New Winds Part 1 feedback

[Vutall]

Hi all! We are just about done with Part 1, so I would really love to hear your feedback for the game.

Some questions to think about:

What was your favorite part of this game

What was your least favorite part

If you played part 1 over again, what would you change

What do you think of the lore, timeline, and story thus far

Did you feel the game was ran well

Did you feel like the game was fair

Did you think there were balance problems

[Mai]

1. Having the story change my character concept (like Mai becoming interested in tactics and such) which is fun especially since this is technically part of character creation.

2. Honestly, nothing to really say here. My worst issues were self-inflicted or leaping to conclusions, so nothing you can do there.

3. Make it 12 days. Extra Credit becomes the finals on Day 11 (same rules though). Each session has extra credit session that could help those who are behind (either giving bigger bonuses on a sliding scale for lower ranking people, higher TN's based on people's stat being used, or a cut off on who can participate - whether ranking or only those who failed to gain the trait from a previous class - or something).

4. I like it. Though this period has always been the calm before the storm. I am looking forward to when the storm picks up.

5. Yes. I had a lot of fun.

6. I felt it was fair in the sense that it was reasonable. Maybe some of the traits could be moved around (instead of having fire on the same day for example). Though coming second and technically first, I may be a bit biased.

7. Balance problems, not really? There is a snowball affect of people who won early continue to win. But there is no easy solution for that. I mean, what's the point of winning if it doesn't help you. I think your solution of giving XP to balance does work since the characters will be balanced in the future. Mai could easily be in the lower end ranking in Topaz even though she is technically first here (with Saburo being taken out of the running). I do think that is fair and help balances out any issues a snowball effect may have caused.

[Kaiu Aiichiro]

1. This is my first time playing a PbP for a looong time. Most things I liked seem pretty integral to it — the bonding of characters as there is plenty of time for them to develop, and the gossip system. My favourite part of each day was checking the gossips as soon as they were posted.

2. Wouldn't be constructive to explain, as it is a pet peeve of mines.

3. Opening at least one more time slot pet day of free time. About day 8 I couldn't think anymore of any thread prompts that could sound interesting on cleaning, so I just started to slack and ignore the cleaning duties. As well a way to even high and lower ranked characters out; maybe by adjustable TNs — the best you are ranked, the most difficult things the sensei will throw at you — or by small events for lower ranked people such as reinforcement classes.

4. It is going nice, although there needs to be some way to not sway the votes by who has more voters on a clan. Dao suffered quite a lot.

5. Yes

6. On the days I was lagging behind, I felt punished a lot for not taking Void 2, Tea Cerimony or the skills that would be relevant early on; even if I tried to pick mostly relevant skills without sacrificing character.

7. I know it is a children's game and the TNs are low for player enjoyment, but some things that usually would be hard felt too easy, idk?

[Doji Sakura]

What was your favorite part of this game

Free materials!

More seriously, I liked the design of the events. The mix of traits made it interesting and the descriptions were cool

What was your least favorite part

The lack of identity to the NPCs. Having no profile, no account and no image/background made them feel a little lifeless. I get they're not really supposed to be a part of the game, but I felt no actual proper NPCS made it feel a little lacking

If you played part 1 over again, what would you change

My entire character design. Like, the whole character sheet

What do you think of the lore, timeline, and story thus far

Seems pretty cool!

Did you feel the game was ran well

The game was pretty well run. I was pretty upset that sneaking out at night was killed very early on though

Did you feel like the game was fair

No. Unfortunately due to how the events lined up, and the importance of void points, anyone who didn't have 2 void and were on the right traits early got a huge benefit to the point that it was impossible to catch up

Did you think there were balance problems

Yes, quite a few in how the events came around. I think in hindsight the daily events should have been days 1-4 and after that the proper events.

[Kaito Haruki]

1. The running for prodigy was really tight up until day 9.

2. If you didn't start strong, there was no way in hell you would come back in rankings.

3. If playing part 1 again, I would do a better job of putting my character out there for everyone to see early.

4. Didn't see too much of the lore play out as a character yet, so no opinion. Fits for a kid, but maybe add a couple of pre-game choices indivduals could make that flavor the character (like maybe choosing a branch of their school like I did for no mechanical benefit but a fluff influence on how they act).

5. The game was ran well, but we as players could have done a little more to be proactive.

6. Would have liked a couple more uses of strength throughout the days, but other than that, it was technically fair if you adjusted your concept to the training program.

7. For this part, yes. But hopefully the xp system will make it more fair next part.

[Kokyou]

What was your favorite part of this game
The many events that cheered up the game even for characters that weren't top in class.

What was your least favorite part
Not knowing Kokyou could have trained iaijutsu with a Magistrate sensei I had no idea had that skill.

If you played part 1 over again, what would you change
More side events for different types of characters.

What do you think of the lore, timeline, and story thus far
Nothing too deep. Fun and exciting.

Did you feel the game was ran well
Yes. Although I missed having more fleshed out NPCs, since they looked cool.

Did you feel like the game was fair
As fair as Orokos allows.

Did you think there were balance problems
Since the bonus are awarded during the dispute, the "kingmaker mechanic" was bound to happen.

[Yogo Otoko]

What was your favorite part of this game?

It was a uniquely thought out way to approach new characters for L5R that felt new and different.

What was your least favorite part?

The balance for no skill trait one ends up being quite hard to balance. Even more chance than usual means greatly disproportionate results.

If you played part 1 over again, what would you change?

I had thought before many things, but now that we're at the end, nothing on my part.

What do you think of the lore, timeline, and story thus far?

The parts I saw were interesting, though I only interacted with 1 NPC all game, so was a bit outside a lot of the story and lore IC.

Did you feel the game was ran well?

You ran thinks marvelously Vuvu darling. Get a co-GM to help!

Did you feel like the game was fair?

Fair, yes.

Did you think there were balance problems?

Yes, but with the format, I am uncertain as to solutions.

[Bayushi Kaidan]

What was your favorite part of this game
Sneaking around the campus. And that all people had a chance to get something cool.

What was your least favorite part
Being last, j/k. I found it somewhat bad that even if you made a single raise and pass there was no actual reward. That you needed to pass all the skill tests to earn extra points.

If you played part 1 over again, what would you change
not much, perhaps I wouldn't auto sabotage my character. Also what many have informed NPC need a face to be able to imagine who one is talking to.

What do you think of the lore, timeline, and story thus far
I find it good. Players may change it a bit and allowance to it should be good.

Did you feel the game was ran well
Yes but I think you should get an assistant GM.

Did you feel like the game was fair
Yes it was but I think that events should be locked after a certain time.

Did you think there were balance problems
Maybe but then again Orokos is a cruel cruel man. But as stated before Void 2 always brings problem.

[Otomo Nobuko]

What was your favorite part of this game
The flexibility of the characters and allowing for many different types to have a potentially even footing

What was your least favorite part
The lack of equality among side event results and the lack of warning on them and the lack of restrictions on joining further events in "new" sessions. There were nemuranai being given out for 3 of them, but the others had effects that were generally negative save for glory or honor rewards. That's a big disparity in event involvement. I also disliked that events were posted largely without warning so those players who had timeslots already accounted for could not join, as well as having several of them happen in hours that the majority of characters could not take part in because the characters were being 'good' children and staying in their beds.

If you're going to have events with powerful magical artifacts being given out, then they should be posted ahead of time with the rules surrounding them so players know that they'll have to have their character free ICly during X timeslots. Characters who receive such rewards should then not be allowed to join any further side-events because they have already gained a powerful, unique, in-game item. This can help balance out the fact that other events won't have the same level of reward - a unique item with magical properties in exchange for not being able to take part in other, more 'mundane' events that confer only honor and glory.

If you played part 1 over again, what would you change
Personally? I'd probably have changed my skills slightly and what ring I increased on the first Regular class day to give myself better chances at the rest.

What do you think of the lore, timeline, and story thus far
It's all good!

Did you feel the game was ran well
Overall, yes. There were bits and pieces of frustration, but that did not make the game a bad one.

Did you feel like the game was fair
Not really. Orokos, Fortune of Not Giving Anyone a Fair Shot, made it hard to get any of the bonus advantages or ring bonuses for the game at large during events that gave them. I know the whole 'have two explosions' was meant to invoke a feeling of a rare gift being bestowed and all, but it ended up just being frustrating that some people double exploded all the time and while others might have gotten it once. A different mechanic for getting bonus advantages is recommended - maybe passing all rolls with two raises grants the Ally who can then be traded for a rank in a skill or 'held onto' to be cashed in for an advantage at the cost of x for x type thing? Idk. I'd have to put more thought into it. But something that's a little less reliant on a fickle master like Orokos but still makes each bonus advantage special for everyone involved.

Honestly, I'd love to trade some of my 5 Great Potentials (each are "5" xp/cp) for the actual XP/CP to buy other advantages instead. I really don't need that many great potentials.

Did you think there were balance problems
Absolutely. But I think that comes from being a level '0' campaign and l5r is already hard enough to balance for normally. Coming up with a system to try and give the PCs a sense that they're special and powerful while also still children who have to obey mortal laws is kind of difficult.

[Utaku Ichiro]

What was your favorite part of this game
I love the concept of playing out character creation and playing younger not-yet-samurai finding their place.

What was your least favorite part
The hour based days with most hours already assigned chores made it harder to be creative coming up with thread ideas for a dutiful samurai-to-be who would be trying to do said work.

If you played part 1 over again, what would you change
Honestly I'd probably go with a different character who was more likely to rebel against said structures.

What do you think of the lore, timeline, and story thus far
I'm still getting my footing in it so it's hard to give feedback right now. This is not a failing on your part just that the FFRPG setting is alien to me. At this point I'm not even 100% which parts are 'your' world and which are theirs.

Did you feel the game was ran well
Yes. Running a good, fun game is hard. The more players the harder that can be. To have done so with only a single GM without any major delays or snares is something to be proud of.

Did you feel like the game was fair
I feel that the intention was to be fair. It sadly suffered the snowball problem. If you succeeded early you were going to keep succeeding. If you failed early catching up was hard if not impossible. If you, or your character's, enjoyment comes from a chance at winning I can see how this could be very demoralizing.

Did you think there were balance problems
L5R has plenty of balance issues so, yes, of course there were. That said I think the XP at the end plan helps make up for a lot of it.