National Event, what do we want out of it?

[Dreamingfurther]

One of the things I'm hearing some folks say is that a lot of people are most interested in a national event for the sake of meeting other PC's. For me that is certainly a BIG draw to a national event. Honestly one of the things I really enjoy about PC'ing is the fact that during downtime you get the chance to just sort of 'hang out' IG as your character with other characters.

Is the chance to meet other PC's more of a draw for most people than whatever the plot is or the multi-chapter storyline? I mean if that is the case then I'd think there should be some way to write plots that focus on giving different groups of PC's a chance to work together and get to know/share stories and play with other PC's, rather than just allowing the PC's a chance to interact incidentally while 'saving the world' or whatever.

How highly does the chance/necessity of meeting other new PC's at a national event rank in peoples interest levels for such an event?

 

[EricMarsters]

David,

It sounds like they want one thing:

More Bardic Awesomeness.

 

[Maxwell]

Bardic Awesomeness?!

Count me in!

Matt

 

[jpariury]

I can dig another Bardic. I may need to learn Nigel's fire routine just in case we end up with the same situation we did last year.

Meeting other players (PC, NPC, plot, whatever) is the primary reason I travel.

 

[Warlok]

I'm fairly new to Alliance (just shy of a year, now), and I wasn't at the last National Event. I did hear/read about it and I think what would be the most appealing would be a combination of what has been suggested so far: have some kind of "How'd we get here?" plot for the overall weekend arc (possibly with local flavor to solve different methods of returning "home"), sprinkle in Racial plot, make sure there are low-/mid-/high-level mods for everyone, compensate people for NPCing in shifts*, and have a "Hospitality Team"**.

*So far, people have suggested Dragon Stamps in compensation...what about access to a Workshop or having some local noble pay your second batch? Maybe a mod immediately following your shift which explains why your team was gone...maybe the mod is guaranteed to drop some MIs? Maybe one per person? Perhaps they last 2 years until the next National Event?

**Hospitality Team would be made of volunteers who will coordinate travel/transportation, help arrange hotels/crash space for pre-/post-event, and help with flow of arrival/check-in for the event. The volunteers should probably be a combination of local players and full-time NPCs.

I think that about covers thing from my perspective. I probably missed a few things, but I blame being distracted by a sick wife and 2-year-old.

-Luke G.

 

[EricMarsters]

I would go to a National Event just to see Nigel v Matt in a bardic competition. Maxwell = Money, if you didn't know.

 

[Icey]

It would be nice if we had a plot of "How did we get here, how do we get back?" mixed in with local chapter relation to get back.

If we suffer a lack of NPC's, then we just create huge ones, right? 5-10 thousand body, swinging 20-50 damage with a handful of shatter spirits at the ready, anyone? But seriously, maybe a compensation event deal. You PC til you're requested to NPC for a while, maybe about 4-8 hours a day per game day, and you pay about 75% of the difference of PCing and NPC, or in a formula .75(PC cost - NPC cost) + NPC Cost. So say PC'ing was 100 dollars, and NPC was 20 dollars, then you'd pay 80 dollars, because 75 percent of 80 is 60, plus the 20 making it 80 dollars. Adding in a magic item pick or two to your home chapter, and about 10 gobbies per hour you NPC'd.

Keep in mind this is only a suggestion.

 

[markusdark]

First, Nigel would not compete at the next national event. He may do the fire eating thing for entertainment but as he has won last time, he wouldn't enter the game next year. He prefers to share the limelight - perhaps a very un-gypsy thing to do.

Next - a single big baddie I feel is a bad thing. Watching the clustering that happened with the single beholder in town just didn't seem like a fun thing but I could be wrong. Everyone dumping all of their stuff into a single person looked a lot like just a sea of crap thrown at the large monster and it could have been something more.

Third - as someone who will more than likely be traveling thousands of miles to the game, I personally would feel a little bit 'put out' if I was forced to NPC. I can understand the need for it, especially at such a large event but besides the site admission, I will be traveling, and paying travel costs, that can be anywhere from 3-10 times the amount of other players and I would feel that then putting on top of that having to work at the game would just be too much.

Fourth - I do feel that the national event is more about meeting other people/characters from other chapters, sharing stories, making impressions and so on. If it was just about the adventures, those can be had at any local chapter encounter. The enjoyment of a high population game is in the RP aspect and not in the combat one. Having those numbers cause more logistic headaches, more hold calls and overall frustration when dealing with combat. I remember seeing at least two people leave the field throwing/smashing their shields due to whatever frustrating reason there was (my guess was getting hit with the single death Oblit known as Shatter Spirit).

Not to mention the larger number of lowbies mixed with highbies and that just is more wheat before the scythes that are brought out to deal with the more powerful characters. This is another avenue that should be addressed by plot - having encounters detailed so that only low level characters are involved so that it can be challenging without being deadly or only high level characters so it can be challenging without being a cake walk. This could be combined with (if instituted) the mandatory NPC'ing system where on Saturday from 8am to 5pm, everyone who is over level 10 should NPC since the only thing coming into town will be focused on that APL level. Whereas at 8PM to 11PM, that will be the 20-30 tier.

 

[Wraith]

First, Nigel would not compete at the next national event. He may do the fire eating thing for entertainment but as he has won last time, he wouldn't enter the game next year. He prefers to share the limelight - perhaps a very un-gypsy thing to do.

Next - a single big baddie I feel is a bad thing. Watching the clustering that happened with the single beholder in town just didn't seem like a fun thing but I could be wrong. Everyone dumping all of their stuff into a single person looked a lot like just a sea of crap thrown at the large monster and it could have been something more.

Yeah, several of the mods broke down into circle-beatings that way. Big kudos to whoever came up with the newbie-mod and marked circles for the climax with the Dracolich so the people without the gear to handle what it takes to threaten the higher-powered characters had something to do to feel useful.

Fourth - I do feel that the national event is more about meeting other people/characters from other chapters, sharing stories, making impressions and so on. If it was just about the adventures, those can be had at any local chapter encounter. The enjoyment of a high population game is in the RP aspect and not in the combat one. Having those numbers cause more logistic headaches, more hold calls and overall frustration when dealing with combat. I remember seeing at least two people leave the field throwing/smashing their shields due to whatever frustrating reason there was (my guess was getting hit with the single death Oblit known as Shatter Spirit).

Not to mention the larger number of lowbies mixed with highbies and that just is more wheat before the scythes that are brought out to deal with the more powerful characters.

This did cause quite a bit of frustration that I saw. To deal with the high-power characters, cards swinging for disabling effects (and Death) as carriers were sent out. Unfortunately (due to entirely understandable frustration on the NPC players' part), these ended up going against lowbie PC's because they would take the effects. Several people spent the better part of an hour watching a field battle because they were chain-disabled or killed outright every time something respawned, as the NPC players didn't all know who had been hit and went for shots they could get.

Really, this is the event of all events that needs a dedicated NPC corps who've had a bit of time to go over expectations and establish strong leadership in order to present the sort of challenge the writers want. With huge power disparity in play, finesse has to be used in order to keep from ruining people's days.

 

[Mendacity]

My issue with the " how do we get home" plot is that there is no possibility of failure, and therefore no suspense. I know, OOG, that I will want to PC later that season, and that the plot team won't keep my character in the IG location of the event no matter what I do.

However, a "how / why are we here" plot would be fun, if there was some reason I needed to know.

 

[Alavatar]

My issue with the " how do we get home" plot is that there is no possibility of failure, and therefore no suspense. I know, OOG, that I will want to PC later that season, and that the plot team won't keep my character in the IG location of the event no matter what I do.

However, a "how / why are we here" plot would be fun, if there was some reason I needed to know.

"How do we get home" plot can just be a consequence instead of holding your character. Such as, if you don't find out how to get home, take a death on your card.

Personally, I would prefer a "Why are we here" plot.

 

[Polare]

I want a 4-day event that is completely contained plot-wise. The 4 days could go Monday through Friday (I know that is technically 5, but it is only 4 Logistics periods) which gives people time to (a) travel to the event, (b) travel back home, and (c) rest a day or two before going back to work (for those of us that work normal weekday schedules).

Ditto on all of these. Self contained plot, definitely over a weekend (3 or 4 day - yes! more than that - unlikely).

 

[Polare]

Is the chance to meet other PC's more of a draw for most people than whatever the plot is or the multi-chapter storyline?

Without question. I cannot always depend on any particular character of mine being interested in whatever plotline is being run. I *can* always depend on meeting new PCs being interesting and involving.

 

[RiddickDale]

Is the chance to meet other PC's more of a draw for most people than whatever the plot is or the multi-chapter storyline?

Without question. I cannot always depend on any particular character of mine being interested in whatever plotline is being run. I *can* always depend on meeting new PCs being interesting and involving.

Fact. For example, Playing with Polare and Gregor was one of my primary reasons for pushing myself to attend the last National. Playing with people from other games in other parts of the country is an awesome experience.

Stephen

 

[RavenSis]

Is the chance to meet other PC's more of a draw for most people than whatever the plot is or the multi-chapter storyline?

Plot and storylines are cool and all, but most of the fun I have at game come from interactions with other characters. Now, sometimes those characters are NPCs, and part of a plotline, and that's awesome - but a lot of times, it's interacting with other PCs within a storyline that is my favorite. I find it fascinating to encounter PCs from other chapters, as there are so many little cultural things in each chapter.

 

[Davion]

What if the national event had a set of circumstances that everybody could agree on?

1) Do not count deaths. None of them at the last event counted anyways. Incorporate it into the plot. "The characters are all summoned to a strange land. As this is another plane, the characters do not die, but instead get banished..." Instead of dieing, the player gets banished from the plane. In order to return to the plane, the player must get summoned/disjuncted in the earth circle. Maybe force the player to go out of the game for an hour or something else if you need a heavier penalty. Possibly drop items or allow components or people who own horses/etc to come back faster?

2) Magic Items dropped are all either Times Evers, last the event, or last for 1 year max. The treasure policy MI power should be as low as the lowest level chapters/lowest power chapters. If the only reason you're attending is for MIs, you have the wrong attitude, amirght? The last the event items could be very powerful, and was an effective way to do things at the Soap factory event. (I got a +2 damage aura sword and a 20x a day cure disease item, made me feel really cool but I didn't bring those unbalanced items back to my home chapter).

3) Fighting speed would be forced to be slowed down per APL. If you're in an APL 30 mod, i'ca'upon'ta'eth, or "twice twice twice" might be acceptable calls. But if you're on an APL 15, it is not.

4) Double hooking mods (if that's what it's called when you NPC and then PC). If I went, I'd PC. If I wasn't able to PC, I would never, ever, ever dish out the cash. Ever. But I wouldn't mind being your NPC if you'll be my NPC.

5) Home chapters should be responsible for doing all logistics for their own players. This should be done by having 1 envelope per each day with each day's production, coin, tags, etc. in them labeled 1,2,3,4... plus the player's names. All these envelopes would be dropped off at the home chapter's logistics and logistics ONLY DUTY would be to hand out these envelopes. Use of merchanting, batching, or otherwise changing your logistics would be NOT ALLOWED.

6) Any other issues that arise from trying to "compromise" the way we all play into a single event. These issues should be addressed. This is a national event, we have to make special exceptions to normal procedure.

 

[obcidian_bandit]

Basically, almost none of those things would work, which is why they're not done.

1) Being effectively immortal would change the game significantly IG and OOG, and most likely for the worst. The deaths from the last event didn't count because someone decided to adjudicate them, and the issue of whether or not that was a good call (and who should or should not have had the power to do that) is a hot topic even today.

2) Aside from only putting out "bad loot," it would be almost impossible to drop treasure policy without putting out magic items. There were about 90-100 PCs at the last national event, with a fairly high APL, which means a metric yang of treasure has to go out, and MIs is the best way to dump some of it. On top of that, scrolls and components have to be dealt with.

3) The point of the national event is to come together for a shared game. You can't start making alterations to the game (especially ones where the oog rules somehow depend on the APL of the group), otherwise you're missing the point. I play Airsoft and Dominion with other Alliance players, but I wouldn't fly 3000 miles to do it.

4) That's fine. I'm all for double hooking, but you can't enforce it. There are plenty of folk who don't want to do it, or people who have makeup/costuming issues that would make it too much trouble. You'd need to set up bins or something for PCs in/around MC, though. It's a way bigger deal if somebody's stuff gets lost in MC if that MC belongs to 6 different chapters, none of which the DH-PC plays in.

5) Again, you can't change the game that we're playing. The productionists biggest boon is that they can change what they make to be dependent on what they need. If on day 2 of the event they've realized that they need more Sleep scrolls, or that Nausea Elixirs might be useful for once, or that there's 100 PCs and only 2 healers, or Lowbie Team ran afoul a Rust Monster, they can fill in that need. Same goes for casters changing their spells, people swapping around MIs, etc.

6) We shouldn't have to make special procedures. We should be creating procedures for the entire Alliance that scale up well. Running the 'behind the scenes' for an event with ~110-120 people shouldn't require anything special. We've been running events for 70-80 people every other month for a while now, and our attendance is climbing. Anything we can do to make things easier for events that large needs to be something that everyone can use, because 100 people at an event isn't that special of a circumstance; our hobby is growing, and we need to be preparing for the eventuality that "it could be better but this is what we deal with" won't cut it. (Go go gadget national database team! :thumbsup: )

 

[phedre]

I'm going to play devil's advocate... and I agree with so much of o_b just said.

What if the national event had a set of circumstances that everybody could agree on?

1) Do not count deaths. None of them at the last event counted anyways. Incorporate it into the plot. "The characters are all summoned to a strange land. As this is another plane, the characters do not die, but instead get banished..." Instead of dieing, the player gets banished from the plane. In order to return to the plane, the player must get summoned/disjuncted in the earth circle. Maybe force the player to go out of the game for an hour or something else if you need a heavier penalty. Possibly drop items or allow components or people who own horses/etc to come back faster?

There are players who like a dangerous game. I would do much more dangerous stuff if I knew I wasn't taking a death, and that's my character, not me as a player. Things can be replaced, or I leave them behind, I'll tackle the BBG (with permission for physical roleplay, of course) :thumbsup:

2) Magic Items dropped are all either Times Evers, last the event, or last for 1 year max. The treasure policy MI power should be as low as the lowest level chapters/lowest power chapters. If the only reason you're attending is for MIs, you have the wrong attitude, amirght? The last the event items could be very powerful, and was an effective way to do things at the Soap factory event. (I got a +2 damage aura sword and a 20x a day cure disease item, made me feel really cool but I didn't bring those unbalanced items back to my home chapter).

What's unbalancing differs based on the flavor of your home game, so how do you determine what is "overpowered" and what isn't? In some chapters, certain auras will make someone a rockstar, in others a DA will do the same thing. And the treasure policy is set forth in the bylaws to be based on the attendance and APL, which makes it non-negotiable. I think the only thing they skipped last time was catalysts, because that's a logistics nightmare to make useable in every chapter.

3) Fighting speed would be forced to be slowed down per APL. If you're in an APL 30 mod, i'ca'upon'ta'eth, or "twice twice twice" might be acceptable calls. But if you're on an APL 15, it is not.

Unintelligible verbals mean the effect is blown, doesn't matter if it's a spell or a weapon blow. Some people speak faster than others. Try having a conversation with someone from New York City, and then someone from small-town Mississippi. Neither is doing something wrong, until you get to the guy Brad Pitt played in Snatch. No one knows what he's saying, and that'd be a huge problem in our game.

4) Double hooking mods (if that's what it's called when you NPC and then PC). If I went, I'd PC. If I wasn't able to PC, I would never, ever, ever dish out the cash. Ever. But I wouldn't mind being your NPC if you'll be my NPC.

I'd be alright with that if given the option to get out of doing it. Sometimes people have multiple things going on at a game and have to go do the thing to get the stuff, and then get back to solve the puzzle or cast the rit or whatever.

5) Home chapters should be responsible for doing all logistics for their own players. This should be done by having 1 envelope per each day with each day's production, coin, tags, etc. in them labeled 1,2,3,4... plus the player's names. All these envelopes would be dropped off at the home chapter's logistics and logistics ONLY DUTY would be to hand out these envelopes. Use of merchanting, batching, or otherwise changing your logistics would be NOT ALLOWED.

Not cool for casters, at all. If I want to change my spells because I usually memorize Confines and Dragon's Breaths and I need Banishes and Dispels, I'm out of luck? And what about high magic for augmenting rituals that has to be specified? That's just not an option because my prereg can't be changed? And that means someone from every chapter has to be at the event as a Logistics person? Last time they split the envelopes alphabetically by last name it it worked pretty quickly. Have people pick up their prereg and if they want to change it, they have to go stand in a different line. Batching will be difficult because they'll have to spend 10 gold on an appropriate workshop first.

6) Any other issues that arise from trying to "compromise" the way we all play into a single event. These issues should be addressed. This is a national event, we have to make special exceptions to normal procedure.