@Starr-Saphyre said in Comic Games Are Fun!:

@Prototart said in Comic Games Are Fun!:
Oh, and Jubilation Lee from Shang, one of their most infamous sexpests, is protected by staff despite having - shock! - harassed multiple people.

For sanity and safety, who?

He’s Emma Frost/Talia/Monet/et al.

Literally the first person to page every female character, if it’s one whose genitals he wants to fumble with. Drove at least one person from the game in tears because he refused to quit bothering her.

On Shang, there are multiple rules that were put in place just to deal with him.

On HA, he’s considered by staff to be one of their most valued players.

]]>https://brandmu.day/post/15828https://brandmu.day/post/15828Sat, 29 Apr 2023 22:59:32 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Comic Games Are Fun! on Fri, 28 Apr 2023 07:55:19 GMT]]>@Prototart said in Comic Games Are Fun!:
Oh, and Jubilation Lee from Shang, one of their most infamous sexpests, is protected by staff despite having - shock! - harassed multiple people.

For sanity and safety, who?

]]>https://brandmu.day/post/15827https://brandmu.day/post/15827Fri, 28 Apr 2023 07:55:19 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Comic Games Are Fun! on Fri, 28 Apr 2023 02:42:35 GMT]]>For fans of comic book games, and of RhostMUSH the engine, the hobby suffered a real blow when Ixokai/Theorem passed. RIP.

]]>https://brandmu.day/post/15826https://brandmu.day/post/15826Fri, 28 Apr 2023 02:42:35 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Comic Games Are Fun! on Fri, 28 Apr 2023 01:55:45 GMT]]>@Vulgar-Boy You could check the Ares hub. It seems like most superhero games don’t advertise around these parts lately.

]]>https://brandmu.day/post/15825https://brandmu.day/post/15825Fri, 28 Apr 2023 01:55:45 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Comic Games Are Fun! on Fri, 28 Apr 2023 01:42:58 GMT]]>@Prototart 80s is not still around.

]]>https://brandmu.day/post/15824https://brandmu.day/post/15824Fri, 28 Apr 2023 01:42:58 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Comic Games Are Fun! on Fri, 28 Apr 2023 01:17:57 GMT]]>@Vulgar-Boy said in Comic Games Are Fun!:

So are there any good superhero games at all?

HA is a GOMO sandbox by and for the people chiefly responsible for UH being what it was - they had no problem whatsoever with any of it, the stalking or harassment or anything else, until Ruby finally got splashback from the stuff she’d spent years enabling and attacking people for questioning. It now has the added bonus of now being run entirely by a guy who openly hates comics and insults people who want to do comic things, who multiple people have been quietly banned after formally complaining about his behavior, and who’s mostly interested in adding another hundred pages to his epic theme nobody reads. The one my friend and I had to yell at him to not include white space gods civilizing savage Wakanda in. Oh, and Jubilation Lee from Shang, one of their most infamous sexpests, is protected by staff despite having - shock! - harassed multiple people.

UH is mostly empty but allegedly the two people left running it learned their lesson in a way HA absolutely did not.

80s, if it’s still even around, is run by Macha.

IA was the last one I would call GOOD.

]]>https://brandmu.day/post/15823https://brandmu.day/post/15823Fri, 28 Apr 2023 01:17:57 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Comic Games Are Fun! on Fri, 28 Apr 2023 01:02:22 GMT]]>@Vulgar-Boy Might be a DC game in the works but I haven’t been following it too closely. Ready to yeet Carol Ferris at the roster once it’s ready.

]]>https://brandmu.day/post/15822https://brandmu.day/post/15822Fri, 28 Apr 2023 01:02:22 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Comic Games Are Fun! on Fri, 28 Apr 2023 00:40:59 GMT]]>So are there any good superhero games at all?

]]>https://brandmu.day/post/15821https://brandmu.day/post/15821Fri, 28 Apr 2023 00:40:59 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Comic Games Are Fun! on Fri, 28 Apr 2023 00:23:57 GMT]]>@Polk said in Comic Games Are Fun!:

Quitting a game is HARD. If you’re the kind of person who’s on a lot, having that window there, talking to people, thinking about the game, working on your character(s), playing, it becomes a part of your life.

Also, aside from the sunk costs factor over your character’s achievements, there is also the cold reality that just because you have had enough, and you want to leave, that doesn’t mean your friends are quite there yet.

So you’re also dealing with fear of missing out and the social exclusion from your tribe of buddies. Hell even if they were to leave (and that’s never a given) who’s to say they’d all go to the same game, or that your new PCs would be associated again?

Once you’re gone, all that is gone too.

]]>https://brandmu.day/post/15820https://brandmu.day/post/15820Fri, 28 Apr 2023 00:23:57 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Comic Games Are Fun! on Thu, 27 Apr 2023 05:48:42 GMT]]>@Polk said in Comic Games Are Fun!:

And I’m pretty sure it on some level works psychologically like any other loss.

I imagine it’s similar to leaving an abusive relationship. It doesn’t really matter what we say or how we say it, it’s entirely up to the person involved.

That said, sometimes a splash of cold water helps. Sometimes it doesn’t.

]]>https://brandmu.day/post/15817https://brandmu.day/post/15817Thu, 27 Apr 2023 05:48:42 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Comic Games Are Fun! on Thu, 27 Apr 2023 01:10:23 GMT]]>@Polk said in Comic Games Are Fun!:

So I wish there was a very, very gentle way to suggest that a person quit a game, that doesn’t come off cold and a little condescending. Because I’ve done that, and I hate how I sound when I say it.

Polk pages: Don’t contact me in nay way. GEt out of my life.

If only there were a better way. /sarcasm

You giant, performative, insincere phony.

]]>https://brandmu.day/post/15815https://brandmu.day/post/15815Thu, 27 Apr 2023 01:10:23 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Comic Games Are Fun! on Wed, 26 Apr 2023 21:13:05 GMT]]>@Pavel said in Comic Games Are Fun!:

So the game is shit, run by people who are shit, and played (not exclusively) by people who are shit.

Why d’you wanna play there, again?

I wish we had a gentler way of saying this.

Quitting a game is HARD. If you’re the kind of person who’s on a lot, having that window there, talking to people, thinking about the game, working on your character(s), playing, it becomes a part of your life.

Leaving a game leaves a gigantic hole in your life. It’s a loss. And I’m pretty sure it on some level works psychologically like any other loss.

So I wish there was a very, very gentle way to suggest that a person quit a game, that doesn’t come off cold and a little condescending. Because I’ve done that, and I hate how I sound when I say it.

I’ve managed to do it, quit a game. And it’s hard. It hurts.

But in the end it’s often the right thing, if a game has soured.

]]>https://brandmu.day/post/15812https://brandmu.day/post/15812Wed, 26 Apr 2023 21:13:05 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Comic Games Are Fun! on Wed, 26 Apr 2023 20:10:48 GMT]]>@junipersky said in Comic Games Are Fun!:

@Prototart said in Comic Games Are Fun!:

You are politely shown to the door.
Thank you for visiting.
Please return soon.

Someone needs to work on this message. I’m getting mixed signals.

“Please leave immediately. We love you.”

I think it’s pretty clear!

]]>https://brandmu.day/post/15811https://brandmu.day/post/15811Wed, 26 Apr 2023 20:10:48 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Comic Games Are Fun! on Wed, 26 Apr 2023 19:49:53 GMT]]>Huh. I never thought there’d be such a thing. Thanks, you two.

]]>https://brandmu.day/post/15810https://brandmu.day/post/15810Wed, 26 Apr 2023 19:49:53 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Comic Games Are Fun! on Wed, 26 Apr 2023 15:21:26 GMT]]>Admittedly, the wiki could use a makeover, and the character list could use an update (a bunch of them aren’t on +census… and +census has folks not on the wiki, I think)

But! It is totally there, and I totally have semi-regular arguments about how the chargen is dumb and I hate it, while they mostly tolerate my presence. FOR NOW.

]]>https://brandmu.day/post/15809https://brandmu.day/post/15809Wed, 26 Apr 2023 15:21:26 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Comic Games Are Fun! on Wed, 26 Apr 2023 12:22:10 GMT]]>@GF Yep!
https://exalted.mushhaven.com
mushhaven.com:2526

]]>https://brandmu.day/post/15808https://brandmu.day/post/15808Wed, 26 Apr 2023 12:22:10 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Comic Games Are Fun! on Wed, 26 Apr 2023 03:55:23 GMT]]>@Jennkryst There’s an Exalted game?

]]>https://brandmu.day/post/15806https://brandmu.day/post/15806Wed, 26 Apr 2023 03:55:23 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Comic Games Are Fun! on Wed, 26 Apr 2023 02:53:44 GMT]]>@Prototart said in Comic Games Are Fun!:

You are politely shown to the door.
Thank you for visiting.
Please return soon.

Someone needs to work on this message. I’m getting mixed signals.

]]>https://brandmu.day/post/15805https://brandmu.day/post/15805Wed, 26 Apr 2023 02:53:44 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Comic Games Are Fun! on Wed, 26 Apr 2023 01:59:26 GMT]]>@Prototart Guess that means there’s plenty of time for Exalted shenaniganz?

]]>https://brandmu.day/post/15804https://brandmu.day/post/15804Wed, 26 Apr 2023 01:59:26 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Comic Games Are Fun! on Tue, 25 Apr 2023 21:55:53 GMT]]>oh, hi

ok, short story:

some people I know were like, “you should join us on HAM”
i was like, “yeah they’ll ban me within twelve hours, it’s entirely The Chaucer Show now”
some people I know are like, “oh you’re being paranoid”
i was like, “well, maybe it’ll be funny”

anyway,

Shakespeare (S) pages: Hey there. See from your IP that you’re the player who went by ProtoTart. There was past acrimony, including issues from games that predate HAM, that came up last time. Ending with you deciding to leave. I think that clean break was the right call for everyone. It’s a game and pastime and should be fun for all. Given the longstanding feelings I think a repeat is likely enough we’d best stick with that call and all move on our separate ways. So going to go ahead and formalize it on our part. Wish you well wherever the future takes you.
[21:12] Idle message sent to Shakespeare.
You are politely shown to the door.
Thank you for visiting.
Please return soon.
*********** D I S C O N N E C T E D ***********

]]>https://brandmu.day/post/15803https://brandmu.day/post/15803Tue, 25 Apr 2023 21:55:53 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Comic Games Are Fun! on Sun, 26 Jun 2022 06:39:45 GMT]]>@GF Sounds like <Censored because I don’t support TERFS, but you know who I’m talking about>

]]>https://brandmu.day/post/2790https://brandmu.day/post/2790Sun, 26 Jun 2022 06:39:45 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Comic Games Are Fun! on Sat, 25 Jun 2022 17:51:23 GMT]]>@Prototart “What becomes of a half-blood that never knows love” is maybe the yikesiest sentence I’ve read.

]]>https://brandmu.day/post/2786https://brandmu.day/post/2786Sat, 25 Jun 2022 17:51:23 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Comic Games Are Fun! on Sun, 26 Jun 2022 05:50:33 GMT]]><Questions> Chaucer says, “This all circles back to one of the core concepts in the game, how ‘harmony’ works and how the mortal soul is the purest force of creation. It takes a soul to make a soul. Elf lords have fallen in love with mortals and if they love, and are loved in return, a soul can come from that. This is how you end up with demigods and half-fae and all those other interesting permutations. Also the unasked question is, ‘what becomes of a half-blood that never knows love’ and I am sure that’s how you end up making Old Gods, but I might save that for a story arc.”

would you ever guess that this is a Marvel/DC superhero game

]]>https://brandmu.day/post/2785https://brandmu.day/post/2785Sun, 26 Jun 2022 05:50:33 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Comic Games Are Fun! on Fri, 24 Jun 2022 23:15:32 GMT]]>Honestly the three big issues with HA are thus:

The cult of Vorpal, who is a piece of shit asshole who drove my good friend from the game for the crime of saying ‘Maybe don’t be toxic about shipping comic book characters?’ regarding that group’s apparently vile hatred of Beast Boy x Raven.

Chaucer in general, who is a shithead asshole AND a bad writer with terrible ideas about how things should work all the while being a condescending fuckwad.

Finally, somehow the least egregious of the three being the fact that NOTHING HAPPENS. There’s no metaplot, there’s capped scenes run for cliques and groups and if you’re not in on them fuck you, drink coffee with randos to keep your character.

(Edited 'cause I typoed Vorpal)

]]>https://brandmu.day/post/2782https://brandmu.day/post/2782Fri, 24 Jun 2022 23:15:32 GMT