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Aedon Durreah
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re: Ales and Tales The Next Generation

Some nice ideas in there Veri, many of them are under use right now.
The schedule for Ales and Tales locations are set up weeks in advance. And only on the times when we had to suddenly move was a venue not advertised at least a week in advance. 2 if you check the front page of our kin site.At this time I update the sites for Ales and Tales on the Landroval forums, but using the one for player activities seems a good bet as well. I should start also posting the Ales and Tales locations on Faces of Landroval. By the way, I have been in the middle of calling out the location of Ales and Tales on a Monday and received tells asking me where Ales and Tales is this week. I also advertise Ales and Tales on Sunday Nights in the Alesandtales channel. Some people are gonna ask where no matter how many places you post it or call it out.

One of the things I was talking about the other night in officer chat if you recall is the idea of using spots we have not used before. With the changes in the landscape, there are a lot of great new locations I have come across. The idea of Theme Nights was also brought up and really I think a great idea.

Nibbles and Nobs defiantly needs to have more folks stand up and share, but as much as I ask for and encourage others to stand and share, there seems to be little interest most weeks, Most are there to listen and dance. This may be an area when reaching out to the Bands for ideas might be a good idea. The one thing we need to watch for though are bands seeking to exert too much control over the night.

Love using a Horse Themed Night, we can do that at the Horse Farm or the Festival grounds.Have been talking to Greyy and Avanc about more games and give away nights. We just need to be sure we have the items to award prizes. Right now, the Leezard Hoard is healthy, but we can always use more donations.Trivia, Let's Make a Deal which is basically the What is in the Captain's pocket in reverse. But if you will make us up a list of odd items to ask for, we should do Let's Make a Deal soon.

As to Ales and Tales Extremes, I would like to see those done only a couple of times a year, and to special locations. Something that the bands and concert goers can look forward to. There are still plenty of far flung locations we can use such as the Mordoor on Halloween, and Dol Amroth. When we do such an extreme we should be sure (unless SSG wises up and allows stable travel all over for any level) that the most it should colt a band is 1 mc per to ride there. These Extreme shows should both be a themed show, to help make them special and well advertised at least a month in advance.

Also, I do check the make a suggestion kink for sites for Ales and Tales. Some have been used, but I would like to be able to use more and get more suggestions.One of the other things that would greatly help is getting more of LMB involved in Ales and Tales again. MC is not a hard task, and we need one every week. I have offered to train others to do the Stage Managers job. Like herding cats, but still fun. We could use some Tinkis to share food, drink and smokes. We need story tellers. And folks willing to stand and do special give aways.

Keep the ideas coming! And Veri, you would be very good working behind the scenes of Ales and Tales.
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re: Ales and Tales The Next Generation

For promotion could we mention it before/after BBB too? I know by that time of night it's usually the regulars but it sometimes happens we get new folks around.

I like Veri's idea of the hobbitiest/elfiest/dorfiest/humaniest for a theme, that sounds fun :)

I wish I could come to more of these but my work schedule prevents it, sadly.

Maybe a short tale-writing contest for silly prizes would be something to get the 'tales' side going. Like, give folks a starter sentence and a 200 word limit or something? Like, a starter sentence could be "Daisy Proudfoot was walking to Waymeet one day when..." or something. Takes a little coordinating in case 20 folks show up with tales but might be fun!

Trivia nights are always fun, I know those have happened in the past, and people seem to enjoy them. Even if I can't attend I'd be happy to write up some lore-related or game-related trivia things if someone else wants to present them to the crowd :)

Lots to think about, if anything else comes to me I'll add :)


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re: Re: Ales and Tales The Next Generation

Aedon Durreah wrote:
But to all things and all times, changes come. Bands are now made up more of one player leading a band of alts.


In addition to that type of performance now often constituting most of the event, another trend has been toward it being most of those same bands almost every week. It sometimes feels like new performers and variety are a bit marginalised in favour of "the regulars". I know it's not actually set up that way...if that's who comes to perform, then that's what we have.

My opinion has always been that A&T should favour, when available, variety over, for instance, an act that has already appeared there five times in the last two months (and would probably just play more Led Blackmore's Genesis like everyone else anyway).

With so much of the show coming from the regulars, I'm not so sure that infrequent or new entertainers (orchestras, soloists, dualists, duelists, actors, poets, storytellers, stand-up philosophers, sword swallowers, balloon-animal sculptors, etc) would feel as welcome now as they did a few years ago.

Still...if we can't keep the stage full, A&T just doesn't work, so I'm actually glad that we have regular who are willing to help accomplish that. So, yeah, we definitely don't want to marginalise them either.
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re: Ales and Tales The Next Generation

Regular are great Hal. But i make a practice of greeting and chatting with new bands I see about. In fact, that is how The Teedees started to come to Ales and Tales. I also do my best to encourage anyone interested to give it a try, and do give special attention to new bands. I think though that do to the low level alt thingie we have had a problem getting acts to come give it a try.

It is clear that we need a steady influx of willing talent to keep this going.


Last edited by Aedon Durreah on 2018/11/29 2:07 pm; edited 1 time in total


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re: Ales and Tales The Next Generation

Cram Jam(tm)! Make it happen! Too bad we can't get folks to go to Dale (and too bad that Dale itself is dangerous even for those who DO go there!).

I think that coming up with varied locales is a good idea, even in the main lower-level areas, but that advertising is really what is needed. We've lost many reliable news outlets over the years. Video streaming might help, but we need someone(s) to actually do it (and advertise it). We already have themed shows (the Road to the 'Stocks, Silly Hat Night, etc.) and special events (e.g. playing at the various Festival venues, though lag has been an issue of late) -- folks just need to get inspired and informed about them again. We face the challenge that even something like Winterstock isn't 'new' anymore. Fun things like silly-hats, trivia, prezzies are always good -- and folks need to hear about them in advance.

Another point mentioned above is about the time/length of the show, which has been an ongoing struggle for all of the years that I've been involved with LMB. Even 11:00pm is late on a week-night. We could perhaps move N&N up to 8:00pm and the main show to 9:00pm, and be done by approximately 11:00pm.

As for SSG's Beacon -- do we have a direct contact, or someone willing to do so? We can certainly get our weekly schedule to them in advance (not just A&T, but Andune and BBB also, and anything else that we are doing).

Perhaps the music scene has reached saturation. You can't ride through Bree-town without trampling an alt-band. Few characters even need mentoring. Reestablishing our themes/games, and also storytelling and interesting venues, would go a long way towards revitalizing A&T.


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  • Landroval alts: Braxwald, Brenthiel, & Hathellaith (LMB); Belyndil (Ales and Tales); Yahr (Lonely Mountain Brewery); Byrkhild, Byrchette, & Byrchetta (Secret Pie Vault); Byrwing (Sisters of the Moon); Byraen; Byrwen (Ithil refugee).

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re: Ales and Tales The Next Generation

Byrcha wrote:
Cram Jam(tm)! Make it happen! Too bad we can't get folks to go to Dale (and too bad that Dale itself is dangerous even for those who DO go there!).

I think that coming up with varied locales is a good idea, even in the main lower-level areas, but that advertising is really what is needed. We've lost many reliable news outlets over the years. Video streaming might help, but we need someone(s) to actually do it (and advertise it). We already have themed shows (the Road to the 'Stocks, Silly Hat Night, etc.) and special events (e.g. playing at the various Festival venues, though lag has been an issue of late) -- folks just need to get inspired and informed about them again. We face the challenge that even something like Winterstock isn't 'new' anymore. Fun things like silly-hats, trivia, prezzies are always good -- and folks need to hear about them in advance.

Another point mentioned above is about the time/length of the show, which has been an ongoing struggle for all of the years that I've been involved with LMB. Even 11:00pm is late on a week-night. We could perhaps move N&N up to 8:00pm and the main show to 9:00pm, and be done by approximately 11:00pm.

As for SSG's Beacon -- do we have a direct contact, or someone willing to do so? We can certainly get our weekly schedule to them in advance (not just A&T, but Andune and BBB also, and anything else that we are doing).

Perhaps the music scene has reached saturation. You can't ride through Bree-town without trampling an alt-band. Few characters even need mentoring. Reestablishing our themes/games, and also storytelling and interesting venues, would go a long way towards revitalizing A&T.


There is an email to request inclusion of an event in the Beacon: LOTRO@standingstonegames.com and the subject should be Community Spotlight. I am not sure if they would put in a recurring event, but you could use it to submit a special themed show.

The proliferation of all alt-bands has hurt attendance at everything, as has the reduction in folks trying not to schedule over other folks' events. There is simply less of an effort to know and respect an overall schedule. There are bands who only attend their own shows, not others, perhaps because they are spending less time in game. It is harder to attend other band shows when the game is casual, and people have to pick how they will spend a small amount of time given to LOTRO. And you no longer see the effort to make the rounds to many concerts, except from a handful and even they have to pick and chose. It's just what has happened over time. Byrcha, I feel you are right about saturation of the music scene.

A year and a few months ago, the most active segment of the music community started a round robin event opposite Andune, on another server. It is a very long event now, and bands go because they want to play more than they want to be audience, which is understandable. A lot of the bands are all alts, but it certainly hurt Andune's attendance. We feel very fortunate for the faithful few that try to make it to Andune most weeks. I try to reciprocate by supporting them, if at all possible. But overall--it's my time to be with my beloved band members and some dear people who come to hear us, and just the joy of the music makes it worth while, even with a smaller audience.

You can advertise on Twitter, as well.

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re: Ales and Tales The Next Generation

Byrcha wrote:
As for SSG's Beacon -- do we have a direct contact, or someone willing to do so?


Did you just ask if we need a liaison to the liaison to the LotRO Community Liaison?
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re: Ales and Tales The Next Generation

Aedon Durreah wrote:
Also, I do check the make a suggestion kink

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re: Ales and Tales The Next Generation

I don't think these would work well, but that doesn't mean I think they're bad ideas. They all have value because thinking on them might inspire other creative ideas.

Aedon Durreah wrote:
Ales and Tales Pub Crawl (signed up acts and OW would play at different taverns within an easily reached area.)


Because A&T needs more dead times and chaos? Recessing, relocating and reconvening is messy and can eat up a lot of time.

Think about KWL's Festival of the White Lady (annual diversity event presented in four pieces with a parade between locations during the intervals). They have to allow a lot of travel time between music/speaking stops. Works for that, but they're well practised, have very few stops and it's all just within Bree. I don't really see that sort of thing working well during an A&T...would drop too many spanners into the logistics.

Cannot play music while traveling. (Can do singing or recitation like that … however, since the audience is spread out and in motion, they're likely not all that focused or appreciative.)


Quote:
Bards Night (Bands who sign up must choose a set of songs that all fit a story they are trying to tell.

Not sure that A&T stage slots are quite long enough for a set to tell a story...at least, not significantly enough that the audience would better entertained because of it.
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Hollyberye wrote:
A year and a few months ago, the most active segment of the music community started a round robin event opposite Andune, on another server.


And not long before that, LMB basically told that same segment “We're too big to fail, so we needn't care about event conflicts” and then scheduled WCS in direct opposition to the other server's new 3-day music festival that they had already announced and begun promoting months earlier. (In terms of length and lineup, it was the biggest festival there had ever been on that server. But the audience size ended up being usually only around 20. LMB knew that it would doom a major music event to failure, but decided that such behaviour is acceptable.)
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re: Ales and Tales The Next Generation

Halgoreth wrote:
I don't think these would work well, but that doesn't mean I think they're bad ideas. They all have value because thinking on them might inspire other creative ideas.

Aedon Durreah wrote:
Ales and Tales Pub Crawl (signed up acts and OW would play at different taverns within an easily reached area.)


Because A&T needs more dead times and chaos? Recessing, relocating and reconvening is messy and can eat up a lot of time.
Think about KWL's Festival of the White Lady (annual diversity event presented in four pieces with a parade between locations during the intervals). They have to allow a lot of travel time between music/speaking stops. Works for that, but they're well practised, have very few stops and it's all just within Bree. I don't really see that sort of thing working well during an A&T...would drop too many spanners into the logistics.



I have played KWL a number of times and as Hal says it can be a bit chaotic however, it actually works better with more than one band (done it with one and two and two bands alternating cuts down on set up time, etc) Perhaps we could do a pub crawl with close locations and have OW open and then have different bands assigned to play at different pubs. The band playing at the "next" pub could leave the prior pub a bit early or be set up at that one already. Limit bands to 3 songs and then OW can close at last location with a short 3 song set. Might even help to implore bands to support all bands playing by not leaving early, attending whole crawl and supporting fellow musicians.

Halgoreth wrote:

Quote:
Bards Night (Bands who sign up must choose a set of songs that all fit a story they are trying to tell.

Not sure that A&T stage slots are quite long enough for a set to tell a story...at least, not significantly enough that the audience would better entertained because of it.


Good point here....... But what if we asked each band to do a "section" of a known story. For example, it would be too late for this story at this point this year but for a quick example (there are plenty like this) say we wanted to do this type of Bard telling of A Christmas Carol. We could used 5 bands. Band #1 tells the story up until Marley's ghost. Band #2 tells the story of the first of the three spirits. Band #3 tells the story of the second of the three spirits. Band #4 tells the story of the third of the three spirits. Band #5 tells the ending. Each band can use one or two songs for their portion of the Bard telling. Perhaps a narrarator could say a couple sentences to set up each segment and tie it together. In fact, bands could be told the sentences in between ahead of time so they know where to pick up and leave off. I think it might be challenging but I KNOW our music community is extremely creative and I think they might enjoy this type of opportunity for creativity.

Just some brainstorming.... thoughts and further suggestions welcome..... love this thread!


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Aedon Durreah
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re: Ales and Tales The Next Generation

Halgoreth wrote:
Aedon Durreah wrote:
Also, I do check the make a suggestion kink

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Tulenn wrote:
Halgoreth wrote:
I don't think these would work well, but that doesn't mean I think they're bad ideas. They all have value because thinking on them might inspire other creative ideas.

Aedon Durreah wrote:
Ales and Tales Pub Crawl (signed up acts and OW would play at different taverns within an easily reached area.)


Because A&T needs more dead times and chaos? Recessing, relocating and reconvening is messy and can eat up a lot of time.
Think about KWL's Festival of the White Lady (annual diversity event presented in four pieces with a parade between locations during the intervals). They have to allow a lot of travel time between music/speaking stops. Works for that, but they're well practised, have very few stops and it's all just within Bree. I don't really see that sort of thing working well during an A&T...would drop too many spanners into the logistics.



I have played KWL a number of times and as Hal says it can be a bit chaotic however, it actually works better with more than one band (done it with one and two and two bands alternating cuts down on set up time, etc) Perhaps we could do a pub crawl with close locations and have OW open and then have different bands assigned to play at different pubs. The band playing at the "next" pub could leave the prior pub a bit early or be set up at that one already. Limit bands to 3 songs and then OW can close at last location with a short 3 song set. Might even help to implore bands to support all bands playing by not leaving early, attending whole crawl and supporting fellow musicians.

Halgoreth wrote:

Quote:
Bards Night (Bands who sign up must choose a set of songs that all fit a story they are trying to tell.

Not sure that A&T stage slots are quite long enough for a set to tell a story...at least, not significantly enough that the audience would better entertained because of it.


Good point here....... But what if we asked each band to do a "section" of a known story. For example, it would be too late for this story at this point this year but for a quick example (there are plenty like this) say we wanted to do this type of Bard telling of A Christmas Carol. We could used 5 bands. Band #1 tells the story up until Marley's ghost. Band #2 tells the story of the first of the three spirits. Band #3 tells the story of the second of the three spirits. Band #4 tells the story of the third of the three spirits. Band #5 tells the ending. Each band can use one or two songs for their portion of the Bard telling. Perhaps a narrarator could say a couple sentences to set up each segment and tie it together. In fact, bands could be told the sentences in between ahead of time so they know where to pick up and leave off. I think it might be challenging but I KNOW our music community is extremely creative and I think they might enjoy this type of opportunity for creativity.

Just some brainstorming.... thoughts and further suggestions welcome..... love this thread!


Good idea there Tulenn. I love the idea of telling a known story, and we may still have time to set this up if we message several of the Bands and ask them to do this. Our set times are much to short to tell a story, but done as Tearna did hers, in weekly installments, the times work well, and give folks something to come back for.

Byrcha, we can still do something in Dale, Just make it a special Ales and Tales event. If our "extremes become more something to work towards and look forward to we can possibly encourage bands to level a bit, or just save some MC towards the night.


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re: Ales and Tales The Next Generation

I'd caution about assuming that bands will spend MC, even a low amount, to travel. I know some people don't mind it, but I personally feel that spending MC (aka actual money) on such intangible, temporary things like travelling is akin to throwing money away. I've only ever done it once — to go to an Ales & Tales — and that's because I had 1 MC left over from when SSG gave everyone 50 for free. I currently have zero MC and I suspect others are in the same situation.

I like the idea of playing various pubs. Playing in a pub is practically its own theme. There really aren't so many that are that close to one another, though. The Ivy Bush and The Green Dragon are the only two you could get to in a short time. There are 11 pubs (including the destroyed Mad Badger Inn) in the areas most people can/will go to. Maybe for the next year we could do one per month. Bands could play outside and then maybe Old Winyards could play the last set inside. Sure, it'd be a bit cramped and (hopefully) crowded, but that'd be part of the fun of it. When's the last time you went to a pub and it was full of people?

  1. The Bird and Baby Inn
  2. The Green Dragon
  3. The Plough and Stars
  4. The Ivy Bush
  5. The Golden Perch
  6. The Floating Log Inn
  7. The Mad Badger Inn
  8. The Comb and Wattle Inn
  9. The Prancing Pony
  10. Thorin's Hall Inn
  11. The Forsaken Inn


Last edited by Veriwin on 2018/11/30 2:31 am; edited 1 time in total
Aedon Durreah
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re: Ales and Tales The Next Generation

Indeed Veri, and that can be the pub crawl series. I think it would be great to start at the Mad Badger. Good visibility for incoming players.


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