Event Review - The Issue at Hand

[Ivanna]

What an amazing end to the year. Thank you everyone for an amazing Hallows. It was a pleasure.

And with that..  Tell us your thoughts! What did you like, what needs improvements, what are your favourite memories? Let us know!

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

[NPCat]

Plot twist, I'm gonna review the PCs.

This was a brutal game for weather and for difficulty level, and y'all did a great job. Everybody who died (all 21 of you) and everybody who retired or finalled (I think it was 5 of you?) had really great attitudes about it. Every PC I interacted with had really excellent RP going on. I hope you guys had as much fun as I did.

[Zii Rha aka 'Jingles']

Amazing event! My first Hallows, and holy hell was it fun! It was even more fun as a little orc that couldnt be afraid!

Cons:
-weather sucked monkey wrenches, so wet and cold!
-waiting for mods to get ready after being told to hurry and gather for them, often in the cold n wet (what wasnt cold n wet tho?)
-going to the bathroom became a life or death decision

Pros:
-going to the bathroom became a life or death situation (doin fearmonger right!)
-CABINSSSSSSS
-Amazing fun with the attacks at all hours, and the mods were great!

Best Memories:
-Mother casting Fear and Cower into the Circle of Protection that was protecting like 12 of us, and all the rest of them cowering and screaming, while I, my little orc baby, is standing there not 2 feet from Mother, confused as to why all the pinkies were scared. This caused us all to remain in the CoP for HOURS for fear of our lives when Mother left in a huff, and so we had a slumber party on the floor. Even rp'd peeing on the floor for how badly we had to waddle to the bathroom! So great!
-The constant bickering between Char and my orc Clack, often resulting in Char being shoved far away from her and then her running to hide behind others!
-Abatosh, Crankshaft, Char and I and the Bomb-Butt incident with Talik! So much fun, I was laughing so hard!
-The old lady telling stories with her kitty, only for the baddie to come round an decapitate the kitty! Clack is never going to get over that! DX

Overall, thank you so much everyone for all the great work! NPCs you rocked it! Ashendale folk, thank you SO MUCH for the safe space and welcome! If it werent for you all, Id be dead a thousand times over and final'd for sure! Or at least a frozen popsicle! So thank you all! (And sorry if I misspelled anyones names, I am trying!)

[Dr. Moran]

Pros/Good Memories
• NPC camp rewarding player agency did a lot to make this a really amazing event for me. Talking with Ariande with only one other NPC with me (while she had all her Witherwing guards) was probably one of the most stressful but ultimately rewarding moments of my game.  I got told I had wasted my time and was an idiot for trying so when I saw her standing in the woods for the final mod I nearly started crying.

• “Please inform the resurrecting man that every circle I am in proximity to is hostile.”

• TINY DOCTOR MORAN TRICK OR TREATER! Seeing Jen running around with a floppy hat interviewing elves warmed my heart. Having to CPR Kieran in his full Lilith get-up complete with wig, purple lipstick and bright red corset was IG super serious but OOG I could barely do my count.

• Use of walkie talkies was great and I appreciate the amount of coordination you all had. Beeping was minimal and the smooth relay of information made it totally worth the occasional weird sound.

• The Grim, to Blank, who had just saved my life: "YOU STOLE MY BIRD!"
Me, in the smallest voice: "Um, ma’am, that’s racist."
The Grim in general was really well executed, I’m sad the guitar wasn’t more audible but Cat did great and 100% tricked my stupid bleeding heart into leaping out of a safe, warm cabin to blow two life spells on already-stabilized folk.

• RP was top notch this event. The Grim goading me into a suicide run, PC’s reactions to Ursel, the various remaining Cosantoiri NPCs, the poor stressed regent, Blank/Void’s dynamic, Zia trying to comfort Ori in the cabin, Mason’s Masoning, I could go on for ages. Everybody did amazing.

• NPL’s and medical marshals getting cool armbands on top of the normal red Hallows ones was lovely and appreciated and I was way too excited by them.

• Escaping from the Grave/Death/Whatever Rogue with Moallie was stressful as hell but in the good, immersive way. Loved it. The two of us kept running and being hunted down until I just dove into the ocean after her corpse and then got away after tricking the Rogue into thinking I was giving her a funeral.

• “Can’t kill me.”

Cons
• If a shaper makes a call that is incorrect and IG decisions are made based on it then I feel you should really just roll with it. Dan saying that the undead no longer had their thresholds followed by Barber saying no, they still did, was really confusing for us. Cat coming out with a clutch second song of heroism was a good save though.

• I get that sometimes town mods will have to cross the stream on site. If you have to have them around there at night (please don’t) could you have a designated marshal or set up some lights so we don’t have 4 people trying to hold up their lanterns/liquid lights for those crossing?

• An NPC looked me in the eyes while I held out my hand to catch the loot they were about to drop on a leafy, muddy path in the pitch darkness. Then they just dropped the coins on the ground. It was a tunnel fight type mod so I couldn’t stop to grab them without holding up the mod. I’m still kind of miffed by that. As far as complaints go it's pretty minor though.

One Other Thing
• Coming out as Ursel Saturday night was a lot of fun for me, so thank you to all involved for making that possible. We had no idea what was going to happen or how town would react to our group so the fact that it ended in my arrest and subsequent witch burning was entirely out of left field. It was probably the highlight of my time in Underworld and I DIDN’T ACTUALLY OOG CATCH FIRE THIS TIME! Kyle Fair, Will A and Sullivan’s RP for that was absolutely phenomenal.

• Somebody in camp: "So Lilith is going to save her, right? Like, when she starts to burn?"
Cat: "Nah. It's funnier this way."
Me: "Yeah, that's fair."

Thanks to everybody who put time into making this event possible, it was seriously one of my all-time favourite Underworld events and definitely my favourite Hallows.

[A goblin played by Matty]

I was genuinely scared this event.
You guys did a good job balancing out the game and giving each p.c either the experience they wanted,or the one they needed.
I really liked that the lich didnt kill me on sight,its easy to end up with a two dimensional bloodthirsty villain,he definitely wasnt that.


The loot was on point for what we killed,and those death rogues are so satisfying to fight.

I had so many great PC experiences I couldn't possibly list them out,but know that if I spent time with you this weekend,I enjoyed it! I'll really miss (almost) everyone we lost.

Watching the grim flee from Baruk was astounding.
I do need to point out that when this guy returned to Ralinwood mother learned gate magic and disappeared. Then as soon as he left our plane she returned,cant possibly be a coincidence.

Broing around with Promise was a real pleasure

It had been ages since I actually fought beside Callum and it was really nice.

And Carrion incidentally saved my life so many times I lost count.

I'm still pretty pissed you snuck Masons corpse into my bed,Mari.



10/10

[Ebon Shadowmane]

Oh Boi! Playing a new character mate, what a wierd feelin!
All the moments of "Crap dont be Ebon, react differently, dont steal teh thing, dont stab the dude, no your not addicted to treasure/booty stop, crap what was that accent again, shit dont be french dont be french"
Being a healer/spellcaster for the first time ever! Wow do those healing spellslots go fast! People always fall down and need help. Load is blown first night, have nothing for rest of night and day saterday ahh. Grab my bow and become Bow-Faun! Hurray! Also holy crap I have no body, slight breezes kills faun mages.
Getting super spooked by the Hellhounds+Whatever came out with them, run into forest at mach10 faun legs falling down around ass speed. Look back, oh fuck here they come, cross river wait a moment, oh fuck they still coming. run into the clearing near the hellgate, jump into the river(woo big ass rain boots) and just sit in river for half an hour, heart going boomboomboom so much fun ahhh, all the running and hiding. At one point ive sloshed my way all the way to under the bridge near front of site, holding my breath as hellhounds walk past howling and killin people, im all alone and feeling the fears, woo! havnt felt that way at larp ever. 10/10 want more
Get spellslots back at reset, oh boi I'm usefull aga---woops their gone--they go so fast cause people are always falling down, stop falling down people!
Saterday night impompto wedding in our cabin, I was more confused then any time ever. I had no idea what was going on, as a new character I think I missed ALL the hints at whatever this was sposed to mean. All the low level characters in the room, and all these what we believe to be high level npcs, we all just sighed said to ourselves "welp we are all dead as fuck" and just clapped for the bride and groom, collectively awkwardly congradulated them and hoped for the best. As soon as they leave the cabin Im at a loss for words, ask everybody if they want to put on their boots and leave with me when WHAM BAM now our cabin is full of MOTHER and her Ghoulies. The fuck is this cursed ass cabin full of undead constantly. I run and run and run and run. Sadly didnt have coat or warm things because....didnt want to die to this so didnt grab things., its fucking cold and raining so i finally lose the npcs chasing me, get back to my cabin door, and mother is still in there, crickey what a pickle, apologize close the door fall down the wet stairs then run like the dickens some more. Decided to just shiver it out in the forest for the next hour watching things walk around my cabin the entire time just hoping for like a 5 minute window to grab a blanket or cloak, sadly that moment never came i didnt want to go OOG and grab warmth because felt like was cheating, so just suffered until things went away(totally suffered for this as next morning wake up with the runniest nose ever, its running faster then I did when the Hellhounds chased me.
Later that evening meet Ghost Birb and his Ghost narrator friend. Have bright idea to grab my book and ask it as many questions as my new character who doesnt know shit of whats happening or who anybody is can. Write everything down this birb tells me. Wish I knew what to actually ask it, wish I had some idea at all of plot, but am Brand new character and trying not to use Metagame knowledge/Ebon knowledge. Fuck me that was difficult, but am super proud of magik stick. Go off to try and tell important pcs what I've kind of learned but dont think anything i got was actually that important because I didnt know what to ask ahhhhhhh the like....pain
Sunday morning NEW PLAYER MOD HOLY SHIT AMAZING-just got to say whoever put this together you did a great thing. Theres 2 npcs teaching all these new players of the light and dark gods, giving 2 of the banners to hold up of the light and dark churches and sending us off to fight undeads woo! this mod was great watching the noobies form up and clear sections one by one, i tried to stay back abit and just pop a couple arrows but let the noobies have at it. Dont loot nothing, dont take any credits or anything. Get to shoot the top off a little clay urn and felt badass haha. Slowly realize...wait....no nature healing...wait I'm a mage...wait a whole bunch of infliction gates...welp i'm stuck forever. I accept my fate of not getting to do the mod and decide to sit down. Fuck me. A helpful npc comes up and gives me a "Bolster" sadly bolsters dont work on Fauns, but they sort of "allow" me to get past the infliction gates where then i go down and another physician can first aid me up abit/a friendly npc with a moonlight mantle is able to keep me going. Yay for Faun mages who dont take nature!
Last mod after meeting up made me feel the most badass ever. That poor alchemist undead guy, all i kept doing was interupting him preparing his alchemy by hitting him with my arrows. Eventualy he gives me the finger(I give it back lol zak) he walks off to the left i see him talk to the guy in a top hat, then talk to another npc, then I'm stabbed to death from the shadows by the other npc. HAHAHAHAHA fucking called me out eh there bud. Love you too. <3. Someone first aids me back up, I go looking for my arrows so I can continue being a bother to this one alchemist, was fun Felt usefull and being called out and stabbed to death from the shadows was like a "omg im special" moment as I saw them picking off only usefull people with that trick, like the bard, and the healers. hahaha I'm a useful person...thats brand new! Go me! Levels and spellslots dont matter, literally a tiny bow and 5 arrows made me a big threat! Bahaha

great game!
10/10 on the spooked me
10/10 on the roleplay!
10/10 on the making me feel special

[Felix]

Highlights:
Cowering in the cabin twice as it was raided by wytches once and the grim a second time. The thrill and fear of trying to stay still and quiet as possible in hopes of not being found was amazing. Realizing part way through the wytch raid that toad-Riven and I were the only PCs in the particular room while others retreated to the remaining 2/3rds of the cabin was terrifying.

Entering a cabin, in attempts to hide from the undead, only to be faced with a banshee and other undead. Mention of a wedding came up. Panicking and slipping out of the cabin, only to run into Mother and her undead, panicking and saying I was going to go to the wedding. Only to be paralyzed, cowered, feared and then beaten to death and eaten.

Second time my PC saw Lilith, still terrified of her and her hell hounds. Told to go into the cabin and hide when she approached. Headed up the steps, only to have the door closed on me. Turned around to see the giant pack of demons at the bottom of the stairs. Having to say my name to them, and having Tel come up and smell my flower crown and tell me he liked the smell. The rp was terrifying and great. Following that with knocking on the cabin door and asking the group inside who was hiding if I could come in now, was fun too.

Upon hearing Miahla was being targeted and her removing her liquid light and flower crown to make herself less identifiable, I put on my own liquid light and crown in case I needed to distract something. Stayed that way for a few hours thinking there was no need for it, until Lilith approached me thinking I was Miahla, and said the flower crown made her think Miahla. Guess it worked?


Pros:
The cabins were so warm. It made the game so much more manageable for me, since I can't handle the cold at all. Even when spending so much time in the cabin, a fair amount of things came into the cabin, so I didn't feel so guilty about being in the cabin so much.

Rio, you're a gem. Thanks for checking on me after your roleplay as Tel. I was IG terrified, but OOG loving it. The fact that you took the time to make sure I was okay afterwards was super considerate and I appreciate it so much!

Felix is an ass at times, but he's learning so much from every interaction he has from PCs to NPCs. Love the character development and the roller coaster that is the wee wild elf's life as he faces a number of moral dilemmas with every single interaction. You're all affecting his growth in different ways and I'm excited to see where it goes!

Had a breakdown Saturday morning, and the care from both PCs and Medical Marshals was great. I appreciate the support and without it might have had to just leave game all together.

Cons:
There's a light on behind the cabins, ruins what little night vision I do have. I'm not sure if there's anything that can be done about it, but maybe something to consider? I won't run into the forest because of it, the change from light to dark is too drastic and a hazard for me.

The Grim just came out, and there were already people being infernal cause "Well the grim already came out, so it doesn't matter."

It can be very hard to stay in game when misgendered. Just correct yourself and move on. If you misgender someone, please, don't motion to the person's body and say it's hard to tell. I wear baggy clothes, ponchos and try to minimize certain aspects of my body to reduce gender dysphoria. Trust me, I'm aware of my body, please don't point it out.

[Maximus]

Had fun, thank NPC camp for the game and thank all the PC's for the great RP!

Pros: *Squatting in bro Brodirheim *seeing my mercs (yay money works) *putting spirits to rest *turning town into a lynch mob *Killing a guy *Story time with Granny *Rping with people *"Oh no dear, I'm Mother."

Cons: *Felt like if I did not swing Magic I had no reason to go on most mods

[Dust]

Happy Hallows All

Gotta say this event was pretty solid for me. The RP, the fighting, and the overall wrap up of the year.

Pros:

+ Players had their A game on for RP. Very little did I feel taken out of the in game world and people finding ways of asking their questions without defaulting to throwing a hand on their head

+ Costumes looked sharp

+ Respecting proper planning. It's very... VERY easy to make the decision to tear down someones barrier/circle from a plot side. Usually on hallows I watch the 3 piglets and bad wolf effect of players running to the next building when theirs is torn down. I'm happy to see defenses giving players a breathing room.

+ Site is much bigger than the areas we've used. Hid in some pretty remote parts of the map and thought... this would make a great mod site and yet tell no one... kinda  

+ Breaking up the groups worked out great for mods. Heard tons of newer players brag how they held the lines and rightfully so. 

Cons:

- Need more roaming monsters between mods so the time isn't noticed

- Hordes are great, always hordes are not so great

- Loot drops were fantastic, but with the change to BP's, Chem, and Rituals, Why are the finished items being sent out instead of the ability to make said epic items. I saw some stuff at a base value of over 130 gold and my jaw dropped. 


Had fun, still hooked.

[sarahhare]

What an event. I have so much to say. One: It was great being back as Astrid after 3 months of NPCing. Two: To my cabin mates/new friends/visitors/people I spent significant time with. You are all awesome. EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. OF. YOU. Three: My utmost apologies to any plot I slept through on Sat. night...according to one of my cabin mates my complete and utter deafness when I sleep lead to me missing some cool shit, and that suuuucks. Four: To the shapers- You guys made my first (almost) year at Underworld one of my best LARP experiences ever. Five: To Ivanna and Dan...You two can read ALL of this as applicable to you. Ralinwood feels like a second home to me and the winter will be filled with prepping for the Spring.