Event Archetypes

Mechanical Events

Events in this category are distinguished by their inherent simplicity - a colonist can take one look at the event when it's in progress and conclude what their own role in the event is.

Mobspam

The simplest event to run, but the most difficult to make compelling. Spawn mobs in various locations for people to find and kill.

• Supplement the regular mobs with a controlled supermob which provides additional difficulty or a distraction from the waves.
• Play with variables to create challenging variants. For example, slow tanks, or glass cannons.
• Build mode can be used to move entire mob groups, once they are spawned. Advanced functions of build mode can be useful to make events better.

Infiltration

"Human" mobs infiltrate a colony area. They have at least one defined goal to steal, sabotage or establish.

• Set up hints to ensure the colony is aware that there's an infiltrator, even if the infiltrator is extraordinarily sneaky.
• Two infiltrators working together can make for a fun combination. One can keep lookout and secure an escape, while the other achieves the objective. Or simply split up to work faster.
• The best volunteers for these events are robust. A single capable player can make swift work of an unrobust infiltrator, even if they're given excessive stats and perks.
• Don't trigger alarms or any obvious alerts. An infiltrator works best when all the evidence of their activities is cold, but clear. Try to leave faction-related evidence to hint at possible goals.
• Adapt to player reactions. Hiding until the heat dies down is anticlimactic. If a target area is persistently guarded once the colony is on alert, provide the infiltrators with alternative objectives that still fit their goals.
• Infiltrators should be kitted in a way that suits their faction and goals. Someone sneakily stealing a Head item is probably not going to come in by way of Durand.

Combat

A blend of infiltration and mobspam, combat events are goal-oriented and driven by "human" mobs whose objectives are more overtly harmful to the colonists.

• Avoid a murderspree at all costs. Try and give the first few colonists a moment to call for help, and stall while navigating to allow the defence to muster. However, smaller teams should be more aggressive to compensate for their weakness.
• Support your combatants with simple mobs that are allied to them. They can be used to defend against surprise attacks from the flank, to provide pressure to counter the likely larger colony forces, or to facilitate a retreat through areas the combatants have secured.
• Prepare more than one "squad" of combatants and let your volunteers take control of each in waves. Prepare a weaker first and last few waves to allow for some RP before and after the battle.
• Focus on tactics rather than raw power. If winning or losing comes down to just whoever can magdump more damage faster, the event will be boring for all parties.
• If you have larger numbers of volunteers, substitute some combatants with healers to give waves some extra staying power and ease the pressure on the colony.
• Play with variables to create challenging combatants, but in creative ways. For example:
  • Give frontliners speed and extended magazines so they can be a tougher target to hit and can better use cover, but don't allow them to retreat first in a fight or spend too much time hiding.
  • Give tanks more damage at the cost of speed so that they're menacingly powerful, but keep them safely around corners to surprise colonists who overextend into their view.
  • Give backliners health and resistance, and less frequent but higher damage bursts. This way they're capable of suppressing the field without worrying about damage from crossfire.
  • Give healers potent medicines with fight-sustaining effects, but limit their ability to deal with moderate injuries without a time investment. Also a pistol, just in case.

Complex Events

These events may include smaller scale versions of traditional events as part of their playout.

Roleplay

Rather than providing mechanical gameplay, a roleplay event presents a problem that can't be shot at. These events afford for the most creativity, while being able to integrate other more traditional events as sub-incidents.

• Events should be as organic as possible. NPCs should not try to force themselves into a situation or out of one beyond what their motivations suggest. When not directly involved in the body of the event, they should have their own personalities and act naturally. Don't keep NPCs hiding until the event is ready, if they're able to arrive and interact sooner.
• While in general the solution involves the participation of NPCs, remember to roll with the players and their actions, even if they're trying to avoid involving the NPCs. Outside of purely diplomatic events, there could be difficult ways for players to find a solution without involving the NPCs. The more options the better.
• The NPCs are all individuals too. Though not every event should include one, now and then include an NPC who might be personally motivated against the colony's goal, their own group's goal, or sometimes even inclined to defect to the colony. Equip them with some secret information the others don't know, or outcomes that can only be triggered through them.
• If the situation is moving slowly or players seem to have forgotten some crucial piece of information, make use of direct narrate to nudge the situation along. Use them sparingly and keep them believable - suggesting someone provide a service for free, simply because the event needs that thing done, might not be reasonable.
• The NPC groups should have motivations. Sometimes they may demand unreasonable concessions in exchange for their aid, or need to be appeased and stalled while the colony resolves the issues using only the hints that the NPCs have "unintentionally" given them while trying to justify their demands. Sometimes, resolving an "easier" event without candid NPC assistance may lead to "unforeseen" consequences.
• Focus on generating RP that can continue between players without the NPCs' involvement, but don't force it.
• If an NPC becomes integral to the event, but the volunteer is unable to continue playing due to external forces, find some way for that NPC to continue playing, or hand off their role to another NPC.

Arc Events

Arc Events can take almost any form, however they should produce roleplay that directly impacts the colony and its relationship to the Arc. They can also work on information from prior events of the Arc for continuity's sake. Arc Events, additionally, should produce consequences that directly impact later Arc events, or even create or prevent future events from happening within the Arc's scope. Unlike the events, however, the Arc itself should have well defined endings and consequences, to avoid things going too far off the rails.