by Lani "Gwen" Jones
I’ve been a loyal patron of the Ashenmark Questing team for years, and for good reason. They throw events that are fun, interesting, and often feature plants or googly eyes. Many of my all time favorite questing moments have come from this event staff, and I always keep an eye out for opportunities to play at their quests and dungeon crawls. It feels like I’ve said this a lot recently, but if you didn’t pre-reg for this event and get yourself a slot, you are definitely missing out on a good time. Get your life together next time and get in on the action.
What really has made the Imperium plot line stand out for me are the super well-thought out encounters which require both cooperation and teamwork to complete. This team creates clever mechanics that require just the right amount of work. We can solve the puzzle on our own without it being so complex that PCs reach the point of frustration. For example, last year’s dungeon crawl featured a puzzle room that allowed us to make and destroy bridges between islands by creating different runes. It was an interesting challenge of both moving small groups of people from island to island while also trying to communicate from across the room what runes needed to be built. It was a fun and creative way to ensure that the whole group was working together and coordinating their efforts toward a common goal.
In addition, the pace of this event format is noteworthy, is high energy with very little downtime and you certainly don’t feel like you were just one time slot of an event that wasn’t a full day, as the staff keeps that energy going. I find myself smiling throughout the whole event, eagerly awaiting the adventure right around the next turn. The scene changed are managed quickly and efficiently and there was never an opportunity to snap out of that adventure mode. As usual with any Ashenmark event, I am genuinely looking forward to seeing what the team has in store for us this weekend.