Eventholding is hard. Like anything that’s hard, it’s worth doing, and if you’re already doing it, it’s worth getting better at. Even the most experienced eventholders have had a scene that goes sideways on them, or perhaps an entire event that kind of misses the mark. New EHs have a hard time even knowing what kind of story to tell, and what seems like it might be a good idea can very subtly be the often-tread ground of newbie EH mistakes. How do you as a newer storyteller entertain the oldbie who has seen everything, the midbie looking to make a name for themselves, and the newbie who can barely hold a sword?
Throwing a questing event is a massive creative endeavor, and like any other work of art or group undertaking, everybody has their own process that works for their own organization and strengths. Creativity is often described as a muscle, something that gets stronger over time. The more you work at throwing events, making characters, and designing stories, the more robust ideas will come to you over time. Do not worry about spending your creative energy forever, more will come. It is daunting to start, but the first step is to actually start.
I can’t tell you how to throw events; I’m still learning myself and there isn’t any clear answer. I’ve worked with a bunch of different teams, and helped with many events on the backend from being a simple crunchy to head writer. What I can do is give you the numerous questions that make up my internal process, and let you come up with the answers for yourself. These are lenses that help you to look at yourself, your staff, your event, your story, and your encounter from a different perspective. They sum up the lessons I’ve learned in throwing and playing, and hopefully I can help you to not make the same mistakes I have or have seen. I am constantly revisiting these questions in my mind. They are designed to make even the most seasoned EH run his or her event through its paces, and even if you don’t change anything, you are at least more deliberate in your actions.
As we go through them, I’m going to try and be as unbiased about the answers to the questions as possible, I clearly have answers that form my style and my voice in events. I’d like you, the reader, to answer them for yourselves as best as possible. Even putting these to paper has made me rethink the process and has been immensely helpful. To be clear, this is about throwing quests, and while some of the broad themes can apply to tournaments or feasts, it’s not nearly as applicable. Those are hard in their own right, but I’m going to talk about the stories we tell.
Let’s begin.
Why do you want to throw an event?
You can re-read this question with the accent on each of the words to find nearly a different meaning, but I am mostly interested in the “why”. Don’t take it as trying to talk you out of it, or assuming that you would be bad at it, but what is it you are looking to accomplish? Hopefully the answer comes out to be “I have a story to tell” or “I want to entertain my friends”. There are a good number of variations of those two that are among the best answers as to this question. There are many others however, and what you say might reveal more than you might think.
Let’s dig a little deeper. Wanting to entertain people is different than having a story to tell. They say different things about who you are, and even perhaps where your strengths lie. We’re going to tackle what your eventholding strengths are in a different question in a couple of weeks, but not answering in the affirmative to both might mean that you need people on your team to help balance you out some. For instance, if you are more concerned about rigid story flow, but aren’t as concerned if the encounters aren’t fun, then you might be one type of eventholder. If you really are just looking to make fun in the moment, and the story is a wash of paint to make it all flow, then you are another type of eventholder.
The answers that should make you carefully think about what you are about to undertake are “I want to create a particular moment”, “I think this magic item would be funny to release” or “Wouldn’t it be great if the PCs got to do/had to do this?” While we joke a lot in veteran circles about that last one, we know in our heart that you can’t sustain six hours of content on a single mechanic or schtick. At their ideal, events should tell a complete story and have a beginning, action, and some kind of resolution. Rarely do events stand up as a full experience on a single quirky NPC or a certain type of fight. These can be components of an event, but they themselves aren’t an event.
Another answer that is it’s own to address is “I feel that our nation should do this.” This answer can be a mixed bag. It is excellent that you want your nation to stand up and join the host of other groups that are contributing to the game as a whole. Projects like events, when properly planned and executed, give you something to do together, and are great for OOC nature of groups to get to hang out. Don’t let this slant at the answer push you into doing it before you are ready. There are alternatives that you can take to start on that path, such as NPCing as a group to see how other established teams handle it, or sign up as an individual to get some experience before striking out on your own. Conversely, don’t fear failure. We’ve all thrown a bad event, and have picked ourselves up again. Ask for advice along the way.
As you start to dig into the “what” of your event, it helps time and time again to go back to the why, and truly understand it. The more pure your internal motivation, the better event it will end up being. Avoid thoughts like “to prove a point”. The answers “I want to entertain people” and “I want to tell an engaging story” together make truly whole events. The blending of these two statements make up the heart of every other question I will pose in this series, so keep them in mind as we continue down this path.
