Event Result Notes!

[avalonmods]

Hello everyone! The log will go up shortly, but we wanted to make sure to deliver the poll results and information so you have it. Please click on the cut below to see the points breakdowns, results, NPC info, and bonuses.

Total characters: 235 (main comm membership -mod journal -unprocessed drops counted from inbox)

Percents are rounded UP to the nearest percent to be as kind as possible.

Avoid extra tragedy: 15%
Minimum percent to succeed: 20%
With unlocked bonuses: 25%

STONE GIANT = MISSION FAILURE
24 participants
6 qualifying threads x 3 points = 18 points
-1 player disruption
Total points = 41 / 235 = 19%

Result Notes:

• As the party catches up with the stone giant, the leaders of the ritual (who will have come with) will tell people how to activate their spirit guardian: hold their hand out before them, palm up, and cast their most powerful spell before them. As the spell casts, recite "Use my life to strengthen yours" and give the spirit guardian a name. It may come to you at that very moment, as if it is a part of you. The tattoo will then burn and glow as if magma on the skin, and the spirit guardian will climb out of it as if it is a portal allowing it into this universe. It is a shadow creature, and may take a meaningful form to the character (their favorite animal, the silhouette of someone important to them, a cool character that deeply affected them in their childhood, up to you!) Those who did not go this route can find out how to release them later.
• Those who released their spirit guardians to help fight will be thanked by the spiritual leaders who had been prepared to lead the Fall Equinox Ritual, and be rewarded with a vial of water each. It is said to be ancient water from the time of the Stone Giant before he was originally laid to rest. Placing it on the lips of someone will draw life back to them no matter how long they have been dead without ritual or locating the person's spirit. (leicesters, colchismagecraft, mayoninofukucho, silky_bearing, tantailizing, and impostersyndrome receive. Others provided no evidence of tattooing in threads.) Though they did not succeed in stopping the giant, their trials in receiving and growing the guardians and being brave enough to bring them to fight are worth rewarding.
• NPC Notes: Archimedes will meet the party halfway there with horses to speed their journey to try to catch up with the huge steps of the giant. Characters who fought this route will be allowed to keep their horse if they so choose as thanks for their bravery, so long as they haven't shown cruelty to animals in the past. You do not need to feel obligated to take the horse if you do not think you can care for it, Archimedes is happy to take them all home.
• NPC Notes: Morganna is displeased. She is likely to ask higher prices on those who find her summoning spell for the time being, and unlikely to assist in soothing things over with the fairies...
• ...Many of which are also displeased. The reason why will be revealed by those who went to Celliwig.
• The stone giant kneels down in the middle of the Forest of the Felled and, once the spirits are completely consumed, let out a loud, ground shaking yell. The glowing stops and he ceases to move. The spirits appear to be gone now, and the forest travelable.
• The Forest of the Felled will be added as a location at the end of the month.

DRAGON = MISSION FAILURE
29 participants
14 dragon slaying experience x 1 point bonus = 14 points
-1 player disruption
Total points = 42 / 235 = 18%

Result Notes:

• Celliwig is burned to the ground. Survivors will be making the trek to Camelot, making Camelot overcrowded between both Celliwig and Lestari refugees. Space will be strained; characters may be asked to room together with other people in order to make room for more people.
• The dragon flies away once his job is done. There has been a fair amount of damage done, so he is injured. Location is unclear, we may find out more later!
• The last person to fight the dragon is (but fails to slay): Feral Hawk (@notquitetamed) - Can invite any other players to do this thread with you. However, since it was a failure, you can choose to pass it to the next person if you do not want your character to take that role. Please let us know ASAP if you choose not to do this and we will pass it down to the next person selected via RNG. However, the dragon reveals the following information: It is the necromancer's fault, and therefore Celliwig and Camelot's for waking Kymbyr, that the Stone Giant was awakened and its home was destroyed. Now Celliwig's home is destroyed in turn. It doesn't stick around to attack after that.
• Authorities and players who attempt to find Kymbyr will find them with one arm around Yanira, broken out of jail thanks to wonderful participants in this month's dark web quests. They say the following: "You woke up a great Necromancer to clean up a hells gnarly forest. You're welcome. We're skipping town. I'm totes thinking Miami. Not telling when or where, but you guys are going to save eeeverything, so I'm thinking it's just another long nap until we're free." (Bonus not unlocked, so Kymbyr and Yanira get away.)
• Celliwig will be archived in a comment as a former location. Ruins of Celliwig will be added as a location at the end of the month.
• NPC Notes: King Arthur will have been present and attempting to help with slaying the dragon.

LESTARI = MISSION SUCCESS
44 participants
23 healers present x 1 point bonus = 23 points
Total points = 67 / 235 = 29%

Result Notes:

• The majority of participants went to Lestari, meaning that a significant chunk of the population was saved. Survivors will make their way to Camelot, making Camelot overcrowded between both Celliwig and Lestari refugees. Space will be strained; characters may be asked to room together with other people in order to make room for more people. (Players may determine if they choose to play with this.)
• NPC note: Merlin will have come with this party to help with some of the heavy lifting of debris and trying to save as much life as possible.
• Survivors explain some of the rumors around what they heard the giant was: The Stone Giant is an ancient beyond ancient being laid to rest long before the age of men and gods that would swallow deceased souls and pull them into the River of Lost Souls, where they would slowly lose themselves until they cease to exist as separate entities and become nothing but energy to be put back into the universe. In essence, those souls no longer exist and do not go to any promised afterlife. They are just Gone.
• Unlocked bonus: The dragon is fleeing, so he will not be coming back for his hoard, and treasures are therefore available to anyone who wants to spend the time excavating them.
• Unlocked bonus: Along with a fair amount of technology recovered before it was burned, including technomagic spells such as informative holograms, video games you can project your consciousness into, and blueprints/prototypes of cyborg flesh they were working on (technomagic-based prosthetics that react to your magic to act like a normal arm). These technologies will be made available in Camelot.

Please note that October, November, and December are going to be much chiller so this will be the last "heavy" event of the year. (December will be a free AC month as well.) Think of it like the season 1 finale. We don't intend on overwhelming anyone during the holidays.

Comments

[notquitetamed]

Me given a reason to have my character fail at something? Yeah I'm up for it and even have an idea to make it work great IC. Totally am golden with plenty of injury too.

[avalonmods]

Great! Then we will leave that with Hawk.

[afoolshope]

I forgot to link my guardian tattoo thread, does that mean I can’t do the prompt anymore? Not getting the resurrection water reward is fine, just wanted to make sure I can still use it as a prompt. Thank you!

[tempredmental]

Yeah... I missed out on adding my vote to the poll (not that it seems my vote would have made a difference in the results anyway, so I don't feel so bad haha) because my tattoo thread didn't get to the actual tattooing in time? Like, there's nothing in that thread, yet, about Keith getting it, but he's going to. So, I'm curious how to handle this, too.

[pureyang]

I also forgot to link my tattoo thread so I am also curious about that!

[avalonmods]

Players can always participate in any prompt they want! The linking only counted toward getting bonus points in the poll and the reward. The idea behind it was to give a large boost to increase chances of success in the poll given that September was a busier month for people, so anyone who participated in the prompt was able to claim 3 extra points for the cause. It definitely does not limit anyone from participating on their own terms.

[mayoninofukucho]

If I may hop in here, it would have been a bit kinder mechanics-wise if players would only have needed to confirm if their characters got a spirit guardian tattoo with no proof required. I'm mainly thinking of scenarios where people either didn't get to that point in their thread yet or simply couldn't find a partner to thread it out with.

I believe most players really care about this game's world, and being able to influence the outcome of events so greatly is exciting, so being unable to attain a bonus that could have turned the battle around (and a really cool reward!) for reasons out of one's control is a bit of a damper.

Feedback

[heart_demands]

As best as possible, I would like to summarize an overall impression that I have gleaned from my CR, and folks are free to +1 or add thoughts as it pertains to them. Anyone who responds, please be respectful and focus on Constructive Criticism.

1. The game's events are still suffering from "Wall of Text" syndrome. Many of us end up using several RL days just to parse what's going on and reconcile that against what our CR is doing in order to address how our characters respond to events. There's either too much going on in every single event, or the plot-heavy stuff that demands so much text to explain it is happening too often.

2. Due to that turnaround time, many of us don't even have a chance to START a thread before a results poll's time is up. How can I respond if I don't know what my character is doing? For something this significant, a whole month would have been preferable.

3. This is exacerbated by events being started in the middle of the month rather than the start of it, yet AC disincentivizes carrying threads over from month to month -- while rapid-response threads are more important to answering polls.

4. This creates a feedback loop where, over the course of several events, some of us feel overwhelmed by the plot entirely. What is Celliwig? Why do I care? Who are the Lestari? If you're not fully participating in every single event - and have someone around to explain older events to you - you lose enough context to meaningfully participate in the next one.

5. "The next 3 months will be chiller" does not absolve the heavy hits we already took over the last month. I phrased it as feeling like we get to dance on the rubble.

I say all of this as a former mod myself in the hopes that things will be better for myself and others who genuinely want to engage with plot but not at the pace that it's being presented.

[roseeclair]

Honestly, I agree with a lot of the points brought up, not to mention that with the Stone Giant scenario, a lot of people didn't know that this would be required to be threaded out in order participate in the poll, lowering the chances of success even more.

Like I've said before, it really is interesting and even exciting to give the players this much control of the plot, but in this particular instance it felt like... giving someone the keys to a car and telling them to drive when they haven't had any lessons yet. A crash was inevitable. One good solution I've read on others' plurks is that having more time for event plotting and polls would be helpful. I know this time it was already doubled to four days, but perhaps something closer to a week, possibly a little more might work, like you did for the Tournament polls. That way people with more demanding IRL schedules or with different levels of reading speed and focus have a better chance of participating, and just feel more relaxed in general, while still keeping the high stakes intact.

Hopefully that makes sense. Thank you for being so willing to trust characters with directing the plot and for being willing to listen to us!

+1

[dottedline]

Agreed with pretty much all of this, especially the wall of text that is events. The recaps at the top are useful, but that only does so much and doesn't actually tell us what the options are for the prompts. (Case in point: the goose prompt for this month. The recap just goes "btw the goose is loose" and doesn't explain we can catch or keep them. You've gotta wade through the dense paragraph underneath that.)

I also had no idea that threads were even needed for the poll? And the poll was only up a few days before results were announced? Granted it wasn't as if Azul was going to get involved with all of that, but for everyone else who might have that feels way too short a turnaround time.

Honestly, I think that if an event is going to be this big, it needs to be started earlier in the month or for the lead up to be much, much more obvious. This was surprisingly game-changing, and I don't think any of us expected it to be.

[floatsaway]

Agreeing with a great majority of this, but I especially want to focus on point number 3.

The fact that Events are started in the middle of the month, and AC requirements do not allow for threads to carry into the next month is extremely limiting. I know the AC requirement is very low - a 5 comment thread from your character - but in instances like Events, where player activity is increased, I feel like these should be set towards the start of the month to facilitate that intense tagging speed/activity and THEN bolster it towards the end of said month with quests and the like, which have far less In Game consequences and impact than the large and very Plot Heavy Events.

In essence, I feel like the event and quest schedule should be flipped. Events towards the start of the month, and quests toward the middle/end...or, if this is not feasible, then allow threads to roll over into the next month up to a set date of perhaps a week or so?

Re: Feedback

[eightfoldfiend]

I agree that an event like this probably should be introduced sooner, so people can get threads together and start plotting, even if the event itself is posted at a later time.

It would probably also be nice for events like this to have something on the home front. For example, for Triage maybe some people staying in Camelot to perform a ritual that +1s the other groups? Something that has impact but is low key enough for players not interested in high octane action to take part.

+1

[bakudan_bambino]

Agreeing especially on points made in 2, 3 and 4

+1

[theskyaccepts]

I know that I struggle with the Wall of Text and it makes it difficult to want to engage since I can't parse the information. While the summaries are helpful, I feel like they could just break down the information a little more.

While I appreciate the game's event-a-month schedule, I do find that if we're going have to bigger events, that schedule should become a little more flexible.
It also feels like every event just has so much going on, and while the variety of things is great, it also gets really overwhelming and I think some of the events can be scaled back.

In addition to 2

[sulit]

I'd like to voice my agreement with all of this, but especially point 2 with a further note of how the tabulating of the poll results can mean railroading the game into event failure:

I've noticed during my time in this game that most polls only generate about 50% participation. On par with that, we had 100 responses in this poll out of 235 characters. This is normal! For whatever reason, about half the playerbase is busy or on hiatus or taking an unofficial break or otherwise occupied on a given weekend; and that's perfectly okay.

What isn't okay is assuming that those not participating in the poll have all explicitly chosen to not participate in IC efforts. That is not only punishing them ICly for OOC circumstances, but also punishing the rest of the game by making their nonparticipation count as a mark against the whole endeavor. Ultimately, this means that the game at large had virtually no chance of achieving these objectives simultaneously. We only achieved the Lestari one by grace of nearly every combat healer choosing that option. As a player, this is incredibly demoralizing and has the (I assume opposite) effect of making it feel like we never had a chance to effect the outcome begin with.

If you intend to make a poll like this in the future, not only would I apply the above suggestion to lengthen the poll to several weeks or a whole month, but I would also add a specific option for those who are choosing not to participate. Then you have a clear idea of how many players have explicitly voiced their choices. If at that point you want to make an option difficult, by all means raise the % needed; but it's much more palatable to fail by our own IC actions than being encumbered with something that can't be helped, like OOC circumstances.

[avalonmods]

Hello! I just wanted to let you know that there is a lot to read through in this and replies to this so we want to give it adequate time and consideration. I wanted to comment first though to let everyone know we see you and are going to take the time to properly consider and discuss received feedback even though we are replying to quick questions on this post.

+1

[tsumtsuki]

Echoing all of this!

To add my own two cents: I really appreciate the effort to provide so many different ways for characters to get engaged in events, but this one in particular feels like two events forced together into one. I understand that both of these idea rely heavily on the season, and I think separately both would be fun to play around in, but especially in light of the poll results, the tones of the two prompts are completely different. I personally struggled a lot with figuring out what to do for the second prompt, both from an IC and OOC standpoint, and found myself feeling odd for wanting to lean into the first set when two days later in game but in the same post shit was gonna be hitting the fan. I'm not sure what the best solution for this would be, whether it be reducing the scale of events or making different posts for things that happen on different days with drastically different tones, but that's just what is going through my head right now.

I hope that makes sense...!

[trueltning_fury]

Thank you for all of this and a general +1, but also...

I do my best to diligently read all ooc info, roundups, quest board, etc, but I could find nothing about the guardian tattoos. It's in the TDM only, and current players aren't allowed to toplevel in the TDM. This means that a major component of bonuses was reliant on 1. checking the tdm, 2. tagging into a toplevel with a prompt that would get your character a guardian tattoo, and 3. threading far enough to be able to safely assume (??) that your character would have the tattoo in time for the event. Maybe I'm just old fashioned but even TDMs that are considered game canon have never had game-breaking plot components tucked away in a TDM prompt.

The walls of text are absolutely daunting, the amount of setting color completely buries the actual relevant mechanics, game info, etc. But on top of that, I've noticed the tendency to have things in there that would potentially be relevant to the game at large - and in this case, literally causes an event to fail due to lack of player participation - only located in a post that is technically optional and that a lot of players can't get around to even looking at because we're focused on our tag load in the actual game comm. In a smaller game, I could see where participating in a tdm-only mechanic coming back to affect the game as a whole would be a neat, if frustrating, gimmick. In a game this size, it's not a good idea. The mods can put whatever they want wherever they want but it feels really inconsiderate to hinge game-breaking bonuses on a mechanic buried in the TDM, which established players can only access if someone toplevels using that prompt or a wildcard where the existing player essentially railroads someone else's TDM to try to gain this bonus.

I'd prefer that if something that is going to be used to affect the game is in the TDM, that means it's also somewhere else, like the quest board. Yes, there is a note that you can use TDM prompts in the main game comms, but if you don't have time this month to even look at the TDM, these mechanics come as a complete surprise after it's too late. Right now the TDM is basically a third event, behind the monthly event and the quest board, and it's just too much to keep up with.

+1 to pretty much everything

[apshot]

To a lot of this and thank you Fru for putting this up because you know I just waffle around.

A lot of these points I have expressed on my plurk the last couple of days and to friends of mine in game. Again, I want it to be known that I love this game. I love you mods and the playerbase. There are so many good things going on here and it's amazing! 235 characters? Goodness! I can't imagine what modding a game of this size would be especially with the explosion of people that you got.

However, I think the game does suffer from pacing issues. You guys are giving us so much that it's almost overload. We need a little time to be able to really engage in the world you're giving us so that we can keep it going. I literally took a hiatus this month so that I could focus on my threads here and get them wrapped up because I keep loading myself up so that I can keep pace with the game - because my character would and I just want to participate that much. If things were slowed down just a little or spaced out better, I think that there would be more participation. Many people I've talked to just feel lost and overwhelmed. If you miss one event you're completely lost and have no idea what's going on.

I still say that game important information needs to be more accessible. Streamlined. If there is something that could affect the game and the players, then that needs to be highlighted. It doesn't matter if that information is in the TDM, quests, or the event. There needs to be something that tells us "hey this could be important on down the road" or "hey pay attention to me."

With this event, with the severity of it, more time to plot and plan things out should have been provided. Then in addition to all of this... We have 3 chill months? It definitely feels like "oh these heavy things happened now it's relaxy chill times" when that's not really what's going to happen. There's going to be fall out and aftermath to deal with alongside of "well what next" as we head into the holidays. I do feel as though it had been a bit rushed instead of everything being given time to percolate and fester and build. Like we just got Celliwig and now it's gone? We weren't really given enough time to really enjoy it and do something with it before it's gotten taken away? So all of the work our characters have done to try to get on their good side means nothing? ...That's kind of how it felt reading that post today.

My filter isn't working real well right now ( lol treatment reviews at work today ) so I don't mean to be rude if I'm coming across that way. But again thank you for everything and for taking the time to listen to us. It really does mean a lot.

Feedback Response (To all above as of 8:35pm PST on 9/22/21)

[avalonmods]

So to start this off, I want to let everyone know that we have heard a lot of feedback and have gleaned the following points from it on the recent events result post. We want to state that we have also seen a lot of positive feedback in other locations, such as the event post itself, plurk, discord, and private conversations. To this end, we want to make certain that it is not only the loudest voices being heard before we make changes. (Especially since the mods have jobs and other obligations, so some of these changes may be subject to availability.)

To start off, we've made a summary of points brought to our attention and would like to present them to the players as well as any thoughts we may have had on them. At the end of this post, we will include a list of changes that we will poll the community on to see what the community at-large would like to do.

1. "Wall of Text" events- there's too much going on in every event, or it takes a long time to mentally work out plot-heavy posts.

Our events aren't actually that much longer than most when compared to other games. However, it's been brought to our attention that our layout makes it harder to read and parse through. We're happy to consider finding a better way to break it up and display events. Bear with us a little while so we can figure this out.

2. Not enough time to start a thread before the result of the poll.

No one was able to start a thread before the poll. The poll is closed before the log goes up. This has been the case for most polls, so that we are able to determine outcomes for players to understand where their thread can head on an OOC level. This is why we post plotting posts ahead of the game, to allow players to discuss OOC what they want to do with their characters during the events and decide ahead of posting their threads. The only thread that was asked for was for bonuses, so players could be like "Hey! I participated in that prompt, I can help extra!" It was not a duty or requirement. That is why it is worth 3 points as the highest bonus because it is the only bonus that had required action. We recognize that perhaps the concept of bonuses had not been properly explained on our part and will seek to reword in the future.

3. Events start in the middle of the month and so it's difficult to get AC:

The following prompt sets are offered to the entire game throughout the month and are considered game canon and available to all characters:

• Monthly Updates - posts right before the start of each month; setting-related small things, not necessarily prompts but ideas you can form your own prompts with)
• QuestBoard - posts right before the start of each month; prompts for do-gooders and a separate set for morally gray and villainous types; completely avoidable if you don't want to use them, posted before the TDM so that newbies can use these as additional prompts if they don't see anything that interests them in the... It should be noted that these are not considered events at all and are not going to host game plots.
• Test Drive Meme - 1st of every month. All prompts in the TDM are considered game canon (as in, these things ARE happening in the city, whether or not they're with characters people do or don't app in end up counting) and have been clearly labeled as such since day 1. TDM prompts are frequently used to set up or lead into events. The only limitation that we ask is that new players are the only ones to top level on the post; all players may use the prompts for logs, network posts, inbox threads, or anywhere they want really. This has and always will be the case.
• The Monthly Event - Plotting on 18th and log on the 20th was actually decided by player vote to see what the best spacing and format would be. Bear in mind that apps only close on the 14th and thus would leave no adjustment period for new players (and also potentially heavily stress the mods out due to lack of time between apps and writing). Pushing it later would force it to overlap too heavily with the TDM, Questboard, and monthly updates which are all at the start of the month. Additionally, on the mod side of things, we are also attempting to process activity checks and rewards and update setting info, manage hiatuses, and more.


AC is designed to make sure that you are starting at least one new thing a month and the game offers plenty to go off of throughout the month, not just all at once. It does not need to be the event, but even if it is, AC allows for up to 7 days of the previous month to still count. While we are not a game designed for boomeranging threads, our AC is designed to make sure that players aren't months behind in the game. This is a deliberately chosen pace.

To clarify and better identify the function of each avenue of prompt offerings, we will add a breakdown to the FAQ sometime in the near future.

4. Trouble keeping up with the storyline/important plots:

If ever you are having trouble with the game, we have a game progression page you may consider checking out! It is updated after plot-heavy events and uses bullet points to make following the storyline easier.

In events themselves, in order to provide enough description and information for players, we try to include details in the events. We already get loads of questions as it is with the included details; hundreds more that not everyone is going to read through in the questions thread is going to make things even more challenging to coordinate for both players and mods. HOWEVER, as stated before, we are open to looking into alternative formats to maybe break the information up to make it easier to digest.

5. "The next 3 months will be chiller" does not absolve the heavy hits we already took over the last month. I phrased it as feeling like we get to dance on the rubble.

That statement was not intended to absolve anything, it was to let people know that we have no intention of forcing a heavy plot on anyone during the holiday months, which are often the busiest months of the year for most people. The whole format of Avalon is based on player response having control over the situation, and the consequences that follow. We're not just going to pretend like nothing happened, but we still feel obligated to inform our players that they can expect things to lighten up going forward for a few months. Sorry for using the word "chill" that is just how I talk and it was late at night for me. I apologize for typing informally, as it seems to have caused a misunderstanding.

6. People weren't aware that threads were required to participate in the poll.

That is because they were not. A bonus of 3 points was offered to anyone who did participate in the TDM prompt. It should be keyly noted that this is a BONUS, not a requirement. It was only ever intended to be a bonus to help even out the number of busy people during this month. We considered delaying the event, but it only ever gets less convenient during the holiday for people. Anyone can thread any prompt they want even if they do not participate in the poll. The poll is just used to determine outcomes.

7. It was inevitable that some of the missions failed.

Yes. The event prompt set was called "Triage" because the intention was that it would not be possible to save all three missions. Triage (in very simplified terms) is a system by which emergency responders categorize individuals based on who they can save and who they cannot. The intention of the event is that at least one of the missions would fail.

I want to talk about this in specific because it has been stated many times that this game is not intended to be a game that only has good ends. There are absolutely bad ends possible in Avalon. There are OK ends, good ends, best ends. They've been story mapped out based on potential player decisions, and even going off script from those in some cases, we are willing to work out a new route if our predicted routes don't account for potential response. That said, if you are looking for the promise that the heroes are always going to win or that the mods are going to easily hand wins to players, I cannot give that to you. Avalon exists as a game designed for player decisions to affect the plot, not player decisions to affect the plot but only toward a different positive result.

That said, most player-decided events do trend toward positive. The previous two poll-based events before this one had successful/victorious results as evidence that it is absolutely possible for players to win with similar odds and poll styles. (And, actually, even less response time.)

8. Polls should be 1 week - 1 month long.

We are willing to move it to 1 week in the future. However, as the pace of players varies greatly, we are not going to hold a month-long poll. Every poll stops generating responses after a week's time when we've offered them longer than a week. We want to keep the momentum going, and all polls are based on intent of action, not dependent on the individual threads. (We literally only asked where your character decided to go, which can be decided via plotting without starting your thread yet.)

9. This event had no lead up.

It was set up over time, actually! The stone giant was mentioned as being present in Lestari's introduction. Though we called it “mechanical-stone” feet, for the sake of simplicity we began calling it a stone giant. Celliwig has been an intentional moral gray area and has also been notably established as having been isolated for hundreds of years, which limits their knowledge of current events or reliability of outside sources. As for Lestari, it was not on the map and was never intended to be added to the map. Additional fun fact: the word "lestari" means "permanent," which was like calling the Titanic unsinkable. The dragon appeared in the introduction of Lestari was stated to be dangerous and only calm so long as no one touched its hoard. Dragon-slaying laws have been brought up intentionally to state that they're illegal to kill unless certain circumstances present themselves (like the dragon burning down a town). Kymbyr is introduced as a necromancer and a well-known one, and was introduced as someone who could clear out the Forest of the Felled. At the start of the month with a dark web quest to break their friend out of prison, establishing them as more morally aligned to bad behavior than good. Celliwig from the very beginning has been on the side of bad producing results just as much as 'good' people can, and sometimes being necessary to move forward. (Such as through the Forest of the Felled.) It was all set up over time, though we do not intend on clearly labeling all foreshadowing of future events. We understand people like warnings of anything to change, but we do intend on plot twists in the future and now.

10. The summaries don't contain details.

We're going to try a different format for events soon to avoid the wall of text. Summaries will likely remain the same because if they contain details, they're not summaries, but we hope this new format will alleviate the text wall.

11. I didn't know the poll would be important / have consequences.

The format of this game is that player actions have a strong effect on the outcomes of the game. If there is a poll for IC action, that means that players have a strong effect on the outcome of whatever that poll is about. This is not the first time that polls have had drastic possibilities (see: Arthur's life was on the line in the Hall of Mirrors). This game does not have guaranteed positive outcomes. It is absolutely possible to get both good and bad routes and turns in Isle of Avalon.

12. The poll is unfair because we calculate out of the total number of characters instead of only the ones who choose to participate. People should have to opt in to not participate for them to count.

I understand your points here, but this was compensated for in another way-- namely, making the percentages so low and putting bonuses in place to add weight to different circumstances and reward participation in a month that offered fewer opportunities (which is why the thread option was weighted to 3 instead of 1). That said, this event was explicitly designed so that not all three missions this time could be achieved (we even named it “Triage,” after the emergency process of deciding which patients should be prioritized and which are too far gone to save).

Despite that, the players who did participate actually were just shy of passing all three options. 20% of the total is 47 points, not individual characters. Celliwig was only behind by 5 points (5 characters or fewer with bonuses). The Stone Giant was only 6 points shy (2 threads or 6 players without the bonus.) If there was a higher percent cap in a game of 235 characters, I would absolutely agree with you that adjustments are needed. However, this was not an insurmountable amount nor was it something that even came close to the game never having a chance to succeed at, particularly given that Lestari overkilled the requirement to pass.

Not counting any player who doesn't respond to the poll with what direction their character is intending on going after plotting/discussion would result in every mission passing without effort, which would just mean that you get positive results by default instead of having any possibility of negative results, particularly given the majority of the game's characters are hero types. Games in which players' choice matters cannot function if it only matters so far as positive outcomes are possible.

13. Pacing issues

It might have seemed to quicken up but it is the natural progression of the elements that have been set up coming together (as noted previously). Rather than having this all spread out over the holiday months, we wanted to wrap up the current bit then allow for the next few months be a bit of down time to both allow characters to ICly process events and for players to be able to not be burdened with more plot heavy things during a time where activity tends to be lowest. Our format is based on the principle that this game can accommodate non-combative/adventure characters so we always include one action/adventure prompt set and one more mundane/SOL prompt set, but we can see if people are interested in reducing the number of prompts under each and see if there's a little more focus possible.

LIST OF ITEMS TO BE BROUGHT TO A FEEDBACK POLL FOR THE WHOLE GAME SO EVERYONE HAS A CHANCE TO VOICE THEIR OPINION:

Reformat events to be easier to digest/locate key information and important details.

List, description, and intended function of the following game mechanics in the FAQ: Monthly Updates, QuestBoard, Test Drive Meme, Events.

Polls for player decisions should delay event posts for 1 week after the initial plotting post.

If the above 1 week poll time passes, would you rather: the plotting post be shifted earlier (to the 15th, which may strain incoming newbies by not allowing for an adjustment period), keep the plotting date consistent every month and move the event to 1 week later (23rd, which may make it harder to achieve AC for the current month using event threads, but will make AC easier for the following month using event threads).

Reduce number of options under each prompt set.

I think this was good discussion to have and allowed us to hear opinions, but in the future, we would appreciate constructive criticism be brought to the mod contact so that we avoid large pile-ons, as it makes it harder to read through and respond to in a timely fashion. That is what the mod contact page is for. Thank you!

[flamekthunder]

Aha this is coming in late and I'll likely bring some of these points back up again in the next feedback poll, but thought I could go ahead and chime it in for you guys to consider.

Firstly, these results just highlight the importance of players to put in their votes whether they actively tag into the event or not. I know I waffled because I wasn't sure, AND THAT'S ON ME that is not a mod problem. It might suck that the missions failed in large part due to not enough participants, but I think this was needed to highlight that—especially when a fair number of players, including myself, could have voted but didn't. We're the ones who need to be held accountable, not the mods. Things can always be improved, but it's still on us in the end. So it'll be interesting to see how things go forward in terms of participation.

My one suggestion here would be to clearly encourage those who are undecided on whether they will be able to actively tag on the log to vote anyway as it will eliminate any doubt for players. (Note: Important distinction between characters who would just not participate in the event and players who might not tag into it but have characters who would have done something.) I know I had that weird, "I don't know if I should vote since I don't know if I'll actively participate, but my character would definitely do this" moment. Still, I should have voted regardless! To offset the "well then so much stuff will be handwaved" issue, you can adjust the calculations to make it more difficult/appropriate for the higher number and request threads to offer bonus points. Which leads me to the next suggestion.

I think instead of delaying events, you should stick to the calendar and instead let the poll run a few days through the event. Granted, this runs into the problem of you guys needing to know what to do for the TDM, so an appropriate cut off would be needed (since no mod wants to draft three different endings where two of them won't even be used). I think three or four days could work assuming everything sticks to schedule. This way players can have more of a feel of what's going on and by then most "waffling" players will have decided what they're doing. Anyone who doesn't vote by then, well that's that.

I know some players request for additional plotting time, but I don't think it should be pushed up that far, honestly. Maybe a day or two, but the giant chunk that will matter for the polls will have figured things out, and allowing the poll to last a few days into the event will also help increase time. Although some players might feel a bit pressured, I think that's actually necessary for events with big impacts like this. The game is pretty chill for most of the time, having the occasional "Okay guys, we really need to bunker down and focus on this" isn't too much to ask for as long as it's made clear from the get go. Plus, sometimes more time doesn't always mean more preparedness as most people do their plotting fairly early on. Too much time is just dead weight.

And my final point specific to this event is that I think it would have been better if the results were posted near the end or after the event. I see what you're going for, but by posting the results now, there is a split focus between the current events and the aftermath. On the one hand it does give players more to work with, but on the other there's a clear shift in mood and some players might lose motivation, especially since it was a fail state. This would have been better saved and incorporated for October.

All in all though, I am very pro "we hit bad end" since things usually end up having good ends, so I'm interested to see how things go from here. For all we know, even if we had a more balanced number of participants vs. non, whatever adjusted calculations could have resulted the same.

And /grips mods shoulders. I feel you, and I'm always impressed by all the work you all put out. Whatever you guys do, do what works best to your schedule and means, too.

Help I'm lost

[bakudan_bambino]

I hope this is a good place to ask!

I have questions about the refugees!

What resources are available to learn more about them and their society? Societies? I'm sure I could always assume things, but if characters are going to be potentially rooming with and helping support the refugees, wouldn't it be best to get to know them better? Is there more information about those people, their holidays, things that can make them feel more at home in Camelot?

I'm basically pondering a support system for these people but realized I don't know much of anything about them!

I hope this helps!

[avalonmods]

Hi there! I recommend the Locations page for information on the locations and its people. Both Celliwig and Lestari have archived entry comments to keep their information available for players here and here.

As for holidays, most of Avalon celebrates the solstices and equinoxes.

The Celliwig people will be a little more closed off about any other holidays they celebrate, since they're not the most open people to begin with.

In the immediate sense, Lestari is more open to sharing their holidays and will tell others about their traditions for celebrating the passing of the dead out of the world, which normally occurs toward the end of October just before the dead who arrived during the equinox depart. Most of them aren't expecting to celebrate the Death Ball this year given that most of the souls that arrived in Avalon were consumed by the Stone Giant.

The Death Ball is a large party held toward the end of October in which the dead are invited to a party in which Lestari citizens perform a ritual to allow the dead to take human form, then everyone dresses up in costumes so no one can tell who is a spirit and who isn't. On some occasions, people are able to find and say goodbye to lost relatives from the last year and have a final dance that brings a sense of closure to both the living and deceased.

Since they don't have the resources to throw the Death Ball this year, they will instead be lighting cognitive magic-infused candles that burn with dim, green fire. These candles are easy to make for any cognitive mage and will allow any sleeping party within the candle's room to dream of their loved ones, a common practice by those who cannot attend the ball each year.

[sulit]

Belated question about AC reward/totem stuff, I wasn't sure where to put this. The Celliwig totem recipe started being available as an AC reward a few months back. With they city destroyed, does that totem still work?

[avalonmods]

Yes, the totem will take you to the area of the ruins. The totems stations were the first things repaired to help speed along transportation and rescue efforts. There's an update coming for our one year anniversary to the rewards page that this will be reflected in soon.