One of our goals as a team is to empower players to engage in RP with and against other players. This can't be done in a region where players don't exist en masse on a daily basis. This is a PvP game. The majority of the player base plays SD inside Withmore's city limits. We prefer that players seek RP inside the city where the majority of the player base RPs.
Next, the badlands is not supposed to be a fun little place that characters should want to go. It is a harsh, unforgiving, deadly wasteland rife with dangers, human and otherwise. Going to the badlands is not something any character should take lightly - ever. While it is easily accessible in a strict mechanical sense, it should typically not -feel- accessible from an IC perspective. Going to the badlands should usually not be seen as a day at the beach. Returning safely from the badlands should be a relief that you survived the risk rather than an expected, rote affair. It's the badlands, not a park on Green.
When dealing with NPCs, you should expect the majority of your puppet requests in the badlands to end badly, or at the very least, to come with consequences. You should also not be surprised if your puppet isn't answered at all. These NPCs are in the badlands for a reason. Very few of them care about you or the city. Most are likely to treat you with suspicion at best and view you with hostility, and seek to harm/take advantage of you at worst. You should never expect that you are going to get what you want when you request a badlands puppet. If it helps put it into perspective, I personally consider Bansuporo Park the game's badlands lite in terms of being inhospitable.
Finally, we have very few GMs. This has been an issue as long as I've been on staff (nearly 3 years now). GMs, like the rest of the staff team, volunteer their time. Everyone on staff has irl jobs. Some of us are in school. Some of us have families. Most of us split our time between staffing and playing our own characters, and we have other hobbies, interests, and responsibilities outside of SD.
Puppets are often not quick or easy. Some can take hours of RP. GMs have to be able to jump between RP with several people at once, sometimes with unrelated RP and while controlling multiple NPCs across the city. They often do this while also writing staff-side player notes in real time. It is easily the most demanding and fast paced role any staffer can have. They get tired. They experience burn out.
All of this together means that GMs have to prioritize who they give their time to when they are online. In keeping with the importance of fostering RP where the main player base resides, GMs will always prioritize puppets in the city over puppets in the badlands. This doesn't mean you can't submit puppet requests with badlands NPCs. It does mean that you should expect to wait, and wait, and wait some more before someone gets to it. Understand that you will likely be waiting weeks or months for a response. And understand that even after that wait, the results may not be favorable.
We know this isn't ideal for those of you seeking staff-assisted badlands RP, but it is what it is. We want everyone to have their fun, but we can only do so much.
