Hoot Hoot comes Loot Loot (DM Thread)

[kuma_aus]

Character: Paca

Which Event: The hunt for a Lion - Findind Leonaus: The Library



Responsiveness (Were their narrations posted within a reasonable time-frame and were they quick to respond?):     10/10, no real major wait for narrations.

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Balance (How entertaining were the battles, and any obstacles/traps?):   3/10 I would say. The fights weren't that great balance wise. Not great at the start with some minor issues. But towards the end it became a challenge. Our party had a lot of healing. I would have preferred if the fighting was more focused around the curse debuff to lower healing on people so they need to be more cautious. The big fight with a librarian was too much a tank and spank. All in all, I think our party composition would make balancing super hard for a lot of DMs.

But important thing to note is that this was a small event and the DM was just coming back. So I find it a lot more forgiving. I can tell that future events from the DM will be a lot better in this regard.

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Storytelling (Did it feel like an adventure, did the content of the narrations meet your expectations?): For what I wanted, 9/10. It wasn't meant to be anything super grand. Overall however, I would say 7/10. I would have liked the DM to use more custom icons for stuff that was going on. There was a Golem and a Wolf that could have used a nice icon. Exploring the library wasn't as big an adventure as I hoped, but the way our team did the beginning of the event did take a lot of time so maybe the DM condensed the event so that it wouldn't take forever.

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Fairness (Were the punishments justified and earned, was the risk to reward ratio good?): 10/10 for punishments. Maybe you could argue 8/10 because the fight weren't as balanced which is what led to injuries. Luckily we all rolled high and only some of us got temps.

Rewards there was a mix up and miss communication. A person in the group wanted something, posted it in one chat, and not in another. I should have organized it better so it was clear cut what people wanted. Luckily after things got sorted out. Bad planning on my side. DM could have asked each person if they understood all they wanted from the event as well, but I don't blame them. Rewards 9/10 mainly because other events of similar nature seem a lot more rewarding. But the important lore information we wanted was delivered.

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Overall: 8/10 for me. Maybe a 7? But I can tell as they do more events and get used to running them again, the balance part will be much better



Any other comments:

Good start for a DM coming back. Wasn't spectacular, hopefully DM improves on areas like unique sprites and boss balance.

[Sandshark]

Character: Lucas Alder
Which Event: Finding the Lion: The Library

Responsiveness: Very good! Narrations were quick after people finished posting and were detailed. Good ability to roll with what we were doing even when it was a bit hectic.

Balance: Very rough, but understandable. The first part was a bit of a fluke since we all forgot monster health resets every round of a battle. When that problem got fixed, the fight went a lot better but was easier than expected due to the boss not being able to overwhelm what amounted to a half-healer party with the abilities and relative strength it had.

The second battle was very overtuned as a result. Playing against a wind/poison/gravity build with large AoE stuns, Vacuum Vortex, and mist form was not fun. The first round I and Chezara managed to whittle down the EC's health little by little by the end (after everyone else got bursted down while stunned) by playing extremely defensively and trapping with Barrier to run away. The second round I was three-shot within the first 20 seconds of the round, and the other survivors managed to whittle down its HP over 2 minutes or so. It was extremely feast-or-famine and I felt like I was punished severely for being the only Armed character in the party.

I think it would be a good idea to test out some of these builds beforehand if you're allowed to use DM powers for a trial run. Maybe against people in the death box or volunteers. Luckily none of us rolled a 1 so we all scraped by pretty well (Was rolling a 1 a perm? You didn't explain that since nobody got it, so it might be a good idea to set the standard beforehand), but I definitely recommend asking your next group to post their stat numbers and possibly giving their party roles so you can balance around that.

As a general rule, I would also say to consider alternatives for challenging a high-healing party other than pure damage. For example using an ability or gem that reduces healing to force certain party members to pull back while you punish the others. Or area denial AoEs that can force people into not standing in their pools.

Storytelling: Good! I felt like it was an interesting scenario with well-written descriptions, and in each challenge there seemed to be several ways to proceed.

Fairness: Reasonable. A few of the people in the group got wounds from the overtuned part of event, but none were permanent. I don't know if we could have gotten permanent wounds if we rolled 1s, so I can't comment on that aspect, but since it's all fixable with medic attention or time the balance didn't severely damage our characters.

Overall: I liked the scenario and even though the execution was rocky with the fights I think you're re-learning things and it will go a lot smoother next time. I'm a little sad our group didn't try a more measured approach to dealing with the challenges, but there were IC considerations that made everyone act as they did.

Any other comments: Keep at it and good luck!

[Georgiana40]

Character: Vix Alcast
Which Event: Finding the Lion: The Library

Responsiveness: They were very quick at responding.

Balance: It was a  bit rough at the beginning but its alright, we pulled it through. I enjoyed every bit of it.

Storytelling:  It was very interesting and fun.

Fairness: Reasonable. Only a few got a temp and it was alright. I had fun in the end.
Overall: I loved the event, despite the misunderstanding and miscommunications.
Any other comments: Keep doing it! Because I had a lot of fun, just need more practice.