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Visible Dark
Po_gg
Member EpicPosts: 5,749
So... it will be a long one, apologies in advance 
*actually it is so long that I can't post it. I'll have to break it into two...
In several other roleplay threads I already mentioned and praised this event, and said (last time to @SquireX
that I'll post an overview-kinda summary about it. It took some time, but finally managed to come up with a post...
The Visible Dark (https://forums.thesecretworld.com/showthread.php?85057-The-Visible-Dark-Investigation-RP-event ) was a very well-written and thoroughly built roleplay adventure, similar to a tabletop session or a NWN campaign. The authors utilised TSW's in-game mechanics nicely, and the theme fitted well into the world and its numerous investigation mission - since the main motif was a murder investigation. I was bumped into it by accident, and I thought "I like RP events, have a free hour that night, I'll check it". (Couldn't possibly imagine it will lasts for 5-6 hours... but I didn't want to leave after the first hour, because it was so much fun.)
The actual play was just like playing in your usual rpg den, with in-character conversations, brainstorming and such. What made it really fun and unique - and also made it one of my best rp experiences among MMOs - was the NPC handling. NPCs were players
With developed backstories, "tells" you needed to find, to "open" them up and get the required info or the next clue to the puzzle... and had to talk to them in-character, of course. As the creators said in the announcement: "NPCs are not dummies, each require specific approach. Diplomacy, force, threats and offers of help – all of this can play to your benefit… or spoil your relationship with NPC and force you look for detours in obtaining the needed information."
I can only raise my proverbial hat before those players, it was maybe an even better deed from them than the musicians in LotRO who're playing for the audience; because NPCs here didn't even see or parttake in the actual fun, they just waited for us handful of event-players to find them, they played they "part", and that's it, we moved forward. Even if these folks played multiple NPCs (with different alts of course) during the play, it just shows their dedication for the event... kudos for that, fellas! (the cast: http://i.imgur.com/d4EhBYK.jpg )
As a matter of fact, when they posted that crew list after the event, it had a quite surprising part (at least to me), Nubes. She was with us participants all along, acted like one of us, never gave away hints or extra help, etc. To see that she was part of the crew, an "inside man" undercover... surprise, and also a great idea :awesome: If you read the posts recapturing the happenings during the play, those are written from her perspective, so I think they put her among us participants, to have an inside narrator of the story later. Which is a cool thing, it was a story worths remembering and putting into words... You can read the story in the same thread, starting from this post: https//forums.thesecretworld.com/showthread.php?85057-The-Visible-Dark-Investigation-RP-event&p=1857058&viewfull=1#post1857058 She's telling the events with a quite nice writing (and some cases also a bit disturbing - seems she's weirdly addicted to blood)
Urbos, who does the postings and handles the thread, was the GM of the event. We never met him during the play in person, just got the additional infos through phone calls or emails. He was "above" the story, like GMs in a tabletop session (and probably coordinated the NPCs meanwhile).
The pictures you can see in the thread are the same ones we received during the play, we usually got those via calls or mails, in form of links (for the in-game browser).
*actually it is so long that I can't post it. I'll have to break it into two...
In several other roleplay threads I already mentioned and praised this event, and said (last time to @SquireX
that I'll post an overview-kinda summary about it. It took some time, but finally managed to come up with a post...The Visible Dark (https://forums.thesecretworld.com/showthread.php?85057-The-Visible-Dark-Investigation-RP-event ) was a very well-written and thoroughly built roleplay adventure, similar to a tabletop session or a NWN campaign. The authors utilised TSW's in-game mechanics nicely, and the theme fitted well into the world and its numerous investigation mission - since the main motif was a murder investigation. I was bumped into it by accident, and I thought "I like RP events, have a free hour that night, I'll check it". (Couldn't possibly imagine it will lasts for 5-6 hours... but I didn't want to leave after the first hour, because it was so much fun.)
The actual play was just like playing in your usual rpg den, with in-character conversations, brainstorming and such. What made it really fun and unique - and also made it one of my best rp experiences among MMOs - was the NPC handling. NPCs were players
With developed backstories, "tells" you needed to find, to "open" them up and get the required info or the next clue to the puzzle... and had to talk to them in-character, of course. As the creators said in the announcement: "NPCs are not dummies, each require specific approach. Diplomacy, force, threats and offers of help – all of this can play to your benefit… or spoil your relationship with NPC and force you look for detours in obtaining the needed information."I can only raise my proverbial hat before those players, it was maybe an even better deed from them than the musicians in LotRO who're playing for the audience; because NPCs here didn't even see or parttake in the actual fun, they just waited for us handful of event-players to find them, they played they "part", and that's it, we moved forward. Even if these folks played multiple NPCs (with different alts of course) during the play, it just shows their dedication for the event... kudos for that, fellas! (the cast: http://i.imgur.com/d4EhBYK.jpg )
As a matter of fact, when they posted that crew list after the event, it had a quite surprising part (at least to me), Nubes. She was with us participants all along, acted like one of us, never gave away hints or extra help, etc. To see that she was part of the crew, an "inside man" undercover... surprise, and also a great idea :awesome: If you read the posts recapturing the happenings during the play, those are written from her perspective, so I think they put her among us participants, to have an inside narrator of the story later. Which is a cool thing, it was a story worths remembering and putting into words... You can read the story in the same thread, starting from this post: https//forums.thesecretworld.com/showthread.php?85057-The-Visible-Dark-Investigation-RP-event&p=1857058&viewfull=1#post1857058 She's telling the events with a quite nice writing (and some cases also a bit disturbing - seems she's weirdly addicted to blood)
Urbos, who does the postings and handles the thread, was the GM of the event. We never met him during the play in person, just got the additional infos through phone calls or emails. He was "above" the story, like GMs in a tabletop session (and probably coordinated the NPCs meanwhile).
The pictures you can see in the thread are the same ones we received during the play, we usually got those via calls or mails, in form of links (for the in-game browser).
Comments
I hopped into the Albion at the right time, where we saw the murder - which is obviously a huge thing, since we are nearly immortal according to the lore, maybe a smaller god with some heavy tedious work could kill us, but not a mere shotgun shell... After a short discussion we agreed that we should uncover this mystery, for a) not getting shot by the same way and b) it'd be nice to have that tech in our hands
(won't cover the story, that part the official posts handle pretty well... I just add some details from a player's point-of-view, and covering those parts which are not in the posts)
- first we went to Seoul. In the netcafe the mails and the chat window was done through the text adventure system of TSW, which was a great implementation idea imo.
- got two clues there, the drunkard colonel and Kerrin. Turned out the colonel pointed us to Kerrin as well, so just one lead overall.
- in Egypt the group splitted. The post (forums.thesecretworld.com/showthread.php?85057-The-Visible-Dark-Investigation-RP-event&p=1863645&viewfull=1#post1863645 ) covers the group who stayed in Egypt trying to get Kerrin to talk. I was with the other one, we went to Trans with the drunkard colonel. He promised to show us Kerrin's former house. Man... Imagine your most annoying MMO escort quest and multiply it - you get the idea :awesome:
He walked slowly, had to protect him from the mobs there, often stopped and asked for drink, whilst kept babbling (great writing I must add), most of the times irrelevant stuff, but still you had to listen, because sometimes he slipped important stuff among the babbling. When we reached the burnt house, we had to find some clues, wich we did eventually in form of the ghost of Kerrin's mate - also a great use of in-game mechanics, they had an NPC (player) waiting for us in Anima form. Awesome idea! We got the info that Aquarius was behind the attack against them, we delivered that info back to Egypt and turned out that was Kerrin's trigger, she went berserk
- next post covers the followup fight, also was a cool idea: they put the NPC player in the pvp area and we had to beat him to get him talking. (the post tells also that Nubes took some extra kills on us during that fight. Bad girl.) After that we got the lead on the Twins. Btw, great pics they made for the event, I saved all of them during the play myself, because I had no idea there will be a recap thread later...
- when we found Lilia there was a second split-up, one group went to save her twin (that fight is covered in the post: forums.thesecretworld.com/showthread.php?85057-The-Visible-Dark-Investigation-RP-event&p=1874691&viewfull=1#post1874691 ), the rest of us stayed with her. Can't detail what happened, because I took that opportunity for a /bio and to grab some food, that was already more than 3 hours in one sitting, while I expected only a short, 1 hour roleplay
- after the sibling reunion we got the lead on the smoking guy. The following post is covering that part, except the short gap at the end (where she says she was lost in Agartha for a few minutes). It was quite a funny episode she missed: we tried to "corner" the guy, so totally "innocently" we moved into positions, covering the possible exits - of course we were so obvious, like a few amateur henchman in some lame spy movie
- next post (forums.thesecretworld.com/showthread.php?85057-The-Visible-Dark-Investigation-RP-event&p=1880929&viewfull=1#post1880929 ) is pretty weird. We just talked the guy and got the lead towards Tengan, seems Nubes had some "episode" during that... all I can remember is that she fell, but I thought she was just bored with the smoking guy's denying answers.
- Pictures about the book pages, I only got one of those during the play, I assume same applies to other participants as well. Probably we should've put our heads together and share the links... well, instead we just ran ahead to find Tengan. Funny guy, cool backstory, one of my favourite NPCs from the event - it was sad to read the end of that post, what happened after we left. Nubes is evil...
So, the conclusion of the story... I guess the official posts will tell that. Heh heh :awesome:
(from that point it lasted still about 1 more hour till the end. And without revealing any spoilers I can say the event ended with a cliffhanger, plus the promise that there will be a second part. Can't wait for it personally.)
*edit: seems the editor is wrecking the links
Killer found, mystery (more or less) solved, but it turned out that was just a lead-in for something much larger.
There was a Q&A kinda chat at the end, for detailing some parts we missed, maybe he will post those infos too in a following post.
I really hope there will be a second event in the future...
edit: maybe no second event... :surprised: Urbos updated the thread, seems a few folks left throughout the year. /sad_panda
There will be a similar investigation fun with player-acted NPCs a couple days from now in LotRO: https://youtu.be/fDjw441Ldqo but it's shorter (30-40min), and only a middle part of an event with concerts and fashion show and charity auction. Still, good to see the "acting NPC" torch is being carried further.