How to Make LOTR Plaza Activities

In kingdom forums, rulers determine what goes on in that kingdom, overseeing and encouraging activities and threadrunners. Take advantage of your rulers! They were picked because they have experience with what works, what doesn't.

Some rulers let us try almost anything -- if it fails, oh well! Others tend their kingdoms like gardens, nourishing a good mix of different kinds of activities, from serious to silly, Tolkienish to loose, roleplay to OOC (out of character), longterm activity to quickie thread. Each kingdom has its own style of play and its own way of making Middle-Earth magic. That variety is part of what makes the Plaza richer and longer-lasting than most online communities.

Your activity is one flower in a kingdom's garden. Remember, it needs to fit the flowerbed (or maybe add a new dash of color that wasn't there before!). Also remember that you're competing with all the other "flowers" to draw members to your patch of the garden -- and you don't want to crowd out the kingdom's existing flowers, do you? So if there's a lot of one kind of activity already, no matter how good your idea is, it may be better to do something different. Or simply apply your idea to an existing thread, making it better! Rulers have to balance the benefit of having fresh, new activities with supporting established ones.

Why should you bother with kingdoms anyway, and not just run off to the RPG forum? Well, for one thing, kingdoms are dedicated to bringing specific parts of Middle-Earth to life -- which is a big part of the Plaza's purpose. More importantly, kingdoms provide a core of active members who want to do things together. They have rulers and experienced members who will support, encourage, and collaborate on shared goals. A functioning kingdom can give you a place to belong, a circle of passionate folks dedicated to making an intimate, vibrant community within the larger Plaza. A kingdom is the sum of its members and activities. By bringing your ideas and energy to a kingdom, you enrich the whole Plaza and make Middle-Earth magic happen!

The plaza is for LOTR fans, so my thread ideas always begin with: What is something I love in The Lord of the Rings? And since I'm kingdom-focused, I'll ask: What is something special about Kingdom X or Race Y?

Dwarves like mining and jewels, for example. But don't always go for the obvious. Thorin & Company in The Hobbit had a whole musical orchestra-- now there's an idea! Elves, hm.... do you remember the feasts in Mirkwood, or in Rivendell before the Council of Elrond? Elves like feasts, apparently -- so since we're Elves, let's have feasts instead of pubs! Or hey, I'm a member of Rohan, proud of our history. So let's do a RPG based on the Ride of Éorl! No, I'm a Minion, and I want to take a break from torture and slaughter... how about a Mûmak ride at the Mordor County Fair? No, I'm a Hobbit, and I love all the food threads, but it's time to try something new. So let's browse the book for bits about Hobbits. O-ho! Bilbo donated Sting and his armor to the Mathom-house for a while, a Shire museum where interesting things are kept! Maybe we could have a Mathom-House thread? A tour of the exhibits, with people describing all the interesting and weird things in it? Or... what if a "mathom" was stolen? A mystery! But what, and how?

See how I use the world of LOTR to pick out some theme, some idea to anchor a thread on?

(Feel free to use any of the random ideas I toss out, by the way.)

Now it's time to answer some "style" questions. I see activities as falling along 3 axes, and they can be anywhere on each axis. For each activity, I ask myself:

• Is it in character (roleplay) or out of character (discussion threads, games, competitions)?
  
• Silly or serious? Yes, you can have silly lore threads -- look at the Great Blingee Competition!
  
• Deeply immersed in the world of Lord of the Rings, or loose, like a birthday party with Middle-Earth party hats, cake, and plates?

When answering these questions, I consider two things.

First, I look around my own kingdom and see what's already there... answering these questions for existing activities. Depending on your kingdom, it may tend to have only a few silly threads, a few RP threads, or only a few that are squarely in Middle-Earth with a lot of OOC and discussion threads (or even crossovers, like a Harry Potter Wizards thread). There may be a TON of contests and team competitions -- good grief, another one? Keep your kingdom's main "style" in mind: most kingdoms attract players that prefer one or two styles of threads, so those tend to do well. On the other hand, sometimes it's fun to be different!

Second, I browse around all the kingdoms noting what are some of the popular activities that have lots of participants and new posts almost very day? Answer the above questions for them, too. You shouldn't copy what other people do (or at least you need to talk to and credit them, if you see a really fabulous idea you'd like to adapt for your kingdom). Besides, if you just imitate what another kingdom's doing... why should people join your activity when it already exists somewhere else? But you may get inspired; you may get a better feel for what works, what doesn't. Or look at threads that aren't working, and try to see why.

A concrete example: I've noticed that Elves are associated with ships. So -- a ship activity. There are so many ways to style it! It could be a free RP thread based in the havens, with shipyards, a pub down by the dock, a place where friends say goodbye to those sailing away. It could be a one-time creative/literary/art contest: "Design Your Ship to Valinor." It could be a game with a "ship" theme -- how about an obstacle course/maze game, getting your ship past all obstacles to the Undying Lands? Or, if you want to be silly, long ago, Rivendell used to have Tengwar Tours run by Lilu, anything from Whitewater Rafting the Bruinen to riding dragons to the Shire, all done in a zany tourist style. Another time, Rivendell tried to have an ongoing ship-building activity, but it died out, because people found more fun things to do than describing ships over and over. A more successful shipbuilding activity was a one-time RPG where Cirdan had a vision to build a very special ship, and summoned the talented craftspeople of Rivendell and Lórien to help build it. That went for a month or two, ending with a trial run and a lovely overnight sail off the coast of Mithlond as a grand finale.

See how you can take a nugget of an idea and style it different ways?

NOTE: Learn from my biggest mistake: DON'T bite off more than you can chew! It is perfectly valid to come up with a quick, simple, off-the-cuff activity -- many plaza members prefer them!

How can you hold people's interest with your activity -- and more importantly, how long should you try? Remember the shipbuilding activities I just mentioned, one of which worked, one of which didn't? How long is an idea good for?

One-shots -- one-time threads -- add a quick zing to a kingdom forum, giving something fresh and fun that won't go stale. Rulers tend to be flexible with these, because if they fizzle-- oh well, it's not like they're going to drag on six months!

Limited Duration activities are good for the same reason. One-month activities inspired by SCRs, or activities grouped around and inspired by a seasonal festival, are a great way to have something fresh and new for a while. Competitions and contests with a deadline work well for the same reason.

Occasional threads are a clever trick to keep a recurring activity from going stale. Taramiluiel, ex-ruler of Imladris, was a mastermind with these. She and Laebeth invented the Imladris Market ("Bangad Imladris"), an occasional open-air market like a medieval faire (all barter) that would set up every now and then and last for a month. Tara also invented an IC, Elven board game she'd pull out once in a blue moon. "Sign up quick! We're playing Amarth in-Edhil on the balcony!" After a while, a lot of people knew how these "occasionals" worked, so they weren't some new unfamiliar activity with a learning curve, yet they were a special "treat" that wasn't around all the time.

And then there's the Kingdom Organizations. Never perfect, always struggling to maintain participation and leadership, periodically having to reinvent themselves -- yet I believe some of the most rewarding plaza activities are these "deep" ones, the ones that last, the ones that you can build and grow with a core "family" of members who share your tastes. These are also activities in which you can grow and develop your plaza experience. There's no Middle-Earth magic quite like working your way up through the ranks of the Rangers, or some other kingdom organization. There's no sense of "belonging" or good memories quite like those with your particular "nest" within the larger "tree" of the kingdom.

These kinds of activities are hard to maintain, especially now that the plaza's slowed down (but they always were). So there can only be a few in each kingdom, and they need to be GOOD. The input of several members is helpful; these activities tend to last if there's a core group of folks with the same dream to keep them going. It's worth seeking out fellow kingdom members and rulers, brainstorming on how to keep a few of these "Kingdom traditions" alive. Or, if your kingdom's gone through a fallow period and needs something to pull people together and get fired up again, a kingdom activity may be just the thing to reinvigorate your home.

It is very important to keep in touch with your rulers in developing and maintaining longterm activities: the guilds, the armies, the ongoing threads. You need to have a firm idea what you're doing, and to be able to convey to your rulers (and participants!) your vision. What's the mission? How do you organize the activity? How do you draw people in and give them something to do?

Kingdom Organizations take planning, commitment, effort -- but oh, they're magical when they're working well.

The Plaza is HUGE! There's so many things to do, and never any time to do them all. So how can you convince people to choose and stick with your idea, not just click on a caption contest, type a funny line, and run off to the next "quickie" thread?

Well, the first steps you've already done. You've found a "wow" idea from Middle-Earth, focusing on some part of LOTR that you love, and hopefully other people love. You've considered the style of different threads in your kingdom and tried to match the style its members love -- or, you've decided to try something new and different for a change! Hopefully you've looked around a little to see what works, what doesn't, in somewhat similar activities.

And you've gotten ruler permission, if you're in a kingdom that requires it. Don't forget that part!

Now you have to sell it. You get ONE brief chance to do that, if and when a member first checks out your thread. Your main "bait" is the thread title and the all-important header, the first post where you explain what the activity is about.

Thread title: "Mad Baggins Libs" (one of my old threads) sounds a lot better than "Fill in the Blank." But if you name it something too artsy and funky -- or in Elvish with no translation (!) -- no one will know what it's about, and they may not click the link to find out. Your title needs to summarize what the activity is, while using some Middle-Earth pizazz to attract clicks!
Graphic: The more eye-catching the better. Try to get something that catches the emotion of your activity. My first header on this page has Frodo and Bilbo looking really excited about something, with party decorations in the background. THAT sort of thing works. Some of my other graphics here are more blah. Here's the Annon Nan Galadh Lord of the Rings Screencaps archive that I used to make this lens.
Copyright issue: a screencap from the films is pushing it, but at least we all know where it's from-- the source is known to anyone on the Plaza. But with other people's artwork or photos... don't take without permission! It's better to use Creative Commons and give credit, a link to the source.
Setting your topic: Find a quote from the books or films that sets the scene, gives people the same "Aha! Yes, I get what this is about! Sounds fun!" spark that made you want to run it in the first place. Be brief! Maybe use color -- it adds flavor.
Guidelines: Personally, I prefer guidelines to rules. People hate rules, though they do provide structure. I say, use the absolute minimum rules and guidelines needed to make something work. Make it inviting/flexible, but also make it clear to people how to participate. Put yourself in a newbie's shoes... if they read your instructions, would they understand what to write in their first post? Would they feel welcomed or intimidated?

Two other things influence whether people stick around, and you can only control one of the two. Visitors often check to see how busy a thread is, how long the posts are (some like short, some like in-depth), how many participants it has, whether it's easy to jump in, or whether they'll have to read a lot of posts to get an idea what's going on. As a threadrunner, all you can do is set up the activity and hope participants will post in ways that look attractive to newer arrivals.

You can't control other members' posts, but you can control yours! Set a fun example of what the activity's all about! Be engaged with members! Draw them in by reading carefully other members' posts and building on what they do, so they feel like part of the activity, like you're noticing them.

You've attracted some members. Now how do you keep them coming back? Here's some ideas.

Use Contests and short-term activities within a larger activity (or, in a RPG, you might have "chapters" or "episodes" within the larger story). If you use contests, make sure they're good and interesting! The plaza's flooded with contests and competitions.

Vary Your Activity
This is like the "occasional" trick mentioned above, another brainwave of Taramiluiel's. The Imladris Bards Guild -- in one of its many incarnations -- used to alternate every other month between roleplay, where we stayed in character as bards, singers, storytellers in a Hall of Fire type setting (only we invented a guildhall, since in the books, the Hall of Fire was only used like that on special feast days), and a looser OOC style in which members posted their poetry, prose, etc and gave feedback and critique. Variety helped keep it fresh, and balanced the tastes of two different groups of creative members in our kingdom.

Ranks, Awards, Titles, Special Icons
People LOVE collecting goodies and ranks. The trade-off is that more structured activities can also be more intimidating, plus they take more work to design and maintain. How will you train new members? Determine how they've advanced? Keep it going? Keep some record of who's achieved what rank? Deal with absences? Consider carefully how to give people a sense of achievement within an activity. We're on the Plaza to play, not work, so look for the simplest, easiest way to make it work it both for you and them.

Show Appreciation -- And Love
I repeat: we're on the Plaza to play, not work, though sometimes our passion for The Lord of the Rings may blur the lines. Activities only exist so long as members are committed to running them and playing in them. Thread participants are as indispensable as threadrunners! Appreciate your members in less tangible ways than giving them ranks, goodies, badges. Remember they've chosen to participate in this activity, out of all those on the plaza. Try to make it a rewarding experience for them. Let them know, "I'm glad you're with me, Samwise Gamgee." And try to reward yourself by having fun too!

Mascot NPCs
Some ongoing activities have what I think of as a "mascot" to add to the flavor and magic: an established NPC that anyone can write. For example, I've seen the crotchety pubmaster, the quiet and efficient Guild receptionist, Mrs. Goodbody the ever-present housekeeper of the Old Tooks thread.

Organization
There's no substitute for having a plan and sticking to it. Even for casual threads, you must consider: what do I, as a threadrunner, need to do for maintenance of this activity? Is there anything I need to keep track of? Is there anything I need to expect members to do on a regular basis? How can I provide incentives? How can I make it as self-maintaining as possible?
For more in-depth activities, you'll probably need a To Do List, a timetable or outline if it's a planned RPG, and/or charts, lists of which members are doing what, a roster, ranks, etc.

OOC, Helpdesk or Organization Thread
This is useful for RPGs and longterm activities. Except in rare cases, you'll want this thread in the kingdom's subforum that members from other kingdoms can see. Note that some folks won't remember to check this thread, no matter how shiny the link in your top post. Some GMs use a special notation at the bottom of a post in the main thread -- @OOC [to name] -- to indicate that there's a post in the OOC thread people should read. I recommend copying and pasting the little blue dot that's a link at the top of the relevant OOC thread post.

Scan Kingdom Pages for Useful Resources
You never know what Middle-Earth Magic sourcebook, Sindarin phrasebook, guide to medieval weapons or other handy reference may be buried in the depths of kingdom pages. You can use them to enrich your activities, or provide inspiration and info for members who want to embellish their roleplay.

Keeping the Dream Alive
This is the hardest part, and there's no quick answers except that you need to be passionate about your activity, and it helps if you've gotten a few friends who are, too. Be involved. Provide structure. Use your posts to set an example of what can be done in that activity. Welcome new people in, give them something to do. Look for and interact with longtime members and give them something to do. Use interactions to help people discover what drew them to the activity and what they want out of it, how they see themselves within the activity. Remember, you can't do it alone -- it has to become other people's dream or it won't last. All you can do is point the way, and observe and listen closely to see what they see and want to build in your sandbox. Help them find their dream; help them be a part of yours.

Humor
Don't be so deadly serious (I tell myself this)! The Fellowship members were on a deadly serious mission, but they still had time to laugh, play, and tease.

Shake Things Up
Now and then unexpected things happen. GOOD! That keeps things fresh.

Dealing With Disruptive and/or Clueless Folks
Some members don't read other people's posts or the thread instructions. Newbies often talk only to the threadrunner and ignore everyone else, or just sit in the corner waiting for someone to notice them. Gently but firmly lead by example, being in character when they're not, introducing them to other people in the thread, and/or encouraging them to participate in what the group's doing. Try carrots, not sticks. Sometimes you'll be forced to use a stick, but it's always, always better to inspire, teach, help them to grasp and want what the activity's for, rather than discouraging or quashing members with, "You're doing it wrong," or, "You can't do that."

Sometimes, when a new person's barged in and has short-circuited the scene or activity, it helps to take two steps back and consider whether we've gotten stuck in a rut. Maybe, if we can get him/her to pay a little more attention to the group and other members, that disruptive person could add some new spark, fun, or a different way of doing things that will breathe new life into an old dream. So look for ways to be inclusive and draw people in, even and especially when they seem clueless or to be clashing with the way the thread usually works.

It may also help to have a trusted friend for venting purposes, but remember the story of King Midas' Barber!

There's a TON of different kinds of kingdom activities. Scanning the Archives, you'll find an amazing variety over the years. (Whatever happened to those old trivia/lore contests within kingdoms, anyway? Oh, that's right, Drill Team superceded them).

I happen to be a roleplay addict, so here are two particular kinds of activities I can (hopefully) inspire you to try.

Historical Reenactment RPGs

Plaza members are people who love the story of The Lord of the Rings. Depending on their level of passion, they may love to play with things that happened before that great story. So if you can tap into that passion, you'll get participants!

They don't need to know the "history of Middle-Earth" -- you do, and you need to be able to break it into bite-sized, fun, inspiring chunks that people who haven't read the books can get fired up about! "Oh neat, I get it, we're going to play the Founding of the Shire! So what happens now?"
You can do something really simple and loose, like say, "The Wedding of Sam and Rosie," or "When Elves and Dwarves were friends -- A Day at the Gates of Moria." Or -- I don't know if the plaza's still got enough critical mass for it, but with the right people, you might be able to "live through" a major event in the legends of Tolkien's world.

Example: My favorite plaza memory ever was Imladris' reenactment of the Fall of Gondolin, a famous Elven city during the First Age. Our rulers corralled the lore-lovers in our kingdom into building a Gondolin resource page to help guide how the story unfolded. People didn't have to look at that page, but it helped those who wished it to add richness and depth to their posts, making the city of Gondolin come to life as vividly as the Shire in the films. The Fall of Gondolin went for about 3 months, carefully choreographed and kept running at a fast pace by rulers plus two assistant GMs (I was one of the latter).

But it takes an amazing team and an energetic group of members to run something that big. It's easier to tackle a smaller story, as when Gala and I used the capture and rescue of Celebrían for a newbie RP training thread.

Two-Kingdom RPGs are my old hobby horse. They're small and easy to manage, combining the intimacy and familiarity of playing with your kingdom regulars, and the fresh interest and fun of playing with another group of plaza members and seeing how they play together. At times Fangorn and the Shire have had a joint Old Forest thread. There have been joint campaigns between the Riders of Rohan and the Rangers of Gondor. I used to have Wandering Companies of Elves travel to Woody End in the Shire in spring or fall, inviting the neighboring hobbits to a woodland feast. Dwarves and Elves could have a jewel-making and smithy contest. The more you think about Middle-Earth, the more you can see points of contact.

New activities are all very well, and there's a certain appeal in starting them. But have you ever seen parts of the world where the old countryside's getting cut up by thousands of housing developments, and then the houses stand empty?

Same problem on the Plaza. Too many things to do, not enough members has always been an issue, even during the movie hype, because many members tend to be "developers" by nature, instead of getting involved in what's already there.

We don't want to see our kingdom decaying -- we need its traditions to flower, for people to be active and involved in it, to care about it! We can't all build sandcastles and wait for people to drop what they're doing and play with us. We have to go out and find existing sandcastles that appeal to us, help build them, and play with the members who are already there.

The Plaza only works if you do this!

So find something fun, or something old that needs a fresh start. Get involved. Get to know the people in it, make friendships, and draw new people in. If you've got great ideas and energy, sometimes the best thing to do is not to invent something new, but to help improve, reinvent, or maintain something good and true that just needs YOU to keep the magic alive.