Monday, May 17, 2021

Modern Nights Mush

 This is a review about a text based world of darkness game.  So this mush has a lot going for it; specifically a doom clock that is actually enforced, this is important to a game like World of Darkness, because it means that there are real story consequences for the game like breaching the Masquerade.  It's a curious mix of Mage and Vampire, mostly vampire with Mage at about half the population of Vampire at the time of writing the review.  The game is described as Street level, and it is set in San Francisco.  It also has a somewhat engaged staff, and they adapt based on player feedback.  Finally, it is the first mush I've seen to use M20 and V20 rules.

That's where the positive ends.

The real problem with the mush is the head wizard, Batty.  And it isnt going to change.  Basically, once Batty gets it into her head that you dont fit in the game, she is not going to give you a fair shake.  I went through three total rewrites for a minor sorcerer character and a mortal and kept being told no. On the surface, this is what a mush should do, but its more complicated than that.  The initial reason I was told no was because a vigilante and 'powerful' technosorcerer were not thought good fits for the game.  I was originally transferred to Cylon because the mortal mage, Google, was idle for a while.  Batty was distant but nice.

All of that changed when Batty thought I was trying to make a technomancer.  I tried to clarify that I wasnt, and she accepted it, but it was obvious that she was on edge after that.  The response I got to my character the last iteratoin was THREE PAGES, and she took it over directly from Cylon.  Suffice to say, I politely replied, "I think we have incompatible views on your game" NOT because her game was badly run but because I've dealt with mush staff for over 30 years, and I know when a battle is lost.  If you can get on the good side of staff, have at it, but if you feel that they are against you, they probably are and you should stop wasting your time.