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Your Favorite Event
With the discussions about lore and missing or drawn out events going on, I am a bit curious about what your favorite events from the past has been. Perhaps, if we can recall and explain why these events were fun/successful, it could give the Admins and volunteers an idea of what might work for the future? I will go first!
Back when I started playing in 2007 or so, when I was still very much a newb, there was an event involving the Gates on Mostyn (there's a book about it, I believe, but I will explain from my own memory, since that's my impression). A large gate with two doors was breached on Mostyn and leaked out very aggressive shadows. Since it was Lord Arion's island, He was in the middle of it all, as was Enorian. Arion ordered people to gather amethysts (which could be found all over Sapience) and give them to a certain someone (I think). Once enough amethysts were gathered, a Luminary, Armin, would forge a chain to keep the gate locked, because only a Luminary was able to handle fire that hot. This is, of course, a very brief explanation and one straight from memory, so it might not be 100% accurate, or I could be missing details.
Despite it being aimed towards Lord Arion and Enorian, Spines, Loch and Duiran was still very much involved. The Darkies could steal and hide the amethysts, or try to open the gates to let out shadows. There was fighting for those who enjoyed pk and tasks, like gathering gems, for those who were not. It stretched out over the course of several weeks, I think, or at least more than a couple of days. Everyone could be involved in one way or another, despite being a combatant or not, despite where in the world you lived.
So, what is your favorite event of the past? And why? Remember to point out the good stuff and keep negativity to a minimum!
Back when I started playing in 2007 or so, when I was still very much a newb, there was an event involving the Gates on Mostyn (there's a book about it, I believe, but I will explain from my own memory, since that's my impression). A large gate with two doors was breached on Mostyn and leaked out very aggressive shadows. Since it was Lord Arion's island, He was in the middle of it all, as was Enorian. Arion ordered people to gather amethysts (which could be found all over Sapience) and give them to a certain someone (I think). Once enough amethysts were gathered, a Luminary, Armin, would forge a chain to keep the gate locked, because only a Luminary was able to handle fire that hot. This is, of course, a very brief explanation and one straight from memory, so it might not be 100% accurate, or I could be missing details.
Despite it being aimed towards Lord Arion and Enorian, Spines, Loch and Duiran was still very much involved. The Darkies could steal and hide the amethysts, or try to open the gates to let out shadows. There was fighting for those who enjoyed pk and tasks, like gathering gems, for those who were not. It stretched out over the course of several weeks, I think, or at least more than a couple of days. Everyone could be involved in one way or another, despite being a combatant or not, despite where in the world you lived.
So, what is your favorite event of the past? And why? Remember to point out the good stuff and keep negativity to a minimum!
2
Comments
Event involving the discovery of the Lgaktian Clock by Yusri, Akaryuterra, and possibly Eleanor too. That clock was great. I enjoyed the possibilities of consequences that it could bring every time the hour hand hit a certain number.
After that, despite the length making it tiresome, the Atav war. It felt really tiresome and gritty, which I think ADDED to the real fatigue of war. The admin running it found good ways to make every side feel like they did something that mattered, and we got to have a big confrontation with their King that was pretty sick. It made you feel like things you did mattered, and that's a huge part of games like this. You want to have an impact on the world around you.
The Kerrithrim fight was hands down the best event for Cool Factor. Hekkin Ctulu rising up out of the sea, destroying Delos, and players using catapults to fling themselves up onto it, cutting their way inside, fighting off waves of the thrim that lived INSIDE THIS THING!?! And working our way to it's heart to kill it from the inside like some kind of bacteria.
The Dreikathi arrive by airship (and then War Were Declared) the build up of discovering an ancient science lab, waking up Amal, becoming friends with this NPC over the course of a couple months through interactions and mini lore dumps (the most "oh shit" of which was when Amal tried to ask us about something very important, but whenever he mentioned a specific phrase or set of words (albedi? dreikathi? WE'LL NEVER KNOW!!!) we could only hear "a loud droning noise overcome by static" to indicate spoilers
I think the event that most sticks with me, though, was the resurgence of the Aalen Bloom that gave us our present curatives. There was drama, plot, little mini-things to do, and with curatives randomly failing, it felt really dire. Plus the Archivists were new, and they shot onto the stage by trying to extort tribute from Spirit in order to provide the material that cleaned Bloom goo from rooms.
Probably wouldn't be great to run something thematically similar at the moment, but in terms of scope and stakes, it was pretty cool!
(Web): Abhorash says, "Nerds."
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Alela's Affirmations
THAT SAID! The Bloodloch Rebellion event that's still ongoing is, in my mind, the gold standard for how unplanned(ish) events should go. The event started more or less as @Tedrunai goofin' around and dunkin' on Bloodloch with some silly posters, but when he saw people really responding to it (turning it into a more or less serious mystery to be unraveled), he slowly scaled it up and incorporated actions from players in small ways that made them feel like they were a part of the story ('cause they were!) It slowly became more serious, and essentially, since I've watched Game of Thrones now, became a direct lift of Dany's arc with the Sons of the Harpy. And now it's essentially become a big rebellion event where the outcome of several major zones in the game is determined by players.
What I loved about this event is that it mirrored how real things happen in our real world. You don't always know when you're in a situation that it's going to become something bigger. Think about a fight you have with a friend or significant other. Do you always know a massive fight is coming? Sometimes. Sometimes you just strike a nerve, or one tiny thing causes a minor conflict, which begins to drag in other things along the way, both of you pull in your recent frustrations and tensions, and it builds and builds, and all of a sudden you find yourself in the middle of a real hootenanny. And because this was how this event was structured, it, man, it really roped me in in the beginning. Heck, it was so fun that I, personally, felt motivated to even shove other people who otherwise might not be the types who get to be at the forefront of these events into the limelight so they could have some fun with it and feel important. It really felt like one of those events where everyone had a part to play, whether it was finding new murdered guard bodies in the street, examining a corpse for evidence, or questioning a witness (or shoving them into a bird cage).
Obviously bigger world events can't really be run this way at all (although, honestly? HONESTLY? They could be. You just gotta be able to commit when you see something taking root), especially not pre-planned ones. But I maintain that this is a type of event that should be dissected more upstairs in the future. 'cause, honestly, I can tell you from my perspective that it makes even interacting with MPOS'd mobs that is just some Celani being a bartender feel more alive. Why? Because you feel like any interaction can organically become something bigger if it makes sense. Like if I shoot someone dead IRL, the cops will come for me; obviously death is a lot less serious in Aetolia, but I guess what I'm getting at is that even the illusion, the perception of causality can give players a crazy amount of immersion and hype for stuff. And actually having the occasional event/interaction that does have a degree of causial reaction is going to foster that perception. Every MPOS interaction will end up being more fun for everyone, I guarantee it.
The best part about the event? We didn't plan it. Someone in the Pools said "hey what happened to the Demon Blade" and the entire thing snowballed. We were all working off the cuff, totally improvising (I even got to sit in the driver's seat of Juxa when the volunteer handling her couldn't make it for the day, he liked something I said on her so much that it's one of the random login screen quotes!), no agenda, no schedule, no expected outcome for how this was all going to shake out, except that obviously, eventually, Juxa would probably lose. We kept it going until it stopped being fun, at which point that was it - it ended, everyone learned their lesson, and the landscape of Sapience was altered permanently.
Jox was my favorite. I played politics and got a treaty signed, there was a cool fight at the end, and I got to RHK everyone back awake to save on mask filters. Plus I miss speedrunning Beneath.
Or that guy setting off a bomb in Moirean's office.
For some reason Spirean offices are one of the most dangerous places in the game.
(Web): Abhorash says, "Nerds."
(Web): Abhorash has left your web.
Alela's Affirmations
I agree with Oba on the Gates on Mostyn event. That was a fun one! I also recall the release event of Eastern Itzatl being fun, with Sir Robert Lyesmith (Severn) fooling my extremely blue-eyed Paladin. I also liked a lot about the Three Widows war, even though there were some things that could be improved on.
That being said, I have to say the recent start of the whole "cult of K" thing where I tabbed back just in time to find myself in possession of a cursed item was..a Ride. It was so fun. I've never been directly and personally roped in like that, and it honestly brought back some of the 'magic' of the game for me. I think it was the first time, and certainly while playing Mati, that I felt genuinely challenged by roleplay and trying to decide what my character would actually do in a situation they were thrust into. It was an amazing opportunity for a fledgeling character. I'm not sure where that event has ended up now, but it was a super engaging couple weeks for me and truly nothing can replace the thrill of playing ball with an admin who's there to play, too. FWIW, the common thread between those two that I can discern, is that there's a big kerfuffle with some breadcrumbs that makes space for players to interact with each other, and postulate, etc. (crucial), then the next big kerfuffle happens. However, I will also say that in between those plot-progressing points, there were always little stirrings of the pot, just as a 'Hey, This is Still Going on.' For the former, it was Haern on OT or appearing to I think that year's Eireachdus, discussing things, unveiling his new appearance, and so forth. We would also mpos the mobs used for the event just to chat with players, fill in players who weren't there and had questions, and so forth. For the latter, I would be standing in Duiran and for the next week or so in between the two developments I was privy to, I would be accosted by cultists--or one time, one literally just winked at me and slid on by. Y'all I was SPOOKED haha. The paranoia was both real (but fun) and roleplayed (serious business for my character).
Anyway, like most of my posts, this has gone on way too long. But so far as I can tell, the main takeaway is that events are always best with an improv element, regardless of whether you have an arc that you are sticking to or not. There has to be give and take to create that spark. I also know that it's difficult to do because of the potential time spent scouting involved, but there's a special kind of magic when, rather than relying on a big name that everyone Knows roleplays and is good for that kind of thing, you pick a nobody to interact with. The heavy bits of improv and bending in the wind can be left to admin who feel super comfortable with roleplaying and also the tools in their toolbelt as an admin, but the other is a great way for new Celani to cut their teeth, if you give them a scaffolding for an event/reveal, or let them create their own mob as a sideline in an event that they can then reliably mpos to sprinkle in more lore, or just enhance the flavour. Just my two cents. I had crazy fun being able to do that and it helped me get a grasp on my arsenal for roleplay.
Edit: Also as someone who has wanted to play a Nazetu since 2009, then came back to the War of Night having happened and Nazetu being playable, I was equal parts SO BITTER I MISSED IT and SO THRILLED that it even happened. Even the event posts are enthralling to read.
It was just a lot of fun trying to figure out a cure and man, the events just kept coming right then, making it feel like the whole world was truly falling apart. Kerrithrim, Dreikathi invasion, sludge, Aalen Bloom. I think Xavin and I were both Overlords at the time too, Xavin Keeper for part of it, so being in leadership when everything was going down was kinda crazy.
But I do think aspects of it were really neat for everyone involved. It included everyone because Chaos was, at the time, an enemy of about everyone. The portals spawned in random locations which meant that most of the world was involved somehow - it filled the feeling of apocalyptic threat. There was a lot of neat rp (at least from my perspective, I was obviously only active in the Spirit groups and can't speak for Shadow) from the people either on the frontlines or waiting for the next set of portals. While obviously the threat was worldwide, it made a good environment for personal story development - it was, in some ways, hands-off from admin to a certain degree during parts of the ongoing story, but with enough already in motion that we had things to work with. Certain groups were able to track the portal locations better, but I never ran into an issue where they were unwilling to share that information. I believe the finale was scheduled for a fairly convenient time on the weekend and so more people were able to attend. Lots of things that combined together to make the event more fun, imo.
Therefore my favourite event is one that I actually got to be involved in (and so wins by default). The release of symbiosis and becoming a Duamvi. It was a real thrill to have an active hand in the climax of that event and have some very poignant moments with fellow Templar and Aban. The event had a profound impact on how I RP Benedicto and has become a core part of who he is now.
Also, maybe selfishly, the wedding of Aloli and Benedicto and the buildup to that involving Chakrasul, Ethne and Bamathis and a whole host of other people. It was an absolute hoot having to deal with all the moving parts and personalities involved in that and the log of the wedding ceremony remains one of my favourites to read.