The Starlight Celebration is fast approaching! With this in mind, Echoes of Eorzea is here to make sure you’re more than prepared for the winter season with a big list of MMO event ideas. This is the second installment of the Starlight Celebration special, this time with a focus on events for your potential Christmas gatherings.
In the previous article, we covered the history of the Starlight Celebration, festive outfit choices, screenshot location, ‘throw’ emote unlock and a brief look at event options. Winter time is an absolutely ideal time of year to create your perfect guild/FC event and so I’ve tried my best to create a comprehensive list of events that will help you along the way to creating that perfect event. Just pick and choose your preferred event options and preparations can begin!
Some of these events have, of course, been thought of before and aren’t exactly original, but I hope to have included a few new ideas in there!
A few of the events below were already covered in the last article but for the purposes of having a concise list, I have included them in this article.
This list of events is adaptable and therefore some ideas can be used throughout the year for other events or even in other games.
A Very Brief History
Starlight celebration is the annual Eorzean winter celebration.
The celebration is based upon the old Eorzean tale of the Ishgardian knights who took pity upon orphans suffering out in the bitter cold of winter. Against their orders, they wrapped the orphans in their crimson winter cloaks and brought them in from the cold to provide them with warmth and food. The captain of these knights had a snowy beard and is now known as the “Saint of Nymeia”. In years to come, those same orphans would show others the kindness once shown to them and this went on to create the tradition known as the Starlight Celebration.
On the 18th December in Eorzea, the celebrations begin with access to a new seasonal questline, furniture, food and cosmetic items.
Click here for further information.
Event Ideas
Prizes are of course optional and they would entirely depend on the funds available to you as a player. Dodgy MS Paint certificates for a first, second or third place can surely never be a bad memento!
Secret Santa
The beauty of secret Santa is that it can work in small group sizes and everyone receives a gift.
Once you have a guaranteed list of who wants to take part, write the names of attendees in a list then write the list again next to it and pair people up, making sure to keep it jumbled up so that Mindy and Bert are not buying for each other. Don’t forget to set a limit of 1 item and a maximum gil allowance. If someone can’t make it on the night, they can mail the item beforehand. When the event begins, ask the players to hand the gifts to you, making note of who gets what. Then pass them over to Santa one by one so they can call out the lucky person to come and collect their gift.
Fancy Dress
Let your guests know your festive theme and any restrictions well in advance so they can plan out their attire with care for the all-important day (extra points for those dressing up in traditional scarlet Ishgardian cloaks). Ask your guests to vote for their favorites and announce the winners to tremendous rounds of applause. Make sure to screenshot everyone’s outfits! It’s a great incentive to offer up some prizes if you have the funds to do so.
Screenshot Competition
Short version: Give your guests 30 minutes to run off into the night and take their best festive screenshot. Have those that are submitting images send you the file over Discord, then drop them into a new channel created during the event and have the rest of the guests vote using reactions.
Long version: Have your community or Free Company members submit their most wintery screenshot (one entry per person) to a dedicated Discord channel over the course of December. Choose a suitable ‘end date’ and upon that date create a collage of all entries, available to your community or FC.
The Samaritan
Dress up in red apparel, in recognition of the generous acts of those Ishgardian Knights. Purchase a selection of low-cost minions or prisms (set a gil limit) and travel the cities in search of Sproutlings (new players) and distribute the gifts to them. A random act of kindness goes a long way!
Character Creation Competition
Before you venture down this route, prepare a list of ‘themes’ that you think would suit the event. Check which servers are unlocked at the time of your event and choose one. Have your group log out and enter character creation, giving them a theme to make a character to. Some examples could include snow fairy, Saint of Nymeia, snowman, ugliest/prettiest, and so on. Set a time limit of 10-15 minutes in character creation. Have your guests take a screenshot of their creation and have them submit it to a dedicated Discord channel and then use reactions to vote on the best/worst.
Alternative: Have all your characters log in so that you can take a group screenshot together, making sure to choose a class in the same starting city.
Screenshot Recreation Challenge
Travel to a wintery location (or somewhere of your choice) and take a nice screenshot. Make note of the location, angle, time of day and weather. Show the image to your guests and ask them to reproduce the screenshot as closely as possible. Set a time limit of 30-60 minutes. The person to submit the most accurate reproduction wins!
Bard Performance
If you are able to, set up a stage with a spotlight on it and invite your bards to create and perform a festively themed melody of their own design. After all, performances are concluded, the guests will then whisper you the name of their favorite performer and the Bard with the most votes will be named the Starlight Idol.
Write your own Starlight Celebration Story
Each year we are given a short questline and story as part of the Starlight Celebration event. Ask your guests or FC members to create a story surrounding the events of the Starlight Celebration festival. The story can include any of the fictional characters from the Eorzean universe and can be as humorous or serious as you like.
Short version: Run this as a timed event during the event evening with a focus on short, comical stories.
Long version: The event is to be run over the course of the winter period. Starlight Celebration creative writing entries are to be submitted before the end date, focusing on more detailed and lengthy stories that could be used as a questline.
This event doesn’t have to have a winner, though having the stories combined and stored somewhere would be a fitting sentiment.
Level 1 Festive Race to Camp Dragonhead
Select a server that will be unlocked to new character creation and pre-emptively run a character to Camp Dragonhead. Have your guests make a level 1 character (as festive looking as possible - 10-minute allowance in character creation) that has Gridania as the starting city. The first one to reach Camp Dragonhead wins!
Go Fetch!
Prior to the event, start making a list of items sold exclusively by certain NPC’s in one of the cities. Give your guests a list of items to find and have them return to you as quickly as possible with the goods. The fastest guest to return with all the items wins! To ensure no one has cheated using the Market Board ask them to relay the issuing NPCs.
NPC Hunt
Prepare a list of clues that will lead your guests to a certain NPC. The first guest to provide a screenshot standing next to the correct NPC wins!
Musical Chairs
The player running this event must have access to a room within an apartment or estate and be the only one with rights to move furniture or control the orchestrion. An apartment room or private FC room would work best. Several backed chairs (such as the Glade Chair, 2000g from Housing Merchant) and an orchestrion will be needed. The choice of chair means that it cannot be sat on at multiple angles, like the stools.
Lay the chairs out in two even lines, back to back and ensure that there is always one chair less than your party size. The guests must circle the chairs while the orchestrion is playing. When the leader turns the orchestration off, the players must find a seat. Keep your eyes peeled so that if there is any dispute over a chair, this can be resolved easily, otherwise have them /roll. The player left with no seat is out, and another chair must be removed. The last player left is the winner!
Note: this event may induce mayhem.
Festive Chocobo Racing
Nothing says Christmas like a Roe wearing only a Santa hat soaring across the finish line first, using dirty tactics to betray his closest friends. Show your friends/FC who’s the best at Mario Kart (64, of course!).
Imitation Art
Hopefully, you all have MS Paint (or the equivalent). Pair guests together and have them draw a portrait of each other in their winter outfits using paint. Ask your guests to post their creations on a Discord channel and use the reactions to vote.
City Dance Off
Create a uniform and color for your group and then take them on a tour of the cities, dancing by the main aetheryte for all to see, spreading the Starlight spirit. If you have a big group then you can split in two and effectively create teams represented by a different dye color, outfit, and dance. The two teams would dance their chosen dances, in sync on opposite sides to each other and encourage the onlookers to join them in dance or cheer for their side.
Firelight Eorzean Quiz
Prepare a list of Eorzean themed questions for your guests to answer. Cozy up around the fireplace and go through them one by one. The person that answers with the correct answer (preferably in text chat) in the fastest time wins the point. Keep note of who has answered the most questions correctly and present them with a big pile of cookies at the end.
If you don't have your own fire to sit around, there is cozy Cold Knight's Cookfire located within Monument Tower in Coerthas Central Highlands (X:7.6 Y:28.7). This building is mostly vacant apart from a few NPC's and so provides a very nice place for a group gathering.
Blind Date
Have your guests don their best smile, shiniest winter outfit and run off into the night to see if they can find a poor unsuspecting player to have as their date for the remainder of the evening, thus, spreading the Starlight cheer just that little bit further.
Dress Up
Prior to the event create a list of possible themes for the event. Your guests will need to create an outfit and look to best match the theme. For example, dress up like a carrot, or an NPC etc. Ask the guests to whisper you the name of their favorite interpretation.
Festive Room Design
Festive room design would be a longer-term event run from December 1st to December 18th. Your community or Free Company members would be required to either draw the design for or create a Starlight themed room design. Have participating members submit the designs or screenshots to you and make note of who sent them. Post them all to a singular Discord channel and ask that members use reactions to vote on their favorites over a 48hr period. If possible the winning entry would be recreated in one of the FC rooms for all to see!
Giveaway
To help celebrate the Starlight Celebration I am using Gleam to help me giveaway 3 Starlight themed prizes. Please click the link below to be taken to the entry page and for more information. Gleam is one of the leading platforms used for giveaways and competitions, however, please do not enter if you have any concerns.
There are many more event ideas that could be thought up if you have time and creativity on your side. I'd have loved to create an event titled 'Pin the tail on the Lala' but I just couldn't think up a way of implementing it! I hope that some of these event ideas will help you on the way to having an amazing Starlight Celebration 2018.
Thank you for reading this article and as always, if you have any questions or comments, please don’t hesitate to get in contact either through here or Twitter.
