This post has content warnings for: Vent, Abuse.
The real Asuka; the only Asuka
- she/her
she/her, 29, low resolution brain goblin, prolonged Cinema-Media-Arts and Polisci undergrad, ongoing Gender Situation. Asuka for short, Asukapaper for long, and Jill for real
Discord ID: asukapaper (they took away the funny numbers, curses)
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in reply to @Asukapaper's post:
This post is brought to you by my Saturday gm posting homebrew gimmick cyberware for more of his hardened boss statblocks while saying “Just some ideas, nothing to see here, won’t come up soon anyways…” To that I wish him a very piss off and grow up
Anyone can homebrew super weapons for your enemies that bullet dodge and have combat bases of 18 before quality and smart links. There’s a reason I never proceeded with Season 3 of One Block Days and it was to avoid this kind of childishness
I remember piecing together a fight with a Bearywary Yondergirl given solo 6, linear frame aikido (her thing was grappling and dealing foreign object with her razor claws), and a popup grenade launcher on a base of I think maybe 15-16. While piecing this together I wondered to myself “Am I making this fight to have fun and because fighting Bearywary Yondergirl would be fun for the players? Or is it to make something that steamrolls the party.”
As a player, this fellow didn’t really ken npcs beyond whether they were assets or enemies to be mulched and thrown into a dumpster, so the answer was no. This wouldn’t be fun or funny, this would just be me throwing a beat stick to keep their trash talk in check. that’s when I really scrapped plans for S3. I never got to run that encounter since I had a bout of illness, but it also represented this threshold into an adversarial relationship with my table that I didn’t want to cross, even if the player thought that was a perfectly natural relationship to have (he had a habit of belittling the magnitude of my challenges and the competence of my npcs that verged on the competitive).
The fact he thinks that’s my relationship with him disgusts me.
And it’s me being a bit selfish. Bearywary Yondergirl represented what one player cited by name as what worked in S1. She was this emblem of that era of the campaign, a problematic queer icon. I couldn’t bear to see her get brutalized by a muderhobo wanting to feel tough in his elfgames
The worst part is this is a gamemaster who is really good at being permissive with PC shenanigans out of combat, to the point where I try to nonlethal all my engagements to have more fun with the game (RED’s surprisingly pretty good for that as-is due to the skill resolution being simple but Friday Night Firefight being involved). He’s just… like this for some reason about combat?
Augh, I'm sorry to hear it, and I empathise deeply. I won't go on a rant again but motions to his previous chost about GM attitudes toward player "power" and agency.
Being a fan of the characters (and players) doesn't mean not challenging them, but it doesn't mean genuinely, deep in your heart of hearts wanting them to fail for the express purpose of failing. That's not Good Story. It can become Good Story, but only if they intend it to, and 'putting players in their place' very much indicates that is not the intent in combat.
Sometimes it's important to Strike Them Down With The Hand Of God, but as a set up for an arc, whose resolution is dictated by both mechanics and the will of the players - is it revenge, a journey of growth after hubris, is it justice, etc etc.
Bah. Got me ranting again.
Anyway. I see. I feel. 💖
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