GOFER Behind the Scenes Part 2

Behind the Scenes:  A Look into Event Holding

By Steven Matulewicz

Event: Good Old Fashioned Entrepreneurial Recovery (The Dragon’s Den)
Date: Sunday, June 28, 2015.
Subject: Event Design, The Process (Article 2 of 3)

…Why were we doing this again?

I find that the reason people want to hold Events can differ greatly.  For me, the first few years I played this game were amazing and I felt I wanted to give that experience to others.  Over time, I also had ideas, both for story and for design within the game, so my desire to hold events took on a life of its own.

Many years ago now (something like 20 or so), I was working closely with Stephen Johnson and had many discussions on effective EHing.  From those discussions I came away with two things.  The first is that what you really want to create at an event is a Moment for a PC.  If you can, even for a short time, make people forget about their lives and give them a sense of truly being their character…. If you can do that, then as a Story Teller style EH, you have succeeded.  The trick is that an EH really cannot force a person to do this.  No amount of props, money, special effects, etc, by themselves can immerse someone completely.  It is up to the individual.  So the goal of a quest is to create opportunity for the Moment to happen.  It takes an understanding of who your event caters to and making sure they are as engaged as possible, in the ways they want to be engaged (e.g. fighting, puzzles, traps, etc.)

The second thing I understood is that while an Event may be me/ a group applying their ideas, in the end, you are running a business.  And that business is Entertainment.  It is about making sure the people come to your event have a good time, and that everything you do is designed to immerse your “customers” in what you have in store for them.  Again, you cannot force someone to interact.  The goal is to give them opportunity to want to interact.  I think the best example of what I mean is to look at just about any ride at Disney World.  As soon as you stand in line, the Ride is presented to you.  Everything along the wait is meant to prepare you for what you are going to experience.  It tells you the story or where, when, what this place is about. Then there is the ride itself.  And when you step off the ride, there is usually something that helps complete the experience.  More and more these days, it ends at a gift shop, which is because some people want something to remember the experience with, like a souvenir(there is of course the money aspect for Disney.  But for a Realms event, this is not a factor as to the souvenir/ take away from the experience). 

So, establishing Moments through presentation/ immersion, making sure the PCs are engaged as much as possible, and then making sure they take something away from the experience….  This is a good formula.  And this is why I personally have held events.  Even when the odds seem stacked against you.

Phase 3:  Design and Walkthrough

In developing an event, communication is key throughout the process.  The more people can know their job, can know what is going on in relation to their job, and can give feedback with swift turn around on the feedback, the better and event will run.  In our case, the 3 main designers; myself, Melissa Metzger and Jessica Osio, were all in different US states (and Jessica was pregnant).  So meetings over Skype and using something like Google Documents to be able to collaborate were a BIG help to getting things done.  We tried a couple of different styles of putting down information, but in the end a Full Walk Through Document that we developed as we went along was the saving grace.  It allowed us to talk about and see what was happening at every single place.  Since this was a Dungeon, we were able to establish, room by room, what was going on, what the NPC goals were (NOTE:  having goals for your NPCs are also important.  Some of the best ideas and Moments come from allowing the NPCs to have creative license with the characters they have.  For example, I have never at an event had a challenge competition with a DANCE OFF.  That was 100% improvised by the crew, in interaction with the PCs).  So our Walkthrough document included, number of NPCs, all props, all plot for the room, all other activities going on while the PCs were in that room, and the estimated time we expected the PCs to be in the room.  Further, we designed backup scenarios.  What would happen if the PCs took too long?  What would happen if the whole party got wiped?  What needs to happen if the PCs blow through the room?  AND, most importantly for this quest:  having more than one way to “succeed” in any given room, PLUS how to change up “win” scenarios for each room so that if other groups who had not gone in heard other people talking, advanced knowledge may prepare them for the rooms, but it would not necessarily help them.

Another thing the Walkthrough, with time estimates, allowed for is trying to design down time for the NPCs.  We wanted to make sure they were watered and fed, with no issues related to dehydration or fatigue due to lack of food.  Melissa, who has run the kitchen at many a Chimeron event, was integral in making sure our “employees” were taken care of.  A happy grew makes for a happy event.  Which increases the chances for Moments to occur.

The other major help for this event was establishing a dedicated Build Crew: a handful of people whose job it was to either prep rooms in advance, or to be doing scene changes while the PCs were there.  We had many discussions not only on what needed to happen for each room, but the mechanics of changing the rooms quickly and efficiently.  Now and again, we would need help from other NPC or Management team, but there would be a core set of people responsible for quick room set up and break down.

As to note, I will mention “Management Team”, which in out event talks is not really mentioned a lot or even by name.  But I feel there is a crew of people that pre event and during event keep the administration and general goings on moving.  If I say Management Team, I mean:  EH, co- EHs, Magic Marshal (and our back up Magic Marshal: with Jessica possibly giving birth any time around the event, Aaron Metzger was a necessary and welcome addition to the team), Head NPC (Brendan, who kept the NPCs on track), and special Non- Com.  (Katrina, who played out baby Dragon who was sponsoring the quest, was an extremely important role.  Her job as NPC was to help keep people engaged when not inside the dungeon, and to essentially frame the quest for the PCs.  She is also there for a feedback role: if something was going wrong, her input was critical for keeping things moving.

Phase 4:  Advertising

I take the time before an event very seriously, in that just placing an event on the calendar is sometimes not enough.  For an event that has been established, occurs annually, and has been around for a long time… people know the expectations. But even with older events, letting people know what is happening at that event, especially newer ideas, needs to get out to people.

Part of what I consider Advertising for this event was the Dragon Horde itself.  Except now we needed not just one Horde, but 3.  The Horde, posting about it well in advance to encourage people to pre- reg for the event, was important.  Going back to what I said previously… not having items to give out, or running out of items as times go through… this is not the result we wanted nor what we wanted any PCs to feel happened for their quest.  We want all people to come through and feel that they have been treated equally with equal opportunity, regardless if the run is first or last.

So to do this, we needed an epic amount of stuff.  1500 gold is roughly 500 gold per run, which comes out to roughly 25 gold per person.  We need more things.  And so I went to family (who some work at Antique shows).  I went to many other Nations and Event Holders, asking to help make this quest amazing.  And the outpouring of response back was wonderful.  Rhiassa, Blackwood, Chimeron, Folkstone, Neden, Creathorne, Saurabia….  So many groups and individuals to thank for donating.  Due to the huge amount of donations, we were able to spend our budget on some higher end items/ concepts.  For example, all 3 quests had a 1oz bar of real silver on the quest (with a dragon on them, I might add).  Due to the donations, we had at least one traditional backed magic item per quest,   along with in-house items from various plots, Imbued items, Items of Artifice, and certificates to get into other events.

Once the items started to come in, I posted emails and on Facebook a picture of the partial Horde.  Because I have not held an event in a decade and because as a group; Melissa, Jess (and Aaron, Brendan, Katrina and a slew of others) and I have not held an event together before, it is important that people know at least a bit beforehand what to expect.

We had no idea how many people would want to attend.  We actually didn’t think we would get more than 40 people, because of the day (a Sunday and after a major event in another state), because of the “newness” of this group of people… so yeah.  We were trying to be realistic.  Within 24 hours of showing the Horde, one whole slot was filled.  Within a believe 1 week, possibly 2, after this, the event was full.  We were ecstatic.  Knowing we had a “full House” for our event, and also having all slots prepaid of the event meant we knew exactly how much we could spend on the event without bringing financial strain to the group. 

Also part of the Advertisement was what I call “Framing” the event.  I sent out Rumors.  I sent out dreams.  I established in small ways, beyond just the write up, what someone could expect of the event.  Placing these things out there, to individuals and to the group at large, again goes to expectation.  It is a touch of immersion, as you are “waiting in line”.

Lastly, planning the event as far out as we did (3-4 months) allowed us for enough time to really hammer out the ideas and to implement everything that needed to happen beforehand.  It also allowed us to find the best prices for the items we knew we would need.  While we had a healthy budget, it is easy to go over budget.  Frugality while maintaining quality was ever in our minds.

So…. We were as ready as we would ever be.  Time to see if we could walk the walk.