tabularasa_ooc | State of the Game Follow-Up

Game Updates & Feedback We'd like to thank everyone once again for giving feedback on the State of the Game post in November. We really appreciate all of the suggestions we got, and we're glad that there's a positive vibe overall for the way things are going so far. Now that the holidays are over, we wanted to talk about some of the suggestions we received as well as go over some changes we'll be implementing into the game.

Activity Requirement Changes
Tabula Rasa is a game with a small-medium player cap, and we want to encourage meaningful activity as much as possible. As of today, the Activity Check page has been rehauled to clarify and adjust some of our activity standards. Many of these changes are minor fixes to the wording and we recommend that everyone go over the page again, but we will also go over some of the notable changes here.

For monthly activity, we ask for 2 threads with different characters, each with at least 5 comments from your character.
There is no hard rule against using the same characters for AC across multiple months, but it is expected that players will be open to CR with a variety of characters and not just a small group of castmates or friends. If we notice a pattern of this, we may request that threads with different characters be used for the next AC period.
Characters swept due to strikes must wait 1 month before they can be reapplied for by the same player. If a player with a strike chooses to drop before the end of the AC period, they must still wait 1 month before reapplying for that character.
New characters must pass AC at least once before they are permitted to take a strike or hiatus. This means that if a character passes their first AC by check-in only, they may not take a strike or hiatus in their second month.
The New CR Bonus has been renamed to the Character Bonus to clarify its intended purpose. It is functionally identical to how it worked before. A thread with any character may be used to claim the Character Bonus, including castmates, so long as you don't claim the bonus with the same character twice.
We have lifted some restrictions on the TDM Bonus. You may now submit any thread from the current TDM that has 5 comments from your character, including your own toplevels if your character is new.

The new AC standards will go into effect starting with the current AC period.

App Queue Changes
In September, we switched over from app cycles to a split between always-open apps for existing players and scheduled app periods for new players. Since then, we have continued to stay very close to our player cap, but we have also yet to reach our queue cap even once. We initially went with a limited queue because we were worried it might get backed up and become discouraging to interested players. Now that we've had time to observe the new system in action, we've decided to make some more changes to the queue to make it simpler for applicants.

We recommend taking a look at the Applications page if you want to see all of the changes, but to explain it in brief: instead of new player app periods, we're just going to have an always-open queue for new players. If the queue does become unmanageable sometime in the future, we'll decide then if we need to close new player apps for a while. We will also be keeping a list of what apps are in the queue from now on so that everyone knows what characters have been applied for and where they sit in the queue.

Event Pacing
Many of you pointed out that two “heavy” events in a row was a little on the daunting side, and we agree! We’re still finding our bearings in regards to pacing, but in the future we’ll be more mindful of spacing out heavier events with lighter ones in between.

That said, we also wanted to take this opportunity to touch on the role of the imprint system in the game's events. Imprints (both canon and organic) are the main feature Tabula Rasa is built around, so most events in the game will be designed around what imprints have been submitted and actions that characters have taken in-game. We as mods also need to focus a lot of attention towards implementing imprints in a fun and satisfying way for everyone. If there's a certain type of event you'd like to see happen in the game, the best way to do so would be to submit imprints related to that idea and let us know what you had in mind. If you're really not sure how to achieve a particular goal, you can always drop us a message on the mod contact page and we'll be happy to hear you out!

For January and February, we are mainly going to be focusing on bringing in new concepts that are currently in the queue. This month's imprint update on the 15th will include mana and evolution. As these are more complicated systems being permanently added to the game, the event log this month will have a fairly simple premise to introduce characters to these changes.

February's event will be focused around overgrowth and empathy, and it will be a more emotionally intensive event for characters. We won't spoil any more than that for now, but we hope you'll all look forward to it!

Game Setting & Map
Moving forward, we're going to be avoiding creating any more new locations for awhile and instead focus on adding details to our existing locations. Though not every imprint has to be heavily used for prompts and events, we do want to foster creativity and give as many opportunities as possible for that. When submitting an imprint (especially for locations), we encourage suggestions/putting emphasis on the more unique aspects of that imprint that could give us some ideas about what to use as a “hook”. We always try to keep an element of surprise for the final product, but we ultimately want to create something that everyone can make use of.

We've also seen a lot of requests for a map of the setting! We'd love to have something like this to help everyone visualize the layout of the world, but don’t quite have the know-how for it - if you’re familiar with any digital map-making methods and would be willing to lend us a hand, please let us know through our contact page or by PM.

Clarification of Organic Imprints
We've gotten the impression that some people are worried about organic imprint ideas not being "strong" enough to submit. While not every conversation or interaction will create an effect on the setting, we'd much rather know about what characters are looking into than have to hunt for them! To make this a bit easier for everyone, we've simplified the Organic Imprints page and added more examples to show what we're looking for. Most importantly we want to remind everyone that there is no wrong way to submit an organic imprint, and the worst that can happen is that we don't do anything with the suggestion.

We're also considering other ways to encourage use of organic imprint submissions, such as a small influence bonus to reward players for creativity. If you have any other suggestions or feedback you want to give regarding organic imprints, please let us know! Imprints are a big part of Tabula Rasa and we want to make it easier for everyone to use this feature and help us expand on the setting with it.

Clarification of Lore Compliance
There was some confusion over what we said regarding the spirit/word of the rule in the last feedback post, so we wanted to briefly touch on that again! Our intention wasn't to say that players shouldn't communicate or to encourage incomprehensible threads due to players having a different understanding of the setting rules. Rather, we wanted to assure everyone that if there are misunderstandings, it's perfectly okay to roll with the punches instead of worrying about retcons or memorizing every detail. We expect there to be mistakes, but we'd rather see these as happy accidents, if you will!

To give an example: if one character in a thread assumes that fire will burn then, but the character they're threading with assumes that it won't, both of these assumptions can coexist. In this case, the first character may be burned by fire even though that "breaks" one of the current rules of the setting, and the second character may still react by sticking their own hand in the same fire and not feeling anything at all. The player may also choose to have the second character get burned as well, as they now expect fire to hurt them thanks to the first character's experience - both of these options are valid! The important part is that the player of the first character does not need to edit or retcon their tag after finding out that their assumption was incorrect. They're welcome to play around with the idea and even submit it as an organic imprint that might cause fire to inflict burns in the future.

To give an example of something that would not be in the spirit of the rule: if the setting doesn't currently support any kind of magic, a character ignoring that rule and "accidentally" using their magic powers anyway would not be allowed. We're putting our faith in everyone to be reasonable, but basically we're only going to ask for players to retcon these mistakes if it's an extreme case. We may also step in if there's a misunderstanding that creates something that doesn't exist and can't be explained away with a difference in perspective - for example, misinterpreting the description of a creature in the setting and "inventing" a new creature. However, even in this case we'd be open to creative solutions to the problem, such as a character only believing they'd seen something and insisting that their cryptid is real.

We hope that explanation is a bit clearer than the first one, but if there are any further questions we'll try our best to explain further!

Closing Thoughts
This is our only planned update regarding the State of the Game for now, but please feel free to leave a comment if you have any other questions or suggestions. We’ll be reformatting the game FAQ in the near future with some questions relevant to these updates, but the Mod Contact post is also available for any concerns (with comment screening applied). Thank you for reading!

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