This is a WIP guide for those running events in Eternia.
Welcome to the wonderful world of running events for Eternia. It can be a painful process but it helps break up the monotony of the standard day. Sometimes events with lesser rewards can be run on the fly, other times serious planning needs to be done to manage who attends and gaining approval for stats set for prizes.
Either way, this is a resource guide to help inspire and assist in keeping events run smoothly.
Remember that a good event is a mix of the unexpected. From traps, to fights, to mental challenges. Keep things varied and everyone will have a good time.
Risk Levels[]
Events often have associated risk types that work as a quick notification to players on how dangerous an event will be. When it comes to injuries, be creative. People lose limbs all the time. Why not try a curse or something imaginative. Work with players on injuries that would allow them to do fun things in the future when you can.
Risk One - The event has no risk whatsoever. It is a fun and casual event at all with low chances for rewards or prizes.
Risk Two - Risk of minor injuries, still low chances of high quality rewards.
Risk Three - High chance of minor injuries, risk of serious injuries such as losing a limb. Reasonable rewards.
Risk Four - High chance of injuries that can lead to permanent damage, risk of death.
Risk Five - Guaranteed chance of death. At least one to two people will die during one of these events. Usually reserved for dungeons with powerful rewards.
Event Types[]
There are many different types of events, not even limited to the provided by list below. These are set as examples of different event types and how they should be run. Remember that event run times average between 2-6 hours. Running longer for higher risk events or those that contain lots of people. If people are taking longer then you thought to get through an event, feel free to cut out some things to save on time. Aim for between the 2-3 hour mark on most events.
Try to save time by either having narration pre-written or pre-write it while others are working on their RPs. The flow for an event should be along the lines of everyone group rping after the narration. If the narration calls for rolls, rolling for their results and then rping. If there is a verb, rping the stance, and then doing the verb. It takes an average of 15-20 minutes per narration and rp, take that into consideration when planning how long you want your event to be.
Also be sure to be very clear on the situation at hand or how things will flow. Simplify things and be very clear on how rolls or events play out. You'll have less questions this way and things will proceed more quickly and fluidly.
Dungeons[]
These are mass events consisting of around 10 or more PCs participating in a raid of an area. Who gets the final prizes are not set in the beginning, rather it is usually decided by rolls at the end of the event among those who are left standing. They are usually run at the 3 times you fall standard. Which means that a player who falls 3 times to traps or verbs makes a roll to see how badly injured they are or sometimes third injury can guarantee death depending on risk.
These events are rarely run, take a considerable amount of planning, and often contain powerful prizes. It is suggested that at least two admins run dungeons in order to help things run smoothly.
Raids / Jailbreaks[]
A singular event where a group of people attack an area with a set goal in mind. They are often run dungeon style, versus NPCs that would be guarding the area or arranging something with PCs that would be guarding it.
Jailbreaks can be run like this as well. Where a person or group of people have to fend off guards in the area to see if they manage to escape, stay captured, or face certain death. Rules for these can very per jail so be sure to confirm with admins first if there are any special precautions that need to be taken.
Personal Events[]
Personal event requests are often run similar to dungeons. Where a player wants a specific item, and a team of people with them to help gather it. Remember that personal events do not always have to be successful, however they often serve as platforms for a player's development towards skills or items.
Material Gathering[]
Materials within Valmasia are many and varied. This is an event where a group of people go to an area and do rolls to gather materials to make items. Do not be afraid to suggest new materials for your event, and use those that are available to the region which you are running it. They also include challenges such as fighting mobs of NPCs in an area, or traps. They also involve a /random 1 100 roll sheet to see what a player has a chance to gather. It is also advised to let players select any material they want that is below what they rolled. Example, if someone rolled an 80, which is the selection for Iron Oak, they can opt to get a roll 50 prize of Ebony instead if they so choose. Arcanium is never allowed to be available during these events.
1-19 - Nothing
20-39 - Low grade Materials
40-69 - Mid Grade Materials
70-89 - High Grade Materials
90-100 - Rare Material. (Never Arcanium though. To rare and powerful of an item).
It is suggested that 2 rolls for material's list are spread out during an event. However you can use 2 material listings in an event. Such as one for outside in a forest area containing organic materials, then moving the group inside of a cavern for minerals. Material rolls can also be added to other events as a way of giving additional rewards to participants in the group.
Material Gathering events should be spaced out in order to control inflation of materials in game. Perhaps once a month and spread out across different regions. It is also advised to not let the same characters attend these events so that materials are spread out in the community as well.
Village leaders are allowed to add fluff to their SoVs about items gathered. They are now allowed to automatically have those items at their own disposal for personal use. Items gotten by PCs at these events are PC owned, and thus must be directly gained via rolls. All materials gained are for single use on an item, they may not be split up. If a leader of an expedition wants materials PCs have, they must gain them from that PC through in character means, and the original owning PC loses right to have it.
Village Event Stories[]
A Village Event Story helps contribute to the lore of each of the villages. It is either an ongoing issue or story arc for a village.
The most famous example of this is the Mantol Family Curse of Byson, which took over 25 IC years to complete. Events started previous to the family moving in where a large mimic who was a mindless creature driven mad by experimentation run on it when the Mimic race was in control of the village. It lived beneath the Mantol residence and convinced many of the populace that the family was cursed through a series of ill events until its eventual discovery and destruction.
Other examples of this consist of the Doom Star in Nostvale, the strange cold affecting Frostvale, and the Bloomin' pirates attacks upon Tilandre.
These are a great way to not only draw RP to villages but to add to the overall lore of the ongoing stories of them.
Contests[]
This refers to something like an eating or drinking contest. But the format can be used towards other things like obstacle courses. It is basically just a series of rolls that get progressively harder and harder until one person is left to receive a price. People also like these events if there is a unique cosmetic item handed out to all the participants as well.
An example of this would be an obstacle course where players roll /random 1 - (base agility). Increasing they number they have to pass by 15 each round. The higher agility players will have better chances of going through each round, but still have a chance at failure.
Tournaments[]
Tournaments are by far the easiest type of events to run. There are a lot of arguments on how pairings should be done. The fastest way to pair people up is to just randomly do so. Make sure to announce who is fighting who ahead of time to allow contestants room to pre-write if they wish.
In larger tournaments, it is suggested two fights happen at the same time in the first few rounds. Large scale tournaments offer a perm as a participation reward, where smaller ones do cash prizes for the winners. Although city championships do not require an admin to run them, they do help keep the flow.
War[]
Avoid being put in charge of moderating one of these at all costs.
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Rolling[]
By utilizing the /roll or /random features, one can add a random sense of danger or customize challenges towards player's skill sets. It is a quick way to toss out a threat or see who survives a fall.
Base Stat Rolls[]
These are rolls utilizing the /random function and customizes particular challenges within an event towards player's set skills. Normally a player will show their base stat, then use /random 1 - base stat, having to roll above a selected number to succeed. Due to how flexible these rolls are, it is best to reserve them for smaller groups and go for percentage rolls for larger ones.
A group of adventurers have set off a trap that fires many sharpened projectiles at them. They must roll a /random 1 - (base stat agility) and get over a 80 in order to dodge the projectiles. Alternatively, they can choose to use their magic by rolling a /random 1 - (base stat magic) and roll over 100 to defend themselves.
One member of the group wishes to create barrier magic to deflect all of the projectiles. Their RPL is over 200, and would more then be able to ICly cast the spell. Due to the complexity of the spell, they will have to roll their base magic and get over 130 to succeed.
How does one decide what numbers to use? Ideally you would want for half to two-thirds of the party to succeed, so look at the average among stats and make it so that the average has 50% chance of success. Or just do what I do and make a number up that feels "about right."
Percentage Rolls[]
Percentage rolls are by far the the least salt driven of rolls. People really hate the /roll system. Easiest percentage to manage is the /random 1 100. These can be used for traps, or for finding objects. Such as if a group was searching an area, they have to roll above 75 to find major treasure, above 25 for minor treasure, or they set off a major trap and gain injuries if they roll below 10.
If you are using this system for traps within a dungeon, be sure to increase chances of being hit by said trap every time a roll comes up. First trap, pitfall, 15% chance to fall into. Second trap, swinging axes, 25% chance of being hit.
Flat Rolls[]
A flat roll is using the /roll or /dice function, which rolls a 1-6. Normally used to decide the outcome of a battle and varies depending on Risk Level of event. An example of this would be deciding the fates of those who have fallen to a final PC boss. Where 4 - 6 is minor injuries, 2 - 3 is severe, and 1 is death.
NPC Opponents[]
All spawnable mob bosses are greatly different from both one another and from how PCs work. The vit is about the same, but damage such as force and melee can be greatly different. For example, a banditboss mob's melee stats should be set in the 1000 region, where as a fireyokai's force should rarely go over 80.
What is best is to test the npcs out privately and figure out what their stats should be before the event. And don't be afraid to spawn around 15 of them. Some PC groups will take them out quickly while others will be decimated. It's near impossible to get a good balance for any group, but the key is high damage and moderate vit.
PC Opponents[]
PC opponents stats should be set for the standard 20-50 rpl higher then the average of your group. Their vit should be around the combined rpl of the group. After about 500-1000 vit, adjust health manually to be higher using the health. Also be sure to set their res and defense to 50.
Rewarding Players[]
The easiest way to figure out what rewards to give players is to look at what risk level the event was. A risk four or five will usually include perms for all participants. If a person has died, they are allowed to have a perm spawned for their rebirth if they so choose. Perms given out at events are not allowed to be auctioned off on OOC, since the players choose what perms they want.
Smaller events should contain things off of the materials list, or generic items. Since events are so varied, be sure to check with admins first for what rewards you would like to have given out for an event and see what they suggest. Arcanium may only be handed out with head administrator permission.