Looking to Play

Play by Post Discussion Recruitment: Players Looking for Games
1

I could just sit here and hope that some SG creates a post in the GM's section that they are looking to fill a spot in their games...but I'd get bored way too fast waiting. So I'm going to take the initiative and put here what I'm looking for in the hopes that there is either a game in progress that I can join OR that someone will be kind enough to start a new saga. Without further ado..

General Feel
I have an attachment, for some reason, to Magi who are just starting out. Or are within 5 or so years of being Gauntleted. I know - a lot of people want their characters to wield phenomenal cosmic power right away. And while I don't have a problem doing that, I just happen to prefer to earn it instead of being granted it right off the bat.

I want to try a few different Magi concepts that I've not yet toyed around with. I've never played a Bjornaer or an Ex Miscellanea, and I've certainly never had any character have any kind of faerie blood or mystical lineage. So either of those would be a plus for me to try out. And while I have a penchant for taking Ignem spells, I've never gotten the chance to do up a proper Flambeau. Weird.

I'd like to see a world with a low- to mid-level influx of magic items and enchanted objects. I know that by canon they are supposed to be uncommon in the most populated areas, but I'd like to scale even that back a bit. I believe that magic items should be created for a specific purpose, and that they shouldn't be mass produced just so a magus can make some easy silver. It's a specific skillset that makes what modern doctors or software engineers do look like child's play. I'm not saying to eliminate them altogether, but rather put the wonder back into their existence...if I'm articulating properly.

Stories
I'm open to just about anything and everything, provided we don't have to dive to deep into the Faerie realm. I'd actually like to partake in a story where Magi and the Church end up on really bad terms and have to do something about it. Either the Church uses its army to wipe out the Covenant, or the Magi have to take out the Church. Not necessarily the WHOLE of the Church, but definitely enough to make them think about taking on some PO'ed Magi again.

I'd like to explore some political themes, such as the Grand Tribunal in 1228. Actually, I'd like to start a bit earlier than 1220 so we can possibly have our own characters not only attend but potentially influence the Grand Tribunal and the laws that end up getting passed during it. The chance to write Magi law and influence the coming history? Sign me up. Not to mention how important the Grand Tribunal is for establishing the boundaries of the existing Tribunals and settling disputes between Magi. This is all interesting to me.

I'd like to get into some actual adventuring and exploration, as both a Magi and a Companion. Any story will work, whether it's canned or on-the-fly. If it's canned, however, I'd be most interested in the following in no particular order:

  • The City of Brass (Tales of Power)
  • A Gathering Storm (Tales of Power)
  • To The Dark Tower (Hooks)
  • Salvation (Hooks)
  • Ship of Desire (Tales of Mythic Europe)
  • What Lies Beneath (Tales of Mythic Europe)
  • The Broken Covenant of Calebais

Again, it's not required to do a canned story; these just interest me, and maybe if I put what interests me some SG will come along and say "Well, I won't run it line-by-line, but I can definitely take stuff from all of these and weave something original".

Tribunal
There isn't a bad area out there, but I've never had the chance to play in Transylvania or Hibernia. Either of those would be my top top TOP choice...if I get to choose. I also wouldn't be opposed to something out of Cradle and Crescent or a 5E update to Blood and Sand.

Covenant
I'd honestly prefer to be part of an existing Covenant over having to found or build one. Far too many games - at least the ones I've seen - die quickly when new Magi strike out to found a new Covenant; the game gets tied up in trying to find the right spot, and then go through actually building it, and then finding sources of income, and then one player always has to make multiple trips to the nearest town to renegotiate everything that was already agreed upon...ugh. I'd really prefer to just take an existing Covenant and say "You live here".

However, this does not mean that I don't want to take part in any customization of it. I'd actually like all the Magi to be able to spec out their own Sanctums and Labs. Nothing too extravagant or over-the-top. But definitely put our own spin on them.

Summary
As you can see, I've put a little bit of thought into this. I figured if I was going to put this out there that I should at least be prepared. Even if nothing comes of this, at least I know I put my best foot forward. :slight_smile:

So, any SG's out there? Anyone at all?

2

You're kind of all over the place. Wanting to play close to gauntlet, yet wield significant political power at Grand Tribunal, is but one example. With respect to power levels, it's easy to develop phenomenally powerful characters at gauntlet and also to develop ones who aren't all that powerful at 30 years of post gauntlet development (it's hard, but not impossible).

What's important is finding a saga where you can integrate a build that you find interesting to play and the SG(s) create stories that speak to the overall saga and your character.

So, you should be able to create a character that is capable of doing something immediately at the start of play, (no matter the saga) with a goal of eventually being able to do something else. Given the pace of PbP, you should be well aware that you may never meet that goal, because the pacing of the game might only cover a year of play, before the saga peters out.

Don't take this as an open invitation to my saga. We're 3 months into character and saga development, and two players have dropped, while others have come on, and some are still ruminating over characters. The setting for Dirge, is that it's later than a traditional saga start by 30ish years and there is a wasting disease the takes the Gift from magi. Traditional power structures of the order aren't in place. And the magi are fleeing to modern day Finland, beyond the borders of the Order to avoid becoming infected.

3

One doesn't need to be powerful to be influential. Nor does one need to be influential in order to be powerful.

I was warned that these boards have an elitist bent to them; I was hoping I had heard wrong and wouldn't be judged or harshed upon for my views and/or what I'm looking for in a game. It seems I was sincerely mistaken and wrong. Apparently, putting thought into what I was looking for in a game is not what's requested or needed here. I don't expect anyone to just come along and say "Hey, I'm running a game that hits every one of your buttons". The more likely scenario is that someone comes along and says "Hey, we've got this game over here, and it's got some elements that you're looking for, come check it out". But even then you made it a distinct point to state that your post wasn't an overt advertisement for me to even read the game, much less attempt to join it. I mean, if you weren't looking to add players, why even bother mentioning that one way or the other?

I really dislike putting myself out there and getting bashed on right away. Constructive criticism is fine, but your post went a bit far. The people I heard from are right; I've now dealt with 2 of you here, and one of you had to make me feel small and unwanted. Guess I'll go elsewhere and see if I can find an Ars game.

4

Dude, seriously.

I wasn't attempting to come off as elitist.

Also, while I don't disagree with your sentiment: "[o]ne doesn't need to be powerful to be influential. Nor does one need to be influential in order to be powerful." It's extraordinarily rare for any new entrant into a field to wield significant power within a few short years. That's it. Full stop. I never said anything contrary to what you said.

The problem you have, as wanting to be a player in a PbP Ars game is that there aren't that many of them. And your pretty wicked and harsh come back on me makes me not want to take you into my game, so yes, perhaps you best go someplace else where you can jump down someone's throat when they try and offer you what you think is constructive criticism. I said your desires were a bit broad. I explained the pacing of most PbP game. I've never seen one "finish." I cautioned a new to Ars PbP player on what he might do to avoid frustration, because quite frankly, I've experienced all that frustration.

Speaking to my game, I wanted to see whether it interested you, and if we could come to an understanding. Does it make sense to invest a lot of time in something for me, when I have other players involved, to get you onboarded, only to see you bail?

But dude, seriously.

5

And yet, that's exactly what you did. "Here all the reasons why your post was terrible and why you won't play here, even though you only stated what you were interested in. And by the way, what you're interested in doesn't matter".

No, you just said that it won't happen. Period. Full Stop. You outright stated that I was all over the place and then "...find a saga that where you can integrate a build...". If I had a saga I could join, I wouldn't have put forth here that I was looking to play. You pretty much ignored the fact that I am putting myself out there because I don't have an IRL group to play with.

Um, no kidding. I never said that there was an abundance of them. But apparently I now have a problem because I want to play and am letting prospective GM's know that I'm available in the event someone were to run something. Which is, in my opinion, and elitist attitude on your part. "Hey, thanks for saying you want to play, but you have a problem in that you want to play but there isn't anything right now." Would have been less words to just tell me to go away.

Bolded is my emphasis. And again, elitist attitude. "These here are our boards, and you're new and all, so even though you tried to be nice at first, go somewhere else." Real nice sentiment there to tell a new person to go somewhere else. Must be nice to have been active on the boards for so long that you have the authority to tell people to leave.

Cuz I'm just like everyone else out there, right? You already know so much about me that I'm just going to start the interest and then bail immediately. You've already got me pegged without having even talked to me, don't you? Can I get some of that magic juice so I can drink it and just know which people to shit on in the future?

The short version here is that I attempted to put myself out there to say what I was interested in - without telling someone they had to run a game, or that they had to accept me in something, or anything even close to either of those - and then I left it at that in the hopes that maybe, at some point, something would come up and someone would say "Hey, that Ghost guy posted he wanted to play, so let's see if he's interested". You then decided to pull some holier-than-thou crap on me, stating quite literally that I'm all over the place, that I should find a saga on my own, and then to tell me you are 3 months into your own saga so I shouldn't even think about it. You crapped all over my post, plain and simple. You pulled the elitist bs that I was warned about on this board, confirming the notion that I shouldn't have even tried.

What you did was not constructive criticism, Jonathan. For some unknown reason you took offense with something in my post and, without even knowing me, decided to tell me how wrong I already was. You stopped short of telling me not to bother, at least in your first response.

I'll end with but a simple question: If your intention was not to crap all over my post, then why even bother? Why not just leave the post alone instead of telling me how wrong the entire thing was? Or am I not allowed to be all over the place and want vastly different things?

6

I came here, trying to get a read on what you wanted to do, because you were all over the place in character seeds. Mind you, these weren't well developed character concepts, just some seeds. I purposely ignored the part of your OP where you basically told SGs how to handle magic items. I could do that, because I happened to agree with it, but someone else might not. I suggested you look my saga over, because, quite frankly, it might not be your cup of tea, or if it's your first Ars game, might not be a good fit. As you say, I don't know you. And as I said, i'm not going to put in a lot of effort to convince you to come in, do all the onboarding necessary. Been there, done that, only to have the player disappear like a fart in the wind.. That's not me saying you will back out, it's the fact that in PbP games, players just fricking disappear.

I never took offense with your OP. I was surprised, and genuinely sorry that you felt my response left you with the totally incorrect impression. However, your response to my response makes it clear that if you feel the least bit slighted in any way you will jump down that person's throat. The only person crapping over someone is you crapping on me, sir.

7

Oh, and it can be really hard to join a saga, I've tried on at least 3 occasions to join Andorra. Just never worked out. It happens.

8

If I may cheekily add my thoughts...

When I first started working in an office, one of the things they told us was "psychologists have studied this, and 93% of all communication is in non-verbal signals that are lost when speaking over the telephone" (I don't know how good these studies are, it's just one of those statistics that are endlessly repeated around corporate training courses). Anyway, over the phone we only use a tiny fraction of our communication potential. Here on the net, it's strictly words only with no way of indicating emotion, irony, hesitation or anything subtle so with our strictly limited tools people misunderstand each other and misinterpret each other constantly.

Play-by-post really amplifies this tendency. I have had many ideas that I thought were wonderful or entirely reasonable (based on face-to-face games of Ars I've played) that were shot down by storyguides or undermined by my fellow players. I've had people tell me to reread the rules, claiming the rules I've always played by are a silly house rule interpretation. I've had people say that my idea completely contradicts what their character was aiming for, as if I was single-handedly trying to derail a saga with a compromise suggestion. The important thing is you keep trying if you want to play by post. It is a lot more frustrating than playing face-to-face, where you can indicate quickly what you're trying to do, and the people around you can tell if you're getting upset by the way things are going, and you have the instant feedback of the facial expression of other people to tell if you're being unreasonable.

Best wishes to Ghost and hope you find some Ars to play, somewhere. Best wishes to Jonathan and hope your latest PbP succeeds.

9

Darkwing, you are probably more than 100% correct here. Inflection, tone, attitude...all these things are lost in written medium for the most part. And it's hard sometimes to hear criticism on something that you put effort and time in to, and without being able to see body language or hear intonation in words, one can sometimes go down the wrong path without realizing it is the wrong path. So I thank you for pointing that out.

With that said, I'm just going to apologize quickly and quietly to Jonathan, knowing that I've not made a good first impression here. I hope that at some point in the future this will all be forgotten and that we are all enjoying a game, whether it's together or in separate sagas.

10

Hey, it's all cool. Sometimes it's necessary to take a step back, and the person you are angry with usually can't convince you to not be angry with them. You are correct, though, there is an elitism here. I tried really hard not to impart that to my post. I do have a particular view of Ars Magica, it sometimes varies widely from how it's interpreted within the main forum, when I see people just crank things up to 11...