Feasting

Scavenger Hunts

Auctions

Xiran said:

Tossing suggestions here. Feel free to add your own or discuss. I am not an expert. Please don't take this as prescription.

Communication

Getting the word out feels like the biggest part of parties and contests. Much of this won't apply to casual get-togethers.

1. OOC Calendar: Convert those dates somewhere, like Uzriel's post of the Bloodfaire. Or a Google Calendar to share.
2. Town Crier: If you have aides waking at different times than you, they're great to assist with being a town crier. And New Celest has an actual NPC for this role?
3. OOC Tweet: Give a town crier message before it happens, using Twitter. Since this is how conflict events and notices before admin-run things are given, best to tweet for something happening Soon. Can only do it once a RL month, unless you Issue yourself with a request. If doing the latter route, Issue early so admin have time to respond.
4. Org Messages: Probably the best place to get people's eyes on it in-game without expending energy. This works best if there aren't messages that have been there for a long time. People's eyes will skip a block if they see a familiar line at the top. Consider moving those lines somewhere else. (It's a lot of messages for people in all commune/city, guild, and order organisations.) Or swapping the message to be at the top. Changing the colour seems to help for visual folk. Consider the TMS Vote message in comparison.
5. News posts: Best format for getting out info, including tiers of prizes if relevant. These will fade from people's memory if it's not an activity in the next week.
6. Individual invites: These work for more formal events or big bashes. Make sure the invite won't decay before the party.
7. Not advised: Flyers at nexuses. People's eyes don't go to mortal letters or scrolls at nexuses because there's a lot of stuff already there. (However that special scroll to signup or the Ascension Gala would have the useful feature of acting as an RSVP and letting you get a headcount of attendees for goodie bags. Possible PR request?)

Wrap-up

This is more about the mental wrap-up. I'm usually in a daze while wrapping up a party and boxing up leftover goods for people who missed it.

Rest

Give yourself a break. If your energy's running low, then you might be overextending.

Reflect

Sometimes activities work out well. Sometimes they don't. That is okay. It's just an opportunity to learn and redirect your energies.

Sometimes you run a contest and do everything right, but no one enters, or fewer people than there are prizes enter. That is not on you. You've done your part to make things fun. You're helping make Lusternia a lively game. People have lives outside of it too. I tend to advocate for closing the contest as announced, as extending it is unfair to those who have entered on time and are waiting for results to be announced. And extensions will either confuse people or get lost in newer things going on.

Planning

Avoid Overlap

When planning festivals or contests, consider what else is already going on, and potentially what big arcs the godmin might have planned leading towards Ascension. Try to find a quieter month.
Spontaneous things are nice in that they can work anytime.

Stretch Across Timezones

Are there people getting left out of activities? Ask them when their availability is. Sometimes a couple adjustments can make an activity asynchronous and more inclusive. Ex. Raffle a prize to players completing an activity, instead of awarding who finished first.

Find aides who wake at a different time than you.

Coordinate

If you have people willing to help, take them up on it. Culture's about building community, so people assisting on this side of things builds their sense of community and contribution to the whole.

If your activity involves more than you behind the scenes, congrats and good luck! Asynchronous communication OOCly is useful, like a Discord chat or Google doc. Confirm details before posting officially.

If details are moving quickly, having a meeting might help. For festivals where different people are running each thing, chatting one-on-one gets things done just fine. A meeting's only useful if all the people there need to know the details at the same time.

Reframe

Use your frame of mind to your advantage. Although there was intention to what was selected, I actually could not bring myself to call Serenwilde's celebration of the guilds a Festival. It made it intimidating. Viewing them as singular activities was far less stressful. An activity itself can be broken down into it's opening/middle/end too.

Give Yourself Downtime

Give yourself and other hosts downtime. Being the same person running activities even a few days apart can feel like a lot. If doing a string of activities like in a festival, space out who's doing what. Mix in elements that take less effort on your end while still supporting your theme, like viewing stage recordings or playing arena games. Use material that's already been done by others (while crediting properly, of course).

Types of Events

Xiran's on the serious side as Minister, so her planned things have a Theme or Purpose. Luckily other folks keep things fun and are better at spontaneity. Activities run the gamut from small to large, and they all work to promote culture. If you have people helping you out, that is amazing. If you don't, that is okay. It may start that way if things have been quiet a while. Find what works with the time you have available.

Small and Spontaneous

These tend not to need more than a single call on the aether. Gathering people together to paint (like Velcora does), or do rounds of psychodrama doesn't have to be more complicated than calling for an Astral hunt. Run a 'newbie session' once in a while for those new to the activity to get more people to join in. Tell stories or give tours of your favourite region or quest area. Give young ones tours of a village.

Some can be run in a quiet timequake or conflict event, if you're feeling sassy. People are gathered and at your mercy anyway, ohohoho. Play word games, pun around, drop a dartboard.

Small but Planned

Strike up a song and see if people emote dancing or join in playing music. If not, you at least got a session in.

Gather for little performances off-stage. Even though the stage is mechanically the same, people have stage fright. But emotes are familiar to them.

Quizzes take a fair bit of prep. I run these on the Commune aether so people not participating can still learn history and recent events. One could also run quizzes on what to do in an aetherflare or revolt (Xiran, campaign crusade, dang it!) or the like.

Vengeance and Arena Games

Can be spontaneous. May want to announce ahead to gather people.

Rituals and Ritual Events

This may move along the spectrum depending on a lot of things. These can be spontaneous as a brief prayer before doling out buffs. For things with purpose, or if an Elder's suggesting something might happen ahead of time, get on that news post or org message!

Contests and Submissions

The contributions are largely by others, but at this point communication comes in. Collaborate here with other ministers. Power contributions, Library submissions. Rounding up bards and scholars. Essence contests, design contests, fashion contests, a day of performances, and auctions go here too. Auctions* have been run as bidding on people's abilities - designing, hunting, and tradeskills.

There could also be contests with the various board games, Fate Decks, psychodrama.

Planned Activities

Scavenger hunts take some prep beforehand, but it's quite fun to see people running around. If there's some time in advance, you might be able to PR for godmin support.

Parties

Getting together around food and drink, usually with at least one small activity. There should be a reason for the gathering. (Positive propaganda is a reason.)

I think what makes these feel special is when there's Lusternian details. This can be having Fae and ancestral spirits join in dancing. Or serving carrion for Gloms.

Festivals

Anything that is a series of activities over more than one day. They support a larger theme or purpose. If something doesn't fit, consider running as a separate activity. Don't try to cram everything into festivals.

*Auctions: Personally, bidding on people makes me extremely uncomfortable. I'd probably run this with emphasis on bids being for a commission from or contract with them instead.

Tossing suggestions here. Feel free to add your own or discuss. I am not an expert. Please don't take this as prescription.

Communication

Getting the word out feels like the biggest part of parties and contests. Much of this won't apply to casual get-togethers.

1. OOC Calendar: Convert those dates somewhere, like Uzriel's post of the Bloodfaire. Or a Google Calendar to share.
2. Town Crier: If you have aides waking at different times than you, they're great to assist with being a town crier. And New Celest has an actual NPC for this role?
3. OOC Tweet: Give a town crier message before it happens, using Twitter. Since this is how conflict events and notices before admin-run things are given, best to tweet for something happening Soon. Can only do it once a RL month, unless you Issue yourself with a request. If doing the latter route, Issue early so admin have time to respond.
4. Org Messages: Probably the best place to get people's eyes on it in-game without expending energy. This works best if there aren't messages that have been there for a long time. People's eyes will skip a block if they see a familiar line at the top. Consider moving those lines somewhere else. (It's a lot of messages for people in all commune/city, guild, and order organisations.) Or swapping the message to be at the top. Changing the colour seems to help for visual folk. Consider the TMS Vote message in comparison.
5. News posts: Best format for getting out info, including tiers of prizes if relevant. These will fade from people's memory if it's not an activity in the next week.
6. Individual invites: These work for more formal events or big bashes. Make sure the invite won't decay before the party.
7. Not advised: Flyers at nexuses. People's eyes don't go to mortal letters or scrolls at nexuses because there's a lot of stuff already there. (However that special scroll to signup or the Ascension Gala would have the useful feature of acting as an RSVP and letting you get a headcount of attendees for goodie bags. Possible PR request?)