Origins Experience
Posted: Mon Jun 20, 2016 4:50 pm
Hey, so I played in this Living campaign for the first time this past Wednesday in Episodes 7 and 9, so here are some of my thoughts on it.
Some of the things that nagged at me over the following weekend were the allowing extra players than the slot was scheduled for. I understand the logic of wanting to get more players to play, and not turning anyone away, and the thinking that a great GM can handle that, and every player will still get equal spotlight, but for me, It didn't feel that way. It felt like sometimes, some of the players were overlooked, or unheard.
In Episode 7, We open up with a cool carriage ride action sequence. Half the players didn't get to do anything, because of the sheer amount of players at the table.
It also tells me that I should never bother preregistering for the events, because more players will just be taken anyway. This problem, might just be my own personal problem, because I think the game works best at a table of 4-5 players max, and I ended up at a table of 8 and 9 players. Some games work great with a number of players that big, but a heavy mechanic table top game like 7th Sea never felt like one of those games. Like, when we, the players, were just bantering off one another, it was great sometimes, but then when we had to get back to the mission/story, some of the bantering died down.
The flip side of restricting the total amount of people that play, ends up being that less people get to play, which is sad for anyone that was really excited to play, or continue their story, but I just feel there has to be a balance.
The NPC interactions. Being new to this living campaign it seemed as if there was a high importance placed on some of the NPC's we interacted with, I was even told "Oh yeah, this guy is clearly better than you" despite playing a character that is over-confident. It gave me the feeling of something like "If the NPC's are so great and important, then why are we here?" I play the game to be a swashbuckling hero, in neither scenario did I feel very much like that.
Episode 7 I watched a player surrender to the inquisition, and they were very excited to roleplay the scene where they convince the Inquisition of their devout ways, but then an NPC came along, rescued them, and brought them back to the party.
Later in Episode 7, the climax was us the heroes, in the middle of a field, while some zombies were chasing us, and we had to activate some weird syrneth experiments, but first we had to open some flowers? But then the flowers just opened up on their own anyway. And we killed the Zombies with an orbital laser. No big grand fight, no witty repartee, just we narrate offing the zombies, and go back to town.
Episode 9, we encountered what we were told was the worst case scenario. This led to us falling down a hole, Walking through a cave, turning around and walking back, and then waiting for an NPC that had fallen to their death earlier, showing up with the key to let us out of the cave. Then when a player declared a blood feud on the evil Bishop NPC, and tried to kill him, another player said something along the lines of "You can't do that." before the rest of the inquisition members coughed and made it apparent that they would defend the man that left them to their own presumable death.
I don't know what the better case scenarios were, I don't know if we were supposed to find the key out of the cave earlier, all I know is that I was left feeling pretty depressed about what I sat through. Early on I felt like a cool proactive character, trying to rescue kidnapped victims, but after the building collapse, it felt very reactive.
Did I choose the two least swashbuckling episodes to play in?
Another moment that was off putting was when the GM and two players had some great back and forth, but It seemed to stem from the fact that they played in many of the previous episodes, and they knew more than the first time players knew.
For that problem, maybe some slots could be offered that are specifically for first time players to the living campaign?
The final thing I'm not a fan of is one of the rules written in the book, and that's the whole "You're starting Drama Dice convert to XP if unused". I would beg you to get rid of this, It encourages people to not take risks, because they are "Throwing away XP" It Also hampers anyone playing a Glamour Mage, as they have to spend Drama Dice to do their magic. It's the most commonly house ruled rule for a reason. Variations are a plenty, my preferred variation is Any additional earned Drama dice also equal 1 xp. That way players are encouraged to be more dramatic, and risk taking. If it doesn't change, oh well, no big.
I'm sorry that I'm coming off like a whiner baby, but this forum specifically asks for examples of things that make us question coming back. My experience was exactly one of those, I was super excited to meet the forum people, and chat with them, and every body I talked too seemed like great people, but alas the game just didn't sing for me in the right way.
Some of the things that nagged at me over the following weekend were the allowing extra players than the slot was scheduled for. I understand the logic of wanting to get more players to play, and not turning anyone away, and the thinking that a great GM can handle that, and every player will still get equal spotlight, but for me, It didn't feel that way. It felt like sometimes, some of the players were overlooked, or unheard.
In Episode 7, We open up with a cool carriage ride action sequence. Half the players didn't get to do anything, because of the sheer amount of players at the table.
It also tells me that I should never bother preregistering for the events, because more players will just be taken anyway. This problem, might just be my own personal problem, because I think the game works best at a table of 4-5 players max, and I ended up at a table of 8 and 9 players. Some games work great with a number of players that big, but a heavy mechanic table top game like 7th Sea never felt like one of those games. Like, when we, the players, were just bantering off one another, it was great sometimes, but then when we had to get back to the mission/story, some of the bantering died down.
The flip side of restricting the total amount of people that play, ends up being that less people get to play, which is sad for anyone that was really excited to play, or continue their story, but I just feel there has to be a balance.
The NPC interactions. Being new to this living campaign it seemed as if there was a high importance placed on some of the NPC's we interacted with, I was even told "Oh yeah, this guy is clearly better than you" despite playing a character that is over-confident. It gave me the feeling of something like "If the NPC's are so great and important, then why are we here?" I play the game to be a swashbuckling hero, in neither scenario did I feel very much like that.
Episode 7 I watched a player surrender to the inquisition, and they were very excited to roleplay the scene where they convince the Inquisition of their devout ways, but then an NPC came along, rescued them, and brought them back to the party.
Later in Episode 7, the climax was us the heroes, in the middle of a field, while some zombies were chasing us, and we had to activate some weird syrneth experiments, but first we had to open some flowers? But then the flowers just opened up on their own anyway. And we killed the Zombies with an orbital laser. No big grand fight, no witty repartee, just we narrate offing the zombies, and go back to town.
Episode 9, we encountered what we were told was the worst case scenario. This led to us falling down a hole, Walking through a cave, turning around and walking back, and then waiting for an NPC that had fallen to their death earlier, showing up with the key to let us out of the cave. Then when a player declared a blood feud on the evil Bishop NPC, and tried to kill him, another player said something along the lines of "You can't do that." before the rest of the inquisition members coughed and made it apparent that they would defend the man that left them to their own presumable death.
I don't know what the better case scenarios were, I don't know if we were supposed to find the key out of the cave earlier, all I know is that I was left feeling pretty depressed about what I sat through. Early on I felt like a cool proactive character, trying to rescue kidnapped victims, but after the building collapse, it felt very reactive.
Did I choose the two least swashbuckling episodes to play in?
Another moment that was off putting was when the GM and two players had some great back and forth, but It seemed to stem from the fact that they played in many of the previous episodes, and they knew more than the first time players knew.
For that problem, maybe some slots could be offered that are specifically for first time players to the living campaign?
The final thing I'm not a fan of is one of the rules written in the book, and that's the whole "You're starting Drama Dice convert to XP if unused". I would beg you to get rid of this, It encourages people to not take risks, because they are "Throwing away XP" It Also hampers anyone playing a Glamour Mage, as they have to spend Drama Dice to do their magic. It's the most commonly house ruled rule for a reason. Variations are a plenty, my preferred variation is Any additional earned Drama dice also equal 1 xp. That way players are encouraged to be more dramatic, and risk taking. If it doesn't change, oh well, no big.
I'm sorry that I'm coming off like a whiner baby, but this forum specifically asks for examples of things that make us question coming back. My experience was exactly one of those, I was super excited to meet the forum people, and chat with them, and every body I talked too seemed like great people, but alas the game just didn't sing for me in the right way.