Intro So, you wanna create an event, but chances are, you don’t know where to start or you don’t know how to set it up so that everyone involved has a good time. This can be a very difficult thing to pull off, and the truth is, there is no exact formula to making a good event. The biggest thing to making sure your event is successful is adaptability. Always, always, always be flexible; there are a lot of random variables in an event that can’t be controlled, so if you aren’t adaptable, chances are things will grow out of hand. That’s the fastest way to let an event become unbearable for the players involved in it. Alongside that, there are a few more steps you can take to make sure your event goes well. That can be split into two sections: Planning and Management. One encompasses the planning stages of an event and how to set up a compelling plot as well as how to keep things vague enough to allow for flexible plot progression. The other will detail how to manage the event as it’s running and how to ensure you don’t lose control, or alternatively, how to ensure the event maintains an enjoyable level of chaos that allows it to essentially run itself. First up, planning. Planning Planning is crucial for any event, but too much planning can leave the event overly complicated and difficult to follow. The important thing to planning is making sure your event follows a simple plot. To break it down, your event should include some sort of motivating factor (a reason for why the event is occurring/for why player characters should get involved), some amount of buildup (something to build atmosphere; for a horror event, this may be some sort of isolation factor that makes the characters feel cut off, or for a combat event, a moment of calm before the inevitable fighting segment occurs), a climax to the plot (the point in the plot where things are the most compelling and tense; generally, this is some sort of action or combat segment in an event), and finally, some sort of ending to your event. Those four factors are all that your plot needs, and they can be left fairly vague e.g., Distress signal is sent from abandoned facility, response team shows up and finds facility staff all dead, response team comes face to face with the killers in a drawn out gun fight, response team shuts down distress signal and returns home. Getting any more in-depth than that is fine, but beware, the more in-depth you go, the more you set yourself up for failure; remember that events are for the enjoyment of everyone involved, and while that may be your goal, no one wants to have to read from a script. Every character acts differently, so always expect them to do the unexpected. When it comes to players showing up, also be prepared for a large or small turnout. There’s never a guarantee you’ll get a lot of players, but unless you actually specify a limit in character, you may very well end up with 10+ players responding to your event. Plan around this and be certain you’re able to accommodate the player count. Alongside this, you may choose to build a structure of some sort to go along with your event. It’s more a matter of personal preference, but do note the more intricate your design is, the more you have to work with during the event, but the more the players may choose to use to modify the course of the event. That can be used to your advantage if you’re careful about the placement of things, but it can also work against you if you aren’t. A good rule to have is to always have a reason for everything you place. That about does it for planning. Basically, keep things as simple as possible and keep things as flexible as possible. Be prepared to witness a lot of creative or unexpected uses of the environment during the event, small oversights that can change the course of things quickly and easily. Next up is event management. Management Management can either be a dream, or a nightmare. Generally, the ease of managing an event is tied to how many players take part in the event; more players means more people to manage, which means you’re gonna have more difficulty. That’s not always the case, however. When it comes to managing an event, be prepared for people to do things you don’t like. The most important thing here is to make sure you don’t let that get in the way of the event. Remember, the event is for the enjoyment of the participants. If you planned your event well enough and prepared well enough for any unexpected moves, things should continue just fine even if a player does something you failed to account for. Depending on what sort of management role you take, your course of action may differ: In Character Role: You may choose to take part in the event yourself, which is fairly common. From here, you can keep watch of all participants and guide the event yourself as your character. This can make it easier to ensure the event stays on its intended path, but be sure to let other players get a chance to shine just as much as your own character. You know what’s coming; they don’t. That usually means you’re prepared for what’s to come, whereas the other players are going in blind. Sometimes it’s safer to play off of the other characters’ actions and handle things as a sort of DM as you go, rather than taking the lead role yourself so that the other characters get to experience the event themselves rather than observe as a bystander. Out of Character Role: Alternatively, you may choose to go the route of dedicated DM and just emote the scenery and the sequences that occur as the characters progress through the plot. This is an arguably more difficult role; the players will come to rely on you, so you need to make sure you’re on top of your responses. Taking this role, the event will be far less self-managed because the players are now relying on you, the DM, to ensure it progresses as it should. The benefit to this sort of role is that you can more closely manage the minute aspects of the event, meaning you can plan for more complex plot lines than the above management type would allow. Other than those two management types, you can choose to allow the event to manage itself. This is best saved for a more spontaneous event with minimal planning, such as an attack on a colony or a spreading contagion. In these sorts of events, players can mostly manage themselves without much input from you; the only thing you need to do is get the event started. This can lead to a large amount of chaos and is generally best saved for smaller groups of players. For combat-based events, certain rules of engagements should be followed to make sure everyone gets along and can agree to the outcome of the fight (hyperlink to be added when a guide on rules of engagement is written up). Those are the basics of event planning and management. I may add to this guide at some point, and if anyone has any suggestions, please make them. The goal is to just make event planning easier for players that wanna get something started. I’ll admit, I’m no master when it comes to creating my own events, so most of these suggestions should be taken with a grain of salt as they’re coming from my own point of view which may or may not be biased towards what I expect out of events. Overall, though, I hope this guide is helpful and can lead to some more successful and appealing events on the server.
