Grade the Sept Event

FOIGofWar

FOIGofWar

Artisan
(When did we stop posting this thread?)

So,with the understanding that A) I'm a hard grader and B) this is intended as helpful cnstructive criticism and not jackassery...


C, possible C+. let's say 7 out of 10.

Pros:
-Overall, I thought the pacing was good. I know there was stuff I didn't get involved with, so that means I had to prioritize my time. Always good.
- Fights seemed well balanced and scaled: Hard when they were supposed to be, less hard when they didn't matter.
-Tying long-lived PCs into long-lived older NPCs, and short-lived PCs into dead NPCs was well done, and made the plotline feel more organic.

Cons (many already mentioned by Mr. Graves):
-The weekend did not seem to hinge on the actions of the PCs for success or failure. Understandably we needed NPC assistance to get where we were going, however nothing we did their mattered, we did not have to craft the sword, and we didn't use it on Lochaber.
-Tied to above, the weekend seemed far more spectacle-driven than PC action-driven. Landbond hoody-do ritual to go forward in time with no PC interaction. Penumbra blade handed to PCs with little PC interaction (as if we couldn't *not* take it), Landbond hoody-do ritual to go backwards in time (assisted by a PC action in all fairness), WWE Spectacle to kill Lochaber and Broomis (which was entertaining, don't misunderstand, but with the rest became too much).
-Occasional but drastic continuity problems: The Lochaber is laying siege Fairdale in your time *right now*,but we get back to an empty town. The Galanthian Army is 30 minutes away... so we have time to run 3 hours of mods... and then they're attacking Storm's End without us noticing an army marching past...and we make it to Storms End (and back) effectively instantly.


After hours of conversations over who would willingly res to create the blade, it was disheartening to know a "valiant death" was taken from the PCs. There are so few opportunities for "heroic production skills," it was disheartening to have one taken from PCs (for the record, it was going to be Grim building it this time not me). After a decade for me and Caleb and 6-8 years for most other players on the Hitsquad, who all had personal IG reasons to want to down Lochaber, it was disheartening to have the Final Conflict be completely removed from the hands of PCs- almost as if we "weren't allowed" to kill him, which was exactly the opposite feeling when we destroyed Arienne.
 
Note: Also a hard grader

C

Pro's
Decent pacing...down times did not seem over long

Variety of NPC's: From the Fey Aldgraff to the various "Frenemies" to the "Duchess" and the Cursed humans (I almost thought it was a fishbowl)

The (near) conclusion of the Tomb plot. Very entertaining set of modules with just enough suprises to make you realize you had to think, and it all flowed.

The Fight against Lochabar part I, good fight, some interesting use of the seige engines making them relavent but not overpowered or easily nerfed...I still am not happy with the massive rules.

Con's
The Penum,bral blade - we had allot planned, and rituals were done in stack to figure out this puzzle and it comes into town handed to us. Hey, I have made the same mistake and leared, its a mistake.

The final Lochabar fight. I cannot say I was too happy that it ended with a spectacle, and killing off the King...that was just feels too soon.

Some of the time effects were neat but I am not sold 100% on the sense they all made. I will leave it at that since this is a huge discussion best labeled *DANGER, TIME PLOT THREAD READ AT YOUR OWN RISK*

Note: The awesomeness of the Players does not affect my grading of events except in extreme circumstances. Love you all. And a C is a good solid effort and enough to make me want to return. Mission accomplished plot team.

Joe S.
 
Hey, I don't care about an arbitrary grading system, but I love the pros/cons constructive criticism about the game, i.e. plot, managing, etc. It's basic customer service and I like to know what I can actively help to improve upon.
 
The reasons we still want to hear. But sometimes people were voting without giving reasons, and it was felt that it was better to just have reasons -- you can learn more that way.

Seriously -- someone giving an F without giving a reason? Sometimes people would grade events with an F -- and later we'd find out they had a cold and felt terrible so had a bad time. And then that F would get averaged but seriously, how does that provide any constructive criticism we can use?

Much better to give real, constructive criticism we can use. For instance, someone posted that the last event felt too much like they were watching and that nothing they did affected the outcome of the game. That's a good criticism, because it's something we should always avoid.

But a grade without any context? Not very useful. Why was this an A? Why an F? What did we do right that we should do more of? What did we do wrong that we should avoid in the future? That helps us much more than a grade with no guidance (which is what we had when we had a poll with grades).

If you want to give a grade in the text of your comments, that's fine. We just don't want to do the poll any more.
 
Instead of you typical A-F grade perhaps we could be it like many other types of poll system such as

How was your event?
Great
Good
Average
Fair

I feel that we connect the grades as a make or break idea when it should be more of a helpful tool. I know this is what you're saying Mike and I'm on board with you. But in my opinion I'd like to see the polls back up. I enjoyed the option of giving feed back in that way. Yes, we can just do it the way we are at the moment with the explaining how your event was, but perhaps some people don't wish to admit the had a fair or poor time in public and would rather take it to plot/Gm's themselves. Just my thoughts on the matter :)
 
Or people can email, text or call us. We can, in fact, be talked to directly.

With that said, I appreciate the truth, Tom and Joe.
 
Arguments over whether grading is necessary aside, please provide feedback to this thread (good or bad). It is all useful.

-MS
 
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