This page will serve as a simple guide for running events, but may expand into something greater depending on need.

Event Atmosphere

Keep in mind the overall narrative atmosphere must be maintained no matter the scale of the event. It's the World of Darkness. Humans aren't keenly aware of things that go bump in the night. For the majority that do, it's a waking nightmare.

With this in mind, events should be structured around what makes sense. Avoid ‘rule of cool’ situations. While massive explosives might be a fun trap to use, perhaps consider options that are less theatric and more practical towards *not murdering the event goers*. Tripwires, small improvised explosives; etc. Similarly, an event character pulling out a rocket launcher when more practical options are available just doesn’t make sense. Keep your stage hands & NPCs practically armed, and avoid creating an environment where players feel they HAVE to start 'left clicking until horizontal'. That's not to say combat focused events are forbidden, there should just be a focus on story-driven events more than anything.

Player Agency

A key facet of our world and systems is representing the agency of individual players. When creating events, it’s important to keep this in mind.

But what does agency mean?*

Player actions should have an impact on an event, and there should always be a way for them to figure it out and progress their and the ‘main’ storyline of the event.

For example; if you’re running an event with a sniper, there should be ways for the player to interact with them outside of getting shot. Perhaps you can leave shell casings as clues, reported sightings, or even a Channel 9 news helicopter spotting the baddie. Even if this example sniper NPC is important to the event line later on, if the players opt to kill them... let them! There's nothing worse than outsmarting your foe only to find out it's not convenient for the story-line if said foe dies. That's silly! Let 'em die.

Violence should also not just purely be random. Event characters should be motivated by something. It can be as simple as a fledgeling sloppily looking for food, a lupus-born looking for water, a shovelhead that strayed from its pack, etc. Violence for the sake of violence rarely makes entertaining storylines, so you should go into your event idea with motivations at the forefront of your writing process.

Character Impact

Events should present some form of impact. While they should rarely maim/kill people (unless they’re flagrantly not valuing their lives), it is our job to remind them that is a dark world out there.

Players should not always expect to win. It’s okay if players have to retreat from an encounter because they were not properly prepared. This is a dangerous world, and while they have influence over it, they are **not** the main character.

With this in mind, please remember to focus on crafting a realistic & immersive world. Make sure if you give a player an injury, it’s appropriate to the situation and amount of damage you want to cause. For example, it would be unrealistic for a player to survive a .50BMG to the chest, so you shouldn't have an NPC or storyteller shoot one directly at a player. There’s other ways to have them injured without putting them in a situation where they can't realistically survive the injury they take. Maybe it hit the cover they were hiding behind and shrapnel is what did the damage!

Event Characters and You

The primary goal for most spur-of-the-moment events is to blend as seamlessly into the world as possible to almost appear as a natural event rather than an interaction between players and staff members.

Remember that immersion and seamlessness is always the mission, so anything you can personally do for those two points is key. Refrain from teleporting or disappearing/appearing in view (unless of course it's say, a paranormal haunting). Try to avoid using LOOC as much as possible, and generally make sure you have everything you need before you get started to avoid any hiccups in the pacing of your events.

A good rule of thumb is, anything you need to say in LOOC can probably be described in a narration or a do verb.

Wounds and Consequences

At times, players will be wounded through the course of our events. It is not your place as Event Team to demand that they RP injuries or a persistent wound, and you, as the Event Director, are just overseeing the story. While there can be some flexibility, it is incredibly important to maintain consistency within the rules for the sake of our atmosphere.

If someone is powergaming, punish them narratively rather than debatelording them in LOOC about it; It’s important for us to define negligence, in this case, a few examples are provided below. It’s important to know some ‘negligence’ situations aren’t bad things at all, but moments where characters willingly sacrifice themselves knowing it may cause injury or worse. “Fuck around and find out” should be something you consider with this.

- John Roleplay throws himself on a grenade in order to prevent others from getting hurt. - Someone holds the door down while the others escape. Leading to them being inevitably overrun. - A player goes into a very dangerous area/event alone or strays from the group and dies

These are different from ‘true negligence’ situations such as: - A player has a gun trained on them from a close distance, and does an action which would cause the Event Director or their NPCs to fire. The player should be, at minimum, torpored by your shots. - Fleeing without any RP and/or abusing the rest button to get past the Event Director or their NPCs. This is grounds for immediate VV'd crit damage to be applied. - A player has, after returning from torpor or being revived in hospital, returned to continue fighting.

Ending someone's involvement in an event is not something to ever do lightly. It should only be in the most extreme cases of true negligence or something that is very clear the player is opting into.

Strongarming Narratives

We want to tell stories, and sometimes we need to guide our participants along a set path to get there. However, things do not always go according to said set path. Sometimes our party wanders off chasing down loose bits of side plot you didn't think to flesh out, or just give up half-way thinking the task/job complete. Let this happen.

Do not 'strong arm' them back onto the 'set narrative' if they veer off that path. Find ways to coax them back towards what the objective was if you must without breaking the atmosphere or directly forcing/instructing them. Be flexible! You may create an hour-long adventure for a party only for them to get sidetracked with finding artifacts along the way and completely abandon the rest of their journey, thinking it complete. That is still a win!

They were set upon a path and found an ending they enjoyed. You can recycle the rest of that story for another set of adventurers that come along- and then those two sets of adventurers may share the omens and tales of what led both parties along that path to begin with. Did they find the same cryptic map? Was the map left for them to find? They'll rack their brains about it endlessly and you've just accidentally created heaps of depth to a storyline you didn't even write. Bravo!

We create a consistent world atmosphere by being as invisible as possible. You should avoid having much of a presence outside of narrating an event during it. Avoid existing outside of invisibility when narrating and avoid speaking to them OOC as much as possible. Answer questions they may have about the scene by describing it in additional detail with your next local narration!

Keeping them guessing adds to the mystery and the 'horror' element of not knowing what comes next; not knowing is suspenseful. Consider every LOOC or OOC you type during an event as another crack in the atmosphere we're building.

Rewinding

Don't do it.

Scenes will continue from where they are. Your job is to narrate a story, and if the players deviate from that story, that's that. If they don't do something you like, or if the story/plot gets accidentally fast forwarded by a player finding a way around whatever obstacle, there are no go-backs. Narrate it like a good dungeon master would from there and be as minimally invasive out of character as possible!

When a scene ends, either planned or unplanned– be a good ghostly overlord! Be gone with a departing emote of some manner of 'the group feels as though whatever danger that remained ahead has passed, and their lives return to normal...' so they know the narrative has ended WITHOUT using LOOC. Even if they ask.

- The emote should be concise enough in clear language that it has reached a conclusion without breaking immersion/atmosphere.**

Event Running Guidelines

Squad Size

While the ‘default’ squad size is a maximum of 10, for events; considerations can be made to allow extras in. Don’t feel pressured! You can always tell them that it’s full. If you do feel comfortable handling more than a squad of 10, you’re welcome to do so.

Loot

For larger events, or events with multiple groups; instead of having them all compete for mechanical loot, have it divided per ‘squad’/group. This ensures everyone has a chance to get a reward, without the hassle and headache that comes with trying to compete over rewards. It's gone at the end of the round anyway, so don't sweat the balance of what their rewards are.

Remember to keep loot appropriate for the situation. You wouldn’t be finding loose rocket launchers in a swamp, but hunting equipment and boxed munitions are a possibility. Be sure to have the loot table already prepared so you aren't scrambling.