The psychological effects for the comatose characters will depend on player preference! The benefit of small groups is that we'll be able to customize each group's experience, so we'll be asking, essentially, "how badly do you wanna get mcfucked up" when signups roll around. When we say "customized headgames", we mean we'll be pulling juicy character deets from apps and AC notes! Our goal is to tailor the experience to characters as much as possible.

As for groups, we're planning to keep them small. Three characters is ideal, though we may end up with a pair or two.

And regarding coordination difficulties among groups: We super hear you on this. Our top priority for the comatose player side of things is to make sure no player or group is at a disadvantage, either from the outset (e.g. timezone troubles) or because of an issue coming up unexpectedly (e.g. rl circumstances).

Let me unveil the mod curtain a little to talk about this in more detail, since I'm sure others have similar concerns. Mippins here! I'll be the mod running the comatose side of the event. (Leu's in charge of body horror monster town, no one was surprised.)

First of all, comatose characters will totally be able to thread out stuff amongst their groups during the event, BUT the mod interaction/exploration aspect will come into play in investigation threads run very similarly to how investigations work in some murdergames! To illustrate, here's an example of an investigation I was in recently. Ignore the content! The structure is what's important! See how the characters are checking out the area ICly while also receiving mod responses as part of the tag order? That's what the comatose characters will be getting up to, structure-wise.

(Little side note - murdergame investigation threads tend to be quick and shitposty because of the nature of those games, but we have a whole two weeks to take our time. Our investigation threads can be a quick/shitposty or as the opposite of that as the players want. It's all up to you guys. 👍 We'll match your energy.)

The neat thing about this structure is, say, worst case scenario and someone's whole group falls apart midway through the event when it's too late to reshuffle? That last character standing can have a solo adventure with the mods. It's not ideal, but at least that way, no one will miss out on getting to do plot stuff because of circumstances beyond their control. That solo quest character will then have plenty of neat stuff to share with characters after the event too, since they're the only one that will have gotten to experience their particular plot thing.

These investigative threads will run for the entire duration of the event, which is a long time! This should give all the groups ample time to complete their investigation without needing to rush. Each group is limited to one location in Coma Beacon, which allows each group to set their own pace without having to worry about keeping pace with other players. That said, we'll also be implementing some guidelines for keeping the threads moving. More on that once we're closer to the event!

And finally, and probably the most important thing to note in regards to not letting players get, ahem, dicked over: The comatose groups will be in close contact with one mod or another at all times. It'll be a pretty collaborative event between mods and players, and we'll be able to guide groups OOCly to make for a smooth experience for all. Should any wild issues arise, I'm confident in our team's ability to problem-solve on the fly.

Whew, that was a lot, but I hope this answers your question and eases some tensions regarding this assigned group event stuff!