Hi! I have some ymmv suggestions based on what is done in OC games. I don't know how well they'd work, and I reckon some of these things are done/have been done and I'm just unfamiliar, but I'm just going to list a few in order of ease, hoping some of them might be inspiring or helpful!
Some of them potentially add work onto your plates (or another player's plate), and I know some of this stuff may not be a great fit, but I just wanted to rattle off the things I've seen done in case one of them works out!
1. Reminders for the PWM/EMP done on plurk & in discord about 5 - 7 days after it's posted, and then again once the actual monthly event goes up if those aren't in alignment.
2. Increased mod use of the OOC comm. This one is iffy because it's tough to strike a balance and find out where the line of "annoying, too much superfluous information" is lmao BUT...
Mid-Month Mini SotG, which also draws attention to the PWM post.
Mid- or Late- Month Highlight Reel posted by the mods for players to post conversations/threads/happenings they'd like to draw attention to, whether for plot or just because something funny/dramatic happened.
3. Incentivizing monthly activity done with new players, via some sort of small, potentially unique activity reward. An IC item or (what I've often done in games I've run) a simple "unique/weird thing happens to you on X-day".
For example, Character X turns in bonus activity with a new player for April, in May they wake up one morning to find their mailbox overflowing with love letters that very clearly seem to be AI generated.
This is more indirect, but could potentially bring people to the PWM more every month (assuming "new player" is someone who's been in the game for 2 or fewer months) to get with new players they may not have on other socials. You could potentially also include activity with new TDM characters on TDM months.
4. Small mid- or late-month events that involve pairing up characters for threads, either randomly or not. This is uhhh probably the most work for everyone, so I don't necessarily rec it, but just in case: smaller scale events independent of the monthly big event that will require some advanced plotting, where characters wishing to participate are paired up either randomly or via pre-plotting with the point of threading within a narrow prompt.
Some examples of these I've seen/done include:
"Musical Episode" Curse Day, where characters were paired up and made to thread a scene where their characters were cursed to write within the context of having to do a musical number, with the genre randomly assigned by a mod.
Corporate Bonding Exercise-Type Event, where characters are paired together 100% at random ahead of time to do an admittedly wretched bonding activity like trust falls.
[THING]-Building Contest, in which characters are paired up to make something like a sandcastle, a snowman, a jack-o-lantern, a Cool Weapon, a cake. (Winners for these were generally determined based on a RNG roll + the number of tags done in a thread in OC games.)
The idea is that players are hopefully given additional reasons to check out the PWM post to figure out who else is participating, link up in pairs & discuss plans. Again, workload may outweigh reward on this, though.
Hello and thank you very much for this very thorough reply! The mod team is currently discussing the points mentioned here and seeing if and how we could implement them into Expi.
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Some of them potentially add work onto your plates (or another player's plate), and I know some of this stuff may not be a great fit, but I just wanted to rattle off the things I've seen done in case one of them works out!
1. Reminders for the PWM/EMP done on plurk & in discord about 5 - 7 days after it's posted, and then again once the actual monthly event goes up if those aren't in alignment.
2. Increased mod use of the OOC comm. This one is iffy because it's tough to strike a balance and find out where the line of "annoying, too much superfluous information" is lmao BUT...
- Mid-Month Mini SotG, which also draws attention to the PWM post.
- Mid- or Late- Month Highlight Reel posted by the mods for players to post conversations/threads/happenings they'd like to draw attention to, whether for plot or just because something funny/dramatic happened.
3. Incentivizing monthly activity done with new players, via some sort of small, potentially unique activity reward. An IC item or (what I've often done in games I've run) a simple "unique/weird thing happens to you on X-day".For example, Character X turns in bonus activity with a new player for April, in May they wake up one morning to find their mailbox overflowing with love letters that very clearly seem to be AI generated.
This is more indirect, but could potentially bring people to the PWM more every month (assuming "new player" is someone who's been in the game for 2 or fewer months) to get with new players they may not have on other socials. You could potentially also include activity with new TDM characters on TDM months.
4. Small mid- or late-month events that involve pairing up characters for threads, either randomly or not. This is uhhh probably the most work for everyone, so I don't necessarily rec it, but just in case: smaller scale events independent of the monthly big event that will require some advanced plotting, where characters wishing to participate are paired up either randomly or via pre-plotting with the point of threading within a narrow prompt.
Some examples of these I've seen/done include:
- "Musical Episode" Curse Day, where characters were paired up and made to thread a scene where their characters were cursed to write within the context of having to do a musical number, with the genre randomly assigned by a mod.
- Corporate Bonding Exercise-Type Event, where characters are paired together 100% at random ahead of time to do an admittedly wretched bonding activity like trust falls.
- [THING]-Building Contest, in which characters are paired up to make something like a sandcastle, a snowman, a jack-o-lantern, a Cool Weapon, a cake. (Winners for these were generally determined based on a RNG roll + the number of tags done in a thread in OC games.)
The idea is that players are hopefully given additional reasons to check out the PWM post to figure out who else is participating, link up in pairs & discuss plans. Again, workload may outweigh reward on this, though.Hope some of these are helpful!!
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