Avaritia Boss Combat Signups & Feedback Post

[cancrymods]

Hello, Executors! Congratulations on clearing the Greed Layer of Purgatory and unlocking the Avaritia Underside! The dungeon log will go up on May 27th, so we have a week of so of downtime for everyone's characters to wind down after the heist.

Boss Combat Signups signups are now open! Pop down to the toplevel below and leave a comment there if you'd like to participate. We have three spots open signups will close midnight GMT on May 25th so be sure not to miss out. As a note before proceeding, some small changes have been made to the boss combat signups.

Out of the final group of three characters who will be participating in the combat thread, two of those three slots will be reserved for characters who have not participated in Boss Combat yet. Since we're squeaking close to the planned halfway point of the game, this is to ensure that everyone who would like to try out a Boss Combat thread will have the opportunity to do so. Once all players in the game have taken part in a combat thread, this system will be dropped and the regular blind RNG rounds will resume.

As you may have noticed up from that there post title, though, this post is also a feedback request for the Avaritia mission as well as going forward.

Both in Invidia and Avaritia, I've noticed periods of slowdown/pauses in activity during periods of investigation or mission plotting in which players and characters uninvolved in the plot can be left hanging or with a sense that there isn't anything for them to do. I'll be up front and say – I'm not sure how to resolve this!

This is partly because, in my mind, Can Cry was always intended to be a game driven primarily by player agency and character action, probably closer in spirit to a DND campaign than your average DWRP game. I want players to feel empowered to do cool nonsense anime shit and know they have the freedom to ask me about letting their characters get involved and doing stuff!

In hindsight, though, I'm worried that this freedom feels more like a lack of direction for players, and if there's more we can do to give everyone something to engage with during these slower periods of the game. That said, I'm not looking to massively increase the game's pace or vibe, as I think Can Cry being more slow and chill is part of its appeal.

That's just my two cents, though! Like I said, this is primarily a feedback post for players to chime in with their opinions, so if you have anything to yeet at the mods, please do so!

Thanks as always for your time and look forward to the Avaritia Underside!

Comments

(frozen comment) BOSS COMBAT SIGNUPS

[cancrymods]

If you would like to take part in the Boss Combat Encounter at the end of the dungeon, please comment here!

As the following characters participated in the previous Boss Combat Encounter, they are not eligible for signups this time: Monarch, Royal Veil, Lion

(frozen comment)

[discutio]

i mean what’s one more hand or head removal at this rate

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[mementomoritz]

Did someone call for a doctor? :D

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[emberserker]

Sure!

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[heir_to_ruin]

On one hand this is a terrible idea. On the other...

What is self preservation?

Save him from himself, thanks guys

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[schardynfreude]

sure why not

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[karappo]

You totally want this guy doing the combat right

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[twibeast]

Well he said he’d say hi to Greta in the underside

Hopefully he won’t get owned this time (also dads are also signing up 👀)

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[schardynfreude]

dads just scold her and look disappointed in her until she disintegrates herself

(frozen comment) AND THE RESULTS ARE...

[cancrymods]

Boss Combat signups are now closed! The Executors taking part in this dungeon's Boss Combat Encounter are Achilles, Medic and Ruin!

[emberserker]

I'll take some responsibility for the stagnation, and I think it's really a side effect of what DWRP has become. Over the years, it's become less "do your own thing" and more "rely on the plot;" the crack genre that dominated early LJRP has completely died off, and calm downtime posts made by players that have nothing to do with moving the plot along have a stigma of "slice-of-life creep," so we've learned to just avoid playing with the setting. Especially once the Authority's found, there's a feeling of "well, I can't just go around exploring or having fun. A training log or a meeting might do well, but it'd just waste time to do anything else. Surely the arc climax will go up any minute now!" Even if the arc climax will, in practice, take another two months to go up.

None of this is your fault; this structure and encouragement of exploration and playing with the setting is a good thing. It's just that years of DWRP culture pushing the idea of "don't play around once the plot kicks in" is a tough thing to unlearn! I'll definitely put more effort into that as things continue.

Feedback!

[crypddyd]

As a DM myself I feel you on wanting to give the players as much free reign as possible. I think part of the issue is

1) we have a pretty small player base, so having just a few people holding back for various reasons (like Lion and Pheonix not handling the noise well, hiatuses/burnout, the layer not being specifically appealing to specific characters, ic drama from memories, etc) can def make things drag.

2) Players being confused on where to focus attention/ unsure if their current effort is actually doing anything

There's not much to be done for the first one other than headhunting more players, but tbf I kinda like the small cast? But I think for the second what might help is more obvious clues for the Authority's location/weaknesses and, unfortunately, sometimes having to pull a dm fiat. It sucks when a dm has to kinda handhold, but in the end, it's better than things stagnating. Finding a way to make it not obvious is a hard skill to get right but I think it might be worth it in the end. I would suggest keeping an eye on what investigations are ongoing and possibly moving clues to those threads if folks miss where they originally were or other shuffling around along those lines.

Edit: Also while it should be the last option only, taking a player aside oocly and giving them a clue is always an option. In the end, it's the ic drama that's important more than the ooc surprise at a twist.

[ourtomorrow]

I joined the game pretty late in the last layer, but from that limited perspective here's one thing I think Avaritia did better and one thing Invidia did better, if that helps:

1) Avaritia had a lot of different ways for different kinds of characters to explore and get involved. I don't have the perspective to know whether or how this was executed (hah) in the earlier layer, but I really like how the last log had lots of juicy things for everybody to do in order to funnel Authority to an Executor. And how different pieces of the setting all contributed to the big picture - the bank for the accounts, the casino for where Authority transferred, the theater for learning what the previous Authority is up to now.

2) Invidia had more personal stakes to the fight. This makes sense from a "flavor" perspective as envy is a more personalized emotion than greed, but even as a newbie I could get Monarch immediately invested in OH, ESME IS GOING DOWN. They opposed Greta because Greta needed opposing for the overall plan.

I really like the idea that different Executors are doing their sinful things for different reasons, and maybe we just didn't trip the right flags, but something like "the less fortunate of Avaritia are suffering because of something Greta did" etc....maybe even something the Authority neither knows nor cares about re: the impact of their actions? Since that gives people both an IC and OOC hook to throw themselves at.

I do agree that IRL Weirdness contributed to the lil slowdown, as well.

[mementomoritz]

I think those are both very good points re: what each Layer did well, I second those.