Player Organized Events: A How-To Discussion

[Roled]

Player Organized Events: A How-To Discussion

In follow-up to the    Convention of Magicks and Mages,    hereafter referred to as MagCon, I thought I might make an outline of elements I’ve found helpful in organizing “successful” events.

This is NOT an attempt to dictate how events SHOULD be run; rather this is a reflection on what has worked well and less well for the events I’ve organized.  This is not the only way to organize events. A discussion is welcomed!

By “event,” I am meaning a role play opportunity built around two guiding ideas: 1) that the activities planned are inclusive- newbies and jaded old dillatantes alike might enjoy and participate and, 2) that the activities invite people in, both in leadership roles, and in adding to the richness of the stories that develop.

Guiding Organizing Principles:
1)   Relationships
2)   Redundancy
3)   Reality

1) Relationships: I find Events are more successful when more players take leadership roles.  I see my main contribution to MagCon being inviting LOTS of folks to take on ooc organizing roles and event IC roles.

IF you don’t have time to read this post any further, this is the summary.

The biggest suggestion is think about how to hook into people’s creativity- to let others have good ideas, and let them run with it! (This requires frequent communication of course.)  Encourage people to participate in meaningful ways! 

     a)  Look for ways to break activities into units that folks can see themselves doing- from less time involving tasks like decorating the space beforehand to handing out flyers, to highly involving tasks like working out the rules for dueling or finding people to fill specific content roles, like the Way Panelists, or making ig flyers, or lots of other things.
 
     b)  Talk to folks you didn’t know already and folks you do know.  Ask everyone you talk to to talk to others as well.
 
     c)   Invite lots and lots of people to participate in leadership roles. Of course, not all accept or could accept those invitations. 
          1. INVITE and ACCEPT gracefully and with gratitude the folks who can help as well as the folks who can’t. 

          2. It has to be alright for players to say “No, I can’t” this time, without being shamed or made to feel guilty.

          3. People can only do what they can do.  There is a learning curve.  Support as best you can people who are trying to organize something for the first time, or who are shy or just have never done it. Make suggestions.

          4. Help folks as you can.  Ask players to help you, and then let them do it there way.  Ask other players to help other players.  It all doesn’t have to go through you.

     d) The more relationships you form, the more players you know in game; the more relationships form in game, the more role play possibilities emerge as characters develop histories with each other.

Thank people, everyone who participated, everyone who led, everyone who provided stuff, everyone who talked about it, everyone who wished they could have attended but couldn’t this time, for their contributions.

2) Redundancy: It’s hard to believe, I know, but for some folks Planeshift isn’t the only thing they do in their lives!  So reminders are essential!!

     a)  Reminders not only remind, they communicate that you, as one of the organizers, think their contribution will be positive and is appreciated. (see “Relationships”) 

     b)  Don’t rely only on forum posts or gossip announcements. It takes more self assurance, but talk to people individually, IC and OOC. 

         1) Send players, even ones you don’t know, a groffel or yulbar ig, asking if they would be able to ‘run’ the demonstrations, or the feast, or the readings, or the dance, or whatever.  Ask them to help in an IC way.

       2) Follow up with ooc pms AND ooc /gossip or /tell reminders: Check in- see how its going, ask what the problems are, help problem solve, make suggestions of other players who might solve the missing need (thus getting more people involved in meaningful ways, see “Relationships”) 

              a) I look at the /who list when logging in and send /tells to folks IC based on their titles. This time for example, anyone who had anything to do with magic in their Guild level title “Archmage of the Fire” or “Azure Avenger” or “Spellcaster” and send them first an ooc asking if they were a magician in mechanics this time: many have titles that aren’t representative of their ingame skill concentration, but it allowed me to meet them at least.
              b) after the initial “Are you a Blue Way Master” ooc question, then I sent the IC yulbar inviting them IC to participate.

             c)Talk to people every day about the upcoming event.  It may get old but you never know if the next person you speak with might be just the one to enrich the event for everyone.

             d) Don’t EVER try to organize an event alone!

             e) If you’ve proposed certain activities that you can’t find anyone to get excited about enough to participate, then let that activity go.  You don’t have to do everything.

           g) Get up your courage to even ask GMs, developers, and even Gods, to participate if they can. Again, they don’t have your agenda, so getting a “no” answer has to be ok.  But go ahead and ask! Who knows who might show up, from deghirs to apocraphal loonies to Levrus himself!

4)   Reality.  Try always to bear in your organizing minds that the purpose is not so much the event as a real ingame reason that citizens who don’t yet know each other would meet for common purposes.  This is the main reason I think many different kinds of player organized events can succeed- there need to be events for law- abiding, goodie two shoes like Roled, and events that Herihi, Rigwyn and other evil meanies would enjoy.

     a.   Stay in Character during the event!  We used the /group as the ooc channel with all the participants in charge of activites, to fill in with each other, suggest, make decisions on the fly, and generally have each other’s back. Thanks everyone!!!

      b.   PLEASE, PLEASE don’t mess up some group’s hard work at organizing an event with an extraneous, disruptive intrusion, unlooked for.  (A certain wedding comes to mind
)  Players have worked many volunteer hours to have a certain kind of event, and if the disruption wasn’t part of the organizing plan, then I think, MY OPINION! It has no place in that particular activity. 

     c.   Be creative by planning another event if you and others want to have an event that is disrupted as a part of the plan. It goes back to Relationships- be respectful of each others efforts towards making events.

     d.   Remember to have FUN, and allow others to have fun too.  The reality is we are all playing a game, presumably for fun!

Thanks for reading this far, if you have! Thanks for adding your thoughts, insights, questions, and alternative views to this discussion.

And THANKS for playing along, at MagCon, and at all the player organized, GM organized, and general role playing situations that spring up!

Cheers!
Roled Rolak 
Busybody and social  gadfly

[Illysia]

Lovely guide Roled. However, I would suggest adding a part on how to take a fragment of an idea and then turn it into an initial plan for an event. I've talked with several people who commented that they want to do an event but they just can't seem to start. I think they only have vague fuzzy ideas but no idea how to go from idea to game plan.

[Roled]

Yeah Illy you've started on that how to turn an idea into an event in your rping thread, but feel free to add your thoughts here about that issue
Or anyone!

Thanx!
R  R

[Illysia]

Well, that thread is more idea gathering than explanation. But let's see.

First come up with a theme or a genre: Murder, A convention, suspense, puzzle
* If you have an activity you would like to do, try and fit it into a theme or genre. It will help you group in related elements later.

Decide how many people you want to be involved at the same time: Balls can have upwards of 30 people at a time to keep entertained in one place, smaller plots may have one or two at a time.

Decide your audience: What kind of RPer are you trying to engage? Mechanics Duelist, Emote Magic Caster, Gossiping Gabby

Once you have decided an Audience, think of activities that will appeal to your audience: list them somehow (brainstorming exercise) and make sure to list more than you think your will need. You will find it is a lifesaver when things don't quite pan out.

Once you have a list of activities, start talking to people to see who you can get to help and refer back to Roled's guide. Seriously though, don't try to take on the ulbernaut of running and planning an event on your own... it'll kill you.


Hey look everybody, a post guide that isn't 50 pages long. Aren't you proud of me? But seriously, I tried to keep this short so that people might actually read it. If anyone needs more clarification or examples then just ask.

[Bonifarzia]

For player run events with less focus on story telling, such as racing games or tournaments:

• Keep it simple.
• Make it robust, so you don't have to cancel everything when someone does not show up.
• Stay in touch with a few persons that are interested to attend.
• Help of a GM is appreciated and useful, but do not rely on that in the planning stage.
• Did I mention to keep it simple?