Hi! My name is Mike, long time fan first time poster. Seriously, I don't post.
Friday RP Campfire Night -
This was an interesting experiment, and definitely has room to grow and improve. By no means did I have a bad time, I enjoyed it quite a lot. I was able to bring out Thudd's character more and get some quality RP time with people like TC who is usually running around doing whatever dragons do. From a game/plot/story mechanic perspective it fell a little flat for me specifically. I had no one to 'talk to', though I did think about calling Momma Thudd. This is largely because I have only recently acquired a story of my own, and frankly it doesn't have a lot of 'talk to people' things involved. Even if nothing changed, I would still do a RP night again.
Saturday Mods
First off, I haven't been that tired after a series of mods in forever. Wow. I couldn't even notice the cold after a point. I found the mods to be a lot of fun and each of the 3 were different in how we played them.
Mod #1 - Vault Grinder of Fiery Death.
A straightforward grinder at first. I am glad we had enough NPCs(and PCs) to allow us to do a 2 front fight. At least from what I saw, everyone was engaged if they wanted to be. Treasure on the way was neat. I figured out NPCs were waiting to be searched sometimes, and Thudd doesnt search usually, but it was good. The clues about blowing up eventually were good and there was a mounting tension of 'when' it was going to boom. It turned from a grinder into a rapid retreat. I got to 'berserk' again as Thudd, which is hella fun for me. My sword arm was soooo tired I didn't know what I was going to do for the next two mods...
Mod #2 - WoW-Raid time/Use the enemy against the enemy.
A simple, but clever, mechanic to defeat the bosses. A combat puzzle if you will. After a grinder, it was a good change of pace. Pulling golems with Ardos - so much fun.
Mod #3 - Protect the sticks/solve the puzzles/don't get pinned away from the group(#personalfail)
Intense. A large group of people trying to solve a combat puzzle(who was weak to what), real puzzles, and not die. We had a slow start trying to figure stuff out, but once it got rolling it really felt like we were fighting against time(daylight basically) to solve the puzzle. Considering how fast it got dark after we finished - we didnt have a lot of time left at the end. I got pinned away from the group. I even had a mettle. I am an idiot. lol
Overall
We had a wide range of experience both in and out of game. I saw EVERYONE be engaged and useful. I hope they felt useful, because I saw it. From Pride's leadership, to the new people finding their niche to us in the middle. We werent the most cohesive group, but we got the job done. I certainly enjoyed doing it.
Thank you all for making my return to LARPing an overwhelmingly positive experience. Everyone I've met, everyone i've reconnected with...just everyone. Thank you all.