It was a very different event to the first one we did primarily because we had fewer number (only 19 players this tim around instead of the 29 we had last time) so we didn't think having the whole game set in the Market wouls be viable. So......

Venue - Was the same place that we used last time which wasnt ideal (being the Floating Market I ideally wanted all the events to change location each time) but I faffed a bit too long in picking a date so it was the only really suitable one we could get for the date we wanted. Will try and set dates and book venues a few months in advance in future. Gave ourselves longer to set up this time which helped. Ideally we also want to be looking for a venue where the "changing rooms" are in an area thats not part of the main playing area, but hey hum

Plot - The plot tiself was okay, and once again the players and the NPCs did a fab job in keeping it flowing. The plot fell down really when we ran out of time. The first half of the game was set in the Market and the second half in a mental institution. The players had to escape by either convincing the docs that they were sane really, or by taking their medication, or by finding out the codes for the door and breaking out. People worked out the doctor review fairly quickly but we only had about 40 mins to do as many people as we could and that was only about 6 or 7 people. So at the point where it was time to leave only about 1/3 of the people were able to. So we had to revise the plot to give them all an opportunity to escape. Problem arose basically cos we didn't leave enough time in the asylum. Should've maybe had an hour less at the market and started the loony stuff earlier. Think the other part of the problem is that some of the people just went "well we're trapped so we'll just wait and see what they do with us". Don't know if that was a player thing, or what their characters would've done. Some of the people tried to escape, others just resigned themselves to their fate.

Didn't help that it was a last minute plot re-write the week before the game, so we hadn't really had much chance to go through it a few times, so it was kinda a wing and a prayer

Organisation - Again one of the problems we had was characters coming in last minute. We did initially say that all characters had to be in week before the game, but had to extend that simply cos we'd only got in about half of the players' characters. Will try again for the next one as it does help if we know who we have long before the game. Also means that a lot of the IC props (i.e the newspaper) can include more characters)

The NPCs were reaonably well co-ordinated. We all pretty much knew what we had to do but it was a bit chaotic at times. We had a whiteboard to help co-ordinate them but realised that we didn't have a marker to write with. Must also remember to check the walkie talkies before the event as they'd seem to have lost their charge.

Need to ensure that we have more phys reps for things, and get them lammied up before the game. We were scribbing numbers on post it notes which isn't very professional.

The rules seemed to work okay. Which was handy, and the players were forgiving when we had to flange a couple of bits

Conclusion - All in all not bad. Think the main lesson I've learnt from this one is that I have to maintain my own enthusiasm. As there was initally a very poor player response, I got somewhat disheartened and didn't really put in as much effort as I should've done. The last minute rush meant that I didn't have time to "catch up" on all the things I should've done earlier

On the good side, I can see how having a good concept for a game is important. The players that we have are fantastic. Theres soooooo much effort going into costume, and characters and props which makes such a difference. Theres enthusiasm and passion for the game which is what I think will keep it alive 

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Brighton Below : Organiser

Serenity: Capt Tom Crowson

RL: Simon / Trez

It seemed that a couple of people werent over impressed, quite a few loved it and the rest enjoyed it overall. So not too bad really

The main criticisms were the lack of preparation, everything seemed very rushed at the end. Which it was partly cos a lot of the characters came in late, and partly because I lost my enthusiasm for a while.

A few people said that they were cold, which I found strange cos two people asked me on the night if they could turn the heating down cos it was too warm

The main one was that some of the players hit a brick wall in how they were meant to escape. There were probably about half a dozen ways that they could've done it, but a couple were a little obscure, and a coupel more relied on people doing something that their characters wouldn't do. So they ran out of ideas, lost hope and just sat and waited for their inevitable doom.

We did initially intend on having a rat turn up and throw a few clues in, but never got round to it due to time / NPC shortage.

Think we were just so busy running round and fending off the people who were busily trying to get out of the place on an "every man for himself" basis that we missed the people sitting quietly

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Brighton Below : Organiser

Serenity: Capt Tom Crowson

RL: Simon / Trez