obcidian_bandit
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Alliance Seattle's continuing commitment to improving our game involves a lot of player feedback. We welcome all of the feedback we get, and try to act on a fairly sizable portion of it. The new Deco Team is a perfect example of how player feedback shapes our game: Several people included in their feedback that the Tavern isn't as IG as people's cabins, even though it is a location where many players spend a great deal of time, so we created the Deco Team to help address that problem. Sometimes feedbacks address things that are one-time problems or are easy to fix, but other times things get more complicated. We often get conflicting feedback for things like "There was too much combat" along with "There wasn't enough combat." We know we can't please everyone, but we try to make the game enjoyable for as many people as possible, so we generally shoot for a happy medium with things like that, which tends to work out pretty well. Other times solutions aren't so easy, and we'd like to talk a little bit about a few things that all of the players can do to help make everyone's games better.
There are lots of other things that we receive feedback on, but for the most part it's plot/story/back-end related. These things are issues that really only players can solve by working together, and can't be addressed as well by Plot or NPCs without some help from the PC side.
- Mod group size: This is a multi-headed concern, since it's exceptionally situational, but everyone can help with a little bit of knowledge and a tiny bit of 'reverse metagaming.' Every module we write has an expected number of PCs. The number is always a range, but it's not something that we actually write down anywhere that PCs will see it. Players can, on the other hand, make some judgements about modules that can help make their game better. Lair Cards and Job Boards are generally good for 2-10 people, with a target number of 4-8. Hooked "story modules" usually involve closer to 5-20 people, with a target of around 8-12. "Big thing of the weekend" type modules will often be written to involve just about everybody in camp, even if the mod gets split, 2, 3, or more ways. None of these numbers are meant to be hard caps/minimums, and they won't always be accurate every time, but that's generally how we're thinking when we write modules.
Try to avoid bringing 20 people on a Lair Card or else people might be bored because there's not enough to do. Try to avoid bringing a team of 3 on a "story module" unless you're prepared to deal with a situation that might be scaled for 12. Try to avoid bringing a dozen people to a module that will take place inside of one of the cabins at Millers, or on a module that sounds like it will primarily be traps; people tend to do a lot of standing around in these circumstances. We try to give enough information out about modules that people can chose an appropriate group size, but not everyone is in the habit of thinking about that before they go.
We think that it may be helpful for people to know that we also consider the number of PCs who will be at the event when we write. We always try to write enough "Story Modules" that everyone should have the opportunity to go on at least one over the course of the weekend. We try to spread the hooks and the level ranges out enough that no one should ever have to worry about missing out on "the plot" by not going on any particular module. You shouldn't feel like you have to go on every module you hear about or risk missing out on something; you can't do it all, and neither can anyone else.
. - Critters: Some critters are out there for lowbies, some critters are out there for highbies, some critters are out there for midbies. Anybody can fight any critter they like, but generally there's some amount of 'reverse metagaming' that goes into big fights. If you're in a combat with PCs from 2nd to 32nd level and there's a mix of Goblins, Orcs, and Trolls to kill, they're probably there to challenge different people. The 30th level Fighter isn't going to be challenged very much if she concentrates on the Goblins, and then the 3rd level Fighter isn't left with as many things that he can fight effectively, and neither people have very much fun. We're not suggesting that anyone ignores a threat that's right in front of them, but an attitude of "Those lowbies look like they have that situation under control, I should keep this troll off of them" is better than "I should go kill all those goblins, it'll be easy."
Similarly, there's an 'easy' way and a 'hard' way to kill most creatures. Beating a Troll to death over and over until it stops regenerating is the hard way, killing it with fire the first time is the easy way. Most creatures in the Valley reward people who figure out how to fight them. Sometimes it's a particular Effect, or sometimes one particular method (spells, weapons, alchemy, etc) is best. Not everyone will have access to the 'easy' way for every creature, but there's a big enough mix that nearly everyone should have something that they're particularly adept at fighting. Experimentation and tactics are often more useful than "hit it until it drops."
. - Involvement: It would be awesome if every person was on every mod they wanted to be on, every time, and they hardly had to do anything to be there, but that's not how our game works. People who RP with lots of townspeople and other PCs/groups, go out looking for lairs, and dig for more information tend to be the most involved and get the most plot. The hardest part of getting to know what's going on is figuring it out, and sometimes that's an involved process of delving into ruins and casting rituals, but sometimes it's only as hard as talking to other people that you don't normally RP with. The person in the cabin next to you might know the entire weekend's plot, but just doesn't know it's important because they don't know anyone is interested in what they found out in their downtime. Never assume that just because someone is new or an NPC isn't being played by a plot member that they don't have a lot of information or aren't important. Even if a PC is brand new and you're 'sure' that they don't have any information that will help you, it still might be a good idea to help them get involved by sharing what you know so far, and they might have heard something earlier in the event, gotten some information in their character history, or might return the favor when they do learn something helpful.
The best way to get involved is to keep looking for information, for modules, and for people to RP with. The Plot Team has lots of tricks to get and keep people involved, but most of them rely on PCs putting some effort in. We 'hide' Story Modules with Lair Cards as the hook, sneak pieces of incomplete information into people's downtimes so that people have to RP to get the whole picture, and all manner of other things that are most useful when engaged. Don't wait in the Tavern for Lassie to come tell you that Timmy has fallen down the well; that dog might not be at this event, and you'll probably miss out on everything else that's going on because other people are already out there checking the wells.
Remember that there are resources available for you if you find yourself without something to do. There are NPCs and PCs to roleplay with, Job Boards and Lair Cards for quick modules, and often critters out and about on the outskirts of town to harass. We don't put out every Job Board on Friday night, and we occasionally have extra Lair Cards that go out Saturday afternoon, so sometimes it worth checking for those things even if you've already looked once. Most of the Lair Cards take some walking to get to, so make sure to check more trails than the ones that are in town. If you find more than one Lair Card, sometimes we'll be able to run them for you back-to-back, but sometimes there are other groups that want to go on modules or Lair Cards themselves, so we might not be able to spare the resources right away. It's not much fun to hang out OOG in front of Monster Camp, so it might be more worthwhile to come back a little later. You never know, you might be the group that gets the next module hook and never end up going on the Lair Card because you're too involved in the plot. On that note, try not to stress Monster Camp's resources too hard, especially if we're low on NPCs. We learned a few events ago that if we put out too many Lair Cards and don't have enough NPCs that so many people will try to do Lairs that it will become difficult to progress the Event's main plot lines. This hasn't been an issue recently because we've had more NPCs, so keep bringing your friends to play and add to the ranks of the NPCs, that will always help out the game.
There are lots of other things that we receive feedback on, but for the most part it's plot/story/back-end related. These things are issues that really only players can solve by working together, and can't be addressed as well by Plot or NPCs without some help from the PC side.