Seeking Celebration Input

[jducoeur]

BTW, I don't think I've said this in quite as many words: if folks have opinions about what did and did not work well in the game, I'd love to have you send me email, or respond to this note. I'm collecting these comments, so that if and when the game gets the rewrite that it needs, they can be taken into account.

(Yes, I ought to send an email to all players. But half of them are reading my blog, so this is a quick first step.)

Comments

[tpau]

hmm. don't tell peopel there are 2 of somethign if there are in fact 3...
make sure EVERYONE has plot. for real, nto jsut that you think they do. e.g. i had no plot. i WOULD have had plot had Chad not been coy with his character, but i had no plot until um, 10 min before game end...

[laurion]

Yeah, sorry about that. I read that there were certain paths that were put in my character sheet, but they were obvious false trails. And you'd told me enough for me to know that you were the piece of hte puzzle I needed, so I didn't really feel I needed to give you more information, just call on you when the time was right. Don't feel bad, I sort of pulled most things together right at the very end, especially because one of the pieces I needed (union of blood) did not grab my attention enough (my fault, likely) so I didn't try to figure it out until late in. Additionally, I wasn't set up to talk to most of the people I needed to talk to, and it was only through chance interaction with the shop teacher that I finally decided I had an ally who would actually be useful to me. (Note to the GMs: the only fae mentioned by name in my character sheet was someone I wasn't likely to work with. The only other fae mentioned was unreliable. The other people mentioned were not ones I wanted to reveal fey nature to, or were not designated one way or another. Imagine my surprise when finding out that certain people were fey at game start when I had no hint in my character sheet... but they clearly _looked_ fey to me)

So although it may not have seemed like you were involved in the plot, really, that's because I already knew what I needed to know, and knew that you were the puzzle piece I needed, and my character, being what he was, was disinclined to interact with your character, being what she was, any more than practically necessary.

[learnedax.livejournal.com]

Whereas some of us will share our opinions even when they are not asked for...

An actual piece of (hopefully) constructive commentary: although the truth ability you gave my character was one of the better-integrated ones I have seen, it still suffers from various issues. In specific if it is used on someone it will have a negative impact on any following discussion, which leads to not using it if you don't want to scare someone off. More generally, it suffers from a problem 'the five Ts' share, which is they get trapped between ineffectual and abusive.

It wasn't until I copied the URL for that link that I realized whose site it is. Hmm.

[metahacker.livejournal.com]

There were some minor bugs. What a surprise.

The character sheets were pretty much one big piece of text, though bolding people's names was a good idea. It would be helpful to have a little more structure. I think Alexx had the same problem I did where we skimmed over the "intro" part because we thought it was the same as the convocation email. Structuring the presentation of information is a Big Thing when you only have 5 minutes to memorize your character packet; I would recommend some sort of internal structure in general, but certainly at least some headers "The High School", etc. I know this might break your desire to have the sheets in the character's voice, but the time pressures on getting to know your character were rather severe.

Some of my abilities were meaningless. I'm guessing this was on purpose (as in, "just have fun with this, if you find a use, great.") None of my spells had any impact on the plot, except for the ones I stole from other people. This was only mildly frustrating -- am I a dorky faerie who only knows pretty silly spells? How come my gf knows cooler spells that I do, since I taught her? that sort of thing.

Amy's sheet might not have been clear enough. We had some difficulty interacting until we OOCed a bit and found that she was darn sure that her sheet said that I didn't know I was fae. This might be just her reading of it; but it's something to clarify.

The demons seemed to be too good at hiding. Some way for the fae to find out the demons were there, other than suspicions, would be nice; I ended up using Kevin as a demon-detector part of the time, which was ok (except when as mentioned earlier he misread/misremembered some badges -- but that's IC complication, and not terrible).

Pacingwise, the game felt like one-long-breath. I'm used to LARPs with a few checkpoint events; this game really only had one, and it was at the end. This may be stylistic, but checkpoints are nice for people who have fallen out of the plot to touch base again.

My character's personal arc meant that I basically was completely out of the "main" story arc, except for one hilarious inquisition with Mr. Wong; if you want to tie more people into this plot, I suspect having Lawrence see Scott as an ally or an obstacle will do. Not that I had a lack of things to do!

The guidelines for magic might need some tweaking; e.g. the question about scrolls, and whether (for example) I could teach a spell to ANYONE and have them be able to do it, or if I could teach it to non-double-yellow-stars, or what. This could be left to the players to discover, but I felt like I didn't know my character's magical capabilities very well.

Some of the background on the Teign might have actually been too much; having that much detail twigged us OOC that it would be crucial to the game's plot. You might shorten the "So you're a faerie" description, and retain the detail only in a few character sheets (say, Amy, Lawrence, the sacrifice twins, etc.) who Were There or have reason to know more. Same with the hurley game.

Another "is this unspecified to make us think, or did they miss it?" -- relations between seelie and unseelie and demons. I have way too many perspectives from various fiction sources, so I don't know if I as a Seelie am supposed to be killing the unseelie, having grand duels with them, ignoring them, saving the mortals from them, or becoming one if I get pissy (a la Changeling). Again it might be in the faerie cheat sheet but if it is it's buried.

The spells were, in general, too long for comfort but too short to really have game impact. It did effectively mean that EVERYONE knew when you were casting a spell, unless you mumbled; but I think I and Christian got a bit tired the nth repetition though whatever spell I was trying to cast. The transference spell in particular was quite long. [Yes, yes, it's complex magic]

...more in next comment...

[metahacker.livejournal.com]

...
Why were there so many juniors? Was it the junior prom?

As learnedax griped elsewhere, there were a few "leaf" characters who had only 1 (or sometimes 0) strong connections to other characters, and felt underinvolved. It was amusing to see how the LARPing styles of these characters made them more or less able to integrate anyway. You might want to reemphasize (for those not thinking of it that way) that, e.g., the junior class knows each other REALLY WELL since they've been in school together since junior high, elementary, or even earlier. Some people don't seem to remember that, and/or didn't take advantage of it to tie themselves up in other people's plots.

The double-silver-star plot wasn't strong enough, or somehow didn't fly. I think it might have been a little too subtle, and anyway the players in the plot got strung out into other things. Perhaps stick some clues into other characters, and/or make the outcome of uniting the courts more of a goal for someone. As it is it was sort of a "hunh. Is *that* what that was." thing, and didn't feel like it was on the 'level' of demons, unseelie, etc. FWIW, my IC guess was that the "glowy-people" Kevin was describing were Angels (to balance the devils), and as he mis-identified Rhonda as one, I figured she was using her Angelic Powers to make my mortal shell more long-lived. Ah, we find structure in everything... ;-)

The location could have provided more nooks. Any number of times, I had to ask people to please not find us, because we were hiding. (Though that lead to amusement with Vargas -- "Hiding in the boiler room? I know *ALL* the hiding spots in this school!" (me not realizing at that point just how true that must be!)

You only really had two cases of flash mobs, where "PLOT!" happens and everyone rushes over -- this seems to indicate that folks are mostly just bored. One was the rats, which was pretty random (though I understand why), and one was the gate/Vargas trying to disrupt/etc., and I think that one was on purpose. So from that standpoint it was good -- people were busy instead of standing around waiting for stuff to happen to them.

Hope this helps...

[jducoeur]

Why were there so many juniors? Was it the junior prom?

A late writing side-effect of the relationships between the characters. (Having a couple of people who needed to be older than the "main crowd", like Margaret.) I agree that it came out a bit wierd that way, and could use a better solution.

The double-silver-star plot wasn't strong enough, or somehow didn't fly.

True, but that wasn't intended as the main clue for the Warners anyway, so it's a minor point. The more serious problem was that the *main* way that the Warners were supposed to work into the plot (the prophecy/letter) was too subtle to connect properly.

Hope this helps...

Lots -- some of this is new points I hadn't thought about, and most of the rest is reminders of things that I'd observed at one time or another but not written down in the crush...

[laurion]

Some of my abilities were meaningless
And some of us didn't even have abilities beyond an indication of good strength (6). In general, I don't think there was much use of abilities in game at all, outside of the muse/seer and truth detector.


The demons seemed to be too good at hiding.
Really? I thought the star system made things painfully obvious. Maybe it wasn't in your character sheet due to your character nature, but I was told right off the bat what the green, blue, and gold stars were for, and the reds seemed pretty bloody clear. The silvers had me going for a little while, but I did eventually figure it out. Was this one not in your character packet?

Pacingwise, the game felt like one-long-breath.
Agreed, and because I really only had one plot (and the major one at that) to work on, most of the game felt like a long inhalation, followed by a quick exhalation, followed by resting after an extremely protracted squack.

Regarding the transference spell: It seemed to me _highly_ unlikely that anyone would willingly switch their auras with another. Tehre seems to be no compelling reason to do so, and anyone to whom the topic was raised would be naturally suspicious. That being said, it seemed to me a red herring; an empty mechanic because no one was going to use it, making it a fairly limp plot point. I appreciate the idea behind it, and I understand that it is designed to not be abused, but I can't help but feel there must be another way to have it in the game. Perhaps one person who could cast it on two other people, not necessarily with their permission? Then it would be up to those wishing to have it done to find the person capable of doing it, and convincing them to do so.

[jducoeur]

It seemed to me _highly_ unlikely that anyone would willingly switch their auras with another. Tehre seems to be no compelling reason to do so, and anyone to whom the topic was raised would be naturally suspicious.

It fell prey to information-economy problems. The intent was that Elegius would trick some poor mortal into switching with him, or at least would have some chance of doing so. But the knowledge of the Teign was simply too widespread for that to be plausible as constructed.

(Of course, the real reason it was in the game was to resolve Scott's plot, which it *did* do. But that was a relatively low-conflict version of the concept.)

[metahacker.livejournal.com]

The demons seemed to be too good at hiding.
Really? I thought the star system made things painfully obvious.

It was obvious, but only OOC. I had no way IC to find out this knowledge, until Kevin started seeing things.

[jducoeur]

None of my spells had any impact on the plot, except for the ones I stole from other people. This was only mildly frustrating -- am I a dorky faerie who only knows pretty silly spells?

Ah, interesting point. That was an accidental side-effect. We'd given Mary several "beginner spells" late in the process, so that she'd have some more nouns to mix and match in (her special ability was essentially the ability to hybridize spells). Since logically she would have gotten those from Scott, they got tossed into his packet as well. Hence the dorky spells.

Amy's sheet might not have been clear enough. We had some difficulty interacting until we OOCed a bit and found that she was darn sure that her sheet said that I didn't know I was fae.

Oooh, clearly a writing bug. That wasn't intended by me, but it's probably confusing in some respect.

checkpoints are nice for people who have fallen out of the plot to touch base again.

Useful idea. Originally, things were supposed to be a bit more measured along the way, but it didn't quite work out that way.

relations between seelie and unseelie and demons... Again it might be in the faerie cheat sheet but if it is it's buried.

No, that was an oversight. Good point.

[oakleaf-mirror.livejournal.com]

Ah, interesting point. That was an accidental side-effect. We'd given Mary several "beginner spells" late in the process, so that she'd have some more nouns to mix and match in (her special ability was essentially the ability to hybridize spells). Since logically she would have gotten those from Scott, they got tossed into his packet as well. Hence the dorky spells.

I didn't find much use for those beginner spells. Beyond the 'you can substitute nouns,' the spells in the packet didn't seem all that useful to me. Mary's character sheet implied she'd been doing much more complex spells, and mentioned the spell that had appeared to fizzle (but had actually summoned Sarah), but not included it. More variety along those lines might have been helpful. Then again, they might have let me take off on tangents that were irrelevant to the plot lines. I got to rewrite the spells Scott had stolen, but it turned out I didn't end up casting anything, which I suppose is okay.

[oakleaf-mirror.livejournal.com]

How come my gf knows cooler spells that I do, since I taught her? that sort of thing.

I got the same packet of basic, pretty useless spells you did. While Mary's character sheet spoke of her experimentation, and some of the spells she'd done, they weren't included. One of the comments during the post-game wrap though, may answer your question. It was mentioned that fairies lack the creative spark to vary and compose spells. Yewneedle needed Mary to modify the transference spell for that reason. That would explain any magical edge I might have had on you, despite having learned the basics from you initially. You, presumably, would have had access to a large collection of spells accumulated over the years, though.

[ladysprite.livejournal.com]

It really would have helped to know that my father was dead. Same probably goes for Margaret.

By the way, my offer still stands to help run (and rewrite, if desired) if the game ever runs again. It has such huge potential, and I love the concept.....

[jducoeur]

It really would have helped to know that my father was dead. Same probably goes for Margaret.

Yep, definite oops on my part there. Really silly error, too, since several of the grownups did mention it.

By the way, my offer still stands to help run (and rewrite, if desired) if the game ever runs again.

Coolness! It'll be a while, but it's good to have the offer available. Thanks...

[oakleaf-mirror.livejournal.com]

I'd mailed these in but I'll post them here, too...

In terms of suggestions for the future, one thing I would have found helpful was a bit more info on the character name tags. A tag with a class or title would have helped. Either something specific like "School Nurse," "Principal" or "Junior Goth" if that isn't too specific (since some people might not know these people ICly), or even "Adult" or "Student," just as a hint for those of us who didn't have time to memorize the character sheets.

One thing I really dropped in the game was the [Dru] sub-plot. I'm sure part of it was my inexperience with LARPs, but I also think the hints I needed to point me in that direction were a bit lacking. I knew I'd cast the spell for Kevin, but that it hadn't seemed to do anything. There was no mention of lights in the sky associated with it, or that Sarah showed at about that time. With the added knowledge that people with two gold stars (as [Xander] had) on their badges cancelled magic, it seemed to point that the spell did nothing, rather than having had such dire results. Perhaps I was too careless in letting OOC information (the gold stars) bleed over into my IC rationalization? I'm afraid Scott's changeling issues tended to suck up most of my attention, both ICly and OOCly, so I guess I needed a bigger clue-by-four between the eyes to catch this. I've now read a fair number of the character sheets, including Prasat's and Sarah's. I'm still not sure how anyone could tie that back to Mary, since I don't think anyone but she knows about the spell. A spell that did nothing a couple months ago isn't even likely to be something she'd babble when nervous. Perhaps if you mention the light show in relation to the spell to Mary, then if Prasat ever discloses the link between the light show and Sarah, the connection might click. That would leave Mary curious about the spell, though, which may not be what you want.

This isn't meant as negative criticism. Overall, I had great fun in this, my first LARP.