The more I write these, the more PELs I fill out, and the more reviews I write, the more I find myself wondering what makes a good event.
I've decided I can only really judge an event based on what they provide for their players. It wouldn't be fair to judge an event on what the players do unprovoked. I ask myself, does this event meet what it promised. Is it a feast, if it said it would be? Is it a quest, if that’s what it lead me to believe? So on.
 |
| Feast Hall - Photo by Hannah Blood |
It’s hard for me to like Feasts. They go against my play style.They want me to sit down, and relax, and eat things and, I don’t know, talk to people maybe. Where I’m really more geared toward running through the woods, hitting people and things, and then completely forgetting about food for, I don’t know, a day or two. That sounds right. I’m not sure why I do that to myself either, but it’s how I enjoy the game, and sort or irrelevant for now so let’s move along. All that considered, no, feasts are not how I really enjoy the game. But that doesn’t mean I can’t recognize a good feast when I’m at one. And that doesn’t mean I can’t recognize them as good events, when they are.
 |
| Poker Tournament - Photo by Hannah Blood |
Nedensgiving was both. It was a good event, and a good feast. And shame on you if you missed it.
The food was just really excellent. I mean that earnestly. While they did slip in some cheeky shenanigans as they literally served Zarine canned cranberry sauce on a silver platter, all the rest of the food was what you might hope to find at a big family thanksgiving, with some really sort of unique, within the realms, dishes, like gumbo, for the more adventurous to delve into.
 |
| Custom Neden Barrels - Photo by Hannah Blood |
It can be hard to entertain people at a feast, you might think it’s enough to just sort of serve food, and let people enjoy that, but within our game feasts have sort of evolved beyond that. Now we need to have activities as well to entertain the masses, and Neden provided. The carnival was up and running throughout the day, with various options of games to be played, I myself got sucked into cornhole, and certainly had a good time with that, but beyond that, we had a handful of tournaments go off, and there was a good turn out for a poker game as well. And to bring it a step further, they had a museum filled with little oddities and histories of Neden’s past. It was a really nice touch, with some plot flavor, that was really held off on its own. It let people engage, and sort of fall into the world of the realms, but at their own relaxed pace, which was perfect for this feast setting.
 |
| Auction Tables - Photo by Hannah Blood |
I would be remiss to ignore the charity work that went on at this event. This year the realms has been challenged by the sort of bad luck that has hit it’s people, but with each passing event its become more and more clear that we rise to the challenge each time, and this event was no exception. Neden’s own Dresden’s father has been recovering from surgery and the Neden boys did right by their own and dedicated a lot of effort in gathering items and event entries for cash auction for him. It’s always touching to see a group gather around it’s own and find ways to dig deep and provide. But there’s more, each year Nedensgiving runs a can food drive, giving people who bring canned food in tickets for another auction, and helping out the world at large. I mean it sincerely when I say they outdid themselves with this event.
 |
| Neden Head Table - Photo by Hannah Blood |
With service to their own, the realms, and the community at large, Nedensgiving was an excellent event, and that it what you missed.
I’ll see you on the field,
Keith “Saegan” Cronyn