Event Reviews: The Shortest Day of Your Life!

[Victor]

Post em.  The good, the bad, and the well-mannered.

[Bart Schmied]

I had a great time, missed LARPing so much in the last few years, was good to see old friends and meet new ones.

Pros.
Charm Animal was such a good choice!
Damage/Health scaling on the NPC's was well done
All the players and NPC's were amazing, felt right at home

Cons.
A bit too much waiting, for a weekend event it would have been fine, but with only 7 hours for the event it was bit too much

All and all, a great opening event for myself to Ralinwood, great game over all!

[A goblin played by Matty]

I actually thought the pacing was pretty good. I felt I had enough time to get food and go pee between mods which was nice.
The choice at the end really brought the whole story together ,and everyone getting a gift was an unexpected delight.
The costuming for NPCs has really improved , the masks are beautiful.
Logistics, having two guys focused directly on it really made a difference.

Cons
Just a quick note to players when someone calls descriptive hold . Shut up. The story this event was so cool but I had a hard time hearing it. I feel we need a shapers bullhorn.

[Victor]

"... I feel we need a shapers bullhorn."

This actually isn't a bad idea.

[Ishtaar]

Well this was my first event that I've physically attended in Ralinwood, woooo

I'll try to keep this short, but I do tend to go in-depth in my reviews, so please bear with me


I really liked the opportunity to carry on a story, felt like I was really able to get into what I wanted my character to be almost right away (which doesn't usually happen). I enjoyed the RP that I had with folks, when I was able to interact with people, and i sincerely hope that it was well received. As usual, had the normal issues with full-makeup (was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't worse overall) but I really did enjoy what I was able to do as Ishtaar.

I don't wish the following parts to be insulting in any way, so please just read them at face value

I felt it was very difficult to follow the direction of the game. Maybe that was because hearing the NPCs was difficult at times, maybe it just wasn't communicated effectively by us, but overall, I didn't feel like I knew what was going on most of the day.

I felt that a lot of the activities, mods, plot etc, were very inaccessible. Some examples were the very first mod that limited "climbing" to those who could wield simple through medium weapons, and really limited/punished those who exclusively had 2H weapons. Those of us who couldn't climb the tree and help out were spectators, unable to really do anything at all.

Other parts there were times where we could parlay with NPCs to resolve conflict (which I personally love), but that too felt like it was being reserved for very specific people, and felt like a lot of us were forced to simply be an audience for the mod, because our interaction and attempts to interact were ignored/in vain.

There was a great mix of combat and social RP opportunity, I really did enjoy the efforts made to keep that in a balance, however it did just feel that the situations were designed for certain people. It's likely that this just kind of worked out that way, but it was something of a recurring theme that I noticed throughout the day, and it was disappointing.

I also overheard a lot of things that I plan on discussing with the team privately, that was also very discouraging.

I think the NPCs gave a really good effort; it was a long, tiring, cold day and kudos to all that gave it 110% on their roles and were falling-over tired by the end of it. I don't want to diminish the efforts of the team as a whole.

Also wanted to take the opportunity to thank those who I did have interactions with, because for the most part, I enjoyed them thoroughly.

[Capri Aquari]

Alright ya'll, Brotha Capri here.

This event was radical, it flowed, it ebbed, and it twisted round in good ways. I had an excellent time with all the rp and the mods and by the grizzled beard upon my face, Sean you are a riot for the plot of this event.

+'s
--------------
-RP was really fun and being able to work in situations without combat is always a plus for this bro
-The mechanics were interesting and varied so it was always a new twist to handle
-NPC's did a fantastic job and looked great
-Being able to start my Brew Master training was amazing

-'s
----------------
-The jumping from location to location so frequently was alittle hard to handle but that's still fine
-The undead scuffle was a bit disheartening, very few could really do anything so it made many useless against them. I felt that maybe it would have been better to try and give more players an opportunity to throwdown by stating and putting out enemies normal PC's could also handle. But that's just me knit-picking

Long story short, this was a great game and I can't wait to have more fun next time.
Peace ya'll.

[Viv]

All right, I'm highly biased because I spent most, if not the entire game, hanging out with Wizwik, and the event revolved around magic.

+ Slapping Wizwik within minutes of game start. Sorry, but everything else about the event paled in comparison.
+ The look on Miahla's face when I told her what was in a Little Hottie.
+ Thank you for all the extra food, people who brought extra food.
+ Thanks for the Gnomish item!

o I did like the town undead fight/mod. Given the lower level of Ralinwood, I was suprised at the amount of undead, because I suspect there aren't a lot of ways to deal with it. (Also go Gnomish technology. :D)
o About all I understood about the story was "retrieve orbs/marbles". We fought things, presumably for the orbs/marbles, but I didn't get to hear much of the flavour or reasoning behind it.
o I'm okay with the pacing. I thought it was a bit slow, with lots of gaps, but that could be because of PCs "taking care" of problems for the mob (see next comment). But I also entertained myself during the slow parts, and there was plenty of PC drama to keep us entertained between things.

- Would have liked to see more mods with us working as a team. A lot of things looked like just a few people were necessary to solve the problem, and they talked it out while stopping the rest of us from doing anything drastic.
- forgot my costume bag at home HAHAHA

[Van Medicus]

Well first time writing a review but here it goes

+ This is the biggest for me...fracturing a giant cat as a tiny person...felt so badass and powerful
+ The overall event was really well done
+ Learning my new sphere and actually getting to use it. Was worried it would just be a sideline thing because of the day mod atmosphere...glad I was proven wrong
+ Seeing everyone's reaction to my new talents, made me smile & chuckle.
+ Major props to logi and getting everything done quick

No real cons. Good job to everyone involved and cant wait to play again.

[Shoshana]

This is only the third game I've played at Ralinwood this year because I live in Peterborough so the trek out is a long one, and quite frankly I don't think I'm going to be trying so hard to swing it anymore. This game was quite dissapointing.

my pros are very pro but were all player interactions, with the exception of one mod.
+ all the fae, taking over town fire with fae, and all the innuendos and shenanigans. IG Silvie told people to bugger off, OOG I love it. I'm regretting making my character a bit of a prude.
+The einher throwdown, lavender and I meeting eyes across the fire and saying "shit just got real" in unison
+meeting Auntie Lilith!
+ the gingerbread mod was the best mod of the whole day, and all it was was standing around IG with svens feet sticking out of a cupboard keyhole OOG standing around on the field while austin and talmon solved a puzzle that let us into the cupboard and gave us gingerbread.

cons
- the entire day felt like a zelda fetch quest where you had to go trade around to get the things everyone needed. It was a really neat idea and it would actually be pretty awesome for say 5 people, or a dnd party, where you dont have to literally walk everywhere and can be included in the discussions. I love it when theres a problem you can solve without combat, but unfortunatly that's really boring for everyone but the 5 people doing the negotiations. we COULD have solved it with combat and just killed everyone for the marbles, and honestly this would ave been a more fun option, which is very unfortunate.
- beyond the initial part, noone really understood what was going on because the few people with the information weren't spreading it around. beyond the first tree part too apparently we were inside, noone knew this either. This wasn't just me not trying to integrate myself in either, people who had marbles and are generally important and know whats going on didn't know either.
- this is highwinter. it's suposed to be a parody of the season and be silly and fun. why are there undead everywhere. there should not be undead wave battles at highwinter. Apparently the marbles gave people elemental blades. most of us didn't know this. when there hasn't been combat pretty much all day and the only thing we get to fight is undead those of us without big weapons (so they get the ele blades) or magic that can harm them just got to stand around. And because the undead weren't really scary or really dangerous (they're not suposed to be re: still highwinter) it was just boring again watching everyone else kill them.
- no value gumdrops dropping from undead, who wants to eat that?
-spider caves are suposed to be scary. Not only was it not made clear that it was an attic ( I didn't know til being told after game) but why were spiders so easy to kill. again nerfing things cause it's highwinter? Just don't use scary things!

overall I had an okay time, but that was mostly because of player interactions. a game where only really 5 people get to play and everyone else just walks everywhere in the cold getting muddy boots then only a handful getting to fight when there actually is combat isn't a lot of fun. don't nerf monsters into the ground just because its highwinter and they're not suposed to be scary, use different monsters. I would have much rathered the gingerbread men who gave me a dodge when I ate them and the icepuppet effects from last year again. You need to keep people up and fighting on cold events. Non-combat solutions are great when it's warm,, but when we need to keep moving to stay warm it becomes detrimental.

[Victor]

Lots of complaints about undead.  They were there for a reason.  If you don't know the reason, that's just something to find out IG.

Also, a lot of "I didn't know what was going on".  This is solved by PC's staying quiet and listening to the Shapers during descriptive holds.  When a hold of any kind is called, standard procedure dictates PCs stop where they are, stop talking, and listening.  If you are someone who shows up to a mod 10 minutes after everyone else, don't expect the Shaper to restart the physical description/mod rules or stop marshaling to accommodate you.  I was stopped several times during a descriptive hold because of this.  Though, hopefully the bullhorn I ordered today will alleviate this issue.

It's up to players to be proactive in their communication and participation at games.  Example: Tree Mod.  I saw many empty branches, a small group of people fighting and falling out of the tree, and a lot of people watching it all happen.  Support roles are equally important as combat roles.  Don't be afraid to get in the thick of things.  taking no risks generally result in few rewards.

All this being said, we do take these criticisms and use them to improve game as best we can.  Keep them coming.