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Whinejournal
Sep. 2nd, 2009 10:47 pmOn the Shattered Legacies event:
We ran an event. It was awesome. We had plenty of enthusiastic crew (sorry, monsters) and it went fantastically well - much better than I was expecting. Very glad we ended up on the 'more' side rather than 'less'.
High points would be:
The way in - Seeing all the players kitted up and ready to go, marching along in formation with Eli and Kalin shouting orders. Watching 'team scout' run off to the left, thinking 'oh god, oh god, the players are going into that UNSAFE bit!' and then seeing how sweet it looked and being able to trust people not to break themselves. Took much longer than expected, and we were already starting late - but that was a *really* good thing in the end. It allowed us to keep an interesting human NPC antagonist faction to play with for the weekend rather than briefly for one night. (Initial 'schedule' was going to be for the players to go and kill the Clarion Order on Friday night. Thank fuck that didn't happen, both for safety and 'let's not throw away one of our most interesting monster/kit options before they've even done anything?' purposes)
The Friday meal - especially when the hardliners turned up. Briefly got a chance to see how that panned out 'on the ground' with the players and was involved in the big "Alright then lads, kill em all!" ruck. What a blast. Being able to watch the scene evolve and play out in a manner that was every bit as awesome as I'd been hoping all these months - that was such a huge buzz.
The shrine mission with Avitus. Hardcore points go to Jeff.
Saturday's meal with the 'Me's and Soulflayer - Fuck yes! oxfordgirl was absolutely perfect for that role. Great atmosphere, great set-dressing. Watching players stacking up, ready to do some PvP...that was tense.
Erikan's pack/Duel with Levan. Hell yeah. Levan is FUCKING METAL!
The scene at the end of the final Golem mission. Very heartfelt (actually making me choke), such a great 'noble sacrifice' - and then the hilarious "WAIT! That bastard...he was wearing my HAT!" moment that came afterwards.
And of course, the Grand Finale. Replete with Vedanya's outro. Fuck, when Anya started crying it was infectious...
All in all, things were relatively smooth. When running an event, I think the lesson you pick up first (and most importantly) is that you can't have a set-in-stone "Plan" for everything. In fact, part of the appeal is winding it all up and seeing where it finally comes to rest. If things don't go to "Plan", it's critically important to not get stressed and instead just concentrate on making sure what *does* happen makes sense, both in terms of 'Anatomy of an OOC fun event' and 'We want to be *here* IC by the end'. Being prepared to drop things when you inevitably don't have time/space for them is important. Being prepared to add things on the spot in order to keep things moving/interesting - likewise.
So, there's a positive start. Very un whine-journal, yes?
( Cut for wangst )
You know, I'm feeling *so* much bettter now. This post is not well phrased and descends into being needlessly preachy. I could probably just delete this text and say "I was feeling a little low and irked by a few things that have been on my mind, but now I'm not." But at the same time, no. I think I'll leave it there and just nuke a paragraph in the middle, due to this not being the place for it.
We ran an event. It was awesome. We had plenty of enthusiastic crew (sorry, monsters) and it went fantastically well - much better than I was expecting. Very glad we ended up on the 'more' side rather than 'less'.
High points would be:
The way in - Seeing all the players kitted up and ready to go, marching along in formation with Eli and Kalin shouting orders. Watching 'team scout' run off to the left, thinking 'oh god, oh god, the players are going into that UNSAFE bit!' and then seeing how sweet it looked and being able to trust people not to break themselves. Took much longer than expected, and we were already starting late - but that was a *really* good thing in the end. It allowed us to keep an interesting human NPC antagonist faction to play with for the weekend rather than briefly for one night. (Initial 'schedule' was going to be for the players to go and kill the Clarion Order on Friday night. Thank fuck that didn't happen, both for safety and 'let's not throw away one of our most interesting monster/kit options before they've even done anything?' purposes)
The Friday meal - especially when the hardliners turned up. Briefly got a chance to see how that panned out 'on the ground' with the players and was involved in the big "Alright then lads, kill em all!" ruck. What a blast. Being able to watch the scene evolve and play out in a manner that was every bit as awesome as I'd been hoping all these months - that was such a huge buzz.
The shrine mission with Avitus. Hardcore points go to Jeff.
Saturday's meal with the 'Me's and Soulflayer - Fuck yes! oxfordgirl was absolutely perfect for that role. Great atmosphere, great set-dressing. Watching players stacking up, ready to do some PvP...that was tense.
Erikan's pack/Duel with Levan. Hell yeah. Levan is FUCKING METAL!
The scene at the end of the final Golem mission. Very heartfelt (actually making me choke), such a great 'noble sacrifice' - and then the hilarious "WAIT! That bastard...he was wearing my HAT!" moment that came afterwards.
And of course, the Grand Finale. Replete with Vedanya's outro. Fuck, when Anya started crying it was infectious...
All in all, things were relatively smooth. When running an event, I think the lesson you pick up first (and most importantly) is that you can't have a set-in-stone "Plan" for everything. In fact, part of the appeal is winding it all up and seeing where it finally comes to rest. If things don't go to "Plan", it's critically important to not get stressed and instead just concentrate on making sure what *does* happen makes sense, both in terms of 'Anatomy of an OOC fun event' and 'We want to be *here* IC by the end'. Being prepared to drop things when you inevitably don't have time/space for them is important. Being prepared to add things on the spot in order to keep things moving/interesting - likewise.
So, there's a positive start. Very un whine-journal, yes?
( Cut for wangst )
You know, I'm feeling *so* much bettter now. This post is not well phrased and descends into being needlessly preachy. I could probably just delete this text and say "I was feeling a little low and irked by a few things that have been on my mind, but now I'm not." But at the same time, no. I think I'll leave it there and just nuke a paragraph in the middle, due to this not being the place for it.
