Medieval & Fantasy Minecraft Roleplaying

Greetings Explorer, Navigate into the Lobby!

Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

Be sure to "Get Whitelisted" to join the community on server!

Campaign Feedback

Niko

Lord of Altera
Good
Legend
SirNicholas14
SirNicholas14
Good
As someone who ran a small campaign on my own called Songs of Blood and Thunder starting in Late December running til the end of January, I will say that Unhinged burned people out too much for another straight defeat-this-threat campaign and I cut the campaign short in order for people to not get totally burnt out of the server. That being said, I also straight up chose to run a combat heavy campaign 15 days after the finale of Unhinged. Had I started that campaign in February or March, then I think I would not have burned people out from combat stuff and I would still have had more than enough time to run a coherent storyline with a satisfying finale.

As for the opportunities to make your own campaigns, there is literally nothing stopping anybody from just coming up with an idea, asking region owners and their friends if they're interested in the concept and then run the whole show yourself. It's hard and can get real tedious, but that's what's gonna happen when you are the director, producer and even actor in the show you're making. If you got a cool idea and a lot of support, don't be afraid to run it. There's more than enough time in the downtime periods to run something.
 

Sir Arc

Lord of Altera
Mystic
Sir_Arc
Sir_Arc
Mystic
I will start off by saying that I'm not particularly fond of the past server campaigns for a few reasons. That being said I have also not been as active as I could have been with all the server events that have happened while I was on the server. So take what I'm saying with a grain of salt.

I did enjoy the way this campaign was focused, in the past when I have been to server events there was always a inner circle if you will. A group of veteran players that knew more about the current threat and had the means to combat it. This band of experienced players have (in my opinion) most clogged the fun of the event as much as I detest to say it. I remember sitting around while they talked and experimented, waiting for a chance to do something, anything because a famine had flooded the land and there was little else to do in the way of RP. Moving on I feel this campaign fixed the problem, that in my eyes, ruined the events for me. Now I could go out with a smaller group and partake more freely in what the event had to offer. A friend has also voiced his opinions that are like-minded to mine, feeling that the amount of players that attend the events are too much. Recalling that he could not even hit a boss in a past campaign as players swarmed and killed it without a single death. While trying to get involved I feel some find their way at the bottom of the chain of command and are left to fulfill merger tasks, ones that have no impact on the events.
 

Electric

professionally deranged
Retired Staff
electricwisekid
electricwisekid
Legend
I will start off by saying that I'm not particularly fond of the past server campaigns for a few reasons. That being said I have also not been as active as I could have been with all the server events that have happened while I was on the server. So take what I'm saying with a grain of salt.

I did enjoy the way this campaign was focused, in the past when I have been to server events there was always a inner circle if you will. A group of veteran players that knew more about the current threat and had the means to combat it. This band of experienced players have (in my opinion) most clogged the fun of the event as much as I detest to say it. I remember sitting around while they talked and experimented, waiting for a chance to do something, anything because a famine had flooded the land and there was little else to do in the way of RP. Moving on I feel this campaign fixed the problem, that in my eyes, ruined the events for me. Now I could go out with a smaller group and partake more freely in what the event had to offer. A friend has also voiced his opinions that are like-minded to mine, feeling that the amount of players that attend the events are too much. Recalling that he could not even hit a boss in a past campaign as players swarmed and killed it without a single death. While trying to get involved I feel some find their way at the bottom of the chain of command and are left to fulfill merger tasks, ones that have no impact on the events.
I may have a had different experience than you. with the group system, but don't you think having parties just magnifies the problem? When you have public events, everyone more or less has a fair chance of doing things. The campaign itself may be biased (favoring arcane or blessed over mundane, for example), but otherwise everyone can come and get information, research, etc. I feel that the party system takes away the idea of everyone having a fair chance - ie, some groups getting more campaign stuff than other groups. Information is also usually more freely available without the party system, which lets more characters have a chance at doing something. With the party system, one group may be getting more information than another, or more events, and is thus able to make more progress. With a normal campaign structure, everyone gets off on equal footing and where they go with that is up to them.

This is just my experience, of course, so take that as you will.
 

Sir Arc

Lord of Altera
Mystic
Sir_Arc
Sir_Arc
Mystic
I may have a had different experience than you. with the group system, but don't you think having parties just magnifies the problem? When you have public events, everyone more or less has a fair chance of doing things. The campaign itself may be biased (favoring arcane or blessed over mundane, for example), but otherwise everyone can come and get information, research, etc. I feel that the party system takes away the idea of everyone having a fair chance - ie, some groups getting more campaign stuff than other groups. Information is also usually more freely available without the party system, which lets more characters have a chance at doing something. With the party system, one group may be getting more information than another, or more events, and is thus able to make more progress. With a normal campaign structure, everyone gets off on equal footing and where they go with that is up to them.

This is just my experience, of course, so take that as you will.
While I understand your point of this I would disagree. I know of your displeasure with the last of the events being in the Lavalands, and with the Mountain. Moving on from that I can see where you come from with the formation of groups. That being said Blarg heavily encouraged the multiple people to be in the group which would spread out information learned by one groups to the others so that it will all be gathered. The issue as stated in my pervious post was the events being overpopulated and therefor people not having the chance to do much in the events. In the case of many groups it allows smaller groups (sometimes) partake in the events without being crowded by a horde of action-driven players. I do believe that every group can get the same amount of action or rather information if they commit to it. Unlike past events where the information was not so liberally given out to others.
 

Electric

professionally deranged
Retired Staff
electricwisekid
electricwisekid
Legend
While I understand your point of this I would disagree. I know of your displeasure with the last of the events being in the Lavalands, and with the Mountain. Moving on from that I can see where you come from with the formation of groups. That being said Blarg heavily encouraged the multiple people to be in the group which would spread out information learned by one groups to the others so that it will all be gathered. The issue as stated in my pervious post was the events being overpopulated and therefor people not having the chance to do much in the events. In the case of many groups it allows smaller groups (sometimes) partake in the events without being crowded by a horde of action-driven players. I do believe that every group can get the same amount of action or rather information if they commit to it. Unlike past events where the information was not so liberally given out to others.
I see what you're saying, yeah. I do, however, still think that having groups doesn't make partaking any easier - if you aren't in the right group, you won't get the right information.

One main difference between the campaigns is that (from my understanding) Blarg was solely heading this one. In other campaigns it's usually a group effort? I think it could've worked better if there were more people involved in organizing, instead of just one. But that perhaps wasn't possible for one reason or another.
 

Elt

Lord of Altera
Retired Staff
Hate to play devils advocate, but I'd like to offer an argument in favour of Blart. If high stakes campaigns are the only thing keeping people active, then maybe more power should be given to the players, and their own initiative. Allow them to GM their own events, and have things of higher stakes than just "look guys a festival". The obvious drawback would be the potential of intruding other players experience with a larger scale event, but then that's what the moderator team is for. To make sure that doesn't happen. And with permission, maybe some player initiative can grow into something larger.

In my current opinion, I have to agree with Wake and Blart. My experience thus far in these campaigns hasn't been all that positive, and I feel I got more engaging and narratively interesting RP outside of these campaigns. I really believe smaller, player driven subplots is the way to go.
Given your experiences thus far, I can definitely understand where you're coming from. With the context of past campaigns and kind of being on every end of the involvement scale, however, I have to disagree.

Something many people tend to assume is that, as you said, players only have the power to do tiny events like festivals
That is patently untrue. For an example, consider the bestiary; the process for applying to DM a creature from the selection, or even suggesting one to lore, is fairly streamlined and simple. It could be a dedicated hunt, a problem facing a nearby village, something that interrupts an unrelated event taking place in what could pass as its habitat or hunting grounds (think a wendigo attack while traversing the north to investigate something). Not all of them are big hulking beasts, so a clever event planner can make a very engaging challenge with that tool alone — and that's hardly the only tool available to players. With a creative world dedicated to making event settings, plenty of experienced staff you could ask for advice or help, and creative drive, there's a lot more players can do than most assume. Bart himself is a good example: the Nid Arach project, for his willingness to consistently seek it out, was given an incredible amount of freedom. That a player project could create and spread a divine pox across the entire continent is pretty indicative of players having good tools to work with, in my opinion.

You could argue that this means they could keep the server alive, but I still disagree. Just having the power to apply your creativity and dedication isn't enough to keep a greater server population interested. Everything that's been said about campaigns being unique in their sheer positive impact on the server remains true, because trusting in dedicated event and lore teams gives them a lot more room to do interesting, fun things that attract new returning players.

On that note, I have to disagree with the idea I've seen mentioned or implied a few times here, that campaign RP and regular RP are necessarily distinct. Campaigns aren't just to make cool things happen in front of you; they're to generate more elements to stories on every scale (political, local, personal, the works). Campaign events are spaced out not only due to the workload, but because their consequences can be really fun to explore between and after them. It could be planning how to face a comimg threat, reaching out to new or former allies, having an ideological clash, or just about anything. I've seen a lot of incredible developments and moments take place in regular RP during campaign periods, because they give you a lot to work with.

I've always believed a failure to detach IC from OOC to be the greatest hindrance to RP, with initiative only shortly behind. I struggled a lot with both when I was new, but I can attest that changing my view of campaigns from "something to go through" to "something that gives me a lot of storytelling tools to play with" helped my enjoyment of them tremendously.
 

Electric

professionally deranged
Retired Staff
electricwisekid
electricwisekid
Legend
Given your experiences thus far, I can definitely understand where you're coming from. With the context of past campaigns and kind of being on every end of the involvement scale, however, I have to disagree.

Something many people tend to assume is that, as you said, players only have the power to do tiny events like festivals
That is patently untrue. For an example, consider the bestiary; the process for applying to DM a creature from the selection, or even suggesting one to lore, is fairly streamlined and simple. It could be a dedicated hunt, a problem facing a nearby village, something that interrupts an unrelated event taking place in what could pass as its habitat or hunting grounds (think a wendigo attack while traversing the north to investigate something). Not all of them are big hulking beasts, so a clever event planner can make a very engaging challenge with that tool alone — and that's hardly the only tool available to players. With a creative world dedicated to making event settings, plenty of experienced staff you could ask for advice or help, and creative drive, there's a lot more players can do than most assume. Bart himself is a good example: the Nid Arach project, for his willingness to consistently seek it out, was given an incredible amount of freedom. That a player project could create and spread a divine pox across the entire continent is pretty indicative of players having good tools to work with, in my opinion.

You could argue that this means they could keep the server alive, but I still disagree. Just having the power to apply your creativity and dedication isn't enough to keep a greater server population interested. Everything that's been said about campaigns being unique in their sheer positive impact on the server remains true, because trusting in dedicated event and lore teams gives them a lot more room to do interesting, fun things that attract new returning players.

On that note, I have to disagree with the idea I've seen mentioned or implied a few times here, that campaign RP and regular RP are necessarily distinct. Campaigns aren't just to make cool things happen in front of you; they're to generate more elements to stories on every scale (political, local, personal, the works). Campaign events are spaced out not only due to the workload, but because their consequences can be really fun to explore between and after them. It could be planning how to face a comimg threat, reaching out to new or former allies, having an ideological clash, or just about anything. I've seen a lot of incredible developments and moments take place in regular RP during campaign periods, because they give you a lot to work with.

I've always believed a failure to detach IC from OOC to be the greatest hindrance to RP, with initiative only shortly behind. I struggled a lot with both when I was new, but I can attest that changing my view of campaigns from "something to go through" to "something that gives me a lot of storytelling tools to play with" helped my enjoyment of them tremendously.
Couldn’t agree more!
 

Bartooliinii

An Alteran Bard
Patron
Retired Staff
Pronouns
He/Him
Slimy_Froggy
Slimy_Froggy
Patron
I'm just saying that it'd be a good idea in my opinion to alternate with the same time in between. And the time we got after unhinged was enough time, i am only pressing for some conscious thought about both groups. Both sides are strongly protective I think cause they both enjoy different things and either side will feel violated if either campaigns stop or theres not enough time between, so I do understand people might get a bit salty.

But I don't understand trolls like Elt putting a laugh react at a serious post where I give credit to both sides of the discussion I don't feel like continuing this argument. I don't feel like being laughed at when I'm attempting to discuss things that are important to me. I've not been in such a position for a while and was hoping HW has grown out of such childish trolls but eh, guess they're back. Good for you Elt
 

Elt

Lord of Altera
Retired Staff
I'm sorry that the reaction upset you, but since you're seeking clarification here rather than anywhere direct, I figured I'd clarify. Your post was structured similarly to an archetype of political posts you'll see online, and seeing it on a debate about a topic so incredibly tame made for a funny comparison. I hope explaining the joke makes it easier to focus on and respond to the paragraphs of actual discussion, rather than a perceived slight you could ask about.

Let's keep this thread focused, yeah? I think both sides would like that.
 

Solus

object oriented
Staff member
Admin
Retired Owner
I'm sorry that the reaction upset you, but since you're seeking clarification here rather than anywhere direct, I figured I'd clarify. Your post was structured similarly to an archetype of political posts you'll see online, and seeing it on a debate about a topic so incredibly tame made for a funny comparison. I hope explaining the joke makes it easier to focus on and respond to the paragraphs of actual discussion, rather than a perceived slight you could ask about.

Let's keep this thread focused, yeah? I think both sides would like that.
Explaining why you emote in a passive aggressive way to someone who’s typing their experience to a serious discussion is part of the discussion and is focused. It’s funny how that works.
 

Elt

Lord of Altera
Retired Staff
Explaining why you emote in a passive aggressive way to someone who’s typing their experience to a serious discussion is part of the discussion and is focused. It’s funny how that works.
Solus and I settled this in private, so this post is the last on the subject, and is just to ward off any of the derailing that these large discussion threads can easily slip into. This is a thread to discuss the campaign, or the nature of campaigns in general, so I'll probably post more on the discussion itself once I'm free later.
 

DizPanda

Official Alteran
Patron
DizPanda
DizPanda
Patron
So I wanted to say that the majority of the campaign I do enjoy. Though I have noticed a few things. Though I do believe that server events are needed. I've been to servers that are large. One would have multiple mass server events to build upon the lore and have the number of people to do it. Then I have been on servers where they have the number of people to do massive events for the server, but only holds one major event and that is to change maps. I like the first than the latter as it gives more immersion and in-depth to both the player characters and the server lore and the people as a community. It matters to have these things and have them spaced out. I do hope that groups can work together though as it wouldn't just be a cell type of DMing where people are just forever stuck in one group kind of thing to figure out things on their own.
 

Brown

Lord of Altera
Pronouns
They/Them
Doctor_Brown
Doctor_Brown
I'd like to take responsibility for assuming that player initiative was unrewarded. I didn't think about my words and was completely naive, I appreciate other people putting me in my place. To reiterate the point I was trying to make, I'm of the group that much prefers the downtime than the larger scale stuff. I find the player driven intrigue more engaging, but that's just me. In essence, I completely agree with Bartooliinii compromise of equal downtime to campaign time. Campaigns are not a bad thing, they can be quite fun and a great opportunity for character development, but I will agree that sometimes they intrude on that player driven intrigue I do so love.

And to conclude, I don't think we should be ragging so hard on this campaign system that has only had one iteration. I still strongly believe that it can work, just needs fine tuning so that the GMs aren't stretched to their wit's end.
 

Sophe

Lord of Altera
Good
Pronouns
She/Her
I wanted to start this by first saying thank you to both blargtheawesome and Bartooliinii for having done an amazing job so far, especially with it having only been you two for all the groups. Thank you to Elz as well for continuing with the group idea. I think that it's a great system to test out and see how it works, it's very different from what I've seen done before with campaigns. I don't have any suggested changes to make seeing as the only one I was going to suggest, which is having more DMs help out with the amount of groups, is already being addressed.

As for my experience so far with the campaign, I've honestly had a lot of fun! It's been an interesting line of events so far and I love being able to have all our characters test out different theories on what's going on and trying to piece together the puzzle. I think that the group system could work fairly well. It, at least from my personal experience, has pushed my character to interact with other groups that she normally doesn't get to and it seems to have the possibility to bring players together to share information on what's happening with each group and slowly try to work together in order to piece together what's going on. And that's always a perfect way to form new friendships OOC and IC which is part of what we're trying to do, right? We are a community after all. I'm looking forward to how the campaign progresses and how the group system works for us as a whole. :heart:
 

Jase

"Something need doing?"
Legend
I didn't really expect the events team to be able to pull this off after last time was a disappointment for me -

But damn I think you lot have managed to. Absolutely. I feel like this has been one of the best campaigns I have ever been in. Almost as good as the Ashen Blight stuff was! It feels intimate, and yet I feel my group's actions will have an effect on the server as a whole. 2 events and you have won me over! And better yet- from my discussions with others- I feel you have somehow managed to do that for ALOT of different competing groups.

From the vibe I have gotten- many of the events and storylines are connected, although I don't know how connected. It's really cool!
So yeah- thanks for everything- its really been a blast so far and I can't wait to see what next is in store!!!

Keep it up elz / rygan / blarg / lannis !!!
 

Mudpaw11

Lord of Altera
Lore Staff
Patron
Staff
Mudpaw11
Mudpaw11
Patron
I'll agree with saying that is campaign is really good, though to be fair I'm still a new-ish player so the only other campaign I have to compare this to is the Broken Chains one (Which I did pretty much nothing in...). Regardless, I think the groups and the set number of events each group are confirmed to get is a good idea! Especially when there's a few open groups that you can just join if you aren't really in a large rp group and tend to be a bit more solo/floaty. The only criticism I have is that it does sorta encourage cliques and doesn't take people out of their usual group where they could potentially meet other people so like, merging event groups for some events could be kinda interesting (though I can see flaws with that too-but I can also seem some positives that could come from it!)
As far as event, I've found all the events fun because I feel like there is always something to do and I'm not just standing around watching others do stuff because everything is a one man job. I look forward to seeing what comes next!
If I had to make one comment (that isn't something I've faced but I can possibly see it as a problem) would be that before there was talk of there being public/non-group specific events for those without them and at first I had just assumed that was forgotten but then there was the PvE event in SL and I was happy to see it wasn't completely forgotten. Though, again, I'm not entirely sure if this is a problem since I think the majority of people who wish to take place in the campaign are in a group, but I don't know the opinion of the people that aren't in a group so who knows (I'm more just thinking of a potential issue that could happen but for now as far as I know it's fine).
NOW with all my nitpicking done with (sorry ^^; ) I do want to emphasis that I am really enjoying the campaign! And despite the comments I literally just made I think overall it's really good!
Much thanks to the team and DMs behind this, I don't know how you manage to deal with so many people and I cannot wait to see where this adventure will go :heart:
 

Rygan

Deathblade
Evil
Rygan_Deathblade
Rygan_Deathblade
Evil
doesn't take people out of their usual group where they could potentially meet other people so like, merging event groups for some events could be kinda interesting
To this point without spoilers I'll say everything all of you do in your separate groups will be tying into phase 2 where it turns into a more traditional campaign and the groups come together in regular campaign fashion.

Thanks for all your kind words. Lannis has been a huge help since getting back on events and I don't think we could have done it without him - at least not this smoothly and with likely double the stress.
 

The Cartoon Witch

Lord of Altera
Elz As much as this campaign has fun and equally traumatizing, I think one week is a bit too fast of a break. I think everyone kinda needs a step back. And by that, I mean more time for that pause. So like maybe two weeks would be considerable. A time for everyone to mentally and physically unwind from all the crazy events they had to do.
 
Top