October Feedback

[Sticks]

I had an ok event. Here are my thoughts both good and bad:

Friday Night: The Troll Lands
Game start seemed overly delayed. We are ready, no we arent, ok now we are ready...nope wait we arent, ok this time for sure we are ready...wait so and so isnt here yet. Kinda Frustrating.

The RP here was AWESOME. Jordan did an AMAZING job as the troll king, the lil goblin guy servant was also entertaining and I think he did an great job with the role he was given. I really liked that fact that those people from out of town had things to help entertain them outside the trials. The rare creature hunt seemed like a neat idea and I like the concept of the pelts/furs having multiple uses.

I think the "items/things" out in the woods was cool. I know I heard a decent amount of talk about finding things from bones, to buried chests, to silver ore among various other things.

The trials. I only got to go on one of them and seemed to spend a lot of time waiting to get to do it. It seemed like the pacing on these could have been handled better to allow multiple challenges to take place at the same time. I know the strength and the trial both took multiple NPC's, but the wisdom and agility challenges only required one NPC/GM to handle and could have been happening at the same time. All the time waiting to do the agility challenge and not sure when it was going to actually take place meant those doing it were somewhat stuck waiting in the tavern and couldnt do the other things available.

The agility trial was fun, it was neat to see a trap mod finally after having been teased with one for several events now (Poke poke!). I was disappointed that the challenge didnt get scored for some reason in the announcement phase.

Saturday: The Academy
I didnt get to see much with regards to this as I was in the tavern working from 9:30 till about 6 or 7 when lunch finally concluded. So I cant say much about this one.

The dual location thing was a little strange logistically as I tried to come up with reasons for why there was all this treasure on the ground in the morning and I know several people found some of the pelts on the ground when we were at the academy and we got told by the trolls that the creature only existed in their lands. Not a huge deal, but caused a slight continuity issue with the story.

TBC...

[Bud Lewis]

I enjoyed the event ALOT guys and as usual, I can go on and on about what I had fun with and how you guys keep raising the expectations. (Actually, that's what I've been doing for the last 24 hours with anyone with even a shred of interest.) But I know you guys are constantly asking for the criticism to make it a better game.

Friday: The only issues i had with friday were the late start, but I may have even meen one of the resons this occurred as I and my carful had to make a few stops for Plot and Logistics teams on the way to the event. Aside from that the feel and tone of the troll lands just fit so well, though I was hoping to see more troll NPCs. In truth I did not do as much exploring as others on friday night, but I would have loved to see maybe a few more trolls bulked up like jordan and gotten to interact with the Ilgruk people more.

Saturday: Waking up late on saturday means I didn't get caught in the slowness I've heard a few people talk about in the morning, but I did enjoy the feeling of getting something out of exploring and just finding stuff out in the woods, whether it led to a plot or not. I liked the idea of going to the academy to basically "start a mod", because it kept alot more in character than sitting around outside monster camp. I think my group just got hit with a bit of bad timing in regards to the farmer negotiation mod, as I believe the majority of SPC staff were running another mod so getting two mods done at once seemed difficult.

All in all though, I enjoyed the event alot. Each event feels like an improvment to the few flaws of the last and you guys always manage to keep alot of us on the edge of the seat with the plot that's going right now.

[Admin]

Here are my thoughts now that I've had a day to process from the event. I'll call it my post-mortum.

The Bad:

1. We were not organized enough to start the event. Character sheets were not there, and then even when they were there, it wasn't communicated properly to the logistics staff (Ceilyn) what to do, so we ended up with a giant disorganized mess trying to get things going. As a result of this, the event started late.

2. The plot of the event was written in advance of the event, and I think any NPC will tell you that it was well-organized for what needed to go out when. We literally had every part for every module pre-printed and laminated, with the stats on one side and the important notes for how the NPC should act and what it should say on the backside. However, this level of preparation doesn't matter if it's not used and understood by the people running monster camp. We had some issues and slow-downs as direct result of this.

3. Waiting around for modules... Ugh, this is exactly what I wanted to avoid. I specifically wrote the weekend with the goal in mind of making ANY waiting that happened be IN-GAME waiting while in-game preparations were made. Unfortunately, I didn't do a good enough job implenting this and we ended up with the same problem right from the beginning of the event. This is something that I have to keep working on to avoid it in the future.

4. We had some rules issues with this event when it came to production, and some conflicting calls coming from the staff. I apologize for the confusion about what can and can't be done during an event with production skills. Hopefully, we won't have issues like this in the future because I know that it sent the wrong message to some people.

5. Gem evaluation was a nightmare. See Evan's post on gems for my thoughts on that.

6. We had some confusion about the end of the Friday night portion of the event and how that would roll over to Saturday morning. I apologize to those who were told that they were out-of-game until Saturday morning began. We had meant only to inform you guys that plot and monster camp was closing down, not that you had to go out-of-game at that time. Sorry for the roleplay opportunities this removed between you guys.

7. The appearance of the Academy didn't get to where I wanted it to go. I had planned to have it organized and decorated on Friday night before anyone arrived. Unfortunately, too many things didn't get there in time for me to do that and Jay and I had to decorate in the early morning on Saturday. That hurt the overall feel and appearance of the place. On a similar note, I had hoped that the apprentice would be properly prepared to be ready to fully play the part before the doors opened and that didn't happen. The ensuing "the apprentice said I needed to ask Bill" moments were a disappointment.


The Good:

1. I feel like the troll lands ran pretty well, aside from the logistical problems with getting things moving. The place seemed to come across the way that we wanted it to, and I think that we balanced entertaining people who were and were not involved in the plot pretty well.

2. I was happy with the Academy and its accompanying roleplay. We didn't get as many books produced before the event as I wanted, but there seemed to be enough to get people interested in reading. I was proud that we had a book prepared for every research that was made that the Academy would have a book for (excluding those that we intentionally left out).

3. The things in the woods. Well, this one could have gone in the "good" or the "bad" section. There wasn't as much out there as I wanted. Not everything that was planned was produced prior to the event. Aside from that, though, I think there was some interesting stuff out there that got people up and moving. Unfortunately, our primary core of NPCs was gone in the morning, and this allowed people to go scour the woods unmolested, thus leading to more things being found by a smaller number of people.

Overall, I would say that this event was proof that we are still a work in progress. I like to think that we're improving, and I thank each of you for your patience as you bear with us while we grow and iron out the details.

[Sticks]

Continued:

Saturday night: The Szechuan spicy attacks!

I liked this for the most part. The story seemed solid and they had a reason to attack instead of just the random "we want your stuff Rar". I like how they have defined racial prejudice as a nation and that it got played out during the combat by them checking our race once dropped to determine if we should die or not.

A few things that I noticed were the logistics of the Hounds. While this is a great concept in practice it seems to be faulty. I could be mistaken but my understanding is that the hound cannot die while its master is still alive. The problem I saw several times were NPC's looking around while getting beat on to try and determine if their master was or was not dead, and I also overheard at least one NPC comment "I hope so and so is dead already" as the hound he was playing died and he walked off the field (which by the way I applaud the NPC for as I feel he made the right call and "died" possibly early instead of taking the chance of staying late).

The only other issue I saw with the big Saturday evening plot was that any travelers/visitors didnt really have any motivation to care. Many of them stayed and helped during the fight but none of the sezchuan guys were dropping loot and that seemed to dissuade travelers from having motivation to stay once things started to get dangerous and skills/healing become a more premium resource. Im not saying they should have dropped treasure, or that it would have even made a difference to them and I wish I had a suggestion on how to motivate travelers to really want to be involved in any local chapter plot, but I just dont. I have always had a similar problem when I traveled to other chapters, if it wasnt something my character directly cared about the game quickly turns into a "stuff quest" situation. Maybe having a local NPC big wig offer to pay travelers for their service or something like that might work...not sure, just tossing it out trying to brainstorm.

General things:
A few just random issues not tied to any specific day/time/plot of the event.

I was a little disappointed that my between games emails got cut off without conclusion for some reason. I sent an email, got a response, sent back a response, then heard nothing else and was left wondering if the email just didnt reach the GM staff or if the NPC was deliberately not responding to me.

This could just be an in-game issue, but the member of house reach never showed up like he was supposed to. A bit disappointing as I was looking forward to having some negotiations with them. This could just be an in-game thing...maybe he got jumped on the way, maybe a PC ganked him on his way into town, or maybe NPC camp just got busy and overlooked it as a "less important" plot. In retrospect I feel the fault on this is probably more mine then NPC camps as I think about it and realize that I could have investigated this in game instead of assuming it was an OOG issue that caused it not to happen. I was working simply off past event experiences and I dont think that is a fair judgement, so I suppose you can ignore this unless your another player like me who was thinking it sucked that house reach never showed up and then didnt investigate the matter either.

Tavern setup. This seemed ok up until dinner time when everyone was hungry and trying to cram into the tavern and find a place to sit down. Losing a table to someone selling wares OOG didnt help, but I dont know if one more table would have been enough in this case. I literally had folks eating on the counter that we were trying to serve food from cause there was no room left. I understand space is at a premium, maybe we can brainstorm some ways to utilize it better for both sides of this. I know at least one person mentioned the fireplace and being able to start a fire in it and RP around it, which I also think would be awesome.

That is all I can think of for now and concludes my general feedback of the event. My apologies for splitting the feedback but it was just too much to do all at once.

My overall rating for the event is 6 out of 10 stars. I saw definite improvement from last event and am looking forward to the Barbarian feast.

-Evan

[Admin]

Evan,

Thanks for the feedback. I waited to respond until you got it all in. To offer some response:

The trials: I am still kicking myself for not going through on this change. As we were getting ready to start the event, it occurred to me to have one NPC (the troll king) run the agility challenge and the other NPC (the goblin Fed'Azar) run the intelligence challenge. Unfortunately, by the time I got back to monster camp, this idea had slipped back out of my head with everything else going on. It would have made the night run smoother, and I wish I'd done it.

Dual Location: I don't think I'd ever run a dual location event again. It created more problems than any benefit we gained. An interesting experiment, but really a failed one. The aatphar were specifically instructed not to drop their pelts on the ground when they died, for the reason you described. Unfortunately, as these things go, an NPC lost 3 he was carrying with him when he was running through the bushes at night. I bet those were the ones found.

Hounds: The hounds and their masters should have been staying close enough together so that the problem you described could be avoided. It's a tricky thing to run, but I've always liked the hound concept since the Sessuar were created forever ago so I kept it with the Sessuar here for their attack in our lands.

In-between-game-communication: Your communication was cut off for an entirely in-game reason. Without revealing too much, I would recommend dealing with that issue of lack of communication in-game.

House Reach: A similar issue and recommendation.

Tavern Setup: This problem, once again, comes down to the decision to run a split-location event. Since we needed to have the Academy building off-limits, it crunched our space drastically. Also, I don't like the tarp wall across the tavern building and in the PC building either. Assuming that we can get the whole camp for the next event, this won't be an issue because we'll have enough space when we're not splitting the camp into two locations.

Thanks again for the feedback!

[Bud Lewis]

Oct 3, 2011 12:25:57 GMT -5 Admin said:

Also, I don't like the tarp wall across the tavern building and in the PC building either.
Thanks again for the feedback!

When I first went to the PC building my assumption was that they were to phys rep the individual rooms within the academy we were in. And I like this idea ALOT. And while black and blue tarps are no very fitting to the setting, if we could find another way to implement "individual rooms" again, it would be really interesting to see how it went. Because let's be honest... who doesn't love a ward on their own specific door? ;D

[Sticks]

Thank you for the responses Bill. Before I even read them I had already fired off an IG email to begin investigating the Remlick stuff.

For the hounds and masters, maybe a walkie talkie or one of the battery powered glow sticks might work out. With the glow stick you could even say in game that it is the control device for the hound and in order for the hound to be unaffected the glow stick has to be on. Then when the controller dies they can turn it off and you could just tell the hound that if they cant see the stick then they are either out of range or that their master is dead. Not a perfect solution I know, but maybe it can be adapted or adjusted to work somehow.

I really like the concept of the hounds and would hate to see them go away but feel they need a better logistical methodology to work fair. Perhaps the glow stick idea with the addition that if you cant find/see it within 30 seconds or something you have to assume the master is dead.

-Evan

[Culloden]

Best way I have seen this done is to give numbers. So when Bill gets killed he just yells loud "1 down", so the hound knows

[tim]

First, thanks to Bill, Jay, and Jordan for putting together the event, thanks to the npcs who helped run it, and thanks to Evan and Bianca for the best tavern food ever.

Friday night was outstanding, once the game finally started. I totally understand a bunch of stuff going wrong to push start times back, though. The rp of the troll king and the goblin were excellent, and it seemed as though things were going on all over the place. I like that.

I liked the Academy building. That was sweet. I wish that the tavern building had been used only for the tavern so that the same atmosphere the academy building brought could be experienced in the tavern. I really liked Yarn's forge/tent place. I had a hard time getting into the game, though. I couldn't figure out what was going on, but I haven't been paying too much attention to the boards, or doing any before event communicating, so that's all on me.

Saturday night: I liked it and didn't like it. Scouting briefly with Culloden was nice, but it was the first time during the event that I actually felt some concern for my character's well being. I liked the sense of nervousness about the academy building during the rituals. I hate any 'mods' involving dfms. This one had two. Yes, I chose to be the one to sit inside the doorway and wait for our ward to get dropped. I could have been one running outside playing with the dogs. But I've also been on the other side - one who wasn't strong enough and was kept outside, and being outside wondering for two hours what's going to happen would be frustrating as well.

Bill, thanks again for the bit of rp late Saturday night. It not have been much for you, but it meant a lot to my character.

I'm probably forgetting some things; I'll add them if I remember.

I'm looking forward to the next event!

Tim/Silvermoon

[Admin]

Bud,

Sorry, I missed your feedback on the first go-around. I was typing my response to Evan's on and off and yours got tucked in there.

I'd have liked to have more trolls around in the troll lands, too. But we made the decision to limit it because of NPC issues. It takes a lot of preparation to get an NPC ready to roll into a whole new race like that and be ready to have meaningful conversations and we just couldn't spare ones who would have been up to the task, in my opinion.

The issues with the start of the farmer module were a product of the greater logistical problems we had for the event as a whole. It should have run smoother, and I believe it will for the next weekend event that we run.

Thanks for the feedback!

-Bill

[Admin]

Tim,

I'm glad that you liked the troll lands. There was a lot of write-up involved behind the scenes to try and bring the troll king and his trusty goblin to life. It's good to hear that it really seems like that came across well.

I expect that the tavern will be entirely available for the next event, since we won't be running a split location event (ever again). I think that giving Evan the whole building to use and opening up the fireplace will really go a long ways towards making the tavern an in-game place. Tarp walls can really be mood-killers.

This event, because of the goals that the PCs were trying to accomplish, unfortunately, did make it difficult to get into the plot, I think. We tried to overcome this by having other things to do in the woods at both places, and by having Archwizard Grilus available to give out "tasks" for anyone. It seems like this worked for Friday night, but not really for Saturday. I think the disconnect on Saturday was mainly because Grilus didn't feel as approachable as Fed'Azar, likely because he was being talked to by so many people about so many in-game issues.

I agree that two hours of rituals aren't really a lot of fun. Jay and I had planned to spice this up with some neat ideas to make the rituals themselves more interesting to watch and take part in. Unfortunately, Jay and I bit off way more than we could chew planning for this event. Between writing books, writing the weekend, completely changing the tag system, going to popsicle stick components and populating the woods with all kinds of goodies, we simply ran out of time. Our plans for the ritual, unfortunately, ended up being the thing that had to suffer. I can promise this, though. From now on, any rituals that are required for plot reasons that will take more than 5 minutes will include entertainment.

The RP was my pleasure, and was one of the high points of the weekend for me, too. I love to see real character struggle taking place. It makes the game come alive for me.

Thanks,

Bill

[Bud Lewis]

Bill,

And for the record... Deban the Undead Slayer is EASILY one of the most interesting and entertaining and fun to roleplay with NPCs I have ever seen/met in NERO. And I would love to see him again. It's all of because of those Sons of Bitches on Roofs!

[Falthen]

Bill,

I personally had a great time at the event. Overall the atmosphere was solid both days, especially on Friday night. I liked that even though I was bringing a new character into the event for the first time, I already felt involved in the struggle between Sanctuary, the Ill'gruk, the orcs, and now the undead. It really helped give me an in-game reason to stay and help these guys. Saturday ended up to be a lot of asking "Is the library open yet?", but I can understand the logistical and in-game reasons why it wasn't open earlier. It also gave me and my crew a good chance to go around looking for goodies in the woods (magic rocks, ftw!). The fact that there was a bunch of sticks in the woods really helped me with my old problem of "Wait, this acorn is a formal component, but this acorn is just an acorn?" My point is that it made sense for there to be, you know, leaves and rocks and scales out in the woods, instead of them only being found on NPCs.

There were, however, a few minor differences between each plot member's interpretations of the rules. For example, Jordan confirmed to me that an item lies where it's phys-rep is, not the tag. This led to a bit of confusion in monster camp and eventually the item was lost to me because I had the phys-rep and not the tag. This is a pet peeve of mine, because I have previously lost magic items because someone has dropped and lost the phys-rep in the dark, and even though I had the tag on my person I had to give it to whomever found the phys-rep. I personally agree with this rule, but I would have liked my answer on the question at the event to have been a bit clearer.

One thing I had a slight problem with was what was an obvious bit of miscommunication on the part of the NPC playing the apprentice, but I don't want to place blame on plot for that.

Other than these few minor gripes though, I really enjoyed the event, and very much look forward to the next one and plan on bringing even more people to the upcoming event. (The dwarves are multiplying!)

[Admin]

Devon (falthen),

I wasn't involved in either stage of the "miscommunication" that you talked about and I am a little concerned by what you're saying happened. Except in a couple very rare circumstances, the location of the phys rep is THE determining factor for the location of the item, just like Jordan said. Please send an email to [e-mail] and explain to me what happened. I am concerned and want to know what happened.

I apologize, from an out-of-game perspective, that the library wasn't open sooner. I had planned for it to be. One NPC entertaining a dozen through books is a good ratio in my opinion. And yeah, I know that there were some issues with the apprentice. Unfortunately, it was a lot for one NPC to take in.

Thanks for the feedback,

Bill

[Madison Rizzo]

What I thought of my first event!
Good:
I liked the fact that there was a lot of things to do! I was barley ever bored which was great! I liked the diffrent things that I got to do like closing the tomb (That was really fun) Fighting those ANNOYING dear spit goblins, kicking some major hound butt! Those were all really great!
I liked that the NPCs (Mostly the Goblins) Kept us VERY busy with the kidnapping and that rubber chicken they wanted to get back so despretaly!
I really liked all the items people were finding from bones to treasure!
All the diffrent NPCs were great my personal favorites were the troll king, goblins, the hounds, and Bill's Elf whose name has dropped my mind.

Bad:
The number one thing I did not like was the sitting around Saturday night. We had to wait a long while before the hounds attacked.
The whole plot on saturday confused me maybe it was just because I wasn't paying attention well enough, but I found myself lost as of what was going on saturday night I had to ask Jay on the ride home what exactly had happened.
I also agree to what Sticks said about the hounds not knowing if there master was dead or not, I couldn't even tell either and I ended up casting at least 5 spells that didn't effect the hound because either I didn't notice if there master was dead or if they didn't notice he was dead.

Those were the things I did and did not like about the weekend. I really did have a great time and will be coming to the next event!
Thanks so much Bill, Jay, Jordan, and all the other NPCs for making my first event a really great one