August 2013 Feeback

What did you think of the last event? Post your opinions and disucss the comments of others here!

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Sandra
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Re: August 2013 Feeback

Post by Sandra »

Sorry that it has taken me so long to post feedback but real life got in the way and to be honest I was really trying to take the time and think about the whole event. Over all I LOVED IT!!!! so hear it goes
The good- I would also have to agree with almost every one, it seems that the low PC turn out was a positive in this case. We all seemed to be able to work together and be able to get stuff done. The GM and NPC staff you guys were awesome the whole time. I know that it had to be hard to keeping going when there were so few of you. Over all the plots that I went on seemed to be well balanced for the crew that we had and there were many times where I felt that death could have come a knocking at any moment.

Bad- Again the late check in on Friday I think was a problem. I understand why it was so but that led into a late night Friday and a very Late Start on Saturday.
~ I feel like the info dump when we first started caused a lot of confusion and that we had no idea where to start so that left a lot to do after game break when we finally had everything figured out.
~ Also night fighting was a problem with this camp. People were trying to use flashlights to help but i can not tell you how many times i took a light in the eyes balls...remember guys and gals always point it straight down, there are short people (like me) out there!!!!
~ I did find it interesting that we only saw the red tear a total of 3 times from I can remember and two of those were really big fighting scene... I would have thought that the would have been more out randomly in the world spying on us or trying to trick us into doing something else. (just thinking out loud).
~ And also there were a few times that there was GM and NPC miss communication...only a few times but I thought that it should be said.
~I would also have to agree that all of us trying to sleep in one building was hard but we made it through!!!

~This is not just for this particular event but it is something that I have been noticing for awhile. I miss the feel of always having to be aware of your surroundings...I hate the fact that we just walk from point A to point B and we never get attacked anymore. In fact this is where I hear a lot of out of game discussions going on ( I am just as Guilty)I feel that this takes us out of the world. I remember when we had to walk in silence just in case something heard us or so we could hear someone approach...Maybe I am missing something in the world or what not but i thought that there were bad things all around us and we had not made the perfect world yet.

Over all I had a GREAT time and I hope that I can make it back for the next one!!! Love you all!!!
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Re: August 2013 Feeback

Post by GM-Taki »

Congrats folks, you've now guaranteed that all three prizes will be up for grabs at the next event.

By my count, we're only a couple of players shy of the 100% feedback 1 gold payout! I think it's down to Kya and Mahto who have yet to leave feedback, so get on them and make me pay!
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Re: August 2013 Feeback

Post by GM-Mike »

Funny, I didn't think you have left any feedback either or do you not count in the 100% :)
I did find it interesting that we only saw the red tear a total of 3 times from I can remember and two of those were really big fighting scene... I would have thought that the would have been more out randomly in the world spying on us or trying to trick us into doing something else. (just thinking out loud).
Hmmm, I wonder if that actually did happen...:)

Great feedback everyone. I've been embarrassed this year with the late check in. This will be a point of emphasis at the next event.
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Kaylan Chargeender
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Re: August 2013 Feeback

Post by Kaylan Chargeender »

so to rectify the late check in you and Jarod will be at the camp the Thursday before the event....just wating wiht excitement for the 1st player to arrive right?
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Nick
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Re: August 2013 Feeback

Post by Nick »

If by excitement you mean me dual-wielding "1 vorpals," yes.
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Re: August 2013 Feeback

Post by GM-Phil »

Bring it on pretty boy.. :twisted:
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Re: August 2013 Feeback

Post by GM-Taki »

Mike, while I will leave feedback, I do not count towards the 100% for the cash payout. If I did, I could save myself 14 gold by just not posting feedback, but not even I am that much of a dick.

Brian, however... ;)
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Kaylan Chargeender
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Re: August 2013 Feeback

Post by Kaylan Chargeender »

Hey you promised you wouldnt tell anyone that I made that suggestion to you ya traitor!!!

Nick...take him out!
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Mahto Snowbringer
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Re: August 2013 Feeback

Post by Mahto Snowbringer »

Yo, sorry for the late response. Going off to college soon, and have been very busy.

GOOD STUFF
-I've only recently started coming but this was BY FAR my favorite event.
-Great to have a little group instead of the ARMY that is usually there. I thought the smaller group made it so everyone was necessary and it gave everyone a chance to learn everyone's names.
-The camp was close to me, which was nice. But, I heard it sucked for everyone else.
-This sounds crazy but I liked how dark it got. Fighting baddies in pitch black seems more realistic (on the other hand it opens up more room for serious injury which isn't good). Also, past times I've heard people complaining about players bringing light sources to battles...but, would Haven really go to a battle at night WITHOUT a light source? Maybe I'm getting too into the role playing but I would think there would be a couple of lantern bearers (people in back perhaps) unless it was a strictly stealth mission.
-I was always busy, which was AMAZING. I want to be on plots all the time and having my fair share of combat! The GMs did an awesome job with plots this event!
-GM's were really lighthearted and had a good sense of humor, always a blast to fight with people who are laughing along with you!
-Really liked how everyone was open to new ideas when it came to dealing with plots.
-Me and Marcus being the only banishers was both scary and fun. It felt good to be the one hiding behind people charging up this time.
-Battle strategies were mainly awesome. But, sometimes people need to think about other players getting stuck places/being attacked when they can't handle it. Also, if you can't fight someone one on one don't run at them fifty feet away and complain when you get KOed.
-Loved the Air gem plot and the Fire gem plot. Working with things that can throw you off cliffs is crazy.
-I don't care what my brother said, there was no need for a Red X plot this event.
-This is more of an in game problem...but is everyone in Haven REALLY okay with just torturing people...seems...evil.
-Taki, I think this was you, thank you SO MUCH for bringing water!
-Found it really cool to be the only Ga'vin.
-I think one of the reasons this event was fun is because the small group gave Mahto a lot of time to gain respect with everyone in town.
-I love undead squogs and I will do almost anything to get one.

BAD STUFF
-Players, don't doubt your fellow player. Everyone should receive the same respect, unless there is an in game reason for your character not to listen to them. I spent a while talking to Korrigan about battle strategies that would most likely not work and he lived through it, the least everyone can do is give all players (including new ones) the time of day.
-When your character is in a place of command...and you tell everyone to RUN LIKE MAD...I will sprint my way back to the inn...everyone else should run too, including the person who commanded it. This happened to me like three times this event- I was halfway back to the inn all by myself because I actually ran, and I HATE running. NPCs, honestly if we start runnin you should try and get us. Look, I understand running freaking sucks. So then don't SAY your going to run...because the people who actually take role playing seriously will book it.
-GMs I was really really sad when our tactics didn't work because y'all ran away, not really a complaint, just disappointed by the outcome.
-For me, I get really out of character when it gets late. So, super sorry about that.
-I'm really tired of people extending their arms out so they can hit you in the back with their swords/claws when they are in front of you. I'm pretty sure it's "charging" so please stop.
- General fighting role playing. Is it really so hard to act like you're taking blows? Like, in the heat of the fight you might not take the rapid one's and two's coming your way, especially when you have a ton of soak. But, when your AC runs out and your CR are done for, you should be acting like those blows are hitting your body, that's why it's called Live Action Role Playing. Especially calls from archers and rogues, no one really just shoves off a 9 vorpal magic kittens poison whatever arrow.
-It'd be cool if NPC's when asked "what are you" they answered more than just "a guy" or "a zombie" mainly I'm taking about times where the NPC and PC are circling each other and what-not. For example if an NPC is wearing full plate it might become part of the players battle tactics. Just an idea.
-I was late, which sucked, but when I asked players about where we were I got a lot of different answers. Either the GMs need to explain the setting better or the PCs need to listen better. Most likely a bit of both.
-On the topic of listening...I understand some people suck with names, but there wasn't that many people. My name is Mahto Snowbringer not Mutu and Dakota's name is Zandron not Zandros.

On a personal note my brother and I didn't get to play our "Jamaican" characters this event. Which was a shame, next event we'll be sure to play them for a little bit!

That's all I can think of, it was seriously awesome!

-Jacob/Mahto Snowbringer.
Mahto Snowbringer:
Commodore of Haven's Royal Navy
Commandant of Haven's Marine Force
Leader of The Savage Phoenix Tribe and their village of Dar’dakous
Captain of "The Chimera"

“Fortune Favors the Brave."
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Jamie
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Re: August 2013 Feeback

Post by Jamie »

This was the most fun event I've had in a while, I think :) The air gem plot was awesome, I hope we see more terrain puzzles in the future. The pieces of paper that were used for the floating islands got kind of torn up rather quickly, though, something a little sturdier might have worked better. (I don't know, maybe, like, paper plates or something?) I appreciated the GMs allowing me to get some benefit out of my wings, that pretty much made the event for me (and you all said having wings grafted to my back by a mad scientist would be a bad idea! Hah! :D )
I did absolutely love the grounds at this campsite. We had some lovely sites for battles. Having just the one building that most of us were staying in kind of sucked - I heard that there were other cabins but also that they were pretty far away, and by the time we got there Friday night I was lucky to find the main building. I think if we go back there I may just set up a tent somewhere. ...That reminds me, if we end up at another new camp where our building's not right at the front of the camp, could you all-powerful wonderful GM people maybe put some signs up to direct those of us who get easily lost and confused? It'd be very much appreciated.
Pacing seemed much better than the last few events, not nearly as much of a saturday morning downtime. :) It *did* get a bit hectic Saturday night, but I think that was because we just didn't have enough people to do more than one thing at a time.
I do hope we get to have a red x plot next time, I'd like to see one eventually. :)
I know getting research back on a timely basis has been an issue in the past - I've been getting all mine back at the next event lately, so, keep that up! yay!
Ooh, one more thing. The cave that sometimes had a door at the back? There *needs* to be an actual opening if you expect players to walk through - a small gap that's closed at top and bottom doesn't really work for people wearing long skirts, or corsets, or wings, or carrying giant swords - leave a door and block it off with a rope or a ribbon you can tie shut when people aren't able to go through it, or something. That'd be nice.
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Nellie Duncan
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Re: August 2013 Feeback

Post by Nellie Duncan »

Right, feedback time.

A final ruling needs to be done with Armor Repair and Healing – having the GMs ‘speedup’ the time between combat scenes in the dungeons constantly is both a boon (who doesn’t want to be fully prepared for the next battle scene, while still running on their adrenalin rush? Plus the less time spent ‘fixing’ people means more plots the players can go on.) and a curse (no chance to actually roleplay should you be inclined to do so, making those that require the use of your skill get to know you, or giving the player with the skills the option of refusing service for whatever reason).

The Healing play test has been going on for over a year now, and from what I hear everyone enjoys it and wants it implemented as the new Healing definition. I’ve yet to hear anything bad about it from any of the players themselves. The Armor Repair play test over in Winter Haven is phenomenally great, makes sense in the idea that Heavy armor takes longer to repair than Light armor, gives the armor repairers more mobility in combat scenes then being sitting ducks for 5 minutes, allows the armor to hold the points its already been repaired at should the repairer be interrupted, and takes less time between combat scenes in plots for the repairer to fix people’s armor. That the two armor repairers in game this event were allowed to switch to that play test it helped tremendously – you guys don’t want us holding up the plot, and we don’t want to spend what seems a good quarter of our event just repairing peoples armor and not *playing*.

While the ratio of players to GM & NPC staff was closer to perfect than it has been for a while, you need to recruit a larger dedicated NPC staff. While I know asking the player set for assistance has been the answer lately to even the scales in combat situations to give a good experience to the players on a plot, it does cut into the time a player paid to play – there should be some sort of compensation for that, even if it’s a pittance.

I've also heard that the GM staff is considering limiting the in-between events action submissions that do not have skill abilities attached. While I understand logistically why you would consider doing this, please note (both GM staff and players, later mostly the players) that the *reason* people think they can get so much done is because of the issue of time - between events is typically between 4 to 10 weeks (not including the major winter downtime, which skips over the one day event and is more like half-a-year). Conversations with an NPC only takes a few hours in real life. Tracking a specific NPC down may take a few days depending on what that NPC does for a living. This and other such small time-consuming errands doesn't often translate into the entirety of the months of in-between events that actually passes, unless a lot of them occur.

Now, in regards to learning something like a skill or recipe or doing something constructive like building a city, I understand that that *would* take a hefty amount of time and concentration, spanning anywhere from weeks to months to years depending on the difficulty of what is trying to be learned and done. It's why certain Research requests (which is an actual skill one buys with character points), even with the aid of a person knowledgeable in the subject or something to experiment on, can by the rule set take up to multiple events of Research to gain the total results of your efforts WITH NO GURANTEE OF RESULTS (it says so right in the description of the Research skill). The results of an in-between events action without support of a skill or help in some way should NOT overshadow the results of an in-between events action with skill support (something a character has invested their background and limited resources into doing correctly). As such, players should understand that the time one puts into *learning* without using the Research skill or some form of help needs to be doubled or tripled or have less thorough results than if you had used the ability STILL WITH NO GURANTEE OF RESULTS.

That being said, I enjoyed the event immensely, I'd be sad if you limited the amount of actions a player can do between events, and think the late start was good considering the trouble people had finding the place. There was plenty to do, little time to do it, and finally getting clarifications on the year-long plot was tremendously stress-relieving.
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Re: August 2013 Feeback

Post by Kya »

I had a lot of fun at this event! Every one was super nice and welcoming and I felt really comfortable. Almost everyone was patient with me as I figured out what was going on and basically how to LARP. I thought the pacing of things was really good and I liked the small group size. This was my first time at Final Haven so I don't have much to compare it to, but all in all I had fun and look forward to coming back.
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GM-Taki
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Re: August 2013 Feeback

Post by GM-Taki »

With Kya sliding in just before the deadline, I can happily say that we did it. Every player who attended the August FH event left feedback for the GM's (at least, now that I'm leaving my feedback, we have). Let's consider this the start of a new trend, shall we? Leave good feedback, keep on the other players to do the same and I'll keep the prizes coming. Chances are this will be the only time I do the 1 Gold payout for everybody, but every bit of substantive feedback makes the game better, so while it's already "worth your while" to leave feedback, I'll make it even more so.

I'll echo the near universal sentiment that the small number of PC's made this a very enjoyable event. Instead of coordinating multiple teams of PC's trying to accomplish various goals, it really felt like we were all on the same page. While I know this sort of low attendance is unsustainable as far as the health of the overall game, it was still a happy accident we had the players we did.

The plots I encountered were all quite solid, and it was nice to have some measure of explanation / direction for the final stages of the ritual / fight against the Master. While I'm still not at 100% with the information we need, I feel a great deal better than I did previously.

Sadly, having to duck out for the wedding when I did meant I can't give feedback on the elemental plots or the floating bazaar.

The book plot I watched and NPC'ed for seemed to have a nice mix of story and combat. The players seemed entertained and the encounters were challenging.

Both Red Tear battles were fun, and aside from the field being a bit wet, I thought they played out nicely. I would have liked it if our plans to assault the Red Tear camp had been at least somewhat useful, though. Our collective reaction to the way the Red Tear behaved was to blink rapidly and look at each other while mouthing "what the hell?" and then giving chase to the fleeing mages. It's so very rare that WE get to assault a known position and make a real battle plan that we're rather vested in it by the time we put it in motion.

Kudos to Nick for being the energizer bunny of NPC's and introducing me to my new "friends". Keep up the good work.

Thanks to Jared for playing through the pain, having the long economic talks and letting me cash in some angst-credit for my fellow PC's.

Thanks to Brad for his consistently amazing roleplaying and storytelling. We miss you as a PC, but you've found your calling.

Thanks to Mike for everything. Especially those moments when we, as an exhausted PC and random monster, just agree that you're dead and I'm at 5 HP instead of getting up and actually fighting out the encounter. Fuck it, we're getting old and we know how this is going to end. :)
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