What do you like in a event?

Heh, it has never, ever made sense to me to see the "leader" types just run to the front and start the battles personally. That's a great way to get yourself killed, instantly break morale, completely lose tactics and leave everyone else utterly lost for the rest of the battle/war. Leaders stay in back to make sure their team is working to the absolute maximum, unless they ARE the scout.

Watching a big, loud, clanky war-god type of leader ignore sharp-eyed, sneaky scouts is stunning. They're SO confident in their high level that they don't even want to know what's coming up ahead. I'd be more than fine seeing them turned into red paste for that move, allowing a more capable tactician to step up. It's tough to get everyone to wait and plan, but oh so satisfying when you do.

And sure, there are some cinematic versions of leaders who wade into battle a la Braveheart, but there was major planning, tactics and strategy involved even there- not just a random battle cry and "Go!" or "Fight!" Plus, y'know, the main character never dies unless it's a poignant plot point. I'd like to remind everyone that nobody's playing a main character here. Be careful around sharp objects.

Tibus_Heth wrote:

Vilesinger wrote:

*gentle poke at Gjallahorn* Thankfully this does not happen so much in the UD as is the focus of this thread. I am uncertain about the surface events however. In the UD Diva'ism is the Yath and we all expect a Yath to be at or near the center of a DM event. It is expected generally, for a female to take charge and be at the center. Although it does happen where a male character is in a position to be at the center.

I'd disagree with that, actually. I've not exactly been here long and I can recall more than one instance of situations where a PC group either has no Yath, or one inexperienced one, and is standing there planning a smart way to deal with the event, only to be interrupted by the Yath Cavalry who walk right past us, scream 'Lolth tlu malla' and charge. It's not fun and it instantly reduces your level of engagement with the event.

Yath need to use the tools at their disposal, or no-one has a damn reason to play anything else. Wakefield's point is important here IMO - if the Yath actually need wizards for wizarding, scouts for scouting and warriors for strategising then maybe we'll see more use being made of them in general.

I've lost count of the number of events when I had my UD character where we'd all literally stand there while the Yath spoke with a NPC and among one another. I've also lost count of the number events where half of the non-Yath went afk to do other things because of the Yath cavalry. And I'd like to think both of my UD characters were pretty vocal for males, especially Nalzaer.

In my experience there's one thing that makes or breaks an event;
- the Participants, if those present at the event doesn't care, then it wont be good and even though some can enjoy from it there'll be those whose experience is ruined by the lack of participation from some players. A way to allow this is to keep events limited, chatbased RP cannot and shouldn't be 20 people and a chatbox.
- the Participation, as long as players feel that they are a part of something AND can affect things, they'll be around and come back for more. This is again hard to accomplish with 20 people so again, a key is limiting the events. The way I thought of events when I hosted them Wow for example is that I never knew the ending, only the factors that led up to the event itself and from there I improvised.

And I got some personal preferences when it comes to roleplay content and that is;
Everday and menial things cause there's nothing quite like RPing a character in -all- phases of life, even when on the outhouse or washing clothes at the river. Another example on the same thing is preparing for combat or the aftermath, barbersurgeon is probably one of the best things there is to RP. And lastly I'm a lore-nerd so anything that ties back to lore or even events that is aimed to present and tell lore is great!

Solid examples;
- The hunt and execution of warlocks practicing their arts openly in Shadowdale.
- A thiefling or misstaken idenity genasi being lynched in Shadowdale.
- Plague and sickness being spread from the talonites beneath the Inn by rats and bats.
- The discovery of a yuan-ti corpse among the citizens of Shadowdale and very faint hints of more infiltrators around.
- Something as simple as a farmer family torching their home on fire and leaving the oppression only to end up in Freehaven having to find new their new places. (As an event I mean that the family is controlled by DMs and we as players can ICly/in-game follow their story through meetings and rumors.)

No one seems to want to talk about rewards, so I will. It is generally nice when there is some chance of finding something unique during an event, too. There were a few events that were run... oh, a while ago, and as the heroes systematically dismantled the camp (after xp and loot were handed out), people who made lucky spot/spellcraft/crafting/etc. rolls found rarer and/or not-in-loot-table items. I remember someone finding a hammer of lightning in a pile of bodies, stacks of potions from an alchemy table, bars of darksteel (I had a crap search score) or adamantite (but not everyone had a crap search score) from a forge, recipes in the ruins of an enchanting bench, etc. No one was told to do it, no one was urged to do it, people just went about RPing the dismantling of the equipment, and as the DM watched them do it, he made it actually have results. It was nice to see actions done have an effect, it made people actually act like the people taking care of a problem would instead of just leaving the problem there for someone else to clean up. I remember a lot of frustration when an event had people beset by adamantine golems, effectively throwing big piles of adamantite at us that couldn't be salvaged.

Arjay wrote:

No one seems to want to talk about rewards, so I will. It is generally nice when there is some chance of finding something unique during an event, too. There were a few events that were run... oh, a while ago, and as the heroes systematically dismantled the camp (after xp and loot were handed out), people who made lucky spot/spellcraft/crafting/etc. rolls found rarer and/or not-in-loot-table items. I remember someone finding a hammer of lightning in a pile of bodies, stacks of potions from an alchemy table, bars of darksteel (I had a crap search score) or adamantite (but not everyone had a crap search score) from a forge, recipes in the ruins of an enchanting bench, etc. No one was told to do it, no one was urged to do it, people just went about RPing the dismantling of the equipment, and as the DM watched them do it, he made it actually have results. It was nice to see actions done have an effect, it made people actually act like the people taking care of a problem would instead of just leaving the problem there for someone else to clean up.

Totally agree. I love events where RP is rewarded with literally rewards, not XP, but unique items.

Example: When a horde attacked the camp one day, a green dragon was with them and after we killed it, i rolled a spot check to inspect the corpse. The DM rewarded the role with a dagger that was the Dragon's tooth, i rarely use the item but it's one of the most memorable adventures because of that reward.

I like the occasional huge battle, but the more satisfying events are definitely the smaller ones that are more RP based, with use of skills (they are a big part of who your character is) throughout and only a spattering of combat encounters.

On the topic of rewards, items can be fun and unique, agreed. Though since it is extremely rare in the UD for high end crafting gems and adamintine items to be handed out, at least in the experience of myself and my guild mates (I assume it is just as rare for everyone else), I personally would prefer to receive tokens that can then be used to purchase such items.

Just a gentle reminder folks, this is about the underdark, so for the surface-only players who are chiming in here (your comments are respected and appreciated, thank you), it might be a good idea to cover this topic with one of the many active surface DMs as well, just to make sure they're hearing you too =)

Or perhaps, and please forgive the plug, you might consider rolling up an underdark toon, come learn the lore, and join us in the complicated political role play the Lolth-ite Underdark can offer.

Was that a too blatant attempt to recruit folks to the dark side?

Gildren wrote:

I personally would prefer to receive tokens that can then be used to purchase such items.

Just a gentle reminder folks, this is about the underdark, so for the surface-only players who are chiming in here (your comments are respected and appreciated, thank you), it might be a good idea to cover this topic with one of the many active surface DMs as well, just to make sure they're hearing you too =)

Or perhaps, and please forgive the plug, you might consider rolling up an underdark toon, come learn the lore, and join us in the complicated political role play the Lolth-ite Underdark can offer.

I was going to say something, but I'm glad you did Gildren. While the comments are appreciated and well respected from the veteran forum members, I don't think it's fair to have people say what they want, if they don't play a UD toon on a constant basis.


Tokens are a bigger reward than special items, because it allows for customization. Someone might not always want that +3 Armor, +6 Lore / +6 Spellcraft armor


Rewards are always fun though!!!

I would actually prefer special items over getting tokens, special items you have a history for so if someone goes "where did you get that" you can go "well i ripped this off a dragon/fashioned it from a liches thighbone/ect.
whereas for token items you really have no story behind them whatsoever

You could always arrange for a story to be done though, even if it's fairly small. Some DMs don't mind helping out with that.

Personally, I find tokens boring. The perk of actually having a DM physically give you an item is that the DM can greatly characterize the item itself with it's own story. It can be the armor of an undead warrior, the serrated sword of a Yuan-ti priest, or anything else that might link to whatever plot that has been run. This is what DnD is all about, looting the powerful thing you kill so you have a trophy to remember the adventure by. Something to hold up at the campfire and tell the story.

What do you get for tokens? Some gear you needed because it's mechanically what you want to empower your character. You can slap some random fluff story on it if you really want, but it will always be artificial and lifeless in comparison.

EDIT: Turns out I agree with Gandruff, I believe.



I don't care for combat-centered events for several reasons. The main one is the simple fact of inevitable imbalances in the group of players you're likely plotting for. I recall many pointless "waves of monsters randomly attack camp" events when I was a newer player, and I hated them. All that happened is that the epic lvl casters slap on their buffs and kill everything easily, so then the DM ramps up the challenge and newer/underpowered characters that try to get involved are instantly one-shot if they get close. It adds nothing to the atmosphere when it's got no story to it. It just makes you wish, yet again, that you'd rolled up some gimmicky powerbuild.

PvP events are rather the same way really, it's just a boring chance to see who chose the more overpowered class and is higher level. I'm talking about "Surface raids" in the vein of the old days, when we'd throw ourselves against the invulnerable fortress of the Royal Oak for no apparent tactical reason besides "Oh, Yathrin Blahblah wants to show how bloodthirsty she is, or something". Non-yath are swept along and thrown at the army of epics waiting on the surface, and usually get killed by something totally anticlimactic like a duo of lvl 30 powerbuilds in my experiences... accomplishing absolutely nothing along the way. In fact, never even having a salient goal to begin with. Trying to suggest one is pointless, the Yath in charge take it as an attack on their authority. The few times we do accomplish something, like kidnapping someone, a giant horde of surfacers then lead a "counter-raid" that usually frees the slave. Or, the slave "escapes"(and by that I mean, we have to stand around and suddenly become totally incompetent because the player decided he/she is bored and wants to go roleplay on the surface again).

However, completely non-combat events, such as political intrigue puzzles, also have plenty of pitfalls I've seen occur over my time here. Most often, a single character or group of characters gets a chokehold on all the important information that we know about the quest, and has no reason to share it with anyone. So the rest of us sit on the sidelines, eventually getting bored and losing interest. If you were just unlucky to not be logged in when the event was run, you're forced to claw and beg for scraps of information about what happened... and you very likely will never have a truly prominent position in the event, unless the DM goes out of his/her way to make your character vital to the rest. Even then, you can easily be left behind if you don't play enough.

My ideal event mixes both. Using combat to increase tension and harry characters. When you allow characters to stand around, you encourage them to start forming cliques and plotting how to exclude others while including themselves. This isn't an attack on other players, but it is natural Drow roleplay. We're playing naturally selfish characters. The monsters should be many and constant, not just one or two "powerful" ones. The latter only leads to an epic caster slapping on his god-killing buffs and killing everything easily. A constant stream of medium-challenge enemies makes the casters use up their magic and actually become relatively worried, which allows the non-casters to actually feel useful(Please please please start deducting xp or something from people who rest in the middle of a dangerous situation, just because there happens to be a campfire nearby. It's supposed to take hours and hours of rest to regain spells, not 10 seconds of kneeling).

The combat has meaning, it is the minions of whatever NPC you're opposing. It can culminate in a mighty battle with the NPC in question, allowing the casters to then use those spells they've been intelligently saving, or let them realize their foolishness when they wasted it all just to kill a dozen henchmen. You have a plot beneath the combat for people to be focused on, but they don't have too much time to really over-analyze everything and be stubborn. You give a sense of urgency that makes any such diva behavior an obviously dumb unnecessary thing to do.

The issue with DMs giving out items directly is that they can sometimes be unintentionally imbalanced.

With tokens, you always know that the pool you choose from is from the same pool as everyone else.

It doesn't matter that much though, can always speak with a DM after an event to see what your preference is, and if it would be possible.

Explosions and adrenaline filled car chases!

Honestly though, I enjoy a unique event that doesn't always have to end in fighting. Sure smashing waves of DM spawned baddies is always a blast, but it's even cooler to see people solve a situation diplomatically or through some clever trick.