Blue Information Cards

Traceroo

Rogue
Thanks, everybody, who has used the Event Feedback form to send comments to the game staff about the April 14-16 Season Opener. I've sent a reply regarding any commentary on plot to nearly everyone who's turned one in so far. We're making sure that your rules questions and administrative issues get to the right place.

If you haven't yet shared your commentary with us, please do! We super read these, and we're paying attention, and trying to make future events more awesome!

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1Zecdxh7X-gKzj2oPWcokjPhbvOHobR35fL4LQRUb_GI/edit

Blue Information Cards

We're getting a lot of polarized feedback on the blue Information Cards we tried this event -- players seem to love them... or are pretty angry about them. It's a work in progress, and we're listening to you!

These are letter-size blue pieces of paper in a sheet protector. There were 14 of them placed at eye level, not hidden, in plain sight, within 1 mile of the center of the campsite. (Additionally, there were 6 physical objects with Marshal Notes, in addition to components, placed elsewhere to find.)

Scene Description
This gives a basic layout of what you find there. This information is available for anybody who finds the card. You don't need a special skill for this part. Anybody who finds the card gets at least some info. We'll clarify that on future cards.

Skills Required (or qualities)

If you have the required skill or quality, you get special bonus info, and in some cases -- item tags, or a written document. Players who met the criteria seemed super excited about this! Players without the required skills were less happy. We'll try to balance out the spread of these. Lots mentioned Craftsman: Scout or Tracker since we have several PCs with that skill, who have mentioned in the past that they'd like more love in the game. Others were as varied as Read/Write, being a mystic wood elf, or being from certain areas of Acarthia in your character history -- in addition to a wide variety of existing Craftsman skills out there. We will clarify on future cards that you may go get someone with the required skill; that's not metagaming.

Bonus Info... what do I DO with this?

MOST of the 14 cards were related to existing storylines. None of them were required to move a storyline forward, but they were helpful info. They're meant to gain your interest, and let you know there's more out there. They might inform you now, let you track further onsite, lead to a BGA, or help you put some puzzle pieces together. A few of them were kind of random, and largely tied to more esoteric Craftsman skills... like goat herding. Just sayin'. :) It's a new system, and Team Prometheus is new on the job, and we're running new styles of story -- We like puzzle pieces of a giant image, and spider webs of connectivity. We don't do a whole lot of random b.s. We'll all figure out each other's style.

What good if I can't find any of these suckers?
We will continue the random placement, at eye level, in plain sight, within 1 mile of the center of the camp. Additionally, we've got some ideas for a few static locations which represent slightly different information -- like going to check with the Town Guard watch towers on their latest report. That way, if you just want a nature walk, but don't want the easter egg hunt, there'll be something there for you, too.

IF I DON'T GET MOD CARDS, I'M GOING TO LITERALLY DIIIIIIIIIIIE!
Okay, okay, we hear you! WE'RE BRINGING BACK MOD CARDS! We will favor "hooked" mods rather than Mod Cards in general... Mod Cards are super fun for PCs, but tough on Plot. We have to set aside a group of NPCs on standby to run these when you present them, or make you wait a long time until we're ready. Neither is ideal for making for happy PCs. We hear you loud and clear that Saturday afternoon was kind of dull in town; we're worried about making that worse.

Some games address this problem by having Mod Cards say OOG, "Come to Monster Camp at 2:00 for your slot," or something. It solves one problem, but we think it can detract from immersion.

We're thinking through solutions -- we welcome your ideas if you have them.

Fear not, there'll be some Mod Cards back out there for you next time.


Thanks for all your feedback, and keep it coming - we read every piece of it, and we want to know how we make YOUR game even better!

Thanks,

Trace Moriarty
Team Prometheus
2017 Acarthia Local Plot
 
Plot, is there a way that PCs can do a better job double hooking to help with mod cards but not taking as many of your resources? Thank you so much for this clarification!
 
We'll think about how best to work that out without keeping the first group waiting too long -- thanks for the idea, Mike!
 
One suggestion about the collection ones, it would be nice if there were a bunch of item tags with the blue card, and a note to only take a couple each. I realize this is both a logistics nightmare and has a high probability of being abused, but if there was supposed to be some story attached to the Cornflowers, none of the new players caught it or did anything with it. We might have if we had something to bring back and show to people and ask about, but none of us thought it was a big enough deal to tromp all the way across town to NPC camp to get some flower tags.
 
I adore double hooking and am always willing to double hook as a PC especially if it lets plot keep doing their thing with their NPC's and lets two mod groups run.
 
Hi Jorhan! One very specific encounter at this past event required players to bring blue flowers. The Info Card was not the hook for the story, just another mechanism to obtain those flowers, if the players didn't have their own physrep. (The card said that the tags were optional if the players had their own physrep.) Sorry that was confusing; we'll put some thought into how to be more clear in the future.
 
Back
Top