Shattered Legacies Event 2
There was an event.
Oh boy. There was an event, alright.
We'll neatly dodge the froth on direct IC happenings and step sideways a little instead.
So, I'd been a little worried in the run up to this year's event that the players didn't have as clear a roadmap for where they were going IC and what they were doing. Last year, we'd set them up with a very clear "Your city is under attack by an enormous army of golems and beastkin and you must go to kill their eeeeeevil leader RIGHT NOW because everyone else is already locked down in their own battle" premise that in many ways just wrote itself. Dragon's defeat had pretty much already played out by this point - they knew what they were going to do, even if they didn't know the details. Everything had been set up during the year, and the event existed basically to cap it all off.
This year, we gave the players several threads revolving around a central hook ("Go a gratuitously long way to this place in the forsaken arse end of nowhere to find out how to defeat The Hidden permanently, I heard the Sculptor might know"), rather than one colossal overarching "You must do this RIGHT NOW or your city will be steamrolled" impending war-slaughter-catastrophe. There were many pieces in play, but I was concerned that without a 'we will go to this place and kill this evil dude in the face RIGHT NOW' focus, people may have been feeling a little less fired up.
What this premise actually meant in practice was that we were able to set up an event which had its' own story, with its' own factions that rolled out some delicious world-plot and dodged the 'Hit a ref in the face for 15 minutes to receive victory' bullet. We were able to open a great many new doors and introduce the players to a lot of stuff that had been lurking in the background for some time, rather than feel like we were tying up loose ends or simply crossing the t's and dotting the i's toward an inevitable conclusion.
I never really expected I'd actively enjoy reffing - I'd always figured it was a great sacrifice, a painful bitter pill that someone has to swallow in order to allow others to have fun. Not so. It is a genuine pleasure to watch encounters unfold - to watch those daring heroes struggle to overcome monstrous odds that you, personally, have pitted against them. One genuinely gets pulled into the scene, even while watching from afar, and moments of epic heroism or dastardly genius draw big grins and triumphant air-punches from we invisible observers. We received glowing reports from our magnificent, tireless crew on quality of roleplay and general atmosphere, even in combat - and they're right. The players roleplay their hits and fight epically, viewing combat as a delicious part of the IC experience. They remain in character all the time - not once did I hear an OOC comment or drop that had not been warranted by safety or circumstance. They engage with the game world and tirelessly devour everything we throw at them, begging for more despite barely being able to stand, let alone fight. What more could you ask for?
In short, there was an event. It succeeded beyond our wildest expectations. Our players are awesome. Our crew are staggeringly wintastic and I am praying we get a similar turn-out next year (23 players vs 22 crew...wow.)
I now can't wait for next term to start...
Oh boy. There was an event, alright.
We'll neatly dodge the froth on direct IC happenings and step sideways a little instead.
So, I'd been a little worried in the run up to this year's event that the players didn't have as clear a roadmap for where they were going IC and what they were doing. Last year, we'd set them up with a very clear "Your city is under attack by an enormous army of golems and beastkin and you must go to kill their eeeeeevil leader RIGHT NOW because everyone else is already locked down in their own battle" premise that in many ways just wrote itself. Dragon's defeat had pretty much already played out by this point - they knew what they were going to do, even if they didn't know the details. Everything had been set up during the year, and the event existed basically to cap it all off.
This year, we gave the players several threads revolving around a central hook ("Go a gratuitously long way to this place in the forsaken arse end of nowhere to find out how to defeat The Hidden permanently, I heard the Sculptor might know"), rather than one colossal overarching "You must do this RIGHT NOW or your city will be steamrolled" impending war-slaughter-catastrophe. There were many pieces in play, but I was concerned that without a 'we will go to this place and kill this evil dude in the face RIGHT NOW' focus, people may have been feeling a little less fired up.
What this premise actually meant in practice was that we were able to set up an event which had its' own story, with its' own factions that rolled out some delicious world-plot and dodged the 'Hit a ref in the face for 15 minutes to receive victory' bullet. We were able to open a great many new doors and introduce the players to a lot of stuff that had been lurking in the background for some time, rather than feel like we were tying up loose ends or simply crossing the t's and dotting the i's toward an inevitable conclusion.
I never really expected I'd actively enjoy reffing - I'd always figured it was a great sacrifice, a painful bitter pill that someone has to swallow in order to allow others to have fun. Not so. It is a genuine pleasure to watch encounters unfold - to watch those daring heroes struggle to overcome monstrous odds that you, personally, have pitted against them. One genuinely gets pulled into the scene, even while watching from afar, and moments of epic heroism or dastardly genius draw big grins and triumphant air-punches from we invisible observers. We received glowing reports from our magnificent, tireless crew on quality of roleplay and general atmosphere, even in combat - and they're right. The players roleplay their hits and fight epically, viewing combat as a delicious part of the IC experience. They remain in character all the time - not once did I hear an OOC comment or drop that had not been warranted by safety or circumstance. They engage with the game world and tirelessly devour everything we throw at them, begging for more despite barely being able to stand, let alone fight. What more could you ask for?
In short, there was an event. It succeeded beyond our wildest expectations. Our players are awesome. Our crew are staggeringly wintastic and I am praying we get a similar turn-out next year (23 players vs 22 crew...wow.)
I now can't wait for next term to start...