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Written by Mayhem
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Wednesday, 18 March 2009 |
First off, I have to say that all in all, this
was one of the best games I've been to in my time LARPing. Hats off to
everyone who made it happen.
There were many reasons for this, and a lot of them were organisational:
1. The Set-up:
As soon as people checked in, they were given a clear explanation of
what was going on, what all the odd strings were around the site (ie.
WALLS) and why they were there.
Once in character, we were obliged to sit around making small talk and
trying to figure out how to get into the town. This meant that we
didn't all immediately disperse around the campsite and got to know
each other/check up on the adventures of our compatriots since last we
met.
The in-character weapons-training was also a good way to get into what can be a jarring, mood killer (though vitally important!)
A special mention goes to Raalou's doomsayer- very much added to the atmosphere of doom & gloom.
2. The Flow:
What the Friday night meant was that we'd all spent a few hours in
character already and had an idea of what was going on. Despite PG's
episodic nature, this really helped me want to stay in character
throughout the event as often as possible.
The 3-hr games were often delayed as we wandered down the tracks
while we waited for the next encounters to be set up. Oddly, this
didn't bother me- my parties (and to my knowledge, most of the parties)
had a forward scout, who would signal when he'd spotted something
interesting. Having an in-character reason to stop & wait (thus,
not having to break character) made a big difference.
3. The Plot:
While the adventures themselves were very much in the vein of
previous events, the "surprise" ending helped to bring everything
together and relate it back to the meta-plot. I very much got the
impression that while the 3-hr games weren't that important to the
overall course of events, all the little touches were. Varsus' change,
the distraught Koli worshipper; it's the subtle things that count.
Speaking of subtle, I was particularly impressed by the GMs sending
the head of the refugee camp after us as we walked into town,
complaining that we'd ditched our responsibilities. Totally a good
call.
On the other hand, I'm not surprised that nobody was particularly
interested in the plight of the goblins. While Ilithian explained the
reasoning behind it, the adventurers have spent the last however-many
years beating the living snot out of any goblins they came across.
Many of Erienn's first adventures involved being ambushed by
seemingly-mindless hordes of malicious, evil goblins. Despite being the
"forces of good" (as I called the PCs on the Saturday night) many of
the PCs are downright mercenary in their outlook, and a fair dash of
motivation can be required to get us moving. So... Yeah. Better luck
next time.
4. The Night Fight:
Let me say, I hate
night-fights. They're often disorganised, confusing, and safety goes
completely out the window. This time, however, there was a nifty
time-freeze just beforehand (ironically, just after someone at the
fireplace said we'd inevitably see one, hahah). This meant that all the
PCs could get in the combat zone and not do a half-assed job of it. The
adequate lighting and restricting of combat to the lit area also added
to the quality of that fight.
I would still suggest that some sort of heads-up about
night-fighting be added to the safety talk- I don't think I've heard
"low & slow" mentioned in at least three years.
5. The Saturday Safety-Talk:
This has been missing recently. It came back. The non-combatants
were specifically singled-out and rules changes were adequately
explained. The only thing missing might have been to mention that
Time-outs would be called for spells, or something along those lines.
Only thing I'd add would be to mention night fighting safety, but like I said, I hate night fights.
6. The NPCs:
Everyone seemed to know what they were doing and was well-briefed
enough not to run off and get a GM halfway through conversations. The
town NPCs in particular were very-well informed. I'll admit that I
didn't really interact with them very much, though.
7. The Parties:
My only major quibble would be here. I spent most of late Friday
night being bounced back-and-forth between the rescue mission and
Ethan's quest. It ended up coming down to me talking to the GMs about
it. Apparently the make-ups of most of the parties were a bit touch and
go for a while there, particularly when it became obvious that
everybody would probably be quite fine with seeing goblins extinct from
the world.
I'm not sure I can offer advice here. The last time we had
clearly-defined parties hanging around it turned into nasty
factionalism and wasn't really all that fun. GM-mandated parties have
the potential to make no sense whatsoever. On the other hand,
PC-decided parties could be an horrific mishmash of randoms which
simply don't work as adventuring groups.
8. The Weather:
All I can say is that everyone should be proud of having stuck out
that awful downpour on the Saturday. Incidentally, my possibly most
awesome moment that weekend was totally due to not wanting to collapse
into the mud (those who were there know what I mean!).
9. The Players:
Everybody I talked to enjoyed the weekend, and I could tell while
it was going. This, perhaps more than anything else, added so much to
the event for me. Someone once said that an event's success is 15%
dependent on organisation and 85% dependent on attitude.
I'd been looking forward to this event for a while and was really
pleased that everyone else was so chipper. When you don't have half the
player-base expecting to have an awful time, it's hard not to enjoy
yourself. Even Yastreb's gloomy disposition (IC, not OOC) couldn't get
me down!
10. The Scribes:
The scribing wasn't spectacular or awful, but what made all the
difference was both the scribes I had (I changed parties on the Sunday)
outlining how the adventure would run before we set out.
It's an absolute marvel what explaining things beforehand can
accomplish and I'm very impressed that somebody thought of this- it had
honestly never occurred to me before as something that was missing.
11. The Time-outs and Time-freezes:
There were a lot of them, they were often close together, but what
made all the difference this time is that none of them was over-long.
There was a whistle, things were explained, there was another whistle.
I think that the longest was when the Drow were marched out of the
monster hall on the Saturday night and that was by no means long.
The only time-outs which broke things up were the ones for
battle-boarding on the 3-hr games (!). My parties would often carry on
roleplaying after combat and I found that this would break the flow-
particularly after the big fight with the Drider on the Sunday. It was
hard to stay angry. This of course isn't to criticise- more to say that
the rest of the TOs and TFs were handled very well!
12. Spell effects:
We're still having a little difficulty with these, but definitely
improving. As mentioned, there were frequent Time-freezes, where the GM
(often Experiment 626 in my games) would very quickly clarify that
people know what was going on. The problem here is more with players
& NPCs missing area affects such as a certain quicksand spell.
Experiment's marking-out of the area affected by dragging his foot
through the dirt should have been pretty clear, but I guess people
missed it in the fighting which was going on at the time.
I was very impressed with Guile's consistent use of OOC material
components for his spell which doubled as obvious markers. The rope as
the firewall is particularly effective. I'd like to see something
similar used to mark out area effects- TONY's ice-flow is fairly
consistently mishandled, for example. Obviously, this is something
which is constantly changing and improving, and really not something
I'm terribly familiar with (not really being a spellcaster by nature).
13: Environmental effects:
Environmental effects, like the lighting from the torches used in
the Drow caves was handled very well. Players were made well aware of
the environment they were in and that beyond a certain point, we could
see nothing. I particularly liked the instance where we were slowly
advancing towards what we OOC knew was a line of Drow but couldn't see
IC. I'd have liked to have seen the looks on our faces when the Drow
came into the candlelight!
On the other hand, NPCs seemed occasionally unaware of the
environment they were fighting in. At one point I had to mark out a
"corner" to NPCs with my arm. I'll admit that it's super-hard to add
"scenery" to the open spaces which we often use on the 3-hr games. The
only thing I'm actually alright with is when NPCs take exception to PCs
using terrain to their advantage after it's pointed-out to them.
15. The Campaign:
And another thing!
Having the IC threads on the forum bring up and lead into major
plot points in the campaign was great. I was very impressed with the
way that the search for the priestess on the Sunday was the culmination
of the last few weeks of Storyteller & Joe M's RPing. I would love
to see more of that!
14. The Overview:
Atmosphere was great, the players and GMs all had positive
attitudes, the game encouraged immersion without ramming it down the
players' throats, the game was well-organised (and when it wasn't, it
didn't impede enjoyment of the game), people had a clear idea of what
was going on and (most importantly) we all had fun!
Love your work guys, keep it up.
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