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.
