As a new player, I want to emphasize how daunting and unwelcoming this turn of events has felt in the last few weeks. It feels a little like a bait and switch from the TDM and the intro, and it's so frustrating that everything kind of blew up (literally and figuratively) before new players/characters were really able to find footing and develop good solid CR. I want to urge the mods to be really thoughtful about how you approach the feedback given in the entire post, because everyone makes some really good points.
In terms of thoughtfulness, it might be worth polling the players once you have some solid options for how to deal with a lot of the issues that are happening. Whether you decide to do that or not, it would be really useful to have a follow-up to this post where you announce the solid changes you plan to put into effect going forward. Right now, I don't know what to expect from staying in this game, and it makes me feel really uncertain about my future here. I'm sure I'm not alone. Knowing how things are going to work from now on would be very helpful.
Having read through a lot of the feedback, I wanted to add my +1 to a few different points.
Apps and general pacing In a way, the explosion of plot happening feels kind of like a situation where the mods didn't "read the room," so to speak. What I mean by that is that it feels like you guys had a really solid plan in place, and refused to look at the way players have been interacting to think "do we need to change this at all to accommodate the huge influx of new characters?" I know tabletop RP is vastly different from DWRP, but one commonality they have is that mods need to be able to pivot or change directions based on what's actually happening in the game. You guys have to be able to look at what's going on and say "gee, we should probably hold off on plot and just make this an ordinary mingle" when you get 70+ new characters in an app round.
And I think you're having the same problem with apps. Putting in a blanket "at the very last minute, we're going to close apps for basically 4 months" is a pretty extreme response, and it's not reading the situation well at all. You guys are the mods. You set the pace. It's your game, and the rules/schedule are set because you have set them -- that means you can change the schedule to suit what works best for the game as it stands when that time comes around. You could easily say "we're going to push apps off by a month/month and a half" or even "we're capping new apps at [x] number" (or both, or an overhead game cap, or something else entirely), but just a blanket last-minute full-stop feels like a really thoughtless solution. What I'm asking here is for you guys to be more thoughtful and flexible about how you approach the problems that have come up.
Plot transparency To be blunt, this entire section of your post is pretty lacking. All it says is "we haven't been transparent and we're going to." The thing is, this doesn't mean anything until and unless you say how you plan to do that. OOC plotting posts is a good way to start with that, but a large contingent of players honestly feels like you're playing favorites and picking/choosing who you dole out plot hooks to, and you make no mention of how you plan to fix that lack of transparency.
To that end, I want to echo the suggestion for rng signups, which can be really helpful in a multitude of capacities. Do I think that players who go the extra mile and poke the bear should be rewarded on top of that? I sure do. But having some kind of "we're going to have a plot, here are sign-ups, you sign up at your own risk" mechanic would make it way easier for characters to get involved. Especially characters who are new.
So basically: tell us how you're going to be more transparent with plots and plotting in the future. Tell us how you're going to make it more streamlined and accessible for players who want to get involved.
OOC plotting The Discord operates sometimes at a frenetic pace, please god move plotting to the OOC comm.
OOC calendar of events This was another suggestion mentioned in an above post, but I cannot emphasize enough how important it is for players to know when things are happening. It's massively important, not just so we know when to start getting our writing brains in gear, but also so that people can sign up to be involved with full knowledge of how much they're getting themselves into.
The other thing an OOC calendar does is it makes it less necessary to have the exact same schedule every month/two months. Right now, the way the game is paced has you guys kind of facing a wall: you have to have this part of the plot up at [x] time of the month, because that's what the schedule says. The calendar offers us some transparency, and offers you guys some flexibility. Best thing for everyone.
In spite of the negativity I've expressed here, I'm really eager to see what kind of changes and amendments you guys plan to put in place to help with these issues. Modding a game like this is not an easy job and I'm really grateful that you've taken on the task anyway. Thanks for your hard work.
no subject
In terms of thoughtfulness, it might be worth polling the players once you have some solid options for how to deal with a lot of the issues that are happening. Whether you decide to do that or not, it would be really useful to have a follow-up to this post where you announce the solid changes you plan to put into effect going forward. Right now, I don't know what to expect from staying in this game, and it makes me feel really uncertain about my future here. I'm sure I'm not alone. Knowing how things are going to work from now on would be very helpful.
Having read through a lot of the feedback, I wanted to add my +1 to a few different points.
Apps and general pacing
In a way, the explosion of plot happening feels kind of like a situation where the mods didn't "read the room," so to speak. What I mean by that is that it feels like you guys had a really solid plan in place, and refused to look at the way players have been interacting to think "do we need to change this at all to accommodate the huge influx of new characters?" I know tabletop RP is vastly different from DWRP, but one commonality they have is that mods need to be able to pivot or change directions based on what's actually happening in the game. You guys have to be able to look at what's going on and say "gee, we should probably hold off on plot and just make this an ordinary mingle" when you get 70+ new characters in an app round.
And I think you're having the same problem with apps. Putting in a blanket "at the very last minute, we're going to close apps for basically 4 months" is a pretty extreme response, and it's not reading the situation well at all. You guys are the mods. You set the pace. It's your game, and the rules/schedule are set because you have set them -- that means you can change the schedule to suit what works best for the game as it stands when that time comes around. You could easily say "we're going to push apps off by a month/month and a half" or even "we're capping new apps at [x] number" (or both, or an overhead game cap, or something else entirely), but just a blanket last-minute full-stop feels like a really thoughtless solution. What I'm asking here is for you guys to be more thoughtful and flexible about how you approach the problems that have come up.
Plot transparency
To be blunt, this entire section of your post is pretty lacking. All it says is "we haven't been transparent and we're going to." The thing is, this doesn't mean anything until and unless you say how you plan to do that. OOC plotting posts is a good way to start with that, but a large contingent of players honestly feels like you're playing favorites and picking/choosing who you dole out plot hooks to, and you make no mention of how you plan to fix that lack of transparency.
To that end, I want to echo the suggestion for rng signups, which can be really helpful in a multitude of capacities. Do I think that players who go the extra mile and poke the bear should be rewarded on top of that? I sure do. But having some kind of "we're going to have a plot, here are sign-ups, you sign up at your own risk" mechanic would make it way easier for characters to get involved. Especially characters who are new.
So basically: tell us how you're going to be more transparent with plots and plotting in the future. Tell us how you're going to make it more streamlined and accessible for players who want to get involved.
OOC plotting
The Discord operates sometimes at a frenetic pace, please god move plotting to the OOC comm.
OOC calendar of events
This was another suggestion mentioned in an above post, but I cannot emphasize enough how important it is for players to know when things are happening. It's massively important, not just so we know when to start getting our writing brains in gear, but also so that people can sign up to be involved with full knowledge of how much they're getting themselves into.
The other thing an OOC calendar does is it makes it less necessary to have the exact same schedule every month/two months. Right now, the way the game is paced has you guys kind of facing a wall: you have to have this part of the plot up at [x] time of the month, because that's what the schedule says. The calendar offers us some transparency, and offers you guys some flexibility. Best thing for everyone.
In spite of the negativity I've expressed here, I'm really eager to see what kind of changes and amendments you guys plan to put in place to help with these issues. Modding a game like this is not an easy job and I'm really grateful that you've taken on the task anyway. Thanks for your hard work.