1. How the "roles" function worked for you (when you selected a role, it opened up specific channels)
*A quick note: It was told to me after event that players in the "Commons" could see the discussion in the Private cabins. This was an error on coding on my part, and I do have it fixed now so that players in Private Cabins can see the Commons chat, but not the other way around.
for me, the only issue is that occasionally I would have to click on a role a few times before the location actually became visible otherwise it worked as intended. (i understand the idea behind doing this but as a text-based event I see it as a glorified forum post in real-time. for those who felt left our or not involved the ability to toggle between channels like the previous game would have been more enjoyable.)
2. How was the "flow" of the game? Did we keep you "interactive" with the NPC crews? If not, what can we do in future events (should they be needed) to make everyone feel part of the event?
*I know there was not a lot for the HG, HO or EW specifically, but with such a short window, we have to pick what we think can be done in the time we have. If another event happens online, we will try to spread out the story a bit more.
Someone I talked to likened the event to watching an event over participating in one. I am inclined to agree. we were talked at an awful lot and faced the choice of stay in the tavern to RP or have no idea what was going on. there was no time to let things breathe. the funeral going from super somber to its party time lets talk about funny stories felt super jarring. never mind the fact we seemingly left a guardian out to rot for a month it felt like two very different Elspeth's were present at that event. For most of us, our interactions with Phesos (spelling) were as follows go do this thing when you need to come back break this branch. In order to have the sort of stories and attachments to NPCs that elicit that sort of RP they needed to have existed. sure we can surmise that we may have but without anything that's canon, our hands are tied with what we can actually say. so again it felt like a moment where it was like we were told something but couldn't rp.
3. What were some highlights of the event for you?
Honestly, I have non that are positive. had I not being with friends I likely would have logged off out of frustration of the medium or lack of feeling involved or just talked at. much of this has to do with the limitations to a text-based game.
4. What were your concerns, if any?
in a text-based game with ten plus people in a room you don't have time to type a lot. this means that what you say is going to be interpreted at the reader's whim. if you take more time to convey tone or meaning you get left behind in the conversation. as ten plus people are there piling on info
while I appreciate and need mods that bring levity and a lack of the world is ending oog from an in-game point of view we have been told time and again that the world is ending. in the case where the world was ending, you would be focusing every bit of your attention and resources to stop that. (So maybe find a way to tie smaller things back to the war so thematically it matters.) if in the real world a warlord was in USA Russia and Greenland all threatening to attack Canada I have a hard time believing that anyone would stop to do anything that didn't solve these issues. the problem isn't that these mods are popping up we need them because a three-pronged war is way too much for a ragtag group of misfits to deal with alone. And it does feel like we are alone. It becomes thematically problematic for me to lean into a character that sees through time and space, can see what's coming but asks us to jump through hoops. we face foes more powerful than us and the ones that are supposedly on our side don't care enough about the world we live in to just offer aid without a song and dance. To me this would be simply fixed by having us meet someone and instead of proving your worth they say something like "I HAVE SEEN WHAT IS TO COME. THE OBJECT YOU SEEK IS IN X SPACE; IT IS PROTECTED BY MAGICS EVEN I CANT BYPASS. TO GET IT YOU NEED A CHAMPION OR CHAMPIONS WITH THE FOLLOWING SKILLS AND CRITERIA...." this way we as the player feel like we do have powerful allies that give a rip about us and the world. after all they live there too. either they want to help it get fixed or they don't. we have players who have been in this campaign for years someone's reputation has to have been enough that past deeds are worth something.
this last bit is going to sound petty and I really don't mean for it to. I know that if this was a physical game this wouldn't have mattered because there would have been the time at the beginning of the game to share information. actually rp time at the beginning of the game a good hour forty-five minutes to share ibga info would make a huge difference. I sent in an ibga got back a winky face and a spelling correction that it. I got no further information, then because I didn't have that information I didn't have the inkling of the idea to keep an eye out for a mod pertaining to that and was left out. it legitimately felt like what was the point. Then because the pacing was go go go, there was no room in-game for Elly to relay that info to me making it in game feel like i was intentionally ignored. this whole thing created a situation where oog frustrations bleed into game and have now put my character in a position where I dont feel like playing for a while.
Larp for me is where I go to escape the things I don't like in life. but at the moment it feels like a job that I hate but keep going to because there are employees there that I love. I feel like probably the best thing for me to do at this point is to take a break from the game until we can play properly. or at the very least roll out an alt so that I don't have to worry about something I love getting twisted.
5. Give us a very brief description of some of your favorite interactions for the night.
I didn't have a single one.
Again, I would love to thank Gwen, Abbey, Daen, Robyn, Katie, Logan and Shauna for their writing and participation with the Tavern night! NPCing takes on a whole new level when you have to write out everything, set up NPCs, and react through text! You folks were just awesome!
