State of the Game, February 2023

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State of the Game

Welcome to State of the Game 6: Understated and in the Mix! Once more, we have some updates to share with all of you that we hope will help the game run more smoothly, as well as some additions/updates to the FAQ based on player inquiries and in-game events. We also have some questions for you regarding the upcoming arc finale. Please make sure you read over that section thoroughly and provide us with any comments, ideas, or concerns.

Please note the following:

• Some players may have noticed that the mods have been replying to broad investigation/research questions with a request for specificity. This is to help us narrow down where your specific character's interests lie when responding to you. Please be aware that if there is information to be gleaned from an investigation, your character will be able to access some part of it, whatever questions they ask or methods they use. You don't have to figure out some exact right question. Our request for specificity is so that we can tailor the info they're discovering to that character specifically. To that end, we would recommend the following when players make an information request:
  
  - Include 1-3 specific questions that your character wants answered. Instead of "[Character] wants to see what they can dig up on [monster]" we would be looking for something more like: "[Character] would like to know what a [monster] is, where it is typically found, and what its weaknesses might be."
  - How is your character actually going about this investigation? Are they interviewing locals, are they looking in old books in the library, are they snooping around some specific spot, or are they just Googling online? These may net different types of information. We want to be able to play to each character's strengths.
  - Buddy up on investigations, and brainstorm questions together where possible. The mods like to reward player cooperation and character teamwork. You will get more information or more available questions before the mods end a particular line of investigation if you're doing this as a team.
  
  
• There will be no mod plot this month. However, we have Dogtown Searches available (with some landmarks and pathways having being uncovered, but much more to explore), and Headline News #5 has some interesting tidbits for your characters to see that may hint toward future events and our Arc 2 finale.
• There will be a setting shift for the Arc 2 finale; because of this, there will be NO application round in June. Apps will re-commence in July.
• Arc 2 will wrap up with a two-month event in May through June.
• The Arc 2 finale will have multiple high-risk IC prompts. We just wanted to remind players that their characters can escape from death (or other bad fates) by grasping onto an Entity as a lifeline and becoming aligned or becoming a full-fledged avatar. If you would like to take this route, please just drop us a line on the Player Plots page when the time comes and you decide you want to go that route. In addition, the end of Arc 2 will result in a dramatic shift in the status quo for characters in the game. The precise intensity and specifics of these changes will be left up to players and a series of votes we will be taking over the course of the event. Get your decision hats on! It's going to get wild.
• As a more general information note, as stated in the FAQ, the game is planned to run for 2.5 years. The end of Arc 2 will mark the beginning of the game's final arc, with the game's finale planned to take place in December 2023. The final arc will ramp up the tension and urgency of various threats. There will still be room for fluff and light-hearted moments, as there always is, even in the darkest times, but player plots with far-reaching effects may be more limited after July just due to the focus on the overarching plot and its ramp-up/conclusion.

Questions for Players:

The final, two-month event for the Arc 2 finale will require a setting shift. Characters will need to travel several states away to assist with stopping an apocalypse ritual in-the-making. With that in mind, we have a few very important questions for players to consider:

1. Would your character be willing to leave Gloucester for this sort of mission? There will be roles for every type of character, not just fighters. If it's a case that your character would just not leave Gloucester under ANY circumstances to help stop an apocalypse ritual, then we need a headcount for that so that we can make sure they still have something to do in Gloucester in May and June.
2. What sorts of roles would your character want to take on during an away mission to stop an apocalypse? What motivates them? Are they crafty with an eye toward lying/manipulation/deception? Can they help lay the concerns of locals to rest and work to enlist those people's help, even if the locals aren't necessarily happy to see them? Are they a planner who can put all the pieces together and come up with a strategy? Are they someone with a supernatural ability that they might want to try to use secretly to help? Our Arc 1 finale (1) (2) (3), which took place in Wolf Pen, WV, is a good example of what the Arc 2 finale will look like in terms or prompts and player engagement.

We have added the following information to the FAQ (full text of the new FAQ entries can be found at the bottom of this post):

• Characters where there are two beings (inextricably bound) inhabiting one body must share the same patron. They cannot have separate ones. Both beings share the same fear reservoir, and if there is a transformation involved that changes them from one form to another, that requires fear.
  
• Entity-aligned characters can feed on each other, but those with the same patron Entity will not get as much fuel from each other.

Thank you again for taking this horrible journey with us. Please comment below with any additional questions or feedback.

New FAQ Entries:

➥ How do powers work if my character is two or more beings inhabiting one body?

Characters who consist of two or more inextricably bound beings sharing a body are allowed in the game as a single character, and may access powers (mostly) the same way other characters do. Characters that fit this criteria may only serve one Entity and will have a joint power pool available to them. If one being uses all of the terror up for abilities, the other being will not have any power left to use unless they terrorize people to fill the pool again. If a transformation of some kind is required to switch between the two beings, the player will app in with one being as the default and a switch will not occur unless and until that default being generates enough terror to induce the transformation.

➥ Can people with Entity-fueled powers feed on each other? What if they have the same patron Entity?

Yes, people with Entity-fueled powers can feed on one another. It is not recursive, though. There will be one person feeding and one person being afraid. If the character is feeding off of someone with the same patron, they aren't going to get nearly as much fuel out of it compared to feeding off of someone with a different/no patron Entity. Think of it like the difference between eating plain, stale rice cakes versus a juicy cheeseburger.