![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
STATE OF THE GAME: November closeout.
Sup, guys. Here's another State Of The Game post. We're thinking of making these semi-regular events (at least once every month, season to taste) to keep everyone abreast of what's going on. We've got all kinds of stuff to cover, so let's jump right in.
APPS IN DECEMBERThis is probably the thing most people are concerned with, so let's get to the good bits first.APPABILITY OF HISTORICAL CHARACTERS
So, originally, we weren't going to do apps in Dec, because we're not making anyone do AC for Dec (holidays and all), so it seemed silly. But we forgot to edit the dates to reflect this, and then a bunch of people expressed interest in apping in December, going above and beyond to interact with the TDM despite us not putting up a new one or advertising anywhere. At Agoge, we want to always encourage players when they express an interest in something, and we already flubbed the dates and confused people anyway, so we figured we'd open apps in December after all.
Reserves, as you may have noticed, are open. They'll be open until December 3rd to reflect the late opening. Apps, like always, will be going from the 1st to the 7th.
But! Wait! There's more!
On January 1st, we'll be opening apps, and they will be staying open indefinitely. We're going to experiment with having apps open all the time, and see how this goes. This means we'll be getting rid of reserves during this period (it'll be first-come-first-serve).
How long will they stay indefinitely open?
-Until the flow of apps becomes so much that we as mods feel we can't respond to them in a timely fashion without making set app periods, or
-Until we hit cap.
AKA we as mods reserve the right to, after Jan 1st, close apps at any time and return to the first-week-of-the-month schedule. But, hey, until then, go for it, my dudes.
As a final note on this gameplan, since we'll have perma-open apps come January, we'll be dispensing with intro logs for characters, IC and OOC. New characters will post on the OOC comm to introduce themselves, and they can post individual intro logs, or tag around, or however they, personally, choose to bring themselves into the game.Is 'appability' a word? Whatever, it is now.NOVEMBER SURE HAPPENED
Anyway, we realized some wording in the FAQ was unclear, so we're updating that. Essentially, historical characters are fine if they're from something that's fictional media. You can app historical characters from period pieces, not history books and epic poems. Hamilton from the musical? Fine. Hamilton from the history books? Not fine.
We hope that clears things up a little!November, as you may have noticed, was a little... experimental. As I said in the last SOTG post, Agoge is experimental in general, and we're always trying to find new ways to make the game better. Thank you, again and always, for sticking by and occasionally being our guinea pigs.DECEMBER IS SCHEDULED TO HAPPEN
So if the plot felt a little slow and choppy during Nov, we apologize; we were trying to see how best to structure a month around smaller events, rather than big battles. Not all of this was successful.
I personally (Pel talking here):
- felt like HRHR missions only finally 'clicked' with the structure of the National Convention mission, where players came up with plans and the mods provided difficulties and rolls, rather than predestined skill levels and rolls that don't leave much to player imagination. If you guys agree with me, we'll probably continue more HRHR missions in this vein in the future.
- felt like the pacing in general was kind of wonky. Pretty obviously, there was a goal for November (make sure shit goes to historical plan). My original idea was that the details of this (kill the king, make sure Wollstonecraft doesn't die, etc) would slowly be revealed. However, I don't think I paced it correctly within the structure of the month, and believe now it would have been better to just have those goals be upfront and let players accomplish them with their own drive and design. I feel this is the case in no small part because as soon as you guys did figure them out, you all came up with wonderful, amazing plots to accomplish the goals in creative and interesting ways. In the future, when we do missions like this (more espionage and less smashy-smashy) we'll have the details and goals discussed upfront at the beginning of the plot and let you guys go to town.
Please! Discuss with me! If you agree, or disagree. Feedback is always appreciated, especially as we try to craft the game to give you a better experience.December, as you might have heard, has some holidays in it. All the mods of this game have experienced games that try to go heavy for plots in December. All of us have had horrible experiences with that. Thus, there will be plot in December, but it'll be pretty chill, and very make-what-you-want-of-it. If you want it to be dark? It'll be dark. If you want it to be light and fluffy? Ditto. It depends on what you'll put into it.WHAT ABOUT MY REWARDS?
And, since AC in December will only be checkin, no proofs required, you don't have to interact with it at all if you don't want to.
However, if you do decide to do AC for December, XP is doubled as a holiday bonus. Shh, it's a secret.XP, aka AC point rewards, have been a feature of the game since the get go. We will be rolling out a post to cash in your rewards on December 1st. Stick with us. We have plans. We hope you'll like them.WHAT ABOUT THE SERGEANT?You'll meet him soon ;)
no subject
But anyways! Thank you guys for such a fun game, seriously! It's been a while since I've felt so immediately at home with both the players and the mods, and it's been a huge blessing to me. I think that the changes to the app system sound solid, and I think it would benefit the game and how it functions a lot. I do think that the suggestions Jay made regarding this (OOC mingle/CR meme/etc.) are very good also, just so people can feel that same warm welcome I did!
I think all of the experimental HRHR stuff has been awesome. It just proves that you can still have a fair amount of excitement going on even without a lot of plotty event logs, and I think the variety is really great. I seem to have just as much fun being a bystander to how people deal with HRHR stuff as when I'm a participant, so that's rad.
If I had one piece of more constructive criticism (tempered a lot, because this was the first of its type), it would be that perhaps longer-form HRHR missions like Royal Pain are perhaps done in multiple rounds that were formatted like the National Convention mission. Or, rather, just sort of putting a deadline on rounds of actions/reactions. The only reason I say this is purely in regards to my own proclivity for procrastination, and just the slightest more framework put in place would make it feel guided but not railroaded. But, again, it was the first of its type, so this is just the only thing I noticed (as I kept noticing the notifs sitting in my inbox and gathering dust oops). But I've been having a blast, so thank you for all the hard work!
no subject
The Royal Pain mission was a huge experiment on my part, trying out a similar style of mission I'd seen in other games; the intention was basically to replicate a dungeon-master-and-player scenario where you ask and they answer, etc. However, it doesn't quiiiite work for RP? It didn't when I did it in other games, and my 'improvements' didn't really fix the problem. If I do another mission structured like that (and it's a big if), I'll definitely institute more structure in the form of due dates or submissions or something. I don't want it to be too harsh, but there's always a danger of giving someone too much creative latitude, because then they don't know where to start or what to do.
tl;dr that's a good idea, and thank you for being part of the Process.
no subject
Our secret is that we sat in a chatroom scratching our heads about what actions to take next! Which our characters would have coordinated a lot anyway, so it was sort of the OOC side that would be reflected in the IC side. But there were times when we were just baffled about where to go with this element or that element. Sometimes we weren't clear on what our objective was apart from trying to find Regency Stuff.
I think it played out fine on the IC side though, and it was pretty fun to have characters in this unusual situation that most others weren't. It also drove some character development. (Somebody please show Marie Antoinette some GoT episodes so all can become clear for her?)
no subject