November event feedback

[dier_cire]

Sorry I missed this one, but my weekend was already booked and I thoroughly enjoyed myself anyway!

However, I don't agree with every NPC being able to wear armor, use a shield, throw magic fear, '2 magic lash', and have upwards of thirty soak.

It was probably 22 soak to be exact, since I know that PC build. It's only a 20th level character. And yes, an empath can wear armor and use a shield.

[General Maximus]

As a combat NPC I had fun and I hope I made fighting a challenge for folks and fun for those who like that.

I do applogize for starting the battle machine gunning. My adrilne was up and was excited. I slowed down after being call out on that.

Here is a little explination of stuff
1. I know there was folks not happy about how quickly the enemy elves repoped when 1/2 the town was down outside the gates. We where trying to repersent about 63-75 elves attacking you. Yes you would kill one, but there where many more coming in after them. So I hope this explains why we repop so quickly. I tryed to say that one of mine went down, step back and than quickly get back into battle.

2. I would like to address the empath with a shield and having a lot of soak. Yes, it was me! It is possible to make an 20th level empath tribal protector with a soak of 18-20 with in the current rules with no special items. I did get beat on, dropped back, got healed, and went back in. So it would seem I had a lot of soak. Not to menition the resist's I had to lower the damages.

3. The trusting of the sword complaint. What was happening? Where some of the NPC's hitting to hard with the trust attack's? I know I used all my tricks to make the battle epic and diffucult. That included trust attacks because that was the only way to get past your defense I appolgize if I poked anyone to hard.

4. I also know there where times I would find my self to close to folks with my shield. When I realized this, I tried to pull back. I know that can fustrating and it was not on purpose. Just alot of people battle for a long time. Accidents happen

Kudos
1. Great stragety to those who hit me on the back to posion me or disarm me. I lost so many characters to that attack. But it was great!
2. I know a couple of the empaths where get fustrated with the resist magics calls. But you kept it up and did take out the enimes with out the resists. They did not last long. Great job.
3. Kudos to all the healers that through there bodies over the fallen to protect them from elven attacks. Great job!!!!
4. Kudos to the warriors who defend the healers and the clock. You guys took a betting but kept it up! You saved many lives with your selfless acts.

Overall I had fun and I hoped I helped make the battle fun and dangerous for people.

[Zeira]

I would like to address the empath with a shield and having a lot of soak. Yes, it was me! It is possible to make an 20th level empath tribal protector with a soak of 18-20 with in the current rules with no special items.

Yep. And if you are using a shield no.

Race: 2 (1 if your an elf)
Garb: 2 (Your an NPC but we'll throw this in anyway)
Lifestlyle: 3
Armor: 4 (0 if you are using a shield at the same time you use empath abilities)
Level: 1
Disciline: 2
Path: 2 (I'm gonna assume warrior)
Buff: 2 (We'll just assume its a sage buff for simplicity)
Helm: 2
Total: 18 (14 with shield in your hand and able to use empath abilities because of armor restrictions)

I had a lot of fun at the event. As usual I got in trouble multiple times (Robin and Chris). Food was awesome as always. Gm's were accomidating to me when I asked to do things that were weird. Thanks to Atreus, Orien, Shae for helping me with Malachi. Sorry to Serrith and Mohdri for attacking you. I had a lot of fun and it was great to get Haven back even though I had never been there. Props to everyone for the great roleplay and all the memories. Zeira will not be at FH next year but Kiel will be. Thanks to Julie for all the good cookies, Taki for the songs, and Npc's for the fights. Also want to thank Taki's friend for the pictures. Also there was barely any out of game. Props to everyone on that one.

I was confused about upkeep but I'm certain the off-season will fix all things. Same thing with rule clarifications. See you guys at the wedding!

Edit: To add feedback (Sorry Angie) and adjust numbers (Dammit Nelkieyou were right!)

[Zydana]

Hey, I just want to note that this is the feedback thread. If you wish to further discuss the above, perhaps you should take it to another thread as I'm sure many do not wish to derail the feedback posts.

please & thanks.

[Jaycen Blackhawk]

I had a fun weekend.

For the first time I felt like part of the Final Haven game. Previous visits have always left me feeling disconnected. A simple conversation early Saturday morning along with an offer of great power finally had me feeling connected.

The were a few great moments for me:

Standing around for Fionna's reunion was probably the greatest moment of the weekend and one of my Top 5 LARP moments of all time.

Taking the tower. Too bad I couldn't hold the tower. (I didn't know there were two sets of stairs.)

Dying. I had a good death.

Thanks for the fun event.

I did have problems with the constant Game Stops throughout the assault. I understand sometime logistics can be a nightmare so I forgive that, but I see them as a bad thing when they are called because of magic being used.

Others have brought up the concerns I have about machine gunning and not taking blows or reacting to them. I am also not a fan of the ankle biting style of combat being used.

My body aches and my knee is not working so I'd have to say the weekend was a success.

[Kalphoenix]

I didn't really read over the rest of the posts yet, and I'll save specifics for pms and keep it general here:

Cons:

When people didn't take the initiative to start cleaning on their own aroud 11AM Sunday, Melissa made a reminder and most folks started doing something (That there was a TON of stuff to do that hadn't been started on yet), and at least one person who has been around long enough to know better, instead of helping or packing, got up and walked outside and sat down to proceed to chatter with folks there. You know who you are and that was completely unacceptable.

My second concern involves everyone, NPCs and PCs and is something I saw a lot this event: Going to Town and getting all adrenaline'd up. Since this was something I saw on BOTH sides quite blatantly, it's not relegated to NPCs or PCs. I didn't see a problem with this with the new people (From just this year or even more recently), the most blatant offenders were the veterans. The kind of stuff I am talking about:

Overly aggressive swings. Yes, it's a LARP, yes we all should expect a certain amount of pain/injury/discomfort/risk, but people have to go back to the real world at some point.

Unsafe lunges/rushes in fighting. Despite MULTIPLE announcements, this is still happening.

If someone asks you to stop doing something (Shield-bashing, machine-gunning, charging, whatever), just take it into consideration and slow down your swings and watch your actions whether you THINK you were doing anything wrong or not. Stop getting angry and defensive about it and just REALLY think about what you are doing when you are attacking instead.

Don't get pissy if someone takes a shot to the face, hands or genitals and chooses not to take the damage. I personally try to take counts in these areas unless it hurts when delivered. If you don't like that though, get the rule changed or STFU and stop bitching about it.

NPC thing: I got really bored and annoyed with fighting most NPCs fairly quickly when about 80% of the ones I faced were uber-elite with +30 soak and uninterrupted charging of channels/skills.

I guess that's related to my other issue, some of the calls were really stupid big or just plain weird, like the maximum life drains during the Friday puzzle. I realize these were big plots and I'm less inclined to complain now (because we got some pretty major help during the battle), but for chunks during the event I was really irked and annoyed, rather than impressed and immersed.

I think everyone had negative comments about all the long game-stops during the battle, but I really don't see how it could have been helped either.

A lot of players seemed really apathetic about the events taking place, which is probably a result of mass Apocalypses. I don't think the difficulty helped the experience, I think it actually hindered people's ability to stay in character, there seemed to be quite a bit of meta-gaming mentality going on from both NPCs and Players.

For an example, as PCs attempting to ambush an elven troop (with the mage), the NPCs already knew where we were, because the NPCs could see us from where they were, out-of-game setting up. This is fine, however, but for some reason, just before they got to us, they knew in-character where we were too. Maybe there was something else going on that I didn't see though, since I was hiding. I first thought maybe it was the blockade of trees we had made to slow them down, but since this was ignored and just ran through as if it didn't exist (Again, probably a logistical issue), this wasn't the case. On the PC side, a lot of OOG brainstorming out loud during game-offs. I myself am guilty of this and had to bite my tongue several times turning game stops to keep me from making suggestions.

This one is the hardest and most difficult to deal with, because no one is really going to give much on either side, but the above contribute to a really shitty attitude where PCs and NPCs get ticked off and fudge on things because they feel the other side "isn't playing fair" and they feel they have to compensate. The WORST offenders of these combat faux paus and other unpleasantry were long-time veterans who ABSOLUTELY know better.

Other Better Moments:

The stern Caledonian matriarch. No idea who she was (I missed the Caledonia games I think), but she was impressive and she was really fun to listen to talk to people, very no-nonsense.

The captured Elven Mage shooting scathing comments and the like at us in elven, particularly directed towards her elven interrogator. Never mind none of us (at the time) could speak it, the intention was pretty clear.

The PC's planning, strategy and (mostly) managing to pull it off. The fact that most everyone cooperated to do so.

Hiding out in the bathroom after going through the portal into the keep and trying to stay quiet. Yay candy!

Aurora and Delayne in the keep FTW. 'Nuff said.

Our very busy healers and body-grabbers throughout the event, major props especially to our elven healer/interrogator who was constantly coming up with great ideas.

Flexibility on the part of the GMs for rulings and such. I was VERY impressed with this and saw very few arguments when players brought up a concern which helped both the flow and tension in a huge way, especially considering my other concerns.

Barely missing a few packet chucks at me while in the keep and getting hit by at least one or two because I was overwhelmed and wasn't paying attention.

The physreps were very neat for the riddle and the clock. I noticed the sensitivity of both of them, but with the clock I just figured that, IC, it probably was supposed to be, whether it was or not.

The fact that I had to help kill or threaten to kill a bunch of people who may or may not have been trying to help us (including some of our friends), just to keep them away from the clock when we were trying to keep it set. If you were too close and refused to back away when someone told you to, you were going to die, sorry.

Definitely nice to see some older and newer faces in addition to the ongoing ones.

Several staffies amusing me OOG really kept my spirits up throughout the weekend. Thanks!

Overall:

While I personally had a hard time getting into the weekend, I'm not sorry I went, either.

My main complaint is that some of the "we're out to get them" seemed to get kind of vicious in an OOC way, sometimes complete with unapologetic OOC snapping and rudeness. I think if it hadn't been for that, I'd have been more satisfied.

But all that being said, as always, I enjoy going to the events to see and "play" with people I don't see all that often. THAT is something I ALWAYS enjoy, no matter what else happens.

[Fionna]

Stark, I feel privileged that a scene I was involved in ranks in the top 5 LARP moments for you. I know how long you've been doing this. That moment was THE BEST role playing I have ever been involved in, Thanks again Karen.

[Jaycen Blackhawk]

Stark, I feel privileged that a scene I was involved in ranks in the top 5 LARP moments for you. I know how long you've been doing this. That moment was THE BEST role playing I have ever been involved in, Thanks again Karen.

Ditto the thanks to Karen.

I'm glad I happened to be in the right place at the right time.

Jaycen is a character that is so close to my heart, knowing how he responds and reacts is second nature and being able to watch that moment of privacy without interfering is why I LARP.

[Esmerelda]

I have to say I thought it was awesome that Esmerelda didn't cry this event, yet I got to be a part of scenes where 2 different characters were crying. (albeit for two totally different reasons- one person was extremely happy and the other felt they'd betrayed someone very close to them) Just goes to show how awesome of RPers we have!

[GM_Chris]

Deleted Chuck's Post.

He didnt say anything bad, but it was already mentioned.

NPC's if you have complaints about PC's lets direct that in private this is not a us against them type of thing, and I KNOW that was not Chuck's, or anyone elses intent, so I am heading off any possible missunderstandings if you get my driff.

Thanks

[Atrum Draconus]

OK people, whoever did the Cookie profile, HILARIOUS!!! But I'm still knocking yo ass out next time I see you.

I said a long long time ago that this game had the best role playing that I've seen at quite a few games I've been to. I stand by that assessment to this day. So many of the young and new role players have come along in such a short time and the long time players continue to amaze me. I can't say thank you enough to everyone I interact with IC at these games.

On the fighting end it was great to see Vince, Nelkie and their giants shields out there, it makes for a hard fight every time and I only wish Ried could have made it out too. The more good fighters helping out the GM's, who are all formidable themselves, makes for a more complete event to me. Kudos to all the GM's and NPC's for presenting a tough tough challenge. Whoever shot me inthe back with that 9 vorpal arrow, AWESOME shot! I don't think I've ever felt as useful in a big battle as that one, I felt like my 9 poisons were effective and that being a pretty sneaky person made a big difference.

Atrum was in a very tough spot this event because he felt like losing the last elf battle fell mainly on his shoulders but he didn't want to step on Es's toes in the process of trying to make up for it. Now he feels like he did all he could to take Haven back and can live comfortably in his own skin, which he hasn't been able to do since Burning Skulls.

As far as cons or concerns.
I don't like the packet 18's that just seems like too much since there is no resist to it at all and packets surge.

I understand that with arcane there needs to be some game stops but it seemed like an awfully long time at the beginning of the battle.

There shouldn't be people OOG hanging out in the battle area during a big fight. It's confusing to the PC's when there is a large group of people in one place and some of them are OOG and some IG.

All in all I had a great time.

[Esmerelda]

I believe we have "Uncle Korrigan" to thank for Cookie. In more ways than one...

[General Maximus]

I hated your 9 vorpal posions to my back. I got plenty of them and they stopped me right in my tracks. I had to retreat back many of a time because of them.
Yeah, you where very sneaky and deadly. Job well done Atrum (Erik)

BTW - Job well done by all the PC's! You all survived and won. What else can be said. You did it!!

[Rothek]

general thoughts as a first time larper:
i never thought i would have as much fun as i did at these events, i had a great time and am looking forward to the next season.

now to the feedback

i dont want to say anything was "bad" per say so how 'bout i call them "concerns"

turtling or ankle biting or whatever you want to call it: i saw both pc and npc do it alike even though i heard almost every one agree at gameon meeting that it was bad and not to do it,

machine gunning: i understand getting the adrenaline going during an epic battle scene but there was a lot of it going on, i am guilty of it as well, however thats why i try to use big phys reps to reduce it as much as possible

charging: this is a major concern to me, because it is brought up at every event and yet it still happens repeatedly! if you are close enough to someone to where you are physically touching them, YOU ARE TOO CLOSE!! there was a time during the final battle where i lost my temper over this, i apologize to the npc and all parties that were involved in that tirade.

okay now that that's out of the we can get to the good stuff

bringing in my new character was great!! seeing the different reactions towards vaaldrenaal were awesome role play by those that came in contact with him.

being the only dwarf in the party that went to save the girl from the dreaming and being told about the bracelet that controlled the obsidian golems and then being able to role play ulfgar freaking out about them because they were real, huge props to Brett, robin and all who were a part of that plot.

and then the victory party in haven....
all i can say is.. TWO BOATS!!!!
ESMERELDA AND ATRUM HAVIN A BABY AND IT NAME A COOKIE!!!


i could go on and on and on..
overall it was a great time, i am very sore and tired and have coined a new phrase known as the "larp hangover"
thanks to mike, karen, chris, jared, dave, amanda and all who made this event so memorable.

[Aurora]

Btw kudos to Amanda when in my squeeky voice the mage ran after the river of stone and Aurora called out very aggressivly for someone to kill that elf.



The squeel was PRICELESS.