The Quest Game
Oct. 18th, 2005 12:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kenjariThe Quest game this weekend turned out to be very much a mixed bag for me. There were some very good and fun things, and there were some very bad and frustrating things for me.
First of all, let me say that I think the GMs did a very good job. They had to deal with the tough obstacles of heavy rain and low PC turnout, and they did it quite well. And the kitchen staff also did a great job. The food was plentiful, varied, and there was always something warm to be had. And plenty of tasty non-dairy choices.
The highlights:
I got to be the key player in taking out three ogres during a rescue mission. It's always fun to kick ass.
Banishing the demon-god Zug-Zug on Saturday night, despite being in a small group and having only one fighter. Oh, and the 12-foot tall Zug-Zug prop/costume with glowing eyes was wicked cool - one of the most impressive props I've ever seen at Quest.
Speaking of the props, the props were beautiful across the board. The totem pillars and heads were gorgeous. And the jeweled eyes that went with them were great. It's a shame that we never got to put them all together, because I bet they would have looked terrific. And it wasn't just the major props. Even the details were well-executed. The magical staffs that appeared were each completely unique and lovely. The treasure chests were real chests, and decorated, too. And the costuming was good, too.
The lows:
It all boils down to frustration with not being able to accomplish a damn thing as a party. Our party started out with a great concept, but between player ill-health and character death, we were down to three people on Saturday night.
The low PC turnout ended up meaning that the two opposing sides of PCs were split very unevenly - about 2/3-1/3, I think. And our party was in the 1/3. There were also very few PCs that were neutral in terms of the opposing goals and could thus be swayed one way or the other. So it didn't become uneven - it started out that way.
By Sunday morning, it started to feel like every time our party started to accomplish anything at all or to plan a course of action, we were almost immediately derailed. Either by the other PCs, or by the introduction of some new bit of information, or by some event, or sometimes even by a stray comment from an NPC character. I don't think that this was at all deliberate on the part of the staff or players (at least in an out-of-character way), but I just started to feel thwarted at every turn, no matter what we tried, and it made me lose interest in doing anything at all.
I want to emphasize that I in no way feel negatively towards the game staff, and that this is not at all meant to be a negative judgement on them or their game. They did a great job running a well-made game, regardless of my personal experience of it.
First of all, let me say that I think the GMs did a very good job. They had to deal with the tough obstacles of heavy rain and low PC turnout, and they did it quite well. And the kitchen staff also did a great job. The food was plentiful, varied, and there was always something warm to be had. And plenty of tasty non-dairy choices.
The highlights:
I got to be the key player in taking out three ogres during a rescue mission. It's always fun to kick ass.
Banishing the demon-god Zug-Zug on Saturday night, despite being in a small group and having only one fighter. Oh, and the 12-foot tall Zug-Zug prop/costume with glowing eyes was wicked cool - one of the most impressive props I've ever seen at Quest.
Speaking of the props, the props were beautiful across the board. The totem pillars and heads were gorgeous. And the jeweled eyes that went with them were great. It's a shame that we never got to put them all together, because I bet they would have looked terrific. And it wasn't just the major props. Even the details were well-executed. The magical staffs that appeared were each completely unique and lovely. The treasure chests were real chests, and decorated, too. And the costuming was good, too.
The lows:
It all boils down to frustration with not being able to accomplish a damn thing as a party. Our party started out with a great concept, but between player ill-health and character death, we were down to three people on Saturday night.
The low PC turnout ended up meaning that the two opposing sides of PCs were split very unevenly - about 2/3-1/3, I think. And our party was in the 1/3. There were also very few PCs that were neutral in terms of the opposing goals and could thus be swayed one way or the other. So it didn't become uneven - it started out that way.
By Sunday morning, it started to feel like every time our party started to accomplish anything at all or to plan a course of action, we were almost immediately derailed. Either by the other PCs, or by the introduction of some new bit of information, or by some event, or sometimes even by a stray comment from an NPC character. I don't think that this was at all deliberate on the part of the staff or players (at least in an out-of-character way), but I just started to feel thwarted at every turn, no matter what we tried, and it made me lose interest in doing anything at all.
I want to emphasize that I in no way feel negatively towards the game staff, and that this is not at all meant to be a negative judgement on them or their game. They did a great job running a well-made game, regardless of my personal experience of it.
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no subject
Date: 2005-10-18 05:23 pm (UTC)I agree with you that this was a very well-made and well-run game -- none of the above is meant to contradict that!