something big going down in clown town

[socksuke_uchiha]

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Comments

Re: reactive events

[(Anonymous)]

When the event is just a bunch of stuff happening that the player characters have no affect on and all they can do is talk about and respond to it.

One example of a reactive event I have come to hate is when people will do edgy live broadcasts of their characters to the entire IC population of them murdering or torturing another character/NPC because there is nothing anyone can do but post outrage about it. The only time this has worked is if the entire game is plot driven and everyone knows a lot of player-led actions have led up to that happening, but most of the time it's just used for shock value.

Or anything where NPCs take a lot of big actions and the PCs can only respond to what's happening to them without much agency about how they got there. Everything you do in RP involves some amount of reactive stuff but the difference is on how much player choices affect that versus it constantly being stuff just happening to them.

Usually it's because the event wasn't planned out well enough to consider how people can actually play with it and participate in the plot beyond show and tell where the majority of characters only get to form an opinion about it.

Re: reactive events

[(Anonymous)]

+1 to the last 2 paragraphs there - the reactive events I see tend to fall into that category and for that exact reason. Instead of considering player options (think a video game dialogue tree: ask question, say something sassy, say something profound, attack, leave) the mods writing the event get caught up in their set dressing or npcs and write elaborate fic for them, which may be fun to read, but then you get to the end of the writing and realize there's no options for action. Only to have an opinion, positive/negative, and maybe express said opinion, but there are no actions to take. No fighting, helping, harming, escaping, searching, asking questions, investigating, not even status effects that players can choose to dick around with (although I'm finding I don't enjoy those events like I used to, either). All player-characters are treated as an audience to the event happening around them and literally can't do anything except watch.

It can happen even in otherwise plotty or story-heavy games. Say, a horror game has an event where poltergeists are harassing the characters, but all the writing goes into how they're breaking vases and stacking chairs, but in the end no one can communicate with them, no one can find out where they came from or what will make them leave, all players can do is ask each other if it's happening to them too and maybe lament that a favorite mug got broken. The idea is "wooo isn't this spoooooky?" but it really doesn't go anywhere. To make it active, the poltergeists have to either lead to a plot clue, or escalate, or be one fun set-dressing facet of a plot that has other potential actions, but in that case, don't be shocked if players barely talk about their favorite mug in favor of finding the psychic amulet causing the problem.

Re: reactive events

[(Anonymous)]

I think "can the characters only have an opinion?" will be a design question on all events I write from here on in. Feels like a good guideline.

I still enjoy a good status effect event (game I'm in just had a sexy monster TF event and it was good fun) but I also get what you're saying, that it can get samey if that's all there is.

The vibe I'm getting right now is ICly talking about an event is ok as an option but it shouldn't be the only option. And it would probably help the event mods to have a list of results ready if characters want to investigate, fight, fix, or break things. Doesn't even have to be an essay of things (that could be a fast track to burn out) but like some quick sentences:
"Bob investigates the cold spot in the poltergeist room and finds a piece of amulet." Or "Bobert works on holding a seance with the poltergeist. The seance table gets broken but they learn about violent deaths in the spooky mansion."

I figure players don't expect essays, but they do like hearing their actions lead to at least a small blurb they can build their own fun off of.

[(Anonymous)]

Occasionally a reactive event is okay but it's usually when it builds upon an existing storyline.

Using ayrt's poltergeist example, if there was a gamewide plot where all the characters had to make a choice and the winning choice caused poltergeists to be released to harass everyone, it would make sense to have it be a reactive event because the characters are reacting to the consequences of their actions.

That being said, it should be used as a segue into the next part of the plot because it's going to motivate characters to go "ok, what's next?" and that's a good thing. I think a problem arises because mods worry about people trying to "fix" an event and end up shutting down a lot of interaction. Not every investigation or action has to be successful, but there should be some way to succeed or it becomes frustrating. Instead of shutting people down, give out clues that will lead them to the clues you actually want them to find.

There can be no way for the players to get rid of the poltergeists but maybe releasing them allows characters who can talk to ghosts to get a plot hook they couldn't get before, and so on. You could even do this as a special event where you drop the reactive portion a little early so characters have time to form opinions and then drop the actual event a few days later when everyone is ICly (and OOCly) hyped to do something about it. A purely reactive event should never be standalone IMO.