Event Review - Bite the Hand that Feeds

[Ivanna]

Thank you everyone who came out and made the weekend all that it was. Despite the heavy rain Friday (again!) and the chill, it certainly looked like everyone had a great time. Thank you very especially to the NPC team for all their hard work and to everyone for bringing this game to life. And thank you PCs for giving us a really exciting weekend. So much happened!

And now...

What did you like, what needs improvement, and what were your most exciting stories / moments / interactions? Tell us your thoughts!

Any concerns or major complaints, please feel free to email contact@underworldralinwood.ca to speak to the Owners (myself and Dan) directly.

[NPCJenW]

Highlights:
-Watching Aldos chase five bandits around in his briefs on saturday morning
-Every damn thing, from the PCs to their plan, to how it ended, about the High Stakes Poker game.
-"I brought you soup! " Soup = lemon gatorade with gummy bears thrown in. the timing on that was apparently perfect too.
-"WHERE'S MY WIFE?! GIL'S COMING FOR YOU, HONEY!" And as much as i'd hate to fight one, playing a greater pain elemental is so fun.
-Everything about Dustin/Leon. So funny, had me cracking up every time. "GIVE ME YOUR PELT!" and "OMG IT'S GOT THE CHAIR!" being two of them.
-playing the best bard in the world.
-Seeing PCs piecing things together after a year of mystery!
-Decompressing with Cat and Alex at 3am in NPC camp while the rain roared outside.
-Sullivan was the best at getting me to game after a scare.
- i got to play a pangolin!
-i liked the mastermind puzzle. amazed that PCs solved it and what came about because of it.

Midlights:
-Sad that a cool puzzle mod was over before the puzzle started, but PCs did have the real answer figured out.
-Why does the wytch sphere have to be so complicated in its incants? XD it doesn't follow the rules.


Lowlights:
-not a huge fan of using the cabin for town mods. small mods, maybe, like the afformentioned poker game.
-my boots ripped open again. i am putting this here to remind me to buy a new pair.
-oog injury as result of combat is never fun. heard about a couple of these instances.
-both PCs and Shapers need to realize that shiftees and NPCs are doing their best.

[Zii Rha aka 'Jingles']

Highlights:
-Becoming a Death Mage for like 20 mins before my character faced certain (though not) death. That was an emotional rollercoaster that had lots of rammifications later on!
-The Juggler/Jester NPC coming out with random loot to trade for random loot, an him pulling out a Scarf. For the Aja. Too good!
-KRONG HAS BEES KNEES
-Being able to gather the Aja into the beginnings of a caravan, an giving out gifts to reflect that unity an sense of Family.
-The new armour I got an my first time ever casting on the run of protections!
-Chanting with the orcs in formation an being the only two tiny Aja among the huge orcs, an just that moment of thinking "Wow, so this is what it feels like to be badass!" XD
((-Forgetting about the blood to Baaagh on my face when I went to Timmies on my way home an seeing all the scared folk staring at me half in costume XD))

Lows:
-Cold an wet
-missing a Lich an Lilith coming into camp while I was dead asleep.
-Apparently I missed being able to pet a Hellhound too?!
-Finding out Death Mages cant get drunk off booze as easily as my Aja can.

Great game, an I know aside from a few snafoos, it was really well done! Thank yall, an keep it up! I look forwards to seeing what happens next!

[Dr. Moran]

Pros:
• I have learned the folly of trying to anchor when a Death Rogue is shadow walking around you. I did my ten count, saw Dan, then was like "wait are you also- OH FUCK"
• Will A, Sullivan and Cat were absolutely rocking it this event. This is the first time I had a voluntary NPC shift in ages and I had an absolute blast with it. Additionally, Sullivan's Citadel and BRR stuff is all super exciting to me and Will's various NPC roles were great to talk too. Cat however wins 'cause she gave me a brownie and then told me to go kill my brother and all his friends.
• Repeatedly telling Janos whenever he came knocking that Carrion was out being creepy in the woods when Carrion was in fact four feet away from me sitting in his bunk bed.
• Thank you Cat and Jen for letting me sit in NPC camp for a bit at stupid o clock saturday night, I did noooot feel like shuffling back out into the rain right away so just sitting and chatting a bit was a must needed decompression before I went back out.
• Me, in NPC camp: "So how are we explaining Janos' lack of. Uh. Hair."
Kyle, without missing a beat: "I sacrificed everything for my goals. Everything."

• Finally, saturday morning I woke up to the person beside me in my cabin getting assassinated. I had gotten 3 hours of sleep that night. I proceeded to anchor into another cabin, start screaming for help, and then watch half a dozen einher and humans in various stages of undress leap into action and save the day. That fear followed by that rallying and ridiculous heroics is why I LARP. 10/10.

Neutral:
• I really like how the tavern was run this event (out the window). I didn't actually use tavern that much for once but it looked real efficient when I walked by.
• If a shaper is too busy to deal with something I would rather be told to come back later when they can actually listen to me and not have them half listen and then proceed to forget/disregard everything I said. PCs are used to being told "please come again". Do not be afraid to ask for some time or to get a written note or something.

Cons:
• Michael and Ivanna as Gil and Molly make me emotional and they need to stop making me conflicted about everything. (jk, this is secretly a pro, you're both rocking it.)
• It is entirely possible that the PCs took too long to explore the tunnel after the final mod and this is why it happened BUT: making us run around all hunched over through a tunnel, fight multiple fear sentinels and more of those stacked golems, then reaching a dead end followed shortly by "yeah that's game" was pretty rough.
• People answering "yes" to me saying "are you stable at 0" when they are in fact just sapped and only down 1 body is the plague of my existence and multiple PCs and NPCs did this. 
• I really hate combat in the cabin formerly known as NPC camp. It worked out ok for the final Sunday  mod but the Saturday night thing with Gilthanis Squared left half of town outside twiddling their thumbs and a lot of people getting pushed into tables during fights

Overall a real good event, thank you to all the shapers and NPCs in particular for everything you did.

[Brondulf Elricson]

Pros
- Getting assassin stabbed by a couple of "commoners" while on my way to help a friend, and still being able to get up and save them at the last minute.
- Having to decide how to handle friends getting turned into death classes. At one point I actually broke down and cried for the first time at game trying to decide what to do.
- The quick Einish mod to help two Einher-Risen get to Valhalla was fantastic, it took three of us to eventually take down Adam's NPC.
- I feel like this is the game where I finally understood what was going on, what major villains were at play and what it was we were actually attempting to fight and stop. Looking forward to see whats going to happen next month with a Lich out there.
- Getting saved at the last possible moment as Leon killed the spider dragging me away unnoticed at 1 or 2 at night!
- PERSONAL HIGHLIGHT: Will Apostolos ran an amazing mod where I had to pleasure to help teach a young blacksmith how to make their first sword. I fully expected to throw in all the RM the ye local forge and have that be that... but than Will ran out and throw a sword rep down, and later came back with a full sword tag and handed it off for the RM. I've never, ever expected that doing production during game time would even be a possibility any shaper would consider, and while I don't imagine it would ever happen again I'm so happy and impressed I got to experience something completely unexpected like that. Thank you Will!

Neutral
- Weather was pretty crab friday night, glad i had the foresight to bring all the clothing I did.

Cons
- Nothing that really comes to mind that wouldn't be complaining for the sake of it.

Overall, I honestly wasn't all that excited or pumped for game this month, but it perhaps the best events I've had all year. Thank you to everyone who made it as memorable as it was, especially you guys at NPC camp!

10/10, would get ganked by a lone spider between the bathroom and cabin at 2am again.

[Felix]

Highlights:

Waking up in the middle of my second night in town, to a hell hound and demon in my cabin and trying very hard not to whimper too loud. As a wee little wild elf that was new to town, that was terrifying both in and out of game.

New Adventurer Mod in the kitchen. I liked that we could use the ‘kitchen knives’ as throwing weapons because it was a little tricky to move around with the number of people and tables (which makes sense, it’s a kitchen!). It was great to see this element getting used too, and people with longer range weapons to pull the throwing weapons closer. Seemed appropriately stated for the levels and abilities of everyone there and the loot was good too. Also loved the comments about how we weren’t the type of help that Will’s PC was expecting to help (a bunch of Orcs and a Wild Elf).

“Cata! I can’t see!” When a bat latched onto me and blinded me. I was terrified at first since I thought I was going to get really hurt at my low level, but it ended up being really fun to flail and be utterly confused as to what to do.

“Felix! Don’t be racist!”

Cons:

I’m not so sure I like doing mods in the cabin that was formerly NPC camp. Feels a little cramped, good for small mods, but for larger mods that most of town is there for, I think it’s less than ideal. I stood around awkwardly for a good amount of time for the larger mods that included it, waiting for other PCs to finish up and leave, which resulted in me getting a little cold.

[Carrion]

I think this was probably my favourite event of the season so far (though that probably won't surprise anyone), which was a pleasant surprise since I went to game barely in the mood for it (been having a meh time of things lately and it tends to turn even fun hobbies into a chore).

The Good
- I was honestly starting to get a little worried about this season's plot, because it felt like a whole lot of build up and we are getting reeeaaally late in the season. I was one of the players who had a little forewarning that the various parties (who I will from now on refer to as the Superfriends) were working together, but I wasn't sure how much time we'd have to explore that. But then everything came together/hit the fan at once and set up what I assume will be the big Hallows conflict really really well. The plot/shaper team really did a great job.

- The Superfriends are just really compelling NPCs. I like that they were sprinkled in as merchant or story NPCs from the start, and that only Janos was very sketchy in the beginning. I absolutely love that I and others got to glimpse plot both from town's side and from that of the antagonists over the weekend.

- Dan really outdid himself with Victor? For some reason I get to interact with Dan's NPC's reeaaaally rarely, and his PCs even less, so having a chance to chat with his Death Rogue was a nice treat.

- Molly and Mr G were perfect and I love them and I'm so glad that he showed up with an actual army of undead to get her back after half of town had become convinced he was willing to abandon her when the going got tough. Death Mage or no I nearly shit myself when I saw him charging out of the woods with that many NPCs.

- I love that they used Death Classes! It's a part of the game I've often been curious about but doubted I'd ever get a chance to experience before the changes. I love that they weren't afraid to stat us accurately to the rule set they had, that mods were quickly able to compensate with magic damage given how limited our healing was (especially during the day), and that they grabbed both older established characters they knew would sympathize and a new player that one might assume would be overlooked for such a sudden mechanics and power level change. The use of the augment on our ritual circle was also such a clever and kind way of using the fun plot point without punishing the players for going along with it.

- My personal-plot-turned-trial was amazing. Earlier in the season I was sort of worried that they might be connected, but I dismissed this as paranoia on my part after bringing up the idea with friends. Cat and the NPCs that were in the know played it so convincingly that my last thoughts before the reveal (and after I led a bunch of people to a full party wipe) were “this feels a bit harsh for personal plot” and “this is going to be a really awkward res circle”. Cat as “Heather” was also perfect and I love her. They also had to quickly correct for a detail the shapers hadn't been informed of, and they did it so well I honestly can't imagine how the original set up was intended to play out.


The Less Good
- The last mod seemed kinda hectic and confusing, though I suspect that was at least partially because I arrived a little late to it. Using the indoor spaces also got a wee bit cramped, though that point has been made already.


Personal Highlights
- The disgruntled cursing of my name while I was bleeding to death during my trial as everyone I'd brought were beaten to death, though only after the fact. Pretty sure someone yelled “thanks a lot, Carrion” as they were downed.
- My sister as a sassy balrog.
- Rio as Felicien, forever and always, particularly the hand holding as he leaned on me to walk.
- Late night cabin dinners and all Carrion's campmates yelling at him for having two kinds of salt, as if they should have expected any less of him by this point.
- “DO WE NEED THIS BABY? NO? OKAY I'LL PUT IT BACK.”
- The mixed reactions of the Einher when I came to warn them about Mr G and his army of undead and encourage them to hand over Molly. Half were appropriately suspicious and angry that I'd been let into the cabin, the others were basically like “I mean he knocked so we let him in”.
- To be honest, all the reactions to Carrion being a Death Mage. Some people were suspicious (especially considering the puppet effect Janos had on us) while others were just amused I was somehow undead again.
Leon's insistence that I came back bald and eyebrow-less when returned to life.
- Wigzoz (sp?) had a really good moment as the new Warboss when game was called and we were in soft RP mode. Honoured I got to be a part of it. Dark Father is my new favourite title someone has given me. Congrats on the promotion!
- Dr Moran repeatedly insisted I was “off in the woods doing creepy Dietremen shit” when people came looking for me while she was keeping me hidden about 10 feet away, and the fact that none of them questioned it.
- Everything Dante does always.
- Anything Will A does always.
- Tobias's face when he Necro Arts'd me.
- I know that there were many other good moments I'm probably forgetting because I'm tired as heck so if we interacted be aware I probably loved it.

[Corri]

Some people say Hallows is the best event of the year, some prefer Highwinter. But mine will always be the September event, where everything starts to come together.

First I'd love to praise the glory of the plot team. This years plot was very convoluted, with multiple big players interacting in different ways, both together with each other and alone. For months, the PCs treated these like individual, disconnected plot lines, following them slowly and making gradual progress, but not seeing how they could end. But this event, the plot team managed to wrap them all up nicely, and in such a way that didn't seemed rushed or forced. It was natural, like the falling of a house of cards. Well done.

Further, I want to acknowledge how well the PCs did at actually working together. We had our second town meeting in two months, and we managed to piece together a lot of what was going on with people sharing the information which they had gathered. This was vital. It allowed people to work together effectively, to know what to expect, and to know what to look for going forward.

There were a few little issues I noticed, though. First, while PC communication is improving, everyone needs to stop arguing sometimes and listen to each other. I saw this especially in the lock puzzle mod. Everyone was talking over each other, and weren't listening to Michael answering their questions.

Second, there was a moment on Saturday when a few other PCs and I decided to complete a ritual (the resurrection circle), for which we had all the components, the scroll and the casters, only to turn the corner to see 2 NPCs already completing this ritual with very little PC help. I later offered to be a secondary in the permanence ritual, and was turned down as `not needed`, because the NPCs were so powerful. It was very disheartening, for myself and the other casters, that we were not even given the chance to use our skill. Come on guys, if PCs can do it, let us at least participate.

Overall, excellent game, even with the weather. Good job everyone. Now to prepare for Hallows.

[Dust]

Pros:

+ No I won’t got to hell with all of you, that's dangerous. I’d rather go rescue a merchant's wagon that was stolen the month before. Whats the worst that could be there, a couple of bandits, yeah we got that covered… Oh, large horde of undead. RUN! Great start to the weekend.
+ Morning NPC shift leads to some solid fun. Go back to bed!
+ Camp food was delicious, House of I knows how to camp!
+ Lady in Red mod was a good tug of war in strength. You could feel the tide of battle turning back in forth to one sides favour then the other. I always like seeing ranged threats on mods. So little is it done and I hope none of the NPC were discouraged because of all the PC’s yelling miscant. It’s hard to nail down a sphere and Wytch is rarely used so I feel your pain of casting. Makeup was also top notch on those wytches!
+ Merchant house puzzle, something for everyone.
+ Undead shepherding town around the site creates great interactions. Good fear. Run, Fight , Hide!
+ Breaking into a run with a small group to reach the Lich ritual, we felt the danger of a ticking clock.
+ Night watch resulted in a spider rescue!
+ Our Shaman knows how to motivate our group, the pack is growing!

Cons:

- Saturday afternoon was pretty flat for action
- Can we keep town mods out of the buildings or have broken up groups. Space is limited.
- I’d like to see camp mods pop up more. Everything that weekend I was on seemed to be a town affair

[Dr. Moran]

 I later offered to be a secondary in the permanence ritual, and was turned down as `not needed`, because the NPCs were so powerful.

The permanence ritual was entirely PC done, both the primary and the secondary. The primary was unsure if he even needed a secondary but we decided to last minute so we'd get more pulls.