Event Review - Fangs of a Feather (June 2019 Weekend)

[Dr. Moran]

Thank you to the plot team and NPCs for all the work that went into event. It was a rough one for me but I still appreciate the time that you guys put in.

Pros/Highlights:

• I really enjoyed spending beginning the game in the escape room mod. Kyle, Jen, and I didn't even realize that game hadn't started yet while in the cabin because we were roleplaying with each other while we waited for the rest of the PCs to arrive. I also enjoyed that mod in its entirety. The puzzles were straight forward enough that I always understood the point of them, but they still took some time and effort to complete (god bless Hannick and the others for handling the math, that would have dropped Ori). I'm happy that I was actually able to Cassandra a problem away, too! The catalyst rewards are a nice touch as they're not crazy valuable but because they're custom to the character it's a cute (and creepy) little keepsake.
  
• I got to carry around Ori Jr. the very expressive duck for most of Saturday. This led to some truly fantastic RP as I tried to take care of the duck equivalent of that one home ec class where you pretend an egg is your baby and protect it.
  
• SPIDER RIDER! Seeing Yoshi riding around on Campbell's shoulders made me do one hell of a double take and turned into my favourite part of that orc mod. Bonus that following them led to me noticing a very dead Godwyn in the bushes.
  
• NPCs using the fact that there's a big global elf hunting monster to their advantage is actually really interesting to me. I'm glad they're not specifically going after elf PCs to try and pop the Mortigeist faster, as PCs have enough to worry about with Morty/the Shattered Elves themselves, but otherwise I thought it was a pretty cool idea.
  
• "Hey, uh, Fear Sentinels have to be rooted to something." "I'M ROOTED TO THE BONE WOLF! " "Oh my god, that's horrifying, carry on."
  
• The scarecrow was fun to interact with, sorry I accidentally decapitated her on a roof. Sorry, creepy scarecrow.
  

Neutral:

• My circle held up better this time. Still a bit of damage but not enough that it stopped working like last time. Please keep half an eye on where you're stepping when around the tree, the wires are staked down to make them less of a tripping hazard but apparently one end still got tugged.
  
• I appreciate that the goblins who were cabin raiding were really inept, as everybody was pretty beat after that last mod. I'm trying not to take it too personally that the oddly specific item they were hunting for happened to be my very expensive shield.
  

Cons:

• As usual my biggest issue this event was miscommunications. I still don't know whether or not I have some horrible airborne Sneeple plague or if that was just the group that stayed in town. Also shapers using dead peasants to hook mods and then not warning the farms/docks shapers that they've done so is leaving the various PC groups invested in the wellbeing of the peasantry at a loss for what to do. It feels that no matter how we help, somebody decided to off Farmer Jim in an email and we don't find out until we're being told we suck by other PCs.
  
• Alchemy is kind of complicated. If a shaper is not familiar with every alchemy that the NPCs are using on the mod, it might be good to bring a list of effects or at the very least trust the alchemist PCs when they try to explain how a particular thing works.
  
• I get that UW is dark and gritty and everything but I've been talking to people both IG and OOG and there's an underlying feeling that we are accomplishing absolutely nothing this season. Every time the Dragon Knight shows up he flies home. Every time we fix/help the farms they immediately fall apart again. We arrest and bring in a bunch of the orcs and goblins and Grey followers and have next to nothing to show for it. We never get a reprieve from the particular enemies after we "solve" a problem so it just feels like nothing we do matters and we just have to wait for the Appointed Time when we can finish the plot and move on.
  
• Packet attacks are casters call. NPCs need to stop arguing that they didn't get hit when it's dark and they're not paying attention.
  
• Shapers and NPCs need to be careful that they don't look like their other NPCs. For example, having somebody come out in a similar costume to an NPC people have met before but not being said NPC really throws PCs in a loop. This is especially the case for shapers, recurring NPCs should really have enough of an outfit that PCs can know who they are. It doesn't need to be complicated, just don't use the same distinctive jacket for two different NPCs or something like that.
  
• We had no idea what the situation was for the Two Feather/Town mod. We were told to split the town. We split the town. Then one group got their asses handed to them and the other one apparently didn't have much happen, then we got bitched at by NPCs for not being able to save people while we were slogging through alchemists and assassins in the woods. Just left a bad taste in my mouth.
  
• Other specific issues were emailed in.