GraspingVileTerror

Ok, jokes aside, I think I got 3 down, but I still stand by my original answer, 'cause it's still Dark Astoria, even if it's in the past. 17 across, however . . . still don't get it. Otherwise, looks like everyone's collectively answered things mostly "correct."

Poor Nathan Fillion.

I shall accept no other answers for some of these, despite the number or configuration of the boxes being wrong. *sagenods*

The question of ethics is a difficult one . . . particularly due to the complication of legality. It's important to remember: Ethical actions are not necessarily legal actions, and legal actions aren't necessarily ethical. As it stands, Homecoming appears to be more concerned with legality, as the game is balanced on a razor's edge with concerns regarding C&Ds or DMCAs or lawsuits, et cetera. It's a topic I too would really like to see addressed in more detail, particularly if the Homecoming Team even drafted up an internal Code of Ethics. The last time we tried to tackle it, there was a LOT of people talking past one another, and the thread got locked. So . . . Yeah. Not the place. Although, one more slight tangent before trying to swing things back to the original topics: @GM Kaiju (or any of the GMs, Homecoming Team, et cetera); perhaps it would be valuable to integrate the definitions and roles of the Core Team, GMs (Prime, Lead, and other ranks), and Devs, then post it to the main FAQ. Something to consider, perhaps? Just kind of help players who aren't familiar with the distinctions wrap their heads around the differences. But trying to circle back to the original topic: Something that is a little nebulous, and perhaps part of the issue, is where different people draw the lines between "uncomfortable" and "creepy." Strictly speaking, the Code of Conduct makes a point to restrict "sexually explicit" content, but unless there's a specific Ratings Board's system which Homecoming is using, I understand the definition of "sexually explicit" to be in the hands of each GM. As we saw in the previous ERP thread (linked in my first reply here), things are kept relatively nebulous for the purposes of discretionary latitude. But maybe players who feel someone has crossed the line with them could give us some idea of where they draw their personal lines for comfort. Naturally: I am not asking anyone to post anything graphic or gratuitous as an example. If someone is unable to describe their personal limits without crossing that same line, then we may be at an impasse. I'm mostly just curious if anyone draws their personal line at a private Tell of "Hey! Nice outfit!"

At the risk of chomping down on a wriggling lure . . . If the IO Sets you are looking for are too expensive, I recommend purchasing bulk of IO Sets which are cheap. Hell, I saw some pieces of an Uncommon Stun Set going for 2 Inf last week! Then, using Converters, roll 'em random. With sufficiently large supplies, you can do as I did, and stockpile thousands of various IO Sets for later use. Then, just make sure that you have enough alts, and all of those IOs will find a home eventually. Law of averages, and all that. For added benefit, sell the rarer ones, like the Defense Sets. There always seems to be high demand of Defense Sets. I always list at 1, and so I get my sales instantly. I still come out ahead. And I feel absolutely disgusting for doing it. But for the amount of time I have available to play, and the other limiting factors, this is the only productive means of actually slotting IO Sets in my characters.

I'm going to tag @TwoDee as well, since they seem to have a really strong grasp on lots of the lore too. Implicitly*, Shiva is the vanguard of the Battalion (or at least a portent within the timeline) per the Ouroboros introduction arcs. Since I vaguely recall the A.M.A.s confirming this, I'mma consider that one full canon, personally. * (Which, from my point of view, since most narrative content is delivered in the form of dialogue from Contacts, almost all of it is subject to potentially being false due to the possibility of them being Unreliable Narrators. I mean, after all, some content is explicitly written with the Contact being -wrong- about the things they're saying, ie: Early Primal Clockwork missions, where some Contacts incorrectly assume the Clockwork are robots. HELL! Even some of the in-game descriptions suffer from this, as I think at least one of the Primal Clockwork descriptions references that same incorrect assumption.)

Hurray for a new page!

I run virtual tabletop roleplay campaigns, originally through Skype, then through a few other VOIP services, and lately on Element. I loathe my voice, and would change it if that were easy to do. But roleplay is very important to me, and pursuing it through VOIP has enabled a lot of opportunities which don't easily exist through pure text. I've tried to do accents or to modulate my voice for different characters, but I suck at it. I'll never be a voice acting professional. So, instead, I speak plainly and try to vocalize as a narrator. Less of speaking as my characters, and more getting in to the characters' minds, then having the "voice of god" relaying the characters' thoughts, actions, and words. It's been the sort of compartmentalization that's allowed me to not only get in to character really deeply without having to awkwardly change my voice on the fly, but also helped me to better slip between multiple characters while GMing. Although, I have learnt to be especially careful to delineate between which characters are speaking in a scene with multiple characters. It had been confusing for my players before I really drove home the point when one character's speech ended and another's started. Or worse, when one character interrupted another. Disclaimer: I understand that what has worked for me is no way indicative of what might work for anyone else. But if you happen to be someone undecided on the merits of roleplaying through VOIP, then perhaps this perspective may be helpful to you.

I thought the Razorvines were plants that were animated through the magical lichen, and only the Devoured were once-human. I'd say it's more a matter of the lichen mimicking human speech, perhaps even mockingly, @srmalloy.

It's been my understanding, @Triumphant, that most people here who use discord do so because they don't like to use these official forums for coordinating, planning, sharing, and file distribution during off-hours, despite the forums having robust tools for all of those purposes. Personal preference also plays a large part. Peer pressure plays an even larger one. Social media tends to operate in waves of popularity. If discord had signed that deal with microsoft a few months ago, we'd probably see a number of users pointedly migrating away, and then it would be a slow drain over time that ramps up. Like what happened with Skype. Poor, poor Skype.

There are other sources of 10% Recharge which could be used to test that. But realistically, I'm fairly sure the check for Rule of 5 is separate from any conditions that disallow slotting Uniques more than once, so it's very probably the Set Bonuses are not going to break that much.

Scott McNeil. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nL9cgtB3E40 As every character. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzqP1BqwvIw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJMLfACod48

After seeing and receiving a few messages from various sources, I get the impression that a number of folks misread my intent with some amusing misconceptions (probably of my own fault, since I try to remain fairly neutral in my posts and therefore introduce an easy "in" for tabula rasa projection). In particular, my intent in this particular thread. Often, it seems, that different people even misread my messages in completely opposite directions. I realize the clubs and baRP scene carry a heavy insinuation of sexualization, but that's neither the source of my fear nor my specific motivation here. Mainly because that's not my particular "playground," as it were. I don't generally receive any unwanted advances, and when I do, I feel confident enough to turn people down or ignore them as appropriate. Hell, in public spaces on Everlasting, wanted or not, I've probably only received ten or less since April of 2019. That, or I'm blitheringly blind to flirting (yeah, probably that). Despite that, I understand how other players have regular negative experiences with unwanted advances and wish for them to stop. I endorse and advocate for mutually informed consent, so I support other players' efforts to diminish the unwanted advances (particularly the graphic or pushy ones). Albeit, only to the extent that it doesn't harm consenting players' fun in private. I take exception to aggressive and invasive "ERP narc'ing." On the other end of this tangled web of tentacles, I am quite comfortable with my own sexuality, and I feel I have a sufficiently robust network of current and potential partners through other channels to never need to "cruise for randoms," particularly at the club scene. I welcome new people who may be compatible with me, but I don't think I ever need to be hitting on other players who have no explicit signs of interest in ERP. People who seem to have the misguided impression that I'm one of "those creeps" . . . well. I won't discount the reality that my presence is potentially enough to be upsetting to some people, my frank and earnest support of sexual liberation is vehemently and vocally opposed by some, and I'm sure I've been put on ignore by certain folks; I've had exactly one sit-down conversation about a time I made someone seriously uncomfortable, and changed a character biography to accommodate. And I welcome players to contact me, or even report me to GMs, if they ever feel I cross any lines. I may have concerns with how some aspects of Homecoming is run, but all of my experiences with GMs have been encouragingly even-handed and reflective of the official Code of Conduct. I'm just genuinely interested in exploring the clubs as a roleplayer who likes to try many different roles on for size. It's a "learning, exploring, and experiencing" thing for me. And it bugs me that I have so much trouble with it. It means there are whole narrative threads that I'm just not tapping in to. I have over 200 characters, a dozen or so of which are -meant- to be "clubber types." I can't even find a convincing shorthand for these characters, other than to narratively declare that "they like going to clubs." I like to avoid narrative declarations and third-person exposition, if I can manage it, which means getting in to those characters as clubbers. That's my challenge. And, hey! Meeting players who I might not otherwise interact with, and finding they're people who I enjoy the company of is a big draw for all kinds of game content and roleplay scenarios. It's one of my major motivators for playing this game. So, naturally, it also bugs me that I'm missing out on baRP on that angle as well. I've been watching a lot of the Bones series with my spouse lately. I'm feeling an awful lot of appreciation for and connection to the representation of Dr. Brennan in the first two seasons (so far). Anyone familiar with the show might want to consider framing my topical posts in the context of a person like her, if someone is looking to project any particular model of characterization in to my messages on this subject in the future. Granted, sometimes she's inconsistently written as having bizarrely incongruous views on sex and gender identities, but that's the nature of fictional characters like that. Different writers on different episodes sometimes have that effect. But whatever. We can have a discussion on the merits of that series in the Off-Topic board, if anyone's interested.

As a proposal for the GMs' consideration at the next contest, perhaps there's some merit in exploring a scoring system for the costumes. Naturally, the contests are and will remain entirely subjective. But it may be helpful for the losing participants to hear the rationale and reasoning behind those subjective choices in the future. At the very least, running one contest under such a system could be a healthy experiment in social outreach.

Almost two hours in, and still under 50%? Huh. I guess folks are away on vacation or busy getting set up for the long weekend. Or mayhaps just a fluke this month. I'll probably check back in an hour or something only to discover the remainder gets slapped in after only another fifteen minutes or so.

Oh, certainly, @Paragon Vanguard; I don't need to. Like I said in the original post, though: I would like to branch out and try to overcome something that has been challenging me for a long while now. Buuuuuuut . . . you're probably still right. At a certain point, all the effort and different attempts hit a threshold, and the theoretical pay-off can't possibly be worth the actual stress and wasted time. Just have to personally evaluate where that line gets drawn.

One of or one of ? 'cause, I gotta tell yeah, I much prefer the older model. (In all seriousness, I'm not against more options! Although, given Winchester is a brand name, to add one to this game they may have to model the weapon to be an original concept that simulates the appearance.)

If I ever meet you in person, @Techwright . . . I'm gonna have to make you a margherita with Buffalo mozzarella, fresh basil, fresh-cracked rock salt, and heirloom tomatoes. And then we'll see if you feel so inclined to "emoji" all over the place.

No fruit, @Techwright? Not even tomato? Peppers? Roasted zucchini or eggplant? None of that? (DISCLAIMER: Do not dare mistake my statement of fruit on pizza here as some kind of twisted acceptance of the crime which is pineapple.)

Misconduct and harassment are the purview of the GMs, and if you are reporting the events and you feel the Code of Conduct is not being enforced appropriately, you may wish to speak with @GM Widower (I think. Honestly, I don't know the Homecoming Team hierarchy for complaint escalation, but I think Widower is the most senior GM). Alternatively, to the best of my knowledge, @Cipher is the person whose name is on the Homecoming LLC, so if you feel the problem is that severe, you can attempt to address it all the way to "the top." But please bear in mind that as a volunteer outfit, where members have various levels of professional experience or training as GMs, there might not be anything malicious going on. Some issues may simply be falling through the gaps in the system. Please see the following thread for details specific to GMing and ERPing: https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/27764-bannable-erp/ If you are asking the roleplay community to create a culture shift, so overly-aggressive sexual prompting is less frequent, well . . . some of us are doing all we can. Crystal Dragon has been running some general roleplay seminars, with a very strong focus on promoting consent. Likewise, I do my best to reinforce messaging on the importance of informed consent in all things. Many players have tried to create dedicated spaces for players who are interested in erotic activities, so those players can be away from the general public. However, aggressive anti-ERPers have made a habit of disrupting those spaces in an effort foment a hostile environment with the intent of driving away all ERP. And, given the official rules in place, actively promoting spaces where ERPers can group up away from the public is technically not permitted, so there aren't any solid protected spaces, leaving some ERPers "cruising" in public zones. It should also be stressed that not all ERPers are alike or united (far from it). There are some cliques (some of which are hostile to other cliques), some are free-floating between groups, and some are totally isolated and unaware that they can find permanent companionship away from the general population. Some have strict rules (see above: Informed Consent in All Things), some are less rigid, and some . . . the "problems," are definitely in need to being reported to the GMs. There are also some non-ERPers out there who get their jollies by misrepresenting ERPers, but their activities invoke Poe's Law. I have no excuses to offer for that kind of conduct. All of that is to say that it's a complex issue that doesn't have an easy fix. Because even outlawing it entirely won't stop it from happening. This game has a long, LONG history of enabling ERP, and players will continue to seek it, whether it's against the Code or not. Honestly . . . I kind of wish the Homecoming Team felt it appropriate to discuss the matter a little more openly, and to allow for protected established spaces that can ensure a way for cruising players to not risk offending the sensibilities of others in public. The way things are right now, there's too much fear of "narc'ing" to have such the existing spaces comfortably promoted. Either the creators of the space are afraid of someone coming in and reporting the place to the ground, or the people floating around are afraid that the space is actually a honeypot to get them suspended or banned. The fear and uncertainty leaves them out in the public, as risky as that is. If anyone else has some ideas, or they feel I've misrepresented any information, I welcome them to speak about it. However, please also note that I've tagged Widower and Cipher (and @Jimmy and @GM Impervium, since they were active in the last thread on this topic). This thread might be locked or pruned, as this topic could potentially be deemed against the Code of Conduct, depending on their considerations.

Lovely! Thank you. August 1st is scheduled to be the Croatoa University Campus: https://forums.homecomingservers.com/calendar/event/92-croatoa-university-campus-blueside-loc-850-40-1985/

The trouble there is when a pro shows up and beats you with their bat, and asks you why you aren't having fun.

Started at 2, @Bionic_Flea. Levelled as I went. So, probably 4 to 6 by the time I was at Meinst? 7 or 8 by the time I was at the Hydra Heads.

Past tense, @UltraAlt. It's the sort of work I used to do, and old habits die hard, I suppose. I think the Homecoming Team and the greater community here would benefit from more nuanced understanding of this medium as development continues. This sort of research can be leveraged for positive and constructive results, not just lining the pockets of manipulative execs. And since Homecoming is not-for-profit, I think it's the ideal place to demonstrate that point. I understand the leeriness and lack of trust. People in my position have been revealed to be partially responsible for the sorry state the larger game industry now finds itself in. But keeping things hidden and behind closed doors only serves to further the manipulation. Bringing everything out in the open helps to rob such methods of control of their power. Granted, with things coming to light from ActiBlizz this past week, exploitative marketing isn't the worst of the shit that's kept hidden in the game industry. I'll say this much; Ubisoft and ActiBlizz aren't the only ones that need such investigations.

I have, @Bionic_Flea. Dual Pistols / Super Reflexes Sentinel, with Amplifiers and Veteran Prestige Attack Powers. No Enhancements.