Good afternoon!
We had a number of issues raised at the recent 4-day Alliance Seattle event that I'd like to bring up some friendly reminders about. All of these issues were seen from both PCs and NPCs, and the joint Seattle - Oregon marshals plan to look at enforcing these more strictly in the upcoming months to ensure that we remain on track. Please review your own behavior and try to keep these rules in mind at the next game you attend. I know there are some of these that I was not as good at as I should have been; I expect we can all find improvements to make in the future.
1. In-Game vs Out-Of-Game behavior
Our Props team has done a fantastic job over the last few events making the tavern feel in game. We've brought this up at Opening Ceremonies and reminded people to try and remain in game as much as possible. For the most part at this last event, the tavern itself stayed remarkably in game, which was great! However, many areas in the immediate vicinity of the tavern did not do so well. Plastic wrappers and leftover trash food containers were littered around the tavern area in several places and stayed there for more than a day. Many people - NPC and PC both - had trouble keeping their out of game conversations to the food preparation area. Please try to remember that other players may be in game somewhere nearby wherever you happen to be on site, whether or not you see them; everyone's game is enhanced when we make a collective effort to stay in game in in game areas. Nobody likes sneaking up on a cabin only to hear the inhabitants talking about an out of game hobby.
2. Charging
We had serious issues with charging at this last event. Brian has prepared a longer note on this which we will keep stickied at the top of this forum; it has some great advice on how to avoid charging. We gave numerous experienced players verbal and written warnings at this event about charging - this is one of the more dangerous safety violations we get in combat, folks, so please keep it in mind when playing.
3. Incants before packets
Many of us wand users (I am at blame here too) have been releasing our packets before finishing our wand verbals. Similarly, there was a huge incidence of players (NPC and PC alike) throwing spells before they finished incants. It was really bad this time, and I've asked all of my marshals to clamp down on this hard. If you release your packet before you finish your incant, expect your spell to be called as a flub; you will lose the spell for the day and it will not be counted as a hit. Practice before game if you cast a lot of spells - I know I will be.
4. Some basic rules issues
We saw a number of misunderstandings of basic rules from the rulebook at this event. Please review your rulebooks when you get a chance. While not everyone needs to know every rule, we do expect players to thoroughly understand how their own spells and abilities work. A good rule of thumb is that if you can use an ability or cast a specific spell, you should make sure you understand how it works so that you can answer the target's questions about it.
We appreciate your understanding and continued work on helping resolve the above issues.
Thanks!
-Bryan Gregory
Alliance Seattle Head of Rules
We had a number of issues raised at the recent 4-day Alliance Seattle event that I'd like to bring up some friendly reminders about. All of these issues were seen from both PCs and NPCs, and the joint Seattle - Oregon marshals plan to look at enforcing these more strictly in the upcoming months to ensure that we remain on track. Please review your own behavior and try to keep these rules in mind at the next game you attend. I know there are some of these that I was not as good at as I should have been; I expect we can all find improvements to make in the future.
1. In-Game vs Out-Of-Game behavior
Our Props team has done a fantastic job over the last few events making the tavern feel in game. We've brought this up at Opening Ceremonies and reminded people to try and remain in game as much as possible. For the most part at this last event, the tavern itself stayed remarkably in game, which was great! However, many areas in the immediate vicinity of the tavern did not do so well. Plastic wrappers and leftover trash food containers were littered around the tavern area in several places and stayed there for more than a day. Many people - NPC and PC both - had trouble keeping their out of game conversations to the food preparation area. Please try to remember that other players may be in game somewhere nearby wherever you happen to be on site, whether or not you see them; everyone's game is enhanced when we make a collective effort to stay in game in in game areas. Nobody likes sneaking up on a cabin only to hear the inhabitants talking about an out of game hobby.
2. Charging
We had serious issues with charging at this last event. Brian has prepared a longer note on this which we will keep stickied at the top of this forum; it has some great advice on how to avoid charging. We gave numerous experienced players verbal and written warnings at this event about charging - this is one of the more dangerous safety violations we get in combat, folks, so please keep it in mind when playing.
3. Incants before packets
Many of us wand users (I am at blame here too) have been releasing our packets before finishing our wand verbals. Similarly, there was a huge incidence of players (NPC and PC alike) throwing spells before they finished incants. It was really bad this time, and I've asked all of my marshals to clamp down on this hard. If you release your packet before you finish your incant, expect your spell to be called as a flub; you will lose the spell for the day and it will not be counted as a hit. Practice before game if you cast a lot of spells - I know I will be.
4. Some basic rules issues
We saw a number of misunderstandings of basic rules from the rulebook at this event. Please review your rulebooks when you get a chance. While not everyone needs to know every rule, we do expect players to thoroughly understand how their own spells and abilities work. A good rule of thumb is that if you can use an ability or cast a specific spell, you should make sure you understand how it works so that you can answer the target's questions about it.
We appreciate your understanding and continued work on helping resolve the above issues.
Thanks!
-Bryan Gregory
Alliance Seattle Head of Rules