Back from WiR
Brian Gmail
Interactive good. Hotel nice. Costumes pretty. Brian tired. Bed now.
Scorpienne
events in Rolla. HoR3 seems to be doing quite well.
Long Version
1) Location, location, location. OMG, so much better than Rolla, MO.
Direct flights for the win. Bonus point - does not look like a Soviet
gulag.
2) Hotel was nice, if a bit older. Plenty of room for games, bar open
late, reasonably priced, lots of very reasonable food nearby. Had
barbecue take-out and a big steak dinner on Sunday. Beats the fire
out of nothing but Panera for four days in Rolla. Biggest problem with
the hotel is that it was 45 minutes from the airport - but if we were
doing the same thing in the ATL, our hotel would be 45 minutes away
from the airport too, so that's okay.
3) Had one big room for games, but many games occured in a private
boardroom, the lobby, the bar, and the restaurant. Noise was not too
bad. They were collecting for Harvesters (a charity to help the
homeless in the midwest) and got about two 55 gal drums of supplies
and food (soap, toothpaste, canned food) as well as some unknown
amount of money that was probably more than $100 and less than $500.
They had a concession stand with both home made cookies, sodas, and
snacks. Hobart had a buncha stuff there for sale, so there were
plenty more dice and signed copies of the rulebooks and the like.
Alcohol was disapproved, but not disallowed - what you did in the
privacy of your own sippy cup or in the bar was your own business.
4) GMs were generally good, and I'm not just talking about ours.
There were some issues with GMs having played the mods for the first
time the night before, but that's endemic to the L5R mindset. Many
**NEW** GMs from people that had been playing loyally for quite a
while, but who had not broken into the circle of GMs. Good to have
new blood and new viewpoints. Campaign staff seemed to be pretty open
to having more and different GMs.
5) Organization and scheduling were suboptimal, but a little better
than the past. Mods started at 9, 2, and 7, which is a schedule I
like. Events started mostly on time. They had NO signage with
who-what-when-where-why which makes me more than a little crazy. They
had no schedule of events. Generally mustering involved getting
people who wanted "old mods" on one side of the room and people who
wanted "new mods" on the other. From there, the "new mods" people
were divided into groups depending on what mod they wanted, with one
person, usually one of the GMs, getting people into tables and putting
them somewhere and sending them a GM. Organization, particularly con
organization, specifically mustering remains one of my biggest sources
of frustration and uncertainty with the campaign.
6) People were generally nice, and the interactive wasn't a pageant of
cliquery like the last one. In general, this campaign seems to
recognize that a substantial flaw in the old campaign was that high
status was use to marginalize and alienate players, so they're not
giving out any for fic or favors. You can only earn it in-game so
it's a level playing field. The "old school clique" who were some of
the worst abusers of this system are finding the force of numbers
against them. Me personally, I'm all for democracy and it was used
during the interactive to keep the cliques more-or-less in their
place. There are a lot more "new guys" than there are members of the
"old school" and a lot of them don't care about what status or friends
the "old school" guys have. Met a lot of new folks. Enjoyed spending
time with the Virginia crowd (who generally didn't go to cons) and the
Indy crowd (who are just kind and lovely people).
7) Life is good for the Crab Clan. There were lots of crabbie patties
there - perhaps twelve or fifteen out of maybe 100 or 130 people.
With a few exceptions, they're all people I like a lot. Actually
played in a few "all-Crab" tables, which is both wonderful and
terrible. Crab cleaned up at the interactive. We got economic favors
from the Dragon and the Phoenix in return for weapons and
fortifications, respectively. By arming both sides of what's likely
to be an ugly interclan war, we maintained our neutrality, and we've
got money to buy rice to feed our warriors, so we can focus on our
traditional enemies to the south. We entered a non-aggression
"understanding" with the Lion and the Unicorn - we don't want any part
in northern wars, so we can focus on our traditional enemies to the
south. We got two economic favors from the Mantis - spice and silk
and a substantial discount on Mantis goods - which can be turned into
rice with Yasuki economic magic so we can focus on our traditional
enemies to the south. See the theme here? We had to give the Mantis
our vote for their guy to be the imperial advisor. There was a lot of
division among the Crab about this. Although the Mantis players are
generally a nice bunch (was really impressed by them - super sweet
people) I don't trust them as a clan. IMNSHO, I'd rather have a
Unicorn, particularly the Ide peacemaker they were proposing, advising
the Emperor to keep the peace so we can focus on our traditional
enemies to the south. As the Fortunes would have it, even though we
voted Mantis, the Unicorn won. Went to the Unicorns afterward and
they were very understanding. As far as I'm concerned, it's about the
most total victory the Crab can hope for in an interactive. As a
side-item, there's a mobilization into the Shadowlands at the 9th
Tower under General Hida Tsuneo the "Stone Crab". He's a real
ass-kicker and he was taking volunteers from among the Crab, other
clans, minor clans, and ronin. Additionally, we had to decide which
Hiruma province got the bounty of some of our economic maneuvering,
and we chose the most southern one, figuring out that we should
protect the one that's most vulnerable and exposed. Crab acquitted
themselves honorably in the poetry and tea-ceremony competitions - we
got crushed by the Crane on both accounts and that's the way things
are supposed to be. If they'd had a Kemari game, it might have gone
differently. Also, many good Crab costumes and decorations - I'll
post some pics.
I have no idea how things turned out for other clans. I think the
Crane got skunked politically, but they cleaned up in the courtly
contests and are getting substantial glory and honor for their player
base because of it. I have no clue what the Scorpion wanted or got
during the interactive, so that's as it should be. I do think that
the Scorpion and the Crane are getting rather cozy with each other. I
think the Mantis were dissapointed their guy didn't get the nod as
imperial advisor. Uni were pretty happy they did. Phoenix and Dragon
look like they're about ready for a shooting war. Lion might
intervene if the Crane back the Dragon and send troops, though I'm not
sure why. I'm *much* less sure of what any clan did other than ours,
and the Crab have *no* secrets when it comes to what we want or why we
want it.
8) Mods were generally *better* than they were at the KC Game Fair.
"Delicate Negotiations" was a fun court mod which Ben, Brian, Don and
I want to turn into a fine interactive. "A Walk Through The
Mountains" was concluded in a really gripping moral decision that made
us change the way we think about some of our characters. I'm finally
comfortable that HOR3 is a viable enterprise and so far it seems to be
one worth my time and effort.
Paige
--
Scorpienne
scorpienne at gmail dot com
Brian Schoner
to, since I agree with Paige's assessment on all counts.
> Phoenix and Dragon look like they're about ready for a shooting war. Lion might
> intervene if the Crane back the Dragon and send troops, though I'm not
> sure why.
The impression I got from the Lion players afterwards is that they are
focusing all their attention on the Crane (if not war, then at least
pre-war prep). The Lion gifts to the Dragon were basically to say,
"We're not after you guys, go have fun fighting the Phoenix, we're
going after the Crane."
> I'm *much* less sure of what any clan did other than ours, and the Crab have
> *no* secrets when it comes to what we want or why we want it.
The Dragon (I was the NPC Dragon contingent head during the
interactive) came out pretty well, turning two outgoing gifts into
five incoming ones (mostly military, which is what we wanted). We had
one of the smaller contingents, but the players did a very good job of
brokering deals and (I think) came out well ahead of the much larger
Phoenix contingent. I think the larger groups tended to suffer from
internal divisiveness (unless, like the Crab, they have a unified
vision and chain of command). The Crane, in particular, managed to
waste almost every advantage; they did well individually in the
artistic competitions (naturally), but their political maneuverings
were ill-planned and failed almost across the board. I feel a bit of
lingering Crane sympathy from last campaign, but overall I'm glad I
got out when I did. 8-)
Overall, I think the Crab, Dragon, Unicorn, and Lion did well in the
interactive, while the Crane and Mantis lost ground. The Scorpion
didn't seem entirely happy, but I think they probably did better than
they're letting on.
> I'm finally comfortable that HOR3 is a viable enterprise and so far it seems to be
> one worth my time and effort.
I agree wholeheartedly. There are still some organizational
improvements to be made, but the management and adventure quality are
very high.
Donald Riddick
The only other report I'll give is the following:
1) They are very serious about keeping a lid on power-levels. I had several discussions with Mike (story guy), Catlin (admin) and Cory (admin) and they had one consistent theme... they would not reward people who gave tons of fictions. One well written fiction that is 1-2 pages will deliver as much or *more* benefit than 8 ten page fictions. They have had several players under the "old" system try to get a leg up on others through volume of contributions. Bluntly... the admins don't care. They want a good story arc and will give out awards to those who don't have a billion hours of time or connections as easily as those who do. There are always a couple of exceptions, but so far they have reigned it in tremendously over the previous HOR campaigns.
2) They have two mods coming out in March (one of which is already written) and potentially one interactive. They will have a small showing at Origins, but we could convince them to let us have the mods and interactive to run locally here in Atlanta if we get enough people (15-20 would do it, essentially four tables). GenCon will be their next major event with some mods that require an alt (simultaneous timing).
Their flow of modules will most likely slow down to 2-3 per major con from this point forward.
3) Unconfirmed rumors of the Emerald empire have: Hida Pugilist, Ikoma Spymaster (OTT), and each clan getting at least one new basic school or two paths. Also: HOR II's timeline in a separate book.
4) Paige was off on the Crab numbers. We had 20 Crab voting at the Interactive. In terms of organization, the following clans have solid leadership: Crab, Unicorn, Mantis, Dragon. The following have good leadership but many rogue members: Lion, Scorpion. The following do not appear to have solid leadership: Phoenix and... Crane (who were publically recognized by their Daimyo as having failed him at politics *marvelous!*) They missed the Lions and Crane's from Atlanta in particular (There's no hope for orderly Scorpion...) They had contests that were like "minute to win it* tasks that players could do, and at least 4 stations (NPCS) that people could talk to so that even if you weren't following the clan goals, there was stuff to do. Costuming is at an all time high... at least 80% of the players had either a t-shirt of their clan, buttons, hats etc... and about 50% had kimonos. Really good looking interactive.
5) Confirmed Shocking events: 1) A Scorpion was ejected by the Seppun at the interactive for failing to show deference to the Imperial Family representatives. 2) During the mods, an "Akodo" first killed through stealthy assasination a high ranking samurai of another clan and then in a later mod, snuck poison into an imperial holding and killed a very high ranking samurai. He has fled for his life after being exposed, has been stripped of all connection to his clan (ronin) and there is now a bounty of over 20 koku for his head. [Player bad behavior has consequences, which is nice to see.]
6) I came with 80 unpainted mons and 40 painted, and came home with 25 unpainted and 12 painted. Apparently people liked the mons, so that is good. Some of you have mons in the possesion of Paige or Brian, but let me know and I'll send them to you directly.
There's probably tons more, but the short of it is that this is a new day, and between Atlanta, Virginia-Maryland, Kansas City and Indiana groups, we are helping to build a better rokugan experience where everyone gets to play and have a great time.
It was a wonderful opportunity to meet and play with at least 10 new people for me... frakking good times :)
-Don
--- On Mon, 1/17/11, Brian Schoner <bsch...@gmail.com> wrote:
David Jimenez
From: Donald Riddick <d...@benninganimalhospital.com>
To: at...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Mon, January 17, 2011 12:35:00 PM
Donald Riddick
| The Akodo was shockingly... Scorpion trained. Different Akodo.. that Akodo character has been retired. --- On Mon, 1/17/11, David Jimenez <djime...@yahoo.com> wrote: |
Robert Maxwell
Bill has clinical for the next two weekends, so I would love to do a few games over the next few weekends.
Robert
David Jimenez
From: Robert Maxwell <bioram...@gmail.com>
To: at...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Tue, January 18, 2011 12:34:21 PM
Subject: Re: [ATL5R] Back from WiR
Brian Schoner
David Jimenez
From: Brian Schoner <bsch...@gmail.com>
To: at...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Tue, January 18, 2011 12:36:19 PM
Subject: Re: [ATL5R] Back from WiR
Robert Maxwell
Robert
ALPet...@gmail.com
John Richardson
John
ALPet...@gmail.com
DJ
Robert
Jay
Alison
John
Robert Maxwell
David Haller
DCH
slac...@gmail.com
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
Brian Schoner
"Cory and Adam are editing the mods a little, where play showed they
needed it. As such, give us a week or so before you request them!"
So this weekend is probably not going to happen (unless there's a
table that needs one or more of the first 5 mods).
Eric Lohmeier
-----Original Message-----
From: at...@googlegroups.com [mailto:at...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of
Brian Schoner
Sent: Tuesday, January 18, 2011 6:02 PM
To: at...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: Re: Re: [ATL5R] Back from WiR
Marc Leitman
It is Marc Leitman. I have not played 02 yet, and I am free this weekend. Is there a table of 02 forming?
Best regards,
Marc
Sent from my iPhone