What's this?! [Pinnacle of Madness feedback!]

[Psycho]

Due to some... Unforeseen issues, the event had to be cut short after two days. At request of Loxxy, grant me thine reviews! Don't be afraid to take off the gloves!

[Loxmardin]

Hokai. I promised I'd give my input, as well.

Overall, I enjoyed the idea and concept you had. It's a difficult style of eent to pull off, however, and I have a few pointers to help you along in case you try something similar again (which I hope you do - You didn't handle yourself horribly despite whatever you may believe).


=> Railroading: This is very risky in these kinds of events. In the beginning, the players made it a wee bit difficult for you by beginning to split up very early on and there was no true incentive given to the characters present to really stay together (aside from the OOC pleads you made). When tossed into that kind of situation, the characters probably won't trust eachother in the least and with so many areas to explore... People will shift over quickly into a "survival of the fittest" kind of mentality where they run their own way to find their best way of surviving the ordeals. When you thrust the players into such a large area with no obvious dangers off the bat (aside from starvation or dehydration), they won't have a reason to stay together and they'll separate in order to cover as much ground as possible in a short time. Be prepared to improvise, or reconsider what kind of opening scenario you throw people in to.

On the topic of railroading... You did say that sacrifices were more or less necessary for the storyline... But you did say yourself that you wanted to see emotion and reactions. And when people are beginning to deviate from the original solution, you need to be able to have a backup solution so the players won't feel like it won't matter what kind of ideas they come up with since they'll eventually have to make a human/humanoid sacrifice anyway or they'll die for sure. Because they'll always face the monster, and it's almost impossible to kill if you don't make the sacrifice. Making it more difficult is fine and dandy, but having it so there's literally no other way to deal with the situation will get a little dull on the players involved since efforts to find other ways won't lead them anywhere anyway.

A good example would be the Music Box we found in the scarecrow. When you realized that we could (and intended) to use it to save ourselves from a fight we probably couldn't win without making a sacrifice, it was essentially godmodded that the Music Box was dropped and destroyed. The players weren't given a fair chance to actually use the tool they were given to find another solution to survive the night, but were forced into fighting.


=> The scenario: You ran the event with point-and-click inspirations where the players were more or less required and encouraged to, object by object, inspect their surroundings. When you have a good number of players who want to explore, you have quite a few things to keep track of and you need to describe to every single individual on the spot what they see and experience. You should try to keep these descriptions shorter in the future and not put too much effect into them, because that takes a lot of effort that's not always necessary if it's a meaningless object they are inspecting. Instead of typing out the same thing for several objects, too, you should simply make an universal description right off the bat so people know beforehand what they will find inside certain objects. (For example: The crapload of skulls scattered around the area and the many large jars.)


... I was almost certain I had something more to say... But I'll stop here for now. Really, what I want to put emphasis on is to be flexible as a DM. If you have a storyline planned out, be prepared to make changes to it or at least have it open enough that you won't force characters to make decisions they normally wouldn't because there's a very specific path you intend for them to follow. Have backup plans, and make the environment interactive enough for the players to be able to shape the course of the event in some manner. Give them a fair chance to try other solutions. Don't force their steps so much that there's literally only one solution to every problem.

Sometimes things won't go as you planned them to. But, well. Then you'll have to improvise. This is harder to do than it is to say, but... Yeah.

Always have a plan B. And a plan C, just in case. Always having a good number of "What if...?"s is excellent preparation before the events start.

[Wuvvums]

I wasn't there very long but personally you seemed a bit anxious and came across as such, though I can't blame you given it's your first event. I had a few qualms about how late entries were handled (especially when the event was rescheduled at the last moment) but I think it didn't detract from it too much.

I think as Lox mentioned things were very regimented and not flexible. I lost some interest when we were told that we couldn't explore after you went to bed because of X, Y, and Z. This sort of left us to have some more inevitable tent rp which pretty much feels like tavern rp but in a different spot. I know I could have been more devoted but maybe with some flexibility we could have found other creative ways to do something other than sit and talk.

As Loxxy mentioned, if there's railroading it sort of needs to be forced. We could have been chained together, or maybe we all could have had a charm that was needed to keep safe with some sort of proximity to make the charm work. Either way it's a common frustration of the DM that the party splits up. It happens a lot in both WoW and even table top games, so it takes a bit of thought as to how to railroad. At the same time you want some flexibility to let players feel like they aren't on a strict and linear path to the event. I think people rp as if they are in a sandbox game as opposed to a linear game.

[Psycho]

Point from both of you taken to heart. Though in table-top games, I can monitor all 'emotes'. Just sayin'.

Hopefully, next event won't suck so hard.

[Wuvvums]

Even then it's a bit frustrating if everyone's separated in a table top. Then again the one who was separating from our team the most was a ten-year-old who wanted to get ahead of everyone else on everything :P

[Psycho]

/rage.

Either way, events are hard. And I'm no good in planning up ahead (No good, as in... "Okay, let me ju- THEY SHOULD TOTALLY FIGHT THIS MUFFING.)

[Wuvvums]

Like any other skill it takes practice to DM, and dedication :v