September Event Feedback

Post by **WayneO42** » Sun Sep 21, 2003 3:33 pm

Ok, Ok, dont keep me in suspense too long here. How did the event go? Did you have fun? Enough to do? How can things be improved?

Post by **Kale** » Sun Sep 21, 2003 8:11 pm

I'll probably post more at a later date, but here are my initial reactions:

1) I had a TON of fun!! (aside from some obvious mishaps)

2) I hurt. Everywhere. I love it!

3) I was afraid. I haven't been afraid in a very long time. I like fear at a LARP.

Post by **Kale** » Sun Sep 21, 2003 8:24 pm

I also want to say that I saw ALOT of AWESOME roleplaying. Mad props to everyone!

Kathryn Skress · Post by **Kathryn Skress** » Mon Sep 22, 2003 8:50 am

Again, props to all the NPC's! I loved it all. I'm totally exhausted and took a 4 hour nap on sunday.

I only had one teensy tiny complaint... I'm old. My old feet didn't care for walking the yellow trail three times in one weekend. I know that this was done for realism and realism is appreciated. But again... I'm old

Maybe some closer-to-home plots next time?

Post by **Kale** » Mon Sep 22, 2003 8:53 am

I'm actaully glad we walked those trails so many times. It makes me want to go out to that trail every so often while I am NOT at CARPS, just to get in shape again.

Peace420 · Post by **Peace420** » Mon Sep 22, 2003 9:59 am

Man I will never miss any FH time again if I can swing it. I absolutely love playing this game. Every event I have a point where I'm afraid that I'm gonna die and I love it. I personally like walking the trails and such it adds a little of the realism and also gives the PC's time to talk and get to know each other in the relatively safer trails.

As far as enough to do, for my character there is never enough time to do all that he wants to do.

kinrowan · Post by **kinrowan** » Mon Sep 22, 2003 11:31 am

Surprisingly, I made it to the event, and PC'ed for a change. My roleplaying was for crap, other than trying to take lots of notes, and running away a lot. Hopefully next time I'll have some fist phys-reps and can play the monk better, and stick my nose in more places to play a better curious sage

Oh yeah, and ear tips to play an elf.

Other than my failings, I thought the event rocked, and I was in fear for my character's life. Especially when fog rolled in with the piercing laser eyes, and I was being taken care of by Orcs who I'd called Ogres and generally looked like an idiot in front of. I'm surprised they didn't just pick me up and swing me for a few hits, for all I was worth

Nelkie · Post by **Nelkie** » Mon Sep 22, 2003 11:40 am

I enjoyed myself at the game. keep them coming.

Feed back:
Friday Night was slow and there was not much action!

The collecting of resources was very diffucult because there was not many resources givien out.

There is alot of unfinished plots out there. We keep getting moe and more, but have not completed the ones we have. We keep hitting dead ends and road blocks. I would love to finish some of the plots that where started at the first session.

Postive:
Loved the NPC costumes
The plots where great
The rules changes balanced the game
Combat is fun and dangerous. I fear my life when I go into battle. I love it.

Keep them coming

dier_cire · Post by **dier_cire** » Mon Sep 22, 2003 12:20 pm

Fear for your life in combat? Why? When you can take almost 50 damage and swing for 3? Oh, wait... nevermind.

Post by **GM_Chris** » Mon Sep 22, 2003 12:23 pm

LOL eric you wait till we get a couple empaths after you

-Chris

dier_cire · Post by **dier_cire** » Mon Sep 22, 2003 12:43 pm

Resist magic is a good thing.

Tonia Glowski · Post by **Tonia Glowski** » Tue Sep 23, 2003 12:18 pm

Okay... here's my feedback:

#1) Wow. It's difficult to see on paper how well the system works. The system is pretty smooth (especially for being new) and the skills and abilities for the most part are balanced. I was a bit afraid of the fact that skills generally don't have "per day" uses and wondered how out of hand things might get, but damn, it works well and now I'm thinking, "Why didn't I come up with that?" LOL

I think the time it takes to charge up or perform most activities (from what I've seen so far) is appropriate -- maybe just a bit longer on empath channeling, but I don't know all the mechanics or world structure, so it's hard to judge. All in all, I've been telling everyone I know what a sound and uncomplicated system Final Haven is. (There should be more systems like ours around, hehe.)

#2) Good mix of roleplaying. As the other post noted, we were a bit leary about bringing in such, uh, distinct personalities into a brand new group of gamers that we weren't very familiar with at all. I've heard some complaints about those that are in gaming groups that constantly work against the group or are continuous sources of obstacles to overcome by the main party to overcome, like you know, fixing the time-space continuum versus an orc's need for a shiny necklace or telling the humanoid that we needed to go "kill the ugly dragon" that was hidden beneathe his human appearance.

Everyone seemed to react the way that their characters would and there was a real in game effort made by many to try to "reason" with the orcs or at least find out what would motivate them and then manipulate them accordingly. By the way, to the one person that truly duped us (and you know who you are), thank you! It was done smoothly and we hate you for it!

The only complaint I had was that there was some difficulty in identifying who was in game versus who was out of game and who was what character. Even when the game clearly seemed to be "on," there were people talking about "e-mails" and "computers" and in a couple of instances, right after a mod, they'd break character and start "reviewing" the mod and revealing in game info. Part of this might be a different culture, if you will, of gaming, but some of it was a bit distracting as we try/tried to stay in game always. (We don't even have "game offs" in the middle of events, just to explain some of the different culture.)

#3) The game stop during the Roland inquisition was a little frustrating, BUT I think totally appropriate. There seemed to be a very serious rules interpretation question that needed to be addressed, as it would have most definitely affected how things would have turned out. My question is this: had it turned out that he should not have known what he did, what then? Do you retroact scenes? We're used to "play it out" and deal with it afterwards, but I don't think we've ever seen something of that magnitude, so now I'm just curious.

#4) Special effects on Saturday night were great. Whether planned or not, the pyrotechnics helped to roll in a fog that streaked across the field and introduce skeletons and zombies. It was especially great because it ended up only being six level one characters that were there to defend against it, and the six of us demonstrated how well things go when you work together... had we not... we would have all clearly died. And at one point, I was nine seconds away from dieing - I was so excited!!! That's the fear and excitement that I miss and that is lost on so many systems... which rolls into the next point.

#5) Your resurrection system, or better stated, lack thereof, is great. It totally works for your system and really introduces that element of fear of dieing. It lends itself well to the cataclysmic "Final Haven" ambience and if you are ever inclined to change it, DON'T! Please.

#6) This is somewhat of a game system critique: The almost total halt of development (i.e. Character Points) is a bit disconcerting in terms of explaining things in game. Why is it all of the sudden my ability to learn things is almost completely hampered? Yet, I can unlearn disciplines and learn with ease again. As a suggestion, if you wish to simulate the difficulty to learn advanced skills, then make them more costly.

As an aside, I like the fact that the game becomes so much more about roleplaying and politics. But you will always have those players (like the gal that plays Kathryn Skress -- sorry, I don't know your name) who want or need some development with their character, and you can't really blame them.

#7) There are some little kinks that I believe will work themself out, like proper verbals, tags and rules clarifications, but at this point in my feedback for the event, it's real little picky stuff that have nothing to do with my overall enjoyment of the game, only constructive suggestions to make the system more fluid.

#8) As for plot, I have a difficult time assessing that, because we got there once it was all described and nobody cared to explain it to the orcs and the orcs didn't know any better to ask. I'm curious to see how it all plays out though, so that's a good reflection on the fact that the plot was engaging.

Have I talked too much?

Tonia Glowski · Post by **Tonia Glowski** » Tue Sep 23, 2003 7:22 pm

Many of you don't know me personally, so you probably don't read the review the way it's meant, and that is:

99% fabulouso
1% here is the real picky stuff...

Remember, I'm a "GM" too and I've got to constantly think about the way FH's GMs are trying to present things to their populace and not necessarily the way I would have done things. My opinion is obviously totally skewed, because I have very little information about the world environment.

I loved the system and I loved the event. I will be back, on a regular basis if I can swing it, and this will be my "PCing time." I would and do highly recommend the system to others.

And Reid, you're right, I like the shift in focus from skills to politics, I am just a little confused about why then allowing people to unlearn things and learn new things so easily.

Please read my review as a "two-thumbs up" review and remember, I gave a very detailed review, because that's the kind I want as a GM, in order to grow and improve, even if only in tweaking.

dier_cire · Post by **dier_cire** » Tue Sep 23, 2003 8:42 pm

Didn't read it as anything other than that. Glad to hear you'll be back!

Post by **WayneO42** » Tue Sep 23, 2003 10:39 pm

Tonia Glowski wrote: Please read my review as a "two-thumbs up" review and remember, I gave a very detailed review, because that's the kind I want as a GM, in order to grow and improve, even if only in tweaking.

It wasn't taken as anything but.

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