Still learning the ropes
Four events down. I'm still learning the ropes.
I got in two runs of one module this event, and everything else was either talking to people (usually one or two at a time), crunching in a big fight, or dispatching NPCs. I had a few other modules planned, and even hooked one of them, but ran into either timing issues and/or my inability to snag combat NPCs, excepting two who were very patient with my flustered self and deserve many cookies. (Running a module that needs more than me during a field fight is so not happening. Sadly, that's how my timing kept falling out.) Of that, I think dispatching NPCs went the best: two went out with solid writeups, a pair had adequate direction but could have used more flavor, and two halves were spliced together on the fly with other things-in-progress and I think turned out well despite the back-stage panic on my part. Improvising is hard, and being surrounded by people who make it look easy doesn't make it any easier for me.
Tentative goal: a dozen pre-written NPC parts, variously recurring, targeted, and as-interested. Some module hooks and targeted combat may count. I don't know that I'll hit that next event, but I'll start ramping up. Possibly this will get easier as I build up a collection of recurring faces ... and if I'm not running out of NPCs who're interested in face parts, it's not too many.
More pre-setting of rogue-y things would be good, too. Resetting could take slightly less forever -- and I could be a little less ambitious in setting up mods. That one was probably too long. I can pre-string a bazillion bells (I should never be trying to thread a bell during game time), put jump rings on the mouse trap triggers to make threading them faster and less likely to slip, and figure out how to pack the chimes and chains to avoid tangling. Rethreading the chimes with heavier wire so that it doesn't get caught in other links of chain might also be a big help. This is why I have my own trap kit that I can bring home with me to tamper with between events.
Finding an appropriate face for going out and meeting PCs would be good, if potentially time consuming. It occured to me afterward the fact that one of the faces I was out as for a bit could easily have had such conversations with some players instead of being in tight-focus mode. Tight-focus mode is fine if I need to do a very specific thing ASAP, but it's lousy for figuring out what players I haven't interacted with might want to do in the future, and it's very different to find that out from the character in game than from the player in a PEL.
Counting ... I think I interacted substantially with eight or nine characters, and in passing with another half dozen and three groups, and dispatched people to interact with another four groups. Decidedly room for improvement.
I got in two runs of one module this event, and everything else was either talking to people (usually one or two at a time), crunching in a big fight, or dispatching NPCs. I had a few other modules planned, and even hooked one of them, but ran into either timing issues and/or my inability to snag combat NPCs, excepting two who were very patient with my flustered self and deserve many cookies. (Running a module that needs more than me during a field fight is so not happening. Sadly, that's how my timing kept falling out.) Of that, I think dispatching NPCs went the best: two went out with solid writeups, a pair had adequate direction but could have used more flavor, and two halves were spliced together on the fly with other things-in-progress and I think turned out well despite the back-stage panic on my part. Improvising is hard, and being surrounded by people who make it look easy doesn't make it any easier for me.
Tentative goal: a dozen pre-written NPC parts, variously recurring, targeted, and as-interested. Some module hooks and targeted combat may count. I don't know that I'll hit that next event, but I'll start ramping up. Possibly this will get easier as I build up a collection of recurring faces ... and if I'm not running out of NPCs who're interested in face parts, it's not too many.
More pre-setting of rogue-y things would be good, too. Resetting could take slightly less forever -- and I could be a little less ambitious in setting up mods. That one was probably too long. I can pre-string a bazillion bells (I should never be trying to thread a bell during game time), put jump rings on the mouse trap triggers to make threading them faster and less likely to slip, and figure out how to pack the chimes and chains to avoid tangling. Rethreading the chimes with heavier wire so that it doesn't get caught in other links of chain might also be a big help. This is why I have my own trap kit that I can bring home with me to tamper with between events.
Finding an appropriate face for going out and meeting PCs would be good, if potentially time consuming. It occured to me afterward the fact that one of the faces I was out as for a bit could easily have had such conversations with some players instead of being in tight-focus mode. Tight-focus mode is fine if I need to do a very specific thing ASAP, but it's lousy for figuring out what players I haven't interacted with might want to do in the future, and it's very different to find that out from the character in game than from the player in a PEL.
Counting ... I think I interacted substantially with eight or nine characters, and in passing with another half dozen and three groups, and dispatched people to interact with another four groups. Decidedly room for improvement.