Poetry Fair - Discussion Thread

[Mordaan]

Ok the Explorers next fair in our monthly series will be a poetry fair, to be held Saturday, October 24, 2009.  This time we are joining forces with fellow OSP members, the Red Crystal Organization.  The official announcement is here.

We have a choice of two venues for the fair, one being the Outpost...where all the fairs have been held.  And the other is the Red Crystal Den.  Each offers some advantages.  The Outpost is where all the fairs are held and reading poetry around the camp fire in the wilderness sounds ideal.  But the Den has a stage and is in a more convenient location.

So thoughts?

Also, who would be interested in attending?

[bloodedIrishman]

I chose the red crystal den. It has a stage, drinks, atmosphere and the setting is just right. I will be attending, of course.

[Sarras Volcae]

ignore this post. sorry!

[Thoss]

How about a vote for both the Den and the Outpost?

What if we had the main event at the 1800 UTC on the 24th at the Den, and Thoss could have a little gathering at the Outpost at 0500 UTC on the 25th (Midnight 24th)?

That is, if there are others whose available game time falls at such strange hours as mine...

[Mordaan]

What if we had the main event at the 1800 UTC on the 24th at the Den, and Thoss could have a little gathering at the Outpost at 0500 UTC on the 25th (Midnight 24th)?

That is, if there are others whose available game time falls at such strange hours as mine...

Sure, no reason we can't have a split event to accomodate different time zones.   

[Aiwendil]

I would prefer to do the Poetry Fair at the outpost, mostly for some OOC reasons. First we will have another event in the Den a week or two later. We are just waiting for some replies to know exactly what we will do there. Second I see it more as an explorer's event we are helping out with. It was the idea of the explorers and we only jumped in after we heard what the fair is about. The Den has some other difficulties as well, for example that we will need more staff to run it than the camp. And most important of course...Aiwendil loves the idea of poetry around the campfire.

Now to some organizational things:
How do you want to do the event?

My suggestion would be to display some books with poems, maybe on the table at the camp. The problem with this is that we will need an alt who guards the books all the time. But I think that shouldn't be much of a problem.

And as I am no writer at all it's easy for me to suggest this...but it would be great if we could find someone giving a lecture about the difficulties in writing poems. Not too long, or it gets boring. But I think this would fit in nicely.

And of course we will need people reading some poetry. The easiest way (At least for me as I can't write any on my own) would be to contact some well known poets in PlaneShift and ask them to read a few of their poems or at least for permission to read them ourselves. I bet we could convince Lhaa to read some...and Aiwendil wouldn't reject it either.

So...a few things to discuss if we do it in the explorer's camp:
Do we want a Bar? The RCO would be happy to provide drinks for this occasion of course. But if the RCO does this they will want to charge the customers for the drinks. I guess food is more easy, we should try to contact the Stonehead staff about this. Not that a lot of food is usually needed, but it's nice for some RP in advance of the event. And I think the Stonehead is the better choice as they offer their food for free. I'm not sure about the drinks...I think if the Stonehead can offer drinks in a high quantity for free it's a better choice there too. On the other hand...why not allow the RCO to earn a little bit of money there. And I think a bar with barkeepers is good for the atmosphere. Then we will need to play out the transporting of the food and drinks in advance to the event. We can do that already a day before. Oh..and if we ask the Stonehead for help we should include them in the announcement and posters for the event. Needs to be discussed.

What about guards? The RCO usually tries to assure that their artists safety is guaranteed (and of course also the safety of the audience). This will be much harder in the camp. I guess drawn weapons are allowed there. This means the guards might have to deal with more dangerous situations than the need of kicking out some drunkards. Could make it harder to find some. In the Den we don't allow any duels for our guards. Dangerous situations there are solved without any duels. Should it be handled like this during the event in the camp too? The problem I see with duels is that we only make it easier for players who only come there to mess up. And we will need at least one well trained guard if someone has the great idea to lure some monsters there. Sure, I could put some mana potions on Aiwendil and make her deal with this...but that would be only a OOC solution. She almost never shows her magic skills in public like this. On the other hand is luring monsters there a OOC problem for me as well...so maybe this could be an acceptable solution. And there is another problem...It's in the wildness...meaning the guards we provide are the only guards that are there, we have to deal with all troubles on our own. But the event being in wildness also means that we can maybe rely more on the audience. They came there and must know that it is more dangerous than a visit in the Den. So I hope we can count on some help from within the audience if problems occur. But I think this is important to discuss. The poets taking part will but some work in their performances, and I don't think it's very fair if we have to stop the event in the middle before everyone was able to do their performance just because someone wants to cause some troubles. Of course we have to allow players to RP making some IC troubles, but we should be prepared for this.


So my suggestion for the event:

• Greeting (Announcer)
• Pointing to the books and thanking the poets who contributed them (Announcer)
• The mandatory where to get drinks and that everyone should enjoy themselves (Announcer)
• Short break to allow people to look at the books and have some conversations
• If we find someone willing a short workshop on how to write poems (artist)
• break
• Announcing of poet (Announcer)
• Reading of poems, either by the poets themselves or with permission by someone else (artist)
• short break, then repeating the previous two point with all the poets we have
• Thank you and good bye (Announcer)

People we will need for this:

• Announcer - My suggestion would be Mordaan for this.
  
• Poets/Reader - At least three would be nice here
  
• Lector - Not necessary of course...nice to have
  
• Guard for the books - any alt will do (I guess I can provide an alt for this)
  
• Guards - We should have at least two guards around to protect the poets and audience
  
• Barkeeper ? - I think two of these would be nice too. (Backup: Lhaa/Aiwendil)
  

Having more people is always good. There will be always some RL issues turning up and someone can't show up...so some backup is maybe a good idea.

ToDo List:

• IC talk with Mordaan about all this.
• A poster for the forums *looks with puppy eyes at Lhaa*
  
• IC and OOC contact with the Stonehead about the food
• Hiring some people ICly to transport the food and drinks to the camp
• Finding guards (if someone applies OOCly playing it out IC...otherwise preferable IC)
• Finding poets (if someone applies OOCly playing it out IC...otherwise preferable IC)
• Finding barkeepers (if someone applies OOCly playing it out IC...otherwise preferable IC)
• Getting at least the OOC permission of some writers to read their poems (IC would be even better)

And please allow me a few last words. I personally don't like discussing an event like this in a public forum. Making a poll like this forces us to deal with the opinions of all players. I appreciate their input, but in the end I think it's far more important what the people involved in an event (in this event namely the poets) think. They are the once who do the work for this event so they should decide where we run it.

Edits: typos

[Lhaa]

And please allow me a few last words. I personally don't like discussing an event like this in a public forum. Making a poll like this forces us to deal with the opinions of all players. I appreciate their input, but in the end I think it's far more important what the people involved an event (in this event namely the poets) think. They are the once who do the work for this event so they should decide where we run it.

First of all, yes, it took me a while to understand even what the hell was going on.
I think this could have been done differently. I'm unaware of whether Mordaan was asked about making a poll or not, but none of the RCO members were asked even if this thread should be opened. But, considering we are meant to organize part of it I wouldn't have minded to know at least that a public discussion was going to be started about it.
Now, I don't think this is the right place to discuss the event's organization but if it's the way it has to be done, so be it.

I will start a thread in the RCO forums so that our staff can apply there (I don't keep track of who and who not uses these forums) and keep this thread updated in terms of staff. I will also make a poster for this and post it as soon as I have it.

What if we had the main event at the 1800 UTC on the 24th at the Den, and Thoss could have a little gathering at the Outpost at 0500 UTC on the 25th (Midnight 24th)?

That is, if there are others whose available game time falls at such strange hours as mine...

Sure, no reason we can't have a split event to accomodate different time zones.   

I don't mind having a split event, but nobody of the RCO will make it at 0500 UTC.
Also, 1800 UTC is too early for us. I'd say the event should happen (and so that US players also get a not too early chance) from 2000 to 2100 UTC.

As to where to make it happen. I'd say the Outpost provided that we haven't been able to fetch a guard even for a single shift in the past days so I don't think we will have enough for the Den in such short notice. The poetry reading around the fire will be nice as well and if I have to make the poster soon then we need to as well fix a time and date soon (or I can leave this out of the poster and whoever posts the final one in the Message Boards includes an OOC typed line with the date and time).

I bet we could convince Lhaa to read some...and Aiwendil wouldn't reject it either.

Hehe you can be sure of this. Also, Illysia already accepted having some of her poems read in the Fair. And I've got the books...

Do we want a Bar? The RCO would be happy to provide drinks for this occasion of course. But if the RCO does this they will want to charge the customers for the drinks. I guess food is more easy, we should try to contact the Stonehead staff about this.

We do want a bar. The barkeep can guard tables and exposed drinks/food so long as he/she doesn't have to move. If we don't get barkeeps and Aiwendil/Lhaa have to do it, then we have to make sure thet they either read the poems from close enough to the bar, or we need an alt to also guard this instead. Having an alt for the bar and one for the books shouldn't be a problem anyway, unless we have a server crash.
About the prices: I don't see what's the big deal of charging for food/drinks. We aren't asking people to pay thousands for it. Even a player who just got out of the tutorial can buy a few dozens of drinks with those prices. Of course we can talk with the SH and have they serve the food, but I don't see a problem with using the Den's one food and event prices.

In the Den we don't allow any duels for our guards. Dangerous situations there are solved without any duels. Should it be handled like this during the event in the camp too? The problem I see with duels is that we only make it easier for players who only come there to mess up. And we will need at least one well trained guard if someone has the great idea to lure some monsters there. Sure, I could put some mana potions on Aiwendil and make her deal with this...but that would be only a OOC solution. She almost never shows her magic skills in public like this. On the other hand is luring monsters there a OOC problem for me as well...so maybe this could be an acceptable solution.

So long as the RCO guards the event, no dueling at all. RP-fights will do to deal with the annoyances. For a start, chances are that the guards we get don't have really trained chars.
And yes please, have some mana potions and deal with the lured monsters if there's any. The solution is as OOC as the luring, so again, I don't see a problem there.

So my suggestion for the event:

• Greeting (Announcer)
• Pointing to the books and thanking the poets who contributed them (Announcer)
• The mandatory where to get drinks and that everyone should enjoy themselves (Announcer)
• Short break to allow people to look at the books and have some conversations
• If we find someone willing a short workshop on how to write poems (artist)
• break
• Announcing of poet (Announcer)
• Reading of poems, either by the poets themselves or with permission by someone else (artist)
• short break, then repeating the previous two point with all the poets we have
• Thank you and good bye (Announcer)

A lot of breaks, after what happened in the break of the fashion parade I'm not so sure if they are good at all. I'd rather keep running whatever has to run and players can or not decide if they want to step aside a bit to relax or just chat.
I'd rather have it like this:

• Greeting - Pointing to the books and thanking the poets who contributed them - Say where to get drinks and enjoy themselves (Announcer)
• Short break to allow people to look at the books and have some conversations
• If we find someone willing a short workshop on how to write poems (artist)
• Announcing of poet (Announcer)
• Reading of poems, either by the poets themselves or with permission by someone else (artist)
• Repeating the previous two points with all the poets we have
• Thank you and good bye (Announcer)

IC and OOC contact with the Stonehead about the food

Not necessary in my opinion, but can do that.

Getting at least the OOC permission of some writers to read their poems (IC would be even better)

As mentioned above, Illysia already accepted, but I don't think we can get her IG to do that IC. I can only think of Jaycol as of now seeing the active players, but seeing that this thread is open... maybe somebody wants to apply here. Any "new" poets will be warmly welcome.

IC talk with Mordaan about all this.

Most important. ;)
And some OOC talking wouldn't hurt either.

[bloodedIrishman]

I will write and present a poem. Do I qualify?

[Mordaan]

My apologies to Aiwendil and Lhaa.  I should have checked with you before posting...my bad.    
I started a discussion thread for the cooking fair so decided to do one for this as well.  Both to serve as advertising of the event and to have a place for feedback.

As far as drinks, Explorers have no problem providing the simple drinks...beer, red, etc... freely.  As for guards that's probably something I need to organize...our other events didn't consider this and they went off without a hitch...but we probably shouldn't rely on luck.  Although not having guards may have helped the Jacula RP develop.    

But I have no problems hosting it at the Outpost.  The poll was Thoss's idea, he was only trying to help.  Sorry for any miscommunications.  Just goes to show you you guys are much better at organizing than I am.  

And yes, I am thinking that anyone who wants to attend and read a poem may do so.

[Sarras Volcae]

Aiwendil, Lhaa, I'll volunteer my character for a guard. I think I can make it. oh and she's stronger than that noob Hevore you hired xP

btw I really doubt anyone's going to cause trouble (rp wise). too large a crowd, and you don't want to mess with that many people in lawless territory.

[Timmothy Perriwinkle]

I really doubt anyone's going to cause trouble

...
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA.

You're funny.

[Sarras Volcae]

I really doubt anyone's going to cause trouble

...
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA.

You're funny.

...

wtf you on, Timmothy?

[Timmothy Perriwinkle]

Life. I'm high on life.


and shrooms

[Geoni]

I vote the red crystal den, they have a stage and lots of seats. I also like the ambiance of the place ^____^

[LigH]

I don't care where. As long as it happens!