I started throwing events in 1998, and since the 2000s have had 34 events on the books. I threw the Adventure series, Exotic Items, Creatures, & Wares, Carnage on the Mountain, Elwin’s Birthday, four Tournaments of Chaos, helped with the King of Rogues series, and have done smatterings of one-off individual events.
2. What led you to start throwing events?
I started preparations for my first 1998 event back in 1996. I saw that the Realms was a game completely run by independent event holders and not a central committee and thought I could contribute to that, and that people could have fun with the stories I could tell. That was the primary motivator when I was 16 years old and held my first event. Nowadays, after all these years, I have found that there is a certain type of person that enjoys my style of events, and there are enough of them that I want to provide and continue to provide content and give back to the community. I also feel somewhat responsible for keeping all of my magic items backed.
3. What would you like your events to be known for?
I’d like my events to be known for rich plot. A solid interactive world that people can immerse themselves in that causes change in the overarching world. I want players to feel unique and like they are making a difference for good or bad.
4. What aspect of event holding do you consider most challenging?
Asking for help. It is extremely difficult for me to reach out to other people to ask for help. I don’t want to let go of my world or take people away from playing. Most of the people that would help me are the ones that would really want to play.
5. Tell us about an event moment that you are particularly proud of?
At Exotic Creatures, Items, & Wares 2 we were in the middle of a night quest and the rain started up and we muscled through it. The sky opened into an absolute downpour. Turns out there was a hurricane going on and we were getting rain literally going sideways. When I reached out to the players in the middle of the chaos (screaming so they could hear me over the wind) the players all cheered and wanted to continue. They were yelling “We’re going for it!” The story that was being told pushed the players enough so that they didn’t want to quit in some of the worst weather I have ever seen at an event.
6. Tell us about something that went wrong and what you learned from it.
There was one event I had done a call out to NPC’s for one of my events and I had a few hits. I thought I was going to have 4-5 NPC’s that showed up but come the day of the event, all of my staff save for the person running the door, didn’t show. I had to solo 45-50 players with me as the only NPC/EH. What I learned is that I can actually throw an event with just me as an NPC. It was rough, but if you can push the story forward and make adjustments you can find ways of overcoming problems like this.
7. What do you think makes an event site “good” and how have you gone about locating sites?
Good sites are dictated by plot and the event you are planning to throw on it. Tournament sites could be an open park, but questing sites require more. A few open areas. Navigable trails that can be fought on or set up with different props and wall dressings to make it look decent. If you’re doing a feast, you require a solid hall with easy access. No matter which one you do, you need acceptable parking so people have places to be. You can really work with just about anything. Water is nice to have. Access to bathrooms or porta potties is a necessity. To locate them, I usually have asked the community. In 27 years, I’ve never had to track one down on my own. People are a good resource.
8. Have you managed to maintain a balanced budget? Any advice for other event holders on doing that?
Yes. I have lost money at several events, but I don’t lose more than $300-400 dollars max. I usually keep it within a $100 max. Some advice I would give is to remember the minimum amount of people that can show up is 30. Multiply 30 by event cost and that should be your starting budget. The first thing you take out is the cost of the event site. If you have money left over from there, that’s your budget for everything else. If you have a budget in mind, divide it by 30 and that’s roughly what you’ll be charging per head.
9. What staff positions do you feel are essential to running your events and what do you do to help empower and support them?
Lead EH, Head NPC, MM. Those are the required ones for every event. Feastocrat if you’re doing food at your event and anything past snacks. Head Marshalls for tourneys. Head Marshalls are given carte blanche and I let them do their own thing. MM-…I usually do this myself. Head NPC is generally given an overall idea of what expectations are, plot setting, tone, and difficulty/challenge level and you can hand off the role if you have a solid one. Check in with them occasionally. Treat them with respect and know that they are competent in their position.
10. What advice do you have for other Event Holders?
Reach out for help to the rest of the EH community. Everybody has something to offer. If it’s your first event, try to get one of them on staff to help. The experience of having to do EHing can only be gained by trying to throw an event, but you shouldn’t try and do it alone. Also, remember when planning an event to look at the projected future of what’s going to be out there. Too much of one thing is not good for the game.
11. What can we look forward to seeing from you in the foreseeable future?
A lot more of the same. I run my events in a specific/particular way and people have fun with that. I will likely continue to throw this method until people don’t show up anymore or I find something that makes them have more fun. Expect more Exotic Wares plot, and maybe another adventure plot.