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I am far more tired than I ought to be.

When packing I couldn't find my proper larp shoes or a cloak/coat I would usually wear for cold weather larping. I had intended to stay indoors for the ENTIRE event. So what did I agree to do? Go stand out in the cold with no coat on and walked around in snow deeper than my shoes were tall.

Only with the one day event from 2 years ago that took place across the street, I found that this was a lot more active of a one day even though there were A LOT less NPCs. I can say I didn't really care at all for the feel of the building itself, the characters and plots and happenings of all those who attended made it feel like a full event.

I did like the poem foretelling of the series of events when taken literal, and Robin's inside-out girl.

OMG!!! The food! I did laugh at "crock-pot city" but everyone who made and brought food - thank you! It was quite delicious. I would of ate all night if I had a bottomless pit for a stomach! I am looking forward to the Ball ball next year.

Thank you all for putting on a good show!

Thanks to Mike and Co. for letting me NPC at the one-day. There was a lot of great PC roleplaying. I had a very good time, enjoyed seeing everyone and I hope I was able to help make the event memorable. It was definitely weird being part of an only four-person NPC staff...I still feel we did pretty well. I need to remember to bring/wear some better/warmer gear for winter/cold events though; my thanks to the lovely ladies who helped me get feeling back into my hands after the battle with the Archmage.

Well...

I gotta say it, it was great coming back and getting my feet wet again. I had a great time at the one day. Gotta say it, the mage battle was a great way for get me back into Aurora's mentality and get a feel for things again. Much fun was had.

Very much looking forward to the first full event in April where we will all be able to be IC a bit more and have ourselves a great time.

Also, thank you all very much for making the one day fun for Dan as well.

-Julie

Even with a headache all day and night, I did have fun at the event. The food was a wonderful surprise. Was not expecting to get a full meal, yet people brought so many amazing and fantastic dishes that I was absolutely stuffed by the end.

Two minor caveats, though. First is I only got one Vision at the start of the event, and that Vision turned out to be utterly useless - which made the skill useless. I don't like having a useless skill. NPC Camp had come up with a great way to handle visions during the last event, it's disappointing it wasn't used here.

The second was the expectation that PCs should use OOG information as an in-game clue. One hint eventually given was "We only have four NPCs. One has been playing a drunk girl all day - clearly that character is very important."

The whole purpose for being there was for a celebration. That someone spends the whole day drunk is most definitely not out of the ordinary. Sure her clothes are on inside out, but that just means she had a good time the previous night. I made a concious decision to ignore her because - in-game - there was absolutely no reason to pay her any mind. To do otherwise would be bad RP. Same went for Slade - Queens guard, no need to worry about him. Yet, in the end, that's exactly what we were supposed to do for no other reason than the NPCs were devoting so much time to them.

Also, the end use of Tanya's power appeared more about swapping objects rather than turning things inside-out.

Gaming after the event was a hoot. Space Alert was incredible, if somewhat simplistic, with enough oddball aspects to give it real character (jiggle the mouse? Look out the window? Communication failures?).

The visions will go back the way they were last event at the next full event. We have typically done little with visions, scout hints, etc at one day events, simply to lessen our workload, which I udnerstand is not fair to you but we throw the one day to get together in the winter over a lower key event and some gaming fellowship. That said, this is a good lesson in how you're never really sure how good something is until it is interpreted/used by the player. We've had puzzles that I thought were easy that took full events and a hundred hints to solve and puzzles I've thought were hard be solved in minutes. Similarly with visions. Here. I thought I had given too much away, as the vision supplied you with the backstory of one of the major plots, of which there were only two. This same information was put into game much later and was used to get the plot moving forward so perhaps in vision form it was too vague and I will work on that.

As to your other exception, I agree that the hint should not have been given like that, but I needed the plot to take a giant leap forward and be done at this event as the one day is in a different location than normal game play and I didn't want this thing hanging out there. While I understand your point about role playing, I imagine that if we had this same plot where people put a lot of effort solving and took a lot of damage during battles and later found out the only way to solve it would be to have a sage or seer hint/vision because we simply couldn't spare the NPCs to interact with that people would cry foul as well. We're tellign a story here. We're telling a story with four NPCs while trying to combat everyone. Of course every character is going to be important and while yes, it might be bad role playing, what else do you suggest we do?

In case it's coming off wrong, I'm not trying to criticize your criticism. I'm just looking for solutions to this issue. When we have a full event and more help, we do have characters who are just for color and so assuming they are critical might be a mistake, but in this instance, what is the alternative for us so that it doesn't force yuou into bad role playing (i.e. assuming the person is key simply because the person is in game)?

It's not coming across wrong - I see your point of view.

There needs to be an in-game reason to make such a character stand out and be linked with the plot.

Simply standing out on it's own isn't enough - like the spectre that came to dinner. Clearly she stood out and got the interest of characters. But when questioning revealed she apparently had very little memory and was seemingly non-threatening, interest ebbed. With no agenda of her own and no display of aggression, the PCs were content to let her be. As such, can't be sure she was linked to any plot, or was just a color character.

Likewise, even if Tanya had been prone to magical outbursts that garnered PC concern and attention, there would still need to be something that actually linked her to the plot or the PCs would only focus on ensuring no one came to harm and nothing was destroyed.

If she revealed on her own the ability to turn things inside out, and the PCs were able to learn that the mage who trapped the King had constructed a protective realm guaranteed to keep what's outside out and what's inside in, the PCs could make the connection and decide to try her power out on it.

As it was, there was also no discernable link between the mage and the box she was hiding in. So even after the first attempt of bringing Tanya out into the field - resulting in the PCs present being trapped in the box - we had no way to connect that box with the mage. We had to associate it with Tanya's unknown and uncontrolled power, instead. On the contrary, my Recall hint on the physical box (that had to be disenchanted to free us) associated it with Shem, and indicated it had no connection with what was holding the King captive (ie. the mage).

Ovak Stonecrusher wrote:We're tellign a story here. We're telling a story with four NPCs while trying to combat everyone.

This has nothing to do with any of the above, but I LOL'd. I'm allowed to, right? Since I was one of the four?

It's funny because it's true.

I had a really good time dressing up in my new threads. Was lots of awesome.

The ruled. The cookof was great and the wedding went off with out a hitch.

I liked the poem plot even if I didn't particpate.

Good job npcs.

Ok I know, two weeks later is a bit late to post, but real life led to being away from the boards for a bit...

I had SO much fun at the event! The Shem plot was fun and so tempting to jump down the mole hole, even with the fancy dress on. Although I don't reccomend running through snow fields in a hoop skirt, it is quite a task to manage.

The wedding vow plot was very cool and it was way to amusing to see Mike and Adam reading the wedding vows back and forth in the snow and exchanging rings. I guess it makes Haven a progressive kingdom in respect to marriage! Although I know that last ineraction with Slade is going to come back and bite me in the ass...

The food was amazing, thank you so much to everyone who brought stuff! And I am SO glad I didn't end up judging the chili cook off.

I had some truly amazing character interactions this event, great roleplaying was done by all! From going adventuring with Morgan to flank the attacking elves, to poetry readings with Tyr, to Big Moma singing at the wedding, being taunted by the brothers for my "protection." And I've never been more disturbed in game than by Dallid's "mad skills" line. Can I say eeeeewwwww? Doug, I don't think I can look at you the same again!

Thanks to all for making it such a fun event and a memorable wedding. For anyone that's interested, the video is posted on my Facebook account.

And I have one last thing to say:

"The hat goes last!"