In reply to Rockwolf66 (msg # 1879):

Hah, this sounds like a certain mayoral candidate for Calgary.  Massive jerk, that one.

In reply to GreenTongue (msg # 1878):

Sorry, Greentongue, I don't get instant feedback from my players, nor do I expect it.  I just expect that at some point within a 6 day window that they spend a few minutes to look at the post and figure out what to try next.  I'm never bothered that they didn't read back into older posts.  And I let players know up front it's once a week.  Every week.  And if they need a hint (as there's so much history, it's absolutely possible) I provide the hint.  And I even reward players if THEY catch me in an error.

Though I am tempted to chuck it all in, as the forthcoming adventure will take a long time to play out.  The campaign began in 1998, after all.  I'm tired.

After all, they've had ghouls, cthonians, Colour out of Space, bouts of insanity, mage wars, werewolves, paranormal difficulties, hounds of Tindalos, Tcho Tcho, Yig, Nyarlathotep (whom they annoyed and were chased as far as the Dreamlands), Nodens, shoggoths, cultists of multiple varieties, Deep ones, etc., and they've been everywhere in the world except Antarctica now.
This message was last edited by the user at 20:56, Fri 23 July 2021.

My point is that outside of your game, the players get it from other things they do. Not that you give it.

If the spark is gone, blowing on the ashes won't help. Real shame though.
Sounds like you should be proud of what you have done, not heartbroken it can't go on forever.

As for finding consistent games, yeah that's tough. Playing a solo game is about the only way to be assured that.

Weirdly enough, the two barely one-year-old cats we adopted will NOT behave the same way as the 18-year-old cat we lost, my dear. You didn't live with our first cat until he was five years old, so you missed a lot of the wacky antics of younger cats, which you now get to experience. The new cats are young. They are rambunctious. They wrestle. They run around the house like a herd of elephants and then leap on the bed while we're sleeping. They scratch stuff we'd rather they not. They whine for food and for attention and then scratch more things when they don't get it. It is not necessary to constantly shout at them - they literally don't understand. Distract them with a toy, wear them out a little, and soon enough they'll be snoozing on our laps.

We've watch cat behavior shows together. We've gone to lectures. We have books. You know what kinds of things to do. So please, just follow the very sage advice we have access to instead of hoping that yelling from your armchair will get our young cats to abruptly behave.

In reply to Isida KepTukari (msg # 1883):

This rant sounds kind of like what I am going through now. We found a kitten (well my roommate found her under a dumpster, but I decided we are keeping her). He keeps trying to teach her like she is some kind of puppy, its not really working other than she does recognize her name now. She is very much 'My Cat' in that she will come to me when I call, but not him, who is more agressive about it. (amoung other things she will do with me and not him.)

Shado... I had a cat when I moved in with my husband (then boyfriend). He'd never lived with a cat before, only dogs. I thought he'd figure out that the beasties are different, but he chose not to acknowledge that.

Within two months he had the cat coming when called, sitting up and laying down on command, and even sitting up and begging. He did it all with a can of Pounce cat treats. Snowball was about 15 years old at the time and had never responded to commands before, but he acted like those things were the best treats ever. One little shake of the can and he would come running from wherever he was in the house.

So cats *can* be trained. You just need to find the right bait to hold their attention. ^_^

An odd thing that seems to be happening to a lot of games I have joined recently. People join, generate a character, maybe even chat in the OOC, then vanish as soon as the game starts.

Very weird. It has even caused a few GM's to terminate the game before it even really starts.

Must be disheartening.

In reply to Piestar (msg # 1886):

I think it is worse when they grab the spotlight skew the story and then vanish.

Had that happen when I make the mistake of letting a new player into a game that had been running for just over a year. Left such a bad taste everyone decided to just stop instead of continuing down the new track.

In reply to GreenTongue (msg # 1887):

Ouch! That does suck. Hope it wasn't me! hehehe....

Might be that those games had a different reality to the expectations when things finally got started.

I remember applying for a game, they advertised as updating every day and having a fast paced game. Great! So I joined, got my character made, then the opening scene of the game proceeded to be our characters locked into a dungeon with a bunch of NPCs, this scene stretched on for three weeks... Definitely not my definition of fast paced.

In reply to Talon (msg # 1889):

Pacing to me is about how often things are posted rather than how fast things happen, but the events I am venting about, the players quit before anything about pace, tenor or feel could even develop.

Player joins, then just vanishes before even getting a character done - then shows up Months later and wants to know what happened to thier character ... Had this happen multiple times in the last game I ran. Though I had a good solid core of players in that game to, which helped it last for 3 years, its just the annoying people who join a game then ghost on you yet expect you to keep thier character while they are off doing other things that really annoy me.
Have had a game, long ago, that the story ended up being around one player, who suddenly left cause 'he lost interest' but he did not bother to tell anyone that he was leaving. I learned allot from that game on things Not to do. Was one of my first PBP games. So in some ways it was at least a good learning experience (I learned to never do that to a GM cause of how annoying that move was.)

Brought all the stuff I needed to fix my dinner at my friend's (she has a working stove) - and I mean everything: skillet, spatula, knives, fork, food. Love my friend like my sister, but her housekeeping is non-existent. :/

Fixed my dinner, sat down to eat in the tiny little portion of horizontal space on the dining room table, and as I went to cut the first bite, discovered my paper plate was only half on the table, as it all pitched over onto the floor. That was breakfast, lunch, and dinner for today. :(

In reply to Fyrerain (msg # 1892):

"five second rule!"

Not to be funny. That's certainly Not funny.
This message was last edited by the user at 15:20, Thu 29 July 2021.

In reply to Fyrerain (msg # 1892):

Augh, that is the worst.  Was there swearing? xD

Greentongue -- Bleh! You're forgetting the non-existant housekeeping. Although my dogs will certainly be happy next time they're over there!

pdboddy -- There was a single, choice word, quietly said. I was too tired and with that, too depressed, to muster the energy for more!

Yes, I seem to be a peeve machine, but this is (I think) a new one. Games in which almost everything my character does or says is ignored, not only by all the players, but by the GM's as well.

It is like I am the only one who sees my posts sometimes.

Am I being unrealistic to think the least you should be able to expect from a game master is that they read your posts, and reply in such a way as to show they have read your posts? Not saying everything you do has to work, but it should be noticed, no?

I don't know that I'm in any games with you, so this might be wildly inaccurate to your circumstance, but the instances I've come across that happening, the player gave so little information that it was either hard to figure out where they where/what they were doing, or the character was literally just sitting/standing there.

Now, like I said, I don't know if this is the case, but when it does happen, it's frustrating as a GM because I try to include everyone in the thread into whatever is going on. I've had information that I, as the GM, gave to players go entirely ignored as well, so I can fully appreciate your frustration when you've put something there to interact with, and it falls by the wayside.

I think all I can suggest on the matter is double checking your posts to make sure that isn't the case, and pming the GM if its a recurring problem to ask why/what they need from you for your posts to not be ignored.

I could understand that being a problem, but I go out of way to connect my comments to other people, and leave them hooks. In one instance I offered a serious opinion about a situation we were in and all parties simply ignored my thoughts, then got offended when I walked away!

In a game I recently quit out of, the GM simply teleported my away from where I very intentionally placed myself without a word of dialogue explaining it.

Not so different from "Real Life" when you try to strike up some friendly banter between characters and get ignored. Seems only DM to character talk is worth engaging in?

In reply to GreenTongue (msg # 1899):

Does feel that was sometimes, though even as the DM I feel ignored some of the time.

In reply to GreenTongue (msg # 1899):

This drives me insane.

Group game. Group play. Inevitably, there's always that One Player who thinks the only person worth interacting with is the DM, and really, it's just a solo game for them and the rest of the group is just scene garnish.

Balanced, of course, by the individuals that think NPCs are see-through, there just to be ignored entirely...

Some people.

In reply to SunRuanEr (msg # 1901):

I know, it is frustrating. Often NPC's get more attention than the fellow PCs!

In reply to Piestar (msg # 1902):

Reminds me of a player I had years ago. INSISTED he be treated with Respect and got P.O.ed cause an NPC called him Dude, which was in line for the nature of the NPC (Suffer Dude). He went nuts and quit the game over that.

In reply to ShadoPrism (msg # 1903):

Seems like he was paying too much attention! hehehe... But I am talking about games where people simply ignore stuff, sometimes things other players do, and often things the DM says.

I've had players tell me they were attacking a foe that I had already labelled as dead, or go in directions that the map clearly shows doesn't exist.

I actually had to quit a game once when the DM got upset that I kept pointing out them ignoring things I said and did, the very least I expect to be able to do is remind them.