Lox Ponders: Kidnapped 5?

[Loxmardin]

As a result of some scattered Skype conversations yesterday, I've come to feel inspired to throw another Kidnapped event sometime in the near future. The last one, while people seemed to enjoy the RP they got out of it, came out a fiasco in more than one way. Many mistakes were made and I've certainly learnt from them for the next round. I hope.

If I am to run another one, though, I'd want some more feedback and pointers. I'll likely be opening myself up a bit to working alongside others this time around so I don't pull the entire weight on my own (intrigue-writers, NPC puppetteers), but that'll have to come later.

First of all; Would people like to see another one of these bad guys? I know the last one had an insane attendance and I believe it's the single thread in Event Planning with the most views and replies. But, that said, is there an interest for another?

• What did you enjoy about the other events in the chain? (Kidnapped 1 through 4.)
  Did you like one more than the other? Why?
  Is there anything you'd like to see that hasn't quite been delivered yet?

To give a quick recap of the four different events so far;

• Kidnapped 1: Alcaz Island (So long ago the thread's not even available anymore!) - This was the first major event I ever held. We utilized Alcaz Island and holed the prisoners up in the dungeon underground. There were many, many (manymanymany) riots, to the point of it being almost silly, and a very buzzkill ending. Faceless never really did make an appearence, past a few NPCs guarding the area being named "Faceless".
  
  Kidnapped 2: Ruins of Alterac - This is the one I'm the most happy with, personally. We holed ourselves up in the Ruins of Alterac, the kidnappers had a Captain, there was a constant pressure between the captives and the kidnappers as well as internal struggles and the environment was, in short, amazing. The area itself was also brilliant. Of course, there was the occasional drama to pull this baby down, but all in all... That event is my personal favourite. This was also the first one I promised "intrigues" for, but never completed them. It ran very well despite that, however. "Faceless", the villain, was slain at the end of the event by a small group that stayed behind after the final break-out battle.
  
  Kidnapped 3: Scalawag Point - All in all, this event worked pretty fine. It was by far the most dramatic event from an OOC perspective I've ran, ever, however. It quickly wore people down and took away from their enjoyment. The area... I fell in love with it when I first saw it. It's simply gorgeous and I'd love to return there again and use it for the next one, redoing the entire thing with all the lessons in mind. There were many miscommunications in this one, however, and the rules got twisted back and forth which caused a lot of misunderstandings and discontent. (Everyone got their intrigues for this one, though, and I think people enjoyed them. From what I hear, at least.) "Faceless" and her goons were all slain at the end of the event.
  
  Kidnapped 4: The Monastery - The fiasco. No intrigues were sent out, resulting in confusion and difficulty in getting the event off the ground. The storylines were complicated, subtle and sometimes extremely dramatic and many of them started running at the same time which felt... very silly, to some people. The main villain made a disappearing act early in the week and the prisoners were released as a related plot-device to her disappearence. I think what really kept the event floating in the end was that people found ways to RP with eachother, which prevented it from being a total and complete failure. "Faceless" was slain at the end of the event.

(Faceless, for the record, is a recurring villain. No one knows who she is, it's always a woman, and they rarely seem to be the exact same person between two different events.)

That's all as far as the past events go.

Now... Feedback! Please! I do feel inspired to walk this parade again, but I'd need some feedback so I can design the next event to be as enjoyable as possible for everyone involved so everyone can partake in RP that'll help them develop their characters.

[Grakor456]

Let me make one thing clear: I love Kidnapped. I really do. I would love to see another one.

I didn't get to play in the first two, just 3 and 4. I loved 3, obviously. I loved that it really gave us a lot of character moments and I felt that I got a lot out of it for Gunnar's character. I loved the location, too. It really worked for me...spacious enough to give the prisoners stuff to do, but you still had that confined feeling with the victims knowing they couldn't escape.

With 4...I don't know. The early release was indeed not the best idea. I still enjoyed it, mind, but I think going back to Kidnapped 3's style, while utilizing what you learned from that and 4, would be much better, yes.

That said...this series needs a more final conclusion. Now? Later? I don't know, but the recurring "Faceless" thing ends up running the risk of Faceless seeming like a slightly more threatening version of Team Rocket. She gets stronger the more times she fails at life. A storyline this epic and long really needs a good finale, something to see it off and a final, decisive conclusion to end it on. That way the endings feel more satisfying than "Oh, we killed Faceless again."

It makes me remember that I wanted to do Skin Thieves again, but never got he opportunity.

[Krent]

I've only been on board for event #4, but here's my feedback from it.

What did I like?: The interaction and paranoia from all the players. I think the main strength of the event was in how the individual characters responded to their circumstances. There were worlds of intriguing psychology developing between the three 'classes' of the monastery (Willing Guards, Unwilling Guards, Prisoner) which kept relationships dynamic and tensions...uhh...tense. I liked the way people were treating each other and forming secret alliances and plots based on the situation. I think this is where the RP really shone; the character study lying in how individual players react to extremely stressful situations.

What I didn't like: The pacing. I think the event went too fast and detracted from the initial strength of the event. Stuff was happening faster than people could process them. By the time players began to conspire with one another, something else happened rendering that plot moot.

For example, in regards to the 'Willing Guard' vs 'Prisoners' sub-plot, the 'Prisoners' became free before they any adequate antagonistic relationship could be formed between their abusers. When everyone got free, everyone was kinda like "Okay, lets all work together now!" If the event was drawn out longer, I think there could have been more tension and development between characters.

Either the event needs a few more weeks added onto its duration, or there needs to be less things happening during that week ( I.E cut back on the random outbreaks of illnesses and invasions).

But...I also understand that players are kinda fickle. Nobody really likes idle RP anymore (its just not the cool thing to do, I guess), so there's that big temptation to always have something going on during all hours of the day. So, I sympathize with ya. The problem with this is that it isn't something that a GM can really 'fix', because the problem lies in the inherent tendencies of the playerbase. And what can be done about that?

Anyway! I'm sure I'd come on board for the next Kidnapped event. Maybe have Corlmitz as a slave for Karmic Payback? Yeah, sign me up for interested.

[Holynexus]

I'm so sorry I couldn't make it to 4, as life events caught up to me then. I would love to do another Kidnapped event - and attend it. I'm sure you have all the lessons learned to make the ultimate Kidnapped experience. ^_^ I wish I had been around for 2 and 3, as I'm told these two events were simply glorious...

[CappnRob]

Loxfais.

I loved Kidnapped 4 so much. It had its flaws, but it was really fun, enjoyable, and the OOC funtimes in the thread was great.

As for the flaws, I think myself and Grak's feedback posts in your Backfeeding thread covered most everything. More build up, put up more antagonistic boundaries between the Kidnappers and the Guards, and change explodey-collars to shock collars. Also, we need more NPCs.

I really look forward to more Kidnapped events, because they're great catalysts for bringing alts out of their shells!

ALSO GRAK

SKIN THIEVES 2

I STILL BELIEVE.

[Loxmardin]

I've seriously been considering extending the span of the event in order to... let people roleplay for longer so the storyline doesn't feel rushed. Krent brings up a very good point on that front, as the time constraints (and constantly feeling like you should entertain your players when nothing's going on) bring down the quality of the roleplay.

I've been contemplating extending the event by a week this time around.

[Rowgen]

I want another. One I can participate in.

[Roxas65]

I enjoyed Kidnapped 2, despite that one occasion when it was decided Lazuri to be thrown in to the captives -despite- being told that messing with the captives was a-okay. My playtime with Abby did however make it very much enjoyable, which says a lot seeing how i usually loathe events with huge masses of players. It just somehow worked.

[Hawk]

What Grakor and Krent said.

[mimloopen]

I thought Kidnapped 4 was pretty cool. Of course a massive turnout has its downsides as well as its upsides. I think one of the problems was the fact that killing was not allowed was emphasized both in the OOC thread and told to the prisoners early for whatever reason, which i felt led to far less prevelance of a 'oh no whats going to happen to me' attitude and a far more dominant 'im too badass to be kept in prison' attitude.

And as Krent said the prisoners were let free too early for any prisoner vs willing guard antagonism to occur. Events happened rather quickly and, depending on when you logged on, you might be roleplaying with four carebear guards or three batshit insane undead, which certainly didn't offer much consistancy. But then, thats no fault of the event design itself.

Lastly I felt it was too short and the time constraints were a constant pressure to speed up roleplay, but it looks like thats already been considered.

But in the end: It was fun and I look forward to the next one.

[McKnighter]

I'll echo what Krent said about the pacing. It just seemed like ten different things happened each day and it was impossible for me to keep up. It got to the point where I just stopped attending. :c

I did enjoy Kidnapped 2. I want more of that. Give it to me.

[Zarquon]

I fervently hope that the timing for it this time will somehow allow for my attendance...though I suppose that's rather unlikely. Ah well. /laments

[Xigo]

Here's what I want to see in a kidnapped thing.

-Events which strain the characters. Marching through the snow, for example, from the second kidnapped. Not events which revolve around 'AND NOW WE'RE GOING TO PUT YOU IN BOILING WATER BUAHAHAHAHA'.

-More time spent in the 'cell'.

-No more of this HUE HUE HUE IT'S RANDOM TORTURE TIME EVERYONE! Because I just log off whenever that happens.

-Guards which are strict. Maybe they all have shock collars. Every single one of them. But don't take away their magic. Also, it's a short enough event chain where you don't need to screw with things by changing the 'captain' every two days.

-... I don't enjoy Faceless as a villain. She doesn't do anything besides walk around and be evil. Whenever I see she's online, I just get ready to log. Because I know it's going to be random torture time soon. Also, why does she always stay behind to be killed? Why are these goons so suicidal? It doesn't make any sense at all why they would be so willing to just kill themselves for an entirely fruitless reason.

I doubt I'll be partaking in the next kidnapped because the whole event chain is just loaded with drama (though there's a chance). But this is what I would do.

[Roxas65]

I agree with Xigo on one part.... well, other parts too, but this one in particular. I hate to say it, but Faceless -is- a weak villain. Instead of being a strong villain character that the characters create a sort of nemesis bond with, she just turns into a figure for all of the captives to hate for the simple reason of her being... Well, just evil. There's no personal stake to be gained from killing her, not to mention the whole staying around to get killed thing. It's hard to feel hate for a villain when you just -know- she's gonna be brought to justice as soon as the event is wrapping up. You should instead make her appear more, touch the captives individually in ways that will make them hate her and then give her some sort of unique villain trait that makes her memorable. And at the end of the event, why not let her escape in front of the hunting party and leave a strong lieutenant or something else for the heroes to fight? This would save her for the next event but most importantly, and I can not stress this enough, they will lead to Faceless actually having a presence -after- the actual event. Heroes who tried to catch her will curse that they let Faceless escape and all captives will be paranoid and scared about the fact that Faceless is still loose and able to strike at any given time.

[Loxmardin]

SENSELESS TORTURE TIME

Yeah, about that.

I was actually thinking of including that sort of thing into the application this time around. So people can state from the beginning what they won't put their characters through so this can be given to the Kidnappers so they know who to avoid. Some still like to have that kind of thing happen to their characters for whatever reason, so I don't want to tell people not to do it, outright. Thus, make it something to include in the applications.

And yeah, the strain was something I was thinking of incorporating more this time. I've a number of ideas, though I won't give examples just yet.

Also, I'm thinking of throwing this by the end of October.