Also generally agreeing with this. The trouble is that right now, the only platforms through which players can interact with NPCs and the plot on any level at all is through missions and the basement. Missions are a good start, but since it's randomized to small groups chosen once every other month the vast majority of players are left feeling at a loss and distant. Leaving aside that their connection to the plot isn't clear for a moment, the basement and caverns are a problem, since it requires consistent threading from at least three players through two obstacle courses and a rough in the coliseum, which, at minimum, takes at least two ic nights and therefore four ooc months. Factoring in general player slowness right now- people often find it hard to even get to the ballroom, let alone the rooms- and you end up with nights in which it feels like nothing is being achieved at all. There are only so many times you can thread a character going to get supplies or going to ruins in which nothing actively happens.

Really, it comes down to the fact that Damned has such a strict setting that it's really necessary for the plot to ensure that things are going on. It's not like most other games where players can run game-wide plots that have far-reaching effects on characters- that's fine, and I wouldn't want Damned to be anything other than what it is, but it does mean that players rely heavily on the plot to give them things to do.