Dynamic stories: Speaking of the Beast venue in particular - I haven't seen any. They've been slow and non-existent. Zero excitement, when a Beast ST does show up (one drop-in in several months) it's uninspired 'setup' with no actual action, dram a or conflict. I have read about but only really met one Beast NPC. It feels like the venue exists only on paper. I get real life happens, but when it happens for months on end and ST's can't make time at all it's time to fire and find new staff.ABOUT ETERNAL NOIRE:
Eternal Noire is a non-profit hobby and online gaming website currently running Onyx Path’s Chronicles of Darkness. Our game was founded in 2017 when a group of online Chronicles of Darkness players realized how unbalanced and cliquish many online role-playing communities had become. The goal of Eternal Noire is to bring the interactive and dynamic stories to life for all our players, reward players who take initiative and are upstanding members of the community, and foster an environment of higher quality gaming with true transparency.
Eternal Noire 2.0 Chronicle is expanding on the original vision of the game, and encouraging a game by gamers, for gamers, to break down barriers and focus on a Player v. Environment, Plot-Driven cooperative storytelling game style.
Setting: It looks good on paper but in practice not so much. Limiting venues to specific boroughs was a bad idea. I know people can do stuff in other parts but it still hurts cohesion and limits opportunities. The focus on Hunter and Changeling feels stifling; it sucked watching other venues have stuff to do and actual scenes while Beast got nothing. Make ST's learn and incorporate everyone. If a venue's ST's are busy, step in and cover for them. But don't leave eager players hanging for so long they stop caring.
Cliquishness: It still thrives here. You won't want to hear this but the focus on LGBT everything is crushing. I usually only play cisgendered and largely heterosexual characters for personal reasons; those are often excluded from deeper rp by virtue of all the lesbian female transwomen, of which there are so many it actually breaks suspension of disbelief over its knee and sets it on fire. It's no fun always sitting in the lobby because everyone is hiding in locked rooms. It felt so inclusive it was actually exclusive. Add to that the venue limits and you can't even invite friends you enjoy playing with to join you in a venue. I felt isolated and excluded. Which brings me to...
Actual Game play: I hate the xp cap with a passion. It's too low; I have at this point spent a full month with no plot, no way to use my existing abilities, no real roleplay, very little npc interaction and have only seen my ST's maybe three times very briefly. Even sheet work is always late, in one case taking just shy of three weeks to even be looked at and a month and a half to get a question about a plot answered. Let me make this clear: I tried to do offscreen stuff and it stalled because the st's forgot about it and actually ignored me for months. The actual mechanics of bluebooking are murky; experienced online players already get it but several friends of mine gave up because it wasn't really transparent, and the sanctioning process is glacially slow, plus the one-month wait time if you desanction combined with inability to ST for a venue you play in and Conflict of Interest rules makes a situation where you can be stuck unable to play or run anything for months on end if you have a venue preference. I wanted to run for Beast but it's also my favorite game and there is literally nowhere else to play it. Your rules regarding these things are solutions for problems that don't exist. Don't lock people with a passion for a game out of that game.
To end, I want to say for all the doom and gloom I think the staff and players here are good people who are trying. Perhaps it would be good to note your heavy LGBT focus on the main page somewhere. It does matter and not everyone who cares is a bigot. Maybe actually level some punishments on ST's who don't do their jobs. Give Beasts an in to other venues. Raise the cap a LOT or eliminate it. Do something to make downtime not miserable (two thread actions a week is not enough; why does my character who can literally go weeks with no sleep and has dozens of loyal minions to do work for him have only two things he can do a week? It's silly). Rethink the rules with an eye toward the actual effects they have on players. Give people reasons to ST and GueST for each other to pick up the slack and make it easy and convenient to do so.
Positives: The site is beautiful and well-designed aesthetically.
Summary: Cliquish, hostile toward differing lifestyles and opinions, slow, dull/nonexistent plots, deadbeat ST's, painful xp cap and thread action limits, entire venue dead.