Shattered Kingdoms

What have been your favorite organized events in SK?
What have been your favorite organized bonanzas in SK?
What have been your favorite organized roleplays in SK?
Why?

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What is your favorite PvE environment in SK?
What is your favorite type of solo-PvE activity in SK?
What is your favorite type of group-PvE activity in SK?
Why?

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What kind of organized DM'ing would you want to see in SK?
What would you like to see more of in PvE activity?

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I've been thinking about game opportunities on SK when you're not in PK, not in RP, and not actively grind-levelling. What do YOU do when you're PvE gaming? What would you like to do more of? Without requiring code changes, what types of new game campaign opportunities would you like to see in SK?

I think more small scale stuff would be great for DM'ing. This could even be stuff for low or mid-level characters to do instead of the same old leveling. You could do impromptu stuff if you see a few characters of the right level range on at the same time. It wouldn't have to be anything special and could even use existing NPCs and objects, like a special one-time quest. For high level players, a quest that takes a few hours and a trip to a dangerous place to complete could be something fun and different.

Some of this could result in tiny expansions to the world to make it seem less static. Like one or two new rooms, or a new monster, a new item that reset somewhere, or even an obsolete item or room or monster getting removed. Nothing particularly special or advantageous, just new and different.

For PvE, I would like some more high level zones to give GMs more activities, since for most characters they spend most of their lifetime as GMs. Not necessarily hard stuff that requires a big group and has elite equipment, but just some new areas for high level characters with high level stuff they can get. Yeah, that's a big ask, but it's Yiggmas! This is my PvE Yiggmas wish. New areas. Thanks for asking!

Favorite organized events/bonanzas/RPs- yours.

Why?

Because they work with the game environment and evolve it in slow, semi-permanent ways. I'm usually not interested by 'spectator' and 'party' events/bonanzas/RPs in which some fireworks are shot off, an 'event' is hosted in the in-game sense, such as a storytelling rap battle or a portal stone scavenger hunt, and then the game world goes back to normal. It's like watching one of those sitcoms or TV shows where everything goes back to normal at the end.

I'd just much rather read the Tolkien or Game of Thrones series. I'd much rather see the development of a long and large story through small steps which engage the characters with their game world.

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My favorite PvE environment is the one where:

1. Cyclical arcade shooter PK, with weak RP 'backdrop' but no real development of any RP, which culminates in-

2. Sniping (locate object, gate, summon, scry, voodoo) and
3. CRS

Combined with-

4. Imm patron oversight which allows a 'burdensome snowflake on the rest of us' to lead the Fist, despite this snowflake not having the alignment or ideals that represent the organization, whose alignment and ideals allow them to kick out people who -do- have the organization's alignment and ideals, who currently holds the all time record for most people driven out of an organization by its leader according to my long but not exhaustive memory of SK.

-prevents my character from engaging in any PvE, even though that was mostly what I would have liked to do with him to begin with.

I just made the mistake of getting involved in unique situation, event sponsored RPK and thinking that it wouldn't lead to peso-era arcade PK, but without the dignified aversion to sniping and CRS, the willingness to negotiate mutual no j-looting, and the character strength which peso's arcade shooter war brought to the game.

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What kind of organized DMing? More of the same, multiple 'evolving game environment' stories, and also spontaneous animation of the game environment, spontaneous quests, etc. Pretty much, that thing which you and you only already do.

I think that you guys need a way to give exp rewards that doesn't tick people towards PAR. I once sent a midbie to buy me peridot gems from Exile, since I was wanted there at the time. When he came back, I kind of wanted to trigger -you gain a great deal of worthwhile experience- but not -you have received enlightenment from the Gods!-

I also think that Lumiere should have been given three to five levels worth of experience for attacking Alira and Turcyn (both champion or GM) while he was Expert, killing Alira, and making Turcyn run off. They're both permanoobs, but still, I think that what I did was more awesome than grinding in the Chancel and that imms and PARs should have a mechanism to give me massive quantities of exp just for doing difficult things in the game world.

The question of evaluating organized events is an interesting one, because SK is a persistent roleplaying environment. Framing organized events like sessions of a traditional tabletop game assumes factors, such as that of a captive audience, that aren't really necessarily part of the SK landscape. Some systems provide interesting frameworks for GM involvement, particularly the relatively new system of intrusion in Monte Cook's Numenara system. If we consider gameplay from a performance standpoint, looking at spontaneously organized events as instructive opportunities could also be enlightening. Several metagame challenges for enticing participation have manifested in the past, and considering these challenges in a holistic light might provide ideas for presenting a path to engagement that entices a more diverse cast of characters.

Let's talk gently about the current situation. To my knowledge, every broad-sweeping "tweak the map" series of any immortal's SK GRP has in some way, to quite Hume, fallen "stillborne from his brain" owing to availability challenges that are no one's flaw to have had. To my knowledge, SK had 8-9 bonanzas in 2014 depending on how you're counting, with anywhere from 0-7 events each. Nearly every bonanza had an event which had to be postponed or failed to net sufficient participants. I haven't recorded accurate enough data to draw conclusions, but I think a pattern would emerge if we classified each bonanza event and looked for group differences in percent successful implementation with an analysis of variance.

Does the pantheon have aggregate login and attendance data for bonanza events? There should be sufficient data, if logs are available, for some very informative program evaluation. That would probably be more useful than the non-representative sampling we'll get with self-reported open-ended data here on the forums.

If I were to offer any qualitative evaluation, I think I would say that 2014 represented a year of constructive experimentation by the pantheon with its events in spite of the challenges presented by a great deal of turnover. We've seen things range along many spectrums: from the player-sourced Tumble in the Timbers event to the staff-chaperoned Temple of Murder tour, from the short-term Festival of the Bean to the more long-term Masked Woman events, from the distinctly PVE Perplexion Challenges to the acutely RP-PVP Tree Rot storyline, to say nothing of the countless small moments of immortal facilitation, there have been events that capture a wide range of playstyles and levels of engagement. There has been, just about, something for everyone this year. That is probably one of the best traits to celebrate and attempt to replicate going forward.

Truthfully, I've never been around for any of the really big, slowly evolving events. I was around for part of the Leviathan storyline, but didn't get to see it culminate. Same for the twagras and the Mrraoli events. I can't remember in most cases if it was bad luck (I think so) or if the plot just stretched and thickened too many times.

I remember Gaal's death rp where he brought the flood on Teron, that was my first big event and I loved it. I roleplayed the ish out of that and eventually, got to play a part in solving it. That was definitely enjoyable, to see the progression there.

That isn't to say, like Lumiere said, that I don't enjoy the display-type events like fireworks and stuff also. I like to watch everybody gather and see how they react and deal with each other.

The Hero Tournaments, the ones with actual events - not the belts - those were fun.

I really, really, enjoy the random interactions while exploring or chilling in the inn. But I can't count the number of times I've had an imm messing with a group I'm in and everybody just ignored them. sry whoever you were. :<

I guess that doesn't really help, to just say, "I like it all" but I do. With the right mentality, and the right person(s) behind the wheel, the type of event doesn't matter as much. I say do what you feel comfortable with, because while I can't identify the best times, the worst times are without a doubt when it starts to feel forced. I can think of a few of those.

I've been enjoying watching a couple of these storylines floating around recently, but they could be a little more inclusive I guess. I don't really understand what's going on in those and it seems like they might've stalled, but I get the feeling that might be because of the holidays.

Definitely not the place for all that complaining.

The fact that you seem to think a lack of cabal abilities means you can't PvE speaks pretty loudly to a serious L2P issue. I led an Iron Citadel run on my elven swashbuckler after she was no longer Hammer, and we all know swashies are terrible.

Was your elf mercenary specced in hammer of light?

The locate object sniping really has more to do with it than a lack of cabal abilities. You're right, though, this thread isn't really a place for a long exploration of 'why' my character hasn't really been involved in a lot of PvE. Suffice it to say that he hasn't been able to involve himself in a lot of PvE, so I'm unable to really comment on that aspect of the game.

I said swashbuckler.

Pro tip : Grab a rapier/epee/sai, get a shield, throw on some enchanted adamantite/diamond, get buffs.

Woah, you can tank without spec.

You should try bemoaning your fate a little less until you're willing to put in effort beyond wearing unenchanted sacred (that isn't even Addy) and store bought jewelry mods.

Let's please keep this thread on topic.

I'm just looking for honest feedback to help myself discern where to focus my time & efforts in the coming year.