Hey! I just wanted to talk to you a bit about the murder plot you're currently running at TFS. I'm going to admit right off the bat that I haven't been paying too much attention to it since I've been on and off hiatus and it didn't concern my character (until recently, anyway), so I may have missed some things if there's been plotting on plurk or the like. If I did miss something important please let me know!
That said, this plot has been going on since mid April, and it is now the end of June. ICly it's been almost an entire month (July 5th-28th) with eight killings, mostly of dropped characters. On the public OOC posts there's only been one player asking about possible clues, but very little usable information has been given that I can find. This as well as your comment on the CR meme (asking for more investigators, victims, and a possible copycat, but no specific mentions of stopping Jay or otherwise putting an end to the killings) gives me the impression that you don't really have a planned resolution for this plot.
Running a murder/investigation plot can be really fun! However, a state of constant serial murders isn't really the tone that many players signed up for, and at this stage it's becoming very difficult to ignore the murder plot for those who aren't interested in it. TFS is advertised as a balance of slice of life and darker tones based on the Noragami setting, not a horror or murdergame where this sort of tone would be expected. If it was just a contained murder plot with a small number of victims or a planned ending to it then that would be fine, but if the current plan is to continue with the murders indefinitely that's kind of a problem. I'm not saying you shouldn't be allowed to have fun with your plot, but it's starting to overwhelm the game a little and it's affecting the fun of other players.
I also have some concerns about the lack of evidence provided for the characters investigating the murders. When someone asked for possible clues in Rei's murder, your reply could be summed up as "there were no witnesses, no cameras, and all evidence was cleaned up". It may just be that I'm missing out on lots of private investigation plotting, but from an outside perspective it feels like the investigators aren't being given anything to work with, which is very unfair to those characters. For Ekko's murder you also had your other character, Gojyo, clean up the crime scene, which further destroyed clues that investigators might otherwise find. Even if your character is an amazing assassin who's never been caught in his canon, this is a panfandom game where many different characters from varied settings have to be considered. OOCly stating that no evidence can be found or using your other characters to further Jay's goals is very uncomfortably close to godmoding/infomodding. It's like saying a superpowered character can beat up everyone in the game and never lose because they're the most powerful in their canon, and then having them beat up their player's other character to prove it. It's your plot to run, but if you want people to investigate it then you have to actually give them something to work with and be fair to the characters that do have experience with detective work or forensics.
I think the best idea right now would be figuring out a resolution to this plot (working with the characters who would be investigating it to solve/end the murders in a way that's satisfying for both sides) rather than looking for more victims or things like possible copycats. If you're looking to run a long-term serial murder plot of this scale there are other games out there that would be more appropriate for that, but a game that's supposed to be 50% SoL and 50% darker tones really isn't the right place.
Thank you for reading through all of this! If there's anything I can clarify or do to help you out please let me know. I'd really like to see this plot reach a satisfying conclusion for everyone involved in it, and that includes Jay as well. I'll likely be having Add get involved on an IC level as well, so if there's anything a bit of clairvoyance/timespace powers might help with in regards to getting clues out I'd be happy to provide.
(Also, jsyk you still have anon off/IP logging on for this post, so you might want to fix that!)
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2017-06-24 01:26 am (UTC)That said, this plot has been going on since mid April, and it is now the end of June. ICly it's been almost an entire month (July 5th-28th) with eight killings, mostly of dropped characters. On the public OOC posts there's only been one player asking about possible clues, but very little usable information has been given that I can find. This as well as your comment on the CR meme (asking for more investigators, victims, and a possible copycat, but no specific mentions of stopping Jay or otherwise putting an end to the killings) gives me the impression that you don't really have a planned resolution for this plot.
Running a murder/investigation plot can be really fun! However, a state of constant serial murders isn't really the tone that many players signed up for, and at this stage it's becoming very difficult to ignore the murder plot for those who aren't interested in it. TFS is advertised as a balance of slice of life and darker tones based on the Noragami setting, not a horror or murdergame where this sort of tone would be expected. If it was just a contained murder plot with a small number of victims or a planned ending to it then that would be fine, but if the current plan is to continue with the murders indefinitely that's kind of a problem. I'm not saying you shouldn't be allowed to have fun with your plot, but it's starting to overwhelm the game a little and it's affecting the fun of other players.
I also have some concerns about the lack of evidence provided for the characters investigating the murders. When someone asked for possible clues in Rei's murder, your reply could be summed up as "there were no witnesses, no cameras, and all evidence was cleaned up". It may just be that I'm missing out on lots of private investigation plotting, but from an outside perspective it feels like the investigators aren't being given anything to work with, which is very unfair to those characters. For Ekko's murder you also had your other character, Gojyo, clean up the crime scene, which further destroyed clues that investigators might otherwise find. Even if your character is an amazing assassin who's never been caught in his canon, this is a panfandom game where many different characters from varied settings have to be considered. OOCly stating that no evidence can be found or using your other characters to further Jay's goals is very uncomfortably close to godmoding/infomodding. It's like saying a superpowered character can beat up everyone in the game and never lose because they're the most powerful in their canon, and then having them beat up their player's other character to prove it. It's your plot to run, but if you want people to investigate it then you have to actually give them something to work with and be fair to the characters that do have experience with detective work or forensics.
I think the best idea right now would be figuring out a resolution to this plot (working with the characters who would be investigating it to solve/end the murders in a way that's satisfying for both sides) rather than looking for more victims or things like possible copycats. If you're looking to run a long-term serial murder plot of this scale there are other games out there that would be more appropriate for that, but a game that's supposed to be 50% SoL and 50% darker tones really isn't the right place.
Thank you for reading through all of this! If there's anything I can clarify or do to help you out please let me know. I'd really like to see this plot reach a satisfying conclusion for everyone involved in it, and that includes Jay as well. I'll likely be having Add get involved on an IC level as well, so if there's anything a bit of clairvoyance/timespace powers might help with in regards to getting clues out I'd be happy to provide.
(Also, jsyk you still have anon off/IP logging on for this post, so you might want to fix that!)