Re: Ideas for Events

[Kaerli_Stronwylle]

One thing with the CavernBelly event: Kaerli has been known to feed people whole Ulbers before (besides: the main character you describe exists, he's called Celrau and is a little Consumer in a fur coat!)

[Illysia]

a little Consumer in a fur coat? 

[Rigwyn]

Please, don't OOCly plan an event.

Just make your character attempt to achieve a goal based on what he or she desires or needs.  Your character can have small, simple goals, or huge complex goals that require the assistance of other characters. Do whatever is suitable for the character.

If you character does not have goals then they are far too shallow for running an event.

In real life, we can set goals and try to accomplish them. We can even attempt to control the outcome, but ultimately, the outcome is not in our hands. What happens happens. When shit happens, we don't retcon, we deal with it in our own way- whether it's by sulking in a corner, crying on someone's shoulder, or reformulating our plans and trying again.

No OOC planning means:

A. Nobody needs to stay on the railroad that you laid down for everyone.
B. Other characters can do as they will ICly.
C. Nobody gets to complain about the RP not happening the *right* way... because there is no *right* or *wrong* way.

[Illysia]

I'd disagree. Things get retconned/ignored out of necessity sometimes. For instance, if someone comes through during your event and has diarrhea all over everyone, the earnest/honest intent of the RPer does not make it any less godmodding and people will ignore it even if the person was not intending to godmod to sap the fun from other players. Or maybe there is a misunderstanding and the part RPed shouldn't have logically happened in the context of the RP it is a part of. Things happen and people have different immersion sensitivities.

Overall, I'd say be clear about your RP and what you are trying to do, but don't forget to communicate so that people can decide ahead of time if they want/can be a part of it.

People RP differently since there is no inherent right or wrong and that means people have a right to decide how their RP is going to go if they want... it's their RP. But clarity provides the common ground that lets people play nice with each other. So, if you can't establish a common ground with an RP it's probably best to just let it pass. Not everyone can RP with every other RP style.

[Rigwyn]

and that means people have a right to decide how their RP is going to go if they want... it's their RP.

Yeah, this is called railroading. It makes the RP feel unnatural and puts players on eggshells. They end up worrying about saying or doing the wrong thing.

Pro tip:  Don't do it or you'll look like a noob

[Volki]

If you're going to roleplay, stop planning and just do it. Give players something to react to. Something to challenge them. Something to solve, defeat, overcome.

And those ideas are horribly overdone. Let's please not ever.

Edit: The last one gave me reflux.

[Eonwind]

Good job Illysia a nice set of ideas to work on for people willing to play events for other peoples. 

And those ideas are horribly overdone. Let's please not ever.

Edit: The last one gave me reflux.

I'm sure you have a better, exiting and groundbreaking ideas for events... if so why don't you just write them down in a different thread for everyone to shred apart like you're doing with Illisia's idea?
If not you better refrain from speaking at all...

[Illysia]

and that means people have a right to decide how their RP is going to go if they want... it's their RP.

Yeah, this is called railroading. It makes the RP feel unnatural and puts players on eggshells. They end up worrying about saying or doing the wrong thing.

Pro tip:  Don't do it or you'll look like a noob

One thing I've learned in this game is that any "rule" can be bent or broken if done artfully enough. More importantly, if people find something they like to latch on to, they will overlook stuff to a certain degree. Deciding from the beginning that at the end of the event the monster will be vanquished is not railroading necessarily. It allows for resolution that people who can't play more than an hour at a time can use. Alternatively, you can leave a way out mid stream if it looks like you might end up having use for the monster even though it was initially supposed to be a one shot. It's a matter of flexibility and skill not some arbitrary rule of RP written in stone.

People often argue in favor of completely open ended RP but they often peter out without getting fully explored and it makes them seem cheaper than necessary because from the outside it was a nebulous issue to begin with and then it may or may not end up going anywhere. Not to mention leaving it completely open ended means more work for the one doing the events and we see how many people are stepping up for doing events as it is. And yes, I have done completely open ended stuff before. It was fun for others but frustrating to keep track of because it meant way more work for me. In the end my end of the plans failed because of OOC issues not IC issue but since it was all allowed to proceed whatever the case it stood and due to more OOC issue there wasn't even anyway to really build on it. In the end, completely open ended stuff is not the holy grail of RP either.

You can plan stuff OOCly without railroading, people can not have fun while doing something open endedly, and you can also skip an event if it really rubs your fur backwards... very simple. But in any case it shouldn't bother you since you can run your own events.

If you're going to roleplay, stop planning and just do it. Give players something to react to. Something to challenge them. Something to solve, defeat, overcome.

And those ideas are horribly overdone. Let's please not ever.

Edit: The last one gave me reflux.

Because just RPing on its own has recovered numbers and interest so much better than planning events over the years. /sarcasm

But seriously, my ideas are meant to cater to specific issues and give them a chance where they may normally get overlooked or pigeonholed into the same niche every time. For instance, the idea is to give cooks; baddies that are not going with the overused "I'm crazy so I kill people" cliche; doctor, healers, and alchemists; and newbies a chance at the spotlight. No offense, but most events in game follow one of two patterns. They are either ice cream socials or let's find out why there are more bodies than usual lying around. Not that there is anything wrong with those events, but some variation doesn't hurt. Sorry if it isn't serious or eat all the noobs enough for you.

Good job Illysia a nice set of ideas to work on for people willing to play events for other peoples. 

And those ideas are horribly overdone. Let's please not ever.

Edit: The last one gave me reflux.

I'm sure you have a better, exiting and groundbreaking ideas for events... if so why don't you just write them down in a different thread for everyone to shred apart like you're doing with Illisia's idea?
If not you better refrain from speaking at all...

Thank you. I'll post the rest of the ideas as I get around to writing it out. Two of the biggest hurdles I found in talking with people about running events is that they either don't have ideas or don't know how to start and that scares them out of even attempting an event... That and the behavior of displeased players of course. What I hope people realize is that it doesn't take a lot to start an event idea. The actual hard part is the details and getting people to help you pull it off.

Maybe it will convince people to sit down and write their own ideas out and they may just find they had more to work with than they thought.

As for Volki, no she doesn't like all this talking; she's a go-getter. So she just needs to pick a day and hold her own event and it will awesome because she knows everything that an event doesn't need to have.

[Mekora]

The event I like the most, by far, is your masquerade facade. In fact, it is the only one that I would be interested in participating in. The rest seem a bit unappealing to say the least (I'm really not trying to be offensive here). I found that RPing a Quarantine gets incredibly tedious, boring, monotonous etc. (I remember the days when a Klyros Cold went around the KJ. Not as fun or amusing as you might think.) It could certainly be done and would assume its success solely based on how many people you can get sick, or in other words, have participate. I find that there just isn't enough of an intellectual element to these RP's. I'm not talking about problem solving, but about the conversations and sentiments that derive from the plot.

As for the picnic with new domers, I think that an intimate mentor-ship is often more productive than a gathering of new players. It should also be noted that it is not 2009 any more, where new players just fall from trees.

I do really like your Masquerade idea, although it would require much preparation, advertisement, and at least 5 or 6 people to be a part of the 'circle of masked rapscallions'.  This could involve more people than your typical story line, and could be played out in such a way where there is no real victim in the situation. I say this due to the fact that no matter how much 'good players' hate to be victims, the feeling is only surpassed by how much they love putting baddies to shame. In this event there is ample opportunity for both sides of the coin. (If RPed well of course.) It should be obvious that everyone attending will know what they are possibly getting themselves into ahead of time, OOCly. And if something is stolen, I have found to keep it 100% RP (unless agreed otherwise). People get unhappy if they are robbed for something real. _{Or as real as something can be in a digital RPG}

Regardless of my opinions, I do appreciate that you have taken the time to write this up for people to follow. Even if none of these ideas are materialized, they may very well turn into guidelines for future stories, yet to unfold.

Anyways, I am really tired. Hopefully that was coherent enough to understand.

Edit: I'm no good with font sizes

[Illysia]

Well if you'd like to go with the Masquerade idea, pitch the idea of doing it in game and see who you can get on board. You've already done some work in working out how many people and how to treat victims. See how easy it is to slip into event planning?

If you don't like the other ideas that's fine. Truth be told, it's the players that can make or break an RP even more than the initial planning. There are RPs that I can run elsewhere that would never get off the ground in PS and vis versa. It comes down to your pool of characters, what people are willing to spend time on, and how creative people get in responding to the prompt you give. If you know you don't have the resources to successfully pull off an RP to where it is fun for those involved then oh well. Sometimes it really can't be helped.

Regardless of my opinions, I do appreciate that you have taken the time to write this up for people to follow. Even if none of these ideas are materialized, they may very well turn into guideline for future stories, yet to unfold.

Thank you. I've found that people find use for things like this at the oddest times, sometimes even years later so who knows. But maybe someone else might get bitten by the idea bug and might contribute their own ideas. After all, a variety of ideas means it's that much more likely one will catch the attention of someone ready to do an event.

[Volki]

I'm sure you have a better, exiting and groundbreaking ideas for events... if so why don't you just write them down in a different thread for everyone to shred apart like you're doing with Illisia's idea?

Because people don't write down roleplay ideas.

Sure, let me go ahead and write down my entire script before anyone's had a chance to play it! As soon as someone realizes they've seen the script before, the fun is lost. You'd know the end already. If I knew how to defeat a monster, solve a case, cure a plague, whatever, I'd probably find some way to speed the IC process. There's no novelty or mystery, so what is the point? And don't tell me roleplay doesn't require novelty. Novelty is the heart of roleplay.

Because just RPing on its own has recovered numbers and interest so much better than planning events over the years. /sarcasm

As for roleplaying on your own, as a character, I honestly think that is better than having roleplay spelled out for you. This game has the strongest character-driven plots I've seen.

But seriously, my ideas are meant to cater to specific issues and give them a chance where they may normally get overlooked or pigeonholed into the same niche every time. For instance, the idea is to give cooks; baddies that are not going with the overused "I'm crazy so I kill people" cliche; doctor, healers, and alchemists; and newbies a chance at the spotlight. No offense, but most events in game follow one of two patterns. They are either ice cream socials or let's find out why there are more bodies than usual lying around. Not that there is anything wrong with those events, but some variation doesn't hurt. Sorry if it isn't serious or eat all the noobs enough for you.

Variation? That's exactly what it's lacking. These are cookie-cutter roleplays. There's no creativity. It's like you're trying to give us jobs rather than entertain us. And I feel calling them "events" is inappropriate. Roleplay is a series of events, not one. Events affect one another. You have a reference to one situation in another, for example, and somehow that helps solve an issue or possibly complicate it.

Don't force people into the spotlight. Not everyone wants to be there. (Especially noobs! They are meant to watch, learn, and participate once they feel ready.)

Thank you. I'll post the rest of the ideas as I get around to writing it out. Two of the biggest hurdles I found in talking with people about running events is that they either don't have ideas or don't know how to start and that scares them out of even attempting an event... That and the behavior of displeased players of course. What I hope people realize is that it doesn't take a lot to start an event idea. The actual hard part is the details and getting people to help you pull it off.

Maybe it will convince people to sit down and write their own ideas out and they may just find they had more to work with than they thought.

If coming up with ideas and running an "event" appears too daunting, then these players should not be orchestrating anything. There are those who want to essentially be a game master, while there are those who only want to play the adventures set out for them. That's just how it is.

Describing it as "more to work with than they thought" is not aiding your argument.

As for Volki, no she doesn't like all this talking; she's a go-getter. So she just needs to pick a day and hold her own event and it will awesome because she knows everything that an event doesn't need to have.

Yeah, we don't need "events" like how you understand them...

I might as well go ahead and run my own roleplay. It would be awesome, though, if the game was more conducive to running RPs. This is the only reason I haven't bothered. Because it's too damn hard when all I can do is /me and /my. With one setting, I could entertain a number of players greater than the population of PS for longer than a month. On PS, that's impossible.

[Illysia]

Well, I'll put it this way. It doesn't appeal to you and others that RP like you... and that's ok. There are people who can run events like the ones you like to do. But, I've successfully used this model to generate RP where others had fun. The Masqerade Ball was an event that was planned for at least 2 month in advance with predetermined outcome and specific things that could be done. Amazingly enough, holding it didn't kill the game.

But, if you are of the opinion RP can only be enjoyed one way then the long explanations I normally do to try to give people enough info to understand what I am doing is useless. I'll spare us both since I don't really have the energy these days for my old lectures. I'll just accept that you don't get the framework I am trying to establish.  But I will say this, it is not a script it is a guideline, if you don't see more potential and room for customizing that's because you expect me to fill in all the blanks and do the work for you... Use your imagination or accept that you personally can't do anything with it. I can easily develop those ideas into more complex plots but the idea was start people off not to spoon feed them.

But let me see if I get this right from your post... To paraphrase: Don't do anything to try and boost RP in your own way unless you match my standard because newbies have nothing to contribute, players who don't match my standard of spontaneity don't have anything to contribute, and I would do more but I just don't feel I have my ideal circumstance... but that is still more of a contribution than actually running an event that I personally don't like the sound of.

I miss anything?

Trying to knock the legs out from under people is for sure not helpful. But oh well, that's part of why it is hard to keep interest in doing events here... The water looks more dangerous than it is due to people snapping at things that could be forgiven or are simply a difference in preference. Since I've had to pass on several events since they did not appeal to me, I feel no pain in saying that anyone that really objects to these ideas should simply avoid any events based on them. Problem solved.

[bloodedIrishman]

Planned role-plays can be fun. This is fact, and it is irrefutable. Thousands of role-players across the globe can attest to it. You merely need to attentively scan role-play forums that litter the internet. End of argument. The mic drops.

[Volki]

Planned role-plays can be fun. This is fact, and it is irrefutable. Thousands of role-players across the globe can attest to it. You merely need to attentively scan role-play forums that litter the internet. End of argument. The mic drops.

You better not be talking to me, because I never once said planned roleplays were not fun. However, roleplays are not events in the way Illysia understands that term.

Illysia misunderstood 100% of what I said. She doesn't seem to be trying to understand, either. What she presented were not events (except for the Ball, obviously). They were simply roleplay ideas. Calling them events makes no sense, and neither does revealing her ideas before they've been executed.

Well, I'll put it this way. It doesn't appeal to you and others that RP like you... and that's ok.

What does this mean, even?

But let me see if I get this right from your post... To paraphrase: Don't do anything to try and boost RP in your own way unless you match my standard because newbies have nothing to contribute, players who don't match my standard of spontaneity don't have anything to contribute, and I would do more but I just don't feel I have my ideal circumstance... but that is still more of a contribution than actually running an event that I personally don't like the sound of.

I miss anything?

You missed everything. Like where I said noobs are meant to learn and watch until they feel ready to participate. Throwing inexperienced people in the spotlight is detrimental to practically every medium of entertainment everywhere. This is why noobs are usually separated from high level players in games. Also have no idea where I praised spontaneous roleplay since I'm not a big fan of spontaneity, as it's pretty much always illogical, annoying, and quickly forgotten. And finally, I have helped run roleplays before (on PS), which were very low-key, yet unfortunately failed because they were being led by very inexperienced roleplayers. In those, I realized how incredibly hard it is to run RP in this game, so I haven't bothered myself. But like I said, I might as well do it anyway. Just to get you to shut up.

Trying to knock the legs out from under people is for sure not helpful. But oh well, that's part of why it is hard to keep interest in doing events here... The water looks more dangerous than it is due to people snapping at things that could be forgiven or are simply a difference in preference. Since I've had to pass on several events since they did not appeal to me, I feel no pain in saying that anyone that really objects to these ideas should simply avoid any events based on them. Problem solved.

Can see you're trying to garner sympathy here. Look at my argument again. You think I'm attacking you, for whatever reason, possibly a "difference in play style". Well, I'm just disagreeing with you. It has nothing to do with "play style". I am telling you what works and what doesn't. Stop making speeches for once and listen to others.

[Illysia]

...Yeah... not worth it. I am not going through my usual efforts to try to get everyone on board today. I used English Volki and at this point I'm not in the mood for English lessons as well. If you don't understand then fine... I have better things to do than argue over things that you feel the need to fight. I will continue the thread as I was intending, don't like it then feel free to remember to your gif as a valid option, and when in doubt better to take your own advice.

If you're going to roleplay, stop planning and just do it. Give players something to react to.

Although, I'd change stop planning to stop arguing. I have no intent of going through the usual run around on this forum with you.


Edit: Updated first post with two more events