Koryne/3YGB

What the 3YGB is

Those who have not attended a 3YGB (and even those who have) may be slightly confused as to what exactly it is. What follows is an attempt to summarise the unspoken expectations behind the phrase "3YGB" and to go on to provide some sort of framework and advice to those interested in running one. It is important to remember, however, that there have only been two Cambridge-run 3YGBs (and three or so Banquet Bashes) - this is hardly a tried-and-tested formula!

The Third Year Goodbye is run over three days at Little Abbington Scout Camp. It begins during the afternoon of the first day (often a Friday), and continues IC until late evening. During the nights the players are Time-Out or Time-Ish (no 3am goblin raids). There follows a whole-day time-in on Day Two, and the final Time Out is given around midday on Day Three. The 3YGB is preceeded by build-up in interactives, and several (2-3) linears during Lent/Easter? Term. There is normally some kind of flange which prevents a character dying until the third day (or at least halfway through the second).

The 3YGB is run for a group of 4-6 characters who, at some point on the Friday (possibly before Time In), are upstatted to 480xp. At the end of the event these characters are retired and may not be played again except as DPCs with Ref permission. The upstatting is done by the characters' players, with the final character sheet being approved by the 3YGB Team. No player should character a 3YGB two years in a row, and priority is given to players who (by graduating or otherwise) are leaving the system.

The plot of the 3YGB should be big enough to interest upstatted PCs, but should not necessarily make significant changes to the setting. The scope of the possible changes to the setting that the 3YGB could result in need to be cleared with the Ref Team during Easter Term. The actual 3YGB should not be set in Grantabrugge (for, I hope, obvious reasons), and often takes place somewhere other than the Prime Material.

Why You Should Run It

Running a major event is an incredibly satisfying experience. The 3YGB Team get to write (and run) a major story that is the climax of the lives of those characters who attend. They also get to play with the high-end of the system that rarely gets touched upon during the year (MASS MAGIC HEX FREEZE 30!). For those who don't have the time to ref (or who can't bear to give up playing) it is also a brilliant opportunity to see the system from the 'other side' - and trust me it can look somewhat different from over here!

What is needed for the 3YGB Team is a small group (2-4 people) who work well together and are committed to and excited about producing the 3YGB. Experience isn't a major factor - anyone who started attending TT during or before Michaelmas 2006 has sufficient experience of the system and setting, although more recent recruits may want to read some of the IC histories that have been written. Actually, even long-toothed veterans should have a look and see what they missed whilst it was happening.

Anyone who is interested in running the 3YGB should contact the Ref Team during the first few weeks of Lent Term, whether you have a cool idea (or ideas) about what you'd like to run or would like to help develop and implement a cool idea that someone else has come up with.

The Timetable

Once people start expressing interest, the Ref team will help put like-minded people together and with any luck a team will emerge by midway through Lent. When the Team has a coherent membership and an Outline of what they want to run the Ref Team will ask them to confirm that they are prepared to run the 3YGB and if so the decision will be announced to the Society.

The Outline needn't be very long or detailed, but before the 3YGB Team is confirmed they need to agree on:

• Who is on the Team (this should be 2-4 people), and who will act as the arbitrator of internal disagreements
• The main themes of the plot they want to run, its scope, and what leadup is required
• Whether they are planning to depart in any major fashion from the description of the 3YGB above.

Once the Team is announced they need to send out an email asking who is interested in charactering the 3YGB. They will then recieve a large number of emails saying "maybe". Once they have threatened/bribed people into confirming that they want to be on the 3YGB, or have selected the lucky few if there is oversubscription, the Ref Team will provide them with the relevant characters' character sheets, backgrounds, and any other relevant information. They will also forward the characters downtimes to the 3YGB Team (although they retain the right to censor the above if they feel this is necessary).

Also as early as possible (at latest during the Easter Holiday) the 3YGB Team should inform the Ref Team of what lead-up they require in terms of Interactives and Linears. The 3YGB Team is expected to aquire any physreps they need, play NPCs (or brief monsters) for the Interactive lead-up, and to run the lead-up Linears, unless they specifically agree otherwise with the Ref Team.

During the 3YGB the current Head Ref (that is, the Head Ref for the following year) has the authority to give a final ruling on all game-related issues. After the 3YGB the 3YGB Team and the incoming Ref Team should discuss what, if any, IC fallout there should be, with the incoming Ref Team having the final say on the matter.

Building Your Team

You may well have a brilliant idea that you could write up into a 10,000 word plan with every piece in place. Don't.

Not only will you want to keep your plan flexible, it will greatly help your team cohesiveness if you don't make the final decision on what exactly it is you're running until you are all there. Your team-mates will have their own cool ideas, and part of the fun is fitting them together and/or coming up with new ones until you have a concept that you are all happy with.

Choose your team based on who will work well together, as well as on who wants to do it. Remember that different people have different strengths and weaknesses, and be honest with yourself and others about yours. Skill-sets that you will want to have represented on the team (or be aware that you are weak there and plan to work around) include:

• Strategic creativity - coming up with the Big Plot necessary for a 3YGB, this also includes writing IC documents etc.
• Tactical creativity - rewriting the Plot when the PCs break it; if things break down you need someone able to cover the gaps and keep things moving until the rest of the team can come up with something.
• Record Keeper - if you don't keep track of the cool ideas you've had they'll be forgotten. You'll also want to refer back to the major decisions about plot and NPCs that you make, or access discarded ideas for inspiration.
• Playing NPCs - ideally you'll share this out, but make sure that the person playing the major NPC has the OOC skills to pull it off.
• Rules Lawyer and Stat Balancer - coming up with cool monster ideas is one thing, but working out what will be a threat to a 3YGB party is not trivial. The high-end of the system is not well playtested (if at all) and you will need someone who understands it.
• Linear experience - at least one, preferably all, of a 3YGB team will have experience running a linear. This can be gained during the lead-up, but there really isn't any substitute for getting out there and running one.
• Loudmouth - you will need someone able to make themselves heard and able to shepherd monsters; if you are all shy retiring types then delegate the position to one of your monsters.
• Monster briefing - being able to give multiple people their stats, background, motivations and instructions and have them remember it, in five minutes, is often a learnt skill. To some extent you can manage with written briefings, but you will probably want to use a mixture.
• Logistics - site booking, making sure people are fed, working out how to get the armoury there... this doesn't need to be a 3YGB ref, but it needs to be done.

Given the enlarged size of the society this year, the size of the 3YGB Team should be between two and four people. I very much recommend that you elect one of the team to be the final arbitrator of internal disputes. When running an event there is rarely the time for a fully democratic decision-making process and having a pre-agreed person to make the final decision saves a lot of time and confusion. There is no good excuse for not having a leader - if you can't decide on that detail then chances are you won't be able to make other important decisions. I also recommend that you have at least one non-finalist on the team - the lead-up during the Easter term doesn't mix very well with Finals.

Planning

The extent to which you plan things in advance is up to you as a team - some people work better with more planning, some with less. The most important thing is to stay in contact with one another, there is no substitute for face-to-face meetings. During Easter Term the 3YGB Team should be meeting at least once a week, possibly with a Ref-Team Liason present; no, a ten minute chat before the interactive does not count as a 'meeting'.

Record any major decisions you make and, once a decision is made, stick with it. Likewise, do not repeatedly bring up issues that have already been settled unless circumstances have changed significantly. Be prepared to drastically alter your plans to respond to PC action, they often come up with a plan far cooler than you could ever have anticipated. Never allow the PCs access to a path of action that you won't allow them to take - if you are not prepared to let them lose the battle then make the penalty for failure be owing a debt to whoever you'd already lined up to bail them out.

Plot-wise you'll need to decide what the theme of the 3YGB is going to be, what the backstory to it is and what exactly it is you're doing for the leadup and on each of the days. Unless you are majorly changing the format of the 3YGB you will also want an IC explanation for upstatting the PCs and for preventing them dying until at least halfway through.

Keep the plot sufficiently simple so that the entire Team can understand it. Rule-of-Thumb: if you can't explain an idea in 30 seconds or two sentences then it's either too complicated or you haven't completed the idea. Make sure that you have bits of plot/IC activity that can be cut if you're running out of time, plotdumps to ensure that the Party have the required information, and things you can throw out there to keep the PCs busy if you need time to think.

The 3YGB Itself

A few bits and pieces of advice:

• Know where your PCs are and what they're planning.
• Know where your monsters are and what they're playing.
• Never send out a monster without telling them when to come back.
• Never send out any Plot Artifact that the PCs cannot afford to lose/have stolen. If you do a monster will hide it and forget where.
• Never, ever give any monster permission to hide anything.
• Ensure everyone knows whether the site is Time-In, Time-Out or Time-ish.
• Give your monsters interesting things to do, and take account of what kind of role they want to play (but don't let them talk you into something you don't want out there).
• Take advantage of improvisation and the skills your monster crew bring to the game. The whole 'Unity' idea came about because of some entirely unplanned and improvised stuff Ian did because the party were singing and he wanted them to stop (that would be the disembodied voice stuff).