All right, first of all I want to say that I have absolutely loved playing in this game - it's some of the most fun I've had in quite some time, and I'm definitely looking forward to seeing what's done with Round 2.
I only have a couple of things to bring up that haven't been said already, and perhaps a few points to discuss regarding some things that have.
1. Re-apps - While I see no issue with allowing them (assuming, as was stated above, that there's a limit on what can be said ICly to new players), I think that people shouldn't be able to app the same character into the game more than twice, if for no better reason than it kind of lends itself to a sense of "what in the good fuck is your luck even, man." Basically, I'd be okay with people playing the same character from Round 1 in Round 2, but I'm decidedly less okay with people bringing them back for a third time.
2. Time ratio - I'm going to respectfully disagree with Katar in saying that I don't think messing with the day ratio is a good idea; it led to things feeling like they were dragging quite a bit in endgame because bluntly put, there's just not a whole lot that happens during the week. It's CR-building, yes, but overall ICly there isn't that much to do and I feel that if anything, it will skew the organic CR feeling to it - one has a different reaction to people they've known for a week than those they've known for a day and a half.
Of course, that still leaves the problem of "what is in the water on Thursdays," but I don't feel that was too much of an IC issue in this round? It was predictable on an OOC level, granted, but that isn't a bad thing due to scheduling reasons; at the same time, I don't think "you'd think people would learn to not leave their cabins on Thursday night" is even a problem due to IC handling - Case 3 was reliant on weather getting worse over time and Thursday was a coincidence; Case 4 involved murderer and victim collaborating; Case 5 actually had the murder happen on Tuesday (MUCH TO EVERYBODY'S DISMAY, UH); Case 6 involved a lot of IC setup. So I don't see why "is there a reason these people don't just sit inside on Thursdays, they are clearly too dumb to live" is even a consideration, given that IC ways can be found around it.
2a. Trials and Investigations - However, I definitely do approve of stretching out the weekends a bit and just assuming that people are recovering for the rest of it, or doing their afterparty thing or whatever. Just saying, this is a good idea.
3. Death Rolls - Speaking as someone who had nearly three weeks to plan our investigation and trial, because that's just how the rolling happened this time around, I definitely approve of the longer timeframe to work things out. I don't think we would have gotten half as far as we managed to with only a three-day timeframe. Good idea, you should feel good, etc.
4. "Emergency Out" - I agree wholeheartedly with Katar; if life happens in such a way that makes play impossible, we should be able to sign up for Gungniring or pulling a Lysandre or something. However, this isn't something that should even be a problem in terms of activity-only wanting-out, because everyone should know what they're getting into by now.
As for the rest, I just kind of want to address a few things that I don't think are plain to the people who are just spectating - stuff that's been brought up over and over again in various venues that I think need to be mentioned.
First of all, the mods do not control when we confess or what direction the trials go in. Speaking as a culprit (and one in a case where multiple confessions were necessary because we felt the need to be needlessly convoluted or something, in b4 "sit the fuck down, Celes"), I was not approached by either of the mods at any point and told to go kick the gambit into high gear, nor was I told to confess at any point after that, and from what I've heard it was the same for most (if not all - I haven't spoken to everybody) of the other culprits in this game. The time we choose to confess is entirely on us.
Secondly, culprits provide their own evidence lists. Again, any issues with reliance on too-convenient or too-obvious evidence is the responsibility of the players. The mods could possibly guide us a bit more and/or ask us to revise, and I think that isn't an unreasonable request, but ultimately the basic structure of the murders and the trials is left up to the players.
This means that the responsibility for fixing this is also (almost entirely) on us. Part of the problem I had with this round was the sheer number of characters who ended up dying for altruistic reasons; while that's fine once in a while, things may have been improved greatly if that had been subverted just a bit. (For example, had Maya tried to kill everyone but only managed to kill Fran in Case 3.) If everyone is killing for noble reasons, it's hard to get them to not confess, because the sort of person that would become a murderer to save everyone is just logically not going to throw the rest of the class under a bus during a trial to save themselves.
Again, I think this is a case where the mods could stand to step up a little and nudge us if things are going that route too often - I don't think altruistic killings should be disallowed, per se, but I also think that people should take alternate routes into consideration, and I think the mods should be willing to kind of poke us and present alternatives for us to consider. Obviously they shouldn't direct the murders, because that's part of the fun, coming up with them, but they should be allowed to suggest - and by that token, if we want to avoid the problem of premature confessions and losing tension in the trials, we're all going to have to work together and fix it ourselves. We're given a lot of freedom to have the sort of trials we want to have, but that means we're also directly responsible for the outcome and whether they're satisfying or not.
tl;dr I HAVE A LOT OF FEELINGS but I am really happy with how this round went, honestly; I had a lot of fun, and I'm excited to see what Round 2 brings!
no subject
I only have a couple of things to bring up that haven't been said already, and perhaps a few points to discuss regarding some things that have.
1. Re-apps - While I see no issue with allowing them (assuming, as was stated above, that there's a limit on what can be said ICly to new players), I think that people shouldn't be able to app the same character into the game more than twice, if for no better reason than it kind of lends itself to a sense of "what in the good fuck is your luck even, man." Basically, I'd be okay with people playing the same character from Round 1 in Round 2, but I'm decidedly less okay with people bringing them back for a third time.
2. Time ratio - I'm going to respectfully disagree with Katar in saying that I don't think messing with the day ratio is a good idea; it led to things feeling like they were dragging quite a bit in endgame because bluntly put, there's just not a whole lot that happens during the week. It's CR-building, yes, but overall ICly there isn't that much to do and I feel that if anything, it will skew the organic CR feeling to it - one has a different reaction to people they've known for a week than those they've known for a day and a half.
Of course, that still leaves the problem of "what is in the water on Thursdays," but I don't feel that was too much of an IC issue in this round? It was predictable on an OOC level, granted, but that isn't a bad thing due to scheduling reasons; at the same time, I don't think "you'd think people would learn to not leave their cabins on Thursday night" is even a problem due to IC handling - Case 3 was reliant on weather getting worse over time and Thursday was a coincidence; Case 4 involved murderer and victim collaborating; Case 5 actually had the murder happen on Tuesday (MUCH TO EVERYBODY'S DISMAY, UH); Case 6 involved a lot of IC setup. So I don't see why "is there a reason these people don't just sit inside on Thursdays, they are clearly too dumb to live" is even a consideration, given that IC ways can be found around it.
2a. Trials and Investigations - However, I definitely do approve of stretching out the weekends a bit and just assuming that people are recovering for the rest of it, or doing their afterparty thing or whatever. Just saying, this is a good idea.
3. Death Rolls - Speaking as someone who had nearly three weeks to plan our investigation and trial, because that's just how the rolling happened this time around, I definitely approve of the longer timeframe to work things out. I don't think we would have gotten half as far as we managed to with only a three-day timeframe. Good idea, you should feel good, etc.
4. "Emergency Out" - I agree wholeheartedly with Katar; if life happens in such a way that makes play impossible, we should be able to sign up for Gungniring or pulling a Lysandre or something. However, this isn't something that should even be a problem in terms of activity-only wanting-out, because everyone should know what they're getting into by now.
As for the rest, I just kind of want to address a few things that I don't think are plain to the people who are just spectating - stuff that's been brought up over and over again in various venues that I think need to be mentioned.
First of all, the mods do not control when we confess or what direction the trials go in. Speaking as a culprit (and one in a case where multiple confessions were necessary because we felt the need to be needlessly convoluted or something, in b4 "sit the fuck down, Celes"), I was not approached by either of the mods at any point and told to go kick the gambit into high gear, nor was I told to confess at any point after that, and from what I've heard it was the same for most (if not all - I haven't spoken to everybody) of the other culprits in this game. The time we choose to confess is entirely on us.
Secondly, culprits provide their own evidence lists. Again, any issues with reliance on too-convenient or too-obvious evidence is the responsibility of the players. The mods could possibly guide us a bit more and/or ask us to revise, and I think that isn't an unreasonable request, but ultimately the basic structure of the murders and the trials is left up to the players.
This means that the responsibility for fixing this is also (almost entirely) on us. Part of the problem I had with this round was the sheer number of characters who ended up dying for altruistic reasons; while that's fine once in a while, things may have been improved greatly if that had been subverted just a bit. (For example, had Maya tried to kill everyone but only managed to kill Fran in Case 3.) If everyone is killing for noble reasons, it's hard to get them to not confess, because the sort of person that would become a murderer to save everyone is just logically not going to throw the rest of the class under a bus during a trial to save themselves.
Again, I think this is a case where the mods could stand to step up a little and nudge us if things are going that route too often - I don't think altruistic killings should be disallowed, per se, but I also think that people should take alternate routes into consideration, and I think the mods should be willing to kind of poke us and present alternatives for us to consider. Obviously they shouldn't direct the murders, because that's part of the fun, coming up with them, but they should be allowed to suggest - and by that token, if we want to avoid the problem of premature confessions and losing tension in the trials, we're all going to have to work together and fix it ourselves. We're given a lot of freedom to have the sort of trials we want to have, but that means we're also directly responsible for the outcome and whether they're satisfying or not.
tl;dr I HAVE A LOT OF FEELINGS but I am really happy with how this round went, honestly; I had a lot of fun, and I'm excited to see what Round 2 brings!