Ok, I'll have a go at some better feedback. I just wish it wasn't so hard to "get it all out" in text.
The vast majority of the event was definitely and firmly in the "good" category. Really the only problems I had was that Saturday morning was very, very slow, and with some of the "wandering monster" activity.
For the former, I completely understand how it was precipitated by a lack of NPC staff, combined with said NPC staff staying up idiotically late into Saturday Morning (as did most of us). But I think it was a hugely missed opportunity to have low-key NPC interactions with the PC base. Plenty of us would have been completely satisfied with common NPC's coming to use - things that would have added a great deal to the atmosphere of being in Gateway. In reality, it ended up feeling as if we were in some small camp on the frontier.
For the wandering monsters, I don't have the slightest problem with them existing. But Chris (not to be confrontational, just constructive) the timing could have been better, several times. Many times, you hit us as we were getting some (in my opinion) important roleplaying description or NPC interaction with the GM running the plot we were on, and suddenly we are being attacked by something random that derails everything. It was exceptionally hard to settle into the plot with the Knights of the Green, because you attacked us
three separate times in one plot, and the guy you were playing who swung a whole bunch of "shatters" (who couldn't be reasoned with, and didn't (seem) to suffer from much damage or effects) was completely over-classed for a group that was mainly there for the roleplaying.
Overall the monsters in the event as a whole were good, but it still seems that most of them are showing up as entirely one-dimensional living missiles that can't be reasoned with or demoralized by our shows of force. Almost nothing ever seems to retreat from us, but fight to the end instead. Also, it seemed that the damage threshold was
really high this event. I have a 26 soak, and was constantly being forced to operate in a combat scene at 3-4 LP, and I have Advanced Healing and wasn't even seeing as much combat as some.
I felt that as a player who can swing "2" as a base, and with what is quite a heavy, short and slow phys-rep when I compared it to the NPC weapons, I was feeling entirely outclassed and ineffectual.
It seemed that if a monster didn't swing at least "2" (usually dual wielded), it swung 1 vorpal or crush. Rapid-fire dual-wielded "3 vorpals" with apparent immunity to Charm- Calm as also a "bit" much, I would think, when in the late night Saturday battle we had to fight several of those monsters. As much as I don't like saying it, it was enough that I honestly don't think that a good deal of people were tracking their damage accurately, because no one ever (seemed) to fall or need healing.
But.....all else was cool.
I liked the camp, and how a low knowledge of it's layout made for a very in-game feel of a new location that none of us has been to before. The entry into the area from the portal Saturday night REALLY made the entire event for me, because all too many times we just "appear" in the main building after the game-on meeting. So much more immersive- do it again!!
I also liked the plot Mike led us on during late Friday night. It was just a run simple adventure, with a good balance of brevity and seriousness. Half the time we were guffawing about going back to town with twice the number we started with (including a Goblin, a Wood-nymph, and a dominated Umph-big) and then five minutes later I am deep into a roleplaying moment as Marcus, coming to the stark cold realization that we might have to deal with the spirit of a dead unborn baby, and how to break to that group that such a "Noble, Good Knight" came to that realization, even thought the poem we were following seemed to spell that out.
Also, I felt like a hero upon getting my small posse together and freeing the woman and her daughter that we met on that same plot, using the mirror. It's exactly what "good guys" would do.
Also, the plot to get the mirror brought unexpected gains, considering how much PC dread was brought up with being warned about how the call of 'Drain Life" would make an appearance. Satisfying life-wanting spirits by healing them, instead of just "banish"-ing them was an interesting thing to happen upon.
Finally, Brad and his "Knights of the Green" plot was awesome. It really let me showcase Marcus and how I want to be seen by others as him, and I felt really cool when Blythe actually came to find me to help, just by how I act as a character. So at least for some, my in-game interactions are being taken to heart. It could have not involved any combat in the least little bit, and I would have walked away from it happy and satisfied. Good job.
And actually Robin, we are doing at least some small, important good in the world to reverse the damage wrought by the cataclysm. In the Knights of the Green plot, we helped a knightly order that was oath-bound to spread a life-giving plant that cleansed the land around it.
Nellie will now be in a corner, stressing over the fact that we have less than 5 months and she has no iota of a clue as to whether or not the town acquired what they needed from Gateway to revive the land so that nobody's going to starve and die when Plank Tennyson dies.
This is now only the second time I have heard something like this referenced, and both times as a slight mention, without any explanation. I don't think that 90% of the player base even knows about it in the slightest. I would definitely spread the info that Nelly knows as an in-game post for everyone to read. I know what hearsay I have heard is disturbing, both to in-game Marcus and out-of-game to C.J.