Author Topic: 12th Anniversary Celebration - Player Mission is cancelled. (Script Revealed)  (Read 5030 times)

Tahquitz

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We are no longer seeking volunteers at this time. 

Thank you for your consideration, and see you on April 28th in Atlas Park!
« Last Edit: April 20, 2016, 06:11:14 AM by Tahquitz »
"Work is love made visible." -- Khalil Gibran

psduckie

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Re: Call For Help - Anniversary Celebration Event
« Reply #1 on: April 17, 2016, 12:55:40 AM »
I've actually never used Paragon Chat before, but I'm willing to help with this, as I miss CoH just as much as you all do.

Tahquitz

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Re: Call For Help - Anniversary Celebration Event
« Reply #2 on: April 17, 2016, 07:23:53 PM »
psduckie, check your Private Messages.  Thanks!
"Work is love made visible." -- Khalil Gibran

Tahquitz

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Re: Call For Help - Anniversary Celebration Event
« Reply #3 on: April 19, 2016, 10:51:01 PM »
So... (Tso?  Pseaux? Sew?  ...what the hell am I writing?)

Event Autopsy: Player Mission

If we went ahead with the Player Mission, this would have been the script.  I'm posting this in case someone is thinking of an event in the future and wants to give it a try, but has no idea where to start or has never done this before.  This is meant as a template or a jumping off point. 

DON'T use this script as written, because everyone has seen it and know what the clues are.  It's useless now.

In fact, when writing this, you should keep it secret to only people who are serving as event staff, or who won't be at the event who can help you with rewrites.  Treat it like you would the plot of a Murder Mystery Dinner.  Keep in mind how to set up a permission structure in Dropbox, Google Drive or OneDrive to help you enforce this.

The plot (last portion) is the hardest portion to write... that 2 pages took me 8-10 hours of tinkering and rewriting.  It felt like summarizing the plot of Oliver Twist in less than 10 tweets.  The beginning 60% was brainstorming I banged out in an hour or so.  But that's me talking.  I went to Community College, so I'm an amateur at best.  Those with higher aptitudes in writing, those with higher degrees who have undergone dissertations (as I haven't) might notice habits of mine that make them cringe and may find it much easier to make the plot than I did.  Others may spend a week or so getting this far.  Some might need help writing anything at all.  It doesn't matter how you get there, as long as you get there. 

My point: try to have this done before asking for help so you know how many people you need.  If you're 1-2 people short you can then adapt accordingly (rewrite to remove one or two waypoints, or consider asking someone who wants to dual-box to control two waypoints, but put them towards the end so players are more spaced out). 

In past events, I've learned that 6-7 waypoints will keep a good player busy for 45 minutes to 1 hour, and average/new player busy up to 2 hours.  (And some not to be able to finish.)  So, depending on how long you want it to run, that's how many people you need.  (One caution: the longer it is, the more staff you'll need to handle, which makes prep harder.)

I'm posting this because of two reasons: One, too many eyeballs have seen this privately, and I asked them to keep it secret for the event.  After it was done, I was going to release it on here anyway.  So releasing this script means their service to me is complete.  And Two, now that we've cancelled this part of the schedule*, I'm "burning" this.  I'm done with it.  Next year, I'll write something else entirely.

Special thanks to Steelhelm and Felderburg for the revisions.  Unless it's a personal journal or diary, it's best not to write in an echo chamber when you can help it.

Enjoy.

* The Player Mission has been cancelled.  The rest of the Anniversary Celebration event is still on, we have NOT cancelled the event in entirety.

====================
Draft Script - City of Heroes Player Mission

Rules: (Do not tell players these rules upfront.)

Waypoints should never be "inside."  No unmarked buildings, underpasses, or caves.  Resist the temptation to use a marked location on the map, inside or outside.  (Many zones have doors that do not work: if someone is not familiar with the maps, telling a player that someone is in a non PPD/Hospital building is going to piss them off.)

No Hazard, PvP, or Co-Op Zones (decided lack of landmarks: consider Striga Island or Boomtown. You'd be a jerk to force players to search through that mess.) Because the only way to reach villain zones without mapmove/mapmenu is with these areas, no villain zones this time around.  We'll run a Player Mission out there next year.

"Maze zones" are forbidden (Sewers, Abandoned Sewers, Perez Park, Eden, and Faultline as examples.)  Even if the clue isn't there, you'll get a player stuck there who doesn't know where it is and they'll just quit.

If you can't find it on the train or through the war wall tunnels, don't run it. (Not referring to the TUNNEL transporter, those are broken anyway.)  No Praetorian or Mapmove-only maps.  This includes Ouroboros (without the portal power, mapmove/mapmenu is the only way to get there), Dark Astoria (now with Mot), and Echo zones (Mot optional).

Badge locations meeting the above rules are fair game (as long as they are not underground, covered, or in the interior of a building.)  Badge locations should not be the only clues offered, however, as most are given away with the name or description being searchable in PWiki.  Same goes for waypoints standing next to "contacts".

Difficulty should increase as the clues get deeper: use the Mapmove landing spot as a judge in how hard it is to find the waypoint. (Enter from Pocket D zones not allowed: the landing spot is random on those maps.) The first waypoint should be close to the objective.  The final waypoint should be the longest trip with possible false positives across the zone.

Possible Mission Layouts -- "FedEx Missions" could have one of three layouts:

Film Noir Style: You ask about a problem, and each contact is clueless until the end.  You basically have to run errands and the recipient of the errand is guessing at who could know about it.  You get lucky at the end, as the second to the last clue knows the score, he just ran into the guy yesterday and he's in town for a few days"... he knows the hotel he's staying at.  And now the last contact is in for a world of hurt for making you have to go through an entire ordeal just to find them.

The Paper Route: You need a certain amount of applied plebotinum to fix a problem (wide scope of effect such as hundreds could die, or race against time), and you're given one contact who has some, but not enough.  But they know someone who COULD have more if you're willing to do an errand for them, and so on and so on"... (Replace phlebotinum with Markovian technobabble if you're a true comic book/Star Trek aficionado: phlebotinum is used to fix nonsense handwave tech that also needs to be collected makes it feel more realistic, right?) Possible prolonging method: "He gave you THAT phlebotinum? It's impure, see the color difference? You need to go to X and see Y to clean it up for you, but you'll have less of it with the impurities gone..."

The Michael Pena Effect: "I know a guy who knows a guy".  You've seen this on Ant Man.  You don't know what the end goal is, but you do an errand for a buddy, who knows a guy who could use X and just happens to have X in his kitchen, the guy who gets X knows a woman looking for Y, the woman happy to get Y is upset over her ex-boyfriend who stole Z and the police are looking for him, the ex-boyfriend who stole Z is regretful and is anxious to get out of the eyes of the law so he surrenders Z, which you turn into the cops, who arrest the ex-boyfriend (remember, you're a hero: you're nobody's patsy) which the cops could use your help to stop the Vahzilok from kidnapping a scientist they can't manage to find.  You can do anything you want from here, from arresting the scientist, to plot twisting it as players make a mad dash back to a prior contact.  Turns out, it was the guy who had X in his kitchen.  While you were running around clueless, he was butchering citizens (In fact, I think I just written a future mission with that alone.)

Player Instructions:
Send these as tells one line at a time.

-----
I will issue you the first clue to get you started.  Each set of clues will do two things.  One, they'll give you a password enclosed in quotes. 

You'll need to send this password in a private message to the next cluegiver. If the password is correct, they'll give you the next clue to advance the story. 

If it is wrong, they'll ignore you.  Nothing personal. If you don't get a reply after sending a PM, it's not that contact. Move on.

The second part of the clue will tell you where to go.  It's been a few years, so feel free to use Paragon Wiki to help you. 

The last time this game was active was in 2012, so there's no shame in it.  Use the Internet to help you make sense of things.

The locations will get harder to find as the game progresses, with the seventh clue being the hardest.  Because of this, if you've never played City of Heroes, this event may not be for you.

If you somehow find a contact by accident, and give them the wrong password, they won't give you a clue.  Scroll back to the last clue you found and try again.

I will be at the last clue waypoint to serve as the finish line, so, if you find me in a part of a zone map then ask me if you won without knowing the right password, you didn't.

Also, we are going to time you, so the first player to find the Finish Line and give me the correct password will be logged as the winner. 

Even after the winner is named, you are welcome to continue with the mission to place 2nd - 10th, or to finish the story.  If time expires (6:15 PDT/9:15 EDT) come back to this hill.
-----

Succeeding players will have their times recorded up to 10 places, then the rest will be logged in order until the time runs out on this event.  You have two hours to complete this mission. Players who do not finish in two hours will be registered as "DNF" and the cluegivers will return to Talos Island as I read off the official results. If progress has stalled after 1 hour and no cluegivers past #5 are found, you can slowly reveal the following rules at the top of this draft to help push contestants in the right direction:

1. Cluegivers are never "inside" of anything.  If you have to open a door to find it, it's not in there.
2. No PvP, Co-Op, Hazard, or "Maze" zones like Perez Park have been utilized.
3. We stuck to hero zones this time around. There are no cluegivers in Villain or Praetorian zones, nor in common areas like RWZ or Ouroboros.

Those three clues tell plenty.  Don't reveal anything else.

The Murder of Troy "The Cynic" McCulloch

My choice: Mix Film Noir with The Michael Pena effect.
(For obvious reasons, don't give this title up to the players.)

Dramatis Personae (a.k.a.: You need to make these toons for your players --)
Tahquitz -- That's my character, so one down, 6 to go.
Rebecca McCulloch -- Troy's Sister, a tomboyish nurse who's in her mid 30's.
Reggie "The Truth" Carlsbad -- A Jamie Kennedy clone, a la Malibu's Most Wanted.
Stacy Knowles -- A perfect copy of Shelly Knowles in Steel Canyon, with different clothing colors.
Tom Hanrahan -- Retired Public Servant (Postal Worker, Teacher, Cop, whatever) from Maine.
Sean McCann -- Yes, THAT Sean McCann. (Fan service, why the hell not?)
Jay Doherty -- Yes, THAT Jay Doherty. (It's all about Sexy Jay.  He may have left before the shutdown, but he's also a fellow ex-Midwesterner, therefore "props".)

Kickoff Point -- New Troy Hill -- Talos Island (Giant hill next to the Train Station. Why? Two Reasons: One, if we get enough people to instance Atlas Park, starting in a different zone will alleviate that as Paragon Chat doesn't allow instance hopping at the moment: I can't bounce from AP1 to AP2 and start two diff. groups on the first clue. Two, we got other stuff running at Atlas Park and Pocket D all day, so let's just leave those places alone.)

-----
First Clue by Tahquitz -- Give it exactly at the Mission Start.
Hi there $target (I'm not sure how the target thing works), I need your help.
I met Troy last night in Steel Canyon.  He was pretty beat up"... found out he just registered as a superhero two weeks ago and he's too proud to let someone show him the ropes.
So I took him to the hospital.  He had a broken shin and his left shoulder was dislocated. Couldn't even move in his bed without crying out. And yet, when I checked on him this morning, he vanished.
Troy wasn't a regen so it's impossible he got out of there without help. Yet his doctor stated he never saw a visitor. But maybe you'll find answers from his sister Rebecca. You can find her sometimes in Skyway City at the Hospital.

Second Clue: Rebecca McCulloch -- Skyway City Hospital
Troy always did get into fights at school.  We moved here from Boston out of Southie, so I don't need to tell you how tough he is.  He is a natural fighter. Not hard to guess why, so was our dad.
When he's hurt, he's like a dog. He crawls into a dark corner until he heals up.  You can't tell him anything.  Yesterday, he said that his girlfriend was robbed by a "Tsoo" on the train.
I honestly don't know if he's hurt and laying low, or if something happened "... (sob) Reggie! He's been training with him over at the Boardwalk. He hangs out with Evan DiTomasso! Go!

Third Clue: Reggie "The Truth" Carlsbad -- Spanky's Boardwalk, Talos Island next to Evan DiTomasso.
Relax, Evan, "The Truth" got this.  Why do you wanna know where my boy is?  Troy would never hang with you supers.  He knows these streets.  He is these streets, and you know what?
He cleans up nightly while you pull off your mask, kiss your beaux, and tuck yourself in for the evening.  Man, your uniform so clean, Troy doesn't even wear one. He don't need it.
You power posers don't even know who his girl is, huh.  What do you think, Evan, throw em a bone? Whatever gets you outta here.  Go find Shelly in Platinum Lake.  We busy.

Fourth Clue: Stacy Knowles -- Shelly's twin sister, next to Shelly Knowles in Platinum Lake.
Rebecca told us you'd be looking for us.  She just called: police found Troy at Independence Port.  He's... he's dead.  Shelly just finished with the cops, she's too upset to talk.  Do you mind?
They found him floating in the harbor near Biotechnix, next to a pier.  Anything else? We need our privacy.  I don't mean to be rude, but saying "he's dead" over and over again"... it's too much.

Fifth Clue: Tom Hanrahan -- Next to Mutant Store and Brown Fishing Boat. Independence Port.
I was gonna troll the Atlantic, heard there was a patch of Snapper and Trigger Fish 5 miles off the coast. I start my boat, and before I untie from the mooring"...
Cold, grey skin, cuts all over, just floatin' there.  Poor guy.  They found carvings on his chest, some weird writin'.  Tsoo? Nah, the detective thought it was Circle of Thorns.  Certain about it.
Said something weird, something like Orange Beggars, Orange Vega?  I dunno. Something to do with "oranges".  Who's the detective?  Said he's headed to Brickstown.  Didn't get a name though.

Sixth Clue: Sean McCann -- next to Detective Miller outside of PPD, Brickstown.
This guy looked like an amateur who got in over his head.  It wasn't Tsoo, I'll explain: he found where a Circle of Thorns goon was robbing somebody near where she was attacked.
He followed him, got too close and was beat up in Steel Canyon.  He was followed to the hospital.  They stole him, and one sacrifice later...  His chest was carved in German, but I'm a little rusty on it.
Dark"... uh, Warning? Harbinger? We've got someone who reads German on the way to help us.  Matt here thinks it's "Dark Omen", but he's not the forensic expert"... I am.

Seventh Clue: Jay Doherty -- Past the Dark Omen badge, at -234.8 96.0 -9208.6 in Tempest Quay, on Peregrine Island
You asking about Troy McCulloch?  You'll like this: we found DNA evidence on Troy.  Tell me, have you met The Truth yet?  He's an ass, I'm not going to sugarcoat it.  A real winner. 
We have him in custody back at Talos.  But guess who brought him in? Evan DiTomasso.  Turns out he's DEA undercover.  We had no idea.  But wait"... you said Shelly's sister talked to you?
Get this: I knew Shelly back in High School.  I know she's an only child.  *Phone rings* Yeah?  Got it.  Tahquitz has a theory.  Go talk to him about "Stacy" at the PPD Office, back that way.

Final Location: Tahquitz -- Peregrine Island PPD Office. -- CONCLUSION --
The "Circle of Thorns" attacker.  "Stacy Knowles".  They're the same person.  It's Protean.  The why is easy: Her father was a superhero who had the guts to face him.
Unfortunately, Kieran "Kneutronic" Knowles died of natural causes at a young age.  "Stacy" introduced herself as a long lost twin searching for her after her mom died. 
Her boyfriend just got in the way. Then the police stopped "Stacy" from abducting her after Troy was found. He was stubborn, I know.  But I don't know if I would have done it any differently.
We have a witness protection detail on her, and we're going to be watching for him to slip up.  Thanks to your diligence, we have all we need to go after him.  I'm in your debt, $target.
-----

EDIT: April 7th, 2016 -- Apparently Titan Network doesn't like certain Unicode entities.  Removed "untranslated markers" from the page.
« Last Edit: May 07, 2016, 06:36:53 PM by Tahquitz »
"Work is love made visible." -- Khalil Gibran