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Initiate
Group: Basic Members
Last Login: Sunday, September 09, 2007 4:19 PM
Posts: 6,
Visits: 18
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Well, now that I am back and unpacked and able to reflect on Pandoro’s Travelling Fayre Presents “Cautionary Tales of Dreams And Darkness”, I am left with a sense of wow! It came off, and also with the relief that the months of set building, script writing, play rehearsing and laison with the club had paid off. Whew!
While everyone played their part, two especial thanks: Nathan for the amount of work he put into making sure my vision actually happened, and Marcus for his hours creating the props and sets that the script demanded.
May I say that it was an honour and privilege to work with such a talented monster crew. When I was writing the script, I had imagined how the scenes from the storybook world of Pandoro and his Cautionary Tales would look --- and more importantly, feel --- to the players, yet having witnessed some of the largest scenes (the Mystic’s daemon attack, the werewolf’s battle, the Faerie Court… the list is a long one!), I can say that they all captured the dark fairy tale feel of the concept and looked just like they were imagined, as ‘real world’ equivalents of the ‘fantasy play’.
There were also a lot of excruciatingly funny moments (the Leading Man’s portrayal of the camp Faerie King, the tales of the Snake-In-A-Box from the Rival’s quests to the four corners of the earth, the decrepit wig and hair Justinian had to wear after being aged by the daemon, leading the party, as Pandoro, into the midnight while people behind said, ‘it’s OK, just follow his glowing tights’, and so on… another endless list!), mixed with some real heart-in-the-mouth stuff (notably Elric’s almost-beheading and his amazing last minute blurting of the rime of reason). And some scary stuff too…
So, thank you, again for proving one especial thing; that Nyctophobia has an extremely talented and dedicated heart that, with the right motivation and ingredients, can really create some outstanding, unforgettable, pure theatrical magick!
All I did was provide that little bit of inspiration!
John.
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Squire
Group: Basic Members
Last Login: Wednesday, June 03, 2009 8:13 AM
Posts: 47,
Visits: 151
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Cracking stuff! I thoroughly enjoyed all the parts I had to play: stilty juggler firey type, ocarina playing sentinel, goofy west-country faerie, tree hugging elementals, green lesser-demon of doom, vicious pointy toothed spear-weilding sprites and offensive drunken wrestling Tenalians (spelling?).
Credit to all that contributed to this experience and notably to all involved with making the story and set come alive. One of my most enjoyable crew experiences to date! I was bloody knackered and bruised on Sunday night and I STILL can't get all the green off, even after a bath!
I hope you all enjoyed it nearly as much as I did. Now I look forward to seeing the pictures of the event. Get posting with your photo-site links here!!!
All the best, Ben.
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For fortnightly 1 day linears in a huge woodland site near Guilford and occasional weekend long events check out Spearhead:
- High quality writing, roleplaying and crew.
- Unique player races with their own inherent strengths and weaknesses and flexible and open ended character development
- Very friendly bunch of people!
- Your first 1 day linear FREE!!!
- Lots of fun, violence, angst and general mayhem to be had!!! 
Spearhead article in London Lite on the 6/11/07: Part 1 Part 2
For an independent review of a day event, as well as a review of the weekend 3 day event in April '07 (based at a site with an authentic roundhouse!), see the articles section of Hack and Slash
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Heroic Knight
Group: System Moderators
Last Login: Thursday, January 07, 2010 2:24 PM
Posts: 123,
Visits: 216
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Some crew side photos are at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=11027&l=5d642&id=555203131
Enjoy!
Nyctophobia
www.nyctophobia.org.uk
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Initiate
Group: Basic Members
Last Login: Sunday, May 17, 2009 4:21 PM
Posts: 3,
Visits: 26
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Nyctophobia – Pandoro s Travelling Fayre.
A cautionary tale against kicking logs that hum in the dark.
(I've posted a similar review on the front end of this rule7 forum).
I thought this event was amazing for many different reasons. First up was the rolling start. Who ever came up with the idea of getting players playing on arrival deserves a slap on the back. The start flowed so much more and it meant we could all get stuck in without any waiting about. I guess it also worked well because no major events, trading opportunities etc occurred until everyone was fully briefed and coined up.
Pandoro s circus area was marvellous, especially the stage. I think we all appreciated the amount of effort that must have gone into creating this one aspect alone.
The new tanned gloves instead of white jerseys for refs worked really well also. I prefer refs to be very discrete and out of mind because this encourages better role play. The challenge is now for the refs to embed themselves even deeper so that their ‘characters’ do not do things that are out of place. Out of sight is out of mind, and the quality of reffing truly aided that on this event.
The crewing was excellent. I know of one crew member that died in the woods, only to be found 1 or 2 hours later. Hats off to you, this added to the story for several players making for a richer experience. We also had Pandora and the five actors – all excellent again. I was the lucky one that had the monkey challenge. The cheeky simian was hilarious, and tried dozens of naughty and clever tricks to get me to go wondering off into the woods to pick flowers with him. Thank you again monkey.
The fear was chilling again. Thinking that I was going to die (or actually dead) 4 times added to this. I also detected an unusual amount of screaming during our quest to the labyrinth that suggested some of my comrades also felt a little out of sorts.
The food was once again good quality, plentiful and well timed. I could tell that people had put some top effort into sorting this out.
I thought the overall standard of role-play was greatly increased at this event. This was partly encouraged by some of us being glammed into thinking we were trees, tree huggers and squirrels. But I also believe all the players put on a real good show this time. There were few lapses into OOC and everyone tackled the very new challenges that faced them with great spirit.
The crew that were located within the caravan itself were also very good and managed to be very interactive throughout the event. I only knew some of them were crew because I saw them in the fort at the start.
I also thought that it was an impressive touch to change the order of things so dramatically for the caravan (especially the Trading Council) at the end of the event – who can guess as to what political wrangling and intrigue will manifest as a result.
Again, hats off to Pandora and the 5 actors who all performed the play to perfection and who all added to the richness of this event beyond measure.
Finally, a big thanks to all those I have not mentioned but who all contributed to making this the smoothest and most stylish Nyctophobia event I have attended to date.
My Character Highlights
Kneeling before the Faerie King and Queen, fully expecting to be beheaded. Better still, it was poor Elric that got pulled up to be executed. And even better, Elric managed to blurt out the answer just before the killing blow.
Turning into Werewolf. It was an eye-opener to be stumbling about in the woods with a woolly mask that seemed to be designed to restrict breathing, vision and heat loss. I was also shocked to find myself able to creep all the way up to the camp fire. Three different character walked passed me and didn’t batter an eyelid. Although I suppose this is what happens when the council shuns its obligations and does not employ a solid, Rasputin style watch. Smile.
The Monkey. From the moment Zan’ko saw that idiotic grin bounding towards him in the forest he thought, ‘no please! Not me. Don’t be me that you’re wishing to greet like a simian brother.” The lengths that my monkey friend went to too try and temp me into the woods were astounding: drawing arrows on the ground; pretending to find things; even pretending to impale himself on a large stick… and playing dead for a good 15 minutes afterwards!
Pandoro s Play. This was one the key scenes that that has stuck in my mind. I especially loved the hamming it up style, particularly when the wizards did battle. “Kazizz. Kabam!”
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