BRAINSTORM!

[shelightsupwell]

Hi, friends!

I doubt it's missed anyone's notice that things around Darrow have been quiet lately. So let's work together to raise Darrow's activity levels!

Use this post to brainstorm. Throw out whatever you've got and let's see what sticks. Suggest anything you think might help or be fun or interesting, from game-wide plots to individual storylines you want to pursue for your characters but need help jumpstarting. What do you want to see happen next? Tell us! Do you have plot ideas you want someone to do but they don't work for your characters? Donate them! Is there something we can do or change that you think would help make things more exciting or make connections easier to... well, connect? What's missing? What's not helpful? Nothing's off the table, everything's worth throwing out there. Let's bounce off each other and see what we can come up with.

Comments

[shelightsupwell]

Okay, I made the post so I should probably contribute something. Truthfully I'm excessively smooth-brained so I'm low on ideas for something game-wide or at least sort of sprawled out, so here's just me saying a bunch of stuff.

- Obviously it's Pride, so we'll have a Pride gathering. Gatherings are always good in theory, but in practice, I feel like we aren't always sure who we should tag? At least, I am, even though if someone asked "Do you want anyone to tag Jae? If so, who?" my answer would always be "Yes and yes," and I assume the same is true for most/all of us. So what's a good way to facilitate that? Do we kind of just make an unofficial attempt to all tag at least one character we haven't played off of to switch things up? This isn't Pride specific, I'm talking gatherings in general, but Pride is probably up next, after Lestat's that just went up.

- For Jae, it's really hard for him to make real connections. That's a personality thing, and I came into playing him knowing that, so I'm not too bothered by the notion of keeping his circle small, but it does present a challenge to the ability to give him a circle at all. Part of this is also that I am inactive!! But also I would be perhaps less inactive were there activities, which is why we are here. So two parts to this: 1) for my part, I need to make a greater effort to throw Jae into new situations, including ones where he'll be uncomfortable (he's always uncomfortable, so that's fine) and 2) I am reaching out because I want him to know more people. They don't have to be besties. They can even just be people who annoy each other, I don't care, that's funny. Maybe we need another one of those post where we share the kind of interactions we're really hoping for with our characters like we've done before? Though of course this post can also be that.

For Jae, that's really just whoever can put up with an angsty but adorable little 20-something ex-serial killer who's Bad at Peopling.

- What kinds of activities would people actually be interested in? There are always the various parties and holidays and such, but what's something that creates an opportunity for more interaction? Pet shelter adoption day at the mall? Speed dating at Slothburger? Impromptu Drembleydrop in the park?

- What do y'all see as a barrier? For me, I just have to routinely remind myself that people actually wanna play with me, so really I am, as ever, my own worst barrier. There's also the part where, if I'm inactive, I get a little nervous about becoming active again and really have to remind myself of the above. But because of that, I don't really build up sufficient recs to bring anyone else, so I only have my little antisocial dumbass who is very content only to have one friend (his fiancé).

I'm technically still working so I will circle back with more incoherent thoughts later.

[eternaldaisy]

Personally, something that's been on my mind lately is coming up with... not a one-off plot, but something substantial, to shift the status quo a little. I just don't know what that should be, and I wouldn't want to introduce something that people were really against, or whatever. So, I don't know, this is very nonspecific, but does anyone have any thoughts on that front? Any ideas, any interest, any stark disinterest? I wouldn't want to change the, like, nature of the game outright — I think there are players, and we all have characters, who prefer quiet domesticity and interpersonal stuff — but it's been a long time, and I like the thought of finding a way to shake things up, if that's something people would be at all into.

[nobleplatypus]

I am wholly uncaffeinated but I'll just throw this out there because we did it in my last game and it ripped, and we also did it here once and it ripped, so consider: DREAM PARTIES.

What is a dream party? It is a shared dreamspace that can drag in anyone in the game (and potentially others but we'll get to that), with themes and moods and vibes that vary from dream to dream.

Why does it happen? Well, the first time it happened it was because John got hungie, but ultimately the questionable-entity-that-is-Darrow can do whatever it wants, psychic plagiarism included.

How often does it happen? We used to do it monthly and had it pull double-duty as a test drive (that's where the 'and potentially others' comes in), which ruled because it meant you could technically meet characters before they arrived and be like 'wait a minute, I know you, we fought clowns together in that haunted carnival nightmare, what's up.'

What does a dream party entail? Literally whatever you want. Maybe you want to do a daemon AU or drop everyone into the hunger games or do some weird high-concept dream logic stuff or alter everyone's moods. Maybe you want to mess around with a very high-stakes dangerous situation without having to worry about your character actually dying (or being fined for property damage). Maybe you want to meet more people but your character is a homebody and it would be easier if they just conveniently happened to find themselves lost on the same space station orbiting Saturn as everyone else. Maybe you want to have a fraught, emotional interaction with someone that only one of you remembers upon waking for maximum angst (because hey, you don't always remember your dreams). The possibilities are endless!

Anyway DREAM PARTIES that's my pitch.

[bsafemydeers]

First, I want to say how much I love you people and this game and everything we've built together. I recognize we're all in very different places than we were when the game started, and we've grown older and busier.

My suggestions are both on a structural/administrative level, and then I have plot suggestions.

1. The current req system doesn't work in the best interest of us or the game itself. We all acknowledge we are tagging more slowly, especially when life is busy or tough, which it unfortunately is sometimes. I've personally found it's taking longer to complete reqs, and to do it two months in a row has been a task that has become unwieldy. It's pretty discouraging, and it's a lot of work that I don't think we, as adults who have known each other this long, need in the same way, at the same level. It also really cuts down on new fictional blood in the game, and I feel really strongly that new characters are needed to pump life back into things. I'd like to think that as a consequence of being an older group that knows each other well, if someone needs to really look at how they're handling, say, a large roster that doesn't have activity, this could be an honest and kind discussion about how that impacts other people and a plan could be made to go forward.

2. PLOTS. My favorite plots are mostly horror, surprising no one at all. So I do have a handful of those tucked away-- maybe more extra islands or locations where we can do something like Fromville from the TV show From. I also like the dream set-up suggested above for this. Perhaps there's a Lovecraftian entity awakening in Darrow to cause bubbled horror (to spare those who don't like it).

3. Lore, city-based plots. One of the initial causes of drama and tension in the game was being at the hands of this unknown force that made it seem like you were expected there, and the city had no answers. Overall, I think we've lost this effect just because it's been years, and the in-game culture grown by our characters is that everything's expected and no one should even try for answers. I'd like to see this shake up too, maybe with some new NPCs or NPC organizations that hint there is something at the root of things, there are people pulling the strings. There doesn't need to be an ultimate answer or antagonist, but something to shake up what the established characters know about Darrow.

Okay, I love you lots!

[campraeden]

I like the above ideas of things in Darrow being shaken up, though I'd like to emphasize that Darrow being a slice of life game is one of its biggest draw for me. I miss the more regular plots we'd have (the silly ones like Truth on Your Back, as much as the scarier ones, like the Darkness, the faeries, etc), and I super miss regular apartment gatherings and stuff bc they were a little more insular than the broader gatherings in the park or at the boardwalk, allowing for more specific groups of people to meet and interact. I know not as many pups stay at their assigned apartments anymore (for example, Daniel and Tom now live in a new complex called Orchard Heights), but maybe we could do... Idk, neighborhood/street gatherings somehow?

I've been wondering how to broach the topic so I guess now is as good a time as any. I wonder if Darrow is just too... small, now? I agree with Jessie that new pup blood will help, but for the pups that have stuck around for so long, I feel like there is a bit of a 'now what?' rut that I know I'VE fallen into more than once, so idk if it'd help or hinder to have the game's borders grow or change? We have East Hallow, I'd love to see it get more use, or even for another, sudden space in/adjacent to Darrow to appear similarly. I don't know if it's as simple as "people move there" or if there could or should be another plot (revenge of the harvesters, idk), but it feels like wasted real estate right now.

I've also toyed with the idea of a recurring (quarterly? Monthly? Bi-annual?) Gold Saucer plot, bringing in more of Alisaie and Alphinaud's canon. Basically, the Manderville Gold Saucer is an adult arcade and casino, with many games and micro events that players in FFXIV can play for Gold Saucer Points (MGP) that they can then spend on things only available within the Saucer for the duration of the plot. They could be something rare and exciting, something for them specifically, or something as simple as a sabotender or chocobo stuffie, idk XD I'm light on the details. But I thought it'd be a fun gathering idea, and since in FFXIV the proprietor of the Saucer already breaks laws of physics and nature whenever necessary, it felt like a good fit for Darrow.

I also have another plot idea in the works that I've been hesitant to email to the mod account simply BECAUSE of the dwindling activity. It would be best timed to Halloween but could feasibly be done whenever. Maybe I'll work on that and send it in soon.

[not_acute]

I agree with a lot of what's being said, but like Jessie said, I think along with just more frequent things for characters to DO, I feel like the game itself needs a shake up on a structural level. Darrow isn't TR and even if the game drew a lot of inspiration from that one, it's evolved, as have our players. It doesn't make sense for a lot of those rules to still apply to this game. For the most part, this game is full of players who are older, many of whom have RPed together for over a decade. We're an old style of RP. We're not attracting new players, nor are we trying to. I wonder if it's time to seriously rethink both our req system and our app system.

At this stage, we know who our players are and that they can write. We all have a sense of how many characters we can take on. The long and complicated app that we currently have feels like a bit of a relic of an older time. I realize, I'm saying this as a player with many extended periods of inactivity, but I also know that we have actually lost players from the game because of our app and req process.

I'd like to make the radical suggestion that we revamp our apps to something much simpler for current players and keep the current app for new players if we ever happen to get any.

I don't have a current suggestion for how to revamp reqs, but like Jessie said, for a game that is so much slower, making reqs is an unwieldy process. I don't think it's at all representative of whether someone is regularly playing, since so many people often cram all of their reqs into the last week or so of the month.

I also think another way we can help facilitate new interactions is to actually keep character pages on the wiki up to date. I know it's bit of a chore at times, but just basic information like how a character speaks and moves, and basic physical characteristics can go a long way to making tagging a new character easier.

[trigeekgirl]

First, I really appreciate that this post is here. I think we've all been having little conversations about what Darrow is now, how it's changed, how we've changed, and whether it works for us. So I appreciate that we're all in the same "room" to talk about it.

I also agree with what others have said about game pace, size, and reqs not matching up to each other. I know I have one of the smallest rosters here and I would still struggle to "make reqs" most months. I think revamping that could be good for everyone's potential activity level.

On a simple level of something we could do, does anyone remember Tag Someone New at TR? It was TSN Week there, but that's not realistic. Maybe TSN Month? If you don't or you can't, no pressure, but if it's a monthly theme and there were a couple gatherings to facilitate that, it might work.