Event Think Tank

[Iceshard]

Got an Idea that you think would be great to see in an event? Let us know and you may see it or hear about it one night. Keep it extremely simply like a couple sentances at most and we can put our own spin on the general idea.

THIS IS OPEN TO THE PUBLIC FOR IDEA POOLING ONLY. PLEASE DO NOT COMMENT ON OTHERS POSTING.

DMs: Use this freely when ever you want, if you dont have an idea for an event to run one night, this could be something fun and useful.

-Ice

[atlas]

Events that are personal to a character involved, about his/her past etc and that leave a character changed in some way are cool.

[sen]

I would love to see some doppelgangers (don´t know what they´re called now) in action.

[DM blessedone]

Guild specific events would be kewl....

[madcomposer]

There could be a storyline dealing with the Zhetarim establishing a base on the Sword Coast.

A plague is supposed to go through Baldur's Gate sometime in 1351 DR.

The Warlock's Crypt is supposed to be discovered sometime soon (while the Warlock's Crypt is not on the server yet, an invasion of undead into the region, perhaps seeking artifacts from Candlekeep, could be just coincidental ).

Some more mundane ones:
Werewolf in distress: Alas! A fair maiden has been snatched up by an evil Blackguard, or at least it seems that way...

Black Unicorn: Peasants whisper about a strange beast being sighted in the woods, and it may not be entirely disjunct from the recent influx of Red Wizards...

Faerie Circle: A series of mishaps and tragic happenings have caused farmers to shy away from settling near the forest and has even driven a few out. Some say that fey creatures are at work...

Double-cross: A merchant has asked for protection from a cadre of adventurers weeks before arriving. Perhaps he is unduly worried about his merchandise, or maybe he knows something he's not telling...

You could always have important personages travel through the area needing protection.

Fight Club: need I say more?

[DM Cephas]

I recommend an event that spans a week while utilizing the forum posts to carry the adventure. For example:

Event: Retrieval of an artifact
day 1: a group escorts an artifact from BG to Bergerost. They get ambushed and the artifact is stolen
day 2: Merchant Guild hires adventurers to find/retrieve it. They find the ambushers and RP a way to get the location
day 3-5: Merchant Guild, Flaming Fists send personnel to find it. Thieves Guild, Red Wizzies, and Banites catch wind and also send groups to get it. Harpers catch wind of the bad guys wanting it and also sends some agents. Multiple skirmishes between the groups.
day 6: Final location found and BG's heroes win all

OR... just have a war between Fists an Iron Throne with groups siding with each. NPC's will fill in where PC's are lacking. Multiple day event filled with skirmishes.

[murdac]

As areas are getting improvements, we could use that as storyline base.

Bulletting message about temple hiring people to collect materials for various art works/ buildings, that are to be created as decorations/improvements, or to sabotage opposing dieties temples ( In case of evil gods).

Event could be spread to several sections that are doable by different people and when all pieces are collected you could held an " celebration seremony " for the supposedly created art work.

These events could also be " encouraged" by possible herald shouting for example " Here ye here ye, The church of ilmater is looking for kind hearted souls to help them repairing the church/altar before the coming winter/seremony" ect ..

Examples of temple related adventures

- New priest is gone missing, players need to find where he is or donations have been stolen/lost players have to get them back.
( always there is option to claim they failed and keep the gold , but its evil ect..) Example would be that young priest got chaced by goblin and dropped the donation box near river when he ran away, on schene adventurers find out that local goblin thief uses the coins as his personal decorative tools and so on.

- Raw materials, adventurers are hired by temple npc to collect ore from mine that is infested by monsters / or posessed by rare creature/ stolen by thief.

- Materials/ craft work, supposed to be bought by merchant on other town /harbor/forest section/wizard tower. Transaction depends on player skills ( apraise ect), possible banditry ambushes, or even attack on badly played negotiations. If its annouonced event, possible party pvp as rival church might try to intervene ( requires forum work I recon), if items are attained too bloody or too kindly, they might be rejected at temple.

- Desecration has occurred on temple, adventurers have to find who is guildy and what has occurred ( bit of detective event if Dm wants to create one, succes depends on charecter skills and player wits, aca succesfull roll gives right tips, failed one wrong ones, check numbers are not told), can go bad big time or right path depending on charecters.

Example : Statue in the temple of lathander has been smashed, along with window near by, bad detection can cause massive miss conseptions such as " Vandal tossed rock to window, and it hit the statue and it fell down, you go and look after possible mishevious kids in area, as you see some small foot prints on the ground" , and good detection would be something like : " Culprit broke in from window and pushed the statue down from its pedestal, he has to be fairly strong and tall, as there are some large poorly covered mud prints on ground outside the window".

From here on dm can have fun if players failed, for example having them to chase all kids in the block and get jobs on " I know who did it ! " goose chaces from "strighten that bully and I might tell ye" to playing tag, till they give up, or to bar brawls and tracking events to woods if they find real method of crime.

- Cult. Mysterious cult has appeared and temple is worried, you are to eliminate /investigate the cult activities and report to the temple. Example : there are rumors of cult that sacrefices lot of house pets for some unknown diety in forest clearing, party is to explore the site and report what they know, in this case they would find group of lost souls following a mad druid and end up fighting low level spell casters and some crazed animals, mostly cats and wolves.




Other ideas


I also personally like the ideas of "temptations " towards charecter, easy money is a good lure even for kind hearted.

Examples of "temptations"

Dm takes role of npc that is outright questionable or that asks for something illegal, and aproaches the party asking if they are interested about "small task" or "chance for profit".
This is where options kick in , here some examples.


- Rumors, seems like the npc knows some place where mysterious things have occurred, and apparently some very very very rich merchant went missing on that area, and their family is willing to pay thousands of golds for his /her return ( not). Adventurers venture to the cave/crypt, to found out they are about to be robbed /kidnapped /made sacrefice for some odd cult / made supper for vampire /best/intellegent spider that manipulated that contacter.

- Seems that tymora smiles on the party ! ( har har) Party is tempted by "fortune teller" that guarentees they will have good luck that day. Soon after they are invited to participate on some minor gambling with perfectly "legal" enviroment, where they are invited in a game of dice ( or gambling on pit fights).. and seem to win wee bit too much and people don't seem to like it. ( this event might drop some information about underground gambling network that can be used as major storyline , lawful people hunt and find evedence against and chaotic /evil will kill witnesses and destroy evedence)


- Smuggler ( that hides his identity) wants adveture party to deliver small package of " spices", to baldursgate harbour, he promices a decent gold on the delivery, depending on how the job goes he can doublecross/vanish without any pay as well.
Challenges : Flaming fist check point on city entrance, ( diplomacy check), possible rival assault, or player curiosity "Guys, why are there black flowers in this package..", or other buyer appearing offering players a better bargain ( meaning original gang will attack them more than likely), this can cause players to fight directly against law enforces ( and cause after murder depression for good people hehe)

- Thieft Righteous or good reasons. Man /woman asks adventurers to get pack something that was stolen from them buy absolutely evil /greedy person ( merchant,scholar, collector ect..). Or perhaps npc in candlekeep wants them to get pack tome that was loaned due special reasons and never returned. Talking is always an option, you can also bash things, but if you are too loud, guards might appear ^^

- Thieft Evil path would be as it is, theif needs help or party is tricked to steal something using cover story, from any merchant npc in game, dm npc or some created party in area ( For example they stole my family's farm deed and ran to woods ! please go get em, in reality they are the farm's family and client wishes you butcher em for the deed) Could be solved with pick pocketing and stealth ( for thief charecters).

- Seems like Jorn's ( I hope I remember it right^^) wolf killing business has gone too well, and Borl, the other farm hand in the area wishes to get rid of some his animals hoping to disquise it as wolf attack, but be aware, there apparently is an adventurer visiting him today.. ^^.

-tavern keeper wants to cut down business of other in by causing bar brawls in there, no weapons allowed! , can cause possible ban from some tavern ; )

- Merchant wants to make sure his rival doesn't undercut prices by cutting off his deliveries ( npc and player party aproach on both ends is possible, others defend others attack for example hostiles can be " masked" so they are not threated as criminals after), or threatening him ( Indimitade time ! if fails its guard bashing time, and do hope the merchant ain't the brave sort and call fist).

- Sabotage, all forms of destruction of property for lessions to others ( possibly even at temples for dieties or favor for particular god if they worship evil ones) , or defending property ( npc cheats players to defend warehouse full of smuggled goods for example against possible npc adventure party that is hired to return them, or bribes em to do that if they are greedy).

- Entertaiment/fame Player is asked to entertain some person / group, if his skills are suitable. For example bard may end up having to perform in bizarre drunk filled back room where rich people use illegal herbs to fill their fantasies and get in to trouble. A fighter could be asked to a boxing match / death fights for fame. A mage can be challenged to a magic duel, or asked to perform "minor magical tricks", that end up being rather messy magical ritual ect... Basicly idea is to use charecter abilities as base for possible situation where they could use their skills to amuse people... and then things go bad.


Enforcing the law & city related adventures

- Guard duty, players are hired to defend shop /manor/travern/ gate/npc for perioud of time. Dm then does some random events to distrup them from that task for example :
Oh look its a fire ! hey whats that shadowy thing trying to sneap past you ...
My my, merchant forgot to mention he had skipped his protection money payment for local gang....
Comely wench wants to bring ale for handsome guard.. nothing can be wrong can it ?
What on earth are those wagons being pushed about at 3am ?
oh dear god, drunk person with apparently loaded vomit gun coming this way.. can players solve this without blood ?
ect.. ect..

- Patrolling, players /player are hired to check few spots for possible problems, problems can vary from loud people, loittering to robbing on prosess and even if dm is on the mood, odd werewolf/moster sighting.

- Escort duty, the usual players escort someone from place a to place. However there might be distractions on the way that are caused by person's rivals or if npc is criminal his colleques that try to resque him/her. Or even assassination attempt during camping / monster attack that has to be detected to be warded ( I talk about the kind where someone is sneaking to do stabbity action on npc)

- Detective work. Murder has occurred and price is give to anyone who solves it, local guard doesn't seem to be too friendly about tips though. Players can use their wits ( char ability rolls) to map events and if they are dumpfounded they can do rolls for extra clues from dm. These kind of things can escallate from day's long conspirasies and violence to simple family brawls.

- Trial and witness. Player witnesses a murder and is asked to be a witness for a trial ( that occurs fast or later depends on dm and player), however the murderer doesn't like the fact he has been found out and he hires people to kill the player. If player dies quest fails, if he destifies it succeeds.

- Constructions and crafting. Like temples, towns might need players to create items or look for materials and workers all arround sword coast, If players are skilled in arts ( perform, craft weapon and armor, apraising, alchemy..) they can be hired as "workers", to do something that requires several crafting checks, or they can negotiate bargains from material dealers. These are basicly small things that allow side professions for charecter backgrounds and some non combat related game play with dm rewarded exp / pay.

Example would be that a skilled Armor maker ( armor crafting about 12+) is given five plate mail mods and required metals, then asked to create five armors for guard post in beregost, when player finishes the armor, he gets small contract fee and some others players can be easked to deliver them to beregost. Skilled artist ( bard with perform over 14) could be asked to help to design a statue, he has to make several checks and visually describe what he does to complete the event for small pay. These are light single person event examples, that can add light rp for player and possible means to kill time for dm on less croweded days.

Thats it for now, will write more later on when I got time.

[astralwyvern]

Quest events for crafting related materials. ^^^ I would utilize the IG bulletin board (in the Elfsong) to accomplish a list of things needed. I think many other events could be enhanced from reading the BB.

[broham2]

A couple...

Larger ideas:

'Field Tournament' - This would be a large event. While there couldnt be jousting, there could be many other events..
a)archery
b)sword & shield
c)two handed weapons
d)two weapon fighting
e)magic competition of some sort (love the mage fair stories)

'Reclaimation of Mines' - We need a good dwarven mine on the server (if there isnt one already - im low-ish level so I havent seen it all). A good way to introduce one would be to host an event wherein the adventurers are asked to help reclaim from duergar/drow/orcs or whatever. Realmslore is rife with these sorts of quests, why not have our own? It'd be a nice starting spot for the dwarves, and give us somewhere to mine our ore for crafting later on...

Smaller Events:

Malar Hunt - A group of Malarites have been holding their hunt (not sure of the name here at work, but its canon) in the Sharpteeth or the Cloakwood. The hapless adventurers are their prey. This would be good for a smaller group.. maybe 2-3 characters. Beasts, and then barbarians/priests could round it out. Is there a hunting horn sound effect?

Escorting a VIP - Perhaps a VIP needs to travel to Beregost or Candlekeep, but doesn't want to draw attention by traveling with a retinue of Fists.. the PCs are asked to assist, yet somehow words must have leaked.. they are attacked on the way by bandits or worse.

A small thieves operation has been located in one of the cities.. the PCs are asked to raid the location and destroy the band before they take hold. After the hideout has been destroyed they learn that those asking for help werent really the guards after all..... or it leads to an ongoing enemy.

Speaking of which, a recurring enemy for a group of PCs would be nice. Nothing too annoying or drawn out but it would add some consistency and persistence to the world...

If anyone has a quick dungeon area they can port us into, perhaps a place was found below the streets while constructing a building, the PCs are asked to inspect it by the builder prior to them completing the build. A quick dungeon crawl with traps and what not.

I'll come up with more some time.....

[tapemeasure]

You could go throuch WotC's site and look at some of the old school modules they have: White Plume Mountain, The Temple of Elemental Evil, etc.

Half teh work is done for you. All you need is a creative mind or three to develop it.

[DM blessedone]

Perhaps, if this is not already in the works, bring the DM's together on one sheet of music for events in the PW as a whole. Large scale, drawn out campaigns (not one nighters) where most, if not all, of the DM team has a part on when they chime in during the campaign is what I see. Right now, there are a multitude of various events that are run on nearly a daily basis, that, as far as I know, have no relation to one another. I have no problem with that. Still, I would love to see them intertwine with one another in a series of complex workings from the various DM's creating one complex campaign where all of the DM's are involved with their own piece of pie! Evil PC's could have their part, Good guys could have their part and NPC's/Guilds/Holy Orders and so on, could have their own part all together as part of one large story. Now that, no matter what the series of events was, would involve most PC's (LG all the way to CE), keep the DM's killing...errr....having fun running events as a team and a big story would be unfolding for all!!

Now, in order for this to be executed in a orginanized manner, the DM's would have to work well with one another and be on the same sheet of music first and foremost. Next, pick one Head DM to come up with a general Campaign and then let the rest come up with their part of the event and then figure a way to tie it all together in a decently flowing manner. This leaves creativity up to each DM with their own flavor and style. Now, each DM would have to post up his part in a quick write up after the event according to the schedule. This way, if someone had to leave in the middle of the thing, they could 'hear rumors' of what happened and jump back in the main campaign with the next event and continue in the story line if they choose. The obvious hole in the plan here is this..."Not everyone can make it to a scheduled event!" True, which is why we have different DM's doing different parts of the Campaign because there is always a different DM online at different times....."What if a DM cannot make it to run his event or we loose a DM all together?" Well, that is why the team will have to be on one sheet of music as a whole. Another can jump in and keep the story alive because all will know what the big plan is or just cut that part out and plug something else in and continue on! Next, when this campaign is done, switch up the head DM for the next campaign and start again! *rubbing his greedy little hands together* Soon, you have a well oiled Campaign Running Machine and the PW just became a real world that will rule NWN2 PW's! *input evil laugh here* Just my two cents is all....

[DM Sir Carnifex]

Nice idea, but...

I can't remember the last time more than two of us DMs were ever on the same page! ;D

[DM blessedone]

Nov 19, 2008 23:56:41 GMT -5 DM Sir Carnifex said:

Nice idea, but...

I can't remember the last time more than two of us DMs were ever on the same page! ;D

Yes, then the idea is just that...an idea unless all can come together for a common idea and a potentially awesome purpose. This would be a great time to put aside any differences one may have and come together as a team. There is a wealth of knowledge and creativity in the group of DM's present and anyone who has been here for any time knows this. This method would allow each DM to put his own creativity and knowldege to use as long as they followed the Head DM in terms of where they wanted the Campaign to go. I say they will need to follow because, they will eventually be that Head DM and will need the cooperation of others as well when it is their turn to run a Campaign.....

Perhaps run something VERY cliche at first to get a handle on how you wish to work it all out for the future campaigns and how to create a rotation of Head DM for that particular Campaign. 8 DM's sounds like each is assigned a number and then let the D8 rolls begin until all are done....Rotation Voila!

Now, I do not mean to step on any toes here with this idea or make peeps think that it is not kewl with how they do their thing, it is just something I was thinking about today and thought I would share it with all........

[DM Cephas]

But I happen not to like SirC. I don't want to put aside my differences with him. LOL.

Thanks for the ideas and I think it'd be cool too. We're slowly coming together so don't worry, it'll happen. There are a few multi-event plot lines in progress and I for one am planning to intertwine them a little with others. It will just take some communication which we all are starting to get more used to.

Great input

[tapemeasure]

On the topic of intertwining plot lines, I had an idea that I ran on a Play-by-Post server called The Giant. There are three of them (see below), but they all correlate back to the same plot line of evil finally winning over good ("because Good is stupid"). The three plot lines follow the basic Good, Neutral,and Evil schemes allowing for the Neutral group to, at the end of it all, pick their sides.

The Good: Adventurer's needed went hunting for an ancient Dwarven Citadel and found much more than they bargained for. But you don't have to take my word for it [/lavar burton impression].

The Neutral: Treasure Hunters Finding a mysterious note next to head when you wake is scary enough, thinking it a good idea to follow is off-the-chart-stupid. But hey, that's why we like PC's right? This group is convinced (for many reasons) to help an eccentric half elf into searching for the famous orbs of Dragonkind.

The Evil: Underdark Uprising...i think the title sums it up, eh? This group is gathered by HBIC (I'll not type this for the kids reading along) and sent into the wild to uncover artifacts that used to open the gate to Amadeus'' front door. Can't imagine why a Drow High Priestess would want to do that....?[/sarcasm]


The real fundamental idea here is that the Half-elf discussed above gets the orbs, screws those who oppose him (including the drow), opens the gates and really makes life a little less-than-desired-for for the people of the world for a very long time. Eventually there is a coupe, and the world goes back to a balanced equilibrium. Don't worry kids.

Unfortunately, the threads never developed that far. Those of you who have played on a Play-by-Post know what I elude to here.

But, I would love to see this played out here, in "live and in person." If it sounds super, I certainly would not mind helping in the process wherever I can. I didn't post a lot about it, yes. But hopefully, it entices you to want to check it out. Hopefully the threads still work properly and you can navigate to all the In Character threads to get what story was brought out (they also are on V-Boards, but they have updated to the newer, not-so-great software).

Anyhow...just thoughts....
-TM

Edit: I realize that there are few things (names, places, et.) that will need to get "transferred" to the Forgotten Realms Lore, but that shouldn't be terrible to accomplish.

Also, please ignore the typos. They didn't have the nifty spell checker when I started there. The 'TM' refers to me as Typo Master. ;D