Hemote, Rated R, etc

[Leech]

Few things;

I'd love for targeted hemotes (read help hemote) to be automatically detected by the person they're targeted at. That way if I want to have fun time with somebody under a table, I totally can without the risk of them not feeling me hiking up their metaphorical tree.

In line with that, maybe it'd be nice to have an extended flag by people's names in OOC, or elsewhere that other players can see to let people know that that person is down for rated R scenes. Within bounds of the rape/suicide rule, that is. I hate the culture of having to ask if a person is okay with torture or gratuitous scenes. It's a bummer when you're all pumped to have the narrative experience of describing somebody pluck out fingernails only to have the person pull a censor over you and FTB. It'd be nice to know before hand who is cool with those scenes -- those are the people I'd love to spend more time RPing with. That's just me though. And that definitely changes, depending on my mood.

Also, what if I put a list of tropes that potentially revealed sensitive OOC information about my character somewhere, within the bounds that it was OOC and should be covered OOCly? Like if my character is a recovering addict and I want to get him back into that life, I'd really love a spot where I can be like 'This is what's going on with my character. Hook into it if you want.'

Wondering if blogs would be good for that.

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Only here for a few weeks of RP, but my initial thoughts after my coming-back scenes!

[Fea]

I don't get the point of this, sorry. You're asking for a tag to partition a certain portion of the playerbase so you can RP gruesome and disturbing scenes? I don't see a problem with someone wanting to fade to black if they don't like a particularly lurid idea for a scene, because this game is semi-consensual, in terms of player choice in dealing with especially difficult scenes; I'm not trying to sound like a jerk, but this just seems like a personal request rather than something that could improve the game overall.

Are you saying that people who don't want to see the specifics of torture or abuse, but still want their character to be impacted by these elements should somehow be excluded from your RP? Maybe I'm just not understanding, either way, it's up to staff. Just my two cents..

[Leech]

I can exclude those people from my RP already; I don't need a flag to do that. What it would do is provide an OOC indication of people who are alright with those types of scenes, and who even welcome them. Scenes like torture, scenes where bad shit happens, scenes where characters may potentially quickly turn into victims, etc.

Basically it'll give people a feel for which PCs are alright with rated R scenes. That way if I'm ever planning an event, ever wanting to do something in the heat of the moment, I have that reference -- and others will too.

Because imagine, just for a second, that I'm a Justiciar. I'm going to lay a brutal, bloody, gruesome beat down on a con in public -- but because that person doesn't like bloody scenes, they FTB. I didn't know they would FTB, I didn't think to ask. I don't know their life; maybe they've been whipped before IRL and don't like the narration of it. That's fine.

What's not fine is depriving the scene from everyone involved. That kinda sucks. Just an example; there are quite a few, and most of them aren't 1v1 situations.

[Fea]

Okay, so you just want the tag to signify a person's willingness to partake in brutal scenes, but I don't really think that it's necessary. I don't know, it just feels as if it's too small a thing to warrant a completely new addition to the system. I also don't feel as if people have to be guilted into RPing scenes that they feel uncomfortable with IRL and that could trigger them.

I don't think it'd drastically negate from any enjoyment in the RP, since I find enjoyment from gruesome scenes to be sadistic, and then only one person's having fun in that scene... From what I've seen thus far, most RP involving punishment is just a bunch of people watching somberly and giving one liners and the like while the executioner wears this grim expression. Not really something that everyone's missing out on if a victim decides he wants a FTB, imho.

[Leech]

Sounds like you've been privy to some horrible RP. Also, you're fixating on very specific things; but seriously, I could care less if it's added. Just a thought! Thanks for yours

[Zeita]

Part the first- yes please for targetting hemotes, although it would be good if there was a differentiation between doing something to someone and referring to them. (ie, you're playing footsie with Bob would be obvious, whereas if you're checking Rosa out, it wouldn't for example.)

Part the second- I think this could be easily resolved if there were a few 'yes/no' comfort zone toggles that people could set in their whois info.

[Voxumo]

I like the idea of the targeted Hemotes... Also can't exactly say I think a tag would be needed, just one more thing to clutter up scenes and what not, but perhaps a option in whois 'Open to (type) scene' Y/N... Afterall if you are going to get into that type of scene, it would make sense that you would know the character's name or alias at that point, which would allow you to check their whois.

[Temi]

No issue with targetting hemotes if we can do it seamlessly and different from just mentioning them.

I am concerned with the idea of extra comfort level things though. We have a general level of what is accepted for the game and people should play freely within that. I don't think characters should act differently based on whether you expect someone will ftb you, and I would hate to develop a culture of excluding people because they don't set these settings, etc. I think we should instead strive to have our rp at the level we expect most of the game to not be shocked by, and not guilt people when they feel one of those exceptions. Especially if they go on to increase the rp in how they skip over it.

[BattleJenkins]

I am a bit wary of codifying comfort levels for the reason Temi specified, and also because I feel like I don't want to set a precedent for people feeling pressured to not 'opt out' of sensitive or gruesome scenes that technically fall within their comfort level - especially since a person's comfort level generally isn't simple enough to put on a single-axis scale, and trying to provide a system complex enough to cover everyone's needs won't ever be complex enough, because often people don't know how comfortable or uncomfortable they will be until getting into that sort of situation.

Getting excited to get into a really brutal scene and having your partner bail is disappointing, sure, but allowing for the possibility of such happening is a 'necessary evil' for keeping the game comfortable for all its players, which I think is ultimately much more important. Especially since the only two ways to avoid this happening - refusing to involve people who are potentially sensitive to graphic scenes, or forcing people to play out scenes that make them uncomfortable - are unacceptable.

I do think that TI:Legacy's focus on player comfort is really unique among RP-heavy games, which usually tend toward the brutal and gritty without accounting for comfort levels at all, so it's especially important to me that this aspect of the game's culture be preserved!

EDIT: An optional 'comfort level' field added to 'whois' might help, though, as long as it doesn't take precedence over a player's freedom to nope out of anything that skeezes them out.

[Pixie]

Targeted hemotes would be a really great addition.

On the ratings aspect, ehhh.

I understand the purpose of the proposal was more to provide those who prefer to write out graphic scenes (rather than fade them to black) an automated signal that they're in similar company, which would be nice - most anything that gives us less reason to interrupt RP with tells and osay is a good thing. It could, however, have some undesirable ripple-effects.

My primary concern would be that with an R-rated setting available, I'd put it on, because I'm not objected to R-rated RP happening to or with me. However, I don't play a character that has any real business being involved in R-rated things. Things certainly could happen and it wouldn't bother me if they did, but R-Rated wouldn't be a pursued type of RP for her. I have a feeling that people (even subconsciously) would take it as an invitation to leap at anyone with R-Rated on with R-Rated things. Things could get implausible fast.

Might be an unfounded worry, but I suspect "R-Rated Okay" would become "R-Rated Yes Please" without being intended that way.

Edit: The "RP Hooks" thing Leech mentioned in his original post can be a good foothold into finding meaningful RP with other characters. Maybe those could go in helpinfo?