On Arx, I spent 5 months OOCly doing research and writing songs, involving people in the investigations, RPing with them about what they already knew, and practicing my lyrics on willing victims. I talked with people about what I was doing, got them excited about things, made social connections between other characters, and even got a little NPC action in. I made a lot of friends ICly and introduced them to other friends. Much RP was had.
Then, in November and December, I spent six weeks doing 5 concerts, one a week with a break for Thanksgiving, to present my songs and to answer the general public's questions about them. I highlighted people in my Q/A sessions who might have a better perspective than me, and in general, I spread a lot of "secret" knowledge out into the playerbase. This led to people approaching me afterwards to ask questions about what I'd said so that they could gain "evidence" in the form of @clues. Everyone who attended got a copy of the song for reference, and most of the songs were chock full of useful information. I made a lot of connections and gave people a lot of fodder for subsequent RP scenes.
I recommended people get in touch with the Bards and the Scholars, and I included both the Bards and the Scholars in my formal @action to staff to essentially sum up what I'd done to get the songs out into the world. For some people, this was their first @action, and they were giddy about helping, and I got to walk them through how to do an @action assist. Socialites jumped on it as a way to use their social clout for Team Good. It was a purely social @action, and I had four pages of helpers because people loved the idea so much.
Turns out, staff loved the idea, too. They gave me a new title, and there were some interesting effects of the @action, including the refurbishment of the Hall of Heroes, a new statue for Sorrel's hero Copper (who died between her concert and the final concert), and the fact that the songs actually are spreading across Arvum. Staff was thrilled that a social-only action touched so many people and garnered so much RP and was an entirely player generated piece of work.
It feels good to be appreciated!
Just really great and satisfying. And noticing the things that I can do differently for next time!
