I would call this event nothing less than a RPG reality show. Tara (the Vampire Priestess) was doing nothing less than going for the million dollars.

I look forward to seeing you again next year man! It truly was an extremely awesome event. I was happy to have been teamed up with you.

Let me just say that I too thoroughly enjoyed this event. I agree with many of your comments, and even I had moments where I got “caught up” in the action probably more than I should have. By about 2 hours in I was in a comfort zone where I never said too much, but always encouraged the players to take chances and try and make their plans work. Our Demon Lord was “highly active” and in some ways that was good, but ultimately the players made this event what it was. Ultimately, I found myself simply recapping things going on, recapping their own self-generate options, or recapping their currently active plans. It was truly like “herding cats.”

Personally, I wish we could have avoided a Tarrasque. There are so many other cool destructive creatures besides the eater of worlds that would have been plenty believable. like ritually creating vampire-spawn from myriad slaves to consume enemy houses from within or some other such plan (incidentally this was one idea I sadly withheld from the ever inquiring players when they asked “What do you think we should do?”, which happened quite a bit.) I mean really, a substantial sacrifice to Zura, patron of vampires, could have easily sped up the process of spawn creation, and may have been far more palatable than the Tarrasque. At the very least, summon the thing in the middle of a battlefield or something – not in the House gardens! Ah well – good times none-the-less; it did the job and killed lots of Drow.

The one thing I was most proud of about our particular house was that they played the classic intrigue game very well. While everyone else attacked, cajoled and killed each other, our house waited in the shadows and pulled strings. Rasivrein absorbed three houses by the event’s end, and according to Steve Helt, Miyana Rasivrein was the top candidate to complete the throne quest in his massive group of 14 at the table. His comments post game to me were (paraphrased) “I thought Rasivrein was gonna get the throne – having Render with the priestess was key to their advantage.”

It’s too bad so many people made for the throne all at once. The final scenes turned out quite differently than the authors had envisioned.

There are definitely things that can be improved upon, but overall it was quite the experience. The thing I encourage strongly is that the event listing read “highly interactive, immersive roleplaying required.”LARP” is too “weak” a word and while applicable in many ways, it is not truly reflective of the event. I’ve LARPed aplenty, and this was the craziest game I have EVER seen or been a part of – no LARP could hold a candle to the craziness and intrigue this event inspired.

It was a pleasure meeting you at GenCon Phil and I do hope we run into each other again sometime!

And to Steve Helt and Shane Cottom who worked so hard on making this event happen, congrats! Overall it was a very well-received event by those who matter most – the players!

Ron Janik, aka “Ramicus”

Geekout aside, thanks for the tip Wes, I’ll definitively pick up this one as a souvenir of one of the greatest RPG experiences I’ve lived so far.

I concur with most of ChattyDM\’s findings, particularly my awe of Nick Logue and Paizo for even attempting this mad stunt. It was hands-down the most fun I had at GenCon and I\’d do it again in a heartbeat. However, my own suggestions are:

1) A smaller group next time. Two 60-person games would have been more manageable. 120 rolls for initiative is just crazy-talk.

2) Ditch the character sheets. Combat was impossible in this setting and the set up lent itself more to intrigue and assassinations anyway. A motivation and maybe some \”action cards\” would have made things run much more quickly.

3) Don\’t give players characters who are good at neither intrigue nor assassinations. I met a Grey Render and a Slime Demon. They were not having any fun.

4) It would have been of enormous use to the players if the GM\’s took five minutes at game start to identify the houses and where they were. I kept hearing about new houses all night.

5) In the same vein, banners or large signs showing the house names would have been very useful. I don\’t know how many times I had to say \”I\’ve just made an agreement with House…uh…House \’Those Guys Over There\’.\”

6) I really appreciated the zeal and hard work of the many GM\’s. They were all very affable. However, I\’d have preferred if they limited themselves to answering questions or swatting the houses back on track when they went astray, rather than simply taking over and directing their efforts as they did in many houses (not Trachinoa, thank goodness…evilness…whatever).

And finally, I\’d like to reiterate how much FUN this was. Thanks!

Tarondor

PS: Good review, ChattyDM

I loved reading your spy report, Chatty! You know how much I value constructive criticism, so I won’t go on and on about that. I wanted to thank you again for helping out with the event (all of you who helped, if there are others reading this), it wouldn’t have been possible without you.

A couple of your ideas were considered, or were beyond our control. But the rest will definitely be taken into account in any future events that Evil Stevil and I put together.

Among the rest of their notable exploits included taking down two major houses, including a very public and humiliating assassination / defamation of one of the heads of the major house (which is apparently coming to be known as the “piss bucket incident”). They also were part of the alliance that saw the eventual ruler crowned, and can also claim to not have lost any of their 6 primary nobles. I’m not certain any of the other minor houses can make that sort of claim, especially given how visible and active Misraria were.

Otherwise, I would share most of ChattyDM’s analysis. The event was great, and unique in it’s ambitious scope, which it (mostly) managed to pull off. There were some technical hiccups, some of which may have been averted by ChattyDM’s suggestion to streamline the character creation process. One of my players had an incomplete character (missing 8 levels of assassin), 2 others were given no equipment, one lvl17 sorceress had no spell list, and NONE of the players at my table were given any of their power cards. Still we managed to make it work (mostly, if I may pat myself on the back a bit) due to some quick improvisation on my part, to make sure people had playable characters with as little delay as humanly possible.

I agree that some of the DM’s crossed the line between being a DM and a player, but I feel comfortable in saying that I was not one of them. I offered no suggestions or advice, I only helped make sure the intended actions of the players were carried out to the best of their (and my) ability.

Hopefully lessons will be learned, and whatever Paizo decides to do with this model next year will just be that much better!

Awesome!

We have always threatened to destroy your lot by poisoning the city’s water supply, which we were in sole control of… be glad he didn’t play the power card that didn’t allow a save!

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*sigh*

One day…

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