Sleeping to the Top

Sarapis

Taraus said:

Dean Winchester, from Supernatural.

Arguably one of the -best- show endings.

Ahhahaha. I've never seen Supernatural but damn that was funny.

Exelethril

The only reason I'm engaged to Alrena  

Multon

So, while I was hunting in the forest, I asked in the clan for new Mhaldorians what the deal was with all the blankets in the forest... The response horrified Multon, and he responded the only way he knows how...

Titonus told You: You see..
Titonus told You: When a man, love a woman.
You told Titonus: I NEED MORE MUSHROOM SIGILS!!!
Titonus told You: Aye.

Trey

Mathonwy said:

ERP? Like Wyatt?

 

I'm your huckleberry.

Saeva

This is an honestly strange thread raising a very strange question.

Silas

I like it. There's not a lot of controversial RP in Achaea, since many people are very critical of these things from an OOC viewpoint, rather than considering that courtesans and prostitution were a big part of everyday life in the time period Achaea is loosely based on.

I'd be very happy to see a lot more varied and nuanced roleplay like the OP suggests, since it would make the world much more colourful. I also very much appreciate the way Achaea supports and legitimises these differerent roles through its varied denizens, drug and alcohol mechanics, etc.

Jules

This would require a huge amount of OOC communication/understanding and everyone would need to be "in on it" - exactly because the OP really is talking about holding leadership positions, which... even those of us who aren't interested in holding them want to know we've got solid people managing things, and I get the impression that the people who DO want those positions sometimes almost commit Texas cheerleader mom crimes as it is. 

Rangor

I heard you could sleep your way to the top of Caspian's order. 

Bluef

Let's not be coy about it and pretend this kind of thing already doesn't go on frequently in Achaea. Within City leadership. Within Houses. Within Orders. We have all heard about it. Seen logs. Thought how unoriginal some of the emotes were. Etc.

Kudos to those who want to "mess around" with this controversial RP. It's not my cup of tea, but it is interesting. The idea of courtesan spies, who make use of pillow talk for instances. I'm watching House of Cards right now and well, if you've seen it you'll understand the connection to the clan name that would be perfect for this in Achaea: The Mutual Admiration Society (TMAS).

Rangor

You got logs Bluef? Why you no share. I hardly ever see those kinda logs.

Mishgul

I also want something to read in bed.

Nim

In my coldhearted, inhuman, objective viewpoint, what, exactly, is the difference between getting a role because you're so-and-so's friend and because you've slept with them? In either case, you're using some relationship to get some perks, and if they're undeserved perks, does it matter if what you do when you hang out with them happens to be PG rated or not?

Jakarana

Speaking of Cyber, for the point of injecting a humorous aside comment.

It makes me wonder if a Blademaster involved to such activities has resorted to Groin striking, either accidentally or intentionally.
I've heard of some funny hiccups involving the Mudlet client in relation using aliases attached to a targeting system.
Simply typing "groin" anywhere in a Tell could have you punching them in a rather unpleasant place and setting off defenses in their house.
Then again, unpleasant could be subjective, since we kind of ARE masters of manipulating nerve clusters *wink* *wink*

Blujixapug

Skye said:

I may joke about it,  but I want to imagine that a person who could / would sleep their way to the top has at least some modicum of ability and desire to invoke change in that position.

Leadership in Achaea is very much a cruel and somewhat thankless job with none of those perks like first class travel etc to go with it. You'd have to really want to do something with it to want it and the sex would merely be something to help secure the position.

I can see someone somehow sleazing their way into a HM role and suddenly realising, after 6 messages in an hour about interviews, promo reqs, bitching, perms, and fancy dress murder mystery party ideas that oh god it's actually all work and no play. And you can't even embezzle all the credits and flee to Mhaldor any more, because they shrub you for that now.

I think you'd want to hit secretary, max. That's just enough power to be able to abuse it, with minimal unshirkable responsibility. Don't go for HoN. Don't go for city council or a ministry. For the love of god don't go for HM/CL. Maybe OH, but then your influence relies on the activity of a god, and if they are active then they can shut your ratchet ass down on a whim.

Nakari

Silas said:

Halos said:

Merchants are probably the one organization that could bring that sort of ...hmm..."roleplay"... any sort of legitimacy.

I'd quite happily welcome prostitutes into the Luminai as part of the Mercator branch. Those bedroom secrets can be delicious.

The thought of how interesting it could be for something like this to exist is making me wish that it wasn't mechanically unfeasible both from the happy note that you're targossian at all times as well as the general impossibility of actually learning much of anything that's useful.

Skye

Actually, you'll be surprised at how little that counts when you're doing the textual tango.  It's more a matter of how much your city is willing to let you get away with and how many outlandish "I'm converting him" stories they're willing to believe. 

Silas

I will turn a blind eye to pretty much anything unless it's just going to lead to more work later.

Jules

I love Inara from Firefly as much as anyone, epitome of the refined courtesan/spy and all that, but... I guess Blujixapug said it best, even though he was kidding around.  And then, the whole organization gets to deal with someone who really is in a position with "just enough power to be able to abuse it, with minimal unshirkable responsibility". 

My whole gut reaction to this kind of RP (sexual/romantic relationships as a vehicle to obtain actual power) is that it's exactly the sort of thing that's fun to *think* about but would probably suck in practice unless... it were basically a big OOC joke and all of the players in the org understood that, and found the joke amusing - and the person in question just happened to be a great all around leader that everyone loved.  In that context, it still probably wouldn't be common, but it could be fun (and funny). 

A certain segment of our players just have a soft spot for this kind of thing (RP that is fun to think about but is almost never going to work well in practice), even though it seems like they should know better.  And it's almost a bad thing when it *does* work out decently once or twice in the entire history of the game, because then we spend the next 5 centuries using that tiny number of examples as justification for why it's "perfectly viable".  But like... anytime someone tries to do something relatively simple like RP a troll accent, we're incredibly hard on them (including me, I'll be honest) and don't allow them much room to get better (i.e. we tend to expect them to arrive on the scene like Gnaash).  Why are we like this?  I'm not sure.     

As for what Nim said, this is true.  That probably has a lot to do with the calcification of this game (but not only that).  The only org I know of for sure that's definitely bucked this trend for sure is Outriders - and they also make sure that power abuse is kept to an absolute minimum.  I'd like to hope there are others, although unless the problems are absolutely awful, people generally aren't going to discuss it here.