The Fifteen Strangers Mods (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
strangerpeople) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
notasstrange2019-05-26 03:40 pm
strangerpeople) wrote in notasstrange2019-05-26 03:40 pm
HMD
Hey everyone! It's time for HMD!
This round has been amazing, because of you, the players. We are incredibly happy that we have such a great player base, who managed to help make amazing what was, we will more than readily admit, a difficult round for the moderators. Between the loss of a long-time moderator, real-life issues, and new mechanics that were tried out for the very first time in this round, we definitely made mistakes, and we are definitely looking at ways to improve the game from here on out, and welcome any and all feedback that can be given by you.
You guys have always been incredible, and this round is no exception. The players are what make this game what it is, and we hope that we can continue to help that still be the case in the future!
The graveyard remains open for R4, and players are allowed to continue to thread into posts and the Epilogue in the meantime. Likewise, dead players may continue to play in the graveyard the entire time between rounds.
However, we have determined that in order for the game to continue, we will need new mods. Please check out this post for the applications! They will remain open for two weeks, after which we will discuss the date availability among the members of our new team. If we are unable to recruit, we may be looking at delays or even cancellations of the future rounds, in which case we will free the graveyard IC to avoid unfair waits. Please be patient with us while we undergo these necessary growing pains, and we hope you will join us again whether as players or as mods!
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First, length of trials. I know it was suggested in the past to have a time limit for trials, and I agree that one is needed because it puts pressure on the characters to solve the case quickly. However, I do think the current time limit is a bit short. Most scapegoating games I've seen allow 8 hours and this one allows 7.
I don't think there was a fault with the cases themselves. People did figure them out by looking at the evidence. It just really felt like we didn't have enough time, but I also think a good idea would be to overall be willing to be flexible with the limit. In this round there were many times where tagging on the trials came to a halt and the trials often actually started late as well, not because mods were late to post it, but because it would take 15 minutes or upwards of a half an hour for someone to even get the ball rolling. I think it would be a good idea overall to set a limit, but also evaluate if the limit is a good one after the first case since every round is very much different. Also be open to possibly extending if needed.
The second thing I wanted to comment on was the nightmare mechanic. Overall it was a great idea and really added an interesting depth to interactions and case design. What I didn't like was the lack of clarity on the system and how it will or even should affect a character. I also disliked the fact that nightmare levels were solely based on RNG and characters who were very resilient and have been through a ton of shit in their lives were equally as likely to gain more nightmares as someone who hadn't and sometimes even caused by something that wouldn't bother the character in the least bit. For example, two levels to Thanatos for experiencing death seemed a bit strange for a old man who has lived a very long life in a dangerous profession in a world where humans are about to go extinct. A lot of these characters are way more resilient than the mechanics gave them credit for. If you guys want to do something like this again, maybe consider adding a section on the app for things that would legitimately disturb the character. That way the mods can have some material to work with even with characters whose canons they don't know.
On top of that there was the issue of comfort levels regarding the hallucinations themselves. I don't feel very comfortable writing out hallucinations and think that some other possible effects to play with could have benefited a player like myself. Also because it was so easy to gain nightmare levels for things that wouldn't bother my character much, I actually didn't get into as many investigations as I'd want to because my lack of comfort in writing it led me to want to keep levels low. If there were some other options available, I may have played around with it more than I did.
I think overall this mechanic needs a lot of work and very much needs to take into account resiliency of characters and comfort levels of players. I also think more explanation and options for players would make it better for everyone. I also think overall we shouldn't depend on RNG quite so much. It's fine to have as an option if players want to use it, but RNG should never force players down a road with their characters that they don't want to go down with very little way out. One possible idea could be a way to request an interaction that lowers nightmare levels or something in the setting that players can use. It could even be built into regains to reduce the need for mod run encounters. Nightmare lowering effects would have been an awesome all or nothing win benefit for stuff without powers.
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First, the hallucinations. There was very little explanation of it and it tended to veer really hard towards media-style madness, which left those of us who have actually had that sort of thing affect our lives left out in the cold and fairly uncomfortable, which is one of the reasons I stopped investigating so much. There's also the fact that 15 is a relatively low number if you want to encourage exploring, given the number of days in the game. Even if not all encounters increase nightmares there's still the risk of it, which caps participation.
Second, trial length. As Nadia said there were issues in getting the ball rolling, as well as initially being a bit unclear that votes were due at 7 rather than starting voting at 7. Trial length extension might help with it, or starting slightly earlier.
Third... without trying to spoil things, the graveyard got a little stale with the same repeated event. While it was necessary ICly, it still left little variety that relied on RNG rather than genuine player actions.
Fourth, this was a canon with a high level of jargon and canon-specific knowledge. I know it's an anime and anime tends to Be Like That, but it left those of us who were mostly or completely canonblind looking at threads that were so full of words we didn't really understand that things became confusing and no longer fun.
That's all I can think of right now... I'll let you know if I think of more.
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so, i guess all i'm saying is, if you plan on using Bob heavily again, make sure new players are aware of that. i had absolutely no idea there would be that much dice rolling when i read the FAQ.
i also agree that there is so much information in SE and learning about it was crammed into a very short time span. i loved it because i knew a little bit about the mechanics of the premise already, but i can see how it would all be overwhelming to people who were canonblind.
otherwise, i really enjoyed playing in this round, and i hope i get the chance to play in future rounds with you all again.
no subject