Fundraising RP Events

[Faye]

Back in December, my FC hosted a holiday-themed date auction that lasted eight hours and netted us 70mil in one night thanks to the absolutely amazing people on the Balmung server. It was obviously a massive success, and one that didn't go unnoticed. Since then, it seems like every other week a date auction event pops up on the server. Now while I'm not meaning to say that anyone is copying us or we're the first people to ever think of a date auction, even on Balmung, it certainly wasn't like this before we hosted our auction.

 

The purpose of this thread isn't to bash anyone hosting date auctions, so I apologize if it comes across that way. Rather, I think originality has its merits, and it's a shame so many events on our server are just rehashing the same tired old ideas. I think it's a wasted opportunity, and I've spoken with people who cringe when they see a "So-and-so's date auction!" pop up on the RPC every week. I sincerely don't believe it's born of people being lazy or copycats so much as it is people not having any other ideas for fundraising events yet not wanting to ask flat out for rewardless donations.

 

So! To get to the actual point of this thread, I'd like for people to bounce around ideas and suggestions for other sorts of RP events that could be used to earn real gil for any free companies or linkshells in need of fundraising for whatever reason. I'm gonna start with tossing out a few of my own ideas (anyone who wishes to use them, feel free) so anyone is welcome to give feedback on those and/or toss in their own!

 

Fighting Tournament - I know the Grindstone is a thing, and I wouldn't want anyone to step on toes with that. This would be a bigger and a one-time thing and I would encourage using different rules. Letting people free form it and having some sort of judge/referee choose the winner is a possibility, though not one I'd recommend. Going with a lighter version of a tabletop system could be interesting to still incorporate rolling yet allow people to allocate their own stat points to give rolls modifiers. The participants could all pay a fee to enter, with the winner taking half the pot and the host keeping the other half. The host could also allow others to place bets on the fighters through them.

 

Gambling, casinos, and card games - Square Enix has already made a statement clarifying that betting gil on the in-game dice roll function is perfectly allowable, so might as well roll with it (you see what I did there?). Really, the dice roll could be used in ANY sort of competition or challenge, i.e. a drinking challenge, or endurance challenge, arm wrestling, etc.

 

Put on a show - With the use of free company housing (if you don't have one, someone may be willing to lend theirs) it could be cool to host some sort of show in an FC house. It could be a dance recital, musical concert, poetry reading, a burlesque show... whatever you fancy! You need only charge a small cover fee at the door and welcome donations of larger increments. Role-players could enjoy the show as well as the social RP happening on the sidelines.

[Aoi Fukiku]

I want to see someone do a talk show. They can bring in some people from the forums for interviews and be all nitty griddy like 'Oh Warren, so I hear *host waggles brows* you are quite a ladies' man?'

 

Crowd of women swoon in background

 

It can even have a small cooking segment and a news segment. Entry fee to get inside the FC house (or borrowed one if people are using the event to raise money for one) and perhaps icly sell stuff such as cookbooks from the cooking segment or something. I dunno!

 

Oh! And could have a makeover segment. *nods*

[Taedrinnar]

I'll be honest, Im one of those who cringes at each new date auction. I've actually made a bet with members of my linkshell that someday we'd have a different person's date auction every night of the week.

 

I've had some ideas myself, including hosting player created IC Triple Triad tourneys, or IC Schools/classes/Dojo's with cover or recurring fees. For instance, you want your character to know Martial Arts but nothing in their background says they should? Sign up for Taedrinnar's martial arts class! for only so much gil per class...

 

And then you have an IC interaction, and an ongoing, showable reason for your character to know something.

 

There are many possibilities. and at this point, date auctions are sooo over done and played out that I don't even bother clicking the posts anymore.

[Brynhilde]

I want to see someone do a talk show. They can bring in some people from the forums for interviews and be all nitty griddy like 'Oh Warren, so I hear *host waggles brows* you are quite a ladies' man?'

 

Crowd of women swoon in background

 

It can even have a small cooking segment and a news segment. Entry fee to get inside the FC house (or borrowed one if people are using the event to raise money for one) and perhaps icly sell stuff such as cookbooks from the cooking segment or something. I dunno!

 

Oh! And could have a makeover segment. *nods*

 

I love it. Let's make it happen.

[Michikyou]

I honestly started a new event - the Murder Mystery (Like a parlor murder mystery where you and your friends work out the crime) to take a break from all the relationship-flirting oriented roleplay. But it seems near impossible to break away from the standard that most people want where most people just want social roleplay.

 

I find this increasingly frustrating as it seems the easiest most successful events to run are 'balls' 'Auctions' where you tell people to show up, they do. People talk. The end.

 

How is this any different from any other event?

 

Fundraising

I try not to fundraise in my events, in fact, I like to award participation. I have a fictional currency, I don't mind sharing it for the sake of a fun event.

[ChewableMorphine]

 

Fighting Tournament - I know the Grindstone is a thing, and I wouldn't want anyone to step on toes with that. This would be a bigger and a one-time thing and I would encourage using different rules. Letting people free form it and having some sort of judge/referee choose the winner is a possibility, though not one I'd recommend. Going with a lighter version of a tabletop system could be interesting to still incorporate rolling yet allow people to allocate their own stat points to give rolls modifiers. The participants could all pay a fee to enter, with the winner taking half the pot and the host keeping the other half. The host could also allow others to place bets on the fighters through them.

 

Gambling, casinos, and card games - Square Enix has already made a statement clarifying that betting gil on the in-game dice roll function is perfectly allowable, so might as well roll with it (you see what I did there?). Really, the dice roll could be used in ANY sort of competition or challenge, i.e. a drinking challenge, or endurance challenge, arm wrestling, etc.

 

Put on a show - With the use of free company housing (if you don't have one, someone may be willing to lend theirs) it could be cool to host some sort of show in an FC house. It could be a dance recital, musical concert, poetry reading, a burlesque show... whatever you fancy! You need only charge a small cover fee at the door and welcome donations of larger increments. Role-players could enjoy the show as well as the social RP happening on the sidelines.

 

You called?

[Maril]

The speed date event I ran a while back could be used for it on a smaller scale. I opted not to involve real gil in my round, but icly there was a flat "entrance fee" type of a deal where people bought a spot in the rounds, along with free drinks/food for the night. 

I can't remember what I placed it at, but for the purpose of fundraising I could imagine 5k per nose, and we were able to attract 20 people, so that would be 100k for one event. I'm not sure the event type would be sustainable as a weekly event, but for a now-and-again thing coupled with other money-making strategies it may be enough to get people to their goals.   

 

I think that it's great that people can fund their FC's through events, though I have noticed how date auctions especially can exclude newer players. Whilst paying 70-150k for a date might not be a lot to seasoned players, to a newbie that is a whole lot, and I haven't been to a date auction in recent time where prices didn't soar for 95% of the dates present. So for what it's worth I'd love to see more events where the amount of gil people toss in has a newbie friendly level as well.

 

ETA:

If people felt for it, I'm sure that one could arrange guided tours through Eorzea - for example to the various marks of the twelve. You could probably get away with charging a higher fee. Then it's just a matter of learning lots of local lore, maybe put together some folk tales and get some people savvy with protecting people to come along. It's something that would probably be appealing to the non-adventurous kind of character that relies on others rather than themselves for protection. 

Heck, it could even also be something like tourism tours in the city states.

[Alothia]

Personally, I stay away from anything that tries to get gil out of me. I've never believed in using RP as a way to raise real funds. I don't particularly care for it. But that's just my own honest opinion.

[Michikyou]

 

text textext

 

You called?

 personally, I think Flynt would make an AWESOME host for Murder Mystery maddness!

[Faye]

Fundraising

I try not to fundraise in my events, in fact, I like to award participation. I have a fictional currency, I don't mind sharing it for the sake of a fun event.

 

I fully understand! But the purpose here is to talk about just that--how to fundraise, not to discuss the wrong or right of it. Surely, not every event should involve real gil--in fact, few should. But when people need a little extra help earning gil for their FC house--especially if that FC house will be used to facilitate more RP and ongoing RP events--I think it's great that the community can and will pool together to help them! And in several of the events I've suggested, there'd be a 50/50 gil split with the "winner" (or however the host would like to divide that).

[Kellach Woods]

I participated in two fundraising gil events, the two being date auctions.

 

I would never participate in another one again, and would strongly advise against anyone doing so unless it is your own FC doing it and you can trust the people doing so.

 

The RP is atrocious, they have a tendency to get trolled and extremely bad blood can come from one person not earning as much as another... or earning NOTHING AT ALL as I can personally attest.

 

When you put actual gil on the table, the dynamic of the RP changes. Not always for the better.

[ChewableMorphine]

 

text textext

 

You called?

 personally, I think Flynt would make an AWESOME host for Murder Mystery maddness!

I can see it now....

 

Player: "Mr Reddard, get up, you're not murdered..."

 

[align=center]Flynt:[/align]

 

[align=center]xMj5Quyt6WU [/align]

[Val]

 

text textext

 

You called?

 personally, I think Flynt would make an AWESOME host for Murder Mystery maddness!

I can see it now....

 

 

There are few things I see Flynt being awesome at :v

[Michikyou]

 

text textext

 

You called?

 personally, I think Flynt would make an AWESOME host for Murder Mystery maddness!

I can see it now....

 

Player: "Mr Reddard, get up, you're not murdered..."

 

[align=center]Flynt:[/align]

 

[align=center]xMj5Quyt6WU [/align]

 

"Ok, Flynt, you need to put on this lalafells dress and pretend to be dead over there." *entrust*

 

Haha

 

@faye

Oh no, I fully understand. But most people plan these sort of vents out of laziness or because of time constraints. They are easy to organise and they easily gather a large crowd. I reember I ran one in GW2, the first one on the server and shortly after they popped out everywhere. The Gold made actually went to the date organiser - and one third to me so I could reward it out in the raffle. ^^;

 

Balls are simple too, but as an event planner it is those simple events that seem to always gather the most attention. I try to work on something interesting that hasn't been done but after weeks of planning no one shows up. Interest is important, and to me it seems the majority of the server are only interested in intimate relationship roleplay.

[Faye]

As for the suggestion, all the ideas here so far are great! I really like the talk show idea! Something similar popped in my head while I was writing this post, but I wrote it off as too silly--in retrospect, it has exactly the appropriate level of ludicrous silliness. We'd considered IC Triple Triad matches for our FC tavern nights until we learned Triple Triad was not allowed in FC houses--something I sincerely hope SE will change in the future. ;A;

 

I think the classes/training idea is great! We've done cooking classes and healing seminars among our FC before, but I'd never considered it on a wider scale or as a way to raise gil. It'd also just be a great way for players to broaden their characters knowledge and talents while actually RPing out the process of learning and improving! Speed dates would be fun--kinda reminds me of Rendezvous of Stars monthly Host Club and their small cover charge--and I looove the idea of guided tours! It would be a great way for people to learn lore and have some fun with it!

 

And I'm sorry to hear that, Kellach! I never really had any negative feedback from our own date auction. I've seen a few on the server that were run poorly, but I'd never really felt ripped off from participating in any.

[Faye]

@faye

Oh no, I fully understand. But most people plan these sort of vents out of laziness or because of time constraints. They are easy to organise and they easily gather a large crowd. I reember I ran one in GW2, the first one on the server and shortly after they popped out everywhere. The Gold made actually went to the date organiser - and one third to me so I could reward it out in the raffle. ^^;

 

I'd argue that they're easy to organize poorly, which is what I've seen going on with most of this influx of date auctions. And when organized poorly, they typically yield poor results--which is why recently I've even seen the same person host two date auctions within the same month after his first apparently did not net him enough gil. I know our own date auction took a ridiculous amount of work and involved me suffering through a solid eight hours of hosting it--with no bathroom breaks, yikes!

[Coatleque]

...Now while I'm not meaning to say that anyone is copying us or we're the first people to ever think of a date auction, even on Balmung, it certainly wasn't like this before we hosted our auction.

 

Just like nobody ever had a weekly tavern night before HoD's weekly tavern night.

 

I don't like seeing these every week either.

 

Mod Note: Pruned.

[Melkire]

[Moderator Hardhat]

 

Stay on-topic. No call outs, please.

 

Pruning. Blarghle fhtagn.

 

[/Moderator Hardhat]

[Faye]

But on a serious note--I'm in no way implying people should stop having date auctions. I just don't think it's doing anyone any favors and is actually hurting their own cause. I can't speak for anyone else, but I'd be more than willing to fork over my gil for a cause that's different and new. For a while I was still willing to participate in date auctions as a date to help the hosts earn gil, but now I've gone through so many that even my interest in that is waning. I think it would benefit the community as well as the party trying to fundraise if they tried out some fresher ideas.

 

I don't see why anyone should/would pay me gil for anything--HoD got our large house and it's fully furnished. There's nothing we want or need gil for. This thread isn't in my own/HoD's benefit--we're done with fundraising. As for our tavern night, I believe we were the only FC doing weekly tavern nights on Balmung at the time I established it, and if not, I apologize for the redundancy or stepping on anyone's toes.

[Kellach Woods]

And I'm sorry to hear that, Kellach! I never really had any negative feedback from our own date auction. I've seen a few on the server that were run poorly, but I'd never really felt ripped off from participating in any.

 

Again, I might be biased because I've had two bad experiences :

One where I literally was asked to purchase a dude IC out of OOC pity - sure, I didn't mind because it furthered RP with someone who's a good dude and I'd already had RP with, but I honestly felt bad because the guy had done a lot of work on his presentation, and should have gotten much more than just a pity donation.

 

While this led to good RP, the actual event, I felt, had extremely BAD RP... if RP was even had! The person who purchased Kellach for a date wasn't even a RPer, they just wanted to buy everyone.

 

Two, where I was in this situation and knew no one that could bail me out. Lemme tell you, it sucks. It sucks so hard and while the person running the event tried to cheer me up, all I had is "hey, do I want to RP as the person who was just not bought?" with people who obviously had decided I wasn't worth wanting RP with?

 

I nope.avi'd REAL FAST out of there.

 

So to me, fundraisers? Fuck 'em.

 

However, if your FC has experience running them, try to include everyone and the event is enjoyable regardless of how much money you put in, it should be fine!

[Maril]

I don't see why anyone should/would pay me gil for anything--HoD got our large house and it's fully furnished. There's nothing we want or need gil for. This thread isn't in my own/HoD's benefit--we're done with fundraising. As for our tavern night, I believe we were the only FC doing weekly tavern nights on Balmung at the time I established it, and if not, I apologize for the redundancy or stepping on anyone's toes.

 

I do not know when exactly you established them, but weekly/monthly tavern nights have been a thing since before housing was ever implemented. I have personally been involved with some weekly stuff going on up at Bronze lake about a year ago, though in the EU prime-time - and the SW&R FC has run monthly stuff out of that little tavern by black brush I always forget what is called. KinRP did a spree of weekly tavern stuff following getting our house but we've decided not to uphold that because no one really attended them in the end. 

Overall I wouldn't exactly declare it a unique concept, seems common enough in other games as well. When it comes to big RP events, coming up with a thing that's unique is pretty hard, lots of things have been done before. Even KinRP has done a date auction like /way/ back, again no gil involved and it was woven into a greater beach party event of sorts with a couple of other elements. From guild and person to guild and person, it becomes more unique in execution cause everyone has their style of doing things.

Not saying you stepped on my toes, but I thought I'd offer the stuff I've known about to occur ^^ 

What mostly matters to me is that there isn't 5x the same event by different people in a row.

[Warren Castille]

Back in December, my FC hosted a holiday-themed date auction that lasted eight hours and netted us 70mil in one night thanks to the absolutely amazing people on the Balmung server. It was obviously a massive success, and one that didn't go unnoticed.

 

Date auctions are an immediate and visible influx of cash. People knew how much you raised, and there's nothing proprietary at all about hosting a fundraiser like that. It's the perfect storm of bullshit and drama: People running it see dollar signs, people participating hope to have their egos stroked off. Feelings get hurt. Things go bad.

 

They're also pretty easy to come and go from as you please. A tournament requires you to be there the whole time. A TT tournament is the same way. Making money requires excitement and date auctions deliver them.

 

Speaking of stroking off my ego, I would love to do the television (or I guess linkshell) circuit.

[Faye]

I don't see why anyone should/would pay me gil for anything--HoD got our large house and it's fully furnished. There's nothing we want or need gil for. This thread isn't in my own/HoD's benefit--we're done with fundraising. As for our tavern night, I believe we were the only FC doing weekly tavern nights on Balmung at the time I established it, and if not, I apologize for the redundancy or stepping on anyone's toes.

 

I do not know when exactly you established them, but weekly/monthly tavern nights have been a thing since before housing was ever implemented. I have personally been involved with some weekly stuff going on up at Bronze lake about a year ago, though in the EU prime-time - and the SW&R FC has run monthly stuff out of that little tavern by black brush I always forget what is called. KinRP did a spree of weekly tavern stuff following getting our house but we've decided not to uphold that because no one really attended them in the end. 

Overall I wouldn't exactly declare it a unique concept, seems common enough in other games as well. When it comes to big RP events, coming up with a thing that's unique is pretty hard, lots of things have been done before. Even KinRP has done a date auction like /way/ back, again no gil involved and it was woven into a greater beach party event of sorts with a couple of other elements. From guild and person to guild and person, it becomes more unique in execution cause everyone has their style of doing things.

Not saying you stepped on my toes, but I thought I'd offer the stuff I've known about to occur ^^ 

What mostly matters to me is that there isn't 5x the same event by different people in a row.

 

I did know about Konner's monthly event at the Coffer & Coffin, I've attended a few times when I wasn't working Saturday nights--but I didn't consider it too repetitive since it was monthly and a very different locale! Tavern nights are certainly not a unique idea--just something I wanted to bring since I hadn't seen others happening on Balmung regularly at the same time, which I believe is the point. "What mostly matters to me is that there isn't 5x the same event by different people in a row" is exactly what I feel, as well. No idea will be amazingly original--just hopefully not something done a dozen times recently on the server.

[xelliexell]

Back when we used to use the Host Club as a fundraiser (like 2-3 times, around the beginning when we were saving up for a Large), we used to emphasize that tips could be awarded to exceptional Hosts or Hostesses after their tea and dinner. Aside from the 1,000 gil Entry Fee (which honestly, isn't much of a fundraiser, as that amounts to very little when compared to doing Just About Anything Else), that was how we fundraised.

 

This helped to negate some of the "bad blood" or feelings of being "ripped off", since people were voluntarily electing to pay whatever they thought they RP was worth, after the RP. And it wasn't mandatory by any means!

 

Of course, we don't really stress it as much these days, so it doesn't happen very often. And now when Hosts DO get tipped, they usually just keep it (which I don't mind, as everyone works very hard to provide a nice RP experience for the Guests!)

 

But the reason I bring it up is because I wonder if there isn't a way to provide a high quality RP experience, and then implement a sort of "tip-based" fundraiser. If a person feels like they had an amazing time and they'd like to support your group/event, then they can tip. If they had didn't, or just don't feel like tipping real gil, then there's no pressure to do so.

 

Granted, this has only brought in a few hundred thousand during the 2-3 times we promoted it, so it was nowhere near the millions mark. Still, I thought it was a bit of a different way to go about it, and it placed the power back into the hands of the Guests.

 

Additionally! One could also run a chocobo race. I heard that the last one was fairly successful. I believe anyone could show up, pay a 2,000 gil entry fee, and then race in a circuit around... Black Brush Station? And the winners won a portion of the gil earned via the applicant fees.

[Faye]

Every now and then at tavern night, people donate or insist on paying a small sum of real gil for their drinks. It's unexpected, especially since we've never asked for it, but certainly always a great surprise. It may be less lucrative, but really, any sort of RP event can be turned into a fundraiser if the host just encourages small tips at the end from those who had a good time. That way everyone just comes for the enjoyment of RP and doesn't feel like they've been ripped off if they don't enjoy it! Also, chocobo racing is a fun idea! I just pity the poor people who play on toasters like me and run in slow motion. ;A;