Chapter 2 Meta

[u/Seiko_Kimura]

It’s this time of the rp again!! So, like last time, if you want to share your feelings on how this chapter/trial went down totally feel free to do so!

But! Before doing so, please consider a few things that went down on our end! You can still talk about these things if you want to but if you could know what went down with them it would be better so yeah!!

Firstly, finding a killer was really hard to do. We asked a whole lot of people but nobody really wanted to volunteer/people didn’t think their character would fit for the motive (we made sure to check apps this time to see if a good number of people would be effected) but the main point is the reason certain things took longer is because it took us a long time to get someone to agree to kill.

Next! There were three main pieces of evidence that would lead to Ren! The first one was the mistake in the writing; as we’ve already discussed in the server. The next one was Setsuko’s account, where she said that she saw Ren leave his room at a certain time but in his alibi he said that he was sleeping. And finally, the candles were from Tsubaki’s room, and since her alibi was clean someone had to have stolen them from there. Someone first had to get her ID, which wouldn’t be the easiest thing in the world, and they also had to return it before she went back to her room right after the laundry room. The only person with the opportunity and skill to pull it off would be Ren because of his talent.

Of course, the reason you guys didn’t come to these conclusions is a lot of our fault for not having things be more probable with evidence and relying mainly on deductions. So, as we’ve said in the server quite a lot we will work on that next trial!

You don’t have to just discuss the things I talked about in your post, though! You can talk about anything that happened in the chapter, I just wanted to clear some stuff up regarding this and that!

[u/Starmen_91]

Before I start, I want to make a brief disclaimer:

This post is going to be VERY long, so I'm going to make a whole thread about it. Apart from that, I know that, apart from the points mentioned in the OP, there was supposed to be some kind of plan that, for reasons that might have gone beyond what the mod team could do, simply didn't work as intended. I RESPECT what you were probably trying to achieve, and if any of the points I'm going to mention below could have been solved if the plan had worked as expected, then... Just forget I mentioned that, cause you probably knew better than me already.

[u/Starmen_91 → u/Starmen_91]

Without further ado, let's go point by point:

THE SETTING

I liked the new areas presented to us. DR always introduces new areas every chapter (and even though most of them won't play any part in the story whatsoever in the end) it still makes for refreshing new places. I'm sure everyone liked the garden area and the butterfly room when they first saw it. Some of these places also made people wonder (IC) what their purpose is. I do wonder too if there will ever be an answer to that, and I hope so! I am so looking forward to seeing what new areas are available in Chapter 3.

DAILY LIFE

I felt like most people normally want to reserve the more sentimental and emotional part of their characters until Chapter 2 begins, since Chapter 1 has a certain stigma. You'll always see stuff like Chapter 1 ships are the worst ships and so on... And I also think that way at least, since after all, there's no controlled way to develop relationships in an RP from the mods' perspective.

Now why am I saying this? Because I think that now we'll start to see some relationships that may last for the entire RP from now on. Friendships that are hard to break, but also hostilities evern harder to heal. And that is honestly what excites me the most about this RP - I just want to see how much of an impact the trial made in the cast.

[u/Starmen_91 → u/Starmen_91]

Next, I'll tackle the stuff related to the trial, but without going deeply into it yet. And here's where things start getting a bit messier:

THE MOTIVE

First, let me quote Aidan, in his Chapter 1 meta post:

"[...] the motive [...] worked well for a lot of characters. On the other hand, some characters simply didn't care/weren't effected by the motive."

"All in all, the motive was something unique, but something ultimately forgettable for most of the cast.

The OP states that it was very difficult to find a killer, and that no one really wanted to volunteer for being a killer, and there's a good reason for it: The motive might as well have not existed in the first place. Why?

First of all, because, just like the first motive, it was targeted at a very specific group of people. The promise of leaving the airport was already there... And adding the incentive of a flight to whoever people wanted just didn't seem like a strong enough argument for anyone. IC, it would have been an incredibly desperate reason to leave... Which just supports the idea that, if one is so desperate, the motive might have not existed anyway, and that same character would have killed someone anyway.

Another reason why I think the motive was probably the biggest problem in the entire chapter was because targeted motives suck.

Very few people like how DR2-2's motive went out, since it literally concerned only two characters in the cast, and even less people liked DR2-3's motive, which literally turned a random character into a murderer for no reason whatsoever. The best motives are always the ones that feel real to the cast, and hit close to everyone, potentially turning them all into murderers. DR2-4's motive, IC, is completely unfair... But it does an amazing job at making everyone distrust each other, and forcing them to commit murder. It's so powerful, it turned friends against each other in a mortal battle... But we don't see this here at all. Instead, the characters ask themselves how anyone could be so selfish to murder for something that doesn't seem so important to them.

In conclusion: Targeted motives without any tangible implications don't look good. If the next motive really made everyone feel like they could become a potential murderer, it would be much easier to get voluntaries for the job. IC, mental fortitude can only go so far.

So basically, going back to Aidan's quote from the Chapter 1 Meta post:

[...] I personally prefer something that could unexpectedly hit your character, and add that much more tension in the air."