GreenTongue
member, 975 posts
Game Archaeologist
Fri 11 Jun 2021
at 17:13 | Are the doctors Trying to kill meIn reply to Piestar (msg # 1857):
Finding that fine line between moving things along and skipping people can be hard.
Especially as it is a moving target.
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Piestar
member, 910 posts
once upon a time...
...there was a little pie
Fri 11 Jun 2021
at 19:38 | Are the doctors Trying to kill meIn reply to GreenTongue (msg # 1858):
There is a fine line, but when you are standing well to one side of it, the risk of crossing it is minimal, especially when you have a large party. A bit of exposition to bring us up the point where things are new isn't a risk of any kind. Montage if you must, but when it takes a month and a half to get to anything interesting it is risking a different problem.
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Yaztromo
supporter, 438 posts
Fri 11 Jun 2021
at 20:43 | Pace in on line gamesIn reply to Piestar (msg # 1857):
I agree that pace is critical for on line games.
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Piestar
member, 911 posts
once upon a time...
...there was a little pie
Fri 11 Jun 2021
at 20:45 | Pace in on line gamesIn reply to Yaztromo (msg # 1860):
I simply don't feel up to running my own anymore, but when I last ran a game, players who didn't post within three days did nothing, and we moved ahead.
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praguepride
member, 1830 posts
"Hugs for the Hugs God!"
- Warhammer Fluffy-K
Mon 14 Jun 2021
at 22:00 | Ummm, I'm gonna need you to go ahead come in tomorrow.I joined a new team and my new manager seems to be establishing a schedule of putting meetings in place at 5pm right as the day is leaving and then immediately dropping bombshells on us causing our whole team to stay hours after we would normally leave.
I'm usually very good at pushing back against this stuff but he is dropping critical emergencies on us at the last minute and it is really hard to push back on "oh, that system can stay down for 18 hours. I'll be in work tomorrow morning!" but on the flipside WHY ARE YOU WAITING UNTIL THE END OF THE DAY TO TELL US THIS STUFF!?!?!?!
It's been two weeks of so far because of a specific thing on our plan but once that is done if he tries this again I am going to fold my arms and give him a big NOOOOPE. I'll put in extra hours one time. After that, it is on you to manage YOUR time so we are effectively used during the day but I am not spending another month where I spend 6 hours a day twiddling my thumbs and then another 6 hours working my butt off because you didn't give this news to me at the beginning of the day like a normal person would.
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Piestar
member, 912 posts
once upon a time...
...there was a little pie
Mon 14 Jun 2021
at 22:28 | Ummm, I'm gonna need you to go ahead come in tomorrow.In reply to praguepride (msg # 1862):
Are you at least getting overtime? That should come to the attention of the people over him, and hopefully that will pressure him to straighten up. I hate bosses like that...
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SunRuanEr
subscriber, 391 posts
Mon 14 Jun 2021
at 22:55 | Ummm, I'm gonna need you to go ahead come in tomorrow.Any chance that it's just coincidence, and the end of the day just happens to be when the manager's been finding out about these things in urgent need of fixing? I mean, it's probably not, but if it's just been a few weeks, it could just be really unfortunate coincidence. Might be worth asking around to see when information is being passed to him in the first place.
Could you suggest scheduling meetings in the AM, 'to make sure the day is used most efficiently' or whatever necessary excuse, instead of in the afternoon, in case the issue is one of 'he knows about this, but won't mention it until everyone's in one place at a meeting, and he just likes/is used to calling meetings at the end of the day' or something? It seems really bizarre (to me, at least) that he's scheduling meetings that late in the day anyway.
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Zag24
supporter, 698 posts
Tue 15 Jun 2021
at 01:18 | Re: FamilyIn reply to praguepride (msg # 1862):
Wow. That sucks. Do you get overtime for this BS, or are you salaried?
Don't do anything dramatic until you're ready to walk away. Get ready to walk away. Spiff up your resume and know what your value is in the marketplace. Go on a few first interviews. This is OK even if you don't plan to leave, but moving on to second interviews and salary negotiations is not cool if you're not doing it in good faith. It is even OK to tell your interviewers that you are not desperate to leave, you're just putting your toe in the water. If they're professionals, they will understand. If they don't understand, you don't want to work for them, anyway.
Once you're ready, which means that you've had a couple of promising interviews, address the problem calmly and without threats. Explain that the constant "emergencies" and the significant overtime has become unacceptable. I strongly suspect that the manager won't take it well, because he sounds like he gets off on jerking you around. When he pulls the BS once more, then just confirm that you'll be on top of it the first thing in the morning, but you have to go now. Then leave. He'll explode, or maybe he'll back down. That will tell you whether or not you want to move forward with the interviews.
I've done a ton of hiring as well as my full share of getting hired, and I do know a bit about it, including what makes a good resume. If you'd like me to look over yours and give suggestions, I'd be glad to. While my background is in software, I've successfully given resume advice to a nurse, a pastor, a medical equipment engineer, and others. rMail me or PM me in your game that I'm in, and I'll give you my home email address.
What do you do? Is it something you can do remotely? Lots of companies have learned in the pandemic that people can be very effective working remotely, so don't assume that you need to look geographically nearby. (Surprisingly, lots of companies did not learn it, in spite of a whole year of their employees being productive and effective remotely. It's a power thing.)
This message was last edited by the user at 01:30, Tue 15 June 2021.
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DBCowboy
member, 67 posts
Played rpgs since about
'81 (D&D Basic ed)
Tue 15 Jun 2021
at 02:12 | Re: FamilySeveral good ideas here, understanding why notice of serious outages are received so late and starting to look for other opportunities if you're in a position to do so. Don't know if your team practices Scrum or SAFe or other agile framework but this sounds like a perfect Retrospective topic. I suspect you're not the only team member who would like to see a change here.
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Piestar
member, 913 posts
once upon a time...
...there was a little pie
Tue 15 Jun 2021
at 03:21 | Re: FamilyI wouldn't be surprised if the tasks came late in the day as a way for this person to make sure the regular day to day gets done as well. It's no way to treat your staff however.
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praguepride
member, 1833 posts
"Hugs for the Hugs God!"
- Warhammer Fluffy-K
Tue 22 Jun 2021
at 05:22 | Re: FamilySalaried so no overtime.
The reason they are coming in end of the day is he is in meetings all day so he only makes time for us at end of day. The team is still new so we're still figuring things out but I am not the kind of suffer silently.
I suffer LOUDLY.
Fun side story, an old team of mine fired (ahem, let go) an absolutely phenomenal worker. Just the best. They let him go for the dumbest dumbest reason and I was pissed. Every day in status meetings I wouldn't talk about my work as much as I would say "You need to fix this. Is this being fixed?" and when it wasn't I lost it.
That status meeting they were like "Did you do your work?" and I straight up said "Nope."
Everyone gets kind of quiet. Who says that, right? Then the boss was like "Well...why?"
And I said "Well this guy was better than me and nobody in management could be bothered to do a tiny fix to keep him so why should I bother?"
And that was the status I gave them for about 2-4 weeks.
NOW I was working on other things. Mainly because I wasn't doing the stupid (and everyone knew it was stupid) assignment I was given I was helping others on actual critical work, developing training plans for other employees. I wasn't just slacking off on youtube, in fact I was being MORE productive then the busy work they were trying to have me do but it was hilarious when meeting after meeting they were like "did you..." and I just shook my head.
Boss ended up giving me a decent review because I helped him handle a guy on our team that was even worse then me XD. I straight up told my boss that I wasn't doing the work he was assigning to me and I still wasn't the worst person on my team!!!
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Piestar
member, 916 posts
once upon a time...
...there was a little pie
Sat 26 Jun 2021
at 06:48 | Re: FamilyGrr, grr, mad when I reply in the wrong thread. Sorry mods! My bad.
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Brianna
member, 2241 posts
Fri 2 Jul 2021
at 19:18 | Old friendsAn old friend is beyond high risk for Covid. His SO has a teen aged daughter (and an idiot ex). They believe the daughter was following all the protocols; she told them she was, and they told her how proud they were of her. Recently she's been living with her father, but she has been coming over to help because her mother had surgery and there are many things she is not supposed to do. He hadn't been feeling well, but figured he was still safe. Until they found out the daughter hasn't been following any protocol, probably since the beginning of the pandemic, has been hanging out with people who have been exposed, and her father knew that. Now he is sick, and they are under quarantine, of course also lacking any help so her mother is probably not going to heal properly, and who knows if he will even survive! And if he does are his lungs going to be even more damaged?? Of course they both feel totally betrayed, not just because of what she did, but because of all the months of lies, and her acceptance of praise she knew she didn't deserve.
I suppose someone here may know who I'm talking about, but mostly I just wanted to vent somewhere that most people will not know. I can't vent to them, obviously, and I'm no longer in touch with many of the people who also know him.
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spectre
member, 907 posts
Myriad paths fell
away from that moment....
Fri 2 Jul 2021
at 22:59 | Are the doctors Trying to kill meGames that are super exciting and really promising but the GM is kind of a crabapple...
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GreenTongue
member, 985 posts
Game Archaeologist
Sat 3 Jul 2021
at 13:47 | Are the doctors Trying to kill meIn reply to spectre (msg # 1871):
... when you finally find a game.
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Shinoskay
member, 108 posts
Sat 3 Jul 2021
at 21:50 | Old friendsIn reply to Brianna (msg # 1870):
Hysteria doesnt help anyone. There is way too much damn hysteria these days, way way too much. People over panicking and over reacting.
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ShadoPrism
member, 1381 posts
OCGD-Obsessive-Compulsive
Gamer-Disorder
Sun 4 Jul 2021
at 15:20 | Old friendsIn reply to Shinoskay (msg # 1873):
I blame the media for this behavior, they push that sort of thing after all.
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Brianna
member, 2242 posts
Mon 5 Jul 2021
at 11:23 | Old friendsIn reply to Shinoskay (msg # 1873):
Who's hysterical? Maybe the daughter if she realises she may have killed someone. I'm upset, yes, and afraid I'm going to lose a friend, and it's lucky I can't get my hands on that lying, beyond irresponsible kid. And I feel so bad for the couple, dealing with serious illness, post surgery, and a terrible betrayal by someone they love and thought they could trust. But none of us are hysterical.
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drew0500
member, 207 posts
D&D Gamer
Eclipse Classless
Sat 17 Jul 2021
at 00:09 | Old friendsI love my house, I don't love what the previous owners did to it.
Just discovered electrical wire spliced and left in the roof insulation (Electrical code violation); running an extension cord through the attic to run the attic fan and outdoor light; and numerous other issues.
Of course, fixing the mistakes is costly in time and labor.
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Silverlock
member, 124 posts
Mon 19 Jul 2021
at 19:44 | Pace in on line gamesIn reply to Piestar (msg # 1861):
I post once a week. So my players only have to send in their 1-3 sentences of 'my PC does X, Y, Z' once a week. I let everyone know that this is the way it is, as I'm still working (essential). My game is OLD. 1998 old. I'm nice enough to wait for players who skip a few posts before I start NPCing their PC off the plotline, and place their PC on the sidelines. My current players have all been around 20 years.
Can't post more often; sorry, I'm a few years from retirement. And I'm not working an easy office job with internet access, so I can't 'check on posts' during my ten minute break. I am blue collar beat up and hurting, in steel toed boots and a polyester uniform with my college degree required to do this.
So what do I do when I get a RTJ, I'm happy; I send them back info that is backstory for a game that has been active since 1998. The longest break the game gets is a two or three week winter holidays break. I get a RTJ, wonderful, happy day for me, a new player sends in an actual PC sheet, then ghosts. I don't even know what to think now. I'm trying to set up the final campaign of my Cthulhu GMing career - and it's a big one. What is my point ? I'm not happy either. It's hard to GM. It requires effort and research and attention to detail.
It's so easy to find games - well, maybe it is for others; I don't have much luck. I've had a GM who, being apprised that I do not check posts five times a day, killed off a PC that I'd run in a game for almost a year. I've had GMs require torturous RTJs only to be ghosted by them, or to have the game suddenly close. But when you find a GM who is willing to run a game, consistently, for the duration of the campaign - to the end - maybe then, we can all be happier ?
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GreenTongue
member, 989 posts
Game Archaeologist
Tue 20 Jul 2021
at 00:34 | Pace in on line gamesIn reply to Silverlock (msg # 1877):
You have a different pace than most of your players is my guess. If you get instant feedback from everywhere else, waiting a week is like "Dog Years".
Then, when you see their posts, you notice they didn't read back a month and have completely forgotten things that are important for the current situation.
This message was last edited by the user at 17:21, Fri 23 July 2021.
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Rockwolf66
member, 75 posts
Wed 21 Jul 2021
at 02:20 | Pace in on line gamesIf you are the sort of ******* who goes to jail for threats of violence against a hospital. Do not as soon as you get out of jail make threats against that same Hospital.
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pdboddy
supporter, 714 posts
EST/EDT [GMT-5/GMT-4]
Fri 23 Jul 2021
at 16:30 | Pace in on line gamesIn reply to Rockwolf66 (msg # 1879):
Hah, this sounds like a certain mayoral candidate for Calgary. Massive jerk, that one.
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Silverlock
member, 125 posts
Fri 23 Jul 2021
at 20:51 | Pace in on line gamesIn 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.
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GreenTongue
member, 990 posts
Game Archaeologist
Fri 23 Jul 2021
at 23:43 | Re: Pace in on line games| Silverlock: | | Sorry, Greentongue, I don't get instant feedback from my players, nor do I expect it. |
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.
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