eliakon wrote: I avoided this thread previously...
...and reading it all the way through today both told me again why... and raised an issue with it that I feel should be addressed here.
The "issue" Eli is that you don't like me, and attack me in many threads, but I'll address your concerns.
eliakon wrote:
I was horrified at some of the kudos that some of these cruelties got.
The thread was about punishing problem players. It wasn't about diplomatic solutions to maintain group unity or peaceful resolutions. Perhaps you misunderstood.
eliakon wrote:
Worse was how some of them were acts of dominance against a player.
The implication here being that my actions were an "Act of dominance against a player". They were not. Dominance was gained through the player's failure in the scene and humiliation. It was not a stated goal. My goal was to run a storyline. I did so. It was quite loved by all. Save that one problem player.
eliakon wrote:
The most egregious example was PJ relating a story of how he used a foe that was specially built to be immune to a character
You should go back and re-read my post. The foe was NOT specially built to be immune to the character in question. I said that the minion was sadistic and cruel. I also said that due to my construction the guy's super stats didn't affect it much. When someone's playing a character that's so beautiful that it physically hurts and a char whom has dumped 90% of his stats into social things to whoo women and has all sorts of appearance benefits, merits, blessings, and such, when they get into a confrontation with a flying baboon, those things don't matter overly much. Being an evil creature born of dreams, sadistic and cruel by design, the beautiful elf didn't whoo it. It wasn't impressed by the lord's lofty title... because it was a minion of evil and didn't recognize the social construct (Class system) that the nobler was a part of. It'd be like the Queen of England trying to order around a gang member in South Compton who was trying to mug and or murder her. They don't care she's the queen of England. Nor did this baboon care the guy was a noble.
You're trying to misrepresent what happened to paint me in a bad light.
I had built a powerful bad guy, meant for a -group- of 4 to 6 people to confront together. Thus one person alone would not do well to do so. Imagine... 1st lvl Luke skywalker, alone. Fresh off the moisture farm. Trying to take out Vader or the Emperor. It's not going to end well. By design the foe was powerful enough to give challenge to a GROUP of 4 to 6 people. The characters were supposed to flee with information. not force a full confrontation to the death with a clearly superior foe.
eliakon wrote:
that was expected to play
It was an open storyline for the entire site that had close to 30 players, most of whom had 4 to 6 different player characters. The foe wasn't designed for him specificly. It was designed to give challenge to a player GROUP coming into the storyline and that scene.
eliakon wrote:
and expected to interact in said way to sexually assault the character
Another misrepresentation. The villian wasn't designed to specificly interact in that way. It was me being 'nice' as a storyteller to not just murder his character in total. The guy picked a fight and got totally pwnd because the foe was designed to be CHALLENGING for 4 to 6 people TEAMED UP ON IT AT ONCE. The other player over estimated 1) His CHARACTERS Ability and 2) His OUT OF CHARACTER PROTECTION Due to his mother owning/running the site.
As for the assault. The minion was evil. Evil minions sometimes do evil things. The char was not activly raped. The essence was produced by manual stimulation. I just as easily -could- have had it rape him. I did not. Instead of killing a foe 100% at the ____EVIL MINION'S MERCY____ I had the MINION Choose to Humiliate the SIDHE KNIGHT instead. Because... it's -evil-.
Now this is a palladium board. And palladium by and large is written at a PG level. With only a few stand outs, palladium is written and designed for 12 year olds to be comfortable. Kevin has stated this more than once. If you want more 'adult' or manture games you can surely do so but most palladium books are written for that target audience.
White wolf is not.
More over. As I stipulated in the original post to this thread. __________I WARNED ALL PLAYERS PRIOR TO ENTERING THE SCENE THAT IT HAD A HIGH LEVEL BADDIE AND THAT INJURY/MAIMING/ AND CHARACTER DEATH WERE A POSSIBILITY______. White wolf is a more Rated "R" Game straight from the jump. In addition to that the players were warned before they even chose to join the storyline. This one could get you seriously injured, --maimed--, and or killed. Do not enter the scene with the assumption that you'll skate through it and no matter what you do, will your character survive.
I did not set out to -purposefully- kill PCs. But the possibility was there. This was an evil creature in a dark setting (The Setting is called the World of Darkness) And the foe was ---literally--- a creature born of nightmares.
So yes... it did assault the ____CHARACTER____ In a way that was sexual. Yes it humilitated the ___CHARACTER___ in a way that did lasting damage to the character's reputation and made him a laughing stock.
Because that's what evil creatures do to shining ultra beautiful people/things. They DEFILE Them. They RUIN Them. They rip them apart and take that beauty and power away.
They're not rocky and bowinkle villains. This was a -real- evil critter. Designed that way on purpose. Yes, such things are mature themed, but the entire game system is based on being mature themed. That's it's 'thing'.
eliakon wrote: resulting in real world humiliation for years...
Indeed. The guy was an utter phallus. His mentality and personality made it a humiliation for years. A more well adjusted individual would have winced at such a degradation to their char. Healed up and come back to trounce it (With a posse of buddies, because now he knew how powerful the foe was).
eliakon wrote:
in a forum that the player would be unable to leave.
He was able to leave. Infact over the years he has done so more than once. Once he got tired of taking his mother's orders and 'left' to form his own site. Noone played on it because he's a jerk.
More than once his mother has elevated him to Admin status. And every single time she's had to fire him for abuse of power and being a jerk and running off players.
Then the cycle starts again and she needs an admin for a system, be it Werewolf, or vampire, or mage, or changeling and if she can't get anyone else to do it, he'll beg and plead till she empowers him again. Then the dude goes power mad up to and threatening his own mother and her chars.. till she fires him again. he's been out right banned from his own mother's site no fewer than three times that I know of.
AND.. it's a hobby. Noone HAS to Role play. He was there by choice. So he was able to leave at any point.
Nor was he required to be in the scene. He chose to enter said scene even with advance warning of how deadly it was, and i __STILL__ Didn't kill his character. Though I could have.
You're 100% misrepresenting this to try and make it out like I'm Evil to score points.
eliakon wrote:
.. as an act of 'dominance' and 'revenge'.
The Baboon CERTAINLY did what it did to establish dominance over the overly beautiful sidhe noble. Because the Baboon was evil and hated beautiful things. A very very common motivator. Why do such a thing? BECAUSE THE BABOON WAS TOTALLY EVIL!! Humiliating a shining knight of the seelie court was AWESOME to the evil chimera. It was totally with in character for the Baboon, but so woul dhave been peeling off the guy's face and eating it while he watched.
__EVIL__
I don't mess around when I play bad guys. My bad guys are THREATS and if you're STUPID you learn why they're threats. I do not consider the GM/Player relationship to be confrontational. We're there to all have fun playing through the stories, so my baddies are BAD. There's a reason you want to kill um. And I CHALLENGE my players, because with out honest threat. Then why have dice in the first place you're just maiking it up. So sometimes PC's die.
In this case, I went soft. I didn't infact kill the fool PC, to teach a lesson. Why? 1) To be some what nice and 2) because the kid's mom OWNED the venue. So __I__ Was hobbled by what I could and couldn't do.
But yes, the Baboon was an evil minion of the Shadow court. It totally established dominance over the pretty boy elf.
eliakon wrote:
And that this got accolades?
Why not? It's a role playing game. Sometimes bad things happen to characters. I did not touch the dude in question nor harm him. Or in your games do villians never do anything Evil? Are they all just robbing banks and knocking over lemonaid stands, and every game result in them being tied up after a firm talking to and carted off to Jail?
Its one way to play, for sure. If you like that sort of thing, go ahead. My games are a bit more realistic, in that if there's an -evil- char he does -evil- stuff.
eliakon wrote:
Maybe we all need to stop, step back and think a bit on what we are doing here.
Talking about Role playing games. Not Real life. In real life I would never conduct THOUSANDS of actions my chars have in Roleplaying games, or tens of thousands of actions my villains have conducted when I run Games. You're trying to wag your finger and make it out like we're bullies. In this aspect we're being game masters.
eliakon wrote:
This is a game, it is meant to be fun.
I had fun. The others in the storyline had fun. Even the two people who's char's ended up dying before the end of the storyline. I got called out in the forums of the site for kudos for actually running a storyline that wasn't afraid to have powerful baddies, that wern't killed off first scene and presented a threat to the player characters and the city.
ONE individual did not have fun because he was a d-bag.
eliakon wrote:
If 'fun' requires the Conan "crushing your foes and hearing the lamentations of their women" then perhaps Your Doing It Wrong.
1) Don't tell other's how to play.
2) My FUN did not require Conan crushing of my foes". The other player pressed the point by months and months and months of bad behavior, and lording over not just me but dozens of other people.
In short, if you're nothing but a huge flaming jerk, don't cry when someone's mean to you BACK. You're reeping what you've sown.
eliakon wrote:
Yes, we all know "That Guy" who is a jerk.
Some are worse than others. Some only understand things on their own level. So yes. sometimes you have to sink to their level if you're to reach them. I reached this guy.
eliakon wrote: But if you have to resort to power plays
What you seem to be missing was that ---he--- was the one in power. I had a very very limited scope. I was a ---player---, who got ----permission---- to run a player run storyline. He was an Admin of the site, in control of a total system, and spoiled son of the site owner and founder.
eliakon wrote: and cruelty to 'get back at them' then perhaps the problem isn't them.
Sure it is.
Sorry but sure it is. If a bully punches you in the face every day when you're waiting for the bus. And laughs about it. Lords over it but never gets in trouble because his dad is the principal of the school. And every day you get punched and he laughs. Every day you're humilated and assaulted...
When you punch him back you're not suddenly the bad guy. You're not some how 'out of line'. You're not some evil bully who has to resort to violence!!! You've given the actual bully a small small taste of what he has been giving you all that time.
No the bully can NOT then step back holding his busted nose and scream and throw a tantrum and demand that you're some how the bad guy for treating him ONCE, how he's treated you for months or years.
Which is what you're trying to do here Eli.
You're doing your ABSOLUTE BEST to try and paint me as some sort of evil GM who abused his power on the poooooooooooooor pitiful person whom only wanted to play the game.
No. That's not the situation. Nor how it was resolved. You're trying an 'Appeal to emotion' by phrasing stuff in an emotionally charged way and lacing it with 'buzzwords' to try and engineer an emotional response as a mode of attacking me personally.
eliakon wrote:
It is my firm opinion that a GM can, and should be able to handle their players with out having to resort to the Fiat-bat, or to cruelty or humiliation.
All things being equal, many can. In this case there 1) Was no 'fait-bat'. 2) The cruelty was IN CHARACTER from an EVIL NIGHTMARE BABOON, and the Humiliation was done to the character as well. The PLAYER's bad attitude made it transfer over to himself.
"COULD" I Do things in different ways? SURE. A player that's not a total jerkwad gets those other ways. A jerkwad that's nothing by a jerk for years, lording over playerss OUT of character, and having super characters IN CHARACTER to also lord over CHARACTERS.. no. I choose another route for such people.
I.E. If you're nice to me I can be nice to you. Doesn't mean my bad guys wont' try and kill you, but I'll do it in ways that are less cruel and humiliating.
If you're a jerk. You get Jerk back. Pull up your big girl panties and get a helmet.
eliakon wrote:
If the player is unable to respond to anything short of cruelty.
He very much was. As I've further pointed out in this post, his own mother, who coddled him and gave him characters 10 times (Literally. I counted once) stronger than every one elses characters, and let him run entire systems, fired him and banned him from her own site for how he treated HER when in power and chasing off players.
Ye was very much unable to respond to anything short of cruelty. More over his responce was to develop a hate on me that's lasted more than a decade and seek revenge over and over. I just don't care. lol.
eliakon wrote:
then do you really want to be playing a game with someone who can only respond to cruelty.
I very much didn't. I detested the little jerk. But again I refer you back to my OP in this thread.
He was the _______________________SON____________________ of the Site __________________________FOUNDER AND OWNER_________________________ If I wanted to play in the game with the other 20 to 30 people, in multiple systems. Daily. I had a choice to make. Suck up the little buttertroll's horridness, or leave.
So I sucked it up. Played around him when I could. Chose not to log in with him unless I had to. And avoided him as much as possible to play with the OTHER people.
I was delighted during the times he'd get banned and or stripped of his position. I had a much more fun time then. Still every time she'd get over it (Had a large part to do with the fact the son often was the one paying the bills so he had her over a barrel).
I could have (and did) Leave at any point. When ever he'd get too much I'd step out for a few weeks or months. Other wise, dealing with the lil trog was what I had to endure to play there with my friends.
eliakon wrote:
..and do you want to become the person that has to use cruelty to make your points?
1) I didn't "have" to. I had other options, it was just all the little jerk would respond to.
2) I'm ok with it. LOL You're trying to shame me for being mean to a horrendous individual and long time abuser and bully. Sorry but that's not going to work. He was a jerk and deserved far more than I could possibly inflict upon him online. Again if it wasn't missed. ____HE____ Was the one in power. Both Out of char as an admin of the site, as son of the owner of the site, and IN character due to being given a character that had many TIMES the amount of power other char's had.
Palladium doesn't really have a direct parallel. but, imagine if everyone in the game had to start at level 1.....and this one guy had a maxed out char that was multi classed Juicer/borg/dragon/godling at 15th lvl. And he lived to use that char to lord over everyone else and would obliterate other chars that dared call him on it.
eliakon wrote:Just a few things to ponder while reading a thread of ways to humiliate and punish players.
Sometimes people need some humiliation and punishment. Sucks but it's true. Our legal system is based around it. When you're caught for a crime you're punished for it.
These are social groupings. (RPG groups) We do not have the ability to fine or imprison those whom break the 'laws' of our social group. So punishment is carried out in a few ways. Humiliation being one of them. Loss of social standing. And or banishment.
I'm simply not going to apologize for treating a person with no integrity, compassion, humility, culture, or redeeming values (Other than the fact he worked at McDonalds and provided enough money to keep his mother in housing so we could HAVE the site) badly.
If you're nothing but a jerk. I'm not the sort that's going to hug you and stroke your hair and let you keep being a jerk. If someone's nice to me. I'm nice back. If they're a jerk. They get jerk back. I dont' feel bad about it and you're not going to be able to shame me with your attempt at such, acting like it's some how morally irresponsible to do so.
Hopefully these points address your concerns. I don't think they honestly -are- concerns. I think it's -feigned- outrage as a ploy to try and score some points, but I've addressed your concerns anyway. Hope it helps.