wellcome | Wellstone Post 2.2

The Wellstone Post

Issue 2.2, Wellstone, Middle of Nowhere
Welcome to the Wellstone Post! We'll be sending one of these toward the end of each month with OOC updates and hints for the next month.

If you’re interested, join the game discord! It’s a good chill time.

Calendar

We are entering the third and final month of our timeloop. Here's what we're looking at:

2.3: July
1st: Event plotting, AC opens
5th: AC closes
20th: TDM, Wellstone Post
26th: Apps open

As a reminder, we have shifted AC! Doing AC at the end of the cycle was a little much for us when we also had to process apps and set up the new cycle. Also, we're all adults and we wanted to make AC a little easier to meet.

You can read over the activity check mechanics in detail here, but the tl;dr is that AC is now going to happen at the beginning of the third month in a cycle, in this case, July.

To account for the fact that everyone has a month less, we're lowering the overall requirements, and waiving it entirely for folks who apped the month before (so June folks will have a free pass and will just need to check in). We'll accept proofs from the prior three months, so feel free to submit things from April, May, and June!

Hopefully that all makes sense, but if anyone has questions, let us know below! We're just trying to make things easier for everybody, pretty much.

FEEDBACK

It's that time again! Thank you to everyone in this game for making it such a wonderful, chaotic, heartfelt cozy space. We appreciate you and it so, so much!

We’re trying stuff, throwing things at the wall, and making things up as we go along, and this kind of feedback really helps us in terms of knowing what is fun for y’all and what you’d like this game to look like. It was deeply helpful to hear from y'all last time, so please don't be shy! Your former art-school mod craves feedback.

Thank you everyone! Please post your answers below under the comment header.

And now, the weather

Well, you all knew it was coming. Near the end of this very hot month, clouds gather darkly on the horizon out in the desert. The hot winds blowing through town begin to pick up, blasting fiercely against the sides of the buildings. Sand whirls itself into small, ominous dust devils.

Strangely enough, flashes of light can also be seen out in the desert, both in the clouds and not. Distant buzzing, shrieking, and rumbling also roll across the town in moments of stillness.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Game Pace
How is the pace of the game feeling? How does the structure of event + mini-event mid-month impact your play?

In general, I think it’s perfect! I appreciate that I’m confident that my threads will keep moving and people will stay active, but also things aren’t moving so fast that I feel like I’m left behind or slowing anyone down. I also think the monthly events and mini-events are great.

The one thought I’ve had recently (and I realize it might be a silly thought) is that it might be nice to periodically have a sort of…catch-up month where there is no monthly plot? Because people tag at a slower pace (which I love!) I sometimes feel like I’m starting to get a little over my skis, so to speak—trying to guess how an older thread is going to shake out while still keeping Pal on top of whatever new horror a month brings. It might be nice to have a month once in a while where there aren’t new metaplot things happening for both catching up on older threads and giving characters space to explore in a more freeform way.

Horror & Comedy
It’s perfect! I’m not super into grimdark, but I’m also not into slapstick. In particular, I think you do a good job of creating a tone and setting where there are stakes *for the characters* even if something is hilarious *for the players*

Metaplot
Have you had enough opportunity to engage in the metaplot? Do you find yourself wishing for more or less information?

Again, A++. In particular, I have really appreciated my interactions with the mods where I’ve asked metaplot-related questions. It may sound basic, but it’s really helpful that you ask follow-up questions or say “if Pal wants to do x, he might get more info, so let us know.” I feel like my character has to do the work of discovery, but I, as a player, don’t have to sit here guessing the secret password.

Anything else?
What are we doing right? What could we do to make the game work better for everyone? Don't hold back! We covet your thoughts!

I love the suggestion of having a “here’s what characters have discovered”! Especially as the game goes on and lore adds up (and new people join who haven’t been here from the beginning) having some kind of ooc mechanic for saving this info would be super useful. fwiw, I think I’d prefer it be separate from the cr meme, maybe a different sort of regularly-occurring post altogether. That way, if someone (ie me) wants to look something up six months from now because I’ve forgotten when Pal discovered x thing and want to reference it, I know right where to look.

Wellstone Post 2.2

(in the right spot this time!)