So first of all I want to thank people for the warm welcome I got back. I've had to go to Ralinwood a little less in recent months due to some time and budget constraints, so I'm glad I went and saw everyone.
I also want to say that I'm bothering to write this long winded review because I personally trust and respect this shaper team, and I think that giving some critique to people who are good writers who might take it to heart is better than just grimacing and ignoring it because hopefully they figure it out on their own or they're your friends or whatever. You're lovely creative people, and I see the start of some really fun things, but there were some hiccups and I want to try and address them in as constructive a way as I can manage.
The Good
- The mage tower was lots of fun. I love answering medieval style "who am I" riddles asked by a mysterious true fae. I also appreciated the various chants of "The Mage Tower is not Duvain" when the other casters saw me joining them. What happens in the tower stays in the tower.
- The stalactite mechanic was fun. I found it pretty intuitive that they were responding to large amounts of sound and movement and that's why they fell into crowds.
- The letters seemed like a really funny brick joke and it was nice to see my friends react to that, even if I had no idea what was going on as someone who's unfortunately been absent for much of the off season.
The Neutral
- I have no issue with the grab box. Did it favour the people that saw it opened? Yes. Did it favour the people that got to pick from it first? Also yes. Was it still more than most support PCs get on any given game and was it more than we're usually paid for helping town? Also yes. Were it not for how easy it was for people to guess which items were worth grabbing by touch, it would have been more nicely random and I'd have put it in my pros side of things. Instead of obvious magic items or ritual pages, just have a similarly sized default looking tag that says "Name of Ritual, See Plot" or "Magic Item Description, See Plot". It allows for some lucky draws while not really favouring people that had the advantage of proximity.
- I know there's something Going On with Emilio and the stress he was under was very well broadcasted and played excellently by Jeff, and thus his decision to render a townsfolk person mute for two months with no trial and potentially not even a broken law can be seen as a logical extension of that characterization. But also a PC is now mute for two months while we sort that out. So ehhhhhhh. I feel like his various angry demands and just storming off might have been enough but if he wants to go full tyrant we can go full tyrant.
The Not So Good
- When I heard that there was going to be various water mechanics and a pushback effect, I kind assumed it was going to be like the bridge mod we had last season where there there was a risky water area of a normal combat zone. Some land for fighting, and some submerged area for the lightly armoured folks to be helpful at. Instead, very very very few people were useful all event and, like some people have pointed out, knowing we'd have to swim somewhere or be submerged during it sent most people away from the mods. While you'd think this would be time for the scholars and support to shine, the fact that we had very mixed answers on if we could even incant made it hard to know if we could even contribute at all.
- Not a huge fan of how ridiculous the loss of weaponry this game was. If something has a chance to destroy your weapons it's usually pretty well broadcasted. Having crabs burn through like six swords on the same PC is excessive, and having what appears to be a shallow sandbar area riptide weapons away from people the moment they're disarmed (or trying to snatch them off someone's body) with zero warning just feels like an unexpected punishment for trying to engage. Weapons expire now, so I'm not sure what the visceral need to decimate town's weaponry going into the new season was about. We can't really hoard them anymore.
- If you have a big mod at the end of a very long walk, and that long walk is also entirely swamp walked and has an elemental constantly slowing down the stragglers, please have someone who can immediately explain what the hell we're looking at when we get to that mod like ten minutes later. We were some of the last to arrive and completely at a loss at what we were looking at until I asked a shaper, and Emerson admitted to me that he was in the middle group and also hadn't the foggiest clue what was going on.
- I know that Peacekeeper has really limited what spaces we can use over this past year, and that the terrain was kind of garbage and that could only be so predicted ahead of time, but for a lot of mods I went on the journey there, actual space, and path we were meant to follow was pretty confusing. Special mention goes to the landshark thing where maybe eight people out of the entire town that went there got to interact in the small space before we retreated again.
I also want to say that I'm bothering to write this long winded review because I personally trust and respect this shaper team, and I think that giving some critique to people who are good writers who might take it to heart is better than just grimacing and ignoring it because hopefully they figure it out on their own or they're your friends or whatever. You're lovely creative people, and I see the start of some really fun things, but there were some hiccups and I want to try and address them in as constructive a way as I can manage.
The Good
- The mage tower was lots of fun. I love answering medieval style "who am I" riddles asked by a mysterious true fae. I also appreciated the various chants of "The Mage Tower is not Duvain" when the other casters saw me joining them. What happens in the tower stays in the tower.
- The stalactite mechanic was fun. I found it pretty intuitive that they were responding to large amounts of sound and movement and that's why they fell into crowds.
- The letters seemed like a really funny brick joke and it was nice to see my friends react to that, even if I had no idea what was going on as someone who's unfortunately been absent for much of the off season.
The Neutral
- I have no issue with the grab box. Did it favour the people that saw it opened? Yes. Did it favour the people that got to pick from it first? Also yes. Was it still more than most support PCs get on any given game and was it more than we're usually paid for helping town? Also yes. Were it not for how easy it was for people to guess which items were worth grabbing by touch, it would have been more nicely random and I'd have put it in my pros side of things. Instead of obvious magic items or ritual pages, just have a similarly sized default looking tag that says "Name of Ritual, See Plot" or "Magic Item Description, See Plot". It allows for some lucky draws while not really favouring people that had the advantage of proximity.
- I know there's something Going On with Emilio and the stress he was under was very well broadcasted and played excellently by Jeff, and thus his decision to render a townsfolk person mute for two months with no trial and potentially not even a broken law can be seen as a logical extension of that characterization. But also a PC is now mute for two months while we sort that out. So ehhhhhhh. I feel like his various angry demands and just storming off might have been enough but if he wants to go full tyrant we can go full tyrant.
The Not So Good
- When I heard that there was going to be various water mechanics and a pushback effect, I kind assumed it was going to be like the bridge mod we had last season where there there was a risky water area of a normal combat zone. Some land for fighting, and some submerged area for the lightly armoured folks to be helpful at. Instead, very very very few people were useful all event and, like some people have pointed out, knowing we'd have to swim somewhere or be submerged during it sent most people away from the mods. While you'd think this would be time for the scholars and support to shine, the fact that we had very mixed answers on if we could even incant made it hard to know if we could even contribute at all.
- Not a huge fan of how ridiculous the loss of weaponry this game was. If something has a chance to destroy your weapons it's usually pretty well broadcasted. Having crabs burn through like six swords on the same PC is excessive, and having what appears to be a shallow sandbar area riptide weapons away from people the moment they're disarmed (or trying to snatch them off someone's body) with zero warning just feels like an unexpected punishment for trying to engage. Weapons expire now, so I'm not sure what the visceral need to decimate town's weaponry going into the new season was about. We can't really hoard them anymore.
- If you have a big mod at the end of a very long walk, and that long walk is also entirely swamp walked and has an elemental constantly slowing down the stragglers, please have someone who can immediately explain what the hell we're looking at when we get to that mod like ten minutes later. We were some of the last to arrive and completely at a loss at what we were looking at until I asked a shaper, and Emerson admitted to me that he was in the middle group and also hadn't the foggiest clue what was going on.
- I know that Peacekeeper has really limited what spaces we can use over this past year, and that the terrain was kind of garbage and that could only be so predicted ahead of time, but for a lot of mods I went on the journey there, actual space, and path we were meant to follow was pretty confusing. Special mention goes to the landshark thing where maybe eight people out of the entire town that went there got to interact in the small space before we retreated again.
IG: A human man in a crow skull mask, grey stole, and black clerical vestments. Occasionally carries an iron or silver dagger, but more often seen without any visible weapons or amour to speak of.
OOG: Danny Heintz, he/him. Transmasc in progress, please disregard mine bræsts.
OOG: Danny Heintz, he/him. Transmasc in progress, please disregard mine bræsts.