OffKai, Panel Room 3

Minecraft Events & RP SMPs: How to run large events, and how to create a world that feels real. Presented by Amo Aster, Arisa Noonish, Lucks Shi

• They ran Invasion: Parasite, adVenture: Descent Into Hell, then adVenture: Ascension
• Ascension had a peak of 128 players
• Organization
  • Meetings needed to plan out event
  • Assign who is doing what
    • Host: Main Planning, Namesake, Onboarding
    • Helper: Moderation
    • Builder: Makes the world
    • Players: Make the world feel real, have a good time, and to enjoy it.
• Two weeks is a bit long, a one week event works well. Streamers will typically want to do something every week and retention falls off as the event runs longer.
• The more open a server is, the more rules you need. One bad actor can ruin everyone's experience.
• Something is always going to go wrong
• Different invite approaches: Open Call, Applications, Vouching, Invite only.
• To make rules, think about everything that could go wrong
  • For example, make sure the event is stream-safe
  • For rp servers, avoid actual PvP if you can. You have to coordinate PvP scenes with parties, if needed.
• Everyone wants to be the main character leave space for others to play out their characters
• What happens in RP should stay in RP, but you might need to use OOC to check in with each other. Though, you don't have to be friends with everyone.
• Modpack and server
  • Always have a backup
  • Custom content and code is not required and is a specialist thing
  • You can do alot by just renaming items
  • Do not vibecode because it will make your event clunky and bad
  • Lag can usually be solved by removing poorly made mods and using roleplay to fill in the content gap instead
• Builds are important for immersing players
  • Make structures separately then copy+paste them in
• Another part is to have backstory for the world, character sheets, things to do (gameplay).
  • Give players things in the world to find
• Make death matter is the server is not in hardcore mode. Make it not too much of a pain, but there should be a cost.
• Lots of discord channels and categories for players to communicate
• Having a separate communication method lets you know when the server is down because everyone will post in it when it does
• You want to guide players into roleplay, not force them.
• every minecraft rp server seems to have a ball and a presidential election as events
• marketing
  • logo, trailer, outreach, more trailers, more outreach
  • Streamers will use these assets too, to tell people they are participating.
• lots of players want to know when the event will be, some even wanted to take time off for it.
• Don't railroad your players, players want their actions and choices to matter.
• Allow players to become important, don't over-plan the story. Let players that spend a lot of time to become important. Let story beats naturally create themselves.
• Do not force consequences for actions a player has not taken
• Be willing to change plans depending on what happens in the game.
• Players will know more about the game than you -- they will have an idea about where the story might go.
• be active so you know what is happening in the server -- but take time to take care of yourself too.
• A lot of people stayed friends after the event ended, and the discord server was still in use by players long after the event ended
• Q&A:
  • How much RAM did they use on the server? 48GB of ram on a custom server.
  • How do you decide how long character storylines go? Players decide on their own how long threads go on for and how they intersect, usually all you do is provide a starting point. You might be asked occasionally to provide items or special events. Group chat was used near the end to help plan things.
  • (Missed hearing the question) Having gameplay mechanics that make players do things they wouldn't normally is really good at creating story beats.
  • How to help players get invested? Keep your story open enough for people to hook into the story, if they want. Move on if players don't.
  • What lesson did you learn from the last event? We should vet people better, and know what kind of content they make and if that vibes with other streamers. Have better work-life balance. Take care of health first before working.
  • What to do about chatters or players sharing meta-knowledge? You may need to moderate the chat, and tell chatters not to do that. Meta knowledge between players is fine. Meta knowledge from chat is usually not interesting, because the player has less agency. It might still be fine because players can still roleplay being surprised.
  • How to balance between experienced and inexperienced players? It's hard to balance things well, try to support less experienced players as much as you can. Teach players in character too! A good mix of experiences is good too, because then you can use your experience level as a roleplaying element.