Ah, there's hope for PS's player base yet. However, to be honest, RP events should techincally have no limit, true they usually do but its often only due to limited imagination.
I can't point you to a specific guide, at least not that I can remember and I don't play anymore so I can't tell you what is needed at this moment, besides characters with more obvious depth of character. However, in my experience, you can usually find one or two friends that will usually back you up for events and you can start from there. Also, events where other players get to sit back and watch often go over well; poetry readings, storytelling, plays... ect.
Pretty much any idea can work if you are willing to put the effort into pushing it, but the easier plots and events seem to have high action, fairly quick resolution per parts (as in the bad guy was vanquished that day but he can always come back for more another day), and room for characters to express themselves (room for discussion on how to "solve" a problem). <Insert rant about people confusing talking and conversation breaks with useless filler RP>
But as for a base, not sure if this will help you but here goes.
A few general guidelines: - Write out everything you can beforehand - while not necessary it can help you organize your thoughts and keep track of ideas. it is especially good as you get into more complicated events and you have to anticipate player actions to try and keep them from ruining... *ahem* derailing story or event progression. Certainly keep track of what you do as you go along.
- Work out the details of your main character for the event to the best of your abilities - Focus on the character's personality. You don't actually need to know every little detail about that character from the beginning, but you do need to have a fairly deep insight into how the character reacts to various situations. To start with, define a general personality such as "outgoing but afraid of Enkidukai". This gives you a place to start as you know your character will probably be comfortable talking with most characters, but there is room for a personal quirk when faced by an Enki character. This also can give you a point to build a backstory on later, but never underestimate the effect of letting other players develop your character for you. I only completely planned out one character, the rest were products of their experiences and that often makes for a pretty cool character to watch, even if it is your own.
- Avoid as many stereotypes/cliches as you can but don't overdo it- This is where leaving villains and baddie characters out of the event would help, as those two issues spawn all kinds of difficulty in terms of working them in believably. Also, try not to fall into the usual "good" vs. "evil" kind of event as usually this turns into a completely flat, and done to death, kind of plot. They tend to loose their impact because it often relies on people blindly following an expected path and thus sucking all the life and import out of the efforts of either side. Or worse, it turns into an idiot plot. (idiot plot refers to a plot which is kept going solely because every character involved is willfully acting like an idiot to keep it going). And also, try not to go so far out of your way to make it unique that you end up with the event equivalent of a tragic mary sue. (i.e. too much outlandish stuff in the background). admittedly, this is a tough balance to strike but still nevertheless quite possible.
- Keep it simple at first- Yes this is the obvious one but, it's still the hardest as we always want to do better or make things epic and all too often we bite off more than we can chew. I'd suggest making an event only meant to include a few people. Try basing it around one character and maybe his/her/kras past. Make it so that other players will want to find out more about the character but will have to "participate" to find out. Simply information gathering can be an event in of itself and should this go well, you can expand upon it and eventually turn it into a much larger event over time. Just be sure to keep track of what you do for the sake of continuity and coherence.
- Balance pure text RP and mechanics centric RP- Text is useful for making a good use of nothing, but since the game does some items and knickknack (and since relying on what objects are there or implemented mechanics is where pretty much everyone starts) there should be a good balance between using the two. However, it seems to me that you might have to rely on objects and mechanics more than text as the RP community in PS took a big hit recently and is basically starting from scratch again, thus more people aren't too comfortable stretching past what they can already see in game and train for skills wise. I suggest making good use of books for whatever doesn't already exist in game and try to stick to implemented skills where possible. It will make it easier to integrate a wider variety of people into the event.
- Make use of in game help- To be honest, these forums aren't as helpful for that which concerns what is in game. This is mostly a battleground where opposing factions of the past and present community duke it out and a never ending battle for conceptual validation. For the best help, you should probably go in game and seek out people that have held events or participated in them. I would suggest looking for the Stonehead Tavern or Red Crystal Den for help. Both places have successfully pulled off popular events and might be able to help you as well. To start you off, you can look at the Stonehead's Forum where you can find roleplaying guides that may help in your event planning and even some posts about events held there. And for the Red Crystal Den, its forum is found here. You can look into either place for ideas.
Sure this isn't a definitive list but it's the most I can do at the moment with a sleep deprived brain.
