Crazy idea: One-Shot Non-Normal Weekend

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Baron
Call me crazy, but I have a radical idea. I don't know if it is allowed, but I am curious what kind of reception the idea would get.

What if a chapter ran a one-shot level capped (Level 5) weekend event where players have the option to:
  1. (a) Pay to play their own Level 5 or lower character for the weekend as normal
  2. (b) Play an NPC for the weekend under Plot control as normal per chapter policy
  3. (c) Pay to create your own NPC (within boundaries) that you would then play the whole weekend
    1. Options for the NPC creation are:
      1. Several ECL options. Such as ECL 10, ECL 15, ECL 20, ECL 25, and ECL 30
        1. Certain number of slots per ECL?
      2. Races are not limited to Rulebook races, but choosing a Monster Race eats into the ECL (options defined by Plot)
      3. Magic Items and Production Items (offered in pre-defined packages) count against ECL
      4. Remaining ECL can be spend as Build Points on Skills
      5. Work with Plot on the background of the NPC
      6. Players would provide their own gear (garb, make-up, weapons, armor, phys-reps, etc.) for these Special NPCs

The setting would have those Special NPCs be on the protagonist side working with the PCs to solve a problem (or secretly working against them), effectively acting as PCs. The problem would be resolved, for good or ill, within the weekend (or long weekend) event. The event would have no effect on any existing story or campaign (in my version ... an interesting alternative may be to have this one-off event be something that took place in the past of the campaign setting or a vastly different geographic area). After that event those Special NPCs could never be played again.

(Treasure Policy, of course, would still be based on the PCs attending. Remaining Treasure Policy, if any, could be rolled into the next normal event)

Thoughts?
 
I think you'd have a hard time getting people to commit to playing one shot protagonists. Garb, makeup, and props aren't free.
 
I think that'd be pretty awesome - and fun!
 
EDIT: My similar-yet-quite-different post is probably enough to discuss on its own thread ( http://alliancelarp.com/forum/threads/event-idea-actually-playing-the-offscreen-battle.29037/ ), rather than filling up this one.

This reminds me a bit about something I would love to see for a one-day faire event: An all-NPC event used to simulate some otherwise "offscreen" battle or whatever that takes place far from where the PCs are, with the results of the event being related to how the campaign progresses onward. The way I envision it would be in the wake of the PCs arranging for various offscreen assistance to an NPC ally (arranging a shipment of weapons to a militia, sending healing supplies to the militia, convincing a local monstrous race to lend some assistance for a battle, etc.), then have the players all be NPCs at a Faire and actually play out the fight in question, so it's not pre-determined how the fight will end (and how it might end potentially varying drastically depending on the variables inputted by the PCs ahead of time). The players represent combat forces of notable size and have multiple spawns when they die, though the amount of spawns/healing/protectives are limited depending on the size/resources of the forces in question. There would be a "protagonist/PC-equivalent" side and an "antagonist/NPC" side, both directed by some Plot team member(s) on their side (and potentially not having very little information on what the other side is capable of, which I think would make it even cooler and more engaging).

Some details still need to be fully hammered out, but I've been thinking on it for a while and think I have a decently good way to pull it off pretty smoothly. I don't know about y'all, but I reckon it would be super cool for players and be a really organic way of determining how the resources contributed by the PCs' actions actually helped out their ally's battle rather than plot just arbitrarily deciding on a victory or a loss.
 
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Treasure policy would be wonky. It would not accurately reflect the NPC's acting as PC's which are played by PC's. So those playing PC's would earn some gold/items that the NPC players did not. Unless they were compensated in some other way, I wouldnt see many players wanting to take up NPC mantle.
 
Honestly, I think this is a neat idea, but logisitically something that fits much better in a tabletop setting, where the only cost to making a new character is a couple sheets of paper and some writing time.
 
If there are PCs then there should be Treasure, which should conform to Treasure Policy. Or am I missing something?
I may have misunderstood - I thought the idea was PCs used for the event didn't exist prior and would never exist beyond the event. If characters are from another game and continued after the event, then this statement wouldn't seem true: "The event would have no effect on any existing story or campaign." - clearly, if a character is, say, "The Chosen One" in some other existing story or campaign, what happens at your one-off may have quite significant effects at another story/campaign.

If a continuous PC attends an event, why wouldn't you distribute some amount of their policy's worth?
 
Treasure policy would be wonky. It would not accurately reflect the NPC's acting as PC's which are played by PC's. So those playing PC's would earn some gold/items that the NPC players did not. Unless they were compensated in some other way, I wouldnt see many players wanting to take up NPC mantle.

I get xp and I get to play an approximate level 30 character of my own build, and possibly create massive drama for the PCs? If the price is reasonable, I'd be first on this ship, sir.
 
If it's a one shot you could have specific treasure for that one event that can't be used in a normal Alliance game. No coins, but other items that can be used for tender (gems, even paper!). Magic items that have specific tags for that game that cannot be used elsewhere and so on. The logistics of it isn't that difficult.
 
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