[no spoilers] Echoes of Exandria Edinburgh show feelings

Bidet Critters!

My wife and I woke up after the show yesterday and started discussing our experiences and feelings about it and wanted to share and gather others opinions. We’re not interested in attacking anybody, especially the cast. I just want to sus out if I’m alone in my experience, or is it something that is more prevalent in the community.

For both of us it was our first live show, we’ve joined our planned holidays in Edinburgh with the show, and TBH I’m glad we did, as we’re both a little bit underwhelmed.
It was a nice experience but most likely one that we won’t be repeating, as we had a feeling of experience calculated for extracting from us the most possible money for the least possible effort.

First, let’s talk logistics.
- When buying the tickets there was no mention of venue being an outside one, possibly exposed to the elements. I’ve rechecked yesterday. Same goes for any e-mail communications to the ticketholders. By the end, it was cold. And sure, we were in the Edinburgh Castle a day before and saw the venue, but wasn’t 100% sure it was the outside one and not some other place. A single sentence in the communication would’ve suffice. Would it change my mind about the tickets? Not at all, but would allow me to bring my thermic clothes to Scotland to sit in 15 Celsius for ~4h.
- Crowdiness. We had tickets is sector S33 which was in front of the stage, not on stands but on folding chairs. And it was really crowded there. Going out during the show was requireing a DC18 Athletics check. There were 4 sectors like that and I really belive that selling 1 or 2 rows less for each sector wouldn’t make the event unprofitable. Same goes for 1-2 less seats in each row.
- Merch prices. It this like a secret, what the merch cost is in advance? Currently there is a single picture of merch prices in Edinburgh and it’s some kind soul’s post, not any official posting. This alone is rather strange, but let’s add another thing to the pot.
- Currency exchange rate. I find it rather strange, that t-shirt in Atlanta costs $40, in Berlin €40, and in Edinburgh £40. Those symbols are not purely decorational, and while US Dollar and Euro are often rated as 1:1 ($1 : €1.14 at the time of this post creation), exchange 1:1 to GBP baffled me a little ($1 : £1.34 at the time of this post creation). I dob’t mind paying the price. I mind paying the inflated price because somebody decided to change the symbol. And it’s not like those are hand-made. They’re made in Bangladesh or China, and I really would like to believe they’re made 100% ethically but I’m rather cynical and know there are companies that provide the certifcate no matter the actual circumstances. Just failing in my head when trying to explain the prices.

Now, the show itself. After a lengthy talk with my SO we came to very similar conculsion - this live show was almost exact experience for us as watching this on our couch. Only colder, and much more crowded.
- Cast interaction with the crowd was kept to a minimum (Sam’s ad read, Laura’s question about the temperature and 1 or 2 interactions with first rows). We’re both not super-fans and we were mostly indifferent about the cast sitting <50m from us. But we were counting for something more of reacting to the crowd, rather than ignoring it.
- It’s in the nature of time-contraints one-shots that they must be cramped into a specific time slot. I know that, I sometimes DM such scenarios myself so I know that railroading and skipping some elaborate shenanigans is your friend in such situations, but I have a feeling like Matt Mercer picked a too ambitious scenario. Make the scope smaller, limit the number of NPC and monster, limit the scene, and we would still be captivated, without an aftertaste of missed opportunities for the cool factor, or hand-waving the adversaries.
- Similary, due to time constraints, I feel like most of the team missed being the characters we know and love. Beau could have easily been replaced with a generic monk, same for Yasha. Sam was being Sam, and Taliesin and Liam were quite clearly having fun with themselves. But all in all, I had a feeling like they just came to play D&D with themselves, not taking into account all the people around them.

I would really love to have a constructive discussion about this show, and live shows in general, as I am genuienly interested in how others are looking at the matters I’ve mentioned.

Please, keep it civil! :)