November Midmonth

[moustre]

Midmonth Mod Post: November Hello, Aefenglom! Here's your monthly midmonth mod post. First, as always, some reminders. They're pretty brief this month: • The Masquerade log is still going strong! This is the second year KJ has run this event and we always love to see it, so a huge thanks to them. • We have a combo Intro Log & Item Regain Event just recently gone live! • Acceptances have been sent out to as many applications as we have space for currently! • Our activity check also begins on November 24th! While we'll have the requirements on the activity check itself as a reminder, here they are right now so you can start figuring things out: PROOF 1: * A tag-out to someone else's post, top level, or inbox. PROOF 2: * Your own post, top level, or a thread in your own inbox, OR * A tag-out to someone else's post, top level, or inbox. - Comments from you on both proofs should add up to at least 10. - Comments must be from the current month to count. - One proof may be from a thread begun in the month previous, but only comments from the current month on it count toward your AC. - Both proofs cannot be with the same character. - Two proofs with cast/franchise-mates is allowed but if it becomes a pattern (2+ months in a row), you will be asked to provide a thread with a non-castmate. In addition, players are allowed to take a strike if they have at least half of the necessary activity, ie. one proof with a minimum of 5 comments or two proofs that add up to less than 10 comments. • Players accepted in November only need to provide half AC. • The calendar has all these dates as always, so check it out! Now then - onwards! The Aefenglom Journal With all the nastiness of Octeuril behind us, things in Aefenglom seem to have settled down, or so we all hope. Our Parliamentary correspondent has brought news that the Mirrorbound Council have passed a motion to allocate funding for orphan education and care, proving once again that these mysterious people from other worlds are certainly philanthropists wherever they go! Truly we here at the Aefenglom Journal find it touching how they fight to look out for the most helpless in our fair city. Mirrorbound have also proven to be trend-setters. We have an exclusive that one long-time Mirrorbound has put on a grand Masquerade Ball for the second year in a row! The glitz and glamor of it all has enraptured Aefenglom, and no doubt many in the Aristocratic District are disappointed not to have received invitations. Maybe there's always next year! Lastly, our associate at the Coven tells us a few more Mirrorbound have stumbled through mirrors at the Looking Glass House, in the middle of the month again. Could there be something to this strange timing, or is it all just an odd change of pace for the misunderstood magic deep at the heart of the ancient building? In unrelated news, many strange brass saucers have been spotted flying all over the city, often knocking into folks minding their own business! Some are seen carrying the most random of objects - what in the world could these be? The Aefenglom Journal intends to find out! OOC Updates • First of all this month, we'd like to announce that, with real life situations and holiday business going on, December's AC will be check-in only. However, if you have to take a strike in November, you will need to provide half AC in December to clear your strike. We will not offer strikes in December for missing AC, and anyone who doesn't check in or make prior arrangements with the mods will be swept. • This has happened fairly often in the last month or two, so we would like to remind players what the appropriate methods of mod communication are: either a PM to the mod journal, or a comment on the Mod Contact post. Please don't contact us individually on our personal accounts about mod business - we prefer to keep records of communication where the entire mod team can access them. We're always happy to help with whatever players bring to us, but we will not act in an official manner from our personal accounts. • We'd like to ask again for event and plot feedback! November and December are generally easy-going months due to folks being busy or needing to recharge, but we'd like to hear what kinds of events and plots you would like to see in the future. Feedback We're here again to offer everyone the chance to give some feedback, if there's anything that you've noticed or would like to possibly seem implemented! Talking Points: • Info posts that you'd like clarification for. • Quests. In general, what kind of quests would you like to see more of? How can we improve with these? What's working, and what isn't? • Plot investigation feedback. We've gotten quite a few good investigations, and honestly it's been fantastic seeing what everyone does with their information. • Events. What type of ones would you like to see, what ones are working, what aren't? • General feelings on: the game, the timing of posts, how events and such are set up, etc. • And more! Tell us what's on your mind. We honestly appreciate all kinds of comments, and we want to make Aefenglom a wonderful, fun, and comfortable game for everyone who joins. This post will remain unscreened, so if you'd like to take something to a more private venue, you can either PM us or comment here.

Comments

[stopfen]

Small question and I'm not sure how much others would agree with it. Also I'm bad at feedback things so I hope this makes sense.

But would it be possible on plot investigations to say if they're on the right track or a dead end? So that people know what to focus on a bit? With the state of this year I feel bad pressing when responses take a while so it'd help to know which things are time-sensitive.

Because I've got 2 open investigations relating to ley line and the cywd infection with them/the origin of the Cywd. And I'm not sure if I'm onto something with them or if it's unimportant and I could just have a thread where characters find nothing. (That said one is probably canceled because the player I was doing this investigation with dropped in September)

+1

[glitzandglamour]

I have so many thoughts for the game and just can't quite seem to articulate them well, ahh... But I've thought about the focus of plot investigations a lot. I would love to jump in and try for plot investigations some more, but there's so much out there that my characters could interact with that I'd much rather have some hooks to grab onto!

I feel that telling players that they're either looking into a dead end or giving them some alternative arena of investigation would be a great idea. (NO SHAME in being like "there's not much to learn here right now!" haha.) Alternatively, offering a list of plot-related hooks for investigation on mid-month or intro posts might be a great idea! That way, the playerbase is focusing on topics already developed and made ready by the mod team for distribution, and many characters are capable of looking into the same subject to corroborate. (Below there's discussion of the dissemination of information as well, which is why I also enjoy the thought of many characters being able to investigate something at once. The power of making important areas of investigation visible to all!) Focusing character investigation opportunities might also help to focus the development of plot leads that mods would have to explore, I imagine. If players are given the hint that our characters have a lot to learn about, say, dreamwalking and the True Fae (just two examples!) but not much in the way of leylines or the Coven's ulterior motives in investing in Mirrorbound, it might be neat to mention the two areas of focus and some ways it can be interacted with.

I also understand that the openness of plot investigations has been held as an important aspect of the game, but I don't think it could hurt the development of plot to push some hot subjects that could be looked into, if they exist. Even just short prompts about a few things could help. (loose, probably shitty example, DREAMWALKING: "nessie's been at the library a lot and seems convinced there's something about dreamwalking lost with the downfall of morgana, but maybe the mirrorbound could consider offering themselves as subjects of study..." which would ensue with a few players offering up their characters to investigate different aspects of dreamwalking, why the mirrorbound are so good at it, etc!)

+1

[usurpers]

this would be a good idea as mentioned above, but not only that— this hasn’t been the first time where many players have been waiting on plot investigation answers to put their plans into motion, especially things that can lead to player run plots. i understand that the year 2020 has been more than a handful for all of us and consequently, our ooc lives have been chaotic at some point or still continue to be for many, and the mod team has asked for help so it’s all at an understandable point, but how the investigations are run since a while into the start of the game (more than a year ago) have been slightly problematic. players take a really long time to get responses back, sometimes more than a month a two and this really dampens the desire to want to do anything with the mechanic at all. i’m not sure if i’m making sense here and maybe i’ll come back to try and word things better, but the feeling i always get from these is excitement that gradually builds into player disappointment because questions feel like they’ve been forgotten, and it takes so long to get an answer back that we lose steam to do more like help the game forward to some degree. i think this has also been mentioned in past feedback posts, but with so many others that i’m hearing that feel the same way, it seems like it has failed to be addressed successfully since then.

if it’s too difficult to get back, perhaps consider cutting out the mechanic as a whole or closing investigations more often if mods aren’t able to get to them? at this point it feels like the better thing to do than say they’re open but wait three or even more months for a response. for something you were doing way back in august/september or even further back is a little discouraging, so i would review this again! i’d be a little sad to see plot investigations go if it comes to that, but in the long run it’d be better for both players (who won’t have to get their hopes up for something that won’t come) and for the mods (who won’t overload themselves with something they can’t handle on top of everything else; you aren’t getting paid to stretch so thin).

[fulgency]

Hi mods!

I wanted to provide you with some feedback. I am extremely invested in my CR in this game, and I have a blast with what I'm doing with it, but my investment in the game itself does not feel comparable. I find myself not as excited as I want to be with the going-ons of the game and it feels more like a sandbox than a proper game. I took some time to think about why that might be, and I think I identified a few contributing factors.

Information

This feels like one of the biggest issues that has plagued the game from the beginning, but I feel like the dissemination of information about the game has been a significant element of some of the challenges I've experienced with regards to engagement in the game. I know that the modteam has put in some significant work to update information pages (and I do greatly appreciate that!), but in a lot of ways they still feel disjointed. Anytime I have a question about the game, I have to look at 2-3 different pages where the information might be (and that is not including looking at where people have asked questions) before I either locate the information, ask a friend, or need to post the question myself.

Sometimes the information also feels a bit too vague for things that I feel are more core mechanics. While I understand the want/desire to allow people to define things for themselves and take them in their own direction, I also think there are times when it is a bit too loose. For example, the magic of this world has definitely received more concrete definition as time has gone on. However, it still feels exceptionally limitless. I'm not sure if others have that experience of it as well, but I always feel the impulse to want to ask "hey, is this actually within the boundaries?" and I hesitate to ask not because I'm scared of being told "actually, that would not be possible" but I do not want to pester the modteam with a simple question like that.

Other times, I am a little surprised to find an information page on something because I cannot recall anyone ever saying "hey, a page was made for this!" (Which could totally be on me as depending on the timing, I may have been more checked out due to the dumpster fire that has been 2020.) Or the opposite can happen where I'm surprised there is no easy-to-find place for certain information. The latter usually happens when a (group of) player(s) interact and get a nugget of information, and then it is unfortunately not passed along anywhere else.

But basically this all really boils down to I think information is sometimes challenging to track down or have clear delineation. I think newer players are sometimes missing information that older players have, and then older players have a challenging time tracking down information/references as needed.

Also for lack of a better place to put this: I've also seen a lot of confusion about whether or not you guys filled the plot mod position. If you could clarify that, that would be helpful to know as I think a lot of people would like to be more helpful directly with stuff.

Pacing of Events

This one is a little challenging for me to describe succinctly, so if anything is unclear definitely please feel free to ask me to clarify anything. I am speaking from my own perspective and no one else's on this because I recognize there is a possibility that I missed something due to where my character(s) placed their attention.

I want to take the Dorchacht plot as an example. I loved what you guys did with having part of the gameplot be the TDM. I thought that was fairly inventive, and let potential new players interact in a really neat way. I also liked that there was the opportunity to vote on the outcome of the climax because both outcomes sounded as though they had some really interesting and potentially heavy consequences wherein a threat could still be alive and always potential or not, and the relationships between the Mirrorbound and the native would be altered based on the decision. I was really jazzed about it, and I saw a lot of excitement from others, too!

There were a few problems with it though and I wanted to wait until its conclusion and a little thereafter before I said anything because I wanted to have the whole of it before as to do otherwise would feel potentially unfair or assumptive.

First, things still felt really disjointed. It's possible that others feel differently about this, but I felt like the build-up to this was very sudden. In the intervening year, there hasn’t really been much indication from my perspective that things were beginning to go in this direction. Although it was pretty well-telegraphed from the jump that Morgana would be back someday since there was no body and I've seen/read movies/TV shows/books/etc., I also distinctly remember feeling fairly discouraged from trying to follow up with it as there were IC reassurances that everything was fine, and everything that was conveyed seemed to be overall fine. (Note: I believe there were some quests that would contradict this to a certain degree, but I do not really view quests as the best place to breadcrumb plot as I have never interpreted those as being particularly central to the game's plot.) Therefore, there was never really any incentive to follow up on it any further, or be particularly invested in it when it happened.

Basically, it felt like we went a year with nothing, and then suddenly something was happening.

And I phrase it that way because although there was a chance to vote on the outcome, I opted not to participate in the finale log because there did not seem to be much point to it. An NPC who has only interacted with one of my characters one time and that I, as a player, have no emotional investment in, more or less single-handedly defeating her with very little difficulty did not feel as though my character(s) had a hand in that outcome despite my voting. Instead, it felt like I was being invited to sit and watch something happen and that was it.

This is in stark contrast to the first log that went up, wherein there was a sense of urgency and danger with the attack on Dorchacht. And although there is not necessarily this greater impact in terms of like y'all are keeping track of how many citizens lived or died (because that would be insane to do), it felt more meaningful and as though my character I had involved had agency because what he was doing ultimately does result in something even if it's just for him and no one/nothing else beyond that.

The other piece to this is something that I have seen happen quite a few times with a few exceptions, but after big events and plot points like this, things… Just seem to return to normal. Although I definitely hold zero expectations (and no real desire) for event after event and continuing to directly deal with fall-out, it often feels like an event happens and there is a lag before there's any felt difference as a result of the outcomes. Dorchacht went silent and then suddenly everything was fine until it wasn't. The Underground also felt like a dropped plot point to me because although I did not participate directly in it due to time constraints when the plot was occurring, I feel like I know nothing about it and have zero concept of how the relationships there impact the game or the circumstances.

And this is where I am personally feeling the fatigue with festivals and parties. It's not that these logs are terribly written or anything like that, or that they do not have a place in the game. I think they do and I do love a good log legit meant to be there for socializing purposes! It serves a lot of functions in that it allows people to net a new CR, helps newbies get settled in with something light, and around the winter holidays, it lets people breathe a little easier. But the problem I think I am having with them is that they feel less like breathers and more filler or padding, which has led to some of the gameplot feeling oddly paced at best or thin at worst. Additionally, I think the tone of those events have also changed a lot over the past year. I remember when I joined that they were attempts at trying to be cheerful (that were largely successful, freaky blood moons not withstanding) in a world that was dying, but at this point, they feel like large indulgences that conflict with what should likely be available (i.e. looking over the information pages, it feels like resources should be more scarce than they are). So, not only do they seem to conflict with what's happening within the context of recent events, but they also feel as though they conflict with the very world itself. It is not so much that I would expect everything to be bleak always, but I would anticipate that events would reflect what is occurring in the world to least a small extent. Even if it's just "this year, there is less spiced wine to go around for Litha" or the party-goers seem a little more celebratory over the recent victory and the festival is just an excuse for that.

The Imbalance Between Witches & Monsters

Something that I would really like to see is for there to be more challenges for Witches. When comparing Witches to Monsters, Monsters definitely drew the short end of the stick. They run the risk of losing their minds and becoming completely feral. The lunar cycle rules their lives. Their bodies are constantly changing for several months on end until finally, the changes come to an end. They also contend with fantasy racism more or less everywhere except the Underground. Meanwhile, Witches are able to master and gain complete control over certain schools of magic within the same timeframe that Monsters minimally need to complete mandatory changes. Their biggest threat is exploding from magic build-up, and prior to that, they have wonky magic and seem to just be in a very bad mood. Although it's noted that magic use has side effects, these rarely seem to come up or present as a problem, and I really cannot recall anything being really played with when it comes to the impact of the lunar cycle. (Also, Monsters run the risk of becoming addicted to Witch's blood, but Witches have no such similar risk associated with magic.) If they were not Mirrorbound, they also likely would never experience any sort of discrimination in the world.

Again, similar to the things about the events, I am not advocating that everything be terrible and bleak. But at the same time, there's really no inherent challenges for Witches. They're never really the targets of much of anything, and there's not much inherently limiting to them outside of like "sometimes the lunar cycle makes it harder/easier" or an imbalanced Bond situation sometimes maybe. It ends up feeling like characters do not have to really work for anything and that whatever drawbacks/limitations exist are ultimately minor inconveniences.

While I do not have any immediate, concrete ideas off the top of my head for how to address this at this exact moment since most of my cognitive energy is going to writing this up right now, I do think there could be an event of some kind that could begin to bring a little more balance and present Witches with more to overcome. And it could be fun and interesting still for Monsters to participate in this event if they wanted, wherein perhaps the effects are initially much more extreme than what it will eventually even out to be and Monsters are necessary for bringing it down to something more manageable. Or there's just the simple fact that Witches being different may impact how the Bonds have operated for some pairs.

I'm sorry this is so long, and I really appreciate your patience in reading all of this! I know I said it for the plot stuff, but also just in general: please ask for clarification on anything that seems potentially confusing! I do not mind clarifying.

I also want to thank you guys for all of your hard work, and your willingness to ask for feedback each and every month. I also see and appreciate all the ways that you guys as a modteam continue to grow, and I hope that this feedback is helpful in continuing that forward momentum.

Thanks again!

+1

[belligerentwarrior]

To the whole general sentiment.

About Witches' challenges, specifically: It's always been mentioned that regular Aef witches get power from the full moon, like Monsters do, but for some reason Mirrobound Witches are at their strongest on the new moon instead. Maybe that can be used as an avenue to shake things up, even if just for Mirrorbound witches specifically, not just all witches.

How... I'm not exactly sure. I don't know, space Cwyld taints whatever lunar magics that are influencing Mirrorbound witches? Big asteroid hits the dark side of the moons and messes things up? Something that presents emotional or behavior challenges to Witches like the lunar cycles do for Monsters might do good, with exaggerated effects for the first event that triggers this change. Idk, I'm just spitballing.

tl;dr it'd be nice to see witches as impacted or stressed in some way by the lunar cycle as Monsters are, both to give Monster characters more ways to support their Witch and to give Witch characters more challenges and consequences to have fun with

+1

[crowsfeat]

a lot of my on-going issues are reflected here, particularly with regards to events and meta-plot

most importantly, i just want this to game to feel like players drive and impact the game as much as the premise promises we can.

+1

[enkidoh]

I agree with what Crystal has mentioned and specifically the imbalance between witches and monsters. Being a witch seems less of a hardship than being a monster. I think Fangs mun has also given some good ideas about how to flip things around a little and when my brain isn't a chaotic hellscape I would definitely love to spitball a little about things like this c:

+1

[glitzandglamour]

I agree with this, and thank you Crystal for writing it out. I think you did a great job!

RE: Information, specifically magic-related things. I remember reading somewhere that they were loosely based on D&D spells, but I think that may be buried in the FAQ somewhere. (I could be totally making that up in my head, though.) Being a bit more concrete about what magic's capable of would be great. (can Transmutation spells really just grant Witches access to the Ethereal Plane and ability to reincarnate freshly dead people?? wow!) Basically, I agree with Crystal in that I could spend all day asking "is this okay? is this okay?" but I'm not sure if it's because magic's really that comprehensive, or if we should be treating it as fairly limited. (If it's truly comprehensive and flexible, perhaps seeing a limit in the form of riskiness or something would be cool! A character trying to take on a massive spell might be able to do it with Witch and Monster help alike... Something like that.)

RE: Imbalance of Witches & Monsters. I think I understand why Monsters have more prejudice against them for sure, but I'd love to see ways Witches suffer in the setting as well. I like GS' thoughts about trying to give Witches a bit more incentive to go nutters in a different-similar way to Monsters, even if it's only Mirrorbound Witches or something like that. More prone to recklessness, something that exacerbates their personality traits... Something like that, maybe.

Tangentially related, but I'm really hoping to see how recent happenings in the game (the Mirrorbound being so quick to sentence Morgana to death, whatever else has been going down in these past wild months) impact the relationship Mirrorbound have with the setting. Perhaps this recent decision with Morgana could lead to harsher punishment against even the Mirrorbound, rather than letting them get away with as much as they seem to get away with! I always like to see how player efforts either stress or ease the relationship with NPCs in the game. I know there was a lot of unease when the game first started, and I'll admit that I'm not sure what the attitudes of the average Aefenglom citizen are toward Mirrorbound right now in Aefenglom anymore.

I also wanna say that the involvement of the TDM with the current Dorchacht plot was a great move; I liked that a lot, and I'm still curious about whatever it was that could've been following our characters in that Flitting Shadows prompt...

It's been a rough, rough year, and I appreciate the work you guys have done in spite of that. I'm looking forward to any new plots in the future, or ones that draw from previous events!

+1

[usurpers]

thanks a bunch for writing this as well, crystal! i very much agree and have been feeling the following:

• building the event into the tdm, that was great and something i’ve seen in other successful games. i’d love to see this again!

• the monster-witch imbalance. witches also get the perk of being able to latch onto a familiar worse comes to worst to prolong their explosions, and i remember that they’re able to have more than one so some witches can just full out avoid magic overload by cycling between familiars while monsters don’t have a choice— the only other alternative is witch blood to prolong their own bondless situation and this could lead to negative side effects fairly quickly while witches get a free pass. not saying this is unfair, but as a player who also plays a witch, i’d love to see more challenges and problems for them to spruce up the experience in playing a witch (which feels like playing it safe) vs playing a monster (hard mode always).

• event pacing. i think everything i would’ve wanted to say has already been mentioned! pacing is a very tricky thing to land, but i do agree that events have felt disjointed and not entirely connected as they could be? it’s like watching a tv show that has a constant continuation vs a show that doesn’t and just has random episodes with random events that don’t entirely get a conclusion. does that make sense? this is the stupidest example but i’ll say it anyway: watching prison break (where everything is connected, the “plot driven” game vibe) vs watching lucky star (every episode is it’s own episode and very rarely needs a continuation, the “sandbox” game vibe).

on another note of events that i’d like to comment on— things are beginning to feel slightly repetitive? for example: this year’s november event is exactly the same as last year with a slightly different outfit. parties and mingles are the same. item regains can be cool but i play characters who don’t have things to regain as is, for example, so not only does it make events feel rinsed and repeated, but some of us don’t have much to do with it anyway so it ends up feeling even more rinsed. i’ll try and think up some things to help later, but in the mean time crystal brought up a good point re: small things changing making a big and interesting difference. not having so much spices for litha, for example! little changes can end up giving us a lot of things to work with.

[stopfen]

Not +1ing but not -1ing, I'm just kinda adding a thing with the infomation bit. Even if I'm bad at wording.

There's a few things where there's just not enough detail like Temp-bonds. I learnt most of how they work ICly, so I'm stuck wondering how accurate that information was because it's not on the information pages.
But icly Mikasa was told
-That the Coven prefers full bonds, but will give characters the bonding potions because it's better than letting them run around completely unbonded.
-BUUUT this isn't advertised by the Coven because they don't want people relying on temp potions

There's also some things were it's unclear if it's IC info or OOC only info? And that leads to some awkwardness. For example, the whole pregnancy thing. Me and a few others thought this was known ICly that 'a want to have a child' was needed, but then it came up in a network post and it turned out quite a lot of people didn't think it was known ICly.
Which lead to the people who thought it was known thinking they were ooc because their characters wouldn't casually bang without some development if there was a risk.

... I hope that makes sense?

[gynvael]

I personally don't mind the power imbalance, but I wanted to add that it might be helpful to see its impact on the world. I know Dorchacht occurred, but it seems even though Aefenglom witches weren't literally enslaving their monsters, monsters are still a little bit of a second class citizen in Aefenglom. But since there isn't a lot of info on how this affects the general world, I've been unsure of how much discord within the world is there or if people are just kind of totally okay with the way things are.

For example, the Aristocratic district is said to generally be unoccupied by monsters unless they're with a Witch and the Western Residential area -- where monsters are noted to outnumber humans -- is in worse condition than Eastern, which has fewer monsters there. The witches have the Coven, but the monsters don't seem to have a place in there beyond being bonded to one of the witches. And Parliament seems to imply that it's mostly made up of wealthy people with a witch leaning (since the description notes they "rarely have magical training" which suggests they would be witches otherwise, if they had decided to learn magic. Which has a lot of implications if this is the case, given that Parliament and the Coven both decide how to deal with feral monsters.) So the sense from the info is that the monsters have less political and socioeconomic power (other than within the Council I think? Which was set up by Mirrorbound). On top of that, the Coven is giving nice free homes to the Mirrorbound, monster and witch alike -- but the local monsters living in poorer districts are still stuck there. It feels like there should be some discontent or reaction to all of these things, but as it's often left ambiguous, it's hard to know how much can be played with or incorporated into threads.

Either way, I'd love to see it expanded on. Not even in a big plot way, but just maybe just a short section with some info about how the various groups of people feel about each other to start with? (Local monsters w/ the local witches, humans, if the Mirrorbound are felt differently about than the locals). It might just be because I play someone who's hyper aware of any political/racial tension, but it would definitely help with deciding how a character might trust, react, and respond to the various NPCs in the city, including the Coven, and how they behave depending on which area of the world they're in.

[turmoiling]

Just as a comment on

The other piece to this is something that I have seen happen quite a few times with a few exceptions, but after big events and plot points like this, things… Just seem to return to normal. Although I definitely hold zero expectations (and no real desire) for event after event and continuing to directly deal with fall-out, it often feels like an event happens and there is a lag before there's any felt difference as a result of the outcomes. Dorchacht went silent and then suddenly everything was fine until it wasn't. The Underground also felt like a dropped plot point to me because although I did not participate directly in it due to time constraints when the plot was occurring, I feel like I know nothing about it and have zero concept of how the relationships there impact the game or the circumstances.

I feel like this is a side-effect of missing info pages. It's not that Dorchacht went silent, really -- there were plenty of small quests, and your character was free to mention it or go there. It's just without anything to reference beyond the event itself it really falls off the radar for a lot of people. I think the same is going on for the Underground too.

On that note, I also wonder if it might be worth having some spot where players can comment on their activities in various places outside of plots? Or maybe a monthly 'has your character done anything significant' post from the mods that could be built on for things a month or two down the line? Just spitballing some ideas here.

But also with that said...

I really worry that the desire to get us all back into deep plotty things is too much of a strain on the mod team. The number of players isn't small, and plots take a lot of work, and with the stress of the world these days, to be totally honest, I feel like it might be too much to ask. I'm pretty happy with sandbox time overall, and all it would take to keep that rolling are some minor world updates in reaction to player things, current level of plots, and improved reference pages to give people things to work with.

[marmoron]

Ah this was really well thought out and I just wanted to throw in a +1 on all of these points.

I would also like to put some additional emphasis on the information being so scattered posing a pretty big problem and definitely one that I know has contributed to myself and others not necessarily wanting to engage the overarching plot. Speaking for just myself, I know my interest in the recent Morgana plot was pretty nonexistent because trying to find info about an event that had taken place over a year ago wasn't really an appealing use of time. I do think that going forward if events are going to reference the game's development and history that this information should really be updated so new players can readily follow, otherwise it can be a bit unwelcoming.

Also I don't entirely understand why the bestiary is limited specifically to monster selections. There are a lot of creatures that exist in the game setting, and I feel it would be helpful to have at least a separate flora/fauna page to briefly provide some basic idea of what can be encountered in the Wilde. As an example, I know back when I first joined being really confused as to what a shade was, but having to dig for that information. Come to find out, I had to go back and look at previous event posts for a description and well... that's just not very accessible. The lack of an organized flora/fauna page has also definitely contributed to my confusion over whether or not we could just more or less assume anything a player wanted to encounter (within reason) could just be found in the Wilde. I think if so, that should probably be stated outright somewhere.

I realize that's asking for more info pages, which considering the density of information already may not be the most appealing idea, but I think an open post for players to document flora/fauna in the game would be a neat addition. The stuff about the overarching plot might also be more easily organized with a "the plot so far" type of page where can be a page of links to previous significant events since that would be easier to do than a big overhaul of the information pages in the interim.

[battlebound]

I said this below but I actually disagree with Witches having it easier. I think it's very specific to characters and players as to what will seem easier. Like, for me with Steak, Monsters were basically "remember that this dude doesn't look the same any more and maybe someone doesn't like him for it". Once he was used to what was happening, it more or less stopped being an issue, but learning Magic is gonna be much harder for him and Witches are more reliant on Bonds (or familiars) than I read Monsters as being.

(On the other hand, his canonmate is a Monster and hates it because it plays on very specific fears said canonmate has had for a long time.)

However, with information I wholeheartedly agree. I haven't said much about it in these posts because I don't really know that I can give more specific feedback than "it feels like there's a lot of pages / info and yet I feel like I don't understand a lot about what's going on". Which, from an IC point, that would be fine, but OOCly it makes me really hesitant to get involved with game plot things beyond generic fighting / helping others when it is called for. I spent a lot of time like "should I know about [thing X]? Was this mentioned somewhere?" and not wanting to ask because it feels like it's assumed we should know what is going on already? Maybe that's just me, I dunno.

[whomthebelltolls]

Goodness, there's a lot going on here. I suppose I'll add my own 2c.

• I've been here long enough to have seen it from the beginning. Ever since Snow and Bella handed over the reins of the game, it feels like it went from ambitiously, heavily involved plot-based to significantly more open-ended and less involved. That's not to say the "new" mod team is bad or lesser at all, it just feels like every event has been afraid to step on the toes of the original premise of the game and the groundwork laid by the "old" team. Like it's some standard status quo that must be upheld, even though the groundwork has a lot that can be expanded upon and would benefit from it. The mods don't feel like they're leading and driving the plot of the game, it feels more like managers or teachers trying to keep people fenced in and playing in a playground owned by someone else most of the time (when the boundaries are tested, however, the plot is excellent). I know 2020 has been a long decade, and the burnout probably comes on quickly and harshly; so things like lighter events around the holidays and some extra downtime is absolutely understandable, but when there is plot, it feels like it should expand more of the world and continue to be followed up on, rather than opened and then walked away from, and then jumped back to during a spurt of extra energy. It doesn't always have to be main game events. Could be in quests, or secondary events, or with information tidbits dropped for people to make player plots around.


• Funnily enough, I've had the opposite experience (and impression) of Witches vs. Monsters. YMMV, but my take is alternative: I find Monsters to be kind of boring, easy, and "safe", since there's literally no threat to their actual lives (Maria threatening to kill ferals aside) and ferality is barely a concern (I have yet to see anyone play with it to the extent it's "threatened", and instead just use it as flavor); where Witches tread both death AND madness, and a potentially potent combination of both, considering how mana buildup can affect them (though few people have really played around with this either, to be fair). It feels like Witches are more reliant on Monsters than the other way around. At the same time, outside of their transformations, I find there's little longevity to playing a Monster as a Monster. Mine for instance, now that her transformation is complete, I'm at a place that's like... okay, now what? Micro-aggressions and fantasy racism aside, there's nothing more to do with her as a Monster. You can only make so many full moon logs or references to waking up in a bush somewhere. The "fun" part of having a Monster is over, and now it's just coasting and playing with the full changes until they get boring, where with a Witch I can have them start a new school of magic to learn and have other things to do. Monsters seem to be more fun at first, where Witches are more fun in the long run. Introducing more things for Monsters to do over time is probably a good idea - I think that "ascended form" thing people were talking about before would be a good thing, so that way Monsters have more things to do after they've finished transformations. Alternatively, I know some Monsters can adapt traits of their Bonded Witches and their magic... why not expand on that? Allow more flexibility of Monsters to synchronize with their chosen Witches' magic types so they can cast like low-level spells of schools the Witches specialize in, channeling the magic they're getting across their Bond anyway, or something, so long as they've been Bonded for a long time.


• To that end, there's also a bit of a disparity in Monster types. Some Monsters get really cool effects and magics and abilities baseline, some... do not and are limited as well even by mythology; some are a mixed bag like Chimeras. It's not really consistent across all the different Monster types. I don't necessary think there needs to be new abilities introduced all over, but maybe shoring up a few of the more pedestrian monster types with ideas of things they could potentially do (turnskins come to mind) could help.


• I also don't see why there can't be more downsides to Witches culturally. Or at least why there can't be a city/state where this is true, like Dorchacht was for Monsters. There's plenty of precedent set that they're kind of dangerous when they don't take care of themselves and find a proper outlet for their mana; I'm surprised they aren't held in a similar sort of contempt as the Monsters in more places, considering they're possibly more accidentally dangerous. We've even touched upon the idea that Witches have a sort of "magic signature" - you can use that as a way for the people to tell Witches apart from ordinary humans, so they can pick them out in a crowd like they can pick a Monster out. The Underground wasn't really that, compared to how Dorchacht treated Monsters. I'd love to see an event where I'd have to force a Witch to go "undercover" simply for being a Witch. Especially so if there's no way to "fix" the city, like there was with Dorchacht. A place where it's dangerous to be a Witch; not because of one Big Bad, but rather an indoctrinated cultural thing, so that way it's not so easily resolved in one monthly event post and requires time and effort to change.


• Alternatively to all of this, because 2020 has been an actual dumpster full of cow turds on fire and everyone is just Exhausted, just lightening the game up entirely and making it more choose your own adventure and sandboxy, but not trying to be anything more. This would probably come with, as suggested, closing plot investigations, and just basically saying the game's going to be significantly more SoL moving forward. Whatever is decided, it would have to be firm and absolute, and made very clear so people can make their own decisions about staying or not. The game feels like it's in a liminal space and can't decide what it wants to be, and it's losing interest rapidly. I get mod burnout because this year has been... yeah, so I understand if this ends up being the route that is chosen, but making it clear will help out the player base moving forward.

Mods, you guys put in a lot of work, especially during times like these where everything is going so wrong with the IRL world! I appreciate you guys and everything you do. Modding is a lot of hard work, and it's usually pretty thankless hard work, and it's not always easy to strike a balance. Furthermore, it's also hard to keep a game running and keep it interesting and fun, and there's a lot of exhausting creative work that goes into it, and for that, I want to thank every one of you: Current and former mods alike for everything you did for this game. I have had tons of fun in this game for going on two years now; I adore the premise, I adore everything I have been able to do with my characters, and the world I've been allowed to play them in. So thank you all for that. I have criticisms; they're not game-ruining for me, and they are not personal, but the game isn't the same as it was back when I joined, and it's not all positive. However, change is inevitable and I hope whatever change may come brings a balance and interest back to the game, because I would love to continue playing in it for two more years.

[battlebound]

I would agree with what you said about Witches vs Monsters and I think it might just be a point of view / character thing, ultimately. Some people are gonna find monsters more challenging or interesting to play and vice versa, or find that it depends on the character. Finding Monsters too easy and dead end was a large part of why I brought Steak back as a Witch - after he got used to the transformations and came back from brief ferality, he coped and I didn't have much to play with. But that is due to him as a character / possibly me as a player and not because Monsters are necessarily easier to deal with.

Edit: also I'm just thinking about a city which treats witches the way Qunari do mages in Dragon Age.

[fuelingfire]

I admit I found chimeras to be wildly having the short end of the stick balancewise, myself. They are explicitly weak to half the game, many monster powers AND an element, alongside a harder time psychologically due to the multiple animals, and in return they get.. um. They can breathe fire if they pick lion/goat/snake, nearly everything else is negated by their weakness or other monsters can do it without considering it a "power".

If a revamp does happen, I have an idea I'm hoping to suggest that would give them the flexibility and adaptability that they're supposed to have but really don't. ... specifically a power that lets them shift around the percentage of their animals freely with practice, but always requiring all three present. So your liongoatsnake could be evenly all three or decide she needs to be a furry goat eyed snake or just hooves for better mountain climbing or today she just feels like a scaly lioness or .. so on and so forth. Much adapting in between the three available beasts but still limited to them to balance a bit better "nearly everything can wreck you".

[battlebound]

okay, I may as well drop my thoughts in since I'm already here:

Information — this is my biggest problem with the game, ultimately, and one I've been reluctant to voice because I'm not sure I have very concrete suggestions on how to improve things. Aef's setting is pretty vast (certainly in comparison to other games I've been in) and does require a lot of information pages. But things feel very dense, while somehow not offering enough to really feel secure in going off and causing havoc. I feel like I've spent a lot of time reading about things only to find myself remaining uncertain on what I originally went looking for, and I don't want to bother you guys as mods every two seconds with FAQ comments that are ultimately very insignificant. You guys are busy people who are running a very awesome game for us and bogging you down in every small uncertainty is something I'd rather not do.

Just as a basic example of this, as Keith's player stated, we don't have any specific pages on the wildlife that can be found in the Wilde. The page on the Cwyld is somewhat helpful, but there's been so many references to other creatures and plants in events or quests that feel like they deserve their own catch-all entry so people can use them as flavour in their threads. And, though I've just realised this, there seems to be nothing explaining the Wilde in any real depth, which is kind of mindboggling to me given how much of a presence it has in the game. (Or at least for my idiot character).

Given that I know this could be a pretty big project, I'd also be willing to volunteer to help organise some of the pages if it's something you guys want to do.

Setting & Plot vs Sandbox — I love Aefenglom's setting, I really do, but as stated in the last section: it's a lot. And I think it affects just about everything as a result. I feel like you guys as mods have to keep a lot of balls in the air with all the different areas and goings on, and as players, the amount of choice can be overwhelming. I know I often feel hesitant trying to do anything contributory because I end up feeling like Sabrina-surrounded-by-pancakes.jpg when going to do something. I think the game is kind of straddling both plot and sandbox and it really needs to be one or the other, and maybe, if it goes plotty, there needs to be some decisions made about focusing on certain aspects of the game so it can be easier for people to handle.

I hope those made sense! They're things I've been thinking about a fair amount but never really tried putting into words, so I hope they were clear. And I just wanna say once more that I do recognise and appreciate the level of work you guys have to do as mods, and I only intend these suggestions as things that can hopefully make your work easier.

[stardustish]

+1 to that final point especially! The game does feel like it's trying to be both sandbox and plot, and it's lead to some pacing issues as well as a lack of buildup to/information about the plot-related events. I personally wouldn't mind either game direction, just as long as it's clearly defined.

[zewu_jun]

I'm still reading through but agreeing a lot with the comments left about the information being a bit confusing and spread out for players, as well as event transitions feeling lacking so that events feel somewhat disjointed or isolated. I think there are a lot of good parts in both the setting at large and the events that the game has. We have some cool potential in the Wilde as a setting with the vast places out there, and overall I think most of the events have a really good core concept. Facing enemies like Morgana or necromancers, containing Cwyld incidents or discovering new, big creatures, etc. Those were really interesting ideas that I believe we liked?

There does seem to be a bit of a problem with "what happened next?" or losing track of those results. The follow up ooc posts are nice, but I feel like it would stick better if the results were more organically included in the setting or layout of the next events. Maybe not everything and maybe not even in a big way. But say the attitudes change or there is a big hole in a certain area that still needs filled. It would be nice to turn that into another challenge for player characters, caused by their own actions in previous choices. And several have already mentioned the hope for streamlining or clarifying the actual ooc info pages, so that as well, but I do know that is a task that will probably need to be bit by bit or decided on, etc. I'm suggesting more of a lighter event patch just to help tie stuff together and give more details and options for engagement. It's easy to forget things over a few events for mods and players because of how much there really is so it's totally understandable. This could just help start creating continuous avenues or patterns people can track and help inform their choices and their engagement for future events.

The plot itself can also feel a bit vague at times? Again, I think there is just so much on the table as potential that it can be overwhelming or hard to parse through, but somewhere between combatting Cwyld issues and world exploration and politics the main goal does get a bit lost. I'm not saying to remove any of those, but it would help to pick and also reinforce a main focus, using the other plot goals as more secondary. I think that could help when trying to focus the info and give players more of an idea of in game challenges and limits, because we'll all have a better idea of what is a priority to the game? Whether people opt into different plots or not, it'd be easier to follow with a kind of waypoint to track. And that way the sandboxy fun doesn't get confused with potential plot and end up disappointing or something. I think sometimes, for me, events do feel a little like we hit a now for something completely different, which can feel discouraging. Not that I hate fluff and fun at all, just that I want to see little niblets of effects ripple through. But that is me!

A lot of this is also my preference for leading flavor text. I like having details that either tie point A and point B together between two events or lead players toward new avenues of potential or another step. I feel like it helps a lot to minimize that "what should I do?" feeling. Having the extra setting details can also just be a great starting point for players to jump in on things. And sometimes I do feel like details are not so much missing as just lost in the greater shuffle and end up feeling like dead ends. It's hard to say, but I tried to include some ideas here and I hope this helps.

[fulgency]

Definitely want to echo that I think if the game is to head into a plot-focus rather than sandbox, it would make a lot more sense and probably ease challenges for the modteam to pick one of the plots to follow and let other plot ideas take a secondary role. You can still have the other plots present and crop up, but I think they should serve to enhance the primary plot. Which I think is possible because I do believe the main threads that have been laid out tie into one another to some extent or another!

I think this would also serve to alleviate some of the disjointed feeling that much of the more main events tend to have, too. Because what happens in the main plot can impact the secondary, and to a certain extent vice versa.

[clickclickbang]

I want to try and lay out some thoughts here since I do have them, but I am bad at articulating. Also a huge pre-emptive "2020 has been the absolute worst so it is entirely possibly half of the "problems" are a side effect of 2020 being the absolute worse and either way: zero hard feelings about any of it"

I feel like there is too much going on, which is similar to what other people have said, and that it is all over the place. Between finding new cities and their problems, whatever problems are in Aefenglom (that, admittedly, I haven't seen much of since....basically the first few months aside from the kidnapping), "how the heck are Mirrorbound even getting pulled here" (which, again, I haven't seen much of), the Cwyld and what causes it, and SoL stuff, and the fact that all of the information gathered on those fronts is done on the Plot Investigations post, there is just way too much for any one player to keep track of, never mind the mods. While it's great that the mods want the players to uncover the plot, I don't think this way of doing it is actually sustainable as it's too scattered and not actually visible for other players. A better idea might be to maybe decide on Three Things You Can Look Into This Month that will be relevant in the next month or two and maybe a few Long Term Plot Hooks--for example, leading up to a plot about New City A, players could look into Weird People In the Wilde, Missing Goods from Outposts, and Weird Magical Fluctuations in Witches. Maybe that last one isn't leading to New City A, but is going to be relevant to a plot next month or in a few months after a few more weird things happen. That might keep things more focused for mods and better lead into big plots, though that brings me to another point...

Which is straight up, plots seem to come out of nowhere and almost no one has any actual investment in them. What are we doing? Where did these people come from? Why do we care? What effect is this going to have, actually, and will anyone remember this next time something comes up? The plot feels like a magic trick, and the important information about the plot feels like the magician's secrets: if you know, you know, but if you don't good luck figuring it out. And I'm sure that's not intentional! But that is what it feels like, and it does at times feel like it's on the players to share plot information that the mods should be conveying to keep everyone in the game OOCly on the same page and maybe figure out how to get their characters involved ICly. There desperately needs to be a concise timeline of events and plots in the game (and if there is one, it needs to be made easier to find) and perhaps a section on the plotting page or world info page for "Information About The World Players Have Found Out", such as the Dorchacht creation myth that differs from the Aefenglom, or the fact that ley lines are a thing? I feel like I missed that and only learned that ley lines are a thing from a comment on this post. This probably all ties back into there being just so much going on in this game and everything is so dense and scattered, and there really does need to be a refocus on something. Are we going to go more slice-of-life with a minor focus on plots? Are we going to focus on exploring the world and trying to figure out what's wrong here? Are we going to focus more on trying to get the Mirrorbound home? Personally my guess is all the new cities we're finding and what's going on in the world and why the Mirrorbound are here at all is connected, but it doesn't feel that way. They all feel like three separate plots, which is overwhelming and a lot to focus on.

TLDR: there is so much going in Aefenglom and at the same time no one knows what's going on in Aefenglom because it's all over the place.

[stopfen]

Hi. +1 I mentioned it somewhere but think either plot investigation needs to not be screened or some kind of progress bar on them so that people know what's going on.

I've shared parts of what I've found on, but been waiting to share all once I had it. But like I mentioned in my original comment...

Worth mentioning too that Dragon's tree quests earlier this year were also connected to this as well. But I can't find anywhere other than event posts where Ceria shows up, which makes it hard to get too for people who weren't there when the posts went up

[towards_okeanos]

I will bold the tl:dr; and keep details unformatted because while I don’t expect everyone to have the mental capacity to read my walls of text detailing my reasoning I still would very much like to get some points across.


It is 2020 and it is hell, so I believe it’s a good thing to scale down my expectations accordingly.
This year is uniformly bad GLOBALLY. So whatever valid reasons we all have to discuss certain aspects of our hobby and this game in particular, I think it would benefit everyone to remember this fact. It would benefit also to tailor expectations on all fronts to that same fact. ALL of us, mods, players, the immediate surroundings of both, have been affected in different ways by the shitshow that is this year. There is no escaping it. So whenever I speak of anything that could (hypothetically, potentially) use improvement I try to keep this in mind all the time. Because stuff just doesn’t happen on its own. Everything takes time, energy, work and will. It’s hard to have any if everything around you is burning.

When I have expectations I try to state them as openly and clearly as I have the skill too.
I have an impression that a lot of the criticism and discussion I see above can be summed: we expected something else from this game. And hey, It’s great that this is getting voiced because I remember midmonth posts with literal no or close to no interaction at all. So it’s awesome we are finally getting a discussion.

Fast plot-heavy action vs open-world sandbox, that’s a good question
As far as I see and people far more eloquent and precise have stated this above already, there are basically two approaches. From what I observe, Aefenglom currently skews more into open-world with a defined if slower going plot. There are things going on, tensions and direction, it’s really not all peachy like some people suggest. I cannot agree with arguments that it feels like a tv series with the monster of the week and occasional boss fight once a season because there is - as I mentioned - a general direction. It was faster and more involved in the beginning, but again 2020 clause, I am absolutely not surprised things slowed down.
So I will just define some terminology for how I see it:

Plot-heavy fast-paced dense gameplay - this one is where there’s something going on all the time, it requires heavy involvement both from mods (to produce content) and players (to keep up). It might be hard for people that don’t have so much time and mental capacity to devote to the game. Can be easily overwhelming because of the sheer amount of information there is to digest in a limited time frame.

Open-world sandbox adventure gameplay - this one is where there’s a general direction of the world evolving but a lot depends on particular people how they want to shape their experience of the game. So more weight is put into developing the setting so people have something to interact with. Can feel slow for people who would like more direct action.

Here my personal preferences lie with the second type. This is a hobby and I usually, 2020 being 2020, don’t have enough time nor energy to devote to keep up with a fast-paced meta-plot that would require near-constant involvement. Even disregarding the 2020 clause, I remember my time at the beginning of the game when it was a lot faster and I remember having literally NO clue what was going on and really struggling to find a place for my character anywhere.

If we’re speaking of keeping the long term interest, this is something that breaks it for me. I like to know what’s going on, how my character can relate and react, and I don’t like having to combat the near-constant FOMO and being behind all the things all the time. So I personally like the way things are right now.

Where the game should, or rather let’s be realistic, could go? Maybe more player plot events would help? I absolutely love the idea stated in comments above about mod-sanctioned space for player event/plot brainstorming workshop. It can happen that people who have ideas don’t have energy and people who have the energy don’t have ideas. Or they have a bare idea but don’t know how to turn it into an event plot? So it would be great to connect and brainstorm.
It’s a cooperative hobby, maybe it’s time to leverage that.

Neither Monsters nor Witches have it better.
Here’s the big one and I feel it’s a contentious point. There are voices that Witches Have It Easier (™) or the other way round. I tend to disagree on both counts.
I feel both have different styles and there’s a lot of lore for Witches that I have an impression is underutilized. It’s there, it’s just not used.

Monsters definitely get a lot more structure right at the very start but once the changes stop it can feel like there is not much to do. There’s the social element as they are still treated with suspicion while Witches generally don’t. There is ferality that in my opinion can be played in many different ways, and influence many different situations. But I don’t have a Monster character so it’s difficult for me to list examples here.

A Witch character can basically go in any direction the player chooses but they don’t get to play with cool stuff like body changes, full moons influence and all. They can go mad though, and I wouldn’t play down the severity of not getting Bonded and exploding a quarter of the city. The Witches need those Bonds more than Monsters do. Plus magic they practice influences and changes them too. That’s something I am actively using for Iskandar’s development.

We could all use more readily available information but let’s remember it’s a mountain of work to keep it current and complete.
A dedicated wikipedia is a true blessing. Just ask GRR Martin. While I agree it is not easy hunting for information between different lore pages (setting, bestiary, coven, faq), event pages (with their information and questions) and frequent ctrl-f use is inevitable, I also have some degree of experience with keeping structured documentation for a project.
Even just keeping it current and complete is a challenge for a living organism like an on-going game (or a book series to come back to my GRRM example). It would be a true lifesaver or at least a major improvement to have it for Aefenglom but it is A LOT of continuous work in addition to all the other work that the mod team is already doing.
So how is that realistic? That depends where the work and creative energy can go. Can it be invested into rewriting the information? Maybe the players could help. I really don’t have a solution for that.

That’s just me though. I still think it’s important to speak up and I’m happy we’re all having a discussion.

[battlebound]

I think you basically hit the nail on the head of what I've been trying to say about Witches and Monsters. Ultimately, I think they're pretty even - Monster stuff appeals to me less generally speaking, but that's a combination of me as a person and the characters I like to play - but some of the vagueness behind the Witch info (which is obviously done for player freedom) makes it seem like Witches have less inherent risk to their choice, which I don't think is true at all.

[galdorleod]

Hi mods! I am late to this, I know, but I figured it wouldn't hurt for me to add my thoughts to the pile anyway. I've read the other feedback given and skimmed through the longer discussions that branched from it, so I hope I don't repeat anything unnecessarily.

Game Scope - I think a lot of the current game problems boil down to this.

The scope of the game is currently much too large for it to be anything other than a sandbox game, where people pull from what information they have available to them about the setting and make their own fun via player plots and plot investigation. I, personally, have no problem with this kind of game, and I would not mind if it continued forward in mostly that fashion.

But in order for that to work, the game needs to have thorough, well-organized, and current information pages. Otherwise, we don't have the framework necessary for us to RP in a consistent way across multiple threads between multiple characters, or to conjure up player plots that mesh coherently with other established aspects of the game's setting.

If the game is to return to something more plot-heavy, then in my humble opinion, two things should probably happen. First, the scope of the setting should be vastly reduced - no need to keep the Northern Outpost, Underground, Cwyld, and Dorchacht all relevant and active every single week when the game is meant to be more focused on monthly plot events. Maybe just bring out those settings when necessary for a major side event or story mission. I'm sure it takes a lot of mod work to have all of that going on, too. That effort could be going into fleshing out Aefenglom itself, like people already mentioned above - which areas like the Mirrorbound? Which don't? etc etc.

Second, a more plot-focused game will....... um... well, I feel like there's no way for me to say this without coming across as totally ungrateful, and that really isn't my intention. I echo EVERYTHING that has been said about 2020 being awful, and you guys doing so much hard work as it is for infrequent recognition. But a more plot-focused game is going to need faster, more responsive mod communication with the players.

AGAIN. I AM AWARE that the slow response time from mod has already been brought up in the past and that it hasn't been entirely in your control, so I'm really not blaming you for this. I'm just thinking, in the interest of preventing future problems, that it's probably going to be necessary for a plot-heavy Aefenglom to work.

You guys included a reminder about not contacting your personal accounts with modding matters, and I'll fess up to being someone who has done that twice in the past 2 months. But both times, it was because I knew that commenting/PMing had an extremely slow response time and I had an issue that was, in one instance, an emergency relating to AC, and in the second instance, it was time-sensitive because my character apped into the game halfway through the month and AC was in two weeks. In the second instance, I waited beyond the time period written on the mod post and still hadn't heard back, which is why I poked a mod in person (and, justifiably, was sternly reminded of the rule). But at that point, my question still wasn't answered, and I needed to get a thread started for AC and I had less than 10 days to get it done, which left me scratching my head when it came to the plot/setting-related question I had.

Ultimately, it was a relatively minor issue, and AC is and always was my responsibility. Plus, since I'm happy being a sandbox player I can just go with it either way (and I handwaved the discrepancies once I did get an answer back). But, I don't know if the more plot-focused players in the future would look at a similar issue the same way. If the mod team feels that they might not have the time/energy/whatever to be as on-hand and attentive as a plot-heavy game could demand, then I would vastly prefer to see this game stay sandbox-oriented and have the information pages get amazing makeovers.

Witch Disadvantages - This has also been discussed a lot already, but I wanted to add:

- I'd on the side who see Monsters as having more in-universe disadvantages compared to Witches.
- It seems to me that the real difference between the downsides of the two is that Monsters' struggles are much more clearly defined and are, for the most part, not optional. In a lot of ways, the specific downsides are what's fun about playing a monster in the first place. For Witches, while the downsides are there, they feel much more optional or easy to play around.
- Witches and the classes of magic could use a revamp overall, in my opinion. I know you just had mod applications, and maybe this is sort of precocious of me, but... if you want help, I'd be willing! I have a lot of ideas, probably more than I can get into here since this is already too long. But, what if Witches had to pick a subclass of magic to specialize in, essentially giving them a "species" like Monsters have? What if those specializations came with specific advantages and disadvantages, such that they were harder to play around and influenced the OOC decision of which subclass to pick? etc. Something like that.

Thanks for reading all of this, I've rambled long enough. Thank you so much for your hard work, I really love this game and I want to see it last. Happy Thanksgiving!!