First of all. Anything I say is most certainly not an attack to anyone, I have been running "missions" and mini campaigns in my life more than I can count for other games. I know just how hard it gets, and how much harder it gets the more people you get in. Why I fully understand why Public events are on a shortcoming and wouldn't blame any of the eventmins to cater to their own individual group. It sucks for the rest, but it makes perfect sense, cause they are engaged with the characters there and the people and can therefore hand tailor events way better towards that group with subjects they know they enjoy instead of shooting in the blue in public.
Miller does point out a lot of the problems with it, as some others do. And Hanzo does explain the major boon it can have to specifically cater to a small group as an eventmin. Its also a lot more fun.
I have talked with a bunch of people about events before and there is also the other side, which does dampen motivation of GMs:
How the Players act during an Event. Even in small groups many of the players we have actually do not have the experience to be smith of their own adventure.
What do I mean by that?
SL2 has a very specific and stiff mindset when it comes to RP. People wait passively for something to happen. And even when you run an event for them, they end up not actually knowing what CAN do. Without mentioning names, I have talked to a frustrated SL2 eventmin before, who was disapointed in their group they ran events for, because their standard answer to everything was "I smash it with my sword." while at the same time they tunnelvision the objective missing the whole opportunity an event actually gives you as a player. Unique interactions with your fellow mates!
This is a callout to players to encourage them to interact more actively with an event, if its a small group one. Interact with your friends, RP and enjoy the ride. The journey is the goal here, not the end. It is very frustrating as a good GM to work out all these fun things and stories and moments, just to see the group beeline like zombies that barely even say a word to each other.
Players are just as responsible as Eventmins to make events good and enjoyable. To me when I ran stuff the best moments I had was to throw people into awkward situations they usually weren't in and see them react and bond over it. Or to see themselves put themself knowingly into those situations where I had to adjust. It actually feels like playing with each other that way, and not just shooting for a narrative end which just leaves you wanting for another event cause the last one didn't scratch the itch well enough.
Good GMs love seeing that. Stuff like that is obviously only really possible with smaller groups, but be creative and challange your GM/eventmin to adapt with unexpected ideas you come up with. Or entertain them with good character moments. An eventmin is mostly just there to give you a setting and throw you a redline that vaguely shows the way. Do not expect them to do all the writing work for you as well. No eventmin will be mad at you for RPing some more with one another. That doesn't mean you have to write walls.
I understand though why people do this alot. They are just not used to having this sort of creative freedom to actually evolve the story because SL2 RP is usually very casual. Events, depending on the type can be alot different than that. And the possibilties can overhelm one, but form personal experience I can say that Jupiter and Hanzo for example are very great for this sort of thing. I haven't interact much with the other eventmins since they are in the position yet, so I can't say much about them and their take on this. But I assume they as well would enjoy it more when people just have a goot time evovling their own little stories in their little crafted settings. Again, good events come from both sides.>
THAT OUT OF THE WAY. I would like to throw some ideas/pointers that used to help me a bit when I ran events for a game that had a few hundred people in it, and the only way I personally found it manageable (We had alot more GMs though than 5 too) Take what you like from it, just trying to help.
Newsletter of the World
Jupiter said it a lot, but this is actually a very good tool to keep people that aren't in, still engaged.
this reminds me of a small thingy someone of the eventmins did, no idea who. But that was nice:
A small bulletin board infront of the Arena posting results of something. Neat way to show an active worlds. Only critique I had about that, there was no real link or anything that directed me towards what it was referring to, so even though it existed as someone who wasn't active for years I still had no clue what it was about. Otherwise? Stuff like that is very nice, forum can obviously also be used to it.
More Coordinated works within the Eventmins
This one is a bit tricky for SL2 given its mindset, and a bit biased towards the way we handled it back then but...Consider splitting your efforts in different areas.
meaning actually areas. Like some work on Alstalsia only events, some on Sigrogana only. OR simply some focus on social events and others on combat events.
Each GM has their own set of RP they feel very comfortable with, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with not being able to handle certain types for narratives. Do not force yourself to write a horror event, when you yourself are actually not into Horror, for example. Actual Horror fans will not enjoy is, you won't enjoy writing it cause you have no idea what you are doing and it ends up awkward or "okay" at best. Doesn't mean you shouldn't test yourself as eventmin. Failed events are still good experience.
This gives you a good overview of what your team is actually missing and needs a fill-in on. Also enables you to maybe breath more life in other parts of the world. I think the game really lacks stories outside of Sigrogana. Having the split the work between each other means that if one area is played the person gets a better feel of the canon of that place in gets the creative juices floating a bit
It also can be used to split narrative strings for big events, to have people do other stuff separately so there can be put more care of individual posts.
Eventmins in different timezones
This one is actually important. I have heard so often that people simply can not participate in events because of timezone issues. We have a diverse playerbase in terms of where they are actually from. This needs a bit of data collection to see how many exactly from which parts of the world, but its really needed to have eventmins to theoretically as a whole to be able to run events 24/7 (like all of them together, in theory. I do not actually expect more events than one bi-weekly to a month.)
A Quest-board!
This is similar to the newsletter but its more about an eventmin announcing their attention to run a narrative and inviting people to sign up for it. I know a few have done this already, but I don't think its the norm yet? It really should be though.
To keep it fair, keep track of the people applying for it, so you do not end up giving the same number of people all the events while others run dry. Also ideally announce it in game ICly if possible. There are actually alot of people we have that play that do not have a forum account or even are in the discord. I know a bit of their fault, but doesn't hurt to have it mentioned ICly anyway. Plus points if you can actually have a physical item in the world that advertises it like that bulletin board *chef-kiss*
This can also be used between Eventmins and GMs to set some baseline events, that someone can pick up if they feel qualified for it, when someone asks. So not just for players.
Otherwise, public events are possible with very minor management if its social events. But in all honesty? You don't need to be an eventmin to run those. Its just a question of your audience and what you all expect from an event.
It those cases you can usually do with minor narrating, housing narrating helps a lot in those and is technically all you need. So if you are carving for Public social events, there is little need to wait for an Eventmin to do it for you.
THOUGH something thats also important for the players? Do not expect stuff to always be handed to you. You need to reach out to eventmins too, with ideas. I know I read earlier about the fear of being ignored but well...Can't be helped? At least you can say then that you tried, you could do what I used to do and just do a lowbudget version of the event yourself then. Not the best outcome but certainly possible unless you want something fancy that for some reason needs the actual event tools.
Endword
Not much else I can really say about this. Eventmining needs a certain passion and needs the eventmin to be engaged in someway to get them motivated too, its a not really thankful job either and we have a certain vocal minority that is really taking the air of the sails of many by being always negative about everything and being the usual "nay-sayers" and naggers. Don't let yourself be discourgaed by those, usually, you perceive them as the vast majority of people simply cause they are the loundest about it, while at the same time never really come out to say what they actually want.
So at all the aspiring Eventmins, give it a few shots, without actual tools and see if it's for you. That stuff gets difficult fast and stressful. You need a certain head to pull it off consistently, especially at high quality. But you never know unless you actually try. And with a bit of creativity, you do rarely need event tools even. And if you really do? Its alot easier to approach an eventmin with something already worked out for them to help with rather for them to handle the whole thing.
Miller does point out a lot of the problems with it, as some others do. And Hanzo does explain the major boon it can have to specifically cater to a small group as an eventmin. Its also a lot more fun.
I have talked with a bunch of people about events before and there is also the other side, which does dampen motivation of GMs:
How the Players act during an Event. Even in small groups many of the players we have actually do not have the experience to be smith of their own adventure.
What do I mean by that?
SL2 has a very specific and stiff mindset when it comes to RP. People wait passively for something to happen. And even when you run an event for them, they end up not actually knowing what CAN do. Without mentioning names, I have talked to a frustrated SL2 eventmin before, who was disapointed in their group they ran events for, because their standard answer to everything was "I smash it with my sword." while at the same time they tunnelvision the objective missing the whole opportunity an event actually gives you as a player. Unique interactions with your fellow mates!
This is a callout to players to encourage them to interact more actively with an event, if its a small group one. Interact with your friends, RP and enjoy the ride. The journey is the goal here, not the end. It is very frustrating as a good GM to work out all these fun things and stories and moments, just to see the group beeline like zombies that barely even say a word to each other.
Players are just as responsible as Eventmins to make events good and enjoyable. To me when I ran stuff the best moments I had was to throw people into awkward situations they usually weren't in and see them react and bond over it. Or to see themselves put themself knowingly into those situations where I had to adjust. It actually feels like playing with each other that way, and not just shooting for a narrative end which just leaves you wanting for another event cause the last one didn't scratch the itch well enough.
Good GMs love seeing that. Stuff like that is obviously only really possible with smaller groups, but be creative and challange your GM/eventmin to adapt with unexpected ideas you come up with. Or entertain them with good character moments. An eventmin is mostly just there to give you a setting and throw you a redline that vaguely shows the way. Do not expect them to do all the writing work for you as well. No eventmin will be mad at you for RPing some more with one another. That doesn't mean you have to write walls.
I understand though why people do this alot. They are just not used to having this sort of creative freedom to actually evolve the story because SL2 RP is usually very casual. Events, depending on the type can be alot different than that. And the possibilties can overhelm one, but form personal experience I can say that Jupiter and Hanzo for example are very great for this sort of thing. I haven't interact much with the other eventmins since they are in the position yet, so I can't say much about them and their take on this. But I assume they as well would enjoy it more when people just have a goot time evovling their own little stories in their little crafted settings. Again, good events come from both sides.>
THAT OUT OF THE WAY. I would like to throw some ideas/pointers that used to help me a bit when I ran events for a game that had a few hundred people in it, and the only way I personally found it manageable (We had alot more GMs though than 5 too) Take what you like from it, just trying to help.
Newsletter of the World
Jupiter said it a lot, but this is actually a very good tool to keep people that aren't in, still engaged.
this reminds me of a small thingy someone of the eventmins did, no idea who. But that was nice:
A small bulletin board infront of the Arena posting results of something. Neat way to show an active worlds. Only critique I had about that, there was no real link or anything that directed me towards what it was referring to, so even though it existed as someone who wasn't active for years I still had no clue what it was about. Otherwise? Stuff like that is very nice, forum can obviously also be used to it.
More Coordinated works within the Eventmins
This one is a bit tricky for SL2 given its mindset, and a bit biased towards the way we handled it back then but...Consider splitting your efforts in different areas.
meaning actually areas. Like some work on Alstalsia only events, some on Sigrogana only. OR simply some focus on social events and others on combat events.
Each GM has their own set of RP they feel very comfortable with, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with not being able to handle certain types for narratives. Do not force yourself to write a horror event, when you yourself are actually not into Horror, for example. Actual Horror fans will not enjoy is, you won't enjoy writing it cause you have no idea what you are doing and it ends up awkward or "okay" at best. Doesn't mean you shouldn't test yourself as eventmin. Failed events are still good experience.
This gives you a good overview of what your team is actually missing and needs a fill-in on. Also enables you to maybe breath more life in other parts of the world. I think the game really lacks stories outside of Sigrogana. Having the split the work between each other means that if one area is played the person gets a better feel of the canon of that place in gets the creative juices floating a bit
It also can be used to split narrative strings for big events, to have people do other stuff separately so there can be put more care of individual posts.
Eventmins in different timezones
This one is actually important. I have heard so often that people simply can not participate in events because of timezone issues. We have a diverse playerbase in terms of where they are actually from. This needs a bit of data collection to see how many exactly from which parts of the world, but its really needed to have eventmins to theoretically as a whole to be able to run events 24/7 (like all of them together, in theory. I do not actually expect more events than one bi-weekly to a month.)
A Quest-board!
This is similar to the newsletter but its more about an eventmin announcing their attention to run a narrative and inviting people to sign up for it. I know a few have done this already, but I don't think its the norm yet? It really should be though.
To keep it fair, keep track of the people applying for it, so you do not end up giving the same number of people all the events while others run dry. Also ideally announce it in game ICly if possible. There are actually alot of people we have that play that do not have a forum account or even are in the discord. I know a bit of their fault, but doesn't hurt to have it mentioned ICly anyway. Plus points if you can actually have a physical item in the world that advertises it like that bulletin board *chef-kiss*
This can also be used between Eventmins and GMs to set some baseline events, that someone can pick up if they feel qualified for it, when someone asks. So not just for players.
Otherwise, public events are possible with very minor management if its social events. But in all honesty? You don't need to be an eventmin to run those. Its just a question of your audience and what you all expect from an event.
It those cases you can usually do with minor narrating, housing narrating helps a lot in those and is technically all you need. So if you are carving for Public social events, there is little need to wait for an Eventmin to do it for you.
THOUGH something thats also important for the players? Do not expect stuff to always be handed to you. You need to reach out to eventmins too, with ideas. I know I read earlier about the fear of being ignored but well...Can't be helped? At least you can say then that you tried, you could do what I used to do and just do a lowbudget version of the event yourself then. Not the best outcome but certainly possible unless you want something fancy that for some reason needs the actual event tools.
Endword
Not much else I can really say about this. Eventmining needs a certain passion and needs the eventmin to be engaged in someway to get them motivated too, its a not really thankful job either and we have a certain vocal minority that is really taking the air of the sails of many by being always negative about everything and being the usual "nay-sayers" and naggers. Don't let yourself be discourgaed by those, usually, you perceive them as the vast majority of people simply cause they are the loundest about it, while at the same time never really come out to say what they actually want.
So at all the aspiring Eventmins, give it a few shots, without actual tools and see if it's for you. That stuff gets difficult fast and stressful. You need a certain head to pull it off consistently, especially at high quality. But you never know unless you actually try. And with a bit of creativity, you do rarely need event tools even. And if you really do? Its alot easier to approach an eventmin with something already worked out for them to help with rather for them to handle the whole thing.
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