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Hosting IC Events


Juls
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I've been pondering potential events for my group game. Our last event was purely a social gathering - food, drinks, music - and completely freeform RP-wise. It went well. 


But I'm leery of overdoing the party thing. So just fishing for some other ideas!

 

To group staff: What types of events do you run that cater to the entire player base? (my group is relatively small - roughly 8 active players with another 10-ish that haven't really engaged yet, plus a few lurkers.).

 

To Players: What kind of events might you like to see in groups?

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I've honestly learned that less is more. Keeping things simple works best my staff and I, too much planning or details tends to discourage members because they are afraid they might deviate from the planned timeline of events. It is usually a GREAT plan or idea in theory, but executing it translated poorly. 

 

I like open events, something that members can easily get at least one character to. A simple description of what the event is and just let them go crazy.

 

The small fun additive we did this time around was randomized events to be tossed into threads. If someone doesn't want to be involved they can opt out of it but those who do want a random spooky event thrown into their thread are asked to mark their thread with a pumpkin.  Staff have a dice rolling channel for random event prompts. At the top of the channel is a list of numbered prompts. We roll a dice set to the number of prompts we have, and the number we get is the prompt we throw into the thread. This channel in our server is private to staff so members don't know what's going to happen. Some of them are pretty out there, lol, which makes things unpredictable and a bit quirky. 

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23 hours ago, Lavi said:

The small fun additive we did this time around was randomized events to be tossed into threads. If someone doesn't want to be involved they can opt out of it but those who do want a random spooky event thrown into their thread are asked to mark their thread with a pumpkin.  Staff have a dice rolling channel for random event prompts. At the top of the channel is a list of numbered prompts. We roll a dice set to the number of prompts we have, and the number we get is the prompt we throw into the thread. This channel in our server is private to staff so members don't know what's going to happen. Some of them are pretty out there, lol, which makes things unpredictable and a bit quirky. 

 

 

I just implemented something similar via the MEE6 bot.  It has a 'custom command' option and one thing it can do is respond with a random message, so I've populated it with a bunch of events and set the timer so that each player may only run it weekly.  

There's been a lukewarm reception so far, but I'm hoping it prompts at least a couple interactions! 

 

 

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  • 3 months later...

I enjoy events that have some sort of timeline, goal, or other structure element to them. Simplistic, of course. We recently had a New Years event thread that we structured with phase 1 introductions/arrival/drinks, phase 2 a dance, and phase 3 fireworks and ringing in the new year in-character.

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4 hours ago, ElusionRP said:

I enjoy events that have some sort of timeline, goal, or other structure element to them. Simplistic, of course. We recently had a New Years event thread that we structured with phase 1 introductions/arrival/drinks, phase 2 a dance, and phase 3 fireworks and ringing in the new year in-character.

 

Are the real life time frames for those phases set ahead of time?  Or does someone on staff kind of judge based on when the momentum of one phase starts to fade and then move things along to the next? 

 

 

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 I really do like ic events. It has helped to really bring me closer to rp partners. Because of some events and being able to talk more with some members in the past is why I have people now I have actually met IRL and still close to this day. From watch parties, doodlz, cah, ext. Sometimes spontaneously smaller things like a game of doodlz or CA is easier to do. But anything like a watch party I feel requires pre-planning.

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5 hours ago, Herald of Andraste said:

 I really do like ic events. It has helped to really bring me closer to rp partners. Because of some events and being able to talk more with some members in the past is why I have people now I have actually met IRL and still close to this day. From watch parties, doodlz, cah, ext. Sometimes spontaneously smaller things like a game of doodlz or CA is easier to do. But anything like a watch party I feel requires pre-planning.

 

 

Thanks for the reply Herald of Andraste.  Those are IC things?  When I think of a watch party, I think of players getting together to watch a movie or something.  

 

What is cah, ext, and CA? 

 

 

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15 hours ago, Juls said:

 

Are the real life time frames for those phases set ahead of time?  Or does someone on staff kind of judge based on when the momentum of one phase starts to fade and then move things along to the next? 

 

A little of both. Our New Years Event lasted all of January, so we planned on once a week changing phases. But if things were feeling stagnant before a soft deadline, we'd initiate the next phase early.

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  • 3 months later...

I love this thread, thanks for making it! I've recently designed a site that is loosely based on the tabletop RPG concept, so the goal is to have a monthly "live" session. Where anyone who can make it is present and we're doing dice rolls to guide the progression of the story. I gave it a trial run and it ended up being hilarious. I just provided a prompt and we rolled the dice and the members took it from there. Might have to implement some of these ideas, so thank you for sharing ❤️

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  • 5 months later...

I feel the same as you regarding parties. Although we have done them to success. Our most recent event was for a Deiselpunk/Mad Max era and we did a "Demolition Death Derby" where we created a bunch of fun rules and had our players post themselves driving the course and then dice rolling a 1d3 dice. Everyone who got a 3 had to fight it out by rolling a 1d6 with the highest roll successfully avoiding being hit, and the others taking one damage point. The winner needed to reach a certain number, so the game went on until that number was reached, or everyone else was out. It was really fun, and really successful. 

 

Utilising dice and coming up with games that players can play together can be a really fun way to get some interaction. xx

 

edited to add: we also had a playlist that people could tune into if they wanted, which was really cool and helped build atmosphere and make people feel like we were all connected. 🙂

Edited by amaikaorii

"To survive, you must tell stories" - Umberto Eco

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3 hours ago, amaikaorii said:

I feel the same as you regarding parties. Although we have done them to success. Our most recent event was for a Deiselpunk/Mad Max era and we did a "Demolition Death Derby" where we created a bunch of fun rules and had our players post themselves driving the course and then dice rolling a 1d3 dice. Everyone who got a 3 had to fight it out by rolling a 1d6 with the highest roll successfully avoiding being hit, and the others taking one damage point. The winner needed to reach a certain number, so the game went on until that number was reached, or everyone else was out. It was really fun, and really successful. 

 

Utilising dice and coming up with games that players can play together can be a really fun way to get some interaction. xx

 

edited to add: we also had a playlist that people could tune into if they wanted, which was really cool and helped build atmosphere and make people feel like we were all connected. 🙂

 

 

I get Mario Kart Vibes.  (Which is awesome and sounds like a ton of fun!  Thanks for the idea!) 

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

This is where things get weird from a Trek perspective - you'd probably think of a standard mission as an Event, but to me it was run of the mill. In other genres, my favorite is a closed-circle murder mystery. Whether it's one of the NPCs, or if a PC has agreed to be the killer, it's great because it causes a great deal of interaction with a limited scope; exactly what you want for an event. Kaiju attacks have also worked in the past for me.

 

Parties are boring, because there's no real "goal". That's really what the problem is. If you've got players dead-set on a party, make it meaningful. What's the party "for"? What goals do the PCs have, and how will they accomplish them? A goal can be as simple as "trade business cards with so-and-so", but it could also be social posturing, turning the punchbowl into a bunch of Mickey Finns, etc. Make sure with the players that they have goals in the event, and help them work on them (even if they're opposed, help everyone equally).

 

As a member, I don't really care what the theme is. I just care that the people running it are active and know where they want things to go; as well as being able to to adapt.

 

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Longtime roleplayer with experience across multiple franchises and genres; though trending toward Sci-Fi.

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