the writing is pretty good and the setting is very cool. i enjoyed it and it’s fun but it felt a bit lacking in terms of gameplay because it’s more about just following the trail. penalizing the player for visiting more locations also seems to push the player to go on a more linear path and limit their space to speculate (i.e. their play space). perhaps you can replace the penalty with consequences in the narrative instead, like it took too much time or just being there triggered something - it can be positive or negative. and reading the online profiles should not be part of the penalty. there is a potential complication there with the activist poster which can make things interesting, and i think you can take advantage of that further. all in all, great job!
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Thanks for playing! The scoring system (penalizing for locations) is based on the board game Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective, which I agree was somewhat weird (and why our group personally didn't care much about the score when we play). I think when I made it the online profiles counted toward the locations by default, and also because I didn't feel like I had enough locations without them. But I think you're right that they shouldn't be the same penalty - maybe a partial penalty since it would still take some time reading them? And narrative consequences would be super cool but also require a lot more story making!