EVENT REVIEW: "The End Draws Near" - July 2016

[Lapaki]

Number three of the summer! Tell us what you thought.

NOTICE! Quick turnaround this month for between game things.
If we could have IBGAs and MI picks in by next Monday, August 8, it would be greatly appreciated!

**NPCs - Do not post here. We have our own review, which I will be posting to the FB group. Thanks! **

1. Post your favorite moments
2. Post your less favorite moments (if we don't know, we can not fix)
3. What you would like to see more of
4. Give us a moment from the perspective of your character

Posting rules, respect everyone's views, no debates. Everyone sees things differently.
Reviews get you 15 Goblin Stamps, so make sure you tag your review with your name.

 

[Ruki]

1. There were quite a few. I really liked going on a personal mod with Siegart before the game began, I loved getting involved with the sage and the landsharks, the lair (swimming through the river + unlocking the chest from underwater) was blast, and the whole doctor + Snow White + Heidi/Jackie was fantastic.

2. I was a little sad that we didn't get to do the Dark Reaches mod, but I understand that weather ruined it. The weather ruined a lot! Also, the cabin burning down...for the first 20-30 minutes we were hearing different things from different people on what was lost, how to fix it, etc. Was more of a pain in the *** than an interesting obstacle/challenge/hardship to overcome.


3. More cool calls like 'Knockdown'. That was so much fun and added a lot to the weekend for me. And since there are a handful of new players again, if they return, I feel like we REALLY need more 'reverse-thresholds' or NPCs who can't hit as hard for them.


4. "Healing arts: Are you feebleminded?" asks the dwarf.

"No?" I respond.

"....really?"



Name tag: Randy Tourett/Ruki Lanark (Don't think I've been getting the gobbies for the reviews? But I could be wrong)

 

[Stig]

1. Vikor the training dumy(sorry about your armor dude)
Leading garridan around on a late night mod, he needed he with the pitch dark and rain, and we moved around so well s outing a BIG fight.
The cabin insident (morbidly) I like the fact that a consistence came from our choices.
The other cabin insident, we'll maybe now people will let go of proding about Stigs..."experience" lol
Fire gnoll mod, now that was fun with the river and the training king and running into another group and just plain trying to figure it all out with Aezir
Adding a group of friends to a storyline that's roughly 2 years old and watching them interact within it, you guys did great no matter what the damned voices say stig was proud of you all.

2. Information being held back that could mean life or death for some, we all really need to communicate.
The first cabin insident, I didn't loose much but friends did, and the confusion on the logistics of what we lost... ugh. But meh it's over and we'll survive.
Not much else.

3. The land shark mechands were good but could be tweed a bit. It was possibly overpowered but trial and error.


4. Stig fumbles out of his new cabin sunday morning, forgetting the bear minimum of gear he always carries, covered in short wounds and BIG smile. Hearing his friends cheer from the Commons he's still not quite coherent and only goal is "vhere's mug? Need coffee stuff"
Stumbling through the crowed he receives pats on the back and laughter.
Stop briefly by the new dwarf Barra he ask how he's doing with only one response
" hehe he hehe. .....ouch!"

 

[Fraser Campbell]

1. My favorite moment was the well insta-mod. I really felt that even as a 1st level character I had the chance to be heroic. The whole experience was super fun, climbing down the rope and being shut off from the rest of the party was really cool, if only I had remembered my protectives xD. Then getting saved by the party, ganging up on the monster to get revenge, and RPing pulling everyone up the rope. The whole experience was really cool. (Props to the cool person who wrote it)

2. Ehh, I guess the rain... I'm impressed at how well my cloak kept me dry, though.

3. Oh jeez, the whole weekend was a blast! I would love to be able to do longer events, if at all possible.

4. Jack deftly back stepped the troll's slow swing and returned to give the beast two quick slashes across it's legs. As it falls to the ground Jack loots the creature and allows a more experienced breacher to dispatch it correctly. A few minutes passes and everyone returns to milling around the commons. One of those Rocholm elves approaches and inquires about how long ago Jack arrived at the breach. He casts his mind back on the three days he spent there, surprising himself at how much he's done. "I'm new here." he states simply. The elf pauses, "You fight well, one day you will be a powerful fighter." The elf writes something in his journal and returns to his comrades. Jack sits back in his chair, he understands he should be wary of the militant kind, but this time allows some pride to show on his face.

 

[Daimyo Shi]

1. Post your favorite moments

Playing cards with Isada in the Tavern. low key event generally. Apparently I did take on a Goblin King in a rather frantic fight while goblins blew up on other in my party.

2. Post your less favorite moments (if we don't know, we can not fix)

When massive is going to come up in a game, review it before game. It very easy to miss interpate and what you can use to avoid it. Also, I seem to recall that poor Ms. Yip was sent into game as someone who was going to eat a dog, the details are rather fuzzy.

Ok the biggy and I know Cory confessed that he missed copying information to all envolopes already but I have to mention it. The restrictions about Wards,Wizard locks and circles was very imporant and would have caught Evo's Double at the very least, which would have save a bunch of documents from falling out of the Breach's hands.

3. What you would like to see more of

The Sun!!!! it seemed at least a couple of my fishbowl were in last game, that was nice. I really enjoyed the wandering NPC not always looking for saving. Bryan's ranting farmer was amazing.

4. Give us a moment from the perspective of your character

 

[BrunorDeyhammer]

1. Post your favorite moments

The moral debate whether to kill or not to kill a patient with multiply personalities whom killed someone. Trying to decided if we should do what the patient's doctor suggestion or kill her. It did take longer than expected for it but was still excellent mod played great by those npc's involved.

2. Post your less favorite moments (if we don't know, we can not fix)

The weather lol. A mild concern for me was when I hit a plant or dryad monster with 2 flame blasts (45 damage), 4 dragons breath (40 damage) and it didnt die or call resist magic.

3. What you would like to see more of

Having moral debate like whether or not to kill someone to illness and Bryans npc whom was ranting about his land.

4. Give us a moment from the perspective of your character

 

[Liz_S]

1. Post your favorite moments
~Learned how to do a pirouette from Scarlett. Even though it was bit fumbled xD
~LandSharks!
~Doing some RP now that I am more comfortable. I would like to give props to Hezakiah and Percy for RPing with me trying to find Morrigan while I was going a little crazy seeing Hansel & Gretel.

2. Post your less favorite moments (if we don't know, we can not fix)
~Fighting in the dark Friday night. My night vision isnt all that great. I found that I stayed on the side abit as I was afraid I would tumble into someone.

3. What you would like to see more of
~Mostly just me, but I need to get myself on a Insta-Mod one of these days.

4. Give us a moment from the perspective of your character
I have a few (hope thats ok)

~Seeing her father and sister for the first time at the Breach. Yvette isnt her self and Arylne is now wondering with things going a little berserk at the Breach these days is she affected as well? She has an unnerving feeling that she may have to duel against her. Hearing that her mother is doing well weighs heavy on Arylne. She didnt want anyone to suffer.
~Hansel & Gretel haunting Arylne, the blood on her hands and face and feeling totally and utterly helpless to help them long after they are gone. She's wrestling with the fact that even though she and her party tried to save the children they were still going to die.
~Being yelled at from Duke Gregovich at House Remmington. Arylne doesnt know what the hell is going on, but we are in big trouble~

Side note: I am with Randy on my submissions. Not sure if I received Gobbies for my review as well

 

[Krow]

TLDR: My review needs a little perspective to be understood this event.

This month was extremely engaging, I want to state that now because a lot of what I'm going to say is going to come off negatively when it isn't meant that way. Sometimes a piece of art will grab you and engage you and change the way you think about the world, but that doesn't mean that you enjoy that piece of art or ever want to see it again.

I did not enjoy my weekend this event.

It was engaging as hell, it made me once again question my own characters motivations, directions and psychological implications, however due to a lot of factors I did not have fun.

I'm going to be completely frank with this and start by saying that a lot of this had to do with my grandmother passing two days before the event. I wanted to go because a) I'd paid for it and when you're a student with a mortgage, even $20 can be monumental and b) I enjoy the community and culture of people that we have around us, and I thought immersing myself in larp would be a nice break from the stress and **** I was going through IRL.

That being said I think the easiest way to do this is recount the event from my own eyes as to the experience I had.


I started off the weekend by concluding the pied piper story and finding out that I was wrong from the beginning. If I'd simply given the flute back to the piper we would have saved 400 people instead of the remnants that are left, which is 30. They wreaked havoc on Brightmore with unknown damage and casualties yet, but also clearly on my head.

I was helping a sage in a college with a bunch of experiments with Land Shark repellent that went south and ended up as a town mod. A bunch of the breachers wanted to arrest/kill the sage so I secretly hurried him to the portal, got him away safely and then ripped into the entire town about how we're here to save people and do what's good and right and that the sage was working in our interests.

Then a baby drake came into town and landed on me (an adorable plushie) I figured that everyone was trying to cheer me up because of the stress with my grandmother's death and the funeral this week. But nope. The drake burned down my cabin. The original ruling was that it burned anything non metallic or magical. About 300 gold's worth of loot from just my treasure, not to mention Sarryn, Stig, Ruki and Aezir's stuff. It was retcon'd so that we only lost 25% of potions/scrolls/elixirs that weren't in vials randomly. I was out of game for two hours, broke into tears in front of people which is still really embarassing to admit and nearly left for good. I wanted to go home but realized if I left then I wouldn't ever come back.

So I came back, and there was a meeting called for House Remmington. Duke Vasili came to lay into the house about putting our refugees on the land and that we were at fault and would have to pay reparations. I flipped off the handle and tore him a new strip. Thankfully rather then kill me he just asked for an hour in the stocks.

During which time I decided to take a vow of poverty.

This month I had given 45 gold to NPCs in cash, last month was 20. I gave all my remaining money to my cabinmates and emptied my store into a bowl with a sign of 'please help yourself'. I also had to help deal with two other problems where the only answer was enslavement. So I'm closing my store, excommunicating myself from Turom Falls and focusing on trying to find inner peace and building my forest.

This all being said I had excellent character development, I got into amazing storylines with awesome and interesting NPCs. Everything and everyone was amazing, except for me and how I saw my weekend. I really don't know what the future holds for my character and I'm trying to take the vantage point as an author would with an ongoing series but I don't see it getting any brighter anytime soon haha.

With this perspective however, I would like to continue our regular reivew;


1. Post your favorite moments - This was originally very hard for me. However my favorite moment would have been proving Stig's trust correct in the spirit's mod. He's an extremely perceptive and even when you don't have faith in yourself, he has faith in you. Thanks for that man.

2. Post your less favorite moments (if we don't know, we can not fix) - Realizing that the only way to help multiple people this event was to enslave them. Playing a race that is so adamantly against something I find always finds you a target because of those racial prejudices. Spending 3 months trying to save as many people as he could without enslavement just to find out that there was no other option and over 570 people died because of him is going to be something that changes him in a lasting way. I only put this as a less favorite moment because of my original intention for this character, it feels that over time it's getting darkened and corrupted with no hope of bringin the light and sunshine and laughter that he was originally supposed to.

3. What you would like to see more of - Mechanics like the 'knockdown' call. I loved everything about the land sharks, I loved the way they moved through the earth, I loved the way they preyed on players and I loved the mechanic of allowing them to land on something and swing massive. It gave a really cool challenge to what would otherwise be a run of the mill town mod.

4. Give us a moment from the perspective of your character -

Siegart's world darkened when he realized that the crackling fire he was hearing wasn't coming from the fire pit. His feet went numb and feeling started shedding from his body like a useless husk as Sarryn came rushing over to him screaming, 'The store's on fire! The store's on fire!'.

By the time he got to Door the magical construct was stringing obscenities together faster then Siegart could comprehend, the roof and most of one wall were darkened ash and the sign above the door that used to read, 'Rosewood Antiquities' was nothing but charred tinder to the flame that the drake had left. Much like the love of his life that he'd named the store after, he'd let her out of his sight for but a few minutes and the cruel fates had once again taken her from him.

 

[Rovinder Kitt]

1. Post your favorite moments
The ongoing multi-part drug mod, envelope after envelope then a party split, then two entirely separate fights, best insta mod yet.
The reaction to the land shark mod when they followed us back to town, the possible lynching of the scientist (sorry I forgot his name)
liked the idea of the fire drake, and I honestly didn't see the cabin fire coming, though it makes sense, now that it happened
2. Post your less favorite moments (if we don't know, we can not fix)
nothing springs to mind, the rain, as always is tough to deal with, but everyone still seemed to have a great time.
3. What you would like to see more of
the fallout of the Breach's actions and how they effect the locals and others is increasingly interesting, more 'other' people wandering through town, perhaps people who don't have an agenda or plotline, but just happened to be near town and came to look around, hear stories, sell goods, etc.
4. Give us a moment from the perspective of your character
Vy vould anyone vant to live in such a rainy land? vot is wrong with the skies here?

Chris Gray/Rovinder Kitt

 

[VikingSquire]

1. Post your favorite moments
Watching the landshark battle in the common was pretty cool. I also really liked the Jaqueline/Heidi stuff in the tavern. As soon as the enslavement as treatment talk came out I knew it was going to drag on, but to be honest, that made it much more compelling on many levels for many people from what I saw. Getting asked to leap from the usual bathroom cleanup to kitchen cleanup was nice.

2. Post your less favorite moments (if we don't know, we can not fix)
Nothing you can fix, but this was very much an R&R weekend for me. Work's been so busy I didn't have the wherewithal to plunge deeply into the game, but man it was just good to be out having a time and watching pieces of the weekends stories for everyone.
That said, as Richard mentioned, I thought having Rachael prortray the NPC coming to town looking for meat to feed her family so she would not have to butcher the family dog was, uh, let's call it problematic. At best it was unintentionally in bad taste.

3. What you would like to see more of
The consequences of the choices we make on the world and the people around us, good, bad and every mix in between.

4. Give us a moment from the perspective of your character
No perspective from Darien this month, he was there in only the loosest sense.

 

[Sage of Legaia]

1. Post your favorite moments
I actually ended up using all of Phal's healing (spells, magic items, and potions) except for a single Cure Mortal Wounds potion I tucked away for an emergency. It was nice to feel really useful as a healer, even if all the healing was in increments of 2 and 5.

Specifically, though, Phal's talk with Siegart was wonderful, even if he wanted to do it entirely in private and it just didn't work out that way, and Phal teaching new arrivals (and some old arrivals) about nobility and the guilds when he's rather indifferent to the entire system was quite fun.

I know it's been mentioned as a negative, but I actually really enjoyed the weather for the most part; even outside of game, I love sitting in a good storm and listening to the rain and thunder, though I may need to make a period-appropriate umbrella for next year, as my costumes were... A touch more soaked than I would have liked them to be when packing on Sunday.

2. Post your less favorite moments (if we don't know, we can not fix)
I can't think of anything that really bothered me as a player, but Phal wasn't terribly happy about running out of potions and having to tell people he couldn't heal them.

Phal also wasn't particularly happy with how the Jacqueline/Heidi case was resolved, but as he noted to Evo, his ideas on those sorts of things tend to stray into blue and orange morality, so he wasn't going to try to convince anyone his solution was best (even though he feels that's what other people might have thought he was trying to do while talking to Evo).

3. What you would like to see more of
I liked that we got a heads up about how the Knockdown call was going to work and given the chance to opt out of it if we weren't comfortable with such close combat, and the mechanic itself was actually really awesome to watch (as a mostly non-combat character, I wasn't subjected to it and remained out of the fight); that said, I'm not sure if it was a last-minute decision to bring it into the tavern and commons, but it would have been nice if the call had been mentioned at the pre-game meeting.

4. Give us a moment from the perspective of your character.
Phalaenopsis watched the argument over the best solution to the Jacqueline/Heidi problem unfold, wondering why no one seemed to be asking the obvious question of Jacqueline: "Do you want Heidi to stay, or be Spirit Stored into another vessel?" Taking the Biata therapist's word that Jacqueline had asked for this treatment was getting nowhere, as Heidi continued to take over and make things worse as the argument went in circles. What was best for Jacqueline? Is Heidi genuinely protecting her from something, and simply being overzealous in execution? Could Heidi be taught restraint, rather than locking her spirit away or executing Jacqueline? All of these seemed like pertinent questions to the Dryad, but everyone else seemed more focused on the use of Enslavement-as-treatment for the issue at hand. It was true, of course, that Heidi had killed Aezir, but it was also true that two people inhabiting one body made the situation slightly more complicated than the usual "She did it, execute her" that was being touted as the alternative solution to the Spirit Store. Phalaenopsis pondered all of this in silence, before sitting down near Evo to discuss the situation.

 

[mythic]

I'm going to be completely frank with this and start by saying that a lot of this had to do with my grandmother passing two days before the event. I wanted to go because a) I'd paid for it and when you're a student with a mortgage, even $20 can be monumental

Just FYI: If any player cannot attend, they do not lose their fees. They can apply them to another event, get a refund or convert to Goblin Stamps. The only caveat is if you have to cancel the day before, you may lose your Meal Plan portion if the food has already been purchased for the event.

Cheers!

 

[AlikVanmil]

1. Post your favorite moments
- The First Part of the Drake mod was super adorable, and I loved it. It gave a nice respite from how dark and depressing the plot has gotten as of late.
- Actually having a Hammer Outfitters meeting. Haha I've been meaning to do that for months.
- Having dodges was nice.
- That thing with the people in the place really messed me up, but it was still a really cool experience to have.
- Making nails for Robin, was seriously amazing in and out of character. As Scarlett, it was refreshing to make something other than weapons and weapon related things. And OOC it added a bit of realism to blacksmithing, as it would make sense that the you would make other things besides combat things. Even in a militant outpost.
- Loved teaching some of the Breachers dancing, lol it was a bit amusing. You all did fantastic by the by. (Sorry to Rachel for running away... but.. well... there really was no pleasing your NPC It takes literally days to come up with a coherent performance, especially when attempting to co-ordinate with live music.)


2. Post your less favorite moments (if we don't know, we can not fix)
- the Armor combination thing kindof came out of no where. I mean I get it, it wasn't a rule to begin with. and we weren't supposed to do it at all, but I would have liked for there to be like a post or something when that information came up. I mean it was just there literally the event before and between events it was removed. It may not mean much in the grand scheme of things but it does matter to people that deal in armour. So if when things like that are decided could we get some sort of post, even if it's just on the facebook page.

- Spending a ton of time making my new bow... then being told that there is a rule that isn't in the Rule book that states: "Bows are measured on the curve... not straight up and down." and I still haven't gotten a reason as to why. Just that it is a rule that apparently has to be enforced. b(-_-')d

(NOTE: I am not posting this to belly ache, or for any form of debate. I am simply posting it in hopes that new players see this and are informed of it and do not make the same mistake that I made. As I have been playing for over a year, and other players that have played even longer didn't know of this still unwritten rule.)

- The second part of the Drake mod -_-' I mean... it was kindof like a "Really!?" moment... I mean especially when I found out how that mod was written... and what happened wasn't either A or B in the original mod that was written. So a C was thrown out there out of no where... it was kindof a **** move. Just saying...

- And this could be just me but, it feels like the last couple events have been slightly lack luster. I mean all of last season and even in May's event there was always a nice build up Friday night, some excitement Saturday and then some big event Saturday evening/night. and then on Sunday at the end of game there was some big thing that left off on a cliff hanger. Something to make us excited for the next event. But the June/July events didn't really have any of that and it may have been intentional, it may have been because of the rain. But well, yeah...

3. What you would like to see more of

- Instamods in town would be nice, I mean I guess playing a character that doesn't really get invited to go out on patrols. I get it, it's my own fault for not being a combat character. But it would be nice to see.

- Any form of merchant to come through the Breech, I mean I haven't seen or heard of an actual a merchant in the breach this entire season. Maybe it's a story line thing... But I mean pretty much 95% of the NPCs that have come into the Breach that I have talked/heard with/about have been kindof... I guess angry or discruntled would be the best words to describe them. It was brought up at the end of game that a lot of us just... don't talk to NPCs when they come into town. At least for myself it's because I find Roleplay through conflict stressful and draining at the best of times. Then you have, for example Bryan's NPC coming through the front gate yelling that we are the cause of all the problems in the land. When those situations come up I'm just kind of like "Nope! I want absolutely none of that." And you can call me a lousy RolePlayer for it. But when there are all of these FishBowl NPCs coming in that there is literally no way of making them happy as a player I don't see a point to conversing with them and as a character I REALLY don't see a point to talking with them because the Character I play tends to be on the sensitive/light hearted side and he doesn't enjoy either verbal abuse or getting into a shouting match with anyone. I guess to get back to the original point I was making, it would be nice to see some sort of thing for the people that are non-combat characters to do. And Merchants are something that give that.

4. Give us a moment from the perspective of your character.

Scarlett leaves the meeting with the outfitters and returns to his Forge. The events from the night before still weighing heavily on his mind. He hangs his jacket on the wall then reaches into a pile of ash and pulls out a metal box. He runs his finger over the lock before taking the key from around his neck and opens it. Inside the wooden book lays inside the cover somehow soft to the touch. Sitting on his anvil he flips through the pages, unable to read the magical language he admires the illustrations for each spell. After a moment he sets the book down and starts miming the motions in the pictures. "Someday" he whispers. "Someday I'll be able to read this damn thing, maybe if I can accomplish that..." He pauses and looks towards the fire in his kiln. "Maybe then I can become a good person again"

- Logan-Thomas Stevenson
Player number 150
Character: Scarlett