Hello Werewolves, Vampires, Changelings, Mages and real life Mortals!
This year has certainly been full of change. First, with the site changing hands and subsequently the steep learning curve I found myself on shortly after. I was (am) new to the world of darkness and had made some very broad assumptions about my capabilities to host the site and furthermore, I made some very incorrect assumptions about how hand's on the previous administration had been in making site decisions. I made mistakes almost right out of the gate trying to fill a void that didn't exist, and I made mistakes later through my stubborn desire to fix problems and unnecessarily postpone a rollback.
I bring up those mistakes not to publicly dwell on them. Instead, I wanted reflect on and share what I learned from them and how those experiences help shape who I will be to you all and how I handle similar situations in 2019.
Problems with a character can almost always be handled in character or with your storytellers.
One thing that influenced my assumptions was the frequency of requests to review situations or items. Because of how new I was to the site and the situations I felt responsible to shoulder the situation myself instead of using resources available to me (the storytellers) to help discuss and vet out solutions, and to review if there was even actually a problem that needed solutions. It was wrong to try and shoulder that myself and I have been soliciting more input from others as time has gone on.
Self reflection on your characters
Have fun with your characters. When you create accounts as players and characters there are a bunch of options that you can select to describe what kind of a player you are. The reason things like that exist is because there are a million different combinations of attitudes, characteristics and specialties to make each character truly unique. Some characters 'aren't fun to interact with' because of one reason or another, but more often than not if you really think about it- the character isn't fun because it is putting YOUR character outside of their comfort zone. It is creating some challenge or discord with your character that you wouldn't normally have to deal with if it wasn't for this one other character. The truth is, the world might be a little dull without something stirring things up every once in a while. On the flip side, as a player you'll also want to use a little caution and use characters to stir things up in moderation. Constantly being pushed out of a character's or player's comfort zone can be taxing mentally and emotionally where in moderation it can be a fun and developing experience.
We all need to stop telling people *how* to play their characters
There are general guidelines to help new players to the site understand the foundation of a successful experience on the site. Outside of that, handle what a character does and how it is played in-character unless the player asks for your opinion. Situations that can't necessarily be handled in-character (such as words or ideology that are inappropriate for the site) can be brought up with your storytellers and/or myself.
Separate how you feel about a character far, far away from how you feel about the player of that character
Characters as I've said come in all shapes, forms and intelligence levels. Keep conflicts between characters in-character. Don't bring the conflict to the players in messages, discord or OOC. If something happens to your character, then it isn't the opposing character's player's fault. The storytellers watch for situations that are uncharacteristic or appear to be meta-fueled. It just doesn't happen so don't abuse other players for the consequences your character reaped. If someone is giving you grief about something your character did or is doing or guilt tripping you OOC please notify your storytellers and/or myself.
The level of coded customization and detail to support a world of darkness game on this forum is staggering.
It's going to take me some time to get up to the level of what I need to in order to build on or adequately maintain what West has built here. I wanted to give a shout out for the home he's built here that you all seem to enjoy every day. This year marked 10 years for the site, and I'm hoping it will continue for another 10. I recognize and acknowledge my failures and what impact they've had on the site and it's players this year and I hope that learning from them will contribute in a more positive manner for everyone in 2019 and beyond.
Alright, enough of that soapbox. I would like to open up commentary in this thread to reminisce about your favorite moments/experiences this year. Feel free to link or just describe what happened and most importantly let's have a little fun with it.
I don't have any links, but as someone who didn't play the game at all I've learned to recognize that when my wife suddenly thrusts two fists straight in the air it is the globally recognized expression for, "The dice roller didn't f!@# me". One such time I witnessed this expression I asked her what happened and her response, in the most cutish/evil tone replied, "I rolled X successes to rend the flesh from the bones!"
Happy New Year everyone,