Warren Castille

Grindstone #217 is finished! Numbers were up slightly as 46 people came out to do battle in Central Thanalan, and we've crowned a return winner! Congratulations to Percival Turner on his SIXTH Grindstone victory! Pictured here with his allies Phantom Marmot and The Astounding Bee. So, we're almost done with the 2017 calendar year and that means we're almost out of money to hand out to winners! Mark the date for January 6th, 2018 as we reopen bids for Open Fight Night!

UPDark Knights exist specifically to combat the corruption on Ishgard. Someone who uses that style of combat but isn't indoctrinated to that cause isn't a Dark Knight, they're just someone who uses that style of combat. It's a specific title referring to a role/career, not a catch all for people who use greatswords and emotional aether. Edit: less Batman, more Punisher.

Thanks for everything you folks did for so long.

Last night we had an incident. Someone who is known to be disruptive at events turned up and was disruptive at our event. I want to clarify a couple of things. There are a lot of hard working people behind the scenes at the Grindstone. I appreciate that it looks fairly autonomous from the outside, but there's a linkshell of constant chatter going on through the whole event. Healers and overseers and volunteers coordinating to make sure that, for the people participating, things happen automatically. I can't express enough thanks to the folks who help maintain that illusion week in, week out, and generally speaking it's a positive experience for everyone to both participate and organize the Grindstone. Sometimes, though, people want to test that. We don't turn people away based on concept. So long as you obey the rules, you're good to take part in our event. There's an unspoken rule that I guess needs to be spoken, though: Participating is a privilege, not a right. Pushing boundaries on rules to save face is certainly a thing people can do, but just as people have the right to act distasteful, our organizers (chiefly me) have the right to uninvite you. This isn't a tamping-down on freedom of speech or anything, but let me be blunt: Calling someone (who is volunteering their free time to help provide your roleplay experience) a cunt is a surefire way to make everyone upset with you both ICly and OOCly. This isn't about bleeding, either. The Grindstone isn't run by robots, as mentioned, and there are always consequences for our actions ICly. Don't be disruptive at events and insult the people providing your stage to act on. If you do, be prepared for the consequences. If you are hostile to people ICly, be prepared to be treated as hostile. I acknowledge that I certainly took things too far last night, but I won't apologize for going along with someone's behavior as my own character would respond. I agree that outright murder is a powerplay and I agree that a retcon is in order, both on the side of fairness and helping close things out in a smoother fashion. Lifetime ban is appropriate, banning life is not. If you want to know why events close down or get canceled, though, it's this shit right here: Last night 1 person out of 34 decided that they needed to make things about them, and that drags on everyone, from the top to the bottom. It's this kind of behavior that wears people out. Don't do it. If you're going to an event to have fun, have fun. Don't justify "well that's just my character, man" because while it's all good to have your own brand of fun, that's not roleplaying. That's being a dick. Don't be a dick. Mother of God, why do I have to point this out.

Welcome to Grindstone #216, wherein no one died! Contrary to popular belief, no one was murderered for insulting the entire Grindstone staff and trying to make a scene. Never happened. Don't know what you heard. Congratulations to Obsidian Darksian in their debut and win! I swear to the Twelve that happens all the time. NO MURDERS.

Contrary to popular belief, no one died tonight.

I'm back! After missing last week's Grindstone #214 due to Extra Life streaming and then forgetting to take screenshots of this week's tournament, I'm happy to congratulation Josiah Covey and Steel Rose, in that order, on their successes! And next time I'll remember to nab screenshots!

Regarding "The community." I'm sorry you've had bad experiences with people judging you based on your race in-game. However, I think I speak for most level-headed roleplayers when I say this: Those assholes do not represent the overall community. Yes, I see the irony in these sentences. Don't give up, that's the best advice I've got. It can be demoralizing to feel like an outcast from the get-go, but believe me on this... Random RP is exactly that: Random. Hit up some of the posted events and you'll eventually find some you click with. It's kind of like going to a bar on any given night, you know? There's not always a good crowd depending on when you swing by.

Doing it again this year THIS SATURDAY-SUNDAY! 10AM Saturday EST to 10AM Sunday EST! It will be our 6rd year of raising dollars for the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and my nerdy bro and I are happy to host once more. The stream will be right here! Our EL channel is right here! Our archives are right here! We're open to requests! Throw the charity some bucks and tell us what to play in the comments (NES/SNES/GEN) and we'll happy to throw you at least an hour of idiot guys playing your favorite game badly.

Halloween Grindstone! Tonight we had 51 people turn up to scoop each other's pumpkin innards, and at the end of the day there could only be one man standing! Congratulations to Nyt'aris Suyn on pushing the payload all the way to the end of the night! Of course, tonight was the celebration of All Saint's Wake and we saw more than our fair share of costumes! Check these out!

GREETINGS FROM THE PAYLOAD

Check this out.

Grindstone #212 is done before 2am somehow! We saw a handful of returning faces as well as a new group of new ones, but the final round came down to two regulars duking it out! At long last, Videra Svenay claims the title! And now with absolutely zero notice: Next week is the last Grindstone before Halloween, so anyone interested is encouraged to come in costume to help celebrate All Saint's Wake in game! I know the Grindstone Staff has kicked around at least two group costume ideas, so come be dorks with us and dress up!

Another Grindstone wrapped up in just about 4 hours! Tonight saw 49 people fighting it out to take home the intangible crown of Grindstone champion, and when we were all said and done, we put up a new one! Congratulations to Ruruni Runi on her first total victory at the Grindstone! SHE BLINKED IN THE FIRST ONE BUT IT WAS CUTE, SO We'll be back for next week's Grindstone, as ever! In the meanwhile, are you putting together a SPOOKY COSTUME for October 28th? No? Why the hells not?! We'll be celebrating Halloween (and All Saint's Wake) that weekend! Put together something snazzy and turn up for it!

If you wanted to reduce the argument to its basest parts, then yeah, I guess I am. My primary issue is that it's sloppy writing in the first place: Nanamo mentioning a specific year adds zero weight, gravity or tone to the setting. It could be argued that by having all of these things happen in such a short span of time it shows how much duress the WoL is under, constantly, but... They don't make a show of that at all. We are the indefatigable unstoppable main character, so it doesn't really matter if the entire arc took place over a single crazy weekend or several years. The overall narrative, in my opinion, doesn't benefit at all from SE throwing that line into the main scenario. It's less of a lack of realism and more an abundance of questionable writing. All they had to do was say something along the lines of "We've had so much happen in such a short time..." and it conveys the exact same point without putting such a specific number to it. It also serves to contradict other sidequests and references to time passing by. I know SE doesn't carve out this world for roleplayers, but it seemed silly to me to have several years worth of game now and then have them draw attention to the fact the timey-wimey ball is in play. I'm a curmudgeon about this stuff. It's not to say that a lot can't happen fast, but when you scale down 2.5 wars, a couple of revolutions and several large world changes, you lose the ability to pretend any of this shit matters. It'll all be cleared by next week anyway, so why worry about it now? Rome wasn't build in a day, so why should Mor Dhonanant's Toll be?

Just the politics alone would never settle in one year. Ul'dah had their Sultana nearly deposed with riots in the streets, Ishgard went from walls-up to walls-down to run-by-the-church to the-pope-is-dead-here's-aymeric to we-now-have-a-functional-alliance-between-houses. Raubahn goes from hero to political villain back to hero in a month. Estinien's reign as Nidhogg gets compressed to maybe that long. The Alliance goes from entering the Dragonsong War to having it done in a single season. Same for crushing the Empire's hold in Othard. It just feels too fast for any kind of believable working process or troop movement. Also remember I'm a grognard and complain about muh immersion.

As a rule, I assume every likable ruffian who wants to help us is a fucking traitor we'll end up killing. Batman this shit: Have a plan to kill everyone around you!

With 43 people turning up in the desert for violence, and 42 of them going home empty-handed, Grindstone #210 is in the books! I know by calendar it isn't entirely accurate, but it was just about 4 years ago that this thread was created! Happy birthday, Grindstone! I hereby declare the first Saturday in October to be our anniversary. Many congratulations to first-time(?) champion Reinhardt Pendragon!

I'm curious why you think that is powerplaying in RP? If I am doing non-roll combat that was plotted OOCly with both people agreeing on the outcome, I give options for attacks and openings by denoting things with "would" or "would try to" since I can't control what the other person is doing with their character. Counterpoint: Does "/em would..." actually add anything to a post that couldn't be conveyed otherwise? There is a difference between painting intentions and using "would" as a means for it. Concession: I see regular events and "/em would" is one of the things that always pricks my immersion bubble.

Fucking YES If you emote your thoughts, that's great for letting people around you know how you feel, and incredibly ineffective to let people know how to respond to you. It's awful. People shouldn't do it unless it's followed by body language or something to allow a hint of insight, but hey. I've actually, legitimately watched someone post a 3-part "roleplay" post that was ENTIRELY INTERNAL MONOLOGUE and while it was certainly something to read... No one could do anything with it.

That's why I tried to emphasize that the medium isn't the problem, just people utilizing it "wrong" is. I guess in my old age I've grown cynical in how people use writing to try and inflate themselves.

Roleplay is like tennis. You have to serve the ball back to your opposite. People who don't, or people who juggle the ball on their racket to show off how great they are? Yeah, fuck 'em.