A Clockwork Door-hinge: Event Review

[Chèvrelier]

High-winter in my opinion is the most difficult event to write for and I honestly believe a great high-winter is unattainable. That said you guys did a very good job and I was very satisfied with my experience. See below for my nit picking.

1. People Turning into toy soldiers and the Acid Cabin

I completely missed the acid cabin and it's mechanics and story relevance, but the machine turning people into toys was delightfully creepy. It was interesting to see a consequence that had no immediate in game mechanic attached and I found it very interesting that I am still not sure whether turning into a toy was a good or bad decision.

2. Gob Nog

The NPCs and interaction regarding this plot were a delight. Constantine and Matt deserve Macaroni stars for their performance. Unfortunately I missed the resolution of this plot line which is a great disappointment. Perhaps after you invest as much time as you did running this little plot you may consider turning the conclusion into a bit more of a production to draw in more people. It breaks my heart that I didn't get to drink the Gob Nog

3. Mistletoe Cabin

No NPCs required, at least an hour of player entertainment. basically the perfect mod.

4. Candy Spider Lair

I can't express enough how impressed I am by what ever group of people took the time to string all that rope. The rules regarding the webs were very fun and encouraged team work and allowed for extensive douchebaggery. stringing up loot in the webs was an incredible motivator. I suspect the mod would have been perfect without the added lethality to the spiders because the web dynamics were already adding a great twist.

Also my brand new shirt and pants are filthy and I hate you for it.

5. Ice Elemental Riddle Den

I missed the story and the hook for this mod, and was simply dragged over because Constantine is smart and I was charmed to him (maybe?) I enjoyed a nice casual riddle experience, but I was really confused about why the situation resolved the way it did.


6. Death Riddle Hallway

The amount of time spent producing a grid prop as well as planning out so many tiles must have been extensive and was very successful from my perspective. The little time I spent participating was a highlight of my day. I am making the assumption that Ramsey wrote and ran this plot and that it is also the first mod of his that I have participated in. I am very impressed by your work and I look forward to enjoying more of your plot this season. 

A couple of small suggestions for the future. When you write puzzle and riddle themed plot it is often non combat characters that participate actively and those characters are often low HP mage types. I think body damage is an important Mechanic because armour is unbelievable over powered, however when you apply it to puzzle mechanics you may find it will exclude the clever mage types and and newer players. When you have some free time I encourage you to have a read through the first few pages of the monster manual, because there are so many neat effects there that are way worse than body damage.

Also Curse of Jolliness should have lasted longer because it was the best.

7. Toy Training Exercises 

These were a neat little diversion, however there was a lineup of mages wanting to participate in spell tag when the mod ended. Perhaps it could have been extended since only 1 NPC was entertaining a small crowd of players.

8. Snow Couple

A snow woman walks into town looking for a snow husband, proceed to immediately trying to murder (I probably should have expected that) A snow husband shows up and through some clever negotiation the situation is partially defused and the two snow people are told to go free and enjoy a happy life of snow romance. Then the snow man suicide attacks a horde of players and dies. I really don't understand what happened here.

9. Downtime Scheduling

It felt like things were very busy at the beginning of the day and it started to slow down as it got later. It is to be expected that as people tire out things slow down, but It may have been worth the effort to get the final mod out a little sooner. Once the sun set it started to get really cold which is absolutely out of our control, but it felt like there was a very long wait between getting the last piece of the mcguffin and actually wrapping things up.  I can't even say for sure how long I was idling, but the cold definitely made it feel a lot longer. If the mod was delayed for reasons regarding the length of event it may be a better idea to run the big finish closer to sundown and then let RP stuff ride out the last hour or so.

10. Final Mod Thing

Wave plus is always a good start, but why not include the player gnomes in building the mcguffin?

11. Plot Delivery

There aren't many people that are better at dodging plot than I am so I can understand why I was probably confused some of the time. Simply for your reference I will summarize what parts of the over plot delivery I did encounter and which parts I missed whether it was intended that I should know or not.

1. We were in Nickolai's workshop because we walked through a door
   
2. The gnome slaves told us they could build a device to open the door back home if we collect sprockets and stuff
   
3. We collected the things
   
4. They built a device 
   
5. They opened the door and a dragon came out
   
6. The dragon opened the same door it was behind and we went through it to go home.
   

12. They Said It Could Never Happen

But it did.

*Edit:

The Portos were smelly.