March 18th 1-Day Feedback

Alliance SoMI

Alliance SoMI

Expert
Thank you to everyone who braved the variable weather and was able to come out to our first event of 2017.​

We had a great time putting everything together for you and think we did pretty good job from an operations perspective (with a few exceptions that we're working on fixing in the next three weeks).

We've got our to do list, but we'd love to hear what you all thought about the event.

Please leave us a message here or if you'd rather, send us an email (Matt@alliancesouthmichigan.com).

As an incentive to get your feedback, we'll put everyone who responda before March 31st into a drawing for 6 Dragon Stamps (enough to get you an extra Blanket if you choose).

Thanks again for all your support. If not for you, we'd just be weirdos misusing plumbing supplies in the woods.

Chad, Chris, Matt, & Travis

P.S. Travis says thanks to everyone who came out to celebrate his birthday
 
The weather actually wasn't that bad, except that my feet were dyed purple from my socks or boots. The site was beautiful and the cabin was nice if not a little small. Here are a few highlights for me.

1. Almost attacking Sir Simon and being threatened with treason for doing so. All in the defense of a perceived threat against Taios. Having 4 people grab my arms/hold me back was a really great B.A. moment for me as Sloane.

2. I loved the Moss and mushroom monsters. The tiny mushrooms on the Moss monster were a great touch.

3. Having Inger's bandit basically play the elemental game against us and that we fell for it more than once. Not my proudest moment.

4. "Guys, dogs. No, really, big dogs."

I'm very much looking forward to April.

-Brigit
 
I actually loved the weather - thank you Dave/Ardos for trying to help me not always fall down the hills:-) But a Michigan forest in the snow is beautiful!!

I loved the site because if was well laid out and secluded - even with the large puppy visit (they did leave amazing paw prints for us to track the bear with:-))
Highlights-

- getting yelled at by Mathis and then after- a One on one with him... it was ,while awkward , needed:-)thank you Matt!!!

- It was a super neat feeling to be "be on the edge " of where we usually are- not in our usual area. That was cool being part of the fort :-)

- I love Sir Simon - "my lady I actually went back and looked it up- you are under no obligation to kneel to me- please stop"- Hey Cyn has a problem lol

- the banits were awesome but the Mushroom suit was amazing as well as the moss
Creature - you guys are amazing with phys repping out of monster camp- thank you!!

- Are we 100% sure a celestial caster cannot be a secret necromancer...?!?! :-) love ya Joe!


- excellent use of the camp!!

- the reaction of well everyone when Cyn causally said she was engaged "to who?!?" "Can I cook for your wedding ?" Sloane grabbing Cyn "can I bake your wedding cake!?" - Cyn was floored by the genuine interest in both her engagement and her future wedding:-) so much love :-)

I need to take another moment to thank the Owners of South Michigan- they were too kind to me with all they have rewarded with me... however the framed writ for "Fort Ana"- was by far the kindest thing I could imagine. To be a part of Dragonreach history forever ... is an honor I feel inadequate to express gratitude for. It is already hung in Nerdvana and I am ... thank you SoMi Owners!

I am looking so forward to this season - already we are strong out of the gate!

Send new players mine and Evie's way!!!

See you in April--- remember April Game is April 8-Work Day is April 29!!!

Annette
(Sorry my in game signature follows this and I have no idea to make it stop...)



Lady IronRose of Storm's Rose
Special Envoy of King Grimlock to Dragonreach
Founder of Forgotten Hope
Mother

"My Life For Theirs"
"Defending the Dealings of Time and Space"
 
Overall a fun event. Kudos to all who braved the snow to play. Thanks to all the staff who made it happen.

Operationally:
Good Stuff
1. Great site for one days. Maybe consecutive 1 days. I wouldn't want it as a new all the time site, but it's a great change of pace site. (really want to magic storm off that balcony) Do they allow tents?
2. Character check in went smooth. (Pre-registration is Larping good citizenry. Help the game, pre-reg. Even if it's too late to get a reward)
3. Tasty food for a one-day.
4. Loved seeing pictures being taken.

Could be Improved: (You said you wanted feedback, so I'm being picky. Nothing here was rage inducing/ deal breaking)
1. Please put ritual scrolls in sleeves.
2. The overall logistics (in a general sense of the word, not Ian's role), were a bit confusing. One building with many hats. Could players ward it, should it be open? Didn't know if the building was a PC cabin, or a Tavern building in essence. Both rooms eventually were warded, but I'd like some direction for future one days, how that building should be handled IG.
3. Kind of riding on #2 but the food process was a bit jumbled/crowded. Obviously we couldn't move it out side with the weather, but there might be another solution. /shrug
4. That bathroom building being open would have been nice. (I know, not under your control. Just saying for future consideration, there were facilities we weren't able to use, that make the site even better)
5. I left my green bag chair at the site.

Actual Event:
Concerns
1. Didn't like treasure at the end of the event, (unless an IG reason. Sir Simon paying X to the adventurers) Not a huge deal this time, but realistically people come and go (for both IG and OOG reasons), or do there own thing. I would not like to see this being a standard one-day policy.
2. I was not able to pet the dogs.

Compliments
1. Everything was repped very well. trolls, elementals, bandits, the new LCO Mana. The plant costumes were friggin awesome. (how were they to fight in? Who made them?)
2. Linear hooks didn't lead to linear plot. Awesome. "Please deal with bandits, in X cave". -> "wait, they're dead." -> "Placker bugs?" -> "what's this green stuff?" -> "Oh crap!" -> "what's downriver?" good stuff. Of course, sometimes I like the trolls to just be trolls, which is good too. There was a nice mix at the event, I guess.
3. Overall lack of spell defenses for things that shouldn't have spell defenses. Thank you.
4. Having a super power is awesome, players should explore the game world.
5. I liked the elemental mod, where they were kinda fighting each other, and us. The mechanical interaction between Earth and Water was occasionally terrifying, but even the 20's (40's too at one point?) didn't seem un-fair. It was more like, yeah... that happened.
6. I really enjoyed casting the rituals. Things made sense, even plot messed with the 'standard' way. very cool.
7. Plot seemed very well organized, which was good to see. Chad had ogre makeup on from the start. Which was like 4th thing he handled at the game, but the first where he needed makeup. (or ya'll faked it really well)
8. Actual Weapons/ not claws on everything. <3
9. Not sure how to say this. I felt like there were things in the world "For Gideon", without being catered to directly. No one came in and said "I need to talk to Gideon, because X, Y, Z." However, there certainly things I wanted Gideon to find in-game (Vision scroll supply) and I was able to by looking. Nothing was served up without effort, but it was able to be found. Felt good.

Memorable Moments:
1. "No I didn't just murder a rabbit" ... "Well, I mean, I mutilated a dead rabbit if that's a problem" I hope Gideon and those who don't trust his methods can continue to have fun poking each other. :)
2. Mathis turning to reprimand Cyn. Great IG moment between nobles. Followed by bandits seizing the opportunity to attack.
3. Lucas yelling at Collette. Also TSM not letting the bandit walk into the woods. Great to see In-game emotion.
4. People having fun messing with the goblin and his treasure box, until they realized it was also the Tribesmen treasure as well.
5. Finding some support for a celestial guild.
6. Ritually poking vacuum.
7. Bear meat! We've got bear meat!
8. Inger's Goodegg guy. Solid Character/comic relief. I loved the look on his face as he tried to steal pretzels, followed by joy of succeeding, and then the real concern as Inger ran out of room, like a chipmunk preparing for winter.
9. General discussion about Chad's caster bandit, and his viability as a Bandit King.

Excellent one-day opener. Looking forward to the season.

-Joe
 
I don't have a huge list as I spent about half the time as an Npc, but I really enjoyed the role play With Ardos, Gideon, and sloane. "I can't believe he used the rabbit like that" "well you are going to eat it at least right Gideon?" "oooh yeah suuure I am, but I can't now so..."
Side conversations with radi and taios,
*delivers bad news* Taios:"that's amazing! I wonder if I can do that? Uhhh I mean that's terrible."
I do have to agree though that the mushroom and spore costumes were really cool, and not at all what I expected.
I'm sure I'm forgetting something, but I enjoyed the event.
 
Thank you Joe. We do want all the feedback, very much the bad with the good.

I did want to address the treasure at the end to discuss it some here. This was only the 3rd one day we have run thus far. We went with treasure at the end for a few reasons:
  1. Major time saver vs. doing a treasure split at the end of every mod.
  2. It leans towards a good times adventuring community. Since the turn out is generally lower the events are written for the whole of group that turns up to play.
You do bring up a good point; Different entrance and exit times for players. This wasn't an issue in the past but it needs to be considered.

We would like to hear more on this so we can play with more ideas from everyone please.
 
Those seem like valid points. While I do have a response, I'm not saying your points are wrong just continuing the discussion. However, I don't want to derail a thread about event feedback. We could move this to another thread, if the discussion keeps going.

"Major time saver vs. doing a treasure split at the end of every mod."
--Certainly valuable on a one day with limited time. I think the same result could be achieved by the PCs. "Sir Mathis is holding the treasure, we aren't wasting daylight right now. Oh you have to leave? Based on what I see.. here's 2-3 gold. see you next time" Versus, "Oh Gideon has to leave? Ok I'll run over to monster camp. Tromp tromp tromp. <interrupts> Hey plot can you give us treasure for the past 4 mods. <waits> Tromp Tromp tromp, puff puff puff, Crap I'm old. Uhh.. 2-3 gold sound fair?" or it could be handled even more in-game with Sir Mathis holding a share for the person until next time if treasure hasn't been given out yet. But that has it's own troubles. Treasure at end of mod does mean there is additional time spent giving the treasure after each mod, but that can be parsed out ahead of time, or during 'mod prep.'
I very much agree that there is time to be saved with less occurrences of splitting. Especially if it's the same group doing 6 things. I just think holding treasure to the end of the event, adds more complications than benefits.

"It leans towards a good times adventuring community. Since the turn out is generally lower the events are written for the whole of group that turns up to play."
--I think this is a less strong argument than the previous one. I don't think holding treasure till the end adds or detracts to the 'good times community.' I understand writing for the whole town on a one day, that makes sense. I don't think holding treasure to the end of event affects that policy.

Additional thoughts
1. While it bugged me, this was not a huge deal. It all worked out. I can just see a situation where it doesn't work out. And nothing get's players more butt-hurt than treasure issues. <looks in mirror>
2. Make treasure at the end of event an IG reason, and everything is fine. Having to leave early and not getting paid because Sir Simon hasn't returned yet. Is all in-game and great. Not getting paid because of an OOG policy feels potentially more frustrating.
3. If we are going to make one-days our recruitment events. We should try to keep things as close to a regular weekend as reasonable. Granted, we only had one new player this event. So perhaps this is a less meaningful point, but if we're crafting the structure of a one-day over time, it might be worth considering.

-Joe
 
jwconvery said:
2. Make treasure at the end of event an IG reason, and everything is fine. Having to leave early and not getting paid because Sir Simon hasn't returned yet. Is all in-game and great. Not getting paid because of an OOG policy feels potentially more frustrating.
Click to expand...

That's where the treasure came from, it's why there were magic items that were reasonable. It was just handed off poorly. We'll make that part better next time.
 
As always, I loved the event. I thought the campsite was super neat and the weather was fairly reasonable. I love larping in the snow and it was actually better weather than I expected. I don't think it would support a full weekend event, but it's perfect for one-days.

Here are a few of my favorites from the event:
1) Pulling Taios away, telling him bad news.... *laughter* "Oh that's great! I mean - uh - terrible...."
2) Visions with Gideon. Both the casting and the tailored responses from plot were fantastic. Lots to think about!
3) NPCing!
4) The spore monster mod was awesome. Trying to figure out what was going on/what was in play/etc, as well as the super cool monster costumes.
5) Sir Simon - "Who gave you this map? They labeled this all wrong. Who is Michael?"
6) Learning about the origin of brood from Casan

I've really been enjoying not going on every mod lately based off of Banradi's priorities/etc. Thought I'd let you know that that's a personal choice and that I'm not boycotting mods or not going because I don't think I'll have fun.

I'm having a riot being.... Whatever Banradi is right now. :D

Best,
Ian
 
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It was great to get back into it and this one day did a great job of getting the season kicked off. Having specific to-do items that were in themselves beneficial to the game world and also served to introduce the areas of concern for the upcoming season was well executed.

Specific Favorites
- Talking to Sir Forgot-my-name: Me, "we have a fort shield and a fort aegis?" Knight, "hold that thought..." BOOM fort shield is fort Anna. Congrats Annette!
- Mushroom and Moss people
- Gideon during the Moss fight having tons of monsters sprout out of his feet but being the only one not covered with spots at the end then explaining it as "im just lucky"
- Being betrayed by my new bandit friend as I tried to offer him a job.

I'm excited for the new season and everything our new owners have in store for us. Keep up the good work guys!

-TSM
 
Thank you all for coming out. I think it was a fantastic one day event despite walking to my car that morning in a flurry of snow.
Remember, if you have people you mention events to, send them our way and YOU will get the recruitment points for them!
<3
Alright, feedback time.

Room for Improvement:
  • It was a bit confusing when we showed up to the event. We were unsure of where to go and ended up sitting in our car for a bit. Mind you we had to get ready but everyone didn't really know what to do with themselves. Maybe having one of the staff chill in the parking lot to direct people would be good for next event would be good. Especially with the new people coming. (I also volunteer to help do that)
  • The building was definitely confusing. We need to decide if it is in game or out of game. Also my belongings ended up getting warded in the room with me unable to enter because of the my confusion that we were using the building like that. (That was on me I suppose but I was very much confused.


    A note on the food, it was very crowded but I am cooking for the next event and it will be cooking in a crockpot while we play so we will move it out to the tables when we are ready to serve. So just to address that feedback now, it will be taken care of next event.
Favorite moments
  • Inger's character shoving pretzels in his face in front of Gideon. I was out of game for this moment but I was crying from laughing so hard. He was a great NPC. Funny, but also gave us helpful information.
  • Mushroom NPC was great!!! I want to see that costume on someone as a transform.
  • Cyn falling down and capturing that on film was cute.
  • Inger throwing Matthis. Which was also caught on film.
  • Cyn and Collette acting like it was them the bandits were talking about when Inger's NPC was describing the big strong looking dangerous people standing behind General Lukas.
  • Following paw prints to a bears house, butchering the bear, and giving it to Chris's "starving" NPC
  • General Lukas SCREAMING at me mid mod and having the biggest "in game/out of game" moment I have ever had. Collette felt bad. Evie felt like murder housing her boyfriend.
 
Thanks for the feedback! We're reviewing everything in an effort to make our next time out even better.

Special thanks to Joe for helping solve one problem he drew attention to.

See you all just under two weeks

Also, if you haven't left feedback, you still have a few days to get your name in for the Dragon Stamp reward drawing.
 
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