Alright, so the title is a little melodramatic. All and all, I think the event went really well! But there's always some things we can improve on!
The Good:
There were a number of things that I think went very, very well!
Staying IG: Players did an amazing job staying in-game. I kind of expected our players to have a tough time, going from a largely narrative type game, but I never actually heard any OOG chatter, aside from clarifications.
Plot: Speaking of IG all-the-time, the plot team had a huge leap to take, trying to tell their story. And from what I heard, most players indicated that the story was very clear to them. So, clearly, the plot team was able to adapt and overcome any jitters they may have had about the game.
Watchers: The Watchers worked almost exactly like I expected them to. We were able to observe without breaking immersion (most of the time) and provide some insight.
The Bad:
Rules: It's new to a lot of our players, but there was a ton of confusion about how certain effects work. I think we had a lot of players skim the core rules and read the headers, which is a no-no! If there's one thing you should read, it should be the core rules. I will most likely be doing an effect spotlight for Accelerant after that event.
Prep: There were a number of mods where we didn't adequately prepare for it. In particular, there was one where we needed a portal set up, and we forgot the plug for the rope lights, and then no one put up the information sign telling people with knowledge how to close the portal. But again, I think that's something that will shake out with time.
PC/NPC Ratio: I'm not sure when it happened, but I distinctly remember sending about 15-20 NPCs down for one of our mods, which was good. But as the night dragged on, somehow our numbers dropped to about 6 active NPCs. We had a few people who sat around more than they should have, and that was unfortunate, as the rest of us started busting our humps and were too tired when it came to the last mod.
The Ugly:
Core Version: We ran into an issue where players were not playing by the same core rules at the event. Long story short, the rules we originally got were 5.1, and we found out about 2 weeks before the event that 5.3 was latest (and got a copy), and 5.4 was coming out. Some of the veteran players were playing with 5.4, which completely blasted the game balance in regards to grants. Made things very difficult.
Sick: We had a couple of sick people in the shack. Jenn came down with a fever, and Jeremy R. was still getting over pneumonia. I had not had more than about 4 hours of sleep for about a week prior to the event. In general, we weren't in good enough shape to get what we needed to get done.
All and all, I think it was an amazing job by everyone, and the bad and ugly are really just grasping straws. I always seek to improve the experience, and I think those are the core things that we can address to do so.
What was your good, bad, and ugly for the event?
The Good:
There were a number of things that I think went very, very well!
Staying IG: Players did an amazing job staying in-game. I kind of expected our players to have a tough time, going from a largely narrative type game, but I never actually heard any OOG chatter, aside from clarifications.
Plot: Speaking of IG all-the-time, the plot team had a huge leap to take, trying to tell their story. And from what I heard, most players indicated that the story was very clear to them. So, clearly, the plot team was able to adapt and overcome any jitters they may have had about the game.
Watchers: The Watchers worked almost exactly like I expected them to. We were able to observe without breaking immersion (most of the time) and provide some insight.
The Bad:
Rules: It's new to a lot of our players, but there was a ton of confusion about how certain effects work. I think we had a lot of players skim the core rules and read the headers, which is a no-no! If there's one thing you should read, it should be the core rules. I will most likely be doing an effect spotlight for Accelerant after that event.
Prep: There were a number of mods where we didn't adequately prepare for it. In particular, there was one where we needed a portal set up, and we forgot the plug for the rope lights, and then no one put up the information sign telling people with knowledge how to close the portal. But again, I think that's something that will shake out with time.
PC/NPC Ratio: I'm not sure when it happened, but I distinctly remember sending about 15-20 NPCs down for one of our mods, which was good. But as the night dragged on, somehow our numbers dropped to about 6 active NPCs. We had a few people who sat around more than they should have, and that was unfortunate, as the rest of us started busting our humps and were too tired when it came to the last mod.
The Ugly:
Core Version: We ran into an issue where players were not playing by the same core rules at the event. Long story short, the rules we originally got were 5.1, and we found out about 2 weeks before the event that 5.3 was latest (and got a copy), and 5.4 was coming out. Some of the veteran players were playing with 5.4, which completely blasted the game balance in regards to grants. Made things very difficult.
Sick: We had a couple of sick people in the shack. Jenn came down with a fever, and Jeremy R. was still getting over pneumonia. I had not had more than about 4 hours of sleep for about a week prior to the event. In general, we weren't in good enough shape to get what we needed to get done.
All and all, I think it was an amazing job by everyone, and the bad and ugly are really just grasping straws. I always seek to improve the experience, and I think those are the core things that we can address to do so.
What was your good, bad, and ugly for the event?
I really liked how the Watchers played out, and we weren't constantly dragging the PC's out of game when they asked questions. Never realized how much of a thing that was before.
ReplyDeleteI was really, really impressed with the prep on the plot team. I think as the event went on we got tired and it was hard to remember everything. I know it got harder for me to remember rp'ing hits the more tired I got, which I'm sure will be better the more we play. Poor Mark, on Friday night, with the portal battery thing not working. There may or may not have been a curse word or too.
I thought they sent out a lot of really cool reps, too.
I didn't think about it at the time, but I really liked running little rp "sessions" at the camp scott set up, the only problem was people remembering that we were ingame as they came up to the shack. Maybe have them wait around the corner and send a rep up for the next event?
Oh, and one more thing. I super dislike the green and yellow stickers. We used to have people turn in reps they had stolen at the end of the event, but changed it about 10 years ago because sometimes people leave the event early, don't have additional reps for X, etc. and basically had to leave their stuff behind. Also, stickers totally fall off and I found it super confusing. We have the "turn it in within an hour to the shack," which I still prefer. I LOVE the red stickers though, for not being about to move, but if has a rune/number/symbol and effect card it means only X can manipulate it. Super cool.
ReplyDeleteRibbons will probably work better than stickers for some items, although the stickers did fall off. I woke up Saturday morning, and a yellow sticker had made its way to my neck. My friends were joking, "you can steal the archon, you just have to return her at the end of the event." It was pretty amusing. But the stickers wouldn't stay on my wands, but they did stay on my potions. Hopefully people will be more prepared this time (I didn't realize every single item needed stickers, so I didn't bring any).
ReplyDeleteAlso, I'm apparently not very observant, because I didn't realize that anyone was sick or that there were two different rules sets. Wow! i have to say that Jeremy and Jenn did an amazing job for two sick people, and Bill did a great job for someone with no sleep.
I was getting over something, then I think the allergies hit. And that is super amusing about the stickers, lol.
ReplyDeleteThe bad/ugly:
ReplyDeleteNot having a monster box of cards hurt us badly. It limited variety of town randoms and the speed in which we could get randoms out. Plot guys had specific creatures for them printed, but that only got us so far.
Advice:
Take 20 creatures local to your town and print 10 of each of them and put them in a box for your staffers to run anytime or even a bored npc could grab.