EVENT REVIEW: "Not in Calanda Anymore Toto..." - October 2016

[Lapaki]

Phew! After overcoming (or succumbing) to their fears, our heroes have once again quelled the Nightmare Beast, and escaped from its twisted realm of Emperor Boris! And now, the whole of Calandonia seems to have forgotten a month...

Personal note from HoP: Thanks everyone for a great weekend! I've been looking forward to this event all year - oh, the fun had, twisting everyone's stories! Thank you, as always, for just rolling with it, and so much appreciation to our special guest Bryan! Come back soon, sir!
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NOTE: Discuss story events here ONLY - any other issues can be brought up on our Playtest page. Also, don't forget to fill out that review form as well!

**NPCs - Do not post here. We have our own review, which I will post to the FB group. Thanks! **

1. Post your favorite moments
2. Post your less favorite moments (if we don't know, we can not fix)
3. What you would like to see more of
4. Give us a moment from the perspective of your character

Posting rules, respect everyone's views, no debates. Everyone sees things differently.

Reviews get you 15 Goblin Stamps, so make sure you tag your review with your name.

 

[Ruki]

1. This weekend was just fantastic all around. Great job to everyone! Some of my highlights:
-Having "my" 6 children come running into the tavern just as I am finishing breakfast. Getting to see that was hilarious.
-The gnolls being afraid of me and then hunting me? That was intense and hurt my heart after all I did in September. The gnolls laid a pretty good trap for me, and if it weren't for some quick reflexes from others, I might have been dead
-Saryn's nightmare mod! Getting to be evil Ruki (I embraced that a bit too much) was the best. The crowded town, the burning house, trying to find 'The Summoner'...everything about that was perfect. More of this in the future is needed, I think!
-Learning how to play (and then winning) liars dice.
-Babysitting Aezir's children
-The final fight was a gut punch. Seeing Lady Gyverin beaten to a pulp, Tengu, Aezir, and Sevil turning on the breach, 4 people 'sacrificing' themselves....it was so well done. Also, having a mini feud with SEvil during that encounter (me charming him, making him fight Boris, having him turn me into an undead, and then me trying to killing blow him when he was down only for him to be healed by unknowing Breachers
-The trickster game I got to play with Kumari. That was fun and kind of scary


2. The weather! It's cold! Fix that!

3. Whole town mods! Even if we can't do them outside next month...doing something like that in the tavern or during the winter tavern events would be cool and spice things up for a little bit.

4. Now in a realm of nightmares, Ruki wondered what this world had in store for him. He was already the great betrayer...what else was there?

"Daddy!"

Various voices screamed in excitement as 6 small children rushed him, giving him a hug. So this is it...a reminder of his wife and son he has in his world that he has failed to protect up until this point. A slap to the face and a dagger through the heart....

"Alright kids, lets go outside and stop disturbing all the nice people..."

 

[Daimyo Shi]

1. Post your favorite moments

Stig asking Shiv "Can knock out the guards?"
Beholder fight even if I had to spend half it out of line of sight.
Fourteen damage to each of the main NPCs in the final fight [take my victories when I can]
The Betrayals at the end from PCs

2. Post your less favorite moments (if we don't know, we can not fix)

None, even on reflection, Kudos

3. What you would like to see more of

The switch mod, I like that very much I want see it used when needed.

4. Give us a moment from the perspective of your character

Some how the follow of battle managed to get Shiv behind the enemies main like, the backs of Emperor Boris, and his right and left hand lay in front of him, a quick dash behind them and two strikes were delivered to each, it didn't fell any of them but victory come in little steps. Oops Homeguard damn, several quick blows were landed and shiv felt the darkness fall over him.

 

[Thorcanine]

1. Post your favorite moments

The RP I got to do over the weekend
Going for my nice walk/date with my wife. Then "killing" Siegert during it.
Getting to handle the RP of having only the memories of the Other Aezir and fighting the Breachers.
I got to work on playing the role of being a Lion for Hire more this event then I have over the past weekends.

2. Post your less favorite moments (if we don't know, we can not fix)

This could just be a personal issue. But the lack of RP required during my Nightmare mod compared to what I heard all the other ones needed.

3. What you would like to see more of

More things that could cause Breachers to have conflicts with each other. Ex. The fact Tengu and Sevil honestly felt they should fight against the other Breachers.

4. Give us a moment from the perspective of your character

Aezir hears some voices coming from up the hill.
"Daddy!"
He turns and looks to see Aezir Jr. running at him. Quickly Aezir turns and runs. After running a bit he turns back around and catches Aezir Jr. as he flying hugs him.
He hears the Chimera call out "Are you ready for Date Night Hunny"
"Yes dear" Aezir calls back. Well this is going to be interesting. Aezir thinks to himself as he walks back with Aezir Jr. holding onto his tail.

 

[Lapaki]

2. The weather! It's cold! Fix that!

I'm sorry! I can either pay the electricity, or the gas bill - which one would you prefer?!

 

[Ruki]

I'm sorry! I can either pay the electricity, or the gas bill - which one would you prefer?!

Yes.

 

[Sorozan]

1. Post your favorite moments

-Trick-or-Treaters, the costumes were adorable. I'm so sorry I forgot candy for you guys twice. D:
-Every big fight I was involved in this weekend was well-executed by the NPCs! Thanks to you dudes and dudettes. I definitely need to get up to snuff again in terms of my combat ability.
-Al'Zoon the Archmage, his friendliness was genuinely unnerving. Same with our bizarro Fatespinner. Good job to both of you!

2. Post your less favorite moments (if we don't know, we can not fix)

Not really a moment, but seeing groups of people rift out for the nightmare mods, having no way of being involved, and, finding out how well written and executed they were way after the fact. If players have to personally pick people to come with on sets of large, important modules like this maybe in the same vein as lairs have a way for a larger variety of people to be involved. These modules were the absolute highlight of the weekend from what I saw and nobody (somewhat understandably) wanted to talk about what had happened in character so in addition to not being able to attend I was barely able to find out what had gone on and that just compounded the frustration and disappointment.

3. What you would like to see more of

I would like to see more of our reputations preceding us in our interactions with NPCs who aren't necessarily nobility/adventurers/important-to-plot-in-some-way. Our bizarro reputations may have been bad, but it was very interesting to watch people react to the folks of the world knowing about them and their deeds.

4. Give us a moment from the perspective of your character

The sounds of battle swam and began distorting around him, his vision shimmering with magic, Valgard took a breath and tried to hold on to consciousness as he charged toward the shadow and Home Guardsman, calculating which was the better target.

Then, suddenly, clarity and silence. The enemy was gone.

The other members of the breach stood around coming to their senses as well. The nightmare apparitions had been held at bay, now they had returned home. A sigh of relief escaped the warrior's lips as the post battle calm took over, though only for a moment. Something was still amiss.

Sword? Yes. Still armoured, of course, potions where they had always been kept. The talismans that had been increasing in number over the past few days, tied or hooked or somehow held in any available place, each was still there and held its own faint aura of calm as always. Walking toward his friend only then did it click: "Flavius, hey, Flavius, I'm still a man, shouldn't I be back to how I was?"

The stone elf looked over impassively, "that body suits your attitude more than the old one did. Maybe not so much has changed as you think."

 

[Third]

1. Post your favorite moments
Sarryn's nightmare takes the cake here, as probably my favorite mod of all time. Everyone pulled out all the stops and really made it feel like a crowded, bustling, busy city center. Diving into a burning orphanage to pull Sarryn and Ruki out was just a bonus.

2. Post your less favorite moments (if we don't know, we can not fix)
I got a little cranky friday night when I was woken up by the undead rave just outside my room at very 1:45 am. I stepped out, glared at everyone in the tavern, then went back to my bed, kicking the door shut behind me. Unfortunately, I was irritated, so what was meant to merely close the door instead slammed it shut much harder than I intended. oops! I know it wasn't quite quiet time yet, But I'm still going to be moving to a cabin for next month. The back room gets really cold when the door is closed anyway, as it doesn't really get heated like the main tavern.

3. What you would like to see more of
REDACTED

4. Give us a moment from the perspective of your character
"...killing blow three"
The so-called emperor killed the countess, and Barra drew power into his hand. Seeing first Sarryn and then Siegart glance back to see he was there, he nodded at them. This would not be allowed to stand. Almost immediately, battle broke out around them, and Barra quickly moved to the fallen body of the countess. Acting quickly, he restored her to life and lifted her to her feet as gently as possible, leading her away from the swirl of combat and healing her wounds as Siegart escorted her and Sarryn fought Boris, clearly deliberately drawing the fight away from the vulnerable countess.

 

[Ruki]

1. Post your favorite moments
Sarryn's nightmare takes the cake here, as probably my favorite mod of all time. Everyone pulled out all the stops and really made it feel like a crowded, bustling, busy city center. Diving into a burning orphanage to pull Sarryn and Ruki out was just a bonus.
.

The burning building was so cool

 

[Krow]

1. Post your favorite moments
I've had to spend a lot of time collecting my thoughts about this month. TL;DR - It was ******* amazing.

I absolutely adored everything about this weekend. It surprised me actually, I had been expecting more torture this weekend however plot really made the weekend lively with a mix of hilarity, heartache and soul-crushing reunions. The diversity of the weekend and the immense amount of planning, backgrounds and personal stories that plot got into was incredible. I don't think there are enough thank you's for the amount of work that our NPCs do but I will definitely try to make that more apparent in the future.

(Sorry this section is going to be long for me)

I got to bring Krow back! Let's talk about that for a moment.

Nichole had asked me a few days after the September event if I would be willing to bring him out for this event, and if I could write Stig a letter from Krow's perspective. It started me thinking about who Krow would have been if he'd never left, what kind of life would he have had without Stig there to keep him brave? How would Stig have learned to read? How would Krow become a man if he didn't have his cousin/brother to help him become one?

I spent a good three weeks coming up with 'nightmare-Krows' character and I have to say it was one of the hardest and most fulfilling things I've done at LARP. The letter I wrote to Stig was written two-fold, it could be readable as a simple pen-pal writing a friend saying, 'hey how's it going man? when are you going to come visit?' or it could have been read as loved one's from beyond the grave telling a final message of love and pride.

As well I wanted to make sure that Stig finally got some closure with Krow's death and so away from everyone we -finally- performed our blood ritual and became brothers. (which is getting me emotional to talk about, hahaha) It was hard to stay in character for that part and I find it crazy how much a character that died two years ago still has a grip on my heart.

Okay next up, Nightmares!!!

Holy good crap on a cracker. Plot. What are you doin to us man? These were insane, these were personal, these were things that you would expect in novels on best-seller stands in Chapters. I was floored when I heard the stories of everyones nightmares, this event was a step above all the rest this season simply because of how personally you all got under everyone's skin and into their backgrounds. I am finding that nothing gets people more immersed in their characters then dealing with their fears and nightmares, fighting their inner demons and all that.

I was lucky enough to be on two of the nightmares this weekend, Aezir's was flipping terrifying. Sarryn's on the other hand was amazing and intricate and frustrating beyond all hell. How is it that the Tari Nor is always the one who has to deal with the slavery, and why did I try to stop the person from killing a slaver?!

Seriously though, facing off against Bryan's 'civilian' who tried to kill that slaver was intense. People asked me why I didn't just confine him or prison him so that the argument would be over..... I saw him cast SIX PRISONS ON THE SLAVER... what do you WANT me to do about him? I am not going to pick a fight with that, no thank you.

Cannot wait to see what happens in the future.

2. Post your less favorite moments (if we don't know, we can not fix)

I had a bit of trouble figuring how to word this one properly. I -do not- have a problem with players. However I am having a continuing problem with some players mentalities about larp this season. More then once the term came up this month stating that it was the, "Nick and Anthony Show" and I'm really starting to hate some of the out of game chatter I'm hearing popping up around that.

Last month in my review I posted that it upset me that players seemed unhappy about not being involved in every story that goes on in the Breach. This month I feel like that was far more targeted and I don't want to be defensive, I'm sorry if that's how players feel and I want them to have a good time at the larp but the out of game conflicts that myself and Ember and a few select others have dealt with the past two years are getting out of hand.

We are there to have a good time, -all- of us as players. I urge you to think of this more as you would a tabletop RPG when it comes to perspective of story. In every DnD, White Wolf, Pathfinder, etc game I've ever played there are always snippets of personal plot to help flesh out a character, however the party as a whole is responsible for pushing forward the main story. Everyone working together pushes the story, so if you feel like you're not a part of the story the best thing you can do is inject yourself into it. Dive into you character and see what motivates them, then go after it like a bat out of hell.

Most of the great RP I saw this weekend came from people that aren't connected to a personal plot written by plot who just RP'd hard af during the weekend. Sevil was a -great- example, if you want to talk about someone who can immerse himself in his character, and someone who will mull over his characters motivations for hours before doing anything with them talk to him. Of his own motivation he actively worked against the Breach this month because his character would be completely motivated to do so, and just to challenge himself RP-wise he thought it would be an interesting idea to trap his character in his intelligent sword for the weekend. -That- is some damn fine RP.

3. What you would like to see more of

More of what Sevil did this weekend. He dove deep and immersed himself to try and see everything that happened this weekend through his characters eyes, and was willing to retire his character to keep it. I think we should all strive to be a little bit more like that to simply improve how much fun we have.

4. Give us a moment from the perspective of your character

Bloodied, but never broken.

Siegart hated looking upon her, but he hated more that Sarryn was the cause of it... at least in this dimension.

"Just go and help your friends, I'll be fine." Anastasia Gyverin said to the Tari Nor who had been shielding her from the fighting.

"No." he replied bluntly before asking, "Is there anything you require?"

"A blade would be nice, I feel defenseless."

Like a spooked deer Siegart was off at a full sprint, winding his way through bodies fighting across a battlefield towards his 'borrowed' cabin where his blades were normally waiting. Snatching up his closest gold bladed, basket-hilted sabre he thought it was suiting that the only blade to come with him to this nightmare realm was the one named, "Decay".

He took off at a full sprint back to the unbreakable woman, she had a look of worry on her face and Siegart wondered to himself if it was his face that worried her. He was a horrible person where he came from but here, in this realm... he was a monster.

Without a thought Siegart dropped to a knee and presented Anastasia the blade hilt first, inwardly he chuckled in that moment. A monster, not of this realm was unconsciously making a grand gesture to a woman who was no longer a noble, nor was he of any kingdom. However he knew the friendship that he yearned to prove to her both in this realm and the other had come to a head, he would gladly die to see this woman happy. She was a human who had endured more then she should have been required to and if there was ever any way that he could help alleviate what had been done he knew that he would do it.

"...uhh.. th-thank you Siegart" Anastasia said, awkwardly taking the blade from him.

 

[Mechtofd]

1. Post your favorite moments
letting my chaos out for a few moments was pretty fun.

Seeing Krow again in Stigs nightmare as painfully as that played out it was some heavy feels seeing a former friend that so haunts mars memory look at mar as a complete stranger XD.

the little hints at how different our lives in that world were would've loved to learn more about that.

Fighting in the last battle of the weekend protecting the COP with hamish and trying to deal with the chaos of breachers turning on each other was amazing.

planning to knock some people out with kumari though plot took that away XD it was still fun slipping her a weapon and I'm pretty sure kumari is the only one who found out IG I had waylay in that world

putting mint kit kats on aezirs stuff was pretty fun too

2. Post your less favorite moments (if we don't know, we can not fix)
I don't have any moments from the weekend that specifically upset me all in all had a good time.

3. What you would like to see more of
our heroism tested as bad as I felt afterwards it was interesting getting in mars head and realizing the things he can miss when he gets focused on 'the mission'

4. Give us a moment from the perspective of your character
Mars ears prick as the sounds of battle ring out around him frost giants smashing the town people in danger.......but stig and krow press on.......there must be something more important some greater danger.......he can't fail his friend again can't fail the second chance this twisted world is giving him so focusing on stig mar presses on with them.

something is wrong......stig and ariana advancing swords drawn back by frost giants and krow.......drawing crows song against my friends against its name sake hurts almost as much as their blows as I try to find the will to strike back and harm my friends they overwhelm my defense and cut me down the world going black as krow caves in mars skull saying they have no use for the weak.

 

[Polare]

Just realized I hadn't posted here yet! Before anything else, I wanted to give a big thanks to everyone for being so warmly welcoming. I had an excellent time out there. I've traveled to a good number of chapters and have rarely received a nicer welcome.

1. Post your favorite moments
All of 'em! But here's a few specifics -
-- Being sent out as a spider to try and steal away PCs into the darkness. Fun times, and then getting to be the Spider Queen (er... King?) and try to terrorize the last 2 folks left was the icing on the cake. I hope everyone had a good time on the mod - you guys did just the right stuff to finish that Spider off!
-- I always enjoy playing Polare in new places. Talking over everything from dual-school casting to laws in other lands is always interesting, and being asked to help lend a 'little firepower' to break some prisoners out of jail was a blast.
-- Polare absolutely -loves- to duel with live spells with anyone who wants to take him on. Win, lose, it doesn't matter so long as you learn something. Although winning is always a little better

2. Post your less favorite moments (if we don't know, we can not fix)
-- It was all pretty ace! No specific complaints. Other than the fact that your Armor Tags all seem to have extra 'u's inserted for no reason!

3. What you would like to see more of
-- If you guys wanted to move your province a little closer to Seattle/Portland, that would be highly convenient On a more serious note, the personalized nightmare mods were excellent - it's the kind of thing I'd like to see more of in every chapter I go to.

4. Give us a moment from the perspective of your character
Unfortunately, it seemed that these Home Guard were a little more dedicated to their orders than we'd expected.

As planned, we'd tried a 'Prisoner' routine followed by a 'They Need Your Help!', but neither had worked. At least we'd infiltrated two of our number inside so they could deal with that guard. I sized up the remaining options and didn't like them.

One last time, I tried convincing the guards that those soldiers collecting the taxes back in town were in trouble. As I did so I started edging towards the archer on my right while mentally counting the mana in my left hand, making sure not to look down to give my plans away. As expected, the bluff didn't work.

It was time for action.

Binding was my first choice. I had plenty enough of it in memory. I started firing it off and my companions were only a step behind; good folks to be so immediately ready to go. I filed that away in the back of mind where I keep notes on everyone I adventure with. Three spells into the one in front of me before the archer could react. Unfortunately, he turned out to be more agile than expected. I felt a powerfully drawn arrow slam off my Magic Armor spell, leaving me defenseless for the next one to follow. The first enemy still wasn't down, though, and I didn't dare turn towards the archer and put my back towards the guard only a few steps away. Two more spells and he was finally frozen in place, a grimace evident behind the barely visible outline of my binding magics.

Before I could turn towards the other guard I felt another precisely aimed arrow flying past my skin. I twisted and dodged, thanking my Hobling speed for saving me once again. This time I was ready for a well-defended enemy and I put up a new protective as I turned, the words coming naturally to my mind as though part of me. Now the hunt was on - face to face I could dodge his shots far easier, and the arcane might of my years of training rose up to my fingertips. Bind, Bind, Confine, Web, Bind, Web, Confine, over and over the magical sigils I'd prepared flew through my brain as fast as I could incant the syllables. After a mighty barrage of spells the archer found himself completely unable to move despite his own quickness. I didn't want any warnings getting out, so I strode forward and set Translator against his throat. One quick draw and he fell to the ground, lifeless.

Another set of enemies down - perhaps not as quickly or quietly as we'd hoped, but I'll take any victory where I can safely walk away.