Server Wide Roleplaying Event.

I love comic books. I joined City of Heroes so I could be my own superhero (Well, supervillain >:].) My favorite thing about comic books, as I'm sure it is for a lot of readers, are the epic full scale events that cover all the books of the company.


I don't have an awesome idea for an event of such size, but it is a small dream of mine to make something big happen. I know I'm probably not the first person to suggest this, but I think with the great community we have we can make something truly fantastic.

I don't really have anything else to add, heh. I was just reading some old events and had this idea. It's a fool's dream, but it's worth a shot!

Not that I think this is doable, though Ascendant did have a pretty good run at it a few years ago, but the I think the track would be to appoint a series game masters and build missions in the AE for others to complete. You'd have to have a pretty tight master story plotted out with specfic goals, and objectives. I can't imagine it could be done by anyone (s) who hadn't at least written a novel, then you'd have to be prepared people who go off book.

If you're talking just in the forums, same thing, you'd need a leader or leaders with a very specfic target /goal in mind.

Once upon a time, these things happened on Virtue, when it was a much more centralized group of RPers. I can think of at least three or four, and anyone who was on the server back in the days of The Barcodes remembers the mass effort to figure out wtf was going on.

The problem is not only the huge about of people it would take to pull of, but there would have to be a large amount of time devoted into planning, setting up, constantly just doing scenes and things to get people to notice. Assuming all this could happen, RP has largely moved away from public spaces and into SG bases and global channels, I just don't think in the state of the game as it is that you could garner enough interest for an RP server wide event.

Well, a few words of advice:

1) Set the stage. RP out the ideas of the event ahead of time. For example, if you're planning to take over the world, show up in the D as your villain and RP the recruitment process with people you meet there. The D gets a lot of flack for MRP/ERP, but frankly, I haven't really encountered it, and generally, people there are willing to engage in RP if you handle it correctly.

2) Coordinate. I suggest starting two threads, one IC, one OOC, clearly marked with the event's name, in the Virtue (or whatever server you're throwing it on) boards so that it's easy for people to find it. The IC thread lets people write what their characters are doing and gives you an opportunity to manage the narrative as need be, while the OOC one allows you to let people know when the next phase of the event is taking place. Where possible, plot out your timeline ahead of time so that events transpire with at least 72 hours notice (although a week would be ideal).

3) Use the Environment. You've got a lot of real estate at your disposal, so feel free to use it. Things have changed since I ran my last server-wide event; for one thing, we've got AE now, which is a huge benefit. Use that and other things to build the experience for people. Where possible, figure out ways to use individual zone mechanics in your plotline. For example, during my event, I had Blue/Red side forces trying to launch as many missiles from Warburg as possible, and whichever side launched the most in a 15 minute period 'won' that phase of the event.

4) Be flexible. If you've got 100 people involved in playing your event, that's 100 chances Plot Point B of the event will be derailed by someone. Have backups and contingency plans in place. Also, remember that from the viewpoint of everyone participating, they're the hero of the story; it's your job to make them feel that way throughout the event. Finally, don't be afraid to incorporate a game-changing idea and run with it; when all else fails, follow Rule 5:

5) Have fun. I can't stress this enough. There's no point to doing any of this if it's not fun, and no one is going to play if they aren't having fun. It's Okay to make mistakes provided you can laugh at them and move on; don't get so emotionally invested that you can't just sit back and enjoy the moment. There is a good deal of work involved, to be sure, but if your work-to-fun ratio drops to less than 1:1, consider a better use of your time.

I would think your best bet for something like this would be the 7th Anniversary event in April.

If run like the past two Anniversary events, there will be giant monsters running amok in various zones on every server, on both sides, and occasionally the signature heroes or villains from Recluse's Victory will show up.

If you start advertising/organzing soon, you might be able to put together something fun - like have everyone meet under the statue of Atlas, or in front of the university in Cap au Diable, and then travel from zone to zone to combat the threats as they pop up. You could do your roleplaying in the downtime between announcements of new threats.

Thanks for your replies, everyone!

When I was thinking of this, I definitely wasn't considering just how huge it would be. I for one know I can't do it. I don't have the time, and quite frankly, the talent.

Still, I think if enough people wanted to help out something cool could happen. It wouldn't have to be a huge-gigantic-mega thing, but something to bring the community together.

While I think it'd be fun to help coordinate something of this scale, I'm completely out of practice organizing stuff in-game. I'd be game for helping plan a smaller event as a warm-up, though.

I do have an idea for something I wanted to try (on a smaller scale), but it's still in a very early stage. If anybody's interested in that, PM me and we'll talk.

I, sadly, can't find enough free time to plot and run a single small story for one VG yet but will happily try to be involved in a server scale RP thing if it happens