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The Bold Blue: A Retrospective


ronin_champloo
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The Bold Blue: A Retrospective

 

 

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Total Events of Bold Blue: 17~

There ends the second ‘Blue’ eventline. I hope all the groups that interacted with it had fun from what was an event that was conjured up primarily from other players – being a creation amidst a ritual. While the prior Big Blue eventline was done with me wanting to research how to make an enjoyable, fair – yet difficult – event, this was focused on maintaining player retention and focus during what would appear to be an unwinnable event.

 

These are my findings for other ST, or event-makers, to use:

- Replacing the system of Death Saves, I used a new system called ‘Heroic Actions’ where one could do an action with 100% success-rate. These, however, were limited and could either be used to defend others or deal damage in a specific area hence the ‘Heroic’ name. I found that these were primarily used for offensive action, with a few used to guide event NPCs with a few used to save themselves. A trick that I did, this time however, was that there was a limited account. And I wouldn’t tell them how many they had left. They wouldn’t be allowed to notify each other if they used it either, which turned out to be rather interesting! Some groups burned through them, others used them as little as possible which was shocking, leading to some mishaps where players almost died due to luck no longer favoring them. Nonetheless, they were free to use them to save themselves or gamble for a better chance to defeat the monster.

 

- I tried out a bunch of systems in this event. What I chose to do was prioritize senses, clues and whatnot for the players; allowing for everyone to have an equal chance of participation. Sometimes they’ll garner details and clues that are only shown to them, and other times, I’d emote a thought conjuring itself in their head for further inspection. What was hilarious though was that only 25% of these clues were communicated to the rest of the group, with most of the information hoarded by themselves. This, however, allowed preparation and research to flourish which I was very happy about.

 

- The introduction of event NPCs was something that I’ve planned for a bunch of time, with a group of Hunters stalking the monster. This is what I mainly used to maintain player retention with the others during the hunt, allowing further communication, preparation and research to develop. It was also a good way of giving information and clues to the beast. I really enjoyed this system since it allowed me to have a plot and narrative behind the Hunt as a main failure of every ‘monster event’ is that it’s so closed off. A monster dies, then what? Nothing. There’s no continuity, and it feels more like an ‘event’ rather than a broad narrative that affects the area around it. Nonetheless, it allowed for the players to garner forth an actual bond to the event rather than seeing it as just another ‘pixel-hunt’.

 

- As for preparation, I experienced the ‘Spikes’ to allow people to speculate and figure out the properties of The Bold Blue without dedicating hours of their time for a combative event where they could perish. These environmental set-pieces allowed for scouts, alchemists and people not inclined in CRP to shine as they figured out how The Bold Blue fought, its base abilities, etc. I really enjoyed this part of the event as it was fun to see people schizo over the properties, figuring out how to weaken and defeat it. Once again, it allowed for retention of the event to continue; with tons of ‘mini-events’ occurring as the players experienced the piece.

 

- As for difficulty, yet again, we're all here to have a good time and prepping  a day to be slain in 2-3 emotes is so punishing. Don't be afraid to kill, but make it fair. There's always someone behind the screen, remember that. 

 

- While this is something that I didn’t really use a bunch, what I wanted to experiment with was sound clues. Using the /sound plugin, I used it to deliver sound in a way to immersively give information to people, with the main one – before The Bold Blue settled in Yong Ping – being to dictate where the beast was. This worked on some ends, other times, the players couldn’t really figure it out. Another clue that I had was that the beast would roar before every attack, and the few who did figure it out, found a way to bait attacks to their advantage which I was very proud about; nonetheless, there is always something incredibly satisfying at seeing the group figure out the clues, and use it to their own advantage.

 

- Yet another thing that I used in the early parts of The Bold Blue was the constant ‘revolving’ event-site, with the beast constantly moving around Almaris. This kinda seemed like Where’s Waldo, and the event-site stayed in an area for [1] week at the most. While it was fun to see the players explore and delve around the map, all it regularly turned into was a guy on a horse running around Almaris for a few hours, rather than the natural stumbling on an event-site that I so wished. To help this, I decided to post a screenshot of where the Beast currently was at a time, which helped for a while but failed due to scheduling, time zones, etc.. which made the beast stay in some areas longer than others. Nonetheless, it was an interesting system that needed more refining before actually using it, hence why the beast finally stopped at Yong Ping.

 

Systems Used:

- Stealth (For scouting and exploring)

 

Every action built up a number, and as it reached a certain number, they’d be caught.

 

Etc, running = 2. Walking = 1

When it reached 10, they’d be caught by the Beast and battle would commence.

 

This was an interesting way to keep numbers down for scouting missions, with the more players, they’d be able to potentially receive more information.. however they’d also be more prone to danger.

 

- Heroic Actions

 

Actions with a 100% success-rate. These are limited, and players do not know when their luck ran out.

 

- Information and Hints

 

Information and clues would be given to players in #w and #q, depending on their current position and direction (where they’d be looking at.)

 

- Active Events

 

Events within the area that continued for a day, before finishing out, allowed players to interact with the event if they had the time, stumbling on it naturally rather than being provoked by a discord ping. I really liked this!

 

- Event NPCs

 

Allowed for more interactions and focus on the Event, rather than allow interest to fade, it made players interact with it amidst hunts and during off time. What was super interesting was the players didn't treat them as NPCs, but rather actual people. Glad to see : )

 

Bloopers and everything behind the scenes:

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If anyone’s curious, here is how The Bold Blue operated, and every weakness that it had!

 

Closing Thoughts:

While I did get burnt out in the middle of it for doing a bunch of events, I found that I actually really enjoyed this eventline. It was interesting and allowed me to gather information like before. If there was anything that I’d fix, I reckon I’d.. focus more on the ‘moving event-site’ idea that I had which is already in the works : )

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okay but how did running the event on your own with two accounts go? would you do it again? :P

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Very fun event, thank you for the opportunity of letting me put the boar to good use and let a bunch of people use it

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1 minute ago, Valannor said:

okay but how did running the event on your own with two accounts go? would you do it again? :P

 

Honestly, it was something that helped running the event a bunch. I could keep track of emotes, and play the NPCs with one account while using the other account to WE and shift around the monster, while doing environmental emotes. I'd highly recommend doing events like just to help with immersion and having an 'extra' hand to help around with stuff!

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Although i never actually got to go to the main bold blue events I think that more events if not all should use the kind of rules that you put in place. The one scouting event i did go to was great and i loved the use of the fourth fleet npcs. 

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