The Guild Events
Exploration Events
Exploration events are a great way of encouraging others to get to know the lands. There are a large variety of events that can fall under this heading, and though very popular when held, sometimes events such as these can take a while to fully organise and structure.
Some suggestions are listed below, though like Scavenger Hunts, Exploration events can be adapted to suit any purpose you wish.
Hide and Seek- Select a number of rooms within the lands, and work on clues, or riddles (if you're good at them!) to give to people on your location. It would be a matter of someone finding where you are in the first room, before moving on to the second room, and asking them to find you once more. Another alternative, is for you to begin the game hiding somewhere, and the first person to find you, goes and finds their own place to hide for people to seek as well.
Area Quiz- Also popular, explore a particular area, whether a city, or a forest, and find certain things to form questions from; for example- in Devardec, what shop is Signus the Shopkeeper of? Forming a list of ten questions, with difficulty varying, can provide a useful challenge to any explorer.
Exploration Hunts- Also can be done as something of a "Tour Guide," pick a certain area, a forest or dungeon for example, and gather a group of willing mages to go explore its depths. Work together on collecting information about this particular area, and sharing that knowledge with the rest of the guild. Or, explore the area before on your own, taking in certain landmarks, and put together a tour, and lead a group of guild mates through that tour. Add some imagination to it, expand on your creativity. You may also want to think of a particular creature, Three-headed Giant for instance, and take a party down to his lair. Leading a group to the hydra lair, or to the Jungle chasm, or anything similar is another alternative.
Exploration is a good way to uncovering secrets that may have previously lain hidden,a nd working together with others can expand your knowledge of the realm, as well as providing some fun and different to your guildmates.
Scavenger Hunts
Scavenger hunts are simply sending people in search of items to return to you. By making people working in teams, or pairs to search for items, it can often teach and promote working together, and give an opportunity for people to get to know each other.
There can be many different kinds of Scavenger hunts, some of which are outlined below
Themed Hunts- Participants are given a general theme, whether searching for items to build a boat, edible items or anything similar. They can then search for any such items they believe to fall under that catagory.
Letter Hunts- Quite a popular one, participants are asked to search for items whose first letters of the item name, can contribute to spelling a given word. For example, if participants are asked to find items to spell "Wizard" They could find items such as: Wizard hat (W), Zen's oats (Z), Robel herb (R) and so on.
Fixed Hunts- These are basically a pre-determined list of items that participants are sent to fetch. Different points can be assigned to each item, or they could be all of equal standing.
Trivia Quizzes
Trivia can be used as a way to teach, as well as to have fun. Knowledge is something we as Wizards strive for, and this is an excellent way for not only testing what others know, but also by teaching them what they may not. Under Trivia can also come the other quizzes many have seen held within the guild. Suggestions lie below:
Anagrams: A very popular quiz within the guild, it involves choosing a topic (Monsters, Spells, Skills, Towns etc), and taking the names and scrambling the letters up. Participants then have to unscramble the letters and send you the correct answer.
Trivia: The past is something that is often brought up, with many famous past events occuring, as well as many historical figures. A good way to learn more about the lands, and to tests others knowledge on it, is by reading the HELP files. These can contain a lot of information, but also by talking to others can you learn more to ask questions on.
Description Games: Items and monsters both have descriptions that can be used to quiz others on. By taking note of the descriptions of either, you can quickly form an event that can baffle even those that were here before the beginning of time.
Roleplay Events
Roleplay events are unfortunately held very few and far between. While many think that these kind of events must be elaborate and large, involving much help from those in the heavens, there are many that can be held yourself.
StoryTelling Events: A great excuse for a gathering! Stories can either be fictional, or re-tellings of past events that you either witnessed, or have worked with others on. Using a mixture of actions, and speech, you can bring life and excitement to that which you are telling. It can also be opened to others for them to tell their own stories and events seen, or recitings of poetry.
Feasts/Coffee Makers: One of my personal favourites, this involves setting a theme, for example Vessex recently ran a Soup Competition. Participants then have a fixed limit of time where they have to find ingredients for what they are making, and returning to the meeting point. Participants then have to mix their ingredients, forming what was requested of them.
These kind of events are an excellent way of promoting creativity, and sparking interest within anyone competing. Always a delight to hold, as well as to watch, I would greatly welcome more of these forms of events being held.