[Suzerain of Sheol]

I wonder sometimes if there's a disconnect between what we writers know about the setting and what the users know, because, for instance, none of those questions of yours, Belial, even occurred to me and I know the answer to all of them, but maybe we haven't done a good enough of job of conveying all that info through the stories so far.

Also, Behemoth, if you don't mind could you elaborate on what you mean by "watching someone else's RP"? I guess I just don't understand where that comes from, and I remember some other people voicing a similar complaint in the other thread we had. What in particular about the way the story is told makes it come off as an RP rather than... I don't know, a cohesive narrative similar to a novel, I guess? Because... it isn't an RP. Granted, it's a cooperatively told story, but one that follows a set outline and is plotted out from beginning to end before any writing begins (for the most part).

Is it the posting style, alternating between NPCs? I personally love that, as it lets us segue between points-of-view efficiently in the narrative. If that's confusing people, I think, again, it may be a failing on our part to explain within the story who everyone is and how they relate to what's going on. Though, I will go on record as saying that I do think there were too many characters in the last event, between the plot NPCs and each of the staff's pet NPCs.

Would it have been better if, say, we'd focused the story only on the "main" characters like Ryuko and Maesha and left the staff NPCs to RP amongst the users to fill out their role in what was going on?

But, then, we don't have that going on in this event, we're only showing the "main" characters here, so I'm guessing that isn't really the problem. I suppose for this event, it does go back to people not understanding how everything inter-relates. I can sort of see why Lesallia, Katrine, and Virgil would seem tangential to the aftermath of the war plot, but, again, I know why they aren't, but perhaps that isn't clear in the narrative to someone who doesn't already know that.

*shrugs* I don't know. I'm having a hard time understanding what exactly you guys would like out of the story that it isn't providing at the moment. I mean, what could we do differently that would help you all engage with it better? (Serious question, I really want to know.) I understand most of the complaints that are coming up, but I'm failing at envisioning an alternative way of presenting the story that would clear up these issues.

So... suggestions, please?