Event Review: Lights in the Hollow

[Aelin]

Let's have it!

What did you like, what needs improvement, and what was your favourite moment?

Bonus!  What mod did you like the most?

[A goblin played by Matty]

I'm going to do one of these for you guys.

Capris surgery was lovely. Nice planning on that one. 

Zaydesh taking charge of the fighters, the more you guys plan and work together the better your fights are.You know I love fighting.

My npc team for carrying stuff from the shed. It was a good group effort.

Ramsays personal plot and Dustin Hitchcocks role-playing. Wow.

I'm not entirely sure who called for you guys to charge into the cave. So many deaths.So many. You had us pretty much defeated until that.

Cons
You guys need to defend your camps better.
The only player we looted who was prepared was a new player  (Huge props to him though)

[A goblin played by Matty]

Also a rules reminder; If you are skulduggering someone's rep , bring it to NPC camp or grab a shaper to come remove the tag.
It doesn't have to be immediately ,but remember that player may not have a second rep to use.

[Nylon]

So. This was my first Ralinwood event, and my first ever non-Jericho event. I had a great time and I hope I can come back soon!

Pros:
- Ghost plot. Mysticism. Augory and the such. I've never had Mysticism feel effective or worth purchasing until this event.
- New friendly people! I'm glad Nylon was well received. He's a super fun time to play but with makeup and fang upkeep I probably won't be playing him consistently.
- Getting everyone to work together Saturday night and ordering people around as a 10 year old is the best.
- More Saavvvvaaaaaar.
- Personal plot shapers. Something I adore. We don't have one in Jericho and I find it makes things seem more real.
- I've never interacted with Blank much before but Adam gives me an RP boner I just can't calm down. Blank is my favorite.
- #PantyRaid2259
- Getting taught more about life by people, like people explaining the word 'Kinky' to my 10 year old Savar.
- Seeing Ralinfriends!
- Ryiak stuff.
- Everything Jericho says about you guys is right.

Cons:
- Makeup races are stupid.
- Wettt.
- Saturday nights sudden mod switch and people not telling anyone anything.
- Everything Jericho says about you guys is right.

Overall I had a great time and I think I'll come back
This is all just off the top of my head so there might be more but -_o_-

[Wizwik]

Pro:
-Getting to rp with Oz, funny oger and all around great time with him
-Rping with people as a whole, was good fun.
-Capri's surgery, crazy but beautiful
-Getting all my devices back finally, thank you guys
-Zaydesh getting me chain armor to keep fighting, thank you. ps Gwen your awesome thank you for the loaner neck plate tag.
-Viv showing up sunday and having good Gnome talks, and for once, didnt get welcomed by a punch to the face XD

Con:
-THE FAE PORTAL MOD! No, just no. It wan NOT a fun challenge, it was unfairly brutal. Overpowered NPC's, far to many pops for even balancing, being lied to IG as what we were walking into...just...no...not saying angry words...just...thanks for killing my trust in anything you guys want to send out now...11/10 on the angry scale, -1/10 on the fun scale. This mod ALONE ruined my entire enjoyment prior and after.

[Lilith Caia]

I think that was an absolutely wonderful game. I am pretty biased, though.

Pros:
- During my NPC shift, I was constantly being sent out as things. Very little wasted time, and people were sweet enough to avoid keeping us over time
- Dan's weird obsession with fake blood continues, and all that awesome nonsense
- Getting to play not-Lilith was neat
- Just in general the Hawkespur plot was dope
- AND THERE WAS SINGING
- Dustin makes a rad ass demon (I was nearly totally fucked during both fights; I am all bravado)
- Namor, Maxi, Reginald and Ember were so lovely to hang out with/are so fucking weird once you get to know them. Looking forward to working with y'all weirdos
- "Yes hello I am a travelling masseuse true fae here to give free massages for my massage training exam"
- The church of Ryiak is hysterical
- I didn't expect to cry, but ten times more than that, I didn't expect Brent to cry. It was adorable
- There was hand sanitiser in the bathrooms. FUCK YEAH!
- Matty has picked up the very high bar of Mage's Tower mods and done an excellent job
- The potatoes
- I don't remember a single too-hard swing this game (well, for the small amount I was in combat), which is a huge improvement over two years ago
- Make up was excellent
- Leodin is hysterical, and definitely not charmed
- Poor Zaydesh. Poor Lamalas
- I loved the fae ruins mod. It was hard as fuck. People died. It was scary and oh my goodness fae are tricky, who knew? I like danger and deaths. It keeps things moving and adrenaline-filled. None of it was 'unfair'. It was just really hard.
- On that note, dying! I liked my death dream, and how it happened was a lovely death
- I'm both extremely happy and extremely sad about Ziggy
- Alfric playing music!!
- Leon's new character (sorry, I forget his name) and his magical theory stuff. I love rapping magical theory
- The ghost plot: I love how each of the ghosts had a particular interesting puzzle to solve
- The catalyst that Nylon ended up with
- The rep attached to the catalyst that Nylon ended up with
- The results of my augury were super cool
- Brainstorming with Reginald and company for a solid hour afterwards about what the fuck was going on
- Taking a nap on the couch in Emberside was super fucking comfy
- +++
- So many personal plot thingies going out for people
- Being sent out as a backstory NPC and screaming at... the wrong PC, it turns out. Whoops
- Thank fucking god that Charm works on Redcaps

Cons:
- Max got sick

But seriously, Shapers, why are you all so obsessed with sleeping under tables in NPC camp? There are even spare bunks in Sapper!

[Andrei Katrares]

I had a good time. I was glad to see all your lovely faces, and I enjoyed every interaction I had with PCs and NPCs. Thanks for a great game! Special thanks to cabin for sheltering us after storm, and Derek and Michelle for coming out to play!! We missed you guys.

I guess based on anecdotal evidence the fae mod will be the big thing people talk about. I want to share some thoughts. Feel free to ignore my blathering though, I should probably not soapbox as often as I do.

So I was NPCing for that one as a redcap. As a rule of thumb, fae creatures are very VERY strong but the RP they do is what makes them feasible enemies - they're not always 11/10 on the aggresive-ometer. That means the NPCs need a lot of guidance before the mod starts so that they can do this properly, and deliver a good experience to players. Most shift NPCs don't have a lot of RP experience as exotic creatures for precisely the reason that you'd have to spend years full time in an NPC camp to have played that role enough - the difference between a 2rd or 3rd game shift NPC vs a Dustin or a Jeff who can effortlessly glide into NPC roles all over the place. On that side of things, and I know this is extra work, I recommend picking specific people between events and asking them to come NPC a specific shift, then prepping them to play these NPCs on these mods before game starts. Alternatively, you can ask Justin to create 'Crunchy' versions of these NPC monsters for multiple pops which are designed for wave battles - more health, fewer defences, more pops, less treasure per pop, fewer skill uses per pop.

But on the PC side of things for this mod, I think a few things went off the rails for you guys as well. No one knowing what the heck they were doing didn't help (or at least, that was what my impression was). Also many PCs were easy to trick or mislead - something fae do that minotaurs don't - which put many of them in dangerous situations they wouldn't have faced against a different monster type - if Adam outsmarts you, there's no tag defence for that.

That was probably a wall of text and honestly who knows, it could have been a million other things, the truth is usually somewhere between all the stories.

[Nylon]

I'd like to add to my comment about Saturday nights fae mod. OOG I think it was done well and nothing was really that overstated for who and what we had. It was the leadership and "it's a treasure hunt mind set" that got us killed. The mod was great and the repped treasure was cool, and all the fae running around were great. I firmly believe all the issues with the actual mod were in game issues. Great mod, 10/10.

[Blank]

Ahem.

Pros:
- Friday night NPC'ing was an enjoyable jaunt. Need to do that more often.
- I enjoyed the costuming of the Fae, especially the Dark Fae Dan. Very well done.
- Interactions with the other PCs as Blank. Feeling more at home within his own skin.
- Last minute life effect madness.
- Talks with Oz

Cons:
- An unavoidable sunken feeling.

Event was well done overall. I enjoyed the frequency and diversity of the plots going out. Favorite moment happened late in NPC camp saturday eve. I saw naught else on that, but twas wonderful. Costuming was super organized and impressive. That is something I am always looking for at UW; believable creatures. You're on the right track guys

A good start. I hope to see more of this in the coming season. Probably will have more thoughts later, but the crashing is now.

[Roland]

Had a great time as always. Loved the roles given on my npc shift (Dustin you rock), all the rp interactions and smith questions as Roland with other pc's and I fully enjoyed the small number of mods I actually went on. Thought the pace of the event was really good as well. Great job to all the shapers and npcs!

I have to give a special shout out to Ramsay and everything he's doing personal plot wise for a lot of people. I saw how much it took out of him this weekend and just want to let him know how much I (and probably everyone else) appreciate what he's doing. Even though my own personal plot was brief this event, it was an amazing interaction that really made Roland and Melody's weekend and helped shaped Roland's future plans. Thank you Ramsey.