[Shelpies]

Character: Lyseroth
Event: Finding A Way To Life

Responsiveness: Very responsive. Not just fast, but genuinely responsive. Actions that we take, interactions that we make; each of them have their own effects on the way the story went. In fact, one of the characters' actions have split up the party which resulted in two different narrations happening at the same time. Did I notice? Hell no. I did not notice that there were any delays or any parts ignored.

Balance: Fun puzzle balances. Rob can be very creative with how the puzzles are conducted, how the challenges flow. They are not simply text puzzles that you have to go through. If I have a slight gripe, it's that one of the battle (with the mirror...) made me feel partially punished. But now that I have a rested brain, it was likely the only way he would have been able to threaten my character with an event character setup. Because reflects and deflects against an EC can make the EC suffer a lot,

So watching my TC get TCed but then I D Palmed it only to be met by his D Palm followed by a finishing TC on his part did feel a bit sore at first. But in hindsight? Hilarious.

Probably not for the rest of the party though but,
sips my tea
Should have deflected too!!! (/s)

Other than that, creative ways of punishing and creative ways of adding challenges.

Storytelling: Okay.
Rob's storytelling is particularly good, but there is one thing that I have to make very, very clear:

What Rob does aren't simply events, they're full blown campaigns.
What he provides is a full-on story arc, from start to finish. With climax, rising action -- and the likes in-between. What does this mean for you and why did I bring this up? It means that Rob's events / campaigns are very fleshed out, there's hardly any moment where you do something then don't realize that it's related to something bigger. (I even pointed out, at one time, that there was a reference that I noticed). But, if there's one thing that it comes with as a caveat:

It's that most of his events / campaigns, at this scale, are likely best done as a two-parter.

We stayed up late and pushed through the 9 hour event (which he said to be QUICK). Though a part of it was also through a fault of my own, because I did big RPs before the event. So by the end of it, I was dead and just wanted to get things done.

In the future (distant or near) maybe I'll get to taste Rob's events in full. As a two-parter, but that's a what-if.
I now know why this man possibly does not do character events as much, they are genuine character campaigns where each character involved has their own stories woven into it.

(steals his ideas for challenges and storytelling)

Fairness: Very.
One thing that I will note is that my character is a doctor. So on a whim, I brought a Trauma Kit with me and he took it as a consideration for having my medical tools and successfully preventing an early perm. I brought other things too, and each of them were considered whenever I used them which made me glad that he was fair towards creativity.

A failed puzzle did not result in utter obliteration, but a boss battle. Which in hindsight might have been the reason why it was hard, a part of me wondered what would have happened if it were me that had been 'mirrored' rather than someone else in the party. But aside from that, I think the risks have been fair for the rewards.



Overall: 10/10

I would, however, need plenty of rest, probably some day-offs and actually not RPing before a Rob event.
Request for it to be a two-parter for maximum enjoyment, don't force through it in a single day.

... a-are all his events long campaigns?
I don't know.
I'm judging based on the one I got.

[Madsen]

Character: Isadora
Event: Finding A Way To Life

Responsiveness:
Very fast, very responsive. Took our actions into consideration, and for the most part made it feel like everyone mattered.
10/10

Balance:
A little puzzle is often presented, fail it and you probably got an extra fight or roll on your hands- Each puzzle was solve-able, felt well thought out and were quite fun.

I wasn't a fan of the No-CD Deflect Boss. In general I don't like No-CD ECs, but Deflect just makes it feel really bad to fight against. The other boss(es) were completely fine in terms of balance, but ah. I just don't like No-CD Bosses.
8/10

Storytelling:
10/10

Fairness:
Injuries were handed out based on actions and what actually happened in the Event-- It does mean the more pro-active characters got punished more, but it is a choice left up to the individual player / party as a whole on how to handle, which I kind of like.
10/10

Overall:
Long events, but they're usually always worth it for the story and level of interaction Rob provides-- If you got the time to commit to it!
9.5/10

In the future, I think you should be upfront about whether Elixirs can be used to mend an injury roll (As most people have grown used to it from other DM's events) or not.
I also don't think you should be against it-- I kind of like the idea of rewarding someone who came prepared vs. someone who didn't.

[Galion]

Character: Ustrea
Which Event: Finding a Way to Life

Responsiveness (Were their narrations posted within a reasonable time-frame and were they quick to respond?):
Insane, to say the least. Regardless of it being a lengthy event, virtually no amount of time was spent waiting on Rob. Doing what he did has to be very difficult, and yet there he went, incorporating actions of / responding to every person in the group, and doing so extraordinarily quick. Felt superhuman.

Balance (How entertaining were the battles, and any obstacles/traps?): 
This was my first event in Meranthe. I do not understand event or EC balance well at all. I don't think I am fond of the 'No CD' concept I've seen thus far though, since it tends to shift from the ECs statistical strength, and more to the whims of the DM. This seems like it would result in a DM deliberately holding back, or pushing too hard which can damage the threat of an enemy. However, I am also very sure this is an extremely difficult balance to strike.
So, ultimately, all I know is when we threw hands? I had fun. The little hide and seek segment was also really cool. Using available game mechanics to introduce different forms of 'contest', I think, is a very, very good idea, and I hope to see a lot more of it.
(ex, mana ball & pool noodle battles in beach event ran by shelpies)

Storytelling (Did it feel like an adventure, did the content of the narrations meet your expectations?):
Strong narrative with good writing. Introduced antagonist early, provided some neat insight, made some great interactions. Beautiful.

Fairness (Were the punishments justified and earned, was the risk to reward ratio good?)
Injuries were not as simple as, "you lost, you get hurt". The setting responded to players. Read, Think, Act. Very good.
+ Very cool dev items


Overall:
Very High Rating
I refuse to do /10.

Any other comments:
Evert was very long though, these sort of long events, IMO, should probably be broken down over multiple days. In this case though, it wasn't possible due to conflicts regarding schedules and the coming raid. In the case of those kind of long form events- multiple rewards should be available for the DM themselves, although I'm not sure if that is actually a thing or not right now.

[caeso]

Character: Grimm
Which Event: Finding a Way to Life

Responsiveness (Were their narrations posted within a reasonable time-frame and were they quick to respond?):
Absolutely no complaints about speed of your narrates and how they were handled. The writing itself was excellent too, considering the speed.

Balance (How entertaining were the battles, and any obstacles/traps?): 
I will be very honest and say that I did not enjoy the damage reflection EC whatsoever as the other people did. It felt very hard to engage or have fun with as a fight and was mostly a game of hoping I got to have a turn between it and the speed boosts in the second part onwards. As the person who ate every single trap; I felt it was entirely fair, and not too punitive. The only puzzle "balance" thing I that didn't hold up to the incredible standard was the theater segment in the Void which I think could have used more explicit direction.

But this could also just be us being exhausted and me being dumb. I'm not entirely sure what you had in mind for us to do to not fail the challenge even afterwards. 

Storytelling (Did it feel like an adventure, did the content of the narrations meet your expectations?):
It genuinely deserved more time when we were able to give it. I vastly enjoyed it and (despite being exhausted and literally falling asleep) was disappointed that we couldn't schedule a part two to give it the time it felt like it needed to boil over. Like Shelpies said: I'd definitely want to schedule a two-parter with the length and quality of your events in mind if I ever went on a future one! The funny part was it didn't even feel like it took a long time: up until I was falling asleep, I was totally sucked in!

Fairness (Were the punishments justified and earned, was the risk to reward ratio good?)
I really prefer injury table by # of downs over 1d6 to see if you get a perm or not. But! I got the coolest items I've ever seen, so, I can't complain too much.
That said ow fuck ow the -15 hurts my soul but the injury itself has given me some absolutely great IC to play around.

Overall:
Echoing the other guy: Very High Rating
This event was narratively great, the amount of thought that went into it was crazy, but I did have mild gripes that I hope are constructive in your eyes.

Any other comments:
Second event ever! It was a fun one.

[ludster]

Key/Character: Mermaid
Which Event: Finding A Way To Life

Responsiveness: Very quick to respond not just in game but also through DMs. Willing to explain things that we weren't sure on. +10

Balance: The balance was fine. There was a puzzle that we had to get through, and obviously he took into account what we each individually did.

Storytelling: The storytelling was exceptional, and I especially enjoyed the tie in from the Weaver and the Vale. Very good.

Fairness: Quite fair, I'd say.

Overall: 10/10

Any other comments: :3c

[Sailor Ryu]

Character: Irina

Event: To touch upon life itself

Responsiveness: This man types FAST

Balance: I won't even say we didn't struggle because we did. But, lag on some people's parts played a part in it. Man did hit an entire team of melee bros with anti-melee build, but I can forgive him for that... This time, since he apologized in advance.

Storytelling: Honestly, this was exactly what I wanted from the event and I don't think I could have asked for it to go any other way than it did. The entire trial scene had me feeling like I was about to go for some serious ace attorney moments, with the Irina twist. I also got to watch a deity get cursed out.

Fairness: Yeah, it was fair. The combat encounters were challenging, but the rewards were worth it and nobody died, although we did get mauled (I took a perm that was IC'd up in a way that made sense for the event and my character's course)

Overall: I'd hire Rob again when I have a spare 6+ hours. Five stars on Yelp for this man.

[GSM]

Character: Harper

Event: To touch upon life itself

Responsiveness: 速い!
(He made ME feel like I was dragging my feet, and I’d like to think I’m a fast typer)

Balance: I can’t particularly complain. I’ve not played this game for longer than a few weeks. The challenge was there, and it was rewarding when we took down the first of two ECs. Overall, I enjoyed the combat (even if we went to heal spamming to get by, barely).

Storytelling: I cursed out a deity, as aforementioned by Ryu. 11/10, simple as.
A bit less of a meme response: I anticipated things were going to turn out in about the same way they did, and it was fun to learn more of the overall world lore. Thoroughly enjoyable.

Fairness: I think it was pretty fair, considering we all fought fucking Yuujirou Hanma (paraphrasing) and lived to tell the tale. Not everyone received perms, and I think one of our guys that rolled like a god just didn’t get injured at all. I rocked two temps, and that’s what counts.

Overall: I had a blast. Definitely worth seeking out this GM again; for my first private event, this was more than memorable.

[GSM]

Character: Na'Ria (definitely Pebbles in spirit)

Event: The Great Tome Heist (The first)

Responsiveness: Still just as fast as before. Seriously how does he do it?

Balance: The fight felt fine, even if our party composition was kind of wildly different in overall balance. The only real issue was dealing with spells that didn't have animations in round 1 that then got replaced, and even then, we won round 1. I had fun with the fight.

Storytelling: Ryu rizzed a catboy while I was mauling a Gundam with my friends.
I really enjoyed the nuance of us all making disguises, and all going off in mostly different directions with what we set out to do. Pretty much everything worked out in our favor, except for Ryu rolling bad.
Lmao, skill issue.

Fairness: The fight was really fair, it worked well. Like, I expected it to go how it went, and even then it was overall just very close on all fronts.
The story panned out, we got everything we wanted to work. All is well.

Overall: Very fun time, +1 Rob, back-to-back poster lmao.

[Sailor Ryu]

Char name: Amata

Event: The Great Tome Heist (The first)

Responsiveness: Rob never lets me down with how quick this man works, and he does it on the fly a lot of the time. It's honestly shocking the amount of stamina he has considering these events are reputable for being LENGTHY.

Balance: I cannot comment on this personally, as I wasn't part of the fight. However, the team seemed to handle it well from observation.

Storytelling: Multiple branching options for progression, man took the time to actually work with a split group, I got to rizz an NPC, I got to smack said NPC's head off a window, I got to rizz said NPC AGAIN. Old lore was touched upon and given new life, a massive course altering decision was made for my character that resolved one of her story beats in a way that actually felt fitting, and tied away a few things in a way that didn't feel forced. There were a few moments in there with actual suspense, where I thought the return of my roll curse was going to have us fail the heist. Honestly, I can never fault this man for his stories. There's a reason he was who I asked to run this, knowing how passionate he can be about the lore and that he's willing to work with what's offered and find ways to incorporate old stories into a newer generation of characters.

Fairness: The dice rolls. Why are my dice so cursed? That aside, you worked with our silly ideas with how we were stashing our gear, and let me roll for some absolutely silly things early on, but I am just convinced at this point my d6 is cursed. 2 events in a row I've nat 1'd.
Rob himself, however, was very fair with me. Man didn't heavily penalize me for being cursed at all. He let the team get super creative with some stuff and that is always based.

Overall: There's a reason I chose Rob. Bless his heart. The man's had a week, had me annoying him in the planning phase due to miscommunication, had some issues with tracking down ancient E3 lore, and he STILL came in hard with this one. 10/10, I love this man and 100% need to start actually doing better in the planning phase for his sanity when I request him in future.

Additional comment:
Pebbles moment.
Sorry, Brandon.

[Didos]

Name: Acantho
Event: Activation of the AT-1-CM [ Public Event Thing, kind of ]
 
Narrates: The Narrates were quick, filled with content and on point. They explained what was going on throughout the activation procedure, release of restraints and more. In addition to taking into account a roll, preparations and Acantho's IC, as well as other things happening [ such as the impacts of the heat in the air, as well as the power in the runic and more systems ].
  
And really, there was no other choice to be made but Rob for this moment, to provide closure to a lot of work that took Acantho decades ( given some factors ) to complete, having impact on much of Meranthe, if only briefly, during what happened.

  

Storytelling: Simply amazing. It was Rob who provided one of the necessary materials for something I've always wanted to create since the beginning of E4 and the creation of Acantho, going steps further to add a whole background to what was acquired, something linked to primordials.. And the whole IC of the mad scientist.

 
And it was he who provided a cool and really shocking outcome of all the work, which demonstrates the power of what was being manipulated at the time, to create something interim new. Nothing to complain, only to thanks.
 
Final Comments: I love this guy. Even if he wishs to smite me at the times given I bother him so much ( he probably should ), he is always there to help. He provides so much to the community and deserves all the respect, love my grumpy uncle.

 

[ Everything is fine, kind of ]