Arx: @clues

[Layla]

@darinelle

[Bananerz]

When you finally finish your investigation, and there's a little unimportant bit in it that suddenly looks like the Next Thing.

[thesuntsar]

@OldFrightful

Sooo...

About werewolves....

[OldFrightful]

@thesuntsar I will kill you.

[thesuntsar]

@oldfrightful I'm pretty sure becoming one/fighting one/obtaining an army of them would solve a lot of my problems.

[OldFrightful]

@thesuntsar said in Arx: @clues:

@oldfrightful I'm pretty sure becoming one/fighting one/obtaining an army of them would solve a lot of my problems.

This is the instrument of your destruction. Beware.

[Ostheim]

Clues are very neat, and for the amount of cool vignette detail that goes into them, I fear for the burn-out proof of the staff. It's a lot of what I imagine to be off-the-cuff writing about various subjects, and that's a pretty admirable trait to have in a writer, and a world-builder to boot. Given the nature of Arx's aforementioned bent towards discovery of lost information and history, this is a great thing to have.

That said, the concerns about clue hoarding (usually because the information is dangerous, I would hope) is probably on point for some people, though I've yet to run into anyone who wasn't eager to show off their clue-fu if they had one on a subject. The way it works can /sometimes/ be a little weird for me, given that it's often difficult to formulate a full picture out of the information you have, and usually just makes me want to get more clues on a subject in order to get that full picture. My character's whole 'plot' is to find a place, and I usually feel as if I only need more clues after getting one. Granted, between investigations I'll usually make an effort to ask around about the information I've found to see if I can get the information I want through roleplay, but that's not usually the case, sadly, at least not on my character's passion projects.

So it can lead to a bit of a desire to get as many as I can, at least about subjects there's passion about, or subjects I've been inclined to research into. I just try to follow the RP, which should probably be the MO for everyone instead of just trying to know everything and be a walking Arx encyclopedia. This can make actually being a scholar difficult at times, since they're expected to know lore stuff, but most of the time I really don't, and it sorta makes me sad to come off as ignorant in my character's profession.

But, anyway. Theories are Cool and Good as a way to convey to others a going understanding of knowledge instead of dumping clues on their heads and letting them make of it what they will. If it's a subject I know a lot about, usually I'll just prefer to RP out my explanations, or write a book, cause that shit is my jam, but I do love me some theories when I get them.

[Ominous]

@bananerz Apparently you weren't around for the first three months or so of clues when people had diarrhea of the mouth when it came to clues. Every scene had someone who was offering every single clue they had. I ended up with like 100 over the course of this time. Staff ended up putting an AP cost to it, which cut down on the sharing, but there was a brief bit of unhappiness at the cost being added.

[Roz]

@ominous said in Arx: @clues:

@bananerz Apparently you weren't around for the first three months or so of clues when people had diarrhea of the mouth when it came to clues. Every scene had someone who was offering every single clue they had. I ended up with like 100 over the course of this time. Staff ended up putting an AP cost to it, which cut down on the sharing, but there was a brief bit of unhappiness at the cost being added.

I think you mean MASSIVE WAILING AND GNASHING OF TEETH jfc I remember those reactions still

[Ominous]

@roz It was balanced out by me praising every god humans have ever worshipped for cutting down on the clue spam.

I am by nature an information hoarder. I like working hard to dig up clues, and parting with them only to very trusted people. Watching something I slowly digged up spread like a wildfire irked me.

I was also darkly happy when the nasty "you know too much and /they/ now know you know too much" revelation made the rounds.

[Roz]

@ominous Yeah I'm not hugely sympathetic to the idea of "I wanted to have this but I didn't want other people to have it unless I decided they could."

[WildBaboons]

@ominous I was around during that time and largely had the exact opposite experience (half again as many clues as Alaric). I think it largely had to do with the circles you play in and how freely they share/hoard. Given how often people complain about having to do info dump scenes I am rather wary to ever ask anyone about anything unless they volunteer the info organically.

[Apos]

@thesuntsar said in Arx: @clues:

@oldfrightful I'm pretty sure becoming one/fighting one/obtaining an army of them would solve a lot of my problems.

Trust me when I say that it wouldn't, without knowing how much you know about Arx werewolves.

[Bananerz]

@ominous Ew.

One thing is characters who are on roster don't necessarily get access to clues they really ought to have due to characters obviously not being RP'd. Maybe there's an option where you get a star or cookie as a player that you share @clues with rostered folks too? Maybe?

@clue vomiting isn't neat. I understand that folks want to make sure others on the table have what they have, or get recognition, whatever. But the vomiting with no real RP backing it up slightly is concerning and annoying. It's similar to @helpaction requests being bombarded with zero RP and that still happens to this day. Like, right today, getting one with no RP even though it states very clearly don't do it. Or @randomscene vomiting when it's there for a meaningful scene but instead is like one or two sentences. That isn't meaningful. And now I've fully derailed my own thread.

[Ominous]

@roz I didn't say I wanted to be the gatekeeper or the sole possessor of it. It was the ease with which other people were gaining what I worked a while to gain. Neither would I say that what I want is necessarily good for the game. I was describing my personal reaction and feelings.

Of course keeping them difficult to access makes clues become similar to xp bloat - another barrier to entry for new players, as all the dinosaurs with clues overwhelm the new players with none.

[Testament]

I don't have any real love, or hate, for clues. Not because I think they're bad, but mostly because I'm just so outside any realm of influence, they don't really apply to me. To the people that love them, gathering them like Pokemon and getting a better understanding of the lore and world, go my child, have at it.

While I absolutely love reading lore, and more importantly, creating lore, this isn't my lore, so I doubt I'll ever write a theory simply based upon the fact that this isn't mine. Maybe it's just me, but there is just some kind of mental barrier between taking something that I didn't write and trying to make it my own, and something I wholly created from inside my head. This is for the same reason I don't pick up roster characters, I will never be able to play a character as intended, and the perfectionist in me demands that.

But to those of that are more than willing to share clues? Good on you. For awhile, it seemed like unless you were the most bestest of bosom buddies with someone, or some group or circle or whatever, you weren't getting jack. That attitude seems to of changed and that's for the better.

And FYI, I can count my clues on both my characters with two hands. Not sure if that's either a point of pride or shame.

[Doozer]

@testament

jk

[Hella]

[Lithium]

Went to try and share some clues, the 6 AP per clue thing sucks hard.

But hell... I guess it does it's purpose.

Wish I had 100's of clues I have like... 30 maybe.

[thesuntsar]

@lithium When I started playing last year, I had some real moments of "ugh all the people know more than me" feels.

Now, if one of my characters died tomorrow .. I would go with a much more focused OC concept with a short list of goals.

Once I got done sniffling.

Anyway, the point I'm getting at is 100s of clues is eh. It's not better or worse than having 30. And you tend to gradually accumulate them.