I've been trying to come up with a way to suggest things for the game for a while, but I realize that it's more of a criticism than a suggestion. I don't feel adequately immersed enough in Damned's setting half the time to make suggestions on plot, and I'm not sure "plot suggestions" are the way to go. I think that might fall on you guys.
But ... to be completely frank, I'd like for more plots to be less things that happen to characters or things the characters respond to or have to go look at or whatever, and more things that will actually lead to some end. At this point, Damned has been going for a very long time, and the playerbase has shrunk down a lot. I feel as if Damned could successfully pull off plots that involve aspects of the playerbase base at slower paces than what's typically going down. I am not saying they get out of the institute or anything like that. But there is only a handful of things and for me, as a player, the prospect of "a new area to explore" is really boring for me as a writer. I realize there's a plot, but the plot is ran about 90% by NPCs and what information the characters do have, they aren't able to employ it as well as they'd like—if at all.
Other games (ones I'm in, ones I'm not in) have been able to employ plots that give characters information to run with. Damned, in a lot of ways, has the constant feel of things being the same. Stickers/badges/missions/etc. are different things to do, this is true, but it doesn't ultimately add up to much. I understand the game is survival horror, but it feels less like that and more like trying to hopelessly find things before you come up for air before a new day starts. I'm not sure if that's what Damned is meant to be.
I guess my overall crit is to have some kind of plot (or multiple plots) that employs the characters more and has them carry things out and potentially have good, bad, and neutral endings to each plot. Have things change as a result of things that the characters do, rather than what the NPCs are doing around them. That way, it's a lot more constructive and the characters might eventually see a point in building up a better system of communication within. Perhaps another way to alter Damned would be to come up with ways to promote that communication within the characters beyond a third party (IE the radio). I'm not sure what that can be, either.
I want to repeat: I think that the game itself and its structure is fine, but adding new things to work with that aren't things that have a stop and start, things that can actually build up and go somewhere, etc. might help add some new feeling to the game. I think plots designed around the characters actually affecting it instead of responding to crap happening to them would be more effective, and if executed well, the people not interested in those paths could just as easily avoid them. I think the world of Damned is rich, and I think altering the way the story of the game flows so that it really depends more on the characters could help. I'm not sure how, since I don't know where things will be going, but I find myself disinterested in the current sum of things because while it's interesting to play my characters through the horrors, there's a part of me that asks obvious questions: why don't all the characters just meet in the same place every night and work together? why haven't certain things just worked? why don't they have certain areas figured out? The smaller the game gets, the less believable it is for me as a player that these characters wouldn't be getting each other on the same page in an adequate fashion. This is through no fault of the players, mind you, but in the amount of handwaving and the way the game is set up. I guess I'm wondering if something new can be added, and if that might change the atmosphere.
Re: GAME THREAD
But ... to be completely frank, I'd like for more plots to be less things that happen to characters or things the characters respond to or have to go look at or whatever, and more things that will actually lead to some end. At this point, Damned has been going for a very long time, and the playerbase has shrunk down a lot. I feel as if Damned could successfully pull off plots that involve aspects of the playerbase base at slower paces than what's typically going down. I am not saying they get out of the institute or anything like that. But there is only a handful of things and for me, as a player, the prospect of "a new area to explore" is really boring for me as a writer. I realize there's a plot, but the plot is ran about 90% by NPCs and what information the characters do have, they aren't able to employ it as well as they'd like—if at all.
Other games (ones I'm in, ones I'm not in) have been able to employ plots that give characters information to run with. Damned, in a lot of ways, has the constant feel of things being the same. Stickers/badges/missions/etc. are different things to do, this is true, but it doesn't ultimately add up to much. I understand the game is survival horror, but it feels less like that and more like trying to hopelessly find things before you come up for air before a new day starts. I'm not sure if that's what Damned is meant to be.
I guess my overall crit is to have some kind of plot (or multiple plots) that employs the characters more and has them carry things out and potentially have good, bad, and neutral endings to each plot. Have things change as a result of things that the characters do, rather than what the NPCs are doing around them. That way, it's a lot more constructive and the characters might eventually see a point in building up a better system of communication within. Perhaps another way to alter Damned would be to come up with ways to promote that communication within the characters beyond a third party (IE the radio). I'm not sure what that can be, either.
I want to repeat: I think that the game itself and its structure is fine, but adding new things to work with that aren't things that have a stop and start, things that can actually build up and go somewhere, etc. might help add some new feeling to the game. I think plots designed around the characters actually affecting it instead of responding to crap happening to them would be more effective, and if executed well, the people not interested in those paths could just as easily avoid them. I think the world of Damned is rich, and I think altering the way the story of the game flows so that it really depends more on the characters could help. I'm not sure how, since I don't know where things will be going, but I find myself disinterested in the current sum of things because while it's interesting to play my characters through the horrors, there's a part of me that asks obvious questions: why don't all the characters just meet in the same place every night and work together? why haven't certain things just worked? why don't they have certain areas figured out? The smaller the game gets, the less believable it is for me as a player that these characters wouldn't be getting each other on the same page in an adequate fashion. This is through no fault of the players, mind you, but in the amount of handwaving and the way the game is set up. I guess I'm wondering if something new can be added, and if that might change the atmosphere.