World of Warcraft®

Yeah, Luri gets the credit for this too. I wanted to make sure these got saved before the old boards get wiped.


I've been wanting to write this for a long time and figured now would be a good time to do it over breakfast. After 3 years of running a guild where I had to cook up around 85% of the events that happened in it while having insider knowledge of almost all the events that weren't made by me... these are the things I learned over time from the terrific successes and horrifying failures of both myself and others that tried to cook up events. I will add more to this as I think of them.

This Guide ... or rather 'tips' I should say, are related only to events where you want Guild-Wide or Server-wide participation - not small, private plots. I also don't see myself as some kind of awesome RP Guru who is the mighty judge of all things Roleplaying - so feel free to disagree with any of my tips. I know I'm bound to be wrong somewhere.

1) When you make an event that you want the whole guild/server to participate in, 70% of the plot should NOT revolve entirely around your character.

Making your event almost entirely about your character makes it very difficult for folks who don't know your character that well to... well... give a damn. This makes it hard for them to wiggle into your plot or for the players to even want to wiggle into the plot. Even characters who DO know your own character extremely well might have trouble finding their niche in the story you've created. This shouldn't be all that surprising as you haven't given them much room to work in - the tale is all about you. Please note: This doesn't mean your plot can't be about your character. It just means that if someone wrote a summary about your event, it shouldn't be "Lurial created a magical artifact and used it to revive her dead lover" ... and that's it.

But, Luri! What if I've already created a plot about my character and want people to participate in it on a non-small-private-plots level?

Well, if that happens, the solution is actually pretty simple and actually brings me to my next point.

2) Have your event be something that effects everyone.

Your event, even if it starts off being all about your character, should include something that has an impact on everyone. For people to want to take part in an event you create, their character has to A) have a strong stake in what is occurring and B) not feel like they're being relegated to some kind of bit part or background character. No one likes being the background character in a play - they either want to equally share the stage with everyone else, or have a small taste of the spotlight every now and then. If your character is in the spotlight 70% of the time, everyone else will feel disgruntled and less compelled to participate.

So what can you do if you've already made an event that you fear is 70%+ devoted to just being all about your character?

Just alter your storyline to give people a reason to care and make sure your alterations throw the spotlight at other people. Do not let the spotlight just sit on yourself, even if your plot is all about your character - your job is to throw the spotlight to other people and spread it around to everyone but yourself as much as possible. You're already going to get enough spotlight as it is for being the creator of the event and for having your character possibly be the cause of it. Give other people some love.

So let's take that previous example of "Lurial creating a magical artifact and using it to revive her dead lover" and change it to "Lurial creates a magical artifact, uses it to revive her dead lover, but the action caused a major disruption of balance to occur, spliting open a gateway between the Physical and Spiritual Realms - now people all over Azeroth are either being haunted by their dead loved ones, or bodies of their dead loved ones are rising from the ground as zombies to visit them."

With this change we have not only given people who don't know Luri very well a reason to participate because "HAI GAIZ, I SEE DEAD PEEPULZ", but the spotlight goes from Luri making her magical artifact to raise her dead lover... to all the people in the world being plagued by ghosts and zombies of their deceased beloved family members, friends, and lovers. Notice how only a small portion of the summary is even dedicated to Lurial. Her section only takes up about 20-25% of the whole description - the rest is devoted to other people and how it might effect them. The story isn't just about Lurial anymore - it's now actually about people and how they will react to seeing their deceased loved ones visiting them from the grave.

Of course, the plot might swing right back to putting Lurial in the spotlight again because she was the one who initiated the whole disaster, but that's when you - once again, throw the spotlight back to others. This is like a game of tennis, swat that ball right back in their court. If people ran up to Luri, trying to get her to shatter the magical artifact so that things will be set right - rather then soaking up the attention and wasting a spiffy event - now would be the perfect time to take the event in a new direction where, once again, the other folks are in the spotlight and not Luri.

Perhaps people want to shatter the magical item Lurial created, but she refuses to let them and seals off the creation somewhere undisclosed.... and secretly behind her back, her brother sends out clues to people on where it is and how they can destroy it without Lurial even knowing. He also offers a reward to anyone who destroys it first! This means the event could reach a conclusion without Lurial even being involved or in the spotlight. The spotlight will instead be upon the person who rediscovers the artifact, and whether or not they destroy it or use it for something else.

3) Give people an easy escape route out of your event or a way they can temporarily stop participating in it if they need a break from it.

If your event is a super long one that spans across a week or even a month or even if it's just an hour long - you'll inevitably run across people who want to bow out of the scene. Maybe your event is too lengthy for them. Maybe it doesn't have enough PvP. Maybe it's confusing or complicated to them. Maybe it's too epic in nature and they prefer humorous light RP. Maybe it's too scripted or not scripted enough for people, whatever the case - you will always have some folks who no longer want to participate in your event. This is normal and fine. Not everyone will like every event under the sun. Different strokes for different folks and all that. Don't feel insulted, just be happy they spent the time they did and let them gracefully step out.

To prevent them from feeling disgruntled and trapped however, you have to provide an easy way out of the event for them so they don't feel forced to continue participating in an event they don't really like.

But Luri, that's utter nonsense! How can you trap someone into RP? It's their choice whether they RP it or not!

Well, yes and no. It IS their choice whether or not they continue RPing in your event, but various factors can make them feel like they *have* to stay. Perhaps they are your good friend and don't want you to feel insulted by leaving your event abruptly. Maybe they're very hardcore RPers and can't figure out an IC way for their character to stop participating... whatever the case - situations arise where they can't really just 'stop' going along with your event even though part of them doesn't want to. Because of this, it's only polite for you to provide them the perfect excuse to leave - after all, you want willing participants in your event, not people who are staying by force!

In some cases, people just want to be able to temporarily stop participating in your event, so they can get some other RP done, and then rejoin the event later. By providing them an escape route out of your event, you give them the ability to RP any other things they want, and then return to your event when they're ready.

So how would you do something like this? Well, let's pretend we have a villain that's making people go crazy by poisoning their food with crazy-juice. Being crazy can be fun for a while, but if your event has run longer then a week, it can also get old really fast. It can also be tough for folks to RP like they normally do because your event is having an effect on their characters' behavior. People might want to take a break from the crazy, or even stop being crazy all together. An easy escape route you can give people out of the event is by simply adding something like "Some people can temporarily, or permanently overcome the effects of the poison through strength of will."

With this, all the people who think it'll be fun to act crazy can do so and all the people who are getting bored of it or don't want to participate anymore can have their character temporarily or permanently overcome the insanity through their strength of will - taking them out of the event for a little while.

But hey, what if you wanted people to come up with their own cure for the poison? Well, that leads me to the next point.

4) Make it clear from the beginning how scripted or unscripted your plot is.

When I say "make it clear from the beginning how scripted/unscripted your plot is" - I don't mean give away all your secrets. Plot twists and surprises are always fun and should be kept secret! I literally mean that you should inform folks whether "This event is totally unscripted, feel free to go wild with your own ideas." or "This event has a loose story in mind."

If your plot is totally unscripted and the ending is completely up in the air for people to decide, let your participants know this so they don't expect you to act as their Dungeon Master and guide them neatly towards the event's already preplanned conclusion.

If your plot has a sprinkling of scripted plot points in it, let people know that so they can ask you "HAY, just how far can I go with my own ideas?" before they take the RP Train to crazytown and contradict what few scripted elements you had been planning.

Letting people know how scripted or unscripted your event is can also give people an idea of whether they want to participate or not - thus saving you trouble in the future. The last thing you want is a whole lot of folks suddenly bailing from your event because you haven't introduced the next plotpoint to them, when the event was supposed to be completely unscripted and they were free to come up with their own ideas.

5) Expect the Unexpected.

There's a saying that goes "No plan survives the battlefield."

Now, your event obviously isn't a battlefield, but the idea behind the quote is that you can't read minds, the world is a chaotic constantly changing place, and there are way too many people with their own thoughts and ideas to predict exactly how everything will go. If your plot is totally unscripted, this really isn't a problem for you. However, if your plot is half-scripted or has even a tiny handful of plot points here and there to help direct the story along, this means you had some kind of plan beforehand about what might happen.

This plan can be very helpful in keeping things organised and is useful as a sort of outline detailing what you want to introduce, but you should also either have a back-up plan for 'what happens if people do the exact opposite of what I anticipate' OR simply be ready for people to act in a way you didn't even dream of. Be adaptable. This IS what RP is all about after all: Improvisation! Adapting to the new elements people bring to the table! Going with the flow of the new direction people present to you! This is what makes RP fun - so be prepared for it.

I've seen far, far too many people run an event, expecting people to behave in one way - only for them to get pissed and furious when folks did the exact opposite of what they had planned. Don't do that. If you get angry when people behave in a way you didn't expect - you're not RPing, you're giving out a script and directing a machanisma without filming it. RP is about choices and changes, so know that your plan may not be what happens and come up with fresh new ideas when people DO change things.

6) I shouldn't have to say this, but... don't godmode, use major lore figures like you own them, or drastically change/destroy/whatever to towns, cities, topographical landscapes, continents, that all belong to Blizzard.

Do not set fire to the King's son. Do not burn down all of Teldrassil into a giant stick of charcoal. Do not replace Thrall with a copy, duplicate Thrall that you control like a puppet. Just no. No matter how wonderful, fantastic and epic you think doing these things will make your event seem, you will alienate a whoooole lot of people who will not at all be comfortable with these actions. Sure you'll get a bunch of folks that don't care - and hey, if you don't mind RPing only with those handful of people who don't care forever, that's fine and dandy - keep doing whatever you're doing amongst each other.

But if you want an event that anyone can participate in, you have to be willing to make your event without breaking some of the most basic rules of RP. Something I say all the time is that RP is like writing one really big honkin' book with a bunch of other authors. In order for the book and its story to make sense in a coherent way, everyone has to have the same idea on what the universe is like and how it works. You can't have one author writing like the story is a Scottish historic romance novel only for it to abruptly change into a modern day detective story in NYC because of another author, only for it to change into a story about space pirate vampires that get their rocket fuel from the rings of Saturn because of the third. Well, you can, but it will be one !!%*ed up book and god help anyone trying to read it in a way that makes sense.

This is why sticking to the lore, and not dinking around with major lore characters as if you control their actions is important. If your book of how the world of Warcraft works is written the same, or close enough to how everyone else's is - then you can all RP together without issues or awkwardness.

7) If your event involves a normal character like your or someone else's character becoming insanely powerful beyond all comprehension, that character should be used as sparingly as possible and for a reason other then "I thought it would be cool to make my character insanely powerful". If the insanely powerful character beyond all comprehension does something to another player character, he or she should ALWAYS have that character's permission. No exceptions.

I mention this because a lot of people have run events where a character becomes insanely powerful and I'm sure it will happen again in the future. You generally are sitting on godmoding territory already when you make your character this insanely strong, which runs you the risk of doing the opposite of tip number 6. However, there are good ways and bad ways of going about this during an event that can decide whether the event is fun and successful or ...not so much.

For one, you should have some other OOC reason for making your character this powerful for an event, other then for **!*s and giggles or because you thought it would make your character badass and awesome. In the successful ones I have seen, the insanely powerful people typically wanted earnestly to make things fun for everyone else, not himself, and wanted to present others with an interesting source of conflict for RP. This OOC thinking affects how the event is run, how things are flavored, and what sort of actions are taken. They also generally relegated their newly insanely powerful character to small background roles where they just appear, do something, and are gone. In, BAM, out. They're there specifically just to add spice and flavor to the event. The more they feel like an ominous presence in the background instead of some jerk with over 9000 power levels beating the snot out of everyone and their mom, the better. If they do something to PCs, they always have the PC's permission to do so before acting, which really you should be doing anyways in all RP.

Something I noticed as well is that in almost all the events where insanely powerful player characters have been successful - they've pretty much played the part of a 'Great Villain that Has Done Something Terrible, Needs to be Defeated, but Mostly Stays In The Background™'. They don't do terribly much, especially comparison to what all the event participants are doing. In fact, the more you act like you're just an NPC being used for the purposes of making the plot fun for everyone, the better because at that point, that's really what you're becoming. Another thing I should add, is that these people who have successfully played insanely powerful characters in events - always had themselves lose at the end.

I've also seen people RP losing in a more badass and awesome way then people have RPed winning a battle. You can 'lose' in RP, look badass, and still have insane amounts of fun at the same time, folks. Remember this.

8) If your event is planned a month, a few weeks, or a few days in advance - be sure to remind people you know are interested in it often about the day of your event.

People have a lot going on in their lives aside from this game. We have work, school, families to raise, pet projects to get done, books to read, movies to watch, friends to hang out with. And even in the game there's lots to do, raids, battlegrounds, instances, running guilds and managing their subsequent guild drama. It's very easy for people to get distracted and forget all about the RP event you painstakingly planned for them to take part in and have fun with. Thus, don't get offended if you don't remind them that its going to happen and they totally forget.

Sometimes even WoW-Calendar schedulings don't work out well because once you get the flashing question mark gone, its easy to forget that you hit 'Accept' to someone's RP event. Keep your threads for the event you made bumped on the forums, remind people somewhat often in your in-game channel network, send out polite in-game mail reminders. Just be sure not to do it so much that you get annoying and let people know that you won't be offended if they tell you "STFU, I'll remember! GAWD!" or want you to take them off your little reminder-mailing list in-game.

9) Hope for the Best. Expect the Worst.

This is the motto I generally use to get through life, but it applies to making RP events too. There's nothing wrong with hoping that your RP event will be a smashing success, but in keeping with what I said about expecting the unexpected - you should also expect what happens if the worst case scenario occurs and... no one shows up at all.

Mainly, don't get discouraged - there are a multitude of reasons why people don't show up to events. Sometimes its scheduling, sometimes a recent patch throws a monkey wrench into things, sometimes you just had bad luck that day and no one was able to log in like they planned or maybe some folks just weren't feeling up for RPing that day. Don't feel bad - think of a new event and try something different.

If you keep failing and failing and no one seems interested in anything you've cooked up, examine the events you've created very carefully or talk to another person and ask them to be honest about why they think your events might not be drawing people. Perhaps there is something you're missing to your event or perhaps you're including something in it that wards people off. Whatever the case, don't get upset - learn what you're doing that needs to be changed, change it and have fun. Just because people don't show up to your event, doesn't mean they don't love you, aren't really your friends, or aren't interested in the things you do. They just might be turned off with an aspect of your RP event and are uncomfortable about participating.

10) Above All: Choice

I left this out originally because I thought it was a no-brainer, but I figured I should stick it in just in case. No matter what the outcome is of anything you do in your event, your participants should always feel like they had a choice in the matter. A choice to act or not act. A choice to kill or to be killed. A choice to rescue, or watch from afar. Do not pigeon hole people into pre-assigned roles of hero, villain, victim, etc and force them to assume those parts. If they end up with a certain role, your participants should feel like they are where they are because of the natural progression of the story or the natural decisions their character has made. Out-of-Character, no one should feel like something was forced upon their RP.

If a player is disgruntled and unhappy with you because they felt like they were forced into something, cannot RP their character even though they want to, or were forced to RP in a way that they didn't want - then you're doing something wrong.

(( How the fel do you report for sticky?? ))

You can't report your own post. You can click the "Thumbs Down" button next to someone else's post, then hit the "Report" option. (It doesn't necessarily LOOK like a selectable option, but it is." After that, you get a box where you can select a basic reason from a drop-box and type in additional stuff for reporting. I choose "Other" for the reason and typed "Please sticky this."