I'll be brave and kick things off.
Loved About the Event: (1) more emphasis on plot. I mean obviously there was some hardcore combat in there but the fact that we literally had to go and investigate and interact with anything we could find, where not everything was specifically marked out as relevant to the mod, just made it much more interesting. My character actually had to think, not just rush headlong into
(2) the amount of resources that went into setting up this mod. The blood, the bodies, the houses, the broad variety of evidence (including the very last letter in particular). It was super impressive, and my hat's off to Plot and NPCs for pulling it off.
(3) added to that, there were two "sidequests" that made the investigation feel much broader and less scripted. Things weren't as cut-and-dry as most of us thought, and it was interesting to finally piece together what was going on.
Didn't Love About the Event: (1) so much walking! Don't get me wrong, it was the nature of the mod and I totally get that, and it's also definitely on me to have worn some trekking-appropriate footwear, but man was that getting rough near the end.
(2) communication was a bit muddled amongst the PCs, at least from my perspective. The impression I got off the whole day was that the knights and ex-nobles were going to do the actual investigation and focus on that; and everyone else had come along because there were things that needed to be killed, and beyond that people weren't particularly concerned with the in-story crimes and investigation. When the aforementioned knights and ex-nobles were trying to rally everyone to get opinions, share information, or direct us where to go, it seemed like not everyone was listening and it got more than a bit frustrating to not have everyone on the same page when they were trying to do so.
Mentioning in passing that I apparently can no longer be in the sun for more than six hours at a time, which is not the fault of Plot Committee. I could tell I was winding down but I thought it was just having fallen down so often that I was getting winded, but by the time we got to the elemental battle I was coughing and having so much trouble breathing that I literally told an NPC to kill me and displace me quickly before anyone could save me. I'll be making a point to get super heavy duty sunscreen and am also going to make some costume adjustments to compensate. In the meantime, if I started to get really stupid or rude or snapped at anyone near the end of the one-day, I am
really really sorry. Pretty much guaranteed you didn't do anything.
Suggestions: (1) I have no suggestions for Plot. My suggestion to mostly myself and other PCs that were getting dehydrated, is that we should carry water with us. (A few did.) In-game we were at the conclusion of a 5-day trek so we "should have" had some with us anyway. I suppose if I turned this into a suggestion for Plot, it would be "let us know ahead of time that we are doing a lot of walking," but Chris already touched on that (on a Facebook post) and he hadn't realised just how expansive the walking part was going to be. So, no worries Chris. ^_^
Highlights: (1) OOG - getting knocked below 0 Body while running down a hill, and my momentum making me roll two or three times before my dead body actually stopped. Kudos to the NPC that did that - kudos to the NPCs in general because you never stopped all day long!
(2) IG - Ilarion's wondrous discovery of Aunt Cyn's Circle of Power ring because that s*** is way beyond his pay grade. He was happy to assist (and taunt the Greendead that couldn't get in).
Looking forward to two weeks' time when I get to spend a whole weekend with you all, and rest assured I'll be better prepared for both the weather and the inventory problems I was having the whole time
