UPS redux, or, JADE SMASH

So, I spoke to a real person today at UPS. Guess what? The address was right all along! Their driver claimed the address was incorrect, and then they tried to throw my old address at me. I told them "That's where I used to live, but not any longer. The first address was right." I wanted to scream at how stupid it is to send it to an old address when the first one I gave them is correct. You know why I gave them this address? Because of the apparently silly little reason that I freaking live here! If I still lived at the other address they tried, I would have given them that one. I'm fucking lucky I own that property and no one lives there, otherwise they could have delivered it to a complete stranger.

Words cannot express how angry I am. The local customer service is supposed to call me before the end of the business day to make arrangements for my package. If they can follow the instructions I give them, maybe I'll have my package tomorrow, if not, I have to drive 40 minutes and spend my time and gas seeking out the nearest UPS center to pick up my package myself.

You want to know the kicker? Last night, Sam and I were discussing his forthcoming visit to here. We both messed around with Mapquest, and I put my address into it. Guess what? Even Mapquest can find my house, including using a little short-cut that bypasses the need to go all the way through town and then come back to my place. If it's on Mapquest, how in the heck will UPS be able to tell me they couldn't find it? That tells me they didn't even bother trying to find me. The driver was too lazy to do hir damn job.

Oh, they are going to get an earful, and I will not be pleasant to deal with today when they call. They will never have my business again if I can help it. (In fact, I would have chosen the USPS or FedEx if UPS wasn't the only company the business I ordered from dealt with.)

The UPS Saga: The Final Post(?)

I hope this is the last post about UPS that I will ever have to make.

UPS called me back shortly after I posted the "JADE SMASH" entry. The woman was nice and I was polite-if-a-bit-blunt in return. She told me the driver that normally delivers in my area was out on vacation, which means there was a substitute driver making deliveries and he's the one who said my address wasn't correct. [Insert joke about Mercury going retrograde here.] I'm still baffled over how he could determine that, and I wonder how hard he tried to find me, if he tried at all.

I was very, very insistent that they never, ever, ever try to deliver a package to my old address, and stated "If I wanted it sent there, I would have given that address." I wound up giving her easy-to-follow directions to pass on to the driver, and she said they will deliver my package tomorrow. If not, I'm going to have to drive to Aiken to pick it up, and I will not be a very pleasant person to deal with.

Also, if there is a next time, I'm going to call them ahead of time and say "Please use Mapquest if you think you can't find my house." Seriously, if even Mapquest can get it right, there's no excuse.

Lemme 'splain dis...

I just want to write up a tiny medium-sized rant/explanation of something regarding FFRPG. Please, feel free to skip/ignore.

The Divination trait does not grant you clairavoyance, omnipotency, or omnisciency. If you take the Divination trait, your character does not suddenly become Miss Cleo, nor does your character gain 24/7 access to the Akashic records. What Divination does is - combined the use of Key Points(KP) - give you vague clues about the immediate future. How vague depends on how many KP you part with, and even if you have a GM who will give you a crystal clear vision of some future event, it doesn't mean your character gets to have all the answers. It really doesn't mean your character can learn about other characters just by being their presence.

Here, let's break it down by looking at what's written in the PDF:

Divination
Effect: The character can foresee tiny fragments of the future or inklings of a destiny yet to come. How the character derives this knowledge varies from person to person; some may use Tarot cards or palmistry, others swear by smoke and tea leaves, and others still see the future through natural talents alone.

-1 Point (Spontaneous): By spending 1 Point, the character can obtain a vague vision of the not-too-distant future – either pertaining to themselves, another character, or the party as a whole. While accurate, this vision is open-ended enough to allow a number of interpretations.

-3 Point (Spontaneous): By spending 3 Points, the character can obtain a clear and unmistakable vision of the not-too-distant future – either pertaining to themselves, another character, or the party as a whole. This vision is lucid enough that there is no doubt as to what is happening, but still given without context. [Emphasis added]

See the parts I put in bold there? That means, even with the three-point version, you are not going to know everything. You will never be able to "see forever," or be able to learn Character Y's deepest, darkest secrets (and speaking from experience, you probably don't want to know what Character Y does in hir downtime). You can, on occasion, be able to inform the party of something that may or may not happen in the very near future, and sometimes you can get a fairly exact vision of it. However, it requires that you spend KP, which means you don't get to do that voodoo that you do on a whim.

There is no ability that allows a player to be truly psychic, and why would you want to be? If your character can have a crystal clear vision of the future and/or know everything there is to know about PCs and NPCs, where's the fun in uncovering plot, or having any sort of character development? Maybe there is a GM out there who doesn't mind hir players knowing what's in store for them, but I think I'd become rather bored playing in a campaign when I know how a major plot element is going to turn out. As a GM myself, I have fun throwing curveballs and springing surprises on my PCs.

You can probably have a lot of fun making a character whose catchphrase is "Call me now!" and you can even have hir be eccentric and just plain weird. I, personally, could have a lot of fun coming up with silly prophecies or making dire predictions for my comrades (think Miss Sybill Trelawney from Harry Potter), and I could put my own spin on events to say "See, I totally called it!" With the Divination trait, I could actually be right on the rare occasion - just enough to keep my fellow party members on their toes and freak them out. Or, I could be a charlatan who uses various tactics to make myself appear psychic though really all I'm doing is making educated/informed guesses. Of course, the first time I get caught going through a fellow PCs personal stuff to get clues about hir, I'll probably have to fight hard to keep my character from getting the crap beat out of hir. I could still use Divination to, again, know something on the odd occasion that's scarily accurate (and probably make the pissed-off PCs more inclined to keep my con-artist character around). And maybe you can have the real deal, but accept that you aren't going to be allowed to learn the secrets of the cosmos, and that your psychic abilities are never going to be exactly earth-shattering. If nothing else, it keeps the plot interesting, fun, and it keeps you from ticking off your fellow players because you spoil everything/have to know their secrets.

I bring this up because I have encountered, on more than one occasion, players who thought that merely taking the Divination trait granted their PCs psychic abilities. It does, but only when spending KP and certainly not to the degree I've seen some try to claim. It's especially frustrating when a player takes the Divination trait without understanding what the word "vague" means, and then complains that a GM didn't provide enough information. Nowhere in there does it say that a vision granted by Divination must be helpful to the party. It'd be nice if they all were, but it's not a requirement. It pays to think carefully before asking a GM for a specific vision of the future. The more direct and exacting your question is, the better your results will be; however, bear in mind a GM can always deny you the right to use any trait regardless of how much KP you're willing to use.

So, please, don't take the Divination trait expecting to be Doc Manhattan. Really, some secrets/surprises are better left unkown.