02-26-2017, 09:46 PM
(This post was last modified: 02-26-2017, 09:48 PM by Chèvrelier.)
For the Shaper Team:
Disclaimer:
To be fair I am going to open with a few disclaimers. First everyone participates in this hobby for different reasons and each player's game is a very personal experience. My review should of course be read with an understanding that it reflects my personal bias regarding what makes up a successful event.
Second I left game around 3:30 approximately 4 hours into what I expect was an 8 hour event.
Story Delivery:
I left this event having discovered no story elements and no over arching plot. Without some sort of objective or reason to care about current events, it was difficult for me to justify staying outdoors during adverse weather. It is of course possible that I some how managed to skate past all plot hooks and every NPC on site, but I suspect there were larger issues preventing my participation.
Players are secretive by nature making uniform delivery of story elements really challenging. We used to say that if you want to pull off a plot hook you had to tell three PCs three times and probably information would get out. However, when working with the small time frame of a day mod I don’t think there is enough time to allow information to diffuse organically through the player base.
During any day mod or weekend event opening announcements are the only time when players are more or less guaranteed to be congregated. In the future this is an ideal time to front load some story elements.
Take this time to lay out the baseline story and lay down the stakes, tell me what exciting things need to be done, then show me the carrot and the stick. If you can front load a lot of story line, even if there is downtime happening, we have something we know we need to do at some point that will keep us hungry to participate.
Start With a Bang:
When the game fired up at 11:30 or so, there was no opening excitement. Remember we are all coming from our shitty jobs and our mundane lives and we need to transition into our larp personas and setting. Why not hit the ground running? Rush out an exciting combat or whole town puzzle and force us to dive right into the story.
As an added advantage, if content is a little bit light and we have early down time, at least we will have had something to do and our brains will hopefully be in larp mode making it easier to stay involved in the story.
Personal Plot:
Players have been raving about Ramsey’s work on personal plot, and I am thrilled that there is a shaper assigned to personal plot. I have always thought that personal plot with a minimum of NPCs was something we have been missing for the last three years, but honestly I couldn’t stand doing it so it was never a priority for me. I hope this work continues to be successful but just remember you have to run this stuff with as few NPCs as possible especially when considering the record high numbers that are expected this season.
Now let's have a talk about the catacombs. It is important for NPC camp to keep a finger on the pulse of the game, and their ability to react to player objectives and ambitions is something makes the game more enjoyable for almost everyone involved. Seeing NPC camp writing mods short notice (I assume) to allow players to drive their own story is encouraging, but there is a time and a place for this sort of mission and it was not a day mod.
Players at a day mod expect more entertainment in a shorter period of time than a regular weekend, and running personal mods at the cost of the entire player base’s entertainment is a mistake.
During the second season players asked for an opportunity to raid the catacombs during a day mod. We had a quick talk out of game we agreed that we would push it back to the first weekend event, and I stand by this decision as the correct way to handle this situation.
Conclusion (Sort of)
I have very high hopes for this season and I believe that the shaper team has the potential to run the best season I have ever played.
I however was very disappointed with this event. Day mods are really difficult, but we deserve better than this. I will not attend the remainder of the off season. Good luck and I will see you in May.
For the consideration of Ownership:
With two day mods done and two to go in this off season, I think it is time to look at how many and when we schedule our day mods.
I have to admit I am terrified by with the direction we are heading on this one. I am not saying this idea is bad, but I am really worried about how things will develop. I am going to go through a number of things here and probably makes some people really unhappy:
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The porto potties were smelly
Disclaimer:
To be fair I am going to open with a few disclaimers. First everyone participates in this hobby for different reasons and each player's game is a very personal experience. My review should of course be read with an understanding that it reflects my personal bias regarding what makes up a successful event.
Second I left game around 3:30 approximately 4 hours into what I expect was an 8 hour event.
Story Delivery:
I left this event having discovered no story elements and no over arching plot. Without some sort of objective or reason to care about current events, it was difficult for me to justify staying outdoors during adverse weather. It is of course possible that I some how managed to skate past all plot hooks and every NPC on site, but I suspect there were larger issues preventing my participation.
Players are secretive by nature making uniform delivery of story elements really challenging. We used to say that if you want to pull off a plot hook you had to tell three PCs three times and probably information would get out. However, when working with the small time frame of a day mod I don’t think there is enough time to allow information to diffuse organically through the player base.
During any day mod or weekend event opening announcements are the only time when players are more or less guaranteed to be congregated. In the future this is an ideal time to front load some story elements.
Take this time to lay out the baseline story and lay down the stakes, tell me what exciting things need to be done, then show me the carrot and the stick. If you can front load a lot of story line, even if there is downtime happening, we have something we know we need to do at some point that will keep us hungry to participate.
Start With a Bang:
When the game fired up at 11:30 or so, there was no opening excitement. Remember we are all coming from our shitty jobs and our mundane lives and we need to transition into our larp personas and setting. Why not hit the ground running? Rush out an exciting combat or whole town puzzle and force us to dive right into the story.
As an added advantage, if content is a little bit light and we have early down time, at least we will have had something to do and our brains will hopefully be in larp mode making it easier to stay involved in the story.
Personal Plot:
Players have been raving about Ramsey’s work on personal plot, and I am thrilled that there is a shaper assigned to personal plot. I have always thought that personal plot with a minimum of NPCs was something we have been missing for the last three years, but honestly I couldn’t stand doing it so it was never a priority for me. I hope this work continues to be successful but just remember you have to run this stuff with as few NPCs as possible especially when considering the record high numbers that are expected this season.
Now let's have a talk about the catacombs. It is important for NPC camp to keep a finger on the pulse of the game, and their ability to react to player objectives and ambitions is something makes the game more enjoyable for almost everyone involved. Seeing NPC camp writing mods short notice (I assume) to allow players to drive their own story is encouraging, but there is a time and a place for this sort of mission and it was not a day mod.
Players at a day mod expect more entertainment in a shorter period of time than a regular weekend, and running personal mods at the cost of the entire player base’s entertainment is a mistake.
During the second season players asked for an opportunity to raid the catacombs during a day mod. We had a quick talk out of game we agreed that we would push it back to the first weekend event, and I stand by this decision as the correct way to handle this situation.
Conclusion (Sort of)
I have very high hopes for this season and I believe that the shaper team has the potential to run the best season I have ever played.
I however was very disappointed with this event. Day mods are really difficult, but we deserve better than this. I will not attend the remainder of the off season. Good luck and I will see you in May.
For the consideration of Ownership:
With two day mods done and two to go in this off season, I think it is time to look at how many and when we schedule our day mods.
- It is time to put the February day mod to bed. We have rolled the dice on the weather for a few years and I honestly think it isn’t worth risking the cold and wasting your plot team’s time and energy if you get blizzarded out.
- We used to run seminar days which I understand are out of favour, but I would like to see the return of one of them to the schedule.
I have to admit I am terrified by with the direction we are heading on this one. I am not saying this idea is bad, but I am really worried about how things will develop. I am going to go through a number of things here and probably makes some people really unhappy:
- Player Authority: Giving plot sanctioned authority over other players to someone is a nightmare. Given the chance most players abuse the power they receive and decrease the enjoyment of everyone around them.
- Power to Detain: I watched some bandits get steam rolled by the amoeba which is nothing new, but once the fighting was over the new police started detaining the NPCs tying them up and dragging them off for processing. For a couple of crunchies this is not a big deal, but watch out because this behavior will torpedo mods one day.
- Warden Appointments: A head warden is appointed by plot and so far as I can tell is responsible for appointing the remainder of the wardens. The end result is the creation of “The Boys Club.” If you are going to make this an important position it has to open up to the entire player base without player bias.
- The Laws: These things are really damn complex and 4 and a half pages long. If we are going to be using these regularly we probably should consider laminating a copy and posting them on site.
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The porto potties were smelly
I also have spent many happy years in Suvant.