So, first long weekend down. what a weekend it was. So much happened thats its all still kinda of a blurr, but I will do what i can. I do want to state that the observations i made about this weekend are first and formost my own. They are what i see and of my own opinion and for the most part should be taken as consturtive critisizim. Im going to post them in Daily order so that they make sence to me and ever one else.
So lets begin:
FRIDAY
So, The night started out ok. It was a great idea having us all march up back to the commons, fighting beasties as we go, stopping for a quick "scouting" oppertunity of the town. Unfortunetly watching the pup taking a spill by the back door of the kitchen was a downer, but he truged through it as best he could.
But I did have a probelm with the amount of time we spent in the tavern on friday night. I know "we were taking back the town" and had to do it place by place, inch by inch, But the restiction of being stuck in the Tavern all night was kinda borning for my part. The pop up monsters that came though the door were easily taken care of by the 5-6 front liners that were holding the door, and when the back door was destroyed it was only a matter of time to fix it. As a rogue-ish character, the nigth time is where i try to excel. I need open space, and plenty of options open to me in order to handle a situation. To be completly shut in like that started to get boring for me. Which brings me to my next point:
The white tape. Now I know the reasoning behind the white tape "all the big bad beasties are out there and they will eat you" was a Great Idea, but i feel it could have been exacuted diffrently. For a person like my character, open area and night time are the best combination, If you can catch me the all the power to you to try and kill me, but if you cant find me, then I must be doing somthing right!
but to simply be told by any one walking by that "Your dead. go to the res circle" is kind of mean. It gives no test to the skill of the PC nore to the person who may trying to look for them because they saw them cross the line. Its kinda like playing a table top dice game and your character sneaks in the dragons lair and makes it face to face with the dragon and then the DM tells you "he opens his eye, sees you and roasts you with flame. Your dead, dont bother rolling, nothing will save you". Thats kinda what the white tape rule felt like to me, However, I am not about to just state my complaints and walk away. I have thought about possible other soloutions to the reasoning behind the white tape rule, that doesnt rick-roll a character for doing what they do best.
1. If a Marshal or NPC sees a PC enter a "White tape rule" area, they can go in game (or send of a npc) and have a Standered 500Body, 15 normal, resist everything monster that wont die, but scares off (or more then lickly kills) the PC so they can bring that info back to the others. When I start hitting a monster and they call "no effect" for the dammage i do....well i run far and hard.
2. Let the PC's try and sneak through the "white tape area" and then have a marshal( or npc) call out to them "you see a bunch of red dots appear. They see you! what do you do? run or Fight?" if the PC runs, nothing happens, If they fight, call out "you are Webbed with Fear and Silinced with panic you can not move for Ten mins no resist" then do what i have suggested in the first part.
Now the sleeping thing.
Again i must state that i completly understood what sort of feeling Plot was trying to do on friday night, however, no one could have guessed how cold it was going to be out there. When i woke up saterday morning, i checked the recorded temp out side and it dropped to -10. Most of the time you think nothing of it. But at night, after fighting for almost 4 hours, -10 gets pretty cold. And sleeping on a cement floor in the Tavern dosent help. Being forced to sleep on the floor in the Tavern dosent help either. Add on the doors being opened and closed for 4 hours while the monsters attack. It makes for a big pile of COLD. as well as not being able to start a fire for fear of constant attack. Lets just say that when Dayna found out he was sleeping in the Tavern after he turned the heater up in the cabin he was issued was a bit of a kick in the pants. Now, I do want to appoligize to Cory for How i brought my concern up to him. I have no excuse for the tone i was using nore the stubborn ness that i presented. However, because of my selfish needs, i was addimant that i was going to sleep in my Cabin, and i Did sleep in my cabin. So because this was an issue for me I have come up with a few alternitives to this situation that could be considered if this situtation were to come up again.
1. Ask the PC's in attendance if any of them would like to sleep in a Cabin instead of the Tavern. Instuct them that they cant touch anything in thier cabin other then the clothes they were wearing at night and must bring everything back that they took in the morning. This "writes" them out for the night but still gives them a choice to partake in the full story.
2. Put all who choose to go, in to one or two cabins not being used, and let them sleep thier, with a heater. this keeps them out of thier cabin but still in story.
3. Ask the PC what the reason thier Character is not in the Tavern all night. (This is the one I used in the mornin) ie: "Well I was pattroling around all night and keeping watch over the sleepers, which is why no one was attacked or killed at night"
All of these options would give any body the comfort of sleeping in the cabin they rented and keeping in line with the story. I do have to say that my inability to stay warm friday night contibuted to my catching of the cold.
Saterday
Honestly, Saterday was A blast! though a slight chill was on the wind it was not enough to ruin the day. I had so much fun in the Escalating Cabin raids, And I really liked how the monsters got tougher as a part went out more times. All the NPCs did a great job coming up with funny things that were going on in the Cabins And the door puzzles were challanging enough that it took time to get done (some were hard enough that we skipped a cabin to try another puzzle) All in all a great day.
Vampire birds, goblins, and Gnolls Oh my! Too much was happening on saterday to get all down (and my head was not really in the game due to the cold in side of it) but i know i had fun! and thats what mattered.
The point in which we all went down to the field and descovered Az'Cains staff in the ground was awesome! it not only answered questions but added a little bit more to the last events story. And the plastic hands and feet were fantastic as was the body of the boy in cabin 7.
great job. :thumbsup:
Saterday nights encounters were a blast as well. III getting bit was wonderful, and personaly i had fun dealing with the Biata. The fact that some people were offended by that was even better, and when Fredick approched me sunday morning and informed me that people wanted to bring me up on charges of "conspiricy to commit necromancy was a hoot! It played in to plans perfectly.
:twisted:
Sunday
Sunday was a bit of a rough day for me, as most could tell. The cold was taking its toll on me, and every one could see. I did my best to try and keep hydrated and was conserving my energy for the biata encounter and for monday as well. I have to say it was Fantasitcly Awesome to sit by Cabin 9 with lisa and watch the Gnoll fiht behind the Cabins and then to see Jeff Chasing after III and (forgive me but i cant remember his name, the "new guy") and handing off my sword as Jordan yells " I NEED A WEAPON!!". I was lauging so hard it hurt! :lol:
The day, all and all was ok. As i tryed to keep my self out of combat, i did get a little tired of walking around and talking to people. That was my own choice though and i take the blame for that discision. On top of that the Wasps were a really annoyance and started to irratate me. but all in all it was a good day, much was learned and much was won.
I did enhoy going with the group down to get the "flower ring" box. The fact that illsa was there made it very very tempting to pick up the flowers to give to her. It was also sheer luck, and a failure on the players and marshalls part to remember not to move traps, that saved every one but Hammish from getting amnisesad when I grabbed the trap box. That would have been fun to play out though.
And now the sad part of the day. So every one knows, yes, Aengus pulled a Black stone on his res. It was fate at her best. I thought it was kinda funny that both Rory and Brooke failed to ask the right questions to find out what was wrong, and the look on Brookes face when she game me a potion and i said "no effect", only 9 secs after i bleed out, was pretty funny. Now, rory did the right thing by bringing me to the circle and getting the stone bag ready, however, by my count i still had 45 secs left in my death count when Mark showed up to offer the services of another to get me back. But I had all ready pulled the stone and it was witnessed by the marshall, there was no chance. So as a lesson, when you bleed out keep counting, and dont reach into the bag untill you are done your count, this could save your life! :nerd:
I was disapointed that it happened, and I was a little sad, as there was soooooooooooo much i wanted to do. But thats life. The funeral was awesome and you all played it fantasicly.
Now, for something completely diffrent! I did have a bit of concern about the Tablet fight on sunday night. As a PC fighting monsters I know what its like to fight a monster like the one I played. I will say that I did get a little excited runnning around and hitting people for 6 body, but i did try and pull my hits as much as I could, with out looking like i was targeting anyone and not targeting anyone. It gave me great joy to see the looks on Rory's, Mike's and Aaron's face when I would " owwww, Mage! Ha ha ha!!" and watch them run! but i can agree with some of the complaints about that fight in perticluar. I can say that I now have better knowledge of monstering and will self regualte my monster abillitys when and if needed.
Monday
Monday was rough day for me, as i was both dead and sick (though it made for a great reason to play a sick begger skooting through town. however, not taking part in the last battle of the weekend was really hard on me. There were plans for many and much RP oppertunitys and they were cut short, just as Aengus was.
But I did enjoy watching the fight. You all Did a wonderful job beating back the Baddies, and Baddies you did a Fantasic job keeping the PC's on thier toes.
Great work every one.
. One thing we should all try and do better is not doing head shots but with pratice it'll go away