Event Review: Sailor's Take Warning

[Dan Finn]

Let's have it!

What did you like, what needs improvement, and what was your favourite moment?

Bonus!  What mod did you like the most?

[Andrei Katrares]

Bonus:

Arcanic Circles. I'm not sure if it was lost in translation, or the ante was upped on the fly, but we ended up doing a massive magical undertaking for a few hours and it was perfectly challenging. Thank you so much for that!

Review:

I don't want to call out individual moments because there were a lot of them. Instead I want to say I was very glad to get to interact with everyone, thrilled to watch (at a distance) the dragon folks get some love (you scum <3), and I can't be happier with how much of a community Ralinwood is OOG. Everyone in NPC camp does works hard with a player-first attitude, and no matter the curveballs they always make a satisfying experience.

I love all of you guys to bits, even if I'm mean to you IG.

<3

Edit to add my RP could have been stronger, especially for some effects I took. Sorry if I let anyone down, I will work harder to be better!

[NPC_Rio]

This event was a ton of fun! I had an amazing time, thanks to a lot of excellent PC RP and the Shapers/NPCs being champions.

My favourite moments include but are not limited to:
- That Friday night opener is basically the reason I come to Underworld games. Face down in the dirt, breath heavy, desperately trying to listen for the snapping of twigs, and being met with a "Sense Life" not thirty feet away...That's the good shit, man.
- Making it all the way to the back of site to escape the Mist Marauders, only to have to contend with a disturbed mama skunk.
- Goddamn Hat spirits love me.
- That Shadowbeast! Excellently spooky.
- Spending the better part of an hour just talking magic philosophy with Ferdouz, followed by some sage advice and stick training.
- "I call this style 'Please don't hit me'"
- The RAC meeting!
"Can you actually channel?"
"No!"
"...I'd vote for her"
- While fighting undead, Kyrem tossing a Greater Blade at Tel from twenty feet away. Stretched out to grab the packet like it was a goddamn Baseball of Salvation. I underplayed how awesome that was at the time, but holy shit man, that was SO TIGHT.
- Standing next to Drakkon as the Mist Marauders pounded past us into town, ignoring us.
- Barrowmounds are SCARY, man.
- Lilith and Sevatar slow dancing while we fight actually-endless waves of undead.
- The violin Saturday night was haunting and beautiful and it lulled me *straight* to sleep.
- Being shitty bandits! The value of locks has skyrocketed in my eyes.
- Screaming my head off and sprinting at people as a Mist Marauder: well-fought, everyone!

Needs improvement:
- Not enough War Trolls

Bonus!
My favourite mod was probably the Battle Mage training. Excellent little puzzle, leading to an almost-but-not-quite-impossible mod, carried through by some clutch, CLUTCH magic tossin'. Tiny, tiny perfection.

Thanks again for an awesome game, everyone!

[Ludvic]

I love when the game starts of with a knowable enemy battle cry or howl it could be anything. You are quickly immersed into the game and panic as you try to figure out what to do next.
Obviously coming back after being gone for so long to dragon day was great. Reunited with lost friends and hearing stories was great.
Constantine you are a constant force of joy. I could listen to you and be entertained all day.
The PC's put in a lot of effort into running their own ceremony etc. Plot answered with a great adventure, and the outcome was as should be expected.
I really enjoyed the problem solving of the ritual test
My biggest negative was Campbell not wearing a red armband. He worked pretty damn hard though so it is forgiven

[Alfric Smith]

Pros:

Overall a good game, from my standpoint. Didn't see it as a PC is all, so take it with a grain of salt. It's always fun to run screaming through smoke whirling foam around your head.

Cons:

Shapers/marshals seemed pretty stressed: this is actually for the playerbase in general, and not them. Sometimes, things can get tough for people. Everyone was pretty good all around, but nonetheless, it's important to remember that shapers/marshals are people OOG, even if they are omnipotent and omniscient in other regards. If ever you have a chance to help out a bit, it's very appreciated, especially with regards to NPC shifts. Main plot, faction plot, personal plot, instamods, random encounters and events? They all take bodies. And it's only a bit of time out of your weekend, which if anything can sometimes be more rewarding that what you'd be up to as a PC.

- if anyone has never done an NPC shift and really likes GMing tabletop RPGs, you'll probably like NPCing. Try it!

Also: Don't steal people's shit. Seriously. Some people will, surprisingly, be willing to let you use the rep for the weapon you looted off of them. But some boffers are worth as much as some people spend on food in a month. We're not three-year-olds, we understand that stealing is wrong. You know what you're doing is wrong. Even if you get away with it, and drag it home or to a home guild or what-have-you, is a new boffer worth how much you're fucking up a person's day, weekend, week, month, or even year as they save up to get a new one? Latex is cool, but nobody will bat an eye if you have a pool noodle taped to a bit of PVC. If you don't feel confident building it, ask for help. If you can't afford a pool noodle and a bit of PVC, post to the FB group or the community forums here. Some people will gladly lend you things, especially if it means you're not stealing someone's crap.

[Lilith Caia]

Highlight: Barrow mound in a thong and nothing else.

[Branya]

I won't answer the bonus question because I was only on site for six or seven hours and I'm sure I missed many outstanding mods.

Pros
- old players mingling with new ones. I am glad to see new faces being made welcome.
- NPCs mingling and behaving in ways that felt the same as engaging with PCs. It can be easy to hurry NPCs out onto the field without enough prep. Compliments to the shapers, mm and the NPCs themselves for keeping things multi dimensional.
- players going out of their comfort zones to rp in new ways. One of these, I got a chance to compliment directly. If you were out of your comfort zone and nobody told you that you were doing great, know that you are appreciated!
- an empty NPC camp means lots to do out and about
- a great to come back and play an old NPC
- great to enjoy some silly antics as a PC

Cons
- players overheating themselves with winter costume pieces. Put your cloaks away! Larp isn't fun when we are worrying about your oog wellbeing.
- NPC camp felt a little more tired and disorganized than I am used to. The heat may have been a factor though.

Gold Star Players!
Sureeta, who made people drink water after combat
Rebecca (Melody), who was quietly supportive of a player who she could see was feeling shy

[Alexis]

I loved the rp honestly. Ralinwood has an amazing group of people. The marauder mod on Saturday around 3 was good fun. Sad to only have been there 10 hours. Carrying Zaydesh`s drunken body to Gwen also while ig drunk was funny. 10/10 would do it again.

[Carrion]

The Good
- Despite my genuine terror Friday night, or perhaps because of it, I did deeply enjoy the first Marauder raid. We ended up with a fun little group wandering around plotting out escapes and hiding places and yelling at poor Mason for rattling his way through the woods.
- Getting to be on the NPC side of some bigger mods. It was really cool to see how they come together from a different perspective.
- Campbell had a really long to do list and was scary dedicated to keeping to it, so kudos to him for that.
- There was just a lot of good RP all around from people. Felt nice.
- I'm going to mention how great the NPCs were a lot during this review calling it now. Costuming was also especially fantastic this weekend.

The Less Good
- There was some confusion for people in game about the catacombs entrance mods, which led to a fair number of folks going on the opposite one they wanted, not realizing there would be two options. Since people took the time to plan an alternative that fit their strengths, it was a bit frustrating to come back from being nearly useless and find out the other option did happen. However, I have no idea whose fault it was (PC miscommunication or mix up with how the mods were explained) or if it was even avoidable, so it's just a minor quibble in an otherwise great weekend.

Bonus
So I'm gunna list three for different reasons.
1. Friday night felt like the best for the NPC team. It felt like a terrifying hunt, and lived up to every story I'd heard about the Mist Marauders as a still reasonably new player. Working with other PCs while hearing the distant chaos was amazing.
2. Saturday night's raid was great from a town point of view. Watching everyone buff each other and put up various wards/banners/etc was really impressive. I like when people get a chance to be big damn heroes.
3. My personal favourite was the Deadlands mod, for super biased reasons. Given how few people it involved this time around I'd feel bad mentioning it on its own, but it led to some really, really good RP due to it pushing a lot of frighteningly specific buttons for Carrion. And, as with the other two, it was really well NPC'd.

Personal Highlights
- That feeling when Orokgrim "No Indoor Voice" Gibelplot found us during the Marauder raid and we knew sneaking was no longer an option.
- The ensuing Friday night water jug kegger.
- Getting yelled at not to "Dietremen at" the shadow creature, only to have someone (not sure how public about it your dude is but you know who you are) hear that and eagerly join in.
- All of Friday night to be honest?
- The dragon party shenanigans. I feel like I missed some things I'd want to have seen/heard, but I had a great time talking to the visiting PCs. The catering was also amazing, especially how generous they were with the cold drinks.
- Lilith being Tall, and the slow dancing.
- Meeting Ghost Ziggy. And then immediately trying to use him as emotional blackmail.
- Any time someone's reaction to violence was to run around screaming. Special shout out goes to Lambart after the Balrog died and my imp turned on her and Yoshi's panicked bandit.
- Many others but I am very tired and this review is already very long.

Unrelated Note: There seems to be some raccoons that are very fond of the tavern. Jen and I spotted a mother and her wee baby very late Friday night, and Saturday night I heard them chattering up in the roof. If people hear them moving around please be careful, I'd hate for something unfortunate to happen to either side of an altercation.

[Viv]

Pros

+ I genuinely felt okay with the "hide" portion on Saturday night. I liked how other PCs were okay with people hiding because the incoming threat was not something everyone was comfortable fighting. It's an IG thing, but it feels a lot less like being bullied and "well I guess I have to do it because I have no option" and going through the town mod with a feeling of enforced ennui.

I mean, if someone ordered everyone into fighting, that's a IG issue I deal with myself. Like getting knifed for insubordination.

Mids

o I was happy that I did not feel obligated to go on a massive town mod fight during my stay. Yes, some times were slow, but I liked watching others people's roleplay and doing some of my own without getting interrupted by NPCs. I did see some people going on mods, and I'm totally okay skipping out on whatever magical crap you guys want to get intimate with.

Cons

- forgot Viv's second-best shirt, did not feel tinker-y enough, considered immediately making the 2-hour drive back out of frustration.

Personal moments:

* Thank you, everyone, for putting up with my constant "do I anything glowing on you" OOG call. It's a hassle and I'm sure it's super annoying to everyone after a while, but I appreciate it so much when someone introduces themselves to Viv and immediately mentions "you see something/nothing glowing on me".

* Coming out of the Skein Gate and hacking up a lung. And sneezing all the way into Ralinwood proper. And walking into the tavern covered in practice ritual circles. Incredible.

* Meeting the Faceless, Nennia the Draconian, the local Savar pride; re-meeting Jericho PCs. The Faceless are creepier than a cog-eating centipede, but it was nice to meet people who sympathize with Viv's trials and take genuine interest in her research instead of crapping all over anything she tries to do.