This event was
beautifully paced and fantastically statted. I so often felt like we were going to wipe as a town, felt like I was entirely out of resources and so was most everyone else, kept hitting that point of "well crap, we're not going to survive this" on more than one occasion and then... we didn't wipe. In fact, only one person died.
That's the sweet spot in statting/pacing, IMHO, and it's so hard to hit. That place where it
feels like you as players are going to die, and then you
just barely don't. I was really impressed.
And there was
so much happening the whole time! I had to check out for several hours on Saturday (I have a tendency to have a sleep-deprived emotional "crash" on Saturday afternoon of an event. Imposter syndrome rears its head, I have no energy, etc, etc; I nap and rest for a bit and then manage to recover and get back out there. Doesn't often happen as a PC in a boffer larp, mind you, because I typically get more rest as a PC and at a weekend boffer larp than I do as plot or at a 4-day destination larp, and it's usually lower emotional intensity at a campaign boffer event... but it's happened both weekends I've been at ALU, because you people run
hard on Friday night, holy crap), so I missed a bunch of stuff, but I still had a very full weekend.
- Grief ritual! (Aka "honoring the beloved dead" ritual. But it was for grieving, really.) I was beginning to despair on Friday night that I wouldn't be able to run it. Didn't want to run it during the day, and didn't want to run it over the Saturday night finale. I'd thought there would be some open space after the major wave battle, and then... trying to round people up for it became impossible, until the fractured spirits showed up and we all got stuck in the Earth Guild. Fortunately, almost everyone who was going was still up for it after that ended, so we went and ran a roleplay ritual in the gazebo as rain poured around us. At 2am or so. People cried, which is always my goal in roleplay rituals, so I consider that a success. Great bonding moment, felt good to do some of the stuff I've made this character for, and roleplay rituals are seriously my favorite thing to do.
- The actors. Oh dear. That was fabulously terrible. I hope we get to see them again!
- The Litimore soldier/courier, and the skillful unspoken coordination of everyone involved to manage that whole situation.
- The Council meeting to hear Bramblethorn's terms. Let me just say: I wouldn't want to be on the opposite side of Liz in a Vampire: the Masquerade game. Saoirse is amazing to watch in the sociopolitical arena.
- Lizardfolk mod to save Bones' mom. I haven't gotten to have a solid, well-coordinated tunnel fight like that as a PC since my NERO days! Really fun and satisfying. Also bonus moral quandary and emotional challenges for Orsolya to wrestle with, which is something I deeply enjoy. ("A writer is someone who creates likeable, believable characters and does horrible, despicable things to them", right? If my character's feeling horrible, I'm probably having a great game.)
- Racing onto the field Saturday night after seeing people down, seeing the fractured spirits swarming a knot of people, knowing I have a full stack of life spells and can help, and then seeing all the spirits turn towards me and hearing Hildr' yell "Orsolya! Run! Get out of here!" Fleeing, and then running into another spirit along with ... I can't remember the dryad earth caster's name, but he decided to try and see if a Sanctuary worked on them, walked towards the creature, and... it did! The small group of us heading back to the field, the dryad keeping his Sanctuary up. "Do you have a life?" I asked; "No," he said. "There are people down, I need to get a life to them. Can you draw the spirits' attention?" So he and his group did, and I got there in time to throw a life spell into one of the Brothers. Really cool moment of cooperation, ingenuity, desperation, and quick thinking on everyone's part.
- The scene with the Inquisitors in the circle, and the Ashen Maidens outside of it, and thinking we were about to have to deal with an Outsider then and there. Looking forward to see what more comes from that.
- Arguing with Hildr' about human nobles and the leashes of fealty, responsibilities and risks, on Sunday morning. It was just the two of us having a quiet tense argument in the tent, but it was really satisfying.