Length of challenge (earth time)
Just about right I'd say. It should take a couple of months!
Agreed. The game was long enough to require some commitment from the participants - which is appropriate, considering how much work it took to set up, but not so long that it became boring.
Beowuuf may disagree, but some enemies could have been toughened up or substituted depending on who fought them. The roomful of jellies, for instance, could have been very dangerous, except they were deployed against the wrong player (my armour made me immune to them). I think I lost one hit point in the whole game, and that was from a bodged attack roll. Admittedly, I arrived in the central room too late to fight any Tier III adversaries.
Yes, I definitely found too many magic items - you'll remember I had little interest in the abundant items available in the central room, because my kit was already almost as good as it could possibly be.
Sounds good to me. There was so much interesting stuff that just had to be ignored due to time limit constraints. You may wish to consider getting rid of phase doors too, I think they gave everyone else an unfair advantage over Seren.
Sounds good, but I think we'll need the time to investigate these or we'll just rush past again. I felt the time limit in this game was too strict to allow experimentation with interesting-looking furniture.
That obviously happened at the end of the Casiorn Challenge, though I guess you could streamline the subquests so they are easier to get out of the way before confronting the Big Bad. Dropping random teleportation may help with that.
And in response to Beowuuf's comments re Bor Pistols being overpowered, I would say yes, they are powerful but there are some pretty severe drawbacks to be considered too. For one thing, you have to be careful to avoid "friendly fire". Secondly, they can be used a lot less often than bows and crossbows. You start with fewer shots and cannot re-use them, unlike arrows or bolts which can be recovered. You'll notice I used my axe a lot, as I felt I had to conserve my bullets for the
really nasty enemies.
However, AS may wish to consider changing them to single-target weapons (with more starting ammunition to compensate). I admit to being a little surprised when I killed four bad guys with two shots. However making them affect only a single target might actually make them
more effective in certain situations.
My axe specialisation seemed a little weak compared to EvilTB's Light Weapons specialisation, which applied to an entire class of weapons which were very commonly found in the game, whereas I never found anything else which was compatible with my bonus.
I therefore suggest that players get to choose between "general" weapon proficiencies (such as light weapons) or "specific" proficiencies which give a better bonus (maybe increased to-hit as well as damage) but are more situational. You still have the gamble of possibly never finding a better skill-compatible weapon than what you start with, but also get some benefit from taking that gamble. The two types of specialisation probably should not be allowed to stack however, that would perhaps make them too powerful.
What else? I felt there were too many traps - they just seemed to slow the game down, without actually posing a threat, as I think they were almost all detected without going off. Perhaps they should be less common but harder to spot and more dangerous. They should be placed logically however so careful players can have some idea when to take extra time searching locations. Alternatively, keep them as they are, but make it possible to fail a disarm attempt and even trigger the trap by accident.
Anyway, having said all that I'll just add that this game was a lot of fun and I'll definitely be back for the next one!