June Tavern Night Review

mythic

Baron
Hi folks!

For those that attended the Tavern Night we would love to hear your thoughts on how the event went. Specifically:

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.

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.

3. What were some highlights of the event for you?


4. What were your concerns, if any?


5. Give us a very brief description of some of you favorite interactions for the night.


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!
 
1. How the "roles" function worked for you (when you selected a role, it opened up specific channels) They worked just fine for me. I liked that all I had to do was click a tab and the room opened up for me. I also liked that you couldn't see what was typed before you entered the room, throwing people into unknown situations.

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 found there was no time in between the 'meetings' for any role play at all. No chance to disperce information, or even talk to people once it got started. The two times we were in the tavern was game on and after the funeral, and with everyone all talking at once trying to get conversations in, it became a wall of text that i honestly couldn't even pay attention to at that point.

3. What were some highlights of the event for you? arguing with the arch mage.


4. What were your concerns, if any? the lack of time to RP, and most of the meetings seemed more like we were being talked at instead of with. I get that we are trying to keep the story going and information dumping, but by the funeral I found myself frustrated as a player because all i was doing was bouncing from meeting to meeting without really getting to say or do anything at all.
 
1. How the "roles" function worked for you (when you selected a role, it opened up specific channels)

I had one issue with this when I left discord on my device and came back in and everything was deleted. Otherwise it worked as designed and just meant that I couldn’t leave discord the rest of the night.

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 was busy all night but didn’t really feel like we had enough time to sit with things. Before something else was happening. I think that more frequent but more targeted events might be better if they are to continue. Have the fire pit tavern and private rooms available for RP for everyone but leave the mods for 1-2 guilds with less players for more RP and less copy paste from plot. And anything that we cannot interact with but needs to go off be forum posts or the private discord guild groups.

3. What were some highlights of the event for you?

I really enjoyed the RP that I had with AzCain. Rohnan will feel amazing when she finally earns duel casting.
 
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. How the "roles" function worked for you (when you selected a role, it opened up specific channels)
I liked it, only issue I had was not knowing who was in each area. If I walked into the tavern, I had no idea who was there until they did something.

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?
It felt slow for me, a lot of that though, is me just not going on the two main mods (dragon balls and dark reaches)

3. What were some highlights of the event for you?
Starting to get more into the leadership kind of role dealing with the Hunters Armory.
 
1. How the "roles" function worked for you (when you selected a role, it opened up specific channels)
No troubles here! Some people in our group got booted once or twice, which caused them to lose their previous text

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?
Super quick! I agree, there wasn't really any time to RP so that meant that some IG stuff got missed, debriefs and what have you. Having a mod, a guild meeting, a funeral, and a guardian chitchat didn't leave much time to go over IBGA stuff, etc.

3. What were some highlights of the event for you?

Complete chaos at a funeral. Classic. Getting my tantalizing

4. What were your concerns, if any?
Just that flow was a bit too fast. Plus the mod we were on took quite a while, partly because the NPC was quite vague. It's a really fun character choice, but a bit frustrating when we know we're missing stuff in the other chats.

5. Give us a very brief description of some of you favorite interactions for the night.

Adraxis about to lose his mind as Xorta launches into his third convoluted metaphor of the night.
 
I had no idea who was there until they did something.

if you look at the right side of Discord, it actually shows who has access to view the channel you are in. Granted, it will show: me, “Guild plot”, and all NPCs. But anyone else, if you see their name, they can view that channel.
 
1. How the "roles" function worked for you (when you selected a role, it opened up specific channels)
Minus the private cabin issue, it worked well for me mostly. Except when I was using my phone for part of it, if my screen locked because of idle and I didn't catch it right away, I would lose all the text.

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 don't think I interacted with a single NPC (I went on the dragon mod, but didn't say anything) due to being limited in my typing for half the event (pesky children). But I agree, it didn't seem like we had enough time to just sit and discuss what we just learned before the next big thing happened.

3. What were some highlights of the event for you?
I really like the concept of the dragon stones of power. I'm excited to see what the other stones are and what the trials entail.

4. What were your concerns, if any?
Can't say I have any.

5. Give us a very brief description of some of you favorite interactions for the night.
Basically telling Calan to listen/do to whatever the dragon says because it will give us an advantage in our war effort.
 
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!
 
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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
That was likely due to the "slowdown" I placed (on purpose) in that channel. Any PC could only select one role every 5 seconds. This was to avoid "rapid fire" channel changing. I know when Tyler was testing it for me, he had that issue, and this was likely the same thing.
 
That was likely due to the "slowdown" I placed (on purpose) in that channel. Any PC could only select one role every 5 seconds. This was to avoid "rapid fire" channel changing. I know when Tyler was testing it for me, he had that issue, and this was likely the same thing.
Maybe, but the time I was thinking of happened right after the dragon mod
 
1. How the "roles" function worked for you (when you selected a role, it opened up specific channels)
I really liked the roles. It helped me focus more on what was going on around my character and made it seem more authentic. My only concern was that there would be times in moving from certain areas where you wouldn't be deselected initially (I think it may have been Lux Commons or an area like that where I would have to click a second time to change to it because I would be listed as there + somewhere else (but not be able to see the chat). When I would try to return there it would later it would deselect that role and I'd need to click it again to actually go there. User error? Maybe.

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 felt like the beginning of the game was slow to get going with PCs hanging out and chit-chatting, then there was a lot of breakout happening where people were scattering to NPC interactions in different areas, and then there was a bit of a lull before the funeral which led to the dialogue with the Guardians which ended the game. It made the pacing really varied between being frantic and feeling like if you weren't acting quickly you were missing out or that there was not much taking place (that you were aware of). I was quite fortunate as a PC as I got to speak with multiple NPCs and have dialogue with them (Az'Caine, Xorta, the Guardians). I think one thing that could work well would be to have a pre-made docket (info dump) of some variety that is dropped to guild leadership during the sessions (sent in via a courier and then this being a prompt for the guilds to call a meeting). This would allow for some of the PCs to self-entertain and discuss something that can result in IBGAs without needing much NPC attention. This may allow those who didn't have much content planned in the way of NPC interaction to have something they can still focus on and make progress toward.

3. What were some highlights of the event for you?
a. Az'Caine being sassy: "If only there was an Archmage here to explain things for you."
b. Meeting Xorta. Very cool NPC and the flavour text of the encounter was amazing. Very fun and cerebral experience (for me--my Oathsworn was not a fan of being stuck in a time bubble getting headaches from explanations about time elementals).
c. Getting to interact with the Guardians. Major props to Cory for playing so many of them all at once.
d. Home Guard meeting. Really this didn't seem to have any NPC-driven involvement but the interactions between the members present were quite enjoyable.

4. What were your concerns, if any?
As a PC being in an area that was separate from the rest of the game, I felt like I may be missing out on things at times. Missing out on guild meetings, for example, because you're doing something else feels bad. I don't have a solution for this and I can objectively understand this is a complaint about an embarrassment of riches. I think part of the reason this feels rough is that the sessions aren't structured in a way that you get a lot of chance to catch up if you were off doing something else of importance. That's difficult because we're working in a short time window. I know sometimes it can also be difficult to have deep interactions when the speed of interaction is limited (due to typing versus spoken word--particularly when people are using a mobile device) so there is this strange lag that can happen when you're waiting for a response that makes the overall short timeline of the event seem more urgent and pressured.

Specifically, as a point of feedback, I do not think there is a legitimate, objective issue here in the amount of content that was available or how it was presented--I feel like this is more of an emotional reaction to the format itself.

I think if we're using this format going forward (which I love as a digital way to enjoy LARP when we can't play otherwise) it would be worth dissecting the funeral segment. I feel like there was a lot of OOG emotion (particularly frustration) spilling over at that moment in time which really seemed to take away from what I'm guessing was supposed to be a somber, moving scene.

=-=-=-=

Big thanks to all the NPC crew for making it a fun event for me. I am very appreciative we're getting a chance to get into character while we're socially distancing.
 
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