Y'all, it felt so good to be back and digging into the hard political conversations. Thanks for all the warm welcomes; it made it feel really easy to get reinvested in the amazing story the team here is telling.
In no particular order:
-Quori's new position as "advisor" to High Magnate Keenan, and all the delightfully ribald discussions it generated.
-The entire cabinet of House Wyndael: Mardex, Roark, Grayson, Sasha, and Oxalis. Roleplaying, strategizing, and being existentially tired with the five of you is such a treat. Thank you for making my suggestions feel not just heard, but valuable; I hope I did the same for you.
-Just... Sasha. Dustin exudes grace and poise, and the barbs of wit he slings as this character as so soft-spoken, brilliant, and matter-of-fact. Sasha just feels real and thoughtful and is so fun to be around, even when things are hard.
-Hoyce as Grandmother. My heart has never, ever, ever been so full and gleeful. And, holy crap, such kudos for putting on all that fur in ~97 degree weather.
-I saw a very small honeybee and nothing can take that incandescent joy away from me.
-The Loray reveal. A lot of us had come to that conclusion a while ago, and had discussed it in private - but never with High Magnate Ryatt. His surprise and disappointment in that moment was amazing, and the RP that ensued was so cool to see and be a part of.
-"My name is Atra------ Tibialis." "It was really funny in there how you called yourself by the wrong name." "...YEP, SURE WAS."
-Donovan, his perfect hair, and his amazing snack packs. Holy crap.
-Meeting a bunch of new characters! Ironclaw, Etta, Abbadon, etc. Y'all were so cool and engaging and fun to be around. I hope to get more face time with everyone next time.
-Standing in the big field after Grandmother's death, looking at all the fireflies when Quori and Mitzie's PC (whose name I can never remember because I am the worst) wander over talking about how they were all the stories of all the Yeti and storytellers. It felt so cinematic!!
-All the folks who hopped fence - thank you. You made this thing work.
So, my biggest piece of love for this event is entirely OOG and rooted in the meta of running a game. NPC resources can be really hard to maximize, and when those resources are very limited in the first place, managing to keep a lot of people entertained when running on metaphorical "low fuel" gets very hard, and can make or break an event. The team here did some Very Smart things this event in that regard, and the best example I can offer is the "talk to six Overmagnates/their bodyguards" quest. Six targets, six approaches, and the questline ran entirely at our and NPC camp's convenience. Only one NPC was ever needed at a given time, and even then only ever for about 15-20 minutes, tops. Most of the action was entirely in the PCs' hands, and consisted of strategizing, discussing political approaches and affiliations, and brainstorming how we could best appeal to all of the different houses without stepping on toes. The fact that PCs were empowered to make decisions on behalf of Luenn Geifer meant there was no tugging on NPC camp's sleeves or waiting around, and it allowed other things to run while we were consistently busy.
This is a really hard thing to manage and pull off, and is a great example of smart game running. A+++, all across the board.