My favourite moment was the ‘ambush’… despite Bolli being an utter fool, getting lost, almost screwing up the whole caper, stepping in shin-deep mud and almost getting slay-ed we were successful (thanks to the competence and forgiveness of compatriots).
I loved the effort put forth by the NPCs to RP during combat. JP took the time to issue challenges as the final villain throughout the last battle, to pick his targets and basically, act menacingly; Corey yelled out a 70 Slay and gave us a moment to reel in fear before proceeding, the girl with the glasses played a brilliant little gnoll scout (she answered Bolli’s challenge with a feisty, “grrrrrrrrrrBARK!” and swung her red boffers LIKE CLAWS). Much love to the epic weirdness of the Maggot-brood… clicking to echo locate us was genius.
The incremental danger of the Mushroom battle was perfect for getting low-levellers like Bolli involved in the battle, while still challenging the high level characters to ‘finish the job’. Excellent idea.
My suggestion for next game is for the PCs to try to bring more to game to fill the spaces between plot events. I tried my best to add some flavour during the down-times, but it wasn’t easy. I sang songs, offered gold for a target shooting match, tried to get people to translate a letter from home and find a treasure I buried…
The tavern is usually empty. Could someone start a casino game in there? Or have an arm-wrestling tournament? Could we have a live target shoot (pin the arrow on the dwarf?) Could the sergeants lead a shield wall tactic training, or call out the guard for a parade march and inspection? Can one of our gypsies read some tea leaves or tarot cards? Could a barbarian throw the bones?
Could we supplement the meal plan by people bringing desserts from their homelands (Dwarf Pudding? Elven tarts? Dryad grass-cakes?
There are some many things we could do, if every players had something up their sleeve prepared, there would be no down-time, and we could take some pressure off of plot.
Brotherhood could challenge the Home guard to a tug-of war, loser has to send volunteers to clean the supper dishes.
Some of the Veterans could prepare tales of the past exploits of Parson’s Breach, to bring the rest of us newbs up to speed, but with flare. Who could tell the tale of the lost Dwarf Claggen? Or an epic account of Cara Vale and her mysterious dealings. With a little preparation, we could be informed and entertained at the same time.
We could have a debate, medieval style, like, “What is more valuable, Love, Honor or Wealth?”, or “Which race contributes most to the cultural life of the Breach?” or “Should gnolls be allowed as citizens of Parson’s Breach?”
Bring one of those wood puzzles and pretend it is a lock on a strongbox, and offer half of the contents to whomever can open it.
Hold a battle tournament with strange rules and offer a prize for the winner (I considered the Dwarven challenge of fighting with a mug of ale in one hand, and the first to 5 hits without spilling half of the contents wins). Put on a full faced helm and do a little William Tell archery practice.
Maybe offer a prize to whomever can weave the best basket from the local plants to hold the golden egg.
If you are a vain character, offer a prize to whomever writes the best poem about you, on a theme of your choosing, to be performed at the firepit for all to hear… (e.g. write a poem about how great a lover I am, or how great my battle prowess is, or how wise I am,etc).
Another idea is to have a Trade/Swap bazaar in game…. All of us have old costume stuff we do not want, that we used for an old character…. Bring it, we put it out on the table and have a silent auction of in-game coin…. If there is anything that Plot really wants to have in their stores, they can send NPCs to bid on them. This way, we all get better costumes, (recycle, reuse kids). We would just need one of the PCs to take on the task of setting these events up… right?
I could go on and on about things PCs could bring to game to make it more awesome, but I digress…..
Great game, NPCs and PCs. I was overwhelmed by the inclusiveness and the generosity of everyone.