Zeldryn's Player-Run Event Guide

[Zeldryn]

Howdy!

So. This is exactly what the title makes it sound like. Ignore my spelling errors and formatting mistakes. It be late, man.

I've had some tremendous success organizing and running player events. In Clok 1, Cogg, and now in Clok 2 as well.

Given the success that I've had, I wanted to share a bit about my philosophy in terms of how I approach organizing and running events like the upcoming expedition to the depths of the Bristbane Forest.

I could ramble at length about ideology and methodology and process, but really, the secret's not all that hard to figure out. (Don't worry, I'm totally going to ramble, too.)

Control what you can control, and let the rest enhance the experience.

What do I mean, exactly?

(Here's the rambling part)

In an ideal world, we'd all like to do something different. Change it up. Break up the flow, and learn something. Make a memorable impact. That kind of thing. Of course, it's what we all set out to do. What everyone wants out of this experience, when they do it, is for the GMs to get excited by it too, and to get support from the staff side, and support from other players, and make a big, beautiful thing happen. But the important thing to understand is that you don't want to set out from the offset with support in mind.

A lot of people's first instinct when they're doing this kind of thing is, "How can I get the attention of the GMs? How can I get the attention of other players? How can I get X item so I can do Y event at Z time? How do I contact the GMs? Is there an NPC I can talk to? Reach out to?"

I don't think this is a healthy approach to structuring and organizing these kind of events. My mentality is much the opposite.

When I say "Control what you can control" I mean that literally. Use the tools that you, as a player, in the current game environment, with your current means, can use to best facilitate the idea that you have in mind. Do this with the mentality that you will *not* get support from other players, or staff.

This isn't to say that there isn't a place for thinks and rituals and feels and things to try and gently prod staff attention when appropriate. But i'll get to that in a moment.

Generally, though. Ask yourself, "What can *I* do with *my* items and *my* character and the map that we have at offer here? What can I do under *my* power that doesn't require *anyone* else?"

When you start from this foundation, and you structure your event within those means, suddenly, things become a lot easier to plan. You start realizing, "Okay, this area is cool, this room is cool, this item is cool. What can I use this for?" and you start thinking actively about how you can include them in emotes, or prayers, or gatherings. The important thing here is, though. Talk about it IC while you're doing it!

Talk about what you're doing, what you're investigating, what you're planning. Share your experience, get people's opinions, ask them what they think. By doing this, you'll organically create interest in what you're doing. Odds are-- someone else will want in on the fun. And the more people that get interested, the more likely the staff is to notice something going on and go, "Oh, hey. This is neat." And throw you a bone. They're really *dying* to have the opportunity to support us. They just don't want to hand it out left and right every time we ask because, well, frankly, it's all they would be doing 24/7 and we'd probably never get anything else done!

So, control what you can control. talk to people. Spread the word. Gauge interest. See how people feel. The more you're talking and acting IC, the more people that get talking and acting around your actions, the more opportunity that you have to get something beautiful happening, like you idealized way back at the beginning of this explanation.

Let me use this recent Bristbane expedition as an example to further prop up my rambling and illustrate my point.

Bristbane got updated recently. some folks are familiar with this, some are not. Even those who are familiar, however, may have noticed that the rolls are different for the mobs within now. And even those who were familiar with the area might not have seen it's deeper depths.

I have a combat centered character who's rather capable. So-- what I wanted to do was give people the opportunity to see this area at it's finest, feel like they're doing something substantive within it, and walk away from the experience talking about it, and having something to talk about for a while, if possible.

I have particular knowledge about the game, having played here a while. It's not that specific, either. This one's as simple as knowing, "Oh, hey. Those Tse-Gaiyan guys are all about fighting the infestation. And Bristbane's infestation is getting.. Pretty bad. They might be interested in this."

So I kept that in mind when I set out on my initial scouting runs. When I went scouting out there-- I told people where I was going, what I was doing. I'd talk on the network and mention it when I was in there, now and again. I even brought a new friend or two along on the first few trips!

On top of that, metalworking was reimplemented a while back, and I know the artisans are itching to have something to do, themselves. So while I was walking around Bristbane-- I happened to notice a prospector mob walking around inside there. And-- I thought about that. Areas in clok tell a story. This prospector was here for a reason. It might not have been wholely clear as to how he got there, how long he had been there, or who he was affiliated with, but I can tell you this: He was there to mine. Which means.. He knew there was something to mine for.

Hence the idea: "Oh, hey. Maybe there's something different under Bristbane worth digging for that could be useful for the artisans. New metals, new minerals. Something."

Then, all of a sudden-- I had an idea cooking. Miners and artisans love a reason to both mine and craft. And Rias-- gods bless him-- was just talking about being enthused with the idea of getting artisans out of their crafting holes and out in the world to participate more actively in the other parts of the game, and get access to some potentially new goodies for them to play around with back at home base after the expedition's concluded. Now, keep in mind, of course, that I didn't set out with this end result in mind. I planned all of this going, "Hey, man. We might go there, find nothing, and come back empty handed." It was all about the *experience* of planning and doing it. That was what was important. The RP that comes from everything involved, not the end result.

I know, playing the game, that the survey command is a thing. So-- if I got an artisan to tag along, particularly a good miner, and got them to survey the areas I was interested in within Bristbane-- hey, maybe they'd find a place that they'd be able to dig around for goodies. Between artisan interest and Tse-Gaiyan interest, I might have two different potential angles to pursue-- the infestation, and treasures hidden within the depths. On top of that, the general exploration types were going to go crazy about this kind of thing-- creeping through a spooky area, going down ropes into a pit, finding unique materials, and coming back out? ROCK AND ROLL! Plus all of the combatants, of course, were going to love it because of the combat involved in the entire process. Things are going to need killing. People are going to need protecting. The healers are going to love it because they'll have people to heal and support and lecture about being reckless morons.

I had a lot of ammo to work with, here. So once I realized that, I posted on the boards about it. I posted on the BBS after I posted on the boards. I explained what I was looking to do, and looking to accomplish. When people came up to me IC in following days to ask questions about it, I gave them all of the encouragement in the world. I answered them the best I could. I offered my insights, tried to think outside of the box, and tried to incorporate as many interested parties as I possibly could, high and low skill alike. I encouraged people not to be afraid of their skill levels, or how useful that they would be. Just to show up, and try their best, and that I would find something, anything for them to do to feel substantive, and like they were a part of the process if they had interest in being there.

In summary, I made all of the planning and organizing of this as much a part of my RP as it was a planning effort OOC. I could've surveyed the entire area and went, "Nothing's here, that's a shame. Guess i'll wait for it to get updated. or wait for guilds to come out." Or I could've did, well, this. So I chose this.

I didn't do any of it because I wanted something out of it mechanically. I didn't want to get a new ability, or a new item, or a new material, or any of that. It's cool that that's the IC motivation and everything, but like. My entire goal here was RP. Bring people together. RP. Have fun. Feel like we accomplished something. Have conflict that we have to overcome. Pat each other on the back no matter how it works out. Theorize about the results, and plan future endeavors.

Be your own GM, basically.

And, though the Bristbane expedition is an example that is absolutely littered with good ammunition to create a really great player-run event, do keep in mind that this same operating philosophy applies to all sorts of events. Combat and non combat alike. New areas and old. For those who were there or aware-- Zeldryn had a pretty bangin' beach party earlier this summer.

All we did was show up at the coast. Zeldryn brought food and booze, some other people brought food and booze and instruments. Some people sang, some people told stories. We drank, we ate, we fished. A lot of people who would have otherwise had tension or conflict with each other all just agreed to let their hair down and chill for a day. There was a sandcastle contest, too, but it ended up falling to the wayside in favor of the other RP that was happening at the time. But I still ended up giving out prizes for those who participated-- because I said i'd be giving out prizes. it wasn't much. A statue i bought at the market, and in the case of another event I did earlier this year, the game of Bison (which will return!) I gave out some netherbane oil outside of octum to the people that were really good liars. I also gave out lovely, lovely riln at a time when it was pretty hard to come byy for some of the new folks that were there and included.

So, at risk of rambling myself into oblivion here, I'm going to stop it here and just repeat my philosophy.

1) Control what you can control.
2) Let the rest enhance the experience.
3) The rest will come naturally

When things go wrong, or don't go as planned, like the sandcastle contest, just roll with it best you can. I'm sure some things are going to go wrong during Bristbane, too. And we'll make the best o fit.

In an ideal world, you get attention. You get people interested. You get people talking. When that happens, you can sometimes get the attention of the GMs, and get support for what you're doing. It feels really nice when you get it-- but you should never expect it. Because the GMs are planning their own events for us too! And they're doing other important work behind the scenes. Unfortunately, much as they and we would like, they can't devote every active second to fulfilling our requests. But that doesn't mean there isn't stuff to do. That doesn't mean there isn't a big, beautiful grid full of items, and critters, and areas, and lore just *begging* to be used as a foundation for fantastic RP. Guilds will help even more with this, one day. But in the meanwhile-- there's plenty for us to do. Even if we don't hae the capabiltiy to do as much as we'd like.

ONE LINE SUMMARY: When it comes to Clok, you get out what you put in.


Thank you all for your interest in my things, your time, your patience, and of course, for reading my little guide, here. I decided to write it up on impulse. I sincerely hope that someone, at least, finds it helpful.

Stay tuned for a potential follow up post in this thread regarding how to best use think, ritual, feel, and, if all else fails, the support email to, when appropriate, try to gently prod the staff's attention toward a potential endeavor. I didn't get a chance to cover this here, but i'm running out of steam, and don't want to half-ass it.

Have a great time! Clok yourself in the face!