>It honestly felt like a few GM's wrote up some food items, and decided to open up the area for the night, without considering what they would actually do there.

Maybe they did? Sometimes the players need to provide SOME substance.

Though if the party was as disrupted as everyone seems to imply, maybe they never got around to stuff.

Greetings,

I am sorry you had a poor experience and hope that you will try another event of this sort, as one bad apple shouldn't spoil them all for you. The announcement to move to the throne room unfortunately came from a player and with the confusion, it took us a bit of time to catch up to it and direct folks back out into the crowd. The people doing the security were also the ones that were trying to RP with at one point 250 people. We had a remarkable group of GM's trying to handle the totally unexpected numbers of players with all the incidents going on and trying very hard through massive scroll, multiple rooms, and the overwhelming whispers that all GMNPC's receive, to provide some entertainment for the evening.

Please remember as well, as often as the GM's are called Gods...they get sick, their cars break, they lose connections, they lag and sometimes can't read or type as fast as the next God. I'm very proud to have such a great team around me to work with even through all that sort of thing.


Adera

Life is the journey, not the destination.

I'd like to say that I had a good time. I enjoyed doing something different other then hunting when I had to shop for myself and the hubby. Being a girl, part of the fun about the ball was the "Outfit", kinda like the oscars...no one really cares about the awards they just want to see what everyone is wearing. I kept trying to LOOK at everyone to see what they had on but there was alot of scroll..whew.

I got a good laugh at Meannes solo scooby dooing around the dance floor. :) I felt a little bad for the GMs as there was ALOT of people there and trying to make sure everything ran smoothly I'm sure was a bit of a headache. I would like to thank them none the less for thier time. I think when the "Sedition and you" post was made people began to anticipate something bad might happen and got a little excited over it and was probably the only reason they even attended.

I'd also like to thank the GMs for the gifts as well, the wristlets and boutinerres were lovely.

-Entyycement

I enjoyed myself, even if I did end up in the dungeon.

I am --- Navak

Adera,

Overall it was a fun night. I understand the enormous headache that running something like that can be.

A few things come to mind that might help future events of the same type go more smoothly.

1) Employ PC ushers.

During the S&W, the Therengian contingent was left standing in the foyer wondering where they were supposed to be. In general, it was difficult to figure out what was supposed to be going on and it was unclear who to even ask about that.

Having some PCs walking around with an "Usher" title who have been briefed on the night's programme of events would solve that problem.

At the S&W, for example, one PC could have stood just inside the Keep to smile and welcome visitors with something like: "Welcome to Ulf'hara keep. Drinks are in the dining room and dancing is in the ballrom. Please mingle and enjoy yourselves!"

That would have let guests know what to expect and how to approach the evening. Some wandering ushers could have answered other questions.

PC court officials can be tapped to brief in and organize the ushers for the night. Give the courtiers the programme, tell them what you expect, and let them make the arrangements. Hold them accountable (with praise or otherwise) for the results.

2. Have a programme and publish it.

Even if it's as simple as this..

1) Guests will arive at gathering place.
2) Guests mingle and enjoy themselves!

That lets people know how they should set their expectations. A little more structure could even be a good thing. For example:

1) 7pm est. - Guests arrive.
2) 7:15 - Formal welcome in the Throne Room.
3) 7:30-8 - Mingling and dancing.
4) 8:15-8:30- Formal toasts.
.
. more stuff here.
.
5) 10pm - Guests return to throne room for closing ceremony and formal thanks.

Most formal events I've been to IRL have had some programme of that sort available. It allows guests to relax and enjoy themselves without worrying about what is going to happen next and where they should be.

3) Have a no-tolerance disciplinary policy.

There is a balance of interests to be struck between allowing people to RP the way they want to and having an event run smoothly. At the S&W, you guys very much erred on the side of tolerance. For the next one, I think you have some leeway to go the other way.

A reasonable and IC approach might be something like this:

If a character is causing a disruption by not behaving appropriately for a formal event, that character is asked ICly to leave. If they don't comply or they leave and come back, they are arrested and shown to the dungeon for the duration of the event.

Some people may complain, but I think that nobody could reasonably argue that a policy of that nature is unfair or inappropriate.

Just some thoughts for next time. It was fun for me in a harried sort of way, and I'd go to another one.

Mazrian

Greetings,

Thank you, Mazrian, the PC usher idea definitely has merit. Just need to chase down the head of the union....


Adera

Life is the journey, not the destination.

Excellent ideas, Mazrian. And all things considered, you did an excellent job of keeping the entourage together and getting us around when there appeared to us to have no order or idea of what was going on.

~Wyndz


_________

re: Julian's post

There used to be a sort of secret society of GM-monitored/supervised/guided/etc. roleplayers that were supported in staging roleplaying events around the game.

If that still exists, they might be an excellent resource to draw from for this.

If it no longer exists, recreating it from among the PIRP and mentor ranks might be a good idea.

>>If it no longer exists, recreating it from among the PIRP and mentor ranks might be a good idea. <<

It doesn't matter where they come from. :) In fact, I'd rather the Events GMs give the management assignment to a court appointee (who they can hold accountable) and let the appointee worry about organizing ushers who can get the job done.

The only criteria should be ability to get the job done.

M.

(This response to another post in the thread was pulled due to some other offending posts. I've removed quotes and reposted, hopefully that's alright. I thought the group I refer to was pretty cool and is definitely worth ramping up again if it isn't active right now.)

Ahhhh, true enough I suppose. I forget sometimes how much things seem to have changed over the last few years when I've wandered away for a while again like this.

I can't really recall how exactly the old group was set up and run. My recollection is that it was started from within the mentor society, but ended up vaguely seperate from that (even though the majority of the members were also mentors) and they started inviting non-mentors in on a case by case basis. They came up with their own stories, but had to get GM approval before implementation and got some small amount of GM support in prop building.

If you think back to a few years ago, a fair number of smallish events that mostly focused on interaction as opposed to invasions of creatures could have been produced by this group.

For example, there was a intelligence-challenged gor'tog that was distributing extremely deadly herbs masqueraded as 'medicinal herb' on behalf of an evil smuggler. My character was heavily involved in manipulating the gor'tog under the pretense of befriending him so that he could (a) get large amounts of the deadly herb for himself and/or (b) confront the smuggler and kill him for the reward (after acquiring his source and supply, of course). It was a great little event that took place over a few weeks.

There were a number of neat little RP events like this that they did that added to the atmosphere of the game world. Meanne will probably remember another event related to witches and a sacrifice that they were working on that, after some bumpy road, ended up leading to the Forest of Night.

I think the goal of the secret group was to give a group of confirmed roleplayer types the limited GM support and guidance they would need to pull of atmosphere building roleplay events. Like in the case of the deadly herbs scenario, the only GM-created prop I recall appearing was the medicinal herbs (still have some of these).