We’re sorry that the amount of information provided can feel overwhelming. Deerington is a plot heavy game that has been open for over a year and a half; because of this, much of the information you see in the pages was rolled out over the time that the game has been active. The locations have grown as new places were unlocked or created by player request. The length of information provided has helped to limit the number of questions that are asked about how certain aspects of the game function as many of our players want to know the intricate details without having to do a heavy amount of guess work on how settings such as the Great Sleep function. To new players, this certainly will come across as information rich and feel daunting to comb through, which is why we make sure to make every aspect of the game 100% optional so no one feels like they have to learn everything about the setting in order to jump in and start playing.
Deerington is a dreamscape; dreams inherently tend to not make sense 100% of time. We use this aspect to give a wider variety of options to our players during events. Not everyone in the game wants to have completely horror-focused options at all times, just like not every player wants to have completely plot-heavy focused events at all times. To balance the needs of everyone, we try to offer a variety of options, with light, slice-of-life worthy aspects to break up the intense horror that people often have their characters face. This allows for players to have breathing room and to give characters a chance to not be completely re-traumatized with every event if that isn’t what a player wishes to do. Given that there are multiple aspects of dreams that feel random and chaotic, it’s not unnatural for something “fluffy” to feel out of place and confusing to characters. Likewise, we try to balance rolling out intense pieces of plot with having long stretches of time that lack plot; i.e. July & August were plot heavy but not necessarily horror-driven, September is not plot heavy and offers lighter event options, October will be heavier in horror, etc. This is a pattern that has helped to keep the game balanced for the majority of players. We make sure that any aspect of the events can be ignored by anyone and players are able to pick and choose what they want to focus on in any given month. This is true of both temporary events as well as the overarching plot.
The game is also meant to hold a certain amount of mystery; no character can realistically obtain all information nor will they be able to figure out what information is useful and what is not. In order to keep the plotline interesting and to keep players from figuring out the core of the story, we make sure to give a mix of functional and useless information without clarifying which is which, as not everything discovered in any investigation will ever be completely useful. We have no intention of changing this aspect of the game as we feel it gives the best function for creating a mystery that isn’t easily solved by any one player.
We appreciate your feedback and are happy to take suggestions on how to improve consistency in the provided story elements and are happy to improve on how plot-relevant information could be revealed in a way that is perhaps less overwhelming for new players, but overall, we intend to continue to use the function of the dreamscape to provide sometimes strange or random options to players to avoid bogging people down with constant, non-stop horror and mystery.
Thank you for reaching out and we hope that this gives a better explanation of the mechanics of the game.
no subject
We’re sorry that the amount of information provided can feel overwhelming. Deerington is a plot heavy game that has been open for over a year and a half; because of this, much of the information you see in the pages was rolled out over the time that the game has been active. The locations have grown as new places were unlocked or created by player request. The length of information provided has helped to limit the number of questions that are asked about how certain aspects of the game function as many of our players want to know the intricate details without having to do a heavy amount of guess work on how settings such as the Great Sleep function. To new players, this certainly will come across as information rich and feel daunting to comb through, which is why we make sure to make every aspect of the game 100% optional so no one feels like they have to learn everything about the setting in order to jump in and start playing.
Deerington is a dreamscape; dreams inherently tend to not make sense 100% of time. We use this aspect to give a wider variety of options to our players during events. Not everyone in the game wants to have completely horror-focused options at all times, just like not every player wants to have completely plot-heavy focused events at all times. To balance the needs of everyone, we try to offer a variety of options, with light, slice-of-life worthy aspects to break up the intense horror that people often have their characters face. This allows for players to have breathing room and to give characters a chance to not be completely re-traumatized with every event if that isn’t what a player wishes to do. Given that there are multiple aspects of dreams that feel random and chaotic, it’s not unnatural for something “fluffy” to feel out of place and confusing to characters. Likewise, we try to balance rolling out intense pieces of plot with having long stretches of time that lack plot; i.e. July & August were plot heavy but not necessarily horror-driven, September is not plot heavy and offers lighter event options, October will be heavier in horror, etc. This is a pattern that has helped to keep the game balanced for the majority of players. We make sure that any aspect of the events can be ignored by anyone and players are able to pick and choose what they want to focus on in any given month. This is true of both temporary events as well as the overarching plot.
The game is also meant to hold a certain amount of mystery; no character can realistically obtain all information nor will they be able to figure out what information is useful and what is not. In order to keep the plotline interesting and to keep players from figuring out the core of the story, we make sure to give a mix of functional and useless information without clarifying which is which, as not everything discovered in any investigation will ever be completely useful. We have no intention of changing this aspect of the game as we feel it gives the best function for creating a mystery that isn’t easily solved by any one player.
We appreciate your feedback and are happy to take suggestions on how to improve consistency in the provided story elements and are happy to improve on how plot-relevant information could be revealed in a way that is perhaps less overwhelming for new players, but overall, we intend to continue to use the function of the dreamscape to provide sometimes strange or random options to players to avoid bogging people down with constant, non-stop horror and mystery.
Thank you for reaching out and we hope that this gives a better explanation of the mechanics of the game.