Event Review - Under Their Thumb (June 2018)

[Izazel]

PROS:
- Gem bear was sufficiently challenging. The fight was long, risky, and exhausting, but also extremely thrilling and I’m pleasantly surprised I got to be part of it! (All hail Denimus for her healing potions!)
- The overall challenge level this weekend was really well done. I never felt like I was safe, but I also never felt discouraged from participating and taking chances.
- Pacing felt nice to me. I think I went on more mods than I usually do, so I never really experienced any low points.
- Sorry elf friends, but Mortegeist was awesome. Super scary.
- I really enjoyed the final bandit bomb mod!

CONS:
- I swear to you, every time I had to use the bathroom and sealed myself inside those stinky porta potties, something exceptionally dangerous swarmed the town. Every. Single. Time. This is a con because bad luck sucks. Also, we were really spoiled in May. I guess this was a good reminder for why Stevenson’s is so glorious.
- Friday night finding a garbage can with an actual bag in it near tavern was really difficult. Pretty sure only a couple porta potties had a garbage too. I don’t want to litter. I also don’t want to carry around garbage.
- Infliction elementals. They’re just the worst.

PERSONAL HIGHLIGHTS:
- Monster Hunter: “What’s your name and title?”
Me: “Izazel. PINECONE PROTECTOR.”
Monster Hunter: *Pinching the brim of his nose in 100% doneness* Is that your official title?
Kraye: “Yes, it is.”
Bless you Justin.
- Getting to be part of actual Mage stuff! I don't think I've ever been to the Mage's tower, so that was quite fun!
- Vlad killed the Mortegeist!
- House of I/House of R/House of Monster Hunters/House of Rudabega – still best camp.
- Hiding in the treeline… trying to stay very, very quiet so Morty doesn’t see us… AND SQUEAKY LEATHER ARMOUR! Also big red and white shield that really might glow in the dark. They don’t call me Faurtle for nothin.

[sarahhare]

I hurt from being scary
It was fun
So many moments
Velvet is coming for dinner to the goblins!
I need to plan for July starting ASAP

[Branya]

Had a super time! Thank you to everyone who touched it in some way.

Pros:
- steady pacing
- variety of activity
- well costumed NPCs
- obvious shaper attention to and flexibility for PCs choices (and here I went to thank specific shapers and realized that I was talking about pretty much the whole team)

Cons:
- those toilets. They will be remembered but they will not be missed.

Personal Highlights:
- the Einher
- the gluten free soup from the tavern <3
- the House of I/R/B/whatever
- the Mortegeist!
- catching up with old friends in NPC camp
- the Textile Arts Guild

[Bikar Borba]

I had a ton of fun this event, really felt like we were settling into a new place. I look forward settling into the better new place.

Pros:
- So much things to fight, and on a similar vein as a low level nothing with a plain ol pokey stick I felt that I could fight most things I would have wanted to.
- Speaking of fighting things Branya is the best Bard me and Torock running around smashing undead with magic spears and bigger muscles was glorious. 'we do not deal in the affairs of the dead....wait, these can hurt them?' *proceeds to kill all undead in sight.
- Doing Einhier things, getting more and more to grips and understanding the politics and personalities within Ralinwood.
- Getting captured by shattered elves within 5 minutes of game start.
- Maximus casually saving my life, then pretty much all the actions he took after. I always like seeing and being part of organic and interesting relationships that develop in game both good and bad.
- Vlads fam and the house of Ire, hanging out with you guys is a treat (and a quite literal one with delicious food and drink) and that whole time in the circle was just crazy, every time I blinked someone was getting kidnapped, wasting deathed, executed, sapped, oh an then Moregeese shows up and obliterates an elf. At times it was really hard to justify to the clan why we thought living here would be a good idea.
-I really enjoyed all the bandit stuff and all the interactions with everyone who was part of it, there was alot of personality in both the NPCs and the mods themselves, from brads grinning cutlass dude to wills tricky man of tricks to that last bomb mod
- Special thanks to will for letting me use my craftsman skills. Let me tell ya, craftsman sucks and is probably the most unsatisying skill I have ever purchased, but it felt good to be able to put it to use.
- After mocking the town and being disspointed in seeing them break against pretty much everything it was absolutly amazing and heartening to see whoever was around rally together and carry what would have been an extremely hard series of fights by working together and listening to each other. A fighting retreat that ended up with us surrounded, a tactical wheel to get out of that and keep our enemies to our fronts. Seriously everyone who was there, you were great. Winning that fight felt like a real victory.
- There are alot of other things I cannot quite pinpoint but I see from the back end that made things great.

Cons
- I fought alot of things but I had no idea why I was fighting them, at times it felt like there was a monster manual on a wheel that was just being spun, dont get me wrong I still had fun. I also realize this may not be plots fault because no one in the town seemed to know either, more I think about it I suspect the people of Ralinwood are just so used to getting attacked by things they no longer ask why and so there were no answers for us.
- This actually isnt totally a con. But, loot that makes sense on NPC's for the most part it was actually great, the pheasants at the end of game for example. But then I milked a mushroom and got a tophat, I often go for things that look like they will provide alchemy RM its weird when something like that happens. But overall loot made way more sense.
- The pacing on saterday seemed a bit out of wack, the day was pretty dead and kinda boring, I kept thinking I should sleep cause nothing was happening, but it was happening for so long something MUST be coming up. Then at night it was just a constant stream, feel like that could have been spread out a bit more.
- Shapers and OOG players walking around with blinding white lights on and not answering calls. It got almost comical friday night the amount of wind we where seeing. Guys in the dark wecant see your headbands, especially with blinding white lights in our faces. Try say 'wind' or 'oog' before we are hailing you and reading our weapons. And especially dont say NOTHING as its happening.
- NPC's were great but Id like to see them 'sell' it a little more. If your swinging 21 magic with a hammer its a bit lame just slowly tapping it at peoples feet. I also understand NPCs are volenteers and also PC's who are burning their energy to NPC.

Overall I had a really great time, it was an absolute slog and beat the shit out of me. Also, who let Dan work out Moregeese was fast scary and sneaky, Im not even an elf. I am really looking forward to the next game on the new site, I feel like its going to be great in and oog feeling like we are starting fresh and building anew especially after all that from this game.

[Ciardan Petros Saiph]

Personal Highlights:
- Immediately getting worked up when a duck appeared in town, the trauma from my first duck experience is real.
- “Someone I only just met, trusted me to take his son to a hidden location, with no one around. I am glad people trust me.”
- Deciding I would lay under a table, and it just being a normal thing to do. “What are you doing?” “Oh he does that all the time.”
- “Ciardan, Ursel’s here.” *Gets out from under the table* “Were you….under there the whole time?” “Yes” “I didn’t see you.”
- Waking up early on Sunday and sitting next to someone’s tent. Scaring the hell of out them when they got out of the tent because they didn’t realize I was there.
- Being too shy to ask Aldos to be my Protection mentor and having Demi do it for me, then seeing his face the next day when I told him I died. Felt so heartbroken because he seemed so distraught.
- Getting a potential Healing mentor!
- Having tea with Kiyomi. <3 Faceless tea time <3

Pros:
- I liked the overall challenge level of the weekend, I’m not too crazy about combat and prefer support roles, so feeling like I wasn’t being overwhelmed with constant combat, or being able to handle the combat was nice.


Cons:
- Feeling pressured into making a specific decision in NPC camp.
- Waking up early on Sunday, along with a few other PCs, and cleaning a number of empty bottles and trash that was left behind in the tavern area. If it had been windy there would have been a lot of trash just laying around site.

[Zia Sashana]

This was another great event for me - better than last because I didn't sleep a whole day away!

Pros/highlights:
-4AM cabin chats because we're all awake for Reasons <3
-Friday night NPC shift is always a great time! I had a blast playing shattered elf for the first time and being on the wrong side of the ritual, and I loved being able to bring back my Ajaunti from the Tavern night as well
-Textile arts guild! Teaching Carrion to knit, making offers to others as well that I will hopefully get to follow through with in the future
-I FINISHED MY SOCKS
-Saturday mods I got to go on, especially the fight ring. That was so great!
-Saturday Night madness - First running from Shattered elves, then hiding for a bit on my own, then moving around with the crowd in town center and winding up at House of I... All of that was amazing. The RP was super great the whole time, I was pleased and impressed
-Seeing Dan as the Mortigeist take advantage of the darkness and the amorphous swarm to move so easily into out ranks was pretty awesome, and alarming, but awesome.
-Bandit mod and the NPC roleplay
-Community building both in terms of PCs, but also with Shaper work to make the town seem more populated with real people we can have relationships with and not just a new crop of random farmers each game or as needed
-I don't think I have ever had a game where I personally got so much loot, through various means @_@
-Watching Demi get recognized by her god :3 That was so sweet!

Cons:
-A few minor miscommunications in plot things that were just vaguely confusing, but honestly probably only to me
-I don't feel like I got very much away from town center this event, but that is a personal failing I need to remedy rather than anything else
-I can't remember anything else specific?
-Oh, now I need a new in game knitting project. So I guess I need to buy yarn.... That should probably go in the 'pro' column >.>

Thanks to everyone involved in running the event, you all did great!

[Demetria]

- Shapers and OOG players walking around with blinding white lights on and not answering calls. It got almost comical friday night the amount of wind we where seeing. Guys in the dark wecant see your headbands, especially with blinding white lights in our faces. Try say 'wind' or 'oog' before we are hailing you and reading our weapons. And especially dont say NOTHING as its happening.

I feel like this might of been me and I'm sorry if it was! I fell really hard on a wet patch of grass and lost my glasses. We tried to find them as quickly as we could and not shine the light near people.

At one point it was just me walking around with the light though and I'm hard of hearing. To my knowledge I didnt hear anyone talking to me but I could of easily missed it.

[Bikar Borba]

- Shapers and OOG players walking around with blinding white lights on and not answering calls. It got almost comical friday night the amount of wind we where seeing. Guys in the dark wecant see your headbands, especially with blinding white lights in our faces. Try say 'wind' or 'oog' before we are hailing you and reading our weapons. And especially dont say NOTHING as its happening.

I feel like this might of been me and I'm sorry if it was! I fell really hard on a wet patch of grass and lost my glasses. We tried to find them as quickly as we could and not shine the light near people.

At one point it was just me walking around with the light though and I'm hard of hearing. To my knowledge I didnt hear anyone talking to me but I could of easily missed it.

Nope was definitely more then a handful over friday and yesterday night. I totally understand sometimes you just need a light, it was more the number of times that it happened.