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I'll finally chime in.

I guess I had an "ok" event. I had some gripes, but I really hate airing them, because I feel like a whiner, but here goes.

I echo sentiments that nothing really tied me to this event, though the NPC staff did a great job with what the staff had to work with. Such a huge agenda is completely unneeded, though, as from the player-base side it seems like the plots are just being machine-gunned at us. I want less plots, but at the same time making what's left to be slightly deeper and with a larger emotional connection to the characters.

I also saw nothing of the plots that had "research-able" endings, which I was eager to see. But of course that could be due to players not relaying information.

The one big plot(rescuing Ferguson) that I was waiting for during most of Saturday huge roleplaying purposes I completely missed because players jumped the gun, and after ending up sick in bed for the entire Saturday night of last Winterhaven it left me feeling pretty depressed about RP. I have to admit that for most of the event I felt like a third wheel, unless I was just hitting things in combat.

I also didn't get to check in until after game-on, and by then the player-base had already immediately shot off on a plot that I couldn't join because not only didn't I have scout, but they left no information whatsoever with the PCs that stayed behind. So I sat in the tavern without ideas to follow and really had a hard time getting into game. It was the same feeling with Fionna's brother. Everyone had already left before we could get back from our plot about the bracers, and we couldn't do anything about following them, so ended up stuck as NPCs.

Now, on the good side:

I had a ton of fun at both the plot utilizing the play, and the plot to get the mechanism that would remove the bracers.

The parts in the play were a good way to get us personally involved, though it was a bit funny when the creatures finally showed up and the people watching were pretty much paralyzed about what to do until some of us waded in and started swinging.

I also had a lot of fun with the puzzle during the bracer mechanism plot. It made us think, but at the same time wasn't 'brain-numbingly' hard, and even I felt useful with my theory about the gem's height above the ground playing a part- and I feel that I am pretty horrible at puzzles.

I have to admit, too, that I felt damn useful when it finally came down to the nitty-gritty of combat, because it seemed like 50% of the enemies at this event were supernatural, so I think my ability to Banish came in even more helpful than my Healing skills- especially with something like six other healers at the event- which is a nice change, lol)!

I also like that "Repel" was having a good effect on things. Kudos to the staff for reacting so quickly to a skill that is so woefully underused that most people don;t even know what it does. It's not often that a healer gets to run down fleeing enemies, and I definitely used my healing skill the most just to replenish my own LP drained by that skill, Soothe, and Calm.

Even after all this combat, though, I would like to see more plots where we are needed to go give humanitarian help to the people of Haven, but that also give everyone a job to do. Maybe come to the rescue of a small hamlet to give enemies to our warriors and rogues something to fight, while at the same time (or afterwards) giving the opportunity for us healers to directly treat and roleplay with NPCs villagers who were hurt before or during the fight, rather than just our own fighters as per normal.

It could have even been added to the end of the combat plots where the Ophidians (what I call the snake-men) were poisoning the fields. After killing them and finding we needed to cleanse the ground, it just....ended. I think there could have been some very cool RP if we had to help some wounded farmers, or add stopping them from being attacked by some of the Ophidians as an additional objective during the fight, rather than the old "kill everything that moves and loot the bodies".

Great feedback everyone and please, keep it coming. I wanted to chime in on the length of the agenda and to say I take it as kind of a compliment that we are the first LARP in history to get the complaint: there was just too darn much to do

I was thinking about this though and our now legendary 85 page agenda and I wanted to say that it really wasn't THAT long. Yes, that was the length, but it wasn't all plots. It included the script for the play and the seer visions and the puzzles, etc. This event was also predicated on the notion that we were going to give players choices. For example, do you want to take the long but easier path or the short but more dangerous path. Do you want to destroy the bracers this way or that way, etc. Thus, we wrote many plots that we knew would not be run--we just didn't know which plots those would be until you made your choice. We also included things that we have often just winged in the past, such as names (which we would later forget), much greater scene description (especially the troll plot that has gotten amazing feedback), and monster stats. So there was added stuff not normally there but that doesn't impact number of plots. In the end, even after taking that into account, the agenda was our biggest in terms of number of plots planned on being run, but not by as much as you might think. Scheduling plots every 15 minutes is routine for the bulk of an agenda. We space them out a little at the beginning of Friday, the beginning of Saturday, and the end of Saturday. In this agenda, we still had our usual after game break schedule, but the rest was a little bloated.

Now, onto the part I wanted feedback on. My theory is that it felt like we were machine-gunning plots, to steal CJ's phrase, because you were all in one location. Therefore, everyone got all the hooks instead of about half of them as before. We made no adjustment in our writing style to account for the consolidation (and in fact as mentioned, we even had half a dozen or so more plots than usual). Does this seem like a reasonable theory to everyone else? If so, about what fraction of the plots could go and have you feel like you had a full weekend? I think half the plots would be too drastic. 3/4s? I know it's tough to know with any kind of precision, but I was curious what people thought.

Well, depending on how much of the agenda we got through. I think if we had 20% or less of the total plots remaining (removing monster stats, scripts, and the unused 'fork-in-the-road' plots), I think that it was a good number to go with.

Regardless of how fast you act, think, or walk, there is no way any one person can be on every plot, even if you're there to hear every hook, and I think that's a good thing. I personally enjoyed hearing about two or three options at a time, then breaking off into groups to deal with them. It added a nifty element of choice to the game, rather than take every hook presented to you.

With the addition of NPC factions (which I love, by the way) like the Crimson Stars and the Knights of I Forgot Their Name, it will add a level of selection with plot hooks based on individual PC or group interactions with those factions. Add that in with the way hooks were sent in this event, and I think that, while it will be (more than likely) too much to accomplish in one event, and it'll add a level of immersion that I don't think I've ever seen.

Plus, on the RP side of things, most requests for aid should either go to the Inn (a place to find help), or the publicly known Queen Regent, and should be delegated from that level in my opinion, anyhow.

I really liked the quick pace of always having something to do. I realized how much after playing a local LARP this weekend that was much slower. more is better, at least for me.

you could also have an NPC come in asking for people to "run errends" or something as code word for who wants to NPC. I would probably go.

AT carps, they come down and pay pcs to "run errends" and then use them to NPC. I always thought that was a cool way to snatch up newbies, and people low on money and give them value for their time.

I think the amount of plot that came in was good. I think there may have been a stigma because you made it seem like there was a huge amount of stuff. In reality it just seemed like there was a good variety so if you didn't feel like saving the world you don't have to. [/url]

I would imagine that players who are used to getting involved on every plot and happening around Haven get more frustrated when there is so much going on and pulling in different directions than those who are paying less attention to everything going on and just go with the flow (or avoid them altogether *cough cough*) IF this is the case, perhaps it's just a matter of learning to accept that trying to be a part of everything will wear you out in those instances, or others may have to learn that there is more that can be done rather than waiting around for the big hooks to come in and clue-by-four them into what they're supposed to be doing when more options for scenes are available.

So long as the players aren't penalized for not following up with everything that comes at them just out of spite (made-up example: ignoring a small filler-plot of Farmer Bob who lost a goat in order to save the town from two DOOM plots during the event that had everyone's attention--the players could/should be allowed to follow up on it later if it's important rather than all of the food dying, or the likes because we were taking care of other things to save the town when it came in, or it was hooked with characters/players who didn't care.) Although, sometimes small reminders that "the small stuff" is important sometimes too aren't bad.