Lantra said:

I'd like to take a moment to share how we approached the Bloodtide Coven from an event design perspective.

When coming up with the concept for the Li-varili arc, something we knew we wanted to have from the very beginning was a method for players to assist her if they wanted. We discussed internally ways of accomplishing this in a way that would be satisfying for players, and what we settled on was a series of escalating events. Each one was opt-in for the players involved, and as the events went on, the actions slid more into Li-varili's overall desire for revenge.

This design felt well communicated, observing as someone from the outside the coven. We did see characters that turned away at various points, or rebounded back to Bloodtide Coven. I could also see the draw of continuing to receive praise until the end.

Agreeing with Falaine above on IC consequence. There's still room to play a redemption arc if that's what's desired.

I'd like to take a moment to share how we approached the Bloodtide Coven from an event design perspective.

When coming up with the concept for the Li-varili arc, something we knew we wanted to have from the very beginning was a method for players to assist her if they wanted. We discussed internally ways of accomplishing this in a way that would be satisfying for players, and what we settled on was a series of escalating events. Each one was opt-in for the players involved, and as the events went on, the actions slid more into Li-varili's overall desire for revenge.

A player might be comfortable helping awaken Sister Sea, for example, but pause at breaking Li-varili out of Lantra's healing mound with Drocilla. Someone else might be comfortable doing the latter, but not be comfortable sacrificing an innocent taurian boy on the altar of Li-varili's anger, along with a beloved nereid priestess. And still more players would be comfortable doing all those things, but hesitate at imprisoning all the Elder Gods in thousands of years of torment -- or only do so once they realized it was every god, not just the ones in the awakening, that Li-v chose to betray.

We expected players to betray Li-varili throughout the Bloodtide arc, and left doors open for people to become turncoats along the way, and to reward that behavior. We also were open to players staying loyal to Li-varili the entire time and being part of her swan song, and for Li-varili to give them special attention in those final moments. We had plans in place for both situations.

You'll notice Magnagora had different reactions to Li-varili than the other orgs, and this was also by design. We knew orgs like Serenwilde and Celest were going to be more firmly against Li-varili's actions due to their inherent roleplay, but Magnagora through Drocilla's ties to Li gave us an opportunity to "condone" betrayal in a way that players didn't feel they had to go against the org per se. Even when they realized Drocilla had been ultimately betrayed, Bloodtide members could take part through the end and more or less have enjoyed the entire thoroughline of the Year Arc. In essence, Mag would be a "safe haven" if no other org was in the endgame.

Something players often sigh about in the aftermath of a Year Arc is the sense that their actions throughout the arc did not ultimately matter, and that the events would have unfolded exactly the same way if they had not participated. We worked hard this year to give a sense that every player's actions did matter, and the result was a lot of optional high stakes actions on the villain's side that -- understandably -- would invite some criticism by many orgs and players in the game. Because Li-varili's actions were always meant to culminate in the destruction of a Seal, and invite the judgment of the other Elders. Something on this level storywise would have to invite judgment from players, too. We did our best to make everything for the Bloodtide Coven consensual and clear from start to finish.

After Ascension we are likely to write a few godblogs to further expand on this topic, but there is a difference between IC actions receiving IC consequences and IC actions inviting OOC hatred. If you ever feel the latter is the case and you are being harassed to the point of being pushed to leave the game, we invite you to ISSUE yourself.

I would definitely like to extend a very heart-felt 'thank you' to the members of the Coven who put so much time and energy into a story for us all to enjoy. It is such a difficult balance between the IC reactions your characters should have and the OOC reality that these people invested so much and took such a risk.

In the case of the Bloodtide Coven, because of the nature of some of the actions I can see how it makes it difficult for certain orgs to let go of their ideals and accept a member, but that also leaves few options for the players. I am curious how much advance knowledge of the story the players had in order to make their decision to participate? One strong example was the murder of the child - were the players given enough time to decide if this was a direction they wanted their character to go in so that they could understand the possible repercussions?

Falaine recently shared a pony picrew and I cannot. Too cute.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

@Tau is a good egg being lovely and contemplative. 

Help I can't stop paying artists to draw my boy. 

This was a 60-minute sketch page from https://twitter.com/Falco_works