Namtab

Game: bladeandbow.boards.net/thread/4914/wayen-manor-maze

I have basically the same remarks as Syphers, though my opinion on their virtue differs. Even though the party was very powerful for the bracket, the monsters were also too weak. Level 7 characters shouldn't be facing standard bestiary goblins, even if you did give them a bit more HP or AC. Having more creatures like the minotaurs or the manticores, especially when you saw how we were steamrolling everything, would have made things feel much more challenging instead of the roflstompapalooza that the game ended up being. Personally, I would have thrown in an actual dragon as the boss instead of the wyvern, something with a breath weapon that could hit everyone, or spells.

A maze like this is a dungeon crawl without anything interesting in it, essentially an arena where the fights are spaced out by hallways. And I don't look too fondly on arenas as DM tests.

Now that I've gotten the negativity out of the way, I will say that you're quite good at roleplaying, and I honestly would have liked to have seen more of that in the game, whether it was more talking and interacting with NPCs or meeting colorful enemies with personalities. You've also got a good grasp of the rules of the game, I only remember you having issues with that poison thing, and poison is already a lesser-used and confusing section of the rules. So no harm, no foul.

I've got the feeling that with a bit more practice, you'll be able to get a good balance of combat, exploration, and roleplaying, but unfortunately I cannot give this particular game a pass, due to the aforementioned "basically an arena" thing. I wish there was a middle ground between passing an failing, a "try again" option, but sadly there is not.

Overall: FAIL

table stats from second test game.
bladeandbow.boards.net/post/24545/thread

table stats from test game.
bladeandbow.boards.net/post/24605/thread

link to character sheet approved for Mentor test.
bladeandbow.boards.net/post/24350/thread

Game Master Test for the 14 Ranking Tag: bladeandbow.boards.net/post/25449/thread



For a 15+ Game in Blade in Bow there are a lot of Shenanigans that can happen. How you roll with the punches however is what makes it or breaks it sometimes. There were a few things in this game in which I really enjoyed and then a few things I noticed by which there is room for improvement in this game.
With that lets review what happened.


Lets start with the positives:

I laughed, You laughed, We all laughed, and all I know is if we were laughing then I am pretty sure that we had a good time. There were some moment in this game in which I truly had fun: The role-play was great among everyone, and some of the things I did not expect with the interactions with the devils were quickly thought out and executed, I honestly didn't expect five angels to sell their soul for biscuits,it was quite entertaining. Use of maps, and the different tokens for the devils were also good. ((However you could have aligned maps with the grid but it's no big deal.)) There were also plenty of different encounters by which were mostly social and then one fight encounter. There were also a few things that I didn't expect in combat either which did prove difficult to some degree with hero points being used left and right to stop the BBED from leaving and wish being cast as well as time stop, there was however somethings in which were missing mechanically.



With that lets talk about a few of the things that I noticed that could perhaps use some work on: 
Combat felt, long- But, That is to be expected with five people in your party (and a few controlled tokens) on your table. However I had a sense that even though the stats of the creatures were already in your grasp, it did not feel as if it were quite challenging as it could have perhaps been. Fireball got a little boring after seeing it a few times in a row in my opinion.

The creatures were quickly overwhelmed once Concordia gave the signal and Fetch went to town with the stabs and debuffs. A few times I had noticed that Spell Resistance wasn't used as much as it should have been, and there did seem to be a lot of rules being looked up for a lot of things. If you aren't too sure on a rule and its taking too long to find, use your judgement and look it up later. 

Some things that could perhaps help on out with a situation like this in the future is maybe give your creatures items to use that are not apart of their stat block, or prepare a contingency that can take up the party's action economy, or even give them "hero points". 


Overall: I give this game a pass. I had enjoyed it, but I would continue to improve on the few things as written above.

Disclaimer: Administration has allowed this 15+ game to be counted as a test game for the 8-14 bracket.

Pros: Namtab managed to tie together a nice little story that was appropriate for this kind of level bracket, with inter-dimensional enemies and otherworldy hazards. Additionally, he knew how to RP the powerful individuals he was portraying and didn't just let every encounter be easily resolved by RPing or using broken mechanics like Diplomacy and Intimidate that simply don't work at these levels anymore. He also used 3pp monsters and custom created ones that were stronger than their original counterparts and has given them fairly good spells and abilities that allowed for a versatile use for the monsters, similarly the stats were appropriate for enemies in this bracket and didn't simply die after a single hit. The game and Namtab himself wasere also well prepared.

Cons: For the 15+ bracket, Namtab didn't have enough experience with the brackets. He was unprepared for all the pit traps that come with the bracket, which resulted in various challenges simply being bypassed. For the 15+ bracket, experience is basically mandatory, especially considering that we haven't even had the worst of offenders, spellcasters, with us.

Verdict: Pass. The cons I've been able to identify are for the only really applicable to the 15+ bracket, but this is a review for the 8-14 bracket. All in all I must say that Namtab is a very promising DM that with a little bit more training can probably make it easily into the 15+ bracket.