What we do
Overview
These are short articles written by crew members about what they do during, or between, events. Originally written for Facebook, they maintain the same sort of informal tone found in the more game-design oriented essays you can find here.
Running Plot at Empire
- Writing after the Autumn Equinox event 2018, Dave Kibblewhite talks about what his event entails as a plot writer and egregore.
Got there on the Thursday, needing to replace shock cord in a tent pole before I could put it up. Nearly gave up and then realised that my tent does in fact contain two poles that are identical once assembled but made up of slightly different components. Very confusing. Once I had pitched the tent in order to make sure the award-winning Clare Evans had somewhere to comfortably sleep, my primary role at PD was out of the way and I could get on with other stuff.
We had some food from Obanzai and it was so amazing that I resolved to eat all my non-breakfast meals there for the weekend, which I did with no regrets. We did our new player social, which a few people showed up to. When it got chilly I went and put thermals on under my clothes. This made a big difference and I basically did that for the rest of the weekend. Definitely a top self-care tip. We hung out with the orcs a bit, I failed to locate Alexis Celnik and eventually gave up on the tavern because I wasn't really feeling it and went to bed.
On Friday I spent the morning checking in with makeup, costume, set dressing etc in an attempt to minimise the amount of surprises I'd drop on them later, then got my camping furniture over to the Varushka camp ready for the IC tent once it was up. We had the first new player meeting at 2 and I dished out some briefs to egregores. Sadly I had to dash off before the end as it started raining and I was conscious my stuff was in a pile in the Varushka camp. Consequently I missed chatting to new Varushka players at that point.
At that point the tent was up, so I stood staring at a pile of fabric while my brain switched off and played cartoons in my head for a while before getting Emmanuel Goldstein and Simon Manby to give me a hand set dressing it . Then I located a bag full of random pieces of wood and arranged someone to drill holes in them because that's what my life is like.
By that time I was into my window for getting my costume on and weapons checked before getting over to the hall of worlds for the intro to magic session I do with Martyn Sullivan and Emmanuel Goldstein. Attendance was not great so we obviously need better PR, but if the players who did show up go into time-in confident to jump into the magic game rather than standing on the sidelines then I still say it's worth it.
Then I got over to Varushka almost for time in, greeted the new people at the hearth, did a bit of chatting, then went to support the IC weapons training. By the time that was done it was basically time for me to get back and brief Taz Magpye's storyteller who had stepped in to replace an absent and crew member and hadn't therefore had time to absorb what was quite a complex brief. Left the IC stuff to the infinitely capable Si Childs.
It was then approaching time for my first tent quest of the weekend, so I checked in on the set build, made sure it was looking as I wanted, and I knew how to make my sounds play with Ian Horne Cattes and Jess (can't tag). Made sure my NPC was briefed, happy and looking good. Got players and chucked them in. Good atmospheric encounter with some imperial orcs where they tried to do some riddles and stuff while I freaked them out by occasionally blaring a DRAMATIC sounding Anna Alexandria Reid through the PA. They took the item they were meant to take, appeared very engaged with the story and I sent them away smiling, so that was great.
Came back to find the storyteller npc a bit panicky and needing clarification on some bits of the brief, which I think we resolved and got her happy and back out. Chilled out backstage for a bit, then went out IC for a while, where I didn't do much except be a wallflower at the empress/wise one pre-marital questioning. Went to bed at time out.
Saturday was my big plot day. First I got the ribbons for Taz Magpye's random bits of wood plot attached and distributed, mostly at the morning, pre time-in player support meeting. This plot was super successful at getting people engaged and required very little effort to run out from plot (although a bunch from field refs though I guess).
I had set the morning aside to battle, but I didn't trust my ankle if I had to run so instead I painted myself silver and went to play an Autumn realm jeweler for Wrenna Robson. Enjoyed doing some trades for very specific denominations of coinage. Did horribly disappoint one player through my first-come first-served policy, but being beaten to the deal is the nature of the Autumn realm I guess. Never quite got the silver paint all off all weekend.
At that point I checked in with the NPCs for my three Anvil based encounters (these people had already been sent their briefs before the event) to answer any questions. I collected and attached ribbons to the weapon physreps I'd brought as one of them was a peddler for the Varushkan market. Also found an orb physrep and a way to ribbon that (hot glue gun). Threw all this in a bag I got from the prop boxes along with something another plot writer added to the encounter and made sure the NPC knew where it was since I wouldn't be there when she went out. Lastly, made sure the 70 beautiful potion physreps Beck Hemsley made for my potion trader were available for that npc. These were new potion types that Matt and Andy were yet to sort lammies for although I'd been assured they would be ready in time. I poked my head into their office, noted a post-it in front of Andy's desk reading "Dave drugs" and declined to bother them further.
Checked in on the "inside of giant monster" set (thank you Mark Nichols, Heather M Clayton etc, then went to the orc camp where I had been asked to support what was already a very cool scene starring Steph Morris and Mike Kilburn. Matt Couldridge came with me to set off some smoke while the players threw a lot of expensive hallucinogens around, then I played the 3.5 minutes or so of audio I'd mixed. I think a lot of people were actually pretty blown away by Matt Notcutt's ominous intro, Emma Rowden's supervillain monologue and the minute or so of visceral stabbing sounds. Then I chased an orc around with a speaker shouting at him in Anna Alexandria Reid's voice some more and told them when their quest was.
Then I pegged it back to the encounter tents to make sure the set was ready to go, grabbed a surgical kit with actual sharp things, and got the players for my "autopsy from the inside" quest. Players proceeded to destroy the set and props, I told them some hopefully interesting stuff and sent them on their way. They got extremely sticky and the encounter involved a lot of "EEEWWWW THIS IS VILE!". Conjunction caused some confusion because I'd moved it to accommodate the aforementioned player-organised scene and not informed the refs in case they needed to rely on paper timetables, so that was my bad.
Went out with the skirmish crew then to do the imperial orc ancestor pilgrimage (whole nation encounter in the woods). Skirmish knocked it out of the park in the end, but I learned some important stuff about how to split up a complex brief for a large group. In addition I think the orcs might be able to take a bit more railroading and stage management than a lot of our players, and it was clear to everyone involved that the whole thing would have been better in the dark. That said, it all went pretty well.
Sat down for food then set to work getting the Varushkan "make evil bargain with creature whilst inside other creature" quest ready. Taz Magpye showed up to help and the whole thing went very smoothly. Got the players and brought them down. Sadly Sam Wainwright had some health issues just before getting to the encounter so we sat down for a while while I looked after her and cheered her up then walked her back to her friends. She should absolutely not feel bad about this, any more so than if her ankle had broken or a meteorite had landed on her. Got back to the end of the encounter to find they'd used some headology and bypassed a lot of dilemmas by simply hacking off the hostage's arm at the shoulder and dragging them back through the sentinel gate spraying arterial blood around, so I think we're proud of our players for that one.
Then spent a while getting ready for the past life vision I'd written. Never done one of these before so it was a lot of pressure, plus I'd opted to do it outside, have multiple scenes, and NPC it from the skirmish team plus the rogue element Matthew Pennington, none of which is normal for these encounters. I feel I may not have done the PLV team's heart rate any good, but everyone involved came together to make what I think was a really powerful scene that I hope the player will remember for a long time.
That done, I rushed off to the Wintermark camp with my NPCs and pyro person to do Kallavesi vision time, which on this occasion was two NPCs miming in a tent full of very thick smoke with me as an IC narrator. It was lovely to hear Harry Morris in her element encouraging the players to take it seriously, and I've realised I can now recognise the sound of forty potion lammies being ripped simultaneously (it sounds like player engagement).
Got back to monster, got some paperwork associated with the PLV sorted, then went to chill out IC and heard some lovely singing. Thought about going straight to bed but instead stayed up with the cool kids in monster. This was an incredibly good decision because not only did I have a good laugh, but I met someone who is going to provide tremendous technical help with Fairyland next year.
On Sunday I actually just played my egregore character, including accompanying Si Childs while we tried to by him a goat (thank you for playing, Felix's Watch). Then spotted an important plot point which had been missed, and resolved it by quickly getting a ribbon sorted and dressing the closest person, Erin Catherine Marsh, as a zombie. After time out the rest of the day/night was remarkable only because I actually spent time with Clare, and that a number of us spent quite some time being relentlessly cruel to David Henderson, who is utterly deserving of the treatment he got.
A busy event, but super rewarding. Really feel like I have learned a lot this year. Which is good, because Clare and I are running our first event next year and in many ways it is a bit ambitious.