Just wanted to give my feedback on the HE games here at the halfway mark of the fest. A quick Thank You to the GM team as well, I know I've put in a heap of BUG's, which is totally expected considering all the new areas and games, and it seems like most get addressed within 24 hours. Very nice!

-Darkbox: Easy enough, same evil box that it's always been. Kinda nice that sometimes it can be in a magic room so you don't have to hustle off to heal up. Makes those times better for helping out non-empaths since you don't have to sacrifice your own play time (as an emapth) in order to keep other people topped off. I haven't seen any materials better than niello/orichalcum pulled out however this is the go-to for infuser stones & potency crystals; still luck based but I've gotten a number of each without having to camp the box all day, everyday.

-Crown and Anchor: Game itself is straight forward and I think has a good "timer" on it; not so fast you're just giving out prizes as fast as someone can pick them up but not so long that it's tedious. Kind of nice to not have to pay full attention to the game as well, so you can actually pay attention to that movie you have going on the TV instead of it being white noise...:) I do understand the "throttle" of having a limited number of spots available but the flip side being that it sure does suck when you're trying to get for an hour or more. Maybe there can be some sort of kick-out event once someone has been in the room for 6 or 8 hours. The libik does a "hey buddy, you're starting to stink...go get some fresh air" thing, gives you warnings 10, 5 and 1 minute before then punts you from the room with a small RT. You can go immediately back in once out of RT if there is a spot open.

-Crimson Dragon Gaming (bingo): This is a pretty fun game, because bingo! But, it's also pretty long and it is pretty frustrating when an NPC wins and you don't get a prize after all the time you spent playing that round. While there isn't any danger risk, I would suggest making this more viable by dropping or greatly reducing the "common" prizes handed out, so there's a higher chance of getting a jackpot prize. Or maybe change the way prizes are given, still play up the coin as being the "main prize", if you win you get coin+item, if you loose you then get a "consolation" prize from the game prize pool. I can't understate how frustrating it is when an NPC wins...:P

-Terrestrian Tricks: So this is coming from a place of a character that has the skills to always successfully free herself from the web. It appears evasion and athletics are the checks, maybe a stat plays in? Anyhow, when this game is running right, it is a great alternative to C&A when there are only a handful of people playing (5 or less). I suspect if the JOIN LIST gets much longer than 5, it'll still be better than sitting around waiting for a spot to open up in C&A but will become pretty boring. Anyhow, it's got a great base idea; get tossed onto a web, find the weak spot, break free before the spider gets to you. Pretty quick game, you have a minute to do it, so as long as the wait time doesn't get to long, it's got a reasonable turnaround and engaging play time, with a chance from the game prize pool including jackpot prizes. Downside is it's been buggy, so I bet a lot of people have gone in to try it, not gotten it to start right and never re-visited it.

-Otter Smash: If you are an empath or in good with one, there is just nothing to not like about this game! I mean, come on, otters! Smashing things on your tummy like an otter! So cute, great turnaround for your time, and access to the game prize loot pool with jackpots. I like that the random chance of death we had with the Pumpkin Smash game has been removed; you can still die if you ignore the wound-causing events, but isn't totally random like with the pumpkins. I do feel maybe the chance of a jackpot prize should be upped a little more with this game considering it is still prohibitive with the wound events for most people. But overall, if you can deal with the wounds, this offers good access to the game prize loot pool. As an aside, the otter that was in the "smash" room that 1st day turned out to be a Player's vanity pet, but it was kinda neat to have the little guy in there, gave the game some extra cuteness. GM's might consider putting a permanent one in.

-Sea Battle: I only have been able to play this one once so far, it's been buggy too. However, the single game I played was super fun. You and your teammates get in little ships, move around a small water area and try to sink each other by launching water or, hehehe, gerbils at each other! There might be death, I think we saw a "shark moving under the water" or something similar, so maybe if you get sunk where there is a shark it could be bad. But that didn't happen for us, when we (read I) got sunk, you'd just pop up in another room of the water course and carry on with the game. At the end, everyone got a prize from the game prize pool. Cheap to play (25 copper) but it does last 4 minutes. If you're looking for a fun game with a friend, this is definitely it (once the bugs are worked out). If you're only looking for access to the prize pool, I guess better than waiting for a C&A spot, but 1 prize chance every 4-5 minutes isn't great. Maybe up the chance of a jackpot on this game like with the bingo?

-Water Tunnel Race: I currently can't give feedback, apparently if you ran the course in one of the prior festivals, it still kept your info for that character. So when I tried to run one of the points-giving heats, I was told I'd already run it. Not sure if you get a prize after each heat. Looks like it's an event-length game, so not sure what the top winners will get as there isn't much info other than how to play in the rooms. That being said, this is a fun game to figure out. You have 4 minutes (I think) to navigate waterways, trying to grab specific items from the rooms as you move through them. If you have any cartography interest, just figuring out the map they give you is a fun challenge! (heh) Not sure if there is any access to the game prize pool here but it is a neat game that maybe can get some more clarification on prizes and certainly worth running a couple times if you enjoy the event of a game as much as the end-prize. Obviously, I'd suggest clearing out all the previous run data flagged on a character between events. And I kinda feel it would make this game more viable to have it be a cumulative points thing, so instead of 1 set of points for each heat and then you're done, let people just keep running it and adding up more and more points. And then give a prize from the game prize pool at the end of each heat, in addition to whatever end-prize(s) is given.

-Lamprey Bobbing: Free game on a timer, small chance of a game pool prize. I stop in on my way to-and-fro and make a grab. It is a fun concept, simple and free.

~*~ Kythryn ~*~
"Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut." - Ernest Hemingway

>Finest Box of Gems

Every year it has great stuff, but yea, 50 plat a try is more than I want to spend for a single chance at something spiffy without knowing what's available. I guess I could go spend some plat now instead of right at the end, but I guess I didn't want to get salty over spending 500 plat of coin for 30 plat of high quality gems and a piece of fancy clothing...:P

I'll see if I can muster up the verve to crack into the vault for spending money this week now that the initial batch of documenting, shopping and gaming is slowing down.

~*~ Kythryn ~*~
"Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut." - Ernest Hemingway