Too bad there aren't any major Japanese festivals during the window when we'd want to run the event... mid-May through mid-July

I thought Japanese Matsuri has one summer one?
Basically, Japanese have a lot of matsuri. XD

Yeah, but Wikipedia doesn't list any major ones between those dates. We could make up our own, of course, but it would be cooler to have a real one to coincide with.

---------- Post added 01-04-2014 at 02:49 AM ----------

Oh, hey, I'm wrong. Sannō Matsuri is in mid-June. :)

Wikipedia is great for a lot of things, but it is best to check out their references, their references may have more detail.
For starters, there is this Tanabata. Eastern Valentine.

Oh my gosh, we will have user-run event this year?

I like idea of Desert Winds Caravan and Magical Academy... But, then again, am I even allowed to brainstorm here, if I'm not host? Dx

Originally Posted by Nephila

We need more people in here... Do I dare use friends ping? Nahhh.

Eeee! Don't get me to excited about this idea. I'll cry salty tears if it end up being something different. XD

ohhh, i love the pirate and Arabian knights themes
count me in if you need any help of any kind

Everyone's allowed to brainstorm here, Sadrain! And we'll be glad to have Hummy's help, too!

i'm happy to see bbr has time to participate
it just would't see the same without her

\♥/
yay, helper hummy reporting for duty

Japanese festival :))) I'm totally liking this!! :D

Eh, I don't care much for the idea of Oz (> w>)

An Asian theme could be interesting!

I get what ya mean about how Magic Academy could be
tricky to come up with good games that would interest
people, or to create a story line, and it could go too HP

I'm still over the moon about Desert Winds Caravan!
Long as we're careful to make sure it's not similar to Celes Paradi

I don't think I've actually been on Mene for Celes Paradi. They didn't have it last year, I think? I've read about past events, so I kind of know what it's about, it's just not the same as participating. I think Celes is more Egyptian than Arabian Nights?

Yaaay a user run event! can't wait.

Celes Paradi is my favourite event. I think it's more to do with the gods and the npcs are goddesses, so I'm not sure if there is any Egyptian or Arabic connection.

Well, in the Legend of Celes Paradi, the city is Merkhet, and the goddesses have kind of an Egyptian look... That's pretty much what I'm basing that assumption on.

Some games I can imagine for the two themes I like the best.

Desert Winds Caravan
One could be... Camel Race! Perhaps daily roll game, where you tally up your points in the end.
Temple/Pyramid exploring. Something similar to Mythos' game this event, with lot of funny/crazy choices and unexpected events. Nothing too lethal, though.
Dance off! You know how there are these amazing belly dancers and everything? It could be another roll dice event, possibly.
Of course, avatar contest.
"Whispers of the Wind" writing contest. Like, what exotic tales can/will the caravan share!
Exotic goods market, something like throwing knives contest Lilith W used to host, only there you pick a square to search and then see if you find or don't find anything. Can have little fun events, like parrot escaping the cage and the brooch he had falling in your palms (absolute random idea), upon prize find.

Magical Academy
Magical snail racing... Daily roll game, explains why it takes so long.
Avatar contest.
Writing contest about event to ever take place during classes and such.
Magical spell casting contest, perhaps another dice roll event.

---------- Post added 01-05-2014 at 05:02 AM ----------

I always thought Celes Paradi is kind of Egyptian + South America Native inspired (the Aztec, Inca), but nothing about pyramids or what not, so I think they could still be incorporated.

I like all of those ideas, Sadrain. o.o

Whispers of the Wind would be really fun... they're the stories everyone is sitting around the campfire telling at night... And I love the idea of maybe having the Exotic Goods Market be a silent auction, and the profits could either go toward prizes for the other games or raffled off or something. Or, for that matter, people could put their own items up for auction and they'd get the profits.

Hehe... camel racing and magical snail racing should be betting games. Someone ran one of those last summer, didn't they?

I wasn't around for the last user-event, therefor I don't know. But betting sounds kind of fun?

I don't know about auctions, I'm iffy about those, but it's all up to you. :) Just, in market, you bargain with seller (especially in Eastern markets, the practice is veryy lively there still from what I know), not bet against others. It would not be slave market, you know!

There was betting currency, and the top winners got prizes. It was pretty fun!

And I'd rather have a haggling type of market, but we'd need to figure out something unique to draw people so it's different from the exchange. A slave market could be interesting if we could figure out an amusing way to do it...

I love the game ideas! Wyrmskyld, for now are you heading this?
It'd be a blast to have a sticky thread, I've had one in the past
I really want to think up a good game thread to host!

Excellent ideas! I'm looking forward to this already, especially if it has an Arabian Nights theme. I can't wait to see what you do for the murder mystery, and I'm kind of hoping we can squeeze a game of Mafia in there too! It's not too unlike xuvrette's idea, really, you're voting to kick people off, so maybe there is a way we could combine both ideas and make it fit well with the theme?

And this is really off-topic, but Wyrmskyld, if you like tabletop games and the Arabian Nights theme, you would probably love one of my favorite storytelling board games, Tales of the Arabian Nights. You should check it out. Any theme-related ideas I happen to share with you guys will likely be inspired by the stories in the game. :P

ObviouslyAya: I think I've volunteered to be in charge, yeah. And I'm definitely looking for sticky recruits! I'd really like it if every sticky thread had two hosts, to share the burden and cover if someone has RL emergencies come up, so try to look for people you'd like to work with?

Vox: I was planning on doing a murder mystery like Howdy and Belly ran for Halloween, where people search for clues and then try to solve the mystery. But someone could probably arrange an assassin or mafia game... maybe the 40 thieves are fighting amongst themselves over the treasure? That is, if we do Desert Winds... it seems like a pretty popular theme!

That sounds like an awesome game... I'll have to put it on my wish list. Right now I'm super-broke, though. Luckily I have pretty much every GURPS book in either digital or hard copy format, so I'm running my irl games with those.

Wyrmskyld: Okie dokie, just so I know who I can run ideas / questions by. User-events aren't as busy as regular events, so I don't think I'll be overwhelmed in a thread by myself. I could probably ask Maria-Minamino if she wants to be involved in a thread with me? Or maybe we could have a list on the front page of people looking for thread partners? So I can see who else might be interested? I'm very picky about thread organization, hehe

Just so ya can take a look, here are two threads I've run previously: Butterfly Catch Board Game (Summer Camp) and Luck of the Draw (Celes Paradi). I'm trying to brainstorm up what I'd like to do with my thread. A progressive game over the whole event, or a collection of mini games in the same thread with a similar theme.

Heh, I feel presumptuous assuming command here, everyone else has so much more experience than me!

---------- Post added 01-04-2014 at 11:31 PM ----------

If you feel confident running one by yourself, that's great... I just don't want people to be swamped and feel like the game is a chore.

Don't worry, we have months to get more people on board. Time to pound out details.
You could always look to see who has run sticky threads in past user events, and see
if any of them want to lend advice, assistance, or participate by running a thread again!

And in the end, if I don't run a sticky, I'm totally okay with that. I'm happy to participate
in any of the planning, and I'll probably have a thread either way. So no worries :'D

I was thinking... What about a universe/space theme? Like there could be alien hosts from different planets? Or each thread could represent a planet?

Typing this out kinda of makes me think it's lame.

I think we're getting too many sticky ideas? XD But then again, none of mine have hosts. ^^; Perhaps some of them could interest someone, though?

And that's actually a nice idea, Liztress.