An Audience With The King -- Discussion Thread

[piosenniel]

Harad/Umbar and the southern contingent of Dale are in south Gondor - soon to be in Minas Anor! Possibly by Friday.
The northern approach of Dale, Mirkwood, and the Lonely Mountian will be in Minas Anor by Saturday.

Who will welcome us?

[Susan Delgado]

But the Shire/Blue Mts/Rivendell contingents have barely left Rivendell!

[Bêthberry]

There's rumour of a rumble between the dwarves of Erebor and the Blue Mountains once at Minas Arnor. A real knock 'em down, drag 'em out free for all. [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]

[Alkanoonion]

Everyone! Please preface every post with the name of your team to avoid confusion.

I have noticed that some people are forgetting to do this. Can they please go back and title the post as trying to follow the story is a little hard at the moment.
[img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

[VanimaEdhel]

Oh: Barrow-Wight and I may double or triple post for Rhûn Nation, as it seems that only the two of us are really following. And, Barrow-Wight seems to have a lot of work to do, so it may just be me sometimes.

GreatWarg is still participating, he is just busy. I am too, but apparently not as much as he is. I'll try to come on and move Rhûn Nation along as much as I can.

I just wanted to let you know where Rhûn Nation is stationed and why I may be double, triple or quadruple posting for Rhûn at times and that I'm not just "taking over" for us...

[Mithadan]

HEAR YE! HEAR YE!

Today is the day! 45 days have passed since this RPG began. As we all know, all good things must come to an end. This RPG must also come to an end.

Post now or forever hold your peace. After some reflection, the thread will be kept open until noon tomorrow so that everyone who wishes to may make their last posts. King Elessar and his representatives/guards/jailkeepers may make token appearances where needed and as appropriate to aid in the wrap-up. The final post will be made tomorrow after which this thread will be locked tight (and, under threat of death, namely mine, from the Mentors the key shall be thrown away).

After the RPG thread is closed, please congregate here for the final Q and A and critiques.

Players: be prepared to give us your thoughts on the game, specifically (1) the mentors and their techniques, (2) what you have learned or discovered that you should learn, (3) the game format, and (4) what could be done to make an exercise like this more successful and fun in the future.

Mentors: be prepared to provide similar feedback. Also, please respond to the e-mails which I sent to you all.

If the roleplayers would like personal feedback/critiques/recommendations they should request them from their Mentors via PM or e-mail. The Mentors will not critique the writing or gameplay of their players in this thread. If the players wish to nominate "Best ofs" (Best character, best post, most improved, etc.) they may. There will be no "Worst ofs" (those who went AWOL win these categories hands-down).

Thanks to all the Mentors for their work and patience. To all the roleplayers, I hope that you got something out of this and enjoyed yourselves.

[VanimaEdhel]

Has anyone been in contact with Barrow-Wight? I have not heard from him in a long time, and he's my mentor and all...and GreatWarg, my fellow RPG'er...

I regret to say, if none of you know about them, that Rhûn Nation may have to finish out with one person (yours truly) kind of controlling all three.

[Mithadan]

Then do so Vanima; step into the batter's box and swing away.

EVERYONE:Due to the unfortunately timed service outage, the game is extended through Monday noon, as I am unavailable through the weekend. I will try to jump on where possible, but can't promise anything.

[Aylwen Dreamsong]

Phew thats good Mithadan. I was trying to get to the forum this morning and right after school, and it wouldn't work and I was like "Oh my gosh!" I thought I was the only one that it wasn't working for. LoL. Guess not. Thanks for the extra time... [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]


Aylwen

[*Varda*]

Thanks Mithadan! I tried to get on when I got home from school, so I'm relieved for the extra time to sort of wrap things up. [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

Varda Elentari

[VanimaEdhel]

Okay...please don't hate the fact that I suck at this, though...I'll try my best.

And: until Monday is better because I can only come on at nights for a limited time on weekdays...

[piosenniel]

Is the game now ended?

[Mithadan]

Congratulations! You all, more or less, got to Gondor (somehow) for the Audience (such as it was). This game was an experiment and an attempt to improve gaming quality in the Freestyle RPG room among other things. In some respects it was a success, in others a failure. Now, we'd like to hear from everyone about this "experience".

Players: be prepared to give us your thoughts on the game, specifically (1) the mentors and their techniques, (2) what you have learned or discovered that you should learn, (3) the game format, and (4) what could be done to make an exercise like this more successful and fun in the future.

Mentors: be prepared to provide similar feedback. Also, please respond to the e-mails which I sent to you all.

If the roleplayers would like personal feedback/critiques/recommendations they should request them from their Mentors via PM or e-mail. The Mentors will not critique the writing or gameplay of their players in this thread. If the players wish to nominate "Best ofs" (Best character, best post, most improved, etc.) they may. There will be no "Worst ofs" (those who went AWOL win these categories hands-down).

Thanks to all the Mentors for their work and patience. To all the roleplayers, I hope that you got something out of this and enjoyed yourselves.

[Mithadan]

Nomination: Most steadfast and determined player under the most adverse conditons (namely the lack of a team) -- *Varda*

[Amanaduial the archer]

The mini-wittisms award- Belin (Elladan)

I enjoyed doing the Audience With The King RP. Im sorry i didnt post more during it, Im having a few problems at home plus the winter exams but i think that my writing style has improved by playing a hobbit.

Id like to do an RPG like this again, but possibly not under a time limit of a sort. Its a great idea.

thanks
aman

[*Varda*]

Aww, is it over? [img]smilies/frown.gif[/img] [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

Well, I for one think this has been great (Besides the fact that I got nominated for a best of), and you should totally do this again.

My only critiques were that I found it impossible to follow the other teams, I have no idea what Lonely Mountain, Mirkwood, Dale, Rhun, and Harad/Umbar have been up to all this time [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

So perhaps less teams, and slightly larger groups? It would make it easier should one or two members go AWOL. Ahem.

I'll think of some nominations when I'm slightly less tired.

EDIT: Oh, and I loved playing a dwarf. Before this started I was like 'I'll be happy if I'm anything but a dwarf', then just my luck, I was a dwarf. But that's a good thing, it meant I got to play a different character than one I would normally consider, and made it more interesting.

Varda Elentari

[ November 11, 2002: Message edited by: *Varda* ]

[Aylwen Dreamsong]

Varda-

I feel the exact same way. When I was logging on to the computer I was like "I wonder what team I am on for the RPG. Oh well, anything but a dwarf. I'll be ok" Then, hahaha Lucky me, I scroll down Mithadan's team assignements, and I am an erebor dwarf! I was like, gosh just my luck. But I came to like being a dwarf too.


Anyway, I also thought at the end it was kind of wierd. Did we even have an audience? I just thought it got kind of crazy. But my writing style has greatly improved, with many thanks to my mentor, Bethberry

Aylwen

[Marileangorifurnimaluim]

*pant, pant* Made it.. to the end. *crawl... collapses in a heap* I swore upon my father's sword I would... if it killed me.

Unfortunately, it did. *Maril expires.*

Just kidding.

This was valuable in all, in ways I didn't expect. My writing speed picked up - a real blessing there - and I am overjoyed that people liked the Nurn subplot.

Next time I will not spread myself so thin.

I did myself in by having four characters, two countries, and three entirely different plotlines. It was great until time ran out, and my nerves started fry and snap.

At first I followed the Rhun storyline, curious how that culture would be written, and Dale (I liked the Girion character). I followed the disasterous battles of King Fuinur with a smirk. Eventually I was reduced to just trying to find my team.

My suggestions are the same as what I mentioned at the half-way point, and the same as everyone else's: bigger teams, smaller game.

-Maril

[VanimaEdhel]

*Raises one eyebrow*

Ummm...Wighty...when you come in here: what happened to "going out like a bang"? You told me you had something planned...that's why I didn't post yesterday: I wanted to leave things as they were for Kasteni to "go out like a bang" (to quote what you said to me in the chat).

Can you tell me what you were going to do?

And: GreatWarg, where did you go?

Varda: very good job! I wish I could have done as well without a team as you did! *Gently elbows her fellow Rhun Nation members*

My only suggestions are: I agree, bigger teams; more time in which to work (as many of us had school); fewer teams.

Well, Lovek would like to take this opportunity to proudly bow out...until next time, peace be with you and may the winds of change blow in your favor.

*Disappears quietly into the night*

[ November 11, 2002: Message edited by: VanimaEdhel ]

[Belin]

I won a prize! [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img] Thank you, Amanaduial; I'm very glad you enjoyed reading my sillier moments.

I had a nice time as well. First of all, I very much appreciate the very fact that people went to the trouble to set this up, and the work of the mentors, as well as the work of all non-mentors who signed up and were willing to subject themselves to a learning process. I like the idea of learning to play by playing, and I like the mentorship idea as well. In fact, the main thing I would like to suggest is more interaction between players and mentors. Maybe all the mentorees should be required to immediately post what they see as their strengths and weaknesses in the smaller discussion threads, and that should be worked at throughout. Maybe they should continue to post questions every couple of posts, with the mentors adding things for them to look at. Maybe all the mentorees could work with each other as well, since we probably all have different strengths and weaknesses, and RPGing is a group activity. I realize that many of these are thing I could have worked on and that I'm in large part criticizing myself here, but communication is something that should be addressed. For samples of questions, see my (much too late) post in the Rivendell discussion.

Next time I think I'll have a lot more posts as well. I've come to realize that my idea of posting often is not the same as other people's, and I was often thought to have disappeared when really I was just thinking.

Bigger teams is probably a good idea, and the game was just massive, yes. The time limit.. I'm not sure if more time or less would have been better. I did feel the pressure of the time limit, but then again, that's part of what caused me to post so much.

The most important thing I've learned from this: Get out of town. And that's valuable. I also learned quite a bit about collaboration from working with *Varda*--there was a lot of talk between us toward the end.

And one more thing before I stop babbling: It was an interesting experience to play a canon character. That's something that I'd always felt insecure about to some extent, and though I never felt really comfortable with Elladan, I think I did get to the point of manipulating him better than I'd expected to. So that was a challenge that was good for me, much like Varda's and Aylwen's work as dwarves.

So in some ways I learned most where the game seemed to fail.

--Belin Ibaimendi

[Elenna]

In many ways I agree with you, Belin. I would have liked to see more discussion. But when you look back at what we had to work with... Rivendell didn't really do much.

Would this be an appropriate time for me to post my critique?

[Mithadan]

Go right ahead Elenna.

[Child of the 7th Age]

I agree with many of the thing the other posters said: larger groups (7-9 mentees per mentor), fewer groups, more interaction between those groups which do exist, a straightforward storyline so that a poster can follow all the permutations of the plot.

Let me just say this was also a learning experience for me. Next time, I would have done certain things differently. Here are examples.

1. If any mentor does what I did--take three posters and come up with two initial subplots--please have him/her go jump in the lake! This was a definite error on my part. If our storyline had limitations, I deserve some blame for setting up this impossible situation! Next time I would keep it simple.

2. I've never before played an RPG which had a time limit. This posed certain challenges of timing. For example, if a particular territory is to be covered in the RPG, have the group initially set up one or two guidelines as to where they should be at a certain point. E.g., at the 25-day mark, the team should be at a particular location which is half way. This doesn't have to be slavishly followed, but it will help get us to the end point on time.

3. It seemed to me that having so many posters involved in a single game tended to slow down and even close other games on the board, at least temporarily. Is this a problem? Should we be concerned about this? Or is it a natural and positive outcome of having so many posters involved in a single large project? I don't have any answers or preferences here, but it's at least worth thinking about before we decide how "large" the next mentored game should be, i.e. how many posters would be involved at a given time.

Nominations: Finally, a huge thank you to my two posters who stuck out the course, and who bore with me when my ISP came unglued for 10 days. Maril deserves an award for excellence in writing, and Alkanoonion should get "best of game for improvisation and creativity" when he was stuck in Pelargir day-after-day with my internet service down and our storyline frozen. He creatively took us on a very funny tour of every tavern in the city!

sharon

[ November 11, 2002: Message edited by: Child of the 7th Age ]

[Guildo]

I had alot of fun though towards the end i was a little less involved than i should have been do to school issues, but i learnt alot, and cant wait to see if there is going to be a phase two of this learning experience

[Susan Delgado]

My biggest problem was communication. I was satisfied with most of my team, but I felt that my comments and suggestions were generally either implemented without comment or ignored. This is nothing that any regulations will solve, but it's still an issue. In most RPGs I'm in, the discussion thread is a lively and active place, but in this game it was very quiet. It was frustrating. Email was the same way. Several times I tried to get my team to tell me what they thought of the game but they never responded.
Perhaps in the next game, we can have something like a weekly check-in, so we know how everybody is feeling. This doesn't have to be public, of course, that would take a lot of time and space, but I'd be satisfied doing it by email.

I also agree that next time we should have a simpler story with fewer, but larger groups. As someone said, this would also help with the ineveitable dropouts, because it wouldn't leave anyone completely alone. Speaking of which, I second Mithadan's nomination of *Varda*. She did an exemplery job of carrying her whole team there at the end.

[ November 12, 2002: Message edited by: Susan Delgado ]

[Thenamir]

Mea Maxima Culpa. I was a poor mentor, and I know it. I thought going in to this RP that I could squeeze just a bit more out of my crowded schedule to post as needed, as I have done in Rohan, but after the start of the game I was hit with even more real-life balderdash, and unfortunately didn't post at all for the last 2 or 3 weeks of the game. My apologies to Shadow_Staar, and especially to Varda.

Varda, you are not just an RP-er, you are a GAMER, and that is a complement indeed. But it should be noted for all that are reading that sometimes people drop out, sometimes you really do have to carry the load until you can either get the originals back, or find replacements. It is a tough, draining job to do that (I've been there), and Varda, you did it with style and substance. My hat is off to you for your efforts.

I had no idea the game was going to be so short in real-life duration, otherwise I would have made a better effort to keep us moving along on the road (at least, while I was posting!). Now I have to go back and read all the other groups, since all I had time to do previously was to catch up on the Blue Mountains contingent.

Thanks Mithadan for your efforts in getting this off the ground and trying to make better gamers of us all. I apologize especially to you for my lack of participation and for adding to the burden of keeping this RP alive.

Can we try again? (I would not put Mithadan through this again for Smaug's treasure, I mean as an independent RP.)

[Nevtalathiel]

The RPG was great, I found it really useful and it was great fun, but there are a couple of suggestions I have to make.

• More feedback from mentors, so I would suggest less mentees per mentor; say maybe just 2 or 3, to allow them to really get some discussion going about style etc.
• Larger groups, so several mentors' groups would work together and the mentors would communicate with each other if they thought there were any major problems that needed addressing
• Less storylines at once, to allow everyone to follow what is happening everywhere - I found I only had time to read the posts which were directly related to the Dale storyline

Hmm, think that's about all I have to say. I realise that to do things this way would take a lot of time and effort from the mentors, but I think if you could do it, it would be worth it for the improvement people would acheive.

[Ringwraith Number Two]

I thought the RPG was a very good way of introducing someone new to roleplaying at the Barrowdowns. I learnt a lot from it; I normally would never have played the part of hobbit, but I did enjoy it [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

I found it a bit hard to follow what the rest of the roleplayers from the other teams were doing. I have the same suggestion to make as a lot of people did if another project like this was to take place: I think larger teams would make the RPG more enjoyable for everyone, that way, it doesn't have to rely heavily on one person.

[ November 12, 2002: Message edited by: Ringwraith Number Two ]

[Elenna]

Wow. Just think, guys, in a few years, we'll be able to say "Yeah, I was part of AAWTK," and the non-involved will only gape at out superior experience.

But here's what I have to say.

First of all, I want to apologize to the Rivendell team. It wasn't a very exciting ride, was it? I guess waiting for 25 days for the hobbits to arrive might not have been the best idea.

Second of all, by way of suggestions, I just think AAWTK was too big. I have no idea what the other teams were doing - they lost me. And that isn't a bad thing for them. It merely means there was a bit too much going on.

Thirdly, I want to thank Belin Ibaimendi for sticking with me until the end. Somewhere along the line I lost the rest of my team, but she stayed, and I appreciate it.

[Adanedhel]

All,

Well done on a fantasticly played and organised Role Play. Being someone who came in near the end i am dissapointed that i couldn't come in sooner and played nearly the whole game as it was a really interesting RP, one that i only got to taste test.
From an outsider the way that all the groups were co-ordinated to Role Play in one thread and get to a certain place in a minimum amount of time was done perfectly and there are a lot of fantastic RPers here who now are more experienced and better RPers becuse of this RP.

!WELL DONE!

I would like to apologise due to the fact i couldn't get Rira more into the story near the end, but thanks to Exams and homework this more than limited my RPing time. I so wish i could have....ahh well there is always other RP's but there aren't many that are as good as this one...

Thankyou Bethberry for inviting me here and i hope to join other RPs here soon (after my exams!) I really enjoyed myself and i hope to see you in the 'Theft' soon...hint, hint *laugh*

A very thankful,

Adanedhel

[ November 12, 2002: Message edited by: Adanedhel ]

[Rimbaud]

The utilisation of a structure-providing narrator would have been invaluable, from my admittedly neutral perspective. Perhaps had one of the mentor/Moderators tied some of the story-lines together with some strategically placed posts, the story would not have seemed so formless.

I wrote this whilst at work, so rather than the infamous two cents, this post cost _______________, LLC approximately $2.73 at around 7 minutes of my time.

[img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]

[Edit] It doesn't look like much typing for seven minutes, I know, but I spent the majority of that time working out what the post was worth...

[ November 13, 2002: Message edited by: Rimbaud ]

[VanimaEdhel]

I would like to propose that, if we try this again, we either have more or less structure. It would work better in both cases, I believe.

We could have tighter schedules and those that have time for it can join and those that don't have the time cannot join. That would make things go more smoothly. Although I, then, could probably not be in it, as I leave for school at 7:00 A.M. (not a good time for me to go online) and returning between 3:30 and 5:45 P.M. (depending on whether I have afterschool commitments or not), then do homework until about 6:00 or 7:00 PM most nights. Then, I have to practice piano, which takes from 30 minutes to an hour, then I have about an hour at most on here, then I have to go to dinner and I am not allowed on the computer after dinner.

Or, we could have less time restrictions. As in yes, you have to get there in a respectable amount of time, but you have more time to coordinate yourselves. I think that, if that was the case, Rhun's travelling would be more coherant (instead of me having to have us rush to the Council, when I had ideas of other obstacles we could encounter).

And that is fraction of a penny of a contribution (well, that's about what it's worth anyway).

[Susan Delgado]

Back at the midpoint, somebody suggested having each group follow the same story (with a separate thread for each). This could work; it would allow the players to compare how their own group is progressing to how the others are and give them a chance to see how the creative process works as the groups would probably diverge from each other in time, though they'd still be following the same plot.

[Marileangorifurnimaluim]

LOL Rimbaud! See now I thought Mithadan was the one with billable rates (what was his rate for this RPG?).

Susan, agreed, I think you could have the same story going in seperate threads. Which would be the same for about, oh, one post. Interesting to see how different people take the same theme.

Nomination: Pio, for the "butter scraped over too much toast" award. She did a brilliant job keeping two teams going, playing a host of characters in both Dale, Harad and Gondor.

Am I curious about that chasm...
-Maril

[*Varda*]

Thanks for all the compliments!

One question though - The difference between an Rper and Gamer is......? *looks blank*

Varda Elentari

[VanimaEdhel]

I believe a Role-Player just plays a part, not really regarding the other people or the story or their character.

A Gamer, on the other hand, puts their soul into the game and interacts with the other people...basically everything a Role-Player does not do.

[Susan Delgado]

Ah, Maril, we're all curious about the Chasm [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

What Vanima said...the difference between "RPGer" and "Gamer" Is one of attitude and conscientiousness to the story/other players.