Storyboard: Type events
There are certain ideas for movies that get trotted out time and again. I'm talking about remarkably specific plots being rehashed over and over, like "spunky professionally-motivated attractive woman is single and attempts to rectify that problem through a process of mishaps." You would think that people would stop going back to the well at some point, but somehow there's a twist here or there that keeps getting made, and so you can expect to see almost the same movie coming back around on a regular basis.
Roleplaying is similar in that regard, at least when it comes to events. I've seen a lot of innovative ones come around, but I've seen far more events that wind up fitting into the same basic archetype. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing -- having a consistent type gives players an easy framework to work with. But some of these events work better than others, and all of them can use a bit of polish here and there to make sure that everyone has fun in the midst of things.
The party
The core: Someone is throwing a party in-game, usually to commemorate something or to just get everyone in the same place at once. There's an expectation of refreshments, a general celebratory attitude, and a lot of diverse people coming together in one place for a while. Usually, this is one of those events that has every reason to take place within city walls and in a relatively safe area, as most people are smart enough not to hold a major gathering in the midst of chaos and war.
Strengths: Everyone has either thrown or attended a party at least once or twice -- it's a pretty common feature to most human societies. As a result, there's a strong sense of verisimilitude, and it's an event that highlights the idea your character is a person in his or her own right. Plus, there are great opportunities to be silly, to have serious discussions, or even just to watch other people for a while.
Weaknesses: Let's start with the most obvious problem of wallflowers. There's nothing wrong with not being a naturally sociable person, but if you tend to be a little more insular in real-life parties, you might not have much luck with the roleplaying variety either. Plus, the event lacks any strong motivation for players to attend or take part, since there's not much of substance going on. It's best organized by someone who knows how to keep a party moving in real life, which is harder to do than it might seem.
The guild meeting
The core: Large-scale meetings among guilds are pretty much de rigeur for making a guild work, and if you're in a roleplaying guild to start with, there's no reason not to make the guild's meeting in-character. After all, the guild exists as an organization in-character as well. It's a chance to let everyone have a say, and possibly run a little game or two among your members -- or even segue into a wider guild story.
Strengths: Having a regular guild meeting is a good thing for keeping a guild unified and keeping members appraised of changes, so this is a great way to kill multiple birds with one stone. It also makes an opportunity to show the guild as more of an organization in the game's world rather than just a grouping of players. Keeping players in the mindset that they are part of an actual organization and not just an in-game grouping is a good thing, in the long run.
Weaknesses: Just like any meeting, there needs to be someone in charge that keeps things moving at a decent clip. Otherwise, the meeting can easily get bogged down in minutiae and needless bickering. There's also the simple fact that guild meetings are very rarely full of scintillating events, and taking longer to type everything in-character might just bore some players to tears. Err on the side of getting the meeting handled fairly quickly.
The assault
The core: Group content is best taken on with people you like, and if you're into roleplaying, that likely means you're going to be tackling it with a group of roleplayers. I talked a while back about the virtues of roleplaying while in the thick of the action, and it's certainly the sort of thing worthy of an entire event.
Strengths: When you get right down to it, this is one of the central ideas that draws players to roleplaying and MMOs in general -- taking the role of a brave adventurer against impossible odds. Endgame content usually aims for being big and flashy, and it makes a perfect backdrop for epic struggles and heroic pushes against desperate circumstances. You won't have to pretend that you're facing a massive threat -- you'll actually be facing a massive threat.
Weaknesses: In fact, you may very well be facing a threat that's a bit too massive for you to just natter on in chat about the challenges in front of you. Dangerous content doesn't always leave a lot of room for character development, since you're usually playing by the skin of your teeth to begin with. There's also the problem that endgame content is usually designed to be repeated with some frequency -- you might be able to make an event out of the first time your guild clears a dungeon, but what happens when you need to run it a dozen more times over the next month?
The hang-out
The core: On some level, it's probably a bit artificial to include a simple hangout on a list of events, because this sort of event is the anti-event. There's nothing happening, no goals, no storytelling direction, nothing but a bunch of people sitting around and roleplaying together. On the other hand, this is probably the most common sort of roleplaying event -- a party with less structure, if you want to get right down to it. It's the sort of event you wind up with when your goals are mostly "everyone gets together to roleplay."
Strengths: The free-form nature of a gathering like this means it's the easiest to work with as an ad hoc arrangement. Usually there's some unifying idea, like everyone meeting in a tavern -- but there's not a strong goal, so players can simply drop in or out and enjoy the environment. It's also the sort of thing that can flow fairly easily, with players coming in, leaving, and moving on without any disruption to the overall environment.
Weaknesses: You have absolutely no goals at work with this event. There's nothing keeping anyone in place or engaged except the strength of the roleplaying, and if that starts to fade so does player interest. You are really relying on a bunch of players providing an interesting starting point for the participants... otherwise the whole thing falls apart.
There are other sorts of events, of course, and some interesting ones I've seen on a totally different note (such as the storytelling event in Final Fantasy XIV or the prisoner exchange in Star Trek Online). But these are some of the most commonly assembled events, and so it feels worth the time to look at them in turn.
Agree? Disagree? Let me know, like always, via comments or by mail to eliot@massively.com. Next week, we're going to talk ERP after a fashion, and the week after that it's time to discuss drama and burnout.
Every Friday, Eliot Lefebvre fills a column up with excellent advice on investing money, writing award-winning novels, and being elected to public office. Then he removes all of that, and you're left with Storyboard, which focuses on roleplaying in MMOs. It won't help you get elected, but it will help you pretend you did.
