Red Light Mayhem

[teefal]

Never was a quest name more appropriate

Twenty eager low-level battle-brains, lag warping our moving traffic jam through narrow cavern tunnels, unable to hear plot points above the din of disagreement, uncertain of everything, so we killed whatever we saw, including the quest characters.  

Ah well, such was my first DM quest.  A real let-down, though no fault of anyone, particularly the DM.

[RouterBlade]

Low lvl quests are a problem
and the monsterous lag just made it even worse
in my opinion Aldred did a wonderful job not blowing his top during the quest because i know i would have hahaha

[KageKeeper]

This might be helpful.

http://www.layonaraonline.com/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=15088&posts=4

[vgn]

Well, I'd have to say it was in part my fault because I should have really limited the number of people allowed. I didn't think it would be a problem though as this morning I only had like 10 signed up and the quest had been up for several days. But between then and the start of the quest the party doubled. Lag was a drag and I appreciate people trying to continue despite the lag.
I am a bit disappointed though as there were several RP angles, plots, and tangents that could have been taken, but everything that moved was killed on sight.

Teefal: I hope you try another of my quests sometime because this was a poor representation.

[teefal]

We'll be back   Howabout one on the *east* server

[Zhofe]

The east server frightens me ...

I think I went on my first quest when I was level 6 or 7 or something similar. I got a chance to travel to Central (which at the time was the scariest thingI had ever done. I don't think I had even made it to Port Hampshire before that) and I got to see a Dragon (Yup! A Dragon! And it didn't kill me!)

The quests here are awesome, and there is usually a quest every day (or more) The GM team here is so awesome that I couldn't even begin to properly praise them. Sometimes, I have to admit, they can do things that can be inconvenient. (Entering my house and locking the doors and trying to steal my bed or entering my house and casting a spell and scaring the crap out of me or entering my house and poisoning someone with a poison arrow and dragging me kicking and screaming into the longest, most intrusive, most far reaching quest that I have been in .... well .... basically ... entering my house) But really, if there is a better GM team for an NWN persistant world I want to see them, because they must be gods.



Now ... do I get sucking up XP?

[Vyris]

*grins* Having spent several considerable chunks of time of VGN's quests I can tell you that he might frustrate you, but dissapointment is not something thats ever been experienced by me from his quests... he makes my head hurt with big thoughts

It must have taken an aligning of the planets, locusts, plague, famine and a butterly flapping its wings in central park to get anything other than a top notch, engaging and incredibly fun quest from VGN.

I highly reccomend jumping on VGN's next quest, because if he start putting a hard cap on the party and you miss it you'll never know how much fun he can be.

Sorry to hear you had an uphill battle tonight VGN.

Vyris

[KageKeeper]

vgn did Luna's CDQ and it totally was awesome.

It was vague enough for me to *really* have to think. It was great. All I could have hoped for and more. So yes, do go on his quests. And really, I have never been on a bad quest from any of the team.

w00t!

[teefal]

Just to make sure in case I wasn't clear ... I think vgn did as good a job as he could have, given the clamor, bloodlust, and lag.  Hmm... there's a good name for the next newbie quest:

Clamor, Bloodlust, and Lag.

[Thedan955]

Seems like quest sizes are getting huge lately.  thursday night the maker quest was twice the size as the prelude to it and honesly it made it alot harder and alot more aggrivating.  Server crashed twice during it.  Personally i wouldnt be against having a party leader or DM telling people to leave.  Of course giving prederance to the people that signed up on the calander and were in previous quests in the series.

-Klugger

[Gunther]

I agree with the concept of limiting the size of the groups.  It was pure chaos, which can be fun under other circumstances, but not this one.  I feel a bit badly about attacking the goblin leader, but I had warped all the way across the room and had hit him three or four times before he got a word out.

I think the same thing happened with somebody else when one of the goblins tried to talk to us.  They shot it with an arrow and then we ended up having to kill it, despite our party leaders order to not attack.

I dont really regard it as anyones fault, just too many people and too much lag.  And maybe a lot of overeagerness.

[aragwen]

I read somewhere that someone suggested dice rolls for over crowded quests?
  Dont know if it will work....but 20+ on a quest gets quite hectic.

[SquareKnot]

Like teefal, this was my first Layonara GM led quest. I was really looking forward to it. I got to the fire about 20 minutes before the quest and have to say that the roleplay by the others waiting there, and as each person arrived, was really top notch. I was really getting into everyone's characters for the first 6 or 7 people. After that, it went south pretty quickly. I think teefal described it well. Thanks to vgn and the original players for a good half hour of gaming.

Based on my (very limited) Layonara experience and what I've read on the forums here, and here, I'd like to suggest a few things.

First, three cheers for hard caps on the number of people. There have been some good suggestions as to how to do that: first to sign up, first to arrive, random die roll, auditions, whoever would best balance the party, whatever. Just keep the number to below 10.

Second, keep the party small once the quest starts. There needs to be a policy about adding people to a quest once it starts. I've seen a "quest train" go through town and been hit with random "Join Party?" invitations. If someone wasn't there at the quest's start, they shouldn't be pulled in later unless it's part of the quest. And passers-by shouldn't "// add me to the party" Perhaps only the party leader or GM should issue invitations.

That's it. If we had gone with the first 8 or so people, I am certain we all would have had a great time. I'm willing to go on half as many quests if it means that they are all smaller and better for everyone.

Thanks again.