Redcoat

"Shut up!" Alex shouted. "Why the fuck would I try to kill my own crew?"

Alex ran through some things quickly. The plan had been to have the hunters attack the hotel in a thoroughly stupid manner, with Evelyn giving Alex enough time to prepare his crew and prevent exactly what they'd seen here. With that, they'd scare off the bounty hunters in this sector, gain Evelyn as a crew member, and probably recover some equipment from the hunters for later use. He had to admit it was a slick plan.

It still hadn't worked, of course.

"I will explain this in full later, once we are out of this place and safe," Alex said. "For now, we need to get out of this hotel. Can we agree to that?"

I'm an admin here, and I run two RPs. That isn't changing, unless the coup d'etat that my spies warn me about is much further along than I suspect. What is changing is that I have a job now, because summer started. Yay me.

In addition to starting a job, my time will also continue to be eaten up by two correspondence courses I'm taking over the summer, my offline friends, my girlfriend, and possibly other writing.

This is not a resignation--you can't get rid of me that easily--but it is a warning that I will not be on as much as some of you are probably used to. What this means is that I'll have to make my time online count for more. I think I can do that.

And now for a return to your regularly scheduled programming.

Finally! (BBC link.)

It's about time, Mr. President. This is welcome news indeed.

Earlier this afternoon, my computer bricked itself. It's not worth replacing, because it's an old piece of shit anyway, so it's being recycled. Meanwhile I am without a machine, at least for now. I am planning to go up to the city tomorrow and purchase one, but no promises. Also no updates--I won't be able to communicate with the Frontier unless it's an emergency. Anyway, I will be gone and all posts are on hold until I have a machine.

My apologies for the inconvenience!

Recently, in my travels about the forums, I've seen a problem pop up a few times, in multiple RPs, perpetrated by multiple people. None of these people will be mentioned by name because no rules have been broken and no official measures are being taken (with one exception, but it doesn't apply to anyone specifically; see the end of this post).

Chaotic Stupid and Stupid Evil are bad. What are these? They're ethical alignments in the Dungeons and Dragons tradition. TVTropes does a better job explaining these than I ever could (links to Chaotic Stupid and Stupid Evil), but here's a boiled down version:

• Chaotic Stupid: utterly random lunatic character who does whatever the hell he feels like for no apparent reason whatsoever.
  
• Stupid Evil: mindless psychopath who shoots out someone's kneecaps for no reason other than "I did it for the lulz".

Whilst both of these character types do exist in real life (we call them "lunatics"), they are not interesting to RP or GM for. This is because there is only one logical reaction to incredibly unpredictable or violent behaviour: extreme social rejection, up to and including abandonment, prison time, or execution. There is simply no reason for the party to contain these types of characters, because any reasonable person would abandon them, space them, hand them in to the Magistrate, whatever.

It gets worse, because there is (rightly) pressure on GMs to integrate all members of the RP into the story. This is how things ought to be. The problem is that integrating these characters into any good story is close to impossible, because any attempt to have them tag along with the party will result in extreme dissonance (why would they let him tag along at all?). This leads to all of the characters looking like psychopaths or nutcases for ignoring the psychopathic or simply crazy inclinations of one of their friends. It ruins the RPing experience and any attempt at verisimilitude.

I encourage all GMs to clamp down on these kinds of characters in their RPs, refuse them registry approval, and edit or delete posts involving them where this is necessary. If a dispute arises, you should ask the player concerned to revamp their character and help them do so. I will be enacting these measures within my own RPs effective immediately. Though this will not become a site rule or expectation, it is very likely that the continued presence of Chaotic Stupids or Stupid Evils will harm RP quality and, consequently, interest, resulting in the eventual closing of RPs as a consequence of demand.

I will also discourage further behaviour of this nature by editing the RP Guide to contain a provision discussing exactly why Chaotic Stupid and Stupid Evil are both awful character types to play as.

Have a nice day.

--RPG Frontier