Lydil Wraps Up Echoes Storyline and Asks for Your Feedback
Posted1 August 2018
Last Updated On20 September 2018
ByNewsby
GM Lydil leaves the closing and thanks for the Wihliam Storyline (he called it Echoes) at the Officials, and asks for feedback! See you in the Free Port!
http://bit.ly/2OzoKOf
Category: Towns
Topic: Solhaven
Date: 07/31/2018 10:26 PM CDT
From: GS4-LYDIL
Subj: Echoes – Thank You and Feedback
The journey to the Bleaklands where Wihliam was freed from the temporal bubble he was trapped inside marked the formal finish to the Echoes storyline. I would like to thank everyone who joined in the fun over course of things, whether it was partaking in the invasion, helping to solve the mystery, or just spending some time being involved in things that were taking place. I had intended to get this out much sooner, but was rather delayed with it due to a lot going on this past month. For that you have my apologies, to go along with my thanks for participating and hope that you will continue to do so going forward.
On this side of things I would be remiss if I did not take a moment to thank those who helped allow and make the Echoes storyline happen. A thank you to GMs Galene and Tamuz for their approvals and support, GM Valyrka as an ever reliable sounding board, and GM Kaikala for her ever timely QCing and help in things large and small.
Finally I would love to hear feedback from anyone who participated during the Echoes storyline as to how they felt about it – both what you enjoyed, as well as what you did not or could have been improved. While I believe many had a fun time throughout, I know there were things that could have been done better, and thus wish to hear both the good and the bad to improve for next time.
See you in the Free Port!
-Lydil
Date: 07/31/2018 10:55 PM CDT
From: ALYSERAH
Subj: Re: Echoes – Thank You and Feedback
I enjoyed the storyline tremendously. I was curious to see how things would wind up, and had fun theorizing about the causes and what should be done to resolve the problems. The mix of quiet, friendly RP and the invasions was a fun one. And it still feels as though there’s unresolved questions that could lead into an interesting future story!
For the downsides, I feel the late start (which I realize is both player and GM availability) and sometimes plodding pace of the events could both be improved on. It felt sometimes as though what was obvious to you as the author was not at all obvious to us and we were flailing, rather than purposefully dragging things out.
All in all though, I very much liked it and wish we could see more!
— Evrali’s player
Date: 08/01/2018 12:00 AM CDT
From: LUNATUNES
Subj: Re: Echoes – Thank You and Feedback
I enjoyed Echoes very much, and I hope that the plot hooks that were set as part of it will grow in future storylines. I finally got my fond wish for a bard to be the source of trouble rather than those limelight-hogging sorcerers and wizards 😉
Somewhat disorganized thoughts–
* The invasions were fun, challenging, and not frustrating — A+.
* I really appreciated the time you took to include everyone who turned out to play in different ways.
* I always love field trips to new locations.
Looking forward to more Solhaven tomfoolery!
/seo, wheels and skulls department/
My
fun this time around:
— Lots of invasions that were well paced, well spread out levelwise through our two usual stretches that support such, and had something just about perfect for me to beat on without steamrolling or (usually) being overwhelmed. The invasions were my main draw this time around, due to the confluence of apparent story topic (more on that later), my energy levels, and how well they were structured. The invasions made perfect sense in the framework of the story, not just as an add-on but as an integral part of the story pacing and content. Very cohesive, A++ would punch furry faces again.
— Seeing the threads of what happened over time get drawn together to provide a more cohesive picture, culminating in the trip to the Bleaklands, which was an excellent capstone. I like when we get to go places we don’t normally, and cool things happened there, stuff was better understood, etc.
— You are good at drawing people in who show up and take an interest and put themselves forward. It’s been clear in the scope and execution of this storyline that the enjoyment of players and the fostering of their involvement in your story has been your primary concern, not just projecting a static tale on a wall for others to admire.
— You seemed to be letting players drive the flow of information in their ways, and utilized their character inclinations and interaction circumstances to varying degrees to do it. Much of this story felt more player-driven than GM-driven, with regards to unraveling the mysteries of Wihliam, and in formulating and executing the final plan to get him out of his straits once we found him in the Bleaklands.
My turnoffs this time around:
— I’ll echo (heh) the sentiment that there were times when progress in unraveling the mystery of what was going on seemed to stall, where the people trying to glean information from or about Wihliam were basically drawing a blank and no new information seemed to be forthcoming. More positive feedback during speculation sessions where NPCs were present may have been useful, and/or more/different hints when people seemed to be hitting the wall. It made some sessions drag and feel like running in place with no apparent forward progress.
— The climax night in the Bleaklands, while really cool in general, was really REALLY long. Really long. All parts of it were long. Before wagon ride was long. Wagon rides were long. Exploration of cave was long. We had some people bail in the cave before seeing Wihliam due to running out of time. I almost did before the end, too, which would have been tragic, because then I wouldn’t have gotten to growl at Bristenn. And we all know that was the best bit of dialogue to happen in recent history.
My mixed feelings this time around:
Subject material didn’t really hook me personally. This is due in large part to my current focal character having a low opinion of entertainers in general and really not giving half a damn about this minstrel who kept popping up, despite the oddity of the different ages/presentations of the echoes. (And since the aforementioned focal character is a bard, I kinda feel bad that I didn’t immediately get hooked, but I lay that at the feet of the bard-trope-subverting character, not some failure to hook a bard with a bardy storyline. How many more times can I fit ‘bard’ into this parenthetical statement? Bard bard bard. Bard many times.)
From a storytelling standpoint and more objectively, I thought this was a very cool story. It seems so little is done with bards and music in GS storylines, outside of straight up bard-related release events. I really enjoyed how music and magic made up the core of this story and how it tied in with our changing game world re: Talador. It managed to feel localish and not a world-shaking cataclysmic event but also stretched beyond the immediate Solhaven environs and tied in the northern Empire region with the other attacks reported by Malvernus and coming from the east, us going to the source, etc. I liked how well-seated the story felt in the world around me. It enlivened the game and added depth to the environment with its perspective and progression of events.
This is one of those I felt I could best admire and appreciate as a story once the storyline ended and we had all the pieces, but as it was unraveling, mostly I was just looking forward to invasions and throwing out the occasional snarky dialogue/mychars. I think I would have been more actively engaged reading this one as a short story or a novella than I was having it unfold around me. But I think that’s very much on me and where my energy levels and my character’s personality were and are, rather than a judgment on the quality of the story or its execution.
-the mule that pulls the jackwagon
—
Walsor Gryhm says, “Hmm, a most impressive weapon of note. I’ll give you 16 silver coins for it.”
You think to yourself, “This deal is getting worse all the time.”