Oh, GP. Again.

GP is the dead horse of all the campaigns I have been in, even moreso that AG, but it seems that some people can't help but drag its rotting corpse out of the ground to give it one more beating. Please, don't misunderstand me. I'm not talking about bashing GP, I'm talking about discussing what went wrong and how it could have been saved from becoming a circle jerk for the GMs. Whether or not it could have been saved is moot by this point. All that's left it to sit back and point out the giant pile of fail for what it was. I'd love to continue doing that, but now I find I must yet again openly express some of my issues with GP and clear the air as to when and why I left.

Last night in #returners, Saanjun himself got on a tangent about the problematic character of Vishanti (lord, I could write a novel on her alone, and then the sequel would be about the taru who would be a god). For those who don't recall, during my tenure (lol) as GM in GP, Saanjun was the head honcho - or rather, he was supposed to be. Before becoming a GM, I had expressed the problems I had with Vishanti and the Black Brigade in general, namely that they always won and they were the bad guys. My character was a member of Rose Echelon (RE), the supposed good guys full of nobles and others who could kick copious amounts of ass, only they didn't because they were more impotent than Bob Dole before Viagra. When I became GM, I was assured by Saanjun and some of the others that my concerns had been heard and that the leader of the Black Brigade (BB) would be punished for his crimes. Oh, and also that Vishanti wouldn't be allowed to kill the leader of the BB anymore than my character would. Sounds good, right? And you know that everyone followed through on this, right? Hey, you know I like laying the sarcasm on pretty thick.

Nothing changed. Lude killed children in front of my character and did several other things. He was the leader of the BB of which a few GM characters were members, including Mary Sue herself Vishanti. Now, Vishanti wanted to take over the BB, which would make her more power than some of the campaigns established NPCs. Hmmm, a PC taking a powerful position that grants her the ability to command one of the guilds that oversees the campaign world, and not just any PC, a GM-controlled PC. Can you spot what's wrong with that? I ask because apparently there were only a few of us who did, and none of them were Vishanti or Saanjun (at first).

I complained at length about the fact that the BB was doing dirty underhanded things and getting away with it, while it was planned for the RE to take the fall for some stuff. If the plot had been about the BB being a bad guild, that may have been fine, but all of the guilds were supposed to come together to fight the great looming threat of an evil villain who could destroy an entire city in a matter of hours. How on earth could we do that when the BB was working the same level of evil as the Big Bad Guy?

Again, even as a GM my words went unheard and outright ignored, but I tried to carry on with moderate success. Then, there was a meeting of all the guilds, and my PC was allowed to accompany the leader of the RE so she could offer her input on matters and testify as to some of the goings-on in the world. Seems like the perfect opportunity to expose the Lude for the piece of child killing scum he was, right? Oh, I'm sorry, you thought we were using logic. I'll have to explain that Pasha grew increasingly angry as Lude (as played by Saanjun) and Vishanti acted as though they were above the law and ignored the real accusations lobbed their way without any reprocussions. It got worse when the leader of RE told Pasha to stop and to quiet down that "Now was not the time." Pasha got up, chewed Lude and everyone gathered there out, said "I'm resigning from Rose Echelon," and I quit as a GM and a player that night. Sounds reasonable? Maybe, maybe not depending on your level of knowledge of the events leading up to that.

After I left, I was told that I didn't give enough of a chance for them to correct the problems. You know, those problems that had been going on for, literally, months. I was told there was going to be a retcon of that meeting because the person playing the head of the RE (some player whose name I can't recall, but he wasn't a GM) was the captain of the SS Failboat the entire time. Me? By that point I didn't care. I still think walking away was the best option I had at that point, and I would do it again. So, why bring all this up now? Because last night I was told by Saanjun in #returners that I should have stuck around after that night to talk, because they were going to fix things.

... I'm sorry, what?

I stuck around as a player when Vishanti was allowed to bespell an entire party so she could help cover up the fact that Quavax (Saanjun's character and, surprise, member of BB) had murdered an innocent Bangaa guide. I was told my concerns were heard and that something would be done. Quavax was never punished. Vishanti was allowed to keep her dragon that could bespell anyone. I stuck around after Lude killed children because I was told Pasha would see justice done. Pasha was later called a liar and told the BB couldn't possibly have done all these horrific crimes despite the fact she was considered a noble hero. I stuck around after Vishanti's player told me "Pasha wouldn't kill Lude!" when I had stated time and time again that Pasha would kill someone she saw as irredeemably evil. Lude showed no remorse for his actions and threatened Pasha hometown where her family lived, and she also felt her husband's life was at stake due to the BB's activities. I stuck around after being told the RE was going to be exposed for doing bad things while the BB's atrocities went ignored. I left that night because it had been repeatedly made clear to me as both player and GM that nothing was going to change. Yet, nearly two years after the fact I get told in a public chatroom that I didn't stick around after one more night of seeing my character get beaten down for being a good guy.

Gee, Saanjun, I can't imagine why I'd leave and not give a damn about any promises the other GMs could make to me at that point. Funny thing is I bet you're the sort of asshole who would turn around and ask why a battered spouse returns to an abuser despite a clear history of violence. Is that a harsh statement? Yes, but I also wonder why the heck you think I should have stuck around after all that? I've had enough of people not respecting me or my voice in real life. I was damned if I was going to put up with it online as well. Also, so nice to see how you can still push the blame to others instead of admitting you failed pretty damn hard as both a boss and a GM.

Do not try to argue with me over GP. I have logs, screenshots, and plenty of ammo to go on for days about the bullshit stunts that were pulled. I am the last person you should point the finger at for "giving up." And Julian, don't you dare try to comment and redeem GP in here. You know what a pathetic circle jerk it turned into, and that it did nothing more than serve as an ego-boost for WC at the end. Again, you won't get me to shut up or change my tune about GP, especially when I was publicly called out last night and had blame pushed on me.

In short: Do not fuck with me for I will righteously pwn your ass.

Mini-rants. (There's going to be a lot of posts today.)

When a GM says no to a request, the proper response is not to accuse the GM(s) of stifling your creativity and to pout because you can't do one thing. The proper response is to either accept the answer or politely ask, "What can I do instead to acheive my goal?"

If you claim that the other players dislike you/your character, then you should work toward uncovering why this is and address the issues. You should not spend a session telling another character snidely, "You go play while we do all the work," nor should you speak OOC and tell other players, "Hey, I can do more damage than that/I would have dodged that hit!" This does not exactly endear you to everyone. Furthermore, you will be laughed at when you then say, "The other players are provoking me." You haven't a leg to stand on.

If your character is a pretty-pretty princess and acts accordingly, the other characters who you treat as being beneath you will come to resent you. If you spend a session inserting yourself in the other characters' actions, or make a point of always asking "What about me?" everytime the spotlight is off of you for more than five seconds, people will get annoyed and call you out on your special snowflake syndrome.

If you are a GM and introduce a new character, take care not to hand that character everything she asks for. Do NOT make her out to be more awesome than the established characters. Do NOT give her fame and fortune without some sort of massive penalty. Give us a reason why she should be in the party other than the OOC reason, "Look, I found a new player!"

If you are a player new to the system, for the love of whatever deity you believe in READ THE FUCKING RULEBOOK. If after a month of sitting on a character, you haven't done so much as purchased armor/finished calculating stats, there is a problem. If after a month, you don't know how to do something as simple as going up one level, there is a problem. Asking a question to clarify something is fine. Having someone hold your hand and literally do every single step for you is not. The problem is not with us, it's with you.

Oh there's so much more I'll get into later, but this is a short list of the things that have happened in the past five days to aggravate the hell out of me.