"Noblesse Oblige" June Game Event Review

[Leit Khan]

13 or 14 years ago I stepped into my first Underworld LARP game as a level 1 Templar, super green, scared as hell and so excited to play that I thought I would pee myself. This weekend you gave me that same exact experience. I was such a noob all over. I'm not even kidding. My whole weekend consisted of:
"Eeeee my first monster!!"
"Eeee my first loot"
"Eeeee my first spider kill"
"Eeeeee my first stupid decision"

I completely forgot all the things I should have known how to do like the fact that I could reset my skills (skill), don't charge into battle alone, and that sometimes monsters are waiting in your camp for you to return. I distinctly remember walking into Emerald Camp alone to go drop off some armour, getting half way to my tent then suddenly realizing I was IG and there could be Murkers hiding in the bushes. I instantly got scared and defensive and started scanning the dark parts of the our camp as adrenaline coursed through my body. I had this stupid grin on my face the whole weekend.

So much thanks to the Shaper team for running an amazing event and Guild of Underworld. You all really nailed down what an UW event should be.

I have no cons

Pros:
- All NPC's I fought, fought well. I saw a lot of them dumb down their fighting ability because their role required it
- Lord Vinters party was so much fun. I was so IG drunk that I think I became OOG drunk. I had a hard time getting IG sober
- Punching out Einher for putting his arm around my date. I'm so lucky he didn't punch me back. I would have been on my ass
- Spider cave songs
- Getting a chance to PC again with Weasel. I missed that so much
- Having Nicole as my IG sister. Best decision ever. So much shenanigans
- Defeating anything with an inflated sense of confidence and BRAVADO!
- NPC Costume was top notch. I felt the sting of pride and feel I need to step up my game a bit in Jericho
- Drunken Sailors (I'm so sorry)
- The funeral rites of the Minotaur people. Mmmm soup
- "Don't chase them, replace them!" (works for dates who run off with Einher and friends who go in the spider cave)

So much more. I could write this post for days. Can't wait for next event

My favourite line

Minitaur Pat - I was eaten whole by a giant frog
Aja Rebecca - I don't understand, how do you eat a Minotaur?
Nicole - Usually I just put them between two pieces of bread

[Iris Emberlain]

This weekend was great. A blanket thanks to all the Owners, Shapers, and NPCs. You guys have come out of the gate doing a fabulous job, and it's only the second event! Can't wait to see where you go from here.

Pros:
- Emerald Company Camp, and our new guests from out of town. RPing with you all really made my weekend (especially our collective stupid-o'clock logic).
- The Boat mod! Great use of space, and NPCs. I really felt like I was in the navy.
- Midnight Tavern mod. Great job by all NPCs, and a suitably spooky atmosphere. I was about 10 seconds and a shambling NPC away from making an Iris-shaped hole in the tavern wall, a la Wiley Coyote.
- The packs of undead were going to be one of my cons (why send undead out when no one can hurt them?) until I realized how squishy and prone to healing magic they were. So I retract my statement: running away was lots of fun.
- The party for Lord Vintner! Getting faux-drunk, bandaging people while faux-drunk, and hearing Donovan making up a song about Iris that he did not remember later.
- Darina. Many thanks for listening to a heartsick Iris, and for throwing a great party!
- Saying embarrassing things about people who are right behind you.
- Town politics! Deciding which side to back provided a lot of surprisingly wonderful RP.
- Zahrah beating a (were?)wolf to death in the middle of the night.
- This moment of incomprehension:
Iris: "You can give BLANK a necklace."
Balthasar: "But I already gave you all my necklace components, the Murker teeth and everything!"
*Confused pause*
Everyone: *bursts out laughing*
- Being the only doctor in town! Racing across town like a pro to save, well, pretty much everybody.

Cons:
- Being the only doctor in town. I can't believe no one else has picked up 'anatomy'!
- Getting all worried over nothing. I'm such a silly-head sometimes. Thanks to everyone who talked me down.

[Rakanis]

Well Game #2 for Ralinwood. I am much fonder of this one than the day event. :-D Then again, you need to find your bearings! So, looks found to me!

Pros
+Frustrating the HELL out of people because I do not say a word in character.
+Confusing the hell out of people when I answer an OC question and they think it is IC talk and then disappointed when it isn't.
+2 games in a row, No talking in character. Lets go for 3!
+Coming home with a pocket full of "Stuff" I haven't even looked at it all yet.
+Thwarting the kobold. Yup. I was down to 1 body and there was my nature caster close by to feed me a berry if i drop. So, Chase him down! Unfortunately for him, he exploded too far away to get me :-D
+Allying with the party Lord. Works out perfectly for some one who doesn't talk!
+My camp mates are grand. Dinner on Saturday was lovely.
+Weather was great, though some snow would have been nice >_>; I would settle for more clouds for mobile shade.
+Camping at the end of Ambush Alley, who's idea was this?!
+Plenty to do.
+Best Saturday Morning Breakfast at LARP EVER! So much for so little!

Cons!
-Knowing what the Monster Manual says about "Spider Caves" I feel that NPC rescues of near any sort is balls. Granted it was "Legit", given the circumstances. I still feel they should have been left to their death. Even the NPCs should fear the Spider Cave.
-Cars RIGHT at the Tavern area. I do not like this, at all. I feel all cars, shapers and PCs alike, should be parked up top once game on is called.
-Every NPC we spoke to said we would have to figure out how to bring out the murkers on our own. Then on Sunday, NPCs seem to have accomplished this for us. I hope that I just missed the conversation where the PCs figure it out and arranged for NPCs to do what they did. If not, I think you should have let us "Fail" that, to be honest. If we have to figure something out, let us do it or not do it. Added incentive for us to get off our ass and deal with it.
-Same for the Mage lock thingy. I am happy to get loot (In General) but if we can't figure something out, sucks to be us. Though, in this scenario, the Mr Wizard wanted to get the stuff also, so it was good of you to let us figure it out for a while first before you stepped in. So that one isn't so bad, in my opinion.

That's All i got, without repeating things other people mentioned :-D

[Branya]

Cons!
-Cars RIGHT at the Tavern area. I do not like this, at all. I feel all cars, shapers and PCs alike, should be parked up top once game on is called.

This wasn't our intention either and they didn't belong to the shaper team. At the May event, people used that space for temp. unloading space and then cleared out to the real parking without issue. This game, we didn't realise until people had disappeared into the woods that they weren't coming back to move. We'll plan to put up signs next game during log hours to make that more clear.

[Ludvic]

+ I had a great time at the event. Michelle was suppose to work Saturday but I knew I could talk her into being sick.
+ The nobles were played by the people with the perfect personalities to compliment them.
+ Who knew I would be as busy as I was being town crier?
+ Lord Vintner says HELLLLLLOOOOOO!
+ I was going to pick a different noble and changed my mind a few times but in the end love triumphed
+ Doyly spider rescue took me all over the place just to find out when we abandoned him people were going to rescue me...Who didn't need to be rescued because I would never go into a spider cave. HEAR YE HEAR YE LUDVIC IS NOT IN THE SPIDER CAVE.
+ Boat rescue was great, Murkers coming over the road to show them coming out of the water was a great idea also.
+ leons accent and chargind down assassins alley.

Gambler wins two gold...Ummm who did you say you swore fealty too?

- Puzzle mods need to include more people or keep people busy while puzzle is being solved.

[Gustav Von Schattenkrieger]

Had a great weekend though had to leave in the middle of the night Saturday/Sunday do to my ride leaving early but had a great time nonetheless. Great job by the Shapers, NPCs, and other PCs that shifted to help them. No cons at all.

Pros:

- Having an IG boss who equips me very well. Well help keep him alive in more ways than one lol :-)
- Interactions with the members of Emerald Company, Leit, Zarah, and Peresh. Loved hanging out with you guys off and on throughout the event and loved the fact that you chose Vintner as well since my boss chose someone else.
- Stilettos are fun :-D
- Being the first to swear fealty to Lord Vintner. Shocked a number of players by doing so the very first time I saw him :-)
- Partying with Lord Vintner......think he is going to get a bunch of us into a bunch of trouble lol
- I don't usually RP being drunk and find most over do it with their RP of being drunk, but, the party Saturday night was fun
- Don't chase'em......replace'em Glad I came up with that line for the spider cave song. Great voice singing it, Nicole.
- Lots of combat with varying degrees of difficulty.....excellent
- Bear hugging a wolf and "tackling" another......red arm banded NPCs can be fun :-)
- Major props to Cookie, the Tavern cook. A big thank you to him for being willing to feed the lot of us. Good tasting food and great service. You are not allowed to miss any games.
- Angela's Draconian make-up and costuming......very cool :-)

Much more goodness from the weekend as well.....brain is still baked from the overload and somewhat from the sun.

Thank you again to all.

[Szhmhlaer]

Only made it to game at 9 on Saturday but still had a lot of fun

+Rerolling as Orcs, the most fun RP ever
++All the fun asociated with said RP
+NPC camp dealing with all of me and Elias' crap, makeup, character creation, ect. THANKS
+Brian


-People getting rescued from the spider cave. If your gonna kill us you shoulda killed us all.
-Sunday mod felt a bit weak but it was still fun to get some combat in cuz i hardly got any else in
-This is more IG but getting executed by Lord Bantry made me sad, no Valhalla of me

[Szhmhlaer]

Also +++ Justin for the pants

[Shaper Raccoon]

This was my first event and I had a blast. tried to jam so much into my first event and I still ended up missing some of the cooler stuff.

Pros!:
+So many undead, love it. Felt so desperate trying to find openings to get away or to kill them.
+The man who played Brag (I don't know if I spelled that right), You had many roles and you made my group of friends night many times. I'm sorry I never learned your name. you taught me how to loot you and you gave me my favorite conversation of the whole weekend.
"Is this camp Einher?"
"Yes"
"S***"
+ drunken pirates!
+The Lady who kept bringing us monsters to kill! you were like a blessing and a curse all in one.
+Spider cave! I limped out with three body but after all the stories I heard at the boffer build social I couldnt not go.
+Smaller and Slower! you made my boring fire watch amazing.

Cons:
- getting over confident "We killed like 7 spiders just now, we can save Doyly from the spider cave", No no we can not.
- the lords, they were very well acted but it left me with a slightly bad taste in my mouth. But I think that was how it was suppose to feel. I'd probably not signed on if I had not been informed I'd be less then deer and probably killed many times. ended up choosing what seemed like the best of a bad lot, but with my luck hes probably going to turn out to be a murderous psychopath!.
-Missing all the supposed werewolves. I wanted to fight one!

Over all I loved it, I have been looking forward to attending my first event since may. I'll probably be back every event I can from here on out.

[Zshlwre]

Pros:
Thorgrim getting a Wolves with Chainmail death dream, THANK YOU SO MUCH.
Attempting to get revenge against the nobles for not saving us in the spider cave.
Being executed in front of the town in the middle of their party.
Spider Cave Conga Line

I had a ton of fun with Thorgrim in the 2-3 hours I played him, but that paled in comparison to what happened when Shaman and I rerolled.

Firstly, immense thanks go to everyone in NPC camp. When we asked to fight the lord(s) you could have just told us that we died. Instead you gave is a mini mod and then gave us tons of cool execution plot. That was the first great sign.

Then you went out of your way to help us reroll our new characters, and gave us makeup and clothing.
The point being, as npc camp / plot, you had no obligation to help make our experience better after we pretty much destroyed our own characters, but because of the extra effort you put in, I had what was arguably the most fun larp event ever, and I only played it for 6 hours.
Very funny loot, and the fact that plot was willing to write me up some sea cucumber tags.


Cons:
We showed up on Saturday at 8, and besides the spider cave there didn't seem to be a lot happening in terms of combat. While that was for the best in this case, since it gave Shaman and I a ton of time to RP with people and get to know them, I would have prefered a tiny bit more action. To be fair though, that may be because I wasn't pooped after having dealt with Friday night's madness, so take this con with a grain of salt.

The final mod was a bit lackluster in terms of combat and sense of urgency. It might be better in the future to actually have final mods in more enclosed areas, which would increase the sense of urgency.

All in all, due to the nature of our arrival I didn't get to experience much actual plot, but if the approach that the plot team takes to its players is any indication of things, I'm sure it will be great. Before I showed up to this game, Ralinwood was something I was ambivalent about comitting to, but I saw so many good things this game that I am now a full convert. Thank you for an amazing event, and I plan to be there for the rest of them!