Adventure's Guild (event proposal)

[lady2beetle]

Disclaimer: I have neither played FFXI nor FFXIV v.1, so there is likely lore that I am not an expert with. Feel free to correct any false assumptions on my part.

 

The Adventurer's Guild

 

At first glance, the great hall of the Eorzea Adventure's Guild looks more like a specialized tavern than a guild hall. A bar stands at one end of the hall, connected to the kitchens in the back. Along the edge of each wall, small tables are set up, designed for small groups and private discussions. In the center of the room, however, the tables are cleared away to make room for several giant wooden boards. Each board is covered with notices, announcements and advertisements. At the opposite end of the hall, various large tables and even a few carts are gathered for merchants sales and trade negotiations. All in all, the adventurer's guild hall is built to be a one stop shop for anything and everything a Hydaelyn adventurer could want.

 

(More coming soon!)

---

So, my idea for the adventurer's guild is, OOCly, to be a networking event for anyone who might be looking for RP opportunities. At the start, it would be a weekly event where everyone is welcome to come and RP. In addition, the RP opportunities would be abundant for PCs.

 

Looking for an odd job to earn a few gil?

Have a few pieces of armor you'd like to sell to enterprising adventurers?

Want to share stories of your latest adventures with other battle hardened warriors like yourself?

Or maybe you have a problem that you need help solving?

 

Whatever your need, the adventurer's guild would be the place to come! And the best part is it is an event that can start simple and small. All it would take is a single person running it each night it is open. That person would be a combination barkeep and networking agent and would have the freedom to pull out NPCs that might stumble in, looking for an adventurer that can save their farm from rampaging chocobos, or whatever your creativity can invent!

 

In the long run, this adventurer's guild hall would also stand as a place for RP announcements and the beginning of server-wide plots that we want to develop. After several months when most of us are max level and ready to focus on RPing, it can become a nightly thing rather than just once a week, so the options for development and growth are sky-high!

 

So... that's my idea. Thoughts? Suggestions? Flames?

 

Please note: It is not my intention that this will in any way replace Soliloquy, but rather supplement it as more of a networking site for RPers.

[Xeon]

Look good, as i stated in the skype chat when you suggested it i like the idea. And i would like to help in any way i can. Seems like a good way for people to interact.

 

-Xeon

[Adelpha]

Hi there! Cool idea about the weekly event; I think it could lead to a lot of good RP opportunities.

 

About the concept of the actual "Eorzea Adventurer's Guild" hall, though, there are already things called "Adventurer's Guilds" in each city-state. At each of these guilds, levequests (essentially, contracts for odd jobs and missions) are available to adventurers looking for coin, there are bulletin boards for other job postings, and there's also a bar, large seating area, and overnight lodgings available. ICly, I believe adventurers would also have the ability to post jobs of their own for other adventurers to take on. It seems like this overlaps considerably with your concept. OOCly, these buildings are where you go during the intro questline, and are also where you can access levequests and your inn room.

 

If you already know about this and have a specific niche in mind for your concept that makes it distinct from the game's extant Adventurer's Guilds, then cool! It'd be nice to know why an adventurer would choose your establishment over the more established Adventurer's Guilds, so perhaps you could provide a bit of additional information about that.

 

If you didn't know about this, then no big deal; you can probably still tweak it slightly to keep the core concept that you're looking for, but allow it to more naturally exist alongside the guilds that the game already offers. Perhaps there's something that your establishment can provide to adventurers that the regular guilds don't, or something that makes them distinct from the larger Adventurer's Guilds that would make an adventurer want to go to your guild for work rather than the larger ones. Or, even if you don't want to do that, perhaps there's some way that you could integrate your "player-run" concept into the existing Adventurer's Guilds, by having player characters serve as employees or something.

[lady2beetle]

I did not know the details, but I think this is perfect. It gives us a place for us to RP. We can just crash at the actually in-game hall. I mean, the real purpose is to network RPers, so why not utilize the game concepts when possible?

 

I guess my point is that this doesn't have to be anything new or different. We can develop the guild halls ICly and use them to increase RP.

[FreelanceWizard]

I like this. It's sort of like a tavern event with a good hook to draw people in (besides drinking and chatting ). While I think it would be cool to do it at one of the actual adventurers' guilds in the city-states, since those factor significantly into quest progression I worry about causing issues for other players. That said, there's lots of inns and taverns across the land that can be used for such an event.

[lady2beetle]

A few of us are working on fleshing this out and this is what we've come up with.

 

The PC-run "adventurer's guild" is not a different 'guild' from the in game Adventurer's guild. A better name for it might be "Adventurer's Guild Happy Hour". It's intended to be an event once a week when characters come looking for work, or for other characters to come looking for someone to do a job for them. And for all players to come looking for RP. It might also be called a weekly "open house".

 

That said, a few people have shown interest, so I'm going to go ahead and start it. If you'd like, consider this just a weekly RP gathering on Balmung. We don't need many people to make it work, and I plan on being there every week - so feel free to come and join me! We have only 2 things left to decide.

 

1. Where should it take place?

 

My thoughts:

 

The more exposure the better, but having it in an actual adventurer's guild may cause us to be under the feet of people who are questing. We'd probably like it inside, so outiside the adventurer's guild may be hard. One option is to find a nice building in a major city so we could advertise via general chat. Another option is to buy a hosue in Mist and make that an Adventurer's guild satelite office. I'm open for suggestions!

 

2. When should it be?

 

At this point, I'm considering either Sunday afternoon (~12noon PDT) or Monday evening (~3PM PDT). The latter is often a good time for most events, but Sunday would allow more of our European friends to join us, which I think would be nice. Does anyone have a preference?

[FreelanceWizard]

1. Where should it take place?

If you want maximum visibility, you can't help but do it in the Guilds proper. However, there's going to be a lot of foot traffic there with people doing quests and all. Open events can become big events, and big events can turn into pain for other players when they're trying to do quests and they hit a wall of text and a mass of people. On the other hand, you don't want to use FC housing, because that removes essentially all visibility -- no one who doesn't already know about it can stumble across it!

 

A good middle ground might be to pick one of the taverns outside of the main cities. There's several of these floating around in the 15-19 quest hub areas. By choosing such a spot, you retain the ability for people to come across the event while simultaneously keeping it out of one of the highest volume locations on the server. You could even tie this into RP, calling it an "authorized outreach event" or something of that nature.

 

There's also the option of picking a spot inside one of the city-states to do it that's not the Adventurers' Guild proper, though off the top of my head I can't think of any places in, say, Limsa Lominsa that would work for that. Gridania has a few spots that would work, as does Ul'dah.

 

As the game ages and fewer new characters are being created, you might consider migrating back to an Adventurers' Guild, as the load in the zone will be lower.

 

2. When should it be?

My vote's for Sundays, just because it works better for my schedule. I've seen these sorts of events run well on any day of the week, though starting too early US time can be tricky. I've observed the best turnout for tavern-style events I've run in the past when they start around 7-8pm Eastern time (GMT-4/-5) and run for a couple of hours. That gives time for people in even Pacific time an opportunity to get home from work.

[CrimsonMars]

Seems like a pretty cool idea, but why is it the same day as the Beach Party Festival in Gilgamesh? Some of us have characters on both servers. .-.

[lady2beetle]

Seems like a pretty cool idea, but why is it the same day as the Beach Party Festival in Gilgamesh? Some of us have characters on both servers. .-.

 

Hmm... good point... Thank you for bringing that up, I'm a dork.

 

Part of my answer is that this is a weekly thing so it'll be every Sunday. And the 1st would be the only one that conflicts with a Gilgamesh party. At the same time, we don't to wait until the 8th to unveil our surprise. We might have to change the day of the week for this first event. I'll ponder our options. What time is the Gilgamesh beach party? Maybe we can work around it.

[CrimsonMars]

From my knowledge, it's from 2:00 PM to 8:00 EST. Rock Sandbourne is the one who's hosting the event though so I'd ask him just to make sure.

[Chakha Malqir]

The fact that this would be every Sunday is greatly appreciated, as I start classes again in a couple weeks and my schedule is ridiculously booked during the week to do anything other than study and quest a bit in my downtime.

[Aysun]

I think Sundays at the time mentioned is a GREAT idea. It's early enough to allow the EU RPers to join as well! Looking forward to seeing these events regularly. I wouldn't worry about the events clashing with the Gilgamesh one, because it is only going to be an issue this first week.

[Chakha Malqir]

I do have some ideas for how this could happen.

 

-Events should take place at an actual Adventurer's Guild. Maybe alternate between Gridania, Ul'dah, and Limsa Lominsa?

 

-At each of these events, newcomers can get Linkpearls to an "Adventurer's Guild Linkshell" in order to keep tabs on the bigger RP events?

 

-For some of the bigger events, maybe establish multi-man teams out of the random pool of RPers that are available, "encouraging" others to RP together as they complete their guild mission?

 

-Permit Free Company recruiters to host certain events (scheduled in advance) in order to recruit potential candidates for their Free Company? Shouldn't be the "exclusive" event, mind you, but it would be nice to showcase some of the RP Free Companies in this way.

[lady2beetle]

I do have some ideas for how this could happen.

 

-Events should take place at an actual Adventurer's Guild. Maybe alternate between Gridania, Ul'dah, and Limsa Lominsa?

 

-At each of these events, newcomers can get Linkpearls to an "Adventurer's Guild Linkshell" in order to keep tabs on the bigger RP events?

 

-For some of the bigger events, maybe establish multi-man teams out of the random pool of RPers that are available, "encouraging" others to RP together as they complete their guild mission?

 

-Permit Free Company recruiters to host certain events (scheduled in advance) in order to recruit potential candidates for their Free Company? Shouldn't be the "exclusive" event, mind you, but it would be nice to showcase some of the RP Free Companies in this way.

 

I love these ideas! I think most of what I had in mind is actually right on par with your suggestions. For example:

 

I don't mind being there every week, but at one point we had thougth about passing around the leadership of a given Happy Hour each week so that no one has to do it too often. The reason is that I picture a "GM" (EM? Event Master?) would be able to emote random NPCs that might come looking for jobs. They could be things simple and something that the RPers could RP doing during the week. Examples might include:

 

• Find my missing chocobo egg!
  
• Find a good dish for the dinner my wife is hosting!
  
• Watch my daughter while I'm on this business trip!
  

By passing around the "NPC-Master" role each week, then we all have time to come up with new ideas. And my hope is that some of these 'missions' have the potential to open up RP during the week - maybe the hero creates several dishes and brings them to Soliloquy so others can help him decide which one is best!

 

Depending on how busy it gets, we might very well need Free Companies to lead on given weeks - I can't imagine one person handling 5 or 6 NPCs at once. But the beauty is that we can start this small and expand however we want.

 

As far as the linkshell... I hadn't thought of that. We should do some more brainstorming on what the purpose of the linkshell would be. Maybe we should have one for event coordinators... but if we give a pearl to everyone, doesn't that just make it Intermission Pt 2? Then again, Intermission is full, so maybe that's what we need... I dunno... I'm open to suggestions.

 

Lastly, as far as Free Company Recruiters, I think any recruiters and PC merchants are welcome every week. I mean, they ARE looking for heroes to work for them in some fashion, right? That's what this event is all about.

---

I should add - I do think that any Free Companies or groups wanting to present a larger event to happen at the Happy Hour should let me (and/or anyone else who might be helping me coordinate it) know ahead of time. I want to avoid having two major events or plots developing at the same time.

[Chakha Malqir]

 

I love these ideas! I think most of what I had in mind is actually right on par with your suggestions. For example:

 

I don't mind being there every week, but at one point we had thougth about passing around the leadership of a given Happy Hour each week so that no one has to do it too often. The reason is that I picture a "GM" (EM? Event Master?) would be able to emote random NPCs that might come looking for jobs. They could be things simple and something that the RPers could RP doing during the week. Examples might include:

 

• Find my missing chocobo egg!
  
• Find a good dish for the dinner my wife is hosting!
  
• Watch my daughter while I'm on this business trip!
  

By passing around the "NPC-Master" role each week, then we all have time to come up with new ideas. And my hope is that some of these 'missions' have the potential to open up RP during the week - maybe the hero creates several dishes and brings them to Soliloquy so others can help him decide which one is best!

 

Depending on how busy it gets, we might very well need Free Companies to lead on given weeks - I can't imagine one person handling 5 or 6 NPCs at once. But the beauty is that we can start this small and expand however we want.

 

As far as the linkshell... I hadn't thought of that. We should do some more brainstorming on what the purpose of the linkshell would be. Maybe we should have one for event coordinators... but if we give a pearl to everyone, doesn't that just make it Intermission Pt 2? Then again, Intermission is full, so maybe that's what we need... I dunno... I'm open to suggestions.

 

Lastly, as far as Free Company Recruiters, I think any recruiters and PC merchants are welcome every week. I mean, they ARE looking for heroes to work for them in some fashion, right? That's what this event is all about.

---

I should add - I do think that any Free Companies or groups wanting to present a larger event to happen at the Happy Hour should let me (and/or anyone else who might be helping me coordinate it) know ahead of time. I want to avoid having two major events or plots developing at the same time.

 

I think emoting every single NPC might be a little... ambitious. Instead, how about having a board for posting jobs, and the "Host of the Week" acts as middleman/middlewoman for the client. It saves a LOT of work in creating NPCs and allows for a much wider variety of missions due to the reduced time needed to create.

 

We could also have RP missions that make it so that the players have to RP during one of the dungeons (Sastasha, Copperbell Mines, etc.) and perform a special task inside.

 

Also, I'm not sure what the "Intermission" linkshell is, so I can't comment on that. I just mean it as simply being a linkshell to announce the "RP Mission of the Week". Though I suppose, if there are other linkshells, it could be announced on one of those.

[Myxie Tryxle]

Intermission is an OOC linkshell for RPers on Balmung. It's for RPers to set up dungeon runs, talk about their characters, or find out where RP is currently happening. Given the small size of linkshells (128 characters), there will likely be several iterations of this channel. I think during phase 4 they were talking about making an Intermission2 for more players and an Altermission for alts. I think the adventurer's guild linkshell she described would fall into a similar category and would be a good idea. Just make sure there's a few characters from that shell that cross over into the Intermission shells as well, and word can spread through the different channels about RP events and whatnot. Hopefully SE will raise linkshells to 512 characters in the future, the same as Free Companies.

[lady2beetle]

A board of jobs... what a brilliant idea! But how will we present it? We could probably make use of the Lantern and have people in the community help come up with jobs. Maybe. Hmm.... I wish we could create a physical board and write on it... but maybe we can use the wiki? Or maybe the 'board' is really just a ledger or book and the one who has access to it is the Event Manager who then hands out the events. That's probably best.

[Chakha Malqir]

A board of jobs... what a brilliant idea! But how will we present it? We could probably make use of the Lantern and have people in the community help come up with jobs. Maybe. Hmm.... I wish we could create a physical board and write on it... but maybe we can use the wiki? Or maybe the 'board' is really just a ledger or book and the one who has access to it is the Event Manager who then hands out the events. That's probably best.

 

The ledger might work better than the board, in that sense. And there are plenty of tomes about. Just class change to an Arcanist / Summoner / Scholar, and boom!

[Hansem Wildsteel]

1. Where should it be

 

How about a rotation of the three city states, one different city per week, as it is not easy for younger characters to travel.

 

2. When should it be

 

Sunday is perfect.

 

Great idea by the way!

[lady2beetle]

FYI, I'm keeping a close eye on the connection issues. One rumor I heard was that the new server capacity would arrive early next week, which would mean we might not yet be in the clear on Sunday. If that is the case, we'll probably push back the first Happy Hour until the following Sunday. I'll keep you guys informed on that decision.

[Cesar]

I LOVE this idea! I have some suggestions. 

 

Maybe we can "hire out" adventures to gather materials, craft things, etc. I mean we can use the game mechanics as much as possible. I am a carpenter and I would pay actual gil for a botanists to go and gather some materials with me. It would mix everyone up and make PC's go and quest IC'ly with some they may not have on a normal situation. Plus we wouldn't just be sitting around talking about all the adventures we have had.

 

If we're in Ul'Dah we can go to the Coliseum and test our mettle with each other. 

 

 

 

 

Chocobo Races! (betting on said chocobo races haha)

 

 

 

I do like the GM/EM creating NPC's and such but with a community our size we could keep this all PC's. Though it would require everyone not being the epic warrior king of Eorzea. Some would need to be merchants, farmers, fishermen, botanists etc. When the server clears up I would definitely create some alts just to be townsfolk

 

 

Just some ideas. Feedback is more than welcome.

 

 

I would like to help with this project if you all would let me. 

[ShoggMommy]

FYI, I'm keeping a close eye on the connection issues. One rumor I heard was that the new server capacity would arrive early next week, which would mean we might not yet be in the clear on Sunday. If that is the case, we'll probably push back the first Happy Hour until the following Sunday. I'll keep you guys informed on that decision.

 

Any notice on this?

[lady2beetle]

I'm sorry for the delay!

 

We did not have the event on Sunday, obviously, but with the optimistic outlook on last night's patch, I think we are good to go for this Sunday! I'm not sure why it's not showing up on the calendar, but I'll go about fixing that.

[ShoggMommy]

*Squeaks* o3o Do we have a location...?

[lady2beetle]

Sorry, guys, I just found out that Brom is working and it's necessary for him to be there for the plot reveal. *sigh* We'll try pushing it back one more week.