Mods of Thusia (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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thusia_ooc2012-11-28 04:44 pm
thusiamods) wrote in thusia_ooc2012-11-28 04:44 pm
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DISCUSSION: To Plot and Beyond
Hey guys, your resident mods here with a... not quite a full-out discussion post, but we'd like to get some ideas and points of note out there and your feedback on the matter. Particularly involving the latest plot and currently running plotlines. There have been a few discussions on plurk, but we'd like to have something more formal to make sure everyone has the opportunity to read and get their input on things that'll affect them.
There's a few things we'd like to touch upon with this post, the main points revolving around current/past/future plots and how we as mods can make things more fun for you in the way we handle them. Also on our agenda are things like State of the Game, God Functions, Player Accessibility, and probably more. To keep things organized, we'll be using header comments to cover specific topics and linking them in the post for easy navigation, so once you see a topic linked here, feel free to jump right to it.
CURRENT PLOTS: Moving HQ | Bitey Dogs | Weres
Week of my Life Posts | State of the Game | Affecting the Gods | Nature
There's a few things we'd like to touch upon with this post, the main points revolving around current/past/future plots and how we as mods can make things more fun for you in the way we handle them. Also on our agenda are things like State of the Game, God Functions, Player Accessibility, and probably more. To keep things organized, we'll be using header comments to cover specific topics and linking them in the post for easy navigation, so once you see a topic linked here, feel free to jump right to it.
Week of my Life Posts | State of the Game | Affecting the Gods | Nature
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Mostly, when it comes to plots, it doesn't hurt to drop hints, is what I've found. There have been plots that mods have run simply by dropping a nudge or a hint somehow or another that would lead a character to one choice over another. These can be as subtle or as overt as however you mods deem necessary, of course. One thing I will say for the post with Eizon is that it was VERY effective in getting people to talk out what to do about things. This was a correct way to get the plot more into the players' hands, even if there were some elements that could have gone better with the post/character-NPC interaction itself. Like I've said elsewhere, even though the start of the plot could have been more visible and other things could have happened to grab the players' attentions and have them come up with options, that post helped a lot with these issues.
For me, I know that two of my characters react more than act--one because he's too busy with his life being kind of utter crap and the other because he's a Well How Does It Effect Me? kind of thing. So without a bait, they might not jump for plot. This is why "leave it to the players" completely can be a bad thing. Because you have proactive characters and you have reactive characters. The Eizon post was very good for the reactive characters so they can have a "Wait, what--YOU CAN'T DO THAT! WE'LL FIND A WAY!" reaction and for the proactive characters, they start their plotting HOW to find a way--see also: Yukari and Tempest.
With the whole This Is The Only Option feels that some players got out of the current plot until it was explained that this wasn't the only option it was just Eizon being Eizon, I feel as though... if there had been more input from gods other than Eizon, explaining what is going on, maybe that feeling would be less? Of course, this post was Eizon acting toward what he thought was best. Shouldn't there be other gods doing the same? Again, working on getting Selyir to get the Shades moving is a good step toward this! But really, other gods getting involved for the good of the people since they consistently claim to want to help the population survive and thrive would be a good thing!
Now that's not to say that you know, gods should be all up in characters' businesses, but to me, they haven't been much of a presence lately? (Which I think can be fixed with that AC check thing you guys are implementing.) Not only that but I know a number of the characters don't go looking to someone like Eizon for information or assistance--he's curt and to the point and often not forgiving of ignorance or people being aggressive or argumentative. Not slighting the character--I enjoy playing off of those types in certain settings! Just not. Where the situation is called Critical and my characters are trying to get more information, argue their case against an idea, offer suggestions, etc...
Maybe having another god there or having a different god explain things would be best next time? Again, with the flooding plot, there were MANY gods out and about during that time, and were very open for discussion and getting answers. I feel that this is one of the reasons players liked that plot more than the current one. Again, THIS IS NOTHING AGAINST EIZON, I WOULD ACTUALLY LIKE TO PLAY OFF HIM MORE, but for a situation like this, when a character comes asking questions/being argumentative because they are concerned/passionate about their situation, the last thing they need to hear is a blunt "You're an idiot, listen to what I say." It doesn't make for a very cooperative character and a number of characters have previous Very Negative experience with this type of god.
I know it's difficult for plottings, so playerbase should be forgiving with things when something doesn't quite work out.
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I do think having more gods get involved with the plotline currently would be great! I'm pretty glad Veseiy got tapped to help in a way and I'd love for more gods to jump in on this and not feel like it's an 'only Veseiy, Selyir, and Eizon can attend this party, no other gods allowed' thing, which I think might currently be the case.
Mmm... to fix that, I think we as mods need to work on communicating things to our god players more actively and letting them know any background information they'd need to know to jump in on a plot. Getting on top of our god newsletters again could help with that, or even just tapping the god chan to let people know when something's happening right at that moment.
... Sorry I am kind of thinking outloud here but I guess what we're both kind of aiming for was rather than having the mods present something with their characters as 'hey this is a thing now go', to spread out the information more to our god players and even certain characters who'd be involved in a particular plot point, which would help in making things feel less... enclosed/unavoidable. And I do think that is something we can definitely do, and would help take a lot of the pressure that we feel in having to run everything ourselves for a plot.
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Sometimes with plotty things, dropping hints/giving information to certain gods/characters can make things erupt very quickly. Sometimes a god/character will sit on the information until they feel it's a better time and thus it moves slower. No way is entirely wrong, either. It would help better the flow Nishi mentioned elsewhere, even.
Mostly, communication all around would be A++ and if there's ever any slow-down, instead of throwing more things at the wall to see what sticks, getting some input from others can help! So... yes. Basically, I think that's what we're all trying to say here. There are players who genuinely love this game for its possibilities and for the CR that can take place here, so of course they WILL want to help mods/gods/characters out when needed!
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